The chirp my P.E.R.T.I.D made was beginning to get bothersome. After several minutes of Useless muttering encouraging phrases under his breath, we had finally closed the hangar. Between the chirp and his consistent chatter, I was bound to lose my sanity and sooner rather than later.

It took Isaac a whole five minutes to start bombarding my channel with agitated voice messages requesting me to call him back. True to his word, he must have contacted a fellow MIB agent to help him with Pearl. Unfortunately, despite his keen battle sense he often spoke about he had yet to unveil my nefarious plan, so the last message I received tickled me with a special sort of humor.

The Lawless has been compromised. You need to get out.

Oh, it had been compromised all right, but not by the deep space Yaemerani he, no doubt, suspected. Nix had been accurate in stating he was fond of me despite his actions speaking a far different language. Faced with a legitimate threat it never crossed his mind that his own flesh and blood were responsible. 

There's no coming back from this one.

The thought left an unsuspected hollow sensation in my chest cavity. It was an uncomfortable crescendo of melancholy that doubled with each second my mind clung to my rash decision. Desperate to rid myself of the unwanted sensation I popped my earbud from my device and placed it in my ear.

"Logan speaking how may I direct your call?"

"Are you okay?" The voice of my uncle sounded anxious in my ear, a tone that didn't help the growing void in my chest. He never worried, about anything. Ever. His unexpected anxiety was giving me anxiety. 

"About to take off on another lovely space adventure. H-B-U?"

"Not an appropriate time for your sarcastic attitude. Someone has taken control of the Lawless."

My breath caught in my windpipe as I tried to hold back my ill-placed laugher. Or maybe it was nervous laughter considering my mental status? Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Useless begin to smile slowly before he belted out the most absurd satanic laughter I'd ever heard causing my thoughts to climb back on their designated rails.

"Who was that?" Isaac demanded through my earpiece.

"It is I, the savage ninja of darkness!" The declaration was anything but serious. Even in the process of stealing a starship, neither of us could resist the opportunity to fuck with Isaac.

Without missing a beat I chimed in. "AKA my main bitch Useless."

"Sidekick! Thank you very much. Though now I guess I'm technically commander and chief considering you can't fly a ship to save your nerdy life."

"Logan..." My name rolled like a growl over the open line. I had never witnessed Isaac livid or on the verge of murder. Looked like this situation had finally made him snap. Not that I could blame him, I would hate me too if I knew what I'd done. "What did you do?"

What did I do? My temper flared like an open flame at his authoritarian attitude. There was no use wishing it where different, I had been there before, countless times actually. Back when I first found out he was my uncle I wanted a relationship with him. After all, if I couldn't have one with my mother the next best thing would be her sibling, right? Wrong. 

"No Isaac what did you do to make me resort to such drastic action. You've seen the files and I know you're not stupid. I'm going to get her."

"The ship isn't secure, it's been compromised. You need to get off, both of you do."

I crossed my arms in defiance. Never again would I fall for the concerned Uncle act, I had done if far too many times already and it never proved to be authentic. Besides, we were the ones relieving him of the title Captain so whatever game he was playing wouldn't work.

"Pearl didn't compromise anything. She's meant to distract not destroyed."

A mess of garbled bled through the line before it dropped without second notice, our communication severed.

"What was that about?" Useless asked from beside me as the ship continued to rise from the cap.

I let my shoulders sag in indifference, except the feeling in the pit of my stomach was anything but at ease. Isaac never worried, never panicked, and never issued a warning lightly. He had done all three in a matter of five minutes. Something wasn't right.

Extracting my P.E.R.T.I.D. from atop my head I pulled up my program and in turn the full system of the Lawless. I had no idea what I was looking for as I began to comb through the code. Obviously we were the ones piloting the ship so the whoever or whatever Isaac found had compromised the system in an entirely different way.

The only other individuals that would want this ship were the same ones that wanted to apprehend me. That meant they had to be in part of the system that could aid them in that desire and since detaining me on the ship wasn't an option...

"We are so fucking screwed..." I breathed.

"Gunna need more of an explanation," Useless prompted from next to me, his fingers fidgeting with the controls.

Frustration fizzed within me followed by a heavy cloud of doom. Sure I had fooled Isaac but at what cost? We were now airborne on a spacecraft that I was ninety-five percent sure wouldn't respond to our commands.

"This is the biggest clusterfuck I've been part of since you tried to land on Strilia."

Useless let out a low whistle. "That bad eh?"

I slammed my body back in the chair. Bad didn't even begin to describe the current situation. We were trapped with no way out or rather our only way out was at a severe disadvantage because we stole his ship.

Way to go Logan, fucking things up one poor life choice at a time.

"Worse, " I grumbled, my head falling back with my eyes shut tight. "Ninety-five percent sure if you tried to land nothing would happen."

He paused for a moment before his hands continued what they were doing. I could tell by the expression on his face my words alarmed him and rightfully so. There was little doubt in my mind our current destination was a place neither one of us wanted to venture.

With great unease, Useless released the controls. Like I had predicted the Lawless continued its ascent into the sky. He sprang to his feet in seconds and began to pace the chamber.

"Dude this is bad..." Useless breathed, his words reflecting the level of anxiety he obviously now felt. "Jeff told me how they torture humans and let me tell you, it's not the fun kind!"

I brought my fingers to the bridge of my nose and applied extensive pressure. All that time spent developing a solid, tangible, plan and for what? Everything was executed without fault and it all functioned seamlessly. It didn't matter though, not in the end.

Useless stopped and stared at me. "You're the fucking genius, fix this."

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Not gonna lie Logan, looks like a whole lot of nothing from over here!"

"Let me think, okay?! This isn't something I planned for. I need...time..."

Useless shut his mouth but continued to pace. I too felt like pacing the room but unfortunately, I needed to act quickly and I could feel my confidence fade into the black abyss of space.

Even if I could isolate the intruder, that relied heavily on my ability to even alter the system now that it was compromised. If I were being honest my confidence had taken a brutal lashing these last couple of days. Whether it was the Yaemerani or the mysterious entity that hired me, someone had outsmarted me twice and that was two too many times for my ego to take.

My breath shook as I let out the breath I had been holding on to. "I got nothing..."

words - 1281
total words - 11828
written - 03/26/2020
last edited - 05/05/2020