Epsilon Eridani

Adonai:

It's been a bit over 2 weeks after we left Earth, our home, and we teleported to the closest planet that holds life, Aegir, a planet located in the Epsilon Eridani star system. This star system is located roughly 10 light years away from our planet. 

A year and a few months ago a distance like this seemed impossible to be traveled by human foot, but with the teleportation system it was done in an instant. No fancy tubes, or anything, we just popped in and out of the portals just like that.

I met up with Maverick and Stella at the intended time and we went through the portal, no strict regulations to stop us and no military checks up or anything. It is fairly easy to leave the planet.

Epsilon Eridani is a fairly "recently" discovered star system, with its main star being slightly smaller, cooler and less luminous than the Sun. The actual discovery is the existence of Aegir, a planet that was speculated to exist, but now it's confirmed a reality.

The planet we're on right now is a red gas giant. Unlike my expectations we have a standing ground beneath us. It's not only gasses. The surface of the planet is hard, but the atmosphere is harsh. You can see weird construction of gasses being blown away by the wind on this planet. If you look far into the distance you can see the planet rings.

It's a beautiful contrast considering the barely visible Debris Belts in the distance. Epsilon Eridani has two of them.

The people inhabiting Aegir are called Enenra, we found out as soon as we exited the portal. They have a human appearance but you can clearly see the smoke behind them. They seemingly have a huge form made purely out of gas but we haven't seen any of them using it.

This planet is under the Angel jurisdiction and is not a trading centered planet like ours. We're fine since we're just visiting.

We planned to leave as soon as possible but reality hit us. We were hungry and we had no money. To be able to get parallax we have to work mundane jobs, which is fine. The higher paying jobs which would be hunting beasts we can't do since we're not registered officially as a team or as an individual.

It didn't cross anyone's mind to do that before leaving, because we didn't know. We should've informed ourselves better I thought to myself at that moment. But I can only blame myself since I was the one with the idea of leaving.

But we are mostly fine. We decided to stay a bit more and learn about the culture, or well try to learn anything that could lead us to the Black Parade but they haven't been here yet. For an artistic group they are surprisingly annoying to find. But we will soon leave.

It was and it is very hard to find jobs and survive. They are not technologically advanced. Or should I say not like us. They eat and drink like the rest of the species more from a curiosity point of view rather than the need. From what people told us they feed on the gasses in the air. But thanks to their curiosity we are not starving.

The city is structured like one of our own, and there are goods that the Enenra pay money for. We were lucky to be shown around by a group of twins after the first few days so now we at least know where we are and where we need to go. This group of twins also became fond of us.

*Yawn*

That's the sound of Maverick waking up, him and Stella share a bed, unsurprisingly, and they are quite proactive so I have to find moments to excuse myself or pretend that I'm sleeping.

"How long have you been awake for? How long have you been sleeping?" He asked.

"A few minutes, not a lot, I've slept the usual." That's a lie, and I don't know if they can see it anymore but I'm tired. I can only sleep 4 hours each day.

After 4 hours the voices appear, the guilt kicks in and I wake up involuntarily. Some people would've been over the death of someone by now... But I can't, as I'm moving forward I have to drag this with me...

Stella is still sleeping so not wanting to wake her up we went outside.

"You're a real life safer, you know?" Maverick started talking. While here he developed a bad habit of smoking.

"What do you mean?"

"Well you know, leaving the house while we ..."

"Stop, I don't want to be acknowledged for something like that, you don't have to thank me."

I said while looking at his face, but he seemed to misunderstand my intent.

"Want to join in?"

Taken by surprise by the proposition I couldn't help but blink rapidly at my stupid friend that just sprouted a stupid proposition.

"No. I don't think Stella would be fine with that either." I said as a matter of fact.

"What are you thinking? I asked you if you want to join in smoking?"

"..."

"Ignore it and no."

He chuckled while I'm at a loss for words. Who in their right mind would think of smoking in this situation.

Sigh. Anyway after she wakes up we have to get going.

"Our job for today is to sort some emails and packages. We should get going after she wakes up."

"Say, Adonai, how long are we gonna stay here for?"

I've been thinking the same thing for a while. It's been two weeks and we learned nothing new. It's perhaps time to wrap this up and move on.

"A few more days. I want to do something for the twins, they have been so much help. I would feel bad just leaving like that."

A shouting can be heard in the distance. As a pair of figures is approaching us.

"Goooooooooooooooooooooooood moooooooooooooooooooooooooorning!"

Speaking of the Devil. Liam and Noah are here.

"You little devils, stop shouting, or you'll wake up Stella." Maverick said.

The twins are young, but they have been nice, unlike older people who treat us as complete murders when they see us. But children are innocent.

"Hmm, you are half naked, does that mean Stella's half naked too? I'm gonna take a peek!" Liam said as he started straight into our home. But Maverick stopped him right at the entrance.

"Brat, you're too young to see something like that."

Liam is fond of Maverick, they share uhm same "interests" a special one in Stella apparently. While Noah, more quiet, he has been talking to me a bit but he's not big on words.

"Tch. I bet if you were my age you would want to see a beauty like her topless." Liam said.

"I'm not your age but I'll give you that. I see her topless quite often."

Maverick said without a hint of hesitation while grinning at the poor young buy. Judging by his face he's trying his hardest not to laugh on the spot.

"Noah, what are you guys here for today?"

The child was startled when I called his name but he quickly regained his composure.

"We're gonna help you at your job today. Our parents are quite busy and we want to be useful." 

Ah, the boy's voice resembles Stella at times, going slightly quieter the longer he talks.

The door behind us opened and Stella came outside, thankfully fully clothed.

She took a look at us and the kids and then stood down and took both of them in her embrace. Me and Maverick could not understand the gesture but she felt something in their hearts that made her move.

Stella's ability has been quite useful so far. But I hope she doesn't use it when they are going at it, so she can't detect that I'm not sleeping.

Maverick magic didn't see much use, being more of a defender if we ever need it. But except the occasional moments of racism everything's been peaceful.

Me on the other hand... looks like I handicapped myself. I can use magic but my output is very low. I can't do anything big, fancy or useful for that matter. The enhancement layer we all supposedly have around our bodies is a natural process to survive and understand each other while in foreign planets. So I can't even say I did that on my own.

The twins seem to be happy in Stella's embrace. While Liam has a mischievous grin Noah has a blissful one. Honestly they kinda resemble me and Maverick at times. My friend, while reliable most of the time, also has a more perverted side to him so I guess they really are alike.

Liam showed us time and time again that he'll protect his brother if he needs to. And how he can help him overcome challenges, so I think they are a great pair that should stick together.

After Stella stood up, so did I and I looked at the group of all four of us. No visible smile on my face, just my usual serious expression and I said: "Let's go."

Being the one who proposed we leave I've also become the leader of this group. And with all 5 of us together we moved forward into another ordinary, peaceful day on Aegir ... or so I thought.