The Nothing Between Stars

Travelling between galaxies is dangerous. Dark abysses plague every universe's sky, leaking in between the warm lights emitted from stars. They hold silent terrors history themself hesitate to inscribe. Stories of murderous marauders, hungry for chaos and destruction, alongside fiend's that feast on black holes call these dimensions home, and only the bravest of travelers take these spaces as feasible travel routes.

Or they have unlimited stupidity.

"Oh my stars," a blue haired creature groaned, retching as she clamped a hand over her mouth. "What in the Andromedian galaxy did we drink last night?"

"Whatever it was, her stars would be disappointed…" Lox mumbled, trailing his gaze from the shards of crystal bottles scattered across the spacecraft’s floor. Ignoring his friend’s complaint’s, the captain turned his blurry gaze across the cramped space to the control screen, only to take a double take. 

"What the-"

"I’m seeing doubles… Lox, pass me a pack of aqua, would you?" 

"Shut your snout for a sec," Lox snapped, stumbling up and hovering against the monitor with wide eyes. Blue snarled, sitting up to reveal a bush of messy hair and her eyes a vivid green. She stretched, sighing as she swiped her forked tongue across her canines.

"My canines are sore, and I'm hungry; watch your tongue. Do we have any more froshlins?"

"No, we ran out a few days ago... Blue, listen, can you pull out the map from the cabinet behind the table? Just press that silver circle over there, a knob should pop out..."

Blue grumbled but complied. She awkwardly jumped from the bed to the cabin floor with a muted thump as Lox took a seat at the control panel, activating all the buttons with a flick of a switch. Blue skipped between the sharp shards of crystal and sat on the small table, avoiding the benches on either side and opened the cabinet while tilting her head. 

"Alright, we’ve got Jimeln, Idop, Theresa…"

“Uh, those are universes right?”

“No, planets; do your homework, man.”

"Alright, try to find... one for in between planets."

"In between? What do you mean, in between planets?"

"I mean, you have space in between planets... to travel from one planet to another, you need directions too..."

"I guess, but it's pretty straightforward no? Just follow the sun rays reflecting off the surface of the planet..." Blue trailed off, turning back around to find Lox's jaw tighten. "Or you follow the coordinates.”

Silence. 

“Why do you need a map?"

"... I was just wondering..."

"Lox? Why aren't you following the coordinates?"

Lox swallowed and leaned forward to clench a lever, glancing back with a flash of disdain in his gaze. Blue stared back, slipping off the table whilst her heart clenched. Lox sighed and pulled, letting the protection blinds part with a high pitched blare. Blue flinched at the lack of sun, and shuddered as she realized they were in pitch darkness. 

In the middle of nowhere. 

"Lox," Blue spoke in a hush, as if not daring to raise her voice. "I thought you put it on autopilot..."

"I did, I don't know why the craft-"

“No, no no no,” Blue muttered, tangling her claws in her hair. “Lox this is bad, this is so bad…”

Lox buried his face in his hands. “I know.” 

Blue scampered up to his seat, clutching the back of it. “Lox, you don’t get it, this is awful! There’s no getting out, we’re stuck here with who knows what! We’re prey!”

"Calm down, we'll figure this out," Lox fiddled with a few knobs, and the rush of air drumming from the small vent immediately quieted down. "We'll save our energy, toss any unimportant loads and try to radio a vessel to come get us."

"Who other than extraterrestrials and scavengers are out here?" Blue hissed, forcing Lox's chair around. She slammed two hands on either side of her captain, looking him dead in the eye as her eyes turned a fire orange colour. L:ox instantly put his hands up, knowing full well Blue could bite through his delicate human skin in a fraction of a heartbeat.

"L-Listen to me," Lox stammered, his brain going on autopilot. "If you kill me, you lose a captain."

Blue growled once more, leaning in close as Lox glanced down. She flexed her claws once more before shoving herself back and stalking to the back of the cabin. Lox sighed in relief as she began cleaning up; she turned quiet when she cleaned, and he needed all the silence he could get. He would have to figure out how to contact creatures in the middle of nowhere.

That term isn't wrong. The black voids of nothingness has been lovingly nicknamed Nowhere by regular travellers. Nowhere wasn't easy to slip into; if you saw a light source that wasn't yours, you were still somewhere. You had a guide, a promise of warmth and shelter and energy. Out in Nowhere, you are only a speck of matter, with no purpose to anything alive. Scavengers and monsters hiding in it's gloom aren't considered matter, not even plasma. They are unknown of. No names, rumours or myths about them are written down anywhere. Their existence is not to be talked about, because the creatures living in light are scared. How do they survive in the night? How do they survive- no, not just survive, they thrive, and conquer. Countless planets have been overrun, taken apart and ripped to shreds by those hungry souls; and the innocent’s history dies with them, as no living creature acknowledges the evil that appeared there that day.

No one would share any information, no matter how small, about these creatures. That thought alone made being stuck in Nowhere all the more terrifying. 

* * *

“Any luck?”

Lox rested his forehead against the wall, letting out a sad sound while caressing his beard. “Absolutely nothing.”

“Don’t really know what we expected,” Blue muttered, hopping from her top bunk. 

Hours passed dreadfully slow, the two travellers accepting their fate. After riding forward for an indescribable amount of time, Blue shut off the engine and shook her head when Lox glanced up from his will. There was no use wasting plasma that kept their airflow generator going. After dimming their lights, they sat at the table, planning out their rations for one another. They’ve done this countless times; they’ve been stranded inside a planet, waiting out a meteor storm that goes on for one hundred days. The two have been stranded in large bodies of water, in deserts, jungles, in war torn globes and world’s choked with poverty and danger. They survived them all, but the vast opens of space? 

Lox and Blue have met their match.

“I’ve always wanted to settle down, you know?”

Lox glanced up from his lukewarm drink, watching Blue’s eyes turn a dark, broken blue. “I know I’m the last of my species, but… starting a family, watching them grow and stay on the same planet, a safe globe with a solid atmosphere…”

“I’m sorry.” Lox murmured. “If I hadn’t been a bad captain and stopped the ship, we wouldn’t be here.”

“I know,” Blue sighed, a flicker of dark pink appearing in her irises. “You’re such a lousy captain, we-”

The ship buckled to the side, tossing Lox against his seat and Blue’s stomach into the table. Wheezing, she glanced around as her eyes turned yellow with fear as they began to get tugged into a direction.

Nobody found them. 

“Come here, come here,” Lox coughed, catching Blue as she jumped into his arms. “Hey, it’ll be quick, I promise…”

Blue buried his face into his chest, nails digging into his bicep and drawing blood. Lox buried his nose into her hair, breathing in her scent and doing the one habit he took from Earth; pray. As he uttered words under his breath, the ship shuddered to a stop. Lox held his breath as Blue clutched him even tighter. Whether they were in a pirate fleet or a mouth, he hoped their deaths would be swift. 

A shudder, then an unmistakable sound of a powerful engine rattled the walls. Lox winced. Scavengers. 

Or were they? As the engine shook the walls, Lox felt the familiar rise in his chest and the rush to his head. Blue whined, a rare sound, as she shook her head; her ears were being strained. Atom hopping, a complicated way to travel vast spaces. A deafening crack sounded throughout the cabin, and the pair were launched to the floor as they stopped abruptly. Blue gave a grunt as Lox landed on her, and he stuttered. 

“Sorry, sorry, are you okay?”

“I’m fine-”

“Here, give me your hand-”

“Oh my moon, did I do that to your arm?”

“Blue-”

“I’m sorry, I think we-”

Lox grabbed Blue’s head and turned it to the front of the spacecraft. Blue’s jaw dropped, her tongue slipping out of her mouth. Lox stood, admiring the most beautiful planet he's ever seen. Glowing plants, or water or creatures dotted the planet in gorgeous blue’s and green’s, as if inviting travellers. Paying no attention to the puncture wounds, he began swiftly fiddling with the spacecraft’s controls when Blue tugged at his jacket. Lox gave a glance in her direction, only to take a double take. A bigger, older spacecraft floated next to them, clearly old and rebuilt with scavenged parts.

“A pirate ship,” Blue whispered. 

“They… saved us?”

The pair stared as the ship powered up their engine and began blundering further from them. The craft did not fly away, or disappear; it simply was not there anymore. Atom hopping at it’s finest. The rest of Blue’s and Lox’s waking hours passed in a blur; they found a landing center and were greeted by tender-hearted creatures called Hollyan's, who whimpered in shock and scurried around on their small paws to treat Lox’s injuries. Their squeaks were translated by Blue, who respectfully kept her eyes downcast.

“My kind used to hunt them,” she whispered to Lox. “After four wars, we have made peace only a millennium ago.”

After explaining their situation, Blue and Lox were escorted to a small hollow near a gorgeous freshwater lake, where the Hollyan's graciously encouraged the pair to drink from and catch creatures to eat. Their planet was plentiful and protected, a quiet refuge for war-battered survivors fleeing different planets. After thanking them, Lox stumbled into the underground home and collapsed on the moss bed, sighing in relief. Blue followed suit, curling up next to him as she fell unconscious after a satisfied sigh. As Lox glanced out the small window to the night sky, he couldn’t help but give a tiny amazed smile. 

A fleet of Nobody’s have saved them from Nowhere.