Daydream

10. A non-friendly chase

"Miguel? Miguel?" Carlos voice shouted desperately from the radio.

Miguel knew that he should answer, but the only sound he could manage was a whimper and a "sorry". How would he ever be able to explain what had happened to Carlos? How could he tell him that he had left Karen behind?

"Miguel? What happened? Where are you? Miguel?" Carlos voice kept screaming.

"The PMT-thingy." Miguel pressed out between sniffles. His tears, snot and blood clouded his vision, but the helmet was in the way and he couldn't wipe away the disgusting mush.

"The MTE?" Carlos voice was calmer. "We're on our way. Stay there!"

Miguel nodded in silent agreement. He didn't want to be alone anymore.

"Hey! Miguel!" Carlos said a while later. "We can see you, can you see us?"

Miguel violently shook his head. The mush in his helmet was still floating around and he didn't dare to open his mouth in case he happened to swallow any of it.

"Okay, stand back and let a professional handle this." Zezilia's voice said. Miguel wasn't sure if he could ever call her a professional at anything and his body temporarily froze when he heard that she would try something. Then he felt something small hit him lightly in his stomach. It didn't hurt. Then there was a force pulling him forward. He was pulled slowly until he felt his feet scrape against a floor or wall.

"Are you okay?" Carlos asked.

"Ew! That's disgusting!" Zezilia said.

"That appearance is an improvement." Ernest said. "Proposal that the other two organic life forms copies it."

"Not going to happen." Zezilia said. "Now hold your breath while I get rid of that stuff."

Before Miguel had a chance to inhale he felt someone touch the back of his helmet. Hidden lights in the helmet flashed blue and a sudden stream dragged out all of the mush from the helmet along with the air. Then there was a humming sound as air was resupplied in the suit.

"Oh, no. I didn't think this through. Ew, ew, ew!" Zezilia said. She had been standing right in the path of the expelled mush and was waving around with her hands in attempts to avoid it. "Why does this happen to a genius like me?"

"You deserve it." Said Ernest.

"Are you hurt?" Carlos asked Miguel and patted his shoulder.

"No. I'm... fine." Miguel's nose still hurt, but not as bad as it had before and he didn't see any blood so it probably had stopped bleeding too.

"Hey, Miguel."

"Yeah?"

"Where's Karen?"

The mention of her name drained all the blood from Miguel's face. He couldn't look at his friend. His voice refused to leave his throat. Wasn't this worse than being stuck alone in space? How? How was he supposed to act? What was he supposed to say? What could he say?

"What's wrong? Miguel? Where's Karen? Didn't you find her?" Carlos's voice was shaking and his grip on Miguel's shoulder tightened. Carlos forced him to face him.

"Gone." Miguel whispered. He used all his strength to raise his head and look at his friend. "She's gone."

"Let me get this straight." Zezilia said with slight amusement. "While we we're gone, you and that stuck-up girl encountered some pirate-wannabes and they took her?" Miguel nodded. He had just finished telling them about what had happened. "Well, that's pretty perfect isn't it? In a sad kind of way I guess."