Paradise

Sixteen

3019, Space

What Ben could do was stare at the endless space. There wasn't really much he could do in the ship now that they were just days away from Greta but all the way behind the Robed One. With his stellar technology, Ben thought the Robed One would make it hours before them. It wasn't much, but it was enough time to cause havoc on Greta.

He thought about his family back on Earth and how they suddenly met. Ben could still remember the reaction when policemen swarmed the room. I hope they'll be okay, he thought.

"What's up, man?" someone said from behind. Ben turned to see Justine as be stood beside him.

"If you want to talk about the kiss," Ben muttered. "now is not the right time." To be frank, thinking about it just made him feel worse.

"I know that it wasn't really a kiss," Justine admitted. "More like a thank-you kiss."

"Yeah," he replied absentmindedly. "Maybe." He sighed. "With the Robed One ahead of us, I really think think that it's going to be a hard time catching him, since he's crazy about destroying the planet."

"We can do it," Ben said. "We need to do it."

But at the back of Ben's head, he knew that it wasn't an investigation anymore. It was a death race. And the enemy was leading.

"Ben!" Jones suddenly exclaimed, appearing at his side. She had a worried look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Ben asked.

"The ship," she replied. "We're running low on fuel."

- - -

The four gathered in the cockpit, the robotic voices repeatedly saying, Low fuel. Low fuel. Low fuel.

"What do we do?" Richard asked.

Silence settled into the group. They hadn't prepared for this. And worse, it won't be long until they will be stranded in the middle of space.

"I don't know much about the ship, but. . ." Jones said. "it needs some crystals as fuel."

Ben raised an eyebrow. "What crystals?"

"Those blue ones," she replied.

"Really?" Richard replied. "The fuel of this ship is the most dangerous crystal in the universe?"

"I don't know. Don't ask me."

"First of all," Rizza cut in. "What is the most dangerous crystal in the universe?"

Richard fed them all the facts. "Celestial Tears. The greatest energy source in space. Scientists only got a few of it in Earth. Some planets have this kind of crystal. It can only be held if you can handle its energy."

"Where can you find it exactly?" Rizza asked.

"In many places. One of them is the exoplanet N189B. We're here right now."

Then they turned to see a huge chunk of tock overshadowing the ship. Numerous ships docked on its atmosphere.

Justine noted. "It's dead."

"Yeah," Richard replied. "But at its core, there are more Celestial Tears than you can count."

"Well," Ben announced. "We better get down there."

But before anyone can move, Rizza looked at the window. "Wait."

Everyone turned to her. "What's wrong?" Ben asked.

"We have a slight complication," she answered, horror on her face. She pointed at the ship. It was black and it was tiny since it settled on the atmosphere. "Is that what I'm seeing?"

Ben fast-walked to where Rizza was looking. "What do you-Oh."

"What's wrong?" Justine asked them both. "Why-"

"The Robed One's ship is here," he replied. Then he turned to the rest. "Jacob is there too."

He saw Rizza and he knew he was onto a painful subject.

"So what do we do now?" Richard repeated the question again.

"We can get the Celestial tears from the other side," Justine suggested. "That way, he won't see us."

"Not bad," Jones added. "But we need to be camouflaged just in case."

"We need to split up," Ben said. "One of us will stay here and watch the ship while two of us will get the fuel and the other pair must bring Jacob back. Now who wants to stay here?"

Justine and Richard raised their hands.

"Come on," Justine groaned like a child. "Can I stay?"

Jones grabbed his arm. "You're coming with me, lazybones." Then she turned to Ben. "We'll get the fuel."

"So me and Rizza will get Jacob," he announced. "Let's do this."

- - -

Ben and Rizza crouched behind a bush, watching the barren landscape carefully. They saw numerous holes being dug in the ground. Some of them emanated a blue glow.

"They're excavating Celestial Tears," Rizza muttered, clutching her laser blaster tightly. They were there to save Jacob from the Robed One.

"There he is," he whispered. He pointed at a man in a robe walking towards the hole.

"Let's move while he's distracted," she whispered back. "Then we can take the space elevator to the ship."

She was about to move when Ben hissed, "Wait."

Rizza stopped and they watched as the Robed One walked back to the elevator. It sucked him back to the ship.

"We move now," Ben said. Then they ran to the elevator. They were halfway through when the pipe began to retract slowly. It was around four feet from the ground when Ben yelled, "Jump!"

Ben jumped into the elevator as it sucked him into the ship. He made it but it was too late for Rizza. "Ben!" she yelled.

He watched as she became smaller until she looked like a tiny dot. It took him almost a second to realize what was going on.

He was leaving Rizza behind.

He would be doing this alone.

- - -

Rizza could only watch as the elevator retracted completely. The Anita began to move, ready to continue its journey to Greta.

"We're too late," she muttered under her breath.

She cursed and ran back to the ship.

"Richard!" she called through her comm. "Ben's in the ship! I'm going back to you now. Open the-"

Before she could continue, she was hit by a metal pipe on the head, knocking her down. Her vision blurred. A man was standing and looking at her.

That was the last thing she saw.

- - -

Hello guys!

Welcome to the sequel of Paradise!

I'm sorry that it took longer than usual since I was busy with other things. But here you go!

I hope you will enjoy the story.

See you soon!

❤️