Finally, Meccai turned his gaze away from the main view screen to look directly at MayJay. She instantly understood Meccai’s stern expression and subtle eye movement meant he wanted her to keep quiet. MayJay’s stomach sank as she realized Meccai’s plan. Her disdain for Meccai grew as she watched the ‘mentally unstable’ man next to her studying data streams like he was a human computer. ‘Why wouldn’t he use the subnav like any sane person would do?’she thought. In that moment she would have preferred if Meccai actually was a human computer; like some sort of cyborg with brain enhancements. But no, Meccai was only a man with a human brain, and an outsized male ego. She only had a split second to decide whether or not to out Meccai to their commanding officers seated behind them.

  “Subnav is not resetting, MayJay said.” She tried several more times to depress the physical subnav reset button exaggerating her movements, hoping to alert their commanding officers without directly betraying Meccai. She looked over at Meccai and he ever-so-slightly shook his head ‘no’ indicating her efforts were futile.

  “Stand by for slide out,” said Meccai watching and calculating data points.

  “Without the subnav?” MayJay said, desperate. Her vocal protest caught the attention of Dezik and Shok’aan.

  The two commanding officers were a study in contrasts. Shok’aan was from an indigenous tribe native to the Omega Star System and shared that connection with the rest of the crew. Each of the crew members were from different tribes all throughout Omega. Each of them proud of their unique heritage and whenever possible avoided wearing New Order Federation (NOF) uniforms, the antislavery Alphan colonizers they were employed by. Shok’aan wore loose fitting wrap-style garments pulled tight by mech-belts over the shoulder and around the waist. The fittings and fasteners were made of gold indicating his royal lineage. As a Chioto Warrior, it was customary for Shok’aan to keep his muscular arms exposed whenever ambient conditions allowed for it. Dezik, on the other hand wore an NOF military uniform proudly as an ode to his father’s Alphan lineage, but he wore the uniform loose, open or unfastened in honor of his mother’s Omegan heritage.

  “What’s wrong?” Shok’aan said.

  “Wait. Why is the subnav offline?” asked Dezik.

  Meccai pulled a lever on the console out-sliding the ship from sub-space. The main view screen instantly switched from blazes of light and data to an all-encompassing ocean view. Schloom! Starship BLISS submerged underneath the dark waters.

  “Bayneer-3, third moon of Bayneer. Welcome,” said Meccai.

  MayJay sighed in relief. She touched several buttons beginning an e/a-scan of their current star neighborhood. She felt Meccai staring as if waiting for her to acknowledge his greatness. She resisted the idea of feeding his ego but glanced at him quickly to diffuse the situation. True to form, Meccai broke into a haughty, ear-to-ear grin. He’d just done something no one else on the team, and very few beings in that sector of the galaxy could have accomplished. MayJay shook her head, as if unimpressed and continued her area scans.

  “You can’t manually calculate a slide-out this close to a planet,” said Dezik as he stood up and stared at the front view screen in disbelief.

  “It’s not a planet. It’s a moon and it can be done because I just did it,” said Meccai.

  “Did the subnav malfunction?” Shok’aan asked in a calmer, more relaxed demeanor.

  “No,” said Meccai.

  “No, but your brain DID malfunction,” said Dezik. “If we slid into a land mass instead of water, we’d all be dead right now.”

  “This moon’s surface is 84 percent water. It was a calculated risk,” said Meccai.

  “What if we ARE dead and this is a weird afterlife where we’re all stuck in this ship together for all eternity,” said MayJay.

  “Not possible,” said Meccai. “You ever seen a dead man look so good?” Meccai adjusted his beard as though he were actually handsome.

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  “We may need to drop off the pretty man back at the penal colony before he gets us all killed.” Dezik turned toward MayJay. “Can you fly this thing yet?”

  “Kind of. Mostly. I guess I can,” said MayJay.

  “But she can’t do it by herself like me. Besides, I’m the one who keeps us alive,” said Meccai. He kept Starship BLISS moving underneath the ocean water making it more difficult for enemies to detect the ship on their scanners. The ship approached underwater mountain ranges. Meccai turned BLISS vertically squeezing through an underwater valley between two mountain ranges. On the other side of the mountains the ship was met by a large jelly-type sea creature. Meccai twisted the ship around barely missing the sea creature, deciding to let it live rather than burst right through it. “Any underwater settlements to avoid?”

  “Negative,” said MayJay. “The inhabitants don’t possess the technological advancement for underwater colonies.”

  Shok’aan and Dezik stood looking over MayJay’s shoulder, watching the e/a-scan information as it came in. “I see one carrier-class RE (Royal Empire) ship on the other side of the planet Bayneer, which is an uninhabitable, molten mess, could be an effective tactical barrier. The only life-sustaining body in the vicinity is this third moon we just crashed into,” said MayJay.

  “Crashed?” Meccai looked offended.

  “They haven’t scanned us yet,” said Dezik.

  “They don’t know we’re here,” said Shok’aan. “Meccai, you done good.”

  “Finally, someone understands my genius,” Meccai said.

  “Good? I say lucky,” Dezik said with a look of disdain.

  “How many times have we slid out of sub-space right into the thick of battle? Too many. I’m tired of sliding out directly into enemy sights with guns blazing. It’ll make me an old man before my time,” said Meccai.

  “You’re already an old man by our time,” Shok’aan said. “And wise at that.” Meccai’s maneuver has provided us a gift we haven’t enjoyed in a long time; the element of surprise.”

  “I’m picking up several settlements on that single land mass,” said MayJay pointing at a screen in front of her. And one RE Slave Ship next to a larger settlement.”

  Shok’aan touched the comms button on the console opening a channel to the flight deck. “X, is Atom-1 ready for launch?”

  ****

  MOMENTS EARLIER…on Flight Deck of Starship BLISS…

  *

  The final two team members, Xavin-Tra (X-Tra) and Don Raven Ribero were busy repairing Atom-1, a fighter-class ship with wings that rotated around the center cockpit (nucleus) making it resemble the structure of an atom when in flight. X-Tra was using a fusion tool to fix the forward-facing main gun and Raven helped out holding the new charger coil in place while X-Tra fused it in.

  “I’ll make some. It’s like nothing you’ve ever tasted,” said Raven.

  “I don’t eat raw meat, bro,” X-Tra said, pausing his work with the fusion tool, frustrated that Raven wasn’t paying close enough attention and kept moving the coil. “Can you hold it still?”

  “It has to be raw. You can’t cook it. You only dip it in the flame, but not too much,” said Raven. “Just enough to give it a little color.”

  “Look, would you just shut up and hold the coil straight,” X-Tra said.

  Raven almost looked offended. “You should be thankful I’m willing to educate you; giving you some culture,” said Raven.

  “No, you’re giving me a headache,” said X-Tra. “Here, you wanna switch? I’ll hold the coil and you fuse it.”

  “No. You hurry and finish. This work is beneath me,” said Raven.

  “You can always go back to prison and bust up a bunch of rocks for the rest of your life,” said X-Tra.

  “Busting rocks is definitely more your speed. You’re perfectly suited for all this…hand labor because you’re a-

  “A what?” X-Tra said aggressively. He instantly shut down the fusion tool, taking a moment to tower over the much smaller man in a show of dominance.

  Unfettered, Raven fired back with steely conviction, “Because, YOU are NOT a DON,” he said.

  “Well, you ain’t no real Don neither,” said X-Tra.

  “You…you should be careful what you say,” Raven said.

  “Or what?” X-Tra moved closer to Raven, again towering over him. “I. Am. X-Tra! Your NOOB powers are puny to me.”

  Both of their commlinks flashed on as Shok’aan’s voice emanated. “X, is Atom-1 ready for launch?” The tension between X-Tra and Raven deflated as they looked at each other annoyed by their boss’ nagging voice.

  X-Tra touched the commlink, which he wore around his thick neck like an oversized necklace. “Atom-II is good to go,” X-Tra said.

  “We need Atom-1’s extra stealth capability. How long?” Dezik chimed in also over comms.

  X-Tra sighed as he looked at Atom-1’s front-end cannon open and in pieces on the floor. “Uh, it’s gonna be a minute,” said X-Tra.

  “Understood. Prepare Atom 1 for launch. You’re to shuttle MayJay and Raven to the surface,” Shok’aan said over comms.

  “Hold up. You expecting me to fly this thing with no main gun?” X-Tra responded in protest.