Untitled Book Pt.3

His heart raced as he ran to the control bridge, he needed to call that ship back before it activated its drill and disturbed the sleeping beasts. “Get that ship back! Captain Graen, it needs to come back now!” James yells as he shoves the door open, rushing over and slamming his fist down on the button that activated the beacon to recall ships. “There is something out there that can not be disturbed until we know more about it!” He yells as he points back at the floating mass.

“Relax James, it is just a floating rock that we need to probe for resources.” Captain Graen says as he looks at him, his brow furrowed in slight annoyance as he had seen him rush in like a madman. “Besides, it’s ridiculous that those rocks would be anything but rocks.” He steps forward and reaches to deactivate the beacon, not wanting to have his time wasted. “You may be someone of…importance, but here, I’m in charg-” The captain was cut off as James grabbed his wrist, his eyes pleading with him, his grip surprisingly strong to the captain.

“Just wait…” He says as he reaches into his pocket, pulling out the large claw from his pocket and placing it down on the control panel for the captain to see. “There is no recorded predator that has claws this big, whatever it was that I found...it came from that.” He exhales as he sees a look of understanding from the captain and then watches as the older man deactivates the beacon and turns away from him and shakes his head, “What are you doing?” He asks as he sees the guards step forward and grab his shoulders.

“It is laughable you would think that some mere beast would be able to take down this ship. Guards, take him to the brig, he can stay there until we finish this little expedition. I, Captain William Graen, will be the one to take the credit for any discoveries, not you.” He turns back to face James, a grin spread across his features before motioning for the guards to take him away, watching as he screams and curses, fighting to get away before a guard promptly puts the butt of his rifle to James, silencing him as he slumped down.

Just as James' consciousness faded, a bellowing roar rippled through the air, the guards dropping him to the floor in surprise. There was an explosion in the direction from where the roar had emanated, a slab of metal lodging itself into the ship. Several more roars pierced the air, not as powerful as the first one but was enough to strike fear. The captain yelling through the mic at the crew aboard was the last thing he heard as the darkness took him.

“James, the Delkian empire may be vast, but there are still parts of this large world we live on that are still undiscovered, I only hope that you will be as curious as I was in my prime. You’re my youngest son, and watching you grow up, you had that same enthusiasm that I had when I was younger. I can only hope that you will follow in my footsteps.” A harsh cough followed as the man lay there in bed, disease had reduced the once powerful patriarch of the Orlavis family to a husk of his former self. “Just promise me James that you will keep searching, look for those answers to the mysteries around us.” He raises his hand, a rolled up map in his tight grip, urging James to take it.

The map was large in James' small hands, taking it from his father as he grabbed his hand after putting the map in the waist of his pants. “I promise Dad, I’ll keep searching, I’ll make you proud Dad!” He yells as he crumples on the bed, doing his best to hug his father as another coughing fit ripped through his body. James' tears dampened his fathers shirt as he hugged him tight, feeling his father lie still under him. He was overcome by grief as tears rolled down his cheeks, gripping his father tighter as he felt someone trying to tug him away.

“James! James! Wake up! James, you have to wake up!” A feminine voice piercing his subconscious as his fathers face began to blur, the tugging of his shoulder was a lot more gentle, a soft hand patting his bearded cheek. He slowly opens his eyes as he raises his hand up to clasp the hand on his cheek, looking up at Sera, surprised to see her looking so worried. “What happened?” He asks Sera as he lays there, wincing as he shifts his weight, the sore spot from the guards rifle striking him, throbbing.

“One of the drill ships woke something up and then all hell broke loose. The ship was destroyed and shrapnel struck the side. We had to do an emergency landing.” Sera says as she softly runs her fingers through his hair, “I couldn’t find you when it all happened but the Captain has left the engineers here to fix things up while he decides to go play explorer.” She laughs, rolling her eyes at the thought. “I don’t know what destroyed that ship, and I don’t want to find out. I just can't believe we lost Ben, he was one of our best.” Sera clenches her fist, easing up as she feels James' hand.