CONCEPT ART FOR ALL THE RACES IN MY PIK FIC (SPOILERS BUT I DOUBT ANYONE CARES)
WHOO BOY THAT TOOK ABSOLUTELY FOREVER and by that I mean one day on and off but stILL
Characters from left to right, I just picked who best represented the races:
-Olimar
-Peche (Olimar's wife)
-Charlie
-Rosaline (Shacho's wife)
GALACTIC DATE: 20XX
Entry 3
Day 2 of preparation
I have to write this relatively quickly, we're giving our public speeches in a little bit and I'm updating this to calm down. Alright, I went through space flight simulation earlier and...it's best if I just start from the beginning. Zeta and Beck woke all four of us up and gathered us to this CRAZY looking room, it had...a bunch of STUFF in it!! I've never seen any of this stuff before, it was all...oh man, I can't even begin to explain it. There was one that was a seat strung around a metal hoop, inside another metal hoop with a larger metal hoop on the outside, they said it was to simulate the hurtling through the X, Y and Z axis of space travel all at once in case anything happened. The second was a pod attached on a long beam to a spinning motor in the middle, it reminded me of an amusement park ride. The last was definitely something I've seen at an amusement park, it was a very tall beam with a cart attached around the middle that raises you up and lowers you at about the same speeds as taking off and landing in a ship would take you. They even wanted me to inform the others (mainly captain Charlie who'd be flying the ship) on how to handle the ship's more unique design in comparison to other Koppaite ships, it was very exciting!!
Brittany's never been into space before so it was mainly us two attempting to go through flight simulation while captain Charlie and Delton taught us the ropes. Brittany begged for Delton to teach her so I got to hang out with captain! We took turns on the simulations, Brittany going first because she was older and could probably handle herself better. We went on the X/Y/Z axis simulator first, Delton and captain seemed to be having a pretty good time looking at Brittany spin around uncontrollably without knowing what she was supposed to be doing. When she got off, Delton had to basically carry her to the nearest chair so she could collect herself. You could probably guess I was immensely nervous..! Zeta was the planner I'd been assigned to, he was the one helping me up onto the simulator. Captain was just kinda there to supervise. Before they started it up, he said something like,
"Alright, newbie. Something I wish they told me was to keep your eyes fixed on one spot instead of darting them around like a crazed madman. You can also close your eyes but just don't move them or else you'll get dizzy and throw up all over, trust me, I've learned from experience. It was gross." He's pretty funny when he's not sad, I guess I just caught him at a really bad time? I look just like Drake anyway so I can see why it'd have been upsetting...ANYHOW, I felt like my brain was going to slide out through my ears after that catastrophe!! I did what he told me to do but I still...felt horrifically dizzy. It was fine, he held me steady once I was taken off of the frame and kept me from falling directly onto my face at least 40 dozen times like Delton did with Brittany. When he sat me down next to her, I looked to her and there were dozens of her spinning around, merging into one Brittany and then splitting up again. I couldn't help but laugh hysterically, I must've looked like a total weirdo. Brittany seemed to have also been seeing the same thing because she started giggling too and attempting to poke one of my many spinning faces (it didn't work, she did almost jab me right in the eye though).
The next one was what I like to call The Long Spinning One but Zeta informed me it was called the centrifuge. When Brittany came out of it, she ran sideways right into a wall and had to be carried over to another chair before she lost a tooth. That...was a pretty good sign of what was to come, I'd say. There's room for two people in there and I was put in with captain again.
"Uh...you can hold my hand if you're nervous, I guess. Rookies usually ask to on simulations with partners and I don't mind losing a few manliness points if it means you won't coat me in vomit," is what he said as soon as we got in. Of COURSE, being the brave soul I am, I clung to him like a baby while he admittedly didn't look too happy with me. Then the thing started spinning. And spinning. And it wouldn't stop spinning, everyone outside the pod turned into a long, taffy-like streak of whatever colour they were wearing and I had to stare at a wall in the pod to not lose my lunch. I guess captain thought it was pretty funny how freaked out I was because he was just looking at the scared-out-of-my-mind faces I was making. Then he told me something along the lines of, "you know, it's not nearly as bad when you're actually flying a ship. They make you do all this stuff to weed out the faint of heart, you get used to it really fast. Don't let this get to you, space travel is surprisingly easy in this day and age and these are older tests anyway." I'm glad captain got to be my partner instead of Delton because although he seemed to be having fun with Brittany, he wasn't giving her any advice and was letting her go in blind. I think my anxiety would make me keel over if I had to also do all this stuff without a warning first.
EVENTUALLY it slowed down to a halt. My legs were jelly and still kinda are! We did have one more simulation to go, however. We were supposed to do these once a day to start getting used to crazy fast movement, I guess it worked because Delton and captain didn't flinch or fall over even once after they went on. The last one, though....I felt like my heart flew down into my feet and was thrown back up into my skull when it went up and down!! Scary stuff, I tried to not cling to dear life to captain again since he doesn't seem to like being touched. Brittany was making this really cute "I'm gonna be tough and not rely on my partner to get my through this" face, too so I guess we're in the same awkward mess boat? Basically it's just a seat in a car that goes up extremely fast, pauses at the top and just DROPS you. It happened so fast there's not much to say, we went on it multiple times I guess which wasn't the most fun I've ever had. I was so grateful when it was over, I didn't need to be that horrendously nervous only to have to do a speech in front of ALL OF KOPPAI later without any notes?? It's tradition to do speeches from the heart instead of off notes but I think that's really stupid.
And then, after all that they let me wind down and show off the ship to the rest of the crew. I showed Brittany how to use the juicer and how to safely store seeds and soil samples, I guided Delton (who was in a much lighter mood after yesterday) around the ship's med bay. He...actually apologized about yesterday. He said even medics could have their emotions get out of hand which I already knew but I guess he could tell I was a bit surprised by how he'd acted. He's so much different today, he made a lot of puns and seems to have a similar sense of humor to me, guess he's an internet fanatic just like myself. I began to show captain how to work the ship today but he doesn't...entirely get it just yet. It's not what he's used to but we've got two weeks all to ourselves to figure it out, I know he can do it. He's smart, he's experienced, if he can't decipher the controls then that just means I get to hang out with him m
Alph heard a knock on his door right in the middle of the sentence he was progressing through in his journal. "Alph, you have to get ready for the big ceremony. I thought I told you ages ago, dude!" Beck's voice rang out as loud as his knuckles rapping the thick surface area of the door, the echo of the sound in Alph's rounded room made him jump. He stifled a yelp as he slammed his tiny fist into the power button of his screen projection strip.
"C-coming!!" he mumbled, dashing out the door and almost hitting it on the way out.
"Careful, I'll have to unhinge your door if you flatten me with another." Beck teased with a finger pointed towards the small engineer (although he was visibly worried from the way he rubbed the fading bruise adorning his cheek with his free hand). They strolled along to their destination together, meeting up with Brittany along the way. Alph couldn't help but notice she looked incredibly nervous from the way she stiffly followed alongside them while being led by Zeta.
"Hey, could you please go before me??" whispered Brittany as soon as she was in close enough range of Alph for him to hear her request.
"What? Why?"
"I've always been bad at giving speeches. I'd rather just finish my comic in peace without having to worry about stuff like this, if I go last then Koppai won't pay as much attention to my speech since they'll already be bored out of their minds." Alph rubbed his face with a hand, his nervous tick resurfacing.
"Uh...we'll see, Brittany," he wanly laughed. He swallowed the lump in his throat when they met up with a very formal looking couple, Charlie and Delton, who joined their walking group as soon as they'd noticed them. They had on their usual garb but radiated an entirely different energy than the usual somber attitude Alph had observed thus far; they'd showered and done their hair along with making sure their clothes were presentable for TV. 'This must be what they were like before anything happened to grandpa', Alph reflected. He gave them an approving smile in an effort to say, 'hey, I'm glad you're feeling better and hope you can forgive me for having to take Drake's place' and surprisingly got a smile back from both. Well...Charlie did something with his eyebrows since his mouth wasn't capable of smiling but Alph knew he was doing his best. After some time spent in silence marching through winding corridors completely unknown to Alph, they'd reached the room in which they'd begin the broadcast. Standing right in the middle was president Lima, THE president Lima who'd been Koppai's leader and galactic representative for around ten years.
While Charlie and Delton went straight towards her in a calm fashion and immediately began joking around with her, Alph and Brittany were stumbling over each other to hide behind their assigned planners. What was she doing here? The two nervous rookies were sure she was nice enough but weren't told the president herself would be helping with the speech. Alph hadn't prepared and still smelled of nervous sweat, Brittany's hair wasn't even fully brushed!
"Alph. Alph. Oh, stars. Did you know she'd be here?? No-one told me the president of all people would be here too, HIDE ME!" Brittany squeaked as Beck had moved away from her hiding spot to greet their leader. Alph frantically shook his head and sat on one of the many chairs aligned against the wall adjacent to the speech podium to collect himself. Okay, so not only did he have to give a speech without writing one down beforehand, not only was that speech going to be played on live television in front of the entire planet, he had to do all this in front of their president with her high expectations and whatnot. It was at this point Alph could've fainted but he didn't want to bring attention to himself. He noticed Delton look over to him and gesture for him to greet president Lima. 'N-now?? No way, I'm way too nervous for this,' he panicked, feeling Brittany's admittedly shaky hands on his back sliding his stiffened figure towards Lima.
"President Lima, this is Alph and Brittany. I've told you about Brittany before when we were discussing your favourite botanist not being medically suited to flying 276,000 light years away but I don't believe you've had a chance to meet her," Delton introduced. Lima turned to Brittany, gave a pleasant smile and offered her hand for a shake.
"Pleasure to meet you, Brittany. I'm glad we could have you even if our main botanist couldn't have gone with, I'm sure you worked very hard for the position," she congratulated. Brittany took the hand extended in her direction and shook it a bit...violently.
"Y-yes!! Yeah! Thank you, pr-president!" she stammered with a flushed expression, "I'll do my very best to make my speech to your liking!" Lima turned to Alph once breaking away from the handshake.
"And you must be Alph. I'm sorry about your grandfather, he was a very good man to us and is the reason this mission is taking place with those SPEROs of his," she mourned. Alph looked to Charlie whose breathing went a bit funny for a second. He reckoned he still wasn't used to hearing the words and was incredibly worried Delton might have another freak-out. A quick scan of Delton showed he was uncomfortable but wasn't about to blow his fuse thankfully.
"I'm sorry he couldn't make it to the mission, if I had a say in it he'd be taking my place with the rest of my crew. I hope I can be a fitting substitute..!" apologized the engineer for things he knew weren't his fault but felt he should say sorry for anyway. They shook hands in a manner that wasn't awkward or violent, again thankfully, and broke away for Lima to discuss when they were starting the broadcast. The newbies started eyeballing the podium where they'd in time be standing and delivering their speech, the speech that'd be read about in history books in Koppaite schools for years to come. "Brittany, are you even ready for this? I know I'm not," Alph humorously tried to point out.
"Ha...not really, why couldn't they just leave us out of this and let the big guys do all the work? Let Charlie do his stupid blabbering thing as normal and let Delton actually make sense of whatever he said." Alph glared at her upon hearing her blatant distaste towards their own captain. "Oh, Alph. You haven't known him as long as I have. He's got nothing between his ears, any time you think he's being wise it's just Del rubbing off on him. This is only your second day, you'll see what I mean once you're stuck in a ship with him for more than a week." He shifted his gaze towards his captain. Sure enough, he was giving off a vacant look from the corner he stood in and letting Delton do all the talking for him. He seemed like he knew what he was doing on TV, in fact, seeing him in comparison to how he was in person and what he was like displayed on a screen was more and more jarring by the minute. Alph was sure it was just a temporary act until he got over the loss of his friend.
"Hey, we're on in about two minutes. Start getting into position, stand in line to the right of the podium in whatever order you'd like to give your speeches in," announced a new planner with a camera who had just entered the room to start setting up. Uh oh, the time was coming. Brittany scrambled behind Delton, the third in line, dragging Alph in front of her.
"Do I look ready? Is there anything in my teeth?" she faltered as she ran her fingers through her hair, sending out that smell of sweet, fresh fruit Alph had noticed the previous day. He laughed and replied,
"No, Brittany. You look great. I don't even know what to say but I'm sure we could say pretty much anything as long as we actually do our job right." She looked down at him in a more content manner.
"Thank you," she gratefully responded, taking in a big breath and turning around to see the scene unfolding in front of her. President Lima had climbed to the top of the stairs leading to the podium in front of the camera and serenely gazed into the lens. 'She must've had a lot of practice for something as intimidating as this,' Alph thought, 'I'd never be able to just...do that.'
"Alright, transmission beginning in 5...4..,"
'Oh no. Here we go, I can't do this. Jeez, jeez, I can't do this.'
Alph didn't entirely black out per se but was definitely taken out of reality for half of the president's speech out of utter fear, anxiety had not been kind to him in the past and certainly wasn't going to lay off now. He did catch a few things in his dazed, dissociated state; president Lima seemed to be very into motivational messages she read on the internet whether they applied to the situation or not. She'd apparently known Charlie and Delton personally for some time now which would explain how they fearlessly approached her despite her imposing job. This wasn't the furthest mission destination Koppai had recorded but was among them. She ended her speech saying it was a great honor to have served in a time so important to history and that the crew about to speak wouldn't let the planet down. As she removed herself from the view of the camera, Delton made his way into her previously inhabited spot.
"I agree with president Lima, I wholeheartedly believe we as a planet can do this. It's an incredibly dangerous mission and we'll be too far away to give you all updates but there will definitely be a mission log describing the details of what it's like on the planet." Delton's speech was more brief and blunt than the president's, there wasn't much fluff and he addressed that should the mission take longer than six months their planet might as well be marked off as dead. He left off with an ahem, a thank-you and a silent walk away from the podium. 'Does he really think we can do this? Stars, I hope he believes in our ability, I know there's only four of us but I sure thought we could do this. He may have said he did but he sounded so...unsure,' Alph frantically thought, hand up to his cheek once more.
Before he could assess the speech, Charlie reclaimed Delton's spot and gave his two cents on their mission,
"I assure you all that nothing in our control will go wrong during the mission. We'll fight until we've got nothing left to fight with, and once we've got nothing left to fight with, we'll keep on going anyway. It's the Koppaite way and we're not letting anything stop us from giving you all the food supply you deserve. We'll fix our ecosystem and we'll do it with pride because we as a species deserved better, our technology is a gift we won't let go to waste." Charlie seemed...almost mad about something when talking about the planet losing its food supply. Surely the mission itself wasn't an annoyance to him, it had to have been something else on his mind. His speech directly addressed the lower class people of Koppai that Alph had never even seen in person due to his rich upbringing, Charlie seemed so passionate about getting this fruit back but it didn't reduce his frustration being displayed for all to see. A bow of his head signified he was finished and it was now Brittany's turn. Wait, Brittany? Alph thought he'd stood in front of her but after the line moved, his figure stood planted firmly in place while she was forced to move in front of him. Oops. She gave her fellow rookie a pale look and a weak wave indicating it was her opportunity to not look like a fool on live TV.
"Erm...yes, I'm the botanist. I do the plant things in this operation." Her speech was more humorous and light-hearted, exactly what people like Alph needed to hear in a dire time like this. She talked about how she'd been training her whole life to be an "expert plant wrangler", that she'd bring back all the seeds they could fit on the ship and joked about being so dedicated to saving Koppai she'd throw the captain off the ship to make sure they could fit all the seeds they found aboard. Alph and Delton simultaneously shot her a look of distaste but eased up once they noticed Charlie and Lima trying to stifle a laugh as to not taint the recording. "Um...bye! See you in a couple weeks for launch day!" Brittany waved goodbye to the camera and ran offstage as fast as her legs would take her. She was visibly shaking even though her speech went well; Alph knew he wasn't ready for this if she hadn't been. He sucked in his gut, clenched his fists and slicked back his hair with a balled hand.
"Hello, Koppai. I know I'm not popular like captain Charlie, insanely talented like Delton, as dedicated as Brittany or even as successful as my grandpa Drake but I hope I can offer you all something different with what I'll be doing on this mission." Alph looked off to the side at Delton and Charlie, they hadn't mentioned Drake as to not break down in front of the entire planet but Alph had nothing to lose and could keep it together a bit better than they could, being not as experienced with traumatic events he supposed. "Actually...I'm going to take a minute to talk about Drake. Not all of you might know him by name but he's the reason this mission is taking place. He created the SPEROs used to fly all those thousands of light years away to find us fruit, he singlehandedly planned the ship we'll be using and only didn't work on it himself because I insisted on joining him. He was a loner and kept to himself the majority of the time but that doesn't make him any less important than anyone else on the mission. I'd like to take this time to name our unnamed ship after his legacy, we've got a camera guy outside, right?" Lima looked around a bit frantically and nodded, they were going to show off the ship later but not NOW. "Show the ship, I want the world to see what he'd been working on for all this time," Alph ordered, wistfully pointing in the direction of their president. She stared at him for some time and drew out a KopPad she'd hidden away in her satchel.
"Hey, cut to the ship. The kid wants to name it, guess it hasn't got a name yet?" Lima murmured to who Alph was guessing was the live editor. She paused for a second and gave him a quick hand signal indicating the cameraman on the outside was showing off the fruit of his labor after all this time. He took in another deep breath to steady his heart rate and announced for all to hear,
"I'd like to name the ship the S.S. Drake after all my grandpa did for this planet. I'd like his name to be known in history books for years to come and I want him to be more famous than I'll ever be, he was very important in the saving of our race even if he didn't like to hang around other people. Thanks for listening to me ramble, I hope I can live up to all your expectations." Without saying another word, Alph silently walked off stage and weakly sat in the empty seat on Charlie's left. President Lima walked back to the podium and began to speak again but Alph's head was trapped swimming in his anxiety fueled thoughts. Did he do the right thing? Would Drake have wanted the ship named after him or would he be scolding him for being a sappy little weirdo and disrespecting his wishes to be left alone by the general masses?
He had absolutely no way of knowing and thus couldn't reach peace for some time now; he curled up in a ball in his seat and stopped resisting the horrible trembles that ran rampant through his system. Through the slew of sounds and words he heard from all around him, he felt a warmth wrap around him. He opened a previously clenched eye to look up at whatever was touching him. It was...Charlie? He was watching the president speak with a watchful eye but felt the need to comfort Alph after his first speech. Although he didn't dare say a word while president Lima spoke, it was obvious he knew how Alph felt and wanted to say how proud he was of honoring his grandfather and keeping it respectful despite being scared out of his mind. Alph carefully nuzzled into him and let his anxious thoughts drown themselves in the warm comfort of his captain's lent arm.The mess hall was abundant with people chatting with one another about the speech they'd just watched; they weren't allowed to be in the same room but they all found ways to witness it for themselves on their KopPads, personal computers or shared televisions. Why wouldn't they? Alph for one was feeling extraordinarily overwhelmed by having to give the speech, derailing it to name the ship, doing all this on a queasy stomach and having all these people he didn't know asking him questions about stuff he didn't want to answer right now. Thankfully, he'd sat down next to his new friends and they'd shoo people away when they noticed he wasn't feeling up to talking with anyone. When it was their turn to grab their rations, they traveled as a group and didn't say much to each other but still enjoyed the presence of one another a little more than they had before the group training and speech today. They were becoming more of a team and growing fond of the others despite the hole that'd been punched into their lives by Drake's passing. Alph quit his reminiscing about teamwork and all that jazz as soon as he noticed a shining piece of scrap plastic on the floor where Delton was about to step on their short trip back to their table.
"Uh, Delton? Maybe watch your step before-" By the time the words left the engineer's mouth it was too late, the taller Dunesian slipped on the slippery material and attempted to save his rations on the trip down. It proved to be fruitless- pun intended- as the juice spilled all over the newly cleaned metal floor and a unanimous groan from everyone who noticed it was heard.
"Dammit, Delton!" protested someone from the back of the room who was likely raised in a poor family as she seemed to take it very personally. Food was scarce these days and watching someone slip and destroy their rations in a heartbeat meant they just weren't getting lunch that day, no way around it. Brittany helped him up in a frenzied manner as soon as she could extend a helping hand.
"Wow, that would've been useful if you'd said it before it was directly under my foot," moaned Delton to Alph as they both looked at the mess he'd made, him rising off his feet away from the staining liquid to get his nice uniform out of harm's way.
"No, no it's fine, Delton! I'll get this cleaned up for you, we can share if you want!!" Brittany stammered. She ran off too quickly for anyone to be able to stop her so they just took their seats and tried to avoid the stares, both shocked and disapproving, from their fellow scientists. Charlie cracked his jar open to take a sip before looking at his distraught friend.
"Well, guess I'll die," laughed Delton, putting his feet up on the table and crossing his arms. The people of Dunite, his primary race, were omnivorous and could eat anything thrown at them. He, however, was raised on Koppai where his father lived and mother moved to stay, thus his diet consisted of only fruit. It'd throw his system out of whack if he attempted to eat anything else this late in his 34 year old life.
"Here. You need this more than I do." Delton's ears perked up. Charlie was handing his jar to him, in any other culture this would've not terribly significant but seeing him give up all of his food that easily was a very noble act on a planet such as Koppai.
"Whoa...are you sure, Charlie?" he sputtered, guiltily looking down at the rations being offered to him.
"Of course I'm sure, you'd do the same for me, wouldn't you? Now eat up before I spoon feed you myself," Charlie joked. He shoved the jar into Delton's arms and folded his own so he couldn't get it back. Delton gave a meek but very grateful smile and began to down the contents of the jar. Alph looked down at his sock-protected feet. He was still very wound up and anxious over the course of the entire day so he definitely couldn't eat anything right now. It would additionally be an honor to be higher up on Charlie's liked-person list so he proceeded to repeat what he did for Delton.
"Here, captain. I'm feeling sick from earlier and think you really should eat," Alph suggested to his superior. Delton gave a mocking snicker in between sips while Charlie's face went beet red.
"What? No, seriously, it's fine. I'm a big guy, I've got enough energy to last until tomorrow," Charlie contested, pushing the canister back towards Alph. He made a pouty face and nudged the juice closer to him on the table, crossing his arms like he'd observed his captain doing. Charlie rolled his eyes in a joking manner and patted him on the head.
"If you say so, Alph. Promise me you'll eat well tomorrow." Alph gave him a smile and watched the two enjoy their rations on an empty stomach.
"Okay, I guess ALPH will die. Been nice knowing you," Delton remarked between sips. It was fine, he really was feeling nauseated from earlier and might throw up if he tried to eat. Brittany had finally jogged back to rendezvous with her crewmates but had a concerned look atop her face once she'd noticed Delton with new rations.
"You...got new juice?" She looked fervently to Charlie and Alph and could discern that Alph had no food. "Did Alph give that to you or did Charlie?" she questioned in a concerning, nervous fashion. Delton nudged Charlie and fibbed,
"It was Alph. New kid's pretty nice, he said he wasn't feeling good and that I could have his." Brittany let out a sigh of relief for reasons unknown to the other three crew members and took her seat next to Alph. The four of them bantered about what they figured the new planet would look like, argued over whether they'd find intelligent alien life, laughed about how nervous both Delton and Charlie were their first time flying to make the two rookies feel better and even for only a few sparse minutes, had peace in each other's company and weren't worried about the future. Well...except for Alph.
He sputtered out hot breath and wiped the excess moisture from his puffy eyes. For the past hour or so, Alph had been smothered in his blankets shaking like a leaf in the middle of the night all by himself. Yep, this wasn't unusual for him, he could hold himself together well in front of people but after a nerve-wracking experience like that, he had to excuse himself to go panic in another room. It was an odd experience as his mind was relatively clear but his body just needed some time to wear itself out from all the stress it'd been put through. He just chalked it up to being "an anxiety thing" and allowed himself to have cry sessions whenever he needed them, he'd had a very scary day so alone time was definitely in order.
Hand up to his cheek, he weakly staggered out of bed over to his door to get some fresh air. Thankfully the hallways were still as barren as they typically were at this hour of the night, the last thing he needed was for someone to see him in a state like this. 'Although I wouldn't mind if captain or Brittany noticed, I might be able to get a hug from them if they saw I was panicking,' he heard his subconscious whisper in the back of his head. He usually would contest against anyone seeing him like this but since the passing of his grandfather he hadn't had a hug in...well, the entire time Drake had been gone. Alph didn't consider himself very needy but even he needed physical affection every now and then.
'Where's the bathroom, I need to get cleaned up...' His eyes glossed over many numbered doors, none of which were signifying anything other than scientists' assigned cabins. 'They should really get some signs in this place,' he observed as he wandered through the empty halls. Suddenly, his ears swiveled to an unusual noise being emitted from behind a door not particularly close to him. His blood ran cold and his spine sent a chilled current up itself to let him know something was very much wrong in the present vicinity. 'What was that? No...it was nothing, it's the anxiety again,' Alph asserted himself. Tiptoeing in his uniform socks, pressed up against the walls of the vacant hallway, he slinked towards what he figured could have been the source of the eldritch, foreign sound. Once again it resonated through his cold, tense form, sounding like...someone choking? Something was definitely up, Alph hadn't been known to hear things and there was no reason to suddenly pick up the habit now. He picked up his pace while making sure to tread lightly until the noise guided him to what he found to be conveniently his original destination: the washrooms.
'Oh, the age old question. Which do I go into?' Alph stopped to look up at the two panels indicating the two Koppaite sexes...neither of which he seemed to fall into. He didn't feel like it should matter but no matter what he chose, there was always that one person that told him the ladies' room was to the left or shot him a dirty look that could be chalked up to the observer thinking, 'get out of the womens' room, you pervert'. His admittedly distracted inner monologue was yet again disturbed by a hacking, retching noise, the source of which seemed to be the mens' bathroom. Alright, mens' it is. The door slid open with ease and revealed a near pitch black room with nothing but a single dim bulb illuminating the scene.
"H-hello? Are you okay in there?" Alph stuttered, concerned with the health of whoever was struggling in the room. He couldn't help but notice that underneath the opening of the stall, the legs of the unknown scientist were knees-down on the floor. 'Must've been sick to his stomach, poor thing,' Alph pitied. His long ears picked up the noise of the sufferer coughing and finally responding,
"A...Alph? Is that you?" in between wheezes and heaves. It was Delton's voice.
"Delton! Whoa, what happened to you? Can I come in?"
"NO! I mean...argh, I'm the medic. I'm fine. I know when I'm fine, I'm just...nervous. You should know a thing or two about that," Delton spat. Alph's stomach lurched, 'no, something's not right. He's unwell and is too stubborn to get help. I need to get captain.'
"Do you want me to get captain Charlie for you? He can take you to the med bay if you can't make it yourself-"
"What did I just say? I'm fine! You sound quite shaky yourself, do you think you're unwell?" He had to assess himself for a second, he certainly was shaky but the way Delton was slurring his words made him think his head wasn't completely intact and he could audibly hear liquid hitting liquid; must've been salivating uncontrollably. Definitely not an anxiety thing.
"I may be younger than you but I'm not stupid, I came here because I was nervous and needed to get cleaned up. You sound like you've been a bit sicker than anxiety can make you.."
"FINE! You can't tell anyone because if you do, they'll stow me away in a bed the entire mission and they won't let me on board with you all. This is just food poisoning, it's nothing serious or life-threatening. I'm not stupid either but they won't believe me and they'll leave me behind just to be 'safe' even though the safest thing would be to let me go anyway so I can HELP you guys in case you get sick. Charlie needs me. I need him, you can't let them separate us like this," Delton retaliated. Alph couldn't think of anything to say. Would he get help? Should he just tell Charlie instead of one of the planners? Or would he just keep quiet about it and risk Delton getting too out of hand out of his own dogged stubbornness? "Would a sick person be able to do...THIS?" Delton panted and strained, readjusting himself on the floor of the stall. He weakly stretched an arm under the opening of the wall and began to do something with his hands. "Eh...come on..," he muttered, moving his trembling phalanges. Two fingers stood straight up while the other curled into a half-circle, meeting the thumb halfway...oh.
Alph found it ruined the scary mood for him and just made him laugh in response.
"A...alright. If you really think things won't get too much worse I'll leave you be. I trust you, Delton. Don't make the wrong choice," Alph urged.
"Thanks, dude. Oh...stars, that was stressful. Oh, man. Wow..," Delton gasped in a manner of great relief after hearing he wouldn't be ratted on. "You're pretty okay for a new guy. You're just like your grandpa, I think I can get used to you being around. If it weren't for you, I would've lost my job." Alph snorted and let out a laugh after seeing the ridiculous gesture. Deep down he wanted to trust his superior but from what he'd seen, he was more obsessed with keeping his friends close to him than taking care of his own health. Alph knew he wasn't okay and something was very, very wrong; he left the bathroom with a smile but the second he hit the hallway the pleased expression dissolved into a concerned frown. He knew he'd have to keep an eye on the bullheaded medic if he wanted him to be safe.
The sounds. The sound of uneven footsteps, the infrequent groans and the occasional dragging of limbs brushing up against one another. The awful, awful sounds penetrated Alph's sensitive ears and reverberated within his ear canal. Yes, something was absolutely array, it was his duty to go help Delton. It'd been only a half hour since he'd removed himself from the bathroom to leave the medic with some privacy. Was anyone else hearing this? Couldn't have just been him, it was certainly muffled but to his anxious ears the sound was nothing short of distracting and disconcerting. He had just decided to stay put when a thump was heard nearby his door, the final straw of his inner debate deciding if he should investigate the awful noise had been broken. The teal-haired engineer slinked out of his bed, snuck over to his door with the agility of a feline and cracked it open a bit to assess his surroundings. To the left, nothing was visible. 'Hm, maybe it really was my imagination..,' Alph figured, cocking his head to the right. Almost on cue, the pale outline of Delton's quivering body on the floor was noticed by his concerned onlooker once he'd turned directions.
Alph immediately burst out of his room and sped over to his superior.
"Delton? Delton, say something! Do you want me to go get captain, I'll find captain for you, please be okay!!" he yelped, brushing his hand through Delton's mint green hair to find a temperature. The skin of his forehead was boiling whilst the rest of his body was ice cold and unusually sweaty; Alph knew next to nothing about medical conditions and general health-based information but he took a wild guess that this wasn't any ordinary food poisoning. Still no response after a few panic-filled moments of deafening silence. "Delton? Talk to me, do you need me to get someone? You can't walk on your own!" Alph begged, attempting to hoist the much taller man over his shoulder. Nothing. "It's alright, I'll get you there on my own. I don't even know if you're awake but you're going to be okay, I'm going to help you and there'll still be time for you to recover before the mission. It's going to be okay, I promise!"
GALACTIC DATE: 20XX
Entry 3, continued
Day 2 of preparation
Delton got very sick today. They thought he was going to die from the way he went unresponsive like that but upon further examination, he was going into shock from a large amount of poison in his system. It's very late so they're not going to come to a conclusion as to what happened just yet, they're just focused on keeping him alive. Brittany was crying and apologizing a whole lot even though I'm sure she had no real reason to say she was sorry, captain just held his hand and didn't say much. I tried to cheer him up by saying Delton didn't think it was anything serious and since he's the medic, that should probably mean something, right? Captain just looked away and told me he's been wrong before, he's only a single man and there's a lot of room for error if you're just one person. I was going to write about my speech but it's just been an awfully stressful day in every regard, I just thought I should leave off with a quick note instead of something long. You can just watch the speech on your computer, no reason for me to repeat it. I'm sorry. I really should've gotten someone immediately after he fell ill.
Today's haiku:
Delton, forgive me
I do hope you wake up soon
there's work to be done.
(...please.)
