Chapter 33
Danger, Arthur, and I headed to the spaceport early the next day, but when it came time to leave, Tanaquil wouldn't budge. "Come on, Tanaquil," Danger said as he ate his breakfast. "We have to go home."
"I'm not leaving," Tanaquil said. Her arms were folded over her chest, and her lips were curled into a pout.
"What are you going to do here?" Danger said. "Sidhe isn't a terribly interesting planet, with the possible exception of District Nineteen."
"I don't know, but anything's better than going back to Mars," Tanaquil said.
"You won't have anywhere to stay here," I said. "I'd offer to bring you back to Earth with us, but it would be hard for you to fit in."
"I'd be happy to let you live in my basement," Arthur suggested.
Tanaquil shook her head. "I couldn't spend my whole life trapped in your basement," she said.
"I personally wouldn't mind it, but it's your decision," Arthur said.
"I'm staying on Sidhe," Tanaquil said. "Maybe I'll go find some other hippies and travel around with them for a while."
"Come on, Tanaquil!" I exclaimed. "Don't leave us!" I had already lost Raquel. I couldn't lose Tanaquil too. On the bright side, I would at least have an opportunity to say goodbye to Tanaquil.
"I'm sorry Nora, but this is the best choice for me," Tanaquil said. "Besides, I can always come and visit you guys once in a while."
"I suppose you're right," I said as I hugged Tanaquil. "I'm going to miss you so much."
"I'll miss you too," Tanaquil said. She then hugged Arthur and Danger. "Goodbye everyone, and remember to keep spreading peace and love."
"We will, Tanaquil," I said.
"Make sure to keep me updated on anything you find while you're traveling around the galaxy," Arthur said. "I still don't think I've found the Illuminati's headquarters."
"Don't worry, Arthur," Tanaquil said. "I'll keep you updated."
"Thanks," Arthur said.
"No problem," Tanaquil said. "Anyways, it's been fab hanging out with you guys. Hopefully, I'll see you again soon."
"Bye Tanaquil," Danger said.
Tanaquil waved to us as she left the hotel, presumably off to find a few hippie friends. I tried to keep myself from crying again as I watched her leave. Although Tanaquil and I hadn't known each other long, she had become one of my closest friends over the past several weeks. It was heartbreaking to watch her leave, even though I knew that she would enjoy meeting her fellow hippies on Sidhe and journeying around the galaxy.
Nevertheless, Raquel was the one who was still on my mind. I had never gotten a chance to say goodbye to her like I had with Tanaquil. There were so many things that I wanted to tell her that she never got to her. Most of all, I wanted to tell her how much I loved her. I had never gotten the chance to tell Raquel that I was utterly and completely in love with everything about her, and I knew that I would always regret that.
I looked back towards Danger and Arthur, both of whom looked ready to leave. I thought it was unfair that neither of them had experienced any real trouble on this trip, but then I remembered that both of them would be heartbroken when Danger inevitably returned to Gwydion. However, it wasn't like Danger was going to die. Arthur and Danger would still be able to see each other, even if they lived eighteen light years apart.
"Are you ready to go, Nora?" Danger asked.
"I'm ready," I replied. I took my bags and followed Danger and Arthur to the spaceport. As expected, the Eclipse was waiting for us on one of the launch pads. All three of us climbed into the spaceship and put on our harnesses. Meanwhile, Danger spoke into the ship's radio.
"Eclipse to Ground Control," Danger said. "Are we clear for liftoff?"
"Ground Control to Eclipse," the ground control official replied. "You are clear for liftoff." The ground control official paused for a moment and said, "Weren't there supposed to be five passengers on this ship? I only see three on the security camera."
"One of them decided to stay here and the other..." I said, trying to hold back my tears yet again.
"Raquel died," Danger said.
"How did that happen?" the ground control official asked.
"It was while we were destroying the Ink," Danger explained.
"You're the kids who destroyed the Ink?" the ground control official said. "That's so neat. Alright, you guys are cleared for liftoff. You can go whenever you'd like."
Danger pressed a few buttons on the dashboard, and the spaceship blasted upwards. I reached towards Raquel's empty seat, but I didn't realize until a few seconds later that I couldn't hold her hand this time. I would have to do this all alone.
The buildings and lights of District Seven began to disappear, and before long, all I could see was the planet as a whole, surrounded by the void of space. For a moment, I realized just how lonely space was. Although Arthur had been my best friend since preschool, and Danger and I had become quite good friends since we had met in August, just having the two of them around didn't seem like enough to keep me going until we got to Earth.
Before long, Sidhe disappeared altogether, and we were truly in the depths of space. "How long until we get to Gwydion?" Arthur asked.
"We'll get to the Errai Jump Zone by tomorrow, but it may take longer to fly to Gwydion," Danger said. "I'll have to check my data pad."
"How are we going to get back to Earth if you're going to stay on Gwydion?" I asked.
Danger shrugged. "I don't know," he said as he reoriented the spaceship. "We'll figure that out when we get there."
At that point, it was a good enough answer for me. I had plenty of other things to worry about. Once the Eclipse was in the right position, Danger took off his harness, so Arthur and I did the same. "I think I'm going to go into the other room for a while," I said to the two of them.
"That's fine," Danger said.
I floated into the next room, and although I thought that I would be happy to be away from Arthur and Danger for a few minutes, it only made me more aware of Raquel's absence. Her half-finished Checkers Bot was still drifting around in there, and it just made me wish that Raquel was there to finish her creation.
I placed the Checkers Bot on the floor and played a quick game of checkers with it to distract myself from the pain of losing Raquel. As usual, I beat it without a problem. It did knock over fewer pieces, but Raquel clearly hadn't made her robot any smarter.
I played the Checkers Bot again and again until winning lost its fun. I let the Checkers Bot win once, but even that didn't excite me. I stared out the window, but that wasn't terribly interesting either. That was one of the biggest problems with traveling through space, at least in my opinion. There was nothing to look at like there was on Earth.
Nevertheless, the emptiness managed to remind me of Raquel. I remembered how she couldn't decide whether it was peaceful or scary. At that moment, I decided that it was absolutely terrifying.
I looked towards the Checkers Bot one more time and wondered why Raquel had to leave something behind like that. Was she trying to exacerbate my pain, even in death? I picked up the Checkers Bot and threw it against the wall of the spaceship, but whatever Raquel had used to make it was far too strong. The robot simply bounced off the wall and flew towards the door.
"Nora?" Arthur said. "Is everything okay in there?"
"I'm okay," I said. "Trust me."
"Alright, Nora," Arthur said. "I just thought that you should know that Danger's trying to take down your Hamilton poster again."
"What?!" I shouted. "He can't do that!" I pushed the door open and flew towards Danger, who was in fact tearing down my Hamilton poster. "Danger!" I screamed. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Danger said.
"It looks like you're trying to take down a perfectly good poster of Alexander Hamilton!" I exclaimed.
Danger rolled his eyes. "It's my spaceship, and I need this down before I get home," he said.
"I've been in here almost as long as you have, and I want it to stay up!" I exclaimed.
"So?" Danger said. "It's just a poster, and there are a lot of better posters that you could put up."
"Can we please keep the Hamilton poster up?" I asked.
"No," Danger said.
"Please?" I begged.
"I've got it," Arthur said. "How about we keep it up until we get to Gwydion, but when we're preparing for landing, we'll take it down? Does that work?"
"I guess so," Danger said. "I don't want to have to look at it for the next few days though."
"If it were up to me, I'd keep it in the Eclipse forever," I said.
"That would be horrible," Danger said. "Besides, it's technically the Penrhyn Zone Navy's ship. I don't think they would like having a Hamilton poster in their ship either."
"You never know," I said.
"If I can't take down the Hamilton poster, can I at least fire the Eclipse's weapons?" Danger asked as his fingers danced over the red button on the dashboard.
"No!" Arthur and I shouted in unison.
"Fine," Danger said as he jerked his hand away from the dashboard. "You guys are no fun."
The next day, we finally left the Errai system. I was thrilled to be leaving the system where everything had gone horribly wrong, but at the same time, it meant that we were getting closer and closer to leaving Danger behind. As much as Danger drove me nuts sometimes, I would miss him after this adventure was over.
Danger pressed a series of buttons on the dashboard, initiating our jump into the Alsafi system. The spaceship shook violently, but I was used to it at this point. It wasn't any different than the other times that we had used the jump drive. As usual, it was over after only a few minutes. Nevertheless, I still felt the need to reach for Raquel's nonexistent hand.
"Look at that," Danger said as he ran a hand through his electric blue hair. "I think we're back in the Alsafi system."
"Where you'll be likely be imprisoned for stealing this ship immediately upon your arrival," Blaze interjected.
"Thanks for the reminder, Blaze," Danger said as he glared at the hedgehog. "Besides, you don't know that I'll be imprisoned. The judge said that she might lessen my sentence if I completed my Quest, and I did that."
"Doesn't that make you a legal adult now?" Arthur said.
Danger smiled and said, "Yes, it does. I'm kind of excited. I'll finally be able to vote!"
"That's not fair," Arthur said. "I've still got another three years before I can vote."
"If you moved to Gwydion, I bet that they'd count you as having completed your Quest, since you helped me so much," Danger said. "I couldn't have done it without you guys."
"Thanks Danger, but I'll pass on that offer," I said. I couldn't help but think of everything that I had left behind on Earth, from my parents to the drama club. There was no way that I could spend any more time away from them.
Over the next several days, the Eclipse continued to hurtle towards Gwydion. Our journey was finally nearing its end, but everything still felt out of place, and I suspected that it would only get worse when we arrived on Gwydion.