Astrophysical (completed)

Chapter 9

After the week of holiday, the regular routine of doing jobs here and there returned and things were back to normal. Overall, the jobs were smaller but much smoother than the ones before. The only problem was that because there were a lot more jobs, they were busier going from here to there and making sure they contacted the right people and planned for the right jobs. Because of this, Ash was exhausted around the ship trying to manage all these things and like the past couple of nights, he was stuck inside the control room long past the time everyone else had fallen asleep.

Cassie had moved into his room when they got back because both agreed that they were already comfortable with each other's company. But although she was perfectly comfortable curled up in his bed reading, she felt concerned at the prospect he wasn't there yet and instead headed towards the control room to find out what was taking so long.

The doors slid open and immediately she could hear Dean, Matt, and Ash in the discussion about where they needed to go next and whose message they should respond to next since they just finished another job. Matt and Dean were sitting down below in the pilots' seats while Ash stood on the bridge, tightly gripping the railing. Cassie waited until Matt and Dean began to argue a point with each other before walking up to Ash and gently grabbing his arm.

He turned to her and smiled softly, but she could see the stress in his eyes as well as the bags underneath them. She squeezed his forearm gently before leaning against him and putting her head on his shoulder. He kissed her head gently whispering an apology to her before looking back towards Matt and Dean.

"Really, it makes more sense to do Apples' trade run before collecting more bounties for Schafer's family, see?" Matt said.

"Alright that makes sense I guess," Dean said sighing. "It would be good for everyone to rest too." The two nodded at each other in agreement before looking up at Ash, Dean rolling his eyes at the sight of Cassie and Matt frowned.

"Stop being cute," Matt said groaning. Cassie frowned in response and leaned more into Ash. "I regret ever thinking it would be a good idea for you two to get together when you do stuff like this."

Ash chuckled a little bit and then said, "So we are going to Cintere then?"

Before any of them could respond, however, the viewport suddenly switched to a video screen and after a couple of seconds of blurriness it focused in on the face of an early thirty-year-old guy with slightly wavy blond hair and dark brown eyes.

"Walker," Ash said surprised.

"Hey Ash," the guy in the video said with a deep husky voice. "Hope this message finds you and your crew well considering we were in quite the predicament the last time we saw each other."

"Look, I wouldn't normally be reaching out to you like this, but I'm in a bit of a crisis and I need a favour," Walker said. "You see we landed on Amelot a little while ago to stock up on supplies, but when we landed, we were surprised to see the place deserted and unbreathable without our suits. Strange, right?"

"We of course decided to see if we could figure out why considering it was a fairly decent commerce stop, but while we were out on the mainland, Celia..." The man paused looking away looking strained in his features. "She was taken from me. I don't even know how we lost her, but there was a thick mist and then suddenly she was completely gone. We're doing our best to track her, but so far nothing has turned up.'

"I just need you to maybe bring us some supplies, I don't know if anything other than that can really help us. The coordinates will be at the end of the message."

The screen then disappeared again, and silence filled the room for a moment. Matt then sighed loudly looking up at Ash. "I guess this means our plans are changing again?"