Chapter 30
"So do you know where we're going now that we are in less danger?" Annabeth asked the raccoon piloting the ship and he just huffed a 'no', "Oh great, so you mean to say that we escaped just to get lost among the stars?"
"Stop complaining and let me think will ya?!" Rocket growled looking over at her and Annabeth kept his staring contest for a few moments before huffing herself and sitting in the co-pilot's seat. "If I know him like I do, Quinn, or Gamorah for that matter, will know that something is wrong. Hell if they don't realize something by now Groot will definitely be all over them for not thinking something's gone wrong."
"And how does that matter if we are lost?" Annabeth asked and Rocket looked at her pointedly.
"Because they'll be following my tracker beacon and hopefully meet us halfway to wherever it is I see that's familiar." He said and Annabeth sighed before going over to one of the compartments in the side of the ceiling and grabbing a big book before going back over and sitting down to read. "Now what are you doing?" Rocket looked over at her slightly annoyed but at the same time curious.
"Reading about the systems of this ship so I can actually help with something other than being a drain on out already limited food and water supplies." She said and Rocket raised a furry eye-brow at her.
"Okay...where did you even find that in the first place?" He didn't remember her going through the ship, or hearing anything opening and closing while he operated the ship.
"When you were busy dealing with the three hostile ships we came across earlier." She responded and Rocket hummed. That would probably been a pain in the ass with the maneuvers he had to use but at least she was trying to be helpful. "And I just found something interesting..." She got up and started to move towards the rear of the ship, and while Rocket was curious as to what she found he didn't care enough to get up and follow her.
...That is until she stabbed the floor with her knife and started tearing apart their ship.
Rocket quickly put the ship onto autopilot controls and tore out of his seat to stop her from damaging something important, but when he got over to her he saw her reaching down to something in a part of the ship he didn't even realize was hollow, and when she pulled out her arm she was holding some kind of device. Rocket recognized it though, as it was a spacial compression cube used for storing things, usually they were extremely big, or they were really important.
"How did you know it was there?" He asked as he took the cube and looked for a way to open it.
"I was reading the schematics of the ship and noticing things that could be improved here and there based on what I know of physics, but I was also thinking about if there was an area of the ship to hide something this would be that place, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to see if my hunch was right." Annabeth said, "Plus I don't think I damaged anything important anyways. I kept my blade away from the life-support wires, and made sure to look where I was cutting before-hand."
"It only took me a few seconds to get out of that chair and over here, so how did you get to this so fast and keep from damaging things like that?" Rocket asked and Annabeth shrugged.
"After I was immortalized I realized I could do certain things faster than I could before, and figuring out solutions to problems was one of them." She said and there was a click as Rocket squeezed the cube about to ask her a question and the steady beeping noises coming from it drew in their attention pretty quickly. "What did you do?"
"I don't know," Rocket said, "I was just messing with it a little to see if it would open."
"That doesn't sound like something that's opening,"
"I know Ms. Obvious!"
"What do we do then?" They both had backed away from the device.
"I don't know!"
"How about we jettison it into space?" Annabeth offered and Rocket recoiled.
"No! How are we supposed to keep everything in the ship then?" He roared, "Not to mention this ship doesn't exactly had a shielded area or airlock to seal off certain areas!"
"See what I mean about design issues?" Annabeth scowled, "Someone did a half-assed job making this ship." The beeping was going faster now and they both stepped back again.
"You're complaining about that now?!" Rocket screeched and started to look around frantically.
"Is there something we can put on it?"
"No!"
"Then how about deactivating it?"
"I don't know! You want to go over there and try?" He screeched.
"Then how about one of us jumps on it?"
"What? No! The best that would do it give the other person a few more seconds before the spacial distortion rips apart the ship after dealing with whatever's blocking it. And there's the factor of whatever being stored in there being bigger than this ship in the first place! Or would you rather we both explode?"
Annabeth dipped her head from side to side and Rocket yelled out in indignation and threw his arms up to the 'sky' as the beeping increased in frequency.
"What? Our death's would be quick and rather painless" Annabeth stated, "Well we might feel something for a few nanoseconds before we're incinerated. You'd probably go before me too being smaller, and not technically immortal."
"What do you mean technically immortal?" Rocket asked, his head tilting to the side and his arms lowering slightly.
"I don't know how being immortal in space is different than being immortal on Earth. There I at least know Thanatos can reach my soul." She said and Rocket was confused. She was talking about Death like they were a person ferrying around souls or something. Like Earth was some kind of special planet where death was different there than anywhere else.
"What?" He asked absentmindedly and the ship went silent.
"We're not dead." Annabeth said, adding, "Yet." They both looked at the cube, which was no longer flashing red or beeping and being the technologically enhanced and adapted one of the two. Rocket slowly went and picked up the cube.
"Maybe it was like a decoy grenade. It seems to act like one to get those around it to get as far away as possible only to do nothing in the end." Rocket turned the cube over in his paws a few times and after the second rotation the cube exploded. Its fragments however didn't act like shrapnel but rather liquified and gathered into a streamline shape before filling out and becoming more distinct.
They both watched in awe as the shape of a person, a female humanoid, formed in front of them both. It continued making small changes here and there until it finally stopped and remained floating in its occupied section of the ship. Annabeth went around it to stand at Rocket's side in amazement before walking towards it. She was about to touch it when two slits in the head appeared to open like eyes, bright electric blue and very intelligent.
It seemed to study the two in-front of it for a moment before speaking.
Hello It said causing the two to jump back, both pulling out weapons in a defensive posture. The sentient mass before them's eyes drooped a little seeing the distrust but it figured not everything would be as accepting as her creator. I apologize. I did not mean to startle you. I mean you no harm and want only to thank those who freed me from the prison I had been entrapped.
Rocket and Annabeth looked at each other for a moment before Annabeth spoke up lowering her knife a little. "Okay then what are you and why were you there?"
I do not have a designation, or name as you call them, and I am the last surviving member of the Interstellar Mark Project. In simplified terms I am a weapon of war designed for interstellar warfare. To take over an enemies warship or planet base and turn it against those whom I was allied with. Or rather enslaved to. The being tried it's best to seem as peaceful as possible hoping that by revealing as much as it was able to remember it would be able to gain the trust of the two before it. If you would allow me to I could direct you to the nearest star system and even upgrade the ship's interstellar capabilities and weaponry, however the second offer would require me to merge with this vessel as to make the necessary changes.
Annabeth turned to Rocket and seeing that he was still defensive about all of this she turned to the being and gave a quick 'excuse up for a moment' before grabbing him by the scruff and dragging him to the cockpit of the ship. He was understandably offended at being handled in such a way but got over it as he caught onto why she did that.
"You can't possibly be thinking of letting this thing have control of our ship?" He whisper-yelled knowing that the creature just a few meters away would be able to hear them no matter what volume they conversed.
"We are lost and have no way of knowing where we are nor knowing how long we'll be stranded in space till someone comes and finds us." Annabeth countered, "And the people that find us are more than likely not to be friends of yours and more likely to be the ones that captured us in the first place or pirates or scrappers that have no cares about what happens to us or this ship."
"Okay okay I get it. We have nothing to lose, and nothing to gain from this," Rocket said and Annabeth nodded.
"And whatever it is we just encountered could have just taken direct control of our ship and taken us to who knows where and we would have little to no chance of stopping them." She said and they both jumped when the figure appeared beside them both.
The human female is correct sentient raccoon. I can still commandeer this vessel and take it to wherever I choose, and there is very little either of you could do to stop it. It said and Annabeth looked at Rocket pointedly.
"See." She said before turning to face their 'stowaway' passenger. "Okay lets start over here. My name is Annabeth, and this is Rocket. I don't know where he's from but I am from a planet called Earth and if you could get us there it would be greatly appreciated." She said holding out a hand to where the set of flickering blue eyes looked down at it seemingly confused. It then looked at Annabeth and formed a semi-solid hand to shake hers with.
My designation is, in your language, closest to the name Stella. Stella said, I hope I am able to earn your trust and friendship during the time we are together. She said. Able to read Annabeth's past: her DNA, her memories, knowledge, and her anatomy were studied extensively in that moment and Stella used that to change herself accordingly. In her 'mind' as it would be called for later introductions where she hopes taking a physical form would help gain their trust easier.
"Okay now that that's over with are you able to get us there or not?" Rocket scoffed still growling anxiously. Stella looked over at him before nodding.
Will you let me have control of this vessel to make the necessary changes? Stella knew that they both knew she could do this without their consent but Stella hoped that by asking she was showing them, specifically the raccoon, that she means what she says about earning their trust. Especially since he is the one, according to Annabeth's memories, that knows extensive knowledge about how to pilot Space Crafts. And after a few moments the raccoon nodded and Stella smiled internally. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to make friends after all.
Okay it will take me a small amount of time to assimilate with this vessel but in the next few hours I'll have reconstructed the craft and made it capable of interstellar travel. Stella said before sinking into the floor.
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Hello peoples. I figured with with the 'chapter' I dropped off yesterday it was only fair if i also published an actual chapter afterwards so you all didn't get mad at me.
Now I am still going to have a problem of how to plot the climax and resolution of this story to where everything makes sense and most of the introductory factors have actually been included without too big of plot-holes, but I believe I can do it. Albeit slowly...Any help is greatly appreciated though.
I hope you enjoyed the newest chapter and I will see you all next time!
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