22. Aurelia

TWENTY-TWO

"We'reon top of it now," Sylas said, his faced focused on the small device in his hands.

"I don't see anything—" I started, shaking my head.

He clicked on a second flashlight, handing it to me. "Look." He whispered the words, and my eyes found the spot he was pointing at.

"What is that?" I could feel my eyes growing wide.

It wasn't a ship, but it was clear it was human made. There was a hum to it, common with technology.

Brushing my hands through the dust that had collected on the metal, a gasp slipped free from my lips. "But how?"

"Maybe the creatures found it on the surface and brought it down here." Sylas squinted, looking up at the cave ceiling above us. "Or maybe it shifted down here over the years. Who knows?"

It was a piece of the ship, the letters Departure faded, but there. "You know what this means, right?" I looked up at him. "They were here. My dad was here."

But where did he go? I frowned, because the fact was—there were no humans on this planet. Right? We would have been able to see that. But this piece of the ship had to have some sort of clue, right? The universe couldn't have led me all the way here just to find nothing.

"Help me lift it away from the wall," I said, already trying to get leverage on the giant hunk of metal. It was almost as big as me, and there was no way I'd be able to budge it alone.

Sylas smirked, flexing his muscles, and with his help, we moved it to the center of the room without too much effort.

A small chirp sounded behind us, and the little creature from the lake popped up, winding around my legs. It had followed us all the way here?

I looked at Sylas, my eyes wide with surprise.

He sighed. "So much for not disturbing the native wildlife."

I picked her up, scratching under her chin. "What about your family?" I asked her, getting another coo instead. "Did you leave them behind?"

"I think she bonded with you."

"Huh."

Holding the pup in my arms, I circled the hunk of metal. "Do you think there's more somewhere else? Or could they have left this behind so someone knew they were here?" It was wishful thinking, but maybe that was what I needed right now. Hope.

A few hours later,sweaty and dusty, we finally emerged to the mouth of the cave, data chip from the hunk of ship in hand. I didn't know what we would find on it, but it was something.

Another clue. This all just felt like one giant scavenger hunt. But what was waiting for me at the end? Sylas had been quiet, and I wondered if he was thinking the same thing.

That I was doing all of this just to find out what I already knew. That he was gone. There was no way he'd been alive for the past thirteen years and hadn't come home to me or my mother. No matter what happened, I believed that. He would have found a way back to us.

"You have to stay here," I instructed the little creature. "I can't take you back with me." She whined, scratching at the dirt with her little paw. I reached down, scratching her ear. "I'm sorry."

We began to walk away, and her little ears drooped. "Go find your family," I said, waving my hands. "I'm sure they're missing you."

Sylas wrapped an arm around my waist, like he could sense how enamored I was with the little beast after only half a day. It was the right thing to do, but she was so cute. Her little dabbled gray coat, the soft fur that I wanted to bury my face in. Her little tail, just like an otter's, so she could swim easily through the underground rivers. Even those gigantic eyes had me under their spell.

"Are you crying?" He murmured, kissing my forehead.

"What?" I wiped under my eyes, removing the evidence of my tears. "No."

Turning me around, he walked us back to the ship, never once removing his arm from my body. It was the warmth I needed after the last day on this planet.

"I still can't believe all of this is just… rock, and down there is…" Beautiful. There were no other words for the glittering crystals or the animals below.

"Makes you wonder if the other crew never made it here, or if they wanted to hide it," Sylas mused.

He was right, though. What would humans do to this place? We could colonize it, build an outpost here as we expanded our reaches of the universe, but… I thought of the little creature who'd followed us. What would happen to them if we did?

I sighed, burying myself deeper against Sylas's side.

"Should we go home, Rae?"

"The crew's probably missing us by now," I said, giving him a small smile.

"You, maybe. Me, not so much." He furrowed his brow. "Don't even try to deny it. They all like Kayle better than me, don't they?"

A laugh burst out of me. "Maybe if you weren't such a grumpy asshole…" I winked.

He grumbled, but I knew from the way he didn't tense up next to me he knew I meant nothing by it.

Our ship came back into view, the S.S. Paradise painted on its side, only bearing a few scratches from our rough landing.

It was crazy to think that my first big adventure was almost over. We'd barely gotten here, and now it was time to go back.

We set our stuff inside the cargo hold, me tucking the chip safely into an empty small box where I knew it wouldn't get lost, before I headed to the cockpit.

"What are you doing?" Sylas asked, leaning against the doorway. I'd left the electronic door between the cockpit and the ship open, so I hadn't even heard him approach.

I popped my head up from underneath the terminal. "Fixing the ship."

He raised an eyebrow. "You could have done that the whole time?"

"Well…" I fluttered my eyelashes. "I do have an advanced engineering degree, you know." Crossing my arms, I turned around to look at him, but a look of awe was spread over his face. "What?" I stood up, taking the few steps towards him.

"Fuck, you're amazing," Sylas said, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me in tight against his body.

I opened my mouth to say something, but he crashed his lips against mine, capturing my mouth in a fierce kiss. There was only me and him—no desolate planet, no ship, no team of people waiting for us—nothing.

"I never should have doubted you."

I laughed. "No."

"You're never going to let me live down how much of an asshole I was, are you?"

"Nope," I said, popping the p for emphasis.

He rolled his eyes playfully, dropping another kiss to my lips. "I'm sorry I ever did."

I cleared my throat. "We can try contacting the ship now. I think I fixed it." I'd always planned on doing it after we investigated further, but that was a fact that I didn't feel like I needed to mention now. The important thing was, we'd survived an alien planet, found an unhostile species of mammals, and recovered information from my dad's ship.

Even with my rough landing and the transport ship being a little banged up, it was a win.

Okay, it was more than just a little banged up. I'd definitely taken the landing harder than I'd hoped, and I wasn't sure I could get the shuttle airborne if I tried.

Sylas stepped up to the console, fiddling with the buttons before pressing the line to open the communications channel.

"S.S. Paradise, this is Captain Kellar. Do you read me? Over." He released the trigger button of the comm, and we waited.

A moment later, a familiar voice came over the speaker. "Captain Kellar, this is Lieutenant Alastair. I read you, sir. Loud and clear." Violet. A grin spread over my face.

"Thank fuck," Sylas muttered to me only, before pressing the comms button once again. "I have Lieutenant Callisto with me. We're requesting an immediate pickup. Transferring our location to you now. Transport is wrecked, but salvageable. We're on planet XV30041's moon." Most of the unexplored, unnamed planets just had a code assigned to them, which made it easy for them to pinpoint our exact location.

Short, sweet, and to the point, but I understood his efficiency. We could explain why we were down here to the team later.

"Can she fly, sir?"

He looked over at me, and I shook my head. "Better not," I mumbled.

"Negative, lieutenant. Ship was damaged upon entry into the planet. Fly slow and take it easy. The atmosphere will burn you up otherwise."

I nodded, giving him a thumbs up.

"Anything else?" He asked me, and I shook my head.

"Coordinates have been received, Captain. The Paradise is en route. We didn't go too far once we realized you two were missing. Hold on tight."

He gave a brief nod, transmitting one last message to let Violet know we'd be waiting, before he turned the comms channel off entirely.

Turning to me, he pulled me into his arms.

"Sylas," I murmured, resting my forehead against his chest. There was no trace of my grumpy captain as he looked down at me. All of his emotions were visible on his face. "Everything is about to change, isn't it?" I whispered the words.

He brushed a hair off my forehead.

"I'm afraid so," he said, tracing my jaw with his index finger before tipping it up to bring our eyes together. Deep ocean blues looked back at me, and I wanted to drown in them.

There were two bright suns setting in the sky when we headed back outside, so lost in our own world that I barely even noticed when our transport finally arrived.

All I wanted was one more kiss. One more minute.