SEVERAL DAYS LATER…

The sound of strange insects ebbed, moving further away the closer you came to wherever they were hiding. Pearl wasn’t seeking them out as she walked but the fact she hadn’t seen a single one was disconcerting. With how loud the noise was one would expect the cause to be evident.

She looked up, squinting into the distance. There were no mountains and the hills were green. Everything around her was in bloom. She felt she stood out terribly - a black hole in the midst of abundance. 

The Arbutus was docked on what Imani had told her was a ‘flyover’ planet - one which the Committee had deemed to be small, largely uninteresting, or too well documented to be worth further in-depth exploration for any contracted ships. 

They had docked mainly to allow the crew to ‘stretch their legs’ and refuel the ship for the larger journey ahead as they had a scheduled rendezvous with another U.U.C ship who required assistance on a diplomatic mission. 

Though Bridgers had offered to introduce Pearl to the other ship’s captain or personally show her some more of the Arbutus' capabilities now that it was docked and they had time for such a demonstration, Pearl had declined. 

Instead she had opted to take a walk. She’d attempted to find Olaan for ceir familiar company but hadn’t been able to find any trace of ceir. When she’d asked Imani if co was still on the ship she’d told her co was and Pearl had stared at the little blinking dot which signified Olaan on the map Imani pulled up. 

“Do you want me to ask for a message to be-?”

“No, thank you.”

The planet they were on was warm in a way Pearl had never experienced before. Opranov’s weather was always cool and the only other places she’d really been on were the shuttle station and other U.U.C ships as she sat between Bridgers and Imani, shaking people’s hands. 

She didn’t like it. It was too hot. She didn’t like to sweat. 

There was something wrong with her, Pearl thought, sinking into the grass which quickly dwarfed her small figure. The buzz of hidden insects grew louder. When she closed her eyes Pearl imagined them converging on her stilled figure like fish to floating meat. That was what she was. Floating meat. Debris. A body being wasted on herself. She was alive and what did she do with that miracle?

“It must have been difficult,” everyone who’d shaken her hand said. She didn’t know how to respond to their words nor their sympathetic smiles.

“It was,” she wanted to say. “It wasn’t.” 

How could she tell them in a way they’d understand? 

I was loved but I wasn’t understood. It’s the same here. I have an impossible dream that not even I can articulate. I’ll probably die before I see it come true - it’ll be eaten along with me. We’ll both be swallowed up by something. Flies or sorrow. My own mouth eating my own body whole.

“Hey.”

Pearl didn’t look up. She didn’t recognize the voice but she’d started to cry and she didn’t want to be seen by anyone. If Bridgers or Imani knew about it they’d be concerned and want to talk to her. She didn’t want to talk or move or be seen. She wanted to be food for flies. She wanted to evaporate in the heat.

“You’re Pearl, right?”

Pearl looked up.

Standing in front of her was a man she’d never seen before. He wasn’t part of the Arbutus’ crew - she would have remembered him. He was dressed in a flashy, eye-catching style unlike the pallid pastels the U.U.C favored; clashing patterns and an array of color which all somehow came together into a cohesive spectacle, like the feathers of a preening bird. His brown skin had the same sun-drenched shine as Imani’s which Pearl had grown, slowly, to resent. 

But this man was beaming at her as the beads woven into his locs shimmered and for a moment he rivaled the sun, his shadow warming her in its place.

“Knew it!” he exclaimed, holding out a hand. “The name’s Hakeem.”

Pearl touched the tips of his fingers, curious. “You know who I am?” 

“Pretty sure everyone in the quadrant does. News travels fast,” he said, watching her fingers with returned curiosity. 

“I see…I am not…I do not want to talk about Opranov,” she told him.

Hakeem wrapped his hand around hers. “That’s alright. We can talk about Jeria.”

Pearl narrowed her eyes, fingers twitching. “Who is Jeria?”

Hakeem looked taken aback. “This is Jeria! Jeria 01. They didn’t tell you?”

“This was referred to as a flyover planet. I doubt it was deemed necessary to-”

Hakeem made a noise with his tongue. Some sort of scoff, if she had to guess. He seemed displeased by the information.

“Everywhere’s interesting if you’re curious enough. I don’t believe in flyover planets…” 

His expression as he looked toward the Arbutus was…complex. Pearl was unsure she knew enough about Humans to pick every layer out. His brow was furrowed and though he was smiling very slightly the skin around his mouth looked tight and his eyes flashed for a moment with anger. A deep anger - more than a momentary annoyance. 

However when he turned to her that expression melted away and something lighter surfaced, making him shine once again. 

“Do you wanna take a walk with me?” he asked.

An invitation from the sun.

Pearl hesitated. She could hear the sound of the Arbutus’ crew - distant chatter, laughter, the whirr of repairs taking place. She could go back. She could go find Olaan. She knew she should do both.

Instead, she tightened her grasp on the man’s hand. 

“Show me Jeria.”

Hakeem grinned, renewing his own grasp as he pulled her to her feet with a triumphant shout. “You got it! No one’s ever accused me of showing them a bad time and you’re not gonna be the first.”

Pearl nodded, following just a step or two behind Hakeem as he bounded forward with his hands tucked firmly in the pockets of his cropped jacket. It was quite the contradiction; eager and at ease. Even if Jeria was as uninteresting as the U.U.C had deemed it, at least she would be entertained by her company.

As they walked away, traipsing through the tall grass, Pearl noticed that all the insects had gone silent