The next week was filled with success! Cassiopeia reached level 6 of her career and was now an Ufologist (which was SO funny to her).
She also finally put herself to work on her own spaceship, using pieces of the plane crash, and for the start of the winter she was done with the structure and reached level 10 of the Rocket Science skill. She was helping the humans, that’s right, but she didn’t forget she still had to go back home.
She had to… Right?
(Mastering the Rocket Science skill goal: down!)
When the weeked rolled again in, H.R. called Cassiopeia to meet at the same place, and she had big news.
"I have your spore filter! Now you just need a hazmat suit and you’ll be able to go into the depths of the crater’s lab!"
"That won’t be a problem, Erw… I mean, E.P. already gave me one!" Cassiopeia beamed.
"Then you are all ready to go. Good luck C.P.!"
The two women were so busy celebrating that they were a step closer to saving the town that they didn't notice someone eavesdropping.
"H.R… Hayley Riggins huh… What a traitor…"
Cassiopeia’s plan was to meet Erwin at the Curio Shop and go with him to the crater’s lab as soon as she had the spore filter… But Erwin’s shop was closed and he was nowhere to be seen. He wouldn’t answer her calls either. He wasn’t bailing on her again, was he?
Since Erwin was out of reach she texted Jess instead.
“Jess, I can’t contact Erwin. If you see him tell him I’ll be going to the lab first. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful, I just want to take a quick look.”
Since Erwin wasn’t there with her it would be in and out. She just needed to know what was going on down there. It would be a quick peek…
"(Mamma mia) Here I go again…"
The thing was Cassiopeia didn’t want to go down there alone again… but the curiosity got the best of her, just like it did when she fell through the portal to Simearth. It was scary, she didn’t want to lose control of herself, but she did want to know.
So she took a step, and then took another one, and slowly she did her way down the hallway until she found herself in front of another door. Nothing was happening… Nothing was happening!!
"It’s working!! I have to thank H.R. again for this!"
The door led her to another fly of stairs and then… she walked directly into a scene that felt taken from a horror movie.
They had dozens of those extraterrestrial flowers kept inside glass containers. But not only that… When Cassiopeia approached the back of the room she saw something that made it hard to hold the contents of her stomach inside. They had pieces of the flowers lying on top of tables, connected to batteries. The dismembered tendrils were still beating, squirming. She could almost feel their pain in her bones, and desperation washed over her like a tsunami.
The echo of screams for help came back to her mind, and they made sense now. Humans didn’t just trap them here… they tormented them.
And that place… That place was a huge torture chamber. That’s what it was.
Sadness made Cassiopeia's body feel like freezing, so she barely managed to drag herself to the last door. She already knew what she would find there. She knew it deep in her heart, her soul and her mind. She knew it for a long time. But she didn’t want to accept the cruel truth.
The door rattled open and when Cassiopeia saw her for the first time, she couldn’t stop the tears anymore.
"We finally meet… Mother"
Because Mother was just like her. An alien.