When situation started heating up, we had left our earphones on the table just because it was uncomfortable to keep them while... doing things. Probably Dora-lac tried to talk to us for a while then, not hearing response, commanded the earphones to tweet, to make us aware he needed us. The high whistle woke me up way before Cassandra.

Following the instinct for decency, our naked bodies were under a blanket Cassandra brought on the ship. I slipped out of it silently and stood up, naked, putting the earbud on.

"You were sleeping" deduced the Heereen.

Instinctively I looked out of the fish tank to see if his glow was visible through the thick liquid, with no luck. "Yeah, there are not many ways to spend time here otherwise."

"Understood" I couldn't say if there was malice in Dora-lac voice. Obviously, the translator would erase that, probably there wasn't anything like malice in Heereen communication, but still I was imaging the squid smiling at us. "I called you to announce that we're approaching Arata system"

I felt my stomach squeezing. "Wonderful, how is the situation there?"

"Blockade from Teculpa Tau and Teculpa Origin is still in place, as expected"

"And how do you think to break it?"

"Breaking it with our resources is impossible and not necessary for our mission, we will just pass through it"

"It's a bold move, I fear"

"Our strategy is right, there's no need you participate in it. I just woke you up because  exiting the drift will make the ship shake a little and I wanted to warn you"

The exact moment Dora-lac said those words all the fish tank we were in went upside down, making me fall on the ground. Cassandra, suddenly waking up, started rolling on the floor, still wrapped in the blanket. When she understood all our world was moving she started to cry until I reached her hand. "The ship is going out of drifting!" I told her.

"This seems a bit worse to me!"

"I fear Heereens don't mind about stabilizing the ship on drift exit...  they don't really need that while floating in the first essence"

"Considering they're transporting us THEY SHOULD!"

"I hope this part of collaboration will improve on our next travel!"

The shaking stopped as it came, allowing us to stand up. We weren't sure the ship wasn't going to start trembling again so we grabbed the fixed parts of our fish tank, holding on it. I have to confess it was quite fun and sexy to look at Cassandra trying to keep herself on her feet while hiding her body with the blanket. Yeah, I was naked too, but as a trained spacenoid I knew that nudism should never be an obstacle when you try to survive.

As we feared, the spaceship started shaking again, but in a different way. Plus, this time I could distinctly hear the hull groan.

"Dora-lac! What's happening now?"

The Heereen came back on-line after a long moment of silence. "Teculpa Origin detected us exiting the drift. This was unexpected"

The ship steered heavily, throwing me and Cassandra against the glass of our box. From my point of view, Heereen ship appeared very fast and nimble, but still not very good at managing inertia. Few more crashes worried me.

"Did they hit us?"

"Indeed"

"What is going to happen, Dora-lac? Tell us!"

"We are going to land a bit roughly. This means we have to start the emergency procedure we designed for your safety"

"Emergency procedure?"

I looked at Cassandra. She was terrified, embracing the blanket, sat down in a corner of the tank, her free hand hooked up to one of the structural pipes. In that moment I realized she wasn't wearing the earphone so she knew nothing about the explanations Dora-lac was giving to me. I run to her and I held her shoulders "We're going to land" I told her.

"This doesn't seem like landing!" she shouted. The ship was still shaking, the moaning of the wounded steel was louder and everywhere around us.

"We will. Heereen have an emergency procedure to keep us safe"

"What is? What is this emergency procedure?"

"I don't... I think that..."

In that moment, one of the glasses of our box opened, the first essence, dark and thick, started flowing inside our room. 

"Oh..." I said, looking at the liquid running to me. I feared that black goo since the first time I saw it, I didn't touch it when I had the occasion to do that in a controlled, relatively calm situation and now... it just suddendly hit my ankles, warm and somehow greasy.

"Please" asked Dora-lac, understanding our situation or not "don't panic"