Chapter 3: Shall Set You Free

Raavi stood outside in the passageway, looking towards the stern direction of the ship. He was still amazed by the layout and experiences of the vessel so far. To finally see Oniya up close seemed to make his heart flutter. He noted that she so far seemed interested in him. To learn that she was the ship’s command was shocking but one that he seemed happy to be with. He was still amazed that such an enormous vessel only had a crew of eight. The workforce for a ship like this should be more than that, at least with his line of thinking.

“I wonder how a small crew can operate a ship such as this?” he asked himself out loud. “Only one doctor ... a leader to order everyone around ... a security and maintenance person ... so far that is only three of the eight.”

“That is because it can,” a young male voice appeared behind him.

“Yes, yes. It can because it can,” a young female voice replied.

Raavi was somewhat startled as he turned around to look upon two children. At least, that is what they appeared to be. One was a boy in a blue UHN jumpsuit, while the other was a girl wearing a red jumpsuit. It was odd enough to look at these individuals. The UHN jumpsuit alone was a particular color of red and blue together, but each child had only one color. The children looked like they were the age of ten years old. They were almost half of his height alone. Both of them had dark skin complexions virtually as if they came from Oshun and were descended from Africa of former Earth. The boy had short black hair as the little girl had her hair braided and going down to her shoulder.

“Wha?...” Raavi replied. “How? You are wearing UHN uniforms, but you are kids. Am I mistaken? If I misjudged you two, then I apologize.”

“No need to say you are sorry,” the little girl said as the two starred at Raavi.

“Yes, yes. No apologies are required,” the boy added.

“You are from the outside,” the girl said.

“The outside is from where you come from,” the boy added. “What is your name?”

“Raavi... , “ he answered to the children. “Raavi Aarnikash, and your names?”

“This is my sister Kehinde,” the boy answered, using his hand to gesture to the girl.

“This is my brother Taiwo,” the girl answered, using her hand to gesture to the boy.

Their voices had the Oshun accent, but it was slightly different. It was almost as if English was a second language to them, but it was still fluent enough to understand it easily. Their sentences seemed to be words that reflected cohesion. Raavi seemed a little taken back from the scene.

“You seem so young,” Raavi remarked. “Are you helping Oniya and her ship operations?”

“Yes, yes,” Kehinde answered. “Help we provide.”

“Provide the help. The UHN Opet flies without us,” Taiwo replied.

“How old are you?” Raavi asked them.

“Hmmm ... you are new to this ship,” Taiwo answered.

“Yes, yes. You are a stranger learning this ship. Care we must partake,” Kehinde said.

Both of them smiled together that had Raavi even show some signs of unease. The boy and girl both seemed to be severe yet playful in their personality. Both of them appeared to be around the same age, but it didn’t make much sense that they seemed to be children, at least with him.

The door opened up as Oniya stepped out of sickbay. The doors closed behind her as she looked at Raavi.

“Now that you had a chance to talk to our Doctor, I think it is time for you to see the bridge,” Oniya said.

“There are two other crew members that I am talking to,” Raavi remarked as he turned his head to look at the captain. “I would like to get to know them.”

“What do you mean?” Oniya asked with a smile on her face. Her head was looking in the direction that Raavi was.

“Them ... the boy and girl...” Raavi tried to say as his head turned back to look at the passageway. “The ... they’re gone!”

He had only turned his head away for a few seconds as his head scanned the passageway. It was devoid of anybody but him and Oniya. The two children were gone like they never existed.

“What the hell?” Raavi commented. “I was speaking two individuals ... a brother and sister. They were two kids...”

“There isn’t anybody there,” Oniya replied.

“I swear to you that I was talking to somebody here. They looked young and wore UHN jumpsuits.”

“Heh...” Oniya remarked. “I guess being on this ship can make you see strange things.”

“Ugh...” Raavi grunted as he put his hand to his forehead. “I have no idea. I saw what I saw.”

Oniya simply shrugged. “I believe you.”

“Are you just saying that for my benefit?”

“Yes,” Oniya said with a smile.

Raavi simply couldn’t fathom what had happened. The ship was filled with its oddities. More and more things were appearing that he couldn’t explain.

“Oniya ... my love, what is going on here?” he asked her.

“Raavi,” she addressed him as she put her hands to his arms. “It’s alright. Here ... let me take you to the bridge.”

He shook his head. “Fine ... you lead the way.”

With that, she gently gripped his arm as she walked with him down the passageway to the bridge. “Many wonders exist on this ship. There are important questions that I need to ask of you.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Do you like this place?” she asked.

“Well, I have only seen sickbay and the hangar bay so far. I can’t say too much about it.”

“No ... I mean this ship. Do you like it so far?”

“It is nice with what I saw. I can’t believe you almost have an entire ship to yourself.”

“Yes ... it is a ... lonely way to live,” she remarked as she looked down for a little bit.

Raavi turned his head and looked at her. He could see the sorrow in her eyes before she seemed to cheer up a little bit.

“I feel the same way,” he added. “Despite the weird things that have been happening so far, I feel more has happened to me in one day than a lifetime.”

“Same here. To finally have you up close,” she paused as she smiled. “It fills my heart with joy.”

He went and took her hand as they held them together. “Together, finally at last,” he said.

“Together at last. I felt it the moment that we started chatting to each other online that you wanted to commit to this. Two months couldn’t come soon enough for me.”

“I felt the same way. It’s funny that we didn’t meet sooner.”

“Are you still sure that this is what you want? Do you want to be here? You want to be with me?”

He didn’t seem to hesitate at all. Her beauty was radiant to him. Her voice alone was soothing to him and her status on the ship, even for a crew of eight, was still significant. In all cases, he could feel a sense of belonging to the place. He would occasionally look out of the porthole windows and see the outside space environment. They passed a couple of doors on their left. He could see that the passageway that led to the ship’s stern was coming to a close if they kept walking forward.

“Despite the ... unusual things I have seen so far, I do like what I see. I am ready to discuss our future together.”

“What about your parents?” she asked. “How did they respond?”

“It wasn’t easy for them. They know that I am an adult and can obviously make my own choices but what you ask is a lot.”

She looked down. “There are many reasons as to why it will be hard to see them. I promise we will do what we can so you can see them, but there are some things that you need to know about me.”

“And here I thought seeing you as a Captain wasn’t enough,” he joked.

She pointed past the rooms that they walked by. “That room past sickbay is the dorsal railgun room. It is one of the guns that we use to defend the ship in case ... you know ... pirates or something.”

“I can imagine that is the case. Thankfully, most of the transports never even have to worry about anything out there. Unless you are in the asteroid field of the Paloran system.”

“Perhaps... , we live in a vast universe.”

“Have you ever had to worry about pirates?”

She shook her head. “No ... far from it. We never went to Palora. New Olympia likes to keep things close. Our ships rarely leave orbit ... although ... that may change soon.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let us just say that we are in a good position together. You might get a chance to explore things by my side ... depending if you are still sure of the things that you want.”

They reached the end of the passageway as there were two doors. There was a door that was ahead of them and the other on the left.

“Here we are,” Oniya said. “The door in front of us is the dorsal starboard engine room. The door next to us is the bridge. Let us head in.”

She let go of his hand as she walked up to horizontal sliding doors. Automatically, it opened up as Raavi had a chance to see another spectacular scene.

As he stepped inside, Raavi could see Oniya walk in first. The bridge was nothing like he expected to see. A part of him believed that he would see a room filled with consoles and displays everywhere, but this place just struck him as odd. It was shaped almost like a sizeable opal-like room. The myriad of rainbow colors that pulsated the passageways did not follow into the bridge. It almost appeared as some sort of waiting room or lounge. A large circular corridor had a series of glass-like walls that lined the edge of the center. Comfortable white couches lined the area. Raavi noticed an area with signs in English but would flash to Chinese that pointed to various locations in the bridge. He could recount that there was a top floor and the main bottom floor. He knew that the site of the bridge was above the massive storage shuttle hangar.

The place was extremely comfortable to look at. If anything, it even appeared to look like something that would be found on a cruise liner. The circular passageway on the top floor overlooked what was in the center, and it appeared to be a sizeable three-dimensional projector. Raavi himself could recognize the image as it displayed the New Olympian star system. He could see an almost perfect rendition of the planet of New Olympia. Thirteen large white objects were portrayed in its orbit as it showed a small white and red pinging that indicated the UHN Opet location.

“Wow... , “ he told her. “This is really something. Where do you control the ship?”

“By command,” Oniya replied. “It is really more computer-controlled ... if you would call it that.”

“What do you mean by...” were Raavi’s only words as he was interrupted.

“Captain,” another female voice came from ahead and below the overhead passageway.

“Nebina,” Oniya addressed her. “How is everything?”

There was a shuffling down the stairs as Raavi could see a woman walk up to meet them. She was a little bit taller in appearance but somewhat bulky of her looks. She also had an Egyptian appearance on her face. Her hair, though, made her look more pronounced though. It was long and black, but it almost seemed to look like it was poofy. It stood out from her blue and red jumpsuit uniform and really seemed to outline her appearance. Her voice was a little bit deeper than Oniya’s.

“I am well ... ah, is this our new guest?” Nebina called out.

“Yes,” Oniya replied. “This is Raavi. Raavi, this is Nebina. Nebina, this is Raavi. I guess you can say that Nebina is the second in command of this ship. Her responsibilities are to oversee the bridge and ship. Typically she, Gant, and I all take turns at the bridge for our shifts.”

Raavi reached out her hand as the two shook hands. There was a slight grin on her face, but it quickly faded as they stopped and looked at each other.

“Nice to meet you, Nebina,” he addressed her.

“Same to you, Raavi,” she replied back. She turned her head to look at Oniya. “Captain... , did you come here to show him the bridge?”

“Yes, don’t worry, Nebina,” Oniya replied. “I will be out of here soon enough.”

“It seems pretty cozy in this place,” Raavi remarked. “I don’t see any desks of any kind.”

“There is one down by the bottom deck of the bridge. It isn’t up here.”

Raavi left the two as he had more of a look at the location. The room was filled with massive windows that he could see outside in the emptiness of space. Ahead of the bridge was an enormous view screen that would seem to put a movie theater to shame. He could see the white dreadnoughts that hovered in orbit ahead of the Opet from the forward view screen. When he reached the glass wall of the overhead balcony, he looked down to the bottom deck. There were no consoles to operate the ship. All he could see were more white couches. He saw the white and brown desk with an office chair, but it was located away from the left-most couch. The lack of controls seemed to alarm Raavi. Even with using the computer to control the ship, so many liberties were taken. The lack of a crew, allowing a ship computer to automate things more than most ships ever did, and the lack of control for the Opet just didn’t make sense to him. It was one more thing to add to the coffin. Why was the UHN Opet so strange? Why did it have abilities that other ships didn’t? Why the events that happened in the passageway? It was too much. He bit his tongue, but he had to get to the point with Oniya.

“Anything to report?” Oniya asked Nebina.

“No. Gant is complaining again about his watch,” Nebina said. “It is the same old thing as usual. The Opet is still stuck here as it always is.”

“I know,” Oniya commented as she put her hand on Nebina’s shoulder. “To feel trapped doesn’t help. If you ever want to take a break from bridge duties, just let me know.”

“Nah, it isn’t that... , “ she sighed. “I can see why you got him,” she gestured to Raavi.

He turned around and looked at the two. He could see the smile on Nebina’s face, but it quickly faded again.

“I like him,” Oniya said. “You should consider UWAN dating. I wouldn’t mind seeing some more faces around this ship anyway. I know your mother wouldn’t mind.”

“Oh, you know my mother,” Nebina said with a shrug. “The more, the merrier.”

“I know that Gant wants to spend more time with Iwa. Ugh ... I want to spend more time off too.”

“As I said, he isn’t going to. We all have to take turns. I just hate the fact that this is repetitive nonstop with these watches.”

“We will look into getting some more personnel to take these watches instead of just us three. I would choose the twins, but they are just too young to do it.”

“Wha?...” Raavi quietly reacted. His mind was wondering if she was referring to those two kids he saw earlier. They did appear to be young but just now, what she said also tacked onto the things that didn’t make sense for him. Why would the New Olympians implore child labor into the commands? Wouldn’t this violate some sort of law or code? Once again could only give a questioning look at the two.