Shattered Stars

Contact

We made our way back to the main atrium. The paths resembled that of an indoor mall as they weaved along the walls and overlooked the bottom floor. Plain, windowless doors lined the grey walls, spaced far enough apart for their respective rooms. They had nameplates next to them, so I would be able to find Neila's room without much difficulty.

I took a glance inside the bridge as we passed. Skylar looked back at me when I stopped.

Kyrom, Neval, and a few other crew members were gathered around a hologram. It was of a short metal tube with all kinds of instruments decorating its surface. A few antenna arms stuck out every which way, and a radio dish capped one end of the tube. A label hovered above it.

—Cassini—

Neval caught my eye as I stared, then looked away quickly. I tried to contact him but he rejected the request.

"Whaat're they dooiine?" Skylar asked, following my gaze.

"Don't know," I mumbled, squinting at the hologram to see it in better detail. "Maybe trying to contact NASA?"

A few minutes later, we came across a nameplate reading "Neila Halcy". The sliding door was ajar. I hooked a claw into the crack and the door slid open without a sound. A short hallway extended into a medium-size living room with a pair of bunk beds embedded into the far wall. The room glowed red and blue.

The second I crossed the threshold, a blaring electric guitar solo blasted my eardrums, causing my hands to jump to my ears. Skylar flinched as well.

I stood on two legs and rounded the corner. The other side of the room was decorated with various types of couches and tables. A large half-sphere was carved out of the middle of the wall from floor to ceiling, and the entire thing glared like a giant, curved computer screen. Black lines split the screen into quadrants, with each quadrant displaying chunks of pictures and data.

My jaw dropped when I saw Neila. She was playing a blue holographic guitar, her hands a blur on the strings. Her head banged to the beat and she strutted around the room, as though she were on stage performing live.

The air shook with the force of the beat. I gritted my teeth. "Neila!"

She noticed me but then pretended Skylar and I were part of her imaginary audience. She skipped over to the middle of the room and stayed just out of my swiping range.

She started skipping around us in a circle, still shredding the holographic guitar. I tried to trip her with my tail, but she jumped over it.

I wanted to growl at her when she came around, but something about the ecstatic look on her face made me think twice about it. If yelling at her didn't do anything, nothing else would work.

I focused on the floor and squeezed my hands harder on my ears. A glance told me Skylar was in a similar pose, only with a grimace on his muzzle.

Later in the song, the guitar hung from its straps against her belly and a holographic microphone materialized in her hand. She sprung into the main chorus, lip-syncing with the gusto of a professional singer. A smirk tried to push its way onto my muzzle, but I resisted it.

Curious, I focused on the concave screen. The upper left quadrant had a wireframe image of the wormhole Kyrom mentioned earlier. Next to it, a couple boxes contained data flowing far too fast to read, and above it was a four-variable coordinate which was also illegible. The lower two quadrants displayed basic stats about the ship and its condition. I came upon the location stat: "Titan, Saturn".

"What!?" I exclaimed over the booming music. I poked Skylar's leg with my tail and pointed at the screen. He squinted at it then looked quizzically back at me.