When they got back from the Botanical Garden, dawn was breaking, and Tika found Professor Arga, Professor Ratri, Commander Jonathan, and Avamar were sitting on the living room. They looked like they were deep in a discussion, but they turned when Tika and Varka entered the room. Immediately, Avamar rose from her seat, her brows furrowing.

“Where have you two been?” she asked, her voice shaking from barely repressed anger.

“The Botanical Garden”, Tika answered. “I’m sorry, this is my fault. I told Varka that I want to visit the Great Museum again, but I changed my mind halfway there.”

Varka turned to Tika, their eyebrow rising, but Tika gave them a subtle shake of her head. She didn’t know whether she and her colleague were allowed to leave at night or not, but either way she didn’t want Varka to get in trouble.

Avamar sighed and her shoulders relaxed. “It would be best if you leave a message next time”, she said. “Velrakaris is a relatively safe place. But even so, danger lurks to those who are unaware of it.”

“Well, I think Varka did their job quite nicely to protect me”, Tika countered.

Avamar pursed her lips slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but then she sighed again. “Alraight, then”, she said, and went back to sit on the sofa.

“Just as I said before we got interrupted”, Professor Arga said. “It would be beneficial that we split up. Professor Ratri, Lieutenant Kartika, and Commander Jonathan can visit other part of the Mothership, while Indah, Bayu, and I are attending the symposium at the Velrakaris Science Academy. That way, our time is well spent.”

“Splitting up is not a wise choice, Professor”, Commander Jonathan returned. “You heard what Avamar said just now — there’s danger lurking in this Mothership.”

“Can’t Velrakis-Aran spare a few of their members to guard each group?” Professor Arga asked Avamar.

“We need to discuss it first with their leader”, Avamar replied.

“I can contact the Leadership”, Varka offered, but Avamar raised her perfectly manicured hand.

“No need”, she said. “We will all go to the Velrakaris Science Academy for the symposium. I’m sure that you all will enjoy it.”

After getting ready, Tika and her colleagues departed to the train station, before taking a train car to the Velrakaris Science Academy — a beautiful building shaped like an upturned pyramid.

“The Velrakaris Science Academy is one of the oldest buildings at Velrakaris. They celebrated its ninety thousand and nine hundredth year of its completion just last month”, Avamar explained as she guided them into the lobby. There, a bunch of people of all shapes and colors were gathering around someone.

That someone was Emperor Velandar.

The Emperor was surrounded by a handful of Velrakis-Aran members — Tika noticed their black uniform. The presence of Velrakis-Aran deterred the scientists and journalists from closing in on him, but he addressed them warmly and answered their question as if it was the easiest thing in the universe.

He turned when he saw Tika and her colleagues, spreading his arms.

“Welcome to the Velrakaris Science Academy, people of Earth”, the Emperor greeted. Immediately, the scientists and journalists turned to the too.

“Are you attending the symposium too, Your Most Imperial Majesty?” Professor Arga asked.

“I am, Professor”, Emperor Velandar replied. “I hope you have been enjoying the tour so far. Avamar has been so enthusiastic preparing everything.”

Avamar laughed and pressed her palm to the Emperor’s. From the corner of her eyes, Tika could see Varka roll their eyes in annoyance, but they said nothing.

“We have been having a great time, Your Most Imperial Majesty”, Commander Jonathan said, his eyes glued to the Emperor.

The Emperor tilted his head gracefully. “Then I will not disturb you all”, he said. “And I hope you will enjoy this symposium.”

The Emperor walked toward an escalator that took him upstairs, followed by his guards, the scientist, and the journalists.

Avamar guided Tika and her colleagues to the same escalator, a few meters behind the Emperor. She gave a rundown about the topic of the symposium. As it turned out, a new propulsion technology was invented, which would take the Mothership even faster than before. Indah, Bayu, and Professor Arga quickly took to the topic excitedly. Even Tika couldn’t deny that she was feeling kind of curious with this new technology.

But Varka approached her before she entered the room. “May I have some of your time?” they asked.

Tika threw a glance to her colleagues, before turning her attention back to Varka. She raised her eyebrows. “Now?”

“This symposium is tightly guarded by Velrakis-Aran, including ones that you cannot see”, Varka said. “It would be best that we leave now, before the symposium begins. Unless you want to listen to them talking about propulsion technology for eight hours straight?”

Tika couldn’t help but be curious. It was true, Tika didn’t want to sit for eight hours listening to something that was way beyond her knowledge. But Avamar and Commander Jonathan insisted that they didn’t split up. What if they would get into trouble? Even worse — what if Tika got Varka into some serious trouble?

However, Tika thought. If the symposium was tightly guarded by Velrakis-Aran, thanks to the presence of Emperor Velandar, perhaps it would be alright if they split up.

“If we get into trouble with Avamar, I’m blaming you”, Tika teased as she followed Varka into a hallway. The glass panels provided the view of Velrakaris at day and provided plenty of light that lit up the hallway.

Instead of smiling, Varka frowned.

“That’s what I want to discuss”, they said. “Why did you lie to Avamar? I was the one who took you out of the Palace.”

Oh. Well… maybe Tika shouldn’t have lied to Avamar, if she knew that it bothered Varka so much. After all, from what she gathered, Varka was someone who was resolute and honest.

“I’m really sorry, but… I can’t let you get into trouble with Avamar”, Tika said. “You took me out that night because I wanted to visit the Great Museum again. I can’t let you into trouble because of my selfishness.”

“Selfish—” Varka took a deep breath, as if they were trying to reign their emotions. “Of course it wasn’t selfishness. If you are such a selfish person, I would not—” Varka stopped abruptly. Their face turned a deep shade of purple.

“You would not…?” Tika asked, curious.

“F-forget it”, Varka stuttered out. They rubbed their face, before turning back to Tika. Their face still blushed purple. “By the way, what do you want to do now?”

“Hmmm…” Tika mulled over her options. She didn’t want Varka to get even deeper into trouble, so maybe they shouldn’t leave the Academy. “A building this big should have plenty of places to explore, right?”

“I know where to start”, Varka said, not quite answering.

And so began their exploration inside the Velrakaris Science Academy. Just like any other Anur Arta-made buildings, the rooms inside the academy were dominated with gurgling ponds. Small gardens were scattered between the classes, where students gathered to study or rest.

The lobbies of each faculty were decorated with three-dimensional holographic display — the astrophysics faculty, for example, was decorated with a black hole model, while the astromechanical faculty was decorated with Mothership Velrakis model. Tika was so impressed with those displays, and she couldn’t help but imagining herself as one of the students.

In the end, they found a cozy cafe, with neatly arranged seats. Thanks to the symposium, the cafe was kind of empty. Varka took Tika to try some of the food and drinks. Tika chose a food that looked like grilled sausage, with thick black sauce that looked like sweet soy sauce.

“Verkat is made from v’krell meat”, Varka said. They got themself a glass filled with green liquid that reminded Tika of chlorophyll juice. She hated chlorophyll juice.

“What is v’krell?” Tika asked, hoping that she managed to pronounce it well.

“I have no idea, honestly”, Varka answered with a laugh. “A lot of animals from our home-planet have gone extinct, but we’re still able to replicate their meat to cook.”

Right, Tika thought. Shortage of food supply was not really a problem to the citizens of Velrakis, who were highly dependent of their food replicator technology. It felt kinda sad that Varka and the other Anur Arta didn’t know what the animals from their home-planet looked like.

The two of them hung around in the cafe for quite some time. Varka treated Tika to try various food and drinks there, and the two of them chatted about everything and nothing.

After a couple hours, they returned to the symposium room to regroup with the others, where Avamar was already waiting for them with furious expression on her face.

“Where have you two been?!” Bayu cried out before Avamar could even get a chance to scold them.

“The student’s cafe”, Tika answered with a shrug and a smirk.

“There’s a cafe here?” Bayu asked again. “Why didn’t you take me there?! The symposium was soooooooooooo boring!”

“I thought you’re going to like it?” Tika asked.

“I’m a biologist and a mathematician!” Bayu cried out, throwing his arms intu the air. “If I hear one more word about ‘propulsion’, my head is going to explode!”

“Propulsion”, Tika said with a deadpan, and Bayu dropped himself dramatically to his sister, who cried out in surprise and shoved him away.

Since the day had gone dark, Tika and her colleagues rode the train car that would take them back to the Royal Palace. Professor Arga and Indah were still chatting about the symposium, while Bayu interrogated Tika about what she and Varka were doing at the cafe.

Then, all of a sudden, the world seemed to shake with a loud bang. 

Before Tika could process what was happening, the car rolled, flipped, and she could hear her colleagues scream, and the train car ripped open. She didn’t know what caused it — whether it was from the explosion or from the crash. All she knew, she was sitting one moment and was flung out of the car violently the next.

Then, as if her body remembered about the gravity, she fell into the dark ravine that gaped between the towers of Velrakaris.