(This is a looongg one; I will probably split it when I get to the editing part. Anyway, hope you enjoy <3)

Chapter Twelve:

The only one who was awake in the entire Space Ship was James, one of the pilots. Adrien, the other pilot, was curled up on the sofa after Star finally went with Taylor to her room. There was something soothing, James decided, about being the only one not sleeping. That peace, however, was short lived as the Space Pod suddenly lurged downward. He gripped the wheel and shouted over to Adrien, jumped up and ran to the other seat, taking the other steering wheel.

"What the hell is going on?" Adrien shouted, over the warning alarms that had started to blare throughout the Space Pod, flashing red and blue lights catching them off guard.

"I don't know, this shouldn't be happening, it's like the Gravity Button all over again; I mean that was just weird," James said, loudly over the noise.

By now the Space Pod was plummeting at a terrifying rate and Adrien left the pilots chair and crawled under the steering wheel to get a closer look desperately trying to see what the problem was. When he couldn't see what was wrong he sat down again gripping the steering wheel to help James. Suddenly Taylor and Rosiee burst into the room nearly falling into the pilots as the Space tilted.

"It's about time!" James shouted, instantly regretting it.

Taylor ignored him, while Rosiee only glared. Together they pushed the small sofa away from the wall revealing a trap door on the floor underneath it. After several failed panic attempts to open the trapdoor to the tiny engine room they finally got it open. A large crash echoed around the ship, which jolted it. The Space Pod continued to descend and Rosiee screamed as she fell into the engine room, quickly followed by Taylor, who landed in a heap on top of her.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry!"

James and Adrien were at the wheel, still shocked at the sight before them; the crash had been the sound of a poor unsuspecting Whale-dragon banging into the Space Pod. It's glowing body stayed still on the glass as the ship plunged further into the abyss. It gradually floated off leaving them more confused than ever.

Back in the engine room both Taylor and Rosiee clung on to the pipes as the Pod continued to plummet. Their hearts dropped as well as they both realised at the same moment that the main power source was faulty.

"But how can that possibly be? All the crew members checked the engine a week before! John even said that this one was one of the best he'd ever seen," Taylor said in dismay as another shudder rippled through the ship, causing her to bang her face on one of the pipes. She cried out as it struck her already black eye.

"Taylor! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Thanks. How the hell are we going to fix this? Will we just be falling for eternity?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Rosiee replied still hearing James and Adrien swearing profusely as they dodged meteors, Whale-dragons, which had proved almost impossible due to their size and giant jellyfish whose long luminescent tentacles would get stuck on the glass. The two best friends looked at the rusting pipes once again and Rosiee was absolutely positive they weren't like that when she and the other crew members had inspected them thoroughly. They got to work trying to fix the engine before any more serious damage had been done.

Rosiee worked away in silence worrying about Charlotte who she'd left in the room and Taylor busied herself getting the correct tools thoughts of Star hiding in her own bedroom invading her mind. Both of them thought that they'd be fine, but as they saw the state the engine was in, they began fearing the worst.

***

Isla, Freya and Cosmo were ripped violently out of their comfortable beds as the Space Pod plummeted downward. They screamed clutching onto each other and catching Cosmo, who's wing was still in a cast. Unable to fathom what was happening, they collided into the wall. Freya cried out as she smashed her head on the side of their shared desk and Isla flew into the other direction. As she landed against her bedroom door Isla groaned in pain, feeling as if her back was on fire as she slammed into it. She was still cradling Cosmo in her arms and made sure that Freya was alright before staring out of the window in utter disbelief. Freya crawled towards her just as a shudder vibrated through the whole Space Pod pulling the 18-year-old back under the desk away from Isla.

"Freya! What's wrong? What happened?"

"I'm okay! What do you see?" she yelled over the sound of the warning alarm.

Isla's gaze focused on the window as she soothed Cosmo and saw the glowing of luminescent creatures whizzing by them as they dropped further and further down into the unknown.

"What do you see?" Freya shouted again, growing increasingly frightened by the second.

"A blur of glowing Whale-dragons at the moment. We seem to be going pretty fast!" Isla screamed over the sound of the blaring alarm.

Cosmo popped his head up to have a look and when he saw the speed at which they were falling, he wrapped his good wing around Isla's waist peering up at her as she held onto the door handle, which mysteriously wouldn't budge.

"What's happening, Isla? I don't like this. I'm scared," He spoke in such a quiet voice that Isla had to strain to hear and even then she had to ask him several times to repeat himself. More crashes echoed throughout the ship as meteors hit it. They bounced off the Space Pod making it even more impossible to hear him.

When she eventually understood what he was trying to say she held close whispering, "Me too, Cosmo, me too,"

As Freya pressed her ear to the walls she could hear both Elliots and Mason's shouting and could even hear furniture banging around. She stared in horror as she watched one of the bed's nails ping right off and fly towards Isla who luckily ducked before it hit her square in the eye. They wondered how the pilots and the other crew members were reacting and before Freya and Isla had the time to worry about Charlotte a creaking sound could be heard from one of the beds as the alarm finally died down. They still heard it ringing in their ears even when it was supposed to be relatively quiet. A sudden crash startled all three of them in the room, causing a small wail to escape Cosmo's mouth. This time it was coming from the room next door and they stared at other, speechless, as they heard a blood-curdling scream, then silence.

"What the hell was that?" cried Cosmo, talking for the first time since the start of the descent.

Isla just shook her head, heart thumping in her chest, having no clue how had screamed or what had happened. Freya thought it sounded like Elliot, but she couldn't be sure. Before the three of them could react a meteor smashed into the side of the Space Pod narrowly missing them and a pool of Whale-dragons.

Freya and Isla barely had the time to collect their thoughts when the Space Pod crashed on solid ground as they flew up into the air and landed hard on the cold floor. The impact of landing in twisted positions had them crying out in agony.

"Are you alright? Isla!" Freya shouted as she crawled with great difficulty towards her. Isla wasn't responding and as much as Freya and Cosmo tried shaking her she didn't wake up.

***

Elliot, realising that they'd stopped after he crashed on top Mason who had screamed in pain a moment earlier. Mason had been trapped between Elliot's bed. It had lost its nails during the Space Pod's fall and slid straight into the wall where Mason was sitting clinging into the leg of the desk. Elliot had been hanging on the door handle, for some reason it didn't open. He had watched in horror as the bed slid toward his new friend. Now that the ship had landed somewhere he was trying to heave the bed off and it was proving more difficult than he'd thought.

Just then Freya came bursting through the door shouting, "Isla's on the floor! I can't wake her!"

"Shit! Okay, help me will you! I think the bed has been cut into him," Elliot said. Mason groaned in pain again and Freya helped Elliot to try and push the bed away from him.

"Stay with us, Mason! Mason!"

"I'm h-here, I'm here," he managed to get out, feeling weaker by the second, the blood from his wound leaking to the floor.

"Where the hell is John when you need him?" muttered Freya under her breath. John, of course, was the other medic and Isla and Mason needed him. Just then the bed shifted just enough that both Elliot and Freya could stand next to each other between Mason and the bed to heave it back to its original position.

Elliot and Freya raced to Mason and crouched down to get a better look at his bleeding stomach where the bed had rammed into his flesh. He nodded as they asked him if he was okay. She shook her head at hereself; what a stupid question! Of course he wasn't okay.

"We need a first aid kit. Right now," Elliot yelled, hoping that there was at least one person outside of this room that could hear him.

Suddenly Taylor and Rosiee burst through the door wanting to tell them about what they've seen outside and what they had landed on, but stopped as they saw the state Mason was in. Rosiee ran towards him as Freya said to Taylor, "Isla's in our bedroom. She fell when we landed and I couldn't get her to wake up,"

She saw the defibrillator in the brunette's hand and desperately hoped that it wouldn't come to that as they rushed to the other bedroom to see Isla still laying there and Cosmo pecking and nudging her to wake up. He didn't want her to end up like Finley; even the thought was too much to bear so he pushed it away in his mind as if the very thought was poisonous.

Taylor and Feya knelt down to get a better look at her and turned her over onto her back. Her eyes were closed and as Taylor ever so gently peeled back her eyelids to check her pupils and immediately opened the box containing the defibrillator.

"Freya, take this one and put it on her chest, I'll do the same with this one. I'm going to push this button and an electric shock will travel from these wires to her heart," Taylor instructed, sounding in control when inside she was panicking. What if she messed it up just like she'd done with Finley? She pointed to all the things she mentioned and Freya nodded, taking a deep breath. "And don't worry this won't hurt her in any way at all. It's just important that you keep it on her chest."

It won't hurt her if you do it properly. Taylor shook her head as if to be rid of the thoughts of fear and doubt.

Shut up and contrente!

"1, 2, 3, go, 1, 2, 3, go," Taylor whispered. They kept on going and Freya winced everytime Isla's back arched up and slammed on the hard floor once again.

John hurried to their side. They were focusing so much on Isla that they hadn't noticed him coming in.

"What's going on?"

"It's Isla. She fell as we landed. Mason is also hurt," Freya said.

"Right. Mason's fine. Elliot's putting bandages on for him,''John replied, staring at Isla, worry pooling in the pit of his stomach as he turned his attention to Taylor who was still doing the shocks, as he continued, "did you check her eyes? What did they look like?"

With taking her eyes off Islas and Fsya she replied, "they were clouded over slightly and the pupils were larger than usual (check).

"Right. Have we tried CPR yet?"

They shook their heads and with an unspoken agreement towards them Taylor gave him the defibrillator.

"What can I do?" Freya asked in her high-pitched panicky voice.

"First of all, just breathe. Secondly, we are going to stop this now and I'm going to perform CPR on her," John replied, '' We don't need anyone fainting.

"Damn it! We forgot to check on Charlotte!" Taylor cried and ran to her room when John indicated that he was fine doing this without her help.

"Charlotte! Charlotte!"

"I'm here!" she called, "I'm okay, but my arm is probably fractured in a different place now." In reality she was in a lot of pain, but seeing as they completely forgot about her until now she could deal with it by herself, thank you very much.

Taylor followed the sound of Charlotte's voice and was amazed to find her on her bed clutching her broken arm , pain written on her face.

"Thank goodness you are alright! Isla flew up into the air and crashed on the floor according to Freya and now John was trying to revive her. Mason was in Elliot's room and nails attached to his bed on the floor broke or something so the bed straight for him. His stomach is bleeding," Taylor explained almost too fast for Charlotte to hear probably. A lump formed in her throat as she mentioned Isla.

"What happened to Isla? Is she awake yet?" Charlotte asked, jumping out of the bed, a searing pain in her upper arm.

"She hasn't woken up yet. John and Freya arte with her. Don't move, I'm coming back to help you!" Taylor called as she dashed out of the room and grabbed the spare first aid kit from Elliot's bedroom and ran back to Charlotte who, by now, was struggling.

"What will you do?" said Charlotte, staring at all the bandages that Taylor was getting out of the box. Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest as her nerves danced in her stomach.

"Hold as still as you possibly can," Taylor replied, ignoring the question. Rosiee came in next and went to hold Charlotte's good hand as she saw what a state she was in and squeezed. Taylor set to work carefully and methodically placing the start of the bandage on her shoulder and began to wrap it around her entire arm only stopping when she had to add a new bandage.

Wincing in pain every so often, Charlotte asked, "What is happening?"

"Well, James and Adrien tried to lift the Space Pod back up into space, but Taylor and I discovered that it wasn't working anymore. Obviously, normally when the engine is faulty it might float away from our assigned space, but the Space Pod would most definitely not plummet like that," Rosiee replied, shaking her head.

"It's true. We have no idea. Well, Mason is fine now and fully bandaged up. I haven't heard an update on Isla yet, but I really hope she'll be okay," Taylor said as she finished the bandages with a tight knot at the start of Charlotte's wrist. "Here," she added, "take these. These are pain killers and might be helpful,"

Taylor produced two galaxy-coloured pills and handed them to Charlotte, who popped them into her mouth and took the glass of water Taylor offered her with her right arm as her left throbbed in pain.

"Thanks," She whispered. Then, without a word, the three young adults walked down the small hallways quickly towards Freya and Isla's room, with Rosiee and Charlotte still clutching each other's hand.

"How's she doing?" Charlotte answered Elliot who was sitting on one of the beds with Mason, who'd been forced to sit and watch feeling useless.

John and Freya had stated using the defibrillator again and checked for a pulse. Suddenly Isla gasped for air, pain burning through her lungs as she gulped. Opening her eyes, relief could be felt by everyone in the room. Her body felt achy all over as she slowly stood up.

"Welcome back, Isla. You had us worried there," Elliot and Charlotte said at exactly the same time. She smiled back at them and thanked everyone for helping her.

Without warning, Freya launched herself at her and she nearly fell over yet again. Isla hugged her back tightly, wondering how long she'd been out for and why they all seemed so delighted to have her back in one piece. That was the moment Freya realised something; she truly did love Isla and not just as a friend or a sister. The thought of losing her, as well as her cousin in the space of a couple of days, was too much to handle and she realised she was crying.

"Missed me?" Isla whispered and she could feel Freya nodding as they hugged.

As soon as Freya stepped away slightly, Charlotte said, "When I heard that you were unconscious I, I mean you're like a sister to me. I...,"

Isla hugged her then careful to avoid her newly banaded arm; she knew what Charlotte meant. They pulled back at the same time and smiled at each other. Once Elliot had also embraced her, relieved that his best friend was alive and well, they saw that all the crew members were whispering to each other and starzing out the window in a mix of shock and awe.

"Let's see what they're up to, shall we?" Elliot said, noticing that Mason was calling him over.

Freya, the twins and Isla walked over to them as they pointed outside. Elliot stared in amazement at the sight before him not quite believing what he was seeing. They had landed on an absolutely enormous sort of meteor that they'd never seen before. Pools of dead dragons littered the ground and their inky black blood oozed out of them. It was a devastating scene that lay before them and everyone there had tears in their eyes for the innocent creatures. Tears ran down Isla's cheeks as they watched a single Whale-dragon heave their way through the crowd, calling to the others and nudging a smaller one that she guessed must have been their child. Elliot glanced away, unable to look at the heartbroken dragon. When the heart wrenching wailing erupted from the Whale-dragon's throat as they realised the little one was dead, the people in the Space Pod all turned away, their tears flowing.

At least Isla spoke, sniffing, "Rosiee, you know that photo you showed me of The Nine Forbidden Planets. This one looks almost exactly like the one named Pluto, minus the dead dragons, obviously,"

All pairs of eyes swiveled in her direction as they stared at her. If this wasn't such an emergency like situation, Isla might have laughed at the shock in their facial expressions; it was as if she was growing a second head, the way they were looking at her until Rosiee replied looking at the others, "actually, she could be right, you know. I've researched the Forbidden Planets for years, but to be honest I thought it was all a myth."

A thought occurred to Isla that she hadn't thought of before; if they could research things like that, then maybe they could research into other 'accidental deaths'. Perhaps they could finally find out about Luca and now Finley's death too. Even the thought of them broke her as she let out another sob. She held it back and swallowed the lump rising in the throat wishing that Cosmo was there to help her calm down. Just as she was getting ready to speak, someone else beat her to it.

"What I don't understand about this whole thing is why, because outside in space there is usually very little to zero gravity," said one of the crew members looking outside. Freya remembered introducing herself to her and thought her name was Melody.

"That's exactly what we were thinking. James was driving at the time as Adrien slept. He said that everything was normal and suddenly the Space Pod just started sinking," Taylor commented. All their faces mirrored exactly what Isla was feeling; frightened and unsure of what to do next.

"You said that you and Rosiee were trying to fix the engine? What's wrong with it?" Mason asked, using Elliot as support as he stood.

"Well, when we went to check it out the pipes had rusted and some of the wires were faulty," Rosiee said, slightly irritated when Mason only addressed Taylor, which happened more often than she would've liked.

"But we checked the engine. We all did," Mason replied, stunned by the news. None answered as it finally dawned on them how much they didn't know and how stranded they actually were. Elliot and Charlotte whispered to one another; he was very concerned about her when he saw the state of her arm and the bruise on her forehead from the physical Trial. She tried to reassure her brother that she was fine now and to be honest she was. The pain killers had started to take effect and were numbing the throbbing pain she'd felt before.

"So how are we going to solve this?" Started Freya, thinking about what Finley would do. He would have a much calmer approach then she would in the same situation, she knew that so she swallowed back her rising panic and continued to speak, "you know those space suits you went outside with the Trials?" when Isla and Elliot nodded she spoke once more, "well maybe if we could find at least one, I could go out and see what I could find,"

Astonished faces stared at her and no one spoke for a good three minutes, which felt like age to Freya until Rosiee finally spoke up, "Wait, you actually went out of the Space Pod. I mean, Charlotte did tell me about saving a Whale-dragon, but I just assumed it was some kind of Laptop game type thing!" Taylor nodded in agreement, both staring at Elliot and Isla expectantly.

"Yes, we went out of the ship. The Intergalactic Federation officers tied us with a rope around our waists and went to rescue one dragon each and no we weren't together. That's how we were stung by those giant jellyfish," Elliot replied, surprised to see that all of the crew members had sat on the floor and were listening intently. It reminded him of his school days on his Childhood Space Pod. Isla, Charlotte, Feya and Elliot followed suit as Mason replied, "yes I remember you telling me about thoise, but again we thought those were simulations or something,"

"Okay, now that we've established that, what do you think about my suggestion?" Freya insisted.

"To be honest I think it's going to be far too dangerous to do that even if we did find the Space suit. Supposing the gravity somehow still works out there and you plummet to your death?" Isla said, "then what would I do without you and Finley?"

She said the last part so quietly that Freya almost missed it and before she could reply Charlotte said, "I have to agree. We don't even know what we've landed on. It could be a massive meteor that will give way at any given moment,"

Both Isla and Mason shuddered at the thought and Taylor and Rosiee grabbed each other's hands before even realising it. Taylor's mind wandered back to Star and Cosmo who should still be in the pilots room. She wondered if they and the two pilots were okay, then she had an idea. Taylor spoke in a quiet voice, heart jumping in her chest, "You said you saw a Raven-dragon out in open space, right?"

"What are you thinking, Taylor?" Rosiee asked, dread forming in her pit of her stomach; by now she knew Taylor's facial expressions by heart and the one she was seeing now told her that this wasn't anything good. Mason, Melody, John and the others waited with the same dread. Freya and Isla stood next to each other and they thought they knew where this was going and it turned out they were right.

"Well, perhaps if Raven-dragons and Whale-dragons can survive the outside world then so can Star and Cosmo. Maybe they could go together and see what is really out there," Taylor finally said, waiting to hear all their reactions.

"But have you seen the sea of dead dragons out there, Taylor? Do you really want Star and Cosmo to join them?" Mason said thinking about what a terrible idea that was. He winced as he spoke; his stomach still felt as if it was on fire. She glared at him, not liking his accusations. She treasured Star with all her heart and it would kill Taylor to lose her.

Sensing that this would cause some conflict between the two of them, Charlotte stepped in saying, "Let's slow down first, shall we? We don't actually know where the hell we are and what is happening. Maybe if we can somehow get the engine to work then we can...,"

"Good idea! Rosiee, Elliot and I can go and see if we can fix it in some way, then James and Adrien can try it out," Taylor said, grateful to Charlotte for stepping in. Mason was her friend, of course, but sometimes he could be a little too direct for her liking. Elliot looked away from the circular window where he had been watching the distraught Whale-dragon still going around to nudge her pool, flapping her wings as she did so. He was surprised that Taylor had chosen him to help, but he just nodded.

"Alright. How about Isla, Charlotte and I look up if this has ever happened before with Rosiee's laptop. I mean, if that's okay with you?" Freya said, directing her question at Rosiee who agreed willingly.

"Great! Perhaps Melody and I could go to the Headquarters, have a look at all the windows in the Space Pod to see if we notice anything else," Mason suggested. At the mention of her name Melody's face lit up as she stared at Mason. Isla noticed this and realised that it might be that she looked at Freya and had looked at Finley and she smiled slightly.

"Sounds good to me!" Melody answered. As they all dispersed John and some of the other crew members stayed in the room with Freya and Isla's permission. Isla walked down the staircase clutching the small laptop to her chest. The truth was she was terrified; she had never heard of anything like this happening and the fact that the gravity suddenly seemed faulty. This was not just the Gravity Button breaking, this was the whole damn universe. Isla had sudden thoughts that filled her with unease. Where were the other Space Pods? Was her family also stranded somewhere with no idea about what was happening? As they approached the Headquarters they noticed that Mason and Melody were already there trying to see anything other than the pitch black world and the sea of mostly dead or dying luminescent dragons. Thinking that it was strange they couldn't see any jellyfish at all, Isla sat on the sofas with Charlotte and Freya.

"Do you know how this thing actually works? I don't," Freya said, looking at it with distaste.

"I do! Rosiee showed me last night in our bedroom," Charlotte announced, taking the laptop from Isla's outstretched hands. She moved to sit between them as Freya budged over. Charlotte's fingers flew over the keyboard at an alarming rate as she typed in the password.

"Where did you learn to type that fast?" Isla asked in awe. She shrugged, not answering the question. Just then Cosmo came flying in, his wing almost fully healed due to his tears that leaked into his wounds, healing them.

Delighted to see him so free of the pain he'd endured, Isla welcomed him in a hug as he embraced her with his inky black wings. He stayed there as Freya and Isla looked over Charlotte's shoulder at the screen. She had pulled up a webpage and Isla squinted as she read the SpaceNews from the year 2166, which was 184 years before.

"Is Anti-Gravity broken?" read the headline in screaming capital letters. Isla, Charlotte and Freya read silently in fascination, "In the last half-decade, Journalist Laina Strong reports, 'the gravity levels have been fluctuating.' Last week Strong had the incredible opportunity of interviewing Daniel Greene, the Head of The Intergalactic Federation, to ask him about it," the three young ladies, hunched over the laptop, stopped reading, both excited and nervous at what was coming next.

Here is this exclusive phone interview word for word:

"Mr. Greene, thank you so much for agreeing to talk to me today,"

"My pleasure. Pleased to be here,"

"Is it true what people are saying about the Gravity fluctuations?"

"What are 'they' saying?"

"Well, Mr. Greene, people are saying that the Intergalactic Federation is actually controlling the gravity levels throughout the universe. Can you tell us anything about this?

"Well personally I haven't heard of that at all. I think sometimes people can get a bit too carried away. But of course this gravity scare is serious and we are doing everything we can to fix it,"

"Hmm. Okay, but if the Intergalactic Federation isn't controlling the Anti-Gravity levels in space, then how will you go about fixing it?"

Mr. Daniel Greene then terminated the interview saying that the piles of work on his decks needed his attention.

Next week on SpaceNews we will be featuring....

Isla looked up from the screen, her thoughts racing. But what if the journalist was actually right? What if it was the IGF?

"That is amazing," Freya finally said after a moment, almost to herself.

Charlotte nodded in agreement as she replied, "Yes, it was, and did you see how he didn't even answer her second question?"

"I know! That really annoyed me and it makes me think that maybe Laina Strong was onto something. I wonder what rumours she'd heard. This newspaper is great! How did you find this?" Isla said, watching Mason and Melody walk past them in the direction of the cafeteria and her stomach rumbled.

"It was discontinued by the IGF 35 years ago, but Rosiee's grandparents found a way to access it's older articles," explained Charlotte. Isla glanced at Freya who's excitement was infectious. She loved how her pale blue eyes lit up whenever she was enthusiastic about something. She could tell that they were thinking the same thing: now they could finally get some answers.

"Look at this!" Charlotte suddenly shouted, making them both jump out of their skins.

"What is it?" Freya and Isla asked, looking at where she was pointing.

Year 2168

We are very sad to announce that Laina Strong, our leading journalist, has died in her Space Pod today. We send our deepest condolences to her family and friends at this tragic time.

They didn't speak for a while just trying to process the information they'd just read. Charlotte read on a bit further than the others and she glared at the screen, gripping the keyboard. Isla read on to see what was making her so tensed up and as she read the words 'accidental' and 'tragic' she knew why. Cosmo stirred from his nap and rested his head on her lap as she reassured him that she was still there.

"This happened exactly two years after that first interview we read. That can't be accidental, I mean, can it?" Freya said, voicing the other two's thoughts.

"I agree," said Isla instantly, both glancing over at Charlotte waiting for her response.

"Well, I think it's very unlikely it was an accident, but what if it actually was? An accident, I mean," she said eventually. Isla and Freya didn't answer as she continued searching for new information.

***

After Mason and Melody went around to every single room to observe the land before them they ended up back at the Headquarters waöking past Isla, Freya and Charlotte as they hunged over the laptop. They sat at another sofa and read through their notes Melody said, "So, we saw that the land or meteor didn't seem to end so I suppose it could be one of The Forbidden Planets, but...," She threw the notebook on the table. Nothing about this made sense!

"Hey, don't worry, we'll be fine," Mason said, unsure if he was convincing her or himself. Melody appreciated his efforts and could see that he was still in pain, his blood had leaked through his T-shirt and she knew that soon he'd be needing a new bandage.

"Thanks," she whispered.

"Let's go to the Pilots room and see how they are going, shall we?" Mason suggested, picking up the notebook from the small table and standing up with difficulty he began walking slowly towards the exit of the Headquarters. Melody walked to his side and helped him. Isla, Charlotte and Freya were still talking about a newspaper that she had never heard of as they walked passed. They walked into the pilot's room to see James and Adrian studying the Intergalaxy map where the constellations were shown. The pilots muttered to each other despairingly as Mason and Melody passed them and went in the direction of Elliot, Taylor and Rosiee's voices.

"Hi, can we come down?" called Mason to the three young adults in the engine room.

"Of course! Just watch your footing on the way down. I nearly sprained my ankle a few times," Rosiee called up. As Mason and Melody helped each other to climb down into the hot and steamy engine room with all the pipes.

"So, what did you find?" Melody asked hopefully, as they stared in confusion at the bag full of pulsating jellyfish meant for Finley's service leaning against the metal. All five of them sat down near it, careful not to disturb any wires.

"Well," Taylor began, "it was Elliot's idea. It was brilliant, actually. He suggested that we use some of the jellyfish to see if we can get a power source or at least some energy from them." Mason stared at him in awe, making him turn away slightly; it reminded him of how Finley used to look at him. They all watched with excited anticipation as Taylor opened a small hole in the bag, she took out a tiny un-sting-able jellyfish no larger than her index finger and wrapped it's tentacles around two sets of red wires. The jellyfish pulsated up and down up freeing some of its tentacles. In the glow of the jellyfish they saw that the wires were slowly fusing themselves together again.

"Did you see that? It might just work!" Elliot said excitedly, momentarily forgetting about the gravity fluctuation.

"Yes! It will work. I can just feel it! Let's try it on every single wire and pipe and see what happens," replied Rosiee, enthusiastically, feeling a sudden rush of newfound hope. They all set to work, Elliot shouting every 5 times to the pilots to update them on their progress.

***

Back at the Headquarters, Isla, Freya and Charlotte were having a quick lunch break. Charlotte had taken two trips to the cafeteria where she'd stood at the food machine for ages trying to push back her overwhelming sense of heartbreak. Her thoughts had bombarded her with Finley's death, the Intergalactic Federation Officers burging in and snatching him as if he was all, but a sack of potatoes to them. Guilt had and still was eating away at her when she moved on to get the drinks as she thought about the lies she'd told them about both Trials. She'd got herself, Isla and Freya their food and came to sit on the sofa, which she still sat at now and looked up several more webpages as she ate.

"What have you found?" Isla said eagerly, covering her mouth as she ate the pineapple pizza that Charlotte had got her.

"Apparently, there was some speculation in the later years that Laina Strong was poisoned and then they talked about some kind of cover-up or something. Also this one just popped up from year 2178," Charlotte replied, turning the screen towards the two, waiting for them to finish reading.

Isla read aloud, "Breaking News, Three Boys Die In Two Weeks. The third young man, Ethan Jones, who just turned 23 this month, died in his Space Pod this Monday, surrounded by friends and family. Some say he fell by accident resulting in a brain injury, while others are convinced this is just a cover-up. They are saying the same thing about 20-year-old Fabian Smith and 22-year old, Robin Peterston," She stopped reading her heart slamming into her chest. It sounded exactly like her twin brother and Finley.

"Shit," whispered both Freya and Charlotte in unison, their faces getting paler as Charlotte clicked on another link from SpaceNews, which dated back to 2107, before the other articles they'd read. This one reported that several people had actually gone missing and their family and friends had woken up to find them gone with absolutely no trace whatsoever. Most of these disappearances, they found out, were also centred around males, but some females also started going missing. One reporter said that the number of calls to the Space Hospitals and The Intergalactic Federation had quadruped as people desperately tried to find their loved ones.

Isla looked up from her screen and stared at her half eaten pizza, which suddenly didn't seem so appetizing anymore. She placed the plate on the table in front of the sofa she was sitting on and swallowed back the bile that ran up her throat as she finally broke the silence, "it's happened before and we didn't even know about them. Luca and Finley must be involved in this somehow. I mean, two deaths in two-three weeks from the same childhood Space Pod? That's got to mean something, right? And the Gravity Button?" She stopped speaking, waiting for her friends to say something.

"I agree with you, Isla. I don't like it either. And the fact that Finley died...," taking a deep shuddering breath at the mention of his name, Freya continued, "while the Button was broken is a red flag. Nearly every one was injured, including a crew member I forgot the name of,"

"What happened to them?" Charlotte said, confused; she hadn't even noticed amongst all the rushing about to try and save Finley.

"He banged his head on one of the tables and even though he was dazed when he landed, Melody said that he appeared to be fine. Although Rosiee told me later that he had been throwing up quite a bit," Freya finished explaining. Isla noticed that she, too, wasn't eating anymore and the way she looked so heartbroken whenever she thought no one was looking or whenever Finley was mentioned made Isla just want to hug her tightly.

Charlotte slammed the laptop shut with her good arm. She then cradled the other one, which had started throbbing in pain a while earlier and now it was in agony. Each wrapped up in their own thoughts, Isla opened the notebook she'd made with Finley and Freya as Cosmo moved to curl up on the sofa next to her. He stared up at her from the notebook; the draw was so lifelike that she could almost imagine that he was stuck in the page, frozen in time. 

------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your feedback!