New Elysium: Breakout

Escape*

"No regrets tied to the things we leave behind" - "New Age" Muzzy featuring Celldweller

Ember extended her sensors throughout the ship to check on her passengers. It was a strange sensation to feel them as if she was carrying them inside her body. Even her previous vessel never felt this way. 

Dag was comforting the two boys as they sat strapped in chairs designed to keep them safe just in case the ride got a little bumpy. 

The big man had one on each side of him. The boys were dwarfed into the chairs. T wore an expression of pure delight. Alt's mouth was pressed into a thin line. She couldn't see his eyes at all behind the augments but she knew he was beyond terrified just by the trembling she could see. Dag had an arm around his thin shoulders.

She switched her focus to Red. He was sitting in the pilot's chair, his brow furrowed in concentration as he shifted through the layouts of the ship. It occurred to Ember at some point he would have to possibly fly it. The thought was unnerving. She'd trained with a copilot practicing to let them *drive* when she was out of commission. Out of commission simply meant dead to Ember. But that was the phrase they used, it was supposed to be kinder but every Vesper knew what it meant. 

After all they'd done their best to put all Vespers out of commision for good.

She felt possessive over the commercial vesper ship. Inwardly, she's already named it The Ember after herself as was traditional for vesper pilots. 

Each ship had been named after it's pilot. Given that she was probably the last, she hoped there would be no argument.

She felt a change in the systems around her and she turned her focus inward into the vast realm of the Cyberspace aboard the vessel. There were vague whispers that retreated as she pursued them. Maybe it was a ghost?  A ghost was the remainder of an organic or AI that lost a part of itself in the AI. Not really considered living, they just were. Some repeated the same phrase over and over. They were just a copy. Still, the idea gave her chills and seeing no danger she turned her focus back outward to Red again.

She found herself mulling over his last words before she woke up. Was I even supposed to hear them? He hadn't asked or mentioned it, and neither had she. 

And what he had done. It was the strangest sensation in the world to feel him inside of her changing the very identity she'd been born with. She'd watched fascinated as he'd walked through her innermost being, coming in through the ship itself. She did not know too many augments who could interface with that capacity and yet he had done it. His hands had shifted in the code changing and she could feel the numbers tugging in her core. 

She couldn't even begin to describe the sensation, it was both unnerving to have him inside and she'd pushed him out when she was certain he was finished. He'd been surprised at the rejection but she didn't know what to do with the maze of emotions he had caused by simply being there.

I'm not wrong about you, Red, she thought as she studied him from the console.  

Red was downloading the schematics into his mind. She could tell he was getting used to the sensation of tapping into a system again. His neural links glowed bright blue against his skin as he used them. His palms were laid flat against the console, connected with the speed of thought. It was almost as sophisticated as her own setup.  Almost.

She grinned inwardly, feeling giddy as she sprung upwards, the ship following her commands as if it was her own body. Her arms flew forward and all she could see was the blue of the sky racing towards her as she set out to hit the black of space. The wind rushed past her sides and gravity struggled to keep her in its grip. 

"Wooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Her cry echoed throughout the ship.

"Ember!" Red yelled, she chanced a glance at him, his hands were over his ears. A quick check on Dag and the boys told her they were doing the same. "Turn it down!"

"Sorry!" She tamped down on the controls to keep her voice to herself. Catching a glimpse of a small grin on Red's face made her laugh. He was looking down hiding his face but she could still see him from the console. 

He was feeling her excitement. Unlike Dag, T, and Alt, Red could see where they were heading and read their trajectory.

The ships scanning the horizon all turned and banked towards her at the same time. They were smaller makes, many of them simply the scandroids looking for other escapees. They would return to their ship immediately reporting the threat had left. 

Ember ignored them. Her sensors told her, even at their current course they would not catch them in time. She doubted many were designed for space travel. 

Those were the ones they really had to worry about. And they would be out here as soon as she hit the black.

The Satellite's feed she had originally detected was coming in full force now. Whoever had planted it in orbit knew how to hide it well. It still hadn't been destroyed. She knew it was only a matter of time before they found it, but it wouldn't have mattered. 

<We are out, cease communications> She sent. It might take hours for the satellite, wherever it was hidden to cease and desist. Ember hoped it was shut down before the coordinates were found. If they had weapons she could lock on and take it out herself...but this model was strictly commercial. Picked the most defenseless thing out here, she thought.

The coordinates took them out further than the edges of the human Empire she'd once guarded. Ember doubled checked and sent them to Red's screen for him to read. His face lit up once he caught it, his mouth dropping into a surprised "O."

The ship vibrated as it surged upward, hitting the final barrier before space.

They broke out of the atmosphere with little fanfare. Ember's vision suddenly went from blue to black as she oriented herself on her new heading. She gasped at the expanse before her. 

There were ships, hundreds of ships, slowing into orbit around Helion.

Ember sighed. Father, you certainly didn't waste any time, did you?