Chapter 3: The Long Trip Home

Four months had passed since I left Lestant station. No problems occurred while I stayed onboard, well besides one dude going crazy and being locked up.

Currently, I was on a transport vessel owned by said station, with its destination set to my home planet. However, I ended up waiting half a month before I was able to leave the station because of a bunch of technical and scheduling difficulties. They tried their best.

The trip took an extra long while due to starting in the middle of nowhere and not being near any space transport tunnels. These ‘tunnels’ were basically space highways that allowed faster than normal travel. The issue, they were extremely hard to build and only active once every two days for two hours. We also weren’t near any of those terminals, so yeah. Estimated four months and twelve days travel time. 

I enjoyed my time resting. Surprisingly not being in danger constantly was pretty amazing. Sitting back, admiring the stars, and keeping all my fears to the back of my mind to be dealt with later. 

My hair had grown faster than I estimated, just below my shoulders. Somehow it still kept becoming messy. Random spots would also grow longer and curl–slowly becoming a different type of jungle.

However, there was one aspect of my trip home which haunted me…

I hadn’t contacted my family… 

Technically speaking I wasn’t allowed to.

Another one of the many protocols in place surrounding PLS… Stupid laws…!

Apparently, this law was partly influenced by when a PLS who went missing for fifteen years was found again. Then died on the way back home… Let's just say the family in question didn’t take it well.

…I wanted to speak with them again… Over five years without any contact, nearly six since I talked to my brother.

Mella should be getting her Vocation soon… 

Dad… maybe he finally won his gym's yearly running competitions.

Brother… hehe. Maybe he finally got himself a partner.

Mum……is hopefully doing something… She always needed to get a hobby.

Hugs. I wanted to give them all a hug when I got back.

Laying down on a canteen table. I watched the nearby blue and red stars shine. I tried to keep my thoughts ‘happy’ and ‘looking forward’ to the future!

Haaaaa…. Fuck's sake… The bad thoughts were beginning to pile up again. I really needed a good rest.

Not being able to sleep was sometimes torturous. Those few hours of release were forever lost to me.

[Sleepless Nights] had saved my life too many times to ever think about trying to remove it. Even if I was going back to a peaceful society. 

It didn’t remove my need to ‘rest’ but made it work differently. Instead of ‘sleeping’, I had three modes of resting. Slightly resting where I could still do basic actions, moderately resting where I didn’t move much but if needed I could go into full combat mode, and finally heavy resting, basically immobile and it took a couple of seconds to ‘get up’. 

Dependent on my state of resting the better my body recovered. During any of the modes, I was still fully conscious and aware of my surrounding. But that awareness was weakened during my heavy resting.  

My long-time hobby and passion for staring at the stars became a source of comfort and a place of strength for me–figuratively and literally–during my five years of being trapped. My eyes could now stare at them for days on end without the need to blink… I don’t think I’ve actually blinked in a long time.

[Sleepless Night], [Gazing Upon The Stars], and [Blazing Solar] all had additional effects that allowed me to keep using my eyes without needing them to rest and protected them from being damaged. Each did something slightly different but with plenty of overlap–when it came to the enhancement of my eyes.

So much shit I have to deal with… Whatever I chose to do as an occupation when I got back, wasn’t going to be peaceful. I couldn’t risk [Primal Guardian Lord] surpassing my level. Or I would be right back where I started.

I needed revenge. Mostly for myself, then for the friends they killed…Rosa, Benard… 

Then dealing with NextEdge… I had no idea where to start with that. Suing them would probably work quite well… but I don’t know if that would soothe my crushing desire to smash whoever made the decision to hide those arrows onboard the ship.

Not wanting to scare the crew, I kept my growing bloodlust hidden, another technique I picked up–related to soul pressure stuff. 

For the moment I could only hope everything would go well. Reunite with my family, find old friends and be truly comfortable again.

 

---

In another room on board the XPOP-324 “Lestant” station, Vyle Cheesetape finally finished his reports. As Ceella neared home, for the final time Vyle opened the application to view the footage of her being sent to him from the SPL-901 long-distance transport vessel.

The senior–reporting, communication, crew management, crew health and safety, crew budget–manager, reached his many positions due to being the only member who had the skills and experiences to qualify.

His work could be considered annoying or even hard but he was used to it. However, an extra load was dumped upon him over the last month. After the scouting crew decided to go off script and landed on a prohibited planet, picking up a PLS (Person Lost in Space). And somehow returning alive.

Cross-referencing answers, assessing her personality through the cameras. He did everything required of him and more to ensure the correct decision was made.

The camera and audio equipment randomly stopped working making the process a little difficult. It only lasted from the moment the scouting crew came back aboard to a week after Ceella left–however, it did get weaker as time progressed. He was pretty sure that Ceella had something to do with it, but it could’ve just as easily been an aftereffect of leaving the Dungeon Planet–bringing aboard some unknown energies.

It couldn’t have been a simple task. Could it?

Vyle sighed, as he began a holo-call with one of his long-time friends. 

Bern Charles Smith was one of the many officers onboard the space dock surrounding Metous–Ceella's home planet. Handling accepting requests to dock, cargo management and reporting issues back to the planet. Vyle called him personally as he found it more pleasing than dealing with a random employee. 

The purpose of this call was one final confirmation of the safety of bringing Ceella back to her home planet. They’d been communicating over standard messaging and reports about the topic, due to the time differences preventing a proper call until today.

“Happy cycle, Vyle.” The holo-call opened and Bern’s mostly bearded face appeared.

“Happy cycle Bern.” Vyle yawned, “I thought we were supposed to start these calls professionally first?”

“Ha!” Bern chuckled, “Vyly it has been four standard months, and I’ve been dealing with enough professional crap recently.”

“Fine,” Vyle rested his head on the back of his hand, “I’m not the one who will get in trouble.”

After the fun introductions and reunion were over, the two began the actual purpose of their discussions. “So first, let us make this simple. Is she safe?”

Now safe was never referring to Ceella's safety, but whether it was safe for the planet to bring her home? Was she dangerous? A spy? Did she have a hostile agenda? Cause Bern didn’t want any more of those appearing.

Some form of these questions were always asked when dealing with a Person Lost in Space.

However, Ceella had two additional problems. One, obviously she was powerful. Extra steps had to be made to be sure she wasn’t going to cause chaos when arriving. Now this problem would’ve been made much easier if the second issue didn’t exist.

Ceella Stella was considered dead…

Unsurprisingly, this wasn’t as simple to fix as flicking a tickbox. Being confirmed dead meant a lot of personal detail were deleted. Not all of course, the government does keep a record of its citizens.

Still, it would take a couple of months to fix. Meaning her reintroduction to the full pleasures society would be delayed. And getting one of the many available licences to indicate her level of strength and allow her to involve herself in many public places would also delayed.  

The problem was she shouldn’t have been declared dead in the first place. 

“From everything I’ve seen? Yes, she should be fine. No more dangerous than Allert who returned thirty years ago.” Ceella wasn’t near the strength level of Allert, but the message was clear to Bern. Powerful but doesn’t seem to have any desire to cause trouble. 

“...Hmm. Well, we can only hope for the best then…” Bern appeared worried.

“The situation has you this spooked?”

“...My two sons and wife live within the city sector where Ceella’s family lives.”

“Berny…”

“I know it’s stupid… and if anything happens–Realistically it should have nothing to do with her…With everything that’s been going on recently,”

“It’s okay Berny, it’s okay.” 

“Scandals being announced every week, Dominous Hood increased activity, and now a company illegally defining someone as dead.”

“...”

Unless a body was found and death one-hundred percent confirmed, anyone who went missing in space was considered PLS (Person Lost in Space). Only after ten years with the immediate family signing off, or thirty years without the lost individual being found would a PLS be registered as deceased.

Vyle tried to comfort Bern, “She is just a victim. Who after she gets her life back together, will sue and easily win.”

Watching the subtle changes in Bern's expression, “If you are still worried, send your family to my station for a couple of months. I’ll pay them well and they will be safe.”

“And you get three new crewmembers to help your understaffed station,” he lightly chuckled. “...thanks for the offer.” Bern waved his hand to deny the invitation, “and the laugh.”

“Anytime,” Vyle yawned.

The two continued to make small talk while finishing up the report and completing the digital paperwork required to make Ceella’s life easier upon her reunion with Metous.