Topasa

The shutters open and reveal the purplish tinted planet all Menkar call their true home. For a moment Topasa watches the scenery with awe. Although she has seen the vista the day she left Cetus, it still feels special. If she had the time, she would actually try to memorise every tiny detail of the few, but she hasn’t. She and the others need to prepare for the landing, which will certainly be anything but gentle.

This Topasa starts to collect most of the movable objects and puts them back to where they belong. Meanwhile, Nethra takes the most useful things, like water and food, into her bracelets. Once everything's done, Topasa looks around to see if they have missed something.

„Alright!”, she says and claps her hands together. „Time to secure the passengers.”

With a smile, she walks over to Toddy and crouches.

„Hey there, little one,” she greets the Insectoid and points at the wall right beside the main screen. „I need to put you into the security harness over there at the wall. We don't want you to get hurt, do we?”

Understanding, Toddy nods and raises his arms. With a soft chuckle, she picks the small creature up and warps the belts around its slender frame. For a moment, she stops and looks sceptical at the harness as it appears to be too big. Still, she doesn’t need long to notice the clasps on the sides of the belts and tightens them around the small chitinous creature. Once she is done, she allows herself a small break underneath Nethra's clearly pissed gaze. Topasa smiles at her and receives, much to her surprise, not even a single snide remark. One glance at Serfin is still enough to keep her optimism in check. The tall Menkar still sits huddled into a tight ball in the furthest and darkest corner of the life-ship. His usually well-kept hair is a mess and his relatively dark skin sickly grey.

Topasa feels her stomach sink like a stone. During the whole trip she worried about Serfin’s mental health and this display doesn’t ease her nerves in the slightest. While he hadn’t spoken since the start of their rather unwanted travel, Serfin also had refused all food and only drank water because Topasa had forced him to. She would’ve tried more, but his psychic field of fear had kept her away for the most part. If he did so consciously or not is up for debate and she felt it would be better not to bother him.

But now she has to bother him.

Once back on Cetus, they must all work together. Especially since all of them are marked as traitors, they can’t slack off. Still, first things first. Before Topasa can truly think about their next steps on Cetus, she needs to get Serfin back on his legs. Even if it’s just as long as it takes her to fasten the safety belts around him.

Slow she approaches Serfin as if he were one of the many dangerous animals roaming Cetus. His cloud of low-key fear doesn’t help, but to her relief he looks up at her. She smiles and opens her mouth to address him. But before she can make a single sound, his psychics run wild.

Oppressive, distorted fear floods Topasa’s mind as if she got suddenly submerged in water. While unclear and lacking directions, this fear is enough to force a rather embarrassing sound out of her.

The fear stops. So, suddenly in fact, that Topasa thinks her heart has stopped.

„S-sorry…“ mumbles Serfin and pulls her out of her funk.

„Serfin?“ she addresses him and crouches down. „It’s alright. I’m fine. Moreover, we need to get ready for the landing.“

Beyond looking at her through swollen eyes, he doesn’t react. And even his eyes only focus on her face for a moment before dropping again. This display is disheartening, but she can’t leave him like that. In the past days she usually walked away with an encouraging gentle pat on the shoulder, but now…

„I don’t think Respin would like to see you like this,“ she says and hopes not to stir his bad temper by mentioning his Bondmate.

„I guess…,“ he says barely audible, his voice raspy and dry.

„Then let’s get ready to land,“ she says with a warm smile and tries to pull him up, although he is much taller and heavier than her. „Once we’re down we investigate if he is still alive.“

„Hopefully,“ he mumbles and forces his face into a sad smile.

Before Topasa knows what’s happening, he stands up and causes her to fall over. The only thing saving her from hitting her horns against something is Serfin’s rough hand warped around one of her wrists. He apologises and moves over to the safety harnesses and pulls the belts around his upper body.

With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Topasa proceeds to warp herself into the belts. Just in time as the ship moves into the automatically calculated angle for an optimal entrance into the atmosphere of Cetus. A few seconds later the ship begins to shudder. The shudders become rumbles as it pierces through the first layer of the atmosphere. The Insectoid looks over to the others before turning his attention to the front window. Nethra mumbles something about hating everything and everyone, while Serfin just has his eyes closed. Topasa just closes her eyes and prays to the Void for a safe landing.

Respin

„It’s nice to see that you’ve finally woken up. How’s the shoulder?“

Respin watches how the pale creature slowly stands up and moves towards him. As she gets closer, he fights the urge to move further away from her. Even as she picks one of the food bags up, he forces himself to stay put, while clutching his throbbing shoulder.

Before the silence becomes too tense, she puts the food bag back into the cupboard and starts to pick up the remaining food rations.

„You’d come down with a fever the last three days, but you seem to be over the worst now,“ she explains. „I’ve taken care of your wound, but you should let someone with more knowledge about medicine have a look at it. We can sort all of this out once we’ve landed.“

After she has placed nearly all bags back into the cupboard, she turns to him with two of them still in her hands. „You’re properly famished right now… Wanna eat? I’ve unfortunately eaten all the snacks in the last few days, so we have to eat those things. And to be honest, I don’t have a single clue on how to make them eatable.“

As if his stomach has waited for such a comment, it started to cramp. The pain is almost enough to topple Respin over if he wasn’t on the ground already. The pale creature doesn’t say anything. Maybe she didn’t notice, he thinks.

„Mind helping me with those?“, she asks with a soft smile.

Respin nods reluctantly and points at one of the panels to her right. With a shrug, she turns to the panel and opens it. Inside is the cooking device that is the only thing capable to make those pre-packed food-bags remotely eatable. While she tries to prepare the food, Respin remains where he is. The knife still in his trembling hand.

„What’s your name?“, she asks casual without turning around. „Mine’s… Selene.“

„Res…,“ he says in a raspy voice and clears his still sore and very dry throat. „Respin. My name’s Respin.“

„Nice to meet you, Respin,“ she replies and pushes some buttons on the cooking device, looking at it with a frown.

„You… umm… need some help?“, he asks before he has a chance to get his mouth shut.

„That would be neat,“ Selene replies and steps aside. „I only know the old version, which was rather stale. This one looks like it’s a part of the control-panel of the ship.“

As he forces himself to get close to her, she steps back, her hands folded behind her back. With a tense expression, he looks at the console. While he pushes the necessary buttons, he comes to notice that she doesn’t look that wild with her hair cut about shoulder-length. She also has got her hand on some clothes. The standard Fleet Uniform of a Bladedancer to be precise. Only the pants look a little awkward due to the difference in leg-anatomy.

„I need to thank you,“ she says and interrupts the tense silence.

„For what?“, he asks, his voice failing him again.

„For freeing me from the tree and later out of the tank,“ she explains. „Although the latter was very brave, it was also really stupid.“

Respin remains silent. He knows this. He knew it from the moment the plan had formed in his head. It could have cost his life as well as the lives of his friends. At least he hopes that they managed to get out before the Starblazer got destroyed. Suddenly, his thoughts come to a halt. Why exactly did he save Selene? He had looked at her and almost instantly felt that he should help her. Also, why is she on a life-ship with him? Shouldn’t she be with the others?

Respin‘s thoughts run rampant, but all he can think of are wild assumptions, which won’t help him to move on in the current situation. Maybe I should ask her?, he wonders and looks at Selene. At the same time he feels scalding pain brewing within his stomach. But before the pain can overwhelm him, it subsides.

„We arrive in a few hours on Cetus,“ she says, looking at the screen above the console. „How do you want to proceed once we’ve landed?“

„I… I don’t really know,“ he admits and pulls the now expanded food bags out of the cooking device and empties their content into a bowl each. To be honest, I don’t feel like eating anything at all, he thinks and takes a deep breath. With this breath, he notices how dry his gills feel and moves to the water dispenser next to the cooking device. He drinks two cups and splashes his dry gills with a third. Feeling better and his throat clearing he sighs relieved.

„All I know is that I’m properly marked as a traitor,“ Respin explains, „And certainly named a deserter as well. Anyway, I need to contact my friends. I can’t let them down like this.“

„Since I owe you something…,“ she replies while picking up a spoon and one of the bowls. „I’ll bring you to an old and very good friend of mine. He’ll be able to keep you away from the imperial forces as well as provide you with the means to contact your friends.“

Respin looks at her with a frown before he looks at his food. Despite the tantalising smell he doesn’t dare to eat anything. Selene notices his hesitation but remains silent.

This silence drags on. The only sounds audible are the click of her spoon against the bowl and both their breathing. During this time Respin comes slowly to realise that the situation is perhaps as awkward for her as it is for him. And he has to admit that what she said is a plan he can work with, although he would like to know who this friend of hers is. But he wants to avoid inquiring too much from her. She could refuse to help or even get mad at him — something he certainly doesn’t want. After all, she is titled a weapon by the Empress.

After Selene finishes both their meals, the silence becomes almost unbearable. Suddenly, a mechanical sound breaks it. Startled Respin turns his heads to the screen which flicks off at this exact moment. A second later the shutters open and reveal the large blue moon, curling around a dark planet specked with glowing lights and illuminated by a blue giant. Selene stands up and walks up to the front, looking with clear admiration on Cetus, which almost seems to be within arms reach.

„It’s not such a nice place, but I take it,“ she mumbles to herself.

As Respin doesn’t know what she means, he remains silent. He can’t deny the beauty of the view himself. Just now he notices how much he has missed his home planet, a feeling that not even the five Circles on board of the Starblazer have tarnished. Yet, the thoughts of home make him think again about Serfin and the others.