Mace slid his finger over the grey line of the dash screen until it lit blue. “We’re getting close. You’ve got 10 minutes.” He deactivated the com and leaned forward, elbow on the dash, chin resting upon his fist, his black, diamond-shaped pupils fixated on the flashing lights of the freighter ahead.

It was beaten to hell as it had most likely encountered resistance from whatever solar system it had violated for resources. The bottom left signals were out for the last three hours of queuing. If he had to look at it much longer, he'd be tempted to ram it into the scanner.

His stomach churned. Would they pull it off?

"They” were a suboptimal factor as well. He would’ve had to come back to that awful red star beyond the gates anyway. Undoubtedly with a strong apology handy for dear mom and the brood. Better start preparing that now. They’d be on his case in a matter of hours.

The thrusters of the marred freighter combusted with a sharp pop, startling him as the hulking thing glid forwards into the cylindrical scanning drum. The red electrified gates closed behind it, and the inside of the drum went alight, red bars strobing across the freighter’s hull like a barcode scan. It would take about ten minutes judging by the size of the ship. Right on the money. The cockpit suddenly felt stuffy and hot, his thick fingers tapped steadily on the console.

Below deck, Hazel sat rigidly looking at the wall past Izik. A chill crept down her spine after Mace’s voice cut out.

“We should go,” Izik’s voice cut through the silence like Damascus steel.

Hazel’s head swam; her throat held most of the tension in the tight cabin. The two of them sat on the twin bed facing one another, but her mind was already locked up in Ogziran prison; awaiting torture and probable death. She didn’t know what would be worse: the former or entering the rip.

“Hazel,” he took her hand unexpectedly.

Her eyes bore in like daggers. She softened a bit when he withdrew tentatively. A veil of concern cast over his ice blue features. The UV light, caught by the chromatophores in his skin, pulled at her attention.

“Sorry.”

“We’re going to be okay.”

Hazel buttoned her lip before contending him.  The skin of his hand was dry.

“Really.”

“You need water, or you’ll dry out.” She took his hand. “Where’s your hydro-belt?”

“Hanging over there. I’ll put it on before we leave.”

“I know you hate it.”

“A caveat to being partially amphibious. Didn’t see that one coming.” He smirked.

Though positive he was hesitant himself, she relaxed a bit. Since the changes began, she saw it all. His deepest emotions, his thoughts, his anticipations. It was invasive but almost impossible to control. She attempted to draw away from his thoughts.

“It’s alright,” he said, reading her. “I know you can’t help it. You’re scared.”

She looked out the window in embarrassment; her eyes blurred the stars in the distance.

“You’re scared too.” The accusation bubbled forth. She felt his energy shift to apprehension.

“Yes. A little. Just keep your eyes shut and we’ll be fine. We’re capable of maintaining the float for twice the time we need.”

“Because I couldn’t hear you. I nearly lost my mind in there. And the screaming... The rip is dangerous. I don’t want to do this, Izik.”

“You don’t want to go to Ogziran prison either.”

“Stop reading my thoughts!”

“I…Listen.” he shut his eyes and put his hand up as if attuning himself to a calmer place. “I’m sorry, but-“he regained composure, “--we have to focus.” Izik pointed upwards. “This is the only scan we need to evade. Once we’re in, he’ll get the drive fixed, and we’ll be off to the Seo Colony in under a month.”

“Under a month…” She echoed under her breath. “We don’t know how long it’s actually going to take.”

“We don’t have a choice.  It’s the only way to turn the Xadite into useable fuel.”

“Can’t you see if this is going to work out or not?” She asked clenching the sheets in her fist.

“My foresight doesn’t work like that.”

She let out a stiff groan before looking up at the ceiling with contempt. She couldn’t navigate the rip like this. She should at least attempt to quell her emotions, she thought. She took a sharp breath and shut her eyes.

“Good idea,” Izik said before doing the same thing.  Hazel tipped back and fell in. Diving into the torrent of emotion almost instantly overwhelmed her. Focusing on the fear; she began to neutralize it. Breathing into it, rendering it down. They both held a state of calm, basking in nothing.

Their eyes opened as they mirrored a satiated smile; each of them far less anxious than they had been a minute ago.  The tension between them had been replaced with warmth, confidence, and trust.

She told herself the following astral trip would be nothing more than temporary discomfort. Izik had done this many times long before he’d opened her mind. He knew what he was doing. His nerves must be a result of Hazel’s lack of personal confidence.

She conjured joy; let it fill her to the eyes; that good warmth seeped through every cell in her body. A smile: forced or otherwise, had always worked for her no matter how difficult things got. She’d always considered herself a positive person; she was her own bedrock. Izik just had some wisdom she hadn’t yet acquired. That would change; hopefully today. She knew, with the last trip, she had the experience to stay centered.

As she imagined the result of the following trip, Izik left the bed and crossed the room. He lifted his shirt and fixed the hydro-belt around his midsection.

Suddenly, their ears were assaulted by the wail of emergency sirens. The shock chilled their blood as they jerked their hands up to cup their ears. It lasted all of 5 seconds before shutting off abruptly.

“Dammit!” Hazel rubbed her temples. Izik gave a light-hearted titter while shrugging the Xadite-filled backpack over his shoulder and clasping the chest strap. She passed him and exited the cabin quickly.

“I still don’t trust him,” she said as she ascended the first steps.

“He’s not that bad, move.” Izik gave her a friendly push up the stairs.

“You can’t read him. How do you know he isn’t planning to turn us over?”

“He seems like a dependable being.” They quieted as they neared the top of the stairs.

Mace watched them enter the cockpit from his seat. Like a king on his throne, his arms crossed, legs outstretched. Carmine eyes pierced through them with disdain. Hazel eyed him defensively as they approached. He was nearly as tall as her while seated. His stare went from challenging to mild amusement before he glanced over his shoulder out the windshield. She felt a chill when she noticed the freighter undergoing the last 30 seconds of its scan. Guess they weren’t as mindful of time as they’d thought.

“Glad you could join,” he said scornfully as he swiveled his chair and disengaged the magnetic shield with a few swift swipes.

“How long will this take?” Izik asked for additional assurance. Hazel’s eyes darted from him to Mace. The large freighter began to drift out the opposite end of the gate and into the glowing red solar system beyond.

Mace buckled himself in, “Three minutes.”

Hazel swallowed; the excitement was building, and blood rushed in her ears.

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Izik took Hazel’s hand. She looked up at him and he smiled. Her cheeks warmed as she returned the expression.

“Hang onto something, cutting the gravity drive,” Mace said with a glance in Izik’s direction. Izik pulled Hazel in, and she wrapped both arms around him. He slid his arm under hers for extra security, she pressed her face against his chest and hugged him tightly. Her breath quickened as Izik firmly grasped one of the handholds on the back of Mace’s chair.

Suddenly weightlessness: their bodies rose above the seat as Izik’s arm went taught. She braced herself.

A pinging sound reverberated through the otherwise silent cockpit. Mace accepted the transmission.

“Craft Zai’Zsheth, initiate voice recognition.”

“This is Maceus Omaru, titleholder of this vessel.”

“Copy. Welcome home, Valzai O’Maru.”

Hazel’s ears pricked. “Valzai”? An Ogziran military officer?

“Confirm disengagement of gravity drive, disengagement of magnetic shields, disengagement of blast shields,” said the disembodied voice. It was well known that it was easy to enter this Solar system than it was to leave.

“Confirmed, confirmed, confirmed,” Mace responded with equal coldness.

“Remember what I told you. Hang on no matter what you see, hear, or feel. Try to keep your eyes shut,” Izik whispered.

“Okay.” She searched for the calm energy she’d found below deck. “It’s only temporary,” she repeated several times. His hand squeezed her shoulder as his energy prickled. The electrified gates before them flickered off, granting them passage into the scanner.

“Un-fog your glass, Zai’Zsheth,” said the voice.

Mace turned to them.

“Go,”

Hazel felt the rumble in her temples as Izik opened the rip. The air pressure in the cabin broke as they slipped through the tear like gossamer curtains through an open window. Her body stretched and undulated violently in the swells of energy. Nearly tripping into the illusion, she focused on grasping tightly onto Izik’s physical body, as her astral one flapped elastically behind her, pulling at the seams.

The energy screamed around them in a deafening cacophony of chaos. Drums, animals, engines, wind, water, roaring flames, the droning of a black hole, a newborn wailing, explosions. Many of the sounds were new and unexplainable to her untraveled mind. The thought to open her eyes flashed within her.

No, she couldn’t. Izik had told her how easy it would be to get lost.

As the sounds engulfed her, the physical sensations spread. The ripping wind became a tight hug, became a punch to the nose that stung and bled as tears streamed down her cheeks. A falling sensation caught her off guard as she tipped into a crevasse. Her muscles flexed with the false buzz. She gripped Izik’s side and dug her nails in.

“Hang on, Hazel! Don’t fall for it!” He called to her. He’d been calling to her this entire time; she realized. Suddenly a roar. Fire. White-hot. Her skin crackled, popped, burst, and spit fat. A primal howl clawed its way out of her writhing, tempestuous soul. The former steady hammer of Izik’s voice dissolved in the pain. Instinct snared her and she opened her eyes.

A halo of prisms smeared over her vision as the flames dissipated and the burning diminished. Her skin smoothed, only the memory of the pain remained as she looked up at Izik’s face, his arm still outstretched through the rip, holding onto the chair. Their bodies waved in the wake of the tear, their astral forms trailing behind as an infinite number of soft copies descending into nothing.

His appearance warped into his aura. Brilliant, prismatic, transcendental. Diamond eyes glittering in a champagne fizz of radiant power. His bodily façade began to dissolve.

He glanced down and noticed her eyes were open, entranced by whatever vision she’d begun hallucinating.

“No!” he tightened his grip. His arm compressed the breath within her. The divinity before her mutated into a torrent of rippling flesh with thousands of faces twisted in dread. They jutted out at her in fractals as the fire came back, wicking the moisture off her cheeks.

She shoved off him with a shallow gasp, and the burning stopped. She tumbled backward down the line of her astral form and into the abyss.

“Hazel!” he screamed as he watched her physical form multiply in a descending line of mirrored images, each one fading as she drifted farther away. She was a Planck in the quantum foam. Before the last image of her faded into obscurity, Izik grasped onto the lingering tail of her astral form with his own. He kept the physical action of holding onto the chair dominant, but let his ethereal arm stretch deeper and deeper with her infinite descent. He could do nothing but hope that she would become aware that he was still latched on to her metaphysically and climb back up the line to reality.