On the Wings of the Phoenix

- Chapter -

1

Calm Before the Storm

Leon plodded down the metallic hallway, his shoes clicking on the floor that seemed to stretch on to eternity.  Steel and plastic, he thought.  The starship Interdiction was made almost entirely of just that and he would have to see only steel and plastic for a whole 355 more days.  375 days had passed by Leon’s recollection.  He had counted each one.  As he neared his destination he rigorously checked over the forms Commander Weston had given him, double-checking that everything was in order.  His fingers trembled from sleep deprivation as he thumbed through the formal documents one last time.

Coming to the Interdiction’s Command Deck, Leon sluggishly raised his free hand to the touch screen panel and gave it a generous push with his index finger.  The mechanisms in the door groaned ever so slightly, a noise that gave the aging spacecraft a measure of personality, as it slid to one side allowing Leon passage.  The Command Deck was lit up brightly with a multitude of lights, some flashing and others changing color, that provided feedback on the various systems operating inside of the football stadium sized battleship.  Leon had to admit, albeit grudgingly, that he knew exactly what each of these lights meant, which systems kept him alive, and which systems the ship could go without.  He would much rather have been back on earth though, practicing kendo or just laying around in one of the restored forests that now covered much of the earth where ancient trees had once stood.  Commander Weston stood over a terminal inspecting survey data from a nearby planet.  The skin of his forehead scrunched up as he read over his orders from the screen regarding the new planet and, if only for a mere moment, his shoulders slumped as though a familiar burden once again bore down upon him.  Yet his tall form continued to command the respect he deserved.  He looked up in time to see Leon enter.  “Officer Edwin, I trust you brought the forms I entrusted you with and have filled them out to the best of your ability?”

*****

Vice Commander Gideon Reave paced about his cramped living quarters, his mind ablaze with activity.  Gideon balled his left hand and brought it down hard against the dark gray table that occupied his work area.  It served to focus his wandering thoughts.  He peered through the single view port available to him and grimaced.  What he saw was the cold emptiness of space and nothing more.  Yet within Gideon’s mind danced a single planet.  He knew it was out there, quite close to them, actually.  It orbited a magnificently yellow star with a pair of close proximity moons.  It twinkled in the darkness with a bluish earth-like hue and with a full rotation of that sun measured at 318 days; it was the closest thing to earth mankind had ever seen.  Most importantly, it had water, a great deal of water.  And they were simply going to ignore it.  Gideon punched the table again, harder this time.  They were traveling to a planet of the same specifications, yet the destination was still an entire year away.

Gideon had risen through the ranks of the Earth Defense Force quickly.  Some would say entirely too quickly.  He had been given the “honor” of being place in the crew of the Interdiction, the battleship that would escort three groups of colonization craft to their destination and remain there until ordered back.  If that ever happened, Gideon knew that it wasn’t likely.  He had suspected that his commanding officers, fully expecting to be replaced by Gideon one day, found this the perfect opportunity to take him out of the picture permanently.  Now Gideon Reave was the Vice-Commander on the Interdiction.  He loathed the crew, almost all of which were much younger than he, wasn’t interested in advancement and power.  There were, however, fifteen men and women that he had taken a liking to, all of which were linked by their lust for power.  Gideon despised the ship with all of his being.  He hated the old fashioned way it looked, the way it lumbered slowly through space, and most of all, he hated each of the creaking, groaning noises that the Interdiction produced.  He had a great many things on his mind, yet one option burned through all others, a single choice.  His fist connected with the table one last time.  He slowly withdrew his hand and glared at the bloody print his knuckles had left on the table’s gray sheen.  He knew what had to be done.

*****

Countless steel pylons held a second ship to the underbelly of the Interdiction.  The ship in tow was smaller than the Interdiction, measuring up at only half the size of the older battleship.  It was an entirely new model however, sporting the latest and greatest of humanity’s technological achievements.  It had been christened the Phoenix after being fully constructed.  Though it had never been operated, all tests of integrity and performance had been completely successful.  The Phoenix’s lack of any actual usage did little to bolster the morale aboard the Interdiction who hadn’t been allowed to set foot into the Phoenix despite the access tube that connected the two vessels.  Much had been speculated but nothing certain was known about the Phoenix or her purpose for the journey.

Hoshiko Takara had been the only one allowed access to the Phoenix’s systems and when she did, security programs built into the Interdiction strictly monitored her every action.  Hoshiko moved about the navigational computers that linked the Interdiction to the Phoenix’s superior navigational systems and placed a tiny plug into one terminal with her slender fingers.  She brushed wandering strands of her hair aside with a pass of her hand.  Hoshiko’s long, jet-black hair resumed its usual position over her shoulders as she input command after command into a portable keyboard that she carried with her.  A grin born of accomplishment touch her face briefly as she pinpointed the exact coordinated of the pair of colony ships that were coasting along ahead of the Interdiction, two of the six that were being escorted.  The other four and their escorting battleships had already activated the faster than light engines they had been equipped with and made the jump to the next nav point.

She was alone in the Navigation Core and aside from the dull rumble generated by the Interdiction’s main engines it was quiet.  The engine noise had a soothing effect on Hoshiko as she once again pulled her small plug from its jack and moved on to the next navigational computer.  She enjoyed being alone in the lifeless gray monotony provided by the Navigation Core.  Though she had been on the Interdiction for over a year, Hoshiko barely knew any of her fellow crewmembers.  It wasn’t that she disliked the company; she just always had something more important to attend to.  But something bit deeply into her mind when she thought about her isolation from the rest of the crew.  Hand wavering slightly over the keyboard, her mind raced wildly as she typed in the next series of grid coordinates only to come to an abrupt stop.  Glaring intensely at the flat plastic monitor, she silently read an error message that explained that she had used four unnecessary characters at the end of the final code string.  It displayed with painful clarity the exact characters she had used and in the undeniable order she had typed the letters L E O N.

*****

Waves of warm air pumped through a vent above Leon, gently wrapping him in its tropical delight.  He lay awkwardly on his bed, having not moved an inch from where he had fallen.  His mind stirred and his eyes lazily opened.  Turning on his left side, his back to the wall, Leon could see his entire living space with one opened eye, save for the insignificant bathroom, that is.  Papers awaiting his bloodshot eyes waited on his worktable while one of the books he was attempting to read lay opened on one of his two chairs.  Above all of these, hanging on the wall to the side of his bed, was his most prized possession, his katana.  The intricate designs adorning the scabbard, hand carved by Leon’s father, beckoned him to draw it.  To wield it again was something Leon looked forward to every day but in truth had rarely happened over the past year.

Rising to a seated position on his bed, he ran a hand through his sandy colored hair and peered out through the window that hung from the wall like a tapestry of the darkest of velvet.  He looked outside to a distant blue swirled planet, closing his eyes lethargically and almost falling back into the realm of sleep at the planet slowly circled its star in his mind.  Something seemed out of place though, he wasn’t sure what it was, but he felt it like a thorn in his mind.  His room was one of three that was directly underneath the Command Deck at the front section of the Interdiction and so the planet was directly in battleship’s path!  Leon’s eyes shot open, seeking immediate answers yet finding none.  He threw on a pair of shoes and shook the sleep from his brain.

Leon climbed eagerly through the access shaft that led directly to the Command Deck.  He wasn't sure what Commander Weston was doing with the Interdiction so close to the planet.  He would have told Leon or, more likely, Hoshiko of the change in course.  Leon and Hoshiko were to have lunch after their duties.  He hoped that they would be able to keep this date but a chill feeling in that back of his mind told Leon that it was a near impossibility.
- Chapter -

2

A Meaningful Relationship

Hoshiko had protested many times, claiming that she had “more important things to do than eat lunch” on the days that Leon asked her but now he had her cornered.  He wondered why she was so anti-social with every single person on the Interdiction.  They, knowing now how sour she could be, ignored her presence almost all of the time and Leon would bet that she was pleased with that.

Leon and Hoshiko had rarely been anywhere at the same time.  Before Leon had introduced himself they had only seen each other during crew meetings that required the attendance of all fifty crewmembers.  He was in the Navigation Core with orders for Hoshiko in hand when he stumbled upon her while she was working.  She was a Japanese woman with a dark complexion and was roughly the same height as he was with a slight build and soft rounded features.  She was, in Leon’s mind, quite attractive.  Other men might have found faults in her personality, as many tend to look for only those.  But then, as Leon thought back to their first real meeting, he admired more than her physical beauty.

She stood over a console in the Navigation Core, hovering over a pair of computers that, from the back, reminded Leon of miniature slot machines.  She was singing in Japanese, a language that Leon had learned while learning kendo in Japan.  He stood in the room for minutes, listening to the beautiful yet simple lyrics.  Upon gathering the courage, he began to sing as well, perfectly complimenting her voice.  She stopped abruptly and turned to look at him as a deer would at an oncoming car.  Staring into her eyes, the eyes that resembled an ocean reflecting a star filled sky, he cursed himself for being so brash, yet at the same time marveled at the intelligence he saw staring back at him from those magnificently blue eyes.  “Sorry if I interrupted you,” he said, nervously running his hand through the hair on the back of his head.  She continued to stare.  “These orders,” he looked at his hand and looked to Hoshiko, “Commander Weston ordered me to bring these to you.”

“He did, did he?” Hoshiko’s eyes narrowed.

“Yup,” Leon added, instantly feeling utterly moronic under her judging gaze.  He took a few steps forward and presented the papers.  Hoshiko took them without taking her eyes from him.  He felt like an insect that she was examining through a massive microscope.  “I…” he looked desperately for something to say that would make him seem less of an idiot.  “I guess I’ll see you around.”

“I guess so,” was the only response he received.  He quickly backed out of the room; feeling as though the wrench she always wore at her belt would soon be cast in the direction of his head.

Relations between the two had become less edgy when it became apparent to Hoshiko that Leon wouldn’t go away as the others had.  Her favorite question, “Don’t you have someone else to stalk?” still did the trick more often than not though.  To her supposed dismay he had frequently “mistakenly” found himself in the Nav Core, quite often bringing some food he had procured from the Interdiction’s cafeteria.  Their relationship had become closer, if not more humorous, for Hoshiko as of late.

Leon had borrowed a set of engineering pocket tools from James Weathers, a fellow crewman.  With them, he had crafted a ring out of his weekly snack ration.  That week it happened to be chocolate.  When confronted with Leon and his intricately designed ring, Hoshiko calmly removed her wrench from its holster and playfully (without causing too much brain damage) gave him a knock on the head with it.  If that wasn’t enough, the ring had been devoured in the same motion that brought her wrench back to her belt.  “Yum,” she said as Leon’s masterpiece quickly disintegrated between her merciless teeth.  It was the best reaction Leon could have hoped for at that point.

- Chapter -

3

When It Rains, It pours

Leon moved swiftly down the corridor until he came to the open door of the Command Deck.  He stood for a moment, gazing through the door in sheer horror.  Every ounce of strength in Leon’s body was needed to keep him from collapsing into a frothing delirium.  The option seemed reasonable at the moment.

Past the security door, left oddly unsealed, laid the still bleeding bodies of eight crewmembers.  Commander Weston sat motionless in his rotating command chair; a single gunshot wound marking his impeccably crisp and clean uniform.  Blood had soaked through the Commander’s uniform in the area of the wound, turning the usually white cloth a deep red.  “No need to worry,” an undeniably familiar voice boomed.  “I gave him a proper execution.  The old man died immediately, he deserved no less honorable a death.”

Leon turned his horrified gaze to the left of the dead Commander where Gideon and two other crewmembers stood.  The two held pistols firmly trained in Leon’s direction.  Gideon bore no weapon and stood with one hand stroking his clean-shaven chin.

“You…” Leon’s mind grasped about his skull, desperately seeking something substantial.  “You bastard!”  The words brought a wicked grin to the Second in Command’s face.  “You killed Commander Weston!”

“Yes, I suppose I did,” Gideon spoke calmly with a smirk on his face.  “It was his time.  He denied me,“ he stopped himself, carefully choosing his next words. ”He denied all of us the right to experience what we all wish for at the end of this wretched journey.  He stole from us our dreams, yet there they are,” he pointed to the wide viewing panel that stretched across the length of the forward wall.  Leon couldn’t deny what he saw.  The planet that seemed to slowly crawl closer by the minute held the promise of life.  He turned back to the mutineers with fire in his eyes.

“Why did you kill these others?  They didn’t do anything to you, none of us have!”

“They would have stopped me.  I would have found you eventually, Leon, and found the answer that I have asked many times this day,” Gideon set his broad shoulders and straightened to his full six and a half feet.  His visage hardened and he spoke.  “You are a smart man, Officer Edwin.  What we face before us is something that not one of our species has accomplished.  We face danger before us that is unknown to any but rewards greater than you could imagine.”

“I ask you, Leon Edwin, officer of the Interdiction, to join me in the greatest of adventures through the last of mankind’s frontiers,” Gideon finished staring deeply into Leon’s eyes, attempting to penetrate his heart.

Leon looked from Gideon’s cold abyssal eyes to the bodies lying on the deck, the answer they gave hanging from their still-warm lips.  “Never,” he replied, summoning every drop of courage that flowed through his body.  “No one will forgive you for what you have done here.  You may have these two by your side, but what about the others?  Your foolhardy plan will fail before it even begins.”

A sly, devilish grin touched Gideon’s lips, turning them up at the corners.  He breathed a sigh in feigned displeasure.  “I am quite sorry to hear this, young officer.  Throwing your life away at the age of twenty-four, what a terrible shame that is.  Your skill in and knowledge of the Interdiction’s systems will be sorely missed,” he began to pace closer to the viewing screen, taking in its soft blue iridescence.  He turned his head to Leon, cocking it slightly and meeting his furious gaze.  ”As for your would-be rescuers, I believe they are either in the cafeteria or scattered about the ship at the moment.  They shall soon be dead as well.  Poison in their food, I believe,” the grin faded to an emotionless line.  “The Navigations Officer, Takahara was it?  Yes, you could have saved her you know.  Now she has to die.  A shame too, she was twenty four as well and quite beautiful, wasn’t she?”

Leon could hardly keep himself from lunging at Gideon.  The Vice-Commander looked to the pair of mutineers aiming their pistols at Leon.  One of the two betrayers, a woman who had worked in the engineering field, turned and nodded.

Leon’s jaw dropped in disbelief.  “You’re going to kill all of them?  How can you three expect to control this thing by yourselves?”

Leon’s mind focused and he quickly began formulating a way out.  If he didn’t get to the cafeteria, there would be no hope for anyone aboard the Interdiction.

“There are fifteen of us,” the female mutineer responded.

“We will get along without the help of this crew.  It is a shame that…” Leon crouched and launched himself backward through the open door.  The right sleeve of his uniform caught on part of the sliding door’s locking mechanism and tore along the seam.  Gideon was thoroughly caught off guard and threw his arm out wildly; as though he expected to catch his would be prisoner mid-flight.  Leon continued through the door and skidded on his back across the floor, rolling to his feet as soon as he stopped.  His legs pumped fiercely as he could already hear the pair of armed mutineers following closely behind.  In the back of his mind, Leon prayed that he wouldn’t be too late for the crew…for Hoshiko.

*****

Gideon couldn’t help but smile.  Things had unfolded well for him and it hadn’t cost him nearly as much time as he expected.  Officer Edwin would be no problem at all; neither would the crew, who were likely dead by now anyway.  He would soon arrive at his destination.  The cerulean orb called out to him from the view panel.  There would no doubt be so much to discover on this new world.  His new world.

- Chapter -

4

An Escape and A Plan

Leon couldn’t believe he had pulled off his escape.  Adrenaline coursed through his body, sending him into a near primal state.  He turned a sharp corner and sprinted down a small corridor with a tightly shut freight elevator at the end of it.  Leon’s body tensed as his eyes darted back and forth, scanning either side of the hall.  Heels clicked noisily against the smooth steel flooring as his aggressors rounded the same turn and halted.  He had run out of options.   Overwhelming silence drowned out the heavy rhythmic beating of Leon’s heart in his ears.  The pair raised their weapons and took aim.  The terrifying quiet was shattered by a grinding noise, followed closely by melodic ding.

*****

Hoshiko had to admit; she wasn’t the most social person.  But something about the attention Leon gave her enticed Hoshiko.  She found herself actually looking forward to eating with him after her shift.  She shrugged the thought away as she rolled the four wheeled cart out of the repair shop and into one of the Interdiction’s freight elevators.  Once the door had shut, she extended a slender finger and depressed a button marked with the number four.

She waited as the lift groaned upwards and, responding to the growing complaints of her stomach, retrieved from her pocket a sealed cup containing strawberry flavored yogurt.  She fished around in her other pocket of the spoon she knew she had procured from the cafeteria.  Drawing proudly from her pocket she grinned and set about removing the plastic covering.  As soon as she had removed the dastardly little cover and stood poised to strike at the pinkish goop, the elevator announced her arrival with a ding and opened the doors.  Leon barreled into the elevator as threatening shouts resounded through the corridor he had entered from.

Overtaken by the suddenness of Leon’s arrival, Hoshiko stood with yogurt in one hand and plastic spoon in the other.  Leon turned his full attention to the elevator control panel frantically pounded on the button labeled shut door.  Having stopped at the end of the hallway to take aim with their pistols, neither of the pursuing mutineers had a chance of making it in.  “Wonderful, are you having elevator races now?”

Leon, who was trying hard to regain his breath, turned to see Hoshiko lowering her spoon into the murderous yogurt while watching him suspiciously.  With lightning speed, he launched his hand out and slapped the yogurt from her hand.  Hoshiko could do nothing but watch in disbelief, as her tasty breakfast became a pink freeze-dried strawberry mess on the steel grating of the elevator floor.  Hoshiko became a swirling maelstrom of anger.  Her grip on the spoon tightened and the brittle plastic threatened to snap in two.

“That,” he huffed, still searching for breath, “was poison.”

Hoshiko looked him over, noticing the long tear in his right sleeve and lines of blood trickling down his hand.  “What the hell did you do to your arm?”

“When I got away from them,” he paused to regain his composure, “I must have cut my arm.  I didn’t even notice,” he spoke, scanning the cart for anything he could use as a weapon.

“Whoa, wait a second.  Got away from who?” she asked, lifting his arm for closer inspection of the wound.  Leon took a moment to collect his thoughts into a decipherable story.

“Gideon Reave, the Vice Commander.  He had everyone on the Command Deck murdered.  Commander Weston is dead as well; I saw their bodies with my own eyes.”

Hoshiko shook her head.  She didn’t want to believe it but she couldn’t think of any conceivable reason why Leon would make up such a macabre story.  “We have to tell everyone.  They should still be in the cafeteria, I was there half an hour ago and they had only just begun eating breakfast.  We still have time to warn them about Gideon,” she said through a mask of stern features, though a look of true concern in her eyes betrayed her.  Leon’s shoulders slumped and his complexion paled.  “What?  We can still make it!”

Leon struggled for the words, his mind flooding with thoughts of sheer desperation.  “An hour?  Gideon had the food poisoned,” he pointed to the splattered yogurt on the floor of the elevator.  Hoshiko’s mouth opened in a silent scream.  “They are already…” Leon looked to Hoshiko, both of them sharing a feeling of helplessness.

To their surprise and horror, the elevator began moving once again.  Hoshiko pushed in the red, slightly protruding button labeled stop elevator, causing the elevator and its contents to come to a sudden halt on the second deck.  The door opened a moment later and the two dashed out into the brightly lit hallway.  Hoshiko pressed her back against the wall and looked to the badly worn carpet at her feet that had lost most of its color.  She hated to admit it that she was beaten, hated even more that she would die in an antiquated flying coffin.

“If only we could make the next light speed jump, I could get several distress calls out.  The other escort ships could easily come to our rescue,” Leon thought out loud.

“Newer models…” she whispered to herself.

“What?” Leon asked.  Hoshiko’s eyes widened with a new revelation.  It was right under her feet! 

“We’re going to split up, get back to your quarters and take everything you need.  Meet me in the Nav Core as soon as you’re done.

Leon ran his hand through his sandy brown hair.  “I don’t know what you have planned but if anyone can pull this off, I know you can,” he stated matter-of-factly.  In truth he had his doubts but he wouldn’t dare let them shine through.

The pair parted ways, Hoshiko to begin preparations for her plan and Leon to his quarters.  Neither, at first, felt the tug and the Interdiction’s increasing vibration as the planet’s gravity began drawing them ever closer.

- Chapter -

5

Turbulence

Leon was through the door to his quarters when he fully realized what was happening to the Interdiction.  The shaking, the odd feeling he had in his body, they were all due to the gravitational pull being emitted from the planet.  One by one, he tore the drawers from his desk and emptied the contents onto his bed.  He scooped up a handful of things that were prized to him.  As odd as the items may have been, they truly meant much to Leon.  The ring of his graduating officer class, a necklace made from seashells that his eight-year-old sister had given him, and a picture of his mother and a six year old Leon standing by the tall completely natural oak tree that that stood proudly in the backyard of his home on earth.  Each of these returned fond memories to Leon and brought him farther from the all too real danger that awaited him in the Interdiction and the dead crewmembers that lay in the cafeteria.  He stood and pivoted, coming face to face with his katana.  He lifted it from the makeshift rack that held in place and drew it, noiselessly, from its sheath.

His father had given it to him upon his ranking of first place in an international kendo competition.  His father held an important position in a powerful communications business and as a result, rarely found the time to see his family.  He valued personal achievement greatly and thusly rewarded Leon for his first place.  With his vast fortune, Leon’s father ordered the sword to be forged, not manufactured, in Japan by a master.  It was the one thing of any meaning that his father had ever given him and he treasured it for that.

Leon watched the sword reflect the light shed by the single row of old-style halogen tube lights that illuminated the room.  His eyes sank into the depth of the warm metal, drawing in and gaining from the sword’s strength and purity.  It was said that blades created in such a way held a spirit of their own.  Leon couldn’t disagree.  He sheathed the sword suddenly, remembering that Hoshiko now depended on him to be in the Nav Core on time.  He stepped outside the door with renewed purpose.  He was ready to look forward without fear.

*****

            Heated air greeted Hoshiko as the secondary access door to the Nav Core slid free from locked position.  The rush of air made her hair dance gently and washed over the smooth skin of her face.  She was at peace here, yet she knew that she would shortly be far from this place or dead.  A myriad of answer-less questions rampaged through her mind like an imagined beast from a child’s nightmare, steadily devouring her sanity in a jagged toothed maw.  Would this work?  What lengths would Gideon go to just to kill them?

Hoshiko’s fingers worked wildly on her remote keyboard.  Her hands ached badly but it wouldn’t matter soon enough.  Or perhaps everything would matter, she thought to herself in the utter silence.  She honestly didn’t know.  Hundreds of white LED lights from the surrounding navigational computers changed as Hoshiko typed the final command, illuminating Hoshiko in their soft green glow.  Four similar sounding snaps could be heard from the rear sector of the Nav Core.  Hoshiko turned about to view the four locks barring the air lock that joined the Interdiction to the Phoenix come undone. 

She waited for ten minutes while doing her best to imagine that Leon had not been caught or killed.  The minutes seemed like an eternity but she knew he would make it.  She was relieved to see him arrive safely and allowed herself to share the emotion.  Smiling excitedly, Hoshiko moved to Leon and firmly took hold of his hand with both of hers.  “Come on over here,” she said in a giddy tone.  She felt pleased in herself and her work, which was an odd experience for her.  Usually, she would do what was asked of her and not receive or expect an ounce of gratitude.  That was how things had been for her for as long as she could remember.

Leon followed her, not offering any resistance to her forced lead.  Hoshiko halted before a row of uniform hatchways.  “Here,” she announced, starting to tug the thick steel door.  Leon gave her a quizzical look.

“A thousand pardons, oh wise lady of the Nav Core, but what exactly are you planning?”  The sarcasm was completely lost on Hoshiko; she continued to wrestle with the door’s gigantic handle.  Leon almost immediately took notice of the four normally magnetically sealed locks that no longer barred the way.  “Wait a second, I remember you showing me this door,” Leon said, his face beginning to show recognition.

Leon stepped over to Hoshiko’s side and grasped the partially opened airlock hatch.  “You won’t believe it when you see it,” Hoshiko proudly stated, beaming a smug grin right in Leon’s face.  He couldn’t help but to mirror that smile.

Both smiles immediately melted from their faces as the room and its contents began to shake fiercely.  Equipment danced about on tables while tools and various machine parts crashed to the floor.  The moment was further ruined as the aging intercom system buzzed and crackled to life.

*****

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Gideon Reave, the Commander of the Interdiction.  We have reached the final step towards our manifest goal and will soon be entering the atmosphere of the yet unnamed planet that will be our new home.  I would ask that everyone find a relatively safe place to remain, as the Interdiction was, as most of you are aware, constructed ages ago and the integrity of certain decks are questionable.  This warship was built with atmospheric re-entry and planetary assault in mind however, and I feel that, as the Commander of this ship, the Interdiction will survive intact,” Gideon paused for a few moments after finishing his sentence, carefully considering his next words.

He swiveled his, and he would without a doubt call it his, command chair and faced the view screen with his unrelenting stare.  He mentally stood up to the planet, accepted the challenge it posed wholeheartedly.  He removed a golden watch from the inside of his uniform.  It was an antique watch that had belonged to Commander Weston but just as the title had passed to Gideon, so had the watch.  Gideon’s fingers ran over intricate designs that had been engraved on the ancient handmade timepiece.  He tucked it along with the thin golden chain that attached it to the inside of his uniform jacket with his left hand while again taking up the small microphone with his right.

“If you are still conscious, let alone alive, Officer Edwin, then perhaps you will see the place you are soon to be buried.  The Interdiction may be a large ship but in time you will be found.  That I guarantee you.”

*****

Leon and Hoshiko had opened the heavy steel door leading to the Phoenix when the twin automatic doors at the entrance to the Navigation Core opened and four armed men jogged through.  “There,” one spoke in a voice void of emotion while pointing in Leon’s general direction.  All of the mutineers were armed with the standard issue pistols that were held, along with many other weapons, in the Interdiction’s armory.  The three other men raised their pistols and began firing.

Hoshiko grabbed Leon by the one remaining sleeve of his shirt and pulled him through the hatchway into the cramped glasslike plastic tube that connected the two warships.  Had the situation been different, Leon would have loved to spend time in the space age umbilical cord watching the planet that, even as they ran, grew closer by the second.  “Once we’re across, I’ll input the command to disconnect those pylons,” she shouted over the gunshots while pointing at the metallic rods holding the Phoenix to the Interdiction.  They ran hunched over, trying to stay as low as possible, until they reached the airlock door of the Phoenix.  The door, to the relief of both escapees, was completely electronic and opened as quickly as Hoshiko typed in the pass code.

The same man who had lead the group into the Navigation Core entered the immense plastic tube and raised his gun.  Leon thought that the man, with his overgrown sideburns, long straight hair, and flair for unusual style, belonged in some redone 1980’s car chase movie rather than the year 2118 in outer space.  The pistol he held looked to be a model that had not been manufactured in more than one hundred years.  How he had smuggled the antiquated device aboard the Interdiction and if it was in fact real were both questions that Leon had to put aside for now.  “Your little game of hide and seek is over, Edwin.”

The longhaired attacker smiled, curling his lips up to reveal a pointed wolf-like set of teeth.  His aim shifted.  Leon gritted his own teeth and traced the path that the bullet would take.  A single finger slowly pulled the trigger inward.  The sound was magnified many times over by the closed in space of the thick plastic tube.

Leon took a step forward and leapt, relying fully on his reflexes.  He collided with Hoshiko and wrapped his arms around her, carrying her past the airlock and out of immediate danger.  The instant he hit the ground he felt an unspeakable searing pain pass through his shoulder.  Rolling over, he saw the wound.  Warm blood was seeping through his shirt and pooling on the smooth forest green floor.  Hoshiko did not try to stand but instead franticly typed on her miniature keyboard.  The door behind them shut just as hundreds of small cracks began to form and run along the plastic tube.  Small emergency explosive charges went off on the underside exterior of the Interdiction as the Phoenix fell away from the Interdiction.  Seconds later, the plastic tube shattered from the tension of separation and friction from their descent into the planet’s atmosphere.

- Chapter -

6

Planet fall

Gideon was startled out of his silent meditation as every console around him began flashing red.  The lights in the Command Deck dimmed briefly and quickly switched to backup power.  The Interdiction shook violently for a moment, groaning in protest to the separation.  “Status report,” Gideon commanded, “Now!”

Before any of his human attendants could issue assessments of their situation, warning systems began to rattle off automated damage reports.  Gideon attempted to sort out what was going on when one caught his attention.  “Complete loss of pressure in the Navigation Core.  Navigation Core has been automatically sealed.  Separation detected.”

Gideon’s eyes widened at hearing that announcement.  At first he was unsure of when was meant by the message but after giving it a second thought, he knew exactly what had happened.  Additional alarms sounded as the Interdiction began to plummet through the planet’s atmosphere.

*****

Hoshiko brought herself to her feet as fast as she could.  “H-Hoshiko,” Leon’s obviously pained voice echoed in her ears.  She turned to see him on his back clutching his right shoulder with one hand.  Blood covered his hand and had soaked through much of his already tattered right sleeve.  “Are you ok?”

She panicked.  Her legs felt numb as she staggered towards him.  She wondered what things would be like if Leon died here.  He would have died without knowing how she felt towards him.  Hoshiko, however forlorn, knew that she couldn’t let herself sink into depression.  Leon lifted a bloodstained hand from his bullet wound and raised it toward Hoshiko.  New blood oozed from the hole in his shoulder as soon as the pressure applied by his hand was gone.  “You idiot,” she mumbled, feigning anger.  “Why did you do that? You shouldn’t have put yourself in danger,” Hoshiko fell to her knees at his side and placed his hand, with the guidance of one of hers, on his wound with the other diving for the utility knife on her belt.

Realizing the futility of using her hand to stop the bleeding, she removed her shirt and cut into it with her utility knife.  She had entered college on earth as a medical student but found that it wasn’t quite her forte.  She was proud of herself when she found that she still remembered a thing or two about dressing wounds as she carefully wrapped the improvised bandages around Leon’s arm and shoulder.  When she finished, she leaned over him and lifted him slowly to seated position while supporting him with an arm around his back.  “Shouldn’t you be making fun of my bra or at least the fact that I’m not wearing a shirt?” she asked, again in mock grumpiness, trying to rouse a bit of spirit into Leon’s weakening form.

He turned his head to meet her eyes and gave a small fragile smile.  It was the best he could give her.  “I didn’t want to lose you.”

Hoshiko’s vision began to blur as her eyes watered.  “I,” she tried to continue but choked.  “I don’t want to lose you,” as she finished Leon’s hand rose to her cheek and wiped away a tear as it streaked downward.  Drinking deeply into his hazel eyes, she leaned closer and their lips connected.  She pondered exactly how many other people had their first kiss in a situation even remotely similar to hers.  Seconds passed before the lips parted and Hoshiko positioned herself under Leon’s good shoulder.  She eased him off the floor and the two made their way to the Command Deck of the Phoenix.

There were a few immediate changes that struck them as unusual in their frenzied search for the Command Deck.  The entire ship smelled of mint.  Having lived for an entire year aboard the Interdiction, which had a smell similar to an ancient motel, this was a very welcome change.  The second noticeable change was the way in which the interior of the ship had been designed.  It was rounded where they expected sharp corners and even had soft and comfortable chairs where they had thought to find harsh metal for their posteriors.  Leon called it “next generation design” while Hoshiko preferred the term “feminine”.

Arriving in the Command Deck, Hoshiko let Leon down in a comfortable chair that sat in front of a console that controlled a rather imposing screen filled with countless functions.  His body had cut his supply of adrenaline and he could feel himself fatiguing.

Hoshiko on the other hand set to work as soon as she hit the chair.  “Try to stay awake, Leon.  I don’t want you falling unconscious at that console.”

Leon groaned in protest and set to work on bringing the Phoenix’s defensive and offensive systems online just in case Gideon gave the order to fire on them.  Hoshiko brought up the main view screen and activated the main engines.  She scowled when she reviewed a smaller readout to her right.  The Phoenix had followed the Interdiction too close to the planet and she was now faced with the grim conclusion that they didn’t have power necessary to reach escape velocity and break away from the gravitational pull of the planet.  The smaller ship was rocked by a series of forceful jerks, throwing Leon from his chair and onto his back with an audible thump.  Hoshiko leapt from her chair and ran to him.  Heat and pressure alarms screeched throughout the ship like lost children.  The entire ship rumbled as it tried to slow itself down with little success.

Hoshiko was thrown to the floor when the Phoenix, relying on its emergency system, turned itself horizontally.  Everything in her vision swirled about as she was tossed to the floor like a rag doll by the next few ship-wide spasms.  Lifting her head, she could see Leon pulling himself across the floor in her direction with his good arm.  Hoshiko crawled to him and wrapped her arms around him.  The lights dimmed and cut out as the Phoenix diverted all power to its engines.  Hoshiko figured that they were experiencing full power failure and that whatever modern marvel powered the Phoenix would soon turn the ship into a fiery ball of high-speed death.  Both Leon and Hoshiko were screaming, though neither of them could hear anything past the wailing alarms and horrible metallic rumbling beneath them.

Hoshiko turned to face Leon again, figuring that they would both be dead in a matter of moment.  Knowing that he wouldn’t hear her, she mouthed three words.  I love you.  Leon managed a smile and nodded, repeating the same three words with his own mouth.  They reached the final stage of descent and the engines altered direction suddenly, throwing Leon’s head back against the floor.  His eyes seemed distant to Hoshiko as his eyelids descended and the arm that held him to her relaxed and fell limp from her back.

She began screaming again.  Not out of fear of death but born of denial.  “No!” she screamed again and again.  “You can’t die here, you can’t leave me here alone!”  His warm breath, though faint, could be felt against her face.  The Phoenix banked sharply.  Hoshiko instinctively shot out an arm as she and Leon rolled sideways across the Command Deck and found a handhold on a nearby chair seat.  Her muscles tightened as she reeled herself and Leon behind the chain and into a corner.  She had no clue what corner it was but all that mattered was that she stopped their rolling about.

There she sat, clutching Leon and challenging death itself until the Phoenix stopped shaking and its alarms silenced.  Moments later her were reaffirmed as she felt the ship under her drag across solid ground.

- Chapter -

7

A Brief Pause

Leon’s eyes opened slowly.  His body hesitated when ordered to move and his shoulder continued to produce a dull ache from where he had been shot.  He pushed away the thick blanket that covered his body and, keeping balance with his arms, rose to a seated position and examined his surroundings.  The small room he was in was completely new to him, though he wasn’t surprised at this.  He had, after all, seen so little of the Phoenix.  Three similar beds could be seen near his.  Walls were lined with cabinets and the floor still consisted of smooth hard and green plastic sheathing over steel.  He rubbed the back of his head, remembering how he had come to the conclusion that the green surface was only a decorative layer.

The pungent aroma of disinfectant burned in his nostrils, giving away the room’s medical purpose.  He hunched forward and placed his hand over the bandage covering the bullet wound on his right shoulder.  He winced, expecting a shock of pain but instead found no sensation other than the pressure of his hand.  He cautiously peeled away the single layer of off white fabric and marveled at what he saw.  Where there should have been a gruesome entry wound, he found nothing but smooth pink skin.  Eagerly, he unwound the bandages that wrapped neatly around his arm only to find the same new skin.  He stood from the bed, curious as to the current state of things.

He knew they had landed on the planet and that the Phoenix must be at least somewhat intact but everything else was up in the air.  How long had he been there in that bed?  He knew Hoshiko had come through in one piece.  If she hadn’t, they would still be lying on the floor of the Command Deck dead.  No clothes, he realized while searching through the room in his boxer shorts.  He smiled, thinking that Hoshiko had purposefully hidden his clothes.  The smile didn’t last long though.  He thought back to what had transpired during the crash.  Hoshiko had expressed her feeling to him.  She had rarely expressed such emotions and, to Leon, it felt a bit awkward.  He wasn’t entirely sure what to expect now.  He had spent months attempting to chisel away at her shell and now it seemed that she had broken out of it on her own.

Leon moved out of the medical room and stealthily moved down the curving hall.  He was pleased to find that the halls of the Phoenix were carpeted.  A layer of short nylon carpeting greeted his naked feet.  His feet glided along the soft surface and came to an abrupt stop as a door to his immediate left opened.  Hoshiko stood in the doorway fully caught off guard.  She wore a pair of black jeans that were slightly too long for her legs and a fluorescent pink tee shirt that had the word Officer embroidered on the front of it in green letters.  Leon bit his lip in a fast failing attempt to stem an outburst of laughter.  “At least I’m wearing clothes,” she stated with a grin.

Without another word, Hoshiko turned and walked back into the lightless room she had been leaving.  Leon followed, silently hoping that it wasn’t the Phoenix’s armory.  She waved her hand over a small wall panel and the lights activated, revealing rows of unmarked blue lockers.  Some still hung open on their hinges, calling for Leon to examine their contents.  “Clothes,” Hoshiko said, “Go ahead and knock yourself out.  Most of the stuff in here is crap though.  I have no idea how so much worthless clothing could be found on a top secret government project like this ship.”

Leon nodded as Hoshiko turned to leave.  He found out that Hoshiko hadn’t been over exaggerating as he began rummaging through the mess of awful clothing that had somehow managed to escape earth.  He tossed aside Hawaiian shirts and bell-bottoms and after five minutes of searching found a pair of black, wide leg, silky pants and a loose fitting dark blue shirt with long sleeves.  He could feel better already as he slipped into the comfortable garments.  Hoshiko raised an eyebrow as Leon left the storage room.  “Comfort is the key”, he said, folding his arms neatly over his chest.

“Is being an outer space samurai just a bonus then?”  They shared a laugh and started walking again, though Leon had no idea to where.

“How long was I out?”  Leon asked.

“Three days straight.  I was still conscious after the landing and brought you to that medical room,” she said, watching her mirror image in the green floor.  “There are things in that room that I’ve never seen before.  I used some sort of nanotechnology-enhanced gel on your injuries.  Stopped the bleeding right away and in a day, the damaged tissue had been replaced.  I couldn’t believe it myself.”

“During the crash…” Leon and Hoshiko stopped walking.  “It was hectic, I wasn’t sure that I could hold on,” Leon saw that Hoshiko was looking into his eyes.

“I meant what I said,” Hoshiko said, keeping her eyes locked onto Leon.  “You were the only person who cared, let alone gave a damn whether I existed or not.  No matter how much I beat on you or told you to go away, you were always there to cheer me up and keep me from festering in my loneliness.  No one has shown me affection and respect as you have and I, well,” her voice trailed off as she lowered her head.

Leon took a step forward and took hold of Hoshiko’s hands.  Her head turned up and she could see in Leon’s eyes that he too mean what he had said.  “Don’t give it a second thought,” Leon said, his voice flowing through her ears like a gurgling stream in the springtime, “We have each other now.”

After a moment looking into each others eyes, their lips connected in a passionate embrace that, to them, seemed to last forever.

*****

Gideon sat on an imposing yet comfortable armchair in his quarters eyeing structural readouts and an inventory list of all tools and resources aboard the Interdiction.  Every crewmember aboard the Interdiction had been ordered to make repairs on sections of the ship.  Gideon rubbed at one of his eyes when the image before him blurred.  He hadn’t slept since their unfortunate landing and it didn’t seem he would be seeing any sleep this night either.

He wasn’t entirely sure what to make of Officer Edwin’s daring escape with Navigations Officer Takahara.  They had walked into the Phoenix and piloted it away.  Gideon regretted the loss of the Phoenix as it had played a role in his plans but he was bothered by the fact that the two had control of it now and were somewhere on the planet with them.  If they had survived the landing, that is.

Throwing his head back in a powerful yawn, he couldn’t help but wonder what was in store for him and his crew outside the ship.  All of the windows had automatically sealed shut during the planetary descent and without full power to the entire ship they weren’t going to budge.  Returning his gaze to the emergency powered view screen on his desk, Gideon found it to have shut off completely in the absence of his attention.  This was followed by a popping noise as the lights above him dimmed and went out, fading his surroundings into darkness.  He wanted to roar out in anger, to curse the entire ship, but he found himself far too tired to muster up that kind of rage.  He looked up at where the lights had been and saw their residual glow fading from his vision.  He closed his eyes and followed the specks of light around before finally succumbing to his body’s desire for rest.

- Chapter -

8

Daybreak

Two days of rigorous repair work inside of the Phoenix had put the craft into near working shape.  Everything that could be done from the inside had been done.  What remained to be repaired required to be done from the outside of the ship.  Whether the repairs would actually get them anywhere was yet to be seen.  Neither Hoshiko nor Leon had left the Phoenix and due to the external damage, they were completely blind to their surroundings.

Hoshiko gingerly made her away around the ship’s interior with Leon in tow.  They had decided that one or both of them needed to exit the Phoenix to assess their chances of leaving the planet.  Hoshiko came to an unmarked door that stood apart from the others in the solid look it gave off.  She looked at it and back to Leon before going to work on the keypad next to it.  “The ship’s computer wouldn’t tell me what’s in here.  Kept saying that it was for authorized personnel only.  The only bits of information I could drag out of it was that it held hazardous environment protection suits and an air lock,” she said, typing away.

“I think this situation calls for what ever is behind that door.  We’re plenty authorized,” Leon replied after a slight chuckle.

The door eventually gave in and opened with a great sucking noise, drawing air in as it moved back and lumbered to the side.  The doorway opened into a T-shaped room with the entrance being at the intersection of the two lengthy expanses.  The walls were laden with lockers, some human sized and others merely foot lockers, with wall lights between them.  At the end of the longest area was a tightly sealed hatchway.  Leon ran his fingers over the inset handle of a gray metal locker wondering what was held within.  He had a vague feeling of what might be inside such an undecorated room and considered his hunch even more when comparing the secure storage room with the other more eye pleasing areas of the Phoenix.

Hoshiko was the first to open a locker, affirming Leon’s suspicions as she backed away from it slowly.  “Grenades,” she whispered grimly, more to herself than to Leon.  Leon turned his gaze to a locker and took his turn in opening the now deadly cubbies.  The handle twisted slowly and Leon gave a gentle pull, swinging the ceiling high portal open.  Inside was jet-black suit made of a rubbery material.  Hanging on a hook next to it was a mask that Leon knew would convert non-breathable atmosphere into lung safe oxygen.

“Hey, first try,” he said, turning to Hoshiko who had found a similar suit after two more grenade stockpiles had been uncovered.

“Oh yeah?”  Hoshiko’s voice was muffled as she was partially inside of a horizontal locker pulling at something.  She emerged with a titan of a rifle that stole the breath from Leon’s lungs.  “You should come take a look at this...”

Sure enough, Leon saw that the locker, as well as all of the ones that shared the wall with it, stored weapons unlike anything the two had ever seen.  “Magnetic projection system?”  Hoshiko gave Leon a quizzical look.

“Rail gun,” Leon stated, pointing a finger at the rifle in question.  It appeared just like any other with the exception of the elongated barrel and larger than normal clip.  “Uses magnets to accelerate the metal slugs it uses as ammunition.  Punctures anything,” Leon explained, remembering seeing one in a government facility he had served in.  “The last one I saw was tenfold larger than that though.”

“I’m getting the feeling that this room is a bit more secret than the others on the Phoenix,” Hoshiko said while eyeing a monstrous cannon in the back of the locker that looked more like a piece of tank artillery than a hand held gun.  Everything about the room screamed “try me” to her.  Before she knew it, she had put on the hazmat suit she found, as well as light amplification goggles, a targeting link from her newfound rail gun to her goggles, and had even found a pair of matching gloves to go along with her suit.

Leon suited up as well but found himself wondering if they would need these gadgets and weapons once they left the ship.  Hoshiko was already working on opening the next door, which turned out to be the air lock, by the time he was ready.  She opened the door and they stepped into the airlock together.  They watched the final door begin to rise and they stirred a bit, double and triple checking their equipment.  The door fully opened but neither of them could see more than five feet in front of them.  A wall of fog rolled into their already confined space.  Leon gave a worried glance to Hoshiko as they stepped out and their feet sank slightly into the moist ground.  Eyes darted around seeking movement in the murky fog coated landscape but finding none as Hoshiko’s larger-than-necessary rifle moved back and forth in her arms.

“Nothing, just fog,” Hoshiko said, speaking into a miniscule microphone inside of her mask.  Leon turned to her and nodded.  Plodding through the muck, they made their way to what they believed to be the sensor panels on starboard wing of the Phoenix.  Leon let his hand drop, still clutching the pistol he had chosen, while Hoshiko began to inspect the damaged cluster of panels.  Was this place just a big mud ball?  Leon looked around, trying to notice anything but mud, rocks, and fog, with no luck.

It had been deathly quiet the entire time until Leon heard a faint whooshing noise.  He dismissed the out of place sound as an overactive imagination.  His head glanced upward with terrified eyes as he heard it a second time and then a third.  Images of giant flying beasts devouring them whole flooded into his mind.  Trying his best to keep calm in the presence of the flapping and whooshing noises, Leon slowly backpedaled to where Hoshiko had her head and arms jammed inside of the Phoenix’s wing.  “Hoshiko,” he whispered into his mask.

“What?”  Hoshiko’s voice echoed dangerously inside of the small mechanical hatchway.  The flapping and whooshing grew louder.

“We have to go back inside now,” Leon spoke with clear worry in his voice, his pistol in hand and dashing back and forth trying to pick targets through the vision limiting fog.  Hoshiko was out of the mess of wires and dirt now and looking up into the fog filled sky.  The sounds were definitely getting louder; Leon knew his ears weren’t betraying him.  He could even make out large shadows moving through the fog.  The two battle ready officers moved side by side as they began inching their way backward from their current position.  That is, until there ceased to be ground below Leon’s feet.  Hoshiko heard Leon fall to the ground, heard the slipping noise fade away in the shadowy fog, and the chains of obscenities flowing through her earpiece.  Panic stricken, she swiveled to where Leon had been, only to find nothing.  She grasped at nothingness with her free hand, calling out for Leon.  She could then feel the ground at her feet crumble and break away.

Leon slid downward for a short while, gliding quickly along the slimy slope, flailing the whole way.  A moment later, something that felt like a tree branch smacked him in the face and stole his breathing mask.  He began tumbling but felt the grade lessening and thankfully found that he was rolling onto flat ground.  He rose to his feet warily, checking each extremity to ensure he was still in one piece and picked up his pistol, which had been launched from his hand only to land with a soft thud nearby.  He heard wet rushing noises and turned in time to view Hoshiko slide up to his left, clutching her gigantic rifle with both arms.  He brushed the gooey sludge from his suit and turned to give Hoshiko a hand.

Hoshiko got up with Leon’s assistance and gasped in horror while looking at Leon’s face.  “What happened to your mask?  Put it on!”  She shouted, as Leon swung his head about with a look of pure horror plastered across his face.  He tried holding his breath while he ran, feet slipping and sliding around him, to where he had finished his descent.  He stopped then, remembering that he had been breathing the air around him since he had his mask pulled from his face on the way down.  He opened his mouth and breathed.  Hoshiko gave him a look as though it was she who was asphyxiating.  The dank air around him smelled sweet and earthy as he normalized his breathing pattern.

“Its ok, I can breathe without it…I guess,” Leon said, trying to calm Hoshiko with little effect.

“You guess?  God knows what you’re breathing!  You could turn inside out in an hour for all we know,” Hoshiko began shouting again, though Leon could tell it was more out of worry than anger.  “Just try not to get anything in your mouth.  We can hopefully get by without you eating anything strange that you find, can’t we?”

Their combined attention was ripped from one another to a reaction that was now taking place above them.  The fog was brightening now and neither Leon nor Hoshiko could guess as to what disaster this meant for them.  They stood side-by-side, eyes directed to the sky and the yellow orb that was steadily taking form through the mist.  Leon took Hoshiko’s hand as the fog melted away, revealing a wide sun bathed valley, filled with green, dew covered foliage and wild flowers of all shapes and colors.

- Chapter -

9

A New Day

Leon sat on the edge of the Phoenix’s wing staring up into the blue green of the sky, his eyes fixed on the grouping of birds that floated gently through the air aided by the occasional flap of their large wings.  It was tough to judge their size as they soared high above them at the moment but Leon had to guess that they were at least six feet long and that wasn’t counting their protruding tail feathers.  If he could liken them to an earth animal, he would have to say parakeets.  He tilted his head a bit to one side, deep in thought, which Hoshiko clearly noted from her vantage point inside of the wing.  “Having a good time up there?” Hoshiko grumbled loudly.

Leon continued to stare wide-eyed into the sky.  “Aren’t they amazing?”

“Yeah, I’m sure they are,” she replied half-heartedly.  She looked from the gargantuan parakeets to Leon and groaned.  “I bet you’d find these repairs would go faster if you were down here helping me.”

Leon nodded his head but didn’t break his eyes from the brightly colored flock.

“I sure love doing repairs naked.”

“Mmm Hmm.”

Hoshiko withdrew her wrench and took aim with her throwing arm.  Leon, sensing the trap, fell onto his back laughing and left her with no target.  He crawled over and cautiously stuck his head out over the side of the opening in the wing.  Hoshiko, who had been patiently waiting in ambush, gave him a thump on the head.

An hour later, the two broke for lunch.  It had been two full days after they had first left the Phoenix and they were confident that the suits and masks they originally donned were no longer necessary for their survival.  They had even lightened their weapons load, Hoshiko having given up her powerful rifle and taken Leon’s pistol.  He cared little for firearms in general and didn’t even open his mouth to protest, having instead taken his katana with him after Hoshiko had asked to see him train with it.  He smiled and laughed when she first asked, thinking that it would bore her but after she put had her foot down he had agreed.

Hoshiko plopped down on a large flat rock and crossed her legs, placing her hands on her knees.  “Any time you’re ready,” she said with a smirk.  Leon was standing in front of her with his katana drawn and he gave her a single nod.  He began to move his sword through a series of uncomplicated maneuvers, though he was gradually picking up the speed of his movements.  His feet found the grass and soft dirt below relieving as compared to the solid metal and confining corridors of the ship.  Hoshiko smiled as she watched Leon move gracefully through his routines and leaned forward keeping her eyes locked on his ever moving form.

Something to Leon’s left caught his attention.  A single movement slight movement seen from the corner of his eye.  He spun about and looked down through the small valley and into the tall wheat-like plants that swayed in a soft afternoon breeze.  The movement came again, much faster this time and in the midst of the flowing green sea of vegetation.  Hoshiko pursed her lips at his back and placed her hands behind her for support while she leaned backwards.  “Don’t tell me that’s it,” she said, a bit of disappointment evident.  Leon stood with his sword ready at his side, its thin blade reflecting the rays of noonday sunlight.  Again it moved, a dark speck climbing to their position rapidly with great controlled leaps, somehow able to keep itself low enough to keep itself relatively out of sight.  It stopped suddenly as it was about to leave the safety of the swaying grasses.  It lurched forward from its natural cover and stood tall.  It looked up the steep hill and met Leon’s eyes with its own.

Its body was covered in a jet black chitinous exoskeleton that covered its entire form like a sleek suit of armor with ridges on its shoulders, back, and hips.  Lines ran over the creature’s chest and outlined a pattern.  Its waist was incredibly slight though its chest was broad and it stood at what Leon guessed to be nearly seven feet tall.  It walked upright on a pair of thin yet armored legs that both ended with three claws.  Its upper body was adorned with four arm-like appendages, each bearing four fingers that came to long sharp points.  The hands on the lower pair of arms had an extra digit that resembled a thumb.  Its head appeared similar to that of an ant’s, though its eyes were smaller and not multi-faceted.  A pair of large mandibles covered the opening of its mouth completely and on the back of its head a pair of jagged antennae jutted up and back, reminding Leon very much of lightning bolts.  It crouched low and its mandibles moved soundlessly as Leon watched from above, his heart taking great leaps as he watched its arms move into various positions.  It spread its razor sharp fingers apart wickedly and began its ascent up the steep slope; it’s equally honed foot talons easily finding footholds in the moist earth.  Leon readied himself and made firm his grip on the sword.

Beaming her smile once again and expecting her show to continue, Hoshiko nearly fell backwards over her the rock where she was sitting when the insect-like creature reached a small ledge directly below where Leon stood waiting for it and launched itself into the air clear over Leon with his arms at its side.  It spread its arms again, landing at Leon’s right and diving in at him with one of its clawed arms, all four of the piercing digits rushing towards him.  He parried the hand and hopped away; avoiding the three other hands he had expected to descend upon him.  The alien creature was back onto him faster than Leon’s eyes could perceive and he was again fending off a flurry of razor sharp talons.

Leon dove backwards and rolled before coming to a stop in time to catch a pair of hands with his sword, the blade catching the hands between the fingers yet doing no harm to the exoskeleton.  His breath was already coming in gasps and he knew there was no way he could keep up the fight as the fought against the inhumanly strong creature as it tried to push the blade down.  The ends of four needle fingers steadily grew closer to his face as he was losing the power struggle.  It made one great push and Leon leapt to his right side, accepting a minor swipe from one its previously dormant ebon clawed hands.  Three lines of crimson blood formed across his left cheek.  Dashing forward and meeting it with an attack this time, Leon cut low, drawing its attention to defending its legs but instead of following the attack through, he redirected the slash and brought it up, catching one of the upper arms in its shoulder joint between armored ridges.  It let out a high pitch whine and its mandibles clacked, though its dark orbs remained locked onto Leon.  It shot forward recklessly with three vicious arms directed at Leon’s chest.  He sidestepped the enraged creature’s attacks and kicked out with his right leg, his foot connecting hard with the back of its ant-like head.  It stumbled forward and lost its balance, falling to the ground and sliding through a patch of soft mud.

It rolled over and started to stand only to find Leon’s blade pressing against the unarmored area between its head and thin neck.  It followed the blade upward and met his eyes, clacking its mandibles once and lifting its head welcomingly to the blade.  Leon was not sure what to make of it and just stood next to the creature with his sword extended to its neck.  Hoshiko had returned from the Phoenix’s wing with her pistol in hand and stepped up next to Leon, aiming the weapon at the underside of its head.  Leon stepped backwards and placed his hand on Hoshiko’s gun, lowering it.  “Something isn’t right here,” he spoke slowly as he continued to back away, taking her with him.

“Yeah, I’ll tell you what isn’t right, that thing trying to kill you,” she stated.  The insect creature lowered its head and looked again to Leon, its deep black eyes intense.  He gave a single nod to the creature and continued to back away from it with Hoshiko at his side.  “What the hell are you doing?” Hoshiko asked angrily.

“Remember, we’re the aliens here,” Leon said, “We are the intruders and for all we know, this could be its home.”

“Yeah, well what if it comes back with friends tomorrow?” she continued to ask.  Both turned from their conversation to the creature as rose to its feet and clacked its mandibles producing a few indecipherable noises.  It made a low squealing sound and focused on the two of them.  In their heads came a noise that resembled everything they had ever heard in their lives meshed into one great cacophony.  They both staggered and pressed their hands to their heads until the sound passed from their minds seconds later.  The creature leaned forward and tilted its head to one side, its mandibles again clacking and forming odd high pitch sounds.  It turned quickly, pressing its wounded arm to its chest with one of its three others, sprinted over to the ledge it had climbed and leapt downward, and disappeared again into the lush valley.