"Hunters Blade" -From within The Serpent

3 is the loneliest number

Jonah's eyes widened as his thoughts betrayed his composure. Before he realized it; he was holding his breath. Matthew and Levi noticed. Defeated Jonah confessed;

"I can't be sure, but the death of the Narashti happened aboard my vessel."

"We know;" Matthew said bluntly. "This is where you can help." Shaking his head Jonah protested.
"I don't understand." Leviathan and Mathew paused and smiled a knowing smile between them.

Rhynn and Eindri had found comfortable seats in the bridge of the nameless vessel. In a fully reclined chair Eindri threw a small ball like object at the ceiling; like she was playing catch with herself.

"So I was thinking; once Jonah gets back, we could maybe trade some goods with some Laquin traders. Those guys pretty much never talk to anyone but, I'm sure we could be convincing if we put our minds to it." She snickered as she caught the ball the last time.

"I'm kinda worried he's taking so long." Rhynn said also reclined in a large chair. She scoffed again and threw the ball like device. "Relax Rhynn if they wanted us dead we would have been dead already."

Pausing slightly he looked to his far left and caught sight of Eindri. "What if they wanted us alive? Like, no sense in killing us now, just like hold off On killing us till later kind of thinking." She caught the ball and looked to her far right.

"Rhynn?" He immediately responded; "yes?" She responded as she caught the ball again. "Relax." She smirked.
"Eindri?" She smiled as she had changed his focus. "Yes Rhynn?"
"Where did you get that ball?" He watched her throw the small metallic ball.

"I made it. It's a grenade actually. I really like the ability to fabricate with these new upgrades." She suddenly fumbled the ball. As it struck the ground it lit up.

Rhynn jumped from his seat and covered the grenade in his body. She gasped as she watched on. He yelled loudly for her to run. Yet nothing happened.

Jonah entered the bridge and instantly assessed the situation. He paused for a second and then turned to a control panel. "Rhynn- do you know what the difference is between a live grenade and deactivated grenade?" Rhynn didn't move. He just braces for an explosion.

"In most cases it's a "boom" like sound." He turned and walked off the bridge. Jonah was right, the type of grenade (typically the size of a small hand ball) had no timed delay. It's fuse was the impact on the ground. Once impact took place, the explosion was directly afterwards.

Realizing how determined Rhynn was to protect her, She tried to make the situation less awkward. She stood and helped him up from the ground. Rigidly he stood and slowly handed the grenade to Eindri. "I-I was counting how many catches in- in a row;" she smiled sheepishly. "Yay, 42." She poured out her charm.

Rhynn locked his eyes on her face with an expression of embarrassment and anger forming on his. He said nothing as he turned away from her and tried to follow Jonah. As the sliding doors closed; she whispered to herself as she looked at the ball. "Thanks anyway."

She looked to the giant ship outside. Imagining it's strength and firepower she raised her pointer finger and thumb in the crude shape of a gun. She aimed carefully at the vessels bridge. "Pe-chow..." She said quietly.

The Odin in response, turned and jumped to FTL speed. Shocked she watched the after image dissipate.

"I'm not sure what happened up here, but; Rhynn won't even talk to me;" Jonah said now back on the bridge. "We are being tasked with a mission. We've been asked basically to explore and stay out of the new war between the Narashti and the galaxy;" He smiled slightly. "I can at least promise you it won't be boring."

She looked outside and back to Jonah. "I've never pledged my loyalty to someone before." Shaking his head Jonah said, "no you don't need-" she interrupted him and kneeled. "I swear my life to you. I will follow you wherever you take me. My life is yours."

He shook his head, and feeling awkward he blurted "I'm not sure what to say, I've never been in this position." His face wrinkled in discomfort.

"Don't say anything, you'd ruin it." She stood and resumed looking out the window into black space.

"So where where are we going commander?" She asked expecting a different answer than what was coming.

"We are returning to the nebula from which we came." She froze and looked at him.
"That's obviously against your standing orders." Jonah smiled and nodded.
"It most definitely is."
"You are going to disobey an order on your first day of command?" Looking down Jonah nodded.
"I have a good reason."
"Commander, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."" She quoted.
"So that's where we are going?"
"If we go to Narashti space,; yes. It didn't go so well last time." Nodding Jonah agreed.
"Last time we were running tho. This time we will be standing to fight." Her eyes widened
"You HAVE lost your mind. We were supposed to be on an exploratory mission! What happened to that?!" She raised her voice and considered drawing her weapon on her commanding officer.

He seemed to smile with a smug smile which only made her more angry. A moment or so passed as he looked to the windows that framed the black space outside of the ship.
"Now that I've asked the impossible; and you reacted this way. Set our course for New Raven Prime."

The destination was near to a large depot that was Deep within black hunter controlled space. He looked closely at Eindri as she again hesitated. "Yes sir... I must warn you, this is just as bad of a decision." He smiled and nodded.

"Duly noted sub-Commander." She slowed in her movements as she realized she had been promoted above Rhynn.

"Course set sir, arrival in 3 standard hours." She paused as she waited for her Commander to acknowledge her actions. As no acknowledgement came she turned and looked towards Jonah. He looked up from a small computer like device in his hand.

"Are we there yet?" He smiled wildly. She only punched in the commands and their unnamed vessel vanished.