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The lights on the instrumentation panel flickered again as Fleur looked down, lowering her gaze from the vid screen where her sister's face had just faded away.
It had been nice to talk to her. Fleur had been traveling on The Badger, away from the tournament on planet Hogwarts, for weeks now, and, despite the near constant voice coming from the Continuum Elliptical Deviation Resurrected Intelligence Computer, loneliness had started to creep in.
"What was that, CEDRIC? Sorry."
He'd said something about distance that she'd been trying so hard to ignore.
"No worries, Captain! I was simply explaining that we have reached the halfway point in our journey! Only a few more weeks and we shall be home again."
Fleur didn't mean to groan, but she did.
"Oh, come now, Captain! It's not that bad. At least we have each other, and Guess the Word! We're only on the letter L! It's your go, I believe."
Fleur sighed. Guess the Word was alright. It was better than trying to play I-Spy in deep space.
"L, right," she said, standing up and stretching a bit, feeling like her muscles were as stiff as her brain. "Okay, it's a yellow fruit."
"Lemon!" CEDRIC said, without any hesitation. "That was easy. Why don't you have another go?"
"Right, yeah, er. Something you look for. Something that's missing."
"With an L? Hmmm. Let me get the old circuits running! Something you look for... something, perhaps, that is desired?"
"Sometimes, yes. I guess you could say that."
"Something you would do anything to find?"
"Maybe?"
"Oh, Fleu- Captain! It's so obvious, then!"
"Is it?"
"Why, it's love, of course!"
"No, it's not," she said, though she wasn't paying much attention to him now.
"It's love, Fleur, it's always been love between you and m-"
"Hang on, CEDRIC, wait, what's that flashing?"
"Flashing?"
"Yeah, right there, on your left panel!"
"Oh! Right. Yes. Err, that's our radar, I think…"
There was a moment of silence while CEDRIC appeared to be thinking. Fleur sighed again. It had seemed like a good idea to take the consciousness of her dead tournament mate along as the uploaded onboard computer. But, in hindsight, he knew fuck all about running a space ship.
"Right, yes, that's our radar. It seems we have another ship in our vicinity."
Fleur's eyes lit up. Another ship likely meant some more people, or other sentient creatures at least.
"Can we get closer? Maybe send out a message?"
"Oh… I suppose it would be nice to make contact. Hold on, let me see if I can find the right channel."
Fleur waited again. CEDRIC hadn't had cause to use anything to do with communications yet. She pictured the human version of him, frantically turning the pages of an instruction manual, trying to find the answer.
"We've got an incoming message, Captain!" CEDRIC announced suddenly.
Fleur jumped. "Well, broadcast it!"
"Yes, err... hold, please."
There was static - a lot of static - then a voice Fleur had never heard before flooded the cockpit.
"... if anyone is out there, please… help… we…"
There was some more static, then some more, and then the voice was back.
"... lost power… drifting farther and farther… if you can hear this…"
"CEDRIC, where is this coming from? Can you trace it?"
"Of course! Yes, I've got it. It's coming from the nearby ship. Pity. We could have flown right past-"
Fleur was already reaching for the controls, turning the ship toward the coordinates that were now showing up on her screen, heading right for the flashing red light.
"Captain, wait. Are you sure this is wise?"
"Oh, come on, CEDRIC, where's your sense of adventure?"
"I imagine I left it in that graveyard," he muttered, almost inaudibly.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, Captain. Full speed ahead!"
Fleur went for it, firing the thrusters as high as they would go, watching through the window until a small dot appeared, getting bigger and bigger. It was a ship. A dark ship.
CEDRIC must have seen it too, at least with his radar. "Ah, it's bigger than I thought it was. We, er, are we still-"
Fleur leaned over her controls, hitting the button for radio communications. "Hello? Is anyone there? This is The Badger."
There was nothing but more static.
"Hello? We got your distress signal. Are you there?"
"Aye," came a voice, the same one as before, "we're here. Who might you be?"
"I believe I'm the person who's trying to rescue you."
"Are you now?"
Fleur jumped as, suddenly, her whole ship shook.
"Er, CEDRIC? What's that?"
"It appears to be a tractor beam."
Fleur swore and pulled on the controls, but the ship wasn't responding. The other one was pulling them in fast.
"Shit," she said, "shit, shit, shit."
"I did try to warn-"
"Not now, CEDRIC!" she said, leaping to her feet again, already reaching for the blaster on her calf.
The ship shuddered to a halt and lights flooded her vision, practically blinding her after the darkness she'd had as her only view for so long. There was a metallic grinding sound that was disconcertingly close.
"They're forcing their way onto the ship, Captain."
"Ah," Fleur said. That was less than ideal.
She looked around and spotted a small cubby to her left. She stood still for a moment, holding her breath as well as her blaster, then ducked inside.
"Oh, Merlin's balls!" A voice, the same one from the radio, echoed from below, along with heavy footsteps. "Why is everything so yellow?"
"It looks like it was decorated by a bumblebee."
Fleur quietly agreed. As the one whose body was now a part of the ship, she'd let CEDRIC design the interior.
The footsteps continued getting closer. Fleur's hiding place was amateur at best; it wouldn't be long before they saw her and she'd be cornered. She jumped out, blaster blazing, hitting a small, gangly man with wild hair and wilder eyes square in the forehead. But before she had a chance to aim for the others, a blaster shot came at her, and her world went black.
Fleur didn't know how much time had passed when she started to come to. Everything was foggy. She couldn't see much, but she could feel some sort of restraints pressing against her wrists, and she could hear voices, coming to her as if from the end of a long tunnel.
"...weren't supposed to leave anyone alive!"
"Anyone? She's the only one we found!"
There was a groan then. Fleur realized it was coming from somewhere close, but she still couldn't quite make out any of the fuzzy shapes around her.
"You're too soft, Abbott. Always said you were too soft. We never should have-"
"Oh, shut it, will you? I'm as tough as any other you could have picked up. It wasn't like you lot were my first choice! All I ever wanted was to get home, and you two were the only people stupid enough to be heading that way."
There was another groan. The dark shape next to Fleur moved, slowly getting to its feet.
"Wha- What happened?"
"You were shot, idiot."
"Shot?"
" 'Fraid so, my boy. I told you not to barge onto unfamiliar vessels like that."
Fleur closed her eyes as the voices drifted away. She caught a few more words, something about searching her ship.
In the silence that followed, she focused on the poorly tied ropes that bound her wrists, working them free with her fingers. It took a while, but eventually she was out, standing up and padding towards the exit.
"CEDRIC?" Fleur whispered into the darkness. "Can you hear me? How many of them are there?"
"Just three - I think. Oh, but Captain, please be care-"
Fleur didn't hear the rest. She slipped out of her ship, giving CEDRIC a vague command to not let them steal it.
Green. That was the first thing she saw. A lot of green.
There was also a tank, with some sort of huge creature inside, staring at her. It had way too many tentacles.
"...What the hell?"
Fleur kept going, trying to avoid the creature's gaze.
There was more green, and absurdly intricate pipework running along the walls that reminded Fleur of snakes.
She looked into the first room she came to. It was a bedroom. A hammock hung from the ceiling and piles of paper were stacked neatly on a desk. Fleur looked at the top one. It was a letter, in small neat handwriting, signed Hannah Abbott.
The next room was bigger, and more informative. Pieces of paper were stuck to every flat surface: maps, coordinates, lists, and names, some circled, others crossed out. Fleur peered at them. The list in the middle had The Badger, circled three times, and the words The Key.
There had been a key in the tournament. It had been part of the final prize but, in the chaos of Cedric dying, no one had known what had happened to it.
There was a sudden noise from down the corridor. Fleur grabbed a paper weight - also shaped like a snake- and crept back out the door.
She looked both ways and picked a direction. The wrong one. Rounding the corner, two hands reached out and grabbed her. Fleur struggled, spinning around to see a young woman, slightly shorter than her, with startlingly green eyes.
She was also pressing her blaster into Fleur's chin. Fleur raised her hands slowly and smiled her biggest smile, hoping that just maybe, the young woman might have the slightest inclination that way.
Fleur saw her falter for a second and thanked her lucky stars, layering it on more heavily and batting her eyelids.
"You must be Hannah," she said silkily, her hands still raised.
"H-how did you know that?"
"Lucky guess?" Fleur shrugged. "Can we perhaps drop this?"
She motioned towards the blaster and smiled again. Her cheeks were starting to ache from it, but at least it had the desired outcome. The blaster moved to her stomach. Still not ideal, but Fleur could at least toss her hair over her shoulder to full effect now.
Hannah blinked, her eyes darting over Fleur, looking her up and down, coming out of her trance. "Wait... what are you-"
"Shhh, it's alright. Just-"
Fleur's next words were cut off as Hannah shoved the end of the blaster deeper into her gut. "Oh, no, you don't! I know what you're up to! This is starting to feel a lot like some awful first dates I've been on. Turn around and walk forward now, or I swear I will end this encounter much like I ended those."
Shit, Fleur thought, with the blaster now pressed against the small of her back. It was time for more drastic measures.
Drastic, and a bit dangerous. Well, she had been wanting an adventure.
Fleur turned fast and grabbed the other girl's blaster. It went off, firing into the side wall of the corridor. There was a loud sound and a cloud of smoke as Fleur leaned down and locked her lips on Hannah's.
The girl's eyes went wide, first with shock, then with acceptance...
... and then with something very much like desire.
Bingo.
Fleur leaned into it, slowly taking the girl's blaster from her, keeping it low and out of the way as she wrapped her other arm around her and smiled. "Wonderful," she said, giving them both a chance to breathe again. "Now, why don't you tell me about this key?"
"Key?"
"Yes, the key that's apparently on my ship. Why do you want it?"
"To get home."
Fleur stopped, pulling back to look at the girl again. "Home?"
The girl nodded, suddenly looking a bit sad. "Home, yeah. I've got to get home."
"Where is home?" Fleur asked her.
"A dying planet, called Tumulus."
Fleur knew of it, only because CEDRIC said he'd been there when he'd died - a place far on the edge of existence.
"Hannah," Fleur said, still holding the blaster. "You want to get home, right?"
The girl nodded, eyes transfixed on her once more.
"I can help you, if you'll help me."
"For you, I'll do anything."
"Good," Fleur said, giving the girl one more deep kiss. "Because I need you to help me take back my ship. Do you have any more blasters?"
Hannah turned abruptly down another corridor and stopped at a cupboard, pulling out another blaster from a rack.
They hurried back towards The Badger, stopping to peer around the last corner.
Barty was swearing.
"Where the bloody fuck is it? You're sure it's on here, Salazar?"
Salazar was stood to one side, picking something from underneath his nails.
"Yes. Keep looking."
"It would be quicker if you helped."
"Hmm," Salazar said.
A metal box flew out the doorway, narrowly missing his head. Fleur could see where it had been unceremoniously wrenched off the wall - they were pulling her ship apart.
It was only Hannah's grip that held her back from flying at them in a rage. She pressed her fingers to her lips and pointed to a stack of crates on the other side. The plan was simple, take out Salazar from both sides, then storm the ship.
She had almost made it, but then Barty stuck his head out the door.
"Abbott! Where the fuck have you been? Come and-" he looked up, and was now staring Fleur straight in the eyes. Confusion turned very quickly to comprehension.
"Oh, you fucking bitch!"
A volley of blaster shots lit up the hanger like a firework display. Fleur ducked around a corner and shot blind, managing to hit Barty in the shin.
He was too worried about his injury to notice her sneaking up behind him and gave a garbled scream as she wrapped one hand around him, blaster pressed to his temple, and hoisted him off the floor.
"Stop or I'll shoot!" she yelled.
Salazar turned slowly, looked them in the eye in turn and shrugged. It was the last thing he did. Fleur watched as he crumpled to the ground. Hannah stood behind him, her blaster still smoking.
Fleur felt Barty's jaw go slack under her hand. She grabbed his blaster, dropped him, and then ran to the ship, where Hannah was waiting for her.
The airlock had just closed behind Fleur when she took Hannah's hand, running with her toward the bridge as some static came over the speakers.
"Ca…pt…ain?"
"CEDRIC? Is that you?"
"Y…es. YEs. Yes, there we go! Seems I lost you for a moment."
"More than a moment. I'm afraid some of your innards are now all over the place. I'll see to them as soon as I can, but first, CEDRIC, do you know a planet called Tumulus?"
"Why, of course. It's only where my life ended."
"Excellent," Fleur said, running into the bridge with Hannah, taking her usual seat and grinning at the girl beside her. "Because we've got a new destination."