#sci do

[return to the beginning]

Length: 1,749 words

Read time: 7 minutes

Content warnings: injury, embarrassment.

Note: no sexual themes or content.

A shadow came over the pod as the impromptu rescue team came in to land where it could nearby. It was about four times the size of the pod and triangular in shape. A stealth craft. The doors open and a ramp slid out to allow its occupants exit.

Out stepped Iggy and Nullian. The two young men were equally tall, though Nullian had considerable bulk on his lanky counterpart. They approached the pod cautiously as if it might decide to rear up and bite them. They heard movement, a shifting on debris, and Nullian stepped back, ready to run or fight whatever decided had taken up residence inside the crashed pod.

Out crawled Ella. She knew it was safe because she recognized Iggy’s tattered old doodled on boots. her dress was filthy, her hair was tied up with a starry bow that Iggy swore he saw before, but not on her. Her face was still wet from crying, and she moved strangely, leaving to one side and not quite limping as she clutched to her side.

“Ella!” Both men shouted in unison and rushed her.

“Careful I’m hurt!” She warned, hands still on her side.

The two of them skidded to a stop in the soft soil. “Hurt how?” Iggy asked in a concerned almost parental tone.

“My side hurts really bad. It’s hard to breathe. I’ll be fine but don’t touch me.”

Nullian had started openly crying “I’m so glad to see you alive! I thought I killed you!” He sobbed.

“I’m fine! I’m okay! But I think Cadence needs help they’re hurt real bad and keep kinda fading in and out.”

“Wait, what?” Nullian blinked “Cadence is with you?”

“Whoa, hold on, how did Cadence get mixed up in all this? What happened? Wait, no, priorities, where are they?”

She pointed at the wrecked pod.

Iggy walked over, brushed the glass over to clear a spot with his foot, then kneeled down to look through the smashed front windscreen that peaked over from below the pod. He saw Cadence propped up sitting against the back wall. Their head sagged to the point their chin touched their chest, their cardigan and dress shirt were both unbuttoned and strained dark red at the shoulders, the sleeve of one arm was partially shredded.

Wide eyed, Iggy looked back to Ella who had went to stand with Nullian then back at the scene before him. Were they still alive? Was Ella in denial and hanging out with a dead body all this time? He ventured forward, went to touch their face, hesitated, then covered his hand with his sleeve before poking them. They didn’t move.

“Hey buddy… you… you good…?” He leaned in, tilting his head to the side as if a different angle would give him a more concrete answer. “You still with us?”

He grabbed their arm to try and shake them a little, only to have them spring to life, hissing through their teeth and yanking their arm away before groaning.

Iggy jumped back like a snake just tried to strike at him, slamming his shoulder into the chair hanging from the ceiling in the process, the impact making him twist and fall.

Cadence blinked the blur from their eyes “Ignatius? Ignatius is that you? Goodness are you alright?”

“I’m fine I’m fine,” he said quickly “are YOU alright? You look like a zombie!”

“It was rough coming in, my landing skills can use some work. But hey, I’m alive.”

Iggy decided to skip over the fact they did not answer his question for now. “Can you walk?”

“Let’s find out together.”

They wobbled and shook as they slowly climbed to their feet. They used the wall and the hand Iggy offered them to pry themselves off the ground. They managed to get to their feet, more or less. They moved like a newborn deer as their limbs wobbled below them. Iggy snaked an arm under theirs and around their back to help stabilize them as they made their way out. They had to crouch to get back through the broken windscreen. Iggy covered the both of them with his leather aviator jacket to try and negate any cutting from broken glass as they shuffled out.

Outside Nullian was crouched at eye level checking up on Ella. When he saw the two of them emerge from the wreckage he straightened back up. With his free arm Iggy made a ‘round up’ gesture to signal they should go back on the ship.

As they climbed the ramp it was clear Cadence was having a lot of trouble keeping balance and Nullian watched them like a hawk. He knew that walk. The way their head kept nodding off every once in a while, the way half their body seemed to be uncooperative compared to the other, the terrible balance. That was the walk of a man who took one too many blows and was destined to die in his sleep. As he helped Ella along he mentally scrambled for what he should do, if anything, to help. Nothing came to mind, how could one fix internal issues? He wasn’t a doctor… but the B.S. Lucky had one on deck. He might be able to stop them from dying. “We should go ahead and take them back before we go for the other pods and get them to Dr. Locke.”

“Way ahead of you buddy. We’re taking them straight there.” Iggy nodded.

As they stepped inside Audrey cheered “yeaahhh! You’re alive!”

Everyone got up from their seats to surround her, rapid firing questions and concern, closing in. Nullian didn’t like that one bit, he held an arm out as of to shield Ella from the encroaching crowd.

Iggy waved his arm as if to dissipate smoke. “Hey now don’t crowd, I know you’re worried but you’re stressing the poor girl out.”

It was then the group noticed Cadence with him, with the way they were slouched and the aviator jacket covering them they weren’t immediately visible behind Nullian and Ella.

“Whoa what are they doing here!? I half didn’t expect Ella to actually be one one of those things now we have them?” Birdie inquired.

“It’s a long story…” Ella said as she stared down at her shoes.

“Man, getting mixed up in dumb intergalactic bullshit is your hidden super power.” Amy-lee jabbed.

“Hey! Language! We have double the amount of babies now then we did before!” Iggy berated.

Audrey stomped on his foot. “I told you! I’m not a baby!”

He clenched his teeth to avoid outright dropping Cadence on the floor.

“Okay! Enough of all this!” Cadence raised their voice. “I’d hate to be pushy but I’d prefer getting to a doctor sooner rather than later if at all possible.”

“You heard em’! Buckle up everyone! Also pick your travel buddy there’s going to be a lot of lap sitting this time around.”

Ella looked up at Nullian and took his hand “can we be travel buddies? I don’t think Cadence and I make good travel buddies. We’re better station buddies.”

Nullian smiled down at her “sure! We can be travel buddies.” He headed over to his seat, sat down, and she took a seat in his lap. He was careful bucking the two of them in, and kept an arm a few inches in front of her torso to avoid the buckles digging into any possible injuries.

Birdie crouched down in front of Audrey “want to be travel buddies again?”

“Not really, I want my own seat.”

The corners of Birdies mouth pitched down. well that hurt. “Well… I think I’m too big to sit on someone else’s lap. So looks like we’re stuck together.

“Ugh. Fine.”

The two buckled in but Audrey kept her arms crossed the entire time.

Iggy gently put a hand on Cadence’s shoulder. “Alright short stack pick a lap.”

“Oh, I was thinking it was best if I sat alone. I’m not doing particularly well and I’d hate to get blood on anyone.”

Iggy mulled that over for a few seconds before turning to Champ “alright big guy time to play Santa clause.” He declared before falling back and across Chance’s lap.

He jumped in surprise “Hey! What!?”

“They’re taking my seat so we have to double up.” He righted himself on the chair. It was awkward, Chance was a big bulky guy, all throughout school they tried to draft him as a linebacker for the local football team, he filled the entire seat and spilled over some. Meanwhile Iggy wasn’t a small man himself, he was the tallest of the group but thin as a beanpole. It was all gangly limbs and elbows as he tried to figure out the logistics of both of them fitting into the same seat.

The entire time Iggy squirmed to get comfortable Chance grew redder and redder. He’d had a crush on Iggy since day one and now he was in his lap and rubbing up against him. He kept his hands firmly on the arm rests of the chair as Iggy dug the straps out from underneath him and buckled the two of them in. His face was glued to the window to hide how flustered he was. This had to be some kind of test. The mantra of ‘don’t be creepy’ marched through his mind. In the reflection of the window he caught Jed with a hand clamped over his mouth trying not to laugh at them.

“Okay! Amy-Lee if you could help Mr. Boss lady to their seat we should be good to go!” Iggy declared.

Cadence scoffed at the notion they would need help buckling in. They had a decade on every other person in this cabin at least. They didn’t protest as Amy-Lee silently obeyed the request and buckled them in. Then, they blinked, and suddenly they were in deep space, no signs of the planet in sight, no shimmer and show of launching from an atmospheric planet, nothing. Like a section of film cut out of a movie and both ends connected back together like it was never there in the first place. Well, that was concerning.

Just like that they were heading back to the B.S. Lucky, half the crew happy to be alive, the other worried about how they would survive telling Oron they wrecked almost all of his pods. Either way, the mission was considered a net positive.

Path trajectory:

[To be continued]