ZER

NATASHA

Father? Nat calls softly, she knows her father must be here. Under the small four pillars stone ceiling, he built for her mother after she passed away.

In the middle is her mother's tomb. Made from a sturdy box of a kind of stone, it's green like her eyes, her father always said. Nat walks past the tomb and finds her father kneeling.

It's romantic yet tragic to find her father yet again, here, in this position. He'd wake up early and in the morning, comes here to clean this place, come back home to have breakfast—if you can call drinking strong tea a breakfast—train with the men, have lunch, comes here again, back to the men to help with any duties, back here again until late at night before heading back home. And repeat everything all over again the next morning.

Father, Lor has been looking for you. He and Dom need you at the Common Hall.

Her father looks up to her with sadness, doesn't matter how often she saw that look in her father's eyes, it always painfully squeeze her heart.

Grief is a price you pay for love. The more you love, the more grief you'll feel.

I'm glad you inherited the green of her eyes. Her father says. He cups her face and touches their forehead together. Today is the day I met her for the first time. The day we got married, as your mother would call it. It was the beginning of the happiest time of my life.

Before, she would try to offer him some comfort, telling him that her spirit is still among them, watching over them, but she knows recently that he doesn't need comfort, she is now believe he just needs an ear to listen to his words.

Her father is a very quiet man, he is truly a man of very few words. But if you want him to talk, ask him about his wife, he will explain everything about her. He would describe her smile as beautiful and as warm as the rising sun, and how the universe lost its glory the day she walked into his life.

He loves her so much, that when she passed away, he let her took his soul too, so she won't be lonely.

Nat puts both hands on his shoulder and give them a slight squeeze. Come father, we need you.

He put his palm on the side of her tomb and she sees him shudders for a second before he lifts his head and stands. He put an arm around her shoulders and petting her arm lovingly.

Has Lor...

Nope. She quickly answers him.

Her father sighs and pulls her closer to him. She basks in his warmth and love. She only have one parent left, and she wakes up every day doing her best to savoring the time they have.

He'll come around. He says, reassuring his daughter.

He doesn't want to disappoint you. She tells him.

Nat hears him hums in her head. I think he doesn't want to disappoint you, Nat.

She doesn't reply to him because she doesn't think that is true. Soon they have arrived at the Common Hall, the decagon-shaped building. Inside they found her younger brother, Dominik, who is engaged in a serious conversation with Lor.

What is the matter? Zer asks to gain their attention.

Dom turns with a frown on his face. Unlike her, his skin is so much lighter, like their mother's, as their father always said. Apparently, Dom takes more of their mother, but he has our father's eyes.

The ship is finished. We ran seven simulations to test its durability and I'm confident that it's ready for breeching in and out of the atmosphere. Dom's dream is to find earth, their mother's home planet.