SPACE: 1999 YEAR 2

JOURNEY BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

SECTION SIX: HELD IN THE STORM

Almost as soon as Tony left his quarters, Maya jolted awake, her heart pounding in her chest. For a disorienting moment, she stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling, the stark reminder of her new reality slamming into her. She lay there, frozen, feeling a wave of loneliness and confusion pressing down on her. The strange bed, the strange room. They all served as reminders that she was far from home and that home no longer existed. She was now in a place that felt very strange and very alien.

A shaky sigh escaped her as she pushed herself to sit up. She knew that staying in bed wouldn't allow her to escape reality. Wearily, she swung her legs over the side, cautiously testing her ankle and feeling a small relief that the pain had lessened. But each step toward the bathroom felt heavy, as if the weight of all she'd lost was pressing down on her shoulders. Her heart felt raw, her mind spinning with the emotions she was barely holding back, and the unfamiliarity of the space seemed to magnify the ache in her chest.

In the bathroom light, the reflection that met her gaze was unsettling as she washed her face and brushed her teeth. Her usually lustrous hair looked messy, slightly tangled…mirroring the turmoil she felt within. Her eyes were red, bloodshot. Dark circles beneath them were visible. Her face, now devoid of any makeup, looked pale and ghostly. She splashed more cold water on her face, hoping to wash away the exhaustion and despair, but it only made her feel more drained.

Sighing again, Maya placed the damp cloth in the bin Tony had shown her last night. Slowly, she walked back into the main living area, but the sight of Tony's quarters made her pause. She stood there, unmoving, as the room's unfamiliarity seemed to close in, its walls pressing against her from all sides.

A hollow ache bloomed in her chest, her crushing new reality settled over her.

She had no home planet. No father. No familiar comforts to cling to. Her bedroom, her keepsakes, even her clothing. All gone. Everything that had connected to a sense of home had been ripped away and understanding struck her like a sharp, physical blow, leaving her breathless.

Images of life on Psychon rushed through her mind in relentless succession. Her father's voice. The warmth of her bed late at night. The soft, familiar textures of her favorite things. Each memory burned with cruel intensity, a reminder of the life she'd lost, and the pain twisted deeper with every thought.

She glanced around the room again, her gaze catching the little details that reminded her this space wasn't hers. She was in a strange man's quarters, surrounded by his things, his memories, his life. Her eyes dropped to the shirt she wore; the one Tony had given her last night. It was warm and clean, but it meant nothing to her. It carried no weight, no memories. It was just another piece of evidence revealing how far removed she was from everything she had ever once known or loved.

She looked down at the shirt again.

A strange shirt, with a strange symbol. A tongue, of all things.

While it might mean something to Tony, it meant nothing to her. It was just one more fragment of a word that wasn't hers. While these humans may indeed prove to be honorable, her father had said they were a culture not so advanced as theirs.

Perhaps she really was the last living Psychon in the entire universe. The thought weighed heavily in her mind, bringing even more suffocating loneliness as well as scaring her. She had been thrust into a new reality among wandering Earthlings from a distant planet that she had never even heard of.

Doctor Russell's reassurances echoed faintly in her mind. There were nearly three hundred people living on Moonbase Alpha and Doctor Russell had assured her that she would form new friendships, find a new life. But right now? In this moment, that felt impossible. She was alien among these Earthlings. She had never felt so lost, so utterly alone in her entire life.

A sob tore from her throat, raw and unbidden, as her knees buckled beneath her. She wrapped her arms tightly around her trembling body as she curled to the floor, as though she could try to hold herself together while hot tears poured freely down her face. Her sorrow spilled out in waves as the unfamiliar walls seemed to close in around her, as the enormity of her loss consumed her.

When Verdeschi returned to his quarters, he noticed immediately that Maya wasn't in his bed. He had a strange, instinctual feeling that something was wrong.

"Maya?" he called, his voice already tinged with concern as he walked further into his room.

At first there was no answer, but then he heard it. Heart-wrenching. A shuddering sob that twisted something in him.

His heart dropped as he found her crumpled up on the floor, just outside his bathroom. Her shoulders were shaking with grief so raw it nearly brought him to his knees.

"Oh, Maya," he murmured as he knelt down beside her. Verdeschi didn't hesitate. He pulled her gently but firmly into his arms. He could feel her trembling against him. He could feel the very depths of her sorrow. Words were pointless. All he could do was be there for her. He held her tightly, rocking her softly.

Maya clung to him as though he were her last tether to the universe, the last familiar warmth in a world suddenly stripped of everything she'd ever known. Tony stroked her hair, whispering soft words of comfort, his own chest tightening as he held her. He had taken more than enough psychology courses at university to know that this was just the beginning of a long and painful journey for her.

He didn't know how long they sat on the floor like that. An eternity must have passed until she eventually pulled away from him and looked up at his face. His heart shattered at the image of this beautiful young woman so horribly devastated.

"I'm so sorry, Maya," he whispered as he gently caressed her cheek. "I can't even imagine."

Maya sniffled, bringing up a hand up to wipe away her tears.

"I just...," she closed her beautiful eyes for a moment, hoping that if she tried hard enough the tears and the pain would stop. She looked back at him. "I can't seem to stop crying."

Tony pulled back slightly, his gaze locking onto hers.

She sat at the center of her ruin, trying to hold together the pieces of a girl who had once belonged somewhere and who now belonged nowhere. And yet, she was placing her trust in him, still little more than a total stranger.

For a moment, he couldn't find his voice, couldn't find any words that seemed useful or comforting.

A sudden realization washed over him. As far as Maya was concerned, he was not going to go anywhere.

"I'll be here for you," he said softly, his voice thick with emotion and conviction.

Maya's eyes shimmered with unshed tears as she looked back at him.

"I hate to be a bother," she finally was able to say. "You've been so very kind."

Her lower lip trembled, and Tony suddenly felt the urge to fight back a few of his own tears as she lowered her gaze from his.

"Oh Maya," he said as he placed a hand under her chin and lifted gently so that he could look in her eyes again. "You are not a bother," he told her honestly.

Tony's hand moved slowly to her cheek, his thumb brushing away the last of her tears, and for a moment, he simply held her face in his palm. Maya's eyelids fluttered shut, her dark lashes brushing against her pale skin. She leaned into his touch, not even realizing it, as if his hand were the only steady thing in her storm.

The softness of his gesture contrasted painfully with the chaos in her chest. Grief, loneliness, the unrelenting ache of everything that she had lost. For that brief, tender moment, it was as though he was holding her together, even if only for a breath.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring into Tony's dark eyes. Time seemed to stand still, the silence between them heavy with unspoken emotions. Things that were far too vast, too fragile to put into words. His hand lingered on her cheek, his thumb tracing slow, soothing circles over her skin, as though trying to erase the sadness etched there.

She felt the warmth of his breath, gentle and steady, brushing against her face. A quiet reassurance in the midst of her tempest.

Each exhale from her carried a whisper of vulnerability, an unspoken invitation for him to see her brokenness, to share the weight of it.

There was no sound, simply the hushed silence between them carrying something fragile. Recognition

And then it hit him. Not just sympathy. A wave of sorrow that wasn't his. It moved through him as if it had always lived there. And it had shaken the foundation of carefully constructed walls that he had quietly built around his own emotions.

The rawness of the moment bound them together, an invisible thread pulling them closer. Closer than he'd let anyone get in a long time. Not since… her.

"Maya," he whispered, her name a beautiful, fragile thing on his lips. Rough and unsteady, carrying an emotion that startled even him.

Her eyes blinked and a single tear slipped free, tracing a silent path down her cheek until it met his thumb, a quiet surrender of her emotions.

What passed between them in that instant – his empathy, her pain, and something deeper, something unspoken – was undeniable. It hung between them, delicate and powerful.

Tony pulled back slightly. Her wide blue eyes, still glistening with tears, held something he wasn't prepared for. It stole his breath, left him aching in ways that he didn't understand.

His gaze dropped to her trembling lips, still unsteady from her sobs. In a moment of weakness, or perhaps insanity, Tony leaned in. Then he kissed her.

Barely, gently, as though afraid to break her further. His lips brushed hers, soft and lingering, tasting the salt of her tears, the grief that clung to her like a shadow.

For one stolen moment, the entire universe melted away.

There was no Moonbase Alpha.

There were no demands or weight of duty or loss.

There was no past, there was no future.

There was only her. The warmth of her skin, the fragile tremble of her breath and the quiet steady pulse of connection that flowed between them.