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Chapter Three
Awaken

The sound of decompressing air filled my ears as I felt my body awaken from its long slumber. Not long after, I heard Frost groan as he awoke as well. Our eyesight was a bit blurry for a few moments as our bodies slowly restarted. I gave Frost a few motherly licks to his eyes and face to help him wake up a little faster. “Frost…” I said softly, trying to establish the safety between us. He gave me a couple pets before saying, “I’m okay, Raijin…” We both remained there for a few moments, both for our bodies to recover fully and for our minds to process lingering thoughts, a lot of them were painful to process. After about a couple more minutes, I got up and helped Frost out of the pod. After we headed to the food storage and grabbed some food, I headed to the mother computer room and checked to see our voyage progress. Turns out, we were just a few days away from a sustainable planet called “Earth”. Looked almost identical to Andromeda. But there was also something else “Mother” wanted addressed. It seems our reactor was a bit damaged while we were in cryosleep. It was still relatively stable but it was advised to check on it when I could. I noted it but I wanted to check on Frost first, which I did.
“Hey… How are you holding up?” I asked while gently holding his shoulder and rubbing it.
“It’s… a lot to process… I just can’t believe it’s gone… Just like that too… We’re the last that remains of it.” He says rather calmly but as expected, solemnly… I saw a tear stream down his cheek as he said it. I simply nod in understanding and pull him in for a soft hug, wiping his tears away. “I know… but we’ll get through this together… I promise.” I say as Frost hugs me back and pets my head…
“Thanks Rai… You’re the best companion anyone could ask for…” I purred softly and softly nuzzled him before parting ways for now to attend to the task at hand. When I got there, the reactor seemed to be fine. No real structural damage of any kind. Maybe the computer was wrong? I shrug it off as I head back and stay with my partner…

Two days later, Myself and Frost were just lounging about when suddenly the ship rocked. I yelped as I leaped to grab Frost protectively as some debris fell around us. An explosion had happened. Alarms blared and emergency lights turned on as I raced to the computer room for analysis… Turns out I should have listened, The reactor became unstable and entered a meltdown state, causing the emergency destruct system to trigger. We had only five minutes to abandon ship, and that time was shortening and fast. Frost had appeared behind me, tugging my arm while the other attempted to cover his ears. “What’s happening?!” He said, visibly shaken. I turn around, “We have to get to the escape pods, now!” I say as I scoop up Frost, not even thinking as I bolt for the escape pod bay. The clock was ticking and if we weren’t out in the next four minutes, we wouldn’t need a pod to fly. Luckily, my speed was swift as I navigated my way to the bay with just under two minutes to spare. Only one pod was operational but it was designed to hold up to five people. I let Frost go in first, then myself as I seal the airlock and boot up the pod. It wasn’t helping that the countdown was also showing in the pod. I finally got it to boot up for launch as I strap myself in. “Hang onto something.” I say as Frost instinctively clung to me. We launched ourselves from the ship and moments later, a titanic explosion was shown behind us. First our homeworld, now our ship is destroyed… ‘Just our luck…’ I thought to myself as I looked down and saw Frost trembling… Poor guy, it was bad enough he’s already scared for life, now this... I held him as I gently and softly purred to sooth him… “Shhh… I’m here…” was one of the few things I said to calm him. Seemed to do the trick as he slowly but surely stopped trembling. Fortunately for us, The pod's navigation system was already set to earth so we were still en route. ‘Just a couple more days… We’ll be fine…’ I thought to myself as I held Frost close to me… I swore I would protect him and give him the happiest life possible… Though in a couple days time… I could really only fulfill one of those…