Dynamic Patrol: Gel-Squad (Remastering!)

Chapter 4: Ship

A small craft, perhaps only 40 meters long, a quaint vessel when compared to its newer, more sophisticated sister classes. The reason for this was that it was old. Very old. The passengers had little to no choice if they wanted to leave Earth on such short notice in the middle of the night; most other spaceports were closed down because it was still late. He was lucky; one would touch Omeocoon with a 500-foot pole right now because they did not want to risk being attacked by whoever attacked Omeocoon. This was one of the last transports that would pass by Omeocoon. Tommy would take an escape pod or something the rest of the way once he was in range. Legally, Tommy did not put in for leave; he was not supposed to abandon his post without proper notice, but he couldn't contact anyone from the Patrol. After hearing the devastating news of his home, he threw the rule book out the window. He was sure his superiors would understand. Three other heroes could pick up the slack.

Since this was the last civilian transport without an updated itinerary to avoid Omoecoon, any other ship after this one would've likely been an evacuation vessel or troop transport craft filled with officers and enlisted personnel who would assist in evacuating the world. Thankfully, this ship wasn't at maximum capacity. Most travelers would be aliens, and one of them was a nervous Tommy. Who had neglected to shift back into his 'normal' fluffy earth-like form; fortunately, there was no need to do so here; he would simply conform with the rest of the crowd.

The Earthen passengers with no special powers were accustomed to seeing aliens, so he didn't get any odd looks. He opted for a seat in the economy since it was the cheapest. It was cramped, having four seats a row and seven rows, all divided into four isles. Like most of the ships in this day and age. It was entirely operated by artificial intelligence. It did not even have a backup crew to take over in an emergency. That's how confident the transport commission was, and it also happened to be a subsidiary of the Dynamic Patrol. Unlike the handler in his ear, this onboard A.I was much less pleasant and more analytical. It announced that departure was in progress as the docking clamps were released. Then, it listed all the ports where they would be stopping and the estimated arrival time to each port before reaching their final goal. Omeocoon, of course, was the second-to-last destination, with a travel time of approximately 18 hours.

Included in the ticket purchase was a standard A/V screen for viewing; it possessed a highspeed link to the news channels, which was convenient for Tommy, who cycled through them all nervously, waiting to see if they'd reestablished connections with his home—radio silence. The emergency broadcast from earlier repeated itself; it never changed. Tommy felt like he was out of his mind; how could such a thing happen? He'd only been away a few days! And now it seems like a terrorist cell has made its presence known just out of the blue.

Who would attack them? The Omeocoon were peaceful and newly adopted into the Patrol. Why would anyone want to attack them—? He pondered the question quietly as the ship continued to travel the stars at FTL.

Six hours passed, and since Tommy didn't technically sleep, at least in a traditional sense. It was easy to get bored traveling along in what felt like a straight line... he would get more comfortable by taking his shoes off or maybe removing a coat, but he didn't think that would be enough to soothe his anxiety, and while on the topic of clothes, he had unfortunately left just about everything in the hover car in haste to return to his home world. No clothes, no phone. Just the earpiece in his head, but since he was stationed on Earth, where Madeline's servers were based, she was useless now that they were out of range.

Officially, he had gone AWOL. When you are made a member of the Dynamic Patrol, you don't leave your planet or post without express permission from the Council. And even then, they were incredibly strict about who left. One could not simply come and go as they pleased once they signed on the dotted line, but his planet was under attack for god's sake; the worry of punishment lingered in the back of his mind, but did that really matter now? They'd have to be pretty cruel for punishing him for wanting to help his home. If that were the case, he'd resign. He might've signed on to protect alien worlds, but his world came first when it did not yet have a DP hero detachment of its own.