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In a rare moment of respite, the crew of the Rhapsody found themselves laid out on the surface of a sandy planet, basking in the sun. Pyke, with his vivid sunset hair down and shirt off, felt more alive and energetic than ever. He had a look of pure joy on his face as he kicked a ball across the ground with Kavir, enjoying the competition and the warmth of the sand beneath his feet.
Nearby, Dandy and Chuckles had donned their comical swimming costumes and were busy building sand castles and splashing each other in the shallows. Leboosh, long established as “not a fan of sand”, had positioned himself in a bucket chair, nearest to Rett, under a portable shelter that they’d packed and dragged down from the Rhapsody earlier in the day.
Rett, who had spent most of the morning preparing the Rhapsody for landing, replacing air filters and intake grates to prepare for the sandy landing, finally took a deep breath. “You know Leboosh,” he spoke in a low, gravelly voice, “we’ve been on the move so much recently, sometimes I wonder if we’ve forgotten how to take a break.” He leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes. “This, this is nice.”
Hank shuffled about on the seat beside Leboosh, who turned to the Captain and nodded, a jolting motion as his suit moved with him. “Right you are Captain, though the rest of the crew would not admit it perhaps,” he offered, “but the crew needed this.”
While the wind was still and no sand whipped through the air, Leboosh removed his helmet and busied himself plucking green grapes from the table in front of him. He carefully inspected each one in case of sentience before absorbing it with a fizz and bubble.
“Rett!” called out Chuckles, now knee deep in the deep blue water, “Come over here! Dandy’s going to turn into a beluga!” Looking over at Dandy, Rett could see a determined concentration flash across her face as she began to shift colours and her arms began to morph into a comical approximation of fins. Distracted by his friend's transformation, Chuckles quickly shifted his attention back to the half humanoid, half beluga that now splashed the water next to him and lost himself in snorting laughter.
Leboosh looked on in bemusement, two grapes floating within his gelatinous cranium, giving him the appearance of having four eyes. With a gruff chortle, he looked over to Rett, perhaps to point this out, and realised that his captain had fallen fast asleep. Silently, he schlooped his arms up to the sun shade above him, and angled it to perfectly shade the form of the Aetheron. Gently, he reached over to the glass in Retts lap and placed it on the table beside the now empty bag of grapes and carefully rose from his seat.
Replacing and clipping his helmet back into place, he crunched through the sand as quietly as he could, beelining for Pyke and Kavir. Both of whom were intently locked in an intense one on one ball game. The Oozoid was able to close the gap between them in seconds, and placed a firm glove on Pykes shoulder and raised a single gloved digit to his approximation of a mouth. The Solari's eyes turned immediately to his partner, snoring gently in the shade not 40 feet away, finally getting some rest.
In sympathy and relief, Pyke smiled and closed his eyes for a moment, nodded in Leboosh’s direction and offered a deliberate wave towards Kavir. The ball rolled back across the sand and stopped at Pykes feet. Swiftly he picked it up and with light feet, strode across to Chuckles and Dandy, who remained paddling and splashing in the water. “Oh hi Pyke!” Chuckles exclaimed, “Have you come bearing walnut brownies?” He laughed to himself, “or maybe you want to try my new space guppy floaties?”
Trying to maintain a cool demeanour in the face of such strange and delightful enthusiasm, Pyke stood his ground, ball under his arm and a direct stare back at the Motlien and druid in front of him. “Chuckles, it’s.. okay, I just need you guys to float down the beach a bit further.” He sighed, “just… Please don't wake him up.”
Wide eyed, and still partly coloured and smooth like a beluga, Dandy's eyes landed and locked on Retts form, asleep in the beach chair. Silently, she smiled and placed her still suspiciously fin-like hand on the clown's shoulder and began to steer him further down the beach. “Come Chuckles, let him rest,” she urged quietly, “later, maybe you could teach me how to make whiskey sours?”
He watched them wade down the beach for a moment or two, and now wholly satisfied that Chuckles had been sufficiently distracted, the Solari moved almost silently back across the sand towards Rett. He lowered himself carefully into Leboosh’s bucket seat and balanced sunglasses over his nose. A smile crept across his features as he heard Rett snoring gently in the chair next to him, as he too drifted off into a watchful meditation.