Ashe feels a sinking in her stomach, both from the sense of unease and from the push of the shuttle taking off again, its engines audibly humming back to life as the shuttle flies on.
Had she done something wrong? Was it the belt, was she meant to - she tugs at it again, hard, the stupid belt having ruined her chance to... are they going back to the surface?!
Tears well up as she sinks lower in her seat, a wretched sickness twists her chest, her stomach feels full of lead and - or is that the shuttle landing again? With a start she hears the hiss of the door opening, her belt unfastening through her hands, leaving her staring at the open door.
Are they back on the surface? No, no it had taken longer to get here, so maybe, they are just at the next stop? Her heart leaps - if she gets out here she can catch up with the group and - she jumps out of her seat and bolts through the door, rushing into a white, round room.
She looks around, trying to make out where she is, having no frame of reference to orient herself - she hears a hissing behind her.
The shuttle door had closed, the door and shuttle growing more distant as they move away from her. She takes a step forward, then leaps back, finding herself staring down over the edge of an abyss, the ocean far below. Wait, not the ocean - trees. Blue trees.
It's a forest, so far below it makes her queasy to look, but so fascinatingly alien she can’t look away. Blue-leaved foliage spreads out below her, white trunks and rivers of shimmering turquoise branching out on all sides across a vast, perfectly round forest. Around the rim she can see white… walls? Or maybe a walkway, yes she can see figures, tiny with distance, their white clothes contrasting their blue skin. Travellers, hundreds of them, thousands even, every direction she turns seeing them moving back and forth all around the walkway, above which white walls curve up to enclose the immense space.
They’re inside the mothership! Ashe gasps at the obvious yet impossible realisation - this entire, massive habitat is inside the ship, all floating above the city below! She sees a flash of motley colours.
Squinting, she sees the crowd of humans, their mix of clothes and skin tones standing out from the uniform pallet around them. They're on the walkway below her, far below, staring out into the forest as she stares down at them. They're so far away, but she can see where they are, so if she can just find the door to this room -
The room is round and white, the floor and roof looking a little brighter than the walls, until she realises the walls aren’t actually there. The room is open on all sides, looking down on the forest with the white dome of the mothership surrounding this central room.
There are no doors. There's a desk, white and oval, two purple couches around a white table with two white glasses, even a few impossibly floating shelves piled with silver and violet knick knacks. But no door. How, how even... she sees another shuttle approaching.
The white craft eases to a stop near where Ashe stands, frozen, holding her breath as the door hisses open. Two figures step out, walking briskly, their white clothes reminiscent of women’s business suits, bright compared to their purple skin. No, not all purple - she's seeing them from the back, their skin a vivid blue around the sides and unseen fronts of their faces.
“Chirrpl ankh intlippa,” the sounds come from one of the figures, though Ashe takes a moment to recognise it as speech, the words equal parts rolling clicks as unfamiliar syllables. “Armichren ankh aluk, precturri,” it's the shorter of the two figures speaking, or so Ashe supposes from the bobbing of their antennae, the same folded kind as the hostess, looking now like tiny limbs gesticulating wildly in time with the continued words. They walk a measured pace behind the taller figure as the two made their way towards the desk on the other side of the room.
The shorter figure seems to be reading aloud from a round, mostly clear disk, one pair of arms folded behind their back, another resting on their hips, where another, silver disc hangs. A weapon? She half sees another flash of silver, held by the taller figure before them but loses sight of it as they stop before the desk.
The taller figure’s curled antennae barely move as she speaks, her voice slower, calmer. “Chankrri,” is all she says, her voice harmonic and beautiful. Familiarly so.
The other figure’s antennae jitter uneasily. “Pr-precturri ankh - chirrpl ankh - chirrpl Yelhsa ankh-” Ashe thinks she recognises a word before they’re cut off -
“Nochrk-ar,” the taller figure states, that tantalisingly familiar voice now sharply edged. The other figure says nothing, their antennae shaking as they bow low. They remain silent as they make their way briskly across the room and back into the shuttle, the door hissing shut behind them.
Ashe half reaches for the shuttle, realising far too late she could have snuck inside when it’s already pulling away from her, leaving her stranded in the room once more, alone with the tall alien with a familiar voice and curled antennae.
“Good morning, Ashe,” the figure says, and instantly she recognises the voice, a voice she’d dreamed but never hoped to hear say her name!
On the other side of the room, One turns around.
Ashe stares. Her heart is racing, legs shaking, knees feeling like they’ll give out even before One smiles at her, at her, at only her, those dark eyes sparkling as she adds, “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
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