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“Well, that was a surprise,” Serval chuckled, looking down at her. “Finally figured out the comm patch through the communications relay?”
“Yeah, I don’t know who wrote those instructions, but he’s definitely fired. Anyway,” she patted his chest happily, “Thanks for talking to my parents. I know they felt better having had a chance to get to know you a bit more.”
He gave her a gentle smile. “It’s no problem. You seem happier for talking to them.”
“Definitely,” she beamed. “It’s good to hear from them again. And now that I’ve got the call thing figured out, I can text and call them all I want.”
“And you don’t mind doing that? You don’t find it suffocating?”
“Well, duh,” she laughed. “But your family is supposed to be suffocating. Like a blanket! Warm and comfortable most times, but obnoxious and heavy at others.”
“Why would you want to deal with that though?”
Sophie barely heard the question. She was too focused on the huge window that was open now that hadn’t been there before. In her excitement over being able to call her family, she hadn’t actually looked outside or even noticed it before now. Yesterday, that spot had been just a solid metal wall, but that had changed and it was now showing her a breathtaking view of a massive, alien planet.
Gasping, she walked slowly towards the window, mouth open in awe. Sure, she was in space, but every time she had looked out a window to this point, it had either been blacked out – since apparently subspace was too weird to just look at all the time as they completed a swing – or it was just the abyss of space. Which was practically just as black.
This was the first time she had looked out and seen something truly awesome and majestic on a cosmic scale. And it was an alien world!
The planet below her had no water that she could see. It was mostly black and covered in mountains with shockingly white peaks that struck all across the surface like cracks in shatterproof glass, creating an uncountable number of peaks and valleys.
“That is Holivair,” Serval said, coming to stand beside her. “All the valleys are the pods I was telling you about. The mountains act as barriers.”
“There’s no water,” she said, stuck on that. Wasn’t water a requirement of life?
“There’s water,” he assured her. “It’s all underground. This planet has very volatile tectonics because its core is mostly water and ice.”
“What? Seriously!?” She turned to him, shocked.
He grinned at her reaction. “Seriously. The crust sits on a mantel of ice where it isn’t sitting directly on top of the underground oceans. There are nine underground oceans in total, I believe. That’s why this planet has so many mountains though. The crust is unstable and moves a lot, crashing against itself more often than other planets, creating those extensive mountain ranges and deep valleys.”
“Is it safe?” She frowned, suddenly concerned. She imagined going down and trying to walk with constant earthquakes rocking her feet.
“Very safe,” he reassured her. “The pod we’re going to is stable as it sits on top of an ice sheet. And the people here are experts at reading when the ground is unstable and are capable of moving their cities to entirely new pods to escape a newly unstable pod if necessary.”
“They can move entire cities? How?”
“Their architecture is very modular in design. Homes can usually be broken into individual rooms, and larger buildings will either break down similarly or by floor – depending on the size. The shinuk people are used to their planet shifting. They’ve adapted to it. Don’t worry. We’ll be very safe.”
Sophie focused back on the planet. On the swirling clouds over the dark surface. She couldn’t see any cities from this high up. Or maybe they were just blended in with the stone. She also couldn’t see any trees or plant life. Or maybe the plant life was black.
“You are still worried?”
Serval was suddenly there, wrapping his arms around her from the side, running his fingers through her hair with a fascinated expression on his face.
“Do not be,” he whispered softly, kissing the top of her head. “I won’t ever let you walk into danger. If I do my job right, you won’t even be in danger.”
She turned, smiling at him as she leaned against his chest. “I’m not worried. I’m excited. I’m just trying to figure this planet out. There’s no plants. It all looks like black rock.”
He chuckled. “It’s mostly black rock. But there are plants too. They just match the rock. The plants, the rocks, the people – they’re all going to be that same black color. You and I, lov’alel, are going to be the brightest living things on that planet.”
He ran his fingers through her hair one more time before stepping back.
“I didn't bring you here to see the planet though. I talked with my contact on the planet. We have our invitation to the party. And I’ve booked our hotel. I wanted to show it to you to get your approval before we go down.”
Sophie, who had been taking a picture of the planet for her socials, was sufficiently distracted. She eagerly followed him to his main computer on the control panel where he had the hotel information pulled up.
“Oh, this is fancy,” she admired, scrolling through the pictures. “How much is it to stay here?”
