Authors note.
I know this has been a long time coming for a lot of you, and it will be a letdown for others who have already read this. Apologies for not having more done soon, I've currently been going through a fair bit of drama with work and personal life lately. But I'm glad to be sharing more Beyond Sol (I really love this story) especially a far better edited version.
Big thanks to CockneyGeezer for the edits.
Chapter 6
I stared out of the front windshield of the starship at the blackness of space. There were no visual indicators of how quickly we were moving, and it almost felt like the ship was stationary. There was no pressure from the engines nor force of gravity holding me into my seat as it had when we blasted off from the surface of Earth. It was also eerily quiet. The only sounds in the cockpit were the beeps of computer terminals and the tap of Shara's fingers across her consoles.
"This is amazing," I said in awe as I leaned closer to the viewport.
"I guess it would be for someone who hadn't travelled the stars before," Shara replied.
"You have no idea," I muttered. "Space travel up until recently have only been a dream for many, and even with the advancements made in the last few years it's still very much out of reach for the majority of Earth's population."
Shara gave me a small smile, then returned to her displays. I couldn't see what she was looking at, and the data I saw scroll across the other screens was in a language I couldn't read. With everything that had happened today and the last few weeks, it only just occurred to me that Shara and I could understand each other. It hadn't seemed like something too important at the time—since we were fighting for our lives and freedom—but after the adrenaline of the moment had worn off, it seemed incredibly strange. I couldn't read the displays at all, which told me they were in an alien language. But how could Shara, an alien woman, understand and speak English perfectly?
I was about to ask her about it when I started feeling a little light-headed. The cockpit began spinning in slow circles, and I slumped into my chair. Exhaustion and possible dehydration were kicking in, and I could barely keep my chin off my chest.
Suddenly a pair of grey hands were on my harness, undoing the buckles. They were Shara's hands. The same white markings that ran up her legs and over her face marked her hands and forearms too. She unbuckled the harness holding me in the chair, and helped lift me to my feet. I knew she was strong, but she showed no discomfort at supporting my weight, even after her ordeal at the hands of our white-haired captor, Marcus Gibson. Shara looped my arm over her neck and wrapped her own around my waist as she guided me out of the cockpit.
"You'll be fine, Jason," she assured me. "You just need some rest. Your body still isn't fully recovered."
I tried to speak but couldn't find the words. I wanted to tell Shara that I'd be fine after a few minutes of rest. I wanted to ask her questions and explore the ship. I wanted to know where we were going and how long it would take. It was every sci-fi nerd's dream to travel the stars, especially with someone as gorgeous as Shara, and I wanted to experience everything. But I was really fucking tired. Before I knew it, I was laying on my back on a soft bed, and I gave up trying to keep my eyes open any longer.
I awoke with a much clearer head, but it took me a dozen seconds to realise where I was. I was so used to the small prison cell it was a shock to wake up somewhere else. I was lying on my back still, but I was naked except for the black cargo pants I'd taken from one of the soldiers in the facility. The room was small, but not cramped. sparsely furnished, with a small rectangular table set against one side of the room, facing two metal chairs and a large steel wardrobe opposite, surrounding a large double bed where I found myself currently. Everything was the same dull grey steel of the ship's hull.
I sat up with a groan and glanced around the room, looking for my clothes. A neatly folded pile rested on one of the chairs, next to my boots. Shara must have removed my equipment and undressed me after I passed out. I was momentarily embarrassed to know the gorgeous alien woman had seen me with my shirt off. I was still quite thin from my time in captivity and would have liked a few months of eating well and working out until I flashed my guns. But it was too late for that now, and there was no point being embarrassed about it.
I pulled on my socks, then boots, followed by the long sleeve shirt. It was a military shirt I'd seen in many movies and video games and felt quite comfortable, although a little loose. The men I'd knocked out had much more bulk on them than I did. I checked the cabinets and the wardrobe for my equipment but only found a few personal items. Women's clothing filled the wardrobe, and I guessed I was in Shara's room. I blushed when I pulled out a small lacey pair of panties. Images of the sexy, grey-skinned woman wearing this and only this flashed in my head, and I quickly stuffed the undergarment back where I'd found them.
Once I had everything back where I'd found it, I walked over to the door beside the bed. I was kind of hoping it would be automated and open with a satisfying 'whoosh,' like in Star Trek or Star Wars. I was still pleased when I pressed the flat, square button beside the door, and it opened quickly. It might not be automated, but it was still awesome.
The small adjacent room was a bathroom. It looked oddly like a human bathroom back home, only more polished surfaces. The shower cubicle rose from floor to ceiling and sat nestled in the corner. A plate of metal polished to a mirror sheen sat above what looked to be the washbasin, and even the toilet against the opposite wall looked human enough. I guessed any humanoid species would deposit their waste in a similar fashion, so the design of toilets and showers wasn't too unbelievable.
I left the bathroom alone even though I desperately needed a shower. I hadn't been allowed to bathe at all when I was locked up and add to that the nerve-racking escape we'd just made; I was well aware of how bad I must smell.
The other door led me into a small corridor with a doorway at either end. I had no idea where I was going, so I picked the right door. It opened to the cockpit we were in earlier. It was larger than a standard commercial cockpit, with three chairs and dozen or so terminals and consoles dotted around the room. But they weren't what caught my attention.
The view out of the ship's front windshield had changed from the black emptiness of space, to a swirl of so many colours they all blended into a vibrant white glow that seemed to part for the ship's bow. I was so wrapped up in the view of what I guessed was light speed or warp travel, that I didn't hear the door open behind me. I jumped when Shara stepped up to my side. She had changed out of the prisoner's clothes she had been wearing in the facility, and was now wearing a sleek black jumpsuit zipped up under her chin. The outfit hugged her lean curves like a second skin, and I had to force myself to look away from her ample assets so she wouldn't catch me gawking at her.
"It's quite a sight, isn't it?" she said with a knowing smile.
"Yeah. But what is it exactly?" I asked, ignoring the fact that she'd caught me checking her out.
"To break it down, it's a wormhole," she said.
"So, we're travelling through a wormhole to get somewhere faster than the speed of light?" I asked.
"Precisely that," she replied with an amused smile. "You understand the basics of warp travel."
"Space travel and the galaxy is kind of a dream to my people, myself included. There are hundreds of theories about how it would be possible, but no one has ever come up with the technology to do it," I explained.
"It's probably because your system is so far away from everything, that no one even knows it exists," Shara said.
"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion.
"There's a whole galaxy out there," Shara swept her hand across the cockpit as if performing an unveiling. "Alive and full of so many wondrous places, but unfortunately for your people, there are a lot of dead systems between you and the next inhabited system. So, no one had ever come out this far, or if they have, they haven't returned or recorded it."
"Surely explorers seeking adventure would have by now," I said.
"Space is vast and limitless, Jason. All it would take is for someone to alter their course by a fraction, and they would bypass your small system by a few hundred light-years," she said.
"Probably a good thing. My people aren't exactly welcoming to newcomers, as you know," I said with a sigh.
"They're afraid and curious. I would have offered knowledge and help if they'd only asked, but not now," she said.
"Then why did you help me?" I asked.
"Because the moment I saw you, I knew you were a good person, Jason. And when you tried to save me from your own people, I knew I had to return the favour," Shara explained.
"How did you know I was a nice person?" I asked, feeling a little flushed as she looked at me.
"You had an excited look on your face," she smirked. "Much like a child opening a present."
I felt my cheeks flush, but her words had brought back something I'd meant to ask her.
"How can we understand each other?" I asked. "And what was that link you spoke to me about? That was you, wasn't it?"
"Before you were shot, I knew there was no way for either of us to escape. In that moment, I formed a link between our minds. That is where we first met and conversed," she explained.
"I thought that was all a strange dream," I said. "I kept forgetting things, and I never heard from you after I woke up from my injuries."
"To begin with, your mind and body were as weak as newborn babies. It took quite some time for you to become lucid enough for us to have a conversation that you could remember. In that time, I studied your language and was able to learn it without too much trouble," she said.
"Just like that, you learned a new language?" I smirked.
"I'm a fast learner, Jason," she smiled.
"Why didn't you talk to me in my sleep after that?" I asked.
"I did, but you weren't sleeping deeply enough for you to retain the knowledge of our meetings. Or the things I taught you," Shara said, walking over to the pilot's chair. She tapped a button on the screen, and a monitor nearby displayed a series of symbols, like a countdown.
"Taught me?" I asked, a little puzzled.
"Yes. While I was a captive, I was able to access the surface thoughts relating to the dreams of a few of our captors. It is a limited ability my species possess that.
"Like the mine reading you did back on Earth?" I asked, referring to how she incapacitated Marcus.
"Similar, but less invasive and far less detailed," Shara replied, then continued with her explanation. "One of the men who came to me more often was a career soldier. He dreamt of his work nightly, and I was able to discover the passcode to the cellblocks and implant that knowledge into your mind."
"The glowing light was from you?" I asked.
"Yes. Along with some basic hand-to-hand fighting techniques I thought may aid you. You may have forgotten everything, but your subconscious and your body remembered," she said, finally looking back to me.
