"Huff," Cheryl sighed, looking so bored.
The girl was the only one left at the round table. While everyone else was busy preparing for their departure, Cheryl was still thinking about her short red skirt.
Above the table was her elbow. She tilted her head to the left, then supported it with her hand, which she placed on her cheek. Her sullen, unenthusiastic face faced the view of Earth.
A large portion of her surroundings were glass-made, making the Earth appear to be one giant stunning view. The hall was, arguably, the best place on the station to enjoy the view of outer space as it was circular, so it provided an all-direction view.
"Huh?!" Cheryl heard a dramatic gasp just a moment later. It sounded almost like the person was startled by her presence there.
The girl turned to the stairs in front of her as the sound came from there, "Rosemarie?" she said quite in surprise.
"M-Miss Cheryl…," Rosemarie touched her chest, implying that she was, indeed, startled the moment she saw Cheryl.
"I didn't expect to find you here," the short, white-skinned girl continued.
"What happened?" Cheryl was a bit confused.
"I was looking for you. Everyone else is preparing for the departure, and I didn't see you. I was curious about where you were because you had so many things to pack, so I figured you would need some help," uttered Rosemarie with her typical shyness, even though she still felt a little bit startled.
"Ooh, that's so sweet," Cheryl was flattered. Her mood went up as she felt someone was paying attention to her. "Thank you, Rosemarie."
"Yeah, I'm here because I was still thinking about my beloved red short skirt. But you just made my day, and that's like the best thing I experienced today. So, thank you very much," Cheryl added. The girl almost shed a tear.
Rosemarie seemed to be a little confused. She wasn't so sure of what happened, but her sweet and soft voice still gave a response, "Y-you're welcome…."
"Alright!" shouted Cheryl suddenly, shocking Rosemarie. The girl also slammed the table with the palm of her hands and got up as she said so.
"Let's pack and move on!" she continued, then walked over to the stairs.
"By the way, you can always simply call me by my name. I think it sounds easier. But if it's easier for you to call me 'Miss', I'm cool with that, too. I'm also cool if out of nowhere you decide to call me 'Lady'," Cheryl told Rosemarie while walking down the stairs with her. She giggled shyly in her last sentence.
"Yes, Miss," Rosemarie gave a simple reply.
***
As one of the hibernation capsules had been installed in Unit Three, Jake came back to the hibernation room to inform Jordan about her departure. He knocked on the half-opened door first.
"Unit Three is ready to depart," he told Jordan, entering the room. Aksel and Liz were also present there. All three of them turned to the door right after Jake knocked on it.
Nobody was responding due to the Captain stopping them in the middle of their activities. Jordan was inspecting Aksel's hibernation capsule, while Liz was performing a total medical check-up on Aksel, who laid on the capsule that was initially used by Blake to hibernate.
"How is it?" Jake asked them as he stopped walking.
In response to the question, Jordan shook her head after getting up from squatting.
"As expected," answered Liz, who would also stand straight later and help Aksel to sit.
"He can move his upper body, but not much about his lower one. Nothing has changed; he's in good condition overall," the female aardean explained.
"There weren't any wrongs detected. Maybe his body was just not ready for the system, and the attachment was stuck because it waited until his body was ready," speculated Jordan. Everyone was silent afterward.
'Lynch,' a quick and sudden whisper from a mysterious voice in his ear startled Aksel in the silence.
No one seemed to notice that as the boy was looking down. He didn't give much reaction either, apart from widening his eyes. He raised his head later to look around. But he found nothing.
"I guess we really will never know why," said Liz a few moments later.
***
On the other hand, at the entrance of Unit Two, Blake, Sean, Jane, and Chandler worked together to sort and put in the most crucial items they would need on Earth. Units Two and Three were the smallest spaceships among those they initially had, so the Saviors couldn't bring many things as they also needed space for ten people inside the spaceship.
"Sleeping bags?" Blake questioned Sean.
"All in," Sean replied to him. Blake put a checkmark next to the 'sleeping bags' note on the paper he held afterward. The paper, which was placed under a clipboard, listed the things they had to bring with them.
"Ten spacesuits?" he questioned Chandler this time.
"Yes, I've got them all here," answered the blond boy.
"Compasses?"
"Got them," Jane responded to Blake.
"Aksel, Curtis, and Cole's clothing?"
"They're here, too," said Chandler.
"You've got all your clothes packed?" Blake asked the three of them.
"Yeah," they answered him at the same time.
Blake took a moment to mark the notes for their clothes, including his own.
"Women's… personal hygiene items?" he frowned as he realized there was a newly added note at the bottom of the paper. The boy looked at Jane afterward.
"Packed!" Jane gave a quick reply.
Blake turned his eyes to the paper again later, "Jake, Rosemarie, and Cheryl's clothing are all that's left," he stated.
"Don't you dare leave Cheryl's collection of shoes and beauty equipment behind!" Cheryl told them enthusiastically, fast walking. She came with four duffle bags and Rosemarie, who brought a whole backpack.
The four of them turned to the two girls, and they were too stunned to speak.
"Now, we are ready," added Cheryl.
"No. No. I'm not going to let you in with those bags," Jane took quick action and stood before Cheryl and Rosemarie.
"What?" Cheryl was baffled, frowning.
"Cheryl…," as her brother, Sean tried to speak. The young man approached his younger sister.
"Didn't you hear what Captain Jake said? We can only bring two pairs of clothes. Our spaceship is already small enough to contain ten people. We bring what we need the most," the tallest member of the Saviors informed his sister. Sean was known to be affectionate, kind, and gentle, so he was very soft in every word he spoke.
"What? No. I didn't know Captain Jake said that," uttered Cheryl.
"I-I'm pretty sure you weren't there when he said that," Chandler joined the conversation from behind Sean. The boy looked at everyone one by one upon saying that as he was unsure whether it was the right thing to say.
"See? Thank you, Chandler. Besides, I need all of these more than anything," the girl insisted.
"Okay then, whose fault is it you weren't there when he said that? Where were you?" Jane asserted. She started to lose her patience.
"I don't know. Maybe I was still upstairs at the round table until Rosemarie came up to me and said that she wanted to help me pack all my stuff because I had the most things of all."
Jane turned her eyes to Rosemarie, which scared the curly-haired girl, "M-Miss Jane…"
"Why didn't you tell her about it?" Jane interrogated Rosemarie.
Rosemarie turned her eyes to the left, scared to look directly at Jane, "I wasn't… paying attention," her voice went lower.
"What's going on here?" Jake finally came and interrupted them. Everyone turned to the Captain, who walked over to them with two pairs of clothes in his hands.
"Look at how much stuff she brings with her, Captain," Jane told Jake as she pointed all her fingers at Cheryl's duffle bags.
Jake stopped his steps the moment he stood next to Cheryl. He took a look at the girl's duffle bags, then at her face, and the faces of everyone else present there, before turning his eyes to Cheryl again.
The Captain sighed, "Let's take a look at the inside of this spaceship first," he said, moving forward. Cheryl and Rosemarie followed him, prompting Jane to step aside as they did so.
Both Cheryl and Rosemarie peeked inside the spaceship later with only their heads getting in. They looked at every corner of it. Rosemarie took out her head not long after, while Cheryl stayed as she realized how limited the space they would have.
"This is not the spaceship we were meant to use due to its size. This was designed as a supporting spaceship, not the main one. That's why we can't actually bring anything if we want ten people to fit in," Jake patiently explained to Cheryl, who let her head out a moment later.
Cheryl sighed, looking down.
"I'm sure we are totally fine with only two pairs of clothes," he said as he half-lifted his clothes, showing them to the girl.
"Captain, it's not just… about clothing," Cheryl turned her eyes to Jake, "Almost half of these are my beauty supplements, as well as my skincare and my makeup tools that thankfully survived that explosion. How am I supposed to live my life without these?"
Jane placed her left hand on her forehead right after hearing Cheryl's last sentence, a gesture of frustration.
"We'll be able to survive. The Earth is even richer than Arcadia in natural resources. You don't have anything to worry about. We have Chandler here, the holder of the Potion Master System," stated Jake as he turned his eyes to Chandler and smiled at him.
"Oh, that's right," Jane was reminded of something. Her eyes wide opened as she released her forehead, "How about your vitiligo medicine, Captain? Has Chandler successfully imitated it?" The girl turned to Jake and Chandler alternately later.
Jake Valerian, the captain of the entire mission. He was a 34-year-old man with vitiligo, a rare condition that usually made people seem to have two skin colors: their original skin color and white. For Jake, it was tan and milky white, so white that it often looked like the color of lavender mist instead. However, the hair in his body wasn't affected by this condition. His hair was cut short and had a unique natural color of brown, the same as his thin beard. Additionally, he was a little bit taller than Sean, fit and well-built, too.
"Oh, Chandler did a great job of developing it. His current level limits him from developing it further, so he'll still need more time to fully imitate it. But I believe in him," Jake revealed, prompting Jane to turn to the blond boy.
"Woah. That's very cool, Chandler," Jane praised the boy, which made him blush.
"That's why I can assure you, Cheryl, that you have nothing to worry about," the Captain told Cheryl one more time.
The tan-skinned girl gave no further response. All that she did was sigh, accepting the fate.
***
"It's going to be a dangerous and harsh world there. Take care of yourself. I hope you'll get better soon," said Jordan to Aksel after she let go of him from her hug. Her eyes became teary. It was a heavy separation for Jordan as she was just having him back after nine months.
Aksel nodded, "Thank you for everything."
The woman smiled at her stepson, before it changed in a mere second, "Make sure you get enough sleep and don't stay up too late. Also, watch your diet and stay healthy. Don't be naughty, too, it's important to listen to your captain. And last but not least, complete the quests your system gives you right away, don't put anything off!" She lectured Aksel, entering her motherly mode.
Aksel didn't expect that she would do it in front of Liz, Curtis, Cole, and Eric. He even moved his head backward a little as his stepmother was preaching to him. He was a bit surprised at first, but he couldn't hide it: he was happy that Jordan did so.
The boy smiled, "Yes…," he stopped for a moment. He wanted to say something like 'Mom', but it would be too weird since he never called her that. It would also be weird if he would just call her by her name at this kind of moment, so Aksel was confused during the pause, even though he didn't really show it on his face, "I understand," he continued eventually.
As a response, Jordan smiled at him as well, before getting up. The woman turned to Curtis later, who was shedding tears as he didn't want to be separated from her.
"Curt?" she called for him.
"Uh? Yeah? Yeah?" the young man turned his face away from her upon responding to the woman, trying to hide his sadness.
"Can I talk to you for a second?"
Curtis was surprised to hear that. He quickly turned to Jordan again, "Sure?"
Jordan moved away from Unit Three as soon as Curtis gave her an answer. The young man followed her afterward.
"What is it?" Curtis asked Jordan after they stopped walking. They were still inside the third leg. But if their voices were low enough, Aksel, Liz, Eric, and Cole, who were all in front of the entrance to Unit Three, wouldn't be able to hear them.
"Listen. Um. Among all the Saviors members, you are the one that I know the most. I don't know what made you agree to join this mission. But I know Lucas didn't only recommend you to his father. He convinced you to join the Saviors, right?" uttered Jordan.
"Uh?" Curtis was a bit surprised. This wasn't the direction he was expecting.
The young man nodded, despite being unsure initially.
"Now, I'm not trying to find out anything about it. I just have one request for you," the woman paused, then bowed down, "Please take care of Aksel," she pleaded, shocking Curtis.
"Don't ever hurt him. I trust you," the woman added, still bowing down.
"Jordan…," Curtis was speechless upon seeing the woman bow to him. But he realized that this would attract the others as those who were at Unit Two were approaching the third leg.
The dark-skinned man touched her shoulder, "Stand, Jordan. You're attracting their attention," he told her.
As she stood straight, in his facial expression, Jordan saw the seriousness she never witnessed from Curtis.
"Maybe there will be times when I can't protect him, but I'll try to always look after him, and I'll never hurt him. You have my words," he promised her.
Looking at them from afar, Liz frowned. Eric and Cole seemed to be curious, too. But none of them say anything. The lilac-skinned woman briefly looked at Aksel, who couldn't see Curtis and Jordan since he sat facing the spaceship. He did nothing, as she might have expected. All the boy did was stare at the entrance to Unit Three, flat in facial expression.