Advancing Years: 4057 SP

Everything was still and calm. It was an eerie peace. About two thousand years after the solar system 687, Planet 6003 known as Earth, broke out with an infection, the species of man fled to the furthest corners of galaxies and colonized into space stations categorized by different types of infections.
The stars blurred past as the M-Star Angel hummed through space. The radio fuzzed as a few announcements came through. A young woman climbed up the stair case towards the Captain's seat. She sat down and inclined herself back listening to the radio.
She had blue hair that barely touched her shoulders. It appeared to be shaggy, as though she had just woken up. She yawned a little, her eyes stinging from what little light that emitted from the controls of the ship. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties. She wore a skin suit that covered her entire body up to her neck. Blue lines flowed throughout the suit and pulsed a light in a rhythm. Above her right breast there was writing that appeared to resemble her name.
Amy 1220M
Captain of the M-Star Angel 3

The radio fuzzed and faded, then came back on.
"This is Marshall Robins located at approximately three miles from sector seven's colony base 41225, AKA "Dolly." There are reports of civilian escapes, believed to be "infectants'." The girl leaned forward interested in the annoucement. "I am the Captain of Space Eagle 985, and ask permission from base 'Dolly' to land. Permission Granted?"
There was a fuzz and a low click and another voice came on. "This is Kyle." There was static. "Permission is--" The line died off. Another fuzz and click and the Captain from Space Eagle came back on. "Hello? Space Eagle to Base Dolly, do you accept? Hello?" The click came on and screams were heard coming from Base Dolly's radio. The woman raised an eyebrow listening to the screams on the other end of the line. She pressed a finger on a button labled: Cabin K07.
"Kyo, I need you up here now. We are landing on sector seven's 41227 base." Her voice was deep and calm.
She rolled her chair towards the left section of the controls and flipped a few switches. The ship roared and picked up speed. She rolled over to the right side and pressed more buttons and others lit up to life.
"This is Amy Mason, Captain of M-Star Angel 3. We're going in with you Space Eagle." She shut off the radio, and guided the ship towards the destination until a colony base appeared.

A young man, maybe 18 or early 20s, lay in his bunk on the M-Star Angel. His hair was long and silvery and rested at his shoulders, parted to the left to keep out of his face. He was a little over six feet tall and wore (against typical ship regulations) a red short sleeve shirt and torn black jeans, underneath a white trench coat that reached his feet.

He lay on his poor excuse for a bed praying sleep would come, when the intercom in his cabin blazed on. "Kyo I need you up here now. We are landing on Sector Seven's 41227 Base." He sighed and rolled out of his bunk and stepped out of the cabin. He ran to the bridge of the ship. As he approached the steps he came up behind his Captain, Amy.

When he spoke, the words came out quiet but strong. To a stranger, his voice must have sounded dark and maybe even hostile. "What is it now? Can I get a single hour of sleep on this tin can?" He took a seat at the other control panel and started tracking their coordinates.

Kajir walked up and down the bridge of his ship, The Netherwind, observing the work of his crew. He stopped next to diagnostics report officer. "Report!" He said with his authority--he was in no mood to play around. "The ship is operating at 100% sir." The officer said nervously, while saluting. "Very good." Kajir said making his way towards his chair. "Sir!" said of the crew workers who usually worked the radar. "I have reading of a large ship within our sector."

Kajir let out a sigh and stood up fixing his uniform. He wore a plain white t-shirt with black leather jacket over it with the zipper undone revealing some of the front white shirt. He wore black pants with a silver chain hanging out the right pocket. He walked over to the radar and immediately recognized the ship. With a smirk, he said, "Open up the comlink with them." With a few clicks the worker had set up the link. "The link is ready, sir." "Good." Kajir said. "Greetings, Amy...it's been a while..."

Amy continued to flip switches and kept one hand on the v-shaped steering wheel. She jerked her head at the familiar voice on the radio. She, then, glanced at the radar and saw a fairly large ship flying a few miles from them. She pressed the button on the radio. "Why, yes it has Kajir." She spoke, looking at Kyo who was helping to get the ship started up from Idle and head for their destination. "Where have you been?" She asked, not really looking for conversation. "Kyo, status on fuel?" She asked her brother. "Hey, listen," Amy announced to Kajir. "We got a message from a Space Eagle trying to communicate with a colony base. I think there's an issue with the civilians tehre and Im going to check it out. You up for tagging along?"
The view of the black and speck of white stars stretched out for nearly miles and then a tiny speck of a discolored 'star' blinked colors. It was the colony base over 1,000 miles from their current position. "Well Kyo, looks like you wont be getting your sleep for a while." She chuckled.

On the compound, August could only hear the feint murmur of orders directed at her "officials" and her own heavy breathing. The young woman was crouched behind a stack of supply crates as officers of Dolly paced down the hallway, searching for fugitives.
August pushed a lock of amber hair out of her eyes and concentrated on keeping quiet. God only knew the punishment she would suffer for planning an Infection Escape. All in all, it wasnt her fault, really. Being cooped up in a single building for her entire life just wasnt natural according to her. It was in no way shape, or form, necessary. Its not her fault her stupid ancestors got sick and pretty much destroyed Earth's environment, so why was she being punished?
Something across the corridor caught her attention, and her hazel eyes flickered that direction. It was a radar screen and according to the coordinates, there were three ships approaching the compound. August sighed inwardly, praying to whatever God there was that those ships werent filled with reinforcements.
August peered around the corner of the storage boxes once more, now seeing only one guard in the previously infested hallway. She pressed her body as close to the box as possible and counted the guard's steps as he neared.
24... 25...26...27...
On the count of the 28th step the guard stopped. He was on the opposite side of the box as she.
August took a deep breath, counted to three, and slammed her body weight against the crates and they all came crashing down upon him. By the time he had recovered, she was down the hallway and out of sight.

"Actually we're running low on fuel, I do not recommend a hyper space jump, unless of course you wanna be stranded in space for a couple of months, maybe more. Oh, tell Kajir that Kyp says hello." Kyo returned to the controls and continued to monitor their progress. "E.T.A. is one minute. God I cant wait to actually be out of this thing. We really need to get out more, Amy." Kyo began to ponder what was in store for them. Something bad he imagined. Nothing ever went right...

Kajir smiled as Amy spoke. It was good to hear her voice again. "I havent been doing much, mostly patrolling sectors, doing missions for the ZIS" (Zourian Investigation System) "Ya, we have been getting reports of that as weel So they stationed me out here to investigate. I would have never expected to see you out here. It's been, what...three years since we've last seen each other?" He heard a familiar second voice on the comlink. "Ah, I hear Kyo's voice in the background. Hello to you too, Kyo. How have you been?" He continued to listen at the mention of fuel. "Oh so you guys are low on fuel? Well, I have some to spare, just give me about an hour to reach you. We are about 100 miles from your present location."

He switched off the comlink and said, "Alright crew, I want the exact coordinates of the ship 'M-Star Angel', I want the fuel line to be ready when I call for it." Kajir walked back to his chair and sat down. "Sir, I have the coordinates installed on the computer and we are proceeding to their destination at once." "Excellent," Kajir said. "Turn the thrusters to maximum power."

The Netherwind sailed through the stars and in about an hour it reached the M-Star Angel. "Idle next to the ship and prepare to board." Kajir said while getting up. He walked across the cold metal floor, making a clank sound each step. He stopped in front of a door that read "Boarding Area." The door slid upwards and Kajir stood there waiting to greet Amy and Kyo.