Alone in the stars

by Jeweled Pen

Chapter 3: Into the hole

Ex nibbled at his salad as he looked out the view screen. It had been three days since he'd returned to this system. To his despair, the ships were still out there. Waiting. Watching. All of the gates were locked off and they were routinely checking the planets. He must have pissed the griffon off more than he realized, she wanted his head. He'd slowly been moving again and again, hundreds of kilometers off from the nearest constellations. But he couldn't do anything, not now. He was trapped. There was no way out.

Well, there was one way out. One tiny, horrible, nasty way out. He took a deep breath and chewed on his lower lip as he glanced down to the map. There probably wasn't one here, so it was likely just a waste of time. The idea was so silly, so foalish. After all, there were only so many of them that could exist. What were the actual chances of him finding a wormhole? Here? Now? When he needed it?

But what choice did he have? The ship was functional, for now. He had the bits he needed to repair and clean the non-essentials, but going to the station was impossible. They'd find him. If he tried waiting them out, something important might break. Something needed.

He took a slow, deep breath and leaned back in the chair. After a moment, he felt the connections as the ship jacked back into him. The world came alive. He took another slow, deep breath and released the cloak for a moment before sending out small, tiny probes into the world. It was only out for a few seconds, before he reactivated the cloak and disappeared. He held his breath, watching his scanners for any sign of other ships, but there was nothing. He then began the long, slow, tedious job of scanning the region.

He hummed softly as the first one appeared to just be a bunch of drones working on... something. Probably unimportant. Maybe some pirates were set up out here. It could be anything. The second showed signs of a hidden base. Definitely pirates. Or maybe some kind of corporation's hidden, off the books dealings. He remembered his masters bribing quite a few of those groups.

However, the third made his breath catch. A wormhole. He could hardly believe his luck. He warped to it in a moment, landing about fifty kilometers off from it and looking around.

There wasn't a ship on it. It was completely untouched. He slowly started advancing towards it, looking around for any sign of trouble. Any sign of danger. But there was nothing. He gulped and pulled back his probes, slowly moving towards it.

He stopped about five kilometers off and stared at it. It looked like a giant gaping wound, cut through time and space itself. A swirling mass of light and darkness, rippling across space. Where it led he couldn't even begin to guess.

A shudder went through his body yet again and he swore he could taste blood. Taste flesh. Hear the screams as they all died. Feel the gun pushed to his chin. Hear his own screams. Feel the pain and agony. He could still remember the crate.

He reactively put the ship in reverse, traveling away from it. “No. No no no. I can wait. I'll wait them out. I have time. I have food. I can do this. I WILL do this,” he said softly, his hooves wrapping around himself.

“Sir? You're talking to yourself again. Would you like to speak with me? I am programmed with over--”

“NO!” he yelled. “I am fine! I am not crazy, I am just... I'm...” Tears welled up in his eyes and he took a slow, deep breath. Slowly he stopped the ship. He'd done this before. He could do it again. His ship slowly lumbered forward into the wormhole as space twisted around him. He couldn't breathe as the world shifted.

Then, in an instant, he was out into space. His scanner did a quick scan as he looked around for any sign of danger. There didn't seem to be any ships.

But it took only a moment for his scanners to reveal he was in an unknown area. Where ever he was, there was no telling. He whimpered. He could be anywhere in the galaxy, so far off from any of the normal planets that there was no telling where he'd be next. He took a slow, deep breath.

He was out of the trap, though. That was all that mattered. He logged the position of the wormhole before looking at the scans of the area. There were three planets in sector. He sent it as his destination to wait for the wormhole to close.

He let out a shriek as he came closer to the planet and realized there were things on it. There was a station there. There were half a dozen ships there.

Worst of all, he'd warped directly onto the planet, into the midst of a herd of them. His cloak failed as he looked around at the ships. Within a moment, he was being locked and swirled by the mass of ships.

He couldn't believe it. How could he be so stupid? He palmed his hoof to his face and whimpered. There was a light bleeping and he opened the comms with a groan.

To his surprise, a pegasus appeared on the screen. “Well well well. What brings one of you empire horn pus...” The pony blinked a few times and stared. “You... aren't a unicorn.”

“N-no I'm not,” he said softly.

The pegasus' eyes narrowed. The image cut for a moment and he gave a little jump as a light tingling spread through his ship's body. Magic was coursing through the hull as the ponies scanned him. After a few moments, the signal returned and the pony was there. “You're the only one in the ship. Why are you flying one of their shiny horn ships? Power down.”

Ex stared back, barely managing to avoid gaping. He was locked, webbed and scrammed. He slowly put his ship into full stop and stared. Through the ship scanners he could see their vessels. Most of them looked shoddy. As if they were held together more through tape and force of will than any actual technique or finesse. The majority of them had more rust on their outside than his entire ship had on the inside.

They were pegasi ships. The results of what happened when a race that could already fly and more interested in physical competitions than war machines and magic suddenly had to develop technology to fly through the stars. Or become slaves. Not as nice as the fancy griffon ships, but they worked.

“Well? Answer, pegasus.”

Ex gulped and slowly jacked out from his ship, giving a little cringe as he stood up from the chair. He felt naked, he wouldn't be able to tell if they attacked him now. Not that he had much choice. Slowly he reached up with a hoof and started stripping off his body suit, revealing his stumps of wings. “I'm... an escaped slave. My masters are dead. Are you... with the Pegasus Republic?”

The pony nodded. “Ahhhh. I see. Well, today's not your luckiest day.” The pony grinned. “See, we're not with the Pegasus Republic. We're pirates.”

The color drained from his face. “O-oh.”

“But it still might be a little lucky. That's a nice ship you've got there, stumps. I assume you're capable of piloting it if you got all the way out here. So maybe I might have a use for you.”

Ex slowly sat down into the chair again. “R-really?” He couldn't help but feel a little excited. Orders. It had been so long since he'd had orders. Someone to tell him what to do. Someone who-- he quickly squashed those feelings. He was free now, he didn't, couldn't go back to that. “And... if I do it, you'll let me go?”

The stallion nodded. “Of course, Stumpy. You can call me Bloodeye. Nice to meet you.”

“Blood... eye?” he asked, staring.

“Wouldn't be a very good pirate if my name wasn't as bad ass as me, now would I? Dock with the station and we'll have a little talk.”

He nodded slowly and manually set the ship towards the station. Maybe today would turn out to be his lucky day, after all. He still couldn't believe how stupid he'd been.

Author's Note:

And so ends this mini-story. I'm sure most who've played the game will say the game really starts when you join a corp... even if your reasons for joining are... under duress.

Comments

[Jeweled Pen]

6932210 Thank you for your feedback. :) You're right, as much as it pains me to say it. I was trying to show the kind of detachment a lot of podders end up having(namely due to their immortality) and his own detachment caused by his life of servitude(namely the fact he has trouble reacting to others well and tends to answer things far too quickly, especially with his paranoia). The combat scene... yeah, I had a lot of trouble with that. I really was going more for trying to show how greedy they could be, the podders, but it didn't really work out as well as I'd hoped. The reason it used ponies is because I wanted to mix the universes. I'd been thinking since playing it how the four empires would be represented, and it hit me. Unicorns soooo amarr. From there it just flowed together and seemed like fun.

All in all, a fun test, but I really have a lot to work on when developing these kinds of characters. Too much tell, not enough show. Really need to work on expressing the characters better. Thank you for all of your feedback. :)
6934245 Thanks. Thought it would be a fun short story to write. :)