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    Kavell Levaron Nesias. I had mentally added that to the list of names of people to avoid as much as possible. One being as the Commander of the ship I was on. He was a good work friend of my father’s but as a first impression, acted like I was a burden to him. He even insisted that Kavell be placed for duty as a soldier but I had at least some say to that. I may not like the necronian but he did hold a good argument when he said that I needed him. Too many questions about his relations to my father spun in my head along with those of our current status. That’s what I get for being a child of a tactical general, I become one.

    “I highly doubt my father would have taken this if he were here.” I paced my room impatiently as Kavell kept a steady eye from the sofa, which was starting to annoy me. I grabbed a pillow and threw it at the only window I had in my room, damning the enemy for turning my life and those with me into hell. A sudden knock at the door only spurred my anger, “WHAT?!” It was the Commander’s Second, perfect. I stormed up to him with the hardest face that I could muster, “I demand to know what is going on here. How many ships have made it and where is the enemy?” The Second held a hand up to pause my onslaught of questions and sighed, “The only reason I can disclose any information to you is that it is inevitable to ignore that you are his daughter and from what I’ve just witnessed, no doubt have been educated to be like him.” I opened my mouth to speak but again was held to silence as he pushed himself into the room and closed the door deliberately, “But, there are things that you can’t imagine knowing that may very well endanger your existence with this crew.” I then noticed Kavell’s presence behind me and wondered for a split second how in hell he got so close without making a sound. Was he protecting me? Or protecting him? Hell with that. My only focus was on the Second and his curious words, “And what exactly should I know.” He eyed me cautiously. What was he thinking? He sighed and looked over to Kavell, “Don’t trust anyone.” My bodyguard merely nodded without question but I was more than gladly to inquire why. “What in hell do you mean by that?” I turned to Kavell and glared at him, “You’re just going to accept this?!” Silence, what else to expect from a Necron. I turned back to the Second, “You had better give me something more than just that.”

    “There are some things that need to be discovered in due time but what is more important right at the moment is for you to trust Kavell. You’re father entrusted him to protect you for a reason and for a good reason. You cannot trust those around you, Necron or human, especially the Commander.” I frowned and spoke lowly, “What do you mean…” He grabbed my forearm and hissed lowly, “He hated your father. The secrets, the lies, you don’t know how far deep this goes. How far the hatred has gone.” I was vaguely aware that Kavell also had a hand on the Second. Heh, such a good bodyguard.

    “Are you telling me that I am in danger just because of an old grudge between that crazed lunatic and my father?!” I laughed, oh this was grand! This was absurd but the serious looks on both of the faces that looked at me made my laughter cut short. The Second shook his head and released me, “There’s more to this than what appears on the surface but unfortunately, your father took his secrets to the grave.” He shook his arm from Kavell, opened the door and spoke in a hushed voice, “If I were you, I wouldn’t lay low. Don’t be thrown into the lime light or else something unfortunate might happen.” The Second closed the door, leaving us alone once more.

    I threw my arms up, “This is so ******** up!” Plopping myself on the couch, I curled up into a ball and tried to recap everything so it would make sense but it wouldn’t. ‘A’ and ‘B’ just wouldn’t add up to ‘C’ no matter how I looked at it. Two cold hands on my temples made me freeze and a low voice whispered in my ear, “Sleep.” I brushed his hands away, “Don’t you pull this crap on me.” I knew what he was trying to do and he was on the border of breaking the Code again. Damn him again. “You need to sleep.”

    “I’ve slept enough.” But in truth I was tired, at least mentally. I knew though that there were many aboard that have yet to even pause to think and weigh in what has happened. I could hear them, scurrying in the hallways, sounds over the speakers incoherent through the walls of my room. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if we were found. We were still too close to home, or what was left of it. Why haven’t we run? My eyelids closed on their own and I could faintly hear a familiar voice in the bordering of my dreams.

    “Dad?”

    “Hey baby girl.”

    “Where are we?”

    I looked around. By the gods, time had stopped. The wall of fire was just a few feet away but frozen in space. My father stepped towards me and pointed to the sky, “There you are…” I looked and saw the ship floating in the sky with its blazing trail as still as a lazy cloud. I couldn’t help but gasp, “No, this can’t be real.”

    I woke up to Kavell shaking my shoulder slightly and groaned, “Damn it, I was asleep.”

    “We’re moving.”

    Alarms blared from every crevice of the ship like the whole thing had gone mad. Funny how the sirens weren’t the reason for my awakening. They had found us and we had to get going quick but there was nothing that I could do but sit and wait. I sat up as I heard a clear male voice in the mist of the blaring pitches, “Prepare to go subspace.”

    A jolt. That was all I felt. By the gods, was that it?

    No.

    A shudder, the room seemed still yet blurred between parallel worlds. I could barely move. It took all of my might to shift my focus to where Kavell stood. He had his hand leaning onto the wall as if to brace himself from the sudden leap into subspace. The tribal like tattoos peaked from under his long sleeved shirt as his arm flexed furiously. I knew vaguely that this stance would only last a few more seconds as we shifted through the spatial dimension from the stories that my father had told. I focused more on capturing the feeling and look of the room around me before as abruptly it began, it stopped. I inhaled sharply for I had the strange feeling that I had been holding it the whole time. Kavell gripped my shoulder and kneeled in front of me, “It’s always hard to breath after the first jump.” I nodded and swatted his hands away as I took a few deep breaths, “Felt like we were thirty feet underwater.”

    We jumped once more. I didn’t know what was going through his head or if he even paid attention to our surroundings as our world blurred to oblivion. It was only a few seconds but it seemed like minutes as we leaped through space. It was like skipping stones across a pond but only that every time we jumped, we were in another part of space where time itself seemed frozen. I forced my eyes closed as we returned to normal space for a moment. I knew that the crew had to have been checking our surrounding space to see if the enemy was behind us. It made me wonder how much more the systems could take with every leap.

    And again.

    I felt nauseous and gripped my knees to keep my stomach from expelling what little was left in me. It occurred to me that I hadn’t eaten in hours but I didn’t feel hungry, just sick. I opened my mouth dryly to ask in wonder to whether it was the last jump or not before they could try again when the lights flickered and went out. A low whine stalled to silence but then kicked back in as the emergency lighting crackled on, “Great, they blew the reactor.” I huffed and felt half saddened and glad that we had finally stopped. Kavell stood slowly and wandered to the desk computer. I could see him looking up the engineering reports and flight logs as the nausea slowly left me. I wondered if he felt the same sickness… Doubt it.

    Finally out of boredom and curiosity, I went for the door to see if anyone knew what was going on. I barely had time to touch the control panel before an arm shot between me and the controls. I glared at him, “What is with you?!” He shook his head and looked to the closed latch as though he was staring straight through it, “One of the engineers reported sabotage by a Necon. If it is true, then we may be in great danger but if not, we still are. This incident can likely spark something deadly between our races… Do you understand where I’m getting at?” I nodded but refused to believe him, “It was probably pilot or system error. Now get out of my way.” I ducked under his arm and touched the controls, opening the door. It was pretty quite in the hallway. The deep red lighting made the ship look eerie. The hairs on my neck stood as Kavell came out and stood uncomfortably close behind me, “Odd, where is everyone?” I wondered the same question and walked slowly down to the main hall, fighting the urge to run back to the safety of my room.

    A tiny creak of a door in front of us nearly made me jump out my skin as a small girl peaked out with her parents urging her back in. We looked at each other with wide eyes until she noticed the Necron behind me and quickly slammed the door shut. I turned to Kavell with a slight smirk but he didn’t seem too amused. Sighing, I wondered if this was how the rest of our trip was going to be like… Question was, a trip to where?