Free-Flight

Awake

Spensa

My eyes flickered open and bright light flooded my vision. I sat up, and a sharp pain shot through my head. I slumped back down in the soft covers of my hospital bed.

"Spensa, you're awake." I could hear the relief in Jorgen's voice as he approached my bedside.

"What happened?" I asked. The last thing I could remember was jumping into the nowhere portal. After that, everything was fuzzy.

Jorgen shook his head. "I don't know. You tell me," he said. "We were down in the caverns looking for hyperdrive slugs when you appeared out of nowhere, barely breathing."

I sat up again and winced at the pain. "Did you find any?"

He nodded. "Hundreds," he grinned. "The way off of this planet has been under our feet the whole time and we had no idea."

I smiled at him. Maybe we weren't doomed to die in our prison home after all.

After a few minutes of silence, I looked back at Jorgen curiously. He was staring at me in an odd way.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing," he replied, looking away. "It's just... going after a delver is crazy, Spin. When you hadn't come back for a few days, we thought..." He shook his head again and took my hand. "I'm just glad you're okay."

I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks. Scud, I had it bad for him, didn't I? "I missed you," I breathed.

"I missed you too," he said.

We sat in silence for what felt like forever, lost in each other's eyes. Then Jorgen cleared his throat and let go of my hand. "I should let the others know you're awake."

I nodded as he headed towards the door. I didn't want him to go, but he was right. Cobb would want a full report, and it would sure be nice to see everyone again.

A few minutes later, Kimmalyn rushed into the room, followed by FM, Nedd, Arturo, Jorgen and Sadie.

"Thank the stars you're alright!" She exclaimed, giving me a big hug. "We've all been so worried. It's just not the same around here without you."

I smiled. It was good to be back.

After a few minutes of greeting and congratulating from my friends, Cobb barged in—well, the closest thing to barging in that he could do with his bad leg.

"What the scud were you thinking, pilot?" He demanded as my flight cleared the way for him.

"I had to save all those people, Cobb," I told him. "I sent the delver to Starsight. Then I remembered all those innocent people that weren't part of the plot to destroy us. The women and the children. I had to do something."

Cobb shook his head. "You could have died out there. We could have been left stranded without that precious information you learned. Then the whole scudding mission would have been for nothing," he scolded.

"I did what I had to do," I said. "I—"

Just then, the alarms went off. "Everyone report to Platform Prime!" Cobb commanded, and my flight hurried out the door, not needing to be told twice, though I noticed that Jorgen lingered behind. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and in an attempt to join them.

"Not you," Cobb scolded. "You're not going anywhere until that report is recorded." And with that, he stormed out of the room before I could argue.

Jorgen must have seen the protest in my eyes, because he said, "It's for the best, Spensa. You need time to recover. You must be exhausted after all you've been through."

As he turned to exit the room, a thought crossed my mind. "Where's M-bot?" I asked.

He wandered back to my bedside. "Rig is trying to insert his CPU into a standard Poco. Since, you know, we might not be able to get the rest of him back."

I sighed, feeling a twinge of guilt. M-bot had said he felt abandoned..."Doomslug?"

"She's keeping them company. Listen, Spin," he said, cupping my cheek in his hand, just like he had the day Alanik had crashed. Just before I kissed him... "I really should go. Please promise me you won't do anything stupid?"

I was about to protest, but then I saw the look in his eyes. Determined. Caring. Frightened. It was that last bit that made me say, "Okay."

Relief washed over his face and he leaned closer for a moment. His eyes flickered to my lips, and my heart leaped in my chest. Was he going to kiss me? I sure hoped he would...

But then he stood up straight and slid his hand away from my face. "Thank you, Spensa," he said. "I'll see you soon." And with that, he was gone.