✧ Chapter 5 ✧

The options were slim to none as Flight unbuckled his seat belt and motioned Styra to come along. If she tried to explain everything to him right now, Nebules would be watching them. If the chie came out of hiding from under the fallen masks, it would pose an even greater risk. Fortunately, everything seemed silent the entire ride. The only way to maybe make sure Nebules didn't know would be to distract him with the conversation they would have about Perenorbius, but that kind of speculation didn't guarantee anything. She didn't have much of a choice. Flight picked up the fallen astromasks off the ground. Styra was worried at first when he did, but she had gotten distracted by her anxiety earlier only to realize the chie had hidden away somewhere else in the ship. In that instant, she cautiously stepped out of the ship and surveyed the area.

The landing zone itself was filled with light fog from the scattered clouds in the air. From there, she noticed two moons up above orbiting around the planet itself. From a distance, the first one was small with a soft green color while the second one was larger with a rocky orange texture. She started to walk with Flight into the viewable entrance that would lead them inside. The entrance room itself had the rich structural design of a penthouse, with four large droids guarding it. They looked similar to Compass, but they had black-colored parts and blue LED lights surrounding their camera eyes.

By the time they approached the giant front doors, Styra noticed a scanner beside the doorway. Flight then took an identification card out of the top left pocket of his cloak. The pocket itself had an interesting imprinted design of a letter "F" that glowed a bright white as soon as he placed the card in front of the scanner. The doors opened instantaneously as they revealed a massive luxurious golden room, lit with luminous ceiling lights that made the entire place look like a billionaire's living space. Which it was. They stood at the top of the balcony, staring at all of the paintings of former city mayors which surrounded them. As Flight went down the balcony stairs, Styra observed the painting of Mr. Nebules. His hair was dyed with somewhat of a dark red color, and even though he appeared to be in his 40s, his skin was quite pale. To her, he seemed extremely different from all of the other paintings because he looked that much younger in comparison to the older faces that were shown. She looked at the frame's description written below:

Derrick Nebules, Chairman Of The StarSpace Council Committee, Mayor Of StarSpace City, 4123 - Present.

In other words, StarSpace's society has been running for quite some time. Over 4,000 years and things had changed in their world. She had never seen anything like it. As she was deeply interested in the paintings themselves, she forgot all about where Flight had gone. She went downstairs only to find that he was not there. The entire situation made her feel silly for getting distracted without thinking.

"Well, at least I'm not that lost. Being inside the building means they will find me anyway. I just hope Flight doesn't get mad about it though," Styra said in anxiousness.

As most of her feelings about their previous situation concerning Perenorbius were somewhat resolved, that didn't mean she could see herself being right about his current reaction. An eerie voice echoed across the room, immediately causing Styra to glance at the source of the sound with trepidation.

"Styra, you've got to be kidding me! You can't just wander off when we have this important meeting to attend to. This is serious," said Flight while covering his hands over his head in disappointment with a pissed look on his face.

She felt embarrassed by the notion of having to be reminded. However, a part of her felt entitled enough to know the history of StarSpace. Being a possible descendant of this planet meant she could figure out who she was after all.

"I'm sorry... I just wanted to check out most of the paintings on the wall. There are a lot of things I still don't know about your planet," Styra replied. While she wanted him to understand her perspective of the situation, Flight's attitude did not change all that much.

"Just ask me next time on the way down, okay? We can't keep having these discussions when we have to focus on the task at hand. You in this tower by yourself isn't going to look good on my record. This is a government-operated building. They don't play around," warned Flight.

Styra nodded in agreement slowly as her head was tilted towards the ground slightly while she walked downstairs to a compact elevator with him that was on the 104th floor. The doors opened as they entered its barren atmosphere and started heading down to the 95th floor.

She knew Flight was right, even though she wanted to figure out a lot of things. It made Styra realize how much he was willing to help her. He was risking a lot by having this talk with Mr. Nebules. She had no idea how they would tackle the issue regarding her home but she did have a feeling that the discussion itself might probably bring up all of the things that happened aboard the STS-0. This would be bad because having to confess and expand on what they talked about could trigger some strange talk from the mayor, confirming the likeliness of her home to still be invaded for all of the wrong reasons.

Styra thought back to the time when the apocalyptic extinction event happened. She had saved one seed from a jumi, which were these soft, ellipsoidal, and bright green fruits that attached to multiple thin branches all connected to one stem. Their most notable feature during growth was how long they were, stretching at seven inches long (around seventeen centimeters). The tripedyras taught her a lot about growing jumis, as well as many other seed types before the crisis. After waiting so much time for the devastation to wear down and for the rainfall season to come along, she buried this seed in hopes of giving her home life again. Apart from the jumi seed, she would find other surviving seeds and occasionally bury them. Within another two million years, the entire world was slightly blooming with different plant life. To fulfill her promise to the tripedyras, she also recreated the Rhomera gardens and replicated the look of her former home in Fantastele Forest as best as she possibly could.

Thinking of this while waiting on the elevator made her wonder if Nebules would keep the environment fresh and safe from outside threats. Much like how StarSpace was supposed to be in her perspective. As she was about to consider an answer, the doors opened and revealed a spaciously organized office. There were a few supplies and ancient decorative items spread out around the area. In the front, a giant glass window showed a clear view of the city. The room was well lit, showing two chairs set in front of a desk. Behind the desk, a larger chair was facing away from them with a figure sitting in it. As they walked toward the figure, it turned around in the large chair to face them. It was Mr. Nebules.

"Welcome, Mr. Takeshi and Styra. I have been awaiting your presence for the past thirty-five minutes. Normally, I cancel discussions like this when the ones making the appointments are late," he stated firmly.

Flight responded attentively with deep consideration to make up for the lost time.

"Apologies Mr. Nebules. The new visitor delayed us in between our meetings. It won't happen again." Nebules stared down Styra with a stern look on his face. It softened up as he observed her presence in front of him for the first time.

He turned back to the both of them with a bit of hostile judgment. "Apologizing does not excuse either of you. However, I am willing to make an exception tonight. Have a seat."

They both sat down as Nebules examined his holographic screen on the desk. A feeling of unease settled within the room as Nebules stared at her again. "So Styra, what exactly is your reason for red lighting the government about inhabiting Perenorbius?" he said with a straightforward tone.

Styra refreshed her thoughts, as she felt this was the only chance to save Perenorbius.

"My home went through a major extinction-level event. It took me years to build it back up but, I feel it is my right to keep my home the way it is. Giving it away to another planet I have never heard of before, doesn't feel like what my family would have wanted," she replied semi-confidently.

Nebules had begun to seem interested in her answer, squinching his eyes in anticipation of the next question he was about to give.

"You are very young to be handling an entire planet by yourself. Moreover, if you claim to be a descendant of StarSpace, you don't have any knowledge or memory of it. Do you remember who your family was exactly?"

This is where everything went black, Styra knew that. She began to feel stupid for even mentioning her supposed family in all of this as if he cared. After a quick thought at having the upper hand in continuing the conversation, she decided to mix the truth with a lie.

"They died while I was young. I can't remember too much of what happened since I couldn't process it at the time. All I remember is that we crashed on Perenorbius."

Flight was surprised by what Styra was saying. He knew that she didn't trust StarSpace's government because Perenorbius had belonged to her, but this somewhat angered him since his dedication to their cause was strong. Especially after what Hisa had told him regarding the confidential information. On the other hand, he hadn't exactly told Styra the information yet either, so he couldn't just make too many bold judgments in hindsight. What he did earlier was also hypocritical in the same sense so there was no other way but to talk it out in private.

While this was going on in Flight's head, Styra continued to speak further.

"Perenorbius isn't entirely ready to be inhabited either. As Flight said, the vegetation and water supply didn't really recover from whatever happened there. At this point, all I could do was survive and wait. In that sense, I am thankful that I am here now on StarSpace. It felt so desolate over there."

Nebules nodded with the understanding of why her memory led to these implications of her time on the planet. He stared back at his screen and started typing something on it to make a significant note on the current details of the conversation. He began to turn his attention to Flight.

"Did she tell you all of the information being presented here in this discussion?"

In light of what Nebules asked, Flight decided to go with what he had concluded in his thoughts earlier.

"Yes, I was aware of it. In my opinion, this whole debate over whether or not we should be allowed to live there is not the optimal way to proceed. She has mentioned only wanting to visit StarSpace City. Not to become a permanent citizen. This is why she has rejected the idea of it in the first place."

Mr. Nebules was nearly surprised by this response, mostly since the girl seemed grateful to be away from the planet according to her supposed backstory. From his perspective, she was a descendant who had struggled to escape that alien planet. Filled with immediate concern, Nebules directed his voice of reason to Styra.

"Listen, your parents died trying to protect you. If you are worried about defending a collapsing world that you feel was your new home for a long time, you have us now. We will make sure it gets the proper care it needs to thrive again. That's what we're here for. I commend you for being brave about it because that is our mission. To help other worlds on the brink of destruction so they can be protected from invasions like ours was."

Styra began to feel bad about what she had said. Nebules knew what was going on and he didn't want to see her home fall into the wrong hands like theirs. It all made sense now and the guilt of lying to him for that reason alone felt monumental. Still, she hid it within herself to not expose all of her thoughts at once in the case where things might backfire. While Flight was also happy to hear about their purpose behind inhabiting planets, he wondered why the information behind what happened on them remained confidential to soldiers like himself.

"Mr. Nebules, I'm glad to know Styra's home will be safe under your authority but, regarding its whereabouts after my missions there were completed, why did you keep all of the details about these places hidden from pilots such as myself?"

An unsettling silence began to fill the room, similar to when Styra and Flight entered the office together. Nebules stood from his chair and walked towards the window, staring down at StarSpace City.

"The real reason this information is confidential to pilots like yourself is that, during The Great Invasion, a small group of the Air Corps sided with the machines. They unveiled information concerning the conditions on our shared planets only to be betrayed by the machines who ended up destroying those worlds that were mentioned to be at peace. Their rebellion cost them their lives. While I'm aware that not all pilots will be like them, I can't take that risk anymore. This invasion proved how trusting other worlds outside our own is not going to happen. Their agendas are to conquer and destroy, with the intent of gaining a following from sides against them. I'm sorry Flight. After what happened, we can't distill that kind of information to just anyone without some sort of betrayal possibly occurring behind our backs again," Nebules replied.

Styra could see who she now considered a friend, sinking into himself as Mr. Nebules glared back at the both of them with heavy eyes. At that moment, Flight stood up similarly to when Nebules confronted him about his job. Only this time, he seemed satisfied in his response.

"Thank you for clarifying this issue. I accept the apology but, personally I do not feel any resentment against what you said. If anything, it has helped me to acknowledge that the safety of StarSpace depends on it."

Nebules shook hands with Flight to make amends on the matter, then turned to Styra to do the same. She had never done something like this before but decided to try by imitating the way Flight did it. When she stood up to do so, his hands felt strange. She couldn't understand what it meant but she decided to shrug it off.

"You have a pretty strong grip for your age. Well Styra, supposing that you want to stay on Perenorbius, you may tour StarSpace City for about an hour and then leave. It's either that or you can stay here as a permanent citizen and let us handle Perenorbius, growing it from the ground up."

She was once again split between those two choices. Perenorbius was important to her. Styra had lied, believing that StarSpace's government was lying to her. However, upon understanding Mr. Nebules more closely, she had received so many mixed messages from him that she couldn't figure his intentions out. Predicaments like these were unusual to her.

Was he manipulating them? Being as soft-spoken as he was could have been enough to convince anyone. So much to the point where if he was lying, her doing the same to him in the process would already have somewhat prevented Nebules from destroying her home. At the same time, the way he shook her hand made it all the more suspicious. To even attempt to comprehend his motives already showed something wrong was at play. It was as if he saw through the lies. She couldn't make out whether that was good or bad. Instinctively, there were many flaws laid out. Logically however, he wasn't hell-bent on taking advantage of her decision either. In choosing to stay on Perenorbius or StarSpace, she would lose the freedom of finding herself. That is, if she wasn't the one choosing.

It was a zero-sum game.