Chapter 6


 "We probably should start thinking of a way out. I'm very sure that the Valoria is dead, so we'll need to find that hangar we saw before," Nredoza said, getting up at last, stretching and accidentally hitting Hazel in the face with her wings.

Hazel held the injured part of her face, checking to make sure she wasn't bleeding. Oza saw her checking her palm and feeling her face. There was a large gash in her cheek, but no blood came out.

"You don't bleed, remember?"

"Oh yeah..."

"Just squeeze it together for a minute, you'll heal."

Hazel stared at Nredoza. She didn't believe her, since it was generally impossible for that to happen. But, then again, she was told that the existence of other universes with life similar to humans was impossible, and that god-like intelligence and understanding of others could not happen. So, she tried it out. She held her cheek together for a minute or two before letting go. Running her finger over the wound, she only found a scar. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head from shock and amazement. Oza gave her a rather disappointed look, as if she was dumber than she originally thought.

"Okay, it's not my fault I keep forgetting every single detail about the Exan half of me that I've only learned in like two or three days!" Hazel snapped.

Nredoza looked quite embarrassed. She expected so much from this overwhelmed fifteen year old who was ripped from her home and forced to know everything about her location, situation, culture, and identity that had been shunned for all of her life, when the same thing happened to her when DymoCorp "hired" her.

They took her from her home on Universe 5, forcing her to leave her home, family, and friends just because of her intelligence and Complexity. At that point, Dymo wished to have a wife but didn't want just anyone. Nredoza was only a couple years younger than him and fit everything he ever could have wanted. She felt so free after leaving that space station. Though she never agreed to marry him, Dymo still acted strange and flirty around her and it made Oza very uncomfortable.

"I can try to find where we can find a ship," Hazel said, taking out her small hologram projector, "like this: hey Holo, where can we find a HyperNova in the area?"

The hologram Hazel buzzed to life, "Checking my sources..."

We need a SuperNova, not a HyperNova! You won't find those here. Oza mouthed silently.

"Hey Holo, different question. Where can we find a SuperNova ship?"

"Checking my sources..."

Hazel grinned, pointing at the projector and nodding.

"You will find one in the Quainis Hangar, approximately one mile to the south."

"Is that in the city, or outside of it?"

"You will find one in th-"

"Nevermind."

"You will-

"NO!"

Nredoza was trying and failing to hold in a chuckle. Seeing Hazel rage at the technology and realizing that it wasn't all so perfect like she expected was amusing. The media on Earth always imagined advanced technology as having no defects and never failing, and that was wrong in more ways than anyone who lived on any other universe could count.

Hazel pulled up the map of the city again, to make sure that the hangar wasn't actually a hangar, and she saw that the massive building they thought was an aircraft hangar was actually the library. It looked even larger on the map than it did from the cliff.

"So, we go back outside..." Nredoza grumbled.

"Wait, don't you need an air supply?" Hazel asked, confused again.

"I'm sure they sell them somewhere. I do have some money on me."

"Okay, then."

Looking at the map, Hazel noticed that there were two airlocks labeled on opposite ends of the city. She recognized the path that led to the one they came in, and started leading Oza towards the other one, since they didn't see anything that even remotely resembled a hangar on the journey to the underground city.

The other airlock was surrounded by more of the clear material, like a giant window. It was obscured by the plants and buildings of the city, therefore they couldn't see it until they were past the center and the higher concentration of the spiral flora. While they were coming closer to the exit, Nredoza popped in a little shop for air canisters and masks so she wouldn't die of suffocation once she got out onto the surface of the planet again.

Around the airlock, the suns heated up the ground and air, so much so it was almost uncomfortably hot. Hazel knew what to do this time, and after climbing a tall ladder to get to the ledge the airlock was on, she excitedly slammed her palm on the glass. A loud hissing sound was produced from the door, and Nredoza put on her mask quickly before Hazel opened the second. There was a third, like the sequence of airlocks on the other end, and sound stopped traveling once they were out on the dusty and hot surface once again. 

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