||Location: Sol System
||Time: Unknown

"If you're dreaming, I'm dreaming." Harrison said a bit goofier than he intended it to be. This really did seem like a dream come true for him. An adventure like this is something he actually had dreams about. Now he was starting to wonder if they were visions. He knew it were possible. People talked about dreaming of things that later happened in the real world all the time and it even stemmed to childhood.

He listened to Kir list off their shopping list and he hoped they had enough to get what they needed. He didn't have any kind of space currency on him and he knew she didn't have any with her back on Earth. It all made sense when she said that they needed to resell some parts. He wasn't sure how good of an idea that was with the ship barely being functional as it was, but he trusted Kir'ion. He had to. He knew everything about her now and he no longer had anywhere to go except with her.

He followed her to the bunks, but wasn't too close behind her. He averted his eyes as she climbed the ladder so he couldn't look up her dress, but when she found the bands and froze in place. He looked up to see her hands shaking. He floated in the air next to her. Instead of touching her he just grabbed her slave bands and removed them from her hands.

He tossed them to the floor below before turning to look at her. "You don't have to feel those bands ever again. Not even to hold them. I'm here."

|| Location: Sol System
|| Time: Unknown

The clang of metal hitting the floor was jarring enough to shock Kir’ion back to reality just in time to hear Harrison. Her eyes snapped up, finding and holding him in her gaze. She took a deep, shaking breath as she tried to digest the gentle way he reminded her that he was there, that she wasn’t alone, a captive…that she didn’t even have to touch the bands.

“Thank you,” she whispered, scrubbing her hands over her face and trying to shake the anxious feeling of pins and needles across her skin.

“I didn’t think…” Kir’s voice trailed off, and she wrapped her arms around herself in a comfort-seeking gesture.

What didn’t she think? That seeing them would send her reeling back? That she would freeze up over something so simple? They were pieces of metal, jewelry really. And yet they weighed more than anything in the universe simply because of their symbolism. She was wringing her hands looking for something more substantial to add.

“Thank you, Harrison,” she repeated, unable to come up with anything else.

Kir sat there feeling utterly stupid and frankly a bit embarrassed for a long moment before slipping off the edge of the bed and floating slowly back down to the ground. She glanced at the glimmer of metal just peeking out from where they’d landed under the blanket when Harrison tossed them to the ground.

Swallowing hard, she managed to find her words and courage again, “I don’t think I can handle those again. It might be better if you did it.”

||Location: Sol System
||Time: Unknown

"You're welcome, Kir'ion." He said simply before following her down. He landed on the floor next to her. He nodded when she said it was better for him to hold onto them. He had already resolved himself to. No matter what the symbolism held in his mind or for his own people's struggles, this was still current for her and her people. A whole galaxy where they lived in bondage, servitude to another, and long lives to extend that suffering.

He reached down to pick up the metal bands and said, "Of course. Thankfully it won't be for long." He picked up the blanket as well to wrap the bands in so neither of them had to look at it.

"With this we begin to buy back the freedom of your people and the galaxy. Rather poetic, I think."

||Location: Sol System
||Time: Unknown

Poetic. That was one way of putting it. Kir felt like there was some justice to be found in the symbols of slavery paving the way of their ambitious path to bring down the empire and free her people. There was still a flicker of doubt that she was trying to ignore. They were two people, and they needed to inspire an entire galaxy to fight back. Maybe more than that considering the rate at which the empire had expanded its reach before. By now, it could be two galaxies. A lot could happen in half a century… She badly needed to reorient herself and catch up as soon as they hit Kuiper Station. Harrison was relying on her out here; he didn’t know the first thing about navigating the diverse social and cultural norms in the larger galaxy.

Kir finally cleared her throat and said with a renewed smile, “Considering the shape the ship is in, I think I should probably keep an eye on things up front. I don’t think I trust the computer to navigate entirely on autopilot right now, and it won’t be much longer before we hit the outer edge of the Kuiper Belt. There’s not a lot of ship to explore, but I certainly won’t discourage you from letting your curiosity get the better of you. I know how exciting this is for you. Just be gentle with her - she’s falling apart.”

Of course she knew. They’d shared everything, and his child-like wonder was truly uplifting to see and feel. She wasn’t going to squash that.

“You can come join me in the cockpit when you’ve exhausted every corner, if you want,” she added an invitation offhandedly. Kir didn’t feel like it was necessary - he was always welcome in her space considering she’d broken down the most intimate walls of privacy between them now - but she offered the invitation anyway just so he truly understood that.

||Location: Sol System
||Time: Unknown

Harrison resonated with Kir's disappointment in the current state of the ship. He understood that part of the damage was from her journey to Earth, but it was still a beautiful aircraft, or rather spacecraft, and it deserved better than this. He nodded to her and watched as she headed back towards the cockpit. He then took his time analyzing every nook and cranny of the ship. He had her memories connected to his own, but he really wanted to examine and experience the ship through his own eyes, hands, and heart.

His curiosity and excitement made him feel like a kid bruising through a game or toy store, being fascinated by everything that caught his eye. As he toured the ship he thought to himself about how this was the first time in a long time that he felt at peace to just be. He wasn't being forced to do anything by the government, he wasn't dealing with some disaster, or grieving the loss of his father. He knew with the mission ahead of him that it'd be a while before he would feel this way again, so he wanted to make it last as long as possible.

||Location: Sol System
||Time: Unknown

The cockpit was quiet and familiar. Kir settled comfortably into the pilot's chair and surveyed the control panel in front of her. It was a relief they hadn't really touched this part of the ship, or at least not the pilot's controls. She assumed they left them in tact for reference considering the secondary command station next to hers for a co-pilot was a complete mess. She clicked her tongue, displeased but unsurprised. At this point, she wondered if it was even worth repairing the ship? Ships were expensive - or at least they were before - so repairing would be their only option for the time being until they could scrape together enough money to replace it with something at least comparable in size. Scrapping the ship itself would bring in some, but certainly not enough to replace it, not with how outdated the hardware probably was or the current overall condition.

Sighing, she refocused her attention on the present. A new ship was a problem for the future; they had enough problems to deal with at present already. Kir tapped away at the touch panel of the control panel, bringing up star maps and real-time systems diagnostics so she could keep an eye on the status of the ship as she redirected power from non-essential systems to the propulsion and life support systems. Normally the ships computer would have managed that without any additional input, but she didn't trust the AI to still be full in-tact.

Once Kir was satisfied with the adjustments, she sat back and watched the small dot on the star map that indicated their position slowly move along the flight path the navigation system had automatically charted. All seemed well, and it was provided a brief moment of peace as she simply observed. Kir let out a relieved hum and stretched. They had maybe another hour at most before she had to start the process to make contact and get permission to dock with the station, so she decided to enjoy the respite.