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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2676043" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 293: The Cold“Hey, at least we won’t have to search for hours and hours and freeze, at least...right?” Jyren asked over his shoulder, attempting to comfort Shadow as best was possible. Of course, he was no better at comforting anyone than she was...and she was just as bad at receiving it.    “Oh, yes. Sounds wonderful,” Shadow growled at the back of the seat in front of her. In the cramped cockpit of the X-Wing, she was doing her best to keep her eyes right ahead on the black backing of Jyren’s seat...and not the endless white that was everywhere else. She was also slightly curled up, prepared for the cold and wrapped in at least four layers despite the fact that the X-Wing had its own heaters. Somewhere under the layers was even the spare, bright orange flight suit that had, in fact, been buried in the cargo compartment of the starfighter.    They were both human again. Not only was it something they were going to have to do anyway, as Alraxians would go into a state of shock and die fairly quickly in such intense cold, but the lack of tail also made the seats of the X-Wings much, much more bearable. Of course, it also meant Shadow was shorter and able to curl up and stay warm much easier. Jyren had never seen her so...so...however that was. Worried and panicky. Even overly dramatic...but that had all faded into her usual quiet self, now simply snapping at him and waiting for this all to be over with. Not that Jyren was liking this at all, but he didn’t have the anti-cold sentiments that were obviously instilled in all Alraxians from a young age...especially considering that even Toby was watching them worriedly before they left. The little child hadn’t even asked to go with them for once.    To get their minds off the cold(not that it would work, though), Jyren tried to bring up business again, “You still picking up that structure?”    There was a pause, then Shadow’s quiet voice said from behind him, “Fifteen kilometers north...very faint, though.”    “The ice an snow cover would do that, I expect,” Jyren babbled, not actually knowing if what he’d said was at all true. It was usually Shadow doing the babbling to attempt to keep Jyren’s mind off of things...but now with the roles reversed, he realized just how difficult it was to bring up useless, distracting chatter. Especially with Shadow.    But nothing else was said for a long while as the X-Wing careened over the endless ice plains of the planet. Any signs of a battle here, which would have been well over a decade earlier, were long since lost in the snow. But they were detecting something on the sensors very faintly. From the way it read, it was a likely some kind of large structure, though Loki hadn’t had any more luck and was also refusing to go anywhere closer than orbit around the planet. The fact that they’d picked up anything was a miracle on its own. Jyren had been expecting to have to sweep over the planet in the X-Wing for a very long day.    A half kilometer south of the sensor blip, Jyren dropped as many systems as he could and began to skim the snow to hide from any possible sensors. In another moment the sublight drives were off and the X-Wing was setting down behind a fairly large ‘dune’ of snow. As he powered down the remaining systems, Jyren made sure to keep the heating systems up and running until the last moment. He undid the straps that held him down and checked the flight suit. Bright orange...it’d been so long since he’d worn one of these. This one wasn’t his, though. It was simply a flight suit, and so was easier to put on without bringing back memories that might get in the way.    “Are you ready?” Jyren asked over his shoulder as he used some of the cloth from a now-ruined jacket to wrap around his head and, hopefully, keep his face relatively warm.    “‘s re’y ‘s ‘ll ev’r ‘e,” Shadow’s voice was muffled by a similar wrap around her face...except hers was three layers thick. This didn’t help that, as a human, her voice wasn’t exactly the loudest anyway, nor was it very forceful. In other situations, Jyren couldn’t help but find at least a little humour in the drastic change that happened to Shadow when she was in a human body.But he was able to determine the words she’d spoken, suddenly glad for the help of the link. And so, he deactivated the last of the X-Wing’s systems and hit the switch to raise the canopy. There was a hiss, and then a loud swirling of winds as the mechanical noise grated and rose up the canopy. He did his best to ignore the sudden rush of ice-cold wind that shot into the cockpit, and climbed out, ignoring setting up the step ladder and instead jumping straight down and landing in an ankle-deep layer of snow.    Jyren managed a slight gasp as all the cold worked together to freeze him despite the flight suit and coverings he wore, but quickly turned to help Shadow out. It was something he just did naturally, but every single time she hated him for it. She could move herself, thankyouverymuch, and she did. Jumping down just as he had right before the canopy started back down and landing knee-deep in the snow.    She looked up and him and, despite only seeing her eyes, Jyren could hear a muffled whimper. But now they were out in it, and there wasn’t any turning back. So, as quickly as could be managed in the snow covered ground, they trudged up the ‘dune’ ahead of them and to the north, all the while shivering and sticking close in some false hope for warmth. To annoy Shadow even more, Jyren was being forced to help her move faster, as the deep layer of snow was slowing her down much more than him.    Pushing hard to move as quickly as they could, they reached the peak of the snow in only a minute and a half...though in the increasing wind that felt like piercing ice, it was more like hours. But when they were up, a very interesting sight greeted them that nearly distracted them from the cold.    There was a huge(really, really huge) rise of ice and snow in an almost rectangular shape ahead of them. It was big enough for even a good sized transport to fit into with room to spare. And as that thought crossed both of their minds, eyes caught sight of sleek grey colours poking through the white that was facing them. Metal. A wall...or...Shadow was the one to notice the line that ran down where the center probably was...an opening. A hangar?    Maybe...    And they could feel something. Something distant yet disturbingly close by. Something they could nearly touch but just out of reach. It added a new chill to run down each of their spines, and suddenly there was a new reason to get out of the freezing cold.    Shadow and Jyren exchanged a quick, worried look, and then started for the gigantic metal ‘door’...not even sure there was going to be any way in but suddenly feeling the need to find out right away.</blockquote>

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