Sorcha The Alien Book One

Chapter Twenty

The Combat Cruiser finally descends through Breena's atmosphere, after hours of searching for the perfect location. After hours of Cantral and Daeanal bickering with Anabale and Emerlit. After hours of Cantral trying to shove them in any old swamp, forest or desert.

I wedge myself into the corner of my chair and my head lulls. Comfort doesn't appear to be a priority to entra. The beeps and flashes of buttons in main command wear me down, they grate on my nerves. I'm exhausted and entra never get tired, they never sleep. In their presence, not only will I always be at a disadvantage, but I'll always be missing out too. Every time I sleep their world will be spinning without me.

"I'm trying to figure out if you just didn't want to give us a shuttle," Emerlit starts with a smile, as the ship breaks through the clouds, "or if you want to make sure the planet is safe and give us a proper goodbye."

"All the shuttles are damaged," Cantral says, on the wrong side of irritable. "The planet is safe, safer than the life you've lived. You'll be fine."

The ship jolts against the ground. It's beautiful outside. Green grassland meets an equally green forest. A wide river cuts through the land in the distance and further still, mountains rise. Idyllic, a few months ago it was all I wanted, but then I met Cantral. And the entra. I can't deny the lure of knowledge and technology.

"Goodbye," Cantral says and Daeanal shoots a look of disapproval. "Thank you for all your help, I ... really do hope you're happy here," she says genuinely,

"You know," Anabale says with a smile, "I might even miss you."

Cantral scoffs. "You won't."

"Yeah," Anabale says, "you're not wrong. Come on, you can help us unload, sooner we're unloaded, sooner you can leave."

Cantral groans. "Sorcha, you coming?"

I subdue a yawn and shake my head. "No, I'll just stay here."

I stare out of the window at the wild world before me. I stare at the sun as it moves across the sky and colourful blobs dance before my eyes. Grass sways in the breeze. Emerlit's hair dances around her head and she ties it back into a bun. Cantral removes her jacket as she works under the heat of the sun. Crates stack, they flatten the grass.

Everyone works together, with laughs and smiles, at erecting some sort of metal home. So much for the simple life, but I guess, for an entra it's a step in the right direction. Cantral looks happier outside, working with her hands. The tension in her shoulders melts and her jaw loosens.

From the corner of my eye a flash of black catches my attention. My head whips to the end of the window. My mouth falls open and I watch as Sask ascends the atmosphere. Thoughts scatter and a haze slips over my eyes.

The physical distance grows between Sask and I, and it grows in our minds too, but she's not gone completely. I still sense her. Sask's disorganised thoughts whisper through my mind. She won't be returning. Her determination is insurmountable, her sorrow extreme. And I feel as though I've been torn from the land of the living and I'm now descending a tunnel to the deepest pit in hell.

My hands shake, I sit in the captain's chair and tap a sequence of buttons like Ramet taught me. She said all entra ships use the same flight system, she said they were easy to fly. I yank a lever and the ship rises. It wobbles from side to side and then jolts upwards, towards the promise of space.

"Sorcha!" Cantral shouts, her voice comes through a speaker as I edge closer to the cosmos. "What are you doing?"

"Sask just left! She's leaving me, I'm going after her—"

"No!" Cantral's voice comes firm. "You can't fly that ship! Return to the planet, you need to let her go—"

"I'm not going to lose her!"