Tavros walked into the first bunkblock. Eridan was sitting on of of the tiny bunks, a book in his hand. "Hey, Eridan, could we uh, talk about something?"

Eridan looked up quickly; it was obvious he was nervous. Tavros decided that perhaps that wasn't the best way to start a conversation. But he had a moirail now, and he'd really needed to talk about it. He had felt, as he was sure most everyone had felt, like they were being pulled twenty different directions. Every moment they had of peace was always surrounded by the fact they knew something terrible was going to happen.

It had been a few days without incident and they were all getting nervous. But the tenacity of a troll was based on whether or not they could get through something that was near, looming over them, and still live their lives in something close to normal.

"It's not bad, I promise. Just, uh, I've been needing to talk to someone about this for awhile."

"'Swwhat I'm here for, Taw." Eridan shuffled up to let Tavros sit down. "Wwhat's the matter?"

Tavros sat down, sighed, and leaned against the wall, careful not to crush his wings. "It's about… Tsukey Morney."

Eridan's brow furrowed. "Girl from the Sufferist cawes? The one wwith the logbeast lusus? Sorry, I didn't knoww her that wwell."

"I did."

"Oh," Eridan looked nervous for a moment. "Did you knoww her, in a friendship wway or maybe a romantic kind of wway?"

"It's kind of complicated… I liked her a lot."

"Oh. Oh…" Eridan said suddenly. "I see, wwell did you do anythin', and noww you're havin' regrets? Or do you feel bad because you newer told her and noww you can't?"

"Uhh, not like…" Tavros sighed. He really didn't want to talk to Eridan about past pale crushes when their moirallegiance was young and feeble, and as far as Tavros could tell getting sicker by the day. "Pailing a lot. Just sort of liked her, she was a really nice girl. She was really impressionable. Or I, uhh, thought so. She took so much of what Lereal said to heart. Well, she looked like it at least. She never said much. I've, uhh, been thinking about her a lot. I know she wasn't on the one ship we were sure got away. But she might have gotten away. Though, I kind of uhh, doubt it. I just feel like I could have done more."

"To stop her from gettin' on the ships?" Eridan shook his head. "Sorry, Taw, but Lereal threatened eweryone else. Being close friends wwith you an' Kar, sawed my skin from goin'. Not that they wwould have wwanted a, wwhat was it… Lereal compared me to a sponge. Said I had the backbone a' one. Or somthin' like that. You couldn't hawe done much. So, no point in mopin' ower it."

Tavros stared at Eridan for a moment, before sighing. He understood that Eridan had his own style of pacifying, but that was ridiculous. Eridan's hand coiled with his, and it took a moment for Tavros to let his own fingers curl back instead of just having Eridan hold his hand with no reciprocation.

Eridan took this as an invitation to move closer, and soon Tavros found himself with the seadweller's icy body pressing into his side. "Um, Eridan, not that I don't appreciate the affection, but don't you think you've become a bit… clingy lately?"

"Sorry," Eridan said, backing off. "It's just, um… no, I shouldn't talk about my problems wwhen you're talking about yours. Go on."

Tavros knew what he meant, anyway. It had been a long time since Eridan had any body contact which didn't end in pain. Tavros didn't really mind helping him out there, but it would have been more fun and less like a chore if Eridan gave back a bit more. He hated to admit it, but treacherous little voices in his head had also been whispering that Eridan had nothing to complain about in comparison to Gamzee. Rationally he knew that just because someone else had worse problems didn't mean Eridan's didn't matter, but then he wasn't listening to Gamzee talk about his problems constantly. From what he'd heard Karkat was having the opposite problem… He pushed that out of his mind. Gamzee wasn't his moirail and wasn't ready to have anyone as a matesprit, so it was none of Tavros' business.

Tavros sighed and wrapped an arm around Eridan. "Compromise?" he offered. Eridan gave a little smile and nod. "It's kind of awkward to talk to you about this. I mean I'm talking about a pale crush but… Well, uhh, I'm sure you understand wishing you could have done one thing different. I just think about if we could have had enough time to rescue her… or uhh, maybe all of them. Leave before Lereal could take the ships."

Eridan leaned his head on Tavros' shoulder. "Don't knoww howw it wwould hawe wworked. Wwe barely hawe enough supplies as it is. I mean wwe're startin' to run out of food. Sol and Wris are bein' really unhelpful wwith tellin' us howw close wwe are. Wwe might hawe rescued them from a quick death against the fleet only to hawe them all starwe to death. Maybe it's better things happened the wway they did?"

Tavros in his heart knew that Eridan was probably right. But still — he wished the seadweller would humor him a bit. Maybe give him a completely unrealistic happy end, Tavros knew life didn't work the way it did in his fairy tales. That didn't stop him from wishing he could hear another ending.

"It's just well, I mean… I just wish we could have saved more of them, like convinced them to take over the other ships, load them up with supplies and, uhh, they could meet us there. It was so pointless, I mean all of them were slaughtered for no reason."

"There wwas a reason just a stupid one. Lereal's owwn blindness got them killed. Too bad he had a quick death. I ain't one to wwish torture on anyone, but if any troll deserwed it he did. Sent a bunch of kids to a lost battle. I'm sure she didn't suffer too long. It's not much of a consolation, but she probably didn't get it too bad."

"What if she did, though? Some of the ships were boarded. What if her's, uhh, was? I mean what happened to Gamzee was terrible, I can't imagine any of them going through it. Gamzee's at least a highblood, and, uhh, bigger… Not that, that makes it better, but uhh, it does make it a little less terrible. They were all so small and she was sort of, uhh, I can't think of a good word… odd. Not in a bad way, just different, and I suspect that the Subjugs wouldn't have, uhh, liked it much. She used to freak out if people touched her at all, it took weeks for me to just hold her hand. I hate to think what they might have done…"

"All of them had their reasons for runnin' off. I don't think any of the adults wwould care for any of them much. If they wwere goin' to abduct any troll, should hawe been Lereal and his close goons. Might as wwell interrogate him and them, rather than a bunch of kids just doin' what their told at threat of — You knoww, it's funny, Lereal became everythin' the Empire wwas. Just wwithout the resources."

"Is that some, uh, funny cruel twist of ironic fate?"

"No, but it might say somethin' about the nature a trolls. I mean, I agree with Fef on plenty. Disagree wwith her on plenty too. But I don't think a society founded on cuddling wwill last long."

"I think she's, uhh, grown up a bit beyond that." Tavros fidgeted a bit from where he was sitting, this conversation shouldn't be as awkward as it felt. Not if they wanted to get anywhere in their new relationship. He chalked it up to the fact that they were talking about other quadrants, and that was an awkward topic anyway. Made a little worse with the fact it was an ex-moi—mat—kis—an ex and a moirail-hopeful. That no doubt amplified the whole weirdness level.

"Wwell, guess wwe could look on the bright side," Eridan said. "If she hadn't gone, you wwouldn't hawe me noww." The silence from Tavros informed him this had not been the right thing to say. "Okay, that was a terrible thing to say. I don't knoww wwhat to tell you, Taw."

"I don't, uhh, know what I want to hear either but that wasn't exactly it." Tavros sighed. "I think we're all getting, uhh, cabin fever. It's making all of us more, uhh, easy to annoy."

"Maybe, I didn't mean it that wway though. I didn't mean I'm glad she's dead so you and I could be together."

"I know, you just have, uhh, a terrible way with words." Tavros nodded. "Maybe we should just move on to another topic for a bit?"

"It might help, to talk about somethin' else for awhile… I don't really knoww wwhat though." Eridan looked thoughtful, Tavros could feel that hint of nervousness from the both of them. Their moirallegiance wasn't going to be perfect right off the bat. It would have been ridiculous to assume that they would be anywhere near what Equius and Nepeta had, or even Karkat and Gamzee. Every diamond bloomed in their own time.

Yet, Tavros could feel it. They were struggling to honestly talk with each other, fighting themselves to do normal things moirails did. Not that Tavros blamed Eridan or himself for all of those shortcomings. They couldn't truly make a pile. They didn't have all of the resources to make this a full attempt. Tavros wondered if maybe, those things were in place to make the beginnings easier. Either that or Eridan and him weren't exactly meant for each other.

"How have you been doing with all the, uhh, research?"

"Pretty good, there is a lot to read. But so far it's helpin' quite a bit." Eridan's hand raised up to Tavros' and began to play with each of his fingers. "Wwe're kind of terrible at this moirail thin', aren't wwe?" At least Tavros wasn't alone in the feeling of awkwardness between them. Then again, they did just sort of dive right into a really hard topic. Not only about past crushes, but also death.

That thought had never been far from anyone on the ships' minds. If a drone ship showed up, there was a good chance that all of them would be dead. Actually, if any part of the Alternian fleet showed up they'd be done for. If part of any Empire showed up, dead. If they ran into pirates, dead. If they managed to make it to their location, no doubt all of them would relax a bit. Right now there were too many enemies, the ship didn't have any weapons. All of them thought this was akin to going out for a long walk on Alternia without their weapons.

Stress was either going to make them sick, or going to do the job and kill them.

"No, I don't think we're terrible, just there is so much, uhh, going on that it's difficult for any of us to interact in any relationship normally. Look at Equius and Nepeta. I've never seen their relationship falter, you get us out here and things get even, uhh, harder. We're giving it an honest try."

"I guess that's all wwe can do. Taw, maybe wwe should get some sleep, clear our heads and finish up this conversation later." Tavros nodded, feeling distinctly like this was a bit of a brush off. Someway for Eridan to avoid the weirdness between them. Not that Tavros blamed him, he agreed. They probably just needed a reset, or something else. Both of them curled up close to each other. Willing themselves to go to sleep, not finding it before others had joined them in the room and curled up themselves and found sleep themselves

"Guyth. Guyth… GUYTH!" Sollux was basically screaming to wake any of the other trolls up.

"Whaa?" Vriska said sitting up, looking towards the console. "It's too early."

"We're near the boundarieth of… Yurth? Ehareth? Their language makes no thenthe. We're going to be entering the their thythtem. Thoon. If they have defenthes, it'th all handth on deck."

Vriska pulled herself up to her feet, nudging the other trolls with her foot as she walked towards the console. It would have been easier to wake them up by kicking them, but they had some terribly pressing business. Entering into the ring of space junk was usually where most systems hid the vast majority of their defenses, and they apparently got there while everyone was sleeping.

"How far are we off?"

"Not long. Onthe we enter, we thtill have too long until we reach the planet…"

"We'll cross the bridge when we get there. Right now let's make it through the junk and get into some measurable distance from their star."

"What's going on?" Karkat was pretending to be more awake than he was. His near-constant yawning and sleepy eyes were giving him away.

"We're entering into the ring of space junk just outside their star system." Vriska spoke quickly, delivering the news in brief facts. "There is a chance that if this planet is in their space stage they have defenses. We're in the backwoods of the Empire, so we don't have to worry about their bits. Just this planet's own defenses, and perhaps spy drones from other Empires."

"If there are any. Which there may not be."

"But there could be. Got it. Should I make sure everyone is up while the both of you navigate?"

"We might need everyone to buckle in. This ship doesn't have guns, defenses, anything. All we have is evasion, and Sollux."

"I'll jutht plug mythelf in. We thhould probably refrethh the charge anyway. You'll have to let me know what you thee, VK, thince thith ithn't a full rig I can't thee the way you'll be able to."

"Got it."

The ship was now awake and tense; if this planet had defenses this could be the end. It was now their only option, with dwindling supplies and another bout of shitty luck. It wouldn't surprise them in the slightest if droneships, piloted fighters, or anything else popped up and took them down once and for all.

It would have been great to say they all held their breath, waiting, for them to pass through. But the distance was quite large, and all of them could hear Sollux's strained but forced even breathing. The ship jumped forward slightly, and all of them looked towards the window, and to Vriska.

"Buckle in, grubs. We might have to do more evasion than just the space shit floating around out here. The buddy system still works, so find your partner and get comfy, this might take a while. Also, if there are any last goodbyes you wanted to say, now might be the time. I could miss something shooting at us, so say your last words. Oh, and one seat open next to me if anyone doesn't want to buddy up and hasn't worn full face paint in their lives."

All of them got to their respective seats, sitting with their quickly-decided partners from take off. Vriska was up at the controls, carefully scanning the outside looking for anything that might attack them, flying smoothly through the field of meteors and other junk that littered the outskirts of their star system.

"You doing okay, Gamzee?" Karkat whispered. Gamzee nodded. He still wasn't entirely happy about extended close contact, but he could handle it.

Vriska was dead silent other than the occasional clicking from her tongue The whole of the flight deck looked towards the window and waited for any kind of indication of the final part of any journey. If they did run into fighterships from this planet, that could truly be the end.

"Sollux?"

"Yeah, VK?"

"I don't know your limits, but could you just slam us through here?"

"We're going ath fatht as we can. It'th literally phythicaly impothible for uth to move fathter. That'th the only reathon thith hathn't taken thweepth, that and wormholeth."

"I just would rather be in open space again. I don't like all these ice objects and the idea that something might sneak up on our unsuspecting asses. If we had cannons or guns or anything… Just asking."

"It'th okay, VK. Thith thing can't be too thick. Pluth, the objectth aren't ath clothe ath thome other junk belth." The flight deck was once again silent. It seemed like hours passed and it probably was. All of them were quiet, as Vriska kept moving them through the collections of ice, making sure they didn't hit anything. All of them were quietly waiting for anything to show up, hoping it would board instead of just shoot them down.

The computer beeped, and a low hum admitted from the onboard communications hub. The hum turned into a series of beeps, some longer than other's matching the tone of the hum dropping lower and higher. The trolls all looked at each other trying to figure out what it was. Vriska was oddly silent, looking down at the computer.

"I think, we might be getting a message… Like from something, but this isn't in anything that makes sense… Wait… Waaaaaaaait." All of the trolls accepted the new silence, hoping for an update, or anything that Vriska might have to say at this point. The hum was still echoing around the room. "Yeah, I got nothing. It seems really fucking random. Like they decided to mash code or something… Maybe it's their base coding language? I have no idea. Sollux, you can look at it once we're out of here. But… It doesn't make a bit of sense. Why would we receive something like this? You'd think if it was a warning it would kick on our communicators and tell us to turn back now, or something."

"Maybe they're thtill only exploring their thtar thythtem. Maybe thith ith thome type of methage to athk if they are alone in the univerthe? Which ith pretty thtupid. Do they know how big the univerthe ith? It'd be thtupid to think they were the only thentient planet."

"Maybe this is how they are trying to communicate with us? Or any "aliens"… I just realized how weird it was to think of all of us as aliens. Guess we'll have to get used to it."

"That humming really needth to thtop, it'th fucking with my own particular frequenthy. It'th annoying too."

"Some day I should ask you how your psionics work, but then I remember I don't care. I'll mute it. Once I figure out how. Ah, there's the lovely mute button." The humming stopped. "We actually should be out of the belt soon, my vote is we're not going to run into anything. I think the Are-th message is our only excitement for the evening. So if everyone agrees let's unbuckle and I'll get us the final few Drodala."

"If that's Vriska's idea, I'm happy to agree. Everyone unbuckle," Karkat said. "Plus, I'm sure no one likes being crammed into those seats any longer than they have to be." He pulled off the belt and stood up; the others quickly followed suit, all of them standing and stretching, each casually checking the public clock that told them they had been sitting there for a few hours. Sollux had warned them that the time would be off, since they were traveling so fast time started to lose relevance.

"I'm going to thtay plugged in for a bit, or until VK giveth me the all clear."

"Well, you can obviously talk in the rig, so meeting. We're all here anyway."

"What do you want to talk about, Young Suffering?"

"Vriska, stop calling me that."

"No."

"Fuck, fine, more important things to do than bicker with you." Karkat took a breath. "How far are we from the planet?"

"Around 2.9 Drozela. Or a obscene amount of Paga from it. Let's just say we've got some time," Vriska said after a pause.

"Okay, supplies-wise how are we looking?"

"Down to the dregs, I'm afraid," Vriska said flatly. "We didn't want to say earlier in case we ran out, didn't want to scare everyone. It's better than we thought, we won't die en route, but we'll need to go carefully with the food and water till we land."

"Wwe already wwere being 'careful'," Eridan scoffed.

"Says the one whose blood colour can survive longest without food next to Feferi," Karkat muttered. "If you weren't Gamzee's ashmate I might suggest we eat you."

"Hey, Equ's got more meat on than me, wwhy not him first?"

"Interrupting all of you. We're all clear, we're within the star's orbit now," Vriska said, standing up from the controls. She took a moment before she turned and joined the rest of the group. "The meeting can now continue."

Sollux unstrapped himself, and moved over to the center console. He looked over the message for a long moment, before cocking his head to the side. "Thith lookth like corrupt beenary. We can jutht delete it, it'th corrupted." He pressed a few buttons on the console, erasing the message history. "A two million beeyte methage that's corrupted. Wow. I hope thith ithn't a reflection of their thpthies. They code worthe than KK."

"Any signs of defenses? Outposts? Anyone at all we might run into? I'm getting kind of creeped out by the lack of attack."

"Nothing." Sollux frowned. "Lookth like thith thpethieth hathn't even figured out how to get off-planet yet… If they haven't, then when we land that could be really good or really bad."

"Well, we weren't planning to make a big show of landing anyway. Guess we'll find somewhere relatively underpopulated, try to stay hidden, and if all else fails beg for sanctuary and hope the natives aren't too territorial."

Gamzee peered out of the window. "Hey, guys, guys! Look!" The trolls gathered, and their eyes widened as they took their first look at their destination. From this distance the planet was a soft bluegreen, swirls of white cloud flowing over it. It was beautiful, and not just that; they were still hungry and exhausted, still missing their home, but they felt their hearts filled with a new rush of hope. Enough to get them through the last leg of their journey, hard as it may be.

Tavros glanced sideways at Gamzee, and thought he might burst with the relieved joy when he realised that, for the first time since before conscription, he was seeing Gamzee truly smiling.

Drodala n. a unit of measurement. The distance between Alternia and her moons or 13074.82 paga. (measures 384,400 km | 238,900 mi)

Drozela n. a unit of measurement. The distance between Alternia and her sun or 389 Drodala (dd) (measures 149.6e+5 km | 92.96e+4 mi)