Chapter Five

The smaller space craft glided smoothly out of the large contraptions that had locked it to the main ship. Something overtook me. My hands seemed to know exactly what to do to get this thing to glide through the darkness. It felt good to feel the power of the vessel under my control, but also frightening that I would undoubtedly make a wrong move. I took in a deep breath as I tried to calm my racing heart. I loved the power of being in this seat, but it also carried a big burden.

"I've put in the coordinates for Merak," Luther said.

"I think Dr. James landed just in time to see us take off. I saw a bright light in one of the center windows," Theo said. "I'm sure she's not very happy we managed to commander this exploration ship."

"I would agree, but I really don't care about her feelings." I looked out into the space in front of me. It was a beautiful sight, but also daunting. The sky was black. What appeared to be a large planet took up the left side of the window. It looked close, but I knew it was probably hundreds of miles away. As I thought back to all of my science classes, I realized I had no clue where we were right now. Nothing looked like the pictures I had seen in my books or on the internet.

To make matters worse, I didn't want to let my team down. I turned the craft to the right. I wanted a look at the mammoth ship we just left to get a better understanding of how it would be used on Merak. We came around to where we should have been looking at the ship, but there was nothing there. Only the dark sky splattered with glimpses of light off in the distance.

"Where did it go?" I continued to look to see if I had missed something, but we were the only thing out here. "Theo, Gave or Luther, one of you tell me what's going on? The Napoleon is gone."

"I don't know," Theo's eyes scanned the space in front of us. "I'm just surprised as you guys are. Did we do something during takeoff?"

"Can one of you figure out what kind of operating system we have on this thing? Surely, there is something that can help us find out what's going on? Are we still in the year 2105?"

"Yes," Gave looked down at one of the screens, then we all watched as a hologram of the entire ship came to life in the middle of where we sat. His fingers slid over the image as he inspected the inner components of the craft and then he stopped.

"Caleb, are you operational?" Gave asked.

"Good evening," a high pitched voice bellowed from somewhere on board.

"Are you the operating system for this ship?"

"Yes. Please provide me with the quantum code to resume."

We all frantically began to look at one another. I hadn't expected him to ask for some sort of code. What happened if we couldn't figure it out? Would we be trapped inside of this thing?"

"Merak0101," Luther's voice said loudly. I would have to ask him later how he came up with that, but it seemed as if it might have been the correct answer.

"Access granted. Welcome aboard the Iliad."

"Where is the large ship we just took off from? Do you have a way to track it?"

"Yes. The Napoleon has set coordinates for Merak."

"General Paul James has taken control of the ship. It looks like they are inside the Plesus."

"Okay. You're saying things we don't understand. Caleb, what is Plesus?"

"A black hole. Napoleon was on course to enter it when this ship took off."

It made sense now. Dr. James had timed it perfectly. Why didn't that surprise me? She landed on board just as the large ship, the Napoleon, disappeared. She obviously hadn't anticipated we would take off in this craft.

"Caleb, please set our coordinates to follow the Napoleon," I commanded knowing we really didn't have any other choice. We had to stay close to Dr. James and the vessel on its trip to Merak so we could somehow protect all of the innocent normals and new Ciphers.

"Coordinates set."

"Thank you," I tried to make my voice sound confident, but knew the others could probably hear a slight bit of shakiness right at the end.

"Captain James, Dr. James has asked me to deliver a message," Caleb said.

"Please go ahead—"

"You are a thief and the Iliad has been marked as stolen property carrying contraband."

"What?" I said aloud, but the question was really for me. What exactly was Dr. James trying to tell me? She sounded a little ruffled. Had I really managed to get under her skin? That might be a good thing.

"Caleb, are you able to send a message back to the Napoleon?"

"Yes. We are locked into her system."

"Please respond with, 'message received, but not accepted.'"

Silence.

"Caleb, do you understand?"

"Yes. Your message has been sent Captain James."

"Thank you. I have a feeling we will be seeing Dr. James again very soon."