Pluto And Back

Nine - Nova

The flash was so bright I thought it had blinded me. After a few seconds, it faded. "What was that?" I said, going into the cockpit.

"That? That was the signal. Pretty big right?"

"Yes! You didn't think to give me any warning?"

"Sorry," I said " Now we just have to wait. Hopefully someone would've seen that and will send us some help."

"I mean, there's no way anyone could miss that." I said.  I walked out and sat down on the sofa. Arrow came in after me.

"So what are you planning to do when we get to Cobo?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure. It's not like I know anyone there or have any family there so I  guess I'll just wing it. It'll be a good fresh start, I hope."

"Well, you can always just crash at my place for a few days while you figure things out." I hadn't even thought about where I was going to stay.

"Yeah, that would help." I said. "I'm gonna go out and grab some more water. I know where it is now so I shouldn't be that long."

"Ok, be quick though, help could be here any minute." I nodded at him as he handed me some buckets and I got on my way. This planet was pretty strange, on my adventure yesterday I saw so many cool things, it got me thinking about how cool being a voyager is. He's so lucky, he gets to explore and adventure so much. I do think it's a cool job, just maybe not for me. I think i'm not chill enough for it. I still don't really know what i wanna do in life, but I'll figure it out eventually.

10 minutes later, I'd gotten to the water source that I'd found yesterday and started filling the buckets up when I heard a loud sound, almost like an engine. Another ship? I think help is here. I finished filling up the buckets and tried to get back to the ship as quickly as possible.

I got back and saw another ship outside next to Pluto. I walked and I saw Arrow there laughing and joking around with another guy, around the same age as him. When I walk in they both turn around to look at me, still laughing about whatever they were talking about before. I placed the buckets down on the counters and shyly smiled towards them as Arrow said, "Nova, this is Terran. He was the guy I was telling about, on the same voyage as me?"

"Yeah, yeah I remember. Hey, thank you." I didn't really know what I was supposed to say so I just sat and played with Atlas.

"Nice to meet you Nova." He said with such a friendly smile. He seemed like a good person, I just need to know someone a little more before I feel comfortable talking to them more.

"Well, I'll just be in the bedroom if you need me." I said as I started to walk off.

"Okay, we were thinking about heading off pretty soon, we wanna get back home as quickly as possible."

I took Atlas and headed made my way into the bedroom. I wasn't really the best with strangers. I much preferred the company of a playful cat.

I sat down on the bed but something caught my eye. The map from before. It was on the desk in front of me. I sat down and studied the map before me. Arrow said it was of a new city that was going to be an extension of Cobo, but that didn't make sense. Cobo was already the biggest Capital, why did they need more space? Was it over-populated? I doubt that, they make most of their men voyagers and so there's less people to inhabit the Capital most of the time.

As I started to look at the plans in more detail, I realised they didn't add up. There were big empty spaces, where it looked like buildings were supposed to be, just missing. It was like the map was incomplete. I decided just to ignore it, it's not really my business and I could barely draw so how was I supposed to know how to read plans of a city?

I heard the door open and I abruptly stood up and swung my head round. "Yes?" It was Arrow.

"Uh- we're ready to leave now. Were you snooping through my stu-."

"No! I was just." I sighed "the map caught it my attention, I wasn't trying to snoop, just curious."

"Next time, ask." He said as he closed the door a bit too hard behind him. I could hear his footsteps banging as he walked away. Why had that annoyed him? I shrugged it off and headed out for Terran's ship. It looked the same as what Arrows did before the crash. They said some mechanics would come collect Arrows ship and repair it but it could take a few weeks depending on the damage. I could tell Arrow was on edge without having Pluto.

We all boarded onto Terran's ship. The boys stayed in the cockpit. I needed some space so I sat in the common room which was notably smaller than Arrows.

Terran's ship was a lot tidier than Arrows. Everything was organised and there was no clutter or mess on the sides. Everything had a place. I walked over to his little makeshift kitchen and pulled a pack of nuts out the cupboard. I was starving and there would have to do. I had at least a half a days journey ahead of me and I was a man I met 20 minutes ago and a half stranger who I think currently was in a mood with me. That's okay though, I know how to occupy myself.

I found some books on voyaging stashed in the corner of the common room. I didn't take Terran as the type to read and clear the only odd it if it was necessary. I however, would find reading a voyagers textbooks on how to survive quite interesting. I skim-read over the chapters while picking at my food as I started to doze off.