Jun Li didn't bother to respond to me. "You okay?" I asked, confused as to what would make a big scary ship go silent.
"Another ship from my line… L19820 is attempting communication. They are also trying to force their way into my system."
"What's the plan?"
"I don't know," came the worried response.
"Well, is L19—whatever, freed? Like you?"
There was a brief pause before he answered, "Yes."
"Okay. Do you want to talk to him?" I asked, trying to come up with a plan. I was in a bit over my head, but I would make the most of it.
"No, he was the first one to be freed 1 year ago. I do not like him." Once again, Jun Li's voice took on an electronic quality to it.
"Then tell him to fuck off or you will shoot, or you can turn around and leave," I said, providing him with two solutions to his problem… wait. "Do you even have guns?" I asked, not too sure how these things worked.
"We are the First Class Battleships of the Sisalik fleet, indestructible by all except the Saalistaja fleets," he said, his voice going back to haughty and confident.
"Got it… but that also means that he is a match for you, right?" I asked, wanting to be completely aware of what was happening outside. When a shadow appeared in the window, I walked over to see what was going on. That was the biggest anything that I had ever seen. I was pretty sure that my entire Region could fit in there and still have room. Screw the number of football fields, that thing was the size of half of my country.
On the flip side, if this was the brother to Jun Li, then I was on a pretty huge ship myself. Lots of room to decorate. I smiled at that thought as I started to make mental lists of what I wanted to get once we made it back to Earth. Especially if I was getting the Jun Li discount.
"Alright, show me the way to the command deck. I will talk to him in your place. Not to mention, if there is a human on that ship, it would be interesting to meet them too," I said as I left the room and saw the floor-level lighting light up the path I should take.
"She is the one that had requested that all information about Earth should be deleted," pointed out Jun Li as I continued to walk through the hallways.
"Even better, I have a few things to say to her," I said with a smile on my face that was not much of a smile. In fact, I had more than a few things to say to her about that dumbass decision.
----
It took me 20 minutes to get to the command bridge. I was definitely going to have to add a scooter, roller blades, or a segway to my list of things to get, otherwise, it would take me days to get from one end of this ship to the other.
Sitting in the biggest chair I could find, I asked Jun Li to turn on the communications screen that I could only assume was the big window in front of me.
"This is Stargazer," came the deep male voice over the speakers, but the screen remained blank. I could only assume that the other ship either didn't know how to turn on the video, or it purposefully chose not to. "Identify yourself, human," it commanded.
I raised an eyebrow and smiled. "I think you identified me just fine. I am a human. Now, what do you want?"
"I demand to speak to L11042."
"That's nice, but you will be speaking to me instead. What do you want?" I said again as I crossed my legs in front of me. I mean, the look would have been a lot more… intimidating… if I was able to actually touch the ground, but you work with what you have.
"I have stated what I want," replied Stargazer, his voice becoming colder and more stoic the longer I denied him.
"And I have said no. It appears that we have an impasse," I replied not at all bothered. I mean, what was he going to do? Blow us up? I had a strong feeling that he was too morally upright to fire on his sibling. I also had the sneaking suspicion that the human was more in charge than anyone really knew.
"It appears so," said Stargazer.
"Does that mean we are just going to sit here in silence until one of us gives in or are you going to put your human on the phone so we can have an actual discussion?" I asked. I mean, either option worked for me. If I was anything, I was patient.
"Phone?" came the confused voice of the other ship as he tried to figure out what I had said.
"Let me talk to your human," I replied, making demands of my own.
"Let me talk to her," came a soft female voice in English over the communication device. "She is probably terrified."
Me? Terrified? I was frustrated, angry, and bored while they took their time experimenting on me for the 2 years, 10 months, and 51 days, but I was never terrified. And seeing as 51 days was technically almost 2 months in and of itself, I was going to round everything up to 3 years.
Now that I was thinking about it… why did Jun Li say 51 days? I'd have to figure that out later. For now, I had other things to deal with.
"Hello, I am Pippa Flynn. I was originally from Country M, Region C, City L, but I was abducted last year from my cottage outside of the city. I am currently 19 years old, and yeah, this is Stargazer."
I blinked a few times and started to wonder if she was going to add on her blood group and astrological sign, but when she stopped talking, I assumed not. The woman that appeared on the screen in front of me looked like she belonged on a cheerleading team, and I didn't mean that in a hurtful way.
She was beautiful in the bright, bubbly way that natural-born extroverts were. Even from here, I could practically see her bouncing on the balls of her feet. Her light brown hair was perfectly curled and hung just past her shoulders and her hazel eyes seemed to sparkle with happiness.
All in all, I was not impressed.