Lunai’s alarm jolted her awake with a screech and powerful vibrations. She sat up in bed and looked down; it was her 2200 alarm. There were two hours left for her to prepare for the mission at midnight. Argalax sleepily sat up from the bed next to her. They looked over the half-wall and gave each other a nod. The sound of feet shuffling and light tapping emanated from the room next to them. Lunai peeked into the room to find Bliss and Sir Jelly playing a game of Table Slime-Ball.
An old table sat in the middle of the room, likely pulled out of a storage closet somewhere in the building. A black line marked the middle of the table that separated the two playing sides. The ball they used looked like it came from Sir Jelly himself. They threw the ball back and forth across the table, trying to hit each other. The ball bounced on each player’s side, typically flying off course or just sputtering to the ground.
Lunai stepped in. “How long have you two been playing?”
“For the past hour. We’ve been so bored we resorted to this.” Bliss pointed at the table. “The game would be better on a softer surface, but this was the best we could find around the office.”
“I’ll gladly act as the table if you want to play with Bliss.” Sir Jelly offered his shapeshifting services to them.
“I think I might be too jittery for that. I’m at that point where all I can do is sit down and rapidly tap my foot in anticipation.” Her leg started shaking in demonstration.
Bliss threw the slime-jelly ball directly at Sir Jelly. It hit his neck and was absorbed back into him. He folded the table up and placed it in the corner of the room.
“Lunai, you followed Armageddon into space last time, why are you so nervous now?” he asked.
She kicked her foot back and forth. “I don’t know, I think I’m feeling the weight of the public’s expectations after that press conference. And of course, those human prisoners are counting on us to rescue them!”
I can’t believe I mentioned the public first! What am I even thinking, how could that be my first thought before the prisoners? Sir Jelly must think I’m a self-centered asshole.
She looked over at the ovoid man, expecting him to be silently judging her.
“They are counting on us, but always remember to be kind yourself! You’re a person too, and you can’t be perfect all the time. Learning when to rely on others and take a step back is one of the most important aspects of your training, so just follow Bliss and you can’t go wrong!” He followed with a giggle.
Lunai smiled at him; she felt more secure knowing Sir Jelly had her back. Argalax followed her into the room, and the team started making some final preparations.
Sir Jelly grabbed the boxed heart. “Since we captured the black-market trader, we also captured his ship. We’ll be boarding it and taking it to the meeting point within a field of space debris.”
Everyone activated their agency spacesuits and made their way to the planet’s garage. The trader’s ship sat there waiting for them, a sleek and grey bullet perfect for quick drop-offs. Once aboard, they found two seats in the spacecraft. Bliss and Sir Jelly gestured for the two interns to take them; their safety was less negotiable as they were new interns. Bliss and Sir Jelly were both comfortable with space travel and could withstand the bumpy ride out of the Rebirth System.
With the interns buckled in, Sir Jelly entered the coordinates of the meeting point. The ship gracefully navigated its way out of the garage, finding a clear path. With a pleasant hum, the engine engaged and shot them towards the skies. The ship accelerated to its maximum speed and engaged its short distance wormhole, leading the team through a brilliant array of flashing lights.
I’ve never actually seen warp technology before; I had to take several shuttles to get to the Rebirth System. I thought their sub-light speeds were impressive, but this is something else.
The ship emerged on the other side of the warp, surrounded by space debris. Despite every rock looking identical, the meeting point was set for a specific asteroid. They were brought to a larger asteroid on the outer edge of the field. The ship landed and the interns were able to leave their seats. Bliss put a finger to his mouth, instructing them both to stay quiet.
They heard his voice ring in their minds, “In case the buyers decide to show up early, we don’t want to give anything away. The three of us will keep quiet and stay in the locked storage room while Sir Jelly remains here. We don’t know how many people are going to meet him here, so we’ll need to use Lunai’s root abilities to alter their memories. We’ll capture one of them and send the rest back to the ship with Sir Jelly undercover.”
Lunai’s eyes widened; she didn’t realize she would play such an integral part. Bliss smirked at her, having purposely held back this information.
“Sorry, Lunai, but I didn’t want to stress you out too much. Sometimes it’s best to be thrown right into the situation,” he said inside her head.
Damn you, Bliss, and you’re telling me this when I can’t even respond to you. You were trained by Entropi all right…I bet she threw you into a star when she was teaching you how to use your powers.
He took the interns into the storage room, finding hiding places for all of them. Lunai needed to be in the most accessible point for her roots to reach the subjects. Bliss explained that he would be responsible for apprehending the subject that Sir Jelly would be taking the identity of. They all took their places and waited.
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Sir Jelly’s body shifted and formed the smaller humanoid shape of the black-market trader. He leaned back in one of the chairs with his arms behind his head. Having learned the mannerisms of his subject, he started to whistle and casually tap his foot on the ground. Minutes turned to hours as the storage room group began to pray for the arrival of the traffickers. No one had a comfortable spot to hide in, especially Lunai, who was stuck in the narrowest spot. They were relieved when they finally heard the outer door of the spaceship opening.
Muffled talking could be heard from the navigation room with what sounded like four footsteps. There were likely three traffickers with Sir Jelly, which relieved Lunai. She knew she could at least handle the memories of two people. The talking started to die down, and the footsteps got closer.
The door opened and Sir Jelly walked in first, leading three men behind him. He bent over and picked up the box with Bliss’s heart, turning back to the traffickers with a smile. The jar was carefully removed from the box, and he paraded the heart to the buyers. They looked at it with awe, and Lunai heard Bliss in her head.
“It’s your turn, Lunai, do it now.”
She straightened her back within the space between cargo racks, stretching out her roots. They quietly slithered on the floor towards the traffickers. While they looked forward towards the heart, her roots started to rise from behind them. Before they knew it, the roots were attached to their heads. They started to dig inside their skin, penetrating their skulls and meninges. She reached the brain and altered their working memories, placing them in a state of confusion.
Bliss flew out from the side of the room and grabbed the last man, pulling him into a corner. He entered his non-physical form and shoved the man’s hand into his chest. The trafficker started shaking and screaming, going limp within seconds. Bliss released his hand and gave Lunai a thumbs up. Sir Jelly had already shifted to the form of the apprehended trafficker. Lunai solidified the new memories of the trade taking place and the trader retreating to his quarters in her victims’ heads. Her roots retreated into the darkness behind the cargo racks.
The two men blinked at Sir Jelly, now in the form of their friend. He looked at the heart and smiled at them.
“What a great guy; he preserved it so well for us. Completely dry without a scratch,” he said, using the trafficker’s voice.
Lunai listened closely as Sir Jelly talked to the traffickers. He was a master of impersonation, even with little information. It was almost disturbing to hear him talk like this, as his friendly and jolly demeanor was what the public was used to. He was only acting, but it was still strange to hear him talk about human parts so carelessly. The traffickers started to head out, leaving the ship to return to their own.
“Remain here until he sends me the signal.” Bliss's voice rang through their heads once again.
About ten minutes later, Bliss stepped out of hiding into the room, giving a thumbs up to the two interns. Everyone left their spot and started stretching out and walking around. Today was not a good day for Lunai’s back; she would surely feel some neck soreness in the morning.
Bliss finally spoke out loud. “Good job Lunai, they left without issue. Our job now is to get this guy back to the agency. We can assist Sir Jelly by feeding him more information about his current skin suit.”
Bliss knelt down to the man and started searching him for any sort of identification. He found a wallet within the inner pocket of his suit.
“Perfect. I’ve sent this telepathically to Sir Jelly, so at least he knows his own name now.” He pocketed the wallet. “Now we can go home and finally sleep. Well, I can sleep for a few hours at least, still have work tomorrow.”
Lunai frowned at his joke, wishing he would get a proper day off. The drop-off thankfully didn’t last too long into the night, so they didn’t actually do a 24-hour shift. The intern workweek typically only included one day off, and Lunai had to be back on Sunday, but at least she had Friday off as well. She wondered what Bliss’s workweek looked like, hoping he had at least one day off.
They all returned to the navigation room and Bliss set a course back to the agency. The spaceship took them back to the garage and they were greeted by an almost empty building. Bliss said goodbye to the interns outside and flew off into the night. Argalax and Lunai walked to the apartments together.
“Argalax, sorry if it seems like I’m taking most of the work, I’m sort of just going with the motions.”
He shook his head. “No worries, I think I need to be more assertive anyway, I should start asking if there’s more I can do.”
They found their way to the apartment buildings and said goodbye for the night. Lunai returned upstairs to her precious Cromble, giving her plenty of love and attention. She wasn’t too tired thanks to her nap in the middle of the day, so she was able to get in a few practice questions on MyUniverse before turning in.
Bliss found his balcony and greeted Sorebel at the door. The cat circled his legs when he stepped inside, but quickly abandoned him when he heard the sound of food dispensing from his feeder. Bliss sat on the edge of his bed, trying to decide if he should go to sleep or not. Even though he didn’t need to, sleep still felt nice when he didn’t have nightmares. He had been thinking about them more recently, and he really didn’t want to risk seeing that light again just for a few hours of unconsciousness.
He took his shoes off and checked for any new messages on his CellPulse. There were several from Entropi asking him to meet with her. He left her on read as he looked for anything else. Surfrista was inviting him to a party on Saturday, saying his presence would attract a better crowd. When he really thought about it, he realized he didn’t really have any friends other than Entropi. This wouldn’t have bothered him if the last week hadn’t been filled with blunt reminders of his past. He messaged Surfrista that he would go, if only to have something to do for a bit.
Pathetic! He makes me so pathetic! Onder can’t just let the past be the past. He isn’t even the worst case, I know my father will be back to the galaxy eventually.
He slammed his head into a pillow; he wasn’t looking forward to facing him again. Helena was a different case; he wished she would show her face again so she would finally know how it felt whenever she beat him. That wouldn’t even cover half of what she had robbed him of.
After minutes of stewing in his rage, he shook himself out of it. He had to think of what he was going to do about Armageddon; Dr. Crux would want him to act soon. His brother was working with someone, and the longer he waited to see him again, the more that person had to make a plan, maybe even to find some reality glue. He could rest a little for now since he was on another mission, but if they succeed in rescuing the prisoners, Crux would surely want to follow it with a charity night.
That might be the perfect opportunity, we can do some sort of auction where the prize is time with me. We’ll invite all my old “friends” and televise it, I don’t think anyone would be able to hold Armageddon back from crashing the party then, least of all, himself.
His own thoughts started to disgust him. How could he think this way about his brother, who had worked tirelessly to keep him safe when he was a kid? Nevertheless, maybe he would understand his motives one day, though if he ever had the chance to kill his sister, Onder would probably never forgive him. It would break him completely. He didn’t want that to happen, but he had to weigh if he loved his brother more than he hated his sister.
Probably not.
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