The dawn opened humid, and grey. The air stood flat, and no brush gushed in the trees. Some golden leaves drifted down, and one of them sat on Booster's nose. "Uhh… is it morning already?" he yawned, stretching his rotund shape. "Owww…" a pain went along his back. The fork had felt so comfy in the twilight, but it had made his limbs stiff during the dark hours. Mira, Buzz, and Zarah woke up to his rustling. All of them had the equal dilemmas, numbing lumbalgia and backache smarted nastily.
"Ouch, ouch, this tree did a trick to us!" Lightyear moaned. "If the next night has to be slept out, we're staying on the ground."
"What's gonna keep the animals away, if there even are such things? These woods seem somehow dead."
"Fire", Zarah murmured, clambering down. The sky forecasted a hot day, regardless of the season. The hoods and gloves could be tossed aside, as the walk after the breakfast would commence.
------
Over two days had passed since the crash-land. Haggardly the lost were dragged along in the burning scorch of the sun. The forest was left behind, and the line was drawn towards the glimmering river in the zenith. Water was almost drunk, the rations were swallowed. Everyone's mouths felt torrid, they were made to swallow a sand desert. Some miles of pastures were still ahead, before anyone could mollify their pungent dry throats.
"I can't… any more…" Booster flopped down among the late fall flowers.
"Phew… maybe we could keep a pause", Buzz sat sighing opposite to him. He poured the last, lukewarm drops of his drinking water down his trachea.
"Well, some suburb, right!" Mira sneered, "Maybe we should have taken another direction. Where's the ranch with its warm beds now, as Mr. Scoutleader yesterday promised?"
Buzz grated his teeth. According to all the logic, they should have had bumped to a farm, already. If this was Corellia, the cities were not so far away from each other. He felt it irritating that he was possibly wrong with his assumptions. And when even his team members began scarifying him about it, he had problems to hold fully his temper. The elapsed twenty-four hours had been everything but undoubting from their side.
"Well you have eyes for looking! Watch the horizon, fly over the rainbow, whatever." He muttered back, trying to dig his pockets to feel whether there would be a forgotten chocolate bar left.
"Buzz, you don't have to be so impolite. I was throwing in a joke. That was not supposed to be taken literally", she looked at him with an odd glance.
"Umh, yeah", he slurred something. Maybe she had meant nothing. Or had she?
"What's with Buzz?" Booster shyly whispered to Nova.
"I don't know. He has those moods. He's tensed, I can see that."
Half an hour the melalgias were healed, and then the strolling continued. In the high reed and grass, the progression was not that breezy. The midday's sunbath did not cuddle Team Lightyear's sweating backs. But as the hours went by, the river looming beyond a thin shore copse was achieved.
"Ahhhh…" Buzz had set himself on his stomach on the steep, and sunk his face in the icy, brisk water. He drank like a hydrodipsomaniac camel. The others were soaking their fuming feet in the stream.
"Anyone got soap?" Mira asked. "My hair feels pretty, pretty nasty." She received shakes of heads as response. Zarah scrambled up, and sat beside her. She pointed at her own, fixed braid she had made. "Put your hair in some tight coiffure, which is easy to stick under a hood or something. We won't possible be resting in a sauna for a while. Well, don't you think I'd like to have a piece of soap?" Choi guffawed, "Look at my jubilee hairdo! I feel the grease dripping down my forehead, already." Mrs. Darkmatter, regardless of her melancholic spirit at first, was now on a better humor. She somehow had adapted to the sudden situation, thinking that this was one of the setbacks life always did put across the road. And mourning with worrying would not assist it at all.
"In any case, we need to stop being anxious about lipsticks and junk. After a week, or two weeks more wildlife, we look like brownies in any case!"
Lightyear's angry snap cut short her laugh. "Blast! We're not gonna be that long here! Corellia is a thickly populated planet, and the town is just behind the corner. So don't start painting dangers on the walls, by craters!"
Silence. The gapes turned to him. Why was the Captain so irksome?
"Buzz, this isn't Corellia", Mira sighed.
"Of course it's Corellia. What else do you think this is if not Corellia?"
Mira rose up from her spot, padding along the soft grass with her bare feet. "Look around you. This is not Corellia. Look at the river, where does it take? We can see it miles long from here, do you see any harbor, any wharfs? There have been no planes flying in the sky, not even zeppelins. And what's wrong with you? You don't have to be mad at us if you're wrong. Everybody makes mistakes."
Frowning he murmured that maybe she was right after all. But for his pride, it was a big knock that he was wrong! It could not be, his ranger instinct would make him always be right! Buzz Lightyear is never unsure!
New plans were needed. Since the group was obviously a lot worse lost than they had initially thought, the probabilities grew dimmer. First of all, where would they go? Where would they find food? And Lightyear would have to hold his fuming temper, if he wanted to be cooperative at all.
"Could we follow the river?" Munchapper suggested.
"Uh-huh, that's a good idea. What comes to rations… maybe we could find something in the forest?" Choi pointed with her finger towards the bushes. After the meadowlands, another, even thicker woods fanned out, following the course of the bourn. Behind the lighter hardwood, it transformed into conifer forest. The soil was turning drier. In places, during today's peregrination, swampy fields were crossed. Little life squirmed here and there. Rodents, insects, some kind of giant spiders, and bird-like creatures peeked out of nooks and notches. But unfortunately they had no means for contacting Star Command.
"Alright, food. Craters, my stomach howls like a lone wolf", Buzz moaned. "Alright, troops, let's get up and go pick up something."
"Like what?"
"Umm… berries, mushrooms, roots, umh… some veggies. I dunno. But ranger Nova, your molecular detector works. So we can check out that we're not eating anything poisonous."
Zarah was concerned about the weather. As the midday's blaze had turned milder hours ago, and the evening went ashore, a cruel wind from the north gradually mounted. It brought rainclouds along, portraying the northern sphere already grizzled. Some billows were by now summoning the sun, jostling its rays away.
"Hmm… let's hope that the nimbuses pass by without pouring here. But… we don't necessarily need to build a shelter. If we just put our visors down, our suits will protect us perfectly from the wind and rain", the Captain remarked. "Well… those of you who have intact visors."
Nutrition was now more important. The boots were put back on, and the space suits' upper parts detached to their positions. The team strolled inside the yellow deciduous forest. Golden leaves danced around them, as a blow swept the treetops. At the roots of one meager willow were growing plump, brown boletuses. They were scanned with Nova's widget, and no harmful ingredients were discovered. Booster, who had playfully footed in with the rhythm of the frolicking leaves, had crashed backwards to a bush. And what was there! Roly-poly red berries that oozed sweetness! He brought an armful of them to the others, and they complacently sat on the mossy mould to dine. Later, under the umbrella of a hoary pinewood, was put up a fire. A shower was already erupting from the skies, but the branches protected the red, gentle flames. The boletuses and mushrooms tasted delicious when they were roasted. Even Buzz' arrogant-esque feeling improved.
The rain had ceased. The bubble helmets were not needed for a while. And as there was still weak light coming through the dark, up-hovering mass, it was decided to promenade at least a mile or two. Pursuing the flux of the meandering flumen, Team Lightyear at least hoped to see the skyscraper tops somewhere. But… nothing. Nothing was in sight. In addition, before an hour had lapsed, Booster began pitifully whimpering because of stomachache. Obviously he had enjoyed too much of the red berries. He was laid to rest on a bracken bed. However… that was not maybe the brightest idea, either. Half an hour more, and he was sneezing, sputtering, whimpering even further. And not just he, but Zarah's eyes were puffed up, her nose sniveling. The brackens and ferns the area was full of, evidently had started an allergic reaction.
Hence the dell was forced to be left behind. Booster wriggled distressing forwards, holding his storm-tossing tummy. Achoos accompanied the steps, yet the bubble helmets aided with breathing some spore-free air. But as there was no handkerchiefs available in miles, the noses dripped freely. Choi did definitely not look like any fashion model with her greasy hair, and lips that were bleeding because of too much spattering.
"Ow, quafars, I wisf I'fe daken dad genedic dherabfy bow…" she cursed through the snuffing, "Bud I dhoughtd Cabidal Blaneb and uhbh… by hobe bladet haf no stubid brackebds…"
"Do we have any medicines with us?" Nova asked concerned.
"Nuh-huh. I couldn't find the first-aid kits from the ruins of forty-two. They must have exploded, or something", Buzz sulked.
"So in case, if anyone of us gets a wound or something, we can't even bandage it? What?"
"Look, blast, it's not MY FAULT we're stuck up here like this!" he screeched, losing his half-good mood completely. He kicked a tussock out of his road. Moping, he deliberated, "Darn it! What do they acclaim next? That I'm responsible of their allergies? Why didn't they bring their own meds and keep them in pockets?" The darkened man was somewhat out of his mind. He was heavily disappointed in his failure, wanting to get his boots out of this periphery and fast. Stress, nervosity little by little crept in his subconscious.
---Star Command---
Commander Nebula cringed in his chair, protecting himself with his arms. Over his desk, were leaned three cursing, flaming figures. They banged their fists to the table surface, roaring like jet motors.
"Blast! It's not MY FAULT if star cruiser forty-two is lost!" Zeb gathered his courage and rose up to yell back ears-splittingly. "I have done EVERYTHING I have been able to, to track them! And they are still being traced every single blasted second, even now!"
"You run this wacko station! I want my babe back!" Darkmatter foamed like a pack of rabid Karnian beasts. "Four days! I ain't listenin' yar blabber about some ion storms or frontier's traffic queues! Planet Winduu is inside the Galactic Alligator or whatever, and the travel from there doesn't need waiting at some frontal station!"
"Graarrrghhh!" Zurg brawled beside him. "Grhrhrrrrrrgggraaagrh…" getting no more but snarl -and not understandable words- out of his mouth, he decided to withdraw. His topic of course commented upon his son. He was furious to hear about the missing.
The third person, who also took some distance after Nebula's counterargument, was King Nova. Also four days ago (on Capital Planet the time was a bit different from the place where Team Lightyear was) he had been informed that a certain star cruiser had not arrived to its destination in time. Worried about his daughter, the princess of his 'superior' people, he had yesterday taken a royal vessel to Capital Planet. In addition… every three had the sense that something very awkward had happened.
The Commander went through one more time the facts, showing the triplet the holo-report done this far. Star Cruiser 42 had been seen leaving Planet Winduu right after the crystallotechnical summit was over. Some saved radar scans from Tuskenz System's outermost planet Raiderz indicated that at that rim the jump to hyperspace had been done. But after that were only the black skies showing empty hands… nothing. No comlink crackled. The talkers stood mute.
"Can't ya just send someone sniffin' around the hyperspace? Ain't your tech capable of finding energy traces there?" Warp snarled.
"No, we can't. Although we can float there, we can't just snuffle the waves there with hound dogs. By this day, the possible residues of the blastoff energies have dispersed."
The old king in his corner was beetle-browed. "I may have to think of taking my reign out of the Galactic Alliance, if it is not capable to find my missing daughter in time. And if it indicates that something fatal has happened to her, because of your Space Club, I may have to consider means of stronger character against your deeds."
This sounded like a declaration of war for Nebula. Dumbfounded, without finding an interjection to argue, he flopped slack to his seat. But Zora took the initiative -which was a big surprise- to defend the beaten Commander. He had never liked the Tangean king. In the days of his Empire he had been a mortal enemy, and now just an irritating person for him.
"Quasars, we do not need to mix up the political issues of your pathetic planet with this. If we do find Buzzy… uuhoo… Captain Lightyear, we find your princess. And do you comprehend, you lack-wit, that you are preventing the searching with threads like that!" He stormed with his over seven feet height to Nova, pointing at him with a long finger.
The king could have kept it as a slander that someone called his highness a 'lack-wit'. But he was actually physically scared of the hot-tempered male. His bodyguards were outside the office, and before he could call them, that hairy hand might give him a bunch on the nose. So he contented himself to measure the old man with a scornful regard. "And with whom do I have the honor to speak? Hmm. Are you the strange father of Buzz Lightyear, claimed to be killed by Zurg? And then coming out of nowhere when the Empire falls? Hmm." Yes, King Nova was not aware of Zora's true identity.
"Hrmph." The black-haired did not like that muster. That red-beard was suspecting something. "I am who I am. But we do not need any pathetic war declarations here." Zurg came to think about the issue. Four days of missing was not quite the end of the world, yet. Of yore, he had kept Buzz as his prisoner for weeks, and then if when the Captain was lost.
"It is in my hands. I do not need to listen to some lower being, who obviously claims to be something more supreme." Nova mooed, fumbling the door. He wanted to get out of the room before it would be too hectic. "I give you time, Commander Nebula. But if the results do not please me, I have to consider of my own ways." He found the latch, slinked out, and let the sliding door snap shut after him.
"Curse you, King Nova!" was shouted after him. Luckily the royal did not hear this, any more.
Zeb at his desk sighed annoyed, "What does he think I am? I'm not Madame President. Come to threat me like that! Craters, would you two at least keep your patience for a while? I'm seriously with my rangers and LGM's doing the best to find your family members!"