Episode 7.3

"Hey you!" The voice of a man breaks through my dreamless sleep. I don't really want to open my eyes, but when he taps me, I can't help it.

I'm surprised to find myself gazing into two green eyes, looking at me kindly. His blond hair falls to his shoulders, a beautiful smile gracing his lips.

"Are you awake?" he asks me.

At first, I'm speechless. I just stare at him, surprised and unsure of what he wants here. I've encountered him before. When I arrived here. Something that confuses me even more.

What is someone like him doing down here? I wonder.

Then my gaze falls on Moriphos. He looks at the blond man, his expression filled with nothing but hatred and contempt.

"Otscharsan, what brings someone like you down here?" Moriphos calls out. His voice is full of mockery. "Were you demoted due to incompetence?"

"Incompetence?" The blond man laughs. He looks up at Moriphos, his gaze quite disdainful. "Wouldn't that word describe you better?" Otscharsan runs his hand through his hair, a grin spreading across his face. "Or did your comrades just want to get rid of you?"

The blond man turns back to me. That friendly smile appears on his face again. "Come on, you'll have a special task from today onwards." He stands up and leaves my cell.

I follow his instruction. Yawning, I get up from the bed, stretch briefly, then follow him.

The black bracelet he wears seems to contain something like a notebook. From the bracelet, a symbol is projected into the air.

I wonder what that is? Maybe the designation of a cell.

Anyway, he seems to be looking for something.

He stops in front of one of the cells. The prisoner inside looks at the blond man curiously.

"I'm only employed here as a messenger," the blond man sighs as he opens the cell. "Hopefully, I can spare you the lecture." Otscharsan continues to look at the screen as another symbol is displayed. "Now, where is it again?" he muses, scratching his head. "Why am I even doing this?" Otscharsan sighs again, then he heads off to the next cell.

The prisoner raises his eyebrows as he recognizes the symbol on the screen.

I'm about to follow Otscharsan when the large hand of the prisoner rests on my shoulder. "You're not really dumb enough to follow him everywhere, are you?" he asks me. I look at him questioningly, then at Otscharsan, who is currently trying to figure out where the next cell might be. In response to my questioning look, I get an answer in the form of a gesture upwards. "Surely it won't hurt to wait at the entrance?" the prisoner inquires.

Otscharsan glances briefly at him and then waves. "Yeah, yeah, but be good!" He scratches his head again. "Now, where the hell is that damn cell?"

"I would try a bit higher up," suggests the prisoner.

Otscharsan looks briefly at him, then asks, "How far up?"

"All the way up!" explains the prisoner.

The blond man's gaze goes upwards. A sigh escapes him. "Couldn't he have given me a proper map," grumbles Otscharsan, then he continues on.

The prisoner watches him go and shakes his head. "What's going on today? Usually, the guards come for us, and my cellmate is also with us."

I shrug. "I heard yesterday that he broke something on the station."

"Oh!" he exclaims briefly. A grin spreads across his face now. "Then I shouldn't be surprised that no one told him about the elevator."

I feel sorry for Otscharsan now.

The prisoner calls for departure, and I follow him.

"These creatures seem to be very moody," the man remarks. I assume he means Kaia and Gasard with "creatures". "Gasard gets quite angry if anyone damages anything on the station."

We wait at the door. Otscharsan goes upstairs to let one of the prisoners out of the cell. Then he has to go back down, and now it's the cellmate of the man next to me's turn.

"Say, isn't the boy a bit confused?" comes from another prisoner who joins us.

The first one laughs a bit. "No, he just doesn't know his way around here," explains the man shaking his head. Then he winks at him. "Besides, he must have gotten on Gasard's bad side."

"Oh, I see," comes only from the second one. Both look at Otscharsan, who is now figuring out where the next cell might be. "What do you think? Should we tell him that there's an elevator for this sort of thing?"

The first guard laughs. "It's fun to watch someone like him do this for once!"

The third prisoner joins us. He also seems a bit puzzled by Otscharsan, but the rest enlightens him as well. Next, they speculate about what I might be looking for here.

I wonder why they can't just ask. My gaze is on Otscharsan, who is allowed to go down again, this time to the second floor. The whole process repeats until he only lets out one of the prisoners on the top floor.

A big and fat guy who drags Otscharsan to one of the walls. Even we can clearly hear the protests of the blond man.

"How dare you?" echoes through the prison. "You must obey my orders, and I want to go down!"

Suddenly Otscharsan falls silent, and after a while, I find out why. The elevator is shown to him. The door opens, and a chubby guy steps out.

Musator, as I now recognize him.

"Tsk! This Otscharsan! Does he think I need exercise?" The chubby guy laughs.

Otscharsan shuffles after him. He seems somewhat annoyed, but when he hears the words of the chubby guy, he perks up. A grin spreads across his face.

"Well, Musator, you could use some exercise." The blond man laughs out loud. "Especially when compared to me."

"What do you mean?" Musator exclaims. He pats his fat belly. "I look great!" Only now does he notice me.

At first, he seems surprised, but shortly after, he smiles at me.

"What luck we have today!" Musator exclaims. "Such nice company."

Otscharsan calls for departure.

The group is led out by him. A few guards are standing at the entrance, bowing to Otscharsan. From the prison, we enter the elevator, which is just big enough for the group. It only stops in one of the hangars.

I follow the group with amazement, my gaze going over all the spaceships. It's the hangar where I woke up a few days ago, I recognize it by the black ship that towers above all others from a pedestal.

"Otscharsan, what did you do exactly?" one of the men inquires.

The blond man stops. He looks surprised at the group. "Who told you that?" he demands to know.

Immediately, everyone points at me.

"I just made a tiny mistake," Otscharsan says with a sigh. He continues on to the airlock.

"What kind of mistake can one make in there?" the men wonder as we enter the corridor.

I decide not to say anything further. It didn't sound like just a tiny mistake, from what Gasard reported.

A faint light is cast down on us from the ceiling. It's enough for us to barely see the ceiling, the floor, and the walls, but the path ahead of us is completely swallowed by a black void.

When I flew through the airlock with Mak, everything was dark. However, back then, the path seemed shorter than it does on foot.

"Hey kid, there's surely something here for transportation too, right?" Musator protests. He seems annoyed by the long walk, just like the rest of the group. I would be glad for something to get us to our destination faster too.

Otscharsan just shrugs. "Don't know," he admits. "I usually don't walk through here."

Despite the long way, the group follows him.