Starcrossed || One

Elise winced as her ship gave another shudder. The small shuttle-class space vehicle was on its last leg, and she was barely a third of the way to her destination. The Allied Planets will not be happy when I turn up late, she thought ruefully, as she typed in another brief command on her console. An unexpected malfunction in one of her ship's rudders had caused it to snap off, taking part of her communications apparatus with it. So, the range for her distress calls was dismally narrow.

She needed to find a safe place to land. The nearest known planet was still far away, especially with her ship limping along like it was. There was a considerable planet looming in her viewscreen nearby, but no data seemed to exist for it. At best, the atmosphere would be able to support her body, but the terrain ... she could see nothing about the terrain through the thick clouds roiling around every inch of the place.

A red light began blinking politely on one of the other consoles. Elise squinted at the letters, her eyebrows pinching in disbelief. Fuel 30%, warned the light. Its periodic glow turned even her green eyes a ghastly red color. "Oh… that’s not good," Elise mumbled. Apparently scooting along without one of the main rudders had consumed a lot more fuel than she'd anticipated. She glanced at the nearby planet, knowing that it was quickly becoming her last option. She was already close enough that she'd use minimal fuel getting into position in the planet's orbit. From there it was literally like falling down.

With a defeated sigh, she entered a command into her console to automatically begin the landing sequence. Then, she slipped out of her pilot's chair and stalked to the rear of her small ship. She tied her straight black hair in a quick knot, before beginning to tie everything down. Without the rudder, a pleasant landing was out of the question. She could only hope that she wouldn't be shaken around inside the ship like an egg in a blender. She put a helmet over her head, securing it to the rest of her efficient space travel suit. At least, as a diplomat, she got to travel in style in the latest biosuit technology money could buy. The thought offered little comfort when the telltale red glow of atmosphere entry surrounded her ship. Thankfully, her rapidly-dying sensors were able to tell her that she was headed for a landmass, so she faced no crash landing at sea.

Inside a glassy dome-shaped building on the cusp of a rural plain, a small team of researchers and tech support sat in their offices, carrying out their intended duties. They were promised neither fame nor glory, but they carried out their simple work with a certain pride nonetheless.

A young woman with a tight auburn ponytail walked down the hall. The name "Kaye" was stitched over her heart upon the white, close-fitted long-sleeved shirt she wore.

She unscrewed the cap off a thermos and held up the glass container to one of a dozen inlets in the wall.

"Immunity support." She announced to the sensor. The small glossy screen immediately lit up: Selection: Immunity Support.

A steaming spout of vegetable stock was dispensed into her glass, followed by a variety of gross-looking vitamin powders and an assortment of peas, carrots, and beans.

"Shake well." The sensor reminded her.

Kaye screwed the lid back on her thermos and did just that, shaking her mixture all the way back to her shared office. She seemed to be immune to the near 360 degree view of the sprawling landscape outside. Not that farmland was much of a view, mind you.

"Ow!" She hissed. She sat down and set the company-provided stew aside to cool.

Incessant beeping and the sound effects of digitized explosions bled through the headphones of the technician sitting next to her. Kaye leaned over subtly, catching a glimpse of the game he was playing... Again. He flinched in his seat when she pulled his headphone down to hang around his neck.

"Jared. We're supposed to be keeping an eye on the sky, you lump." She scolded him with a smirk.

The strapping young man chuckled and stretched out, video game still clutched in one hand. "Please- like we're gonna miss something if I relax for five minutes."

As if on cue, an alert flashed across the 3-d holograms that consisted of their monitors.

"We've got a projectile in the southern quadrant." Kaye read.

"It's probably just another one of those messages of good will. Custodial will get it." Jared dismissed.

"Get me a visual." She insisted.

Jared rolled his eyes, but complied. They both froze upon viewing the small, sleek shape burning through the atmosphere.

"That's definitely sentient." He admitted. A faint whirr caught their ears. They looked up in time to see the thing streak down from the clouds, into the field of blue grass surrounding the facility.

Stifling a cough into her sleeve, Kaye sprang for the door. "Are you coming? Come on, someone else is going to get to it first."

Jared slouched lower in his chair, raising his eyebrows at her. After a few seconds debate between laziness and curiosity, he caved and stood up.

"Why d'you gotta be so damn eager, Kaye?" He muttered half-heartedly.

As the landscape began to unfold before her view screen (highlighted in fiery red), Elise felt the ship shudder more and more. She strapped herself back into her seat, feeling her teeth chatter. Don't puke became her mantra as her body shook with the dying space vehicle. The last thing she needed was to crash land and have to deal with a messed up helmet.

The impact was the worst. Her biosuit and seatbelt straps did their best to prevent her bones from breaking, but Elise still felt the intense strain on her shoulders. The ship started to slow down, though enough dirt and ash had been thrown up onto it that she could no longer see out. The HUD on her helmet lit up, reminding her to remain seated until the ship came to a complete stop. Someone designed some cheeky machinery, she thought wryly. Like anyone would ever try to jump out of a spaceship when it was plowing a crater into the ground.

When things finally stopped moving, Elise unstrapped from the seat and stood up, her legs like jelly. She surveyed the small cabin, wincing to see that one of the instruments toward the back was smoking. She went to the hatch, hoping to get out before a spark lit up the oxygen or something. She had to throw herself against the door, as it had dented inward a little from getting knocked around. Suddenly, the thought of dying trapped in there, light-years from home, overwhelmed her.

With a cry, she threw herself against the door once more, and it thankfully flew open. She stumbled out of the ship, falling to her hands and knees when her shivering finally won out. She had survived. After a few seconds, Elise looked up from where she'd fallen. The grass was certainly tall around here. And its pretty blue hue would make her maroon suit really stand out. Not to mention the huge, oblong crater her ship had carved into the field. Not caring about her lack of camouflage for the moment, Elise rolled over to lie on her back, breathing deeply with relief. Somehow, the cloudy sky above her had put her down gently. Well, gently enough.

Kaye slowed her jog to a careful pace as she entered the field. She held up a clear piece of glass, which gave a small ocular heat vision. She walked in a half circle, holding it out in front of her. She could hear Jared jogging to catch up to her.

"There," She announced, locking onto a bright red and orange heat signature in a field of blues and greens.

The pair of them tread carefully through the short grass. The thin line of smoke trailing from the impact area made it easier to spot as they got closer. Soil and grass was burnt in a rough oval, with a metallic capsule as its epi-center. Jared started forward, but Kaye threw out an arm to stop him. He threw her an annoyed look, but she pointed rigidly at a small maroon shape on the ground.

"Jared... It's alive."

"Oh." He murmured back. "OH! Shit!" The realization crashed upon him. They were the ones on the front lines of a crash! A very… small crash, but one nonetheless.

"The ship... It's an Allied model. Got the insigna on the side." Kaye observed.

"Guess they really have been downsizing things, huh?" Jared quipped. Kaye gave him a reproachful glance as she knelt down. "What? I'm kidding!"

Jared knelt down next to her, watching with bated breath as the tiny figure took off its helmet and turned around to face them.

"Ma'am, we're from the Orion's Belt initiative team. Are you..." Jared's eyes darted to her smoldering ship and back to her, lowering his voice. "Are you okay?"

It seemed like she'd only rested for a minute when she felt it. The tremors in the ground prompted Elise to get to her feet, looking around curiously. Was it seismic activity? Whatever it was seemed unlike anything she'd ever felt, and yet she couldn't shake the familiar feeling. She took a steeling breath when it came to her. Footsteps.

A sound behind her made her go rigid for a few seconds. Voices, big voices, were conversing in low tones behind her. She turned to face the source of them, blinking rapidly to prevent herself from reacting in some other way. She had dealt with some pretty large alien species before, but these two ... she almost didn't want to take her helmet off to greet them. But, she did, feeling her legs tense up as the behemoths knelt in front of her.

Her caution gave way to some confusion when one of them addressed her. Orion's Belt initiative? She had never heard of such a group. Hell, no one had ever heard of anything living on this planet. Elise began to wonder if she had fallen into some terrible coma in her crash, and this was the dream her mind came up with. Aliens so frighteningly large that she almost forgot her manners as a diplomat. No matter their intentions, it was her job to represent her government.

"I-I'm not hurt," she answered meekly. Her eyes darted back and forth between the two of them, unsure of whom it would be more proper to address. Her gaze finally settled on the male, since he'd been the one to speak to her. "My sincerest apologies f-for the nature of my landing," she continued, trying to keep her tone even and professional. Elise held up her hands palm out, to show that she carried no weapons and meant no harm. Because I'm sure they're so worried about that, she thought to herself. But protocol was protocol. "Please forgive my trespassing."

It was a standard greeting for completely unknown species. But, as they loomed over her, Elise wondered how they would respond. She had never had to go into a situation like this without some backup in case the natives were unresponsive to peaceful greetings. She waited patiently, watching for their reactions, though all she wanted to do was crawl back into her ship and curl up until her legs felt more solid.

"N-no need to be sorry. You just fell out of the sky..." Jared mumbled.

He tilted his head at the tiny traveler. They didn't get many visitors here since denying membership in the Allied Planets, but even amongst those he couldn't recall seeing any race quite this fragile looking.

"Ma'am, we're not-" Kaye stifled another rattling cough into the crook of her arm. "We're not authorized to treat any wounds here, but we're obliged to take you to the nearest clinic. Can't leave you hanging on the benefit of the doubt."

A clinic?  Elise thought, putting her hands down. She supposed it would be natural to want to have someone checked out after such a crash, but it still boggled her to hear the giant woman say it. She was so unsure of how to deal with a species that clearly held enough intelligence to stay off the radar for so long. She felt like a freshman all over again.

Kaye started to offer a hand, but Jared stopped her with his own upon hers.

"Maybe I should do the honors here, Kaye. Unless you want to pass along your sniffles to the poor thing."

Conceding to his logic, Kaye drew her hands quickly back into her lap. Jared instead sent his attention down to the woman and moistened his lips. This was going to be extremely awkward. He lowered his bare hand before her feet, fingers flattening out upon the burnt grass.

"It's... not ideal, I understand. We'll get you a boost when we can. I'm just going to take you into the city." He said, a light wind ruffling his sun-speckled brown hair. He swallowed, bracing himself. If he had known this type of responsibility would crash down to him, he wouldn't have shown up to work today.

Elise leaned back only slightly when the giant hand was placed before her. She would be traveling into a giant city on a giant hand to a giant clinic where a giant doctor would assess her health. She took a deep breath, calming those thoughts. When it came to diplomacy, the peoples' size should have nothing to do with it.

Still, she glanced back at her ship. It was battered and burned and there was no way it was going to get her home in that state. But, it was familiar. She turned back, not wanting to seem rude or frightened.

"Your hospitality is very much appreciated," she said meekly, the words spilling out automatically. Elise stepped onto the man's hand, her legs barely holding her up. She could feel his pulse through her feet, and the surface had some give to it. She wondered if the man could even feel her standing there.

When the platform beneath her shifted, Elise's legs buckled. She fell to a cautious crouch, maintaining her balance. It suddenly struck her that these people could easily have grabbed her without warning, so, unsteady or not, she was grateful. "A-are there any other protocols I should be aware of?" she asked, some more confidence returning to her voice.

"Uh, well, I think the secretary is obliged to pay you a visit." Jared replied. "Just formality, really. I'm actually not really qualified to answer your questions, apart from the basics. But we'll report your crash, get your ship taken into maintenance."

Kaye cleared her throat, nodding expectantly. His hand was still on the ground, not having moved an inch. He was prolonging the inevitable. With a sheepish chuckle, he slid his second hand behind the first as a safeguard and stood up. Gravity dug her boots a little deeper into his skin. He couldn't help but pause the moment she wobbled. He cupped his second hand in a guarding "c" around her even after she resumed her balance. She was so tiny! That thought overwhelmed his train of thought, making her tiny weight all he could think about.

"I'm sorry. You're not usually the type of... Well I'm not generally the person that intervenes with crash victims." Jared explained, hoping that would excuse his lack of surety in his movements.

Kaye bent down and picked up the ship. Giving Jared a tiny nod of encouragement, she led the way to the security gate.

Elise marveled at the size of the giants once more, as the man lifted her effortlessly. She knew she was small compared to them, but that really drove the point home. And then the woman, Kaye, she remembered, lifted up her ship like it was nothing. It looked like a toy in the woman's hands, seeming even more fragile than it had before. Elise wondered if their maintenance people would be able to do anything with it.

Since the man had placed a guarding hand around her, Elise didn't have a very clear view of where they were going. Not that she minded too much; she could only assume that she'd have plenty to see before this whole thing was over. She kept herself planted where she was in the giant's palm, well away from the edge of his hand as the field sped by far below.

landed here as a last resort. Maybe others did the same from time to time.

Jared shrugged his broad shoulders. "It's not unheard of. Apparently, our magnetic field screws with less advanced navigational systems."

He looked down at her again, like he was afraid to take his eyes off her at all while holding her. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way, though."

Less advanced navigational systems? The indignant thought ran across her mind for a second. Her ship had been top of the line only a year ago; they hadn't improved on the technology that much. But, she supposed she couldn't exactly argue the point, considering how spectacularly she had just crashed the damn thing. She did almost ask what model of navigation systems they used here, hoping to get an idea of how "less advanced" could possibly describe her nearly-new ship. But the changing scenery stole her attention.

The field of blue-speckled grass faded out from under them, replaced by very fine limestone gravel. Kaye looked up mournfully towards the windows of the glass enclosure, thinking of the nutritious soup that was growing cold. But the cold, mangled metal in her hands reminded her that they had far more pressing matters. She held up her hand flat to a plain black screen next to a maintenance door. Her hand lit up red as a bright white light shone behind her palm. A second later, the door slid open and the group entered the chilly air of the Orion's Belt headquarters.

She had thought that the people were huge. But the building they approached seemed to defy possibility, stretching into the cloudy sky farther than she could have imagined. Elise repressed a shudder and looked away, quickly getting vertigo from staring at the monstrous glass building.

"This won't take long," Jared murmured. She clearly hadn't been here before... Around people so big. Honestly, it was still a shock for him to find out with each new visitor that crashed here just how big his kind really was. As a child, he assumed everything in the universe was created on the same scale. Now more than ever, he saw how wrong he had been.

He and Kaye stopped at a security booth and asked for identification tickets for the case. There were several semi-circle booths located throughout the facility, for in cases like these where personnel had to take immediate action. The panel was simplistic, containing a keypad, another black panel, and a camera looking down at them. The security guard consisted of an artificial intelligence projection. The humanoid features were spot on, making it look more like a recording than an animated model.

Once they were inside, Elise looked around at every angle, taking in the scene. She wondered how many people would be working around here, and nervously fidgeted with her hands. Her jaw dropped slightly at the sophistication of the AI projection. It looked so ... seamless. Back home, they were still working on getting the AI programs to respond correctly to a given scenario. So, these people were a considerable distance ahead of her own in the technology fields.

"We need a case number. Sentient being, code 402." Jared told it.

"Please place your hand on the-."

Jared cut her off by cupping the woman closer to his stomach and pressing his hand impatiently onto the sensor. The projected woman smiled patiently.

Elise almost asked what 'code 402' meant. But the words became more of a faint choked noise when he suddenly shifted his hand. Thankfully she was already crouched down for balance, or the move may have made her fall over. She glanced behind herself at his torso, now closer than ever. At least, if she had lost her balance, she would have had a chance to latch onto the fabric of his shirt to avoid plummeting to her death.

"Thank you, Jared Four-Five-Eight." the projection said. "Please take your case number below."

There was a tiny whir, and a tiny piece of engraved glass slid out, about the size of a microchip. He took it and handed it to the woman.

"You mind holding that?"

She brushed her hair behind her ears when he offered her the apparent case number. It was the size of a mid-sized tablet, and he was holding it in two fingers. Awed, she took it in her hands, holding it delicately. She looked up at him. "Thanks, um, Jared." She said the name a little hesitantly, unsure if it was his actual name or just some kind of code designation.

Jared paused, giving her a surprised glance from over her head. It occurred to him that the AI officer had just announced his name for anyone in the hallway to hear... But it didn't make it any less foreign to hear from her tiny lips.

Kaye shifted impatiently, snapping him out of his fixation. He gave her a brisk nod and cupped his other hand as a shield in front of the young woman.

Where are my manners, Elise thought, horrified.  She shouldn't have assumed that she could address someone on a first-name basis, unless directly told so. She fretted about it for a few moments, not missing Jared's pause. She glanced up once more when his other hand screened her from view. Their trek continued. She wondered what the clinic would be like.

She held her identification card close, worried about dropping it. As they carried her further, she stared at Jared's hand, marveling at the details. It was so surreal to be traveling on someone's palm, like a hamster or a doll. The thought made her cringe slightly; hopefully nobody else would make that comparison while she was here.

The warm air greeted them once again as they exited the facility. An automated security checkpoint was the last hurdle in getting out of the facility. They passed through two metal beams, a faint humming between them. Their identification photos were recorded in the company computer, along with the case number chip that had been distributed. There were a few other technicians taking a break towards the side of the domed building, but thankfully they were too far away to pay any mind to what Kaye and Jared were bearing in their hands. No one put up any resistance as the pair headed across the street to the pod station- a glossy chrome building that nearly blinded anyone looking at it in the morning sun.

Kaye wisely skipped over the shopping plaza on the first floor and took the employee shortcut up an escalator to the next servicing pod. The inside of the pod was white and warm, lit by a wraparound window. It was relatively small in size, made for three to six passengers at a time. Kaye set the ship down for a moment so she could press their destination on the tiny screen. Jared took a seat by the window, lowering his hands over his lap uncertainly. He assumed the tiny traveler would want off, but it wouldn't make sense given the two minute trip to the city. The doors slid shut as Kaye took the seat next to Jared. She pulled the ship into her lap just as the pod was launched smoothly from the station. The glass dome across the street was left behind in a blur as the pod increased speed exponentially.