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“Andromeda, start the shower.”
Still no water. I was about to get dressed again when a thick white fog streamed from unseen holes in the walls, covering the floor in an instant. When it reached my feet, I jumped, surprised by how warm and wet the fog felt. That had to be the alternative to a shower – unless Bruin had programmed the room to suffocate me. Unlikely. Despite everything, I’d come to believe that his heart was in the right place. If he even had a heart. I shouldn’t assume that his anatomy matched mine.
The fog rose quickly, but stopped when it wavered around my shoulders. I rubbed my hands over my skin, although that was probably unnecessary. I squeezed my eyes shut and bent down to get my hair fully immersed in the warm fog. My hair turned wet instantly, sticking to my skin. I ran a hand through it. So smooth. The fog had no scent, but there had to be some kind of soap contained within.
After a minute or two, just when I wondered what I was supposed to do next, the fog slowly dissipated. For a fraction of a second, the air turned hot, but then the temperature returned to normal. My hair no longer felt as heavy. I held up a strand. Dry and shiny. Perfect. Fastest hair dryer ever. I could get used to that.
In the following days, I had a shower every morning, then went to say hello to An’tia. The unicorn got less intimidating with each visit. I even polished her horn when she begged for it. She pointed at whatever brush or cloth she wanted me to use, then left me to figure out where she liked it the most. I quickly discovered her favourite spot to scratch was between her ears and along her belly.
And still, I avoided Bruin. I assumed he was keeping an eye on me electronically, even though I’d been unable to spot any cameras. He gave me the space I needed, but at the same time, I felt like this was only the calm before the storm. Eventually, I’d have to talk to him again. And find a way to persuade him that I had to return to Earth.
After about a week, I decided that I’d sulked long enough. I needed to face my fears – or in this case, Bruin.
I found him on the bridge, lost in thought. He didn’t notice me enter. The darkness of space loomed outside. I’d avoided looking at space until now. I didn’t want to be reminded how far from home I was. Besides, the emptiness outside the ship was frightening. I couldn’t wrap my mind around how we were floating through empty space, the only lifeforms in this part of the universe.
“What’s the nearest planet?” I asked, startling Bruin.
He jumped off his chair and swirled around to face me. “VX9821, but it’s an uninhabited gas giant. The closest inhabited planet is Quendrin, about two lightyears away. It’s on the Galactic Council’s banned list of planets, however, so it cannot be visited until the local sentient species is more evolved.” He gave me a cautious smile, as if worried how I’d react. “Your planet was on the same list until recently. Even now, only research ships are allowed to breach the atmosphere.”
I swallowed a harsh remark that even research ships shouldn’t be allowed to abduct humans. I’d come here intending to stay civil and get some answers. A week’s worth of questions was waiting to be asked.
I flopped down in one of the smaller chairs. Bruin visibly relaxed when he saw that I wasn’t going to scream at him again.
“How are you feeling?” he asked after a while. “Any more strange laughing episodes?”
“You would have seen them.”
He didn’t deny it, confirming that he’d indeed been watching me.
I sighed. “Well, besides being abducted from my home, I’m okay. But how do you do it?”
“Do what?”
I pointed at the dome above us. “Look at space. It’s so…lonely.”
“The first time I left my planet, I found it frightening, too,” he admitted. “My sire didn’t understand. He told me to suck it up and be strong. So I pretended to be alright with it, but inside, I continued to be scared.”
“When did it change?”
He looked me right in the eyes. “The moment you joined me on board the Xylope. Until then, I’d felt alone every time I travelled through space. Even when surrounded by other travellers or my sire, the loneliness didn’t go away. I think it’s the absence of light out there. It feels like you’re the only person in-“
“All of space,” I finished the sentence for him.
“Exactly. But with you, it’s different. Now I can look out into space and enjoy the view. I know I’m no longer alone.”
His words both touched me and made me uncomfortable at the same time. He didn’t even know me. We were strangers, no matter what he’d said about soulmates.
Bruin sat down again and we stayed quiet for a while. It was a comfortable silence as we both looked at the stars sparkling in the darkness. Tiny spots of hope in a sea of despair. That’s how they’d seemed to me yesterday. And now? I wasn’t so sure anymore.
“How much further is it to your planet?” I asked eventually.
“Sixteen IG days. That’s eighteen Peritan days, if I’m not mistaken.”
“How long is an IG day?”
“Twenty-seven of your hours. You’re one of the lucky planets where the difference isn’t all that big. The conversion is a lot more complicated for other alien species.”
He did something with his wristwatch and a star map appeared on one of the screens. A dot flickered in a particularly empty spot.
