Arynthe's Story

Darkness of Space

13 br.

"That was it then," my father said. "The last Ashirian cured. What will be our next mission?" 
"Food!" I honked. "I'm so hungry I could eat this entire spaceship!" 
"Make sure to shut it off before you start," my father joked. "You don't want to trigger a seizure." 
"Please don't say that! If I think about those too much I'll get one!" 

I hopped into the familiar co-pilot's chair and corrected the just as familiar asymmetry in the engines. This last year had been quite intense, so I was pretty glad it was over. Seeing who survived also meant hearing the stories about who didn't make it and why. My first love Keran for example: he got killed by an alien while he tried to protect his little sister. Doctor Sioro also hadn't survived. He got out of the planet safely, but he had been on the surface for too long. The radiation had damaged his brain so much that he was dead by the next morning. 

Before you hear the stories you always hope that they're just on the next place, and then again, and again, until you hear it.

Everyone also needed to hear what happened to my mother. At first it was a tough story to tell, but in the end I just switched off my emotions every time I told it. She didn't deserve it of course, but I couldn't bear the old wounds being cut open every single time. It'd make every victory bitter and I just stopped accepting that at a certain moment. 

I had given all Ashirians a little device. I got them from Egeg. They were designed to contact each other, no matter how far away they were from each other, if you entered the code. This way Ashirians could contact each other if they found a new planet for us to live on. 

"Intergalactic restaurant!" my father said, pulling me back to reality. "Call them, Arynthe, and ask if they can get us some finto!" 
I put the headset on my head and called. 
"Good day!" a friendly voice said.
"Good day," I replied. "Can we-"
"Excuse me," the voice interrupted. "My computer detects that you speak the Ashirian language. Are you Ashirian?"

I nodded and stared at my father in amazement. Then I realized the person on the other side couldn't see me. 

"Yes, we are," I said. "Why do you ask?"
"I'm afraid we don't help Ashirians here," the voice said. He was clearly trying to hide that he wasn't feeling very friendly at the moment.
"What?!" I called out. "Why not? What did we do?"
"Uhm... Don't get me wrong... Of course it's not proven that you specifically did... But many Ashirians misbehave in public places. That's why we banned them to prevent casualties..."

I stared through my mind's eye at the man's imagined face. That was the most nonsense I had ever heard. 

"Only a few days ago we kicked out an Ashirian who threatened other customers with a dagger because they wanted to skip the line."
I sighed. "Maybe you should first explain what exactly a dagger is?"
"Ma'am," the voice now sounded firm, "I'm not interested in excuses and poor acting. Please leave." 
"Hang on," I said, "I think my father has something to say about that."

I took off the headset and gave it to my father. He turned to me. 

"Problems?"
"They don't want to sell us food because we're Ashirian."

My father stood up. There was a fire burning in his eyes that I had rarely seen before. He put the headset on.
"Hello?" he asked softly.
Silence.
"Not so fast. Your job is to provide food right? Right? Well, Ashirian or not, whatever petty reason you have to ban us, we are hungry. My daughter is the diplomat, but I'm angry right now. And hungry. Stop trying to interrupt me, I'm not done yet! You can't expect us to just-"
Silence.
"No, definitely not! How can you think of us that way?"
"You're making it worse..." I whispered, more to myself than to my father. Obviously getting agressive wouldn't solve the problem! What was he doing?!
"XAONI!" my father shouted. "You know, keep your rotten food and watch us starve, if that's what you want!"

He broke the connection and threw the headset back at me. From his throat sounded a deep, scary growl. He sat down in his chair, all his muscles trembling with rage, and squeezed the edge of the screen with his fingers. 

Then he teleported us to the surface of the planet. We sat down there right in front of the forbidden restaurant and waited. For weeks.