Galactiquest

Emil sat alone in his room, unable to fully process what he’d just seen. Through the cameras of the Celestion-5, he got a front row seat to watch its newest member be exposed as a fraud. By his own brother. A family might’ve just fallen apart in front of him, and all he could do was watch it burn.

“Why is Ranger Summers standing in front of the incinerator?”

He sprang up from the desk, not even registering that his brother came back from the engine room. “I-I dunno. Angelo’s been there for a while.”

Lorenzo closed the door behind him. “Has he burned anything?”

“No.” Thanks to Emil, he didn’t get the chance to. It felt like a weird dream by now.

“Tell him to turn it off.”

Emil’s hand reached for the intercom button, the same one he used to stop Angelo from burning the evidence of his lies. He drew his hand away. “Actually, I’ll go tell him in person. Maybe he needs help with it.”

Lorenzo raised an eyebrow at him, but Emil didn’t pay it much attention. He could figure out whether to tell him the truth later. Right now, he wanted to be anywhere else.

A granola bar wrapper crinkled in Lorenzo’s hand. “Where did you get this? I thought I told you to stay here and monitor the cameras.”

Halfway out the door, Emil rolled his eyes where his brother couldn’t see. “Don’t worry, I never left. I just got Rookie to bring me snacks.” Right before sending him to probably the worst moment of his life. Emil tried not to think too hard about what Leon must have been doing now. “Call that a creative solution!” He winked.

His brother stared.

“What? I told you I was hungry.”

Emil practically flew down the stairs as soon as Lorenzo looked away from him. Another flight and a half of stairs later, he found himself standing in front of the incinerator room. He shook the nerves out of his hands before opening the door.

Hot air blasted him in the face. The fire had been going for over 30 minutes in a cramped, dark room, heating it up to an unbearable degree. A lone figure stood inside, watching his life go up in the flames.

“Geez, it’s burning up in here!” Emil coughed. “It’s a good thing I caught you before you roasted alive. That’s why we always wear helmets in here.”

A pair of puffy, blank eyes looked up at the lieutenant. They reminded him of the eyes of a dejected child.

That’s because they were.

Angelo Summers, 15-year-old brother of Leon Summers, somehow enlisted into the Interstellar Forces and found his way onto this ship. And now he stood in front of Emil.

“Hey, uhhh…” Normally, Emil would’ve asked if Angelo was okay, but he knew better. “If you’re not burning anything you should prolly turn that off. You remember how?”

Angelo peeled his gloves from the floor and winced while putting them on. The flames died. Then, he wandered aimlessly outside with Emil.

“See? Doesn’t that feel better?”

He didn’t speak, only staring up in confusion.

“Something wrong?” Emil braced himself to hear what he had to say, but the words never came. That’s when he realized that Angelo wasn’t able to talk right now. Not that he needed to. He knew exactly what question he wanted to ask.

‘You heard everything, didn’t you?’

Too bad. Emil didn’t want to deal with that right now, and Angelo couldn’t call him out on his act. He smiled. “Let’s go back up with the others.”

He beckoned forward with his hand only for it to brush up against one of Angelo’s scorching hot gloves.

“Ahhhsh!” The lieutenant held where the back of his hand had touched it. “Don’t those hurt??”

Angelo nodded slightly.

“Take ‘em off!” It was Emil’s turn to wince as Angelo peeled off his gloves to reveal red splotches on his hands.

The younger boy waved them around, not knowing where to put them.

“Our jumpsuits are heat proof, so you can stick them under your arms or something. You won’t feel it. Me and Roxie are gonna hafta get you treated for those burns, though…”

He shook his head as if to say ‘No, it’s okay, really,’ but it really wasn’t okay.

“C’mon, I’m not gonna let you go around with burnt hands.” Emil took a couple steps up and pressed the panel to open the door. “Let’s go.”

“...B..ut…”

“We can talk on the way to the infirmary.” He tried to hide his heart jumping at the sound of Angelo’s voice coming back. All he could do at this point was bank on Angelo not being too willing to reveal his own secrets with other people around.

It would do them both good to take their minds off of that situation for a little while. He only hoped that Leon could do the same.