2298
Gertok Galaxy
Planet Celestine
The Celestine Kingdom
Castle of Dragons
______________________

“You should have told me you easily burn under the sun,” Fletcher sighed softly as he glanced towards Luna, who sat on the table in the infirmary, her face and shoulders bright indigo “Especially since the swim clothes have no protection against the sun,”

Luna gave a sheepish look, and her eyes focused on the floor as she swished her feet around in the air. “I forgot Lunari's can not handle the sun like Solari… I very rarely ever go out in the sun, and I did not know the swim attire did not protect against it. I did not know that was a thing.” She admitted, her voice small and soft.

Fletcher focused on the mortar and pestle in front of him as he kept mashing up the dark blue sildervan plant with some water into a thick paste. “Well, now you do. It is a good thing there is a Lunari treatment for burns, or else we'd be at a loss.”

Luna winced a little as she shifted her weight, moving her hands to her lap. She felt a faint heat radiating from her skin, making her feel abnormally warm. "Do you burn in the sun too?" She inquired, motioning to Fletcher's pale complexion.

Fletcher chuckled, amused by her inquiry. He nodded his head, confirming that he indeed got burned. "Yes, I do. Growing up, I had my fair share of sunburns, and it wasn't pleasant. I don't get them anymore because I am more careful when in the sun.”

"Will it heal before Solana comes back? My dress doesn't cover it, and most of my dresses don't…” Luna inquired, a wave of anxiety washed over her, causing her to shift slightly albeit uncomfortably on the table.

Fletcher nodded his head, setting down the mortar and scooping some of the sildervan paste up on a brush. "Well, according to the apothecary codex, it should heal within four days, so, yes.” he motioned towards the open book in front of him with his phone on top of it.

“Good,” Luna nodded, understanding his explanation. “Mother mentioned once she had to use it on Father once when they were young. He was trying to impress her, and neither said what he did, but I could figure it had to be embarrassing.” She winced as Fletcher brushed the cool and soothing paste over her sunburned skin, but she knew it was for her own good.

Fletcher chuckled at the memory Luna shared about her parents. It was sweet, even though he had to admit that level of dedication would warrant someone being impressed. “She did, huh? The things we do for those we love, no level of embarrassment, are not worth it.” He mused, focusing on spreading the paste evenly.

Luna did find it sweet as well, and she had always admired how open her parents were about their love for each other. “Yes,” she sighed softly as her expression turned into a nostalgic melancholy.

Fletcher paused for a moment as Luna's expression changed, noticing the hint of sadness in her eyes. "Luna," He continued to gently spread the sildervan paste over her skin, feeling a pang of empathy for her. "You miss them, don't you?" He inquired softly, genuinely concerned for her emotions.

Luna sighed softly, not needing to confirm it verbally as her expression spoke volumes. "Yes, I do,” she admitted, as memories of her parents flooded her mind. She shook her head as another thought popped into her head, invading her thoughts. "I'm not disobeying Solana or lying, am I?”

"You're not lying as long as you don't say anything or confirm you followed her words," Fletcher glanced up towards her as he scooped up some more of the paste and applied it to her arm, making sure it was thickly coated. "As for disobeying, I suppose it could be counted that way, again, you were pressured into agreeing.”

Luna thought about his words. She was partly relieved she wasn't lying, but she did disobey her sister's words, even if she was pressured into agreeing. "That does not bring any comfort.”

“I know," Fletcher tenderly said, scooping up some more paste and applying a thick layer to her other shoulder and arm. "I'm sorry there isn’t anything I can say to bring you comfort." he offered a sympathetic smile.

Luna nodded, wincing again when the cold paste touched her hot skin. "It is not your fault. I do not know how to say no to my sister, and I just... I do not want to disappoint her since she is the only family I have left.”

Fletcher nodded his head, listening to her words. He continued to apply the cooling sildervan paste over the length of her arms and shoulders, coating every bit of indigo skin he could. "Try not to worry about that now," he commented, adding a small hum at the end. "Just focus on enjoying your freedom for the next six days.”

"I can try," Luna remarked in a quiet voice, falling silent. Her gaze stayed focused on the floor as she gently shifted around on the table, moving uncomfortably while Fletcher applied the sildervan paste.

Fletcher glanced up as he moved to her face, coating it on her cheeks and nose, noting the discomfort on her face. "Don’t dwell on it now, alright?" He inquired, reminding Luna that she didn't need to get herself stressed over wondering how Solana would react.

“Alright,” Luna half-heartedly agreed. She fully wanted to, but a small part of her had always had trouble not dwelling on the worst of things. “I can try,” she added, her voice small as she closed her eyes, the coolness of the paste soothing her hot cheeks and nose.

Fletcher finished with her cheeks and nose, content with the thickness of the application. “All done,” He set down the brush as his eyes swept over her arms, shoulders, and face one last time while his fingers gingerly touched to see how well it was drying. "Try not to touch it until it's completely dry,” he scooped the remaining paste into a jar and put the lid on.

Luna gently lifted her hand, running her fingers gently over the drying sildervan paste on her arms in the middle of Fletcher's words. “Oh, yes,” the light feeling of coldness remained on her skin, bringing comfort. "Thank you, Fletcher," she smiled softly, slipping off the table and setting her feet on the floor.

"Of course, Luna," A small smile came over Fletcher's face. He picked up the brush, pestle, and mortar off of the table, moving to the nearby sink within the room to clean them off, then he peeled off his biodegradable nitrile gloves and tossed them into a trash bin.

"Hey, Fletcher, where did you put the adhesive bandages?" Hara asked as she walked through the automatic sliding doors of the infirmary. "I kinda need one, or maybe two, or maybe four, depending on the size, I guess.” she explained, walking over to another sink and began washing her hands.

Fletcher glanced over at Hara from the sink, his hands expertly scrubbing the pestle with the soap and scrub brush. "Adhesive Bandages? They should be in the cabinet over by the gauze and dressing to your left." He motioned with his head, glancing over his shoulder.

Hara nodded as she dried her hands and quickly walked to the left, looking through the cabinet. "Ooh, glow in the dark ones? Chenoa, tch, you have been holding out." She smirked, her voice muffled from within the large cabinet. "Never too old for glow in the dark adhesive bandages.”

“Yes, your sister gave us quite a few colorful and glow-in-the-dark ones.” Fletcher chuckled softly, amused by Hara's excitement over the glow-in-the-dark adhesive bandages.

Hara nodded, opening the box and pulling out a couple of the wrapped adhesive bandages. She closed the box and set it back with the others before closing the cabinet drawer. “She likes to collect bandages. Some of the first things she bought with her own money were boxes of bandaids to add to her emergency kit.”

Luna tilted her head to the side, her eyes switching between Hara and Fletcher as they conversed. She remained quiet and just observed, her fingers touching the dried sildervan paste on her face.

Hara approached the table, setting the adhesive bandages down as her eyes focused on Luna. “You really did get burned. You look like one of those rare blue lobsters, well, patchwork lobsters." She mused, picking up one, and started to pull apart the wrapper.

Fletcher raised an eyebrow at Hara's comparison, amused by the description. "Quite the creative comparison," he chuckled, finishing with the pestle. "Burns on pale skin tend to be splotchy." He rinsed off the pestle under the sink.

Luna' eyes fixated on the bandage Hara was unwrapping then towards her hands, noticing the dark-haired girl had small cuts on her hands. "What happened?"

Hara looked up, pulling apart the backing and carefully using her hand to lay the gauze side against one of the cuts on her index finger. "I wasn't paying attention where I was sticking my hand, which caused my hand to get sliced in a few places by some metal inside of a wall I was repairing.”

Fletcher pursed his lips, putting the clean pestle on a nearby towel and turning back around to face the two girls. "You really should be more careful, Hara," He commented, with a hint of chastising, as he leaned back against the sink and folded his arms across his chest. "And I'm not saying it as a doctor."

"I know, I know," Hara rolled her eyes as she tightly wrapped the bandage around her finger, then moved to open up another one. "I am careful, just accidents happen. That is part of being a mechanic and engineer." She glanced up at Fletcher before focusing back on the task at hand.

Fletcher couldn't argue with that logic. Hara was indeed careful. He had sawn how careful she was first hand in the days prior. "Yes, I suppose they do," he replied, sighing softly, bending down and grabbing a handful of sildervan leaves from a bag on the floor beside Luna. "But should you be wearing gloves to protect your hands?"

“I do wear gloves," Hara remarked, peeling back the new adhesive bandage wrapper before placing the gauze against her thumb. "I just had to take them off in order for my hand to fit inside.”

"Fair enough," Fletcher nodded his head as he placed a handful of the sildervan leaves into the sink. "You can always borrow a pair of my medical grade gloves. Though, they do tend to rip on sharp objects fairly easily.” he mused, beginning to wash the leaves. "

Luna observed both Hara and Fletcher with interest, noting the ease of their small conversation. Her eyes shifted back to Hara as she expertly wrapped around the adhesive bandages over the cuts.

"Thanks for the offer," Hara finished wrapping the adhesive bandages around her thumb, gently pressing the edges down to ensure they would stay in place. "I'll keep that in mind the next time,"

Fletcher continued to wash the leaves, making sure they were thoroughly cleaned. "Not a problem," he shook off the leaves and turned the water off with his elbow.

He walked over to the table and set the leaves down on a silver tray. He picked up one and put it in the mortar and began to crush up the wet leaves with the pestle to make some more sildervan paste.

Hara finished wrapping the last of the adhesive bandages around her ring finger, securing the ends. "Luna, I still need another pair of hands to work on that ship. Do you think you would be up to it?"

Luna tilted her head to the side, her fingers stopping right on top of the dried sildervan paste. "Of course, as long as I do not do anything to irritate my burns or crack the sildervan paste, I can help."

Hara clapped her hands together, gathering up the wrappers to the bandages and walking over to the trash pin, tossing them in. "Great, because Pedro and I need all the hands we can get to finish with the castle-ship."

"How much longer do you suppose you have until you finish?" Fletcher asked, glancing up after adding another sildervan leaf into the mortar.

Hara shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest. "With Zaheer, Sammy, Luna, and Malyla helping, probably by the time the others come back from the reconnaissance mission."

"That's good to hear," Fletcher raised his eyebrow before nodding his head. "When I have some free time, I can lend a hand," he offered, continuing to grind up the sildervan leaves.

Hara nodded her head. "We would appreciate it,” she stated, glancing at Luna as she walked towards the door while motioning with her hand. "Now we better get going if we want to get a few hours of repair done before dinner.”

Luna nodded as she stood up and followed after Hara. Falling into step, the silence was bare able between the two girls as they made their way towards the elevator. "What places do you have left to repair?"

Hara turned her head towards Luna as she pressed the elevator button, the doors opening as she stepped in, Luna following beside her. "Just the Telequantum - which is a wormhole generator, Central Energy Chamber, and the bays for the Dragons,”

Luna nodded as she followed Hara into the elevator, turning to face the control panel while thinking of her next question. "Why must you repair the Telequantum?"

Hara pressed the button for the third floor, the doors closing automatically, and the elevator beginning to shift upwards as she shifted her weight to lean back against the wall. "Chenoa came across the capabilities for wormhole-ing, but the Telequantaum was never finished, and unfortunately, the type of technology or power to use it we do not have at the moment.”

"So it is inoperable at the moment." Luna replied, a wave of disappointment on her face as she stared at the floor. "Do you have a mere clue to how it can be operated?"

Hara shook her head and gave a heavy sigh as her fingers twisted the tip of one of her braids around her finger. "Unfortunately, no. There isn't like a castle-ship manual -"

"Perhaps there is?" Luna suddenly said after a pregnant pause and pondering on Hara's words. "I doubt the engineers would create something without a manual on how to use it for future use."

Hara dropped her pigtail braid and crossed her arms over her chest. "You think?" she inquired, pursing her lips as she thought about it. "Chenoa didn't find anything in the program... but maybe Solana might know? She did know how to activate the castle-ship."

Luna fell silent. The thought that her sister might know did cross her mind, but as cynically skeptical as Solana was, there was a chance she'd dismiss the capabilities of the Telequantum, or simply wouldn't know, not that Solana would admit it.

The elevator came to a stop on the third floor, the doors opening with a small creek, causing Hara to heave a heavy sigh. "I guess we've  got to fix the elevator doors again..."

Luna's face crunched into a frown as she stepped out of the elevator and glanced up towards the two-door entrance for the hanger. "It seems quite strange that the elevator doors require constant repairs."

Hara followed after her, her face in an equal frown. "Nah, this castle-ship was left untouched for 10,000 years, so it's only reasonable that it's got some issues."

As the two girls opened the door to the Central Energy Chamber. Two long bridges on both sides of the chamber are connected to a middle platform. In the middle was a massive purple Cryosine crystal suspended in the air illuminating the room with little specks of floating Cryoworms, a creature with little wings, a catfish-like mouth, and flying fish-like fins, wiggling around the crystal.

Luna looked straightforward where Malyla was on her knees on the platform looking down below under the Cryosine crystal while Zaheer had a rope wrapped around  a harness belt on his waist that was secured to the railing behind him. He adjusted his grip on the rope, which dangled off the platform.

Hara made a beeline straight to the command module that was behind Malyla. She tapped on the holographic keyboard, the screen lighting up.

Luna's eyes scanned around the room, landing on Zaheer and Malyla. " Where is Pedro?" she asked, stopping beside Hara at the command module.

"I'm down here," Pedro's voice called from down below, echoing off the walls. "There are a lot of glass-like lences down here and in the Telequantum tunnel that are broken, probably due to age. I'm removing them here carefully so we can find a replacement while Sammy is gathering them from the tunnel."

"Sphuchilite lenses." Luna moved to the edge of the platform and knelt down, peering over beside Malyla. She saw Pedro with a hardness around his waist attached to the rope Zaheer had. She also noticed Pedro was sitting on Lune, who was floating in the air.

Hara sucked in a deep breath as she placed her hands on the top of the module, her eyes scanning what was on the screen. "Yikes, there are a lot of Sphuchilite lenses that are damaged. Apparently, they act as conductors, collecting the energy reflected off them like solar power panels, which in turn, each section controls a different level. Less lenses mean less power to certain levels, which also, in turn, will mean certain things won't work.”

"Oh, that is not good," Luna sighed, a frown on her lips as her eyes darted from Malyla to Pedro and back over to Hara. "What does that exactly mean?"

Hara pursed her lips, her fingers tapping on the holographic keyboard. "We're sitting ducks," she muttered, glancing over her shoulder toward Luna. "No defense and offense weapons. No particle barrier. No half of the commodities are working - still iffy on what will and won't work. No getting this castle-ship airborne without new Sphuchilite lenses."

Luna's frown deepened as Hara listed off the things that couldn't be powered. She had a feeling there was more, but Hara was deliberately leaving it out. "General Nox might know where to find them. You will have to ask when he returns.”

Hara's fingers stopped tapping on the keyboard. "Right..." She muttered under her breath and closed her eyes for a moment. "He may know, but he also may not know..."

Pedro called out from below, and his voice echoed. "Hey, Hara, do you think we might be able to use the broken ones to melt them down to be molded into new ones?"

"Maybe?" Hara responded, her head perking up as she furrowed her brows. "Sphuchilite does seem similar to glass. It has the same silicon dioxide compound, but the other compounds are quite different." She mentioned, reading the information off the screen when she pulled up the mineral from the castle-ship's library.

"Let's try it tomorrow," Pedro replied, his voice growing faintly quieter in the echo due to him moving around. "I think I remember seeing a blacksmithing building back in the kingdom."

Hara hummed on the idea. She moved from the module to the side railing, leaning on it and peering over the edge. "We could see if it's usable… it might work. It could let us make enough just to get this castle-ship airborne to go find some more. It'd be a temporary solution, though, and we'd have to pick and choose what is needed and what is not needed.”

Pedro carefully removed the past Sphuchilite lens from the inner wall and placed it in the bag around Lune. "Zaheer, I'm moving left to the ladder." he called up, grabbing onto the rope behind him and the one leading up.

He carefully moved along the wall until he was able to grab onto the rungs of the built-in ladder between each panel. He began to climb up, Lune floating under him while Zaheer pulled on the rope so there wasn't any slack.

He grabbed Malyla's hand, pulling himself onto the platform. "Thanks," he thanked Malyla, starting to take off the harness and dropping it onto the floor, stepping out of it.

Luna walked over and placed a hand on Lune, who floated down and placed his paws onto the platform. She smiled softly while petting the wolf-like creature. "Good boy," she praised, causing Lune to bark at her words.

Pedro grabbed the bag of broken lenses and set them down on the floor beside the bag Sammy had collected from the Telequantum tunnel. "I estimate there are about 300 lenses broken in here."

"Almost all of them are broken in the Telequantum." Sammy said, albeit hesitantly since it wasn't exactly good news to hear that almost all the lenses in the Telequantum were broken.

Hara looked over at Sammy, nodding her head. "It is noted here that they ran a test about a week before the attack on the planet to see if they would potentially generate a wormhole and each of the lenses cracked under the energy gathered in the tunnel.”

"So no wormhole generator," Zaheer remarked with a sigh, removing the rope from around his waist and wrapping it around his hand and forearm.

Hara nodded, shutting down the command module and sighing. "Nope, not until we figure out what caused the lenses to break. Chenoa is going to have to take a look at the coding to understand it."

Sammy looked between everyone and clapped his hands together. "I'm going to get started on dinner. Does anyone want to help?" He asked, looking between Malyla, Hara, Luna, Pedro, and Zaheer.

"I would love to help," Luna smiled softly as she approached Sammy. "I have always wanted to try my hand at making my culture's cuisine. I was never allowed to because I may end up getting hurt, which had less to do with my parents and more with my governess.”

"Then it's settled. Come on, Luna, you get to pick what we will eat for dinner," Sammy responded, grabbing Luna's hand and starting to drag her off.

Luna nodded her head with a bright smile as she hand gently gripped Sammy's. "I like the sound of that," she looked at the others and waved before giving Sammy, who was listing off his ideas for dinner, her full attention.

🌑☀️🌑☀️🌑☀️🌑☀️🌑☀️🌑☀️🌑

A/N:
I am so sorry it's been over a month since the last chapter. I've been extremely busy. I'm working on them, I promise I have not forgotten. Right now, I am trying to grind for gems in Twisted Wonderland because i have like four more pulls until I am guaranteed Divus Crewel's card (I'm desperate to get).

Chapter Talk:
Ooh, more loreeeeee, and more world building. I did my fair share of research about Central Energy Chambers, and it took a bit to come up with the wormhole generator name, i just find Telequantum pretty cool.

Also, you're probably wondering why Luna's sunburn is indigo, well, it was mentioned prior that Lunari's blood is blue, so the skim would appear a blue color, not red. Pretty cool, huh?

Thanks for reading!