Secret plan

The six Planet-Gazers entered the frozen planet’s atmosphere in the little but sturdy space capsule. Among the six, the only Star-finders were Nyco and Silvy. Alan looked outside the space capsule’s window. The beautiful starry sky turned into a thick gray depressing color from the storm they had just entered.

The space capsule started shaking as icicles did everything in their power to enter their small shelter.

Alan started getting nervous from all the vibration and all the banging from the icicles.

-After this mission, I think the only planet I’ll be gazing at for a while is Earth-, joked Alan to lighten the mood and keep his intrusive negative thoughts away. A loud noise on the window made him shake in fear. -Gosh that was a big one. Are you all ok?-, he asked as he felt his soul almost leaving his body.

-Mm mmm mmmm-, murmured Silvy with her eyes closed.

-What?-, Alan asked.

-Mmm? Oh nothing, sorry. It’s just that I can’t get that stupid song Nyco likes so much out of my head. What an earworm-, Silvy complained. Alan saw that she was not scared at all of the situation. She closed her eyes again and laid her head back on the headrest. -How long until we land?-, she asked casually.

-30 minutes-, informed one Planet-Gazer that had been assigned with them.

Nyco was ignoring the conversation, his mind was someplace else. He looked over and saw Lasson staring at the ceiling. He seemed to be having a hard time with the tumultuous descent of the space capsule. Nyco rejoiced in seeing him scared.

The young Star-finder was convinced that fate hated him. Out of all the teams available, they just had to pair him up with the bully. Nyco looked at Lasson’s leg, the one he had broken many years ago. He felt so disconnected to the person he was when he fought him. A part of him felt bad for what he had done to Lasson. Not because he pitied him, but because he didn’t like that side of him. He felt ashamed, but if Lasson ever dared to do anything to Emma again, he would probably do it all over again.

Nyco had taken the videos of Lasson off his E-C. He did not want them there. But he did store them in a small memory card. Just in case he ever dared hurt the girl he loved ever again.

 Thirty minutes later, they finally landed on a huge frozen lake.

Fortunately for them, they did not find any mercenaries in the first location they had to check. They searched the small cave but only found empty boxes and some broken drill they’ve tried using to extract the strong crystal known as Alkim. Flying around that planet tired your whole body. It was always windy and made it really hard to fly. You were also smacked randomly with random balls of hail. The Star-Fly was very tough and protected the users from the outside weather, but the balls of ice flew at such speed that Nyco was sure he would have a few bruises tomorrow.

They checked another settlement from the mercenaries but still found nobody in them. They had only been on the surface of Nane Sarma for 3 hours and Nyco was already tired of it. He could hardly see anything on that planet because of the constant storms. That planet had a gloomy tone to it he hated. “And this is where Julie is supposed to rest in peace? No. I can’t leave her in this depressing hellhole. I have to find her”, the boy reflected.

Every now and then, Nyco saw Lasson looking at him, but as soon as their eyes met, he quickly looked away. “I have to be careful with that scum. I won’t let him out of my sight”, the boy thought.

Nyco then felt something weird. It was as if something huge was flying over him. He looked up to see what it was when a big sharp icicle fell right in front of him and nailed itself on the floor. If it had fallen 20 cm back, it would have impaled Nyco right through.

The icicle was the beginning of the mother of all hurricanes. The boy saw how everyone around him started flying away trying to step away from it. Nyco tried to also escape its cold embrace but he was too late. The strong winds made him spin in the air uncontrollably. The force of that hurricane made his propulsion boots useless.

One giant icicle the size of a water bottle smacked into his right foot, dislocating it completely and breaking his flying system. Nyco tried contacting Alan or Silvy to ask them for help, but there was no signal. The boy could not do anything, he had to pray that the hurricane stopped and that he would magically survive his inevitable fall to the ground.

After half an hour of flying around in circles, the hurricane decided it would let Nyco go. When he finally got out of that wind trap, Nyco calculated that he was 10 floors above the ground. He started falling trying to reignite his boots, but they just wouldn’t start, that smack from the icicle had left them useless.

Nyco saw as his inevitable demise was getting closer and he felt the need to apologize to Emma. He knew she could not hear him, but he wished that his feelings could somehow reach her. “Sorry, Em. I ended up hurting you again. I came here to get your mother’s body but… It looks like I failed. I’m so sorry”-, he cried.

Then, someone grabbed him by his broken foot and flew off before he could fall to the ground. Nyco felt a sudden explosion of joy and gratitude. He looked at his rescuer and felt reality slapping him in the face. It was Lasson. The boy he hated with all his guts had just saved him.

“Why?” he wondered. “Why would he save me and not let me fall?”.

Lasson took him to a nearby cave in a small hill away from the dangerous storms and dropped him on the floor.

-Come. I’ve found a shelter from one of the mercenaries where we can rest for a while and see if you’re hurt-, Lasson told him.

-... Ok-, he answered. He could hardly talk as he was still in shock

He got up as he could and started walking as good as he could with the dislocated foot. The shelter looked like a small container house. The two boys entered the shelter. The first room they found sucked all the air that came in from the exterior and replaced it with oxygen filled air that they could breathe in.

Nyco took out his helmet and walked to the other room.

The hurt boy sat down at the nearest chair and started taking his Star-Sky suit off. He had to see how his foot was. As he feared, it was indeed dislocated. Nyco grunted as he put his foot back into place. He then saw Lasson sit in a chair near him.

-Lasson... I don’t know what to say… Thank…

-Do you want to know why I saved you, Nyco?-, Lasson asked the puzzled boy, interrupting him.

-... Sure-, Nyco answered hesitantly. Lasson then took a huge syringe out of his back pocket.

-Because what I have in store for you is much worse than death-, he replied with fire in his eyes.