Snippet #2100805

Well, that went well. Minn was more scared than Saein had thought. Her first impulse was to run after the girl, but she let her training overrule that: when someone panics, don’t panic about them panicking, that will only make it worse. She calmly unbuckled, greeted the captain who was already standing - there seemed to be something wrong with Reggie’s knee, but that was something to worry about later - and walked off in the direction Minn had gone.

Cassandra had already found the girl, but seemed unsure what to do. Saein could smell the fear on Minn. How had she missed that? Oh right, she had been too busy inhaling something tasty. Now what to say? “It’s only take-off”? No, don’t make Minn feel like a fool. “It’s safer than walking on a planet”? No, don’t remind of accidents now. She knelt in front of Minn. In her heart she knew what to do, it was obvious, but her brain disagreed. Her eyes flashed back and forth nervously, her hands tried to strangle each other, and of course her skin also showed her inner conflict. In a moment, she made a decision. The wrong one.

The moment their cheeks touched, Saein knew she had done something incredibly stupid. She had embraced a member of a different species right in the middle of a moment of intense emotion. The feeling of contradiction, wrongness, emptiness, cold, pain, confusion... so many words that didn’t begin to describe it, it was overwhelming. All her muscled cramped, she couldn’t breathe. Minn began to notice something was wrong, she tried to get out of the embrace but Saein was much stronger. At least Saein wasn’t suffocating her. That was one of the last coherent thoughts that went through Saein’s mind. “Focus” she told herself. “Relax. Focus. Focus on what?” She couldn’t tell how time was passing, it seemed to be minutes more than anyone could hold their breath until the world finally went dark. Unconscious, she let go, her shoulder and then her head hit the floor with a thump and a slight bang.

She was breathing again, but wouldn’t wake up for the next few minutes.