~28~

My face and entire cheeks stun badly when I started to come to a little bit later.

I was still VERY groggy and could hear someone yelling in the background.

"....UP! GE....P!!...ET U....!!!"

Might as well have been an alien language to my ears as I couldn't decipher or fathom a word being said.

But one thing I WAS hyper-aware of was the insane burning across the entire upper section of my skin.

The pain of which got me quickly sitting up and tanking the sudden hit of vertigo that slammed into me.

How long have I been out cold??

HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN OUT HERE!?

The sheer panic that shot through me had me scrambling up with what meagre energy levels I had left.

If I'd passed out outside my ship when I was closer to the water levels of Titan, that would be perfectly fine. Heck, I slept outside a couple of times even, when I first arrived on this planet to enjoy the scenic beauty of the water long before how now just looking at it gave me existential dread.

BUT NOW I was floating up in the heavily acidic clouds that I shouldn't be exposed to for a MAX of 5 minutes.

Judging by how much my skin burned, I could've been out here for hours.

"GE.....HL......W!!"

My ear device glitches and stung my ear severely.

I rip it out as I hobble my way over to the side of my ship.

Thank all the known and unknown stars, I'd left my door slightly open, and I was able to grab onto the ceiling rails and monkey bar swing my way into my ship.

I toss my ear device onto my slightly moist floor, because of course it was, and dragged myself across the floor to lean on my bed.

I try to take a few deep breaths.

"Heh, at least my sinuses are clear and my cold is gone." I morbidly laugh to myself.

I turn around and kick my door closed, then leaned back fully on the side frame of my bed.

"Computer. All systems engage. Filter out acidic cloud particles."

"FiL-tErrrrrrr-" The computer speaker spazzs out as I cover my ear from the sharp and violent mechanical screams.

Uuuurgh, that's not good.

Practically dunking my ship in all that water must've gotten into places it wasn't supposed to and fried some very important wires.

No use dwelling on what's broken.

I'll fix what I can and celebrate the fact that I'm still alive to breathe air.

Not wanting to get up and move anytime soon, I issue an oral command for my ship to switch to a visual alarm and write out any important information regarding the ship's technical health from here on out. And to make sure to make a loud beep to gain my attention whenever it did so.

Seeing as my ship's speakers were fried, I made sure to immediately switch to visual communication, so as not to be caught off guard by the inevitable next emergency.

Next emergency.....

Am I seriously going to stick around on this planet for the next shit to hit the fan??

All for a promise of....what! Exactly???

I don't even remember what Leo had told me to convince me to stay.

And right about now it was all feeling like bullshit.

Here I am, risking life and limbs, staying on a planet for reasons that I am not even fully aware of yet.

All because my stupid girly lady bites go haywire whenever the boys are around!!

I externally let out a growl and use my newfound anger to push myself up off the ground.

Screw this! Screw EVERYTHING!!

I am going to DEMAND answers next time I see-

I caught a reflection of myself in my monitor feed showing what I looked like while I livestreamed.

I screamed.

The entire upper layer of my skin looked to be burnt off. Singed clear off my flesh.

I screamed again to make sure the person in the monitor was clearly me.

I fear I may have lost access to my race card cause I looked ORANGE!

I ignored my chat flying a mile a minute and took a step back from the monitor and held my breath.

1....2....3.....

I slowly blew a breath out, forcing myself not to hyperventilate and faint.

Once the vitriolic beating of my heart finally slowed down to a normal, human pace, the burning stinging sensation of fried skin quickly takes over.

Before making any rash decisions, I quickly shove my arm under my microscope that I had stashed off to the side and now quickly pulled out to observe what was happening.

"Okay, good news and bad news!" I say in a triumphantly upbeat voice to my chat, more so to calm myself down than them.

I don't even look at chat before continuing to speak.

"Good news, I'm not burned too badly. All this orange is the chemical compound of the clouds reacting to the organic composition of my skin. Think of it like fancy snowflakes that stick to your skin and burn." I straighten up and explain.

"Bad news is I don't know how to get it off...." I trail off in an unsure voice.

I look around my silver room as if an answer will jump out at me miraculously.

"Maybe we just take a shower and hope for the best?"

[🔴That's what I would do. 50/50 chance you melt your skin off.🔴]

I smirked at Carol's message.

"I'm guessing the international interstellar phone bill finally caught up with you?"

[🔴Actually no. You know I ain't paying for this shit.🔴]

A moment went by before her next message popped up.

[🔴I just got called in for an emergency meeting. So I can't be close to or on the phone right now berating you for the stupid decision you're about to make.🔴]

"Emergency meeting? Hope it's not about me." I light-heartedly joke.

Carol didn't respond.

That got me worried.

I didn't want to tip my chat to my anxieties, so I hurriedly masked the situation.

"A-anyway, I know you don't have time to chat. See you after your meeting!"

[🔴C'ya.🔴]

Her curt and short reply was odd as Carol hated using abbreviated text, if she could help it.

She must've really been in a crunch or just arrived to the meeting room and didn't have room to respond properly.

I just hope she doesn't get chewed out by her superiors for MY actions.

Truth be told, what can she even POSSIBLY do to get me out of trouble billions of miles away back on Earth???

I shake my head slightly to get out of my funk.

Carol's a big girl, she can DEFINITELY handle herself in a room full of big old stuffy men.

I believe in her.

"Now let's go see if I can wash any of this gunk off! My time sunbathing out there seem to have killed whatever disease was brewing in my lungs!" I say chipperly to my chat.

I fully look at and read it for the first time since waking up.

It was a war zone.

"I'm just going to....set chat to slow mode....and elite members only..... probably block a few keywords while I'm at it."

I swiftly type away to put all filters in place.

Apparently while I was out cold, some religious zealots took over and were using the monster I'd faced as proof of the end times and were converting people to their occultic religion.

And the people denying I ever went to space were having a FIELD day.

They also seemed to be going to war with the religious zealots defending people ON MY BEHALF from falling victim to the schemes.

I won't bore you with the details.

"I wonder if Leo and Dion know how to fix my skin problems," I wonder out loud, half to distract my chat, the other half wondering out of genuine curiosity.

I hopefully glanced at the chat logs, wistfully hoping a helpful message from them would pop up.

But nothing.

I sigh. Guess they're probably still being blocked by something.

Or they've gone back to avoiding me.

I try to mask my hurt feelings with a fake snarky attitude.

"Pfft! I guess they probably wouldn't know how to fix what going on with actual human skin-"

Clink! Clink!!

I hear not a knock....but like a slight metallic thud?

I go to my door to the source of the sound and open it, and a little white package was floating in....a bubble!?

The logistics of such mode of transportation baffled me beyond belief.

I stick out my hand to grab the package, but then the bubble pops and the package lands in the palms of my hands effortlessly.

Along with a small note.

"Well....that's adorable," I noted out loud as I walk back inside and kick my door close.

Then I remembered.

"OH SHOT WAIT!-" I quickly grab the latch of my door before it shuts completely and quickly peep outside.

I look down and see......nothing.

Not a single thing broke the calm peacefulness of the water's surface.

As if everything that happened a couple hours ago- probably, still don't know how long I was out -COMPLETELY didn't happen.

Didn't it?

Other than my burn wounds, which weren't even caused by the monster it was the freaking clouds, I had no proof I even battled a giant inky sea blob monster.

What if I hallucinated all of it?

What if I'm still just dreaming?

The sudden sting from my burn wounds, and the constant throbbing of my bones and muscles from my intense physical exercise SCREAMED at me otherwise.

Also there was definitely video evidence of it all. So unless I'm in a coma and none of this is real- What happened did truly happen.....

I forcefully look at the note sent to me to distract myself from my existential thoughts.

~You did great. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.~

~D&L~

Warmth flushed over my entire being and I fought not to let a derpy look overtake the expression on my face.

But also deep down.....

A small part of me daydreamed that maybe one day, there'd be a letter signed off with D&L&M....

I shake the incredulous thoughts from my head and walk off into the bathroom.

Leaving the package and note on my table to attend to after my shower.