Hit and run

A.D. 3905 / I.Y. 9399;
Location: Uncharted space, somewhere between the Sagittarius Dwarf and the Milky Way galaxies.

A tail thumped rhythmically on the command bridge's metallic floor. Its owner was clearly losing her patience.

"Come out, little humans." The tail's owner said. "Come to mama."

It was the bridge of a light destroyer, and the female owner of the tail was its captain, or rather Navigator .

"Navigator Sha'rix, they won't leave any time soon. I think we gave them a good scare." A male sitting a console at her front-right said.

Letting out a frustrated snort, she sat on her command seat, integrating herself with the ship once more. She was Navigator Sha'rix, a young female belonging to a species called Do'niix, or as humans nick named them 'Space Rexes'. She was the commanding officer of a small but fearsome ship, a Garix-class, but to the humans that kind of ship was known as ' Constrictor ', due to the ship's six articulated limbs attached to its underside, allowing it to turn any unfortunate ship into a mangled mess of metal. She and her crew were hunting down a human frigate after their foolish attempt to ambush what they believed was a civilian freighter, which unfortunately for the humans turned out to be a heavily escorted hospital ship in an outreach mission. Much to her displeasure, the humans managed to sneak inside a gas giant's atmosphere after several hours of pursuit, in an hope to capture them.

"Next time we're going in guns blazing..." Sha'rix sighed.

"Don't worry, I'm sure next time they'll think twice before trying to raid one of our convoys." A female at Sha'rix's front-left chuckled. "It's not a big deal if we don't get a combat log entry to show to the other Navigators."

Ignoring her officers' demeanor, she let herself slid back into her seat at the rear-end of the bridge. Trying to calm her nerves, she did what other navigators like her were trained to do. Steadying her breath, she let her mind wander off her body, slipping through her spine down into her seat, and thanks to the sophisticated neural interfaces that lined her back, up again to the ship's computer. She now was one with the ship, not just mentally, but partially also physically. Sha'rix always liked this feeling. She could feel the cold vacuum of space on the hull as if it was her skin, but it didn't hurt, it rather felt like a cold breeze as the solar wind was deflected by the planet's magnetic field. She could feel the power core as if it was her heart, beating at a constant rhythm. She could look at the space around through the numerous hull-mounted cameras, the glimmer of far-off stars and the bright orange-yellow of that system's star. She could hear a faint background noise as the external communication system picked up the gas giant's statically charged winds. But she felt more, she felt complete.
Her moment of peace was interrupted as her virtual ears, being the communication system, picked up some muffled chatter from not too far away. Tuning in to the conversation, she realized it was the humans.

" Are they gone? " A first voice asked. It sounded quite young, although some background noise suggested it was from the human ship in the gas giant.

" Nope, still there. Seems like you got yourselves quite the attention to be chased by a Constrictor. " The second voice replied, sounding gruffer than the first. Most likely older, Sha'rix thought.

Sha'rix tried to pin point where these ships were. One she knew was the ship they chased earlier, but the other was just outside her sensors, and she couldn't see how far or where exactly either.

" How much do you think they'll stay up there? " The first voice asked again, now clearly sounding with less experience than the second voice.

" Depends. Unless they've got other business to care about, they'll unlikely let a target, like you, escape. Tell me again, what did you do to piss them off? " The second voice asked, clearly annoyed by having to come in aid to the younger officer. But his question yielded an hesitating answer from the younger human.

" We... attacked an hospital ship... " The first human confessed.

" You WHAT!? " the second human roared, almost deafening Sha'rix, causing her to grunt as her virtual ears slightly rung. " Does the order 'do not attack civilian or unarmed ships regardless of their route or cargo' mean anything to you? I bet you attacked that ship while it was on their side of the DMZ as well, didn't you?! "

At this she had listened enough, it was time for her to intercede in the conversation. She accessed the communication channel, noticing it was a video-enabled communication, so she activated the view of her bridge.

"Yes, they did." Sha'rix simply said, as her image appeared on the human ships' own screens. Despite she was still linked with the ship, she pushed her chair straight a bit. Sha'rix watched the human's faces as their jaws dropped, disbelieving of what just happened.

" What the... " the younger human exhaled, shock lining his face.

Sha'rix had expected a reaction by the other human as well, but was amused to the other human simply cocking an eyebrow and smirking slightly at her sudden appearance.

" Well, well, well. So you're... what's the title? Ah, yes. 'Navigator', right? " the older human said. Surprised by the human's calm attitude, she decided to let the humans lead the conversation, for now.

"Yes, I'm Navigator Sha'rix, of the Cross of the Trident Star. And you are?" Sha'rix answered in the most polite way possible.

"I'm Admiral Federik Von Kamptz, of the U.A.S.S. Deliverance . And the one you're holding under gunpoint is Captain Henry McPierce, of the U.A.S.S. Independence ." The older human said.

Sha'rix admitted to be rather surprised. While contacts between the Do'niix and the humans which didn't involve a gunfight were still an occurrence, little was known of their respective cultures. What surprised her was also the fact that the humans gave names to their ships. And those names she somewhat liked, despite their short length and simplicity.

"In regards of how long we'll stay here, well... We can stay here indefinitely, but it gets boring after a while, so either you surrender, or we turn the gas giant into a tiny star. This system could really use a second sun, it's just too cold." Sha'rix said, her lips curving into a malicious grin, exposing her sharp teeth.

The younger human simply swallowed at the prospect of burning alive. After all, the gas giant's green-brown atmosphere suggested that it would've been quite an explosive reaction would they decide to bombard it.
The human admiral simply scratched his chin, considering the options. To Sha'rix, he really behaved like a Navigator would, despite that he was human. She could see how behind his eyes he considered every option, every scenario, and their consequences.

" How about this. " The human began. " By our laws, a ship's commanding officer is responsible for his crew's actions. That said, I'm sure that it was by his own initiative that they attacked that hospital ship, which by the way I'm sorry for. I propose that you let the ship and the crew go, but in exchange you get to keep Captain McPierce. "

Sha'rix carefully considered the offer. If she'd destroy them, she'd get to make quite a show to her superiors, but that would probably cause a rather violent escalation. If she took only the captain, the one responsible for the attack, she wouldn't have entirely wasted her time in this uneventful chase, and she wouldn't have to worry about violent retaliations that she'd have to deal with in the near future.

"Deal. However, I cannot grant for his fate once I hand him over to the proper authorities. Captain McPierce will need to face the combined judgments of the hospital ship's navigator and the magistrates at their destination. I doubt much will happen, since no one got injured besides a few bruises and a couple of dents in their ship's hull, but I think that the ship's delay is something they want you to face retribution for." Sha'rix said. She could already see the young human officer being dragged off his ship's bridge by some of the crewmen. He was yelling something, but she couldn't hear much as the communication from that ship was cut off.

" I'm glad that we could solve this peacefully, Navigator Sha'rix. " The human admiral said, relief washing over him for having avoided a very unbalanced fight.

"The pleasure was mine, Admiral Von Kamptz. Perhaps one day we'll meet again." Sha'rix said, trying to keep a polite tone, despite telling a complete lie.

" Maybe, and hopefully it'll be in a less tense context. Deliverance out. " The human said, his ship's bridge disappearing from her screen.

"Navigator, the human ship is leaving the atmosphere, and have launched an escape pod." The male at her front-right reported. "There seems to be only one life form on board, a human. It must be that McPierce guy."

"Good. Recover him, I'll meet him at the hangar bay. If there'll be anything left of him once I get there." Sha'rix said, disconnecting herself from the seat and quickly made her way out of the bridge.