"It's been seven more years that have passed since we've been gone, new frontier with no fear, we remember who we are. And we eye new skies with distant suns, wait for New Elysium" "Breakout" - Celldweller

"What have we got?" Red shouted into the console in front of him. He was unnerved by the sudden appearance of orbiting spacecraft. Surely not for the 5 of them? 

No, just one of them, he remembered. Just her...

Ember's voice poured out from the wall next to him. "Oh, there are a hundred or so..." Her voice drifted off.

"Shit." Red's fingers ran over the console in front of him trying to get a sense of their route being blocked. "This doesn't make sense," he hesitated, they had come so far and he wasn't ready to cut short his trip yet. 

Ember suddenly banked right, the ship following her movements. "Easy!" Red yelled as he swung to the side.

"They're not exactly going to go easy on us," She retorted.

Red understood what she was doing partly because he felt that way himself. There was no going back for any of them and they would die first. 

"Ok, um, we have shields?" Red felt himself blurt out. He shook his head. He was so rustyAny vessel should have had them, even a commercial one, but at some point he felt the insanity of what they were doing. No weapons and just a handful of people against a small fleet. 

"Yes." Her voice was strained, tight and he couldn't blame her. 

Red nodded, forgetting for a moment that he'd been a brilliant tactician once. Seven years later, it was slowly coming back. He stared helplessly at the barricade in front of them. There had to be a way through. 

The ship banked and rolled and he realized she was heading right towards the largest vessel. A dreadnaught class Leviathan. His eyes narrowed as he realized it was the sister ship to the one he used to Captain. "That is the Perihelion," he whispered out loud as he took in the length, and while facing it from the front he couldn't see the long tentacle-like protrusions that he knew stuck out from the back. It probably held at least 500 crewmembers plus others. It was meant to be a city in space capable of surviving on its own. Also capable of raining hell down on any world that dared disobey the status quo. 

Nostalgia tugged at him as he observed the larger ship from his viewport. He knew all the stats on it. His had been called the Aphelion, and they were never in port together, always apart, in a moving circle. One came in for a refresh, the other left on a mission. A lump rose in his throat and he felt anger rise up behind it.

"Ember head straight for the nose of the Leviathan."

"What? Why?" She shifted right and the ship rolled with.

"Just do it!" He felt the shift as she followed his direction.

Red switched between looking out the window and console in front of him. Ember's vitals showed up on the right. The ship's information showed up on the left.

"Go under the belly at the last second." He instructed. "No gats there." Gats, the small guns mounted to the exterior of leviathan class ships were conspicuously absent from the underside. It was a weakness he would have fixed on his own if he hadn't been... decommissioned. 

It would buy them precious seconds. 

The ship jolted suddenly. They'd taken a hit to the back...

"Dammit!" Ember swore.

"Damage?" Red hated being a spectator, but this was her moment, not his. Before he would have stood on the deck of the Aphelion with every vessel spread out in front of him like a 3D virtual chess calling the shots, moving the ships where he wanted them to go. But now he had to rely on Ember to simply follow his instructions, something he wasn't sure she would even do.

"Drop in shield level in the back." A shadow passed over them as they darted under the belly of the large ship. Smaller ones had turned to follow them.

A red blip appeared in front of Red, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"Wait, they are actually hailing us?" Red couldn't believe it. They are here for her, not the rest of us.

Ember opened a channel and threw it to the console so Red could see it as well.

"Unidentified vessel, if you were part of the insurrection on Helion, you will be put down with force, unless you surrender now." Red knew the voice, a brief memory flashed in front of him of a young man, sandy-haired, friendly... His jaw snapped shut as he recognized a former member of his crew. 

"Corporal Greer?" Red spoke haltingly into the console. He wondered if the Corporal, or Captain as he now ranked recognized his old Captain. Red pulled his hair out of his face, realizing he had been hiding half of it from view until now. 

The Captain faced changed instantly. He paled, next to his blonde almost white hair he looked washed out in the crisp gray uniform he wore. The black stripes on his shoulder numbered 6 and showed off his rank. Red would never have promoted the guy to his current position. He was always too nervous and he showed it now. He wasn't a bad guy, simply one who should have considered another vocation. Military service wasn't for everyone.

"C-C-Captain Scott?" Greer's voice stuttered. Red fought the urge to grin. This guy did remember him. Greer really wasn't that much younger than Red had been but Red had been more than ambitious. Almost driven to succeed. And the Corporal? He had just been happy to be there. 

The Captain of the dreadnaught class Leviathan was not a bad guy, but he was easily controlled and he obeyed without question. An easily malleable Captain for an elite class bent on control. 

No doubt Red looked completely different without his military style cut and uniform. The brown prison garb didn't exactly do wonders, and the red mohawk he now sported was as far from standard as he could have gotten. It had been a long time since Red had taken the time to look at himself in a mirror. He briefly wondered how he came across to the slightly younger Captain.

"I think we're a bit beyond captain," He replied the bitterness evident. He had been stripped of his rank and authority 9 years or so ago. Orion's Reach, a notorious anti-augment group had come to power and they hadn't stopped with augments. 

Lars's body hit the ground with a heavy thunk and he didn't move. He looked up at the blonde man, with some surprise. "Why?" He asked. 

The man holding the EMP looked at his compatriots, tossing his blonde hair back his six starred emblazoned uniform burned itself into Captain Scott's memory.

"This? This is the best part." He'd told his compatriots then. "They never see it coming."

 He pushed the bitter memory back. It tasted like acid in his mind. If there was one person he'd have no problem killing slowly, it would be that man. He would always remember that face if for no other reason than his killing of Lars. He didn't know his name but his involvement with that group, Red figured he could find him.

"Captain Scott?" Ember's voice popped up and Red could hear the amusement. It was enough to snap him out of the memory.  

Red frowned "Let it go...Ember." He purposefully pronounced her name, hoping she'd get the idea. She wanted to hide her identity, so did he.

She didn't reply and Red returned his attention to the console. "I'm afraid we can't comply. We can't surrender." He stated emphatically. Greer's face was still pale.

Oh, this kid still remembers me.

"Captain, please reconsider...I have been ordered to fire upon you, should you not surrender and return to the Helion 7 prison complex."

"That place is in ruins, Greer. Sorry, no can do." He shifted in his seat. "Ember what's the maneuverability in this thing?"

"You're kidding, right?" Ember sounded vaguely insulted.

"I think it's been a while since you've flown, you might be rusty."

Red turned back to the console. "Goodbye Greer."

"I'm sorry about Lars, Captain." Red went still for a moment. Vaguely he remembered that the AI was constantly taking the Junior Officers under his wings, tutoring them. Greer had been one of them.

"Me too," Red whispered before killing the connection. He didn't need the emotional baggage of being reminded of his friend's passing. He pushed it aside. He'd already grieved for Lars. He was still grieving for him and everything else he'd lost. 

"Engage." He said suddenly. 

Nothing happened. 

"Oh, come on!" He glanced around.

"What?" Ember came back testily.

"You've never watched Star Trek."

"Yeah, sorry Captain..." Ember slurred the word like it was dirty. "I didn't really have time to watch classics."

"Just go, show them what you're made of." He shrugged. If he was going to die, he didn't mind going down with a lame joke or two.

"Always liked Star Wars myself." Ember's voice quietly popped up.

"Blasphemy!" Red said as the ship jumped forward, but he smiled as he said it. So she did know what he was talking about. It was small, but a sign of humanity, or at least what he would have considered human.

"Yeah well, a galaxy far, far, away sounds pretty good right now, doesn't it?"

"You got me," he whispered clutching the chair as she began to shift. 

"How are Dag and the boys doing?" Red realized with some guilt he hadn't checked on the 3 passengers they'd managed to get off Helion.

"Boys are drugged in the crash couch. Dag is awake keeping an eye on them."

He breathed a sigh of relief, as the ship suddenly banked right. "Going to be rough," Ember's voice said as she cut through the ships. The larger ones simply ignored them entirely. 

Red couldn't account for it. So far, none of them were firing. She zigzagged through them with the efficiency only a Vesper could muster, turning on a dime with the speed of thought. 

They know Ember's on this ship. Red realized. It meant that somewhere, possibly on the Leviathan, her father was waiting. He wasn't sure how that would affect Ember, she needed to get them out of here.

"Ember, I suggest at some point, you hit hyperspace."

"Just as soon as we're clear."

The console lit up, they were being hailed again. Red clicked it on again. "Look Greer— "

Only it wasn't Greer this time.

"Hannah, I know you are on board." The face he didn't recognize, but he could only be the father of Hannah Emberline Dawson stared back at him. 

This was the face of the man responsible for so much suffering. He narrowed his eyes at the screen taking in the man's measure, making sure to look him in the eye. He knew the man was doing the same by his intense stare. The scrutiny did not bother Red, he hoped the man would remember him, because the next time Red saw him, he wanted the man to recognize him before he put a bullet through him. If he ever got the chance...

What bothered him was that Ember was silent. He glanced at her vitals and noticed her heart rate had gone up. She was still flying through the fleet and there were at least 50 smaller ships following behind them at a distance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Putting you in Helion 7 was a rash decision on my part." Darius stared at the man on the screen. He didn't know him, only knowing the Captain of the Perihelion did. He turned to Captain Greer now.

"Captain, I ascertain that you are familiar with this fellow?"

"Yes, Senator." Greer nodded. "He was the Captain of my old ship, the Aphelion before the purge."

"I take it he was one of the military personnel that was purged for his augmentations?" Darius did not mince words.

"Yes Senator."

Darius nodded. He'd stared at the man with a mohawk on the screen, wondering what his connection to Hannah might be. He'd been proud of Hannah's decision to enter the Vesper program. She was crippled and wanted to be of service in the best way she could be. But after discovering what an abomination the circuitry, and wiring were, she'd refused to give them up. Not even after her brother had died.

He had found other uses for them, augments who would serve his cause. Hannah should have been among them, but she'd refused to join Orion's Reach as well.  Putting her in Helion should have reminded her what the lower classes were. Instead...she was running. With a former Captain...

He'd always thought that they should have gotten rid of military augs in the same way they'd done in Vespers and AI's. But that would have cost him the vote in the first place. He wanted order from the chaos that had erupted with his child's death. He understood that power amongst the upper classes had to be maintained and so the purge had begun. And his own daughter who should have understood, Hannah had refused his command to remove the augments.

Darius sighed. He was glad Hannah's mother had died and didn't have to see this. His three children had been taken from him. One by his brother, the other by choice. The brother having disappeared before facing a tribunal for his crime. He was presumed dead at this point having not shown his face in years. No amount of digging had turned up his treacherous second born.

"Hannah, I will have no choice but to fire upon you and your new friends if you do not surrender. You can I can return home unharmed to live as you were. They must be returned to Helion 7 for their safety and everyone else's."

There was no response from the ship for a minute. Darius was wondering if they'd even gotten the message. It had been a miracle they'd gotten a ship off the ground.

Hannah's voice suddenly came through, low but clear. "No."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"No."

Red barely heard her, but that was enough. He sighed with relief "Ok, looks like we're really going to take the heat now."

He cut the signal again watching the Senator's face disappear with a satisfying click. The man's face had gone red but anything he'd been about to say was cut off with the push of a button.

The vessel began to buck and weave. Red stared fascinated at the angles it took. Red and green streaks appeared outside the window as shots burst past their ship.

They couldn't fire back... Yet. Red planned to rectify this as soon as possible. There had to be a black market somewhere. At this point, he'd steal it. 

She suddenly swooped up and dove back through the very ships that were pursuing them.

"Ember wrong way!" Red could only sit as a passenger now. He checked her vitals, other than an elevated heart rate, they were still strong. He wasn't sure if he was expecting them to change.

"I see that," Ember yelled in return. But even as they pulled through the tide of ships about 20 of the smaller ones hit the tide of ships following one Vesper. The explosions rattled the ship as they moved away from them.

She pulled them away and Red watched on the console as the rest halted to check on their cohorts. They broke free from the group and were in space.

"That was just a demonstration of what I can do even without a weapon on board." It was a transmission straight to the Leviathan. 

Stop poking the beast, Ember! "Ok, show off," he said. "How about heading out into hyperspace now?"

Ember turned the ship around this time away from the Fleet. She hated the human cost of someone else's arrogance. Those pilots had only been following orders. She hoped this made her father look bad enough to wrest some of his power away. He was a member of the elite society. Royalty, the upper class. But she doubted it. Only when the costs became too high did people stop doing something. Only when it affected them personally. Even if it was wrong.

She pulled them out further away. "Hyperspace?" Red said a second time. He was impatient, they'd taken one too many risks as it was.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Ember's tone was laced with sarcasm. "I was waiting for the Captain to say 'engage.'"

Before he could even make a reply, the ship jumped into hyperspace. The long white lines grew from the pinpricks of light outside the window and Red simply sat back and enjoyed a view he never thought he'd see again, completely ignoring her offhanded remark.

"What, no come-back?" Ember crawled out of the opening he'd come through earlier and stood next to his chair. He noticed she was still connected in the back to the ship.

"This is amazing." He simply stared out the window. "You were amazing." His gaze flicked to her and he realized her face had turned crimson. There was an embarrassed silence between them. He'd only meant to compliment her flying. 

"Fueling is completely solar." She responded looking away. "So, we will need to hop around a star and fuel up. Coordinates are set though."

She fidgeted next to him for a moment. "What is it?" He asked. She looked tired, but energetic at the same time. Her bruises would take longer to recover than her pride.

"I just wanted you to know that...well, I didn't think you were going to get me out of there."

"You said that already."

"But I heard you." Red froze. "I heard you when you were arguing with Dag about leaving me. I heard you when you carried me to the ship. I heard you after..."

"Oh." Red wasn't sure what to say. He'd ranted...

He looked down at his hands again feeling inferior to this being who'd sacrificed too much already. He still didn't understand why.

"I'm not wrong about you," she said softly putting a hand on his shoulder. It was meant to be comforting but he stiffened under her touch. 

"We escaped you know. Don't take that place with you." She paused withdrawing her hand.  "I'm planning on heading out into deep space, when we get there." She looked like she wanted to say more, but Red's eyes had narrowed and his face had gone stony.

"Alone?"

"Well, yes, I think it's best if I could find somewhere that no one knows me, or what I am." 

He couldn't think of a good reply because she wasn't wrong. He didn't know what she meant about deep space, as far as he could tell New Elysium was located in deep space away from a sea of humanity.

"That's it, I guess." Ember's voice faded. She suddenly lifted off the ground as the cables in her spine lifted her up and into the room that she connected to the ship in. Red knew he wasn't going to get used to seeing that.

He turned and stretched, leaving the cabin to go check on Dag. Things had suddenly gotten uncomfortable between himself and Ember again. It was strange how you could go from feeling completely comfortable lugging someone around over your shoulder, and now that they were all better things were strange again.

He realized as he'd left the room that they had a new problem on their hands. Ember was the only one who could survive on the ship without food. But there was nothing for the rest of them. 

They would starve to death before reaching New Elysium.

Damn, if it's not one thing, it's something else, He thought.