blankie town by @SpaceHyena

Hop, skip, and a rocky flop ch2: To the starsI stared out of the closet into the vast emptiness. My home...gone. I only hoped my parent had made it. The last letter I got was about him coming home...and I hadn't heard news from him since. I couldn't imagine how he would feel if he made it, too. Would he be just was scared and worried? Did he think I died? i hoped not. I opened the closet door, stepping out. Frightened voices were a steady drone. I watched as a few people shuffle past, some with hatchlings. Few words could be made out. Things that I wondered myself. "Attention!" A voice sounded over...the intercom? I wasn't o sure...it almost sounded like it was coming out of the hip itself. "Attention, everyone!" 'What was that?" A pink-furred individual spoke, looking around. I was glad to know I wasn't hearing anything. "Don't be afraid," The voice said. "You are safe now. Welcome aboard the Anerias. I am Actias, your SNAI. Or Ship's Navigtional Artificial Intellegence." "What happened? What's going on? Where is this?" The speaker was blue-furred, covered in floral markings. "Take us back!" I couldn't see the speaker. "Yeah, we belong back home!" "I understand your fear and confusion. Alm T’ann is unfortunately no more. Our ancient foe has found our home planet...and like any inevitable force of hunger, they consumed it." The voice was a monotone...devoid of all emotion. I suppose it made sense...wouldn't an AI be emotionless? "This ship has been built and I have been created in order to seek a new world to live on in the event of an extinction level event." "Thank you, Actias." Another voice sounded over the intercom. "I'm sorry about that, Actias hasn't learned tact yet." I grabbed the nearest person. "Are you getting any of this?" They shook their head, nearly slapping me with their extremely floppy ears. The new voice continued. "I'm Doctor Eloise. I'm not your captain...in fact, we haven't quite located the captain yet. But, my place here today is to fill you in on what's going on." There was a heavy sigh. "Actias is correct...our plant has been lost. It saddens me to know that we won't be able to go back home. One of my colleagues will be coming by later to get a consensus of who is here. This list will be publicly available, so that any families that were split in the chaos will be reunited." Maybe my parent lived? But...what if he didn't? I couldn't bare the idea of looking at the list and having my fears confirmed. "I'm afraid we no longer have a home to return to. I estimate a good ninety-nine percent of our population has been lost despite our best efforts." Despair leaked into Eloise's voice. "Our plans were to create a whole fleet of ships like the Anerias, stocked with everything we need for the journey." There was a pause as they seemed to choose their next words. "We only managed to build the one...our prototype." Voices raised in panic. Our home? Our species? Gone? What if this was all a cruel trick? "We've managed to get a few thousand of us on board as well as several thousand eggs." This triggered another wave of murmurings. "We have enough food on board to last for at least two years before our Bokkin population is stable enough to feed on. Sadly, our insects proved to be too delicate for the journey." So...what were we eating? Rations? It had to be. I began pushing through the crowd. Maybe I could find my answers elsewhere. "We're at least two thousand light years from our home...we're seeking an uninhabited planet, one with no other sapient life, to settle on. With luck, we will find one before the rations run out." The intercom went silent. Leaving me with so many more questions. Ones I wouldn't have any answer for. "Hey, dude, be careful." It was the blue person from earlier. "You almost stepped on a bean." A...bean? I looked down. A squishbean was rolling around near my feet. "Oh, sorry. Is it yours?" I scooped it up, wary of crushing such a small animal. It had brownish fur with a white face. "Oh, not hardly. I think it's a wild one." They shrugged. "Oh, then I guess we'll have to find it a home." I managed a nervous laugh. This whole evacuation had me on edge. "Unless you think it's got an owner." "I don't think it does." They shrugged. "I'm Gable, by the way. Uh....Zir, Zim if you need to know." Ze seemed more frayed than I felt, zir fur frayed where zir seemed to have picked at it. "I'm Idris." I answered, my brows furrowing with worry for Zim. "He, him, she, her, if you wanted to know." "Nice to meet you, Idris." Ze perked up. "Wanna check out the place? Maybe there's assigned sleeping...but I kinda want to see what we're dealing with." "I'd love to!" Maybe this would distract me from my worries.

Hop, skip, and a rocky flop ch3: The longest hourGable wasn't a bad companion, to say the least. We often did chore rotations together, so we had plenty of time to get to know each other. Ze were from the southern continent, having come up to my town to see a concert. Zir plans kinda blew up. Literally. Sometimes ze wondered if any of the band members made it. Like me, ze decided not to look at the population list. We were bunking in one of the smaller quarters, sharing it with six others, though half of us had to sleep on the floor. It was cramped, but noone could help it. Not really. There was just more moorn'tal than there were beds. Over the next six months, Actias got a bit better at giving us the daily news. Mostly new hatchlings. A few deaths...mostly elders that had already been at death's door to begin with. Sometimes there was news about an interesting cosmic event we were passing by. But, Actias still hadn't quite mastered the skill of letting people down easily. I was tending to a squash of squishbeans when the ship was shaken...something hit us. The alarm blared and I gathered them up into a sack that used to hold feed. Whatever was going on, it was making my fur stand up. I ducked into a closet, hoping that would offer me safety. I was wrong. I curled around the sack of beans as best as possible as the ship began shaking violently. I could hear the crunch of metal and sizzling as the ship broke. I reached out aa leg to grab a rail as my closet became exposed to the air. Fire licked up my body and I watched helplessly as my fur burned away. A spark hit my ear, as I used my hands to try to drag myself back inside. It felt like year passed. Left hand, right hand, foot. It took all my strength to get to the door. And more to open it. Luckily, the hall turned and hadn't been sliced open...yet. I dragged myself down it, seeking another room to hide in. Preferably far from thee closet. Lethargy hit my body...crawling was becoming too much. But I had to continue on. i had to. The hall seemed to lengthen as I went onward. The sounds of screaming could be heard. The calls of terrified Bokkin rang in my ears. The squishbeans in my sack wiggled, trying to get out. And me? I was vaguely aware that I was still on fire. I hoped that I could put it out soon, as I made my way into another closet. A bucket of dirty water had been left in it. Probably from someone doing janitorial duty. It was mostly dumped onto the floor. And clearly had been used to mop up after a hatchling. I didn't care. I rolled in the puddle and dumped the rest of it on myself. Leaning my head back, I passed out. I found myself drifting in and out of wakefulness. The only constant was a great pain in my skin and searing heat. One of the times I woke, I heard voices. "The idiot gave themselves an infection." It sounded like whomever it was was mad. At who? "Well, yeah, I wouldn't reccomend using mop water to put out a fire. But, they'll live." It was another voice. I barely tried to open my eyes before passing out again. I didn't know how much time passed before I was able to be awake more than a few seconds. When I woke, I was covered head to toe in bandages. I was in one of the large quarters, which looked to be retrofited into an infirmery. Nurses and doctors were rushing between others who ranged from slightly cooked to being wrapped in so many bandages they were practically mummies. One of the nurses, heavy-built and with pink fur, stepped over to me. "How many fingers am I holding up?" "Three?" I rasped. Speaking hurt. "Good, good. I'm Cassidy...I'll be your nurse today." They started changing my bandages. "You're very lucky...we almost lost you a few times. What were you thinking?" I realised they were the one that called me an idiot. "I wasn't." I stated. "Not unless you count 'fire bad'." They chuckled. "Humor...I like it." My thoughts turned to my sack. "Hey, uh...did the beans make it?" They nodded. "Thanks to you, they came out barely even squashed." I winced as they applied a cream to my tail. "Hold still...this is to make sure the skin heals well." "I'm glad they're okay...I think their pen got ripped out." I winced again. "What happened?" "The programmers are still trying to get Actias back online, but we've crashlanded." They were making sure my tail was coated. "The atmosphere is safe. But you're to stay on the ship until you're healed. I would say the sme for the rest of the injured, but there's so many. I was lucky...I was towards the front in the top deck." I nodded. "I was in the lower decks." "A lot here were found there." There was a commotion at the other end of the room. I could only hear a croaked 'eggs' and the sound of someone being made to lie down. I tried to sit up to check it out, only to be forced to lie back down. "It's just a nursery attendant. They saved a lot of lives...a few parents have been dying to thank them." "Burns?" They nodded. "About as bad as yours."

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