When she woke up again, the bed beside her was empty. She sat up and stretched, blinking away sleep, looking all around the cabin to find that Bain wasn't in the room at all. She had no idea how long she'd been sleeping, but it had been long enough to refill her energy stores. She was still tired, but no longer dragging the heavy anchor of exhaustion along behind her with every step.
She headed out into the main part of the ship and found Bain in the pilot's seat, his head lolled back, his jaw slack, soft snores coming in between puffs of breath. Lina just smiled to herself, shaking her head. So much for one of them being awake.
Squeezing between the pilot's seat and the controls, she eyed the course and saw that they'd been traveling for over twelve hours already and they'd be crossing into Earth's solar system in no time.
"Bain," she said softly, shaking his shoulder.
"Hmm?" His sleepy voice came, though his eyes didn't open.
"We're almost there," she said, shaking him a little harder.
He blinked then, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "I wasn't sleeping," he muttered, and Lina laughed.
"You were, but that's okay. Everything's okay. We're almost there."
"We are?" he asked, seeming to wake up more by the moment.
"Yes, and you should let me take the pilot's seat," she chuckled.
He groaned, a pseudo-whining protest. "Do I have to?"
"Do you want to land the ship?" she asked, hands on her hips.
That got him more awake. He sat fully upright, holding his hands in front of him as he jumped out of the seat. "Okay, okay, you win."
"That's what I thought," she teased.
"Are you excited?"
Lina frowned. Excited? "For landing the ship?"
"For seeing your mom again," he said, like it should've been obvious. And it should've been. But after everything that had happened... She'd gotten so focused on the goals and kind of forgot her motivation.
"Yeah, of course," she answered quickly. Back on Mabnoa, she'd been so desperate to get back to Mom, to see her again and tell her everything was alright... But now, she couldn't stop herself from jumping ahead to the next step. Trying to figure out how they could get back to Mabnoa, how they could help the Fibbuns. Guilt twisted in her gut. She should be content with just seeing Mom again. With being back on Earth. But it wasn't enough now and it felt wrong to admit that.
But there was no time to dwell on it. The shimmering blue marble of Earth was slowly coming into view and already there were notifications on the controls telling her that she'd need to take over for the autopilot.
"You should definitely strap in for this," Lina said, shooing Bain to another seat. Taking off was one thing. Landing was an altogether different one.
He didn't argue, and that was just as well because Lina couldn't spend time worrying about him. Her palms were already damp as she took the controls and switched off the autopilot. It would have been great if she'd had time to study the ship and figure this out a bit more before being thrown to the fire, but she'd have to make do as well as she possibly could.
The ship neared Earth with an alarming speed and what was a tiny speck of blue in the far-off distance soon filled her field of vision with swirls of white clouds and great green continents.
"It's beautiful," Bain breathed. "Even more so than through the telescope."
Lina frowned, pulling back on the controls. "I guess," she said, but there was no stirring in her heart. Not like when she thought of Mabnoa and its lush greenery. Somewhere, deep in her heart, she'd made her choice about where her home was. She just hoped that Mom could understand it.
"This might get bumpy," she warned only moments before Earth's gravity gripped them and yanked the ship forward with a lurch. She did her best to level out their descent, to try and make it as smooth as possible, but the whole ship rattled around them, sparks flying off the hull as microscopic particles burned up in the atmosphere.
In that moment, Lina prayed that they were big enough to escape the same fate. She hadn't even considered that possibility, but with the outside of the ship glowing red hot, it suddenly seemed like an oversight.
From the corner of her eye, she could see Bain's hand on the arm rest, his knuckles white with a death grip, but if he was worried about her piloting skills, he didn't say anything. It was for the best really; if she knew he was nervous, that would only shake her confidence more.
You can do this, she told herself. Get back to Mom in one piece. You didn't come this far to fail.
Pushing deeper into the atmosphere, they flew through dense clouds and then the North American continent came into view, rushing toward them in a blur. The ship slowed, but not enough for her to have any more control over it. She was just going to have to do what she could to mitigate the damage and hope for the best. This ship was their ticket back to Mabnoa and she couldn't let it be destroyed.
The mountains and forests of Cascadia swam up and then before she knew it, Mom's college by the water was there. The ship still whizzed through the air at an almost uncontrollable speed, but Lina managed to hold it steady, finding a clear spot she could target for landing. She fought not to close her eyes as the ground leaped at her, her hands shaking along with the ship.
“Hold on!” she screamed over the rattling ship as the grass grew close enough to scrape the underside of the ship. She leveled out as much as she could, hoping to skim across the tops of the blades like a stone over a lake.
Please, please, please, she prayed to no one in particular, thinking about how close Mom was and how terrible it would be to fail after coming so far. The ship bounced over the grass, screeching as the sharp edges tried to carve into the metal.
Suddenly faced with the enormity of the giant world, this tiny Fibbun ship didn't seem so sturdy and state-of-the-art as before.
They hit the ground with a violent jolt and the ship kept careening forward with nothing to stop it. The force jerked her head forward and Lina managed to look up just in time to see a rock — hardly more than a pebble to most humans — directly in their path. In one quick movement, she released their safety harnesses, grabbed Bain, and leaped for the back of the ship as the front crunched into the rock, crumpling like a soda can.
Then finally, mercifully, the ship stopped.
There was a moment of stunned silence from both of them as they looked over their bodies and found no injuries, then Bain’s laughter filled the ruins of the ship.
“We made it! We really did it!” He swept Lina into his arms and lifted her from the floor, spinning her in the air as he kissed her.
“You did it,” he corrected, his eyes shimmering with a new respect.
The front of the ship was unrecognizable, and Lina's heart sank. There went their ticket home.
"Looks like piloting isn't one of my hidden talents," she said, frowning as smoke started to pour into the ship's interior.
"We're in one piece, aren't we?" Bain challenged.
"For now," she said, dragging him toward the door. She didn't want to risk still being on the ship if it decided to explode. "Come on, let's get out of here."
The door to the ship was wedged shut and even with both of them shoving against it, it wasn't moving.
"Maybe if we could pry it open..." she said, searching for a rod of some kind in the wreckage.
Bain didn't answer, taking three steps back before running full-tilt at the door, kicking it with all his might. The metal panel flew free from the wreckage and landed in the grass beyond with a rustle.
"Okay, or that," she said, shaking her head at him despite the smile that stretched her lips.
He shrugged. "Hey, I've gotta be useful for something, right?"
Once they were in the grass, she took him by the hand and ran. There was no telling what dangers the wreckage posed, but she wasn’t sticking around to find out. Not when safety and her mom were so close.
They sprinted through the blades of grass that were taller than either of them and dodged twigs that would have been huge branches on Mabnoa. She could hear the babbling of the fountain nearby and used it to navigate across campus, but there was still a problem.
“What’s wrong?” Bain asked once she stopped outside the building, just staring at it.
“Well…” She sighed. “I don’t actually know how to find my mom here. I’ve never been through the building really and never left the lab… And it’s not like I can just ask for directions.”
It was then that someone walking by, juggling a stack of books with glasses sliding down his nose, nearly stepped on them. Bain only just snatched her out of the way of the clumsy foot, his eyes wide as he watched the man enter the building.
“You weren’t kidding about them being giants.”
Lina shook her head. “Now you know what it was like for me, trying to live on this planet where everything’s too big.”
He nodded. “But you still wanted to come back.”
Her heart ached at the thought. She had wanted to, but regretted it almost as soon as they left Mabnoa. But she certainly couldn’t tell him that now. Not now that they were here and now that their ship was toast. How could she tell him now that she had reservations about the whole thing? Wasn’t it already bad enough that she’d chosen this over him? Now she wanted to add insult to injury by saying ‘actually, I figured it was a terrible idea but I didn’t know how to change my mind, so…’
Yeah, that wasn’t going to work. Not with Bain. Not with anyone. She was ashamed for even feeling that conflicted and indecisive. She certainly wasn’t going to let him make her feel ashamed too.
“For my mother,” she reminded him.
“Who kept you in a basement where you couldn’t even see the sun.”
Lina frowned. He made it sound like she was a prisoner. Mom had only kept her locked up for her own good. This world was dangerous.
“You see now why, though. It’s not safe for us to just be roaming around.”
He nodded, looking somewhat apologetic for the accusation.
“Okay,” he said, seeming to accept that. “But let’s think. How could we figure out where her lab is?”
Lina’s face scrunched up, searching for any clues in her memory.
It took her a long moment of thinking to remember the lab at all. Now, all her memories were filled with images of Mabnoa and its breathtaking scenery. Or of the Fibbuns’ ship and all the repairs it still needed. It was difficult to remember the dank basement lab, the musty damp smell that never seemed to go away and the slime-covered window she couldn’t see out of.
There had been a time — very long ago — that Mom opened that window for her, for fresh air and sunshine and all the things she’d left behind to come back here. But there had been a reason they decided not to do it again… It was so hard to remember trivial things like that now. She closed her eyes, going back to that day, remembering a buzz and Mom’s shriek.
That brought the memory flooding back to her, her eyes springing open with the realization. She snatched Bain’s hand and began to tug on him.
“Come on, I know where we need to go.” Or she had an idea at least. When they’d opened that window, a giant bug called a bee had gotten in. Lina hadn’t been particularly frightened, but Mom had immediately freaked out when she spotted it, convinced that the creature was some kind of threat to Lina. Truth be told, the bug didn’t seem aggressive, but it was about half Lina’s size, so she could see why Mom had been concerned.
“What? Where?” Bain asked, dogging her every step.
“On this planet, pollination is done by a certain type of insect,” she began to explain. Bain only looked more confused.
“What does pollination have to do with—”
“I’m getting there,” she interrupted, shooting him a sharp look, barely suppressing her smirk. “So impatient.”
He gave her a sideways glance, mock-offense at her mock-criticism. “Fine, continue. I’d love to know how this is relevant.”
“Well, these insects are studied by this University and their hives are kept near the lab. We couldn’t open the window ever because they’d get in and my Mom was worried they’d be dangerous.”
“So if we find the hives…”
“We find the lab!” Lina finished for him.
He nodded. “How do we find that then?”
She held a finger to her lips. “We listen. They make a lot of noise. A humming sort of buzz. And I suppose they’ll be kept in an area with plenty of plant life to keep them happy, so if you happen to see any fields of wildflowers…”
He gave her a skeptical look. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”
“Maybe a little,” she grinned. “A field of wildflowers would certainly be a giveaway, but I’m fairly sure we’re not going to find that here at the University. But we should be able to hear them when we get close enough… And I’d guess they’re near the back of the property since humans are scared of them. Even my mom was terrified of the thing.”
“Are they enormous?” Bain asked, confused.
Lina shook her head. “Not even by our standards. But they have a natural defense mechanism that is painful to humans. And some carry a venom that can be deadly if it prompts an allergic reaction, so… Maybe terrified isn’t the right word. They like to keep a respectful distance.”
Bain nodded now. “Understandable. But this property will take us days to traverse on foot.”
Now Lina frowned. He had a point. Even humans took up to an hour to cross the campus from one side to the other. It would take forever for them and they’d likely starve before they ever made it to the lab. They needed a better way. A faster way. But how?
Lina watched the building, with people going in and out the front doors. They swung shut after each person and it would be tricky to try and run in before it closed without getting stepped on. Besides, there was still the problem of not knowing how to navigate the corridors of the University.
So she looked at the exterior of the building. Red bricks made up the façade, maybe they could somehow scale the bricks and navigate through the mortar grooves. It would get them off the ground at least where they wouldn’t be stepped on, but it didn’t seem like it would be any faster, and there was the added risk of being spotted by birds looking for an easy meal — something Mom always warned her about when she asked to go outside.
So that was probably out, too. Her eyes traveled up the ivy growing up the side of the building to the gutters. Was there something there? They could maybe build a makeshift raft of some kind and haul it up there — both difficult and time-consuming — and ride the river through the gutters, but that would only work if there was actually water flowing. The sky was clear and blue, not a chance for rain.
The gutters were another dead end. She was going to admit to Bain that she didn’t have any idea how to get them to the backside of campus any faster when something in the back of her mind shouted, “Wait!”
Her eyes narrowed at the building as she tried to work it out. There was something here, but where? An open window? No, they still couldn’t navigate the building. There were students taking bicycles around, but how could they know the one they hopped on would be going where they needed? It could take them even further away.
Bain had stopped waiting for her to figure something out, examining the path before them for himself, keeping close to the wall.
“We need a vehicle of some sort,” he said.
“I’d figured as much, but I don’t really have an answer for us. Mom always just picked me up and carried me… But no one here is going to just carry us around the building.”
“No one,” Bain said, emphasizing the word like it held some importance. Though if it did, she didn’t know what. He reached up and stroked a broad ivy leaf, running his palm along the vine.
Lina’s eyes went wide. “You don’t mean…?”
He shrugged. “We do it all the time when exploring new territory. It’s useful for building roads in overgrown areas.”
“I’d never have thought of…”
He grinned. “You weren’t in Mabnoa long enough for it to become a way of life. Come on.”