Happily Ever After (The Lunar Chronicles story continuation)

Chapter 23: More freaking landings

Scarlet sat in the pilot's seat with Cress at her side. Lately, they had spent most of their time in the pilot's cabin. They had convinced themselves that the seats were more comfortable there, and that it was the best place to stay, leaving only for bathroom breaks or for either of them to fetch food and drinks. Although she hadn't said anything, Scarlet felt safer being able to watch where they were going, and she suspected Cress felt the same way.
They had their eyes fixed on Luna. As they flew, their own planet shrunk and the white rock they knew as the moon grew bigger. It even seemed to surpass the size of the Earth when they got close enough. The white rock widened within their vision until it was no longer possible to see the entirety of it without having to turn their heads.
Scarlet felt her stomach churn as she tried to remember what her grandmother had told her about landing. She remembered how it was the first thing Scarlet had learned. She had been told that knowing how to land was the most important thing to learn first, because it would be no use knowing how to take off or let alone fly if running out of fuel was the only way you knew how to stop. With the memory of her grandmother, Scarlet's eyes saddened. The memory had faded over time, and Scarlet regretted not having practised landing since then.
Scarlet began to look at the control panel and tried to read the names of some of the buttons. Cress eagerly tried to pitch in, but all the buttons looked different than on the Rampion and she had forgotten the names of the buttons, only knew them by position. She did however know some of the most essential ones, which reassured Scarlet.
Scarlet glanced over at Cress. She was looking down at her portscreen, tracing her finger along its edge.
Scarlet started preparing for landing, but she mostly followed her intuition when it came to how to steer the vessel and how to calibrate the ship according to the distance and speed, but she was hoping the autopilot could do some of the work from there. Although she was at no point completely sure she was doing the right thing, Cress didn't object at any point, so she was hoping for the best.
There were seconds until landing. Scarlet tensed. The ship shook and a forceful bump marked their arrival on Luna, which made Scarlet thank the mandatory seatbelts. The ship had landed in Artemisia.
They had not wasted time while they had been on the ship. They had contacted Jacin and made the arrangements for a place to park the ship, along with supplies and extra fuel, which they would need if they ever wanted to leave again. Along with that they had carried out the necessary registrations, in other words sending through paperwork to Jacin so that he could make sure the police didn't remove the royal aircraft.
An officer from the new police force, which Cinder had created in her short rule of Luna, met them at their assigned landing spot. He entered their ship and flipped through their papers, but with the document signed by Kai proving they hadn't stolen the ship, Scarlet doubted he actually read everything on the documents. At their arrival, they had to prove they were both citizens of Earth, had to prove Scarlet possessed the Implant and therefore was allowed to travel interplanetary, had to show Cress' special ID proving she was a shell and didn't need the Implant. On and on it went. No wonder people refrained from intergalactic travel. Too much paperwork.
The police officer thanked them and allowed them to enter the domes on Luna.
Scarlet was just about to climb out of the ship when Scarlet noticed a strike of fear and worry on Cress' face. Scarlet halted "What's wrong?"
Cress shook her head. "It's just, I don't know." Cress sighed and finally looked up from the portscreen. "Thorne hasn't commed or left any kind of message in over a week. He wouldn't wait so long. I tried comming the ICA, but they won't answer."
"Do you think Thorne and Wolf are in trouble?"
"I probably shouldn't worry. It's Thorne and Wolf, you know, they always make it out." Her pleading eyes met her Scarlet's, as if she were looking for confirmation, begging for Scarlet to tell her that everything was all right. That she shouldn't worry.
But Scarlet couldn't, because she didn't know to what extent that was true. "I worry too, but if they are in trouble, comming them would only make it worse. You wouldn't know who could be listening in on the other end."
"I know that, which is why I've been trying to hack his portscreen." Scarlet scoffed, but Cress continued. "Just to hack into his camera. If I could figure out where his portscreen was, maybe I could figure out if anything was wrong."
Scarlet looked at her in anticipation, but Cress only responded: "That portscreen was given to him by the ICA, it's designed to be impossible to hack." The smile on her lips revealed that she didn't think it would be as impossible as she described, at least not for her. "It's going to take a bit longer for me to crack my way into it."
Scarlet tried to hide her disappointment and her own worry that she had gotten from hearing Cress' descriptions. She swung herself out of the ship and landed with both feet on the ground. Cress followed right behind her.
They were on Luna. They were back. The place that had contained the battles and the bloodshed. The centre of the war. Despite the Lunar blood in her veins running from her grandfather, Scarlet had never thought she would return, not after everything that had happened.
Scarlet looked around searching for Jacin. He had promised to be there, but where was he? Scarlet kept spinning around until she saw her companion. Her still-healing wounds made her head spin, but she ignored the dizziness. Cress was observing the Artemisia Palace. "It's exactly the same." Cress said
"Eerie, isn't it?" Jacin's voice sounded from behind them. "You would expect it to have changed, it just didn't, at least not on the outside."
Scarlet swirled around to face Jacin. The cold mask pretending to be his face betrayed none of his emotions.
"You showed up. I almost thought you had found better things to do" Scarlet smiled, "which knowing you would be something like being at work." Scarlet said ironically while nudging her head towards the tower of the Artemisia Palace.
Jacin ignored the teasing and shook his head. "I'm now officially never stepping foot inside again." He smiled with a hint of victory.
Cress looked at him warily. "Don't you work in the palace?"
Jacin cocked his head. "Not anymore. I quit my job today."
Cress seemed to have about the same response as Scarlet. They almost jumped back. Not quite sure whether to congratulate him or not.
"What brought this on?" Scarlet asked, but seemed to regret it instantly.
Jacin paused and looked up at her. They knew why.
Realisation flashed on Scarlet's face, "oh." Of course he wouldn't want to return to the palace, for the same reason Scarlet didn't like being on Luna. Scarlet could only imagine what it would be like to have to go to the Artemesia Palace every day. Chills went down her back just remembering the period she was held there.
Jacin decided to be the one to change the subject: "You can park your ship out there for as long as you want. I checked, and no one seems to own the spot over there." He pointed towards the spot they had parked right outside the dome.
"Thank you." Cress said, but she only looked down and fiddled with a stone she had picked up just before.
"You mind telling me why you have to be so mysterious about whatever this is."
Scarlet gave a halfhearted smile and shrugged. "It's a long story, really, we don't want to keep you waiting."
Jacin squinted his eyes. "Okay." His stare shifted from Scarlet to Cress and back to Scarlet. "Scarlet, last I heard you were in the hospital, are you sure you should even be up on your feet?" Jacin looked them in the eye, but they didn't seem to know how to respond. "Would you at least mind telling me why you both seem depressed?"
Cress pouted her lips to one side. "That might be an even longer story. In short, we haven't heard from Thorne and Wolf in a long time, and we're worried about them."
Scarlet sensed how Cress didn't want to tell another person about all of this. To be honest, not telling Jacin about this entire mess was probably the right choice all things considered. They couldn't afford dragging another person into it. It had been different with her and Wolf. They had been dragged into it the second Rieux had been hit by that missile. But Jacin, no. It wouldn't be fair to him to put that obligation. Besides, they could handle this themselves.