The Star Within (Poohpavel)

Chapter 11

Disclaimer:
This chapter contains reckless behaviors and signs of mental health problems. In this chapter, I tried to portray Pavel struggling to deal with his trauma relapsing. I'm sorry in advance if what I portrayed does not fitting the real-life occurrence.
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Sailub's heart raced as he sat at the bus stop, his mind reeling with worry. It was last night when he received an emergency notification from Pavel's watch that would be sent to him if any of his teammates had a change in heart rate and blood pressure. He cursed himself for not noticing the alert sooner, too preoccupied with a certain someone last night to pay attention.

He couldn't sit still as he waited for the bus to arrive. While waiting, he scanned his surroundings, a habit he picked up after years of being in the Space Force. In the span of 5 minutes, he could spot 3 other people waiting for the bus too: 2 females and 1 male wearing a black raincoat. 23 people had passed by the bus stop, 4 flower pots were placed on each pole of the bus stop, and a pink bubblegum was stuck on one of the poles.

"Ew," Sailub grimaced as he eyed the sticky, non-biodegradable substance annoyingly plastered on the metal pole. He then side-eyed the humans around him, silently judging the egocentric person for not practicing environmental conservation. Cursing the human was not enough for him; he needed his gun.

As Sailub sat there for more minutes, his mind went back to his team mission. A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he turned his attention to the sky. The mission had been more challenging and taking longer to complete than he had anticipated, with constant distractions pulling him away from his duties. It was about time the higher-ups would start complaining about the lack of reports from his team.

What could he do about that? They did not have the device to contact the Space base. Hell, he hadn't even managed to find the Earth base's whereabouts for help.

Just when he was about to dwell on his team's stunted progress and curse the higher-ups, a white car pulled over in front of him. The window of the co-driver's seat rolled down, showing the youthful face of the driver. "Need a ride?"

Sailub was about to decline, thinking the young lad was trying to hit on him. But then the driver of the car showed him a card in his wallet that had some kind of logo engraved on it – Space-Earth Investigation logo. He immediately peeled his butt off the bench he was sitting on and entered the white car.

"Good morning, Inspector Sailub," said the person behind the wheel, their hands firmly gripping it as they navigated through unknown terrain. "We've been trying to contact you, but all attempts turned out negative."

Sailub wanted to reply to the person, but then he realized he did not know the person's name. As if sensing his thoughts, the driver spoke up again. "Just call me Fourth, Sir."

Sailub nodded slowly before he pulled the seat belt and buckled it around him. Safety first. "Good morning, Fourth," he replied tentatively. His eyes then fell on Fourth's buckleless body.

Realizing the alien was judging him, Fourth cleared his throat and slowly reached for the seat belt.

Satisfied when he heard the click sound from the connector, Sailub took a deep breath before launching into an explanation about the unexpected attack on their way to Earth and his team's current condition. The human listened intently while also keeping his attention on his driving.

"We lost most of our weapons and equipment left in space unsupervised, possibly stolen by the enemies," Sailub continued solemnly. "Including our communication kits."

Fourth's mind raced as he processed this information. It was clear that they were in dire straits and needed the Earth branch's expertise more than ever. He then began a new topic, "Around a month ago, we received a report from the local police regarding Mr. Krittin's house being broken into." Fourth stopped for a while to turn left, entering a different road. "Your team member, Inspector Pavel, helped with the investigation by exposing the suspect's identity as an alien. Thus, the case was handed to us."