The flight was rough indeed. The ship rattled our bones the whole way. I felt numb by the time it finally slowed down. The ship would occasionally turn the wrong way and Haral's hands would fly across the console, stabilizing us once again. I came to appreciate the pilot through the twelve hours that we shot across empty space.

    Steam hissed as the ship landed at the flight station of Settlement Mirah. I was a little relieved to be back on solid ground but more concerned with getting back to my ship. The officers followed on my heels as I stormed out of the ship as the doors lowered to the ground.

    Voices exploded through my skull. Officer Byrne lost her footing and fell down the ramp, colliding with a small man holding a thin stick. They went down in a heap. Officer Peterson clapped his hands over his ears, screwing his face tightly. I flinched and exclaimed aloud, pain radiating through my brain as the crowd screamed at us with their voices and their thoughts.

    "Is it true you are the crew of the legendary Patriot I?"

    "They look like ghosts! Why?"

    "Who are you?"

    "Where have you been?"

    "Where is your ship?"

    "Why are you pretending that you are of the Patriot I?"

    "This bloody bitch—"

    The last thought caught my attention. The man that Officer Byrne had crashed into looked murderous at the woman as she tried to get to her feet, eyes shut tight with agony. He swung his fist to hit her back away. I stepped forward and caught his wrist tightly, making the shorter man cry out. The crowd quieted aloud as their thoughts turned to wary caution.

    "Back. Up," I gritted through clenched teeth. The man tugged at his wrist, eyes flashing. "What the hell is this?! These crazy people—"

    I shoved him backwards and grabbed Officer Byrne by the back of her shirt. She stumbled as I helped her to her feet. Officer Peterson appeared at my side, catching her arm and throwing it over his shoulders. I lifted a hand and roared, "Everyone one of you, shut up!"

    They finally fell silent. Their thoughts ravaged my mind and added to the pain. I spoke through tight teeth, "I don't know who you think you are, but if I see any single one of you following us, I'm reminding you what a bullet feels like. Understand?"

    "Holy shit."

    "A bullet? Isn't that from Earth?"

   "What pissed her off?"

   "Why do they look so sick?"

   "Crap, she looks serious."

    The crowd parted instantly. I helped Officer Peterson aid Officer Byrne with her footing. She looked faint, dazed from the sensory overload. I cursed under my breath and found Mayor Spencer's pod landing close-by. The doors had barely opened before I hauled us all up the ramp. Mayor Spencer had been in the process of going out and he backed up, alarmed. "What happened?"

    "A bloody crowd of reporters is what happened." I helped Officer Byrne sit down. "It overloaded Officer Byrne. Peterson, get her some water."

    "Yes, First Officer." He hurried to the small fridge nearby and opened the door. I turned to the Mayor, seething. "How the hell did they know where we were landing? You said there might be rumors – they knew for sure who we were."

    Mayor Spencer sat down, rubbing his head. "I sent my troops to your ship. As soon as they were in formation, an article about it appeared on the database. Within minutes reporters were scrambling to get to the ship. I've had a hundred men around it for hours. It's been chaos."

    "How did the author of the article know?"

    "I don't know. I'm setting up an investigation for a mole in my troops right now." Mayor Spencer looked worried. "On the bad side, with how many people have been around the Patriot, it would be remarkably easy for someone to slip out or in without being noticed."

    Officer Byrne pressed a hand against her forehead. "I-It makes sense. It seems that the intruder on the ship had a friend and posted the article as a distraction. He will be long gone."

    "Intruder?" Mayor Spencer blanched, alarmed. "Someone was on the ship?"

    "We need to get moving." I wasn't about to waste time because of a distraction. "I assume this pod can move faster than I've seen before."

    The Mayor nodded hurriedly. He left the main room to speak to the pilot. I turned to Officer Byrne. "My apologies, Officer. I should have noticed the crowd before allowing you to fall right into it."

    Her lips pressed as she finally opened her eyes. Her eyebrows were creased with pain. "I had no idea it could hurt that much..."

    "It seems that this particular side effect has drawbacks." I shook my head, agitated. Mayor Spencer returned. The pod trembled and began to rise off of the ground. Within minutes and it was landing. I didn't hesitate in taking the lead on jumping out, only to find several barrels of odd weapons being pointed at me. My eyes narrowed and my hand went for my gun.

    "Who the hell is this?"

   "Obvious military training—"

   "Where's the Mayor?"

   "Easy!" Mayor Spencer rushed out of the pod, waving his hand. "Stand down. This is an ally."

   The military troop had formed a circle around the Patriot. I studied the weapon in the closest soldier's . It had the feel of an old rifle, with a long barrel and a section to place in a new shell. However, the band of ammo that was strapped across the shoulders of the soldier had capsules of yellow that glowed. This was a zodiac that Mayor Spencer had mentioned earlier.

   Officer Peterson helped Byrne down as they stepped down the ramp. I headed straight for my ship without hesitation, shouldering past the soldier in the way. His thoughts sputtered with bafflement and irritation as I broke free of the circle. At the last soldier, I pretended to knock into her and muttered an apology. My hands stuffed what I'd taken from her belt in the small of my back.

   "What's going on?" A soldier demanded of Mayor Spencer. The colors on his arm told of rank. I didn't hear the rest before I found the entrance keypad to the Patriot's interior and entered my handprint. The doors hissed as they lowered down. The soldiers shouted and backed up.

   I ushered my Officers inside before closing the doors and locking an extra brace over it. Turning around, I spoke sharply. "Officer Peterson, get to the control room and find where the intruder went. Byrne and I are going to the chamber to check on the capsules. Radio for help if you need it and come back as soon as you're done."

    With a nod, he disappeared down a different hall. Officer Byrne and I jogged to the chamber. Officer Byrne suddenly caught my arm. "Wait!"

    "What is it?"

    She pointed down at the ground. I saw what she was trying to show me and grimaced. In the thick dust, there was a set of footprints that were not from Patriot-issued boots. I pulled out my glock and cocked the gun. "Get behind me."

    Officer Byrne looked disgruntled but she obeyed. Taking the lead, I jogged down the hall as quietly as I could. The footprints halted at the chamber doors and simply disappeared. Officer Byrne stared. "That makes no sense. They got stopped by the door and never touched the ground again?"

    I looked up and saw no air vents. Grunting, I opened the chamber door. "Check on them. I'll figure out how he pulled that off." She hurried inside while I shoved the glock into the holster and examined the walls carefully. The intruder came straight here and halted, then his footsteps vanish. He couldn't have touched the floors. There aren't any handholds or air vents to use. How did he do it?

    Ten minutes later and I'd found absolutely nothing. I growled under my breath, running a hand over my fuzzy head. How did he do it? I knew the ship incredibly well and logic said that I was seeing something impossible. Officer Byrne found me in an annoyed state once she returned. "Everyone is perfectly healthy. The computer says the intruder never triggered the heat sensors or tried the door at all. The lack of footsteps proves it."

    "I wouldn't trust a lack of footsteps at this point." My face tightened briefly in my frustration before I headed toward the computer room. "I can't find how the intruder pulled that off. There's no way it should be possible, and yet it is."

    Officer Byrne's hairless eyebrows knitted together. "Are you sure?"

    I gave her a deadpan look. "Go look for yourself later, Officer Byrne." I opened the door to the computer room and found Officer Peterson by the largest cabinet of glowing lights, plugged into it directly and looking at a glass tablet. He glanced up as we entered. "Good news and bad news."

    "Let me hear it." I looked down and saw the correct amount of footprints before looking back up. Officer Peterson read his tablet. "The computer log shows no doors being opened except for random hallway doors that open with movement detection. The hull was never breached and no security door was ever touched. The hall sensors never picked anything up either."

    "That makes no sense. We saw the intruder on the cameras."

    "Exactly. The cameras catch the intruder as he first enters the cargo room, makes his way to the chamber, and then the camera starts to have trouble. The frames slow down that it looks like he just vanishes." Peterson's face was worried. "Then he does the same in the hall of the electron battery storage. And he somehow got into the room."

    My heart sank and I grimaced. "What did he take?"

    "One electron battery."

   Officer Byrne frowned. "Just one? He had access to several, fully charged and he takes one?"

    "I don't understand it either, but the supply check ran seconds after the cameras show he's gone for good. One's missing."

    My jaw ticked. "What's the effect?"

    Officer Peterson looked up, his face starkly pale. "With one missing, we can't wake the whole Bridge crew without sacrificing a different crew member. The power level as dipped so low that the computer won't willingly wake up anyone until it gets more."

    The reality of what he was saying sunk in. I turned around to hide the flash of emotion as it crossed my face. My fingers clenched tightly into a fist. Whoever they were, they had crippled us effortlessly. Breaking into the ship without a trace and making it so that my crew was stuck frozen. This person was smart. And now, I was even more trapped and suffocated than I had been before.

    "That's just because of the safety precautions, right?" Officer Byrne asked. "We can override them or change the code, can't we?"

    "We won't be doing anything of the sort," I replied sharply. I turned back around just in time to see the anger cross her face. "Those are there for a reason. We might as well take away the heat-resistant coating on the hull and let it burn in landing if we delete those safety precautions."

    "Then what is your plan?" She demanded, seething. "Just going to let the crew remain frozen until you get the balls to go outside of your code?"

    Officer Peterson's eyes widened as mine narrowed. "Watch your tongue, Byrne."

    "I'm done with pretending that you have any idea what you're doing." Her nostrils flared as she headed for the door, her boots thudding in her wake. "You're too much of a coward to take a risk for once in your life. Come talk to me once you've grown a pair." The door closed after her. Somehow it sounded like a slam.

    An eerie calm came over me. Inside I was seething with rage. Outside I was coolly collected. I spoke without an ounce of emotion in my tone. "Officer Peterson?"

    "Y-Yes?"

    "Revoke her rank privileges from the computer. I want an alert every time she tries to access any data or use her old rank powers for anything in the database. And I want it to block her attempts. She is also banned from the Bridge and the Bridge Crew's lounge."

    Officer Peterson did as I said with shaky hands. A few minutes later and something pinged on his tablet. He swallowed nervously. "It's done, First Officer."