2-20
“That one.”
“I still don't see it.”
Owl let out a huff, “It's like you're not even trying.”
“There's so many of them! How am I supposed to tell the difference from one dot in space to another?”
Lahrya let out a giggle from the side. Owl probably knew I was screwing with her, she just went along with the bit. I knew which little dot was out home planet after the first time she pointed it out but seeing it in the mess of stars made it blend in well. We were getting closer to our home planet and I was starting to get excited at being home.
Guardian Wannaniki was outside the space station flying around scanning everything with his belt. He had been doing that since Owl had showed him those graphs and charts. He acted like the records on his belt being wrong was the greatest offence and was flying around to correct it.
“It will be an hour or two until we are in range of my sensors.” Owl said.
“And what do you expect to happen then?” I asked her.
She shrugged at my question, “A quiet alert will pop up on my pc and that's about it.” She paused and tapped her chin, “We might get a visitor.”
I leaned forward, “what kind of visitor? Human?”
She waved me off, “I picked someone up and was helping them before we got teleported. They can fly.”
“Can they survive in space?”
She gave a shrug and I let out a huff before turning back to the little dot in the darkness of space. Slowly the little dot got bigger and I could start making out the moon. Owl played with the console she was standing at and we started slowing down, “Where are you going to park this thing?”
“Just past the moon, on the dark side of it. I will set it up to orbit the planet where the moon and our home planet's gravity cross.” She answered.
Lahrya looked up into space at the approaching planet, “Well I am excited to see your home planet. It seems like a wonderful place.”
“You freaked out for a while there.” I pointed out.
“Owls notes and things on the tablet she gave me helped calm me down. From your explanation of things I thought your planet was an active warzone of constantly fighting factions with weather that changed with the days.”
I turned from her to Owl, “Are there really planets like that out there?”
“I imagine somewhere, yes.” She answered.
I turned back to Lahrya, “there is no way I explained it that bad.”
She gave a sly shrug and then the lift doors opened and Guardian Wannaniki stepped into the room. He gave me a nod, waved at Lahrya and walked over to Owl, “Do you need me outside to make sure the space station is parked right?”
She shook her head, “No. I already have our approach angle entered in. we will come to a stop exactly where we are needed and I will only have to do small adjustments every few years. This space station has some pretty decent gravity monitors and shifters. It shouldn't move much after it's parked.”
Guardian Wannaniki nodded, then turned and walked to a chair and took a seat. He crossed his arms and leaned back watching Owl as she did something on the console and navigated the space station. I pulled out my kiseru and started chewing on the mouthpiece, “So how was your adventure outside?”
He turned to me, “Good. I got some of it done but the work continues. It is going to be some time before I am done. I have to check out all the nearby planets and stars.”
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“Your belt lets you move at FLT?”
“Easily. It allows us to visit our headquarters easier.” He replied.
I turned to Owl and she didn't look surprised or entertained. It must not have been very fancy. I leaned back against the chair I was sitting in and pulled the iseru out of my mouth and looked at it. It looked as brand new as the day I dropped onto the mountain, my gnawing on it hadn't even affected it. “Your belt has all kinds of scans from materials right?” When he nodded I held my pipe out closer to him, “Scan this and tell me what it's made from.”
He focused and his belt lit up. Light shot from it and rolled over the pipe in my hand. The light shut off and Guardian Wannaniki frowned, “Unknown material.”
Figures. In the game it was a cosmetic pipe made from the same material my coiling dragon staff was, random materials without a name and just a number. I pulled away and returned to chewing on my pipe. The plant and the moon got closer and closer. Soon I could tell we were not headed directly for it but were approaching both of them at an angle. They both started getting bigger and bigger then the planet stopped getting bigger but the moon kept increasing in size.
The planet looked beautiful from up here. It had two massive continents, ont of them was stretched out and the other was smashed together. There was only one giant ocean, I imagine people had split it up and given chunks of it different names. Soon the moon slowly started sliding across my view and the planet disappeared behind it. There wasn't much light on the dark side of the moon, it just looked like a giant dark blot in the emptiness of space. A few seconds later Guardian Wannaniki nodded, “Good show of piloting this vessel.”
Owl gave him a look then focused back on the console, “You guys might want to brace.”
She started fiddling with her forearm and glancing back at what the console was showing her. I laid my hand on the arm of my seat and grabbed on. Lahrya glanced at me and did the same, “Why brace?”
Owl did something and every light in the room went dark. The humming of machines turned off and the console stopped monitoring things. Her cape lifted a little, lifting behind her. I started lifting off my seat until I flexed my forearm and locked myself in place. Lahrya let out a little yelp and Guardian Wannaniki hummed as he started floating from his chair.
A split second later the lights turned on and Lahrya flopped back into her seat, Guardian Wannaniki stayed hovering. Owl turned to them, “How do you feel about teleportation?”
“It is outlawed in quite a few places because using it wrong tends to twist peoples organs around.” Guardian Wannaniki answered.
I stood up and walked over to Owl, “So we are home now? We can teleport to your lab or something?”
She nodded and I felt a flood of relief. Lahrya stood up from where she was sitting and came over with Guardian Wannaniki hovering after her. Owl held out her arm, “Grab on. This far out it will help with the space transferance.”
I ignored her arm and set my hand on her shoulder. Guardian Wannaniki hesitated before setting his hand on her forearm gauntlet followed by a cautious Lahrya. Owl did some head movements and I felt the twisting of space around us. Suddenly we were in the same lab we had been teleported from.
I dropped my hand from her shoulder and looked to the little stand that held the tablet that caused this mess. The lab was dark but I could still see it as it was highlighted with little lights around it. Owl dropped her arm and stepped away from the group to her wall of computers. Those were lit up and brightened as she approached, “VI, Report.”
All the monitors flashed and Owls mask appeared with the jaw closed, “Situation 4389B.”
“How close are we to situation 7439C?” Owl crossed her arms and asked.
“Fifty three hours and twenty seconds until it becomes untenable.” The VI answered her.
Owl let out a sigh and uncrossed her arms, relaxing slightly. I turned and took a seat at one of the lab tables with Guardian Wannaniki and Lahrya following me. The two of them were looking around at everything curiously. “Switch to set plan J94C and follow side E4. That should calm everything down.”
“This place is pretty.. Interesting?” Lahrya let out.
I followed her eyes as she scanned the room, “Never seen a lab before?”
"Not one like this.” She chuckled.
Owl came over to us and started pointing to machines and naming them. I leaned against the table, resting my elbow on the and catching my cheek with my hand. Guardian Wannaniki and Lahrya asked a few questions and I watched as Owl answered them. I was starting to space out when the doors on the side of the lab opened and some lady came floating through. She had one a full suit, it was a lighter blue with white lines covering it and a white cape. Her head was covered in a mask that kind of looked like Owl if it didn't have the horns of an Owl.
She paused when she saw us then flew over to us, above the equipment and landed closer to Owl and across the table from me, “Where have you been?!”
Owl touched a few things on her forearm while answering the lady, “Spatial folding mishap. We ended up halfway across the galaxy. Sorry about that, I will help you finish getting settled.”
“Getting settled? Everything has turned crazy! People are out robbing banks and trying to start wars. Its a mess!” The Lady waved her hands around while explaining.
I leaned forward at that, “Is this something I should start worrying about Owl?”
The lady let out a squeak and floated back away from me, Owl shook her head, “No. I have everything handled. I just have to renew some contracts with mercenary companies and things of the like. Everything will settle down.”
“Why mercenary companies?” Guardian Wannaniki asked.
“I have them guard things. It keeps them busy and lets them feed their families. I do it in a few places, it keeps conflict across the globe down.” She answered him.
The lady landed from where she almost touched the ceiling. It looked like she was keeping Owl between us. I was about to ask what that was about when an OwlBot walked into the lad, it was wearing the same kind of suit as the lady, just a solid black carrying two things. One was a black box and another was a coffee press. It set the box and the coffee press in front of Owl then turned away. Owl opened the box and the smell of fresh coffee floated out from the box. She started setting up the press, then wandered over to a sink along the wall and filled it with water before returning to the table with us. The lady in blue, watching this, looked like she had fought a battle and lost with how hard she slumped.
I didn't know what that was about and didn't really care, “Owl when can you send me home.”
She paused in filling her press, Guardian Wannaniki and Lahrya looked fascinated by it, “I can send you home now if your would like.”
“Please.”
She nodded and stopped making coffee to push a few buttons on her forearm. I stood from my chair and she gave me a nod then pushed a final button. Space twisted around me and I heard the sounds of Swivel City again. I was on top of my apartment building, I instantly turned and headed for my apartment. Stepping inside, I took off my pipe and staff, setting them on the table on my walk to the couch. I turned and flopped down onto it and stared at the ceiling.
I don't know how long I laid there before I heard the scurrying of nails on tiles. Soon I had a raccoon climbing onto my lap with Amanda sticking her head in the door, “Oh hey. You are home. What have you been up to?”
“You have no idea.”