I was standing among them, their hopes on my shoulders, ready to tip and fall on the feet of the ignorant. This room held the future I will soon leave behind for a stranger with a promise.

Soft fabric dressed my body, makeup around my eyes to show its intensity. My words hold little value here. Objects don’t speak, they provide. So says the man of many colors. He who brought me into this world.

I felt my body shake when the stranger’s eyes fall upon mine in beckoning. Did I have the strength to give him what he wanted?

The man of many colors whispers in my ear when I falter and break. “You belong to the family or loyalty and strength. He who poisons you will end and be forgotten. You are Emol, child. So act like one.”

I opened my eyes to see Kohl watching me between his spells of sickness. In the background was the oncoming planet we left for; it glistens like a moon in the void. Glen was still piloting and pressing buttons that I thought was random.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” I sat up from laying on the extra seats. He looked too pale and feverish in the low light. But the smile still manage to poke through. “Are we close?”

“Glen says that we have about half an hour if everything works out.” He had a serious tint to his silvery eyes. “Did you remember something? I see it in your eyes.”

I pushed back my hair with my fingers. “Sure. Maybe I did.”

“Well?”

I shrugged. “It’s nothing...enlightening. Just a dream.” Emol. What the hell is that? I knew Glen was listening and I wasn’t in the mood to give him what he wanted.

Kohl reached out and brushed my jaw with the back of his hand, making me tingle inside that I tried to ignore. He saw through my filtered expression, his fingers dancing along my skin as I stared at him, allowing him to push down my bottom lip. “A dream? I better be in it,” he teased.

I was glad he wasn’t. “Kohl…” I was ready for that kiss.

Then there was a Glen to mess it all up.

“Speed at critical! Speed at critical!” The ship called out as the ride got a bit more bumpy. “Shield not included.”

Kohl:

“Quen dun coy! Quen dun coy!” The ship repeats. “Kuen no vun.” Hayden and I break away, looking over at Glen who was just as confused as we are.

“What’s it saying?” I asked.

“That our speed is critical and we don’t have the shield,” Hayden translated, “Why is that Glen?”

“Like I know!” Glen was frantically pressing buttons. “Everything worked back on the Mother-ship.”

Hayden drew his blaster. “If you don’t become useful in the next five seconds, I swear I will--”

“Hayden, bad. Bad, Hayden,” If it worked on my cat, why not on an alien who was about to commit murder? “He is useful to us.”

“Yeah, after a few shots in the leg.”

“Then he can’t pilot. Settle down kitty cat.” My mind went somewhere it shouldn’t in these situations. “God d*mnit.”

“Hold on!” Glen advised and we did, though it did little to help once we “landed” in the world of ice and snow which I missed most of since something hard met my head along the way, giving me only the void to see.

I woke with a headache. A groan. And Hayden’s lap as a pillow. He looked down at me with a hint of worry in those brilliant eyes of his.

“Welcome back,” he said, pressing a cloth to my forehead which stung enough to make me wince.

“It hurts.”

“As expected. You were hit pretty hard.” He smacked my hand away when I tried to feel the damage.

“Did we land?”

“Some version of it,” another dab of the cloth and it came back into view with blood on it.

“Do we need to bury Glen?”

A loud THUMP gave me the answer and I sat up slowly with my world swimming to see the other alien tampering with a small metal looking box that looked simple on the surface. It was the size of a pencil box a kid would use in school, but thicker and deadlier by the sounds of it crashing to the floor.

Glen mumbled angrily as he wedge the sucker open with a knife, revealing wires that connected themselves to the motherboard of some kind. It was defeated once Glen janked it out of its hiding spot.

“It kept us away from the controls once we entered the atmosphere,” he told us, “surely the Rebellion’s doing.”

“Rebellion’s,” Hayden repeated, “Why would they be after us?”

Glen’s eyes shifted to him, “Because we are heading to their base. They don’t want us to discover their secrets.”

“And you know, their ship exploding,” I pointed out, which won me no favors from the Captain’s pal. “Who are they anyway?”

“Everything that stands against what it is to survive. They are murders and thieves that take what they want to watch as their race flicker out like a light,” Glen studied Hayden, “They took those we valued most.”

“Sounds like assholes,” Hayden said.

Glen couldn’t agree more. Taking out a folded piece of paper, he allowed us to see the notes and the hand drawn map. “This planet was human made. Code name: B.O.B. It’s suppose to simulate the cold lands on planet Earth. Whatever that means. It’s icy and very ill mattered.” Kicking the tick box somewhere in the corner for later observations, he refolded the paper and made it disappear.

“There was no mention about humans reaching this far,” I told him, “How can they make a planet when we lack the tech?”

“Easy. By aiding the rebellion in their sins.”

So this was personal. Glen began to prepare the suits for our trip when there was a beep coming from my wrist. He arched a brow.

“Just a friend,” I waved him off and caught his eye roll.