understood?”
“ Acknowledged .”
Corvus severed the connection and clipped the communicator to his belt. Claw chuffed behind him.
“Don't worry, boy. You will get your chance to spill Consortium blood soon enough.”
A rifle lay near the charred ground where the cat once stood. Corvus reached down and picked it up. The weapon was intact with not so much as a scratch on its surface. Pointing the weapon toward the sky, he fired. The weapon functioned normally. With a smile, he admired the ingenuity of their weapon. The cat had to have been engineered by Sam's people. Whoever sent it must have stolen it or worse, commandeered Sam's lab. Corvus wondered if it was the Consortium or someone else who tried to assassinate him. He had many enemies in the future.
“Some people are just jealous of my intelligence and ambition,” he muttered to Claw and strapped the rifle to his back.
The wolf growled in response and padded off toward the ship.
Redemption
Days passed since Sam's visit but I had eventually lost track of time. The only person to enter my room had been a five foot tall turtle-looking creature who served me stale bread and warm water twice a day without a word. The first time he brought my tray I couldn't tear my eyes from his hands. Four fingers, thicker than plump sausages and scaly like a fish, adorned each hand. When he dropped the tray in front of me, I grimaced at the sight of him. For days, I thought of him as nothing more than a servant until one day he came in with a rifle strapped to his back. That day he licked his leathery lips and locked on me with his soulless black eyes. I recalled almost soiling myself in fear, assuming it was my time to die. My fear proved unfounded. He merely dropped another tray of bread and water at my feet and left.
I stared at the crusty bread and found myself longing for even a scrap of recycled Sustanant pizza. My eyes drifted from the bread toward the lone window in the room. It was circular, about three feet in diameter and allowed me to watch the planets and stars as they passed by slowly, like the days. Sometimes the ship would pass close enough to a planet for me to make out distinguishing features. Occasionally it would be a dead planet like Mars, others had land, clouds, water and even mountains that reached the sky. We passed planets that were red, green, blue and even purple. As time passed, I rarely glanced out the window and only with passing interest as my thoughts turned to my friends. Were they still alive? What had happened on Earth? Too many questions churned through my mind.
I choked down the bread between sips of tepid water. Once I swallowed all I could muster, I crawled into bed and fingered the bracelet fastened around my wrist. How did you get yourself into this mess, Nathan? I should have been playing Call of Duty or World of Warcraft like the other kids in my school. Maybe if I was a less of a nerd and more of an average teenager, I would have never been in that cave. I wouldn't be aboard this ship, prisoner to a misguided psychopath.
There was a knock at the door but it sounded a million miles away. Calypso walked in and I rolled my eyes. I had just about enough of his delusions, his plans and his company. My hands fell to my sides in frustration and that was when I felt something in my pocket. When my hand located the object my fingers wrapped around it. My heart leapt into my throat when I realized what it was—one of the stun grenades Wraith handed me back on Earth. I completely forgot about them. As I sat up in bed I locked eyes with him and gripped the weapon tightly.
“Have you had time to think about what I said?” he asked, but his eyes revealed it to be a rhetorical question. It seemed he knew my response before I even uttered it.
“I think you are a deluded lunatic,” I spat, my hand tightening around the grenade, gaining inner strength with each passing moment. From what Wraith told me all I had to do was toss the grenade
“ Acknowledged .”
Corvus severed the connection and clipped the communicator to his belt. Claw chuffed behind him.
“Don't worry, boy. You will get your chance to spill Consortium blood soon enough.”
A rifle lay near the charred ground where the cat once stood. Corvus reached down and picked it up. The weapon was intact with not so much as a scratch on its surface. Pointing the weapon toward the sky, he fired. The weapon functioned normally. With a smile, he admired the ingenuity of their weapon. The cat had to have been engineered by Sam's people. Whoever sent it must have stolen it or worse, commandeered Sam's lab. Corvus wondered if it was the Consortium or someone else who tried to assassinate him. He had many enemies in the future.
“Some people are just jealous of my intelligence and ambition,” he muttered to Claw and strapped the rifle to his back.
The wolf growled in response and padded off toward the ship.
Redemption
Days passed since Sam's visit but I had eventually lost track of time. The only person to enter my room had been a five foot tall turtle-looking creature who served me stale bread and warm water twice a day without a word. The first time he brought my tray I couldn't tear my eyes from his hands. Four fingers, thicker than plump sausages and scaly like a fish, adorned each hand. When he dropped the tray in front of me, I grimaced at the sight of him. For days, I thought of him as nothing more than a servant until one day he came in with a rifle strapped to his back. That day he licked his leathery lips and locked on me with his soulless black eyes. I recalled almost soiling myself in fear, assuming it was my time to die. My fear proved unfounded. He merely dropped another tray of bread and water at my feet and left.
I stared at the crusty bread and found myself longing for even a scrap of recycled Sustanant pizza. My eyes drifted from the bread toward the lone window in the room. It was circular, about three feet in diameter and allowed me to watch the planets and stars as they passed by slowly, like the days. Sometimes the ship would pass close enough to a planet for me to make out distinguishing features. Occasionally it would be a dead planet like Mars, others had land, clouds, water and even mountains that reached the sky. We passed planets that were red, green, blue and even purple. As time passed, I rarely glanced out the window and only with passing interest as my thoughts turned to my friends. Were they still alive? What had happened on Earth? Too many questions churned through my mind.
I choked down the bread between sips of tepid water. Once I swallowed all I could muster, I crawled into bed and fingered the bracelet fastened around my wrist. How did you get yourself into this mess, Nathan? I should have been playing Call of Duty or World of Warcraft like the other kids in my school. Maybe if I was a less of a nerd and more of an average teenager, I would have never been in that cave. I wouldn't be aboard this ship, prisoner to a misguided psychopath.
There was a knock at the door but it sounded a million miles away. Calypso walked in and I rolled my eyes. I had just about enough of his delusions, his plans and his company. My hands fell to my sides in frustration and that was when I felt something in my pocket. When my hand located the object my fingers wrapped around it. My heart leapt into my throat when I realized what it was—one of the stun grenades Wraith handed me back on Earth. I completely forgot about them. As I sat up in bed I locked eyes with him and gripped the weapon tightly.
“Have you had time to think about what I said?” he asked, but his eyes revealed it to be a rhetorical question. It seemed he knew my response before I even uttered it.
“I think you are a deluded lunatic,” I spat, my hand tightening around the grenade, gaining inner strength with each passing moment. From what Wraith told me all I had to do was toss the grenade
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