Liliana looked at him curious to know what he meant.
"Master Lee, what do you mean by trust and a power we don't understand?
After multiple attempts to speed off, the ship suddenly stopped moving
Santiago was beginning to lose it.
"The ship is no longer moving….it's stagnant!"
"I don't think anything's wrong with the ship. Aliens might be behind all this." Jun Won said, his tone uneasy. He had been hearing strange voices in his head.
"Santiago, watch out! We're going to crash into that strange ship coming at us!" Liliana shouted, panic gripped her whole body.
Mike, who had been calm until now, couldn't take it anymore.
"What the hell is going on here? Are we going to die or something? Is this a dream or am I in a movie?" He blurted out.
"Soothe yourself. You're always acting rude. Are you even here for the mission or just for a cruise?" Greg shot back angrily at Mike.
"What did you just say? Say that one more time and watch how I throw you out of this ship as a sacrificial lamb." Mike retorted.
"And who the hell do you think you are? I dare you to try it!" Greg growled, unstrapping from his seat to go and confront Mike.
Mike, seeing him, unstrapped as well, ready to throw hands.
"Guys, stop it! You are causing a nuisance here," Liliana and Zara shouted in unison. The two ladies glanced at each other and shared a brief smile.
"This is definitely not the time for quarrelling and you guys know it. We need unity to tackle this challenge together." Yelena reminded them firmly.
"Yes! We need to mitigate the problem together," Tomi said smiling.
"It's not 'mitigate', we need to alleviate the situation," Zara corrected playfully.
"And it's not 'alleviate', we need to remediate the problem together," Liliana added with a smirk.
"You guys are not serious," Yelena said, trying not to laugh.
"Y'all have time to joke in a tense moment like this?" Andrea chuckled.
The two angry men sat down quietly.
Just then, a ship zoomed past them at full speed, only a flash of light of light was visible.
The strange ship approaching them stopped directly in front of them, nearly colliding, leaving only a tiny gap.
Master Lee, already familiar with the tension in the air, knew exactly who their enemies were. He unstrapped and carefully made his way to the center of the ship.
"Everyone, we've been marked. Aliens are behind our predicament. I believe they marked us the moment we trespassed into their territory. They are after us, in fact they are hovering above our ship right now. I want us all to stay calm. Don't panic..We will sort this out. And remember they are not the reason we came here."
It turned out the aliens had stopped their ship from moving with a powerful hook.
Immediately after, the lights came back on.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"What do we do?" several voices asked at once, tension still heavy in the air.
The ship's Earth communicator started functioning again, connecting on its own.
Cheers erupted on Earth.
"They are back! We found them!" an earth responder announced.
They waited for Yelena to approach the communicator, but she didn't.
On the other hand, she didn't even know it was on.
The system had switched to video call mode, allowing those on earth to see everything happening inside the ship.
Then, the ship's computer began typing strange words on its own.
Master Lee was the first to notice.
Jun Won followed.
"This is an alien language," he said, his voice low.
Everyone waited for him to elaborate.
"They are giving us a warning. He paused.
They are demanding a chip. they said it's here, somewhere on the ship. The chip belongs to them, it was taken from them five years ago by humans."
"And if we refuse to hand it back to them…
He looked at the crew, sadness in his eyes. "They will take it themselves and make sure we're wiped out, not a single one of us will be spared. He folded his arms, gaze falling to the floor.
"What do we do?" he asked quietly.
"We have to reply to them as soon as possible," Master Lee said.
"But what chip?" Yelena asked.
"And where is this chip at?" Andrea pressed.
"I know where it is," Master Lee replied.
"Where? Let's hand it over right now. Kenney said from the back.
All eyes locked on Master Lee.
He stayed silent.
"Master Lee…. say something, please."Yelena pleaded, joined by others.
On Earth, panic was spreading. World leaders were now watching live.
An urgent order came in.
"K1, the higher ups have ordered that the video call be connected to every bill board and news channel, with the caption: 'Happening now in space.'"
The global information team forwarded the message to Mr. K1 who's in charge of receiving and passing messages from the rescue team.
"Got it, right away," K1 replied relaying the order to his team
"Everyone! Connect the call to all billboards and news channels, now!
he commanded.
Within minutes, the feed was everywhere. People who saw it in the streets called their families to turn on the news. The footage spread like wildfire.
Lilliana's Parents tuned in immediately. The details didn't matter, they were focused only on their daughter.
Back in space.
"We have to do something, Master Lee, tell us please." Jun Won urged.
"It's in my stomach," he finally confessed after much persuasion.
Everyone gasped.
On Earth, the tension was palpable.
"This is ridiculous," people murmured.
"How did it end up there?" Yelena asked in disbelief.
Fearing the aliens might be listening, Master Lee quickly came up with a plan. He typed something on his space watch.
"Everyone! check your space watches" he ordered.
Everyone did.
The message appeared: We have to give them a fake chip.
"Where do we get a fake chip?" Andrea typed back
"I know where. Zara come with me to the lullbay, Jun Won send the aliens a reply. Tell them we will give them the chip, but in return they must let us go in peace," Master Lee instructed.
Zara unstrapped immediately
"Right away," Jun Won replied.
"Your time starts now," the aliens responded.
A twenty minute countdown began.
20… 19…. 18…. 17…..
On Earth people clutched their chest and prayed.
"This is getting tougher," Andrea muttered.
"Am already suffocating, what if master Lee and Zara can't find a fake chip?" Martins blurted.
"Bro shh, damn it." Greg snapped.
Martins realized and covered his mouth instantly.
"Let's stop speaking negatively," Yelena warned.
The timer kept ticking…..
13…. 12…. 11…
Everyone gripped whatever they could, bracing for the outcome.
On Earth Lilliana's parents prayed harder
9… 8… 7….
Liliana closed her eyes for a split second, remembering her parents and siblings, she prayed silently.
Despite the fear, she pulled out her journal and wrote:
What if I told you, we are negotiating with aliens right now? But is it a peaceful or a forced negotiation? We will talk about that later.
She gently tucked it back inside her bag, her hands trembling.
6…. 5….
A faint hum grew louder, the alien's ship preparing for something.
4… 3…
"We have the chip! How do we hand it over? Master Lee shouted.