Cara

Blue specks ring out from the soft egg yolk center, fading deep into the silk white stars. My hair melts into the cerulean lagoon, my toes gripping the white sand as my body bobs between the point the water reaches the shore. The salty pool lapped against my fingertips as I spread my arms out to my sides. I could feel the heaviness ripple and swirl between my hands. The blue galaxy above me casts a mesmerizing reflection on the water, illuminating my skin with its ethereal glow. Everything mutes. Leukos Galaxy. It’s barred. And it’s too big to inhabit just us. But war was not present, only malnourishment. With my ears submerged, I am left in silence, and I surrender to the darkness behind my closed eyes. As I'm about to doze off, everything shifts in the air as the rustle of water sways through my body. Warmth sprays my nose as mist and droplets splash against me. With a sudden rush of adrenaline, my heart plummets to my stomach, and I instinctively root myself to the ground. Emerging from the water, I vigorously shake my head to clear the liquid from my ears. The blue lagoon now ends at my knees, and I can feel its gentle tug against my legs. My gaze lands on Caelum and Penelope splashing each other in the shoal across from me. I let them do their thing as relief buries my breath back into my chest. Thank God, it’s only them. My body fell weightless as I slam back into the water. I squeeze my eyes shut as I sink my skin into the salt and sand. But I don’t flinch as I relax into the clear marsh. The planet was water. Small pockets separating each lagoon, a different shade of blue humming against the satin glow of Vaskas, the star we orbit. There were times in my life when I felt as if the water, flowing through the very essence of this planet, mirrored the life force that flowed through my own veins. It’s a shame life wasn’t habitable here anymore. I’d stay in a heartbeat. Ever since the crops died out, no one's visited. The haunting, empty marine farms remind us of that. 

The water reluctantly releases its grip on me, leaving my fingertips pruned and wrinkled. My supplies laid on the sandbar that separated this part of the lagoon from the other pools. Grabbing the fresh towel from my rucksack, I dry myself off. My hair feels softer, and my skin has a silver hue to it now. I throw the damp towel over my back so it hangs off my shoulder as I gaze up at the cosmic strip the Leukos Galaxy provided. There wasn’t one night that went by where the stars didn’t feel like they were inches from my eyes. Caelum and Penelope headed back to the ship as I closed my eyes, feeling the warm topical wind blow through my dark hair. I lick the water from my lips, savoring the taste of the sweet lotus dew. I forgot how much this planet adapts to an individual’s senses. As I gaze down at my reflection, I lose myself in the depths of the tranquil pool. The silence was so complete that my reflection blended seamlessly with the sparkling constellations. In the hypnotic water, the rich brown of my eyes transforms into a piercing shade of blue. I blink a few times, attempting to grasp the surreal sight of the planet's ever-changing hue, confused by its impact on my reflection. The light caught my veins, causing them to shimmer in a radiant aquamarine, revealing the intricate network that coursed through me. Every breath I took it felt like the water was breathing with me. Like a magnet, my body wants to pull itself deep into the planet. I can feel the gravitational pull between me and the pool. And I knew that if I touched it, just slightly with the pad of my thumb, that I’d be pulled in too deep. The sound of muffled voices reverberates in my ears, gradually bringing me back to consciousness. Suddenly, two hands grip my arms as they pull me out of the lagoon. I feel like I've been starved of oxygen, gasping for a breath as the force pulls me forward. My body craves it as I let the air drown my lungs. I stand up on the soft sandy bank, my balance wobbly and tender. Tora grabs my rucksack and throws it over his back as he heads to the ship. His voice is deep and raw,

“We need to leave.” Cider follows him and nods her head over at me, suggesting that I follow Tora, too. 

“What the hell just happened?” I bite out at Tora. Neither of them speaks a word as I follow their silence to our ship, treading through the soft sand, slowly gripping onto my damp legs. In an instant, a searing pain shoots through my sinuses, throbbing relentlessly from the bridge of my nose to my ears. I stop halfway through the large sand bank and press my palm to my forehead, wincing at the unbearable pain as my skin throbs against my hand. As I look up, I see Tora already at the base of the ship, Cider trailing a few feet behind him. Despite the lingering pain in my head, I push myself to sprint as fast as I can through the dense sand, each step a battle against its cumbersome nature. Dammit, I was so far behind them and I didn’t even realize it. Cider’s gaze is caught on something behind me. I turn my head around to see what she was looking at and every hair on my body turns to ice, rising from my skin. The planet seemed to fade away, blending into the atmosphere, as if it were disintegrating before my eyes. But something else grew from the ground, meeting the sky. A tsunami, born from the force, was so colossal that my eyes couldn't swallow its entirety. The hot wind whips through my headache and my hair, pushing against my body, fighting the force. Every muscle aches within me, but I forget about the pain. I wince as the grainy sand burns against the bottoms of my feet. The spaceship loomed ahead, and Cider was perched on the edge of the steps, waiting for me. With a jump, the sand flew off my feet, and she quickly grabbed my arm, helping me onto the ship. Tora sprawls himself out in the cockpit as he launches the aircraft off the never ending sand dunes. I lay on the metal floor of the ship, my hand on my bare chest as I gasp for air. The dying planet was eerily muted. No sound. 

“Tora!” Penelope’s frown deepens into her body as she walks up behind him. They argue, but I don’t pay attention to what she screams at him. I hear Tora's furious tapping against the control system, his curses filling the air, as he skillfully pilots us out of orbit. Slowly standing up, my balance falters as we speed out of the planet’s atmosphere. My dog tags swing across my chest as I gaze out the window, looking back at the disintegrated planet below us. Ignoring Penelope's presence, I swiftly moved toward the cockpit. I take a seat beside Tora, the sound of the engine roaring in my ears as we work together to navigate the aircraft to the left. 

“Were you trying to kill us?” I ask him, putting all the strength I have left into steering the heavy ship. Tora's laughter echoes as he shakes his head, his eyes fixated solely on the ship. I keep my gaze forward, feeling Penelope’s hands gripping my seat as she holds on. Struggling to stay conscious, I push my body to its limits against the heavy machinery. The sight was breathtaking, the dying blue planet merging with neighboring stars and asteroids in a mesmerizing display that felt too unbarred to be real. I could feel my face droop, my body melting into the slick leather seat. The weight in my head becomes unbearable, and everything abruptly disappears into darkness. 

As I struggle to adjust my eyes to the bright light above, a shadowed figure emerges and a lingering stinging spreads across my face. As the shadow's hand reaches my skin, it strikes me with a forceful slap that jolts through my nerves. My body is awake and I immediately get up, rubbing my eyes and dealing with the pain throbbing throughout my head. Tora crouches above me, while Cider and Penelope form a circle around me. His burly hand stretches out in front of me, and I clasp it as he effortlessly lifts me. He and Cider lead me back to the cockpit where Caelum sits, steering the ship softly. The reassuring hum of the aircraft engine provides a backdrop to my thoughts, grounding me in the present moment. 

“It wasn't a planet.” Caelum says with a crooked smile, his eyes glued to the vastness in front of him. Cider clears her throat, her long orange hair now in a tight braid folded over her shoulder.

“It was trying to eat you.” I clench my jaw until my teeth ache, letting my mouth pulse. I didn’t speak. No word that could come out of my mouth could express the shock I was under. She shakes her head and lets out a sordid laugh.

“This whole time, we thought none of the animals survived because of the salt content in the water. But it’s all because it's a carnivorous entity.” Cider lets out a long breath, pulling out the tests she took. She shoves the chart in front of my face, but I pushed it away, my eyes still tender from blacking out. My brain tries to wrap around her words. 

“It was dying of starvation.” Caelum adds. I stare up at him, still confused and worried. 

“Then what the hell was it?” Tora shifts and grips a velcro safety handle above us as he leans against the ship.

“We don’t know that yet,” He says coldly. Sighing heavily, his eyes narrow in a frown as he directs his gaze towards the shiny, metal surface beneath his feet.

“There’s a reason you’re so connected to that thing,” Tora sighs, his eyes meeting mine. 

“It acts like a curved blade.” 

“Whatever you project, it spits back out to you.” The more he talks, the more my hearing fades back to the humming of the ship. My mind goes back to the reflection I saw in the water, the cool touch of the liquid against my fingertips lingering in my memory. I was powerful, not born into an existence of black, but of blue. The way my veins burned brightly. I silently breathe out as I look up at Tora mid speech, paying attention to him again. 

“It was mirroring what you wanted to see in yourself. So you’d be tempted to die.” He scoffs,

“You're lucky we saved your ass.” I thread my hands through my hair, trying to control my breath. 

“Yeah, thanks.” I say softly towards Tora and Cider. I’m not sure why my desire to go back was so strong after Tora’s explanation. Especially after it died. 

“I’m going to check up on Penelope,” Tora says before he unhooks his hand from the safety belt and makes his way over to her. Cider follows him.

“Cider, wait.” I let out, hopping over the seat and walking into the cockpit with her. She waits for me to say something.

“Why was it trying to kill me but not everyone else?” I ask her while she collects all of our material we’ve gathered in the past 6 months. We were assigned to travel to each planet in the Leukos Galaxy and get samples for habitability likeness. Every single one of them was low.  

“You’ve been to Cara, no?” Cara CCYX was what the “planet” used to be called, I guess. We called it Cara for short, named after the first person who “found” it in our solar system many years ago.

“Many times.” I say as I watch her zip up all the vials in a heavy bullet proof case.

“Then it knew you weren't poison. It was all of our first times. Cara wouldn’t eat something that would rot it.” I frown, hoping the more I close my eyes, the more I can understand why I was so hung up on it. 

“You should get changed before we dock.” She said with a tight smile. I nod and head toward the cabins at the very back of the ship. Opening my cabin door, I walk straight into the bathroom and feel the cool tile floor beneath my bare feet. Turning on the faucet, I soak my face under the icy fresh water. Water that wasn’t trying to kill me. My face drips into the sink as I look up into the mirror, my eyes still warm brown and my veins still intact within me. Not visible to the human eye. And as I get my uniform on, throwing a white ribbed tank top over my head, I realize how Cara was just trying to survive. Not different from humans, it needed to eat something it knew was safe. It needed to depend on something that wasn’t going to run out of nutrients. It wasn’t different from our home planet. And it wasn’t different from us. Sitting on my bunk bed, I hunch over, my elbows pressed into my knees, as I bury my head in my hands. We spent 6 months looking for something to cure our planet, and I’m worried our fate will end up like Cara. If we take too much, there will be nothing left to give.