The sigh that escaped my dry lips was slow, jutting my bottom lip out as if a tension had lifted yet left me with a melancholy instead of relief.

"Ivory," I whispered again.

The silence was a poison to me. I needed to drink in the silence to counteract the fear that threatened to engulf me. What if she didn't show? They would eventually catch me and give me a much fearsome death.

A whisper howled in the silence. I witnessed a dark spot travel down the prison hallway towards me. A faint image of Ivory appeared. The image of her keeps getting stronger-wait a moment- Ivory's here!

A wicked smile was visible on her lips as she winked. "Follow me, I've located where the spaceships are kept and how to get there."

I knew that she could do it. A deep curve formed on my lips and I felt a precious dimple crinkle into my cheek.

Her pace was slow and cautious, so it was quite easy to keep up, despite the gruesome inmates banging rhythmically on the their bars.

We entered a colossal hall made of pure crystal, which housed thousands of rock spaceships.

I beamed my brightest smile and spoke, "We did it, we really did it-"

A red laser bean just missed me by an inch. My senses sharpened with adrenaline. There was a tightness in my throat. Next came the rising panic, the dizzy feeling and the need to get low to the ground.

I spun around as fast as I could and witnessed hundreds, or maybe thousands, of orange aliens racing towards us with large guns in their hands. Without thinking, I roughly picked Ivory up and ran towards the closest spaceship.

Ivory slapped her forehead as she whirled her head towards me. "Oh no! It's going to be locked; we need to unlock all the spaceships from the main control!"

"And where might that be?!" I screamed impatiently jumping on the spot.

"OVER THERE!"

I glanced over my shoulder to see where she was pointing. Her unusually heavy weight caused my back to ache and slow down.

"Run faster," she yelled. I gritted my teeth and quickened my pace to an all out sprint even though my legs trembled as I took each step. My rasping throat was as parched as a dead lizard in the desert sun.

The centre of the room. A huge desk with buttons scattered across it. Iconic.

"Which one are you going to press?" Ivory whispered into my ear.

"All of them."

My fingers carelessly jabbed down all the buttons which caused all the ships to reveal the inside of the spaceship. Before running off to the closest spaceship, I grabbed the inviting large key that sat at the corner of the desk.

I bet its was needed for takeoff- but they only had one, presumably so that they could keep count of the number of spaceships exiting the spacecraft, I thought with a smile.

"I don't think they'll be able to follow us without this," I said with a wink as I grabbed the key.

The spaceship was hollow like a glass cube. Ivory crawled off my back as I stretched my sore back into all the directions.

"Thanks a lot for carrying me; I'm no good at running! And I still don't-"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm going to try to work out these controls here and just please try taking care of yourself," I said as I glanced around the dark spaceship.

"They're coming! They're very close to reaching the door! Quick, close it!!" Ivory shouted to me.

Panic rose inside my soul. How in the world was I supposed to close it?

A keyhole caught my eye at the side of the control. I slipped the large key into the hole and turned it ninety degrees to the right until I heard a click. The entire spaceship lit up and the blank screen was no longer blank but it revealed the front view of the ship. All the buttons were labelled with symbols and my finger kissed the button with a door sign.

Ivory beamed. "It's closing."Thank god, it closed.

My eyes concentrated on the controls. They were just like the video game controls but a lot more complicated. I experimented with by pressing a few buttons but one caused the spacecraft to lift off the ground.

"Bingo," I whispered as I threw my arms up in the air.

I bet my shoes that the wheel in the centre of the controls would steer. I sharply twirled the wheel to the right and the ship swerved, out of control crashing into the wall to the right.

"Oh shoot."

"Don't worry, you got this, I'll help you track the way out of here," Ivory said placing her paw on my foot as she tried to climb the seat.

"Alright, so go straight and take the next right."

I locked my eyes with the screen and witnessed the army of aliens glaring between the ship and my eyes which were probably burning with anger, with their mouths hanging open.

One of them began sprinting across the hall towards the entrance. He pressed a large red button.

"Oh no, he's closing the gate! We have to hurry!"

My feet roughly kissed the accelerator and the ship sped forward. I didn't raise my legs until we almost reached the gate.

"The gate is too low, we're going to have to lower the ship," I murmured.

I pressed a button which had the symbol of an object being pulled by gravity- the ship lowered, and I jabbed onto the accelerator again.

We just made it through the gate, but it wasn't long until we crashed into another marble wall.

If I was on earth, I would probably be sent to jail for driving without a license. The only reason I didn't have a license was because I wasn't old enough, but my parents always said that I would probably fail the test because apparently, I would never have been able to follow the road rules.

"Ok now take a left here," Ivory pointed. "and we should reach the main exit!"

I obeyed and made a sharp turn to the left.

Ivory scrunched her nose. "Careful please!"

"I'm trying my best!" I shouted as I released my foot from the accelerator and pressed down on the break. The entrance howled into my ears as it proudly stood in front of us. Near the steering wheel, there was a large lever which wore the symbol of a door.

My hands wrapped around it and I tried to pull it down, but it made no movement.

"This won't come down!" I gritted my teeth.

Ivory held out her paw. "Here let me try."

I jerked my hand back. She clutched the lever tight and pulled down as hard as she could, but her paws kept slipping off the coarse edges.

"Arggg it's stuck!" she shouted.

"Let's try pulling it together," I said as I reached out to hold the lever. "Okay, on the count of three, we pull as hard as we can-"

"Aww, can I please count?!" Ivory asked pulling an innocent face as her her sparkled innocently.

"Oh, for goodness sake! There is an army of dangerous aliens which could possibly attack us any moment, and you're worried about counting?"

"1, 2, 3-"

Oh well, I guess she's going to do it anyway.

As our hands punched downwards as hard as they could, the lever jerked down, causing us to loose our balance and kiss the floor with our bottoms.

We scrambled back onto our chairs and beamed at each other as the darkened door swelled and groaned as it revealed the toxic outer space. I pounded down on the accelerator making the spaceship zoom forward out of the mother ship.

Some people wanted to explore the galaxy. And some did, but only to the moon. And for people who cannot, they sated their desires with watching movies about space.

I vividly remembered being one of those people. I loved watching Star Wars and Star Trek, but not for the wonders of the galaxy, but to see 'if only I was there', and that 'if only I was there' did become real.

A dark blanket, contrasted with blacks and yellows, and the occasional white, which was shaped as a circle and sometimes a crescent. There were stars which dotted the blanket in a intricate pattern. That was space for my eyes.

The heat was immense yet my body embraced its beauty and power. I could feel the pulse of the energy coursing through my veins as I sat in the command seat in a spaceship that danced its way through space.

"We did it, we actually made it out of that hell. Thank you so much for saving me, my planet will forever be grateful to you," Ivory spoke, her voice barely audible.

I beamed. "To be honest, I didn't think we would actually be able to do it."

"You have a lot more talent in yourself than you think," Ivory replied with a smile. I felt a chuckle released from my mouth as I glanced up at her.

Then I remembered something.

"Oh by the way, my name's Burn," I whispered without looking at her.

"That's a really 'cool' name!" she said with a wink.

"That's not the first time I've heard that," I said as I pressed my lips together to hold down a laugh, "but anyways, where are we going?"

Ivory's eyes lit up and I saw a polite deep curve form on her lips.. "Next destination, drum roll please- "

I lightly drummed on my legs and paused trying to contain the suspense inside of me. It felt as if I was in the presence of a child.

"Planet Zeig," she said proudly.

"Isn't that where you're from? Are you on the good side?" I blurted out while my eyebrows frowned in suspicion.

Ivory laughed. "Oh, sweetie, sorry to burst your bubble but my planet is probably the safest out of most planets... simply because all the planets come to us for help and we also have a reputation to be the kindest alien form."

"Oh, I didn't know that." I felt bad for accusing her, but she couldn't really blame me for my lack of trust in anyone.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. Humans don't know anything about outer space or any extra-terrestrial beings other than themselves."

I scrunched my nose. "Don't you dare mock mankind, and tell me how to get to this, Zeig, of yours."

I obeyed every direction she threw at me and under a couple of minutes; we were closing into a planet. On the screen Zeig looked like any picture of a planet from space, with cloud-blurred contours of seas and continents and a vague mottling of grey and brown and green.

Shivering smacked my skin and I knew that excitement was building up inside me since I felt my face started boiling up. I was going to be the first human to step foot on a different planet.

"You want me to take the wheel for a bit? You look a bit flustered," Ivory whispered.

I shook my head ferociously as if I was shaking off hot sweat from my face, and denied the offer. As we closed in into the atmosphere, there appeared to be some sort of faint protective barrier.

I gnawed the inside of my mouth as I pressed my nails into my palms to calm myself down. "Now, how do we get into Zeig?"