Stardust

Chapter 3: Water

       "What is it?" A voice communicated in the emptiness of space.

"I don't know. I have never seen something like it." Another voice responded.

       "How can it move, it has no mana." The first voice spoke again, this time with a hint of disgust.

"Maybe it is another metal contraption?" The second voice asked

        "No no, those are all hard. This one is squishy and does not move like the others." The first voice moved closer towards the new object in their view.

"Don't get closer, what if it is dangerous?" The second voice spoke with trepidation.

       "We are the guardians, we have to make sure it is not one of the metal contraptions that they send through." The first voice spoke, this time with conviction as it continue to move closer to the object of their interest.

        Fenala awoke to the sound of movement in the otherwise silent cabin. The movement was muffled at first, like maybe something had come free of its place and was floating around in the cabin adjacent to where she lay down on her cot. She had strapped herself down so that she  didn't also start floating around during her rest. She undid the buckles attached to the soft loops and pushed herself into a sitting position. As she strained her ears to listen in the dark and silence, there it was again, a soft sound that was barely noticeable. The sound of water sloshing gently in eerie quiet of the ship's cabins rushed through Fenala's mind. 

           "Water?" she thought as she pushed her weight into the air, kicking off with her feet to move towards the doorway and more importantly, towards the sound. Fenala couldn't understand why there would be a sound of water sloshing. She knew that all the ration supplies were packed safely in their containers and that only the stores in the ship's water tank could make such a sound, but that it wouldn't be audible inside...would it? Thoughts raced through her mind and quickly vanished as she tried to imagine any number of possible scenarios that would be making the sound she could hear getting louder as she floated through the cabin connector hallway.

             As Fenala slowly floated her way through the ship, the water sounds got louder and more clearer. It wasn't as if water was leaking from something, or the sound of it just sloshing around. It had a flow to the sounds, like a patterned sequence of sloshes and ripples. Fenala gripped the edge of the storage cabin's doorway as she slowly peeked into the room. What she found made her gasp audibly as her mouth hung open in complete shock. There were people! Well...there was certainly beings that had humanoid figures floating in the middle of the cabin. They were now looking at her and making that same rippling water sound. Their mouths moved as if to speak, but only the sound of soft waves in a melodic cadence poured out. She fumbled to grasp the doorway again before she floated away from it. Had she really found Aliens?