An Unexpected Companion

Chapter 7 of Book 1: Exploring the Stars...

This girl in front of me is amazing! She's part fish!!! That is soooooooo friggan' cool!

When I took a second look at her, it only then occurred to me that her hair was a little odd. That's because as we all know, fish do not have hair in which to grow upon their head. Low and behold however, she had perfectly normal humanoid hair. It was short, dark blue hair with a ponytail in back. The ponytail was held in place by 2 slim sticks placed perpendicular to one another.

The rest of this lady's skin, by the way, was a much lighter blue. The stomach region began to fade to a much lighter white color.

I figured after eyeballing this random lady long enough to make her believe I'm some sort of androgynous pervert, I opened my mouth.

“Woah, you're a fish person! That is SO cool, my name is Krystal!”, I said while extending my hand towards her.

Believe it or not, I didn't scare her off yet. I feel like she's trying WAY too hard to be polite that it's killing her though, since the look in her face was utter confusion. Not just confusion about my actions, but confusion on how she can even properly respond.

It also occurred to me only 2 paragraphs ago that you never knew my name up to this point! Yeah, see to me I don't really see a big deal with the whole gender thing. Yeah, I have b***s and everything but I never saw any difference between men and women. We're all just... beings. I suppose.

After some momentary confliction, the stranger in front of me had opened her mouth once more.

“You are certainly a curious one, aren't you? My name is Ayano.”, she said courteously, reaching out to shake my hand.

“It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Her voice was... soothing. Her tone was very direct, but respectful. Something about her speech was different than anything I had ever experienced.

“And it is a pleasure to make yours as well, my dear!”, I retorted. This continued my trend of confusing her with my overwhelmingly happy personality. I need to recover this conversation before she thinks I'm a total freak.

“Look, I know I'm probably coming off as a freaky goofball here but I'm just reaaaally excited is all.”, I told her with a grin from ear to ear.

She simply looked at me for a moment. She tilted her head slightly with one raised eyebrow.

“What brings you here, exactly? If you don't mind my asking.”

Without as much as one thought, I responded.

“I just really like to explore things.”, with the same persisting smile.

By this point, it looked like she had an assessment of my intelligence. I knew she wanted to insult me so badly, but she retained her composure. A patient one to be sure.

“I get that, but could you be a little more specific. People don't just 'arrive' at the outpost.”

“Nope. That's really all there is to it Ayano, I'm here by chance.”

She was a little perplexed by my response. She nodded her head in thought, then had a sudden query.

“So... you just stumbled..... onto an outpost teleporter. Which just so happened to be functional?”

“Actually, the teleporter wasn't even working when I found it. I had to power it up with core fragments before anything happened.”

Her face lit up slightly.

“The outpost no longer even USES teleporter gates anymore. You must have stumbled on an old site, if your story adds up.”

When she said this, things added up in my head. That would totally explain the empty abandoned filth that is that old creaky mineshaft.

“There was an abandoned mine I went into nearby which actually had the core fragments that I needed. I imagine they used it to mine for fuel.”

“That would make sense.”, she said looking off to the side. She then shot a look back at me.

“I only have one more question for you then.”

“Fire away”, I told her.

“What brought you to that planet, anyway? And what led you to seek out that teleporter?”

“Like I told you before, I was just exploring.”

She was unfazed by my response. She thought I was full of s**t, and wasn't believing it.

“That's highly unl-”

“I lost my memory, Ayano.”, I interrupted.

She locked eyes with me for a moment, reducing the intensity in her expression.

“You heard me right, I have no memory of anything earlier than roughly 3 months ago. I know my name and my mannerisms. Beyond that I have no concept of my past, my species, my family... nothing.”, I faded off. Feeling empty all of the sudden.

I started to trail my eyes to the ground.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up, and Ayano was staring straight at me.

“Hey, focus. Do you know what you're going to do next?”, she told me.

It never crossed my mind until now, but I've REALLY been winging it hard until now. I never had any plan about what I would do. Where would I go from here?

“I... don't know. I didn't even think about that. I need to repair my ship to get off the planet.”

This triggered an interesting response from Ayano. I saw a bit of surprise in her expression.

“Wait, you actually own a ship?”, she asked.

A little bewildered, I replied: “Yeah... why?”

“Listen, what I'm about to propose is going to sound awfully forward and possibly very rude. Would you be willing to admit me aboard your ship? I will do whatever it takes to help you repair it if we can travel together, but in return I will need to ask you a very important favor.”

My eyes lit up. I was elated once more.

I must be the most luckiest cat-girl in the universe right now. Not only did I LITERALLY bump into someone who was likely the only person on this rock willing to team up with a random, goofy lady like myself.. but she needs my help. She needs my ship AND my help, which means that she needs to be somewhere. This means it's a win-win situation for both of us.

Jackpot.

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