Distant Horizons/Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Into the Darkness

Hando stretched in his pilot chair. The olfactory organs below his eyes tingled. He blinked. The smell of the twi’lek’s vomit still reeked across the ship. He worried about Shia, wondered what had happened to him. Probably just a common illness. Damn, this situation was getting worse by the minute. First the life support issues, and now people were becoming sick. Hando knew there was one battered 2-1B medical droid onboard, battered, rusty and probably dysfunctional. And if they all got sick, he didn’t believe any would survive. Trisha entered the room. “Good’ Mornin” grunted Hando. Trisha didn’t reply. Hando smirked. Firstly, it wasn’t morning. It was space, and it could be any time of day. And secondly this morning was hardly a good one. Below them, a field of space rocks drifted through space. They had reached the asteroid field, but Hando questioned why he had decided to go here. There was nothing here, absolutely nothing but frozen rocky debris. Slowly, the ship Distant Horizons came back to life. Somebody bustled around in the kitchen, Shia maybe. Ghai plodded past the cockpit on his way to the aqua-sonic shower. Ghoel’s head extended from the ceiling and turned to the door, and the Wol Cabbasshite slid through into the corridor. Hando turned to Trisha. She didn’t look at him. Obviously, his fiancée was troubled about their relationship. And he could understand it all. He knew girls could be very emotional about life, especially when things started not being perfect. But he thought again. Trisha was being annoyingly emotional, and not talking to him. But she did not care about perfection and an easy life. She had fought as well as all of them. And she had not changed her attitude when Hando was injured. Or when he was sick. Or when he was taken into captivity. They had sometimes fought and quarrelled, but always made up afterwards. And this time, Hando was aware of what was troubling Trisha. It was that they had spent no time together. For he knew that whether Trisha was fighting arguing with him or kissing him in bed, she needed his company. He looked at Trisha again. She stared out of the view ports pretending not to see him. He grinned at her, and then he started to laugh. Very slightly, the corners of her smooth green mouth began to crease upwards in a smile. Hando sighed, and gently put his hand on hers. She turned her head to him. “C’mon Trish, were in this together, yea?” he said. Trisha hesitated, and then finally nodded. Hando knew this was going to get uncomfortably emotional pretty quick, and although he loved Trisha, he still preferred to have a fun and quirky relationship rather than something overly emotional. Just then Shia entered the cockpit, followed closely by Ghai. Ghai’s right arm was stretched out, and Ghoel hung from his elbow. “There you are” Said Hando, as Shia came and sat in one of the passenger seats. “And just in time” he muttered quietly to himself. Obviously not quiet enough, for at that moment, Trisha glared at him scornfully, her red eyes angry and frustrated. “Whatever”, he thought. “You okay Shia-Boy?” he added. “Yeah, I’m good.” The twi’lek replied, “I don’t know what I had. Maybe something I ate, I dunno” Hando gave a sigh of relief. It wasn’t like that single vomiting fit had gotten Hando worried about the twi’lek dying, but still the prospect of ever loosing Shia hurt so much that he had to force it out of his conscious mind. “Hey people put yo earrings in” said Ghai. Everybody immediately inserted their magnetic scramblers. Ghoel could now speak. “Okay people” said Ghoel, and followed with what sounded vaguely like the Vacuum-breather equivalent of a yawn, “I don’t need talk. Ghai, could you put me on the Ceiling please.” With a shuffling and amused sniggered from Hando and Shia, Ghoel was stuck back on the Ceiling. “Thanks” he muttered. Hando turned away and looked back out of the view port. He was taken by an immediate shock which caused him to flinch. Shia remembered his nightmare, and shoved past Ghai to look out of the viewport. The asteroid belt disappeared a few thousand kilometres in front of them in a huge Nebula. Suddenly, Hando raised his hand and pointed out of the viewport. “Hey, I think I know what we got here.” He said, “I think this asteroid field is actually an Oort cloud.” “A what cloud?” muttered Ghai. Hando looked back at him. The big herglic was not even looking at him, paying no attention and staring at Ghoel, who had stolen a roasted Sarlacci from him. Hando turned back to the viewport. “Shia, my point is that I think we might have just entered a star system.” “Wow, for real” grunted the twi’lek, “so?” Hando smiled. “We go into the nebula and look for planet.” Suddenly Shia felt the spine tingling shock, the need to vomit and shiver. Yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get sick. The duros turned to him. His red eyes were worried. “Something wrong?” he asked. Shia didn’t reply. Something struck his mind. He had the worst conscience imaginable. He was one hundred percent certain this would end in disaster. “No” he said. “We can’t. We can’t go through the nebula”. “Why not man” demanded Hando, passively. “What do you mean why not god ‘dammit” shouted Shia, “you got no idea have you? You’d open the fucking airlock if we told you to, you’d have walked in to a fucking rancor pit if you had too many. Why the hell are you deciding on Kriff-all idea like that man? There could be anything in those, quote, “lovely white and red clouds”. These places are too dangerous.” “Damn Shia, calm down brother” exclaimed Hando, “tell me, what’s up.” “You don’t get it do you?” replied Shia, more calmly, “nebulae are lethal. There could be space storms in there, baby stars, nuclear flares...” “Oh yeah sure” said Hando, annoyed, “and probably also a million black holes and shit like that. Trust me man, that shit is told by mad, lost spacers.” “Yes, exactly” said Shia, “and we are mad, lost spacers, in case you haven’t noticed, or do you call flying straight into a nebula a sane idea.” “Whoa you...” “And you won’t know whether these spacer tales are true or not until you find out yourself. I thought we had enough problems. There’s probably nothing, yeah sure, but there could be Oswafts, Nebrays, space slugs, space dragons, you know. And of course everyone thinks of this as a myth, but half of these myths have turned out true” Hando sighed and chuckled hysterically. “I never would have taken you for a coward, Shia.” “And I never took you, Hando, for a blistering fool and insane space junkie” Trisha stared at Hando, and Hando rose from his seat. Just then, the Distant Horizons entered the nebula. It became cooler and darker inside. Ghai looked up. His eyes widened and glinted. He looked worried. Ghoel was still. He gazed through the viewport. “Shia, you just relax” said Hando sarcastically, “I know you’re in a bit of a state”. Shia felt a surge of primal fear anger, hate and aggression. He lunged at Hando before the duros could sit back down. He grabbed his shoulders and pinned him to the wall. “I’ve been playing around with you for long enough Hando” he whimpered, “we always do shit your way. You’ve never taken my advice.” Hando was silent, still in Shia’s grasp. The nebula outside turned a darker, colder colour. Currents started to whip the ship about. There was turbulence. But as the ship swayed and jerked, Shia still held firmly onto Hando, and everybody was silent. Shia peered out the viewport at the raging wind currents in the Nebula, and then turned back to Hando. “You see. This might very well be the last of your terrible decisions.” Hando snarled and shoved Shia. Whatever this half insane sucker wanted, he wasn’t going to get it. “Yeah, sure brother” he said savagely, “This is what you want, fine. YOU GET IT YOU GOD DAMN...” “That’s enough” boomed Ghai. He pushed Hando aside with one arm and Shia with the other. “Okay, right, Hando, I suggest we get out of here. We’ve already taken enough damage.” “Oh, yeah, so you’re in charge now are you” said Hando, “THIS IS MY SHIP”. “But this is our lives Hando! Don’t you get that? Were supposed to survive not take stupid fucking risks like this.” “I’ve got a fucking...” “We don’t care if you have a god damn blaster” roared Ghai. “Yeah, Jabba the Hutt got shot 5 times by storm troopers and got away with a few burns” shouted Shia. “Jabba the Hutt was killed with a fake gold chain by some girl from the rebel alliance” shouted Hando. “Why the hell are we talking about...” The ship rocked, and Ghai crashed to the ground. Hando drew a blaster. Shia drew a blaster. And on the floor, Ghai drew a blaster. “I’m set for stun by the way” growled Ghai, “I don’t like killing my friends.” There was silence. “What’s that” gasped Trisha out of the blue. Hando turned and faced Shia. “She’s seen a space slug!” he gasped mockingly. Instinctively, the twi’lek’s gaze darted to the viewport. “There it is” said Hando, “See it”. But Shia didn’t move. He was frozen to the spot. Ghai looked up from his place on the floor, and his face twisted. He began to sweat violently. Ghoel too, was transfixed, gazing out of the viewport.