Stardust

Chapter 6: Travel

        Fenala awoke after only 5 hours of sleep, unable to fully relax under the watch of a stranger in the room. She opened her eyes to a dimly lit cabin, the window on the far wall allowing light from the stars beyond to flow into the room. Fenala reached to her sides and unclipped the straps keeping her body in place over the cot. Pushing herself into somewhat of a sitting position, her head spun, the cabin becoming blurry as she held the sides of her head with her hands. A voice rang out, like a storm erupting amongst the ringing in her mind.

       "Good. You are awake Captain." Yuval spoke from his position near the window. "Are you ill?"

       Fenala's head was still dizzy, but her vision became clearer as she wiped her eyes and blinked a few times. "I think my body is just strained." she said frowning at him. Fenala looked around the cabin still reeling from her headache. "So what now? We just hang out until we get to your planet?"

       He pointed towards the window. "We are already almost there."

       Fenala started. How were they almost there? Hadn't they been weeks away before...before she went to sleep. "What did you do to me!?" She shouted at Yuval, her eyes darting around the room searching for some explanation.

       "Be calm Hashran." Yuval's scales shifted quickly to a deep red as Fenala moved awkwardly to stand up in the zero gravity. "We simply used another ritual on you while you slept to keep you asleep until we arrived." He looked at her warily, his hand hovering over the rope that he had wrapped back around his torso.

       Fenala slowed, looking at his hand hovering over the rope he had used to keep her bound before. She did not want to have to go through that again. She stopped her movements towards him and raised her hands above her head in a sign of surrender. "Okay, I'm sorry. It's just...this is all a lot for me to process. Aliens, planets, gods, mana. I mean, how did you even move the ship that far so quickly?"

       "We used our mana." Yuval said simply.

       He spoke so calmly, as if it would be obvious. And perhaps it should have been obvious. Fenala looked at him incredulously before relaxing her body and letting out a big sigh. Of course they used their mysterious magical mana powers to somehow get the ship there much quicker. Just like they had used it to keep her asleep for weeks, and move a rope through the air  to wrap around her. Reka entered the cabin, interrupting the captain's thoughts. She carried what looked like some of Fenala's clothes in front of her.

       "Change into these new garments." Reka said as she floated almost all the way to Fenala before lightly pushing the clothes through the air towards her. "You will not be dirty when you meet the Tribe Mother."

       Fenala took the clothes from the air, looking at Yuval and Reka as they floated next to each other now. "What, here?" Her face flushed with embarrassment at the thought of having to strip in front of them. "I need some privacy, and I need to wash myself first anyways." Fenala spoke quickly, pleading with them. As she was speaking, she noticed something that maybe she should have seen earlier. Neither Yuval, nor Reka wore any clothing. The two aliens floated there with nothing covering them. She thought that maybe their scales acted in the same way as the people on Vedraxa used clothes, but they were seemingly part of their skin.

       "What do you need to wash?" Yuval asked, his face a forest green hue. He sounded as if he was curious.

       "There is a small washroom just outside of the cabin. You can guard me from outside the door. There is no other exit, look." Fenala said as she pushed herself towards the cabin door. Reka quickly flicked her tail against the floor, catapulting herself in front of Fenala's path.