A man in a space suit designed with a minimalist silhouette of a blue soaring bird across his chest was running inside a space cruiser's hallway. Its metal walls had patches of rust here and there; the storage bins overhead were full of clutter, and some of the lights were already flickering.
"With all the looting these guys do, why don't they spend some of that money on repairs?" he muttered to himself.
He stopped when a group of grey-skinned space pirates in flashy but mismatched clothing came out of one of the doors. They had flaming orange hair and orange eyes with yellow sclerae, and their lips seemed to be permanently pouted even through their boisterous laughter.
"Perfect," he smirked.
He pulled out two identical silver guns and aimed. However, in their drunken state, the pirates didn't seem to notice him even though he was just a couple of meters away.
"That was some good booze. Anyone remember which planet we got it from? We need to go back and steal some more!" they guffawed, their cheeks flushed and steps unsteady.
"So careless..." He pouted, then yelled. "Hey, guys! There's an intruder!"
He finally caught their attention and they looked his way. "Where?" one asked in between hiccups.
"Right here!" he said in a singsong voice, grinning like a kid.
Blue lights danced around his weapons like fireflies, luring the pirates' intoxicated gaze until all of the lights gathered at the barrels. They instantly sobered up when he started firing above them.
While the drunken aliens were still in shock, he took that moment to dash past them, taunting them over his shoulder.
"Catch me if you can!"
"Why that little...! After him!" they bellowed.
They barely took one step before there was a collective crash. The man didn't bother to turn around to see that the storage bins fell on them after he aimed at the hinges.
"Tala, I've got their attention," he spoke into the wing-shaped earpiece tucked beneath his short dark hair.
"Awesome! Now just go where I say and keep them occupied for a while. We're counting on you, Karl," a woman on the other line said.
"Roger that."
Meanwhile, at that moment elsewhere on the ship, six astronauts and a civilian were locked up in a holding cell.
"So were you abducted en route as well, like the rest of us?" One of the three female astronauts tried to start a conversation with the only one who was in a beige coverall and a matching cap.
"Not exactly. I'm more of a stowaway," he smiled without taking his eyes off an old, tattered book that he was reading.
"What?! Why would you sneak onto a space pirate's ship?"
"I have my reasons."
A group of space pirates making their rounds stopped and banged on the grills, interrupting their chat. "Listen up, punks. If Earth doesn't give into our demands within a few hours, all of you will be executed."
A male astronaut who looks to be in his early 20s snorted. "Yeah, right. Well too bad for you Earth's got GDF, buddy. They're gonna come rescue us soon."
"They're not coming." The stowaway snapped his book close, then looked straight into the eyes of one of the space pirates and smirked. "They're already here."
As if on cue, another pirate came running as he yelled, "Intruder! There's an intruder on our ship!"
They all turned to the screen on the wall where Karl was being chased by an angry mob twice his size.
"Ha! This tiny guy? Don't make me laugh. We can easily blow him off this ship like a harmless little leaf" The pirate jeered, and then left with his minions. "Come on! Looks like we've got a little mouse to catch."
"That 'tiny guy' happens to have the force of a tornado," the man with a book muttered under his breath, and then got up. He tossed his cap to the side and took off his coverall, revealing a space suit underneath similar to what the intruder on screen was wearing, except for the colour of the soaring bird logo, his was purple. "Well then everyone, that's our cue to leave."
"I thought I'd seen you before. You're Captain Chris Norland, leader of GDF's Team Alpha!" one of the older astronauts, a bearded gentleman, said.
"At your service," he nodded, then tapped on his own wing-shaped ear cuff hidden under his short, wavy brown locks, which grew, expanding all over his head until it turned into a full helmet."Tala, we're ready to go."
"Yes, sir. Karl is clearing a path for you and Hogan's backing him up," Tala replied. "Bianca will open the door for you now."
As soon as she said that, the grills slid open.
"Thank you, Bianca. Everyone, let's go."
"Aye, Captain!" Another girl with a higher pitch spoke. "I've taken over the cruiser's control now. Once the hostages get on the escape pod, I will initiate hyperdrive."
"All right. I'll let you know as soon as we get there," Chris said, then turned to the astronauts. "Follow me."
With Tala's navigation, Chris led the astronauts to the hangar where they were able to board an escape pod.
"Bianca, they're in. Set their coordinates for their original destination. As soon as the pod launches, start this ship's countdown to go on hyperdrive."
"Roger!" Bianca replied on the other line, and then the escape pod's control panel lit up as the engines whirred. But before they were able to take off, the space pirates came rushing in.
"Stop! You're surrounded!"
One glance and Chris confirmed there were indeed pirates all over the hangar. Including the ones on the upper decks, he estimated there were at least fifty, all with their weapons aimed at them.
With a calm smile that reached all the way to his sapphire eyes, he simply answered, "not for long. Bianca, proceed with takeoff!"
"Yes, Captain!"
As the escape pod took off, Karl came dashing in and shot at the pirates, carefully sliding and dodging to avoid getting hit while drawing all the shots to him. When Karl stopped firing, the leader of the pirates mocked him seeing none of them were hurt.
"Ha! What's the point of having two guns if you can't hit your target?" He mocked, smirking with pouted lips.
Ignoring them, Karl walked straight to Chris, face relaxed into a soft grin "Let's go, Captain."
"All right." Chris nodded then spoke to his watch. "Ava, send Alpha 1 in."
"Roger," the feminine voice of a virtual assistant replied.
"As if we'll let you! Get them!!!" The leader of the pirates hollered.
When no one shot, he turned around, furious. "What are you waiting for? Fire!!!"
"B… Boss! The triggers are broken. We can't fire our weapons!"
At those words, Karl looked over his shoulder and imitated the pirate leader's voice, pouting theatrically.
"What's the point of having guns if you can't blast 'em?"
The pirate let out a mad holler then pulled out a gas bomb. Karl instinctively moved in front of his captain to shield him. But before the pirate could throw his grenade it exploded in his hand. Chris swiftly tapped Karl's earpiece to activate the ace pilot's helmet.
Karl looked up to a man standing on the upper decks with a long rifle and grinned. "Thanks, mate."
"Anytime," the sniper said over their communicator as he gave a playful salute, then jumped off the rail, using one of the cables to swing down to the hangar.
"Well done, Hogan," Chris grinned.
The pirates, still coughing from their own gas bomb, got up. Roaring, they ran towards them in a mad dash, but a space fighter flew in and started firing at the pirates. Chris used the commotion to hop on while Karl and Hogan ran to their own fighters, which were in stealth mode and invisible in the hangar until they deactivated the protective shield around them. The three fighters sped out of the cruiser just in the nick of time before it went into hyperdrive and disappeared as if it were never there.
"Good work, team," Chris spoke over the comms.
"Hey sis, where did you send those guys off to?" Hogan asked.
Bianca chuckled and told them all with the sweetest voice, "Hm... Let's see. They had six hostages so I sent them six galaxies away from their home planet. They're space pirates, though. So no worries, they'll figure it out. Probably."
Karl felt an itch in his throat that flared up, prompting him to cough and wheeze. He pressed the side of his helmet, reverting it back into an earpiece. Then he opened one of the compartments and pulled out a transparent mask with elastics attached and put it on. He switched on the small nebulizer it was hooked into and breathed in the steam it released, calming his cough.
Once his coughing subsided, his captain spoke. "Karl, did you inhale the gas earlier?"
"Just a little. I'm okay, Captain." He relaxed into his pilot seat.
"That's good. Can you still fly? Would you like me to tether your fighter?"
"Thanks, Captain, but I'm good. I can still fly on my own."
"Okay. Hang in there. We have just one more thing to do and we're done."
"Yes, sir."
They escorted the escape pod until it reached the space station and confirmed with the crew that all the astronauts on board were safe. By the time they got there, Karl was breathing better so he turned off his nebulizer.
"All right, team. We're heading back." Chris announced.
At his leader's words, he set his course towards their home base on Earth. Karl was happy at the idea of going home and eating his mother's home-cooked curry katsu as he marveled at the giant blue marble in front of him.
A soft smile graced his face as he said, "Man, I'll never get tired of staring at Earth from up here. No matter how many times I've seen it, she's just as breathtaking as ever."
"True, I've yet to see a planet as pretty as our own," Bianca sighed.
As their flight eased into a steady cruise approaching the planet, the melody of the last song he listened to played in Karl's head.
"Hm hm-m hm-m hm-m… hm-hm-hm hm-hm hmm…"
Bianca giggled. "Karl, are you humming again?"
Karl flinched.
"Bianca, we could've listened longer if you kept your mouth shut," Tala chuckled. "Judging from the tune, was that a Wet Wet Wet song this time?"
"That sounded so wrong just now…" Hogan remarked.
"You and your dirty brain, Hogan," Bianca reproached, and then laughter filled their communicators.
Karl was glad that they had another successful mission in space. In the past, while people accepted that the existence of aliens was real, it was such a distant concept that it often stayed within the confines of science fiction.
However, 20 years ago, an unidentified spacecraft had landed on Earth. When investigators came to the site, not a single being was found inside- not even a pilot.
The next few days, weeks, and months were spent monitoring for any further developments. But no other ships came, and there were no retrieval operations attempted. So the military and the government deemed it was in their best interest to cover up the incident, not wanting to cause the people to panic, and what they considered would just invite unnecessary media sensationalism.
The few years that followed were uneventful, but one of the Earth's top astronomers, Dr. Artemis Lyle, feared the ship's landing could spell the possibility of an alien invasion. No one took him seriously except for his wife, whose doting father— a rich French executive who Karl had only met a few of times because he was always away on international business trips— gave them his private island and funded his plans.
With this, Dr. Lyle singlehandedly founded the Galaxy Defense Force (GDF). Just as he predicted, not long after, alien sightings (and eventually encounters) had risen in number. It became the catalyst for world leaders to acknowledge GDF and work with them in a coordinated effort to protect Earth from her invaders.
'And then he suddenly left without a trace…' Karl mused.
"Okay everyone, get ready for descent," Chris' voice snapped Karl out of his thoughts.
"Roger that!" Hogan replied, followed by Tala and Bianca. "Aye, Captain."
"Y-…Hm?"
All of a sudden, Karl saw something flash past him. He narrowed his eyes, trying to follow the vague light until it vanished after just a few seconds. He surveyed his surroundings carefully, but saw nothing apart from the odd rocks here and there and the typical space debris from Earth's explorations.
"Karl? Did you hear me?"
He looked around one more time and asked the others just to make sure. "Did anyone else see a flash of light just now?"
"Nope," Bianca replied.
"Me neither," followed Hogan.
"What did you see, Karl?" Chris asked.
"No, I… I thought I saw something just now."
"Maybe it was just a reflection from the floating metals around here?" Tala asked.
"Yeah… Probably…" Karl said, still not fully convinced. But even after scanning the area again, he saw nothing out of place, so he let it go.
"My radar isn't picking up anything, so there's probably no need for concern, Karl," said Chris.
"Yes, Captain."
"Let's go home, Team Alpha."
They went full speed ahead and headed back to Earth.