Across the Galaxy: A Pirate's Path to Glory

First day as a pirate

“Wakey, wakey! It’s time to loot a cargo ship!” I heard Tristen’s voice echo through the halls.  He then began to bang on the door including mine. I quickly got out of bed, trying to dress up but I kept stumbling and falling over. The room was incredibly small. Then panic hit me over that my phone didn’t charge however it luckily did. Somehow it fell onto the battery port. Getting out of the room, I barely had time to check myself in the mirror and I already felt like a mess. I quickly ran towards the meeting room however only Tristen was there, scrolling through his phone and laughing to himself. 

“Oh… Where are the others?” He looked up and seemed surprised at first then smiled. 

“Still asleep. That was only the first warning. So you know, you have time to get properly dressed and brush your hair. Take a shower too, takes time for them to get out of their rooms. Or well, Valerie especially and Sylas too. Zayn usually tries to hurry up the process by pulling Valerie out from the bed.” He leaned back and returned to scrolling. 

“Um… can you show me the bathroom and towels I could use?” He placed his phone into his pocket before standing up. 

“I can give a thorough tour of the ship as well.” He showed me the small bathroom and everything I could use as well. He was also kind enough to leave a clean shirt for me and said they would stop by at the mall or something after this job. I don’t know what I expected from the shower but I preferred the one at home much more. But at least I was clean. We ate some breakfast and Sylas joined us as well before the tour continued. He showed me where they keep their supplies, everyone’s rooms and lastly, the cockpit. 

“It’s me and Sylas usually steering this thing. None of the others knows how to. I’m assuming you can’t either?”  

“Never piloted anything” 

“But you’re great at repairing things. I spoke with the people at the sweet and spicy club and they only said good things about you. Usually, when you fix something, it stays fixed and works better than ever! Which is exactly what we need on this ship. Sylas likes smashing things after all. And Valerie likes shooting stuff.” I couldn’t help but smile. 

“I was worried that I would soon catch up repairing everything there. Glad I’m getting a new challenge.” After he explained a bit about the ship's model, Valerie finally came as well with Zayn. Then it was time to prepare ourselves for the cargo ship. 

“Here’s the plan. Sylas will hack into the ship, it will stop and we will get on it. We take everything we can and then set sail towards the pirate HQ. I’m planning on bringing Dahlia, Valerie and myself. And not to make Sylas feel lonely, Zayn will stay.” There was a sigh from Sylas who shook his head but didn’t comment. Everyone seemed to be on board while I felt incredibly nervous… 

Sylas soon got to work, screens were almost taking up the whole room and soon we were all kicked out from there. The three of us then headed towards the exit of the ship. 

“Head captain said there isn’t much security but we still have to be prepared. I currently don’t have any weapon for you Dahlia so Valerie is on protection duty.” I looked towards Valerie who had a smirk on her lips. 

“Sargad and Kirzod, come” She summoned a gun in each of her hands. They were almost identical except the right one was smaller. She blew on them and spun them around. 

“Show off” Tristen rolled his eyes and Valerie just laughed. 

“I have to show I’m trustworthy and reliable for our newest member.” She winked at me and I suddenly felt small and delicate. That I am just a small fragile girl in need of protection. 

“Now show yours, captain” The guns then suddenly vanished into thin air as she placed her hands on her hips. Tristen shook his head at first and rejected the idea but he kept smiling. 

“Fine, fine. We can’t hide our talents after all” He seemed to be extremely proud of his weapon and also wanted to show it off. Which is a behaviour I was used to on my planet. It was incredibly important to stand out. Tristen rolled up his sleeves then made a long cut on his arm and let the blood drip. It was uncomfortable to watch but the blood became more and more solid until it turned into a long blood-red sword and the bleeding stopped. 

“It’s pretty cool huh? And it doesn’t stain.” He placed the non-sharp edge against his shoulder and posed. 

“Very impressive. Now I won’t have to worry when my life is in danger.” Letting out a nervous chuckle, Valerie just rolled her eye while Tristen kept his prideful look. 

“If you guys are done playing around with your toys, please get onto the other ship.” Sylas voice was heard from the speakers.

“s**t, right.” Tristen then opened up the door and the cargo ship was right in front of us. So we all jumped onto the other ship and went to search for the most valuable things. Tristen went ahead to take care of the pilots while Valerie and I searched the different chests. Most of them had supplies like food or materials for god knows what. So we loaded everything up to our ship. 

“Um, guys. So I didn’t find anyone. The ship is on autopilot and there weren't even any androids nearby.” Tristen returned and seemed confused. He helped us with the crates and even looked through a few of them. They seemed like unfinished experiments… Tristen and Valerie went ahead to search the ship more thoroughly and I went my way as well. I found a pink whip in a glass crate. The closer I got to it the more it began to glow. It felt so strange… yet right. I tried opening it but it was sealed shut. I know that I wanted it… The whip consisted of hearts attached which formed the whip. The handle was decorated with a ribbon and glitter as well. Imagine having such a cute whip.  

“Dahlia! We have a bit of a problem…” I heard Tristen’s voice getting closer as well as weird sounds coming from every direction. 

“I think I know why this ship was so empty…” Turning around I noticed grotesque beings coming closer as Tristen and Valerie backed away, their weapons pointed at them. I quickly slammed my hand against my mouth to prevent myself from screaming. 

“They escaped from their little cages… Typical humans, making so many mistakes.” Before we knew it we were surrounded by monsters. They looked similar to the extinct animals from Eviri such as unicorns and gryphons. They didn’t look cute as they are depicted in the media… Their skin was rotten and they seemed to have a hard time walking. I glanced back at the whip. Currently, I don’t have anything to defend myself with so the whip would have been extremely handy. Valerie took a deep breath and fired, a bullet going straight through a unicorn’s head however they didn’t fall. It only made the monsters run towards them. Instinctively I closed my eyes, fearing a monster would jump on me. 

“Heartbreak whip!” Without really thinking I yelled out and I heard the sound of glass shattering and my hand wrapped around the handle of the whip. Taking a deep breath I opened my eyes and quickly swung the whip and pulled the monster away from Valerie as she shot them again and again. As I kept swinging around the ship and threw the monsters away… It felt so right. Like this was the missing piece in my life. Tristen swung his sword around but the monsters kept on going no matter how many limbs they lost. 

“I don’t think we can kill these guys. We should probably rush to our ship and get the f**k away from here.” Trying to get away from the monsters we quickly ran towards the exit towards our ship. We grabbed a few more things along the way and just threw everything inside the ship before closing the door. Or trying to at least. Few of the monsters grabbed onto it and tried to pull on it. Tristen made a frustrated groan as he kicked them away. 

“They keep coming and I highly doubt we can kill them since they are well, already dead!” I could hear the panic in his voice rise but he quickly calmed down. 

“Dahlia, Valerie. Make sure they don’t come too close to our ship and make sure to grab EVERYTHING from here.”

“But captain, wouldn’t it be better to just get away as soon as possible and leave the rest?”

“No Dahlia, if we don’t loot everything from the ship, there will be a penalty. I don’t want to live on canned food for one more month!” With that, he stomped off and sliced every monster coming his way who then slowly crawled after him. 

“You heard the captain” Valerie smirked as she ran towards the monsters and shot more aggressively. Letting out a sigh I quickly made sure Tristen wouldn’t be in any trouble. Picking up broken crates and throwing them on the monsters so they wouldn’t be able to move away from it. However, they were stronger than they looked. If they just regenerated… Then how would we even be able to kill them? Maybe blow them up into bits so it would take longer to regenerate… Or let them out into space? But then the cargo would be at risk of getting lost as well. So we have to quickly transfer everything onto the other ship. 

Arriving at Tristen who was busy fighting off the rest of the monsters, I quickly threw crates onto our ship. 

“Hey! Be careful!”

“I want to try and rush this so we can avoid being food for these guys.” I had no idea what was actually in the crates, could have been explosive material but then hopefully Tristen would have warned us about it. A while later everything seemed to have been on our ship now. 

“Sylas! Get ready to move!” Tristen yelled as he got onto their ship. 

“But Valerie-” His expression soured as he bit his lip, the monsters were almost completely healed again. I quickly rushed back into the other ship and ran towards where Valerie was last. She was surrounded by monsters, almost cornered. I barely had time to think, only act and I quickly pulled the monsters away, slamming them to the wall. Valerie quickly ran towards me and we made our way towards back to Tristen who still had the door open but slowly began to close it when he saw us. Both of us ran and jumped onto our ship and right as the door closed, a monster had been following us but was hit against the door instead. 

“Sylas, now!” The ship began to move and soon we flew away from the cargo ship where the monsters began to flood everywhere out from the ship before it exploded. We watched how it got smaller and smaller before all of us collapsed on the floor. Then Tristen began to laugh as he ran his hand through his hair. 

“That was intense! Glad we got everything.” He placed his other hand above his chest while the other two arms were planted firmly on the ground. I nodded, relieved everyone was safe and sound. 

“Well, back to work for me. Gotta call the head captain again and decide where to meet up so we can receive our payment. You two can sort out what’s useful for us and what’s not.” Nodding exhaustedly we slowly got to work, opening the different metal crates which were filled with metal scraps and other things that looked like trash. No clothes, food or anything else necessary for the rest of us. However, taking a closer look at the metal scraps, I couldn’t identify the material. Where it was from and such. They seemed extremely sturdy and almost magical but they have been tampered with. 

“Nothing useful, just trash.” Valerie sighed as she sat down on the floor and opened a pack of cigarettes, lighting one and began to smoke. 

“Not trash exactly… They seem like rare material from another planet. It doesn’t look like anything from Peclite, except how they have tampered with it. It’s more… Hm…”

“I can assure you it’s not from where I come from either. We usually build s**t out of rocks or whatever. The material is always warm. This is too cold for it.” Valerie exhaled as she explained and seemed much more relaxed. Staring at the material didn’t help so I went and sat down next to her and sighed. 

“I have a guess. But if it’s from there, then they are worth a fortune.” 

“Really? Do tell.” 

“Eviri. Since this whip was on that ship as well which seems to be Eviri crafted, then the rest of the stuff must be from there too.” Valerie nodded as she glanced at the whip in my hand. 

“Extremely girly. I would rather be dead than to have to wield one of those.” Suddenly my mind stopped as I stared at the whip and felt how the blood rushed to my cheeks. Another cute thing… But I did like it… A lot. It wasn’t as over the top as the clothes my mother forced me to wear. 

Before I could say anything back Valerie stood up and stubbed out the cigarette on the wall then let the rest of it drop. 

“I’ll report back to the captain. So you can in peace figure out where it’s actually from.” As she walked away she said something under her breath mockingly but I couldn’t exactly make out what it was. If it was that I’m a nerd or whatever. Sighing, I stood up and stared at the materials before closing the lid and headed back to the room. I just wanted to hide under the blanket.