Life on an Alien Planet

4. Two

The force pushing on us is soon about to come to a halt after the captain yelling "PREPARE FOR A STOP!"

They tried to ease the speed as much as they could, but there was still a jolt of force that would have definitely thrown me across the room if I wasn't wearing my seatbelt.

"The Paladin is at cruising speed. Feel free to take off your seatbelts and helmets now." Mia stated, followed by the cheer of everyone in the cockpit. We finally made it to space, and soon we'll actually go light speed. It never seemed possible, but we're actually going to do it. I look around and a few people started running to explore the ship, and as they pass by I remember the vases we saw covered in plastic, and my curiosity moved my feet to find them again.

While walking around, I sure enough see decorative vases lining the hallways. The protective wrapping seemed to have been removed by the ship itself, to which I whisper "wow..." and I hear a deep chuckle coming from behind me.

"It's interesting seeing the lengths they'd go to make this place homely" a voice said, and I turn around to see S.Coups, smiling. I respond, "yeah! Who would have thought to add vases, of all things, as decoration? Quite interesting to say the least." S.Coups nodded his head in agreement, slightly laughing at the absurdity of it. As he laughed, I saw cute dimples emerge from his face.

"Your dimples are quite cute" I mumbled through my breath, my mind absent.

"What'd you say?"

"I- uhh- I said-" I became flustered as my words caught up to me, "I said your dimples look nice. I should go explore the rest of the ship now bye-" I turn away and start to quickly walk in a random direction. Ugh I was so stupid, what type of interaction was that??

I look up to realize I don't actually know where I walked to. I might be lost...

I look around to see the generic hallway designs, but on the floor appears to be a trapdoor with a drawing of a plant taped on. I open it to find a latter and as I go down I begin to hear the chirping of birds and the buzzing of bugs. As I reach the floor I notice it's quite bright down here as well, and I turn to see a garden. The walls look as if we're in a greenhouse, but on closer inspection they seem to be screens.

Then a figure pops up from the greenery, "Oh hey Wyan!" I understandably jump back, startled, but realize that the figure is actually Rat holding a flower pot. "Oh I'm sorry! Did I scare you?" He asked, genuinely concerned.

"Maybe a little, but don't worry haha. What's all this?" I redirect the conversation to avoid the embarrassment of my overdramatic reaction.

"Oh- well while back on Earth-" he smiled to himself, "cant believe I get to finally say that.." he whispered. "Ah anywho, apparently they wanted to do all sorts of tests when it comes to plants and organisms and the Plant expert I am~ I offered to be leader of the Plant research! Crazy cool don't ya think?" He seemed quite excited, which made me smile.

"Plant expert you say? Well Mr. Plant leader, Tell me more. Im quite intrigued." I responded, to which he agreed happily.

We started going over all different plant species, ranging from moss and mushrooms to tree saplings. He also explained several long, tedious, and somewhat boring studies which made me realize why I wasn't told about it. Although plants aren't necessarily my thing, his enthusiasm was infectious.

As we hung out, I picked up a potted mushroom plant to examine any side effects so far but out of nowhere, a rumble took me by storm and I fell to the ground, breaking the pot. Rat looked over and quickly knelt down to me, "Oh dear are you o..kay.." he felt the rumbling too, I could see it in his face as he looked up slowly.