As we stepped onto the metal and stone street we were met by a mob of Miscreants making their way to the ceremony. It would be held inside the Space Hub. A crystal building that housed the Miscreant’s entire space program. I had personally built a majority of it with Mal and several other Miscreants. All Miscreants pitched in when building was required.
Miscreants walked and flew in the same direction towards the Space Hub. Myst whistled cheerily as he walked alongside me.
“Are you as excited as I am?”
“I….of course I’m excited, Mal’s been gone for months.”
“No not that, the expedition will no doubt have found some interesting curios. I can’t wait to examine them.”
Of course, I had known Myst my whole life and I still was surprised by his bluntness when it came to his experiments. I rolled my eyes at Myst as we finally reached the archway entrance to the Space Hub. Its crystal dome hung high in the air above us. Inside, Thousands of Miscreants milled about or floated through the air, chatting to each other in anticipation. A massive screen had been placed where everyone could see it. The landing would be shown on the screen so everyone could see it, but I had a special seat for the event.
I left Myst in the main hall while I took a short flight of stairs and a long corridor the control station. Mal had made arrangements before she’d left for me to be as close the landing as possible. She was thoughtful like that. As I gazed out the control room windows to the paved landing area, I was approached by General Man, the Manageable Miscreant.
“Marv, you old dog! How have you been?”
“Very good, General and you?”
“Good, good….Listen, I need to talk to you in private.”
The general and I stepped into a separate room and the General leaned in close.
“Listen son, we haven’t had any contact with the expedition. We’re still tracking the ship’s progress and it’s still on course, but all attempts to contact the crew have failed. It’s most likely just a communication’s malfunction, so there’s no need to be worried. I just wanted to let you know.”
“Are you sure that everything is fine? It sounds like a problem.”
“As far as we can tell, all the ships other systems are working perfectly and it’s maintaining a perfect course. It’ll be fine. Now come on, they’ll be landing in the next half hour.”
Praise the Sun