The Heretic of Sælonis ||A Sci-Fi Romance Novella||

I found you

Four days.

I'd been living without a helmet on my head for four fucking days, and the level of panic I felt was second-to-none. While I hadn't let her touch my face yet, I knew the plan wasn't working the way it was meant to.

The last time I'd been around someone for longer than a few days had been during training, and the last time I'd done so without a helmet was before I took the creed at twelve. It didn't matter that she couldn't see me, because I was already...

I'd repented every night for it, but it didn't feel like enough. Not when I'd been sleeping a full four hours, and I've been leaving her alone while I repented, while I showered and whenever I wanted a few moments to myself. I was used to her breathing, to her scent...

The plan had been to make her comfortable around me, to force her to trust me. Instead, I'd made myself comfortable around her...

The ship jolted beneath my body as I laid on the bed, staring at the dark metal ceiling. Alarms hadn't gone off, which meant there wasn't anyone in proximity to us. Nor could I hear the hum of the mechanics working...

The ship had shut down.

Again.

I floated off the thin mattress; the sheets fell from my body as the artificial gravity cut off. Why did this have to happen to me?

Before I did anything drastic, I took a few deep breaths and thought about how to proceed. There were a few options as to why this had happened. First, was that we'd lost charge due to using excess power while fighting off the pirates. Second, was that damage had been done to the battery while fighting the pirates, which had led to it malfunctioning. Third was the most likely one; the Heretic had fucked with my ship again.

The lights flickered back on, and the gravity kicked in with such ferocity it threw me back into the bed.

Oh, she was going to pay for this one.

I put my helmet on and my chest plate. There was no way I would face her without minimal protection.

And then I slammed the door to the pilot room open...

"What did you do?" I asked as I charged towards her. "What did you do?" I asked as I leaned over her, collapsed on the ground. She shook her head as she laid on her back, her breath staggered as she held her side.

"I saved our lives again, Uhnros," she said before she sucked in air through her teeth. She was in pain... why was she in pain?

"The ship shut off, Heretic. The last time it did that, it was you-"

"It wasn't me this time," she whispered as she sat up slowly, still clutching her ribs. "Run diagnostics on your ship. Something's wrong. You ran out of charge and I pulled as much Aura in as I could to keep us from freezing to death." She stood up, her hands stretched out as if to find something to hold on to. She looked... paler than normal. "Fuck," the word slipped from her mouth in a hiss before she took a deep, shaking breath.

"You charged the ship?" I asked as I walked closer to where she'd wandered off to. She really couldn't find anything to touch that would give her any bearings.

"Hopefully enough to get us to Castellia... that's the closest planet to us, right?" She asked, and I thought about how long we'd been moving for. From memory and given the location of the Cerulean Nebula...

"It is." I watched as she reached a hand out again, but she still couldn't find anything. I think I might have jumped to conclusions a little too quickly. She wasn't lying. The ship had run out of charge for one reason or another, and she had saved us again. Maybe I'd been a little too harsh. I clicked the release button on my helmet and sat it on my chair. "Here..." I gently took hold of her wrists and directed her towards her chair.