Outlaws (The Slingers Trilogy, Book 2)

Chapter 5

When Andress regained consciousness, the first immediate thing she noticed was that they weren't in space anymore, due to the blue that was outside her window. The second thing she noticed was the water that was slowly starting to drip in. She sat up and realized that the pod had been tipped upwards on it's nose, and was standing vertically in the water. Nolun was slumped over the control at the bottom of the pod, and was groaning slightly. The water that was leaking in was beginning to pool at the bottom, and Nolun was in danger of being electrocuted. She pulled his body upwards, her robotic arm straining with his weight. Both of them sat on top of the seats, and saw the water below them slowly start to rise upwards. Nolun woke up and saw that he was pulled close to Andress. He was confused at first, but when he looked around the pod, he instantly remembered everything. He looked over at Andress. "You alright?" She nodded and motioned to the water. "We have bigger problems to worry about right now. But how exactly did we get here? There were no planets with water near our position." Nolun looked up at the exit hatch. "I'll fill you in later. Help me open this up." Andress and Nolun pushed on the hatch, and it popped out with some effort. It flew off and landed in the water next to them, bobbing on the surface before sinking. Andress looked out at the land around them, and noticed that there was a distinct lack of it. There was only water for miles around, and there was no land in sight. Absolutely nothing. And as she looked back down into the pod, the water was rising rapidly by the minute.

Nolun was getting only slightly worried, which was impressive, considering the circumstances. As he looked around at the blue nothingness that surrounded the pod, he was already thinking up a way out of this, anything, but again and again, his mind came up with nothing. Judging by the level and rate of the water that was pouring into the pod, they had at the most an hour before the pod would fully sink into the ocean. He sat back down in the pod and sighed, sitting on the top of the seat. Andress sat down next to him and looked over. "Well, we've got plenty of time, what say you tell  me what's going on?" Nolun gave her a slight smile, and explained to her the blue light, and the fact how they had suddenly ended up in another system. After he was done, Andress gave a solemn nod, like she had somehow predicted what he was going to say. "So, what exactly do you know about what happened? Back on the ship you seemed to recognize when they said, Spatial Warp." Andress looked down and sighed. "Back when...I was with the GDF, they talked about creating this new form of technology that would revolutionize interstellar travel. Something that was only attainable with quantum physics. It was called a Quantum Engine. It would...utilize quarks of energy in atoms and protons to create rifts in space-time. Ships could move through them, and travel across entire systems in the blink of an eye. When I was stationed at the HQ, it was only in the prototype stage...I had no idea they had finished construction..." Nolun looked down and muttered after a moment of silence. "So you did work for the GDF..." Andress sighed and put her head in her hands. "Nolun...that was years ago...a lot's changed since then. I'm a different person then I was before. I'm not like Gottlieb or any of those soldiers..." Nolun put a hand on her shoulder to stop her speaking. "Andress...I don't care who you used to be. I care only about the person you are. And you're a pretty damn good pilot, and a good partner too..." Andress smiled slightly, and hugged Nolun. "Well, I am sorry for getting you into this mess." Nolun shook his head, then looked out of the hatch. Something caught his eye, and then looked through his goggles. He saw something shining in the distance. "Well...don't count us out yet."

The silver thing neared closer, and now Andress could finally make out what it was. It appeared to be a small boat that doubled as a hovercraft, it's chrome hull winking in the sunlight. It managed to finally reach the pod, and Andress could now see it was being piloted by two people in diver's uniforms, most likely a salvage team. They probably had seen the pod crash. Nolun went to them and put his hands up as a friendly gesture. "Hey there. Our, uh, pod got separated from our ship. You mind telling us what planet we're on and where we could get some help?" The divers didn't answer, which made Andress uneasy. Then, faster than she could process, the divers pulled out two small pistols, and shot both her and Nolun in the neck. She felt the tiny needle of the dart stick into her skin, and both of them fell backwards into the pod. For the second time that day, Andress was knocked out. When she woke up, she felt the waves bobbing the boat she was on up and down, making her feel slightly queasy. She was being lifted up onto something, and she was placed down on a cold metal surface. She could only move her eyes, as the rest of her body appeared to be paralyzed by the tranquilizer. She saw Nolun lying down, his back to her, just a few feet away. Then, a gruff voice pierced the salty sea air off to her right. "Who the hell are these two?" Another voice, presumably one of the divers that picked them up, replied. "Sir, these two were found in the pod that crashed. They match our descriptions exactly." The gruff voice spoke again. "Oh really? You're sure of that?" There was a slight pause as she guessed the diver nodded. The man with the gruff voice laughed a bit, which then devolved into a small coughing fit. "Good. Finally we got something interesting to do around this damn place. Open a communication channel. I want the Director on the line immediately." The diver walked off, then the owner of the gruff voice walked in front of Andress, his large boots in view, and he bent down to look at her. He had gray, sharp-looking hair, and was slightly overweight, with a large burn of sorts on the side of his mouth. He looked at Andress and smiled, chuckling. Andress looked at his uniform and saw the symbol of the GDF. "You and I are gonna have some fun." He said before she fell unconscious again.