Chapter 266: The Final Goodbye
"What the fuck are you made out of?!?" screamed Pippa as she and Stargazer lobbed every last missile, energy blast, and bullet at us.
At first, the guys were stressed. They kept glancing at me and then up to the camera that they knew was Jun Li, looking for some kind of reassurance. But after half an hour or so had passed, they began to relax, talking amongst themselves quietly.
Her words made me pause for a second as I tried to remember exactly what Jun Li’s outer shell was made of. "A—" I started. There were some weird symbols in the word that I had read, and I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to pronounce it.
"Anaranthium," said Jun Li, his voice still voice of emotion. I didn’t know if he was doing it to protect himself from the pain of killing off another L-series or if he just didn’t give a fuck and was bored. With that AI, it really could have been either one.
However, as soon as he had finished speaking, it was like a bomb had gone off on the command bridge.
"What the fuck! That is impossible," said Tha’juen, spinning around to stare at me like I knew what was going on.
I looked at him weirdly. Wasn’t it just a type of metal? What was so special about it? I mean, based on what I have seen, it is pretty much impenetrable, but it’s not like Jun Li was the only ship ever to have it installed.
"I can assure you. It is very possible," said Jun Li, and I could hear the smirk in his voice. His enjoyment of sending everyone off balance made me smile.
"I have yet to hear any ship being able to survive." Ye’tab had a weird look on his face that I couldn’t read. "How did you?"
Okay, so maybe it isn’t a matter of having extra metal plates installed onto the outside of this ship. Now, I was curious.
"What is he talking about?" I asked, looking up at Jun Li. "Isn’t it just a matter of having something installed on the outside?"
"Anaranthium cannot be manipulated," said Jun Li slowly. "It can’t be cut, installed, or changed once the metal has been cooled."
"Okay?"
"He would have to be completely dipped into the liquid anaranthium and then taken out and allowed to harden. I have heard of a few ships that had attempted it, but the outer hull melted well before the anaranthium could take. They were completely destroyed, all hands lost," said Ye’tab, his voice gentle as he looked at me.
"I don’t actually remember it all," admitted Jun Li. "It was done years before I was freed. The old captain had dropped himself and his crew off on a pleasure planet and imputed the planet’s coordinates. As soon as they had left, I flew to Rath and dove into the largest pool that I could find."
There was stunned silence as he had spoken; even Pippa’s screams had stopped as she listened to his story.
"They took a risk," muttered Tha’juen, but I shook my head.
"What risk? They were all safe and sound. Probably getting laid. I am sure that if he had never come back, they would have found an excuse for it," I said, more than aware of how the mind of the captain worked.
He was always looking for the biggest reward with the least amount of danger to him. Hell, that was why I had all of the weapons I needed to try and become a weapons dealer. Now, I didn’t need the money, and I had carved out a pretty good life for myself without all the inherent dangers.
"I remember feeling my outer shell melting," said Jun Li. He sounded lost in thought like he was reliving his experience all over again. "It was easy to fly into the lava, but it was much harder getting out. I remember straining my engines to the point where they almost exploded. But they could be repaired. I couldn’t be."
"After a few minutes of struggle, I managed to get out of the thick substance. As soon as I was in the air, the anaranthium turned solid, but my old hull was nowhere to be seen," he continued, and I could imagine just how much pain he would have been in if he could feel pain.
It was probably a good thing that he couldn’t.
"I wonder just how many ships have managed to succeed," muttered Ye’tab, and I chuckled.
"There is no database with that information. If there were any ships that managed to do the same thing, they wouldn’t advertise it," replied Jun Li.
There was silence as everyone processed what Jun Li had said. It was Pippa who seemed to have processed everything much sooner than the rest of us.
"Why does everything good happen to you while I am stuck on this crap piece of flying metal? It’s not fair," she screamed. I wanted to mute her, but I also wanted to hear what she had to say. "You are going to give me your ship right now!"
That statement caused me to burst out laughing. Could she really not see what was so clearly in front of her face? She was going to die. And there was nothing I was going to do to stop it.
"They are out," said Jun Li, muting the open link between us and Stargazer.
"It’s your call," I answered with a shrug of my shoulders. I would not command him to kill or destroy. That would ultimately be his decision.
He grunted his understanding, and all of a sudden, I could hear Pippa’s voice again filling up the command bridge.
I watched as all the alarms on her side started going off, and Stargazer announcing that Jun Li had locked on the other ship’s position. There was a look of panic on Pippa’s face as she understood what was going on.
My face never changed as I watched the screen in front of me turn bright red before it blacked out. Jun Li quickly switched the camera feed so that we could see what was going on outside.
I saw the explosion as Stargazer seemed to crumple in on himself before exploding outward.
This wasn’t one of those books or movies that left you guessing about whether the villain was really dead. There was no coming back from that.
Goodbye Pippa. At least the devil now has company.
