Chariot 3: Conception
Chapter 26 – Hope

Miles away from there, unstoppable, and with no flight plan, Chariot 3 was flying up north in an attempt to escape from its enemies. Under the circumstances, the only sensate thing to do was to get as far away from them as possible and hope to not be found.

After the ship had lost its original power source, traveling between planets was no longer an option. V-Nus knew that they most likely would never see Nibiru again, unless he somehow managed to fix the unfixable.

V-Nus scratched his eyes and looked up through the portholes trying to see beyond the skies. At that moment, he got lost within the memories of his past.

A flashback brought him memories of his youth, when he stood in the middle of a desert field. During a cold night, he looked up to the sky, replete of stars. He raised his arm and pointed his finger to one of the innumerous dots that shined far above. He scratched his eye after a tear run down his face and felt the nostalgia taking over his heart. Loneliness, sadness.

Thereafter, V-Nus felt a consoling hand that slowly approached his left shoulder, hesitant until it finally reached him.

Warm.

Relieved, he realized, he was not alone...

Feeling a sweaty hand over his shoulder, V-Nus was brought back from the deep thought by his Captain. “I hope we are not being followed” he said.

V-Nus agreed, nodding his head as he faced the opposite direction, drying out a tear off his eye with the sleeve of his uniform.

After that short but peaceful moment, Chariot 3 advised them of the unexpected. “Captain, I believe you will be pleased to learn that as per my instructions Aryayek completed processing a calculation based on the data collected the instant we entered DA-51`s singularity.”

“Pleased?” The Captain could not be more surprised on recognizing how rare the word ‘pleased’ sounded to him. Its meaning, almost forgotten.

“Please, enlighten me.” Shoffer hesitated to believe that there could be something good on their path after all.

“Based on the speed and acceleration of which we crossed the black hole, and the year we have ended at…”

“Sissy”, he cleared his throat, “we do not require many details other than you explaining to us how this thing – his disdainfulness towards the prediction device could not be more evident than that – can help us out, other than telling us how doomed our future may be.”

An infinite moment of silence took place.

The quietness almost took over their souls when her voice, deceptively absent of any feelings, as usual, flooded their minds with hope. “Sir, a trial to cross the black hole still needs to be conducted in order to confirm my theory, however it appears that Aryayek identified a way to reach the intended year and time based on the speed the vortex of its singularity is reached by our ship.

“So, what would you suggest?” The Captain`s anxiety was evident. V-Nus turned his head to the side in an attempt to observe his expression, his subconscious silently questioned if they would be ready to go through DA-51 once more – twice more in that case – and ultimately, if they would ever come out of it.

Cai Yiu sighed, took a well-deserved long breath and rested his hands on his laps, stretching his shoulders on a circular movement.

The two spherical probes that were guarding Chariot 3 by flying on both of its sides, suddenly performed a sharp turn. The sphere on the right flew over the top of the ship whilst the second one went under, each ending on the same position the other started, until they swiftly reconnected to its hull and once again recomposed part of the ship`s landing gear.

The second after, Flumen noticed a luminous dot in the sky way ahead of them. Flumen stressed, felt the apprehension taking over his body again, leaned back, and then prepared for the impact as the object gradually became closer, approaching them rapidly at twelve o’clock. “They found us”, he thought.

The brightness increased just before the incoming shock.

The object then dramatically slowed its speed and made clear to Flumen what was obvious for the others. The third probe ceased its light and swiftly reconnected to the ship, joining the other two spheres. The spaceship`s landing gear was complete.

Cai Yiu looked to the side, stared at Flumen`s face and out of his usual seriousness, projected a short smile. Shoffer and V-Nus looked back with a much more sarcastic smile on their face.

Flumen felt embarrassed for his momentary fortunate ingenuity, but relieved. They were all safe.

After Sissy noticed the attention of the crew was regained as she watched them patiently all along, she continued. “Sir…”she breathily stopped re-ensuring they were all listening…“I suggest we try it.”