Page 18 of There's an Elf in My Cockpit

Not much later the two of us had washed up and gotten dressed with what gear we had left. I’d checked over the backpack to make sure we had enough rations and our tent was still good but it looked like early morning outside so I hoped we wouldn’t have to spend the night out on the ice plains a second time.

Darth had returned my message with a simple report that they had survived the storm without issue and were awaiting our victorious return. I was certain I’d be hearing stories that weren’t quite so calm when we made it back, but I knew that Darth would have told me if anything serious had gone down.

“Lead the way,” I said politely to the drone when we stepped out of the room. This was my first time getting a good look at the building we were in and I couldn’t help but stare, impressed with the architecture. This wasn’t just a moon base, this was an ice castle. Doors arched tall and sharp at intervals were made of thick blue ice decorated like church doors with carvings and heavy hinges. The themes ranged from monstrous snow creatures to snowflakes and flowers.

The windows that sometimes popped up along the way showed dazzling views of the ice world outside. I saw the shape of the castle if the window was angled right too, a fantastical snow palace with towers and spires. Put a snow globe over it and it could pass as the magical home of Santa Claus himself. I couldn’t believe that our host lived in a place like this and that this place even existed on this strange, hostile ice moon.

Vi and I were both curious, peering around corners hoping for a glimpse of our strange host, but it was just the drone and us when we finally arrived at what had to be the communications room. The doors swung open for us on silent hinges, despite their impressive size, these were decorated with alien deer with long furry tails and silvery antlers.

Beyond the portal, the room was windowless and round, with nothing in it but a pedestal right in the center and a glowing light hovering above it. The ceiling was domed, and shimmering a deep blue with glittering sparkles like stars. If this was the com console, it looked nothing like the tech I’d gotten to know since my arrival in this time and quadrant. This looked much more like a shrine, some kind of sacred place, it even felt like there was a hush in the air.

The drone that brought us here was already at the pedestal, hovering right next to the light. A little beam came from the center of it, scanning the floating orb on the pedestal, and then a mechanical voice intoned. “Scanning for ships.”

I found Vi’s hand and gently squeezed it with a smile. See, things were looking up for us, we’d found a way to contact the Vagabond. We’d be out of here soon, maybe we’d even leave that asshole Elpherian stuck on this moon. Wouldn’t that be something? Although I still thought that it would be very satisfying to permanently take care of his threat to my girl.

“Located one ship, designation Vagabond, initiate contact?” the drone announced and VI and I both eagerly yelled yes; sharing another smile. I felt hopeful, this was good. Vi was coming around, and once we were all safe again I could relax and woo her like a gentleman, make her fall for me hard. I was already certain that she’d adore the hydroponics bay on the ship, with all its lush flowers and plants. The purple alien wisteria would look so lovely against her creamy skin and nearly white hair.

“This is Sunder from the Vagabond, who is hailing us?” Sunder’s gravelly voice broke me from my thoughts, interrupting all my plans for dates with my elf. I was incredibly relieved to hear the Tarkan male’s voice, of the same species as Darth, he looked like a gargoyle and tended to run all communications on the ship, so I wasn’t surprised it was him that answered.

“Yo, Sunder. It’s me, Oliver, are you guys all in one piece?” I asked, stepping closer to the glowing orb and the drone. There was no viewscreen, no image of my friend but somehow I thought that was on purpose rather than impossible.

“All is well, where are you and the teens? What happened? Why did that Elrohirian vessel shoot at you? It followed you down onto the moon, did you run into them?” Sunder sounded calm as I spoke but I was pretty sure they had been sweating bullets up there for the past couple of days as they tried to figure out if we survived and how to get to us. If anyone could fly a shuttle down through this atmosphere and do it safely, it was our pilot Kitan.

“I picked up a lady in trouble. Turns out that ship belongs to the right-hand man of the Crimelord Jalima. I’ll send you the coordinates of our shuttle and our current location, it’s down and needs some engine repairs. Maybe you guys can come pick us up?”

Vi was vibrating next to me as I explained more of our situation and tried to hammer out the details of our retrieval. Nerves no doubt, and that silly sense of guilt that she’d caused this. I didn’t hear Sunder or Captain Ziame reprimand either of us for getting into this. They were more focused on retrieving us than anything else.

Things were made harder however by the drone and the gruff voice of our host as he kept refusing to transmit our current location. I didn’t think Sunder and Ziame could hear his interference, and I struggled for a moment to figure out how to explain what was happening without ticking off the grumpy voice speaking to us through his avatar drone.

“Sorry, it seems we can’t be retrieved from this location, we’ll hike to the shuttle and meet you there,” Vi offered smoothly. Yeah, that worked, I’d explain our host and this device to my friends when we were back on the ship. They’d understand.

“You sure? That ice moon looks cold to me,” Ziame said with an obvious shudder in his voice. The big Lacerten male was of a reptilian race, like a crocodile and a bull had weird offspring that could breathe fire. He was a badass, a gladiator once known as Beast, but he was definitely not fond of cold places.

“Yes, now we just need to figure out how you guys can safely pass through the atmosphere to get to us. Our ride down was really rough and it wouldn’t do if you guys got stuck here too.” I laid it on a little thicker than necessary because I was certain that Kitan could fly through anything, especially if he had his navigator and mate, Chloe, at his side. I just wanted to see if our host would like to get rid of all of us bad enough that he’d help out with this problem. It was just a hunch, but I had a feeling that he might be responsible for the phenomenon in the atmosphere, a giant ‘keep off my lawn’ sign.

I was proven right when he gruffly snapped that he’d open a window for them, coordinates were intoned across the open call by the drone immediately after. “Ah, pretty sure that’s your corridor, did you guys get that?” When Sunder confirmed they had the coordinates and were checking the validity of that location now, the call simply disconnected. Rude, but then, our host didn’t seem one for manners anyway.

“Yeah, I got the message, we’re going. Lead the way,” I said, more amused than annoyed by the abrupt end. We couldn’t complain, he’d healed us, given us shelter and food, and now he’d made sure my friends could safely rescue us. He was entitled to a little rudeness if that’s what he wanted to do, I personally couldn’t understand why he hated company this much but that was not my problem.

The drone zapped out the door so fast that we had to jog to keep up. Yeah, he really, really wanted to get rid of us.

Chapter 13

Vi

Being out on the ice plains again after the warm safety of the ice castle was a little jarring but I felt lighter, less encumbered this time around. I was actually relieved to leave that place after I’d caught a second glimpse of a giant shadow along one wall. Oliver just missed it when I tried to point it out and it was hard to describe what I’d seen.

Was it a creature on four legs or two? It looked so big but shadows were always misleading. Whatever it was, I was sure it was our host and it had left me feeling like I was being watched from the shadows by a deadly predator. Something like that ice beast that we’d fought the day before which already felt like a lifetime ago.

Our beastly host couldn’t be all bad though despite the grumpy voice. A second backpack had been waiting for us by the door, a new set of snow goggles dangling from the strap that was identical to the single pair we had left. That was thoughtful because we definitely needed a second pair to help against the glare of the sunlight on our nearly entirely white surroundings.

Oliver was carrying the pack gifted to us by our host, it was heavier than the one we had left, and he was wielding a new pair of ice axes, also a gift. The rope between us was slack, our distance a good two dozen feet as we traversed the plain side by side. I was keen not to repeat a second fall down a hidden crevice in the ice so I was holding my own pair. One of them the slightly scratched-up ax that had somehow survived our adventure so far. The other was identical but pristine, almost as if our host had made copies of the things we might need. I knew there were alien races in the Zeta-Quadrant that could do that, but so casually?

Whoever lived in that mysterious, towering castle of ice was in command of technology so far superior to that of my own species, that it was a little daunting. When I looked back to gaze at the castle it was just as shocking to realize that it had already disappeared from the horizon, like it wasn’t even there. But stealth technology? I had never heard of anyone truly succeeding in creating that. I thought it was proven impossible.

“Too bad Kitan couldn’t pick us up,” Oliver said, raising one hand over his eyes to gaze back just like I was. “They would have gotten a kick out of seeing that place.” I wasn’t sure why he thought his friend would get kicked if he saw the castle, but I did agree. Each time the ice creaked or groaned beneath our feet, even if it was just the crunch of fresh snow, I felt a deep sense of unease. I couldn’t look at the pristine landscape with the same wonder as before, not when I knew that we were so close to plummeting to our deaths if we weren’t careful.

My eyes lingered on Oliver, his proud form was magnificent. The thick coat just made his shoulders seem even more wide and I loved how different his hair was. Most Elrohirians kept their hair long, and thick curls were extremely common, though my hair was sadly as straight as could be. Oliver’s hair was longer on top, just long enough to fall adorably in his eyes, but shaven on the sides in swirling patterns that kept drawing my eye. It made the very square shape of his head, and the masculine jut of his jaw, very pronounced.

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