The Edge

Adoette: Part Four

Things stayed instantly back to normal for the rest of the trip: same old chores, same old pacing around the ship, same old staring at the back of whoever had been using the gaming station for hours until they finally got the hint and let you play. It was good to catch up with everyone—to casually talk computers with Matteo, to listen to Luca playing music, to trade sarcasm with Arian, to feel Gideon's protective presence and Tola's calming one, and to have real conversations with Helen face to face.

That said, the longer she was on the ship, the more she noticed back to normal wasn't as normal as she'd hoped. The blank spaces where Cassandra, Mom, and Dad should've been grew more and more obvious with every passing hour. Mom and Dad's blank spaces were, weirdly enough, starting to become familiar. Were they still painful? Absolutely. But she'd gotten used to their absence by the time she left. Even now, after a long time away, she had stopped expecting to see them in their usual places.

She was not used to Cassandra not being there. Adoette had left the Cosmos not too long after her, so she hadn't had the time to get used to her absence. On top of that, Adoette was sitting with the knowledge that something had gone wrong with her sister. It clung to her like a bad cold she couldn't quite shake.

We're going to fix it. We'll find her. If she kept repeating it to herself, maybe it'd come true. Power of positive thinking or whatever.

There was one thing she'd definitely lost her "sea legs" for: landing. Granted, Adoette had never enjoyed landing. Faster-than-light travel had its issues, sure, but it's rumbling was a constant, low shaking. It was almost comforting in its consistency. The turbulence that came with entering a planet's atmosphere ranged from disconcerting to actually terrifying. Today leaned more towards the former, but it was just bad enough to make her grip the arm rest of her seat a little too hard.

"It's okay." Tola patted her arm comfortingly. "Helen and Matteo know what they're doing."

"I know, I know, just..." She grimaced, despite Tola's attempts at comfort. She could feel the soothing energy coming from the touch—a vital part of Tola's abilities—but it wasn't too overbearing. Tola always felt weird about using her empathy abilities on family members, even if it was for a good cause. "I really hate this."

"Don't throw up on me," Arian said.

"I won't, geez."

They finally leveled out and stopped shaking so much. Adoette took a deep breath and released her death grip on her arm rest. "Okay, that's over. Do we have a game plan yet?"

"Go to the company headquarters and ask about Cass, I'm guessing," Gideon said. "And if they don't know...scout around, find places that are hiring? Someone must have seen her around somewhere."

"I think so, too." Tola's legs swung idly as she thought about it. "Cassandra doesn't exactly blend in."

"True," Adoette mused. They could use that to their advantage. Someone had to remember someone as chatty and personable as her. It helped that she and Helen were identical twins. Made proving they were related easy, and it gave people a pretty good point of reference as to what she looked like. "Hopefully, I won't have to work my magic, but push come to shove..."

She'd be willing to do pretty much anything, even the not strictly legal stuff. Her sister's life was on the line. That mattered more to her than the potential legality of anything she might attempt. Besides, it wasn't like she was stealing anything important or killing anyone. It couldn't be that bad if she wasn't doing those things.

I'm sure any priest I asked would have something to say about that, but y'know what, I'll worry about that later.

All talk of potentially illegal activity was dropped the second they landed and started the customs process. The guards around these parts were especially nosy, and it wouldn't do for them to overhear anything incriminating. Watching them double and triple check everything made her impatient beyond words. People weren't usually so thorough with ships that had squeaky clean records like theirs, but nope. Here in Freeport, they all had to stick around until these people were absolutely sure there wasn't anything illegal on-board.