Chapter Text
Trailblaze Year 156,262 – March 7th
05:00 System Hour
In his long years of interstellar travel, Dan Heng has seen many strange things and met many strange people. He had once embarked on a ship of Mourning Actors, where he almost got his memory stolen, and fought all kinds of monsters on his way; and of course, there was the man who just wouldn’t – couldn’t – stay dead.
But even then, he has never seen anything as strange as the enormous chunk of floating ice that has just collided into the Express.
At first, no one had been too surprised about it. The conductor was always extra careful to avoid any obstacles in their way, but sometimes they would miss an asteroid and it would hit the train with a bit of force, shaking it a little bit but never strongly enough to truly damage the train.
This time, however, the collision had been so strong that Dan Heng decided he needed to check on the damage himself. To his surprise however, when he steps outside the Express, he finds that it is not a common rock that has broken through the Express’ Party Car (which had, thankfully, been empty at the time), but rather some kind of sparkling blue and pink cristal.
Himeko identifies it as “Six-Phased Ice” inside Dan Heng’s receiver. It is, apparently, an extremely rare kind of ice. She admits that she doesn’t know anything else about it. Neither Mr. Yang nor Pom-Pom seem to know anything either, and in the end Himeko asks Dan Heng to bring the block of ice into the Parlor Car as she wants to observe it more carefully.
It’s when he gets closer to the giant crystal of ice – as tall as him and twice as large, without a single scratch on it despite the violent impact – that he notices it. At first, he thinks he must have been imagining it, but there is no mistaking the figure inside the cold, translucent material.
As if in a trance, he lifts his arm to touch the cold and smooth surface, where a face with a peaceful expression and closed eyes stays unmoving.
He finds that he can’t stop staring, his brain trying to piece this information with what he currently knows of the situation.
“ Dan Heng? ” Himeko’s voice asks at the other end of the line. “ Is something wrong? ”
“Miss Himeko,” he answers with, perhaps, a slightly more emotional tone than usual. “I think there’s a girl inside the ice.”
—
Trailblaze Year 156,262 – March 7th
08:24 System Hour
Himeko has decided that they’d be heading for the Herta Space Station for two reasons: first, they couldn’t risk a stellar warp without risking to further damage the Party Car and Herta Space Station is only a few days away; and second, Himeko wants Madam Herta to have a look at their mysterious finding.
To their surprise, a scan revealed that the girl is likely still alive. They put her next to the warmest heater in the Parlor Car, unsure if it would actually do anything to melt the ice, since Madam Herta told them over the phone that it was unlikely to cause any harm to the girl inside.
Dan Heng has retired into the archives after Mr. Yang had told him there was nothing else to do but wait. He has been unsuccessfully browsing the archives for any kind of content about Six-Phased Ice or about living people encased in it, but in the end, he couldn’t find anything of relevance.
He is starting to think that he should instead focus on making a record of this morning’s events to enter into the data bank when he hears a knock on his door.
“Please, come in.”
“I brought breakfast, since Himeko said you would probably be too deep in your research to join us today,” explains Pom-Pom as they come in with a plate of waffles with generous amounts of whipped cream and berries, as well as a steaming cup of dark coffee.
“You didn’t have to,” Dan Heng says as he hurries to take the plate from Pom-Pom’s ears. “Thank you,” he adds after setting it on his desk.
“Nonsense!” Pom-Pom answers. “As your conductor, it is my duty to make sure that all passengers and crew are well-fed and taken care of! Besides, you’re doing important work for us, it’s only natural that we provide the best working conditions for you.”
Dan Heng’s eyes linger on the plate. “Thank you,” he repeats, and Pom-Pom smiles at him. Dan Heng looks around. Seeing Pom-Pom in the archives, among the books and computers, is quite a rare sight, and he welcomes the unfamiliar but not uncomfortable thought that their being here means that he is being taken care of.
“It’s my pleasure! Also, I thought I should inform you that the ice has started to melt. We don’t really know how much time it will take for it to completely melt… or for the girl to wake up… But it looks like she’s going to be okay!”
Dan Heng feels some of the tension he didn't know he had until then in his shoulders release.
“That’s good,” he says, nodding slightly.
—
Trailblaze Year 156,262 – March 7th
12:43 System Hour
The first thing Dan Heng sees as he enters the Parlor Car on his way to the Dining Car is the big, sparkling puddle of pink-blue water which Mr. Yang is cleaning up.
“You should’ve called me to help,” he comments as he watches him absorb the liquid inside special wipes before squeezing it inside jars – for conservation purposes, he assumes.
“It’s alright, I’m almost done,” assures Mr. Yang as he uses his gravity manipulation powers to get the last of the liquid inside the jar.
“So… The ice has finished melting?”
“Yes…” Mr. Yang frowns. “The girl is unconscious. Himeko is looking after her in the Medical Car.”
“You look worried,” Dan Heng says.
“Well… It doesn’t look like her life prognosis is in danger, but she doesn’t seem to be waking up no matter what we do. She’s not… breathing, either.”
“Sorry. I couldn’t find any information about cryogenically frozen live people, so I’m not sure if that’s normal or not,” Dan Heng answers in an apologetic tone.
“Don’t be. I’m sure you did your best.” Mr. Yang smiles at him for a moment.
It’s a strange picture, Dan Heng thinks, to see Welt Yang with a mop in one hand and a pink jar in the other, his shoes and pants glittery, gently smiling at him for no reason at all. While he has accepted it, he still can’t get used to the fondness with which his two older companions regard him. They seem completely at ease around him, and although they don’t know – don’t ask – much about his past, they always show him a kindness he is never sure how to return.
“Come on, let’s go get lunch. I’ll take over watching over our passenger later, but would you like to replace me in the afternoon if you don’t have too much to do? If you’re worried about getting bored, I have a book I could lend you…”
—
Trailblaze Year 156,262 – March 7th
16:15 System Hour
Mr. Yang’s book is not uninteresting, although different from Dan Heng’s usual readings. It’s a fiction about a boy who lives in a city where both espers with abilities derived from science and magicians exist. Before he had started reading, Mr. Yang had assured him that “although it starts slowly, the story gets better after the first arc when they discover the conspiracy”. The story takes place on a planet called Earth, which is, apparently, the planet Mr. Yang comes from – according to him, the novel is a pop culture classic over there.
Dan Heng is struggling to understand the appeal of the story, but it’s a way to get to know Mr. Yang better. However, his concentration is quite unstable, and every few minutes, he looks up from the book to look at the girl lying in a bed in front of him, watching for the slightest hint that she’s alive. Of course, it’s useless: she hasn’t moved an inch since the morning.
Still, he can’t stop himself from staring. She’s wearing one of Himeko’s pajamas, a bit too big on her smaller body, and her face is framed by short, light pink hair. He wonders how she could have ended up floating in space inside a block of ice – or how long she has been in that state. A few years ago, he wouldn’t have cared much, but now that he is walking on the path of the Trailblaze, he can’t help but to long for discovery, to seek the answers to the mysteries he comes across.