The Amazon of Rheinland

[Byron]

---

THE AMAZON OF RHEINLAND

---

CHAPTER 1 - 816 A.S.

---

"You know I'm basically all about the money."

—Elena Voigt, Liberty

---

The whole ship was shaking and rattering, which finally woke her up again. She must had fallen asleep in her seat a few hours ago. The first thing she noticed through the cockpit window was the breathtaking scenery. From all the systems she had visited this day, Hamburg definitely had to be her favorite one, particularly because of the nice brown tones that the nebulae in the background had. She had never seen space from this perspective, and it was an unbelievable experience for her. The perfect experience for a birthday, that is.

The person who was setting next to her in the pilot’s seat looked over at her. He had a good looking full beard and was quite muscular – but above all, he was sweating a lot, and a stench was noticeable in the whole ship. “Good to see you’re awake”, he said. “You’ve been sleeping for a while now.”

Still being very tired, she answered back with a simple “mmh”. Yawning she ran her fingers through her long, blonde hair. It was already deep in the night – noticeable through the low traffic on the lanes.

“Lesson five, Ellie: Pilot’s never – ever – fall asleep while in duty. In space, sleep means death”, the man told her with a harsh voice, staring straight through the window. He didn’t seem very awake aswell, but he looked like at least trying to stay concentrated.

“Dad! It’s 3am! You can’t expect me to be wide awake. Also – you know I don’t like that name.”

Her real name was Elena. Elena Voigt, to be precise. And she really, really hated her nickname – “Ellie”. All of her friends at school used to call her that way, and her parents too, which was often annoying for her, especially now that she was tired and therefor pretty stressed out.

“Don’t get fresh with me, darling”, her father Michael said. “I’ve got to concentrate”. The reason he wasn’t too pleased either was the fact that her daughter was on board, watching him doing work. In his opinion, space wasn’t anything for young people, especially not for teenage girls like Elena. He had seen so many dangers out there, from pirates to … well, very weird stuff. And now his own child was exposed to all of it - an idea he was absolutely disliking.

But what could he even do about it? Today was her 14th birthday after all, and she had now already begged for several years to come with her father for a flight. He didn’t have a choice at the end. Even his wife Karla asked him why he had been so strict about not taking Elena with him. I’m sure there won’t be any trouble, Michael. Everything will go fine, he remembered her saying. God, if she just knew what he went through in the past, she would know why he was so scared of the idea.

“Dad, what you’re so angry?”, Elena asked, even though she believed to know the answer.

Her father looked at her, puzzled. “Wh-what? Angry? Me? No, I’m not. It’s just – I am tired. I really need some rest.”

“And when will we be home again, dad?”, she asked further, secretly smiling as she knew she was annoying him a lot.

“Maybe half an hour”, he replied. “Alright, Ellie, we’re entering the trade lane to New Berlin Jumpgate”

“Mh, okay”, Elena said, grabbing a school book from the desk next to her. “THE INFLUENCE OF THE 80-YEARS-WAR ON RHEINLAND POLITICS”. It was one of the rare books they read at school that actually interested her in some way, simply the fact it was partly about the Rheinland Military made her giggle in pure joy. In fact, it was her secret dream to become an officer of the Military one day. All the boys at school were talking about how they would become great leaders, and if the boys could do it, Elena was sure she could do so aswell.

She had already soaked her in the lecture, when suddenly a loud, unnerving noise appeared. Elena startled and dropped the book, while nearly having a heart attack. Michael was caught off guard, aswell, as he had fallen asleep for a few moments. Now, both of them were broad awake again.

Confused, Michael starred at the consoles, not knowing what was going on. “What the hell is---“, he talked to himself, when he abruptly stopped as he found a single signature on his radar. It was quite small in size – probably a fighter -, and was located very near to the trade lane – too near for his comfort.

“Dad, what’s happening?”, Elena asked very anxiously.

“I’d be lying if I said everything’s fine. Stay cool, I got this”, he replied when the trade lane collapsed – you could hear the cargo in the back banging against the hull. Rushed, Michael gave some into the console, some that Elena didn’t understand a bit about. She just hoped that her father really “got this”, whatever it was. Reflexively, she curled up into a ball on her seat.

From the cockpit, both got visual contact of the vessel. It was indeed a fighter, an Eagle to be exact, and it was coming close very fast. The one thing Elena noticed first were the exceptionally fat guns mounted on the wings, scowling her straight into the eyes - another reason for her not to look up again.

Her father quickly glanced at her. “Whatever you do now, please don’t panic!”

A short “BEEP” signalized that somebody asked to join the ComChannel. Suddenly, Elena could hear the voice of the stranger, frightening her for a short moment. The man who was driving the Eagle didn’t have the most pleasant voice, pretty much the opposite, it was a dark, rough one. But above else, he had a very heavy German accent.

“Greetings, Freighter pilot. Would you be so kind to shut down your engines for a few moments?”, the person said. He didn’t seem to be that kind of nice person, so Elena was relieved when her father obeyed him and turned down the power.

“Identify yourself, pilot”, Michael said via the ComChannel. “I won’t do anything without knowing who I’m speaking with.”

It took a few seconds before the Eagle pilot replied hissing: “My name doesn’t matter, only zzat I would love to tear your little ship apart if you didn’t do what I’m telling you”

Elena starred at her father, with thousands of questions running through her mind. Who was that guy? What did he want? And most importantly: Would she die today? He took another quick look at her, whispering: “After that, I’ll really have to have a word with your mother”

Then he turned to the Eagle pilot again, very bugged: “Well, then. What do you want me to do? Drop my cargo or what?”

“Nah, cargo’s not interesting me”, the pirate replied. “Give me five million credits and I’ll leave you alone. Promise!”

Seconds passed, with Michael thinking about the offer and wondering what for God’s sake he should do now, before he decided to shut off the microphone. He turned to Elena, who was still sitting in her seat like a ball, looking afraid at her father. “Just that you know: I hope this is going well, but I can’t promise you that”. He didn’t expect an answer, so he immediately switched the mic on again.

“Look, man. I spent all of my money on this cargo. And, seriously, you should rather believe me.”

The other man seemed to become much angrier, now that Michael had declined his offer. “What?! You bloody liar! Prepare to be ripped apart, you coward!”

Elena just couldn’t stand still anymore. All of a sudden, all of her fears were bursting out of her: “What? Dad, do something, this guy wants to kill us!” She simply didn’t want to die right now, at the sweet age of 14. That really wasn’t the way she had planned her life to be like.

Michael buried his face in his hands. At this point, his nerves were completely fazzled. He don’t necessarily wanted the pirate to know his child was on board. “Haven’t I told you to stay quiet?”, he asked her relatively calm. The same moment he said it

The voice of the pirate was hearable again, this time quite amused. “Oh, your daughter? What a lovely coincidence zzat is! Well, it seems I gotta kill you bozz, zzen.” He then began to burst out laughing like a madman. Everybody indeed knew that Unioners generally loved to blow things up.

Suddenly, the radar reported something again. Amazed, Michael took a look at the consoles, then he slumped down on his seat. His face contained a weird mixture of concern and relief. Unlike Elena, who had gone completely wild – finally panicking around even though she shouldn’t – and now looked unrelated into the eyes of her father.

“How can you be so calm?! This guy’s going to kill us! Do something!”, she shouted in anger.

“Darling, just prey. Prey that it’s going to be alright”, he replied.

“What?! Preying won’t help us a bit, dad!”

Without a warning, another person joined the ComChannel, another one with a horrible German accent. But this time, Michael was more than happy to hear that kind of English. The man’s voice sounded very commanding as he started speaking.

“Pirate vessel, zzis is patrol Iota One of Battleship Westfalen. Power down weapons and engines or be destroyed”, the officer explained. Doubtingly, Elena looked out of the cockpit again and saw three ships surrounding the Eagle from all possible sides. The Military!, she thought. Oh my gosh, it’s the goddamn Rheinland Military! To get a better view on the ships, she ran up to the front window, watching them with her eyes wide open. There she stood, mesmerized.

“Screw yourself, officer. That’s none of your business”, the pirate responded. “We Unioners will never surrender to zze Rheinland Military.”

“Well, zzen”, the squadron leader went on. “Iota Two and Three, open fire!”

Elena was completely under a spell while the three Rheinland ships began firing on that poor pirate. It only took several seconds – as the Unioner was unable to dodge the energy shots – and his Eagle was blown up into tiny little pieces. The scenery that greeted her was astonishing, and for a few seconds the explosion looked like a small star.

The Military officer gave Michael and her a shout over the ComChannel: “Seien Sie gegrüßt, freighter! Thanks for the message you sent us. You’re now free to continue your journey.”

Michael quickly grabbed the microphone. “Dank Ihnen for showing up, officer! Waidmannsheil!”

The three Rheinland vessels, which headed back to the Westfalen, soon vanished into the background of stars and nebulae again. In the meantime, Elena was still motionlessly looking out into space, baffled about all the things that just happened. Her father slapped her on the shoulder, trying to laugh – as he was still very grumpy inside. “Well, that was thrilling, wasn’t it?”, he told her, but Elena wasn’t even reacting. After an awkward pause, he went on. “Darling, is everything OK with you?”

In a flash, she turned around with sparkling eyes and looked deep into her father’s eyes. She cracked a smile, pretty much looking like a maniac now. “Aren’t these guys ultracool, dad?”

“Yes, Ellie”, he said in reply. “Of course, they have to be.”

“I swear to you, dad, whatever it costs, one day I will be flying together with these men!”, she said, with the same kind of authority the officer had.

---

For Elena's ongoing Personal Log, click HERE