John woke up covered in cold sweat and trembling.
"Why did I dreamt about my graduation?" He muttered while his tired eyes scanned the surrounding.
It took only a moment for him to realize he was in the Crafting Room of the spaceship.
And he slept while sitting in one the chair of the room while using the touchscreen keyboard in front of him as a pillow.
He moved his hand to rub his eyes and felt something slipping from his body and falling on the ground.
John looked down and saw it was a blanket.
When he fell asleep while working, someone came by and put on a blanket over his body.
His hands clutched the blanket as he deeply looked at it.
After taking everything in, John looks up and freezes when he saw Lenny leaning by the door of the room with his arms crossed and staring at him.
"It was Forge that put it on you," Lenny said as he pointed with his chin at the blanket in John's hands.
"Oh..." John was surprised for a moment before nodding.
Lenny looked at John's situation and asked, "Nightmare?"
"Yes..." John weakly answered while wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"That assassin?" Of course, John knew who Lenny was talking about. It was none other than Mouro, the one that tried to kill both of them in the Lunar Mining Facility 12.
John's first kill that often invaded his dreams and turned them into nightmares. The frequency of nightmare got even worst after John went through that illusion in the swamp when he was in the Great Hunt.
"No, worst." John's face twisted a little when he heard Lenny commenting about that event, but, as soon as his face worsened, it recovered to normal, "Earth..."
"Huh? That sounds bad, indeed." Lenny walked by John and stopped at his side, "Can you think of any reason as to why you had this nightmare?"
"Probably because the situation we're right now kinda reminds me when I just escaped Earth's destruction and was all alone in outer space with a damaged spaceship."
After John managed to flee from the Miniknog's pursuit and activated the FTL Drive, they soon found themselves stranded in a foreign place.
John tried to see their coordinates with the Navigation Console and the map Itsuki gave to him...there was nothing in the map.
Even though John could clearly see the massive planet made of gas right at their side, there was nothing about such place the map, nothing at all.
It was like someone purposely erased this place from the map.
John was curious, and even though he wished to explore around and see if there was something Itsuki or Letheia is hiding something, he simply couldn't make the spaceship move. After all, the only engine that wasn't damaged was the normal one.
To get out of their place, they had first to fix the engine. Secondly, they need fuel, Erchius Liquid Fuel.
In other words, they were currently stranded at the place, orbiting this giant planet that was surrounded with moons of all sizes that could smash their ship if they were not careful enough.
A very familiar situation to John, since he had been stranded once, not long ago. But he was lucky that the Warp Jump put him just beside a low Tier planet without many dangers.
Lenny suddenly broke John's train of thought, "You should properly rest, you spent 5 hours straight working with Forge to create a blueprint. It isn't surprising you would simply pass out while working."
"Yeah..." John nodded in acknowledgment, "My brain is going to melt if I have to work any longer in this engine. Physics and chemistry weren't my strengths at school. I only have basic knowledge in mechanics, and Forge is simply a biologist and geneticist. How the hell can we fix that engine."
Lenny patted John's shoulder and laughed, "You thank that she at least know a lot more than us. Me Peri and Saito are useless in this situation. I'm a Bounty Hunter that only knows how to kill. Peri is almost the same, she only knows how to fight, and can know some basics in medicine. Saito, well... he's a kid."
"Thanks for the encouragement." John said sarcastically, "You useless Novakid. I shouldn't have gone save you..."
"Too late for regrets! Hahahahaha!" Lenny swiftly left the room while gleefully laughing.
John casted a glance at Lenny's back and sadly sighed.
Lenny knew that John was kidding when he said those words. He knew John very well, what type of person he was. He was someone that believe in order, law, and a selfless idiot.
...
At the Captain's Quarters.
John looked at his reflection in the bathroom's mirror.
He never thought that one day, he would miss his peaceful time on Earth and his not-so-peaceful time when Cael, Aoi, and Zyanya would search for him and bother him all day long.
John opened the sink and placed his head beneath the stream of water.
As he closed his eyes, his mind took him back about one day ago, when John was about to go rest while the spaceship performed the Warp Jump.
Right before walking away, he heard Peri and Lenny speaking with each other.
If it were before, John would have never been able to hear them from such distance, a bit after he got that strange mark in his hand, his senses, including hearing, got a lot better.
He stopped on his tracks and went back where just was with Peri and saw both her and Lenny walking together to a more secluded place within the ship.
John maintained a certain distance as he knew that Peri would sense him if he got any closer.
When both Peri and Lenny stopped, John also stopped outside the door of the room, both of them entered.
John looked up and saw the sign written "Crafting Room" on top of the door.
"So, Lenny, how about you begin?" John heard Peri's voice muffled by the thick door.