BXBX NOVEL Chapter 240: Yaron
His reflection, a visage of calm authority, stared back at him from the glass.
The stars, so far yet so glaringly bright, provided him a little came and serene peace in this quiet of the moment.
"Captain, Zorak and the others have yet to come back. Don\'t you think we should head back there to check if something hasn\'t gone wrong?"
A stoic-looking Kree pirate approached him, his frown deepening with every step.
He stopped a few paces back behind the captain, clearly agitated.
Captain Yaron didn\'t immediately respond. His eyes remained fixed on the void outside, his expression neutral and distant. The silence stretched on for several moments, amplifying the tension in the room.
"It\'s only been 30 minutes since they left," Yaron said finally, his voice calm and measured.
"We\'ll give it another 10 minutes before we go and investigate."
The stoic pirate, clearly dissatisfied, clenched his fists. "Captain, with all due respect, we\'ve lost contact with them, no word has come back. They could be in trouble!"
Yaron slowly turned to face the pirate, his gaze sharp and unwavering. "And rushing into a potential trap without information would solve what, exactly?"
The pirate hesitated, his resolve wavering under Yaron\'s intense scrutiny. "But, Captain, what if they need our help? We\'re just sitting here doing nothing."
Yaron\'s lips tightened into a thin line. "Do not mistake patience for inaction, Varrik. We move when we have a clear understanding of the situation. Not before."
Varrik\'s frustration was evident, but he nodded reluctantly, stepping back. "Yes, Captain."
Captain Yaron was infamous in this region as a merciless, sociopathic killer who cared not for the victims of his selfish plundering.
His strength was what backed his ego up as well, as so far hundreds of \'worthy\' Kree warriors or investigators etc had come to challenge him, but they all ended up dead in the end.
Captain Yaron continued to gaze out into the vastness of space, the silence of the bridge amplifying the ticking seconds.
Varrik, who was too impatient to wait in silence, doing nothing like the captain and the other 13, decided he had enough and left the command deck to guard the door.
He was too frustrated to be in the same room with the captain right now, and felt like he might do something he would immediately regret if he stayed.
Ten minutes had passed, and there was still no word from Zorak and the others. The atmosphere on the bridge grew more strained with each passing moment.
Varrik, clearly uneasy, had ventured to the middle section of the ship to check on Larko, but he returned with disturbing news.
"Captain," Varrik reported, his voice tight with concern. "Larko is missing. His food was left burning, and there\'s no sign of him anywhere."
A murmur of unease spread through the crew. They hadn\'t even seen or heard from their enemy, yet a quarter of their crew were already missing.
When they first entered within range, they had only seen a vague shape on their scanners. They had assumed it was a derelict ship with potential loot, possibly abandoned or destroyed in a skirmish.
Dead bodies adrift in space often meant a large haul of valuable goods waiting to be picked up. But they had never expected that Alex was not a dead body at all.
Captain Yaron\'s expression hardened. He turned away from the viewport, his mind now set. Patience had its limits, and they had reached it. "Prepare yourselves," he commanded, his voice cutting through the tension.
"We\'re moving out."
The crew snapped to attention, their weapons ready. Yaron led them from the bridge, his footsteps echoing down the metal corridors. The silence that had once seemed peaceful was now oppressive, filled with unseen threats.
As they moved towards the middle section, the flickering lights and eerie quiet only heightened their anxiety. They passed the kitchen, where the smell of burnt food still lingered. Larko\'s abandoned post was a stark reminder of the growing danger.
Yaron\'s sharp eyes scanned every shadow, every corner. He knew they were up against a skilled adversary, someone who had taken out his men with precision and stealth. This was no ordinary opponent.
His only decent information came from Norskt, who had managed to get a few words of help over his communicator when he was attacked, so he knew that he was dealing with someone relatively powerful here.
Norskt wasn\'t exactly spectacular when it came to being an awakened, but he wasn\'t bad either.
They reached the area where Zorak\'s team was last seen. The sight that greeted them was grim.
Blood was sprawled across the walls where Larko had been decapitated, and they saw a messy, blue trail stretching from the loading bay all the way to the airlock.
They knew immediately where their friends and comrades were, and their faces took a turn for the worse.
\'They were ejected from the airlock!\'
Varrik was fuming, to say the least.
"Spread out," Yaron ordered. "Find the intruder."
It was ironic, really.
Since they themselves were intruders on this ship.
The pirates moved cautiously, their weapons drawn and ready. Yaron himself prowled through the corridors, his senses on high alert.
He could feel vague the presence of an enemy, a lurking menace in the shadows of the twisting and winding hallways that made up the rear end of the ship.
The environment back here didn\'t help them in any way at all, as an ambush attack could come from anywhere at any time.
\'Where are you…\'
He headed back into the loading bay, stepping over the blue-blood stained floor and checking the nearby area.
\'There\'s a weapon missing.\'
He noticed immediately that there were less weapons in the loading bay than there were before, as he personally counted and documented them all when he first took over the ship.
And he wasn\'t happy with what the enemy had chosen at all, as it was the strongest weapon they had left back there, with all the stronger weapons being taken up by the pirates currently searching the area.