Well, the others had found us by using the Inaad's sensors to locate us. After all, we were the only life forms on the planet. The 'complex' Ovatt spoke of? Well, it was right under the Aerionna, and guess where the thing poked a hole through? You got it, the sickbay. So we all emerged from the hole as things that could fly, and when we were ourselves, Ovatt and Kayleese walked off together. We couldn't save their child... and I'd say that was the saddest thing about all this.
Rachel and Marco had managed to set off two more bombs in another room, where the thing had been in (as well as Jake's and my DNA) and destroyed it, as well as the DNA samples.
They left, and we all managed to cover up the hole with tables and stuff, hoping Ithiell would be able to put a force field around the ship when he knew we were safe (we'd all lost our little communicating thingys, so we couldn't directly talk to him anymore) and walked to the bridge of the Aerionna, all of us a little more beaten from the experience. Jake had lost his outer clothing again, but that didn't seem to mind him much.
When we had met up with Ithiell and Asen, we all went back up to the Inaad, where Ovatt and Kayleese walked off, with Ithiell instructing everyone to leave them alone for a while. Cassie ran and hugged Jake like there was no tomorrow, and I saw Amanda and Ithiell seemed to be a little to the side of our strange group. I still felt like I'd pulled a few muscles or something, but I hoped that would wear off eventually. Genge and Keera reported that the creature, technically, was not living. It was a plant, and sensors didn't pick up plant life forms.
Ithiell then sent repair crews down to the Aerionna, and they began to speed-fix it. One crew found that the emergency ships in the Aerionna's docking bay were gone, and we guessed (well, we hoped) that most of the Aerionna's crew had gotten out alive. They also found the engines had been shot at which might have explained how it got down to this freaky planet. It was shot at, and when they lost engine power, it was pulled down by the gravity of the planet. They'd escaped just before the outer hull began to burn. And... hopefully, Ax's ship had picked them up.
But that still didn't explain what happened to the Aerionna, or Ax's ship. What had been shooting at them? And why were they in this part of space? It just left more questions than answers.
Ithiell had sent the three of us to the Inaads sickbay to be checked over. For all we knew, the thing could have done more damage than we thought it did. Jake was fine... whatever else the thing may or may not have done, morphing had repaired it, and he was as good as he was when we got the call that morning. Amanda had an unknown substance in her system from the water, but they had managed to remove all of it, even going down to the molecular level to make sure. As for me? Well, I was right; that creep had taken cells from my stomach lining. I guess it thought if we weren't going to co-operate, it would just have to create more of us to experiment on. The 'doctors' and 'nurses' gave me something close to Panadol to take, since there was really nothing else they could do. Everything else was fine with me.
Ovatt and Kayleese went too, and they checked out as fine. Although... Kayleese was distant, and Ithiell ordered her and Ovatt to have some time off. To take it easy and relax for a bit. I just hoped it would help them a bit.
We had a kind of memorial/funeral for Mulynn, with all of us paying our respects to the brave but lost member of the Inaad crew. Lest we forget.
Thirty-something hours later I was assigned to bridge duty with none other than Robert himself. He didn't say anything when I came onto the bridge and sat in one of the spare chairs at a console off to the side. I relaxed back into it, and just tried to relax. Robert was sitting in the 'captains' chair', watching as the two Chanaibens and three Andalites worked on the bridge in front of us. I watched too, vaguely aware that we were receiving reports from the crews on the Aerionna. This was repaired... this may need to take some more time... this was almost linked to that...
"Jade?"
"Don't talk to me"
"But I..."
"I said shut up"
"Actually, why don't you shut up and listen to me for a minute" I turned to look at him, blushing involuntarily when I saw him staring straight back
"All right" I said tightly "Go ahead, talk. It doesn't mean I'll listen"
"Look, I don't know for sure what went down there" He started, turning back to the others when I'd outstared him "But I know it sounded pretty bad. You were scared, I heard it. But you've got to understand, what I'm trying to do now is to bring us all together as a..."
"As a what, as a family?" I sneered. He ignored me. Or, at least, I thought so
"... as a group, and as friends. We need to rely on each other now. There's not going to be anyone coming to save us if we do die out here, so we've got to make sure we do this right, or not at all"
"Do what right? What? We're going to find our friends in a part of space we really shouldn't be in, who are probably dead already. What do we have to do right?"
"Work together"
"Oh here we go, this working together thing again" I stood up, fighting the urge to just walk from the room. But I still had an hour to go on my shift.
"Well, if it saves our lives..." he trailed off, seemingly not to notice me as I walked over to one of the Andalites on the bridge, looking over his shoulder. One stalk eye was pointing back at Robert, and the other one was following me.
"Yeah, whatever Robert. Go preach to someone else" I started to walk towards the door, but he got up and stopped me, grabbing my arm none too gently.
"Let go of me!" I snapped, fighting to pry his fingers loose. I cut his hand with my nails, and it started to bleed... but he didn't let me go.
"You see, this... this is what I'm talking about. You walk away from me every time Jade, every time I try to talk to you... to try to tell you what it means to me if we could just..."
"Robert. Let. Go"
"Not until you hear me out"
"I've heard you out! But you just keep spinning the same line of B.S that you always do!"
"Jade!"
"Let go of me you prick!!" I wrenched my arm free, and we just stood and glared at one another.
(Uhh... sir? Ma'am?) An Andalite female asked, looking a little embarrassed as we both turned to look at her.
(We... we have a report that the repairs on the Aerionna have been completed)
"All right" Robert said, walking over to the chair he'd been sitting in, and pressing a button on the panel beside it.
"Ithiell to the bridge. We've got some good news for you"
Ten minutes later he was there, looking a little embarrassed, but took his position and when Robert told him the news, started belting out commands like a good captain would. I watched as the Aerionna began to rise from the ground, slowly but surely, with the moss and vines that had overgrown it snapping off and being burned away. The docking ships were moved to the inside of the bay, and the ship began to lift faster off the ground to join us in orbit.
"All systems fully operational sir" Genge said triumphantly from the Aerionna.
"Good, now let's get moving shall we? But be prepared to evacuate if the ship begins to have problems, all right?"
"Yes sir. Moving off as soon as you give the signal"
"All right then, let's go" Both ships began to move off, with the Aerionna following behind the Inaad. It was only then that I dared to turn back and look at the others... and Robert.
"Ithiell... if you don't mind... I'm going to head off now, and maybe catch some sleep or something"
"Ok Jade. Good night... or something like that" He smiled at me, and I smiled, and nodded, then headed off the bridge, with a feeling like Robert was watching me leave. But I knew... in spite of how I felt, he was right. It was going to take all of us working together to beat whatever took down the Aerionna the first time... and took our friends from us.
I shivered a little when I was out of sight and went to check on Amanda. She looked a little untidy, but other than that... she was all right. Her eyes seemed a little more distant than normal... but I brushed it off as a bad dream or something.
"What do you think?" She asked me when I'd told her what happened.
"I think he's right, but..."
"But you don't want to admit it" She sighed "Jade, when will you ever learn to just let go?"
"Let go of what? I mean, all this time Robert has been... you know. And now he turns around and says 'hey, I care about you, let's be friends?' sorry Mandy, but I can't just..."
"Wait a second, when did he say he cared about you?"
I sighed, and told her about after the training session.
"It could mean more than that, you know Jade"
"Like what?"
"Like... he loves you, and he's just too afraid to admit it"
"What?!" I yelped practically leaping off her bed like it was full of snakes.
"I... don't worry about it Jade. Now, I think I'm going to have a shower. I can still smell that thing on me after all this time"
"Yeah, me too" I added, but soon left her alone so she could go have her shower.
Her words went through my mind again and again when I reached my own room. All this time... could he? Was it true? Could he...
"No" I whispered as I lay down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. I shook the thought from my mind, dismissed it, instead turning my attention on what could have happened to our friends. We were going... where we hoped... was the right direction. But we couldn't be sure. Marco was right; space was definitely a big place. A lot of it was still pretty much unexplored, even by the most advanced races like the Runchak.
At least, by the most advanced races we knew of. Who knew what else lay lurking out there? Like that tar-tree creature that nearly chopped me up and used me as its own test subject. I shivered again at the thought, then kicked off my shoes and changed into my long daggy black night-top, slipping under the blankets and curling myself up into a ball, with the images of the past two days still playing vividly in my mind.
---------------------------------------------x--------------------------------
"What are you? My mother?"
"No, your boyfriend. Now come on, eat this" he pushed a bowl of roast chicken and pasta at me.
"But I'm not..."
"Jade, Amanda told me you haven't eaten for a week. Now come on. That's all I'm asking you to do. Unless... you want me to torture you"
"Torture me? How could you possibly torture me?" I looked at Marco, not quite believing him. But he just smiled mischievously at me.
"Like this" With that, he began to tickle me under the arms, and I laughed and tried to squirm away from him.
"Okay! Okay! I'll eat!" I managed to get out through fits of laughter. He stopped tickling me, pulling the plate closer to me and giving me a fork to eat it with. I took it, and he relaxed when I started to eat, moving back just a little and turning on his chair so he could eat his own bowl beside me.
One more week had passed, as you might have guessed, and I hadn't eaten for the obvious reason that I'd been thinking too much about everything. About the tar creature, about Kayleese and Ovatt, and poor Mulynn... and about Robert. We hadn't spoken since then, but I passed him on the halls once, and I couldn't get up the nerve to even look at him. I didn't know what to say or do anymore. It was unnerving to think that about him... even though Amanda could be all wrong about it. After all, she did seem a little dazed...
I looked around as I ate. Rachel and Tobias were getting their food from the counter, and here and there were Chanaibens chowing down on bowls of something that looked like purple and yellow fruit. But it was mostly empty, and everyone else was either asleep or on the bridge or training. I guessed Tobias and Rachel had just come from the training room, as they looked really tired.
They came and sat with us, and the three chatted for a while, before Marco and I finished our meal and headed off to the training room. We went in, surprised to find Robert, Jake and Cassie were already there, training away.
"Good one guys" Robert muttered as the computer announced that the training session was 'paused'.
"Sorry. We didn't know anyone would be here" Marco said as we each got a vest and a weapon, turning back to them when as we put the vests on.
"Well, next time... just be more careful" He sighed, and Cassie and Jake just smiled at us.
"Can we continue? I'd really like to get this over with before my bridge shift starts" Jake said as we took the door shut, and the commuter telling us to resume. We each took a position, listening as the others did the same. It was basically to avoid the computers fire, as well as to get to a specific place in the room. Simple enough when you think about it... until you actually get to doing it.
I dove behind a stack of boxes as Dracon fire barely missed me. I fired blindly, rolled, fired again and backed up behind another stack of boxes. I hit something, turned, and aimed my weapon. Aimed it straight at Robert, who had mirrored my position.
"What are you...?"
"Look, I just want to say... you're right, ok?"
"But..."
"Now shut up and let's get this over with" I moved around him, peeked out behind the boxes, then dove towards another stack, closer to our target. I aimed, fired again, and...
"Session completed. Mission failed. You are dead" the computer voice cut through my thoughts. I turned to look back... and I saw Robert standing, just looking down at me. The lights came up and we all stood up, with the other three looking strangely at me and Robert. More strangely at Robert than me.
"You just got fried Rob. What's going on?" Jake asked as he took his training vest off, his eyes glued to Robert.
"I... it's... never mind. Thanks Jade" he said, smiling sadly before he dropped his weapon, removed his vest, and walked quickly from the room. I turned back to the others. Cassie and Marco were looking strangely at me. Jake was scratching his head and yawning a little.
"Well, I'm heading off. I've got to get some coffee or something..." he said, then walked out as well. Cassie and Marco hadn't moved.
"What did you say to him?" Cassie asked.
"I just told him he was right about... never mind. Forget about it" I felt my cheeks go hot, and I turned and looked away from them, then pretended to be more interested in getting my vest off.
"What about?" Marco this time. I couldn't look up at him.
"Look, we had a bit of a fight the other day, all right? It was nothing"
"It doesn't seem like nothing" he replied, and I heard the door open and I looked up to see Cassie step out, waving a little goodbye before she left. Now it was just me and him. I looked at him... at his suspicious face.
"It was, all right. All I did was admit that I was wrong. And... well... I guess that throttled him, ok?"
"Are you sure that was all? Are you sure it wasn't... something more than that?"
"What are you suggesting?"
"I'm not suggesting anything"
"Yeah, right. You think I..."
"As I said, I'm not suggesting anything"
"Then why are you looking at me like I have! You think I'd ever do that to you Marco? Well, you're wrong. I love you too much..."
Marco snorted, then realised I was serious "I love you too Jade, it's just... you two seem to have a really rocky history together..."
"Yeah, well that's all it is. History. We've been through hell and back with one another, but that's the past"
"It doesn't seem like it is to him"
"But that's him! That's the great Roberto, all right!"
"Jade, I didn't say that..."
"Look, are you done busting me for something I didn't... and I'll never... do, cause if you are, I'd really like to..." I was cut off by the lights in the training room turning red.
"All senior officers report to the bridge immediately! We have a situation!" Keera's voice snapped through the intercom, sounding almost panicked.
Marco and I took one look at each other, then ran towards and out the door, then heading straight for the bridge, with me having a sinking feeling. The kind of feeling when you know everything's about to go downhill.
And I'm guessing Marco was probably thinking the same thing.
Don't worry, it's not the last of my tar-creature. Only... can anyone give me any ideas about what to name it? Closest I've got is tar-tree. Or tar thingy. Ok, thanks, byz!