Ko's droopy eyelids slowly fluttered open as she awoke from her rather comforting nap. The sides of her eyes were crusty and sore as she rubbed them gently. Her feeling of balance quickly restored, she looked around and noticed she was still lying on Quin's shoulder, the carcan's right arm wrapped around her. A feeling of safety warmed her heart as she rubbed her snout against Quin.
"He he, hey there sleepy," she chuckled as she looked down at the zapher with her bright green and purple eyes. She wiped away some of the tear streaks that were stained on Ko's cheek.
"You gotta check this out," Quin piped up. She turned to face the window.
Ko blinked briefly before her eyes widened at the sight of what she could only assume was where they were headed.
"Is t-that?"
"The Acid Nebula? Yup," Spatch's voice called from across the room.
Ko turned to see him pouring a glass for himself from behind the bar at the back of the observation deck.
"It's. . . incredible," Fischer stuttered, still sitting on the other side of the couch, his mouth wide open in astonishment.
The entire room was drowned by intense lime and yellow light the was being emitted by the nebula and the light reflecting from it. The whole cloud of gas was so big it took up the entirety of the window and the glass floor. Over a light year in every direction of dense yellow gas. It was like looking at a glass of water that had just had food colouring poured into it.
"Yup. Sure is. And we're flying straight through it. Yippee," Quin stated sarcastically.
The thought of flying through trillions of kilometres of gas so dense that you can't see a hundred meters in front of you wasn't lost on any of them. But seeing a nebula up close like this wasn't something they got to experience often. If at all.
"This place is. . . amazing. . ." Fischer stated, lost for words.
Spatch smiled. "Well, nebulae are pretty damn cool. Problem is they're so hard to work in that they become more of a nuisance than anything-"
"No. Not just the nebula," Fischer interjected, "This. All of this is just. . . I-I don't even know how to describe it. To think I was stuck on Earth for twenty two years, having no idea about this. Any of this. Any of this amazing stuff. Any of this wonder, a-any of this. . ." he shook his head in disbelief, gazing out into the galaxy. It's wonders and secrets capturing him, dragging him forwards like a moth to the flame. But his thoughts jumped back to the one thing that kept him tethered to the ground. The one thing that kept him from falling into space and losing himself among a void of stars.
He turned around to look briefly at Ko. Her beautiful scales glistening in the light, her bright eyes reflecting the shapes of the nebula with surgical precision. The slight glimmer as the light danced around in her pupils.
"Any of this beauty," he finished, quickly looking away once he was done.
Ko couldn't help but notice his eye movements and the way he glanced over at her, a brief smile flashing on his face. A warm feeling emerged in her heart.
Spatch unfolded his arms and chuckled, "Well, I guess it is pretty nice. Growing up around this place I guess I'm just used to it."
"You know, you never told us where abouts you came from," Quin stated.
"Well you never asked," he jested as he took a sip from his glass
The other three in the room turned to look at him, all with expressions of curiosity plastered on their faces.
"Well, ok then," Spatch began. "I uh, I didn't really have a home planet honestly. Can't remember where exactly I was born but my family used to travel a lot. We lived on a jump ship called the Andromeda. Was a great ship. Never knew my dad though. He uh, he died before I was born. He was a great explorer though, charted lots of the common trading routes used in the outer edges of the galaxy nowadays. Found lots of new planets too. I guess I'm kinda chasing after his shadow a bit. Well, until we all met."
"Huh. Interesting. Your dad sounds like a hell of a guy," Quin replied.
"Yea, The stories my mum and uncle used to tell me about him were pretty crazy too. Apparently he once went a month without power in the middle of the Alpha arm, the ship broke down and his EB had an electrical fault. Was only found because a cruise ship picked him up."
"If you don't mind us asking, what happened to him?" Fischer asked.
"He got cocky. Like most of the greats, he thought he could tackle The Rift. He bit off more than he could chew. Apparently he flew too close to one of the beasts and was eaten. That's what my uncle used to say anyway."
"Beasts?" Ko raised her brow.
"Black holes. Part of the reason the Rift is so damn deadly. They're everywhere. Explorers nicknamed the larger ones 'beasts' because of how much they chew up. And once it has you, not even the fastest jump ship in the universe can save you. They drag you down into an infinite singularity. They pull so hard not even light can escape them. They're the biggest fear of any space explorer."
"Scheiße," Fischer mumbled.
The sudden thought of being ripped apart by the immense gravity of an invisible threat lurking unseen in the galaxy sent a shiver down his spine. Spatch seemed to notice his sudden surge of anxiety and chuckled.
"Don't worry though, the big ones are mainly located in The Rift. We've charted out most known ones in the galaxy and they're pretty easy to spot with x-ray and gravimeter. So you don't have to worry about being a space snack any time soon. And despite being the single densest object in the known universe, Tonner's a pretty damn good pilot. I hate to admit it but we're in safe hands."
"That's. . . comforting. . . I guess," Quin hesitated. Looking out the window the streaks of gas were now floating all around them. They had entered the nebula.
Tonner's monotone voice suddenly echoed through the observation deck over the ship's PA system. "Alright, you might wanna take a seat. We're inside the nebula now and flying blind for the next few minutes. It's going to be a bumpy ride."
"Alright you heard the brick," Spatch said, clapping his hands together. "Back upstairs for now folks."
-------18 hours later -------
The Icarus lurched violently as Tonner wrestled with the controls, dodging and weaving through the asteroid field they had now found themselves in. Spatch was in the cockpit with Tonner acting as co-pilot, Quin, Ko and Fischer strapped in the main room.
Ko's grip on her seat was like iron, her pupils as slit as knives. Space flight didn't seem to be something she was particularly interested in. She could hardly be blamed either when some of the asteroids were less than fifteen metres away from the ship. Tonner wasn't lying when he said it was like a minefield.
The ship rolled violently and a brief scream of terror escaped the zapher's trembling lips. Quin wrapped one hand around her while Fischer held her hand tightly, the two of them trying to provide any sense of comfort to him. However they weren't that much more confident than her. Fischer's already white skin was as pale as snow and Quin's bio lights were almost jet black.
"You guys doing ok? Helluva ride!" Spatch called from the cockpit, the only answer being terrified screams from the passengers.
He chuckled as he turned his attention back towards aiding Tonner with navigation. Suddenly, the bright yellow gasses surrounding them dissipated, a thick black cloud seemingly surrounding the ship. As it did, it looked to almost cut away the gas, making it possible to see in front of the ship.
Tonner let a breath out that he didn't even realise he was holding in, his feathers moist with sweat.
"Beam's back. How are the instruments looking?" He asked, his eyes unmoving.
"We've got red and green. Our GPS isn't responding but the local mapping systems are back online. RADAR and LIDAR systems are back," Spatch replied as he inspected the cockpit.
"Alright, start a scan. Make sure we know what's in front of us. I don't care how big or small. We need to know what it is we're flying into here."
"Copy that, scanning now."
A series of brief beeps sounded before a noise almost like a heart monitor flat lining filled the air. The RADAR screen suddenly lit up and started spinning, albeit rather glitchy with brief pulses of static interfering with the scan. After a few second small dots started to appear on the screen, signifying hazards in front of them. However as soon as the darkhouse's beam appeared, it vanished. All of a sudden they were flying blind again.
Tonner's eyes narrowed.
"Alright what did you see?" He asked.
"We've got several large bodies to our north west, looked like they were bearing around three thirty. We've got a large planetary body below us to the east as well, looks like we're getting close," Spatch stated.
"Alright, goo- shit!" Tonner cursed, quickly bringing the ship to starboard. An enormous chunk of rock suddenly emerged from the fog and was hurtling right at them.
Just before they impacted it, the Icarus tilted quickly and violently, barely scraping the rock.
Back in the main room of the ship, everyone was seated in place with their straps on. However the sudden movement caused the three passengers to lurch violently, Fischer's head slamming against the wall with quite a bit of force. Ko and Quin were also shaken around but aside from Ko's petrified cries, they seemed to be alright.
"What's going on up there?" Quin yelled, her patience beginning to run rather thin.
"Just had a bit of a close call, sorry!" Spatch yelled back.
The carcan sigh and shook her head before looked over at her friends.
"You two ok?"
Ko nodded despite her whole body shivering like they were in an earthquake. Fischer however was slumped over in his seat, unresponsive.
"Fisch? You good?" she repeated, still getting no answer from him.
Ko looked over at him as well when she noticed something. Her eyes shrunk even more.
On the back of Fischer's seat was a small red stain.
"Fischer? Fischer can you hear us?" Ko asked, shaking his shoulder. Quin realised what had happened and immediately checked the back of his head.
"Shit. He's bleeding. Probably a concussion."
"W-what does that mean?" Ko asked with fear in her eyes.
"Means he'll be out cold for a little while. Spatch! We've got a problem!"