Outsider

[Laowai]

The bright orange sun of Omega 47 was beginning to crest over the nearest horizon to the Corsair colony on Tangier.
She knew it was coming, and she knew she couldn't be in this room when the dawn broke, if they knew what she was, she would surely be doomed.
She sat on the bed... It had taken her most of the night but she felt confident about moving, she was able to do so now with little to no mishap, but she needed to do more than move if she was going to get out of the room.
The way the mug had moved scared her - but in this she had seen a way she could get out.
If she could only do it again.

She had placed the mug back on the floor at the far end of the room and had been staring at it now for an hour.
She wanted it to move.
It hadn't.

She was becoming increasingly frustrated and anxious. Walking was one thing, but this? This had to be something else! The maddening thing was she knew she could do it, she had done it! She just had no idea how. She had wanted the mug of water, and it had leapt up at her almost knocking her out in the process.
She stared it it. It was a mug, dark timber hewn into a shape and reinforced with metal edgings to take the worst of its everyday usage, Showing signs of age its wood had a grainy look, its original lacquer worn slightly and its metal trimmings showing scratches and scuff marks. It was tall and chunky, far too big for anyone with small hands to hold, a thick handle made of the same grainy ageing timber thrust out from its side, bolted on with crude iron tacks that had been hammered into the side and the flattened to avoid any overt jagged edges.
Suddenly, she didn't like the mug. It was ugly, crude looking, and as it sat there unmoving with an annoying inanimate smugness she began to feel as if it was mocking her. The thing had almost taken her head off a few hours ago, and now? Nothing!
Oh it was fine then, when I didn't need it, you blasted thing...

She willed it to move again and still nothing happened. She grew more irritated, staring intently at it as if she could intimidate it to come to her. A particularly wide grain in the timber held her gaze and she scowled... why wouldn't it move! She drew it closer to her in her stare and imagined herself grabbing it, scratching the grains with her nails and crushing it in her hands, climbing inside its grainy surface and smashing it apart from within... dammit, dammit, dammit WHY WONT YOU.....

A crash nearby snapped her out of her stare, a chair had fallen on the other side of the room, knocking the table and causing it to spill its contents on the floor. She looked startled and turning quickly,it was then that she realised that the mug hung in mid air halfway between where it had sat on the floor and herself. “Oh my!!” she said out loud astonished
“Ok, Se?ora, enough is enough!” a voice from outside the door called out, a key was turning rapidly in the door which suddenly burst open, the guard entering the room to be greeted by the sight of a mug hovering in mid air and an extremely startled looking Zarita sitting on her bed.
“Oh no!” she panicked and suddenly there was a vicious crack. The mug exploded in the air where it hung, fragments scattering around the room, one of them, a large chunk of wood bearing one of the ugly wooden bolts hurtled into the face of the guard who dropped to the floor in a heap.
He lay there groaning and holding his face... “wwwhat!?... how..?!.” he mumbled and gripped his forehead, his eyes shut with shock and completely disoriented.
Shocked at what had happened Zarita sat frozen where she was for a moment when suddenly she saw her chance, the door was open! She jumped up and ran towards the door, stepping over the guard... “I'm... really sorry!” she said awkwardly and then ran out the door.
She knew there was only one way to get off Tangier and she ran as fast as she could for the old hangar cavern that Ben used when he came to visit. She had no idea if the antiquated craft in that hangar worked, but it was her only hope.

It was morning in the colony and the first few early risers were beginning to show themselves in the caverns and caves, yet she passed only a few people as she bolted to her destination, none of whom noticed who she was and who only grumbled slightly at the young woman dashing past them at a pace that no civilized person should be moving at this early hour.

She reached the hangar and found it deserted, as she had expected it to be - for the Corsairs of Tangier rarely if ever came here, there was simply no reason to.
The ship she wanted sat on the right of the room, a large jutting structure covered by a crude canvass sheet that stood metres off the floor, looking like some kind of misshapen circus tent which was much too tall and pointy, draping down and out to where a small round snub nose jutted out from the beneath the cover.
A Corsair Titan.

More to the point a Corsair Titan that mustn't have been airborne for at least 40 years or more.
Would it even fly? She walked towards it and tugged at the ropes attached the heavy canvass. It slipped to the floor in a cloud of dust revealing the aged craft underneath.
“ok... now I have to make you.... fly” She said to herself. The trouble with this was that she had never ever flown a spacecraft in her life, added to that, she had never really done anything more technical than disassemble and reassemble a blaster rifle either. It will be fine she thought to herself, the base level Corsair power module and fusion drive fitted in this class of ship should have a standby life of at least 135 years, and provided the cabling to the reactor core hadn't corroded it should still be able to put out enough juice to get her airborne and break orbit, hopefully to at least get the Fes and contact Tomas de la Corez who could.....

She stopped where she stood - “ Wait.... What?!” How had she known that?

She cocked her head and looked at the underside of the ship, a curved panel ran from underneath the ship up towards the side of the engine, behind this was a key set of cables that would need to be intact if she had any hope of starting the engines. Almost without thinking, she found a set of tools in a cabinet near the ship and took out the tool she needed to remove the panel. She unfastened the bolts that held it in place and then paused, for if it fell, she would never be able to move it, this was a job that was usually done on a hoist with hydraulic assistance or in Zero G.....

The knowledge seemed to come from within her, but at the same time, she knew it wasn't hers – still, she needed to do this, and had no time to waste on the fact that somehow she seemed to be accessing an encyclopaedic knowledge of Corsair engineering from her head that she wasn't aware she had. Looking around she tried to find a way she could lever the panel free in a way that would allow her to shift it back into place again when it suddenly dropped...

“NO!” she shouted and reached out instinctively with her hands, the panel froze, several hundred kilograms of super alloy suspended in mid air exactly the same way that the mug had been.
“oh... wow.....” she gasped... she kept her gaze firmly on the panel... hanging there as it shouldn't be... “I... REALLY need to know how I do this......”
Gingerly moving closer she moved around the panel slightly and looked inside the now revealed innards of the Titan.
The cables were intact, their outer corrosion shielding showing only minimal signs of wear. Relieved, she backed off.... looking once more at the panel that was still hovering as if it was the most natural thing in the world for it to be doing... She was doing this, she knew that to be true, but she had no idea how she was doing it, nor how she was going to make it....

Go back into place, which it did the moment she thought it, obligingly shifting itself back into the slot from which it had so recently broken free. Scrambling quickly she grabbed the bolts from the floor and hurriedly fastened them back into place, fearing the entire time that whatever strange force within her that held it in place would suddenly decide not not hold it there any more and send it crashing irretrievably to the floor.
Once done, she stood back, admiring her handiwork. “Not bad Zarita” she smiled to herself, “Not bad at all”, chuckling she tossed the tool to the floor and then turning quickly on her heels she reached out her hand “Come to papa!!!!” she said, willing it to leap back towards her open palm.
Nothing happened, and the tool crashed to the ground with a thud.

Growling, she shook her head and climbed moved to the other side of the ship where the access catch was, popping it open she shifted the hydraulic lever within and the canopy of the ship began to open, a dull hissing sound filling the air as did small puffs of dust as ship began to open up.
Climbing inside she sat herself down in the dusty pilots chair and surveyed the blank and dust covered controls, dials and computer screens in front of her. Pausing a moment, she waited for the knowledge she needed to enter her mind. Sure enough; Arm the primary batteries off the power core to diagnose the internal systems, and assess the state of the reactor, once done and all clear restart the reactors and allow a few minutes for it to reach capacity, the engines will need to be powered up and down a few times after such a long period of inactivity, after that, the thrusters will need to.....

Reaching down beside her she found what she now knew to be the emergency battery reset lever and she tugged on it sharply. Lights flashed suddenly on the panels before her and an electronic voice spoke out, crackly and distorted, as if it had just been woken up too early in the morning and was not at all happy about it *crack..... imary batteries *crack....ndby for systems check... *

She waited a moment... dusting off some of the panels with her fingers, finally the voice spoke again * ....stems completed, reactor s....ble, nav syste.... table..... weapo...ystems stable, cooli.... ystems stable, do you wish to rest...t the primary power and re...tor core? .... *

“Yes thankyou” she nodded, and a dull hum could suddenly be heard from underneath her, the sound, she knew of the reactor spooling itself up to its regular power limits. Jumping out of the ship now she walked quickly across the hangar to where the control panel for its great outer doors stood. There was no need for computer security on Tangier at the best of times, and moreso here, this least most visited place on the Colony. So she had no problem accessin the controls and pulled the large lever down on the panel. High above her, the massive doors began their slow clunking retraction, letting the growing morning light in as they did so.
She began to return to the ship when she suddenly stoppped. Something was.... different.... creasing her brow she cocked her head to the side once more... and she felt it.... gasping she realised what it was... the guard had come to, he had sounded the alarm, someone was coming.

She ran now, positivley leaping into the cockpit of the Titan and sealing herself in.
“Computer, Status... “
The rusty voice spoke in reply * react.. at 75%, systems... “
She cut it off mid sentence “Too slow, combat override, arm engines at current power levels and lift off” The information came into her mind and she reacted without thought, she needed to get out of here and needed to go now.
The computer sounded a warning in reply but complied, the Titans vintage engines whirring into life once more. The ship began to shudder just as the first guard entered the room. He was shouting something but was drowned out by the growing din of the engines. She saw him reach to his belt and retrieve his comm unit, speaking into it she knew he was calling for backup.
Come on.. come on... she willed..... Another guard appeared, and this one was armed.... he ran across the room and waved his arms madly, shouting something. Zarita waited nervously as the whine if the engines began to reach a high pitched wail, a sound that she knew would mean it would be ready to leave in moments.
There was a loud “Clang” on the side of the ship and she turned quickly, the guard was shouldering his Blaster rifle and she could see smoke coming from its barrel, he had fired at the ship, and without shields it had landed squarely on the body of the vessel. She saw him fire again and a shower of sparks flew off the nose of the aged vessel. "Come on, come on come on..." she muttered.....
She looked up, and to her horror she saw the doors to the hangar beginning to close, the second guard was standing by the control panel and had ordered them shut!
Suddenly, there was an almighty roar and the ships thrusters burst into life, scattering dust throughout the hangar and sending the guards running for cover as the ship leapt into the air. Zarita was thrown back into the seat, having neglected to fasten herself in. With blinding speed the ship went up and shot out of the hangar, narrowly missing the retracting doors it climbed into the sky.
Recovering herself she peered out of the canopy, up and up the ship went into the Tangier sky and a feeling of relief and joy washed over her, she threw her arms up into the air and laughed in triumph, “I did it! I did it!” she laughed out loud, leaning over the side of the cockpit she watched entranced as Tangier, her Tangier, her home for the entirety of the life she had known, began to grow smaller beneath her, whisps of cloud passing the ship.
She sat back in the chair, for the first time, wondering what awaited her, where she would go. She had only ever known life on Tangier, she had never thought to leave, never thought for a moment that she ever would - she suddenly felt very much out of her depth.
Still, she did know one thing at this point beyond certainty, she had to find her husband, she had to find Ben.

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