Whadgaf loves her ship. She wonders if Frial had rigged it to explode regardless of the outcome of their race; actually, she was sure that he could kill her as long as she occupied the ship, but she had killed every living member of his family, and if he decided to take his revenge, Whadgaf decided that she would not fight him.
She likes the ship because it appears to be small and cramped, like a Smart Car with airplane wings and fuselage, but it is very adjustable inside and allows for comfortable sleep and even stationary exercise over long trips.
She feels close to the space before her as she travels through it, like she can reach out and touch the light of the stars, or grab the planets, drifting asteroids, and other ships that she passes when she isn’t navigating in warp speed. It gives her perspective; she knows that she is a speck of dust compared to the vast cosmos that sprawls around her. It doesn’t make her feel insignificant though, she feels lucky to be able to witness it. She comes to appreciate every minute that Frial does not blast her ship from existence and she has lingered over the course of the race, falling behind the progress of Frial and his crew ship.
There were some distractions that she encountered that were beyond her control.
The leader of the banned regions refuses a name. One can assume that they do this for practical reasons. Everyone with an opinion assumes that the leader is most likely a member of one of the many criminal organizations that exist in the area, and to be respected as a leader among those criminals, one assumes that a person would have to be a ruthless criminal themselves and most likely wanted. Some have postulated that there is no leader of the banned regions and that the idea is a useful legend used by clever refugees to secure resources from nearby governments. The general consensus is that the formation of the safe zone is evidence of some leadership among the criminal factions, even if no one has stepped up as that/those person/s.
The safety of the inhabitants of the banned regions safe zone, and the route of humanitarian ships to the regions (that Frial and his crew ship use, that Whadgaf was unable to use without proper permits for her ship), is part of the understood criminal code. Even among the most ruthless criminals.
Outside of the zone and the designated travel route, everything is free game. This is the risk that Whadgaf accepted with the single passenger ship, and she was surprised that Frial had allowed the ship to possess sophisticated cloaking technology that could evade the radar of even the most advanced ships.
Over the course of her journey to the banned regions, Whadgaf witnessed a ship being hijacked by another. She had slowed from warp to refuel, and before ramping it back up, she landed the ship on an asteroid with a scenic view to enjoy a meal. She noticed them, two ships floating in space connected by a retractable, covered bridge. When she used the magnifier function of her front windshield, she could see what she surmised to be Hafjeris because of their wings, forcing captives through the bridge in tears and with their hands up.
Maybe she could have helped the captors, but she didn’t. She activated the cloaking and then watched the scene long enough to finish her meal. Then she fired up her ship.
She wasn’t being callous. Whadgaf knew that pirate ships rarely traveled alone, and she knew that she was probably in range of the pirate’s friends. She was right, and before she could take off, she saw a ship twice the size of her own land on the asteroid in front of her.
“We might have left you alone…” Whadgaf heard over the loudspeakers of the pirate ship. It was a carbon copy of the hijackers’ she had seen before and she imagined that she was dealing with a very successful gang that could afford matching ships. “…but your fancy cover suggests you’re moving something precious that we will take and move on our way.”
Whadgaf turned off the ship and disembarked. She was met by the captain pirate.
“Yiee Dharle, captain of this vessel. You are in the wrong sector of space young lady.” Yiee pulled a gun that resembled a shotgun.
“Dharle?” Whadgaf asked with her hands up in surrender. “I am Whadgaf Jiris, eldest daughter of the Jiris of Jeriel.”
“Are we both the worst of our lauded family names, or are you lost?”
“I am not lost. And I am sorry to say that I do not have anything on board that would warrant your stopping here.”
Yiee smiled. “My mother always wanted me to marry a girl from a good family.”
Whadgaf didn’t return the smile. “How many on board?” she asked calmly.
“Enough of my friends that you should be worried about making me mad. This is what will happen now; you will go to your ship, grab what you need, then follow me on board my ship where I will introduce you to the family as mine, and mine alone.”
“I don’t think I want that,” Whadgaf said.
Yiee nodded. “Then this will be your future; I will drag you on board my ship and have my way with you before throwing you to the family, who are not nearly as nice as I am. And they’ll take turns until you either die or kill yourself. That’s what the last one did.”
Whadgaf sighed, and then she flexed her wings up. As they sliced the thin air on the asteroid, they were already deep green and mighty. She killed Yiee, then his friends in the ship, and then she took off in her own ship as if very little had happened.
She doesn’t like to kill people, but she also does not like to be threatened. Her experience at the lair of the Auburn Order had made her aware of her strength and even if she tried to play docile, her body won’t allow her to be anyone’s victim or hostage ever again.
In addition to the sophisticated cloaking technology on the ship and it’s telescoping front view window, the ship is also equipped with a tracker of Frial’s crew ship that is a dedicated section of the front window display in the bottom, left-hand corner. Whadgaf knows the entire journey that she is behind Frial, and at no time does she feel the urgency to catch up and pass him. Until she stopped to refuel again and met an Ointite, a being of the planet Oin. Her name is Sib Swite and she was refueling her multiple passenger ship that she piloted alone just like Whadgaf, though she had been traveling with permits on the safe travel ways. The two had parked next to one another and as their ships refueled, Whadgaf could hear Sib yelling into a communicator.
“I will catch up to the ship! Call off the attack! Very well, if I cannot retrieve her before that time, I will accept her fate.”
When she ended the conversation, Sib yelled with frustration and then she noticed Whadgaf staring at her, even though Whadgaf tried to look away as soon as she looked in her direction.
“My apologies,” Sib said to Whadgaf.
“No worries. Sorry that I was listening to your conversation.”
“Sorry to air my drama, but I am under distress.”
Whadgaf smiled sympathetically. “You’re trying to find someone?”
“To catch up, before a ship gets blown out of the cosmos.”
Whadgaf winced.
“My sister is captive on a ship, a mad man with red wings…”
Whadgaf raised a hand and Sib stopped.
“His name?”
“Something ridiculous, Red…”
“Is your ship faster than mine?” Whadgaf asked.
“I don’t know, it’s a different model. I do not know Hafjeris technology well enough to say.”
Whadgaf assumed that Sib’s was faster because it was bigger and could accommodate more passengers.
“Take me with you and I will save your sister. Agent Red is my problem. I won’t let him hurt anyone else.”
Sib was moved by Whadgaf’s resolve. She invited the stranger onto her ship and filled her in on the story of her sister, Sevi, as the two rocketed after Frial.
“He has her daughter, my niece Yule. She was on a humanitarian trip to Hafjeran to tend to the casualties of one of your planet’s class wars. You all have so many. Sevi is not the best guardian of her children, I must admit. She gets lost in her duties, she is the life giver for sure, but Yule is young and curious on a new planet that she prepared for much of her life to visit, and this man with red wings took her and Sevi did what she felt necessary out of guilt. Rightly so I imagine. And here I am with a stranger, with no real plan if I can even catch up to them. We found Yule, she is safe with us, but Sevi is so racked with guilt that she has given herself to the red man.”
Whadgaf was annoyed at Sib’s pronunciation of the Hafjeris language, and Sib talked so fast that she could not understand much of what she said if she tried, but Whadgaf got the gist of it. She knew that this must be true of all of the crew on Frial’s ship, that he had done something horrible to them. She had to free them, make sure that if he hurt anyone, it was only her.
PRL Serials 