Juryrigged > Works > Writings > Other World - Chapter Two

We floated mindlessly in space. The holographic projection of the entire solar systems was kept up at all times and Kayland had taken to counting each of the planets to keep himself amused. After reaching the computer-calculated estimate of forty-three planets, he gave up.

"Bah! This system is an anomaly in itself," Kayland said, pointing up at the representation of the Krieger on the star map. "We're here, not too far from a black hole, and there are dozens upon dozens of planets out there. I'm not science-type guy, but how I see it is that the black hole's getting larger."

I waved a hand at what Kayland said. He was rambling on, making suggestion after suggestion as to the origins of the planets and the black hole. Donavan had been the only person to give us as much information about black holes than anyone and he went back to his own dimension long ago.

I turned my attention back to Kristav and Nizara. Both had a condescending attitude towards one-another, Nizara believing she was the smarter. Kristav was a little more difficult to read, but I knew she had a dislike for Nizara already. Nizara knew how everything on this ship worked, but didn't have the training on how to fix it. Kristav enjoyed studying mechanics as a hobby, though I still couldn't comprehend why she did. Kristav's experiences as a mechanic made her the prime subject to fix everything.

"Attach the red wire to circuit board Tera-C, making sure that you don't scorch the circuitry or chips," Nizara said, reading from a manual she had brought.

"You say that one more time and I'll make sure to scorch your circuits!" Kristav retorted. She had had it up to 'here' with Nizara, and it was showing. With every replacement of jury-ridged board, our power levels jumped ever so slightly, but we couldn't last too long unless we found proper parts and soon.

"Kayland," I said, getting his attention, "how long can you get us to a roughly technological planet in; a rough estimate of time, of course."

"Well, I could start doing some scans now, picking out which planets would make prime subjects. But I'll also factor in the fact that we don't want them too technological. I would of course like to see some trees again, or something," Kayland responded, drifting off as to what would be an appropriate planet. He quickly fell silent after seeing the look upon my face.

"How long?" I repeated, beginning to lose my own nerve.

"Well, about one to two hours in hyperspace, discounting the time it'll take to find a good one," Kayland said promptly, shutting up.

"Then do it, and no babbling. I'm ready to kill something if I hear anymore comments."

This brought a rather funny look from Kristav, who too, was ready to kill something.

It would be another several hours before Kayland's search gave us any information of use.

"This planet," Kayland said, pointing to a blue sphere, "has some technological value to us, but it's one of the further planets in-system. Would take us roughly an hour to reach there, but I'm not too sure about it."

"I need more parts to fix this hunk of junk-"

"It is not a piece of junk!" Nizara said in outburst to Kristav's comment. "It is a highly tuned scientific vehicle that is on the cutting edge-"

"Of killing you," Kristav said cutting Nizara off, who gulped once and became deadly silent.

"Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Will this planet work?" I asked, looking directly at Kayland.

"It should. Long range sensors aren't telling me anything too useful on the planet, 'cept that the planet is mostly oceans."

I nodded once. "Anything else?"

"I have been picking up all sorts of comm. garbage, but mostly just, well, garbage, nothing of any use to us."

"Well then, every body strap in. We're heading off to this planet," I said, then turned to Kayland. "Does it have a name?"

"If it does, we'll find out when we're on planet."

I nodded, strapping into the pilots' seat. Kayland and I began to startup sequence, initializing the main thrusters, as well as warming up the engines. Lights began to dance across my console, some holding a steady green while others burned a bright red or orange. Slowly but steadily, the lights turned green one by one, except those indicating the anti-gravimetric drives and the feedback pulse generator. I engaged the cloaking device, the ship turning transparent in the darkness of space. Even the blue efflux of the engines ion drives was cloaked, hidden by an energy field that would befoul all types of sensors.

I looked behind myself quickly, making note that Kristav and Nizara were both strapped in, then began a hyperspace jump countdown, initializing the hyperspace drives that would launch us forwards. Though this entry would be a much slower one, as there was no need to go as blindingly fast as normal, we would still feel the same feelings when entering hyperspace.

I looked out the cockpit window at space beyond, watching as it contorted into a vortex of swirling lights similar to the black hole, sucking the Krieger in. In an instant, we were in the drone of hyperspace, travelling towards the planet, hoping for the best...