Words to Survive By: An Odyssey of the Middle Renaissance

"I don't like it, I don't like it at all!" The Captain's voice echoed through the bridge where a small crew was trying to keep their ship in one piece. "We're up against far too many guns, our shields are weakening, and we won't last much longer!"

The pilot looked at the Captain with wide eyes. "Captain! We have to get out of here now!" He knew the Captain would never leave his ship until it was too late, he had been with him for years. This captain always put his own life on the line for everyone on board. He knew this because he used to work as his security officer before being promoted to pilot.

"We can't just jump away from that station! What if it gets damaged?" The captain yelled back at him. He knew the station itself wasn't important, but the cargo that was supposed to be delivered to it was. And he wasn't about to let anything happen to that. "Can you think of any other way we can get out of this?"

The pilot thought hard for a moment, then turned towards the navigation officer and asked "Any ideas? We've lost our cloak and we'll never make it far enough away from that station." The navigator frowned, but then suddenly smiled, she knew this idea could work. "I have an idea what we should do." She said while getting up from her chair and walking over to the captain who was looking at her with a puzzled look on his face. "What is she doing?" Captain thought as he looked over to the pilot who had followed her over to him as well. "I thought she said she had an idea!" The pilot thought angrily.

"Sir, I know how we can avoid losing our cargo." The navigator started after everyone else had gathered around them. She quickly explained her idea and everyone seemed excited about it and nodded their heads in agreement when she was done talking. Everyone except for the captain and the robot standing next to him who were staring at each other in silence with wide eyes.

The robot looked around confusedly before turning towards the captain with a questioning look on his face, without saying a word though since he couldn't speak. The captain sighed and looked down before whispering something into his ear which made him nod slightly. By now everyone had left their posts and were standing around them waiting for orders, they knew they had no time left to waste so they needed something quick, or they would all die here soon enough. After a few moments passed by silently everyone began getting impatient again and started asking questions again which made the captain sigh once more before finally giving them what they wanted: orders.

He pointed towards a large screen displaying all the ships and stations around them right now while looking at each of them directly in their eyes one by one while saying "This is our only chance of surviving this so listen carefully! We need to split up into two groups now and change course!" After saying that he paused for a moment as everyone waited eagerly for him to continue so he could explain what he meant by changing course but no one uttered a single word even though they all looked confusedly at each other until he finally continued: "You will all follow my robot here and do exactly what he tells you without questioning it okay? You'll be fine." Everyone nodded hesitantly so he went on: "And you will take our cargo somewhere safe with you. It must stay safe at all cost so whatever happens don't try anything stupid! Understand?" Everyone nodded again slowly this time making him sigh even louder than before before pointing towards two people: "You two will go with me! Now hurry up before it's too late!" And then ran off towards another room on the ship not giving anyone time to ask anything as they quickly followed him leaving only three people behind who immediately followed him as well after shouting out their names when they got close enough to hear them: 'I'm going with you!' 'Me too!' 'And me!'