Chapter Two:

Everyone Has a Story

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Kain was sitting alone at a large table quickly eating the meager meal that he had thrown together with the small rations that Jamie allowed him. Once he finished he took his time to look around the empty dining room.

Just the dining area alone was large enough to hold a universal conference in. The spaciousness of it kind of made him feel insignificant. His nervousness got the better of him so he could barely stand it. He then immediately picked up his dirty plate and utensils and headed to the kitchen.

The young brunette was rather impressed with the kitchen as well. It was amazing that both rooms, seeing as how there were only three people on board, were able to remain so spotless. He decided not to waste anymore time marveling about the ship and look for a certain green haired girl. He placed his dishes in the dishwasher and headed towards the hallway. Kain wandered aimlessly through the labyrinth of hallways looking in every room he could for any sign of the cat-eyed girl, finding none.

It was his misfortune though to occasionally find and angry blue haired woman, whom seemed to be everywhere at the wrong time. He could hardly believe his luck and knew hed be in pain the next morning because of all the bruises from the many beatings by Beth.

After three hours or so he came across Jamie in some sort of lab on the lowest level of the ship. For once she looked to be in serious thought. Upon closer inspection he found her mixing chemicals of some sort.

"What are you doing?" The sudden disturbance What are you doing? The sudden disturbance caused Jamie to jump almost to the ceiling, almost dropping a test tube. She made several grabs for it, finally getting a good grip after it almost hit the floor. The young woman turned to give Kain the most lethal glare she could.

"What do you want?" She hissed.

"Is it me or is everyone in a foul mood today?" Kain began to back away slowly just in case she, too, loved giving physical pain as much as Beth did.

Jamie sighed, trying to gain back her composure and managed to plaster on a small nervous smile. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I kept on running into Beth and..."

Jamie dismissed Kains point with a wave of her hand. "Oh. Thats usual."

Kain eyed her, trying to tell whether she was serious or not. "So you werent kidding when you said that she was a true pessimist."

"Nope." The young girl chirruped as the brunette shook his head. "Besides, I'm never in a bad mood. I just hate it when people sneak up on me when I'm doing serious work."

The young man mumbled an apology as Jamie dismissed it with a laugh and returned to her work. Kains orange eyes tried to look around the girls small frame to get a good view of what she had on the desk in front of her. "And what exactly are you doing?"

"Mixing juice."

Kain fell to the floor. Mixing juice wasnt exactly the answer he was hoping for. He picked himself off the floor and looked the girl straight in the eyes.

"You're not serious are you? A complete moron could make juice without going into deep thought."

"Thanks," Jamie growled, "but I'm dead serious." She gave Kain a quick side glare, and then went back to work. She was carefully tipping a test tube containing
some small crystals over a large flask containing a green liquid and began to moan when the fluid changed to a bright blue color. "This is some complicated stuff." She turned around on her stool with a bright smile on her face holding the flask and a test tube out to the confused young man. "But it's a good thing you came. I was just about to call Kate, but since youre here..."

Kain pushed the two items back towards her. "Well that's not exactly my expertise." The orange-eyed young man began to feel a twinge of guilt when he noticed the look of dejection come to the young womans face. "However," he saw Jamies face brighten. "There was a reason why I can to see you." Her hopeful look somewhat disappeared but remained interested nonetheless.

Jamie blinked innocently at the young man. "And that would be for..."

"I find it very interesting that there are only three woman on this huge ship out in the middle of space with a strange creature as a tag along."

The green haired woman looked at the young man for a couple of minutes and then suddenly burst into laughter as if she heard some hilarious joke. After a few minutes her laughter died out and she was wiping tears of joy from he eyes. "Oh, thats funny."

"What?" The young man once again was lost in confusion.

"You can't actually be serious..." Kain shook his head slowly in amazement over the young womans reaction. "You're serious." He nodded. "You really want to know don't you?" Jamie eyed him suspiciously.

To confirm her question, Kain looked around the lab and found the nearest stool and pulled it right beside her. "I've got all the time in the universe."

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Eight years ago at the Radial Academy in the launch
bay...

"Miss Fibratore, we're counting on you to bring this prototype warship back to us in one piece, along with all these trainees." An elderly man saluted a tall redhead that stood before a crowd of soldiers.

"You can count on me Sir. I haven't lost a ship yet, and all my soldiers come back uninjured and with plenty of experience." The green-eyed woman stood with complete confidence and saluted her superiors.

"Good luck to all of you and well see you in a week."


"All right, lets see who we have here." Kate glanced over the role sheet on the small computer in her hand. After a bit of scanning, her satisfied expression faded into on of dismay. "Um...where is Jamie Wakai?"
A young, spry, fourteen year old girl ran through the ranks of men and women, knocking over a few and finally reporting to the front giving a sloppy salute.

"Right here maam!"

Kates left eye began to twitch as the sudden realization hit her. She was now stuck on a large, not to mention expensive, warship for a whole week with the most ditzy, accident-prone prodigy there ever was.

"Please tell me I'm not stuck with you again." She grumbled sourly.

"Yep! For a WHOLE week!" Jamie smiled brightly, giving the captain a wink.

"Right." Kate placed a hand over her face and shook her head. "Okay, I want this girl, right her in front of me, on twenty-four hour surveillance. If any of you take your eyes off of her for one minute, you'll spend one night in the brig. Got it?" All the trainees quickly nodded their heads. "All right then, you are all dismissed to your stations."

The stoic soldiers gave their salutes and dispersed to their previously assigned posts. Leaving Kate standing in the boarding room by herself with Jamie.

"Did I not just give a strict order? Or is everyone purposefully ignoring me."

"I listened!" The green-haired girl announced with pride as she raised her hand.

"You don't count." Kates voice began to give off a note of irritation.

"Kay. I guess I'll just head off to engineering now." Jamie began to march towards the door.

"NO you don't!" Just as Kate made a grab for the girl's shoulder the ship gave a huge shutter. "What was that? We just left!"

Jamie gave a shrug and soon both were headed off towards the bridge.

"Report!" Kate hurried to the captain's chair and turned to look at the view screen.

"A malfunction at the gun turrets, ma'am."

"Well?" She glared at the tech officer, hoping for a better description.

"Theyre going off ma'am. The docks of the academy are receiving heavy damage."

Kate began to shutter at the thought of the lectures she was going to receive after this incident. "Well? Someone fix it!"

"I'm on it!" Kate recognized the shout from the doorway. She turned to find that it was already too late. She had sealed her own fate; Jamie had left to "fix" the problem.
Kate asked for an open COM channel to broadcast throughout the ship. "Anyone who is in the vicinity of the malfunctioning weapons, please stop the green-haired girl from touching anything." But it was too late.

"And the red wire connects with the blue... "

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"Dont tell me..." Kain was tittering on the edge of his stool in suspense.

"Yep. Everything went boom. I found out that day that red, though it looks pretty, does NOT, I repeat, does NOT go with blue."

Kain slapped his forehead and fell completely off his stool. Even though it was already past, it was really hard to sit and listen without getting irritated. He suddenly felt great sympathy for Kate.

The young man picked himself up off from the floor and righted his stool and sat down once more. "Before you continue, what is this Radial academy?"

"Well... it's a school that trains soldiers of many kinds, mostly those with special capabilities. I went there early since I'm a prodigy!"

"Really. Couldnt tell."

"Anyway... "

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BOOM!!!!!

"Whoops."

Kate heard the small voice over the COM link that she managed to establish with Jamie.

"I don't like whoops. What did you do now?"

"Lets just say... the problem isn't with the guns anymore." Jamie replied sheepishly.

"What did you do!!!!!" Kate yelled back.

"Um...it's a good thing that I'm wearing a space suit?"

Kate collapsed in the captains chair. "No." She grumbled to herself. Taking a deep sigh, she knew what had to be done now, thanks to Jamie's "help".

"Okay listen up, this ship is going down, everyone evacuate."

"But I can fix it!" Kate grumbled some more knowing that she couldn't just leave the girl on the ship no matter how much she wanted to. Now she had to rescue the girl from the now heavily damaged ship before it's emergency system kicked in with the auto self-destruct. Pulling on an emergency space suit, she headed towards the damaged area.


Jamie knew that now she had to work fast before she was sucked out into space and to make sure that the ship didn't blow up on her. She made her way to the
nearest emergency lever and pulled hard till her section of the hallway was sealed off, preventing the further loss of air.

She surveyed the damaged area and decided to push herself towards the large paneling of the hallway. Tearing the panels from the wall, she was now able to have access to some wires. She chose her moves carefully and made two cuts so she could create a few sparks. The young woman then held her hand over the sparks and using her ability to control fire, created a sphere of oxygen and surrounded a spark helping it turn into a small fire.

After achieving this, she took a piece of paneling and molded it around the fire and created a sort of tank. She then attached some tubing she also got from the innards of the ship and hooked up her standard issued gun and modified it a bit to create a makeshift welding gun.

She took some more of the paneling and welded it together to make a large sheet of metal and situating herself outside the ship, she took that wielding gun
and the giant sheet of metal and welded it to the side of the ship.

Jamie gave a sigh of relief and mad her way to the nearest air lock. Upon entry she released the emergency lever and allowed access once more to the hallway and the area to refill once more with air. She was about to go make a report of the damage assessment, when she was greeted by her instructor running down the hallway yelling at her.

"Where is the hole?" Kate stopped in front of the confused girl and glared at her.

"I fixed it." Jamie shrugged.

"What? You actually think I'd believe that? Now where is it?"
Jamie rolled her eyes and gave a sigh. "I fixed it, see?" She pointed to the welded panels.

Kate's jaw dropped to the floor in disbelief. "What did you... I mean... you... How?"

"It was simple really, I created a welding gun and welded some panels together and sealed the hole. Now what else can I do?"

Kate fell to her knees and started to cry. "I just reported to the academy that the ship was malfunctioning and about to blow itself up. If we head back now, I'll be the laughing stalk of the entire station. I can't even show my face again!"

Jamie walked over to the weeping commander and slapped her on the back. "Well, at least things can't get any worse." And again the ship gave a huge
shutter.

"Not again." Kate sighed.

"Jamie, are you able to pull up the view screen?"

The cat-eyed girl nodded an affirmative and tapped at one of the consoles pulling up the picture of a very angry headmaster.

"Sir?" Kate was surprised to find that the elderly man knew that she was still on the ship.

"Instructor Kate Fibratore. Why is it that I received a notice from your crew that the prototype blew up and yet you're still in one piece, not to mention, you're still aboard?"

"Um...dumb luck?"

The elderly man only glared in return.

Kate sunk into the captain's chair and suddenly began to sway to and fro in her seat trying to look as if the ship was in trouble. "Oh no! Sir! The ship is about to explode, AGAIN! I don't know how long she'll last sir."

"Then how come you're still floating safely just outside the docking bay?"

"Um... " Kate began to make wild hand gestures to Jamie signaling for her to get the ship out of there, only to receive a whispered, "I'm a mechanic, not a
pilot." from the clueless girl.

Kate slapped her forehead. The old man looked at her in bewilderment. "Just what are you trying to pull here Fibratore?"

"Jamie," Kate hissed off screen. "Cut transmission... Uh what was that again... sir... oh... no... we're.... breaking.... up... sir... can't... hear... you... " Then the transmission was cut, courtesy of Jamie.

"What do you mean you can"t pilot? Aren't you some kind of genius?"

"Well... " Jamie began to scratch her head. "I could make a guess at it... "

"Do whatever, just get us out of here!" The redhead fumed. "Pound at the buttons for all I care, just get this thing to move!"

The cat-eyed girl thought a while about what the angry woman just proposed. An evil smile spread across her face, which made Kate feel a bit uneasy. "Before I
begin, wouldn't this be considered stealing and couldn't we get arrested and have a bunch of charges placed on our heads?"

"Who cares? Just go already!"

"Kay!" With that said Jamie began to pound at the console causing the ship to lurch forward suddenly at great speed and the captain and her lone crew member to fly backwards into the door.

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"Im baffled... " The young man could hardly believe his ears. This girl was one surprise after the other. "All this was just due to a fluke?"

Jamie smiled in response.

"Man... so how did you get that vixen of a woman?"

Jamie thought for a bit before she could respond. "Well... I don't rightly remember... "

Kain fell off his stool again. And sat himself up a
looked at the green-haired woman with a
not-so-surprised look on his face. "Beth was right
about you, your memory recall IS nil."

Jamie laughed nervously, "I better be getting back to work, you just run along." The young woman got up from her stool and began to shoo the young man out of the lab.

Kain tried to turn around, but to no avail. At the doorway he finally got the chance and faced her and grabbed her wrist before she pulled back. Again Jamie laughed nervously while her face turned a bright pink. Kain inched his face towards her and whispered in her ear. "Would Kate be able to answer my question?"

Jamie struggled and got her hand away from the young man. Her face was now a furious red. She turned around with a jump and tried to regain her thoughts. After a minute or so she regained composure and turned around with a bright smile on her face. "Yeah, but wouldnt it be better to ask Beth instead?"

Kain laughed to himself over her reaction. Instead of attempting anything he took his retreat. He shook his arms in front of him as he turned around and began
walking down the hallway. "No way am I going near her! She just about killed me the last time, I'll see you later."

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On the bridge...

"Are they still on the scanners?"

Beth nodded as she worked at her the console.

"So hes not giving up is he?"

"They're as persistent as that creature girl, if you ask me."

Kate chuckled at the snide remark. "I guess you could compare them to her."

"What do you want to do?"

Kate shook her head. "I don't know, we've been running from them for days now. It's amazing that they weren't able to catch up to us during that pirate incident..."

"If you ask me," The blue haired woman interrupted. "He's just playing with us. He's making sure to stay out of weapons distance and yet let us know that he's
there."

Kate nodded her agreement and sighed. "You're probably right. Well, slow down lets see how he deals with your evasive maneuvers."

Beth nodded in answer. She went straight to work, pushing buttons in a smooth motion causing the ship to move side to side while the other one moved in the same pattern.

"Hes good, real good, probably even better than me. This is going to be difficult." Beth glared at the scanner as the ship began to close in on them.

"This isn't good Beth. Any suggestions? I sure could use some."

"Umexcuse me?"

Kate and Beth both turned around to see Kain leaning on his shoulder in the doorway.

"We're kind of in the middle of a situation right now, what do you want?" Beth snapped at the young man.

Kate turned and put a hand up to stop Beth from saying anything more.

"What is it?" The man inquired.

The captain sighed, "Show him." Kate gestured to Beth to pull the ship's image up on screen.

As soon as the image came up on screen Kain pushed away from the door and stared blankly at the screen with no expression apparent on his face. "I know that ship." His voice gave off a tone of annoyance.

Both of the woman stared at him wide-eyed. "How's that?" They said in unison.

"Everyone should know that ship. It belongs to the bounty hunter Airison."

Beth's face paled at the mention of the name. "What do you think he would want with us?"

"From what Ive been told, you stole this ship. And if my guess is right with this type of ship, the bounty is probably pretty hefty."

It was Kate's turn to go pale. She wasn't sure how he knew about the ship but she had a pretty good idea. "Memo to me, kill Jamie later." she thought to herself.

"What do you think we should do about this?" Beth changed the subject.

"Cut your engines."

"What? Are you insane?" Kate wasn't sure if this guy was a friend or foe now. If we do that he'll"

"Trust me." Kain asserted.

"If I had a dollar for every time someone told me that and it turned out bad, I'd be rich." Beth inserted.

Kain glared in return. "He's just following your particle trail."

Beth shook her head but did as she was told and the minute the engines shut off, the other ship stopped and floated safely at a distance.

Chapter Three