Far Away – Chapter Ten

"Geez, whatever was here, it made a mess."

Chris glanced around to where Sam was picking her way around the jelly trails. Chris himself was struggling not to step in them as much as he struggled to keep his mind from flashing back to that horrid day when they had to rescue Danny. His mind and heart were – for a moment – at ease. They both ached dully, but mostly numb to the pain. Right now, Chris was helping Danny and that helped with his own turmoil. He was certain it would come back in a flash, but for now it was easier to let himself be distracted.

So he looked back at the A-scan, frowning. "Well, I've got the jelly trails from the Zerellian mother worm." Dark thoughts still curled at the corners of his mind at the alien that had almost sucked the very life out of Danny. Chris gave himself a shake and shoved them aside.

"Me too. It's everywhere," Sam grumbled.

Chris looked at the scanner thoughtfully. "Maybe I can upload the jelly bio-data and have the A-scan separate it's trail from the new alien's trail."

"That's brilliant, Chris!" Cathy cheered as her comm started blinking. "Oh, it's Grandpa," she said happily and turned to answer it.

Chris occupied himself with adjusting the A-scan, and sweeping it across the room again. The trails separated and lit up in different colors. "Got it!" Chris grinned at his own genius, but it quickly faded to a frown as he saw the blinking icon on the city map - approaching their location. Fast.

"We've got trouble!" he yelled, and Sam immediately flashed out her Buster gun.

"Grandpa says that Danny's stabil-"

"Cathy! We've got trouble!" Sam relayed, darting behind a wall for cover. Cathy and Chris both copied her, Chris loading his Buster gun just before mechanical arms ripped open the wall. Concrete shards rained down with dust and Chris covered his head with his free arm while grasping claws tore through venting tubes like tin foil. One latched around Cathy's waist, who screeched at it in an alien language before stretching herself to the ceiling and pulling free.

For a moment, Chris thought it looked like a giant, dangerous version of the stuffed animal vendor machines in every arcade. Then the machine thing squeaked back at Cathy, grinding to a halt.

Chris felt like his life had gone completely surreal as Cathy responded back.

"Cath! What's going on?" Sam yelled. Cathy – hanging by her hands as casually as Chris would lean against his locker - looked towards the direction her voice had come from, and Chris had to strain to see her still in hiding.

"This is a Nubillian!" Cathy responded almost cheerily. "They're at war with the Zerellians and found the injured mother worm and took her."

Chris bolted up from his hiding place, anger flaring. "Wait, so they're the reason that battleship is heading for SingleTown?!"

"Yep." Cathy nodded, swaying slightly as the Nubillian kept squeaking away.

"So let them take the blame and fight it out!"

"Chris!" Sam had come out from her hiding spot as well. Chris knew he was being irrational, but he was almost kinda pissed, and felt just a bit justified.

"They want to take the motherworm back," Cathy replied, translating from the alien. "They're hoping that it'll cause a cease-fire."

"Wait, they want to end this war of theirs?" Sam asked, coming forward completely. "Then why did it just rip the wall out?"

Chris could answer that. "It set some sort of sensor device up so it went off and alerted them if anyone came in the area. I'm guessing now to see if a Zerellian worm came here looking for the motherworm." Cathy translated as he spoke.

"Well, word of advice to them then… don't crash through the wall!" Sam sighed as she finally put away her Buster gun. She looked over at Chris, who approached the metal-encased alien carefully. He figured out it had to be a suit, but it was still intimidating. Which was probably the point. "So what do we do?" Sam asked.

Chris sighed. He just wanted this mess over, then that thought filled him with dread. Danny would be able to go back to hating him. What the hell was that, you freak?! Get away from me!

He shoved that thought aside as Cathy spoke. "We need to go check on the motherworm and make sure she's okay." Chris scowled. He didn't want to be anywhere near the worm that almost killed Danny.

"And we need to scan for the Zerellian warship and see where it is so we can tell them where their motherworm is." Sam looked at Chris. "Chris, why don't you-"

"I'll do the scan," Chris said immediately. "I'm not going near that thing again."

"Chris-" Cathy started. But he turned to his A-scan.

"You guys go check on that thing," Chris grumbled.

"Chris… Danny's going to be okay," Sam started gently. "Mr. Smith is with him right now. He'll find something to help him."

"I know," Chris shot back. He shut his eyes tightly, trying not to let the surge of pain rise in his chest at the thought of Danny hating him, or Danny not waking up, or just Danny in general. "Just… better get going."

He heard them shuffling out and the Nubillian rattling as he randomly hit a few buttons. As the sound faded, Chris glanced over his shoulder to see that they were out of sight. Then his strength left him and he slid to the ground.

How could something hurt this much?

He fiddled with the A-scan and his comm unit, not paying much attention as his hands ran on autopilot with the equipment. His brain swayed from one thought to the next as he tried not to think about… anything, really. Every thought led back to the same thing, which immediately jumped to the painful memory of Danny thinking he was disgusting, shoving him away-

There was a clattering, jolting Chris from his thoughts. It took a moment for him to realize it wasn't any kind of attack – he had thrown the A-scan across the floor. It beeped, probably protesting at being flung, but even that had memories attached to it. Chris moaned, and buried his hands in his hair.

Danny.

Suddenly, Chris felt the shift.

He jerked his head up just as the light enveloped him and the concrete walls faded into steel ones around a transpad. He scooted backwards in horror at the Zerellian worms surrounding him, before one seized him around his neck.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note: School gets in the way of playtime. Hope I didn't lose you all with the long delays in updates... But comments really do make me update faster cause then I feel kinda obligated to work on this story... (otherwise, I just get to it on a whatever, whenever basis)

Poor Chris. He just can't catch a break, huh...