Addilyn was standing out in the middle of the pass. There was a starship hoovering out in the distance. She tapped away on her wrist gauntlet. The starship dipped down into the pass and flew towards us. It was a sleek black foreign model starship. I had never seen one like it before. It was smaller than the freights that the Saeris use, but bigger than their fighters. It was still a small enough starship to be very maneuverable through the air.
“That’s the Star Rift,” Addilyn said. “My sister is the pilot.”
The starship raced towards us. It slowed to a hover not far from us. I could feel the electric currents that it generated…but I could not touch any of it. The starship hovered closer to us. It rotated so that the rear cargo doors faced us. The cargo door slowly lowered. There was a figure standing there. They walked down the cargo ramp and held onto the lift bar. They were hidden in the shadows.
Addilyn ran up to the starship. The figure leaned out and caught her arm and pulled her up. They leaned far enough out of the shadows that I saw their shaggy sol bleached hair. The young man from Hael. The one that passed me the little piece of metal. Addilyn smiled at him. She spoke to him and then turned back to us. She opened her mouth to call us when her gauntlet beeped. There was a frantic string of words in a language I did not understand. Addilyn looked back at us. She waved us to her.
“There’s a Saeris craft on the radar!” she yelled. “Hurry!” She turned and ran deeper into the ship disappearing. The young man leaned out farther; his hand outstretched to us.
“Jump!” he yelled.
I looked over at Gabriel. They disappeared into the air. I crouched down and kicked off the ground. I jumped up into the air. The sound of a fighter filled my ears. The starship lurched away just as Gabriel reappeared, just barely missing the ramp. The young man, slightly shocked, flung his arm out and caught Gabriel’s arm allowing them to catch their feet on the edge of the ramp. Gabriel turned back towards me. I caught their hand.
The air swirled around the three of us. Power sang at my skin. For the second time today, I was ripped from reality and thrown right back into it. We were sprawled on the ramp only about a meter away from where we originally were, but no longer in danger of falling back to the earth. The ship lurched again, and the ramp closed as we rose higher into the air.
I rolled over and clutched at my head. My mind was spinning. I felt Gabriel’s hands on my shoulders. My pain eased slightly. I was able to pull myself up slightly. The young man was lying on his side. He moaned and clutched at his stomach. Not everyone could handle Gabriel’s teleportation.
Electricity swirled and swelled all around me, but I still could not touch any of it. Gabriel helped me to my knees. They took my hands and helped me to my feet. I stumbled over to one of the crates siting in the cargo hold and leaned against it. I took deep breaths as the starship made sharp movements. The pain in my lungs from phasing combined with the dizziness of teleportation was a little much for me. I looked back at Gabriel. They were kneeling next to the young man. He was moving more than he was a few ticks ago.
“I’m going to be sick,” he groaned. Gabriel helped him roll over onto his back.
“Just breathe,” Gabriel said quietly.
“Sloan!” Addilyn’s voice screeched. “I need you up here! Right now!”
The young man just groaned loudly in response. He held his arms above his head as he breathed deeply. I heard stomping and turned towards the corridor heading into the main section of the ship. Addilyn appeared in the corridor.
“What the hell?” she squeaked. “Jev Sloan! Get up off your ass and get up here and help me!”
The young man, Jev Sloan, rolled back onto his side. “Just a click, Addi,” he muttered. Addilyn groaned and looked at Gabriel and me.
“I need you two up here.” She turned and disappeared back down the corridor. I looked at Gabriel. They shrugged. I pushed off the crate and wobbled after her. Gabriel fell into step next to me. We walked up the corridor towards the sound of a soft voice cursing.
I let my hand trail along the corridor walls. The ship was phenomenal. I could feel the electricity and energy flowing all around me, but I couldn’t touch it; the electricity was being harnessed by another. They were in complete control of the ship. This was a first for me. I had always been able to touch the electricity around me.
I slipped through the open hatch to the cockpit; Gabriel right behind me. The starship banked hard to the left. I lost my balance. Gabriel’s arm slipped around my waist. They held onto the closest control panel as we banked. The starship leveled back at.
Addilyn turned around at the console closest to the pilot’s controls. “I need someone of weapons!” She pointed at the console to the left of hers. Gabriel grabbed my arm and pulled me over. They slipped into the seat. I held onto the back of the seat while I watched their hands dance over the controls.
“Sorry it’s all in Dyaa,” Addilyn said. “Then buttons within the red square are-“
Gabriel cut her off, “I understand Dyaa.” Their fingers tapped several buttons. The display panel lit up. A targeting system opened; a single dot blinked in the range. A red ring flashed around it. The ship banked hard again. I nearly went flying.
“Strap in!” Addilyn yelled. Her hand gestured behind me. I looked over my shoulder. There was a row of jump seats along the bulkhead wall. I pushed off Gabriel’s chair and let myself fall back to the bulkhead as the ship leveled out again. I slipped into the seat and pulled the straps over my chest and secured myself.
“She in?” a soft voice asked. It came from the pilot’s console. I noticed the silvery hair peeking up over the top of their seat. “Where’s Jev?”
“Here,” a very groggy voice muttered. The young man, Jev, was stepping through the hatch; his boots clanging against the metal of the bulkhead.
“Rolling,” the pilot said. Jev crouched down and leaned opposite to the way the ship banked. His boots were mag boots. The ship shuttered as we jerked vertical. We kept climbing. The sol was breaking through the clouds now. The ship ever so slightly began to tilt, the top of the hull beginning to face the desert.
“Now!” Gabriel yelled. The ship jerked as we started to dive towards the ground. Upside down of course. I heard the weapons hum. Electricity all around me, teasing and taunting me. Untouchable. The weapons discharged.
“Hit,” Addilyn yelled. “Clipped their wing but they are deviating from our course and backing off.”
The ship leveled out. I could feel us climbing higher and higher. The ship shuttered as we cleared the cloud layer. We leveled out above the clouds. I could make out graphs and other displays imbedded in the windscreen. A bright orange dot flare to life at the top of the windscreen. Jev stood up. His boots demagnetizing. The person sitting the in the pilot’s seat finally became visible as she stood up and turned to face us.
She was taller and much younger than I expected. Her skin was dark, and her silvery white hair hung around her face falling to her shoulders. And her eyes; they were a bright violet. She was beautiful.
“She’s Dyane.” I couldn’t stop myself. The words flew out of my mouth.
“Yes,” she said. “I am Dyane. You are Zahren. I am glad we have established the obvious.” I noticed two tiny points behind her lips. There were rumors that Dyane had fangs.
Addilyn clamped her hand over her mouth as her laughed. “Aubrey, this is Gabriel Vaughn and Nash Vega.” She looked back at us. “This is my sister, Aubrey Zahn.”
“You are one hell of a pilot,” I told her. The few times I’ve flown were nothing compared to just now.
She shrugged. “I am Dyane. It is kind of what we do.” She walked over to Addilyn’s console. She held her hand up over the console. Something happened that I had never seen before. A hologram. The display was now projected three dimensionally above the console. “Systems are good. Everything looks good.” She glanced over at Jev. “Except for you. What happened?”
Jev shrugged. “I was thrown through another dimension.”
Aubrey looked over at Gabriel. They shrugged. “I guess the probability of passing through another dimension while teleporting isn’t zero.”
Aubrey’s eyes widened. “Teleporting?” She sounded intrigued.
I unfastened my harness. Jev held out his hand to me. I took his hand and let him pull me up.
“You can feel the electricity, can’t you?” he asked. I must have looked startled. “I was watching you; you reacted to the changes in the energy levels that the ship was outputting. You’re an electricity manipulator, aren’t you?” I nodded. He smiled and nodded back. “You two are interesting.”
“So?” Aubrey asked. “Where to? We need to cruise for awhile to make sure our tail is clear, but that isn’t going to stop me from planning.” She waved her hand and the hologram from Addilyn’s console swung out into the room. It morphed into a map of Aten. A globe really. I recognized the Basic symbols, but their meanings were still lost to me. Gabriel slipped out of their chair and walked to the hologram. They raised their hand and waved slightly. The map moved, spinning. Gabriel kept moving their hand until the landscape looked familiar.
“Have you ever used a holo before?” Aubrey asked. “You seem to know how they work.”
Gabriel shook their head. “Not that I can remember.” They pointed to a location on the hologram. It was where we kept the trekker. “Here,” they said. “We’ll need to meet with our group first. There are places nearby that can hide this ship.” Aubrey nodded. The hologram flashed off. Aubrey turned and slipped back into her chair. She tapped away at the console. The ship changed course slightly and remained above the dissipating clouds.
END Chapter 1
Thanks for reading! You can also read The Rift on Wattpad and World Anvil's Manuscripts.
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