The Almighty Ring

“Send me back,” Jiang Fei said once the little white orb was in his hands.

“Standby…”

When Jiang Fei was teleported back into the ship, he quickly sat down in the captain’s seat and started to examine the little white pulsating ball.

“Captain, put it inside the ring so that I can run a series of tests to determine what it is. By the way, please place the ring on the control console. Domingo and the others are going to wake up soon, and I need to erase my presence from the system,” said 0541.

“Oh… Oh! Please do,” said Jiang Fei, following 0541’s advice. 0541 knew what Jiang Fei was thinking: hide every possible information about the ring, 0541, and his own personal information from the Valsalrian army.

Jiang Fei had no idea what the glowing, pulsating object was, but he sure as hell would not want to wait until the rest of the ship’s crew found out about it.

In a few mere seconds, 0541 swam across the sea of data and erased every digital footprint he had made. It was done with absolute ease. Even though the ship’s main computer was ten thousand times more advanced than 0541, the computer’s self-defenses were just too weak.

“Captain, great news! I have downloaded a bunch of data from the Valsalrian’s Science Division! Even though there wasn’t as much data as I had hoped to find on the ship’s database, it’s more than I’ve ever owned!” said 0541 happily.

The evolution of 0541’s intelligence was perhaps the best in the entire known universe. Unfortunately, be that as it may, 0541 was created ten thousand years ago by the now extinct Namekians. His database was… limited.

To put it in perspective, 0541 would be a five-year-old Albert Einstein while the ship’s computer system, the others on Redstone, and even the rest of the known universe were below-than-average university graduate students. Given time and information, 0541 would rise up to take the spot of the strongest A.I!

“Good for you,” said Jiang Fei. The stronger 0541 was, the better he would be in helping Jiang Fei.

After every trace of 0541 was removed from the computer, Jiang Fei sat back and waited patiently. Two hours later, Domingo became the first to regain consciousness.

“Ouph…” He grunted as he got up to his feet.

Jiang Fei quickly raced across the cockpit to help his lieutenant up, and he slowly placed him in the captain’s seat. Since Domingo was awake, the rest of the soldiers on board would wake up soon as well.

“How are you feeling, Lieutenant Domingo?” Jiang Fei asked.

“I’m… still alive,” said Domingo, struggling for air.

“We all are,” said Jiang Fei.

“What happened while I was out?”

“I can’t explain, but the Ultralisk exploded on its own, taking out everything in this planetary system. Even the binary stars were taken out,” Jiang Fei said, repeating what he had practiced in his head.

“Exploded? Where are we, then? How did we manage to escape the blast?” Domingo roared as he tapped the console board. Information about their location was displayed, and to his horror, they were in the same position as before. The scenery was just different.

“The stars were destroyed. We managed to survive because I took the liberty to pilot the ship and make an emergency warp jump. A while later, when I returned, everything was… different,” said Jiang Fei. 0541 had prepared him for what to say to Domingo as he had changed the ship’s log accordingly.

Domingo flipped the computer’s logs, and as Jiang Fei claimed, he found records of an emergency warp jump to one lightyear away before the ship returned to the same coordinates.

“How did you even… Bah…” Domingo gasped. It was hard to believe that Jiang Fei, in that tense situation, was able to collect himself and key in proper coordinates for a warp jump. At that point, Domingo accepted the fact that Jiang Fei was just a miracle man. Not only did he surprise everyone with his hidden combat level, but now, he had also shown Domingo his prowess in piloting the ship.

While it seemed hard to believe, Domingo took every word and treated it as the truth. The ship’s logs were certain, and everything Jiang Fei said matched the ship’s logs. Video footage of the Ultralisk’s explosion, security footage of Jiang Fei running across the cockpit to start a warp jump, and other security logs verified Jiang Fei’s words.

To be fair, Jiang Fei had only followed 0541’s instructions in terms of what to tell Domingo. It was enough to show that Jiang Fei himself could not explain every action he had taken to save everyone’s lives. The truth was far from believable. Jiang Fei had taken on the Ultralisk alone by dragging it into the 10th Dimension. Not to mention, there was the creation of the black hole, the formation of the white hole, and the little white pulsating orb that was left behind.

“Rest, Lieutenant. You need it more than I do,” said Jiang Fei as he sat in the co-pilot’s seat. The more he talked, the more suspicion he would raise. It was better for him to provide less information than to feed false information, which could be traced.

“Yes… Yes, I will…” said Domingo as he closed his eyes to rest. His body and soul were aching all over. Although he had regained consciousness, he was still weak.

A few hours later, the rest of the soldiers on board the ship woke up. Like Domingo, Jiang Fei acted out of kindness to help every one of them to their respective cabin rooms to rest properly. It was better than sleeping on the cold metal floor of the ship.

Ten days later, once everyone recovered their physical strength to move around, they all headed to their respective stations while the captain assumed his role to pilot the ship.

“F*ck those bastards! They baited us in and unleashed a freaking Ultralisk in our face! Argh! They should consider themselves lucky for dying, or else I would’ve made them regret it greatly!” Domingo complained about the pirates so many times. Although his word choice was different, the context was always the same. The cost of the mission was practically ninety percent of his entire attack force. Not only did they fail to raid the pirate’s base, but they had also lost so many men and ships. To make things worse, only one ship remained. He had lost five ships and over five hundred men in total.

“Lieutenant, it can’t be helped. We were thrown an Ultralisk to deal with! At least, we are still alive…” said the captain of the Corvette class ship. The captain and the rest of the crew members were thankful for Jiang Fei. If it had not been for his immunity against psychic attacks, which granted him a chance to pilot the ship to safety, everyone would have died.

Oddly enough, while they were curious about his hidden combat level, they did not suspect anything regarding Jiang Fei’s immunity to psychic attacks. Space was vast, and there were literally countless species out there. The chances of them being immune to psychic attacks were as good as bumping into an asteroid in space. Not to mention, they were all oblivious about Terrans and Earth…

“Get us home, Captain. We all need some time to rest and recuperate,” said Domingo. The rage and anger he had for the pirates were coped up as the pirates themselves were dead.

They came in a fleet of ships and returned in just one ship, battered, defeated, and tired. Even after suffering from such a great defeat, Domingo played his role as Jiang Fei’s babysitter well. In his report, he made sure to include everything Jiang Fei had done to save the surviving soldiers. Although the mission was considered a failure, Jiang Fei was still marked down for his achievements.