Seven

Chapter Five

It turns out Asher's not so subtle mental problems originate from the relationship with their spaceship; the one which has just been destroyed in the landing.

"My dads gave it to me as a gift on my sixteenth birthday," they explain.

"Oh, so it must mean a lot to you; I assume."

"Yeah, but that's not the whole story. Few days after my birthday, someone broke into our house. It happened really early in the morning, so I had no idea what's going on. I just remember the worried voices of my parents; how they hurried me to get into my new ship, and fly as far away from our home planet as possible."

"I understand that; they wanted to protect you."

"Right, but they also told me that they will follow shortly after me, that they only needed to pack a few things, and we would leave together. Sadly, that never happened."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Something must have happened after I took off. I guess those intruders got to them before they managed to leave, and kidnapped them."

That sounds pretty reasonable; I mean, not the kidnapping, but the interpretation of what might have happened after Asher left the planet.

"I tried looking for them once I made sure our home is safe, but they were nowhere to be found. I've traveled to every place we used to hang out at when I was a kid, or where we used to hide when things got bad, but with no success; they just evaporated."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Nah, it's fine. I've come to terms with the fact I'll probably never see them again. Or, at least I thought so; apparently this awful experience still has an effect on me."

It visibly does. "Yeah," I begin to say, but no words follow. I'm just kinda speechless after hearing all of this, but at least I understand what is causing Asher to act up.

"I guess my brain recalled all the memories when we landed; well, landed. Not sure if we can even call it a landing."

I mean, even an unsuccessful landing is a landing, but whatever.

"My mind just does this thing; when something bad happens to me, all the traumatic events I've lived through come flooding back. I don't understand why, and it annoys the shit out of me. It makes me look like a mess all the time."

"Huh, that's interesting. And maybe seeing the wrecked ship - the one you have such a strong emotional connection to - intensified that effect even more."

"Yeah, I guess so. I hate it so much." They exhale, and rest the back of their head against my chest.

We sit there in silence for a couple more minutes; just appreciating the calmness around us.

"Anyhow,-" they say eventually; gently prying themselves off my lap. "-we should get going; I don't think sitting here and doing nothing will earn us much progress."

"Correct, but where do we wanna go? None of us knows this planet."

"But I have something that does." They walk over the the broken ship, and pull out a hexagonal shaped slate; a few millimeters thick, and small enough to fit into their hand.

"Is this your equivalent for a phone?" I ask as they walk over to where we were standing before.

"A what? Don't be silly, this thing is much more advanced than anything you could ever have at home."

Why is it shaped like a hexagon though? I guess I'll never find out.

"With this thing, I can locate any structure - creature made or natural - on the surface of any planet, and navigate to it."