Vertan woke up in the early hours of the next day, expecting their departure ahead of them. Gahn had likewise informed everyone else, and so the plan was to gather at the shipyard by noon, regardless of whether the small device given to Vertan by Bertii rings off or not.

  After brushing his teeth and a quick shower, Vertan gathered together his duffel bag and belongings, and was soon ready to leave. Looking out the window blinds of his stay, he could see Lym at their usual spot by the lake, continuing to practice various exercises with her hand, just as they had done yesterday. A small part of him had considered offering Lym to come and stay at his place, but he didn’t know how to bring it up in a manner that wasn’t awkward, and so he shied away from the thought in embarrassment. Knowing her, she could stay awake for many lifetimes anyway, so perhaps it was an unnecessary thing overall.

  Ironically and unbeknownst to him, Lym had considered asking the same thing during their time spent on Pliua, and had dealt with herself similarly. Neither would admit that they found such solace in the other, and so a sense of longing built over the manufactured distance.

  Coming downstairs to the lobby, Vertan at last checks out of his hotel and exits the building, making his way down the streets to the lakeside where Lym is.

  As Lym continued to practice this phenomenon, she felt herself gain more control over her newfound ability. With practice through the night, she has since been able to more accurately and precisely control her aim, the strength and power of the beam in which she emitted, as well as further push the boundaries of which she was previously capable, holding herself out for longer.

  But more importantly, since Vertan’s encouragement yesterday, she continued to put the theory into practice. She breathed more. She would attempt to clear her mind. Truthfully, actually, clear her mind, and not whatever the Happian idea of focusing would be, to try and systematically replicate the conditions that got it to work and count the first time.

  It at first felt strange to her; forcefully hijacking her traumas and twisting them to her uses at hand has always been the standard method. The suggestion of letting go of these reins entirely in fact terrified her almost more than anything that could possibly befall her. But somehow, hearing it come from Vertan, she trusted the words and instinct, and surprisingly enough, she felt lighter and more at peace with herself. Perhaps not all of it was able to be resolved, but through continued practice, it was noticeable enough for her to recognize it as meaningful.

  From a very far distance, she heard the pattern of someone’s footsteps she immediately recognized, and paused her exercise to look over to see Vertan making his way towards her with his duffel bag slung over one shoulder. Her mechanical eye zooming in on his face, she could see that he too had seen her, a smile on his face. She too, soon feels a smile of her own as she walks over to him.

  “I saw you practicing!” he calls as he approaches. “How did everything go?”

  “It was going much better!” she exclaims happily as she joins the direction Vertan’s walking from. “You helped me a lot more than I realized yesterday with that.”

  “Aw, well, I’m glad to hear that,” smiled Vertan.

  As the two continued their conversations on the subject, slowly came into view, the shipyard.

  As well as something troubling brewing.

  The closer they approached, the more they could see that aside from the arrival of a few of their fellow Ulminhans, the more they could also see that there were several other individuals lining them up to be questioned. Elsewhere across the shipyard, there appeared to be armed troops attempting to thoroughly search the premises.

  And amongst them, an imposing figure looms, a purple woman of four arms and four eyes.

  Instinctively, Lym and Vertan dart to the nearest alley, hiding themselves.

  “Shit!” mutters Vertan. “You saw that, didn’t you?”

  “Hiau,” replies Lym under her breath. “She’s here.”

  “I didn’t expect them to return so soon,” continues Vertan. “What are they doing? Did someone rat us out?”

  “I don’t know,” replies Lym. “Based on what you told me, maybe they noticed some details and want to double-check.”

  Walking through the alleys and hiding between both natural and artificial foliage, Vertan and Lym moved themselves closer to gain a better view. Through her mechanical eye, Lym soon analyzed the entirety of the scene, and mentally prepared for all possible strategies.

  The eventual arrival of more Ulminhans sees them being rounded up for interrogation as well. The search around the shipyard continued.

  The device Bertii had given Vertan still hasn’t pinged in his pocket.

  Soon, Vertan sees why. He too is being brought out by the MNS agents with his hands over his head, and is lined up the same way as everyone else is. There seemed to be an air of frustration amongst the MNS and Hiau’s troops, as they couldn't find anything substantial in regards to what they were looking for.

  “That’s not good,” mutters Lym.

  “Hm?” starts Vertan. “What happened now?”

  “They’re getting closer to my gunship,” says Lym.

  “Shit.”

  “I had hidden it well, but I believe they have means to detect it.”

  “Daero Counters.”

  “Most probably.”

  Continuing to monitor her gunship through her mechanical eye, Lym sees the armed troops struggle to locate it, but nonetheless inch closer. In an attempt to thwart them, she mentally signals the gunship, undetectable by conventional means. From the gunship, a multitude of various devices worked in the symphony to subtly jam, distort, and otherwise trick the troops’ equipment, throwing them off course with inaccurate readings.

  To Vertan’s alarm, the rest of the Ulminhans had arrived, and the number had grown suspiciously large. Whatever story they were attempting to tell the MNS and Hiau wasn’t convincing enough. Vertan wondered if Hiau recognized any of their faces.

  “Come on, come on,” Vertan muttered. “Leave, leave, leave.”

  And just then, coming into his sight, one of the MNS agents pulls Gahn into view. General Hiau recognized him immediately.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Around the same time, the armed troops finally uncover and locate Lym’s gunship, which had since laid nearly invisible and well hidden. This was announced back to the others out front.

  “Shit!” Vertan mutters.

  “Okay, well,” says Lym. “We tried.”

  “What now—?” Vertan started before being interrupted.

  In the next instant, Lym’s gunship roars awake like an angered and threatened wild beast. Perhaps it is one. Somewhat acting by Lym’s command, though mostly of its own accord as well, it immediately leapt upwards into the air, crashing through the roof of the hangar it was housed in, and flinging all the troops down to their feet in shock. As they attempted to open fire upon the vessel, the enraged vehicle laid hellfire and torched the entire building, killing all of them inside.

  “Let’s go!” Lym exclaimed to Vertan in the midst of his shock.

  The two immediately ran back upwards to the shipyard, still using hidden alley ways as much as possible on the way. From the distance, Vertan could hear Gahn shouting for everyone to get onto their ships, which were all waiting for them at each of their own neighboring docking areas. Quickly amidst the struggle and chaos, the Ulminhans boarded their newly completed ships as Lym’s gunship continued to rain hellfire from the sky.

  The MNS agents scattered into hiding, while General Hiau’s troops continued to attempt their fire upon the infuriated vehicle. Although prepared and equipped with the proper tools and weaponry to take down such a foe, the gunship nonetheless had learned its share of lessons from being captured, and the machine sought out a sort of vengeance against its perceived captors.

  As Vertan and Lym rush into view, an explosion rings out that sends several of the troops flying, though there were several others who caught wind of them and began running to intercept them. Spotting the two on the ground, the gunship makes a harsh landing, crushing the chasing troops underneath its exterior, and opens its doors to Vertan and Lym.

  Behind it, the Ulminhans’ new ships have begun to take off for the sky.

  Just as the gunship was about to take off again, Lym is suddenly yanked out of the vehicle with tremendous force, and to Vertan’s shock, it was General Hiau that had grabbed her.

  “Retreat to the ship!” General Hiau ordered. “Do not let them leave this atmosphere!”

  A brutal battle is fought out between General Hiau and the still-recovering Lym, and to his distraught, Vertan is thrown around the gunship as it suddenly sends itself into the air, closing and sealing its doors shut.

  “Fuck!” he screams. “No! Lym!”

  “Hello, Vertan,” the vehicle’s synthetic voice speaks, translating its original language into cosmic standard.

  “Get me back down there!” Vertan exclaims.

  “Pilot specified: subject prioritization - Vertan,” answers the synthetic voice as the gunship makes its way towards the other Ulminhan ships.

  “Fuck you!” shouted Vertan as he made his way up to the cockpit. “Prioritize me, huh?”

  “Correct,” the synthetic voice responds.

  “Alright, then obey my command!”

  The gunship pauses itself midair, and hangs itself in suspension. Looking around the controls of the cockpit, Vertan finds himself wildly confused. It looked nothing close to what is standardized on anything else. Surely, it all makes sense to Lym and other Happians, but what the hell is all this? What kind of a seat is that?

  Meanwhile on the surface, struggling in her fight, Lym staggered as she felt her breathing grow more heavy. General Hiau has grown considerably stronger since, and the two had torn up the environment in their struggle. To her frustration, she found that she couldn’t quite control her gunship. She had specifically wanted to guarantee Vertan’s safety, but surely, he’s trying to fight back and jeopardize himself in the process. Why couldn’t the man just stay safe, for her?

  Then, to her surprise, the gunship changed course entirely. Vertan must have taken control of it, then. It flew over to Hiau’s warship, which had now taken off to chase down the smaller Ulminhan ships, and then laid absolute waste to the warship.

  Surely, Vertan likely didn’t know how to handle anything in there, because the gunship fired off every single volley it could possibly execute. As strong as the energy shields projected from the bigger warship were, such overwhelming firepower managed to creep through its defenses anyways, causing significant damage, slowing its ascent and setting off multiple explosions.

  Angered by the sight, General Hiau furiously pummels at Lym before managing to pin her down to the ground, her additional limbs granting her the leverage to immobilize all of Lym’s arms and legs.

  Whatever General Hiau must be shouting at her, Lym couldn’t tell or listen. Instead, focusing inwards into herself, she began pointing the palm of her hand directly towards Hiau’s face.

  Soon, to Hiau’s shock, a burning sensation from the heat encroaches upon her hand holding that arm down, but in her blind anger, she forces her way through this pain. Eventually, it was impossible to ignore the hand beginning to open in all manners of physically impossible ways, and Hiau throws herself off of Lym just as a beam of energy almost splits her head in half.

  Clutching that arm, Hiau painfully finds that her hand had gotten severely burned, and looks up to her adversary once more with just the slightest hint of fear and uncertainty. With her ego demanding otherwise however, she readied herself for battle once more.

  But the fight had since returned to Lym’s favor, and every blast from her palm was an insanely exhausting and overwhelming endeavor to come out unscathed, let alone alive. Various parts of the surrounding environment began being cut up and scorched even with Lym’s thus far limited abilities with it.

  Eyeing upwards, Hiau notices Vertan attempting to come back in with the gunship. Lym, having already sensed this and having widened the distance between her and Hiau by enough of a wide margin, makes a sprint towards the vehicle, her foot imprinting into the ground with such force that the cinderite road was left with a clear mark. Hiau quickly followed suit, and as Lym jumped straight into the gunship, Hiau just very narrowly misses the mark, and she is forced to land back down onto the ground, and watch frustratedly as the gunship flies off to join the rest of its small fleet, with her own warship burning, even if functional, in the background.

  *****

  Having joined the rest in orbit, as per the custom-built ships’ specifications, they soon made themselves invisible against the vast emptiness in space, and they all turned off their transponders as they approached the gateway. They are about to make an unauthorized transit with no registered flight plan to a nearby gateyard, a planet dedicated to commercially building extrastellar gateways. Secured communications between the ships soon allowed everyone to confirm that no casualties had been incurred, and that everyone had made it safely.

  Inside the gunship, trailing behind them, Lym and Vertan finally catch their breaths in a moment of stillness.

  “Don’t ever do that again,” Vertan blurts out.

  “I had to,” Lym answered, a slight hint of frustration.

  “You couldn’t just make me leave you like that! Your suit did that last time, too!”

  “It was necessary. You aren’t strong enough.”

  “And you are right now?”

  “No, I—”

  “Then what was the whole point? To be strong by yourself like that?”

  “No, I’m not strong! I’m not strong enough.”

  “Then why—”

  “I’m not strong enough to lose you. I can’t lose you.”

  Vertan found himself silent at this last statement. It was almost as though Lym was found at guilt, not wanting to admit it the way she had said it. If anything, he felt the same. She too remained silent, facing away from him, standing in the cockpit to watch the other ships in front of them beyond the windows. She made no move to say anything else.

  Tentatively approaching her, Vertan could see on the reflection of the cockpit’s window that there was a painful and sorrowful expression upon her face, and he felt hesitant over the fear of being too confrontational. There was a slight and stoic frown, but he could tell that it was taking her a tremendous amount of internal effort just for such an expression to appear on her face at all. It seemed to him that she was about to shed a tear, if she cried at all.

  Suddenly, he too, found himself on the verge of tears.

  Not knowing what else to do, he finally succumbs and embraces her from behind. For a moment, Lym stiffened, as though about to reject his offer in frustration, but eventually loosened and relaxed, letting out an exhale.

  A single teardrop liberates itself from her eye and falls onto Vertan’s hand.