Colleen woke up around 7:00 the next morning. She went to open the drapes blocking light from the room, but when she pushed the drapes back, she didn't see sunlight. She saw the cosmos of space. She stepped back and tripped over her bed. "Oof!" Colleen fell onto Kish's stomach, waking him up. "Hel-lo," said Kish as he looked up into Colleen's face. "Mornin' Kish," Colleen said as she blushed and got off Kish. "Where's Rinaldi? Wouldn't he come in here right about now?" Colleen went into the closet and came out wearing a red silky robe with a white capital C stitched onto the chest and fuzzy red slippers. "I'm going to see if anyone else I up. You can go back to sleep if you want to Kish," Colleen said as she leaned in the doorway before stepping out of the room.
Colleen walked around; looking in all the rooms, and for some reason Pai and Tart weren't on the ship. She did see Rinaldi in his room asleep. His room was a dark purple, and she didn't even try to get in, considering she couldn't see the floor and Rinaldi was snoring loud enough to break windows. As Colleen walked to the kitchen to get breakfast, she tripped, reaching out to hold onto an inset wall lamp. A door appeared in the wall and candles in inset wall candle holders flamed in a soft red-white brilliance. "Hmmm, I don't remember this place before." Colleen walked into the cold tunnel and began to walk to its end. The tunnel seemed endless, but Colleen kept walking, for some reason feeling more and more sleepy. When she finally reached the end of the tunnel, she saw a metal door. She looked inside for a second, but then purple mist filled the air, and Colleen fell unconscious onto the hard floor.
"Kish, can you check-up on the prisoners?" Rinaldi had woken up and woke Kish up as well. "Um? Whatever," Kish said as he pulled on his green out fit over his boxers and quickly brushed his hair and went to open the secret doorway. But when he got there, it was already opened. Hmm, I wonder why it's open? I hope Rinaldi didn't screw up the computer system for the door Kish thought as he walked down the tunnel. When he got down to the door for the prisoners' cell, he found how the door was opened. "Colleen!" He ran over to Colleen's side quickly and checked her pulse. Just knocked out. Thank God. I'm going to have to tell Rinaldi to fix our sleeping gas machine, Kish thought as he put Colleen's head on his lap. "RINALDI!" Rinaldi came running in but stopped and smiled sheepishly when he saw why he was called in. "Oops. I guess I screwed up the sleeping gas machine. I'll fix it."
Kish went up to Colleen's room and laid her on her bed. When he got to the control room, he saw there was a message to return a call to Gen. Jolkein. "Rinaldi, there's a message for us from Jolkein. GET IN HERE!" Rinaldi ran in and Kish called Gen. Jolkein. "Hello Kish, I know you're calling about my message," was Jolkein's reply when they got through. "There's an important bal that I needed to go to, but I'm too busy to go, so you two are going in my place. It's a masquerade ball, so dress up and bring dates! Don't screw up!" Jolkein hung up and left Rinaldi looking at Kish's open mouth that looked close to falling off. "You okay?" Rinaldi waved his hand in front of his face, waking Kish from his state of shock. "Finish fixing the machine." Rinaldi ran off to finish the repairs. "Now to convince Colleen to be my dateā¦" Kish walked towards Colleen's room.
Colleen woke up with Kish's face inches from hers. "Hello Kish," Colleen said before kissing Kish lightly on the lips. Kish's face went bright red after the kiss and his question barely escaped his lips. "C-Colleen I need you t-to come to this masquerade ball with m-me. G-General's O-Orders," sputtered Kish, sounding very embarrassed. "Sure why not? But you don't need to be so shy asking," Colleen said as she kissed Kish again.
Rinaldi, after fixing the sleeping gas, had a harder time asking Dom to go. He had taken Dom out the cell and into his room, which he locked. "What do ya want?" Dom said crankily. "Can you go with me to this masquerade ball thing?" "Eh." "What's that mean?" "Eh. I'll need a costume. Just to note I'm doing this out of pity." "YEAH!" Rinaldi, in a spur of happy adrenaline kissed Dom on the lips. Dom immediately broke it off and brought out a knife. "Where the hell did that come from?" Dom smiled evilly and began to chase Rinaldi, threatening to throw it at Rinaldi's head.
Colleen meanwhile was trying on different costumes. She currently had on a cheerleader outfit. "Nah too preppy," Colleen said as she went back into the closet. "Ooh, I like this one," Colleen said as she walked out wearing a crimson silk kimono, but it only went up to her mid-thigh. It came with silk crimson shorts. "Me too, it looks good on you. I'm guessing we're going as a Japanese ninja couple?" Kish went to his room and came out with a matching outfit. "Yeah, I guess so. Why don't we check up on Rinaldi and see how he's going on asking Dom?" Kish and Colleen went to Rinaldi's room, where they heard Dom screaming loudly.
When Kish unlocked the door, they saw Dom trying to push Rinaldi off her, him trying to force something into her mouth to swallow. "What is that Rinaldi?" Rinaldi looked up and saw he was caught red-handed. "A love pill. I don't want her to kick me in the groin at the ball. That and I want to her to like me, so why not a love pill?" Kish smacked his hand into his head and dragged his brother into a room to discipline him. Colleen brought Dom to her room to get her calmed down. "Well one thing's for sure, this is going to get interesting!" Colleen got smacked in the head for saying that, but Dom did it jokingly. "I guess it will. I'm definitely going to kick Rinaldi in the groin later when I get the chance," Dom said as she gritted her teeth. "Cool it Dom, calm down," Colleen replied. Colleen hoped that she wouldn't be discovered at this ball of masks and costumes, but she was never sure of the future.
There's Chapter 12! I was rushed by InvaderDom! Please Review!
