Voideye Pt.1

When talking to the woman, Jack felt as if she was a shy animal. He was not sure if she understood, but the soothing voice he choose seemed to work. She slowly floated over to him and landed on the floor about a meter and a half away. She seemed to be unable to locate him, which didn't surprise Jack, considering the big black bandage that blindfolded her.

She circled him after she made a full round and came to a halt. Slowly Jack extended his arms so as to not scare her.

"I will try to remove the Bandages now, don't be scared."

When he touched her head, she jerked back as if struck by lightning.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know it would hurt you, that was not my plan."

He had removed his hands and just kept talking as that seemed to be the most effective way to make her trust him a little.

"I just want to see your face, there is no need to be afraid. I don't even know how to hit people."

From the way she was still wavering between coming closer and running away, Jack could tell that he had only scared her, not hurt her.

After some time where he patiently stood there just talking about random stuff on the ship, she slowly came closer again and presented her head to him.

Gently, always trying to touch only the fabric, he began to unwind the bandage. He could see from her tense shoulders and neck how difficult it must have been for her to trust him.

But as he slowly removed layer after layer of the blindfold, he could see her slowly relax a little.

After one last twist, the fabric slid to the floor, exposing the woman's face.

The skin on her face was pale and smooth, she had a mouth a little too wide for his taste and a snub nose. But the most striking thing about her face was her eyes, or rather the lack of them. There was nothing but darkness where they should have been. Pure blackness, just like the void outside the station.

Looking into her eyes triggered the same tranquil feeling in him that always came over him when he sat alone in his chair and watched the stars.

Now he also had a name for the woman at last.

"Leerenauge"

As soon as the word left his mouth it was like a jolt of electricity had run through her, even the blackness of her eyes appeared to sparkle a little.

"Verstehst du mich?"

He could detect equal parts of hope and tension in her voice.

The desire to be understood is buried deep within every living being and so he nodded immediately. However, he avoided using her language. Her existence proved to him the existence of the void as an Endgame crisis and in its case, it was best to irritate the beast as little as possible.

While he was thinking about what to do next, the woman suddenly floated forward and stared to touch his face, like a blind person trying to get a hold of your features.

It felt very weird and awkward to him, but it was of utmost importance to get the woman to accompany him, so he let her have her way.

As he had no idea how to react properly, he switched his attention to problems he could handle. He took out the communicator to call the guards as they had asked of him.

"Jack here, we are ready to leave, can you let us out?"

"Sir, we need to make sure you are not influenced by the prisoner first."

"You have cameras in here right? I'm doing fine, I just talked to her and now I will take her to the ship."

"Her?"

He stared at the communicator in bewilderment.

"I'm sorry I can't follow your questioning at the moment."

The man on the other side cleared his throat before he spoke again.

"Ah, yes of cause the questions."

Before the man could speak again there was a little commotion, the Jack could hear Morderds voice on the other end.

"Captain, are you alright? Gotta say I got a little scared when they suddenly started touching you."

"She, she's a woman. Her name is Voideye by the way. And yes I'm fine, we were just talking. Can you convince them to let us out again?"

"Alright, give me a moment."

Mordred hung up and a few moments later, the cell doors opened. Jack stepped outside and hoped the woman would just follow, but that was not the case. She still seemed to be suspicious of him, so he had to break the rule he made up five minutes earlier and spoke her language.

"Komm"

As if she had just waited for a cue, she landed in the doorway and stepped outside to follow him.

He walked through the corridor, with her almost inaudible steps behind him.

The soldiers had their weapons ready and Mordred gave him an inquisitive look, he ignored the men and looked directly at his officer.

After a moment he pointed back over his shoulder at the Woman.

"She is with us. I can't say what role but I have a feeling she will be very useful."

Mordred looked at questioningly him for a few more seconds, but in the end, he accepted the decision. The soldiers on the other hand still had their weapons pointing at the two of them but were only looking at the woman behind him. Jack could feel the tension in the air.

For a moment time seemed to have frozen and Jack was fearing for the worst, but fortunately, Mordred knew what to do. The burly man stepped past Jack and leaned forward slightly to greet the newest crew member. As soon as his broad shoulders hid the woman's slender figure and especially her face, it was as if a spell fell off the soldiers.

The men cleared their throats and stepped from one foot to the other in embarrassment.

" Apologies Sir, it seems we were all a little out of it."

Muttered one of them while looking at the floor. Jack just nodded, glad that nothing had happened.

"I think it's best if we leave the station as soon as possible."

The soldier saluted and turned around to lead them away, but then one of the speakers in the corner of the room activated.

"Jack, you promised me something right?"

The commanders' voice sounded like a mother scolding her child. Jack instinctively hunched his shoulders and laughed awkwardly.

"Ah, yes the paperwork, how could I forget that."

"I am waiting in my office."

...

Filling out the forms was no problem for Jack, but getting Voideye to sing them was an unexpected challenge. The woman seemed to have problems looking at things that were close to other humans. So in the end they had to resort to all of them standing in one corner of the big office while Voideye stood in the other, pressing the paper to a wall and focusing on putting her name Jack had just told her on the forms.

The result looked like a three-year-old had singed them and then a cat or something walked over, but it was good enough for the commander. When the business was finally finished they all sat down to enjoy a dring, while Voideye hid behind Mordred's Armchair and stared at the wall. Jack was a little disappointed when he saw how easily she trusted him. All he had done was greet her and now she almost acted like a shadow to him.

He shook his head to bring his attention back to the commander who was sitting across from him.

"So tell me, Jack, what are you doing at the capital, aside from taking away troublesome prisoners?"

She looked at the woman's feet that poked out from behind Mordred's chair. It was abundantly clear, that she did not trust her one bit and Jack's promise to take her away was the only reason that she tolerated her presence.

"I was visiting Janus, uh Prince Janus of cause and also got some new upgrades for my ship. Have you seen the beauty of it?"

"You mean that old piece of Junk in my hangar? I hope they didn't make you pay for that, you know the Allistar line been out of Production for over a century?"

"Hey, no need to be rude to her. The Allistar line is one of the best Types of all-purpose ships that have ever been made. It has Mass and can endure almost anything, unlike these plastic boats that are little more than a floating shield generator with some fancy paint."

The woman chuckled, but Jack didn't notice she just had wanted to tease him a little.

"Have you ever been in an Asteroidstorm for weeks or had to slingshot around a black hole, to escape a pulsar? Good luck surviving that with those modern rowboats. If you are lucky the radiation kills you before you die of boredom because you have to wait for the computer to find the perfect course. Also no manual controls on half-light speed? where is the fun in that."

The commander nearly fell out of her chair laughing while Jack went on and on with his tirade about modern plastic ships and people relying too much on the AI and not trusting their abilities anymore. It was a topic he had heated discussions on the forum about, so there was a near endless flood of arguments.

He only stopped, when suddenly something poked his face. Irritated he looked to the side and jerked back as he found Voideyes face with a curious look only a few centimetres away from him.

His being startled and jerking back startle her and resulted in both of the starings at each other while grabbing the empty chair's armrests. There was a moment of silence and then Mordred started laughing so loud and so much that he actually fell from his chair. The commander also had her fun and all Jack could do was pick up what was left of his dignity and return to his chair. When he looked over to Voideye, the woman had already walked to where Mordred lie and was looking at the still laughing man curiously.

When the laughter finally died down the commander tried to pick up the shattered remains of their conversation.

"So you're visiting the crown prince right?"

The twitching corner of her mouth told Jack that she was still struggling not to laugh. He gave her a stern look, that force a giggle out of the woman.

"Yes, I know the crown prince and some other Important people, that's why I choose Valiia to finish the upgrades."

"In that case, I just have to give you an escort back to the Capital, an esteemed guest of the Crown Prince."

"You sure you are not just looking for a reason to take a vacation?"

The woman put her hand over her mouth in mock indignation.

"So Jack, that's how you think of me?"

He shrugged. Having an escort would lower the chances of being scanned and found out even more.

"Honestly I don't mind."