The Teddy Emperor was sitting in a small spaceship. One made for racing purposes, not for war. He was flying at maximum speed below hyperspeed.
His fingers were tapping onto a glass display nervously. He was humming a song and, instead of looking forward, his eyes darted around. He was trying to look at everything except where he was going.
To his delight, he did not have to fly himself into his probable doom as the spaceship was a self-driving vehicle. It took not long for him to be able to observe the barrier he would have to cross to enter the Geddos Alliance's territory and kingdom. The barrier was not a physical thing one could truly see, but the scanners of the spaceship depicted it as if it was a game and that was the entrance to something dangerous.
He took a deep breath, "From this point forward, I need to stay absolutely focused." Lukas was scared for his life. If this failed, he would be blown to shreds, or at least frozen for eternity on a stranger's citadel.
The spaceship flew through the imaginary barrier into enemy territory. While nothing happened, the atmosphere around him felt different.
Lukas pressed a few buttons and a ringtone appeared for a fraction of a second before the person he called picked up. "Hey~!" He said, trying to sound confident but the worry and fear was evident in his voice, "How are you?"
"I told you not to go, you would be scared!" Lana complained.
"No! No, I am not scared, just lonely." He lied, "This is gonna be easy."
During their talk, which took a few minutes, he did not notice something appearing on his scanner for a moment before turning transparent again. Someone was trailing him towards the citadel.
"Don't be so scared!" Lukas told Lana, "Haven't even encountered anyone. No Geddoses, no spaceships and no signals trying to lure me somewhere or send me away." He looked down onto the videocall, trying to see Lana's face. "You're too close to the screen." He laughed.
Lana did not react, her eyes black.
"You good?" He asked, concerned.
Her eyes turned white and her head snapped forwards. "Dodge!" She screamed. And Lukas did.
As his spaceships rolled to the side, a spaceship bolted through the place he just occupied. "The fuck!" Lukas got angry, "Kamikaze? Are these bastards serious?" Sacrificing themselves to kill someone? He could not even dream about sacrificing one of his Teddys.
"It's empty. Self-driving spaceship, like yours." Lana told him. This time, only one of her eyes turned black and she moved weirdly. She typed something, just so she would seem as if she was doing something, even though she could do it without moving a muscle. "Destroy it. It isn't equipped to transport you into stasis."
Lukas let out an exhausted and dissatisfied sigh. Quickly, he pressed a button that deactivated the autopilot and grabbed the joystick to take full control of the spaceship, no interference from the artificial intelligence in it.
"Are you sure this is the best option?" He asked, but was already flying after the spaceship. It seemed as if it was luring him somewhere, but he was ready to take that chance. He started shooting, no real lasers, of course, this was a racing spaceship. But since his aim was trash anyway, the harmless rays could be confused with real attacks.
Lana answered: "Yes. Since you are against me spoiling their coordinates but are fine with advice, this ship will probably lure you into a trap. And if you are good enough to destroy a few ships, they will stop attacking and try to capture you." She had a triumphant smile on her face.
Lukas decided he was the fish that bit into the lure. His spaceship was faster than the lure, but he had to keep it realistic, so it would not notice him using fake attacks. He kept shooting as they flew past a few asteroids. It was quite odd how many there were, this was supposed to be the vast emptiness of the universe yet there were obstacles every few seconds.
Following the lure around an asteroid he stumbled into a group of spaceships. They were mining ships, melting the asteroids surrounding them with their special lasers. Sadly, those lasers would also work on him and his spaceship.
The lure flew out of the group and the mining ships turned to face the little spaceship Lukas was controlling: "Shit!"
"Two of them are equipped for stasis transport, the other 7 aren't. Be careful."
"Which ones?" Lukas asked, panicked.
"What—"
"Which ones are equipped for stasis transport? Are there any visual distinctions in the design of their spaceships?" He thought for a moment before he continued, "Or any distinctions in their attacks' looks?"
"Give me a moment." Lana muttered as the 9 mining spaceships started attacking Lukas. He dodged as many as possible and accidentally got 2 of them to shoot and destroy each other. "Be careful!" Lana warned, "They weren't equipped for stasis, but you should try not to destroy them. And yes, there is a distinction you can see. The normal ships have to load and warm up their lasers, the 2 you want to be hit by shoot instantly."
"So I just have to wait for them to hit me, as I can easily dodge the others. Got it." He said and his confidence shattered instantly as his spaceship got hit by a normal laser, destroying his propulsion device. He was still able to control his ships movements, but he would not be able to accelerate again if he slowed down. He put on his helmet, which completed the suit he was wearing.
It was a spacesuit, designed by himself and his plushies to protect him from the vacuum of space and the cold, as well as the stasis. "I am excited." He told Lana and hung up before he could hear any protests.
His spaceship flew past a few asteroids and opened up. Three spaceships followed him, 1 of them loaded his laser as the other 2 shot instantly. "Yes!" He screamed as the light enveloped his body, teleporting him to stasis on the citadel.