Red entering the pilot's chamber startled Ember more than coming upon the ship when she'd dropped out of hyperspace. 

He was missing his shirt, as she knew he would be, but he was striking without it all the same. Wordlessly she held out his shirt to him, which he took staring at her.  There was a question on his face that he didn't voice just yet. He slipped his shirt on back over his bare chest and muscles and Ember's mouth stopped being dry and she felt she could breathe again.

Her own shirt she just held in her hands, she was still wearing her white long-sleeved undershirt at least. It rode high on her waist as the nodes connecting her to the ship pulled it up. His eyes were drawn there first before he turned away. 

She wanted to tell him about her sudden panic, that she'd run away, but the hard set of his jaw made her slightly afraid of what he'd say to any of that. He wasn't too happy waking up without her. She could see that now. But he wasn't pushing her either. 

I just want to go back to that last hour...

He waited, and for a moment so did she, before remembering why she'd called out to him in the first place. "There's another ship out there, just waiting."

"Have they tried to make contact?"  He moved to the chair, all business, and sat down studying the image projected there in front of him. Placing a palm down he connected his augments to the ship and she felt him accessing the ships data records. He already knew what kind of ship it wasn't; non-military grade, but that didn't make it nonlethal. 

Ember was a small ship whose greatest weapon was the Vesper on board. They had no weapons, only shields.  

Red promised me a railgun. 

She smiled at the thought, even as he was bent over the desk figuring out their next move. "So they've made no move at all?" He looked over at her. "Scans?"

"There are bio-signs on board. Someone is there. They scanned us already."

He stared at her. "When?"

"Five minutes ago."

"You could sense that?"

She narrowed her eyes at him as he stared at her. "You scanned me in the prison yard. You didn't remember I could sense that?"

He ran a hand through his hair, wincing when he hit the staples, his gaze going back to the screen in front of them as he furrowed his brow. 

Ember contemplated dragging him out of the chair and up into her chambers.

"Sometime soon, we'll have to have a serious talk about everything I am capable of, so you're not guessing," she muttered, stretching her arms up behind her head and yawning. They both should have been going to sleep by now.  

His gaze moved to her middle as her shirt pulled up a little higher. She settled her arms back down and she caught his gaze, his expression embarrassed, he shrugged crossed his arms and stared at the console in front of him. She'd caught him, and she loved it. 

"Maybe next time you'll stick around and tell me." He muttered turning away from her and back to the screen.

"I have to physically connect to recharge, Red." She snapped, startling him. "Why don't you just move all your stuff into my chamber. I do have a shower."

The invitation hovered between them like a beacon. Her recharge, it was an escape, not truly the reason she'd fled, but she didn't want him to think she was afraid of him. He sat there with his mouth hanging open, no response formed. He turned back to the screen. 

"Fine."

"Fine? That's it?"

"Well, is there a better way to phrase it?" he turned back to her and pointed to the screen. "There is a ship out there waiting, we could be blown to bits and we're arguing over our sleeping arrangements..."

Ember's jaw dropped in response and then both of them started laughing, the tension between them broken.  

"Right. I'm going to plug-in in case we need to make a mad dash." She straightened and turned away but he grabbed her arm and pulled her down into his lap. Before she could respond he had cupped her face in his hands and kissed her, before burying his face into her neck for a moment holding her close and wrapping his arms around her. 

"I'm all moved in already. This is kind of all I've got." He whispered into her neck. 

She returned the embrace nodding. There were other priorities, a shipful of them right now. But she had just this one, making sure everything was all right between them. It was stupid, he was right. That ship could fire on them any second and they were in here debating on what bed to use. He released her and watched her slide off of his lap and up into the air through the door. 

She stretched out her arms and feet as the ship locked them into the controls that would let the ship turn on a dime commanded by her thoughts alone. Her vision expanded outside the ship and she was whole again, carrying the passengers inside of her.

####

"You ready?" Red had given her a full minute before opening a channel. He held his breath, not sure what to expect. He adopted the most official tone he could muster. "Unidentified ship, this is the Ember. Please respond."

You think they are friendly? Her tone felt all kinds of wrong for this kind of job. On any other ship, he probably would have drummed her out for asking such a question. You waited for the info to come through to you and then made a decision. 

This was at the end of the road for us, Red leaned forward as the vessel slowly drifted towards them. It's where the coordinates took us. Let's hope so.

Not that he wasn't wondering the same thing she was. Hell, he was glad no one else was up right now. He couldn't have handled more a bunch of civilians asking the same question. 

"This is the Blackstar," a woman's voice came over the channel. "Identify yourself."

Red pushed his palm down onto the console in front of him, giving the command to open the channel. "My name is Red, and I'm the Captain of this vessel. We're bringing the survivors of New Caledonia, as well as a couple of prisoners from Helion 7." 

"Commander Amy Larsson, I'm to escort you the rest of the way. Don't make any sudden moves, we know who you are. Your reputation has preceded you... Red." The woman's voice stumbled over his name.  "But you've also brought company behind you and we cannot allow them to follow us the rest of the way."

Red's heart beat with excitement and dread. At last, they were getting somewhere. They'd found...well he wasn't sure what they'd found yet, but they'd found humanity out here at least.  

"Don't believe everything you've read," Red said into the console. 

"Of course not." The woman's voice snapped back at them. "Do you think we've survived this long because we've done that?"

"What's your plan for getting away?" Ember cut into the conversation. Red groaned inwardly but only for a moment, they really needed to figure out the whole Captain Vesper relationship. Among other things. 

"Identify yourself." Again the woman's crisp order grated on Red's nerves. She was the one who'd told them they had company. 

"This is Ember, Vesper of this vessel."

"So that's how you've done it."

Red's brow furrowed over the console. "Done what?"

"The escape, it makes more sense now." Commander Amy Larsson's tone had shifted, Red couldn't figure out what it was, but could have sworn he was talking to another person entirely. "Look if it were up to me, I'd be blowing you to bits, there wouldn't be enough left of you to fill a moonbeam. But orders are to bring you in."

"That might be harder than it looks." Ember practically hissed through the channel. 

"Keep your balls down, girl," Larrson responded back. "We all know what you are by reputation. You're supposed to be dead."

"Can we move now," Red checked Ember's vitals. Her heart rate was elevated, but so was his. "I've got a shipload of people and an armada following up."

Ember shifted in her chamber and the ship responded in kind. Red felt envy well up in him as he watched. He knew her sensors were seeing more than he ever could and she was in the truest sense, flying. He was just along for the ride in the cavity of her body. That was the closest way he could think to describe it. 

The Blackstar had moved in front of them and Ember followed it with ease. It was a smaller vessel than what they had, sleek, completely black except for the lights. It looked as though it were made for ten people max. The tail stuck out in ten different directions, giving it a very much warped star appearance. They'd been in use by civilians for a few years once the military had upgraded to their Vespers. It probably hadn't been that hard to come by.

It swerved in and out and headed into an asteroid belt that Red hadn't known was there. 

"This is the tricky part, Vesper," Larsson's voice came over the channel. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't hold back at all. I'd love to see you in action."

"This thing has no weapons, only shields," Ember responded. Red could hear the agitation in her voice. 

"Well the field itself is part of the deterrent. Once you make it through, New Elysium should light up your screens like a new dawn."

The Black Star moved forward and cut around some of the asteroids that floated in view.  

Ember followed suit noting under her breath if some pompous commander could fly through this, so could she. He smiled, a meeting between the two was going to be interesting.  Then he tensed again, seeing the massive rocks outside. Ember swerved around them easily. She was in her element right now.

"Ember close all the windows to the outside right now. God, if someone wakes up right now, there will be panic."

"Done." She was quiet. "I also turned up the grav controls."

"What, why? Won't that drain your energy?"

"Yes, but it will keep everyone in their beds and unless we actually hit something, they won't wake up."

He watched as they shifted, the light bouncing between the asteroids as they moved and the constant movement made by Ember as she dodged kept the light dancing across his view. The stars were pinpricks against a vast sea of blackness in the background. The static faded in and out as they followed their quarry.  

Commander Larsson was right about one thing though. Nothing the size of the Leviathan class ship was coming through that field without blasting its way through. Even then the chances of not being hit were minimal at best. 

He was finally out here into the unknown. He inhaled and checked Ember's vitals again. Part of the co-pilot's job wasn't to fly but to maintain their Vesper. They could fly the ship in a pinch if they had to but mostly they made sure their augmented pilot wasn't killing themselves in the process. 

Ember dodged and wove through asteroids for what felt like hours to Red.

"How are you doing?" Red called out softly.

"Their pilot is good," she grudgingly admitted. "I'd say it was another Vesper if that was an option or an Android." 

Seriously, you're competing with their pilot?

Got anything better to do? I mean even the act of saving you guys becomes tedious when I've been at it for hours.     ...No offense.

Red laughed. No one else is up yet?

There are a few stirring, most of those early morning coffee types. Too bad there is no coffee. 

Everything shuddered around them as a rock hit their rear shields. 

Sorry! Think anyone felt that? Her voice was tinged with excitement. 

Probably. He felt his own adrenaline rise. I'm not too worried about it right this second. They kind of lost my patience with that last incident. I plan on dropping most of them and never seeing any of their faces ever again.

"Still with us back there, Vesper?" Larsson's voice tinged with static interrupted their conversation.

"I am. What are you?" Ember responded. Red knew she was also keeping an eye on her passengers. He glanced at her vitals. 

"I'm an augment, just like you..."

"Another Vesper?"

"Not exactly, that." Came the reply. 

"Ember," Red interrupted. "You need a recharge. How much longer?" His concern must have slipped through because Larsson interrupted again.

"Recharge? How much time are we talking about here? We have another two hours max in this field. How close do you need to be to recharge?"

"Just a clear sight and seven or eight hours." 

"Do I need to take over?" Red knew what the answer was going to be ahead of time. But it didn't mean he couldn't put it out there.  He could pilot as well, it was part of his training. 

"No, Red, I got this." 

"Turn the grav down at least. No need to keep pushing it, Ember." He put both palms down on the console and pulled up her stats. She had three hours left without pushing the grav. It was going to be a rude awakening for the rest of the passengers but it was better than having Ember run down in the middle of the Asteroid field.  

An alarm surrounded throughout the ship. Ember's voice came on over the speakers. "Please buckle into the crash crouches." And that was it. Nothing else, no warning as to why. He palmed his face in annoyance. She really was going to have to work on her communication skills if she plann-- Which she didn't plan on, he remembered.  

There was going to be a lot of panic. He palmed the console again switching between camera feeds, wondering if Ember was doing the same. 

"Red, what's going on?" Dag's groggy voice filled the chamber. 

"Asteroid belt," Red replied. "Been a long night."

"Boys and myself are locked in. Do I need to check on anyone?"

Red did a manual sweep. Most people were either at the couches or already locked in. He didn't want to risk Dag any more than they had to. "Nah, they got the message."

"You sure?"

"Completely."

"I repeat, get into your crash couches now." Ember's voice sounded over the systems again. People were for the most part complying. Red pulled his own buckles over his torso. 

The ride was about to get a lot rougher.

***So the chapter kind of got away from me. Not too happy with it but I'll come back and take a look at it again.***