Renegade Star (Vol 1)

Chapter 14: The Classic 'Separated Three Years After Birth' Dilemma

Content warning: mention of violence, childhood trauma

Stars floated past the viewports of the Renegade. Each little star, just a tiny speck of light in the distance, held the possibility of bringing life to entire planets. How trivial the troubles of people and beasts seem in comparison. To the vastness of space, each person is nothing more than a miniscule electron. Small. Insignificant. Completely and utterly arbitrary. Its existence short and forgettable; soon to be lost among piles of history books and zettabytes upon zettabytes of useless, useless data.

The coldness of space should not be approximated with wanton adversity. However unforgiving and spiteful space might seem, it is truly the most unbiased judge. It holds no prejudice nor hate towards its inhabitants. No lust for violence or cravings for power and wealth. It simply exists; providing, and taking away. Like some distant, fleshless god of stories past.

Normally, the contemplation of the insignificance of her existence was quite comforting to Andromeda. Today, she couldn't get her missing crewmates out of her head. Compared to the expanse of space, her crewmates were tiny, tiny particles. Her problems and their problems were of no consequence in the long run. Nothing truly was. At least, not on the scale of the universe.

In the scale of Andra's life; however, the consequences of two missing crewmates were monstrous. Jax was the only crewmember well versed in medics. Andra knew basic first aid, but if anyone happened to need surgery they would be out of luck without Jax. Without Jax, the chance of any of them actually dying would be much higher.

Brooke, admittedly, was not one of the Renegade's most valuable assets; at least, not in terms of actual functionality. But a person's worth is not measured simply by their functionality. Brooke was a part of their crew, a part of their family. So was Jax. Taking them out of the picture would be like removing a limb.

Andra sighed heavily, resting her head in her hands. This was a catastrophe. Their only real hope of rescuing Brooke and Jax depended entirely on their missing crewmates figuring out Andra's exact plan without any form of communication whatsoever.

Andra dragged her fingers through her hair and lifted her head to stare at the canteen of coffee on the edge of her desk. She focused on it, channeling energy through her kinetic lobe and into the cup of coffee. The canteen lifted off the desk, wobbling slightly, before hanging in the air, suspended between the air particles. Andra blinked and it fell back onto her desk.

She rubbed her eyes. Her psychokineopathic abilities were very out of practice. She made a mental note to spend some time on her kinetic lobe exercises.

Andra frowned. If only there was a way to send a telepathic message to Jax and Brooke. Long distance telepathy was certainly possible, but it required two very strong telepaths to work. Andra definitely wasn't strong enough, and she doubted Brooke had ever exercised her own telepathy. Velans were by far the strongest telepathic race, stronger even than Adalarians, but if Brooke had never used her telepathy, it would be pretty much useless.

Andra groaned and massaged her temples. There wasn't much of a chance of her figuring anything out on her own. She swiveled her chair to face her communications console mounted on the wall and sent out a comm to the rest of the crew, the Legacy, and the Dagger, requesting an emergency meeting.

About twenty minutes later, what was left of the crew of the Renegade, plus Cas and Xia, plus Captain London, Sebastian Ramirez, and Kaylana Bane were gathered in the Renegade's conference room.

"Alright, is everyone here?" Andra said, glancing around the room. London, Ramirez, and Bane were gathered by the window. Cas and Xia stood to the side of the table, Xia's arm draped casually around Cas' shoulders. Cassi was standing by her usual seat.