Chapter Two

A wing of sabres flew by at high speed, each one twice the size of Sanja’s tiny dagger. Their respect for her far outweighed their firepower, however. Sanja had accomplished quite a many feats that most pilots could never dream of. She had outmaneuvered cruise disruptors, navigated alien territory, and even held off a wing of Titans until reinforcements arrived. But Sanja wished she hadn’t done all those things. Her idolization was a weight she could do without. One of Sanja’s first lessons had been that weights weighed down your ship and made it harder to maneuver. This weight was like the one that would weigh her down so much that she might drift toward the nearest planet and burn of in the atmosphere, and no matter how hard she tried to get rid of it, it always came back.
“Roger that. Your request to land is granted. Please proceed to land,” the mechanical docking manager said. Sanja envied robots for their single-mindedness and capability to be ignored so much. She wished she could have that quality. She was not so lucky though. She could never be that lucky.

Sanja landed on the docking pad made especially for her house. She felt spoiled, but obviously the elders did not think of her as a spoiled child. No, she could never be spoiled with only the finest housing and furniture available to the Outcasts. She stepped outside her ship and took off her helmet, letting her long hair fall out. She took a deep breath, let it out as a sigh, and started walking up the steps to the door.

“Sanja Solana,” she whispered as she approached the door. It beeped in recognition.

“Thank you,” Sanja said. The door opened and she stepped inside. She walked up the stairs, into the bathroom. She took off her flight gear and hung it up. She felt less encumbered by the suit, and stretched her arms wide. She began to run warm water into the bath. It had been too long since she had felt water on her skin, and Sanja waited eagerly for it. She quickly undressed herself when it finished filling itself and got in. She sighed with relief with relief as the warm water slid over her skin, and closed her eyes.

Sanja opened her eyes again a couple of hours later. She had fallen asleep in the bath, exhausted from weeks of sleepless nights. She stepped out of the bath, feeling slightly relaxed but still tired. She grabbed a towel and dried herself off, and then she put on a bikini. She walked up the stairs once again, up onto the roof, and lay on a mattress in the sun.

“Well, look who finally decided to come up here and show her face,” said Santiago walking from the shadows. Sanja sat up suddenly and looked at him.

“How did you get up here?’ she asked angrily.

“I like the way you programmed your door to be voice activated, but I most like that you have to say ‘thank you’ before it will open,” Santiago said, approaching Sanja. She pulled a gun from her bikini bottom and held it at him.

“One more step and I will shoot you!” she said furiously. Santiago laughed.

“I don’t think you really would. Besides, you’re not very intimidating while you’re wearing a bikini, Sanja,” he said. Sanja blushed, but her hold on her grip on her gun did not falter.

“I’m serious. I will shoot you if you come any closer,” she said nervously.

“I’d like to see you try,” Santiago said, taking a couple more steps forward.

A drop of sweat slid off Sanja’s brow. She pointed her gun downwards. Santiago smiled.

“I knew you wouldn’t,” he said.

He walked up to Sanja and started to put his arms around her. Sanja slapped him and sent him reeling. She held her gun to his leg and pulled the trigger. Santiago screamed in pain, and glared at Sanja.

“Don’t even try that,” Sanja said. “Don’t come back,” she continued as Santiago limped away. When she was certain that he was out of earshot, she collapsed on her knees on the mattress. She let tears flow from her eyes, and she eventually cried herself to sleep.

“Excuse me, but do you know the way to the northern Tau systems?” Raeve asked a passing drake, who ignored him. Raeve sighed.
“Bugger. Why won’t anyone help me?” he said to no one in particular. He went to a different ship, a transport.

“Could you tell me how to bloody get to the northern bloody Tau systems!” Raeve demanded.

“Whoa! Excessive use of language, don’t be like that!” said the captain of the transport. “All you have to do is go through the trade lanes until you get to the Tau-31 jump gate. Once in Tau-31, go to the Tau-29 jump gate. When you’re there, there’s a jump hole to Tau-37. I’m uploading the coordinates to your neural net now.”

“Thank you!” Raeve said happily.

“No problem, friend. Just give us a shout if you need anything else. Toodles!” The transport went into cruise and flew away with its escorts.

“’Toodles’? What’s that supposed to mean!” Raeve said, but the transport was well out of communications range. “Well, ‘toodles’ to you too.” He went into the trade lane. Raeve’s head hit the back of his chair hard.

“Damnit! Damn trade lanes all to hell!” he yelled. He rubbed the bump starting to form through his helmet.

“Trade lane disrupted,” the computer stated.

“Bloody trade lanes!” Raeve yelled. He was launched from the field and away from the Blood Dragons who had disrupted the lane. A waypoint appeared on his neural net.

“A waypoint? This has got to be something that transport did,” Raeve said. He went into cruise and went right for the waypoint. This sent him into a dust field, where many micrometeoroids bounced off his shields. At the end of the waypoint he found a jump hole.

Short cut! Things are looking up! Raeve thought triumphantly. He went through the jump hole. His jaw hung loose when he came out the other side, however.

“Bloody Outcasts! Why can’t you just all stay away from the jump holes, and just stick to yer little asteroids?” he yelled over communications.

“This is our jump hole, Bretonian! Now prepare to die!” The Outcasts opened fire. Raeve quickly accelerated as to get out of the way. He activated his afterburners and cut his engines. He floated away and the Outcasts glared at him as he waved at them. Then he hit an asteroid.

“Cruise cruise cruise just bloody cruise before the buggers reach us!” Raeve said quickly and desperately to his computer.

“Cruise engines activated,” it said.

“Thank you!” he said. He headed for the next waypoint.