The ground beneath Emma’s flesh crawled. She stirred, at first in small movements, then bigger. The more she moved the more the ground stirred, and quaked, shifting in shape, almost seeming to scurry. In bewilderment she scooped the soil up in her hands only for it to melt into little translucent crabs and scurry off towards the sea.

The vines crept along the forest floor, desperate to grab hold of anything. Their leaves wild, painted in bright colors and streaks of bioluminescence. They sensed the intruding body heat and the reached out for it, grasping at Emma’s ankles. She tried to stand up, but her legs wouldn’t let her, they felt weak and shaky, she pushed herself back away from the creeping vine. All The while kicking at its searching tentacles. Edging backwards further from the monstrous plant and closer to her pack that she dropped when she fell.

She walked her fingers out slowly, to grab hold of the bag without gaining the attention of the plant, which was attentively locked on its hunt for her leg. With a swift fluid motion, she pulled out her photon gun and began to blow the vines off the plant one by one. She grabbed her bag and gathered all the adrenaline and strength she could, and Emma ran.

Her heartbeat pounded in her head keeping pace with her run. The world was blurry and spinning the taste of blood filled her mouth. “Keep running fuckers” she mumbled to her legs. Which throbbed. Regret filled her mind, as images of how she could have prevented this situation flashed in front of her face.

“Emma! Thank the stars I have found you.” A familiar voice interrupted her spiraling self-hatred. Emma looked over to see Felix not far behind, with him he had an over sized backpack stuffed full of possessions from the ship. Too attached to everything to let anything perish he did his best to pack it all up and bring it with him in case they never made it back.

They came upon a road dug out of the ground, with long wooden rods laid out horizontal rows within the inset, creating wooden tracks leading to a tall staircase of whimsy. Straight wooden rods curled into fanciful shapes and swishes, twisting, and curving into the trees. Disappearing into the bright neon leaves.

They stood and stared up at the massive staircase in amazement. “How to you think they made this Felix?”

“According to my search in ancient times people handmade things like staircases to get to high heights.” Everything in their world was manufactured made of metal or plastic, there were few trees anymore, not on her home planet of Tauri, and not on most planets in the Galactic Union.

“Ahoy there travelers! You better come up, not everyone in this wood are as friendly as the Sef ‘ell.” A voice called for aways up the staircase, just before it disappeared into the trees. Felix looked over at Emma her brows raised in intrigue. He knew that she couldn’t resist knowing what was just out of sight. Emma strode a few long strides and stopped looking back over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow. “You are coming?” She said with a bouncing tone, as if to say come on already, adventure awaits.

Not giving Felix a moment to answer, Emma bound up the staircase with surprising ease. No one would guess she fell from the sky, only hours earlier. If she hurt, she hid it well, but Felix knew better. The crash may have snapped her out of her personal hell for now, but it never strayed far.

Felix sprinted forward at breakneck speeds to catch up with Emma, who almost made it to the top of the stairs by the time he caught up to her. “Wait up speed racer, its not actually a race.” He chuckled as he slowed coming to a walking pace beside her.

“ I Know, but we have to get home I have a delivery to explain” Emma’s demeanor had shifted leaving a strange tension hanging in the air like smoke. They both recognized the shift in energy, but neither spoke of it. Instead, Emma moved on, bouncing to a new topic. She was like a rabbit shifting direction seconds before the jaws of the predator clamp down around its neck, forcing them to confront the uncomfortable truth, that Emma was not alright.

“If we can get our hands on tools here, we should be able to repair the airship. At least we should be able to get her back up and running well enough to get us home.” Emma deep in thought, plotting their daring escape that she overlooked a step and was propelled forward. Felix lurched forward reaching out to catch hold of her but was a moment too late. Emma ran face first into the shin of a stranger.

Felix scuttled to collect Emma from the ground. Bending down scooping her up in her arms. She brushed him of “Felix, I’m fine just a bit clumsy, you have to stop worrying so much.” Emma turned to the mysterious stranger “ I am so—s” but she stopped. Her words grew barbs are hooked themselves in the flesh of her throat, leaving Emma speechless.

“Somethings never change huh Em?” The deep voice and the black eye hypnotized Emma, she knew how this ended. She must put a stop to this.

“Rye It’s been a long time, how are ya?” Emma tried to recover from the shock of Rye’s sudden appearance, but the shock overtook her like a tidal wave, leaving her sputtering out word that didn’t make a lot of sense. “Uhhh…. Look… tools… we’re going. Bye” She grabbed Felix by the wrist and took off in a sprint.

“Would you care to explain?” Felix interrogated as soon as they came to a stop hidden between two quaint buildings. Nestled in the shadows, Emma panted trying to catch her breath after her mad dash. Her skin flushed, even in the shadows her cheeks had a hint of a red glow. Emma took a deep breath in and out and just like the closing of act one. The curtain came down and when it came back up the scene had changed. Emma let go of the deep breath, and she was calm nonchalant carefree like nothing had happened.

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“That’s Rye, he was the navigator on the ship I worked on before I came to Tauri and met you.” She said laying a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “ He just took me by surprise, I didn’t expect to see him that’s all. So where can we find tools around here.” Once again Emma took of on the wind on to a new subject leaving so many questions in her wake.

Emma wandered down walk after walkway crossing over suspension bridges and winding her way through the maze of cottages among the trees. The likes neither of them had ever seen. Life in the galaxy shimmered and shined with the glint of metallic and progress, not much room for things such as wildlife.

After some time of touring the kingdom of the trees Emma finally wandered into a tavern with a worn out Felix dragging behind her. Felix plopped down in the first available seat with a crash as his metal frame contacted the wooden seat. The noise in the bustling tavern lulled a bit, patrons casually glanced over to see what the commotion was, but quickly lost interest and returned to their previous conversations.

“Rest here for a bit buddy, I’m going to go make the rounds. See what information I can dig up.” Felix sighed in relief as he leaned back in the chair and watched the scene of the tavern play out like a movie. The Sef’ell radiate elegance, not ever a brawl detracted from this innate characteristic they possessed. Their faint lavender skin and pale blue eyes became pastel ribbons swirling around the tavern turned the brawl into a ballet. The graceful pastels floating effortlessly across the dark wood floor. Each movement fluid one leading into the next until the pastel ribbons lay motionless on the floor and the victor did their last lap around, leaving the barmaid to pick up the pieces.

When the area cleared Felix could see Emma across the room tucked into the shadows. She found herself engaged in conversation with a Sef’ell man of advanced age. His pale lavender skin faded to white. Gathering into pools of wrinkles sagging from is jawbone, heavy with the baggage of time. His eye milky and glazed over no longer that eye catching blue. His grace and elegance aged transforming to wisdom.

Felix came to a stand and began to wind his way through the chaos and over to stand beside Emma. The old man stopped speaking and turned to face Felix. “Is this Felix?” He turned back to Emma with a thoughtful, easy smile, one that a grandfather would give a granddaughter.

“Yes, Mamo this is the one that got us stranded here.” Laugher rippled across the mans weathered face. His wrinkles undulated to a crescendo as he observed confusion cross Felix’s face and then morph into horror as he realized Emma said “stranded”

“Stranded? What do you mean stranded? We just need a few tools and then we’re going home?”

“I’m afraid that’s not the case, we’ve had a change of plans” Emma spoke with extreme precision and matter-of-factness. It was what it was and there was nothing more to say, but Felix needed, wanted more than Emma’s brave façade.

“Can you please start explaining what is going on!” Felix yelled at the top of his lungs. The bar fell quiet. All eyes turned and locked on Emma Felix and Mamo. Mamo raised his bony hands, long brittle nails protruding from the ends, dingy and yellow like the sands of time.

“Perhaps I could shed some light on this subject for you, young man. I am Mamo, retired airship commander for the Galactic Union as you have probably surmised by now, I have known miss Emma for quiet sometime. I met our fair Emma aboard the Orion Cargo ship many moons ago,

when I was but a deck grub and she a consort. You have found yourself on Carina Astraeus, the forgotten moon, a prison planet.”

“Fucking Iella” frustrations boiled in Felix’s circuits. Felix grew tired of the nonsense, the delivery started off simple, only to end trapped on a prison planet and Emma running around the planet hooking back up with ever criminal no one knew she knew. Felix had a nagging sense that he did not know Emma as well as her thought.

“Iella is behind this?” Mamo interrupted Felix’s internal rage. The tranquility of Mano contagious as a virus, quelled the anger of Felix if not just temporarily.

“Yeah, we were making a deliver on Alpha Centari and ran into Iella. She opened a portal and sent us here. Where we were attacked by the vines.”

“That explains a lot, Iella that spiteful bitch am I right Em?” turning to Emma with a mischievous grin.

“You know it, she never did forgive me for stealing her last ship.” Emma’s face lit up as she laughed. reminiscence washing over her filling her with much needed serotonin. Time froze and they stood preserved in the time capsule of the memory a place in time where things were still right, and Emma absolutely glowed.

“—and when Angeline—” Mamo paused what remained of the lavender tint drained from his face leaving him gray. The world stopped spinning and turned to see what Emma would do next. Her heart pounded in her ears; the rushing river of blood pressed hard against her veins begging to burst. At least then she would not have to think about Angeline, or that awful place and what happened there.

“I hate to interrupt this reunion but none of this helps me get us back home.” Felix saw a way out of this conversation, one that had taken a quick turn south, and he grabbed it with both hands and ran.

“There is no way off Carina Astaeur at least not that anyone knows. It is a prison planet, a force field was placed over a moon many eons ago, during the galaxy wars, they used to house Bhuvilian and other prisoners for the Galactic Union, but at the end of the war the inhabitants and force field were left and what use to be a moon became a living breathing planet”

“Where does that leave us then?” Felix stood expressionless the thoughts tossed back and forth in his mind like a competitive game of moon ball. Felix’s mind then wander off thinking about moon ball. A game in which players throw a ball around the court in certain patterns and then into a goal, before being intercepted by the opposite team. Moon ball is known to get aggressive from time to time, especially when droids where involved, and Felix enjoyed a particularly competitive atmosphere. The thought of a good game of moon ball always brought Felix joy. Felix’s mind snapped back to the present predicament.

“Well, it’s not looking good, your best bet is to find a ride to the city. I hear there is talk about a man, I think he is called the Librarian. The local gossip says that he knows a way out, but it isn’t cheap.” The old man said with no indication to his opinion on the matter.

“We have a ship that crashed a few miles back, if we could get our hand on some tools, we could fix it and fly to the city.” Both Emma and Felix looked at each other and then at the old man. He spoke plainly.

“I believe that you will find all that you need at the emporium, when they reopen in the morning, but if you’ll excuse me, it’s grown late, and I have grown tired.” The old man said coming to a slow rise grabbing a hold of his hand carved cane he began to shuffle his way toward the door. He turned just before stepping out and said with the tip of his hat “ I hope you find what you’re looking for.” And walked out disappearing into the night.

Emma looked at Felix the excitement of the day wore heavy on them. Like the time they got caught out in the purple rain of Tauri after delivering a mysterious package. The clouds appeared out of nowhere and the rain pounded the ground which gigantic droplet of purple rain. Emma forgotten her jacket, but ever prepare Felix had a blanket in his storage compartment, from a date he got stood up on, he lent it to Emma, but even that ended up getting soaked weighing Emma down. That’s when they first met. Ever since then, Felix and Emma have been inseparable.

They linked arms and walked to the counter “Can we get a room for the night?”

“Of course.” The barmaid handed them a pair of keys as they slid a handful of coins across the counter and headed up the stairs to their room, which indicated by the light green tag dangling from their key was room two.

Once inside they both plopped down on the doble beds next to each other and sighed. Neither of them said anything. Nothing needed said, because they already knew what the other was thinking. “So yeah...” Emma said.

Felix followed with “yep okay, love you talk to you tomorrow.”

“Alright, love you too Felix.”

Then Emma flipped off the light and they both lied there in silence and let the events of the day wash over them. Combing over and analyzing the details, and missteps of the day and planning for the day to come, each alone in their thoughts. Hidden in the cover of night, they mourned the events of the day.