The ship shakes and clatters as it climbs higher, Frank's knuckles turn white as he keeps it steady.

  It swiftly climbs into orbit and the shaking ceases.

  “Everyone okay?” Frank pulls a lever that releases his chair's rotation and flings the chair backward with a motion of his feet.

  “MROUWW!” Pineapple growls as it sets its back paws down from the backrest and sits on the seat normally.

  “Y-yeah” Amethyst says barely audible, her mind swimming in bad space travel memories.

  “Good, I'll initiate a warp next, it shouldn’t be as rough, though its start and end are quite bumpy still,” Franks says and turns the chair back and locks it, he glances out of the window.

  Black space of the Chartreuse system opens up before them on the other side of the windshield, calm and desolate, if not for the distant stars and another planet of the system: Basil Cochlea.

  Darker green in appearance than Viridian Macula, its surface entirely covered in mostly waist-deep water, home to all sorts of exotic algae and seaweed-like plants.

  Very shallow, apart from two incredibly deep oceans, perfectly mirrored on both sides of the planet.

  It is theorized the oceans reach deep into the planet and connect from the 'bottom', too.

  A theory still unproven, but supported by sightings of creatures only previously seen on the other side of the planet, or so Frank has heard.

  Not many would guess how much harder exploring deep underwater environments is than plain space.

  Poaching animals from such depths is even harder, but it didn’t stop IWV from trying.

  Frank navigates a touchscreen display's preloaded warp drive locations: a bunch of IWV facilities are listed as well as some Intergalactic Resources ones.

  He quickly scrolls through all of the IR locations, looking for something that he recognizes.

  Ah, Midnight Iris in the Sangria system... right?

  He presses its icon, two planets pop up on the screen of the twin sun system.

  Midnight Iris and a massive gas giant, Perwinkle, rotating far on the outer orbit, its 3D model in the map system a bright pink with swirls of purple.

  “Hold on! Next stop, Midnight Iris!” He presses its icon on the screen.

  The warp drive shakes and rumbles the ship, before starting to steadily accelerate the ship along with its normal thrusters.

  It reaches the correct speed, and the space folds around them, as stars become a blur.

  The ship speeds along and achieves its max speed in a few minutes, the ride steadies up and quiets down.

  Frank turns the pilot chair around to face Amethyst.

  “So, are you really fine now Amethyst? You won’t just suddenly collapse again?"

  “I’m okay Frank, I feel great!” Amethyst attempts to smile a reassuring smile.

  “That’s a relief… but how is that possible? You… you were-”

  Frank hesitates and averts his eyes, looking at Pineapple instead who stares him down in return with its irritated black eyes.

  “The Voice in my head saved me.”

  “Wow… I owe her a big thanks then, can you deliver it for me?” Frank looks at the seated Amethyst again.

  “… She’s not there anymore”

  Amethyst instead looks at Pineapple now, who returns the gesture in kind, confused as to why everyone keeps staring at him.

  “She sacrificed herself to save me.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry…

  But still, I’ll forever be grateful to her for saving you.”

  “Forever… grateful?” Amethyst makes eye contact with Frank.

  “Y-yeah?”

  “Me too” Amethyst smiles, steadily getting over her haunting memories.

  Frank keeps on staring into her eyes.

  “Were your eyes always that dark?"

  “My eyes?”

  “Yeah, I could have sworn they used to be a shade of lighter blue before?”

  He leans forward and intently peruses Amethyst's dark blue eyes.

  “I can't say, I haven't really given it much thought before.”

  “Oh well, I may just be imagining it” He relaxes again and leans back on the chair.

  “Anyway, we're just glad you're okay now, right Pineapple?”

  The ship starts decelerating slowly, they are pushed forward now instead of backward.

  “MOOURR!”

  The cat is holding on to the seat with all of its paws, fighting against the forward pull now instead.

  Frank strains to speak, his back being pressed against the seat, as it’s facing away from the ship’s front.

  “That was a yes... You gave us quite... the fright.”

  “I'll try not to make it a habit,” She says as her armored body is pulled against the restraints.

  “Good, I don't know... if my heart... could take it... if you did.”

  The ship continues to slow down before it enters back into normal space again, right into Midnight Iris' orbit.

  Frank spins the chair around and checks the ship's status and their fuel, they had started with a full tank, but now 55% was already gone.

  A more efficient rocket fuel huh...

  ...

  He looks out the window.

  “Wow, your planet is beautiful Amethyst!

  I see why it is called the Midnight Iris, that big black dot makes it look like a purple eye.”

  Frank says as he grabs the sticks and flies the ship on approach to its atmosphere.

  “Do you happen to know what it is exactly?"

  “It’s an ocean of black water.” She answers readily, without realizing it. “I guess I've been there.”

  “Is it safe to swim in?”

  “I don't know, I can't swim. I think...”

  “Oh, right. Makes sense.”

  “But the water should be fine, it rains down from the sky after all.”

  “What really? Black Rain...”

  Frank looks back at Amethyst and her astonished expression as she intently gazes at her planet.

  “Ever seen your home from space before?

  “No… Is that really my home? It looks so strange from up here”

  Amethyst says fixating on the planet that fills the windshield more and more.

  “Oh, you’ll see, just wait till we get closer.”

  They break into the atmosphere, the hull heats up and blazes with fire.

  The ship’s protective coating and insulation work in tandem, making sure the temperature only raises a few unnoticeable degrees inside.

  Turbulence shakes the ship as they break through the gray clouds, below forests of purple and red spread out endlessly.

  “We really made it back!” Amethyst's voice is laced with glee.

  “We sure did!”

  “Thank you, Frank!”

  “Don’t mention it,” Frank adjusts his green shirt's collar.

  He gradually slows the ship down and sets course to the location shown by the radar, directing them to the outpost.

  Frank cruises with the ship above the trees, Amethyst looks down at the purple forest or tries to.

  She's still locked in her seat, trying hard to catch more glimpses of her home, but cannot see much of anything but the half-cloudy blue sky.

  The outpost’s massive main building and the mining quarry behind it come into view.

  “This is an Intergalactic Resources Base, your ship was not on our landing schedule, state your business. We have anti-air weaponry which we will not hesitate to use.”

  A male voice, slightly degraded by transmission static, speaks to them through a channel that opens up on a nearby screen automatically.

  How could I forget!

  Frank picks up the mic receiver and takes a deep calming breath before pressing the button to speak.

  “This is an Intergalactic Wildlife Ventures cargo ship from Viridian Macula, sorry about the trouble, you see we... forgot to bring some equipment with the last ship that landed just a few hours ago, so it was thrust upon me to bring them in straight away.”

  He nervously looks out the window at the impressive base and its oppressive massive twin turret atop it, almost larger than the facility itself, and adds:

  “We uhh, couldn’t get into contact with our own already here to let you know of our arrival.

  We didn’t have your communication codes and the boss wasn’t around... you know how it is.”

  Frank lets go of the button and ends the transmission, waiting on pins and needles for their response.

  They fly ever closer, the huge gray facility getting bigger as they approach.

  “Yeah, even we know how Rocco can be, hah, my condolences, you are free to land in C7, welcome to IR Mining Branch’s base on Midnight Iris.”

  Frank sighs in relief and opens the communications line again.

  “Tell me about it. Anyway, thank you, over and out.”

  “We aren't here to deliver anything, are we?” Amethyst asks confused.

  “No, I just had to figure out something so they'd let us land.”

  He steers onto the landing pad and turns on the hover thrusters for landing the ship.

  “I see...”

  Their green-striped hunk of stolen metal touches down on the seventh spot of row C.

  All around the platform workers run around, carrying small cargo by hand or large crates with machinery.

  Such as large forklifts, or by using massive hoverplates, thick black platforms with a ball in each corner, defying gravity. They are piled on with containers to absolute max capacity, as even the floating apparatuses appear almost too heavy to move and stay afloat.

  Frank twists two knobs, flips a dozen switches, and the ship powers down, only the lights inside remaining on. “First things first, we should probably find your kin, to make sure they're alright. We can worry about the Intergalactic's research team later.”

  “Yes.”

  “Though, the dock is filled with people, any ideas on how to get past them?” He asks Amethyst as he gets to work, setting her loose from the chair.

  “I doubt they’d let us just waltz through.”

  “We’ll fly.” Amethyst answers as Frank is about to set her free from her first seat belt, but stops upon hearing this comment.

  “But there’s nowhere to land such a big ship in the forest, is there?”

  “No, I’ll fly us there.”

  “Oh.”

  “I can carry you, I think?” She gives Frank a sheepish smirk.

  “Can’t I just hop on your back for a ride?” Frank asks scratching the back of his neck and tilting his head.

  “You’ll get in the way of my wings.”

  “Oh, of course… How can you carry me though, won’t I get… stabbed?” He undoes the first seat belt.

  “I can hold you up in my arms, I just can’t hold onto you.”

  “Oh... great,” He undoes the last of Amethyst’s seat belts and backs out of the way as Amethyst stands up.

  “You got any better ideas?” Amethyst says and glances at the docks, finally able to see them.

  “I suppose not.” Frank shrugs and starts walking down the corridor to the cargo hold, Pineapple hops down from its seat and trails after him.

  As Frank and the Solarophone get into the back of the ship Frank notices it and turns around.

  “Pineapple, can you stay behind and guard the ship?”

  Pineapple walks closer and pounces at his chest, his claws out, the cat sticks to Frank’s skin through his clothes.

  “Ow ow ow ow ow!” Frank grabs the cat and pulls forward, getting the claws loose.

  “Okay fine... come with us.” Frank holds the cat in his arms.

  Amethyst walks down the corridor to join them in the cargo hold.

  “You should know better than to tell Pineapple what to do by now.”

  He responds with an abashed laugh.

  “I suppose that's true”

  Amethyst approaches him, her arms held open ahead of her.

  “W-wait! How are we going to do this?” Frank recoils away a little, the comment stops her, but only for a moment.

  “Just stand there and I’ll scoop you up,”

  Amethyst starts picking up the cat-carrying man, her left arm takes him from his knees while the right one supports his back.

  “Is this really the best waaay-” Frank's words unintentionally stretch out as he is picked up.

  A moment later they are both held up on Amethyst’s outstretched arms.

  “Are you comfortable?” She asks looking down at them.

  “Y-yeah” Frank smiles awkwardly glancing up at her for a moment before looking away, in truth the hard armored arms were far from it.

  Pineapple doesn’t look back at her, seemingly content with his position in this.

  “Then let’s go.”

  Amethyst opens her back and her wings come out, fitting just about inside the ship.

  The film starts spreading out onto the gaps as her crystals glow producing more, purple swirling inside them.

  Frank feels warmth from behind him and at his right knee and shoulder, even through his clothes, as her shining crystals radiate heat.

  The wrist crystals are far enough to keep it from being uncomfortable, but her big chest gemstone continues to get hotter and hotter.

  Frank starts to sweat, and as he’s about to say something, the crystals go out.

  Phew.

  He breathes out, relieved to avoid burning to a crisp on her arms.

  “Take me to the button and I’ll open the door, we will quickly slip out and then close it again.”

  His long hair flows down and over Amethyst’s elbow blade’s outer surface, just mere soft contact not quite enough to clip his hair short.

  “Okay.”

  Amethyst walks to the button, her four legs echoing against the metal floor, Frank reaches out to the button and presses it, and the cargo door starts to descend, letting in the tropical outside air.

  “Oh hey, I came to check on you since you weren’t coming out of your ship. You need help with your cargo?”

  A deep voice of a man asks from the other side of the door.

  “N-No, it’s okay, thanks, I was just… feeling unwell, so I had to pace myself,” Frank answers quickly to the man they cannot yet see.

  “Oh, in that case, you should come to the infirmary, I’ll take care of unloading for you! Can't be too careful with all the new diseases that might pop up.”

  Shit!

  As the door descends, a lone worker is revealed behind it, suspenders holding up his blue worker bottoms, a yellow hard hat on his head, and a black bushy beard hanging from his chin.

  The warm welcoming smile fades from his wide face.

  “WHAT? T-T-That’s-”

  The worker points at Amethyst, her wings fully spread, carrying a long-haired man with an awkward smile on her arms, the man, in turn, carrying a strange yellow cat in his arms.

  Pineapple hisses at the worker loudly.

  “Sorry, we are in a bit of a hurry, so don’t mind us,” Frank says as Amethyst walks down the ship door’s slope, the man staggers backward and falls on his rear.

  Amethyst veers to the right and jumps down from the slope, her sharp legs leave small marks on the black asphalt of the landing area.

  Frank quickly slides his ID card across the reader and the ship’s door starts closing.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Alright, we are off, have a good day sir!”

  Frank says to the prone man paralyzed in confusion.

  Amethyst flaps her wings powerfully, Frank grasps Amethyst’s shoulder armor hard with his left hand, the right one cradling the cat.

  They lift into the air, a few more flaps and the wings loudly buzz into full gear and become a blur.

  Amethyst flies over the landing area, slowly climbing higher.

  The workers below gaze up in wonder at the man and the cat being princess carried by this purple creature.

  “W-what are you gawking at?”

  “Look up, that’s the purple death!”

  “To battle stations!”

  “Don’t you see, it’s carrying someone!”

  Frank waves down at them, before quickly taking hold of her arm again as the pit of his stomach informs him he isn’t holding on to anything.

  “What’s going on!?”

  “Do not be alarmed, we come in peace!” Frank shouts down at them while holding firmly onto Amethyst.

  “What???”

  “Shoot it down!”

  “Somebody do something!”

  Workers and other personnel start dashing around in the ground, scrambling inside, or taking cover behind ships.

  They manage to cross the open area and fly over the gray, slightly tilted, shiny metal roof of the outpost before any of them manage to dig out weaponry.

  On top, the ginormous anti-air turret juts out from the roof, mounted on a large circular base.

  They fly between its two long metallic barrels pointing almost directly upward.

  They sure are heavily armed. A blast from that and our ship would have ceased to exist...

  They rise higher and higher, reaching the same level as the valley and its forest.

  Amethyst keeps upping their altitude to get a wider view of the surrounding area.

  Frank looks behind them, past Amethyst’s side.

  You gotta be kidding me.

  The air defense cannons are rotating along their base.

  “Amethyst! Fly lower!”

  “Why?” Amethyst looks down at Frank’s panicked face who is looking behind them.

  “J-just do it! Now!”

  Amethyst starts dropping altitude.

  The cannon base locks in place towards them and the twin-barrel cannon starts descending.

  Oh god.

  Frank stares at the tilting barrels, refusing to blink, his light brown eyes drying up.

  The cannons lower themselves faster than they drop altitude and soon point directly at them.

  However, only briefly, as Amethyst descends even lower.

  The turret seems unable to follow below a 45-degree angle.

  Amethyst stops descending just above the treeline.

  “I can’t go much lower.”

  “It’s fine. Damn, that was too close...”

  “What was too close?”

  “Uhh, nothing, just don’t fly any higher than this okay?”

  “Okay...”

  They fly close to the purple tree tops, each tree's leaves seem to be different than the previous, or maybe it just seems like it.

  The tree's trunks themselves are colored in very dark violets and reds, with a couple of brown ones in the mix.

  All sorts of foliage in the same palette, flowers, and bushes can briefly be seen when there's a gap in the trees below.

  “You know where your kin live right?”

  “Yeah, I’ll take us there,” Amethyst observes the familiar forest, its trees of various lengths and different kinds.

  Some faint hills and large rocks, all familiar landmarks.

  A red laser shot flies up into the sky, coated in purple flame, some distance to their right.

  “Seems they found them before we did, let’s go help.”

  Amethyst immediately veers in the direction of the laser without a word of response, accelerating her flight.

  They cross over a small clearing and spot the men of the IWV dragging Tyrchids confined in Netgun’s white nets.

  Loaded onto hoverplates for ease of transport and pulled along using the cords of the netguns.

  The soldiers have just finished capturing another and are in the process of delivering a hoverplate to put it on.

  Zapped inside their nets, the captured Tyrchids struggle to break free in vain.

  “Land us somewhere near where they cannot see us, okay?”

  Frank says as Amethyst veers back to the clearing for another flyover.

  “..."

  “Amethyst?”

  Amethyst stops her wings, bends them upward, and starts a sudden free fall.

  Frank cannot utter a sound in protest, feeling like his internal organs would shoot out of his mouth instead of words.

  A short fall later, a single flap of her wings softens the fall slightly, though all of Frank wants to keep on going down with gravity.

  Amethyst slams on the ground hard, bending from her four legs’ knees, one leg directly stabbing and cutting the line of the netgun to the newly captured Tyrchid.

  She is zapped through her leg as the cord breaks but doesn’t even flinch from the pain.

  The freed Tyrchid buzzes and with heated blades breaks the powered-off net and runs into the forest.

  Pineapple jumps from Frank’s lap immediately as they land and Amethyst quickly lays down Frank on his feet, who teeters a moment after the sudden rollercoaster.

  The soldiers right in front of them immediately raise their weapons.

  Amethyst keeps her blades in front of her, walking sideways, going to stomp more net lines.

  “Wait! Please!” Frank says pleading with his hands up, realizing now he left all of his stuff back on the ship, including his weapon.

  “Frank?” A familiar voice sounds as a man makes his way through the platoon.

  “At ease men,” The soldiers obey the order and lower their guns.

  The squad leader steps forward, grabs the edge of his hat, and adjusts it higher on his head, revealing all of his face.

  “Jack! You got sent here?” Frank recognizes his friend instantly.

  “I sure did, but what in the blazes are you doing here? With a Tyrchid no less...

  Wait, the Tyrchid maybe? And what's the deal with the... cat?”

  Pineapple stands next to Frank, its eyes closed and head held high.

  “I’m here to save my brothers and sisters,”

  Amethyst says defiantly and looks at the soldiers as she stomps on another cord, the Tyrchid breaks free of the net and flees.

  “What the fuck, they can talk!?”

  Jill breaks through the crowd.

  “Oh, hey Jill, you’re here too.”

  “Yeah, I’m supposed to be here, unlike some people.

  How about you get lost and stop interrupting our mission...”

  “You’ve done enough damage already,”

  Jill shoots him a gaze that could kill, before pointing her weapon at him that can.

  “Let’s not get too hasty,” Jill's gun is pressed down by Jack, who becomes the target of her furious eyes instead.

  “I’m sure Frank has a perfectly good explanation as to why he has decided to come and ruin everything we’ve accomplished so far.”

  Jack says calmly, with scarily empty silver eyes.

  “Yes, Midnight Iris is the home planet of Tyrchids, a planet of a new sapient species, you know what that means right?”

  “I don’t get paid enough to play guessing games,” Jill answers instead of Jack.

  Jack grabs the cap of his hat and pushes it downwards, covering his eyes slightly.

  “Yeah, figures…” He sighs and shakes his head, the earrings on his left ear reflect the light of the suns directly to Frank's eyes.

  “That’s that then. We are getting out of here,” Jack quickly concludes and starts walking away, grabbing Jill’s shoulder and pulling her with him.

  “Jack!? What the hell?” Jill questions him as she breaks free and turns around to avoid falling over.

  She stomps after him, as further voices of dissatisfaction ring out among the troop.

  “We can’t just leave empty-handed!” Jill protests further, Frank now realizing that she also wore similar earrings on her left ear as Jack.

  What a sweet couple.

  “You heard the man, let’s not start any galactic wars out here alright? One simply doesn’t mess with the ISSA. Release the rest of the Tyrchids,” Jack continues.

  The men obey, released Tyrchids flee into the forest, and the soldiers gripe as they start walking away.

  “We really did it Amethyst!”

  Amethyst beams in response, before asking:

  “What is the ISSA though?”

  “Well-”

  “AAAAargh!”

  Bone-chilling shrieks fill Frank’s body with adrenaline and push a cold sweat on his skin, he turns to look towards the noises.

  Tyrchids stab the soldiers through their chests and chop off their limbs, blood flowing on the ground like a river.

  Amethyst stares at her slaughtering kin in disbelief.

  "W-what are you doing!? Stop!"

  The soldiers struggle to fight back, the unrest in their ranks made them unprepared for an ambush.

  A familiar severed head flies into the air and lands on the already red leaves on the ground, further coloring them crimson.

  “J-Jack!”

  Jill sways in the middle of the carnage, she starts turning around slowly, struggling to do so.

  Her comrades are torn asunder all around her, blood splatters to the side of her face, but she doesn’t flinch.

  Facing directly at Frank, she glares at him with yellow piercing eyes of anger.

  She limps towards them and holds her chest with both hands, as she removes one, blood shoots from the gaping hole.

  With that hand, she grabs the handle of her rifle hanging from her shoulder, her hand trembles wildly as she attempts to raise it, towards Frank.

  “You…”

  Her yellow eyes burn with hatred and loathing.

  “Jill...”

  The weapon rises slightly before her hand limply loses all strength.

  Her eyes roll back as her face is erased of feeling.

  Jill’s body slumps face-first onto the ground.

  This cannot be happening.

  This isn’t real.

  SCRLING!

  A loud sound of crystals hitting together rings right behind him.

  Frank turns to see Amethyst crossing blades with another Tyrchid, both of their blades aflame as they strain against each other.

  The other Tyrchid is of the same size, its eyes green tinted and hair short and of the same color.

  “W-what are you doing!? Frank’s on our side!”

  Amethyst says to no apparent effect.

  Amethyst pushes the Tyrchid away, which retreats a few extra steps backward.

  Frank looks back at the Tyrchid group, they have finished their massacre, a bloody mess of human organs, heads, arms... all sorts of gore. No survivors.

  His head aches and throbs, and his vision blurs from the sight before him.

  “T-they are… eating them...”

  Frank says weakly and feels faint, he sways and staggers before dropping onto the ground on all fours.

  The smell of the carnage invades his nose and his mind, he retches but keeps it in somehow.

  Pineapple nuzzles against him as if trying to comfort him.

  Amethyst looks around to see that they are surrounded by other Tyrchids that have appeared, who stalk them from the edge of the clearing, in addition to those already feeding and the one facing Amethyst.

  All of them bear this hostile look on their gray faces, in their judging hybrid eyes.

  A look that is given to somebody who doesn’t belong, who’s an intruder in their forest.

  “B-but I’m one of you! W-why are you doing this?!”

  Amethyst realizes something and instead of talking human language, produces a guttural echoed buzzing.

  The Tyrchid before her doesn’t respond, opting to just stand there.

  Amethyst looks back at Frank, he is down on all fours, shaking.

  His long hair spread all around his back and over his head in a mess.

  She carefully approaches him, wary of the Tyrchids around them, Pineapple hisses at the group to their side and blinds them.

  Amethyst hastily scoops Frank into her arms, Pineapple jumps on top of him, and he weakly grabs hold of Amethyst as they quickly ascend into the sky.

  The dazed Tyrchids stay on the ground, as do the others, opting to not give chase.

  However, the one Amethyst dueled with soon appears in the sky after them.

  “Pineapple!”

  Amethyst turns mid-flight against their assailant, Frank holds on tight to her and the cat, the pit of his stomach not approving of this maneuver.

  Pineapple flashes their chaser with its blinding light, it starts swaying from side to side in the air and starts to fall.

  It soon recovers and corrects its flying upright again, but gives up the chase regardless, returning down to the forest.

  Amethyst flies back towards the quarry and speaks, as the immediate danger has passed.

  “I… I’m so sorry.”

  “…”

  “I didn’t know… this would happen...”

  “Jack… Jill… all of them…

  They just-”

  Frank jerks upwards on her arms, threatening to throw up.

  Amethyst quickly adjusts her arms closer together to not drop him.

  “It’s my fault… I should have seen this coming.”

  “I…

  It’s not your fault… there was nothing you could do,”

  Frank's shaky voice continues:

  “And... it’s not like you are like them.”

  “Yeah... not... like them...”

  Amethyst gazes down at her forest, it doesn’t feel like home anymore, as if she isn’t welcome here anymore...

  The purple of trees, the crimson grass, and flowers...

  The smell of the fresh air and the humid wind on her face, waving her hair with its gentle blow.

  It all suddenly felt so...

  Foreign.

  Hostile.

  “I guess we at least succeeded in saving your family... So... what do we do now?”

  “We take back the planet,” She says firmly but hesitates:

  “I-If you still...”

  “I- of course. We’ve come too far to give up now...”

  Frank looks up at Amethyst's face through his hazy eyes, she looks ahead determined, but pain shines through her sad eyes and quivering lips.