She watched
the stars move around her. Purple, lilac and blue constellations were looking
back at her as the girl thought of the world. You could see the stars
reflecting from her deep blue eyes. Her face was relaxed but you could see she
was thinking very hard.
A small
breeze threw her hair back, showing her ears that were full of piercings. She
bit her lip and her face suddenly became darker, more focused. The girl turned
around. She walked back to her spaceship. The dust of that small planet flew in
the air behind her in small clouds.
She stepped
in her ship and the door closed behind her. She walked to the cockpit and
started the engines. She took off without a moment of hesitation.
“Fay”, said
a voice behind her. Fay turned around and looked at her co-pilot. Thule was a
tall, muscular, man. His skin was a mixture of brown and gold; he looked like
the last ray of a sunset. Thule was in many ways almost a perfect opposite of
Fay. Everything about Fay was cold; her lilac - lavender, as she always says - skin
was cool and her hair was a mixture of blue, purple and maroon. “What, Thule?”
Fay asked with a hint of frustration in her voice. Thule shook his head and walked past Fay. He
sat down in front of the control table.
“What?”
asked Fay again, now raising her voice. Thule stayed silent, and so Fay sat
down next to him. They flew across the sky. Millions of stars passed them, like
little silver lights in the darkness. They flew past small planets and their
moons. Somewhere in the distance was a black hole, eating away the beauty
around them little by little.
After a
while Thule looked at Fay. “What is it, Thule?” Fay asked once more. Thule took
a deep breath. “You know you couldn’t save them”, he said with a voice full of
pain, “You know there was nothing you could have done”. Fay refused to look at Thule. She knew he was
right, and she also knew that the second she saw his eyes she would burst into
tears. Fay stayed silent. Her heart felt heavy; like someone had placed a stone
on top of it. The pain was slowly suffocating her and she didn’t know what to
do about it. There are only so many places where you can cry alone in a small
spaceship.
They flew
forward in silence. Fay bit her lip until it was sore. She excused herself and
walked slowly and heavily to a lower deck. As she was going down the ladder the
tears broke out. One by one small silvery teardrops fell down her cheeks,
falling to the floor. Fay tried to stay silent – she didn’t want Thule to know
she was crying. She knew Thule didn’t care, but Fay wanted to look strong in
front of him. Fay was a soldier, just as he was. Setbacks shouldn’t be that
hard on a soldier. Soldiers should be able to move on with their quests. They
can’t stop, they can never stop.
Fay
collapsed on the floor crying. She tried to tell herself that it wasn’t her
fault, that it was a part of their mission. She wiped the tears away but more
and more fell down her cheeks. Fay’s hands started to shake. She wrapped her
arms around her trying to comfort herself. It didn’t help.
Suddenly
Fay heard a vague noise above her. She looked up and saw Thule coming down the
ladder. She quickly wiped the tears away, even though she knew it was no good.
Thule looked at her and bent over. Fay looked into his eyes, knowing that her
own were full of tears. Thule had beautiful eyes. They were golden with a hint
of orange. Fay liked them. Not in a romantic way though, no. She admired them,
like she admired everything beautiful that the universe offered her. Fay was
thankful to the universe for letting her look into Thule’s soothing eyes every
day. She knew she wouldn’t bear to be a soldier unless she had those little
things making her life a little more bearable.
Thule didn’t
need to say anything. They both knew – silence was enough. Fay’s tears slowly
dried up leaving salty trays on her cheeks. She stood up with Thule’s help and
they both returned to the cockpit. They set new coordinates and got ready for
lightspeed. Stars became silver lines as the ship hurried to the next
destination. They slowed down and a big, green planet appeared in front of
them. “Is that it?” Fay asked. Thule nodded his head. Fay hesitated. “Are you
sure? It seems like it’s full of life”, she continued. Thule looked at her and
Fay could see her questions had raised a hesitation deep in him. They didn’t
say anything for a while.
“That has
to be it”, Thule says, breaking the silence. “General gave us the exact
coordinates. We have to go on with our mission”. Fay could feel fear in her
guts. It just didn’t feel right. “Well?” asked Thule with slight panic in his
voice. Fay’s hands were sweating. She set the ship to land even though there
was a little voice in her head telling her not to do it. As the ship landed
Thule and Fay geared up. They took their grenades and machineguns and walked to
the door. The door hissed like an angry cat when it opened. They jumped out
into a forest that surrounded them. It was silent for a while. Only their own
steps could be heard. Then they heard it – a click of a handgun somewhere behind
the trees.
Thule
signed Fay that he would check and she would cover him. They creep slowly to
the direction of the noise. A loud bang echoed in the forest; the handgun had
been fired. Thule loaded his gun. He took a step and suddenly the whole world
burst into millions of little pieces. Sand and small pieces of green plants
flew high into the air, covering Fay and everything around her. “Thule!” Fay
shouted from the bottom of her lungs. Her ears started ringing. Fay lost her
balance and fell on the ground. She could see armed rebels running in the
distance. They were running towards her.
Panic filled
Fay’s whole consciousness. She stood up with her shaky legs and tried to
breathe. She looked for Thule on the ground but couldn’t find him. The rebels
weren’t far anymore. They fired their guns at her. Fay ran back to her ship as
fast as she could. Bullets pierced the door as it closed behind her. Fay ran to
the cockpit and started the engines with shaky hands. The ship flew up to the
sky.
Fay looked
out of the window as the stars started appearing in front of her again. She was
numb. The only thought in her head was Thule’s golden eyes. She thought of them
and how she would never see them again. Thule would never look at her with
those soothing eyes and she could never again find peace in them. Her
legs failed her and she fell on the floor. General had lied to them. He had given
them a suicide mission.
Fay couldn’t
cry; she was too shocked. She just sat there looking into the distance. She sat
there for a long time. The ship started alerting with a blinking red light when
an asteroid cloud surrounded them. Fay didn’t react. She sat there on the
floor. She didn’t care anymore. She had realised how corrupt the military was.
They had sacrificed Thule without telling them. Fay sat on the floor when an
asteroid hit the ship. She didn’t move even though she knew she would die. Finally
the ship hit an asteroid, blowing up the ship. Small pieces flew into the air,
slowly disappearing into the void.
