Wrapping Up

I stood beside Tom and Ralph. In my hands, I was holding two containers, one was filled with the preservative, the other with the neutralizer. In Tom's hands there was a small device which he said held all the data for both the preservative and the neutralizer. Ralph had a basket in his hands that held all the materials for both the preservative and the neutralizer.

The three of us were waiting in pin drop silence at the spaceship landing pad that I had entered from when I had first come to Vastum. Crazy to think that that was not too long ago.

In front of us, a similar spaceship to the one I rode on was docking onto the pad. We heard the sound of it landing, and the doors opening to show Liz in all her professional glory.

"Good morning everyone. I heard that there has been great progress in my personal project!"

The moment she stepped down from the spaceship, I took this as a signal to give her a short run down on what materials and recipes both of them contained. Once I finished speaking, Tom handed over the data regarding both of them, and Ralf finished up by adding to my explanation. Although he spoke with a lot of industry lingo that I didn't understand.

Nodding her head at our presentation, she said some words of praise before dismissing both Tom and Ralph. Then she dragged me into the spaceship for a more private conversation.

Signaling to the pilot to close the spaceship door, her tone softened as she asked me about my experience in the research facility.

"It was definitely a novel experience. The working environment is so different from what I'm used to, and there is so much knowledge that I do not know or understand, that it's honestly slightly overwhelming. But overall, I would say it was an incredible experience."

Giving small snippets of my experience at Vastum, I tried to sum up my feelings and thoughts about the company and the research facility. There were also a couple of questions that bugged me.

"When you first brought me here, you mentioned pollution as a huge problem. But from what I heard, the company doesn't filter or neutralize all the toxic waste that it releases into the planet. Won't that hasten the speed of the pollution?"

Liz heard my question and her face immediately distorted. Half troubled, half helpless, she sighed.

"It's true that pollution is quite a problem. However, a lot of the higher ups don't want to turn to sustainable practices. Mostly because it takes a lot of money to constantly replace the filters, buy the neutralizers, as well as dispose of the non-toxic waste in a way that is sustainable for the planet. Not only that, the planet is a waste planet. A waste planet the company owns. They don't see much of a point spending money to upkeep a planet that holds nobody."

Putting one hand on her face, Liz sighed once more.

"As we speak, there are discussions of buying another waste planet and just shifting the whole research facility there once the pollution gets too bad. To them, spending a large sum at once buying a whole new planet beats spending a little more each time to make sure our current one is safe."

Liz shook her head several times before waving away the topic and diverting all our attention onto something brighter.

"We should probably talk about the details regarding Ken and his family right now."

Pulling up her personal terminal, Liz inserted the device Tom had into her personal terminal. From beside her, I saw a lot of information appear on her screen. I saw her eyes briefly scan through the words as she scrolled through them. She finally stopped at one page and pointed to a sentence in the middle of the page.

"The good news for us is that after neutralizing the preservative, the product is safe to burn."

Pausing for a while, she quickly read through the report. She then closed it.

"All the information we need is here, so we can go ahead with planning. I was thinking, you could go to Aquarius and talk with Ken and the others. While you're there, you can ask Ken to help gather the other victims and count the amount of preservatives. After you send us the amount of neutralizer needed, I can prepare the spaceship to bring them over to Aquarius."

She laid out all the details of her ideal plan, then asked me for any opinions about it. Seeing her confidence, and since I didn't have any alternative in mind, I just nodded my head quietly.

She continued.

"The spaceship I will use is my own personal property so the company won't find out. However, you will need to gather the people near the AT center. Spaceships are only allowed to land in a restricted area in the AT center, so we can't be too secretive about that part. Once we land, handing out the neutralizer as fast as possible would be the best bet. I'm sure everyone involved will be keen to get their hands on it as fast as possible, so we might need a little help to ensure the process goes smoothly..."

Liz opened up a notepad and started writing down the details as she spoke. Once in a while, she would look up to ask for my opinion. And once I nodded my head she would look back down again and continue typing.

From the people involved, to how we will distribute the neutralizer to everyone, Liz planned it all out. There were even plan Bs and plan Cs for if it rained, or whether someone was sick or busy and couldn't make it. Every little thing I could and could not think about was accounted for.

Except for her meeting Ken and his family.

"Once we distribute everything, I'll get into the spaceship and leave Aquarius. And with this, we are done!"

With a satisfied face, Liz turned to me with sparkling eyes.

"Any comments?"

"Yes. Are you not going to meet with Ken and Barbie's parents? You were close enough to her to spend so many years working towards this point. You should at least meet them!"

Wilting, Liz saved and closed her notes.

"Well...I mean. I haven't seen them in years...and I'm an employee in a company that is owned by pro-Colonizers. I didn't even attend Barbie's funeral. I was too selfishly stuck in grief at that time. It doesn't really feel right to see them again."

I raised a hand and patted her shoulder.

"It's fine. You didn't do anything wrong, so you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. Go meet them. You won't regret it."

Gently comforting Liz, I managed to convince her to give meeting Barbie's family a shot.

Wrapping up the meeting, we shook hands before I headed to my apartment.

Sazzy helped me throw everything that I brought to Vastum into my bag while I took off my suit. Then, straightening the bedsheets and pushing in the chairs, we dragged our luggage towards the spaceship.

And waiting for us, just like on the first day we met, was Kyle.

Noticing us approaching, Kyle gave a short wave before entering the spaceship. Following him, I watched as he silently entered the pilot area.

The three of us flew to Mors, where Kyle gave us half an hour to drop our bags off at our house, before we flew all the way to Aquarius.

Silent as ever, he waved us goodbye on the spaceship before taking off.

[I swear I will never like that guy!]

Sazzy sighed, as if all her energy had been sucked out by meeting Kyle, before we navigated our way to the Red Ribbon Inn.

With Sazzy leading the way, we opened the door to the humble cottage and heard the all too familiar sound of a cat's meow.

"Coming!"

I heard Ken shout as loud footsteps came from the recreational area. Soon, just like the first time we met, Ken ran down the corridor with a big smile.

"Welcome customer to the Red Ribbon Inn- Alex!"

With a big lunge as he noticed who I was, Ken gave me a tight hug. Hearing his shout, Candice soon popped her head out of the kitchen with a bright smile.

"Nice to see you again Alex! Do you want to sit down for some lunch?"

Drying her hands on her apron, Candice walked out of the kitchen with a very healthy glow on her face. Behind her, a slightly shorter man appeared with the same style apron on him.

"Is this that Alex that you all keep talking about?"

Candice laughed lightly at the man.

"Silly boy. Be nicer to her. Alex, this is my husband, Roy. He's usually outside the barrier fishing, but since it's non-fishing season he's helping out around the inn."

Introducing the man who had a grumpy expression but ears so red they looked as if they could glow, he gruffly greeted me, which earned him a little nudging from his wife.

Clearing his throat, he squared his shoulders and said with what I think was his most assertive voice possible.

"Nice to meet you Alex. I've heard a lot about you from my wife and sons."

Instantly deflating after those two sentences, Roy escaped back into the kitchen.

"Do forgive him, my husband is a little shy around people."

As Candice spoke, a loud cough suddenly came from the kitchen and one large hand reached out to gently drag her back into the kitchen.

Waving goodbye at me, Candice left me and Ken, who was red in the face from trying to contain his laughter. When he finally swallowed it down, Ken then led me to the dining room.

We sat down at a table while catching up with each other.

"After you left, business boomed for quite a period of time before settling down. There are more customers than before, and way more people are coming to the inn to eat food, so Mom's quite happy with things. At the same time, we aren't so busy that we have to turn away customers now, so with me and my mom here, we can still somewhat handle all the customers. Although my dad now comes to help out when he can since he's worried that Mom is overworking herself."

Recounting several funny episodes, we shared what happened to each other in the past month plus. I also told him about my trip to Ferus. Then once we talked for a while, I finally mentioned why I was visiting.

"Ken, do you remember asking me to find a way to destroy the poison in those jars? I got it."

The smile on Ken's face froze, and his eyes widened in disbelief.

"Really! You got it?!"

Ecstatic, he jumped up from his chair and gave me a big hug.

"Thank you Alex! Thank you."

I patted his back for a while, waiting for him to calm down, before I relayed Liz's plan to him. Soon, his smile disappeared to give way to a more serious look.

"If that's the plan, you should probably explain it to my parents. They have contacts with all the other victim's families. Not only that, can we delay the plan by a couple days? I need to call back my brothers and I think some of the families might want to make sure most of their family members can attend."

Nodding my head, I texted Liz Ken's request, which she immediately agreed to.

Then, Ken grabbed my hand and led me to the kitchen.