Chapter Four

We got up at dawn. I think. What does dawn even mean on a moon? Is it when you see the sun – which can be so far away it barely provides light – or is it when the reflection of the sun off of the huge planet above you hits?

Normally a moon far away from its sun would be too cold for humans or Andalite. But the geothermal energy for this particular moon had been so strong it was heating up the planet surface – part of why it could maintain grasses.

Ax hadn't worried about it, though, so I hadn't worried either.

I guess none of it really mattered anyway. We were leaving this moon. Everyone began waking up and packing our things when it got bright enough to move around comfortably. Spreading ashes around so they would blow away in the wind, trying to clear off some tracks. Essentially anything that would make it less obvious that we had been camping out. Not that we had brought anything with us from The Cage, so packing up was going to be short work.

"Let's go!" I called, after I had seen everything was packed up. And gave Marco a shove because he kept singing the theme song to Giligan's Island.

"Hey! It's a traveler's classic!"

The question after that was a matter of coordinates.

Space is a big place. The same reason for not starting our search right away was always going to be our problem in finding the exact whereabouts of the Skrit Na. Ax had a set of coordinates that were "close." But it was "close" like Chile being closer to the United States than the moon. Worse than that, really.

"So, Ax... Where are we going?"

‹There are two most likely options, Prince Jake,› Ax said, pointing at two spots "close" to each other.

Two planets, relatively close by. And one showed signs of life on its moon. That was not particularly pleasing. Depending on Z-Space configuration getting to one planet could take weeks, let alone exploring two planets. And even though we were hoping to intercept the Skrit Na, we had to assume the worst – that was, having to bust some Andalites and humans out of a zoo.

"Ax, the moon with life. Do you think it could be the zoo?"

He looked at me, goggling. It must have been a stupid question.

‹Which one is most like the Skrit Na world?› Tobias asked. ‹You know, atmosphere, climate, et cetera?›

Ax pointed, a human gesture he'd picked up from us during his time on Earth.

"Okay, that's good enough," I said, "Let's get going there."

So we took off from the ground and entered normal space, to prepare for the Z-space jump.

If you've never seen regular space, you're missing out. Especially farther out, away from Earth. We got out of the atmosphere, and everything turned dark. A huge planet loomed overhead, dwarfing the moon we had been visiting, giant and a purple hue. The sun, distant compared to what we were used to in our own solar system. Stars.

If you ever began to doubt your insignificance, a trip in space will completely prove your point. I had been reading some good old Carl Sagon out on Earth before we had been called on the mission, and the basic idea – that we were nothing but dust, a part of this enormous thing that really didn't care what we were – was never as clear as you saw compared to the planet, you were an atom. And compared to that planet's sun? You weren't even an electron. Distances that not only dwarfed any distance on our planet, but would have not even seen that distance as existent. Light that had to travel for minutes, hours, or years to get from where it was.

We'd been in space for a while, now. Ax was used to it – or at least, he didn't show that old awe for seeing things from the perspective of being outside of the world. He probably still had it, honestly. I couldn't imagine it ever being gone. It would be like someone who'd never seen the ocean walking up to it and not realizing it was vast. Like it could get more vast than it already was.

But eventually, our time was up. We were ready for the jump to Z-space.

"Punch it, Ax-man."

And we blew out of there into yet another aspect of space that was business as usual – but never mundane.