Author's Note: Here's chapter eleven. Seems it turned out shorter than I hoped.

Chapter Eleven

Luke Fletcher sat in the cockpit of his ship, Hunter III. The mercenary had been offered five hundred thousand Tirminian dollars, by the emperor himself, to bring him his son alive. Sakrill, being stealthy and quiet, could get everywhere quickly without being noticed. But being human, Luke had to be extra careful. If he stepped out of line or got caught he would be in big trouble and fail his mission. He had only two objectives with a reward large enough for him to start a new life – Find the emperor’s son and bring him to the Annihilator safely.

Hunter III was large for a one-man ship. His shuttle-sized stealth ship was a rusty brown, like prototype Cross-Fighters in the low-down areas of Tirmin. The Y-shaped ship was fully equipped to sneak into areas under the radar. There were cloaking systems, silent running, and invisibility. Hunter III was armed only with a pair of laser cannons and ten homing missiles. It wasn’t much but it was enough to get him out of trouble. Behind him a weapons rack hung on the wall. He was supplied with stolen B16 weaponry, flash-bang grenades, a poison dart gun, and a multi-purpose flamethrower. He sat there day-dreaming about his life after he’d bring the emperor his son.

‘Large penthouse on the top floor, buy a spaceport, make even more money…’

Luke no longer missed his old life in the Tirminian Army. His pay from the Sakrill was much more appealing.

‘I’ll find his son and get that money’

Luke snapped out of his dream and strapped himself in. The hangar doors opened as the suns shone into the cockpit. As usual it was hot. The dry, sandy ground that made up the surface of Laanic was even hotter. In the distance was Kraala, now a military base under Sakrill control. Luke squinted his eyes so that the suns wouldn’t hurt his eyes and fired up the engines. The faint hum of the ship’s state-of-the-art dual engines travelled through to the cockpit. He gently lifted the ship off the ground and carefully drifted out of the hangar into the hot sunlight. The other two Hunter ships had already departed, both going to different sectors. Luke had been instructed to begin his search on Tirmin; Whoever – and whatever – you were, Tirmin would be the best hiding place, with a population of fifteen billion.

Once fully out of the hangar he increased his speed as Hunter III made its ascent up into space. He flew behind the hammerhead of the Annihilator before making a jump to light speed, beginning his eight hour journey to Tirmin.

*****

Ougur watched as a team of mechanics repaired the Ruby Ray from across the hangar. He zoomed in as two of them carried the hyper drive down the boarding ramp. The mechanics exchanged words before sending two of them away. Three others removed the end sections of the Ruby Ray’s destroyed tail, keeping the rest of it usable. Ougur wanted to go and help, but he knew it would be better to get used to his new eye first. Karim joined him in the hangar, approaching him from behind.

“How’s the eye?” He asked.

Ougur turned round and gave him a suspicious look. Somewhere inside Karim, he knew, there was a merciless warrior trying to get out.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Ougur snarled.

Karim stepped back a bit. “I only asked how you were getting on with your new eye.”

Ougur let out a sigh. “I’m doing alright. I have to admit, the zoom function is impressive.”

“Look, I don’t want to make an enemy of you,” Said Karim. “And I’m sure you feel the same.”

“The reason I don’t like you being around is that you appear Sakrill. It brings back too many bad memories; memories I can hardly cope with.”

“If I could become entirely Human, I would. The Sakrill are scum… the lot of them.”

Ougur looked back over at the Ruby Ray. Multiple hull breaches were being covered up with fresh layers of steel and paint, preparing the Ray for its next travels.

“When do you think they’ll be finished?” He asked.

Karim walked up to Ougur’s side and looked across the hangar. “They should be done in a few minutes.”

Ougur continued to watch the repairs. Karim rested his chin in his right hand as he looked downward.

“There may be something I can do to help you, Ougur.”

Ougur took a glance over at Karim with a confused expression on his face. “Help me how?”

Karim brought his head back up. “When I was growing up in the empire I was taught how to remove certain memories from myself and others. I can do it to you if you like, though you won’t have noticed once it’s done.”

“So I’ll have no memory of what I want gone?”

“None at all.”

“Hmm…” Ougur thought about the possibilities of Karim using a Sakrill technique on him. He had become a different person since meeting Karim, however if the youth succeeded in removing the memory of his family he could become the man he once was.

“Alright then,” He said. “We’ll do it later.”

“We’re making friends already.” Karim chuckled.

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Yet.” Karim added.

Ougur started walking towards the Ruby Ray. Mechanics were finishing off the ship’s repairs and were attaching the new tail sections. Karim followed him up the boarding ramp into the central room. The holographic map of the seventh arm was up, a bright red spec indicating the Fighting Spirit’s position. Every few minutes the spec would move a few millimetres closer to Tirmin, the fourth planet orbiting the star in its system.

“Looks like we’re in the system.” Said Ougur.

“Just a few minutes to go then.” Karim zoomed in on the Fighting Spirit’s position. They were coming up on Reih, a once watery planet knocked out of its gravitational pull by an asteroid larger than Tirmin. Reih was slowly drifting away from its star, dieing over thousands of years. They were eight minutes from Tirmin, slowly decreasing their speed as they got closer to the planet.

“I’ll fetch the others and tell them we’re almost there.” Karim made his way back across the hangar into the turbo-lifts.

Ougur sat down by the map, leaning his head back to look at the ceiling. In the light above him he saw the memories come back to him. He saw the Sakrill looking down at him as he stared into the barrel of his R20. The look of enjoyment on the Sakrill’s face still sent a chill down Ougur’s spine.

“Ougur…”

He looked to his left towards the cockpit. In the doorway stood Calla, sadness written across her face. The woman slowly walked toward him in her cotton tunic, sandy and grubby like everyone in Kraala was.

Ougur stood up, with barely enough strength in his legs to keep him standing. “Calla, how… how are you here?”

“I’m dead, and you know I am.” She said. “You’re only seeing me for the woman I was. You can’t live without me, which is why this is happening to you.”

Ougur could hardly believe what was happening to him; he was now hallucinating.

Calla put her hand on his arm as she gazed into his eyes. “Why did you let me die? You could have saved me from that monster.”

“Even if I tried I would have been killed myself. It shot you, and all the strength in my body was gone, stripped away as it advanced towards me. I tried to fight back and escaped barely alive, with nobody left in my life.” Ougur swallowed hard as he brought himself to say what he wanted to say. “If they hadn’t attacked us, would you have married me?”

Calla’s hand dropped from his arm, shocked by what he had just said. “You were going to propose?”

“Calla, you were the love of my live. I would be a fool not to.”

“I can’t believe this…” Calla gasped. “If I’d have know you were going to ask me--”

Footsteps began making their way up the boarding ramp. Ougur looked behind briefly before turning back to Calla.

“We’ll talk later.” Calla gave Ougur a peck on the cheek.

“Wait!” Ougur threw his hand out towards her as she faded away. His arm went straight through the ghostly image of her before fading away completely.

‘Talk later? How do we do that?’

The rest of the crew walked into the central room. Galen was the first to see Ougur.

“Are you alright, Ougur?” He asked.

Ougur turned round and cracked a smile. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Ougur walked made his way into the recreation room. He sat behind the table staring at the far wall as his mind raced at the thought of Calla.

‘How did she appear like that? I can’t have hallucinated… she touched me, I felt it, and it felt so real…’

*****

The Fighting Spirit came out of light speed at Tirmin. Shuttles flew from the hangar down towards the planet, lighting up as they entered the atmosphere. The Ruby Ray was among them, overtaking many of them as it made its way down into the city. As the Fighting Spirit began its orbit around the planet Hunter III came out of light speed, switching on its stealth systems as it followed the shuttles into the city. Luke flew the ship outside of the flight paths across the city to hide himself from other shuttles.

He became suspicious as the Ruby Ray came into sight. Tracking it, he followed it over the senate building towards the southwest. The senate building overlooked the Libra skyscrapers, six tall residential buildings that from above resembled the Libra constellation. The Ruby Ray touched down on one of the fifteen landing pads on the north skyscraper; they were near the top floor.

Luke touched down on the roof of the building and disembarked his ship. He crouched down on the roof in his dark green armour and equipped his helmet. His armour appeared old and rusty, yet it was made from a plastic-like metal that acted as a light flak jacket and fireproof shield; special ops soldiers in the Tirminian army often used this armour. Luke took a pair of binoculars from his belt and spied on the crew of the Ray disembarking. He knew two of them already – Kris and Louise. They walked out first, followed by Galen and Veronica. Next came Ougur, the spike-headed humanoid, and Karim, the half Sakrill.

‘There you are.’

Luke got back up and made his way back to Hunter III. Inside he turned on his holographic projector and removed his helmet. He bowed as the emperor’s image appeared.

“Speak, human.”

“I believe I may have seen your son on Tirmin. He looks very much like you, your majesty.”

“Remain on Tirmin and watch him. Do not kill him, or you will suffer the consequences.”

The image of the emperor disappeared. Luke loaded his stun rifle and walked back out onto the roof. The Ruby Ray was still there, but for how long?

*****

Russell watched a weak message come through on the bridge of the Fighting Spirit. There was a lot of static in the message and he could hardly make out what was being said. In the background he saw blurred flashes – possibly sparks – appearing regularly.

He took a glance over at one of the control panels to his right. “Can you make the message any clearer?” He asked the woman.

“I can try, but I doubt I’ll be able to make it much clearer.” She tampered with the controls in an attempt to make the message clearer.

The static lowered enough for Russell to get a better look at what was going on. He made out a woman in red hair and a uniform. Behind her stood another person who appeared injured, sparks briefly illuminating the room, as the lighting had been cut off.

“Medi… plies low… Mapo… IV… stroyed… ently nee… elp… someone pl…”

Russell listened carefully to the message. He had sent ships to Mapossa IV to assist the Ovipak in their assault. The battle could have turned out worse than expected, which worried him a lot. Information gathered by spies revealed that only a handful of predators were in the system, and five protector ships were enough to fight off several predators each. What puzzled him was why he was receiving a cry for help.

He took a second glance over to his right. “Open communications channels between myself and the protector ships.”

The channels opened and three screens showed nothing but static. On the fourth one he saw a destroyed protector ship in the distance, rotating as it got smaller and smaller, stars rotating with it. He looked at the fifth screen and saw a clear image of the red-haired woman he saw in the message. Her uniform showed that she was the captain.

“Captain,” He said. “I assume the assault didn’t turn out as well as we hoped.”

The woman looked up at the screen, not noticing that the communications channels had opened. “Sir, we’re in need of assistance. The Sakrill have destroyed Mapossa IV itself and our ships have been ripped apart. Radiation has killed off the Ovipak’s Landrays and only we can make contact.”

“Hold tight. I’m sending rescue ships to you now. Croft out.” Russell made his way to the doors across the bridge, contacting the captains of the rescue ships on his com-link.

Author's Note: I hope you liked it, although I wasn't quite sure about the ending. Feedback appreciated.