The Moon Fortress

Chapter 5: Don't Hold Your Breath

"Ehm."

Kara turned her head left and found Alex staring at her with a raised brow. "What?"

"You've been awfully quiet since you came back."

"Just trying to focus on the mission."

Alex kept looking at her with sharp hazel eyes, as if they could see right through her. Kara wasn't really in the mood. "Oh come on Alex. What do you expect me to say?"

"The truth! What's on your mind?" Alex pressed.

"I told you! I'm trying to be serious about this mission."

"Then why's the crinkle still there?"

"Oh for Rao's sake, not the crinkle again!"

Alex chuckled and decided to tease her further. "One day your cover will be blown by that crinkle!"

Kara frowned, making her crinkle got even deeper.

Alex broke into a laugh. "Just kidding! So tell me what's up?"

Kara didn't say anything for a moment and turned her head to gaze into the expanse of darkness in the window before her. They were sitting in their seats in a Daxamite shuttle, strapped down by belts, while they were reaching the outer borders of Krypton's strong gravitational field. This part of the launch required them to be in their seats and the small shakes of the ship indicated the strain on the shuttle while escaping the planet.

Kara couldn't see any stars at this point with everything a blur in the front reinforced window. She was a bit stressed at the ship's tremors. Kryptonian pod's never had such problems when they were speeding out of the atmosphere, but Daxamite ships were old fashioned. Alex had assured her that they will get to their destination safely. Kara had just scoffed at that.

There was no other choice and this ship was also necessary for their cover, as they couldn't simply land on Daxam with a shiny and fancy Kryptonian pod. Kara thought about the past few hours; from her hard and awkward farewells to getting ready for the launch in a hidden hangar in one of SKIS bases. She just felt overwhelmed, like for the first time she wasn't sure anymore.

"Just feeling overwhelmed. The goodbyes were really awkward. Mother barely said anything and Kal looked really sad. I don't know-"

Kara started opening up without looking at Alex, but Alex cut her off. "Hey look at me."

Kara stopped her rambling and looked back at Alex, seeing understanding in those eyes.

"It's normal to feel this way. You think I wasn't scared the first time? I was terrified! But I believe you keep fighting! So instead of getting drowned into yourself, let's focus on our work. I'm pretty sure you can get through this and all of your missions to come. It won't be easy, but you can do it."

Kara smiled and nodded just as the monitors showed that they had past the gravitational zone and were almost 100 thousand miles away from Krypton's surface. The rattling had stopped and the gravity simulator was active so they could finally get out of their seats.

Alex piloted the spaceship, while Kara watched her doing that, trying to learn as much as she could. They also contacted their base to report and then the ship was on auto pilot, on its route to the capital city of Daxam, the city of Telos.

"Okay, now go over all the details of our cover for me." Alex demanded and Kara rolled her eyes.

"Oh not again Alex! We just did that before the launch!"

"Yes, but you need to focus and I want you ready when we land. There's no time for practice anymore. You can be very bad at lying and it will only get better if you keep the facts ready in your head. So go over all the details."