X2.3 – THE SPACE CHASE

X2.3.1 – Take Your Breath Away

A bright yet small blinking, red light slowly forced Roa out of his deep sleep. He looked up and noticed a metal ceiling. He tilted his head to the left and glanced around a small room with several bunk beds. Someone was sleeping on the top bunk, but he could not see who it was in the dim light. His head was in a daze.

"Where—what is this place?" he murmured as he stood up, hitting the metal bar of the top bunk.

He felt exhausted. The air was thick, as if every breath was labored, difficult and unsatisfying. He wobbled out of the room until he reached a kitchen. Was he in some bunker? Noticing a small window, he made his way to it and gazed into the vastness.

"We're in space," he said, admiring a spectacular view of a giant planet made of swirls of browns, yellows and gold. The light of a nearby sun caused him to squint, raising his hand to shield his eyes.

The sound of a toilet flushing caused him to turn around. Out of a narrow metal door stumbled out Rosso, who upon seeing his friend smiled and let out a sigh of relief.

"I woke up on a toilet," he said.

"I think we just jumped," Roa pointed out, trying to remember the previous moments.

Rosso took several deep, anxious breaths. "What the hell is wrong with the air?"

The boy from Earth did not answer as he was lost in thought.

"We're in trouble, boys," said a girl's voice from behind.

It was Indigo. She was standing at the threshold of the doorway, leaning against it with a concerned look in her eyes.

"What are you doing here?" asked Rosso.

"I'm tagging along," she said. "More importantly—we're going to die."

The two Jumpers exchanged glances. She walked up to a computer and tapped her index finger on the glass.

"40% oxygen remaining," she said, "39%."

"What the hell is that outside?" asked Rosso, glancing outside of the window.

"It's space. It's what the sky looks like in most worlds if you keep going, and going," explained Indigo. "Did you not hear what I said?"

Hurried steps grew closer, until a tall, bulky man with blue skin and white, curly hair appeared from one of the doorways. He froze when he noticed the three intruders.

"Who the hell are you three? What are you doing on our ship?" he said as his eyebrows raised.

Roa lifted his hands up a bit and reassured him that they did not mean any trouble. The man's eyes scanned the three up and down several times.

"You jumped, didn't you?" the three nodded, "did you close it on the other side?" he asked, the three nodded again. The man ran past them, his steps clanking as he made it into a narrow hallway flanked with tubes and blinking lights.

The Jumpers followed him through the large ship, until they reached the bridge where red lights pulsed, and several warning noises came from the interface. Two more blue-skinned people sat at the controls, turning around when they noticed the intruders. They glanced at the first, who turned to them and said, "Jumpers."

"Did they—" asked the young woman, as the first nodded. The strangers scattered in all directions, causing the heroes to run after them again.

"Can you tell us what the hell is going on?" shouted Rosso, sprinting behind them. "Why the hell are you all running?"

"It's your unlucky day!" said one of them, "you jumped onto a broken ship. We were traveling in the sector when we hit the Veil by accident. We are losing oxygen fast."

"The what?" asked Rosso.

"Where the hell are you going?" shouted Indigo, behind them.

"You closed the Exit behind you, which means that it's open on this side. It's our way out," the woman said.

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"Wait—no, wait. You can't," Roa said, stopping and catching his breath. "You can't jump."

The three space travelers stopped. "Why not?"

"If you jump back to where we came from, you'll find yourselves in the hands of a large group of Shadows," Rosso explained.

"How many?"

"Too many. We escaped just in time," Indigo said.

"Better caught and reset than dead," said the blue-skinned woman.

The space crew continued searching for the Exit but could not find it anywhere.

"Damn it! It must have appeared somewhere outside of the ship. You got lucky you didn't wake up in deep space," said one of the crew.

The ship was hit again and all of them fell to the ground.

"Asteroids, just what we needed right now. We've lost power. We're floating," she said, looking at the others. Fear became apparent in her eyes, and no one said a word for what seemed like an eternity.

"Now what?" Rosso broke the silence. Tapping on a keyboard, the crew members did not answer. The air was getting harder to breathe and Roa's head began to spin. "Now what?!" Rosso repeated, this time with a hint of panic in his voice.

"Shut up, shut up, I'm trying to send an S.O.S.," said the woman, tapping away furiously on the keyboard, as he eyes darted on the screen, looking for something.

"We need to go to sleep," said the big guy in a serious voice. "We can conserve more oxygen that way. We sleep—and hope someone is passing by, and picks up on our signal."

The other two nodded and ran as fast as they could. Except this time, they did not listen to the heroes, or wait for them.

"Hey!" screamed Roa as they ran faster.

"After them. They're trying to leave us behind," Indigo shouted, panting as she sprinted.

The space crew pressed on a large button and a door slid closed behind them. The three heroes slammed against it, banging their fists against the window.

"What are you doing?" screamed Roa.

"We're sorry. We really are, but we can't let you come with us. The more people in cryo-sleep, the less time we will have to stay alive," said the large man.

"You can't just leave us here to die," shouted Rosso, fogging up the glass as he screamed.

"I'm sorry."

Indigo pushed her companions out of the way and pointed a Gunhand at the door.

"Let us in, or I will blast the door open with my aura," she threatened, a look of desperate determination in her eyes.

"If you shoot, you will break the hull of the ship, and we will all die in the matter of minutes," said the woman, raising her hands.

"Looks like you don't have much of a choice. We're as good as dead out here if you leave us, so there's nothing stopping me from blasting a hole through this door and taking you all down with us," Indigo shouted, pointing the Gunhand up a bit as the tips of her fingers began to glow.

The crew glanced at each other, then the door slid open.

"Alright. Alright—but if we do somehow make it out of here alive—you owe us, big time," said the woman.

The crew and the three heroes entered a small room with pods.

"This is the emergency escape pod ship," one of them said, as he fiddled with a touchscreen. "It looks like we have around one month's worth of oxygen, considering there's six of us. We need to go into cryo-sleep and then—"

"And then?" asked Roa.

"And then hope for the best—hope that someone, somewhere picks up on our signal and finds us before we run out of oxygen," said the big guy.

The crew lay inside the pods, and instructed the others to do the same.

"Place the IV needle into your arm, then press the button. When it asks you how long you want to stay asleep—" the woman paused.

"What?"

"Tap on—indefinitely."

Fear gripped Roa, like a burning fire in his chest.

"What if I never wake up again? What if this is it?" his mind wandered in a panic, as memories of his life and his adventures flashed before him.

The crew hugged each other tightly for several minutes without saying a word.

"I love you," they said to one other.

In that moment, Roa felt alone, and thought of Eralay. He wished to see her one more time. He hugged Rosso and thanked him for his friendship. "Thanks for all the crazy adventures together," he said to him. He then hugged Indigo, "Thank you for helping to free us. You've been like a big sister to us while we lived in the circus."

"15% oxygen left," said one of the crew members.

The travelers lay inside their pods, taking as much time as they could before closing them, one by one. No one said a word. The air was becoming impossible to breathe, and Roa was beginning to get tunnel vision. He didn't have much time left. He closed the latch. The locking sound caused him to feel claustrophobic, as if he was laying down inside of his own grave. Tears ran down his face as he stuck the IV into his arm. He glanced at the button but hesitated to push it. His hand was trembling.

He took a deep breath in. Then another, and another until his heartrate slowed. He concentrated. In that moment of fear, he let go of everything. He thanked the Universe for his life, and the many experiences he had, both good and bad. He vowed to live without wasting a single day, if he was lucky enough to wake up again. He took a few more deep breaths and entered a deep state of meditation. It is amazing what level of freedom one can achieve when one is staring death right in the face. It is as if all superficial problems, fears and insecurities—disappear. The Shadows hunting him down seemed so distant now, and the fact that he was still young and unable to completely use his aura seemed trivial in that moment.

He thought of Eralay, and wished for his mind to remember the way up the Palace, so that he could talk to her one last time. He clenched his fist and sent his Blurr message out into the unknown. The small, blue bird-shaped ball of aura floated out of the pod, through the hull of the ship, and into deep space, looking for the nearest portal. Destination: unknown.

The message read: "My dearest love, I find myself face to face with death. I do not know if I will make it this time, nor if this message will ever get to you. Please know that even as the years passed, I never stopped looking for you. I did not forget you, and I did not give up. I love you, Eralay, wherever you are."

Roa felt himself losing consciousness. With the last bit of strength, he slammed on the button. A stinging sensation ran through his arm as the liquid entered his body. The emergency escape ship detached with a hiss from the mothership, and the lights went out.

"What a great adventure this life has been," Roa thought to himself as he lost consciousness. "Thank you."

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