< You must be wary, > Luenos tells me as I tug on my helmet and slide it over my head. < Whoever it is out there, they could be dangerous. >

I raise a brow. “You mean, some of you aren’t pacifists?”

He flicks his long blue tongue across his teeth and walks circles around my figure like a lion would around its prey. < Of course, > Luenos says. < Not many, but there are a couple races I know of who could be trouble. >

Surprising… I thought superior beings would have gotten sick of wars by now. I look to my feet. I suppose we never learn, do we?

“Come with me, then,” I tell him.

Luenos pauses to let me pass, following close behind afterward, as we make our way over to the pod stationed across the modest dock.

< I don’t think your people would be very happy about that, > he says.

I shrug. “Yeah, I don’t doubt they’ll be upset, but,” I mutter, “I mean… Come on. Clearly you’ll be better at recognizing your own race. So it’s not like I’m bringing you along for nothing.”

With an amused grunt, he says: < You make a very good point, Vance. >

I open the pod’s hatch and chuckle. “I know. I always do.”

Luenos stays close to me. His claws tap the hollow floor as he follows me in, to the twin seats up front, covered with dark leather. Entering the coordinates to the crew’s current location, I cross my legs on reflex, only to realize there is nothing left to cross.

We take off on autopilot.

As the ground vibrates, I am left to feel a strange void growing in my heart, now crippled. A hollow space ever so vast, like the sprinkle of stars that lie before us in the dark horizon without an end, a world where oblivion isn’t so far off from reality after all.

< Vance? > Luenos says, breaking the silence as he hops into the seat beside me, his tail rested against his thin knees.

“Please don’t tell me you’re getting space-sick.”

His shoulders tremble as he stifles back a fit of snickers. < I don’t think we could get space-sick even if we tried, Vance, > he tells me.

“Well, lucky you…” I say, resting my head against my palm, my attention wandering his way. The dimmed blue lights, emanating from the control panel, flicker and bounce off his skin. It occurs to me that he bears a certain resemblance to the creatures in the macabre movies I used to watch with my friends as a teenager.

Yet, when I look at him now, the crippling fear that froze my blood as I sat on my couch with bits of popcorn tickling my feet, my eyes glued to peculiar forms and scenes of murder—no trace of it remains. There is only wonder. His twisted spine carries the many arms that hold me when I am weak. And his large jaw, considered unsightly by others, breathes laughter and life against my skin in times when the crew cannot even spare me a grin.

And I could never forget that.

I could never forget him.

< What is on your mind? > Luenos asks me, pulling my thoughts apart.

“Me?” I scratch the back of my head, and avert a gaze I know he lacks, but a gaze that feels present nevertheless. “I… I, um, stuff… I guess,” I mutter, pushing the thought of him, of the two men, from my mind.

< Oh. > He grunts. < Really? I thought something was wrong. >

I jump in my seat. “Why… Why would something be wrong?”

< Your pupils suddenly got a lot bigger. And, there was something about your heart, too. The way blood ran in your veins, it was…slower…and deeper. Is there an emotion you can teach me about that might be related to such symptoms? It is not your sickness again, I hope? >

“Wait,” I blurt. “You can hear that?”

Heat rushes to my face. And then: Crap, I think, he probably noticed that too.

< Indeed, Vance, > Luenos says, < how else do you think we keep our enemies away? By knowing exactly where to strike, how hard we need to hit their organs for them to entirely cease or momentarily pause, it is easy to defend ourselves; and even easier to frighten them away. Although I admit I did not understand, until you told me about fear, why they ran and screamed and made the faces they did. >

I gulp.

Who are they?

Do I want to know?

Luenos tilts his head. < It seems your heart has skipped two beats now, > he says. < A similar reaction to when the Kraken chased your ship. Could it be the knowledge you have just acquired has awoken the sentiment of fear in your body? >

“I mean…” I shift in my seat. “I guess. It is kind of scary, I can’t deny that.” Head hung low, I stare at my lone knee. “Sorry,” I tell him again. “I’m doing my best not to feel such negative things when I’m around you, buddy. But sometimes…it’s really hard. Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t—"

< That you don’t appreciate and value me as more than an it? Yes, I am aware. You have only mentioned this three thousand and twenty-two times since our first meeting. And even though I fail to understand most of it, I do believe it refers to positive things in your culture. Therefore, I feel good about this partnership. >

Unable to keep a grin from taking my lips, I chuckle. “Friendship, Luenos. It’s called friendship.”

< Ah, yes. > His breaths cover parts of the window, with fog, as he snickers. < What interesting cultures and traditions you Earth-dwellers partake in. >

Resting my head against the back of my seat, I turn to face him and smile again. “You’re pretty interesting too, Luenos,” I say, wondering how I ever doubted such a peaceful being.