“So what’s your obsession with ice cream?” Psiksi asked as he watched Tenuk finish a fifth bowl of cocoa ice cream and tussi fussi fruit sorbet. In the time it had taken Psiksi to finish his two scoops, Tenuk had eaten five bowls filled with four scoops each. They’d had a productive day, having dealt with a handful of thieves, towing a Vrekan ship to safety and
Tenuk reached for a sixth bowl, grinning. “I just really love ice cream!”
Retvik though rolled his eyes. “Tenuk is a Kronospast, he can not properly digest what we eat so he will eat ten or so bowls of ice cream and then not eat anything else for a month or so.”
“Ohhh…” Psiksi blinked. “So wait, you can only eat dairy and sugar?”
“Probably should cut out the dairy, really…” Tenuk admitted. “The sorbet is just water and sugar, but the dairy in the cocoa stuff probably isn’t doing me any favours. Then again, ice cream’s bad for all of us apart from you, Psiksi.”
“I’ll be fucking damned if any of you try and stop me from eating ice cream!” Elksia almost screamed as she gripped her bowl tightly. “MINE!”
Retvik rolled his eyes again. “We are not going to take away your ice cream, dear.”
“Good. Now I’m going to watch that cool light show out there.”
“Yeah, you-” Tenuk paused. “Wait, what light show? We’re not near any dying stars or stellar anomalies or anything like that…” He headed over to the main control panel. “Dessi, have we strayed off course or something?”
The ship AI beeped to itself for a moment. “No, Master Tenuk. We are on course.”
Retvik and Psiksi both headed over to the window where Elksia was looking. In the distance, there were two lights, one red and one blue, circling around each other.
“My astronomy is poor, but that looks like two light emitters travelling around something with a large gravitational pull…” Retvik muttered. “Perhaps we should… move away from it.”
“Good idea, Master Retvik!” Dessi beamed. “I shall recalculate trajectories and alter our course. Estimated time, thirty seven seconds, due to unknown anomalies.”
Dessi started beeping to herself once more.
Outside, the lights were getting brighter.
“Is it me, or does the red light look vaguely like a seabeast?” Retvik asked. “Like the sort of thing my brother and I would fish when we were young…”
“The blue one looks like a dragon!” Elksia grinned. “Looks like two massive monsters fighting!”
Tenuk rubbed his eyes, then looked at the lights again. They did look like a sea monster and a dragon. They weren’t just imagining it.
“Uh, Dessi, do you think you can just move us out of the way right now or something?”
“Calculations are nearly complete, Ser. Do you wish to terminate and recalculate?”
“Are you alright, Tenuk?” Psiksi asked. “You look concerned. Uncomfortable even. Is something wrong?”
Tenuk gazed out of the window. “I don’t know. That thing… Just… I just feel like something awful is about to happen.”
The lights were getting bigger, flaring up more ferociously with every passing second.
Retvik picked up on Tenuk’s concern and sat down in his seat, putting on his safety harness. Elksia gave both him and Tenuk a funny look.
“It’s just a light show.”
“It looks worrying. If Tenuk is concerned, I am concerned.”
Tenuk sighed. “I don’t think it’s just a light show. That… mess… That’s the sight of two godly beings not being friendly to each other… Dessi, can you just get us out of here?”
Dessi chirped into life. “Of course, master Tenuk! Initiating jump in five, four, thr-”
“Too late…” Tenuk sighed as everything was suddenly enveloped in a brilliant bright, white light.