Sebastian had just begun to fiddle with the navigational system when the rest of the crew finally returned, drunk on laughter and sweets. No one seemed surprised to see Rowan sitting in their captain’s chair on the bridge.
“Are we replacing the angry one down the hall with this one?” Lyra asked as she shed her hot pink cloak, revealing pale albino skin and snow white hair.
“I’d be okay with that.” Kenan said as he threw himself into one of the chairs, one hand still deep in a bag of coffee-flavored chips. The chair spun and nearly deposited him onto the floor before he stopped it with a laugh.
Sebastian swore as a spark jumped from the controls. “We’re not replacing anyone.” Sebastian murmured, glancing back at Rowan with soft eyes.
“I have to be honest, Seb,” Brie, his second in command, said as she ran her dark hands through her hair, loosening the tight braids, “this isn’t quite what I was expecting when you said you would be spending some quality time with one another.”
“Not really what I was planning either.” Sebastian said while Rowan fidgetted uncomfortably. “Something’s happened.” He turned to address his crew who had begun to take their seats, Lyra and Kenan in the back two, and Brie in the chair beside Rowan. “The IPC are after Rowan, so he can’t stay here.”
“Easy. He stays with us.” Kenan said without hesitation. Lyra nodded her consent.
Only Brie looked dubious. She walked over to Sebastian and leaned in close. “Seb, I know you love him, but we can’t get involved. You know how the IPC are.”
Sebastian closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Brie. I can’t let them do to him what they do to everyone. He’s innocent. His father is innocent. I won’t abandon them.”
Brie pursed her lips then sighed. “Alright. You know we’ll stand by you no matter what. But…”
“But what?”
Her eyes found Rowan trying in vain to catch the chips Kenan was tossing at him. “What if you’re wrong?”
“I’m not.”
She nodded and reclaimed her chair. “Alright. What’s the plan?”
“First, we keep Rowan away from Thomas. We don’t need a fight breaking out.”
“Shouldn’t be too hard.” Brie said. “He’s antisocial on the best of terms.”
“You don’t have to do that.” Rowan protested. “He’s my brother.”
“You saw how he reacted earlier.” Sebastian said gently. “I’m just being cautious.”
Rowan crossed his arms. “It’s not like he’s planning to murder me in my sleep.”
“Of course not.” Kenan piped up with a snicker. “You’ll be in the captain’s bed most of the time. Thomas’ll be too horrified to go anywhere near the room.”
“I will not.” Rowan muttered, embarrassed as he looked away.
“There’s more.” Sebastian told them. “I said we’d go and get his father.”
Silence enveloped them as they froze, staring at their captain in equal parts horror and shock. “S-shark’s Bay?” Kenan stood. “You do realize there’s wanted posters of us on every planet, right? And you want to take us to one of their front doors? Have you lost it?”
“Kenan, relax.”
“No, sorry, Captain. You know we would do anything for you, and you too Rowan, but this has got to be one of the stupidest things you’ve come up with.” Kenan looked between Brie and Lyra. “You guys agree, right? This is insane. I am not going back to prison.”
“You were only there a day.”
“And I have no intention of extending the stay!”
“You won’t.” Sebastian held up his hands. “No one will get caught. You have to trust me.” He looked at each of his crew.
Brie sighed. “It’s not that we don’t trust you. It’s just too close for comfort. One wrong move, and we’d be lucky to see the inside of a cell. This is one of those times where I’d suggest we cut our losses.”
“You can’t!” Rowan protested then winced. “I mean, it is risky, and you don’t have to help me...but--”
“We are not like the others.” Lyra said softly. “I would risk it.”
“Lyra.” Kenan gave her a weak look.
“For family, I would risk it.” She met his eyes.
“Fine, fine. Let’s trust the captain.” He threw himself back into his chair. “But if this goes south, me and Lyra will feed you to our man-eating plants.”Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Fair enough. Brie?” Sebastian looked to his second in command. “You could still cut your losses. You owe us nothing.”
Brie’s dark eyes softened. She reached up to pat his cheek. “Oh, if only that were true. Alright. We trust the captain, but if we even come close to being arrested, I’m jumping ship and pretending to have been kidnapped.”
Sebastian snorted. “Like you don’t have as many warrants as me.”
She put her hands on her hips. “So what’s the plan?”
Lyra pressed a switch on the side of her chair, and a large holographic map filled the room. Sebastian gave her a relieved smile. “No unnecessary risks.” He assured them. “We keep the Chimera and our more recognizable selves away from the prison, but send in one of our beta ships and Rowan.”
“You can’t send him in alone.” Brie argued.
“You know, you guys are never satisfied.”
“I’ll go in with him.” Kenan volunteered.
“Thought you didn’t want to see the inside of a prison again?” Sebastian said. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I know, and as long as I stay on the outside of the cells, I’ll be fine. I’m the only one of us they won’t immediately recognize, and probably the only one not wanted for any outrageous crimes.”
“You set fire to half a city on Argon.” Lyra pointed out.
“Technically, I set fire to one building, and it escalated. Also, you killed three people on your home planet, so I’m still doing better than the rest of you.”
“It was never proven.” She replied and folded her hands in her lap demurely. “And it was more than three.”
“Alright, it’s settled then.” Sebastian returned to his chair, the one Rowan still occupied and pressed a few buttons on the side. At the front of the bridge, a large piece of the wall slid away to reveal a window, dazzling sunlight nearly blinding them as it poured in. Underneath their feet, the engines roared to life. The lights around them flared brighter, illuminating every shadowed corner on the bridge. Sebastian leaned closer to Rowan. “Hold on tight. It’s a bit rough getting out of orbit.”
Rowan squeezed his eyes shut as the ship creaked and rocked, threatening to shake apart as gravity dragged at them. Then, there was silence as the ship settled. Rowan opened his eyes to darkness, the blue sky he had looked at his entire life replaced with the emptiness of space. Far off in the distance, he could see the glowing outlines of other planets and stars.
“It’s beautiful.” He breathed.
“Yeah. It is.”
“So…” Kenan tossed a chip at Rowan. “What’d dear old dad do? Kick a few puppies? Steal a few million diamonds? Kidnap an heiress whose father just happened to be the chief of the intergalactic police?” He slanted his eyes at Sebastian.
“First of all, it was a few hundred diamonds at best.” Sebastian said with an indignant sniff as he stopped before the window, staring out into the darkness. “And secondly, that heiress came willingly.”
“What did he do?” Lyra asked curiously.
“I think it’d be best if I showed Rowan around a bit.” Sebastian said, avoiding the question as he gestured for Rowan to follow him. “It’s been such a long day, after all.”
“You don’t want to tell them?” Rowan asked as he stumbled after Sebastian, taking the door his brother had taken hours before.
“It’s best if they don’t know right now.”
“You don’t think he’s guilty, do you?”
“Of course not. I just don’t want to bring up any bad memories for them. It’s fine, Rowan. Trust me.”
The ship creaked and groaned like an old house in a windstorm, both alarming and familiar, as they walked past paintings from various planets that appeared stolen. Rowan recalled Brie mentioning the art museums she loved to visit and wondered if the paintings had followed her from there. They were too beautiful to be done by mere amateurs. There were a couple of new ones that hadn’t been there during his last visit.
The narrow hallway ended in a circular room with mismatched doors embedded in the walls like a five-pointed star. The heavy, iron one led to the engine room, Rowan knew, while the small one clearly taken from a rusted car led to the carnivorous garden that Lyra and Kenan had adopted. The third one had been stolen from a bank’s vault and led to the treasury. Rowan wondered if that was where the stolen diamonds were being kept. The fourth one, thicker than the others, was a mystery to Rowan, but he noticed it was never without the heavy padlock. He was tugged away from those thoughts when Sebastian entered the sliding glass door straight ahead, towards the living quarters. It led them into a messy kitchen, dishes piling up in the sink with a post-it note that stated “Kenan’s job” in sloppy handwriting. Past the kitchen was the hallway that led to the crew’s bedrooms. Most of the doors were closed, but one was open just enough for Rowan to see the bra hanging on the bedpost and a knife sticking from the wall. Brie’s room.
The ship veered sharply to the left, sending them both careening into the wall. “Are you sure you shouldn’t be the one flying?” Rowan asked nervously.
“Brie’s the better pilot.” Sebastian replied with a wince. “Usually.” He stumbled over a careless shoe left in the hallway before coming to a large brass door at the end of the hall, a heavy padlock hanging off the doorknob like an invitation. Or a warning.
The bedroom was the kind of clean that only stemmed from obsessive late night cleanings involving a toothbrush and a bucket. Everything was in its place and perfectly organized, save for the bed which was a tangle of bedsheets and blankets. Rowan stumbled back when he noticed the statue, a lifelike replica of the Greek Gorgon, Medusa. It was the only new thing in the room, and he wondered how it wasn’t the first thing he had noticed. A gold amulet glinted at the base of its neck, like a single winking eye.
Sebastian must have seen him freeze in the doorway for he turned and tapped a finger against the statue. The coal black eyes seemed to stare right through him. “She’s the product of Frankenstein’s Law. The last time I tried to fight against the IPC, they tried to take her from us. They would have picked her apart just to see what made her tick. You think the IPC just kill the “monsters” they find, but if they’re fascinating enough, they take them apart piece by piece until they wished they were dead. Then have the audacity to call others abominations.”
“Why is she stone? Did they do that too?”
“No. She did.” He tapped the amulet. “It’s a Medusa’s coin. They sell them on her home planet. None of us know how to reverse the effects, but we know she’s still alive, so that’s something.”
“What’s her name?”
“Alyssa.” Sebastian lovingly ran a hand down her arm. “She was part of my crew for a couple of months until her mom…” He trailed off.
“I’m sorry.” Rowan leaned into Sebastian.
“At least we know for sure my dad is innocent.” He said after a moment. “He would never create something like this.”
“Of course not.” Sebastian wrapped an arm around Rowan, pulling him closer and nuzzling his shoulder. “And we’re going to get him out of Shark’s Bay. Everything will go right back to normal in a few days. I guarantee it.”
“I believe you.” Rowan said, running a hand over Sebastian’s shaved head. “You’d never lie to me.”