Chapter three: Her side of the story

Quickly they they went down to the containment module in the middle of the ship. They got there and she looked unphased and oddly confident.

"lets start with your name," oliver aksed.

"I am the princesses, but I'm guessing you want to know the name registered with my trillions of credit. In that case, I am Julia Larson."

"Any connection to lexa larson?" Oliver asked her.

"Oh yes, fire banks for hair, jokes a lot, absolute genius. Yes thats my sister." she dropped the bombshell on them.

Silence.

More silence.

Oliver looked at Ari who looked back at him.

They couldn't believe what they had just heard.

"Okay you two into the next cell,"Ari told chad and jinie.

That made to Oliver since after all he knew they could be working for her.

" powerful and paranoid, thats a combination i haven't seen before,"said julia from within the cell.

" One's an engineer and the other is a somewhat soldier. You guys are practically supermen in those suits. "she added.

" Fine, they can come up to the bridge," Oliver said.

" You guys go ahead," he added.

They slowly left got into the elevator. Ari got in first and chad and jinie followed. She looked taller than them because of the X-20 suit. The shinny silver elevator doors were shut, and Oliver looked at his own reflection. They were gone.

"Okay, Julia Larson tell me why there's a bounty for a million credits to your name?" Oliver asked her hopping to get anything.

She was mad, fuming at the point. If looks could kill, the look she was giving him could kill him ten times over.

"I'm a fucking princess, you simpleton."she cursed.

"Okay spoiled girl, i guess you stay quiet till we get to deposit you to the galactic Government."Oliver said standing up to go away.

"WAIT," she shouted from within the cell.

He turned and looked at her, expecting her to start talking before he left her all by herself.

"The galactic government is as corrupt as a third world country. The blight are everywhere, i won't even get booked before they snatch me to an unmapped moon or planet." she spilled the tea.

"so why do they want you?" Oliver indulged her.

"Aldum is rare, and complicated to extract. I have stashes hidden all over the galaxy." she told him.

This was starting to make a some of sense. The blight were know to be ruthless in thier conquest. They enforced fear to all they wanted to control and decimated those that they couldn't control. Powerful people like julia could make a stand and help the galaxy get rid of the blight.

"You do know that they blow up planets that fail to accept their rule. Literally." Oliver told her.

"its that mentality that has enabled their expanse through our galaxy. I'll make a stand whether they destroy me or not comes later. Now do as your masters command you and deliver me to the puppets you call a government." she retorted.

Oliver knew he couldn't reason with her and needed to get a good pay day and mind his own business. Walked to the elevator and to the bridge. Ari had engaged the tractor beam to salvage powerful cores of the exploded ships for auctioning. For a significantly advanced ship, they did a lot of scavenging. It paid well, and all they wanted was to maintain their tab at McLarens bar and an occasional meal.

Oliver wished he was a bit more ambitious, that he couldn't get sleepy every time he thought about buying an aldum ore rich astreoid or a planetoid as a way station. Most of his credits were stored away.

He was a bit richer than most, with 65 million credits to his name with a 40 million worth ship put his networth well above 100 million. Most astreoids cost about 10 to 20 million with a planetoid twice the size of earths moon was in a range of 60 to 100 million.

The last of the cores were loaded in and it was time to leave before the space cops got there.

"we have 30 billion watt cores, thats ten million at best," Ari couldn't hide her smile.

"Ivy set course for Mars Prime," Oliver ordered.

The ships engines started pulsating, in a way charging up for FTL.

Silence, Everything went silent and they were traveling faster than light.

"3 hours to ETA," Ivy announced.

Oliver walked to his sleeping quaters. Took a deep breath and sighed. His room had a display screen covering one of the walls. He turned it own and it showed real time events outside the ship.

Lines of star light grazed by his skin, he couldn't sleep. His eyes remained open his body still and numb, couldn't move, didn't want to either way.

"ivy play drifting," he said.

The AI didn't respond, instead the sound from a guitar resonated in the room. From an outside perspective, he was in peace awaiting his arrival to a wonderful payday. But deep inside he was far from it, he was the furthest he could be from peace.

What is the reason for existence, he wondered. Why not just be gone and be free from all the struggle. May be it was all needless and all the lust for money and power or good deeds was for nothing and nothing in the universe truly mattered.

He was lonely.

The worst of the worst, julia (the princess) had family or at least someone that cared. He however had ari who had been with him for a year and lexa who had her business to maintain. Ooh and ivy, the ever reliable AI.

As the song went on his eyes became more watery, and he let a tear trickle to the sides of his temples since he was lying on his back in his bed.

The display beeped and ari had just gotten out of the x 20 suit. She was in the kitchen when the display showed lexa calling.

"someone is hailing," jinie from where she was seated.

Ari heard her and went to seat at her seat next to Olivers.

"Ivy," she said and the call was connected.

She smiled, it was lexa calling.

"You have a lot of explaining to do," ari starts.

"what do you mean?" lexa cofused.

"Picked up a bounty on the princess, sounds familiar?" Ari added.

"I'll explain when you get to mars prime. There is a new job.The Galactic government has discovered the biggest magnetar yet. Their ships are spread thin in the war, so they want to hire you to pick up data and set up an orbitor for star mapping. Where is Oliver?"

"probably in his room, he was questioning your sister." Ari tells her.

"Well update him and check on him, well talk more when you get here." she finishes.

Her face is gone from the screen. She stood up and walked to the sleeping quarters. She only has to walk and gets into olivers room. She peaks in and realizes what he's going through. The music is loud and Oliver is silent in tears.

She locks the door behind her and gets into the bed. She holds his head close to her chest and remains quiet.

The music isn't as loud anymore.

It's a distant sound not reconizable, a remedy to try to drain away whatever it is he is feeling deep inside.