(GE Copy)

Chapter 8: The Universal Ocean (Part 1)

“I suppose the thing about shell shock that people don’t understand, is that when it happens you don’t understand it either until only after it has worn off...”

When the news broadcast, when the rumours spread, when families drove across the tattered war zone streets; did parents hold onto their children with a vice which nearly choked the air from their tiny helpless necks. Many people bore witness, but in disliking the results, turned to believing differently in hopes that it were something easier to manage. If the magic of happenstance could be quantified into something intelligent yet manageable to decline. Perhaps hoping in turn that the result will change.

Word of Penticton reached even the schoolboards, all the way into Alberta, and even into the States. It wasn’t just the parents who paniced, but worry drove them beyond the point of reason, for how could anyone reason with such an explainable event? And it was the invalids that suffered the wakes and waves of something outside their control. Even anyone’s control. From there, it spread even onto the inconsequential adults who suffered the injustice of the responsive decree; whom could scarcely fathom even what happened and soon began to organize and to shutter in fear of the unknown. Gathering like sheep, to huddle for a redundant warmth from neither a cold that was still present, nor a flame that bore heat. Merely shunning it from their minds.

It then came to pressure onto the politicians, and the elective representatives, trying to find resolve for things they had no idea about, nor even wanted to. The world that was blind, skilled and knowledgeable, aledgedly knew oh-so-much better, than those involved; their merits fixed off of a diploma for culture and warfare, in a problem meant for an exorcist. Making rules for the rest of us. Meanwhile, Aaron, having witnessed the whole ordeal, actually read the score. And those pretending to have, making the rules for him, hadn’t even one to eye witness account. And without an understanding, in it’s place was made the arbitrary stipulations which bore no connection to the problem at hand. Regulations which were neither founded nor seemed to follow it’s own logic. The tight noose which corralled the weak within the range and safety of a shaking, weak legged protector. For curfew, and identification, for guards, and for fire drills could not stop the hand of a single, destructive man of seven. Or, five as it currently stands.

Still, despite the school’s new dictatorship, and public hysteria, Aaron gained the independence around the third day to continue his normal life. This was contracted with a contact device, an overpriced, and expensive to use cellular phone. As did Zachery who’s tire of being locked in spanned a three hour argument, and many of tears. When they could no longer defend their claims, his folks shifted blame onto his loyalty to them, and grounded him just for having argued. Near the end, they still acted as though they were guiltless, and that his sentence of disloyalty was paid over their own fixations and baseless beliefs after all. As though he agreed and bowed down to them through the proxy of a lie. Having got their way, and weaseled out an abusive, oppressive punishment where Zack was still the one at blame.

“They let you off on good behavior, or did you have to dig your way out with a spoon?” Aaron pestered.

“Fixed probation, you know. Yourself?” Zachery returned, pulling himself from the wall. A clear glint of frustration still lingering in him.

“My folks actually gained quite a bit of respect for Keith.”

“Yeah, well, mine spent a good day talking smack about him, and everything else they could assume about him from his parenting skills, to his ability to keep a wife. Told me I’m too young to understand how the world works and sent me to my room. Got us out and kept us safe, and they end up attacking him as if he caused the whole thing. Remember that debate we had over who had the better family?”

“Shit, that’s brutal...” Aaron dismayed. “They’d be pissed to know we’re heading back to Sophie’s wouldn’t they?”

“A quick in-out before they change their minds about our freedom, again.”

“Your brother really did a number on them, didn’t he? Like, I kinda get when they might be so... Off the damn rocker, but, how in the hell did they go from a guy doing the right thing to the guy causing it?”

“Don’t get me started on how they started conspiring, we’re gonna be involving a lot of people who have solid alibis... And a lot of senseless motives. I can only handle so much stupid in a day.”

As they walked up to the door, the atmosphere pressure bogged down on them like an ocean of weights. Aaron’s ears plugged, and a weird feeling welled up in his stomach like a bucket of sloshing bile slime. It was particularly distinct, and Aaron felt uneasy over it but otherwise his mind was fine. If anything, everything his nose picked up felt dusty with a hint of soot. Even the vibrant flowers by the steps bore a stale aroma. Zachery knocked on the door, to the usual accompaniment of electronic locks and mechanisms. Aaron, considered his odd sensations. He would have been satisfied to just let it pass but the arduous wait for the door gave him a lot of time to consider it’s uneasiness. As their minds eventually set to leave, the door began to open. Inside Keith was at the front, filthy with every assorted fluid he could possibly own in his shop without them chemically reacting to another. He kinda stood there silent for a bit, and opened the door wider. “Lads...” He said, walking backwards, then turning to Sophie’s room. “Sophie... Your friends are here.” Looking onto the two off put door warmers, he motioned them in, asking them to close the door on the way by. Aaron’s ears began to ring, noticing even Zachery’s to be bothering him.

“What the hell do you want?” Sophie arrived, her hand pressing firmly on kidney.

“I taught you better manners than that.” Keith gave her in a dry reprimand, before crawling back into the basement.

Retracting her hand from the side, Sophie rephrased things. “What the hell do you want? My insides are fighting the liberation of France.”

Zachery piped in. “Like, as in something you ate, insides, or?”

“You too?” Aaron asked, his mind back to vivid sensory of his sloshing stomach.

She looked to him with eyes of disgust, and equal fascination. “You are a man right?”

“I... I’m confused... What’s wrong with your stomach then?”

“Nothing’s. It's like Vlad the Third is defending his country from my fucking ovaries. Has nothing to do with my stomach.”

The silence taking up the living room space. “Oh...” The two responded to Sophie’s announcement. Aaron more audibly in discomfort than Zack in his realization.

Continuing her frustrations. “It's like an immortal trying to commit seppuku. It just keeps stabbing itself over and over, but never actually fucking dies.”

“Didn’t your dad just reprimand you over having manners?” Aaron replied, uncomfortably. Perhaps, with any luck, keeping himself out of the direct line of fire.

“Ugh!” She contested. “Now I understand why normal girls are such unjustifiable bitches all the time.” Walking into the kitchen, to pull some bottles out of the medicine cabinet. “Don’t tell my dad I took these...”

“What are they?”

“It’s assurance I don’t accidentally have to clean one of you off the pavement.”

“Huh...” Zachery astounded. “They make medicine for that after all?”

“Anyway, I got some stuff to do... You can join me for it. I know it’s not your faults that my insides are churning like a bottle of hot sauce in the microwave.”

Aaron and Zachery turned to each other, and then to the door. “We best be heading out then...” Zachery excused.

“That excited to see my Father’s gold traps, huh?”

“You know...” Turning back from the door.

“Like actual gold...” Aaron inquired, his eyes glimmering. “...Or that a brand name?”

“Right...” Sophie walked to the stairwell. “Daddy! I’m checking on those traps now.”

“Soph...” Her father returned, dropping his wrench as it echoed up the stairwell, and his legs hastily meeting her, hitting his head on the door casing. He leaned into her, kissing the side of her forehead. “You can always go another day... We’ll catch up on the bills soon, it’s just a little extra interest to pay.” His voice distraught.

“I don’t get it. You’re really worried about it, it’s just a little pain...”

“I know you don’t understand... I’m so sorry, I’m so, so sorry...” Tears beginning to roll down his cheeks. He slipped something into her hands. “You know how to use it, you keep these boys safe. If anything happens, turn the dial onto seven. Don’t worry about what I told you, just do it. Okay? You have to do what daddy tells you. You can’t afford to think about it. I can’t afford to think about it...”

“I’ll be fine, the sooner we can cash in the less you have to pay. Besides, I got two strong men to carry me if I have any more spells... We need to keep moving on.”

“I love you so much, I can’t loose you too.”

Aaron remarked sympathetically, “Here we thought Zachery’s parents were the hardest hit over all this...” The two bystanders, awkward as having a nut allergy in a peanut isle.

“Kinda feel bad now that we got paid for all that...” Zachery confessed. “Like... It’s cool but I kinda feel like giving it back for a rain check.”

Aaron felt just as melted into the guilt seat over this, even as the moist fragrant air of juniper trees returned after leaving the house. But at least his once tumbling stomach had finally settled.

“Say... Sophie.” Lifting the weight on his chest. “I don’t mean to be intrusive, but...Your mom, we never got to meet her. Did she... Have any ailments, because I’m getting vibes that he’s concerned about your health. I mean... I don’t know anything about periods, but...”

“Huh...” She marvelled at the psychological effects of that question. “I’m feeling the medicine ware off rather suddenly... No... I... Don’t really know much about it, just that the greatest minds in medical couldn’t save her...”

“So, your dad makes his profits in gold?” Aaron reeled the conversation back.

“Stocks, supplies, cooking sales...”

Zack peeked back in. “He makes some pretty awesome cookies for being a dude, and not a grandma...”

“...Tax credits,” Sophie continued. “Because we’re still considered in poverty. I never minded, didn’t bother me that we had very little, I was still pretty content growing up.”

“I’ll try not to tell the government that.” Aaron assured.

“Appreciated.”

“Wait...” Zack jumped in. “You are legit concerned about that? Like, they’ll take it away, conspiracy concerned?”

“Anyway,” Sophie finished. “Those are the only incomes I can talk about.” Before addressing Zack’s concerns. “I prefer to keep my nose out of gossip, even if a lot of it isn’t that far off. The echo of anyone's voice is a volatile recipe for false information, no matter the subject, or sincerity of the gossiper. I’d like to think myself clear of such circles but habitually I harbour the same level of distrust as Aaron. More people know the score than they are willing to go to bat for. I know sometimes it feels like the pressures are building more and more until we are helpless. Still, I hate to give ideas to a system which thrives on scraping the barrel like it’s a profit margin at the end of the fiscal year. It is a company after all, not a monarchy. Their coffers are their livelihood, just like hanging out in dangerous places is our livelihood. It is it’s very essence... But we are allowed to leave if we don’t like it. It’s the social contract of living here. I’m still here, because life is still very good, all things considered.”

“And if they have an army at the boarder?” Aaron interjected an old point.

“What any person is willing to do, is completely feesable. The French didn’t take it laying down when they had their revolution, even if it was illegal. Nor the families fleeing during the second World War. Even if you were likely offed by the secret guard before you even got to the rally. No matter what they tell you, you got an option and that’s the proof. Droves of people, making a rush for the land, or in secret. There are only so many soldiers mentally capable of shooting a man who did nothing wrong. If they realized this, the very act of rebellion would spread through the ranks until they turned on each other. When push came to shove, they buckled, and became the power of the people once more. Even if it was short lived.”

“And the people would need the courage to do it in the first place, maybe in a single person, or a few freak cases, but not a mass departure. It’s unrealistic.”

“You question these things with only what you’ve seen... But ignore the ones before you, who spoke from the front lines of hell... Or lack of a better word. When people did, in droves, and were slaughtered. Aaron, when you were trapped in the cage, clearly, you had been pushed to the point of ‘do or die’, right? You wouldn’t be the first person charged with such a decision.”

Aaron’s memory returning to the walled city where arrows rained down, and out of desperation, he ran past them. “Then, lets hope were never pinned with such a fate in our country.” The clouds around them darkening. They could smell the aroma of rain from the distance. As they walked the way across the school grounds in down town, they could feel the moist droplets of rain against their heels, and a brisk breeze. “It’s gonna get ugly today, isn’t it?”

“Ehh,” Sophie returned, already uncomfortable. Taking the moments following to recount her steps from the house,“Phbth!” She exasperated “Fine, irritating as it is to return, I guess it’s less irritating than getting rained out. Daddy might have some rain coats for you too, or at least some resistant ones.”

“Kinda feels like a waste retracing our steps, though...” Aaron admitted, knowing it would be harder to justify heading back out in the rain after being in the retreat of a safe warm house.

Making her round to return, she saw the rain behind them, in fact, all around her. As the dark and grey of the rainfall met, she realized the storm was enveloping them rapidly, yet her head was still dry. A deep pitch of vibrations could be felt resonating upon their heels when connected to the earth. Above, the circle of rain which reflected from the fall concentrated at a transparent disks edge. A disk only visible as the refraction of it’s surface bubbled in amidst the clouds. Aaron’s eyes lit up, though without the frame of mind to fathom what occurred. All he could gather was the whims of this strange occurrence; and an aura resonating from Sophie. He could almost hear a humming come from her, like the yapping of an ankle biter but in the chirping tone you would hear from a cricket. She looked back onto Aaron and Zachery with an irritated expression, and the cursing voice of someone who was getting really tired of the day’s shit as she spoke to them “Oh, what a terrible day to have a period...”

The ground illuminated beneath her, and the grass dislodged from it’s holdings. He felt the air alter into a light, weightless space with no sound as he rushed to her, dragging Zachery with him into the fairy circle. The light encompassed everything, swallowing the land whole and in the instant his mind drew a blank moment. As though waking abruptly, he gasped at the air, trying to reconnect to his surroundings. A bleak, dark grey room surrounded them, one that shined though clearly dreary. He looked about, men, humanoid men, in fact oddly normal apart from their clothes, and some alterations in their flesh. Notably a set of abnormal protrusions along the bone lines. His ears very clearly open yet the sound was dim to the uncharacteristically rapid beating of his heart. “Extraction complete, two stowaways as mentioned. Asset Sophenya has been subdued. Preparing chambers for second extraction.” He said, pulling the trio away with the most science fictiony guns anyone had ever seen in any movie ever. Hauling the kids out and into a lit hallway, the guards escorted them firmly and without much expression.

“So, where are we?” Zackery opened his mouth to the discomfort of every last living being within ear shot, including his friends and that of the captors. “This like a space ship? Did I miss my probing?” Snickering the guard pulled his pocket device out to him, squeezing the actuator on it which delivered a small sting into Zacks neck. “Oh! Wow, that hurt a lot less than I thought it would, what was that?”

“Your probing, now if you get in this chamber here, I’ll even be so nice as to tell you where you are.” As no one was ready to pull a last ditch effort for their lives around so many armed personnel. They received a pat down, and a scan for foreign objects revealing the device which Sohpie’s dad had given her. As well as both emergency cell phones which were now a mandatory safety feature for Aaron and Zack’s freedom, pretty much the entire mini adventure kit, and their wallets. Not that a person can buy all that much in space with pretty boardgame money.

“You said you’d be so nice as to tell us where we were... Are...”

Standing on the outside, the captor smiled back. “Well, you ‘were’ on the outside of a Kala model seven thirty eight, detainment chamber, but, now... You are inside one.” Turning on the barrier. “Try not to touch the containment wall.”

“Space, SPACE mother fucker! Are, we, in, it?”

“No, we’re twenty leagues under the ocean.” Laughing with the guards as they left.

“Wow they get places fast, these alien space ships...” Looking around his room, he sat there pouting. “You know, if they left me my wallet, I might be able to jimmy my cards way through those locks.”

Aaron peeked over at his sulking friend. “And we wonder why your folks don’t trust you...”

“Say what you will about my brother, but he did impart some useful knowledge onto me. He just... Skipped the part where you get abducted by aliens is all...”

Banging her head against the wall, Aaron turned to Sophie, her hand bracing firmly against her side. Pitying her, Aaron sat next to her. “So, on a scale of one to ten...”

“It feels like the dwarves are mining their way to fucking moria in there.” Nodding Aaron got back up into a safe distance. “So, this is what it's like to get abducted...”

“First time?” Aaron and Zachery both remarking in their own frustrations.

Kicking the stupid wall, Zachery lamented. “I was happy, living my life, finally freed from all the dangers and madness of this world and now I'm scooped back up once again.” Having finally showed that dumb wall who was boss.

Sophie sympathized between the wincing of her own problems, trying to shed what little light she could. “There is no way to tell who they are... Could be dignitaries, bounty hunters, tax collectors, technology pirates. There are many people who could be after my dad, from material wealth to restoring the honour of the Selamon Empire, Corethian Council or even the Yega Clan... I probably shouldn’t have even uttered that last one.”

“What, are we gonna get, kidnapped by ninjas next or something?”

“Good, then you already knew about them.”

“REAL LIFE, ACTUAL FUCKING SPACE NINJAS!?! Are you SHITTING ME!?”

“That would be so much cooler if they were pissed at someone else...” Aaron muttered. “But... Then you’ll never see what actually goes down, coz their ninjas.”

“If it were ninja’s we wouldn’t be alive right not to talk about it.”

“Zachery has a point.” Sophie confessed. “Although, blue moon, but it does happen when someone is spared... Whatever it is, Daddy probably wouldn’t tell me about it anyway. He’s always wanted me to be happy, even if that means keeping me in the dark about whoever he pisses off. Just...” Getting fed up, she stood up straight, “FUCK! It's like a bangle tiger is trying to mate with a bag of catnip down there.”

“We know, WE KNOW!” Zackery shot out. “Wait...” Somehow making a strong neural connection right out of left field. “I got this... I got this! Yeah! I know what to do... It’s so simple, holy mackerel!...” He exclaimed, the loud shout followed up by a silence. Somehow, somewhere, they couldn’t explain it but they could hear a depressingly pitiful thud on the ships exterior “Holy mackerel! Holy mackerel!” He exclaimed in glee.

“What are you doing?” Sophie’s concerns turning before them. “It's far too early to go stir crazy, even for you Zack.” Checking the injection site of his ‘spoiler’ fake probing.

Aaron picking up on it, started to join in too. “Holy mackerel! Holy mackerel!”

“Come one, you guys are the veterans to being kidnapped, and your folding this easy? You have the fortitude of a... A...”

In the distance, they could hear a cry and scream which echoed through the walls, silencing everyone with it’s morbid, electrifying howls. I came from all around, as though moving with the accompaniment of sparks and loud banging which dimmed the lights before one final good smacking thud. “Holy mackerel! He found his way into the ventilation duct! GOOD BOY MACKEREL!”

They probably never seen Sophie so shocked about anything, ever, and likely never again. The field surrounding their cell fizzled out until it could no longer maintain it’s shape and form. “Ha HA!” Zachery shouted, remembering moments later to use his in-an-alien-prison level ‘inside voice’. “Dudes, I got the greatest super power after all time.” Walking out of their confinement a free man. The smell of barbecue wafting into the halls with him. “We should have a leader board for the fastest escape.”

“How about one for getting caught?” Aaron heckled, following out.

“How about you both start acting nearly as serious as this situation is.” Sophie took over.

Their fake attempts at cruising the halls in stealth could barely compare with Sophie’s photographic memory of every movie she ever watched. It was like watching a real stealth genius at work, except, you knew she was just as unprofessional as they were. Just cooler. Be a lot better if they actually knew where they were going. In the halls they could hear footsteps, but echoing from all directions, it was hard to pinpoint where. They found themselves in a round room, likely a rotary hall. With no distinct direction for the sound, nor any real defined corners to hide in, they took to their first room for concealment which appeared to be a janitorial station. Industrial machinery, cleaning supplies, sexist pinups of from the cheap magazines. Yeah, it was without refined taste alright. Dumbfounded, Aaron took his eye to a particular piece, a lady who bore all; not that he had ever notably seen the area between a woman legs but this one seemed as flat as a doll. Where is the downstairs that everyone always jokes around about. If they talk about it, it must be there, right? Perhaps as a censor, she was equipped to a perfectly flesh toned undergarment. All he could find was a scar above her hip, it was confounding to him, ever unbearably.

“Stop looking at the smut, I found us an access port.” Sophie issued, taking point down the shaft on the other side of the heater.

“Wherever you are...” Zachery leaned in, in a morbid tone. “You are always within six feet of a spider...”

“Dude... You’re just as arachnophobic as I am.”

Looking to Zachery who’s eyes were almost tearing up in fear. “I know...”

Patting Zachery on the back, they crawled through the vent. This vent made a steep upshot, to which their team building skills and horribly unadept physique made into a rivalling challenge to climb up the four or so feet to the upper passage. Their eyes caught sight of a small, four legged creature, the size of one’s finger nail. Slow, wobbly, an alien bug. Benign, venomous, sentient, no one knows! But Zacheries only thought came to a burning desire for a flamethrower. The bug of course, was humanely escorted by Sophie into the nearest side passage, and into another room for someone else to deal with.

Below them they could hear a form of audio transmission, likely a communications room. Though their voices could scarcely make audible sense through the distortion and the broken signals. They heard a knocking followed by “Come in.” In a very clear voice which must have been only five or so feet from the grate, just out of sight. Everyone clammed up. Sophie quietly turned around, facing the opening which Aaron was fixated to. Zack being blocked, though desperate to see.

“Sir, the investigations have returned. I had to double check them, but it would appear the ship was bombarded by an organic life form, appearing to be a fish... Multiple of them in fact.” Sophies eye began to catch sight of a strange anomaly in and of itself. Along the wall, furthest from them, she saw a shit spangled white and brown mock calico in a black tuxedo of long grain fur. The uncanny ball of fur peeking it’s head from behind something that looked suspiciously breakable with it’s eyes entranced on a little four legged moving speck. Sophie held in her gasp. Somehow, Kraytoes found it’s way onto the ship. “It could be the work of a dwarven magecraft...” The man continued. “Should we investigate further, or prepare for resistance?”

“Fish?... Like, just smacking against the haul?...” Shaking his head, the commander in charge dismissed while Kraytoes in the back, took a fond tail flick to his favourite buzzword. “Who this side of andromada hell would want a shitty magecraft like that? No alert, carry on...” His underling bowed to leave. Kraytoes looking disappointed. “A fucking fish...” He muttered, dismissing the idea. His mind piecing together the fragments like a magnet collecting mass. “In space... Wait, no! Fish native to a vacuum... This discovery... It could found research into depressurized travel... Wait!” Lifting himself from his seat. “Retrieve the fish, we need to examine them for potential significance. Tell the pilot we need to stay here. If we loose this opportunity, it could be detrimental to our society as we know it!” Kraytoes lifting himself up and carefully snaked in between the valuables and glass collections. Heading his way to the door with the men, notably to get with some of that fucken fish.

Sophie shuttered. “Kraytoes? How’s you end up here? He wasn’t with us when we left... Unless... Oh no, they’ve got to have my dad on here too. There is no other way. I thought we might end up as a hostage to lour him out, but... They might already have him in custody. We need to retrieve my things, it’s our only survival tool.” Turning back, she banged her head against the bracing, curling up into a ball. “You’ll have to push me.” She requested, paralyzed in painful frustration.

After an intense scramble through the shafts, and many of wrong turns, they came upon a room which bore many crates, and storage containers. At least, that’s what it looked like from in there. Opening the hatch, their suspicions were more than confirmed. Her things laid lazily atop of an apparent loot pile, and in the distance, she caught sight of another frightening discovery. “He’s here...” She scrambled to the site. Aaron grabbing his things, while Zachery scowered the pile for nifty souvenirs. “This is his device...” She said, pouring over the work. “Daddy was working on it. There’s the bad solder he did on the side, with the dimple in the paste under the metal sheets. It’s his, beyond a doubt...” Picking up the heavy octagonal paperweight.

“This is the remote your dad gave you, right?” Aaron handed her, it’s strange set of buttons being a less foreign than in his memory.

Nodding she retried her things, setting the dial to seven as prescribed. It’s body lighting up with a neon charge. “We need to find him, and break him out. Aaron, you passed the strength test in the vent climb, you need to carry this.” Dropping the mystery device into his hands. His eyes caught the dazzling gleam of the core which familiar glint and sheen brought him back to the day he pulled the gemstone out of the arid Okanagan soil.

“This is your father’s research?... Does it work? What does it do? How... How do you turn it on?”

“Only he knows. It’d be apt to find him next, and use your mackerel lunacy to break him out. I figure they have a secure place for him, else we’d see him as leverage for whatever they are trying to do to him. We need to find a map, like, an index or a manifest... Zack... What are you staring at? We need to move soon.”

“Guys... Come here...” Zachery beckoned from the hulls exterior. “Look at it... All of them.” Everyone closed in onto the glass portal. An ovular pane of space age and bullet proof glass, which despite the rapid passing debris of space, still bore a clean finish. Kinda like it wasn’t even there. “This isn’t the ocean... Not ours anyway. Like the purest night sky made of mica and matte tar. The crispness and clarity alone is jaw dropping, but the contrast and clear definition between the pins of light themselves are so vivid you can almost feel it drape across your face as your eyes gaze over it... It’s like poetry... And I suck with poetry.”

“We really are in space, huh?” Aaron nearly lost his footing, walking nearer to the sight, as the closer he got the more he saw unveil around him. Slowly moving his hand out to feel for the surface, fearing he might fall through into the outer sea of stars. As his hands made contact, his face closed in still terrified and amazed. Not even his breath could stick to the glass. “Sophie... Have you ever seen something like this?... Sophie?” Turning to see her rummage through the crates in search of something useful.

“And then the powerful waves that rippled through time came upon the shore of our own world, dancing amidst the night sky like... Things... And they looked to the sky where their ceiling was the ground for those space waves. Where... And... Nope, thought I had one going there. Damn this is lovely. You try and make one.”

Thinking about the start of a poem, Aaron turned away from the glass. “If I’m making poetry, We’ll be on their home world before I would be finished. There is too much to say, and not enough time to do it.” Grabbing the suit that Sophie tossed him, he split the airdrop and threw Zachery’s set to him. It of course rolled off Zack’s distracted shoulder into the ground with him still fixated on the celestial ocean. Dragging him away, Aaron put the outfit in Zacks hands and they moved out.