This ‘damn’ planet may be Varanth’s only hope.
After writing, I woke Mik up to tell it I’m going again.
“Mik,” I hissed, nudging it, “Mik wake up.”
It took a few spans for Mik to sit up, and, even then, it was barely responsive. When I unwrapped and gave it one of the ration bars, Mik ate it with its eyes closed. I wasn’t sure whether it was even awake.
I took the other ration bar and bit into it, recognizing the synthetic taste immediately; a river pisca.
Right.
The moment Mik finished its ration bar, it lay down again. It probably wasn’t even going to remember eating.
I took out its journal, flipped past the page with the death threat and wrote “Maya go talk friends, Mik sleep”, leaving it next to Mik for if it woke up before I got back to it.
I stood up. As I did, I felt every muscle in my body protest loudly. Still, I forced myself to go to the rest of the ship.
And that’s when I saw how much damage Mik had done to the door.
It was full of gashes from Mik’s hatchet, with only the screen left intact. The metal at the centre of the door, where the two sides separate, was also bent slightly from Mik trying to pry it open. Though I couldn’t see through to the other side, it definitely wasn’t airtight anymore.
At least you didn’t electrocute yourself.
I tapped the screen and selected the first option.
Just as the door started sliding open, I felt a jolt of panic. I fell to the ground, covering my head.
But the room beyond was empty.
…
“Paranoid.” I mumbled to no one.
I looked behind myself to check whether I had woken Mik up. When I saw that I hadn’t, I went inside. The door closed after me.
I started walking towards the lab, feeling a sense of wrongness. Even if I had panicked from nothing, the entire ship was eerily silent, something was wrong.
Standing in the hallway, I looked up the ladder. That part of the ship was still pitch black, and I felt uneasy looking at it.
However, the lights in the lab were on; whoever was inside was staying quiet.
I kept my back against the wall furthest from the open part of the lab, my walk almost completely quiet.
“Maya?” Vas hissed from inside.
“It’s me.”
He peeked his head out and glanced behind me, breathing out a sigh of relief when he saw I was alone, despite the fact that he felt I was alone.
“S-sorry. Come in.”
I went into the lab.
Vas was to my right, next to a machine on the central table which had a tablet placed on top. Right next to the doorway I was standing in, on the ground, were two spacesuits, stacked one on top of another.
Without realizing, I stared at the fractured glass of Lishla’s helmet. I saw the spinning red sky beyond it.
“Lishla wanted you to put them back, when you had the chance, since we can’t really go in.” Vas muttered from his spot.
Unfocused, I kept looking at the glass.
“If Mik doesn’t mind.” He added.
I remember my scales getting warmer. Vas, uncomfortable from me just standing there, started rambling.
“There’s also a pair of trousers you can take on the chair behind you, they’re a bit big since they’re mine, but we can cut them to… fit you…” he trailed off.
I didn’t move.
“Are you alright?” He asked.
“Maya?”
He went over to me and waved a hand in front of my face. That got me to focus on reality again, though I felt cold in the ship after.
I looked at his face.
“Vas why-“ I began, but I couldn’t finish the sentence. I took a few deep breaths, which made him more nervous.
…
“Why are you here?”
“I… what?”
“Why are you on Tau? Are you here for Mik? Were those drugs for it?” I asked, feeling my tail start twitching behind me.
“No no, we, uh, didn’t- aren’t here for Mik.” He said, fumbling over his words, “It’s, uh, we came here to see if Tau can host life… It obviously can but-”
He suddenly stopped rambling and stared at me for a moment, trying to think of what to say.
“I think Lishla can tell you everything when she wakes up, she’s, uh, better at this than me and-“
“Please, Vas.” I told him, desperately trying not to start crying, my tail lashing behind me, “I’m here for nothing.”
“Nonono!” he said, bringing his hands up towards me and taking a step forward, then hesitating, “Please, please don’t… You’re not-”
“I-I’ll tell you. Just…”
He crouched to be on my level, keeping the same distance.
“Maya, you did a lot, it’s just… complicated. Just please try to calm down, your heart’s skipping…”
“I can’t.” I mumbled, covering my eyes.
Vas slowly stood back up and reached behind me, taking the chair leaned against the wall. He unfolded it and gently nudged me to sit down. I was shaking.
He went to my right and tried to wrap his tail around mine. He flinched when it scratched loudly against a thorn, instead resting his against the underside of mine.
“M-maya, I’ll be honest… The Suns are dying.”
I uncovered my eyes and looked at his face. I could feel his cold breath from how close he was to me.
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Vas continued.
“It’s… not next turn, but sooner than we expected. A lot sooner.”
“when?” I whispered.
He looked down, saying “Less than 300 cycles.”
…
“But… you’re not here for nothing.” He added, looking back at me.
“I know it’s… dark…” He paused, trying to think of the words, “but you crashing here, and surviving, it means… we can live here. This could be our home.”
That was the last thing I expected him to say.
“home?”
“Our home?!”
“You really just said that?!” I hissed, quickly standing up. Vas righted himself, bringing his hands and tail up and taking a step back.
“I meant-“
“I would have died without Mik! That’s what I can tell you about this fucking home! It freezes over, killing everything!”
“What-?” He took another step back. I took one towards him.
“I’ve lost myself here! Don’t tell me ‘surviving’ is a good thing!” I cried.
I turned around, sobbing.
“Please don’t…”
…
“I-I’m, sorry. I didn’t mean-” he paused, coming to where I was looking and crouching in front of me.
“I don’t know what you’ve gone through, I just… I wanted to say you’re here. You’re alive.”
“Am I?” I mouthed.
“You are.”
…
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” I whispered, shaking my head.
“I… I don’t understand.”
We stood in silence for a few spans. I couldn’t even begin explaining.
“I’ll… I’ll give you a moment… Get you some water…” Vas said, standing back up, going into the hallway and up the ladder. He had two tailends again.
And I was alone.
I stared at where he had gone, trying to think of a way I hadn’t just seen two tailends dragging across the floor, but it was too real. The red sky in the visor was too real.
I was too alive.
I took a chair in the opposite corner of the room and sat down, burying my head in my hands. A few spans passed, but Vas was back quickly.
I heard him coming back down the ladder. A moment later, he was standing in front of me. I didn’t look at him.
He opened his mouth to say something, but I started first.
“Vas, what would have happened if I hadn’t crashed? Would my mission be pointless?” I hissed into my hands.
…
“…Yes.”
Wow...
…
“That’s it?” I looked up at him.
His tail stood unmoving behind him. He didn’t say anything.
“And everyone was fine with this?”
“N-no. They weren’t.”
He took a deep breath, left the water bottle on the central table and picked up a chair behind him, putting it in front of me and sitting down. He leaned his elbows on his legs and rubbed his head.
“There were arrests. At VSEC.” He said, looking at the ground, “Even without you crashing, you’re a… martyr.”
It felt like my heart gave out at that moment.
“Arrests?” I blurted out.
…
“A lot of Scale said you were sent ‘before the technology was finished’. The vote was put out, and, anyone connected with the mission...”
Oh suns
“Vera? Needle? Who??” I asked, my voice breaking.
“I don’t know them. I-I’m sorry.”
“Why…? Did they know about FTL when I was sent??”
“No, it’s… it’s brand new. I can’t tell you the date, but at least half a cycle after you left.”
“Do you have the news about it?!” I stood up, “I have to know if they’re alright!”
“Uh, we should have it-” he said, standing up as quickly and hurrying towards the tablet, “Give me a moment.”
Watching him swipe and grumble at the tablet felt like an eternity. The worst part was that I couldn’t even see what he was doing from my angle.
At one point he just growled “MCAM, find the news regarding VSEC arrests and open it on the damn tablet!”
MCAM responded with a monotone “Processing.”
…
I couldn’t stand next to him. I started pacing around.
I had made a few circles around the room when Vas exclaimed “There!”
I ran up to him and took the tablet from his hands, he didn’t resist.
On the display was a news article, from VSPN, with the headline ‘VSEC Unity’s Hope mission organizers arrested after massive public outcry’, date ‘266 | -442’.
Oh Suns
I skimmed it as quickly as possible, until I got to the ‘Those arrested’ section.
There weren’t many, about 7 from what I immediately saw. None of them started with ‘Vera’ or ‘Needle’.
“Oh thanks the Suns.” I breathed out, feeling as if a stone had fallen from my chest.
“Not your friends?” Vas asked.
I looked again. I vaguely recognized some of the names, but it was hard to remember the Scale behind them.
“No, nobody I know personally.”
He sighed deeply “Well, there’s one I did.”
I saw his tail slump to the ground in my peripheral vision. I looked up at him.
“S-sorry, not a good time. I’m glad your friends are alright.”
“No, tell me.”
He crouched slightly, tapping the tablet on the name ‘Luksa Thornvoros’.
“Good friend of mine. He was one of the most active regarding advertising your mission. I think he came up with the name, too.”
“What’ll happen to him?”
“From what I gathered, nothing. They’re under light arrest, but they aren’t allowed visitors. To… ‘see what it’s like for Maya’.” Vas gripped his arm, “At least until you come back.”
“Oh Suns… Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why arrest them! You said that FTL was found out much later!” I raised my voice.
“Well, everyone was already fucked from finding out that Suns were doomed, and they needed someone to throw into them, apparently.” He growled, after a moment, adding “Sorry for swearing.”
“I’m sorry, Vas. I didn’t know-“
“No one knew, it’s not your fault. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just… complicated.”
…
“I-I promise I’ll help them. They don’t deserve it.”
“…Thank you.”
I started giving him back the tablet, before seeing something that stuck out.
“Why is the cycle ‘-442’? Didn’t you say… less than…”
I didn’t want to finish the sentence. He looked at me sadly for a moment.
“It’s the most conservative estimate. When we were switching dating systems, everyone agreed to have that one, because it makes life the least… dreadful.”
“…oh.” I muttered, giving him the tablet back. I still couldn’t fully fathom it.
“T-that’s what I meant when I said that you’re alive, Maya. It was wrong to say, and I’m sorry for it, but if you’ve lived here for this long in the worst possible conditions…” he fiddled with the tablet in his hands, “…it means we have a chance. Not trying desperately to live in bubbles on some random moon, but to actually move Varanth here.”
“I… I guess.”
…
In the silence, he picked up the water bottle from the table and handed it to me. I opened it and poured a bit on myself, giving it to him.
“Thanks.” he hissed, drinking some like Mik and handing it back.
Afterwards, he looked at the tablet for a moment.
“I should go wake Lishla up, or else she won’t be able to sleep this dark.” he said, putting it down.
“She managed to sleep through all this? What’s the time?”
“About three marks past midlight… well, Tau’s midlight. And yes, she’s a really deep sleeper. I could lay down on her without waking her up.”
That’s really specific.
“Did you?”
His tail twitched.
It’s not funny, but, at that moment, I found it funny. I needed something other than despair.
“I need to check on Mik.” I said, stifling a laugh.
“Want help with the suits?” he hissed quickly, “To the airlock, at least.”
“I’d appreciate it.”
When we went over to the suits, what I hadn’t expected was for Vas to them pick both up. He slung his own over his shoulder and held Lishla’s in both hands.
“Don’t forget the trousers.” He said, his voice strained.
“Oh, right.”
I turned around and picked them up from the chair, giving him space to pass me.
He stepped into the hallway, and I was close behind.
But as I walked, there were still two tailends in front of me.
I can’t be imagining them for this long.
We got to the airlock, and he left the suits in front of the door. We looked at each other for a moment, and I couldn’t keep myself from asking.
“Vas, I have to ask you something. Please don’t take it the wrong way.”
“Ok…?” he responded, unsure.
“Do you have two tailends?”
“O-oh, that?” He brought his tail into his arms, “I do. Birthmark.”
So they were actually there the entire sunsdamned time.
“Right, sorry for being blunt.” I said, trying not to look at them too much as he held them up.
“I don’t mind. Can I ask you something back, though?”
“Sure.”
“What’s that on your left arm? I don’t remember seeing a birthmark in your pictures.”
“No... It isn’t a birthmark; it was from an infection.” I mumbled, covering my left arm.
Vas’s posture went from mildly happy to immediate pity. I loathed the look in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”
“No, don’t be. I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt anymore.” I hissed over him.
“Maya, it’s-“
“I said I’m alright, Vas.”
…
“Sorry.” Vas whispered one last time before turning around and going into the hallway.
I rubbed my snout, groaning internally.
I knew it would be this way. I knew it.
After a moment, I shook my head and opened the door.
When I peeked inside, I saw that Mik was awake, though still laying on the blankets and blearily looking back at me.
“Hey” I hissed, flailing my arm at it. Mik returned the gesture.
After putting Vas’s trousers and the water bottle down on the other side of the door, I tried picking up Lishla’s spacesuit.
I strained myself while failing to lift it. It was at least half my weight, and my muscles spasmed violently when I tried.
I gasped, putting it back on the ground.
“Maya?” Mik hissed.
It had gotten up and was standing at the outer airlock door. It gestured towards the door once.
Oh you need to…
“MCAM, open the outer airlock.” I hissed, still catching my breath.
“Nah.” SILT responded.
…
“I’m not falling for that. MCAM, open the door.”
“Error, both airlock doors cannot be simultaneously open.” MCAM responded.
“Right.” I hissed. Mik said “Maya” again.
“Moment!” I responded, dragging Lishla’s, and then Vas’s spacesuits inside as fast as I could.
“MCAM, close the inner door and open the outer one.”
This time, MCAM listened. The inner door slid closed.
And the outer one opened into utter wind and rain. It wasn’t overwhelming, but it was raining heavily outside, and cold wind flew into the room, making Mik’s journal on the ground fly through its pages.
Mik quickly went outside, and MCAM automatically closed the door.
“No! MCAM, open the outer airlock door and keep it open!” I yelled.
MCAM listened.
I pinned myself against one of the walls, waiting for Mik to come back. Rain fell inside and started pooling at the entrance.
I quickly went over and took Mik’s journal, as well as pulling the blankets away so they wouldn’t get wet.
After about a span, Mik clambered back in, absolutely drenched.
“Close the door!” I yelled over the wind.
It slid shut, and the ship was silent again.
But Mik was on the floor, laying on its back and holding its chest.
“Damn it” I grumbled, going over and pulling my journal out. I wrote “Mik good?”
It nodded, though its breathing was shallow. After a moment, I helped it get onto the blankets again.
I wrote “Mik hurt?”, it nodded.
I looked at the aid-kit, thinking about giving it a pill for the pain, despite the risk, but I decided against it.
I’m sorry.
I covered Mik with the other blanket and gave it the water bottle. After, I went over to the aid-kit and grabbed some of the bandages inside, using them to clean up the water on the floor.
When there were no pools of water left, I threw the bandages off to the side, going back to the aid-kit. There, I took the ethanol disinfectant and a gauze. Whatever was in the rain mixing with Mik’s blood was not something I wanted to risk, especially now that I had a way of stopping it.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
I crouched next to Mik, pouring a bit of disinfectant onto the gauze. Mik looked at it as I did.
“I hope this won’t hurt.”
I uncovered Mik slightly and took its arm, tapping it once with the gauze.
Nothing happened. Mik looked at me, slightly confused.
Good.
I moved the blanket away, which was now wet, and took the bottom of Mik’s shirt and slowly pulled it up. Mik tapped me, gesturing to my tail.
“Right, sorry.” I hissed, giving it to Mik. It held on.
I put a hand on the cold-pad. It was as warm as Mik, which meant the chemicals inside had been completely used.
When I pulled a bit off, Mik squeezed my tail from the pain.
The sight underneath was terrifying.
Mik’s flesh was blue and purple. Purple.
“What?!” I yelped, falling onto my tail. Mik had fortunately managed to move its hand away in time as I was falling.
I ignored the pain, quickly going back to Mik.
“M-Mik!” I stuttered, pulling out my journal. I went to write something, but Mik put its hand over the page, dampening it slightly.
It rubbed its hand off a dry part of the blanket it was on, and it took the journal, writing “Mik good, look bad bad but Mik good.”
“You can’t keep saying that!” I hissed, writing “Mik no good! Mik purple!”, though, at that moment, I forgot I hadn’t taught Mik colours.
I slowly peeled the rest of the cold-pad off. Mik breathed through its teeth as I did.
When I looked closer, the wounds were closed.
But in the middle of the blue to purple flesh, the white lines were still there. Unlike Vas’s tailends, I was certain they were there.
“No…” I whimpered.
When Mik usually got cut, it would become red, and later a lighter shade of Mik’s flesh before healing. This was pure white.
I looked at Mik, holding the gauze up. It nodded.
I rubbed the disinfectant along the lines. Mik, aside from light grunting and slightly squeezing my tail, barely reacted. That wasn’t pain from the disinfectant; Mik would have screamed from that.
It was pain from the pressure on the injured flesh.
The fungus had done its part. The wound was closed, but it wasn’t Mik.
I sat back down, dropping the gauze.
“Are you replacing Mik?” I asked it.
Mik looked at its wound, its face contorting sadly.
It let go of my tail and pulled down the shirt, writing “Mik hurt a lot, go”, it stopped for a moment, reading what word I used and added “purple, then Mik good. ”
I’m not sure if it didn’t realize what I was panicking about, or whether Mik chose to ignore the lines for that moment, since it hadn’t mentioned them.
“Sure.” I muttered, rubbing my head. I couldn’t take any more.
Lishla will help you. She has to know something about it.
…
Mik pulled the other blanket over itself. I lay down next to it, on my back. I didn’t care about ruining the blankets anymore; Lishla and Vas wouldn’t want them, anyway.
We both recovered for a few spans.
Mik, still laying, wrote “Friends good?”
I nodded, writing “Friends Vas and Lishla. Maya talk Vas lot, he good. Lishla not talk much yet.”
Mik wrote “No hurt?”, looking at me.
I shook my head.
Mik added “Good.”
…
I wrote “Lishla help Mik. With fungus and hurt.”
Mik read it but didn’t respond.
She can help. There has to be a way.
It put the journal down and rested. I leaned against it, feeling its warmth through the damp blanket. I missed how warm it was any time I went to talk to them.
…
At one point, my gaze drifted to my right. The spacesuits, which I had forgotten about from everything going on, were still there.
Suns damn it.
I stood up, groaning from how much everything hurt. When I looked back at the blankets, they were surprisingly untattered.
Mik looked at me, picking up its journal and writing “Maya go?”
I shook my head and tapped the spacesuits with my tail, gesturing to where they were supposed to be stored.
Mik nodded and started getting up.
“No, you aren’t.” I hissed, getting in its way. I wrote “Mik rest, Maya do.”
Mik sighed but didn’t get up.
I went over to the suits and dragged Lishla’s to the cabinet where it needed to be hung.
How am I even going to pick this up?
I firmly planted my feet on the ground and tried bringing it up again.
It didn’t work. I strained, barely managing to get it off the ground, but it was agony. Her tail alone would be as heavy as my entire suit.
That’s when, of course, Mik appeared next to me as I was putting it back down.
“You really can’t take a no.” I grumbled, picking up one of the arms.
Mik smiled at me, groaning as it bent down and picked up the other.
I looked at it and nodded.
We both pulled it up, Mik exclaiming from pain, but we managed to bring it up and hang it.
“Suns” I breathed out, leaning on the wall. Mik held its wound. It could’ve easily picked it up if it were healthy.
“One more.”
Vas’s suit was a lot lighter, and we managed to get it on faster.
Mik held out its hand towards me, bent on the side of its injury. I tapped it with my tailend.
“She owes us.” I breathed out, exhausted.
Mik went over back to the blankets and sat down, clutching its chest.
You really shouldn’t have done that… And I shouldn’t have let you.
I went over and sat next to Mik. At least we had managed to do it.
Still, I needed to go back. I had decided to wait on the trousers, since I was extremely filthy, along with Mik, and I wanted to be clean when I put them on.
I took my journal and wrote “Maya go, back in few spans.”
Mik nodded, still breathing shallow, and moved itself from the blankets, pulling them towards the centre of the room.
I stood up, which made me incredibly dizzy, but I kept my balance. I went over and opened the door.
The other side was, thankfully, empty at that moment. I heard hissing somewhere deeper in the ship.
I started walking over to the lab, but realized the noise was coming from up the ladder, with the first floor finally being lit. I couldn’t hear exactly what they were talking about, nor did I want to, knowing it was probably something about me.
“Hello?” I hissed up.
They both stopped their conversation. Lishla came over to the hole the ladder went through.
“Hey,” she said, her voice sleepy, “wanna come up?”
“I mean… sure.”
I climbed up the ladder, though I quickly regretted accepting her offer due to the pain that I felt while doing so.
She helped me up the last step, pulling me up by my right arm. I looked around.
The floor, instead of being sectioned off like the lower level, was a single big room. Vas was sitting to my right, on a table with two chairs which was next to two bunk beds cut into the wall. He gave me a tail hi, though he wasn’t looking at me fully. I returned the gesture.
To my left was a big control panel with two pilot seats. Aside from that, the room had some training equipment and personal belongings laying around, with the walls near the bed a dark green and littered with posters.
“Come sit.” Lishla said, nudging my legs with her tail. Only then did I notice that she was nude, but she really didn’t seem to care even if I was there, “Want something to eat?”
“No- I mean, yes, but I need to go back to Mik. I came to ask for some cleaning wipes for both of us.”
“Mm,” she hissed, rubbing her eyes, “sure.”
She went over to a massive shutter in the wall, opening it slightly and pulling out a package of scale wipes. Afterward, she went to where Vas was and clicked a screen, next to which was an indent where two ration bars fell.
“Do you have eno-“
“Don’t worry, we’re fine with food.” she said before I could finish, giving me the bars, “I’ll explain, just let me wake up...”
She yawned, going over and sitting next to Vas, rubbing her snout and face.
“…Alright.”
I put the ration bars and wipes into my pockets and went down the ladder. Every rung was so damn painful.
Mik was writing something in its journal when I opened the airlock door. It seemed slightly surprised.
“Got us some food.” I hissed, throwing the two wrapped ration bars onto its lap.
Mik wrote “friends?”
I nodded and sat next to it, taking one and putting the wipes down. I wasn’t looking forward to eating in the slightest.
Mik unwrapped its ration bar without my help and started eating. I nodded at it and opened mine.
With the first bite, I immediately realized it was the same flavour I had earlier this turn. Another river pisca.
I’m not eating this again.
I took the one Mik had bitten into and exchanged it with mine. Mik was a bit confused, but it brought its shoulders up and down once and continued eating.
I bit into the new ration bar. It was some land animal, at least.
…
Probably shouldn’t have done that.
Exchanging saliva wasn’t the best idea, especially since I didn’t know what Mik’s had.
But it was too late, and I couldn’t bother caring. I had touched Mik’s blood multiple times. Traces of its saliva would be the dumbest way to die, and Mik hadn’t tried to stop me, anyway.
After I ate, I wiped my hands with the wipes and read the unbranded packaging.
“Reusable scale-sensitive wipes, slightly moist. You should be fine.”
I took a few out and started wiping my body off, handing the rest to Mik. It finished its last bite and looked at the packaging as well.
“Mik” I hissed, showing it what I was doing.
Mik nodded, though still looked at the packaging for a few moments, before wiping itself off as well. I wondered how much of text it could understand.
While cleaning myself, I passed the scales that had replaced the missing thorns on my lower back. I swear I could still feel them somehow, even though I had mostly gotten over them.
At least those two won’t notice that part of me missing.
I couldn’t help but look at Mik’s arm as it brought its sleeve up and cleaned it. The worst part was that I didn’t see the injury the fungus had used to infect Mik, nor did Mik find it. It was like nothing had happened, and yet the fungus was inside of Mik. Neither of us commented on it.
Suns, we were dirty. The clear, thick wipes became brown from dirt in less than a moment. We used the entire packet, save for a few I put away to use in a few moments.
But I felt so, so much better afterward. I’d still prefer another round of those wipes, though even this was infinitely better than before. Aside from its head growth being long and still somewhat dirty, Mik’s taste was a bit calmer, and it looked more presentable.
I took my journal out and wrote “Maya go talk friends. Mik good here? Need?”
Mik shook its head, writing “Hurt but Mik good”
I wrote “Friend Lishla help Mik. Good see Lishla this turn?”
It brought its shoulders up and down once, jokingly going to the page where it had written “Friends talk Mik.” and tapping it with a half-smile.
Yeah, you did say that.
“Alright, then. See you soon.” I hissed, taking the wipes and trousers, and going to the room beyond the airlock.
The light in the lab was on now, and I saw Lishla, now dressed, standing over a machine on the far end of the hallway. She didn’t notice me, since she was busy talking with Vas.
I moved to the side so they couldn’t see me and took off my pants, cleaning myself there and putting Vas’s trousers on.
Surprisingly, they were my width, though a bit wide at my tail and long at my feet. I had to fold that part a couple of times. They had extra pockets, which was nice.
But what mattered was that they were clean. Whole, untattered. Clean. I hadn’t felt so clean since I crashed on Tau, and I didn’t know how much I had missed it. It really helped me mentally at that moment.
Moving my journal to the new pants, I folded the old ones and left them at the airlock, and I went to the lab.
As I entered, I heard Lishla say something about a “blood sample”.
“Hi, Maya,” Vas hissed over her, still working on the same tablet to my right on the central table, “how’s Mik?”
Lishla turned around quickly, also holding a tablet.
“Still hurt. I’m going to need a new cold-pad for it.”
“It’s hurt?” Lishla asked.
“Yes…? Didn’t I tell you?”
She said no with her tail.
The whole reason why I went to talk with you last turn, and I didn’t tell you…
“When we were trying to get to you, we had to cut down a tree to pass a river. It came back and hit Mik in the chest, about here.” I explained, showing where Mik’s wound is.
“How bad?” Lishla asked, putting her tablet down.
“It’s not bleeding, but it hurts a lot… and with the fungus…” I trailed off.
“F-fungus?” Vas asked, less than confident.
“We had a fungal infection, and Mik’s-“
“We?!” Lishla exclaimed, her tail thrashing, “Nope, I’m taking your blood right now.”
“Huh?”
“I said I’m taking your blood. Sit down.”
She stormed off to the storage cabinets in the lab, with Vas jumping to the side to avoid her. Seeing that I didn’t have a chance of avoiding what was coming, I sighed and opened the chair, sitting down.
Hopefully you’ll be this motivated for Mik.
Lishla turned around with a syringe, two vials, gauze, disinfectant, and two thick rubber gloves on her hands. She went back to me and disinfected a spot between two thorns on my right shoulder.
She surprised me with how quick she was. Before I expected it, the needle was in, and the first vial was almost full of blood. She changed them in less than a moment, filled the other one, and took the syringe out, putting gauze on my arm and telling me to hold it. It was over before it even started hurting.
She immediately went over to a microscope to my left and poured a bit on a glass slide, pressing it down with another. Then, she took the vials and put them into what I think is a centrifuge, which started whirring.
I looked over at Vas, feeling overwhelmed.
“She’s like that.” He joked, laughing nervously once. How he kept eyeing the centrifuge told me he really didn’t like the feel of it.
Lishla, however, didn’t laugh. Her snout was already buried in the microscope, with her turning two dials around almost manically. This definitely wasn’t her first time.
I stood up and walked over to her. I couldn’t see the top of the microscope without something to help me up, so I looked at the blood and the light underneath.
…
Aside from the centrifuge working, the room was silent. Vas shuffled in his spot slightly.
“Is everything alright?” I asked.
“For now.” Lishla muttered.
…
After a few spans, she got off the microscope and said, “I didn’t see anything, in or out of your cells, but I can’t be sure until everything finishes.”
“How long will that take?”
“A few marks, if I speed everything along. MCAM will help with the analysis a lot.”
“A few marks? You made it look like I’d found out now!” I complained.
“Yeah, no.” she laughed, “Biochemistry is slow.”
She took the slab with my blood and threw it into a small hatch in the wall I hadn’t noticed in the left corner of the room, on the opposite side from the entrance.
“But… As I said, I didn’t see anything, which is good. If I saw your blood swarming with immune cells, I’d be worried, but you seem alright for now. We’ll have to wait on the PCR and LC-MS.”
“The whats?” I asked. Vas laughed.
“Oh shut up, Vas. You’re taking forever to set it up. Let’s see what you’ve done.” Lishla said, going over to him. He started talking, but she hissed over him.
“So, general fungal, bacterial and viral presets. Good. But what about the broad spectrum I told you to set up?”
“It’s… uhh…”
“Last turn, Vas. I told you to set the presets last turn.” She said, looking disappointedly at him, despite her tail swaying playfully.
She turned back to me, “So don’t let him laugh at you for not understanding.”
“Fair enough.” I chuckled.
…
“What were we talking about?” she asked.
“Whether I had a fungal infection or not.”
“Oh, right. When do you think you got it? Does Mik have it?”
“It clung to me and Mik one turn, though don’t know where its from. We managed to clean it off, but…”
“Yeah?”
It’s replacing Mik. Say it.
“Mik scratched it. I think it’s in Mik’s blood.”
“Oh.” Lishla deflated.
…
Suddenly, she ran over to me and gripped me by my shoulders, getting in my face, “You didn’t give it any of our medicine, right?!”
“No, no! I didn’t! I wanted to ask if you could figure out what it could take!” I hissed, reeling back.
“Oh, thank the suns” She breathed out, letting me go, which made me stumble back, “Good call. Definitely.”
…
“What about the tree wound?” Vas asked, taking a step to be next to Lishla.
“Oh, yeah, did it break any scales or anything?” Lishla asked.
“…scales?”
They both stared at me, waiting for me to elaborate.
“Did you even see Mik?” I asked.
…
“Not really,” Lisha hissed, “it was in the dark. I just saw something holding you and an axe.”
“I saw a silhouette,” Vas answered, “…and felt its heart from the airlock when it was open. It’s really loud.”
“You felt its heart and didn’t tell me??” Lishla turned to him.
“Uh, no, I… Maya just said it had blood…”
“Oh, right, she did.” Lishla murmured.
…
“I don’t remember seeing a tail.” Vas turned back to me, “did- does Mik have one?”
I stood dumbfounded. They were terrified of Mik, and they hadn’t even seen it properly.
“No… it doesn’t. It doesn’t have scales, either.”
Lishla’s eyes snapped to me in surprise. She was visibly trying to imagine what that would look like. Vas’s tail twitched.
“You don’t even know what Mik looks like.” I groaned, turning around and covering my eyes, “I thought you’d be ready to meet it by now.”
“I mean, I am.” Lishla said, “You said it needed help.”
“No, no you’re not.” I turned back to her, “You’ll be terrified, and everyone will panic for no reason-“
“Please.” Lishla scoffed, “It can’t be that dramatic.”
“It is.” I muttered, taking a step back. She was way in over her head.
…
“You could take a picture…?” Vas piped up.
“What?” I asked.
“I-I mean, if you think we’ll be scared, prepare us…? Take a picture? We have a camera.”
“Oh… actually not a bad idea.” Lishla muttered.
Huh. Didn’t think of that.
He went over to the storage on the far side of the room and climbed the ladder. After a few moments, he pulled out a high-quality camera and dropped down.
“It’s got storage and it’s full, since I actually know how to prepare a camera, at least.” He muttered, which got me to chuckle slightly. Lishla bumped him with her tail, slightly throwing him off balance for a moment.
He acted like it didn’t happen and gave me the camera.
“Could you just?” I asked, handing over the package of used wipes I had put in my pockets at some point.
“Of course.” He hissed, taking them from me.
…
“Well, alright, I guess I’ll be back in a few spans, then.” I hissed. They both tail waved me, and I went to the airlock.
On the way, I picked up my old pants and brought them inside.
Mik was on the blanket, drawing something in its journal when I entered.
“Heya.” I hissed. Mik flailed its arm at me.
I sat down next to it, put down the camera, pulled out my journal and wrote “Lishla help Mik, but no see Mik yet and scared”
Mik read it and wrote “?” under “see”. I gestured to my eyes.
It nodded and let me continue.
I wrote “Maya help Lishla see before help Mik, if Mik know”, tapping the camera.
You had cameras on your ship, you should know.
Mik nodded.
I turned the camera on and pointed it at Mik. I had to step back for its body to fully be in frame, even while zoomed out.
Mik smiled and made a gesture with two fingers.
“No, no” I hissed. I put the camera between my legs and wrote “Mik no smile, please, scare friends, not know what smile.”
Mik’s smile drooped, and it just stared at the camera with a flat face.
Sorry…
I picked the camera back up and took a picture. It felt odd. I never thought I would be doing that.
I gave it a nod and started going back towards the door, but Mik stopped me by tugging on my tail. It wrote “Maya give”, gesturing to the camera.
Confused, I gave it the camera.
It then gestured for me to sit down.
I did, still confused.
It sat up, sucking air through its teeth from pain as it did so. Holding the camera in its left arm, it wrapped its arm around my shoulders, avoiding impaling itself, and pointed it towards us.
Oh, you wanted a picture of both of us.
I felt bad for not thinking of that. We didn’t have one.
It took a picture without me telling it how to. The zoom was already on null, so we were in frame.
Then, it hissed “Maya”. I looked at it.
It smiled widely, slightly forced, and stared at me.
…
“You want me to smile too?” I asked aloud, smiling after.
It then looked back at the camera. I did so as well.
And Mik took a picture of us smiling.
It unwrapped itself from me and gave me the camera.
“Thanks.” I hissed. The concept of smiling to a camera together was a bit odd, but it felt really nice.
Mik tapped my tailend as I got up. I smiled at it and went back to them.
Both Lishla and Vas were waiting for me in the lab, looking intently at me as I came in from the hallway. The centrifuge was still on.
“Everything alright?” I asked.
“Yep, give me that.” Lishla said, taking the camera.
I waited in silent dread as she turned it on and went over to the saved pictures. Vas was equally nervous, his tail thumping against the ground rhythmically.
That’s when they saw Mik.
Lishla’s eyes widened. Vas leaned backwards.
“Oh, wow.” Lishla hissed.
“Mik’s nice, I swear, you just need to get used to it.” I quickly commented, not being sure on what to say.
Vas’s tail coiled around his leg. He wasn’t well.
“Why are you two baring your teeth in this one?” she asked, showing me the picture where we were both smiling.
“Uh, it’s a Mik thing. Baring your teeth is Mik’s version of being happy, since it doesn’t have a tail.”
“Oh, really?” she mumbled, turning the screen to herself again, “It’s kinda cute.”
…
What?
“Sorry?” I asked.
Vas looked at her in shock.
She looked between both of us, as if she’d been stating the obvious. When our expressions didn’t change, she elaborated.
“It’s a bit unusual, sure, but I’ve seen animals with protoscales, and Mik kind of looks like that. From what I can see, it’s pretty harmless. Its teeth are tiny, too…
She paused for a moment, looking closer.
“What’s that on its head, around its snout and the top? Does that do anything?”
“I… I don’t know. It’s harmless, soft. Mik has it all over its body…” I struggled to talk.
She hmmed, looking back at the picture.
I couldn’t begin comprehending her. Protoscales still meant the animal had something, even if it were underdeveloped scales. It took me so long to get used to Mik, and Lishla was just fine with it?
Vas kept looking at the picture and at Lishla but didn’t comment absolutely anything. I think he was in shock.
“What do you call its outer layer?” Lishla asked.
“…flesh. I didn’t have another name for it.”
“Is it reactive or something? How did Mik get ‘hurt’?” she asked, giving the camera to Vas, who just kept staring at it.
“No… i-it bends a lot, it can stretch... Mik gets cut easily.”
“…huh. You’re telling me I should be scared of that?”
“yes” Vas whispered.
“You’re not joking?” I asked, still horrified.
Lishla laughed once and said “I’m not. You’re telling me it’s soft. That’s cute.”
“Though…” she thought out loud, “Will Mik be scared of me?”
“Uhh, no? I was terrified of it, but it wasn’t scared of me.”
“Well, you’re a bit… small.” she said, looking down at me.
“And entirely made of spikes.” I hissed back at her, feeling insulted.
She scratched where she had cut herself on my thorns, “…good point.”
“Y-you are going to go meet it?” Vas asked, putting the camera down and looking at Lishla.
“Yes, I am. You don’t have to, if you don’t feel safe.”
Vas turned to me, looking at the floor, “I… I’m sorry, I can’t…”
“It’s fine, Vas, you’ll get used to Mik, just give it time.”
…
“Well, I’ll go check it out. If it doesn’t mind, I’d also draw its blood to see what I could do medicine-wise.”
“I… I guess you can…”
I felt incredibly weirded out by Lishla. I understood being excited to meet an alien from her perspective, but she was either lying to me to seem confident, or she was genuinely unphased, and I couldn’t tell which was more disturbing.
She casually turned around, her tail grazing my chest as she did, and went over to the storage, putting on a new pair of gloves and taking two syringes. She tail pointed for me to lead the way.
I stared at her for a moment before turning around.
This is going to go wrong. She can’t be serious.
“W-why two?” I asked her.
“Syringes? To get some blood at the wound, and a bit from another part, like its shoulder, without crossing them. I don’t have a baseline for ‘normal’ with Mik.” she hissed conversationally.
I shook my head and kept walking. When we got to the airlock, I stopped before the door.
“I’ll go first to tell Mik you’re coming so it isn’t a surprise. Could you, uh, stand to the side a bit?”
“Oh, sure.” she hissed, moving to stand so that she wasn’t visible from the airlock when the door opened.
Mik was resting on the blankets with its hand on the wound when I came in. It looked up slightly, not quite asleep but not fully awake.
“Hey Mik” I hissed awkwardly, knowing that Lishla could hear everything.
I pulled out my journal and wrote “Lishla help Mik now. Mik good talk Lishla?”
Mik’s eyes widened a bit. It tapped ‘now’.
I nodded.
Mik sat up, groaning from pain, and wrote “Yes” with a bit of hesitation.
I know, I didn’t expect it to be so soon either.
I wrote “Lishla have to take blood from Mik”, drawing a small syringe next to the word and adding “Mik good Lishla take?”
Mik, even less enthusiastic, tapped ‘Yes’.
“I know, just get through this.” I whispered to Mik, giving it my tailend. Mik tapped it.
I stood up, holding my tail near Mik, and said “Alright, Lishla, come in. Just be slow.”
She peeked around the door, before taking a step into the clearing. I felt all the muscles in my body tense up.
And she smiled.
It looked awkward and was too big, but she smiled for Mik.
“Hello!” she hissed melodically, “I’m Lishla.”
She tapped herself, slowly repeating “Lishla.”
I looked at Mik. It was staring at her. I looked back at Lishla.
If it were normal for her, the smile would’ve been genuine. Her tail was slithering on the ground from excitement as she took a step towards us.
“It really isn’t that scary.” she hissed to me.
But when I looked back at Mik, it wasn’t moving.
“Mik?” I hissed, crouching and tapping its shoulder. It didn’t react; it was completely focused on her.
Before I realized it, Lishla had walked over and was crouching next to me, despite the fact that I told her to do things slowly.
The room started tasting like Mik’s fear. Its face was completely white, and it had stopped breathing.
“I’ll be taking your bl-” she began saying, bringing up one of the syringes.
“Wait, stop.” I told her, grabbing her hand. I grabbed Mik’s shoulder and shook it slightly.
It was completely stiff.
“Is it okay? Should its taste be this strong?” Lishla asked.
Mik didn’t stop staring at her face, even ignoring the syringes.
“Mik!” I hissed loudly, taking its hand. It was soaking wet.
“Lishla, please get out.” I turned to her.
“What?” she asked, “but I’m-“
“Mik isn’t, get back, now!”
“Okay okay” Lishla hissed quickly, standing up and taking a step back, “I’m not hurting you. I won’t hurt you.” she told Mik.
I got between Mik and where she was standing, “Mik, Mik focus on me.”
But it was looking straight through me.
“I’ll… leave... I-I’m sorry if I did something wrong.” she said nervously, going towards the door.
She got out of the airlock and told it to close.
“Mik!” I hissed again, enveloping it. It was shaking.
When I pulled back, Mik was actually looking at me.
“I’m here, Mik, it’s just me...”
Mik finally took a shallow breath. The room tasted like utter terror, worse than I ever remembered Mik tasting.
“What happened?” I whispered.
Mik breathed in deeply, holding its chest, not even the wound but its heart. It blinked rapidly as it looked at the floor.
Suns, what is going on?!
I put my tailend in Mik’s hand and took out my journal, writing “Mik good??” and placing it where Mik was looking.
Mik nodded barely, gulping its saliva.
I wrote “What happened??”
It took a span for Mik to calm down enough to take the journal. With shaking hands, it wrote “Lishla monster Mik”
“What?” I blurted out.
I wrote “???” next to it.
Mik shook its head, focusing on the journal, and wrote “Lishla snake monster Mik”
You have Scalari too?! Aren’t your Scale lizards??
I scribbled out ‘snake monster’, writing Scalari.
Mik shook its head, saying something in its language a few times. I think it was ‘no’.
And it started drawing.
It was some animal in the shape of a cylinder, lacking any limbs. It had scale plates on the bottom, like my torso, and a flat head with two big fangs.
Like Lishla.
“Mik that isn’t- she wouldn’t-” I stuttered, writing “Lishla no monster Mik”
Mik wrote “snake kill Mik”, tapping the animal it drew.
It half-threw the journal into my lap and lay down facing away from me, coiling in on itself.
I went over to the side it was facing and lay down next to it, enveloping it and draping my tail over its legs.
I couldn’t believe what was happening. Lishla was actually nice to Mik, and it was breaking down just from seeing her up close.
The worst part was that it was physical. Mik knew an animal that would kill it. A snake.
And that’s all it saw Lishla as.
I lay there with Mik for a while until it stopped shaking.
Maybe half a mark later, it uncurled slightly and looked at me for a few moments, before taking its journal and writing “sorry.”
“No, Mik…” I hissed, scribbling it out.
Mik wrote “sorry” again, not letting me scribble it out a second time. It then added “Maya say friend Lishla Mik sorry.”
“Mik, it’s fine.” I hissed, writing “Maya no go until Mik calm”
Mik shook its head, saying something out loud, and wrote “Please. Maya say.”
“Mik…”
I wrote “Maya go say sorry. Say why Mik scared and Lishla understand”
I started getting up when I wrote that, but Mik quickly sat up and gripped my arm, straining from its own sudden movement, and wrote “No say snake! Lishla no snake! Mik so sorry say snake. Lishla friend Mik”
Mik… I have to explain…
I don’t remember if I nodded or not. I hope I didn’t. I remember putting the other blanket around Mik and leaving for the lab.
I heard their muffled talking as I walked through the hallway, alongside noise from some machines. Lishla was talking about what had just happened.
They both turned to me when I came inside. Lishla was in front of me, holding a vial of something white and a pipette, while Vas was at the same machine again to my right, holding a vial of my blood.
“Is Mik alright?” Lishla immediately asked, putting both down and crouching right in front of me.
“It says sorry.” I hissed, not looking at her, “It forced me to come over here and say sorry for it.”
“I mean, it’s okay? What happened though?”
I had to tell her. I know Mik asked me not to, but she couldn’t understand without knowing.
“Mik’s planet has something like Scale…” I said, looking back up at her, “Mik drew something that looked like us, like me.”
“What?” Vas let out a sharp breath. Lishla stayed still.
“Mik called it… Mik called me a lizard. That’s their version of Scale. Small, stupid, walk on all fours.”
“Oh…” she muttered, “i-is that why it’s scared? It’s afraid of ‘lizards’? Why-”
“No,” I stopped her, “it called you something else…
I hesitated, regretting that I had even begun, but I had to tell the truth.
“A snake.”
“It’s different?” she asked.
“I think… Mik’s terrified of them. To the point of saying you would… kill it.”
“What?” Lishla exclaimed.
“It told me ‘snake’ over and over… It-” I breathed out, “Mik didn’t want me to tell you that, but you wouldn’t know why…”
…
“It’s that bad…?” Vas asked, “What about me…?”
“I don’t know.” I responded, “I don’t think any one of us are the same for Mik.”
…
“I… I need to go back. Mik’s still recovering.”
Lishla, without saying anything, stood back up and leaned against a table. I couldn’t help her.
“Maya?” Vas asked, taking off his gloves.
“Yeah?” I hissed, rubbing my eyes.
“I wanted to give you a tablet. For the news. But… maybe it could help Mik calm down?” he said, going over to another table and picking a tablet up.
“I mean… do you have-”
“We have four.” Lishla said over me, looking at the wall with her back turned towards me.
Vas looked at her for a moment before coming over to me and handing me the tablet, “Please take it. Don’t let it think about this too much.”
He leaned over and whispered, “I’ll be with Lishla, just… I’m sorry for Mik…”
I didn’t know how to respond, so I silently went back to the airlock.
Mik was sitting when I opened the door, and it immediately tried getting up.
“No, Mik.” I hissed, blocking it by standing right in front of it. Mik sat back down.
I sat next to it, putting the tablet off to the side.
Mik picked its journal up and wrote “Friend Lishla good? Mik hurt?”
I sighed and wrote “Lishla understand”
Mik shook its head with closed eyes and wrote “Mik so sorry. Mik no say Lishla snake, Lishla good. Lishla help Mik, and Mik say stupid.”
I wrote “Snake monster Mik, Lishla look like snake, Lishla understand.”
Mik stopped when it read that.
…
It wrote “Maya tell Lishla Mik say snake?”
I wrote “Had to.”
Mik put its head in its hands and leaned forward, groaning loudly.
“I’m sorry…” I hissed, enveloping its back. Mik leaned away from me.
I wrote “Know look bad, but Lishla had to know, or Lishla not get why Mik scared and hurt”
It took Mik a few moments to finally look up, with its face having gone completely red. Mik read the sentence, but didn’t respond in any way, instead deciding to lay down again.
…
“Mik?” I hissed, nudging its back, “You there?”
It didn’t respond.
“Mik I’m sorry, I had to… I just…”
…
This isn’t going anywhere.
I scooted over to the tablet, picked it up and went back next to Mik, leaning against it.
Going over the list of programs, I saw basically everything my ship had when I launched; singleplayer videogames, movies, books, music and the likes.
As I swiped, I noticed something I didn’t have. Multiplayer games.
SILT wasn’t equipped for playing those, but these two actually could.
I went through the list. It had a few platformers, some digital board games, and a few resource management games.
I tapped one of the platformers, something really pixelated called ‘GreenDash’.
As I waited for it to load, I put my tail onto Mik’s legs. It moved them slightly but didn’t push it off. It was definitely considering it.
I shook my head slightly and went back to the tablet when the game’s music started playing.
Going through the menu, I saw that it had a simultaneous and a ‘pass’ mode. Basically, a competitive, Green Domain themed platformer. I selected the ‘pass’ mode, selecting ‘tournament’ after.
Four characters were available, of course, they were the most basic Thornkin, Scalari, Gatorid and Drakonid. I picked a yellow Thornkin for myself, and an orange one for Mik, as to not remind it of Lishla too much.
“Mik.” I hissed, nudging it. It didn’t move.
I shook it harder, “Come on, don’t be like that.”
Mik turned around to face me, but it wasn’t happy at all. It took its journal and wrote “What?”
I wrote “Mik play with Maya?”, gesturing to the tablet.
It wrote “No, Maya.” and went to lay back down.
I grabbed its shoulder, which made it groan from the pain as it stopped mid movement. I wrote “Mik no mad Maya, Lishla had to know”
Mik sat up, frantically writing “Lishla no had to know! Lishla no snake!!”
“Mik-“ I started saying out loud, then I wrote “Lishla no understand without know!”
Mik shook its head, looking up and groaning, and wrote “Lishla get Mik scared! Maya scared Mik! Lishla no ‘understand’ if Maya say stupid Mik say sanke monster! No help!!”
I hesitated for a moment, and then wrote “What Maya say, if not truth Lishla look snake? Why Mik scared?”
Mik’s shoulders drooped down, and it wrote “Mik scared Lishla big. Now late, Lishla know.”
…
“I’m sorry.” I hissed, writing the same. Mik shook its head slightly, looking at me sadly.
…
“Want play game?” I wrote. I couldn’t offer anything else.
Mik brought its shoulders up and down once.
I wrote “Maya play 1, show Mik. Then Mik play.”
I played a round. It took me about two spans to clear the first map, which was pretty simple.
After, I gave the tablet to Mik.
It brought its legs up to lean the tablet on them, but it was straining to balance in that position from its wound.
“Mik,” I hissed, tapping pause on the game. I stood up and gestured to the floor with my tail.
Mik moved off the blanket, which I pulled to the wall opposite of the spacesuits. I helped Mik sit down on it again, with it still being wrapped in the other blanket.
I pressed resume, and Mik played.
Poorly.
For some reason, instead of using both the left and right directional bubbles, Mik just used the right one for going right and the left one for jumping, meaning its character was walking. It also kept trying to move the right one up and to the right diagonally, which did nothing. It took about double the amount of time for Mik to finish the same map.
I played again after it. The second time around, Mik followed what I did, and actually used both bubbles. Its time was much closer to mine.
And we played for a while. Of course, I won the first tournament, but Mik wanted a rematch, which I accepted.
I prodded it on by grazing it with my tail mid-run and acting like I did nothing. At first, Mik endured, but it quickly started returning the provocations by ‘accidentally’ touching a thorn, making me reflexively move away.
I think it won the 4th or 5th tournament about a mark later, and it immediately wrote “Mik go sleep” afterwards.
It was laughing by the end; Vas’s idea had worked for the time being.
Mik’s sleeping now. Actually sleeping, not giggling that it won or dreading what I told Lishla.
Before writing this, I decided to look at what else the tablet had, at least regarding the ship. Surprisingly, I had to log in via voice recognition to see the ship’s functions.
But I quickly realized why. MCAM keeps transcripts of all conversations. Unity’s Hope kept recordings for SILT to use for reference, but MCAM only seems to use microphones. Less processing power lost on crew, I guess, and they don’t need nearly as much as I did.
The reason for the log in is that you can only access the ones you were in. At least until voted otherwise by the crew.
I also found out that this is just a ‘landing pod’ from the ship, and the rest of it is in orbit. The ship is called ‘Flickering Flames’.
I still can’t believe that that is really happening. CHD was supposed to be a start of a new era for Scale, not what led us to figure out our own end.
…
I’m not sure whether I regret telling Lishla the truth. If a snake is really a natural predator for Mik, it wouldn’t get over her in nearly as little time as if Mik were just scared of her ‘being big’.
And she’s the only one on this sunsdamned planet who can help it…
It’s… been a damn long turn. I need to get some rest.
some answers as to what's happening.
Feel free to tell me your thoughts!
The next chapter will be out in about three weeks time.
PS - Just for the sake of visualization, I'd like to add the basic layout of the lab, or rather the reference I made for myself. It's in the spoiler as to not drown out the note: