Curiously, Brad glanced towards his right. A pair of strong, defined arms held the steering gear of the ship. Moving further up, he could not help but notice the lightly dusted brown hair that covered a strong jawline and piercing blue eyes that glittered under the light glow of the illuminated ship.
After a few minutes of staring, Janus finally broke the silence. 'We are going to Chiark.'
'Is that place... Federation owned?'
'What do you think?'
'No...'
'That's right. By the looks of it, we should be avoiding all Federation controlled systems unless you are into insane hide and seek.' Janus' carefree laughter filled the air. For the first time in a very long time, a weak smile could be seen forming on Brad's face.
A new feeling emerged within Brad, desire. On C36, he was too busy trying to stay alive and such feelings were suppressed. Was it the aura that Janus carried, or was it his hot masculine frame that attracted Brad. That did not matter as Brad was definitely infatuated to his savior.
At the time, Brad did not know that he himself was quite handsome. To the wandering eye, Brad was well built. Afterall Brad had to be fit and agile to get out of dangerous situations that plagued the bad neighborhoods of C36.
'We will reach in a day. I'll be using the gravitational pull C36's star to slingshot us there.'
'Okay' replied Brad as he slumped into the plush and comfortable seat next to Janus.
Soon, Brad fell into a deep slumber, tired from all that has happened to him in a span of a day. Janus eyed his new mate; a cute boy murmuring in his sleep. Janus instinctively knew that Brad undoubtedly had an extremely rough life.
Janus set the ship to autopilot.
Hours later,
Brad woke up to an intriguing conversation.
'Name?' came a disinterested voice.
Replying in the same tone, 'Legal or preferred?'
'Legal.'
A sigh from Janus could be heard, 'Experiment J35-59DK0 - B'
Rubbing his eyes, Brad saw Janus talking to another man. Donned in uniform, fear seeped into Brad. Was he betrayed by Janus? However, he quickly realized the uniform was of a different shade; they were not the Federation's enforcers.
Looking over, seeing Brad stirring up, Janus joked teasingly 'oh look, sleeping beauty is awake.'
'Now you' said the man while pointing at Brad, 'name?'
'Brad, Brad Mccallum.' said Brad matter-of-factly.
'First time entering The Coalition? You have to fill this up.'
The man handed Brad a slab of glass that displayed a mugshot of Brad sleeping with empty boxes to fill up his personal particulars.
'Hey! Why is there a photo of me sleeping?'
'It is to identify all individuals entering and leaving our various systems.'
'HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!' Janus burst out laughing, seeing the interaction between the border guard and Brad.
'Too bad mate, I don't think they'll allow you to change that.'
'That is right, Experiment J35-59DK0 - B.' replied the border guard.
Brad was curious, this was the second time he heard the weird phrase being uttered. He turned towards Janus and saw a pair of eyes burning in pain and cringing for a moment before returning to its steely blue gaze. Looking back down at the marvelous piece of technology ontop his hands, he begin filling up the boxes assiduously. Verifying once and satisfied, Brad handed back the slab of glass to the border guard.
'That should be it. You two can go.'
The window on the left shut closed. The ship lifted up and began hovering towards the exit of the security checkpoint. Accelerating out, Brad got a view of the security checkpoint on the outside. The ship dwarfed in comparison to the security checkpoint which was almost as large as a planet.
'What a view.'
'Yeh it is.' Janus agreed with Brad as they both watched the insurmountable number of ships that were seen entering and leaving the grey hull of the cubic security checkpoint.
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