Chapter 22: Outcast

There was nothing for miles except the endless darkness and void, filled with distant stars, planets, moons, and countless other celestial bodies.

Rayleigh sat in the cockpit of his new ship, staring into the nothingness of the open space, and he found himself wondering what awaited him out there.

BEEP! BEEP!

[Nexus Point ETA: 53 minutes]

Rayleigh glanced at the information displayed starkly on the monitor placed alongside the spaceship’s controls. His eyes slowly returned to the vast emptiness of space before him.

There were two ways to explore the universe. The first was through the use of portals.

Portals could take a person literally anywhere across the universe, as long as the destination had been discovered, explored, and another portal awaited them at the fixed point.

Portals were the easiest, fastest, and safest way to travel, but they were also the most expensive.

The second option was spaceships. Although they were considerably slower and posed more risks from space pirates, hostile colonies, and alien species looking to enslave others, spaceships came in handy for simple individuals like Rayleigh who could never in a lifetime afford a portal for themselves. Hence, a portal was out of the question.

Only corporations and military entities such as the Silver Corp had access to portals.

Perhaps Elias also had one somewhere in his bunker, but having prior knowledge of how business in the underground city worked, Rayleigh knew there was no possibility in the universe where Elias would allow him access to a portal.

Working for half a year for Elias wouldn’t even nearly be enough to earn him a pass through a portal.

A spaceship was Rayleigh’s best chance at getting to his destination.

The planet where Beatrice Pierce had been sentenced to was a distant planet located in a distant star system, one that would require accessing the Nexus Point.

The Nexus Point was an ancient cosmic phenomenon that connected distant regions of space. Once a ship entered one, it could perform a massive jump and emerge in another star system many light-years away.

Its origin remained unknown.

The Nexus Points had been discovered long before humanity developed portal technology, and countless civilizations had already used them to travel between distant star systems.

No one knew who created them, or whether they had even been created by anyone at all.

All anyone knew was that they worked.

Having no other choice, Rayleigh waited. The silence was loud—extremely loud; a paradoxical situation this was, apparently.

Cruising the silence, however, it suddenly dawned on Rayleigh that he might never be able to return to Earth.

He was officially branded a fugitive, a complete outcast to his home planet.

Rayleigh suddenly found himself reminiscing about a time when he had once felt like an outcast.

◇SEVEN◇YEARS◇AGO◇

"Try not to trip down the stairs, Ray Pierce!" A boy shouted from across the school hallway. "If you do, you’ll hurt the stairs."

Mocking laughter erupted from the crowd of young students watching the scene unfold. They were all fifteen and sixteen years old, both boys and girls.

"Why does he even bother coming to school when he knows he wouldn’t go further?" A female student asked with a chuckle. "Only Runers can go to an Academy. Or has the city decided to build a non-runer academy?"

Rayleigh ignored them and continued walking toward the stairwell.

"Hey, Ray!" Said the boy who had spoken firsy. "I’m talking to you."

Rayleigh stopped and turned around slowly, staring at the boy for a moment before glancing toward the staircase behind him.

Then he pointed a finger at the stairs.

"First of all, stairs can’t get hurt. They’re inanimate objects. They’re not alive, so they don’t have the necessary biology to feel pain. They don’t have a nervous system, and they don’t even have a brain."

A few students in the crowd exchanged looks.

Rayleigh then turned toward the girl who had mocked him.

"And whatever I choose to do here isn’t any of your business." His eyes returned to the boy. "Besides, I’d rather come to school to learn than have a brain full of pebbles like Zane Morrow over here."

A few hidden cackles erupted from the crowd.

Someone did a terrible job of hiding his laughter and Zane’s face immediately turned red with anger and embarrassment.

"What makes a pathetic excuse for a human like yourself think you can talk to me that way?!"

His eyes suddenly turned completely white.

Rayleigh felt the change in the air. "Uh-oh..."

Before Rayleigh could react, a powerful wave of wind slammed into him. His body was knocked off his feet and sent tumbling down the stairs.

His back struck the hard concrete. "Ugh!"

Pain shot through Rayleigh’s body as he groaned and his assailant, Zane descended the stairs in one motion, landing a few feet away from Rayleigh.

He raised his fists, preparing for another attack but before he could strike, a strange purple glow shaped like a chain suddenly wrapped around his wrists.

The chains violently yanked him away, sending him crashing into a nearby wall.

"Touch him again and I’m sending you through that window." A female voice growled.

Rayleigh glanced toward the voice and released an exhausted groan.

"All of you skedaddle! Unless you want to end up like Zane ’Moron’ over here!"

The students who were watching the scene immediately dispersed.

"I don’t need you fighting my battles, Tris..." Rayleigh groaned.

A fifteen-year-old Beatrice Pierce came into view. She wore a smug look as she watched her brother lying on the floor, then she folded her arms.

"Seriously, Ray? You can’t even fight your own battles, so that means I have to do it for you."

"That doesn’t mean I need your protection."

"Let’s be logical here." Beatrice pointed at him. "You needed it a few moments ago, and you’ll probably need it again."

Rayleigh opened his mouth to argue, but no words came out.

Dejected, he knew she was right.

He stood no chance against Zane. He stood no chance against anyone else in the school for that matter because he was the odd one out.

In fact, was the only non-runer in the entire school.

"I’m an outcast," Rayleigh muttered.

"Stop whining. You aren’t an outcast. You’re my brother. Now pick yourself up. I’m ready to save your sorry ass anytime, but I won’t be picking that sorry ass up from the floor."

◇◇◇

That memory played like a tape in Rayleigh’s mind.

He remembered it like it was yesterday, and in a way, thinking about the events from seven years made him feel like less of an outcast and more of a protector.

It strengthened his resolve. He remembered why he had become a fugitive on Earth in the first place. He also remembered who he was sacrificing so much for.

He remembered Beatrice. Tris had always come to his aid. Now, it was finally time to return the favor for the first time.

BEEP! BEEP!

[Destination Reached: Nexus Point]

The alarms suddenly went off throughout the cockpit, pulling Rayleigh from his thoughts.

Rayleigh immediately sat upright and strapped himself into the pilot’s seat, getting ready for the jump.

He glanced through the window, staring at the Nexus Point that was directly ahead.

At first, it looked like a massive distortion in space; the area surrounding it appeared stretched and warped, as though the entire universe had been pulled toward a single location.

"So that’s a Nexus Point..." Rayleigh asked, his gazed fixated on it.

He had seen pictures of them before, but seeing one in person was a completely different experience.

As the Atlas-9 began approaching the phenomenon, the ship’s systems displayed information.

[Preparing Nexus Jump Sequence]

[Destination: R-Z 012]

[Distance: 14,672 Light-Years]

[Jump Route Calculated]

[Jump Sequence Initiating]

A countdown appeared across the cockpit monitor.

[10]

[9]

[8]

[7]

[6]

[5]

Suddenly—

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Another alarm erupted throughout the cockpit.

"What now?!"

A new monitor came to life, blinking a warning across its display.

[WARNING: LOW FUEL]

[Current Fuel Level: 8%]

[WARNING: Current fuel reserves are insufficient for the calculated Nexus Jump.]

"What?!"

Rayleigh immediately looked toward the ship’s fuel readings.

"Low fuel? Damn it, Elias! What the hell!"

[ERROR]

[Nexus Jump cannot be completed with current fuel reserves.]

[Estimated fuel required for destination: 37%]

[Current fuel reserves: 8%]

[Destination R-Z 012 is beyond the vessel’s current jump capacity.]

Rayleigh’s expression darkened. "You’ve got to be kidding me..."

The ARS suddenly appeared before his eyes.

► [Nexus Jump Failure Detected]

► [Analyzing available alternatives...]

► [Contingency Route Found]

► [Recommendation: Refuel at the nearest compatible star system.]

► [Nearest Refueling Point: Star System K-47]

► [Distance: 1,184 Light-Years]

Rayleigh stared at the information.

► [Warning: Star System K-47 contains multiple inhabited planets.]

► [Hostile activity detected within the system.]

► [Probability of encountering hostile entities: 67.4%]

Rayleigh’s eyes twitched violently. "Of course there’s always hostile activity!"

He stared at the massive Nexus Point outside the cockpit window.

He had finally reached the gateway that would take him closer to Beatrice but now he couldn’t use it because Elias screwd him over.

"Set new course for K-47 or whatever."

►[ New Destination Set: Star System K-47 ]

►[ Initiating Nexus Jump! ]

◇◇◇