🌟 🐋  🌟

Kyungsoo shuts off the laser cutter and re-attaches the device to the mag-strip on the back of his suit. A quick spoken command disengages the lock in his boots, and he holds onto the tether line as he starts to float. He calmly moves to the side of the cut he just finished, focusing on what’s in front of him and not the infinite space all around. 

After engaging the boots once more and making sure they’re secure, he lightly kicks the cut piece. It floats away to the empty blackness of space. It’ll keep going and going until it’s pulled by gravity towards a planet or a moon. The thought that it could happen to him too should his boots fail always sends a shiver down Kyungsoo’s spine.

A huge robotic arm extends out from The Zephyr and clamps onto the floating piece, catching it just in time before it floated out of range. “Calm down, Soo. You know I’ll be here to catch you if anything happens.” Kai’s voice comes over the spacesuit’s com spreading a soothing balm over his nerves.

Although they’re way past the stage of denying their chemistry, it’s never a good idea to let Kai know just how much Kyungsoo needs him. So, Kyungsoo scowls. “I am calm.” 

“That’s not what your vitals say.” There’s more than a hint of teasing in Kai’s words, but before Kyungsoo can retaliate, Kai says, “Anything valuable in this piece?” 

“Nope,” Kyungsoo says, letting it go. “Just regular recyclables.”

Kai grunts. He maneuvers the ship’s robotic arm, moves the piece to the junk compartment, and deposits it inside. It’s almost full, but their valuables compartment is half-empty. They’ve been working on this side of the junk field for almost a week and so far, they haven’t come across anything more valuable than a couple of thousand credits, most of which they’ll have to use to refuel the Zephyr.

“I don’t think we’re going to find much else here,” Kyungsoo says, checking out the other pieces of floating debris around. “Want to call it quits for today?”

“Whatever you want, Soo,” Kai says and begins to retract the robotic arm. “Hey, does that mean you have time to cook us something nice?”

Kyungsoo laughs and disengages his boots. “I’ll try. But I honestly don’t know what’s left in the kitchen.” He holds onto the tether line and starts pulling himself back onto the ship. “I know you like to munch while working.”

“Lies!”

“I can practically smell those extra-cheese chips through the com.”

A dramatic gasp comes over the line.

Kyungsoo cackles. The banter is working though. He’s not paying attention to the weightlessness, to the emptiness surrounding him, making him feel small and insignificant. There’s a tiny bit of hesitation before he dares to look to the side. A small piece of broken ship is on a collision course with a bigger one. It hits soundlessly, sending the big piece tumbling back.

The smaller one remains in place—and by small he means the size of a five story building on Earth—and turns over slowly. There’s a shimmering on the underside.

“Kai,” he says. “Try to grab that piece.”

“You’re gonna have to be a little more specific.” 

“The light gray one one with the number 1701.” Kyungsoo lets go of the tether with one hand and twists until he’s facing the piece. The Zephyr’s arm goes over him and nabs the piece by a corner. Before Kai starts pulling it, Kyungsoo is already floating towards it, using the small ers on the sides of his belt.

“Soo, dammit,” Kai says. “It’s too far out. Let me bring it in.”

“It’s fine. I just need to see—”

“Soo…Kyungsoo. Hello?”

🌟 🐋 🌟

Kai locks the controls once the arm grabs the piece and takes a peek through the small view window. Kyungsoo is still floating towards the piece a couple of feet below their ship’s robotic arm. Seeing his partner so far out makes his chest feel heavy and it gets a bit harder to breathe. If Kyungsoo gets one of his panic attacks now, it’ll be hell to get him back.

“Do Kyungsoo, answer me,” Kai growls out. 

“Kai, are you seeing this?” There’s something akin to awe in his words.

Kai turns to his right and checks the camera feeds. There’s one set on top of the Zephyr where the two compartments are, and one set on Kyungsoo’s helmet showing his current view. He’s moving his head from side to side, and when the small flashlights go over the piece it glimmers black.

“I think it’s…star diamonite,” Kyungsoo says in a hushed voice.

“Holy—” Kai sits back on his chair, eyes going wide. “Do you know what this means? It’s…We’re rich!” He laughs out loud, the sound echoing in the control cabin. “We’re filthy rich!”

“The whole piece is covered in the stuff,” Kyungsoo says. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”

Kai chuckles. “I don’t think anyone has! At least, not this much. Wow.” 

Kyungsoo’s view shifts suddenly. He’s glancing down the piece and out into space. A beep alerts of his partner’s increasing heartbeat.

“Soo, stay calm,” Kai says, sitting up straight on his chair. He was going to have to distract him while he pulled in the piece.

“I’m calm.” Always the same answer, even when he’s not. Who did he think he was fooling? “Is there another ship?”

“Huh?” Kai swipes away the top camera feed and opens the scanner. “There’s no one out there. We’re alone.”

Kyungsoo yelps. “What the hell was that?”

Kai peers outside once more. “What was—Oh !”

“A star-whale!” Kyungsoo yells. 

Kai sits there in awe. It’s very rare to sight any of the stellar creatures—spirit mantas, electric koi, star-whales—especially so near a junkyard. They much prefer nebula clouds and recently exploded star fields. Maybe it’s lost? Either way, he doesn’t like the way it’s floating by so fast.

“I don’t think it’s happy that we’re here,” Kyungsoo says, a slight tremble to his words. “I’m going to head back.”

Once Kyungsoo comes out from underneath the piece, the whale goes berserk. It cries out in song, breaking the silence of space as only her kind can do. It’s both a beautiful and terrifying sound that makes the Zephyr vibrate with its intensity. 

“Kai! Get me out of here!”

The vitals are beeping frantically as Kai speeds over the controls that will make the tether retract, pulling Kyungsoo back into the safety of the ship. But he’s not fast enough. The whale rams into the junk piece, sending it crashing against the Zephyr’s robotic arm and bending it off at a broken angle. Kyungsoo’s tether line gets tangled between the arm and the remaining piece, sending him twisting around and bumping into things.

“Kai, help!”

“I can’t pull the line now or it will break!” Kai yells. The line can’t break or they’ll be in deep . “I’ll move the arm and bring it all in! Hold on.”

The star-whale lets out another furious call as it passes by. It’s like she knew Kai’s plan and with the edge of her tail, breaks off the robotic arm entirely.

Kai is petrified. He watches as the arm breaks taking the piece of junk with it, floating away with Kyungsoo entangled by the line still.

“Kai!” Kyungsoo screams.

The terrified scream snaps Kai out of his panic-induced freeze. He jumps out of the control station seat and runs down the Zephyr’s corridors. Why the hell is the ship so long? He takes the metal stairs two at a time and jumps the last five steps onto the shuttle bay. He slams his hand against the first shuttle’s door and it opens with a hiss. 

Kai rushes inside and turns the smaller ship on with fast and practiced movements, cursing under his breath at the slowness of the procedure. “Come on you piece of—” As soon as the bay doors are wide open, he maneuvers down, and then punches the ers to full speed coming up from the underside of the Zephyr to chase after Kyungsoo and the star-whale.

I’m coming, Soo. I’ll catch you.

🌟🐋 🌟

Spinning, spinning, spinning. 

The stars area dizzying whirlpool of lights as Kyungsoo spins out of control along with the piece of robotic arm and other flying debris the whale sent tumbling in the wake of her attack. He crashes against some of them, but things are going so fast that he can’t even register pain on each point of impact.

Kyungsoo wants to shout, he wants to scream, but his throat is dry and his breaths are coming fast and sharp enough to make his chest hurt. If he hyperventilates, he’ll pass out. If he passes out, he’s dead for sure—at least that’s what his panicked thoughts are screaming at him.

Closing his eyes, he chants a mantra in his head—Kai will rescue me, Kai will catch me. He will rescue me, he will catch me. He always does.

Suddenly, the tether yanks him back, hard enough that he stops spinning. The victory is short-lived as he sees the Zephyr so far away. It’s not Kai who caught him with the second robotic arm. It’s the whale pulling him along now. A strong feeling of vertigo overcomes Kyungsoo, leaving him nauseous and ligh