Chapter Six

I was wrong. She never responded. The quiet made me nervous. Dr. James and I had unfinished business.

I let out a deep breath. I hadn't realized I had been holding it in until my lungs began to burn again. My eyes searched the open space in front of me. I wasn't sure what Plesus was supposed to look like, but I really couldn't see anything.

"What was that?" Audrina pointed to the area directly in front of us. Her eyes narrowed as she leaned forward in her chair and then looked back at a monitor sitting off to her left side.

"What?" I looked over at her. She nodded towards the front of the craft. Her lips pinched as she silently evaluated whatever it was she could see. I still didn't notice anything out of the normal and then I saw it...a ripple in the dark space in front of us.

"Caleb, what is in front of us?"

"We will enter Plesus in T-minus three minutes."

"Caleb, is this craft capable of traveling through this so-called Plesus?" I knew very little about this thing or Plesus. My heart began to pound inside of my chest. We could all die in the next few minutes.

"Yes Captain James."

His words only helped alleviate a tenth of the anxiety I was feeling. My back straightened as I began to think about the entire team. We had no choice. I would have to do this.

"Don't worry Esa. You are a great pilot."

"That should probably be said in past tense—"

"No. Don't you realize it? You are flying this thing."

"With Caleb's help—"

"He didn't help with the takeoff," Theo continued.

"We're all here with you," Audrina looked over at me. "We have flown on numerous missions. Besides, we really have no other choice. Our medallions aren't working up here and we have no clue where we are in this massive galaxy. Whose brilliant idea was it for us to jump up here and get stuck?"

"It was the only choice we had," Luther said from the other side of Audrina.

"Luther, only you could manage to get us trapped up here?"

"Audrina, enough," Theo's voice responded harshly. "We need to be united. Fighting will not help us at all."

"Fine, but Luther will have to earn my trust again. You've done too much for me to suddenly be okay that you are back on the team."

"T-minus two minutes," Caleb's voice said.

"Audrina, how does everything look with Caleb? Luther, anything else I should know before we go into Plesus?"

"No," he huffed.

"We should be ready," Audrina said. "I'm not seeing anything that would concern me."

"Gave, do you have anything for me?"

"No, but all our personal vitals are elevated right now. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and calm down, otherwise we may have a couple of problems."

"Easy for you to say," I mumbled as I closed my eyes and tried to think of something peaceful. The first image that came to my mind was the time I met Theo in Samuel's lab. He had come into the room when Samuel had brought me back to the year 2105. At the time, Theo had been angry and definitely had not hid his feelings. The thought of his intense facial expression made me let out a little laugh.

"What's so funny?" Audrina asked.

"Nothing."

"Hmmm...I don't believe you."

"I was just thinking about the time Theo came into Samuel's lab right when I returned to the year 2105," I turned around in my seat to try and look at him. "You were really upset with me—"

"For a good reason."

"T-minus thirty seconds."

"Alright guys. Here we go."

"Captain James," Caleb's voice broke in. "I've got interference in my system. It's causing some of the readings to come out funny."

"What is it?"

"I don't—"

The lights went out. The dashboard and the entire vessel was dark.

"Guys, what's going on?" I asked the others.

Gave spoke first. "All of the systems are dead. I don't see anything. All of the lights are out."

"Caleb? Can you hear me?"

Silence.

"Caleb?" My voice was calm, but I knew in a few more seconds that would quickly change.

"Esa!" Audrina yelled. My head snapped upwards towards the front dash. The space in front of us had become illuminated from a bright light. The craft began to shake, making it feel as if it might actually come apart.

"Hold on everyone. This must be Plesus." At least that's what I hoped was happening.

My hand instinctively flew in front of my face to protect my eyes from the light that was growing more and more intense. The craft jutted downwards and then instantly back upwards, like a bad roller coaster.

"Caleb?"

Silence.

"Gave, any luck with the operating system for this thing?" I yelled.

"No and I've got more bad news. The oxygen levels are quickly falling. We have about ten minutes left."

"And then what?"

"I don't know. I haven't really had a chance to look around this thing to see if there is extra oxygen on board."

"Alright, if things calm down in the next few seconds then two of you need to go look around this ship and let me know what all we have onboard."

Theo cleared his voice. "Will do."

The craft began to spin uncontrollably. My head bobbed back at forth. "Hold on everyone."

No one responded.

"Caleb?"

It felt as if the craft was in a complete free fall. Suddenly, there was a loud boom towards the back. My nails dug into the arm rests as I tried to brace myself for what might happen next.

"Captain Esa James, I have control of the Iliad," a voice said as the craft stopped spinning and the lights and air came back on. I looked over towards Audrina. Her blue eyes caught mine.

A sense of relief washed over me as I cleared mythroat. "Welcome back Caleb."