Ow.

  Something hurt in my back, and my stomach, and my foot. Actually, pretty much everything hurt. My head wasn’t doing me any favours either, it was throbbing enough where I could feel it in my face. What in the stars happened? I opened my eyes with a wince as light spiked into my skull. I struggled for a moment to recognise my surroundings; there was a haze of mist enveloping me and the air smelt stale and humid. As I tried to lift my hand in front of me, I realised it was restrained. Looking down I saw my whole body was.

  No, not restrained, secured. The difference is the intent.

  Something I immediately noticed was how heavy I felt, it was unfamiliar, but I felt confident in coming to the uncomfortable conclusion that I was under the influence of something. Or was I? I didn’t actually feel groggy, and my mind was as normal feeling as it ever was. I could still move my arms, despite their weight, and I waved away the mist as best I could, it felt and looked just like steam, but considering how I felt, I didn’t discount it being some kind of gas. I was in some kind of contraption, a teleport chamber? No… the straps wouldn’t make any sense being in one of those, it would probably mean you would teleport with them on, and what’d be the point in bringing the straps with you?

  An escape pod? That would be an exciting prospect if it had actually launched. But I didn’t raise my hopes, I had probably been locked in here by someone. Sometimes the crew would lock me in cargo holds, the kind with no lights or gravity cushioning, it made it really hard to sleep. I guess they wanted to try a more claustrophobic angle this time. I wondered what had been done to warrant such a punishment. It had been a while since I, well one of us, had broken any rules, Yui had been adamant about that, said she had a plan that required good behaviour. Some plan if we ended up here. Though it wasn’t my fault, I didn’t like breaking rules anyway, the crew scared me too much.

  There was a window in front of me, a thin layer of condensation blocked my vision through it. How long had I been in here? I wiped the window with my bare arm, the cool moisture clung to my skin, and I briefly caught myself mesmerised by the way it glistened. I shook my head to return my focus, looking through the glass I could tell something was already very different. There was a concrete wall outside of the pod, nothing like that existed on the ship, in fact, I hadn’t even seen the material before. I knew what it was, obviously, having seen recordings sent from planets and the like, but why was it here? I felt my throat choke as I felt it meant what I hoped to everything it meant.

  I looked around, attempting to find a way to release myself. If I was honest, I wasn’t really enjoying the whole ‘confined space’ thing, and the idea that I had escaped was making my efforts more desperate than they otherwise would’ve been.

  A dull flashing light caught my attention, next to it a red button the size of my palm. Buttons usually did something, and if it was flashing that meant it wanted me to push it, right?

  It was flashing red, I couldn’t tell if it meant ‘Under no circumstances should you push this button,’ or ‘If in emergency, push button!’…

  I pushed the button.

  Bright flashes surrounded the panel in front of me, each with an explosive POP! The panel then launched itself forward, I heard it crash into the wall ahead of me, then clang onto a floor that sounded uncomfortably far away. I couldn’t see it happen, as the mist around me billowed outward, obscuring my vision entirely for a few seconds.

  When it dissipated, I saw that I was angled mostly downwards, and the floor below me was not on the Ship. It was farther away than I’d have liked, but it was not on the Ship!

  At least I knew why I feel so heavy; that was real gravity pulling me down. An uncontrolled force of nature, something not powered by sweat, steel, and suffering, something that wasn’t trying to fake what it was. And the air too! My first breaths of actual air! Air that hadn’t been taken for granted and recycled for decades before it reached my own lungs. It was nauseatingly sweet, and it went down easier than purified water, my tongue even kept its moisture afterwards. I savoured every morsel of it, holding it in as long as I could before my body forced me to let it out. I treated it like it could have been taken away from me between breaths.

  A short laugh caught itself in my throat, then a sob. I stifled it with a hand over my mouth as I already felt tears well up in my eyes. I need to get out of this thing first, then I can celebrate.

  “Hello?” I heard a voice shout, male, it was raspy, like a malfunctioning water pipe.

  “Uh… Hey!” I called back, hesitant. It took me until after I had spoken to remember I didn’t know if people planet-side were any better than the ones I had abandoned.

  “Are you okay?” He called, still out of my vision for the moment.

  Already off to a better start than what I’m used to. “Um, yeah! I mean I’m a bit hurt, but I’m okay! …How are you?”

  I winced at the question as soon as I had asked. I could hear the baffled hesitation as he processed a question that silly.

  “I’m… okay? Are you able to get out? You’re pretty high up.”

  “I uh, I don’t know really…” I couldn’t climb down off anything, the moment I undid the harness, I would start sliding out and I doubted I’d be able to stop myself from falling.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “I can try catching you if you’d like?” The man offered, having come to the same conclusion. “I tried to find something to climb up to you but…” He chuckled lightly, “There’s only concrete round here.”

  He had come into view at that point; he was a modest looking man, middle aged, he had a bald, round head, his face decorated with a short dark grey beard and a wonky nose. He was dressed in some kind of jumpsuit, it was lightly stained with dirt, a fresh layer of dust coated most of it. I liked how he looked; he looked like he wasn’t attempting to be intimidating, which was a first. His stance wasn’t guarded, nor helpless. I liked his eyes the most, even from here I could see the genuine concern behind them, eyes that kind didn’t belong in the head of someone cruel.

  “S-sure! Are you gonna be able to catch me from there?” I asked nervously, the height was making me a little woozy.

  “I’ll try my best, but it won’t be comfortable!” he shouted back, moving into position below me. “I’m ready!”

  I took a deep breath, I didn’t look at my hands I was reaching the buckle of the harness, I didn’t want to see them shaking. As the buckle opened, I felt myself fall forward slightly with my weight, I grabbed the straps to stop myself from plummeting prematurely.

  “You’re okay!” I heard him attempt to reassure me; it did help.

  I decided to just quickly let go, if I thought about it any longer, I wouldn’t be able to do it and I would be up here all day.

  I hated it. I hated it I hated it I hated it. My heart felt like it was falling slower than the rest of my body and I was leaving it behind. It was all over in a second, but I still let out a small scream. I landed hard onto the man; I could feel his knees buckle after a second and we both fell into a heap on the paving.

  Ow.

  I felt him twitch beneath me, then again. Oh god did I hurt him bad? Did I collapse one of his lungs or something?

  I quickly rose to my knees, and saw that he was laughing quietly to himself. I couldn’t stop the smile that curled on my face, nor the giggles that followed. Soon we found ourselves both laughing hard at each other, stomachs hurting and tears welling. It was nice, it had been a while since I had laughed.

  “Well,” The man sighed, sitting upright and brushing the dust off his sleeves, “Introductions are probably in order! My name is Mark, Mark Everhart. You?”

  “Cerim.” I answered through a grin.

  Mark tilted his head, “Cerim…?”

  “Just Cerim, I… don’t know if I have a surname.” I also didn’t really want one, but both answers were true enough.

  “Sure!” He said again with a smile, despite his crackly tone of voice, it was filled with a level of happiness I was far from used to, I won’t lie and say that it didn’t make me nervous, but I think that was mainly down to my anticipation for being free at last. I knew already that I trusted him.

  “Where uh, where am I?” I asked finally.

  He raised an eyebrow; he hadn’t been expecting that question. “You are in Sector 28, on the planet Garant?”

  I frowned and shrugged at him, I didn’t expect to recognise the name, and it didn’t surprise me.

  “Where did you come from?” He asked, now rising to his feet, offering his hand to rise me off mine.

  “A ship, pirate one, I think it’s in orbit.” That last part was an assumption, but I couldn’t see it being anywhere else if I had landed here. As I rose to my feet, I wobbled and collapsed back down. Before I even registered what was wrong, I was overcome with nausea and vomited, I didn’t even have enough time to react and prevent it. My limbs felt slack and heavy, Stars they were heavy!

  “Oh, okay. You’re okay.” Mark spoke softly, placing his hand on my back, circling it as I retched.

  “…Sorry.” I groaned, wiping my mouth with the back of my arm, feeling annoyed when I remembered I didn’t have any sleeves.

  “Don’t be. I feel confident in assuming you haven’t been on a planet in a while?”

  I looked up at him, slightly shocked. “No, I haven’t. How can you tell?”

  “Gravity sickness, happens to the best of us.”

  I didn’t really understand what that meant, but I was still a little distracted by the idea that I was experiencing a planet’s real gravity. Even after suffering its consequences, it made me feel almost giddy.

  “…You said you were on a pirate vessel?” He slowly tried reintroducing his original question.

  “Yep.” I wanted to elaborate; something stopped me. I guessed it was someone.

  I saw his mouth open to say something, then close silently. Something in his eyes changed, I could only think he somehow knew what it was like.

  “I’m sorry,” His slow response confirmed, “Let’s get you inside before we talk any more, don’t want you getting spot checked without papers, and this crash caused a lot of noise.”

  “Ok!” I agreed, not really understanding what he meant by that.

  Gods, everything on this planet was so tall! The buildings went higher than the clouds in some places. Even noticing that made shivers travel down my arms. Above me were honest and real clouds, with a deep royal purple sky beyond them. I couldn’t tell if was high up or just far away, I had never viewed space from below before and the perspective was enticingly unfamiliar. I didn’t have to crane my neck with every third step here, or push loose wiring out of the way, I could look up and keep looking. I knew space was infinite, everybody knows that, but when standing on something terrestrial, and viewing it below layers of atmosphere, it was almost impossible to comprehend.

  I found my heart getting caught in my throat every so often as we continued. Usually waking up in a place I didn’t recognise filled me with a disconnected and uncomfortable terror, but this… I was ecstatic! I found it so hard to contain myself that I was shaking my arms every so often just to get the energy out. Even as a gust of wind chilled me to the bone, I couldn’t help but grin widely as my skin goose-bumped and my limbs shivered.

  We approached a building, it looked like all the others, including the strange, orange-brown metallic additions that hung above our heads. I made a note to ask about them later, I wondered if they served some kind of purpose to the buildings they were attached to, or if they were just decorative. Then I thought that I could actually decorate where I would live! I had never been able to on the Ship, even if I had got my hands on something that could work as a decoration. The best I had gotten was a sleeping bag I had filled with padding I had ripped from the walls; I had made it to cuddle and keep me company during the night cycles.

  They had taken it from me before even a week of time had passed.

  I shook the memory from my mind. Then I looked back at the building we were in front of, it looked like all the others, including the strange, orange-brown metallic additions that hung above our head...

  Wait, have I seen this before?

  I knew I hadn’t, I hadn’t even been on a planet before, but my thoughts had come to me like I had repeated them from a script, like I had practiced my observations before I had made them. But that wasn’t right, I knew it wasn’t. But if I knew that then why had I even brought it up? Where had my own thoughts gone?

  My breathing became heavier, I put my hands up to my face, fingers pressing into my eyes. My body felt like it was numbing to the environment, like time had paused around me. I heard a deep and unfamiliar muffled voice say something I couldn’t understand.

  Was any of this even real? Was I waking up from a dream? How had I even gotten here?