eyes were merciless, as cold as the ice caps of Garth, and there was nothing she could do to stop him, nothing at all, her life was over, her life was—
A sudden explosion rocked the room, causing Jeff to look toward the exit in astonishment. He must have seen something dangerous because he pulled his gun out of Galaxy's mouth and fired off a couple of shots at whoever had entered. She heard the bullets ricochet off the floor and walls, but didn't know who it could be until a familiar voice called out, “Hey! What was that for?”
Space? Galaxy thought. Then she said aloud, “Space! It's me! I'm over here! I'm—”
Jeff punched her in the mouth, causing her to see lights. She fully expected to find a bullet in her head, now that she was defenseless, but to her surprise, Jeff stood up, turned, and ran. Lasers flew after him, most likely from Space's laser pistol, but none of them hit Jeff, and soon he was gone, disappearing into another exit on the other side of the room.
At least, Galaxy assumed Jeff was gone because Space ran up to her and knelt over her. He had removed his helmet, his black hair messy, sweat on his face as he looked her over.
“Galaxy,” said Space, his voice a mixture of relief and worry, “are you okay?”
Galaxy looked at him with all of the disbelief she could muster. “Am I—? Do I look like I just took a bath?”
“I'm sorry!” said Space, cringing. “I just thought—”
Galaxy never got to hear the rest of his sentence, however, because she could no longer tolerate the pain in her shoulder. Thus, she fell unconscious.
-
When Galaxy next awoke, she found herself lying on the soft mattress of the bed in the sick bay of the Adventure. It took her several minutes to understand that, however, as she was extremely drowsy. Her head felt like an inflatable balloon, but she was no longer in any sort of pain. She almost went back to sleep, though, because the bed was so comfortable and was only prevented from doing so when she heard Space nearby say, “Galaxy? You awake?”
She looked to her right and saw Space sitting on a chair. He was no longer wearing his spacesuit (and neither was she, now that she thought about it). He was in his usual blue and orange jumpsuit, a tablet on his lap, open to some kind of book, but she couldn't tell what he was reading. He looked like he hadn't slept for several days, if the bags under his eyes meant anything.
“Space?” said Galaxy. “I'm not dead, am I?”
Space shook his head. “Nope. But you almost were. Sparky's never removed a bullet before, since you know those really aren't used by anyone anymore except hipsters, and so there was a lot of blood but he managed it and now you're going to be okay. Isn't that awesome?”
Space spoke quickly, like he had been waiting a long time to say all of this. Galaxy just smiled weakly.
“Well, I guess it's better than being dead,” said Galaxy. “How long have I been out?”
“Oh, about a week,” said Space, glancing at his com-watch's built-in calendar.
Galaxy's eyes bugged out. “A week? You've got to be pulling my leg.”
“I'm serious,” said Space. “You really took a beating. You were at death's door, so to speak. You actually slipped into a coma for a while there.”
Galaxy shook her head in disbelief. “Out for a week … man, I must have missed everything.”
“Oh, you didn't miss much,” said Space. “We dropped Zingfree and his crew off on Namox, since that's where they wanted to go, but otherwise didn't do a whole lot. Sparky and I have just been worrying over you this whole time, among other things.”
Galaxy nodded, but then remembered Jeff. “What about Jeff? And the meteor? And how are Zingfree and the others?”
“I knew you'd ask these questions,” said Space with a sigh. “Well, to start, Jeff got away. He escaped using one of the Artistic Sail's escape pods. Sparky would have stopped him, but he escaped at roughly the same time the meteor got within range of the Adventure's lasers, so he got away while Sparky tried to shoot down the meteor.”
Galaxy cursed. “Did Sparky at least succeed in destroying the meteor or blowing it off course?”
“Sadly, no,” said Space. “It was going too fast and it crashed and destroyed the Artistic Sail. It was quite the explosion.”
“But you said Zingfree and his crew got off all right?”
“Yes. I tried to pilot the Artistic Sail out of there, but it didn't want to start—”
“Probably Jeff,” Galaxy growled. “That bastard probably sabotaged it so it wouldn't work.”
“—so I dragged Zingfree's crew and you out of there,” said Space. “Sparky beamed us up to the ship and just in time, too. Sparky miscalculated how many hours we had because about five minutes after we were all beamed safely aboard our ship, the meteor crashed and the Artistic Sail exploded, as I said before.”
Galaxy shuddered at the thought of how close death had been. “What about Zingfree?”
“He's fine,” said Space, sounding more than a little disgruntled at the mention of the director. “He and his crew are at a hospital on Namox. They didn't get hurt nearly as badly as you, but they did get hurt pretty badly.”
“Does Zingfree still want me to rebuild his holospheres?” said Galaxy.
Space shook his head. “Nope. He told me that he would just buy some new ones. He actually wanted to repay you for trying to save his life.”
“Oh?” said Galaxy, eager at the mention of rewards. “And what would that form of payment be?”
“A walk-on role in his next movie,” said Space. “He offered me it, too, and I had to accept because even though I don't really like him, I would just love to appear in a movie. I told him I'd tell you about it when you woke up.”
Galaxy groaned and looked up at the ceiling. “I would have liked some money, to be honest.”
“I don't know,” said Space. “Zingfree is a pretty respected director. Who knows, maybe this role will allow me to do some acting on the side. You know, to make a little extra money.”
“Right,” said Galaxy. “Did Zingfree say anything about Jeff? Explain what that idiot was trying to do?”
Space lowered his tablet onto his lap, looking displeased. “Zingfree said he doesn't know the whole story, but from what Jeff told him, it appears that Jeff is an assassin hired out by someone who didn't like Zingfree's movies and wanted him dead.”
Galaxy quirked an eyebrow. “Black Star? Shooting Star? A Purple Snake, maybe?”
“No,” said Space, shaking his head. “Independent contractor who is a sort of jack-of-all-trades, which is how he managed to pretend to be a starship engineer. The robot, Metalhead, was reprogrammed by Jeff to help him, which is why it attacked me.”
“You were attacked by a robot?” said Galaxy.
“Yeah,” said Space. “That's why I couldn't immediately come to your rescue. But I managed to destroy it in the end. Wasn't a big deal.”
Though Space said it 'wasn't a big deal,' he clearly wanted Galaxy's approval for his obvious bravery in the face of danger, which she did not feel like giving him right now. “Right. And are you sure that the guy who hired Jeff wanted Zingfree dead just because he didn't like his movies?”
Space shrugged. “That's what Zingfree told me that Jeff told him. Considering how arrogant Zingfree is, I have a feeling that's more conjecture on his part than anything.”
Galaxy rubbed her forehead. “Ugh. This was a failure of a mission. I only got one bag of rocks. That's not going to be nearly enough to last us a month.”
“Actually,” said Space, “while you were recovering, I went and collected a few more bags of Magna Five rocks myself.”
Galaxy looked at him in surprise. “You did? But I thought you hated doing that.”
“Yeah, well, I needed something to do that would take my mind off … well, you,” said Space. “Sparky suggested it, but it made sense. I gathered the rocks from a different part of Magna Five, though, because I, unlike most people, happen to believe that meteors do strike in the same place twice.”
/> Galaxy shook her head in amazement. “Thanks, Space. That was really kind of you. I'll have to look at what you got later so I can determine what we can sell and what we can't.”
Space waved off her praise. “Oh, it was nothing. It was actually kind of fun, to be honest. I see why you like to do it.”
Galaxy lay back on the bed. “Well, I'm glad to hear it wasn't a total loss, at any rate. Where are we now?”
“On our way to the Annulus,” said Space. “Sparky says we need to get some more medical supplies for your wound. How does that sound to you?”
Galaxy smiled. “Sounds great, Space. Sounds great.”