‘Who?’
‘My agency. There will be another case. Not as exciting as this one, I’m sure, but it’ll pay the bills. Maybe some quiet job would be nice after all this.’
Te’rnu went quiet, began to stare at his feet.
‘What is it?’ I prompted him.
‘Can I come?’ he asked. ‘Can I come with you?’
I furrowed my brow. ‘Te’rnu… this is your home here. Are you sure you want to leave? Just as things might finally get better?’
He shrugged. ‘I did what I had always hoped to do. I don’t know what I would do here, now. And I am not sure it is my home any more. I cannot return to Te’r’ok, my real home, and… I am not sure I would recognise it after all this. My real home truly does not exist any more.’
I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts and then pressed a button to summon a transport ship.
‘But what would you do for work? It’s expensive out there, and…’
‘I have some ideas,’ Te’rnu replied, a sly grin on his face. ‘May I come?’
‘Te’rnu… I mean… the whole point of… of all of this is that you can do whatever you want! If you want to get on this ship then that’s up to you. You don’t need my permission - or anyone’s, in fact.’
He nodded to himself. ‘…I guess so.’
The docking port opened with a whoosh, the transport ship having locked in outside.
‘Time to choose, Te’rnu. What’ll it be?’
He stood still, frozen to the spot.
I walked onto the ship, staring at him from across the threshold.
‘What do you think I should do, Syl?’
I shook my head. ‘I think it’s your decision. I can’t help you.’
There were a few more moments of silence. Te’rnu looked up at me, eyes wide.
‘Will you still…,’ he began, before trailing off.
‘What is it?’
‘Will you still be my friend? Out there?’
I laughed. ‘Of course I will, mate. Whether you stay or go, I’ll be your friend.’
Te’rnu nodded; one firm, confident motion. ‘OK.’
He stepped onto the ship.
‘Glad to have you aboard, Te’rnu.’
We sat down in the shuttle’s cockpit and I programmed in a route for the nearest station - where Mel was hopefully twiddling her fingers in anticipation of my arrival.
‘Is it scary?’ Te’rnu asked.
‘Is what scary?’
‘Flying through the stars.’
I shrugged. ‘Not sure; maybe I’ve just gotten used to it.’
I started the engines, and Te’rnu’s eyes widened with horror. He gripped the seat firmly as we shot out into the atmosphere, and then, when it all became too much to handle, scrunched up his eyes.
‘Yeah, I guess I’ve just gotten used to it, then.’
I left him to it for a while, keeping an eye on my watch to see how long it would take him to calm down. In the meantime, I tapped at my console, hoping to get a message through to Mel; but the station was too far away, there was too much interference. In fact, everything was too far away from this damned planet.
There being nothing I could do for the moment, I took a few minutes to take the time to centre myself. The last few days had caused my muscles to tighten, my neck to ache, and there was this slight thudding pain in my temples. I closed my eyes, concentrated on my breathing, and before long, I had drifted off to sleep.
‘Are you awake, Syl?’ Te’rnu asked, the sound of his voice bringing me to.
‘Yeah…,’ I mumbled. ‘I guess so.’
‘I don’t see anything. Is that normal? It is all so… dark.’
‘Yeah, it’s normal,’ I replied, words still slurring slightly as I awoke.
‘But there are so many stars out here,’ Te’rnu continued. ‘So I thought it would be bright.’
‘There’s nothing for the light to bounce off, though.’
‘What do you mean?’
I shook my head, rubbed the sleep from my eyes. ‘I’ll explain another time.’
We sat still, staring out into the darkness, the lights from the control panel in front of us illuminating our faces in eerie shades of reds and blues. I looked down to notice that my jacket had been draped over me like a blanket. I shot Te’rnu a smile, but he didn’t see - instead, he stared out at the empty spacescape, transfixed by the great beautiful nothing.
I became conscious of stiffness in my legs from being cramped up in this spacecraft for however many hours it had been. I stood up, touched my toes a few times, and began to wander the ship - not that the ship was really more than one small room.
Te’rnu looked around and watched me.
I ran my hand across the edge of the ship, feeling every crevice. I soon came to a small U’kka dispenser, with long boxes of spare parts at its base.
‘You had U’kka before?’ I called out to Te’rnu.
‘No?’ he replied.
I pressed a button on the machine - but was presented with an error.
Faulty hardware. Please call a technician.
I sighed. ‘Maybe that’s for the best.’ I could picture Te’rnu after getting a caffeine fix and the idea filled me with terror.
I next found myself in front of a storage container, running from the floor to the ceiling, about the same size as me. Unable to resist the temptation, I pressed the button on the control panel to open it up.
The cupboard whirred into life, the front folding away, and the interior repositioning to properly display its contents: a mechsuit.
‘Hey, Te’rnu,’ I called out. ‘Have a look at this.’
The mechsuit in front of me was decorated with a thick purple stripe, running diagonally across the body from the left shoulder to the right hip.
Te’rnu arrived at my side.
‘Looks like the Iyr have left you with a little gift.’
‘I am not sure that was their intention,’ he replied. His hands reached out to gently touch the suit.
‘Maybe not. But maybe you should be given one. You know… for services to your people.’
‘Do people get gifts for that?’ he asked.
‘They do on Terra. Well, they used to give titles rather than actual objects, but I think this is
