Rigel Rising

Stage 12- Sleight of Hand

"Wake up!"

I slowly opened my eyes and looked up from the corner of my confinement and saw a guard unlocking the door rather angrily.

After he did, his companion spoke as I was dragged out unceremoniously and forced to start walking towards the exit with a gun behind my back after they handcuffed me.

"We are to escort you back to the Rigel. The Rear Admiral wants you to remove the automatic biological lock system of that ship so we can commandeer it as our own."

I forced myself not to smile and mentally thanked whoever sent that foreboding message to Justice.

To be honest I am reluctant to do it but my comrades managed to convince me at the last minute.

The system will only recognize me as the sole captain and highest-ranking officer of the ship using a sophisticated biometric system that tracks my life signs and in the event of my sudden death, it will either automatically shut down all systems until a member of the Royal Household or family reactivated it personally essentially making it useless piece of space junk.

As Candice and Justice have predicted, they will lock me up for two to three days while they finished completely resupplying the Rigel to its full capacity and after that, they will take control of the bridge.

Then they will find out about the lock system and that will be my bail out of my confinement.

At first, I am rather reluctant to go along with their near-fantastical foreseeing of events but I also shared their suspicion about this base.

My jailors seemed to be in a hurry since we managed to reach the dock in less than five minutes of walking and in a short while, I am back inside my ship.

Argonaut Base's soldiers are patrolling the hallways but surprisingly, my staff and crew remained quite calm and nonchalant about it. As if they know that they have to endure their presence for just a short amount of time.

A few more minutes and we finally arrived at the bridge where I finally see again my bridge crew together with Rear Admiral Stewart flanked by two burly soldiers manhandling Candice and Cailie who is obviously dramatically resisting and acting quite fabulously despite the precarious situation we are in.

"...and I already told you, it's only the captain's biometric signatures that can activate the ship's main controls again! Even if you make us all sit here for months, we will not be able to do anything!" Candice wailed angrily and her younger sister nodded quickly in agreement as she pretended to squirm away from the man restraining her.

"What she said exactly! Although let me warn you not to do anything rash. There are still so many things we don't know about this ship. Systems and security feature are hidden to secure the main controls," she then saw me being pushed towards their direction and Cailee pretended to be shocked and helpless, "Captain Caerus! Goodness gracious, you are here! Please, tell the Rear Admiral that we are telling the truth!"

I quickly look at the idiotic man and raise an eyebrow, "Everything they said is correct, sir. The moment I am forced to commandeer this ship, the system scanned and recognized me as the captain. The key lies with me, not with my bridge crew," I said calmly as the impatient man angrily pointed at the control panel.

"Then start removing the lock, young man. My patience runs thin and something just might happen with your precious crew members," he said threateningly that made Mariana gasp while Drew and Trey tried to shield her away from harm as I walk towards the captain's seat and do as I am told.

Actually, I don't know if they have a plan of sorts after our initial one. I am just doing what I can to make sure no one is harmed because goodness knows I know that the Rear Admiral will not hesitate to do something more than unjust imprisonment when he doesn't get what he wants.

"Activate the main controls of the Rigel. Name: Caerus Finis."

The main panel suddenly went online and a robotic male voice began speaking, "Voice recognition complete. Welcome back, Captain Caerus. Performing biometric and life sign scan."

I was hit with green and red light and after a few seconds, the a.i spoke again.

"Scanning complete. Activation protocols commencing..."

The bridge's computer panels and controls began to come back to life and I saw a wide grin spread across the greedy face of Rear Admiral Smith.

"Good! Good! Now, I want you to transfer the main controls to me and be quick about it. No funny busi----"

He didn't manage to finish what he is saying when a gunshot was heard and I felt a trickle of blood flow from the left side of my head.

To my horror, I saw Mariana pointing a small gun at me that she hid in her cleavage.

"Activation aborted. Imminent danger to the captain's life was detected. Commencing dust to dust protocol. Until the safety of the captain is secured, the Rigel will continue its self-destruct sequence in nine minutes..."

"What the?! Are you mad, girl?!" the Rear Admiral asked Mariana who shoved Trey and Drew so she can get a clearer sight of my head as the guards pointed their guns at her, "What are you doing, you b***h?!"

"I have no plans of staying in this godforsaken rock in the middle of nowhere and this ship is my ticket to Gearth! One wrong move and the skull of Caerus will explode and then, the Rigel will blow to kingdom come. You already know the destructive capacity of this ship. Imagine once the engines detonated inside your precious base?" she said in an uncharacteristically cold voice bereft of emotions.

Rear Admiral Smith immediately ordered his guards to drop their weapons before speaking in a shocked and scared voice, "What the heck do you want! We can talk about this!"

"I already told you, this ship is my ticket back to Gearth. I'd rather bet on it than you, a betrayer to the royal throne," Mariana said scathingly as she fired another shot, and this time it hit my left hip close to my vital organs, "Now, be a good traitor and get all your soldiers out of the Rigel in five minutes. Also, open the dock's gates and allow us to depart. If this is not done before eight minutes has passed, you know what will happen."

"Self-destruct sequence at thirty percent completion. Detonation in seven minutes. Awaiting further instruction, captain..."

"Make that a seven, Rear Admiral. I highly advise you get to it..."

Without further ado, the man and his guards left the bridge while I am left to my fate...