A New Beginning

Chapter 55

Soranto got into a small, sleek shuttle meant for long distance travel. It quickly gained altitude and began flying much faster than any shuttle I had ever been in before.

Soranto chuckled as I gazed out the window with wide eyes. "With luck, the Captain will lend us this shuttle for our trip home. Don't get too used to it. This type is primarily used for space travel between spaceships and other planets."

I flicked an ear back at him, but didn't look away from the swiftly passing scenery. It made me wonder how fast spaceships could go. How far was it between planets? I didn't know, and the Blood Memories didn't put things into relative terms. There was a lot of distance between them, though, and this planet was unusually remote.

Leaning closer to the window, I could see that the ground was getting closer. Much closer. This shuttle had better slow down before it tried landing or it was going to resemble my first flight.

Buildings suddenly appeared below, and our speed dramatically decreased. We weren't nearly as low as I had expected, but now I could see we were heading towards a huge spaceship that was sitting on the ground just outside the city.

The shuttle slowed more, then twisted while dropping almost straight down. It landed with precision beside the ramp. I flexed my fingers and toes, only now realizing that I had been digging my claws into the shoulder pad rather hard.

As we exited the shuttle, two Kymari were walking down the huge spaceship ramp to meet us.

"Glad you could make it, Soranto. Who is your little friend?"

"Hello, Vrake. This is Tessa. She is currently in a transition phase, and she insisted on coming along this morning."

"I've heard a lot about their potential. Any fire lizard is always welcome aboard. Let's see if the two of you can get this warship space-worthy again."

"The mainframe would be a good place to start. I want to see if I can get the unusual readings to appear on a few different testers."

"Right this way."

The two continued talking as we walked up the ramp and down a lot of hallways. I examined the hallways in keen interest, although I wasn't seeing much difference between this ship and the training rooms.

To be fair, there were no hidden traps, and I seriously doubted I would find any trace of a crawler or sicora on this spaceship. We passed a surprising number of Kymari, all of whom had armor and weapons.

We entered a large room that was different from any other I had seen before. At least a dozen Kymari were sitting in chairs in front of massive desks with hundreds of buttons and controls. I gawked at the strange projections above each desk.

The Kymari occasionally touched parts of the light, causing them to brighten, before the image changed. How they passed through parts of it to reach other areas behind was fascinating. Not only did they have the controls on the desk, but they also had the three-dimensional light one as well.

Soranto ignored them as he went to a desk along the wall and put his bag on it. Kneeling down, he pried off a few panels on the side and began hooking up some of the stuff he had brought with him.

He looked over at the other people sitting at the desks. "I want to see how many systems are affected. Power to shields, please. Without activation."

One of the Kymari touched a few buttons.

"Thanks. Activate upper portions of the shields if it's safe. Okay, it looks like the shields aren't affected. Power to weapons, without activation."