Universal death squad

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.