Fantasy Vs Reality | The Tear

22: What A Crew Values Most

I woke up the next morning completely exhausted. I wasn't surprised, because I had stayed up so late the last several nights. I slept in pretty late, the clock said it was somewhere around one in the afternoon. I woke up disgruntled, sensing something had woken me up. Then my hearing focused and I heard Marcus speaking on the intercoms.

He was in mid sentence. "...leaving in just a few minutes! We have stocked up on fuel, I've bought us a shiny new Universal Hyper Drive Unit that Mo and Chloe were awesome enough to install into the engine, and Tuna was kind enough to serve breakfast to everyone this morning and..." A smacking noise sounded from the mic. "Mine was delicious! Thank you very much Tuna!

"Now, I would like Mo and Chloe to please report their status to me as soon as they can! I'd like to leave this junk pile ASAP!"

I got out of bed and quickly rinsed my face with cold water, to help fight the sleepiness that threatened my consciousness to return to it's previous slumber. I stared into the mirror, not nearly as surprised as I was when I first woke up there. I couldn't help but think about everything I had learned the previous night. It was so much to take in as it all started to make some sort of sense... in a weird way.

I needed to speak with Coal after I had woken up that morning, but I was just so tired... and it wasn't the morning anymore anyways. 

To my slight surprise, my head was hurting quite a bit too.

Turning around I stared at a small cart near the entrance to my room with a platter of food on it. Smiling, making a mental note to thank Tuna when I got the chance. Rubbing the rest of the sleep from my eyes, I sleepily walked over to the cart and pulled it over to my bed. I sat down on the bed and slowly began to nibble at the cooked alien fish. It looked very... unique, but very tasty, it was cooked to a deep brown, six fins jutted out from each side of it, and two tails split at the end, and a head that looked like it had a small beak. It had two pairs of black eyes that tasted like seaweed, seaweed was a favorite flavor of mine. 

And yes... I ate it's eyes. It's supposed to improve my sight okay? Now stop judging me.

Once I finished the food, I moved the cart back to the entrance of the room. I went around the cart and opened up the door. I decided that I would head to the bridge, since I had nothing else to do. I needed to check in with Marcus to see if I was needed anywhere in the shop right? That's how all this worked?

I hopped into the elevator and Ember jumped in beside me just before the elevator doors closed, there was a broad smile on her face. "Hey! Good to see you up and awake!"

"Hey." I replied, yawning.

"Just thought I'd go down to the bridge with you." Ember said, rubbing her arm. "I can't wait to be leaving Spaceport Regate Intergalactica. It holds... too many bad memories for me." She glanced off as the elevator doors closed and it began to descend. "It's just... one of the things I love most about the O.S.S. is that Marcus and Orion let anyone join as long as we had the right training and weren't on any... illegal substances, good old background checks.

"Most of us are- were just a bunch of misfits and... well, it's like family here now."

I nodded slowly, gripping Ember's arm gently. "With everyone being misfits the normal ones become the true misfits." I said smiling. "And heck, I don't even remember why I'm a misfit!"

We both started laughing heartily, when a thought suddenly struck me, what Marcus said to the pirate... could it be? 

"We really do have something of value on this ship. Family." I said. Ember smiled.

The doors of the elevator slid open and Ember and I walked out side by side. Marcus was staring out the window of the spaceship as it began to slowly rise upward. Orion effortlessly flicked switches, pressed buttons, and pulled various levers before the ship successfully lifted off and began it's course towards our next destination.