Topasa

If there could be a way for Topasa to brighten the mood, she would do it, without questions or hesitation. Yet the only viable option left to her would be to throw Serfin off the ship. A fate she would never wish upon anyone even if she knew how to open the hermetically sealed door during spaceflight.

Serfin hasn’t said a single word nor has he even eaten after the Starblazer had broken apart. With a frown, she looks him over while he snoozes in a corner with his knees pressed against his chest and his arms curled around them. He almost looks like a young Morphling fresh out of the water. It’s heartbreaking to look at him and despite the oppressively depressive aura around him there seem to be no hints of his psychics running wild at the moment. A small relief…, Topasa muses.

She has tried during the first day of their flight all she could think of to get him out of his depression. But all of her words of comfort were to no avail. Nethra has also tried to pull him back together, but her tries all ended in her becoming frustrated. Even Toddy has tried to help via kind gestures like sharing his rations but without any success as well.

Powerless Topasa turns her head to the screen projected onto the closed windows. It shows what it has displayed an hour before and even two hours before that. Still two days until their arrival on Cetus. Time doesn’t run but crawls by…, she muses and grinds her teeth.

„It’s more painful to see him like this, then I thought possible,“ says Nethra and breaks the tense silence, which has hovered between them for a few hours.

„Good to know you've got a heart,“ Topasa teases her in return, which earns her a halfhearted hiss.

„Can… Can we be sure that there wasn’t another ship ejected?“, Nethra asks after another long pause.

„I don’t know,“ Topasa replies drily. „I guess it can be possible since both sides of the Starblazer had life-ships. But even then we should have seen it.“

„And what if it had been ejected seconds before the ship was fully destroyed? And what about this Creature of the Deep Void? It was a rather large one. Large enough to properly cover up a life-ship ejected from the other side while feeding on the remains of the Starblazer?“

„It’s possible, yes, but I doubt that the life-ship would’ve got away from it undamaged. Life-ships are designed to withstand enough damage to land safely and not to fight off creatures born outside our universe.“

„I guess you’re right.“

„Also let's not forget Slicer’s bad temper. As much as the thought hurts… Maybe he killed Respin before the ship was blown up.“

„I also wonder where this good for nothing weapon-creature has run off to. If it were still here, he wouldn’t have sacrificed himself in vain.“

Suddenly, Toddy taps Topasa lightly on the knee. As she looks down to the small creature, she sees her partial reflection on his large golden compound eyes. Without hesitation, he gives her a piece of paper with something drawn on it in child-like scribbles. She takes it with a surprised expression and places it on the table she had pulled out of one of the wall-panels along with the chairs a few hours after their escape.

„The thing can write?“, Nethra asks bewildered.

„He can draw…“, she replies absentminded and studies the two stick figures for a while — one with long white hair the other with short black hair and a tail. „If I interpret this picture right, he says that she has left to help Respin.“

„Great help, if you ask me,“ snorts Nethra. „Waiting until the whole ship gets destroyed. Maybe she has lured this void-creature out.“

„We don’t know if it were her,“ Topasa retorts. „Maybe it was just a coincidence. We were close to the Border when we picked her up. Perhaps it has followed the Starblazer until it was close enough to destroy it. Those beings are president.“

„I also wonder about this figure, you’ve mentioned,“ Nethra continues after some thought.

Upon her mentioning it, Topasa frowns again and taps her long sharp pinky nail against her even sharper teeth. The clicks make it easier for her to concentrate on her thoughts. She has seen her attacker for just a mere second but that’s certainly enough.

„I… I think I remember what they looked like…,“ she says after a while. „It wasn’t enough time for me to properly imprint the view into my head but… I can try and puzzle the fragments together… If I had something to draw on.“

As she says this her gaze wanders to the paper with the doodle of the Insectoid. The chitinous creature stands still beside the table and looks at her — at least Topasa thinks he does.

„You’ve got a pen?“, she asks not expecting anything to come from it.

For a moment Toddy seems as if he hasn’t heard her, but after a moment he walks to one of the various panels in the walls of the life-ship and pushes a rather small one open. Inside are a few papers and pens. Careful the small Insectoid grabs a pen and a few papers and heads back to Topasa.

„Why, thank you, little one,“ she says grinning, which causes the Insectoid to back away.

Whispering a heartfelt sorry Topasa turns to the papers and the pen and draws with half-lidded eyes on random places of the largest paper. Feeling the image to form piece by piece in her head Topasa thinks about nothing but the moment she got pushed.

Soon the features of a blank mask with a red eye painted on it surrounded by black hair form a few jumbled lines. The creature behind the mask is no Menkar. It has neither horns nor the long ears typical for their species. It hasn’t even a tail, and its feet are flat, short and fully placed on the ground. It looks eerily like the weapon-creature the Empress wants.

„What is this nightmare supposed to be?“, asks Nethra irritated the moment Topasa has placed the pen back on the table.

„The reason why I accidentally shoved everyone into the ship,“ she explains and looks at her drawing. „Not as detailed as I wish, but it will do…“

„Oh, please! This isn’t some art contest,“ Nethra growls, „Is this face even a real face? This thing looks like a creature of the void itself.“

„I think it’s a mask,“ she replies.

„This thing is certainly no Menkar.“

„Certainly.“

„Then how, by the Void, did this thing get on the Starblazer? Also, doesn’t this creature has the same anatomy as this stupid weapon?“

„I noticed as well,“ Topasa muses and again clicks her long pinky-claw absentmindedly against her teeth. „There’s a certain resemblance… Perhaps another specimen?“

„Maybe it was the weapon,“ Nethra reasons with her.

„I doubt that,“ she replies „The weapon had just the sick-clothes and towels going on for clothes. Besides this one seems to have black hair, not white. That reminds me… Serfin told me a few days before all of this shit went down that he had seen the blind passenger everyone spoke about. He told me that the guy had worn a mask that fits what I’ve drawn…“

„Maybe this weapon has played around with your perception and everyone else susceptible enough for mind-fuckery? Maybe that’s what the weapon does. Maybe it’s a mind controller.“

„Like you? No, I doubt that. I would have noticed something like this. You made me quite sensitive to any mind-control attempts.“

„Okay… Let’s say this masked thing’s real and nasty…“

„You want to say that it might be the one, who lured the Creature of the Deep Void to the Starblazer?“

„Dunno… Maybe…“

„But isn’t it stupid to make the ship you’re on explode while you’re still on it?“

„For you, maybe. For me, certainly. Perhaps even for Toddy. But for something like this?“

„I wouldn’t like to underestimate it. Why hasn’t it attacked the Starblazer earlier? Since it has seemingly lurked around for long enough to make rumours about itself pop up throughout the crew. And, most importantly, before killing anyone.“

„But then it has killed someone…“

„I wonder why it suddenly changed its behaviour… But since I can’t speak for this creature, we should think more about the bloody message it has left for us…“

„Those smears? You ought to be kidding! Left for us? What makes you think something like that? I bet those were painted there to confuse the investigation.“

„It could’ve smeared random names. Names from others of the crew without those people having actual connections. I mean… How huge are the odds for our names to be arranged and grouped like this with people we never heard of? This was deliberate. It ought to be a message directed at us and the owners of those other names specifically. Why has it chosen to do this? I don’t know. What is the message? I can only guess. And why writing in Divine-Lettering? After all there weren’t that many people on the Starblazer, who could read it.“

„You should’ve become an Interviewer,“ Nethra remarks annoyed. „The way you invent those stories, you would have made a great one at that.“

„Sorry but this job is much too boring for me to even consider now!“, she replies laughing. „And don’t try to change the subject because you don’t like the conclusions I draw from this! Anyhow… I can only assume the masked creature’s motivations since, to be honest, we know nothing of what actually happened and why it happened.“

„And I prefer to let it remain that way,“ Nethra remarks and crosses her arms. „What I currently worry more about is what will happen to us once we’ve arrived on Cetus… I doubt that the Fleet, and for that reason, even the Empress will let this incident slide off their radar. This situation is too troublesome since not everyone is a corpse floating around space and an important weapon got destroyed or lost or whatever.“

Topasa sighs and leans back into her chair. It isn’t that she hasn’t thought about this earlier, but with all those questions in her head, she had simply forgotten about their more immediate problems. Suddenly, a very dangerous idea strikes her, but it is the only solution she can think of at the moment.

„We need someone to give us protection from the Empire,“ she says and taps the table with both her pinky-claws.

„Who in their right mind protects deserters and traitors, since we’re most likely classified as such?“, Nethra wonders with sneer. „And stop this stupid tapping with your claws, or I’m going to sharpen mine by using them on you.“

Topasa looks at her unimpressed but stops her tapping. Although she doesn’t like to admit it, Nethra has a point. No one in their right mind would take them in. No one except one group.

„How about we look for this Cult of the Pale God and ask them for help?“, she asks thoughtful. „As far as I know, they do protect those who are hunted or merely discarded by the Empire.“

For a moment Nethra looks like she wants to jump at her.

„Have you any better ideas?“, Topasa asks in a sharp tone before she can do something.

„Honestly… I haven’t…“, she replies and leans back defeated.

„Maybe they can even help Serfin,“ Topasa muses after a moment and looks over to him only to see that he has finally relaxed a bit in his sleep.