Hazel felt nothing and everything. Her physical body flickered between forms. Trillions of masses, eyes, extremities, and mentalities. There was no Hazel. Only it. It raged as the humanity within it floundered. It reached and shrieked into the cosmos. It clawed and ripped at nothing and everything in a desperate search for the humanity it had lost.

Suddenly, a great and unfamiliar force pushed back on its lashing, violent expanse and began to impress like a potter working clay on a wheel. The raw, violent hurricane became a smooth spinning spire as extremities of gravity shaped it inwards. Then, it was struck with the bluntness and clarity of a diamond, expelling the rest, and leaving Hazel. Her body, her memories, and her soul emerged; and phased back up the line as though it were only a few meters long.

Izik had lost track of time, waiting in his own dribbling numbed state; mad with the thought of hanging onto the chair and to Hazel and nothing else. Several times he’d attempted and failed to pull her back up. He’d even considered letting go of the chair to rescue her, knowing once he did there was no telling where they’d end up in time or space.

Never had he been in the rip this long. His physical body starved. Would he ever see her again? Would he even make it out of the rip? He couldn’t bring himself to let her go, though the thought had crossed his mind. Out of a fierce sense of responsibility, he waited; decidedly until his body gave out.

The line slackened. His eyes darted around in front of him until he saw her physical body spinning languidly up his astral arm. He barely had time to react when she lurched into him, snapping the connection like a rubber band, and flying through the rip.

The atmospheric pressure in the cockpit cracked like thunder as they tore through. Papers, tools, wires, and glass imploded as their bodies and the pack of Xadite slammed into the empty pilot’s chair. It tore off the rails and into the dash. As the roaring debris settled around him, Izik groaned in confusion and pain. His hands felt shakily over the mess of Hazel’s hair on his chest. Her body was flaccid, twitching and convulsing with occasional vocal cracks.

He called her name but only a mess of distorted sounds fumbled from his numb lips. He tried to lift her, but she remained unresponsive. He attempted to use telekinesis on her only to find it a flickering failure. Every drop of his strength had been used to stay connected to both this plane and the astral one. A clamoring sound echoed ahead as a light blinded him.

A low unintelligible voice echoed through Izik’s ringing ears. Slowly, it grew in clarity. He winced, head swimming. He heard the words this time, “What happened!”

Mace? He thought.

The light stung his eyes, and he reached up to shove it away. It was at that moment his vision came back. A thick, muscular arm with stripped violet skin had his wrist in a death grip. Mace was clad in sweatpants; the hand at his side held a sidearm.

He shined the light on Hazel. “Is she alive?” There was a great deal of surprise and possibly relief in his voice.

Izik tried to speak, but more babbling.

Mace stashed the flashlight, before reaching behind them and activating the lights. The soft violet neon flickered as strips of it hung down from the ceiling. “Ahh, the screens’ cracked,”

“Water.” Izik rasped as he reached for an empty bottle.

“Hold on.” Mace hoisted him off the ground. Izik’s head and extremities hung limply as he was carried out of the room and down the stairwell. He clawed for Hazel weakly.

“Don’t worry kid, I’m coming back for her.” Mace set him down on the common room rug and started back up the stairs. He kicked the debris out of the way and went straight for her. He knelt over top of her and gently shook her shoulder to rouse her. She didn’t respond. He leaned in to hear if she was breathing. Nothing. 

“Hey!” he grabbed her cheeks and gave her head a quick shake. Nothing again. Her eyes were glazed over, lids at half-mast. He looked down at her listless form with concern. “I’m taking you below deck to fix you up.”

She rag-dolled in his arms as he scooped her up. He stumbled down the stairs slightly before righting himself. Once in the common room, he set her on the sofa.

Izik had rolled over on his stomach; he barely kept his head up. He managed to form his first full sentence. “Is she okay? Check her pulse…”

“I’m checking.” Mace had his head against her chest. “How many hearts do humans have again?”

“One.” Izik’s throat was sticking to itself, his tongue as dry as sand.

“It’s beating. It’s slow. Really slow.”

“That’s not good.” Izik got his bearings and scrambled to her side. He put his hand on her chest and felt around for her heart, but he was still maxed out.

After racking his brain, Mace tore into the galley and flung open the cabinet over the tap, withdrawing a hard vinyl case.  He pried it open; half the contents spilling on the counter as he located what he needed. He unscrewed a black vial, flapped open some medical cloth, and coated it a fair amount before returning to the sofa to kneel beside them. He wavered.

“What is that?” Izik grabbed Mace’s arm and tried to pull it closer. Mace yanked it back in his direction, still hesitant.

“Stuff,” He responded before pressing the cloth over her airways while holding her forehead down. Within two seconds she strained violently with a sharp inhale. She grabbed onto his throat.

“Stop it!” Izik tried to pull the cloth away from her face.

“Grab her,” Mace choked as she began to kick. Izik threw his shaky body on top of her to press her limbs down. Removing the cloth, Mace grabbed her arm and steadily forced it off his throat, her nails raking his skin. She jolted upright and shoved Izik off her as Mace scrambled out of the way.

Her eyes darted between them until recognition set in. Then stinging.  

She pressed her palms into her eye sockets with a grunt as hot tears seeped out like battery acid. “What did you give me?” Her voice quaked on the edge of vibration.

“You weren’t responsive. We had to do something.” Mace said, remaining seated.

A growl revved through her as her muscles quaked with adrenaline. She felt like she could punch through the hull.

“Are you okay?” Izik asked.

“No, I’m not!” She shoved herself off the couch, stumbling into the galley. She fumbled for a glass in the cabinet. A shatter. She disregarded it and went for another one before filling it with shaky hands. She stepped through the broken glass and back to the sofa. Mace sat on the ground with his arm propped up on one knee. He rubbed the fresh nail marks on his neck. Izik stumbled up off the floor and passed Hazel for water. He attempted to sweep the glass out of his way. Hazel chugged the entire thing before collapsing into the couch.

The next few minutes followed with much-needed silence as the three of them reoriented. Her heart rate began to even out. She fixated on the rug, the patterns animating and twisting. She suppressed a gag and switched focus, only to find the swirling continued elsewhere. She hoped that wasn’t permanent.

Izik had downed four glasses of water and collapsed onto the floor once again. He stared at the ceiling. Hazel noticed his depleted demeanor; his aura was nearly snuffed. The skin on her neck prickled at the unaccustomed sight.

“Did we make it through the scan?” She murmured as she wedged the empty glass between the cushions.

A low laugh emanated from Mace as he tilted his head towards her.

“Yeah.”

Izik let out an exhausted scoff.

Silence again.

“Are you going to tell me why you were gone so long?” Mace’s eyes were flat, derisive.

“How long were we gone?” she asked.

“A long time,” Izik cut through. “A really long time.”

She cocked her head, looking between the two.

Mace slicked his hair back.

“Well?” she pressed.

“You were gone for about 3…maybe 4 days now.”

“What?”

“Sounds about right. Felt longer to me,” Izik sighed, as he rolled to face her, puffy bags under his reddened eyes.

“Well technically, it was about 6 and a half Human or Xadalion days.”

“Ah, yeah. There we go.”

“God…What…I…I don’t even remember.”

“Try not to,” warned Izik; she returned a quizzical glance. “I’m serious, you’ll lose your mind.”

She looked at the ground and shook her head trying to make sense of it.

“So, what happened?” Asked Mace.

“She opened her eyes, couldn’t handle it, and fell into astral space.”

“I was only gone for a minute! Less than that even.”

“Trust me, you weren’t,”

“Obviously,” Mace jeered. Hazel was speechless. “This set us back quite a bit. Ships busted up too. You guys sure did a number on it.”

Her stomach flopped. She knew she wasn’t ready.

“It could have been a lot longer.” Izik nodded slowly as he came out of a wistful stare; he sat up and looked at her. “It begs the question…how did you get out?”

She shifted uncomfortably.

“When I got lost as a kid, someone was always able to reach in and pull me out. I couldn’t help you this time, so how?”

“I don’t know.”

Izik returned her look of bewilderment with keenness. “Did you gain control? Did you remember me?”

“No.”

The amount of information she’d experienced was so insurmountable; it felt pointless to comb through it for answers. “I don’t remember anything. Just, everything, and then nothing. Nothing,” She echoed, trailing off. Mace quietly observed the two of them before chiming in.

“Maybe don’t do it again?”

“Hell no.”

“I still think you’d be able to do it with practice.”

“Not a chance.”

During a brief silence, they all looked out the window at the red giant in the distance; closer still, a large black mass surrounded by floating colonies, satellites, and trails of space traffic.

“What now?” Izik’s eyes fixated on Ogzira.

“We get that drive fixed starting tomorrow.” Mace got to his feet. “Well…I need to fix the dash…that you broke. And then I’m going back to sleep.”

Hazel stood to follow him.

“I’ll help.”

“No,” Mace stopped her, “I need alone time. More alone time.” his eyes pinned into a predatory star shape. Her ears burned.

“Then…I’ll clean up I guess.”

“Good idea,” he said before exiting the room; he leaned back in. “And wrap that foot while you’re at it.” He ducked out again as she looked down to see bloody footprints trailing back to the sofa.

She threw her head up to the ceiling. “Goddammit.”

Izik surrendered to his position on the floor. “I’m going to sleep for a while.”

“I’m sorry,” She whispered before kneeling to clean up the mess.

“Don’t be.” He answered.

A chill. Nothing was private. Little prisms of glass sparkled on the floor below. She picked up two of the larger pieces and sat with her back against the base cabinets. She examined them, then chose the larger one. Little eyes, little rainbows; A portal into the rip. The memories billowing fractals; a kaleidoscope in her mind.

For now, she was safe; but she knew with absolute certainty that she would enter the rip again; either out of necessity or the desire to know more.

She thought of smiling, but she was met with the unusual feeling that it wouldn’t matter. Nothing appeared to. It wasn’t as dreadful as before, not even unsettling. As hollow as things seemed, it felt right. Maybe she could assign meaning to things again one day. But for now, those fractals looked nice.