Chapter Thirteen

The temperature in the room quickly warmed causing my hands and face to burn. It felt almost as if we were suddenly sitting inside a very hot steam room. A small bead of sweat ran down the side of my cheek. I quickly whipped it away only to have another one form at the top of my forehead. I tried to slow my breathing as my hands gripped the back of the chair in front of me.

We were back on the Iliad. The small ship jerked to the side, sending all of flying into the back wall. The vessel then jutted back to the other side. Gave and Theo slid across the floor as Audrina and I went air born again before the motion finally stopped. My hands quickly rubbed around my body making sure there were no broken bones or cuts.

I took in a deep breath of air. My lungs felt heavy felt as I looked around at the others as we all tried to stand back upright. The temperature inside the Iliad continued to get hotter and hotter.

"Any idea what's going on?" Audrina asked.

"No," we all responded. Samuel looked over at a monitor. "We need to get this ship to cool down here pretty soon or we're going to have a very big problem on our hands."

"Why is it so hot Samuel?"

"I don't know. I'm assuming it's just normal temperature differences."

The floor underneath our feet began to melt away as four large grey holes developed. The holes grew wider and then taller. It looked as if a liquid form of metal was slowly growing into a tall blob right in front of our faces. What appeared to be a pointed nose jutted out from the shiny thing in front of me. It was the only part of the blob's smooth surface that resembled a face. The rest was flat.

"Leave Merak!" A loud, shrilly voice sliced through my thoughts.

"We will," I responded, looking around at the others. They must have all heard the same statement.

"Now leave!" The voice sounded almost broken as if some sort of translator was being used for it to communicate with us.

"We can't. You are messing with the ship's controls."

The metallic blob in front of me sunk down into the floor and then quickly rose back up towards my face. It disappeared again and then appeared in front of Samuel. "Thieves. I knew you would be back"

"Thieves?" Samuel responded as his eyes narrowed in on the four things in front of us and then turned to look at the rest of us. "They must think we are here to steal the RaCO."

"Leave," the first blob came back over towards me. I could feel its energy. My hand slowly came up from my side, palm facing towards the thing in front of me. The energy grew stronger the closer it got. Suddenly, a loud explosion erupted in the space between my hand at the thing. Instinctively, I jerked it backwards.

"Did you see that?" I looked around at the others.

"Yes," they all responded in unison.

"Its metal based," Samuel nodded. "I'm not surprised because of the RaCO. Be careful. We could electrify everything around us and that would definitely keep us from being able to leave."

The holes quickly disappeared and the temperature inside of the Iliad turned cool. I looked down just as my feet left the floor.

We were now floating, almost in a dream like state. The droplet of my own fluids floated in front of me as my hair hovered over the top of my head.

"Alright, let's get out of here."

"Wait!" I put my hand on his shoulder. "We need to figure out what the Napoleon is going to do. There are too many normals on that ship for us to just leave."

"That's fine," Samuel looked over at the controls. "I'm not sure this ship could take off right now anyways."

"Caleb, please scan the ship and let us know if anything was damaged."

"Already done. It doesn't look like there was any damage."

"But it was really hot in here—"

"No Captain James. Your individual body temperatures show an increase, but the actual ship wasn't impacted."

"Thank you."

"I think we are going to have to split up," Samuel said. "Esa, you, Theo and Luther will stay with the Iliad and will follow the Napoleon off of Merak. Audrina, Gave and I will go and take control of the Napoleon."

"And how exactly do you plan on taking control over that massive ship? Do you even know how to fly the thing?"

"I helped create it," Samuel said flatly. "And Audrina was one of the test pilots."

I looked over at Audrina. "Is that true?"

"Yes. It was while you were gone. I should have said something earlier, but so much has happened."

"Well, well, well, now this is getting good," Luther's voice said from somewhere behind me. "What else aren't you telling us Audrina?"

"Shut up Luther. I'm really not in the mood to hear your voice."

"Ditto."

"Then be quiet."

"I don't have to listen to you," Luther shot back. "You made me feel like I was the traitor, but you also have been keeping secrets."

"That's right. You've never listened to me. You are one of the biggest reasons we keep finding ourselves in these predicaments," Audrina snapped back at Luther.

Theo walked in between them. "Enough. We don't have time for this discussion. I can feel my temperature start to rise again and it obviously has to do with the two of you and not the Meradors."

"Me too," I responded reluctantly.

"Samuel, Audrina and Gave, you need to go. Now!" Theo said.

Samuel didn't hesitate and tapped his medallion. I watched as they jumped out of the Iliad. Instantly, there was a loud boom.

The temperature began to rise even more as everything inside of the ship began to slowly sink down into a black space underneath us. It was almost as if the ground was swallowing the entire vessel.

"Theo, what's happening?!"

"I don't know!" He yelled back as we both braced ourselves.

"Luther? Are you still here?"

"Yes!" He ran back into the room. "But I have a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. We should have jumped!"

I tapped my medallion. We had told Samuel we would stay, but that was before it looked like remaining here would mean death.

Nothing happened.

"Try again," Theo screamed.

"I did. Nothing is happening. Maybe Samuel will come back for us..."

As the last word left my voice, the entire ship went dark. We were falling.