A significant change detected by his sensors prompted Deeno to return to active awareness. The first thing that he noted was the passage of time. Twenty-one hours and forty-three minutes had elapsed. He opened his eyes just as the lid of the capsule revealed a visibly anxious Vanguard. 

“What do you need? How can I help?” were the first questions Deeno voiced, stepping out. He looked about but there was no commotion or disturbance from within the quarters. 

“I’m so sorry,” Sojourn apologized. “I didn’t mean to leave you here for so long. We encountered a border patrol for this sector because of increased raids and we were escorted for nearly a whole day. Then I had to wait to make sure we were well out of sensor range before I could come back to you. Ship business delayed me as well.”

“So there’s nothing pressing at the moment?”

“No. Nothing to be concerned about.” Sojourn attempted to be reassuring. 

“What of your ankle?” Deeno asked. When he gingerly stepped out of the capsule when Vanguard shuffled backwards to accommodate him. 

“It’s been attended to. Though admittedly I should have rested it more than I have been—” 

“Come.” Deeno deftly leaned into the lean frame and suddenly lifted them up into his arms. In short order, Deeno had Vanguard settled onto the bed with legs gently raised upon pillows. 

“This is absurd,” Sojourn huffed.

“Who attended your injury?” Deeno asked as he fluffed the pillows he placed beneath Vanguard’s head and neck. 

“The ship’s medic.” The answer was hesitant. 

“Diagnosis? Treatment?” Deeno grabbed an extra blanket to draw over the prone figure. 

“Uh, mild sub-dermal regen tool to take care most of the sprain and the bruising. Aside from that, rest, and an occasional rub of that ointment.” A brief wave of a hand indicated a small metallic tin on the bed side table. 

“When was the last application?”

“To be honest I haven’t gotten around to it yet.”

“Then allow me.” Deeno offered. He reached for the ointment and settled back down onto the bed near Vanguard’s feet. He lifted the foot upon his chest  and shifted the hem of the loungewear away from the ankle in question. 

“You really don’t have to.”

Deeno placed his hands on the ankle and tenderly tested the area with light pressure. He paused momentarily and looked into Vanguard’s dark eyes before speaking quietly, in a measured pace. 

“It would seem that I currently have no greater purpose other than serving you in whatever capacity I can. Given my abilities and my nature I don’t believe I can simply do something like that without a substantial amount of focus and effort. I am very capable after all. While I hope that I can learn about my self and my place within the machinations of the universe I don’t expect that purpose to be eclipsed by anything for quite some time.”

Sojourn listened to the words and marvelled at the subtle juxtaposition of such articulate language with the nuanced tone that ebbed and flowed with it. Deeno was compelling in that moment like someone confessing a truly personal revelation. They were actually still working through those words in their mind when Deeno’s hands began to massage the ointment onto the ankle. 

“Oh, wow! That feels … great,” Vanguard felt the pressure of Deeno’s fingers as pain threatened to flare up but instead relief and pleasure spread from the contact. The massage lingered around the injured ankle for a while and Vanguard felt relaxed enough to tilt their head back and close their eyes. The ointment had a spicy aromatic bouquet to it yet the slight numbing sensation felt somewhat cool. 

Deeno could sense the spike in body heat from the lingering injury. The human body was spectacular when it came to healing and to witness this example from Vanguard was enlightening. The ointment had ingredients that would help relax and ease the pain. It also included elements to boost circulation and heighten the natural healing process. Small traces of nanomeds would help focus the effects to the deep tissues in and around the bone. 

Watching Vanguard in a totally languid state was peculiar too. It wasn’t hard to tell that this individual was typically very composed throughout daily activities. The effects of the last few days compounded the stress carried and even now Deeno could spot the tension lingering across the lean frame. 

Sojourn’s breathing was heavier and quicker as Deeno worked the pressure points along the calf muscle. Deeno studied his body response. It was clear that the massage was soothing and Vanguard was incredibly relaxed. Nonchalantly Deeno shifted his position and moved the foot resting on his left pectoral over to his right but instead of letting it rest fully his fingers continued their massage below the ankle. 

In that moment the ship jolted so violently that the sound of it shuddered throughout the very structure around them. Vanguard clutched at the bed as the gravgens fought against the tumultuous forces wracking the ship. 

Deeno grabbed onto Vanguard and tried to steady them. 

The emergency alert klaxon began just as another shriek of the ship deafened them. The emergency bulkhead seals were sliding into place and their locking mechanisms clamped into place menacingly. 

“Captain—Status!” Vanguard called out.

The answer was mostly static and discordant tones. There were voices in the mix but it was difficult to pick out words. 

The next moment the communication audio vanished—as did the gravgens. 

Both Sojourn and Deeno were flung towards the corner of the room. Deeno tried to brace himself and provide some cushioning for Vanguard but they both slammed into the wall so quickly and then slid up into the top corner in a crumpled heap of limbs. 

“Fuck!” Sojourn cried out. 

“Are you ok?” The pillows from the bed cascaded toward them from all sides. 

“I wish I could say yes.” Sojourn grunted as they assessed the situation, and then they swung a pillow off to one side to cushion the blow of other loose items sliding along the ceiling towards them. 

“At least the safety electromags in the furniture works.”

“Hold on.” A flash caught Deeno’s eye through the window. He calculated the distance to jump and figured the force pinning them was about two thirds of a G. He moved above Sojourn, straddling with feet on one wall and hands on what was the ceiling. Once in position he hesitated a moment before shoving off. He hopped and did a partial somersault, then kicked off the other wall. He shot towards the window. The distance was great but Vanguard watched at the muscular form soared overhead, even though the backdrop was the bed above and the blanket flying like a strange flag at the most unnatural angle. 

At the window Deeno used all four limbs to hold himself in place as long as he could. Out through the window he saw chaos.

“What do you see?”

“I can see some debris. The ship is spiralling. Wait—” Deeno spied something in the distance. He could only see it briefly every ten seconds or so.

“What is it?” Vanguard attempting to connect to the ship systems via their implant, to no avail. The Castellan huffed in frustration.

”The whole ship seems dead!” 

“I believe there’s another ship approaching.”

“Really? What does it look like?”

“I can’t distinguish any details except the faintest of lights. It’s so dark—”

The gravgens resumed operation without notice and Deeno fell from the window onto the floor. Likewise, Vanguard was pulled to the floor and slid down the wall. As Deeno returned, Sojourn was standing, if a bit unsteadily. 

“Can you access any ship systems?” 

Realizing that the context of the question was radically different than the last time Vanguard asked that, Deeno simply nodded. The signals flashing through the small ship were quite different too. 

“Life support has been disrupted in some areas and there has been multiple impacts. Communications are offline as are most of the sensor arrays.”

Deeno’s eyes were distant but his face was full of concentration. 

“Maneuvering thrusters and the sensors from the shuttles are fully operational.”

“Shuttles! Yes!” Vanguard exclaimed hopefully. “There’s an elite-class escape jet onboard!”

Deeno was already assessing the craft. It was close by and it seemed to have incurred no damage.

“Atmospheric controls are comprised just outside these quarters we might not make it down the two decks.”

“But wait!” Vanguard shuffled over to the alcove with Deeno close behind. The storage capsule had shifted and partially blocked the path to the lounging area. 

“Allow me to—”

“No, it’s behind here. A secret passageway.” Vanguard squeezed in behind the opened capsule to search the blank surface at the back of the alcove. 

“Once I activate the passage it will prompt the launch sequence. We will have no more than five minutes to get in and make final preparations before it jettisons.”

“How fast will it travel?” Deeno detected a small yet powerful slip drive.

“It can spin up to FTL in under thirty seconds. Until then it’s highly maneuverable.”

“We may need that to clear debris and avoid direct attacks.”

Vanguard stared back at Deeno thoughtfully. They were breathing quickly and wide eyed. 

“Can you pilot?” Deeno seemed to sense something about Vanguard’s question.

“I could, though in this scenario experience will certainly be preferred.”

Vanguard nodded at that and reached up to touch a panel, then hesitated. 

“This escape jet is compact. It’s designed for one person. I’ll strap in take the controls which mean you’ll have to brace yourself within the cockpit.”

“Understood.”

Vanguard activated the passage. A portion of the alcove swung back and revealed a narrow tube leading downward. The slender one slid down the hand rails first, the partial gravity making the distance seem longer, landing with a grunt within a small airlock. By the time Deeno had done the same the alcove above began to close and Sojourn had entered a code into a panel beside the airlock.

It flashed orange and beeped. 

“Shit! The seal around the jet must have taken some damage.” Sojourn flipped open an access panel beneath the console pad and exposed a manual release. 

“Is it safe?” Deeno peered over Sojourn’s narrow shoulder. 

“Yes, it’s sealed enough! I just forget the overrode code so we need to use the manual one.”

“Here,” Deeno reached around Vanguard and gave the release mechanism a forceful twist. A metallic grinding sound gave way to a slow hissing sound. 

“Ok! The hatch!” Vanguard’s voice was stricken with tension. 

Deeno obliged and pried the hatch open. The hissing sound was louder now and the air around the was definitely being sucked out into space through breaches. The cockpit looked like similar to the storage capsule except it was equipped with rigging that acted like a body brace for the pilot. Vanguard climbed onto it and found the straps for securing their body. 

The hatch behind them rolled close but didn’t latch firmly.

“Come on!” Sojourn called over his shoulder. Deeno stepped inside and strategically placed his limbs around the small space as the cockpit closed behind him and pressed his body into Vanguard’s. He could already feel the fading effects of the gravgens on the main ship. 

 Just then, vibration from the ship shook the jet as the cockpit sealed. Deeno knew the one of the main thrusters had just exploded with the other two not far behind. 

“Sojourn,” Deeno’s voice reverberated within the tight confines of the pod. The system check was flashing lights in front of them both. “I have an idea.”

— • —

As the space yacht emitted small explosions, vented gases, bled liquids and as internal structures and contents spilled out into space, there were a handful of small crafts swarming the chaos firing upon the key targets and scanning the resultant wreckage. One such attacker spied what looked to be an escape pod drifting amongst the shrapnel and relayed its find to the main vessel hovering at a distance. 

After a moment of uncertainty, life signs could not be verified, the little marauder positioned itself to launch its grappling hook to secure the pod for further study. It looked intact and expensive. 

One of the thrusters sparked hotly and the pod shot off nearly crashing into the other small craft which had difficulty to swing around and track the erratic trajectory of the escape pod. The other marauders closed in and targeted their weapons but the main ship got a shot off first. As the energy blast crossed the short distance it then struck and destroyed a cartwheeling chunk of the yacht. 

The escape pod had just shimmied and winked into an FTL slipstream. 

— • —

Deeno had deftly masked Sojourn’s life signs with his own biometrics as well as with gentle tweaks of the pod’s systems. It was enough to gain a few precious seconds to allow the microFTL engine to reach the proper threshold for escape. Now, that they were hurtling through sub space he need a destination. 

“We made it?” Vanguard sighed heavily in relief. 

“So it would seem.” Deeno was scanning the near by area. 

“This jet automatically set a course to go to my estate, but I fear that would be expected.”

“Would these brigands ambush us there?”

“Not entirely sure. It’s close, and we could make it but if confronted we stand no chance in this.” Vanguard tapped the control panel and brought up a small system. 

“I use this binary system as a rendezvous point for various reasons. The third planet is just far enough from the suns and has a nice collection of moons. One of which has a bunker—shit!”

“What?”

“We have no way to get into the bunker. Let’s just…” With a few swipes and taps Vanguard focused the nav screen onto another moon in the system. “Do you think you could drop us out of FTL and touch down as close to this location on Tritus IV as possible?”

“I’m confident that it’s possible.” Deeno replied in a neutral tone.  

“If there is trouble on my estate there’s a hideout here we could get to and use to our advantage. And if nothing is amiss then we’ll be met by some confused members of my staff.”

“Ok.” Deeno made the course correction before the fuel range threatened to cut this route short. 

A sharp crack echoed throughout the air above the Mayville estate on the southern most continent on Tritus. A few individuals witnessed an explosive miniature aperture spit out a small slender vessel. The sound was from the solid body slamming into an atmosphere after travelling within a complete vacuum. The air around the vessel surged backward for the fraction of a second that the aperture was open as the air was sucked into the void of transient FTL subspace. 

The tiny escape pod had nearly stalled from the chaotic forces of its entrance, but soon dropped naturally as the dark sphincter in its wake closed up and vanished. 

Vanguard scrambled at the controls while Deeno ran through a check on the non operating maneuvering thrusters. Seconds away from impact the pod emitted a bright chirp and instantly the space around them filled with lightweight foam that cocooned their bodies. 

The pod’s decent was momentarily deflected by sturdy branches from a thick close of trees. The final impact wasn’t so much like slamming into a wall, as it was more like a failed acrobatic landing from a gymnast. 

“Uhhhnnn,” was the sound of relief and pain as the foam within the pod began to evaporate. The safety measure was designed to cushion one body within the pod, but the addition of a second seemed to have bound their bodies together to bounce against each other with each impact. 

“How are you?” Deeno shifted his position to gingerly test Sojourn’s face for injury and responsiveness. The lights within the pods were flickering and starting to dim and in the light Vanguard gazed up at his protector and interpreted the shifting facial variations to be of concern. As cramped as the space was, Sojourn was compelled to embrace the other in gratitude and it took a bit of effort to position themself to do so. 

“I’m going to find out who attacked me and my ship and utterly crush them out of existence. But first, I need to get out of this glorified coffin!”

The pod took some convincing to open. The sensors deemed it unsafe because a tree branch was laying across the hatch. When it did open Deeno was able to grab the broken tree limb and tossed it unceremoniously away. He was much more delicate with helping Vanguard out of the pod and onto their feet, which were still bare from the massage before the attack. It was hard to get their bearings standing in a thick patch of woodland but the ground underfoot wasn’t terrible terrain either. Slowly Deeno shoved though low hanging branches and waist high bushes with Vanguard in tow. 

“Please watch your step.” Deeno kept glancing back.

“Oh, I forgot about the Karachium in bloom. I missed it last year.” Sojourn inhaled deeply oblivious to Deeno’s concern.

“Someone’s approaching.”

“How far?”

“Seven-, maybe eight-hundred meters.” Deeno peered off towards the sounds he detected. “Slowly, but on a vehicle of some sort.”

“What type of vehicle?”

“A small hover bike I believe.”

“Anything else coming our way?”

Deeno studied the horizon which was filled with tall spindly trees near and far. “None that I can detect in the near vicinity.”

“Remind me to never drop out of FTL within an atmosphere…” Vanguard rubbed his temples and winced. 

“There seems to be a spot where we can hide.” Deeno pointed to a copse of old trees about sixty meters behind them. 

“Yes, in case our welcoming party is unfriendly.”

Sojourn allowed Deeno to be swiftly hoist them up into his strong arms and together they rushed towards cover well before they could be discovered. 

“They should come into view in a few seconds.” Deeno announced quietly.

“I should know straight away if this person will help or hinder us.” 

Vanguard spotted the slow moving vehicle. It was a very utilitarian contraption, a maintenance cart driven by small individual wearing clothing that was littered with pockets. 

“Mx. Cavartelio. Perfect!” Vanguard nodded but stayed hidden. They motioned for Deeno to watch. 

Deeno followed Sojourn’s gaze and saw the small vehicle come to a stop about twenty meters from the escape pod. The craft lowered noticeably and its driver stepped off and onto the ground all the while studying the foreign machine. The figure approached cautiously, occasionally glancing about. When they closed about half the distance Cavartelio let out a small gasp. 

“Well, safe to say that this is the strangest thing I’ve seen today!”

“That’s it!” Sojourn stood and sauntered towards the newcomer, motioning for Deeno to follow.

“Is there ever a time when you don’t make a dramatic entrance?”

“Inu Cavartelio! When will you ever cease to be such a treasure?” Made a casual hand signal that seemed to effect a local greeting. Inu mirrored it. 

“Oh I see. That’s never to both questions!” 

Cavartelio seemed to be stout in stature, but as the heavily clothed body moved it was increasingly hard to tell their true form. 

“First thing, this is my new personal attendee, Deeno. Deeno, this is my grounds keeper, Inu Cavartelio.” Deeno mimicked the short nod Inu had given. 

“Second—if there’s nothing amiss, let’s get to the main complex so that I can figure out why I’m no longer owner of an Urious interstellar yacht.”

Inu simply raised an eyebrow and offered assistance to Sojourne onto the small craft.