The alarm went off again. Abi started yelling something about engines and stabilizers and jets. The ship began to drop. I began to panic. I fucked up I fucked up I fucked up. I involuntarily turned into a whisp.

This… this happens sometimes. I usually could control it, but if I freaked out, or got really upset, it… happens whether I want it to or not. For reference, turning into a whisp normally entailed me turning into a purplish-blackish mass of smoke-like… stuff. It’s a bit hard to explain.

Anyway, I was in free fall.

But now, I was a blob of smoke. This, thankfully, meant I had a bit more control. However, falling from the sky was still terrifying, because I could only float when I was next to a solid surface.

The collision was no less terrifying as a whisp than it was as a person. Even though I knew I would end up floating inches from the ground, I still screamed.

After a few moments of I’m okay, I’m safe, I’m fine, I turned back into a person and fell on my bum with a soft thump. Where are my friends are they okay please be okay please be okay- Scrambling to my feet, I went to look for my friends…

Nadrire had shielded them. I let out a sigh of relief. The shield flickered out as I approached, and Nadrire peeled herself off of Ella and Shei, who it appeared she had tackled. I rushed over to them, helping Shei to their feet.

“Are… are you all okay?” I checked each of them over. “Anything broken? Bleeding? Dented?”

Ella checked herself over. “I think I’m good.”

Shei sat up with a groan, rubbing at their back. “I might… have a few bruises.”

I sucked in a breath. As Shei unsteadily rose to their feet, I rushed to support them. I glanced up at their face, chewing my lip, then looked at Nadrire.

“How about you?”

“I’m fine,” she paused. “I think so, at least. But what about you?”

She looked me up and down, checking for injuries. She then grabbed my chin with one hand and inspected my face.

“I… think I’m all right, Nadi.”

She stared at me for a moment, then narrowed her eyes at me. “In that case, I have a question for you: what the hell were you thinking?!”

I winced. I’d been expecting this reaction, but it didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. “I… don’t know. I was… trying to help, and I didn’t really know what to do, so when I saw the cannon, I just…”

Nadrire released a sigh through her nose. “Well, I suppose I can’t entirely blame you then, considering I did tell you to do something. Still, we have a mess to fix now… so we should probably go clean it up. Could you figure out where we are so we can get some help?”

“Absolutely. As soon as I help Shei sit down.”

“We should probably check on Abi, too,” Ella piped up. “They can’t get any more dead than they actually are, but they’re still probably going to be rather upset.”

Nadrire nodded, then began climbing up to the door to the control room. One of the ship’s wings had been partially broken in the crash, and so the deck had been tilted to the side. It wasn’t exactly vertical, but Nadrire still had to brace her hands against its surface in order to climb. Ella soon followed after.

I eased Shei down on a nearby rock. “So where does it hurt?”

“Uh, well….” Shei paused for a moment. They had been patting at their pockets. “My butt, mostly. One of my knees is a little sore because it hit Ella, but… I’ll live. Ooh, here it is.”

They yanked their tablet out of a pocket and turned it on.

“Well, we don’t have any sort of signal here… but the map still has our last location loaded on here. Hm…” They tried to zoom out more to see the surrounding area, but were met with a blank map, except for the one spot where we were. Shei frowned. “Dang, it won’t load. Velia, can you reach the map box under the podium?”

I looked at the slanted deck and chewed my lip. “I can certainly try.”

It took me a while to figure out that I could not cling to the deck of the ship and get into the podium at the same time. I kept sliding down the slope. Eventually, I chose to sit on the side of the podium, silently praying that the bolts holding it to the deck would hold, and fumbled to get the cabinet door open. I was forced to lean rather precariously to the side to even reach the handle. A handful of loose maps fluttered out, but I got ahold of the box. Now, how to get it down… I could always float it dow-

My thoughts were interrupted by a very loud thud. I lost my balance and fell to the ground with a not-quite-as-loud thud. There were several gasps and Abi - they must have came outside - let out an exclamation in a language I didn’t understand. Probably an expletive.

“Well, I suppose I sort of deserve that…”

“Are you all right?” I could see Ella peering down at me.

“I mean… probably?”

Ella only frowned. There was a rustling sound to my left, and I turned my head to look: Nadrire was rifling through the map box. She found the one she was looking for and started examining it. It also appeared that they’d brought Abi’s pilot suit - an armor-like suit similar to their walking suit, but lighter in weight and covered in cables that were normally hooked into the ship - outside. Given it was rather dented and slumped over on the ground, Abi was not in it, and it had been damaged in the crash. Perhaps that’s what caused the thud.

“I appreciate your concern, Nadrire,”

“Oh, quit being so dramatic. Ella’s over there helping you, and there’s no use crowding. Plus, I’m trying to figure out where we are on- oh, here we are.”

She tapped a particular point on the map. “Hm…”

“So, where are we?” asked Ella as she pulled me to my feet.

“Well… There’s a city nearby, but… it appears to be a bit of a walk.”

I dusted my hands off. “Then… what are we waiting for? There’s no point in sitting around. Let’s go fix my fuckup.”

I paused briefly.

“After I change out of my pajamas.”