It was way too early when my alarm rang. I rolled out of my bed and got ready for my time to shine. 

Showered and with fresh breath, I activated my gauntlet and hopped into my brown long coat. It was my favorite because it had short, wide sleeves that I could easily slip my arms through without catching the fin-like appendages on both my arms on it. Buried somewhere in my closet was a bag that I needed to grab, but all the clothes piling up at the bottom of it made it hard for me to find anything. Still, I dove into it and after a couple of minutes of digging, and a floor full of clothes, I finally found it. I needed clothes and I wasn't going to leave my most valuable possessions behind, so I haphazardly grabbed random pieces of the clothes on the floor and shoved them inside. Then, I went to the crate that stored the antiques that I had come across over the years and carefully took out my favorite of the wristwatches inside, next I had to bring that weird thin pole of glass with red liquid inside, that rose higher when the temperature that it was inside of was warm and sunk down when it turned colder, I couldn't forget that rectangular piece of plastic that had two holes in it which were connected by some sort of foil strip and when I spun one of the wheels in the holes, the strip coiled over and wrap onto one of the wheels. Finally, I took out one of the most fascinating ones. It seemed to also be made of plastic, there were two parts to it, and when I pulled up the red top half of the device, a muddied picture of humans was revealed and some music started to play. What fascinating creatures they were.

With my bag packed, I silently slipped out of my room and down the hallways. Thankfully, I knew which guards patrolled at what time, as well as the routes they usually took. This wasn’t my first rodeo sneaking out of the base.

The holding cells were quiet, the guard on duty sitting on a desk, facing the cameras, that were watching over the prisoners.

This was gonna be the hardest part of this whole endeavor because this guard was very thorough with his work.

He wasn’t a bad guy either, which is what made my next actions even harder for me.

I flicked the switch on my gauntlet, the small click seemingly way too loud in the silence of the holding cells. Thankfully, he didn’t notice it. I crouched low on the ground and crawled over to his desk, where I kneeled down in front of the solid metal panel that was covering the front and keeping me out of his line of sight. Unfortunately for him, there was a small strip that was left uncovered at the bottom of the desk, which is what I was gonna abuse today. Hopefully, they would learn from their desk-buying mishaps in the future.

I dipped my head down, so I could see his feet touching the floor through the gap and after a couple of small test swipes, I swung my arm through and the electrical whip coiled around his leg, instantly paralyzing him. With my whip still connected to him, I got up, and the pirate spotted me, coming to watch me twisting a key on the guards' keyboard through the window of his cell door. Then, I pushed down a button to release the lock of his cell. A low hiss of air pressure signaled the door was now open and the pirate pushed against it to slip through.

„Going as far as to attack your own men I see.“, he really didn't seem to like my personality.

I pointed my free hand down the hallway and answered, „A little shock for a big cause. I'll let him let go and we run. Understood?“, he nodded. I didn’t trust him to not run off.

I uncurled the whip from around the guard's leg, making the current running through his body stop while he was slumping forward with a low groan, the whip retreated.

The emergency button was easy to locate on the desk, so I slammed my fist down on it and spun on my heel, grabbing the pirate by the arm in case he planned a one-man escape and we took off towards the docking bay.

„Why would you alarm the whole station when we’re not even off yet?“, he shouted at me over the blaring alarms. 

„Making sure my fellow agent receives fast medical attention. I’m a dick but not that bad of one!”, I shouted back. Then, we noticed three guards that came running at us.

„Agent Quinn, you are not equipped for this. Please return to your room and follow safety procedures before returning to the holding cells. There was a breach!“

„I must get this civilian to safety first, it is my duty to protect people in need.“, I pointed at the pirate next to me but the guard barely spared him a glance. He nodded and they continued on running.

I smirked at my companion who looked dumbstruck.

Thankfully, the station was big enough that many of the guards weren’t aware of current prisoners. So, since I was a fellow agent working in a department that they weren’t too knowledgeable of, they easily believed my lie.

After a couple more minutes of running down empty hallways and listening to the shouting of guards getting quieter, we reached the docking bay. The sound of the blaring alarm was muffled here but, like the others, this room was also bathed in a flickering, red emergency light. I pulled the keys, that Whisper handed to me the day before, out of my coat pocket and shoved the pirate into the replacement shuttle, jumping in after him.

The station hopefully only took notice, that a shuttle had departed without allowance, by the time we already had created a good distance to it.

„So…you being a pirate and all…any experience on how to hijack shuttles?“, I asked as our rapid breathing slowly started to calm down.

„Can‘t say I done it before. Why?“

„Well, all shuttles and ships from the station have trackers active on them. So, we might want to swap if this endeavor is going to go anywhere other than jail.“

He looked thoughtful for a second. „Head to Antalan. I know a guy that can help us. He sells repaired shipwrecks. They’re not the epitome of quality, but they’ll do if we want to lose your friends. Just…don’t tell him what you do. He’s not too fond of the authorities.“

I grimaced as I set the autopilot to Antalan. My last undercover mission went great so this should be easy. Right?

It took about fifteen more minutes until the first missive arrived on my chip. I ignored the ping and kept on flying but the more time passed, the more missives I received.

„Someone’s famous.“, the pirate stated from the seat on my right.

„Not yet.“, I mumbled as yet another ping sounded through the room.

I turned my arm and took a quick glance at the hologram that lit up from my wristchip.

‚Whatever you are planning, stop right now.‘ and ‚You took it too far this time, Quinn.‘ were two of the many messages sent by Mr. Whisper. The rest mostly consisted of threats regarding my job and future as a free man.

I ignored them but couldn’t help pushing the lever on the shuttle forward to gain a faster pace.

„Your conscience catching up to you?“, the pirate asked with a huff as he watched me pick up speed.

„More like the consequences of my actions. What’s your name anyways, I can‘t keep calling you ‚the pirate‘ in my head.“

He dug a bottle of water out of the compartment from under his seat and cracked it open.

„Temos.“, he took a sip, „and according to the message, that just got sent to all the agents from your old station, your name is Jace.“

I spun my chair around with hitched breathing as I twisted his arm, for me to face the hologram the right way, so I could read the message, indeed Whisper had already sent a message to all agents and authorities in the nearby rad with a picture of myself, the pirate, and our shuttle on it, explaining that we were on the run and instructing to take us in as soon as anyone spotted us.

Wiping my hands down my face I groaned. 

They’d take me back as an agent. They’ll beg for me to join them on missions after I return with Wisp in tow. 

They had to, I didn’t have any other place to go back to.

„This just got a lot more stressful.“, I stated right before the realization hit me, „How by earth do you even have access to these files?“

He absentmindedly tapped a couple more times on the hologram, flicking from one article to the next.

„What, you thought your stuff was secure? Hacking into your data banks was even easier than into Wisp’s.“, he mumbled absentmindedly as he read.

So, that’s how he knew where Wisp’s attacks were happening, which was probably also the reason why he trusted my word back in the bar that easily, since my taking a hostage for interrogation was never an official mission, and thus never documented as such.

„How come you know how to do all of this? I thought all pirates were more or less simple ruffians that are only good at scamming people and weaponry.“

Temos shifted his attention to me with a glare, „Life happens, we do what we can to scrape by. I was working with security systems before an asteroid collided with one of our transmitters. Half the workers were made redundant until repairs were done, because many of the systems had shut down and so they didn’t need employees tending to them anymore. Hundreds of people got thrown on the streets. No one wanted to hire me afterward so it was either that or joining a crew, and look how successful I got. I`m a captain now!“

"A captain without a crew", I mumbled.