Elara has spent most of her career alone, only being accompanied by her pet Miso, a curious little creature.
Things change when Elara receives an alert from a research station desperate for help regarding something dangerous lurking around.
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Miso purred, walking across the controls of the indexer, making me let out a string of curses. He was meant to deal with small creatures in the ship, but he often just got into trouble instead. I picked him up almost immediately, placing him into my lap and reprimanding him for his behavior. He pressed himself against me, desperately vying for my attention.
I booted up the indexer again, scrolling mindlessly through old files and cases as I stroked Miso's fur. I had hoped for a new task, but new updates on the forums were sparse. As I continued to scroll through the endless entries, the hum of the engine lulled me to sleep.
I snapped awake when the shrill of an alert filled the air, frightening the creature in my lap. Miso jumped off, hastily running outside of my compartment. After adjusting my eyes to the darkness of the room, I finally found the alert.
FRS C-71: THIS IS FEDERATION RESEARCH STATION C-71 CALLING IN FOR RESCUE OF TWO PASSENGERS. WE ARE LOCATED IN THE ADEN DISTRICT, ORBITING PLANET EARTH. ACCESS CODE IS 2171. SOMETHING HAS GONE WRONG WITH AN EXPERIMENT, CAUSING THE SUBJECT TO BECOME MAL—
The distress signal stopped suddenly, only static echoing on the emergency line. I quickly picked up my indexer and a few things from the room before heading to the main compartment of the ship.
"Miso?"
I looked around frantically for the small, furry creature, eventually finding him hiding behind a couple of storage crates. I picked him up, fighting with him to place him inside his safety carrier. The creature finally gave up, settling down on the blanket.
"Good Miso," I said, smiling down at him. "It won't be for long."
The black creature hissed, turning himself the other way and getting comfortable again. I rolled my eyes at his antics, looking at him for one last moment before rushing back to the controls of the ship.
I struggled for a second as I used the distress signal to locate the FRS C-71. The coordinates revealed that the research station was orbiting a small, terrestrial planet.
"Earth," I said to myself, raising an eyebrow at the name. I had heard of the planet, but never had visited after learning about its abrupt abandonment around a century ago.
With the coordinates, I readied the ship for departure. Before heading into light speed, I sent a message back to the distressed station.
ARACHNE: FRS C-71, THIS IS THE ARACHNE RESPONDING. HANG ON.
Traveling through lightspeed had always been exceptional: an extravagant combination of both thrilling and terrifying. Miso had always hated it though, and he mewled at me aggressively from his carrier.
"I will find a way to make it up to you," I replied, glancing down at him as we continued to travel through the vast expanse of space.
The ship rattled as we finally entered into the right galaxy, the sound of the light engines dying down filled my ears. As I adjusted to the light, swirls of green, blue, and white filled my vision.
