Chapter 49: A Tiny Explosion
"That would be the one," confirmed my helmet. I needed to come up with a name for her. She quite clearly had a bubbly personality and referring to her just as my helmet seemed a bit... weird.
"Fuck," I grumbled under my breath, preparing myself to leave the craft again in order to take the drive out of the slot and put it into the control center of the fighter.
"Or I could tell you how to fly this ship without Jun Li’s help," continued the helmet slyly.
"How?" I asked skeptically. I mean, I wouldn’t put it past my helmet to try and one-up Jun Li and not care if it screwed me over or not.
"This whole ship is Saalistaja design and technology. I don’t know how they actually managed it, but they did. And if it is Saalistaja design, then I can tell you how to fly it," said my helmet confidently. "After all, I am also Saalistaja technology."
"Fine," I said as I walked over to the front of the ship and to the single-seat command bridge. Sitting down in the oversized chair, I spun around and saw a very small computer screen. "And what do I call you anyways? I think you have really outgrown your role as my helmet program."
"My name, translated into the language that you understand, is Swift Killer."
"Xun Jie Sha Shou," I roughly translated, trying to come up with a name. "I’ll call you Sha Shou."
"What does that mean?"
"It roughly translates to Killer," I said with a shrug. I now had a spaceship called Merciless and a helmet/body armor called Killer. I think the universe was guiding my life in a very particular direction.
"Sha Shou. I like it," said my helmet approvingly.
"Alright, Sha Shou. Tell me how to fly this thing," I said as I leaned forward and stared at the computer screen in front of me. It looked like a completely different system than what Jun Li had on his bridge. Maybe I shouldn’t have listened to Sha Shou and just retrieved the drive instead.
"Place your hand on the center of the screen in front of you," said Sha Shou and I did as she asked.
"Done," I said, but before I could even finish speaking, I saw black lines trailing out of my palm and through the computer screen. It almost looked like I had cracked the display as soon as I touched it.
"Paired," said Sha Shou in a more mechanical voice than I had heard in a while. "Alright!" came the more cheerful voice that I had become to associate with Sha Shou. "All done!"
The lights in the cockpit fluttered for a second before turning on, and I could hear the ramp coming up from the back of the ship.
"What do I do?" I asked as I took my hand away from the monitor. Sitting back in the chair, I waited for Sha Shou to help me fly the fighter craft. As soon as I got this ship out of the Icrerth Nebula, I could head to Thuzirus and sell my first batch of weapons. Easy peezy, lemon squeezy.
"All you need to do is input Jun Li’s coordinates into your wrist unit," said Sha Shou.
Not quite believing her, I imputed the last known coordinates for Jun Li: 39.905714, 116.391297.
As soon as I punched in the last number, the ship shot forward, the force pushing me against the chair. Seeing a five-point seatbelt, I quickly put it on. "Aren’t we going in the wrong direction?" I asked. I had approached the ship from behind which meant that if we were going back to where Jun Li was waiting, we should have turned around and proceeded in the opposite direction.
"We are getting out of this nebula as fast as possible," answered Sha Shou from the speaker inside the ship. "And you might want to keep your armor on until we successfully clear this space," she continued as the speed of the craft began to increase.
"Imminent explosion, imminent explosion. All crew, prepare for the imminent explosion of the Icrerth Nebula," came a male mechanical voice over the speakers.
"What is going on?" I asked, more than a little concerned. I mean, ’imminent explosion’ did not sound like a good thing.
"Oh, nothing," replied Sha Shou, not sounding at all stressed. "The nebula has successfully created a planet so there is going to be a tiny explosion as the remaining gasses dissipate. It is probably a good thing that you managed to get into the ship when you did. I don’t recommend being outside in space when this happens."
I had just opened my mouth when the fighter craft that I was in started to shake and shudder, almost as if it was about to come apart. Then there was a huge push from behind us and all of the instruments on the control panel lit up like a Christmas tree. The ship started to flip and spin out of control, kind of like me when I was first ejected into space.
"Warning, warning. Brace for impact!" came the mechanical voice over the speakers.
"Sha Shou?" I asked, now gripping the handles of the pilot’s chair as hard as I could. My stomach was once again feeling like I was on a rollercoaster ride. I was seconds away from puking when the ship stopped shaking and slowed down.
"Yes, Mei Xing?" came the cheerful voice inside my helmet.
"That was not my definition of a tiny explosion," I said doing my best to swallow past the lump of bile in my throat. I refused to puke, but that was more of a pride thing than anything else.
"Understood," said my helmet and I could practically see her shrugging her shoulders. I smiled a tight smile as I watched the bright lights and colors of the nebula vanish around me as if it never existed. "But at least it pushed us far away from the new planet that we don’t have to worry about gravitational pull."
"Yay," I said in a deadpan voice. "How long until we get to Jun Li?"
"Bai Mei XING!" screamed a voice in my ear. "Answer me!" continued Jun Li, and I had to smile at the pure panic in his voice. Apparently, the AI was worried about me.
