Chapter Twenty:

Taylor, Melody and Estelle had finally settled down at 12:03 am when the Space Pod alarm sounded and they groaned as they dragged themselves out of their beds.

"What the hell is it now?" shouted Taylor as the three of them ran out of their bedroom. Rushing down the stairs, they crashed into Finley and Elliot who were ahead of them.

"Sorry," mouthed Melody.

That's okay," Finley shouted over the blaring alarm," do you know what happened?

"No idea," Taylor yelled. At the bottom of the stairs, they found that Isla and Freya were already there. Isla was leaning against her and wasn't looking well. She noticed that Finley wasn't doing much better either and tried smiling in his direction; she still couldn't see properly. He returned the smile, worry clear on his features.

Before he could say anything, however, James' voice boomed on the loudspeaker," everyone please strap yourselves in. Adrien has installed seatbelts into the sofas in the Headquarters. We will update you further as we know and understand the warnings. Thank you."

Mason and John joined them as they walked towards the Headquarters were all of the rescued people scrambling to the sofas. Freya and Taylor shared one of the seats on the sofa as did Finley, Elliot and Mason, whose heart thumped in his chest at the proximity. As they all found the seatbelts, Charlotte and Melody, John and Estelle moved to the opposite sofa. The sound of the alarm was unbearable and a sudden jolt of the Space Pod made them glad of the seatbelts.

Do you know what's going on?" whispered Isla to Rosiee.

"No idea, but Charlotte and I..." She was cut off by a tremendous crashing sound which echoed around the ship.

"What was that?" Shouted someone from across the room. Everyone shook their heads in answer. Just then Star and Cosmo flew into the room each with an uneasy feeling spreading through them. To Taylor's surprise, Star went straight to Finley and sat on his lap instead of hers.

Cosmo came over to Isla saying," what's going on?"

"No one knows exactly. I think it might be something to do with the Gravity button again,"

"But I thought that Rosie and Taylor had fixed it," he replied.

Before they could answer, Finley gasped, clutching his stomach, pushing Star off in the process. Elliot clung onto him in worry as the 20-year-old turned paler by the minute.

"Hey," Star protested as she fell, the ship lurching once again. If they hadn't all been wearing the seatbelts they would have injured themselves.

"Sorry," was all Finley managed to get out before a world of blurred colours and lights appeared making it nearly impossible to see at all.

He'd never felt so much pain as he did in that moment even when the intergalactic federation officers injected dragon's blood into his system. The pain travelled through his body and he could feel something trying to worm its way into his bones.

"Finley!" stated Charlotte, "what's happening?"

Struggling to answer, Finley croaked out, "My, my..."

"Your what?" Isla urged, ignoring her own pains.

Before he had the opportunity to answer her, however, the Space Pod lurched again, but this time the force of the meteor knocked the wind out of them. Screaming ensued as the Space Pod turned sideways, putting everyone on their side causing panic and Isla could hear Estelle's shouts. Still not knowing what was going on, the passengers clung onto each other and their seatbelts. Elliot was still trying to hold on to Finley while Freya was clutching Ida's hand.

"We're part of the crew! This is ridiculous, I'm going to the pilots room," announced Taylor.

Just as she was about to unbuckle her seatbelt Rosiee cried out, "You can't! We still need the signal from James and Adrien. It's too dangerous, we don't know what's happening,"

Taylor was about to reply when Noah, the rude teenage boy they'd saved, spoke, "Where's Mrs. Thomas?"

Isla had no idea and the thought left her with an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. Maybe it was a bad idea to take her in. She had saved them, but not before poisoning her. The very thought gave her chills.

Murmurs of voices could be heard and a crash echoed throughout the Space Pod. When everyone was looking elsewhere, Melody, Taylor and John signalled to each other to take off their seatbelts. Mason, Charlotte and Rosie tried to persuade them to stay put, but they refused. Elliot and Freya looked at each other in concern. Finley, Isla and some other rescued passengers didn't look good at all and the fact that they were almost dangling upside down didn't help.

Finley's shoulder blades felt as if they were on fire and it didn't matter how many times he tried to explain and answer everyone's questions, he just couldn't do it. Charlotte and Elliot held onto him. The Meteor shower or whatever was happening outside raged on and no one could quite see what was happening. They only saw that the windows were as white as the largest star there was; the moon. Looking opposite him where Isla was sitting, Finley saw that she too was clutching her stomach and that Freya was trying to hold her up.

Taylor, John and Melody sound realised their mistake as they shot up into the air. Star and Cosmo managed to get to John and Taylor in time before they banged their heads. Melody, unfortunately wasn't so lucky and she slid down towards the staircase to the bedrooms, past the cafeteria and crashed to the stairs. They heard her groan and Isla's stomach flipped making her feel worse than ever. Taylor held onto each of Star's wings with both hands as did John with Cosmo and went to see if she was okay. Charlotte and Rosiee spoke quietly together, each one becoming more alarmed by the situation they were all in.

"We need to tell them about the confidential files we found," Rosiee said in a hushed tone.

"I know," Charlotte whispered.

And that's when the lights went out, one by one.

***

Once Taylor and John made sure that Melody was okay they went to the pilots room. At first they had difficulty actually getting through the door as the Space Pod had rotated so much, but once they nearly broke the door down they were in.

"What are you doing? Do you want to get killed?" James yelled as he saw them.

"Charming," Taylor muttered to herself, still clinging on to Star for support. The gravity was somehow faulty and they had grown to hate the floating sensation. Cosmo flew back to Isla and the others with difficulty.

"We're here to help. Of course," Melody answered, "What the hell is happening? Why is it white?"

"Alright then. Hold on to the edge of the ship and we'll show you the map," Adrien said, indicating the small handles on the ceiling of the Space Pod.

Because of the Space Pod being on it's side in the middle of the universe, Taylor, John and Melody were able to cling on to them on the side of the ship and walked across to James and Adrien. The chairs that they were strapped in had turned with the ship and they were still trying to drive the Ship out of this mess.

"How are the others?" asked James, concentrating on the scene before them.

"Most are okay. Some, including Isla and Finley are struggling. I don't think it's about this though. Whatever 'this' is. We don't know where Mrs. Thomas is," responded Melody as she went towards Adrien who was trying to see what was out there using the holographic map. Soon Taylor and John also came to see and were shocked at what they saw; it showed a meteor coming towards them at an alarming speed and something dark and murky following. It was hard to see anything at all due to the brilliant white light.

"We can't find Mrs. Thomas? That can't be good," Adrien muttered as he dragged his fingers across the images.

"What is that? Where are we?" John wondered out loud trying to make sense of the dark, murky images and how all this happened in the first place.

"I have no idea. I mean, we had training, obviously, but we never came across this," James answered, still focused on the bright white light before them.

"All I know is that we need to get out of here and fast. Before the largest meteor hits us," Adrien said. Taylor nodded in agreement and took the wheel from Adrien trying to keep her balance. Much to her surprise he didn't object as he continued to search the map. That was when they heard the ear splitting screams.

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