.As the laughter died down in the ship everyone realised just how tired they were, bar Rythian, and it was decided that Rythian would keep an eye on things as everyone got some rest.
"Are you sure you know what you are doing?" Xephos yawned, barely able to keep on his feet.
"It can't be that hard, I will shout if anything beeps how does that sound?" Rythian replied mockingly.
Xephos sighed but was too tired to argue and simply murmured and "ok" before turning to the others. Simon smiled, the minecraftians was about to drop to the floor, he tried to smile but ended up catching the contagious yawn. Xephos was about to say something but instead all he could do was yawn.
Simon shook his head to wake himself up a bit and, seeing Xeph's trouble in saying it himself, shouted emphatically, "FOLLOW ME!" and stepped toward the dorms, Xeph and Cynda in tow.
Rythian watched, stifling a chuckle at the scene as the three became drunk on fatigue. He took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair, he was alone for the first time since getting on the ship and it surprised him that the silence felt eerie, too quiet, especially after Simon had joined them. Nothing but the odd meteor provided a landscape to look at outside of the Enterprise and nothing other than metal or machine adorned the inside of the control bay, as Xephos had called it. Despite all this however, he wouldn't change the past few weeks for the world, he had seen sights that he could have only dreamt of. He had met people who would leave a mark on his life whether he liked it or not and he had experienced true freedom for the first time in his life. There was one thought in his mind that overshadowed all of this, he was disturbed that for their whole journey there hadn't once been a contact of some shape or form from Irignum, or Arabor even. He had expected to have been stopped by now, not that he would let them take him, he was free now and he didn't want the shackles of a life on one planet to stop him from being where he wanted to be. Before he had gotten on the ship he had felt it would be a bad idea, he didn't want to leave the safety of his planet but now he felt like he wanted to go everywhere, meet everyone and see everything. Xephos was rubbing off on him, all this talk of infinite worlds, all different, some potential hell worlds others a paradise, it had intrigued him. This was a dream he was keeping until the end now, no exceptions.
He chuckled out loud as he noticed something that caught his attention in his thoughts, despite everything the group had been through they still didn't know his real name.
Simon and Lewis collapsed into their Hammocks, almost getting entangled in the fabric. It took Lewis a while to get comfortable but through a few minutes of fidgeting he eventually fell asleep. Simon heard Lewis mumbling quietly in his deep sleep, he chuckled before giving into his tiredness.
"What do you want to do when you're older son?"
"Huh?"
Lewis heard a voice in his dream, it sounded so familiar but alien too, he listened quietly,
"What do you want to do when you are older?"
"Travel the world." He replied, smiling. The voice was so calming and caring, but who was it?
"Just the world?" It said questioningly. The voice was definitely female, someone who was close to him.
"The universe." He chuckled, lying his head back into his pillow.
Pillow? He thought and opened his eyes, he twisted around to look at the bed and saw a pillow, he was in a bed, his bed.
"Where am I?" He asked, it was a dream, it had to be.
"At home honey, are you okay?" The voice replied. Lewis scanned the room and saw a woman standing by the side of his bed. She was quite tall with long brown hair and bright blue eyes. The room was small and quaint with a fireplace on one end with a mantel piece laden with old scruffy pictures and a small owl statue. the carpet was an old patchwork design that seemed to be made up of old rugs with different thread lengths. Despite its age it was very pretty and the sewing on it was beautiful. One wall was a deep burgundy while the others were a soft cream colour, the colour scheme matched with the curtains and quilt on the bed but again his attention was drawn to the carpet.
"Hi?" He said, although it sounded more like a question than he had hoped it would.
The woman leant in and touched him on the forehead, she seemed to be concerned.
"Hmm, no temperature. Are you feeling okay Lewis?" She asked.
He didn't know how to respond, no one other than his friends and 'father' knew his christian name. She tilted her head, waiting for an answer.
"Who are you?" He asked, dumbfounded at the woman.
"Lewis, are you okay?" She said, harsher this time.
"Please tell me who you are." He pleaded, he felt himself being shaken.
"Lewis!"
"No!" He shouted, covering his ears.
"Lewis! Wake up." This time he knew who it was. He groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes.
"Lewis, its urgent." Cynda said, he voice was softer now he was awake.
He stretched and blinked, he was in the dorm, Cynda and Simon were standing over him. He must have been shaken awake by her.
"Huh? What is?" He asked, his mind was always slow when he first woke up, he felt like he had only been asleep for a few minutes but a quick look at the clock showed he had slept just under thirteen hours.
"We don't know what to do!" Simon said, it was clear he was anxious about something.
Lewis swung his legs out of his hammock and stood off balance for a second. He sighed and walked out of the dorms and toward the control room. Rythian was stood, staring wide eyed at a planet they were approaching. He turned as Lewis came in to see who it was then quickly turned back.
"What?" Lewis asked, he didn't know what to say or do- he really needed something to drink to wake him up.
"We're gonna hit it." Rythian replied, tapping his finger against the metal of the control panel.
"Oh. Yeah." Lewis stated. His response was neither helpful nor caring as he wandered off to the kitchen to get a drink. Simon was walking behind him, clearly not happy with his priorities.
"Aren't you gonna do something." The dwarf said grumpily.
"No." Lewis said and poured himself some coffee. "Not until I'm awake anyway." he added, which to Lewis' relief seemed to calm Simon considerably.
"Has Rythian checked for an atmosphere, and the contents of the atmosphere?" Lewis asked, he would have used bigger words if he could fathom the concept of grammar.
"No?" Simon said, unsure of what he had said.
"Go tell him to."
Simon ran off to tell Rythian whatever he had just said as he sipped his coffee. He didn't see what the rush was about. He closed his eyes for a minute and sighed as he heard Simon's heavy footsteps approaching, "Yes." He said upon entering the room.
"What?" Lewis replied, his memory had failed him.
"There is a breathable atmosphere, only uh- 23% Oxygen"
"Oh right. Okay, we need to prepare to orbit."
Lewis went to drink the last of his coffee before realising he had already drunk all of it. He stretched and rubbed his eyes again. "I need to sort out my sleeping routine." He said to himself, pacing once again to the control room, feeling much more sentient.
"Okay Rythian, give me some numbers." He said with a smile, standing a pace behind him.
Rythian chuckled lightly, "Had a nice sleep Xeph?" He joked. He heard no response and looked at Lewis who appeared to take no notice of his snide comment.
"We are not sure whether it is inhabited, we are too far away to get a full diagnostic but we-"
"Need to get into orbit, I know, Simon told me." Lewis finished, moving to the controls to input a new trajectory.
"Right- okay. I assume you can take it from here." Rythian said and took a step back.
"I wouldn't mind a hand, the ship isn't made for one person." He said quietly.
Rythian smiled, Lewis hadn't asked him to help steer the ship before, he hadn't understood anything but while he was asleep Rythian had taken the time to read up as much as he could on the ship.
"Anything I can do you can do better." Rythian stated, he was happy to help but he wasn't sure why he was.
"No, no no. You've got the lyrics wrong." Lewis said, walking to the other side of the control room to change the energy priorities. Rythian gave him a strange look, he was still bent over the control panel reading up some new diagnostics.
"It goes- Anything you can do I do better.
I can do everything better than you."
This made Rythian laugh, "I assume that is one of your so called 'songs'"
Lewis nodded, humming the tune, occasionally adding words where he could remember them. "Its a very old one too, I can't remember when I last heard it." He said and continued to hum.
"Anything you can do I can do better, I can do everything better than you." They both sung as Lewis reached the chorus. They were both crossing paths every now and then, shouting a few keywords or commands to each other as they danced around the control room trying to get the ship safely into orbit. "Help me redirect power to boosters, we need some more speed- and I can't reach." Lewis said and Rythian dashed behind him, jumping slightly to input the commands. Lewis ducked and watched in amusement as the enderborn switched his magic for good old exercise. Simon had been stood in the hall, watching on at the two controlling the ship. He shook his head with a smile before heading toward the kitchen.
