Waiting Shapeless

Chapter 10. Space, unknown location

Hud: Pardos

Hud grinned as he sailed through the open space away from the Rapiki station.

For a while there, he didn't think him and Natilliea were going to make it out of that frozen deathtrap. With any luck, they wouldn't run into another Rapiki station the rest of the trip.

Hud pursed his lips at that thought.

If he wanted to secure his freedom in the territory, he wasn't quite done here. He was still within the Rapiki boarders, and would be for at least another day.

With his Rapiki ship he would be able to fly through the territory without being stopped, but only if he could keep this station from sending out a signal to the other stations, alerting them of his presence in their territory.

He would have to disable their communication systems.

He slowed the ship, and then twisted it around so that it faced the distant station. Staying a good distance from it, he slowly navigated around the large space station until he spotted its broadcasting satellite.

It looked surprisingly unprotected. He quickly shot it to pieces with his ship's guns.

Hud paused for a moment in thought and then flew around to the station's large generators, blasting them until they were unrecognizable as well.

Immediately, all lights to the station began to shut off as the entire hunk of floating metal lost its power.

"Maybe they ought to think about installing some shields on their ships, right Natilliea?" He grinned as the last bit of power went out, plunging the station into the embracing blackness of space.

He quickly zipped his ship away from the hopeless wreck.

He frowned. Now where was he going? With the loss of his first ship he had also lost the coordinates to his target.

No matter. He would just send a message to the Rhaa asking for the coordinates again.

Hud quickly created a vague request for the coordinates, making sure to leave out the fact that he had lost his ship. After sending the message, off he stood up to stretch. He glanced around, taking a good look at the interior of his new ship for the first time.

The ship's cockpit was more than twice as big as his minuscule, two-seater Cito ship had been. And there was an even bigger room just outside the cockpit that Hud was very pleased about. Hud could finally have a little storage space. off to one side a smaller room and the other a small bathroom.

He sat back down at the pilot seat and looked up the status of the ship's systems on the screen.

He couldn't believe his luck—the systems checked out and everything was in good condition. In fact, everything seemed practically brand new. This was a first.

He heard the communication receiver beep. It was the coordinates from the Rhaa. He programmed it into the ship and set the course to automatic.

Hud studied the map on his ship's screen as the ship began to pick up speed. The coordinates led him to a very small planet in the Gallidon universe named Gnumus. Hud had never heard of it.

A wave of exhaustion swept over him and he leaned backwards into the cushiony pilot seat. His head still throbbed, and he could feel blood coagulating above his right eye where he had hit it.

"What do you say we take a nap, Natilliea?" He said with a sigh, sinking deeper into the chair.

She hummed peacefully in response.            

"Well, I'm going to sleep." He said, stretching himself out. "Wake me up when we get to Gnumus."