Uncharted Worlds: Reb and Mirabel's Journey

Reb and Mirabel are a married couple from another galaxy. They'd once been part of an exploration team in the Milky Way, until their funding had run out. Reb and Mirabel were among the first wave of explorers who found their way to other galaxies--galaxies with intelligent life, galaxies with people who could be reasoned with, who could understand language, who like humans had all the same parts, if not in the same places.

But then their funding ran out. They'd been on a world called Earth, helping an Earthling nation fight off another Earthling nation. The Earthlings said they needed help fighting the one faction because they were bad guys. The other faction said they were good guys, but they were actually worse. They worshiped some guy named Jesus and wanted to send everyone to hell for being gay or something. So Reb and Mirabel joined the side that was right, even though it went against their principles, because those principles hadn't saved them back on their home planet when someone had tried to destroy them for exactly the same reason.

The war had gone on for years on Earth and it was getting worse every day. The people who paid Reb and Mirabel's bills needed them back at work soon or there would be no more space travel to new worlds for anyone. They took what little money they had left in cash and booked passage on a ship bound for home.

They got into an argument as soon as they left Earth's atmosphere. There had been an argument before takeoff about whether or not they should tip the pilot and where they should put their luggage while they flew through space (in front of them or behind), so it continued as they sat strapped into their seats. Finally Reb decided he couldn't listen to another word Mirabel said without losing his mind, so he took off his helmet so he could speak more freely without hurting her ears. That way he wouldn't have to listen to her screeching either.

"I told you," she said loudly over the noise of interstellar space rushing past the ship's windows. "You should have just tipped him."

"We don't know him," Reb shouted back at her over the rush of air from his lungs making noise in his diaphragm and throat before escaping out through his mouth into space around them both. "He didn't earn it."

"That's ridiculous," she said, throwing up her hands in exasperation so hard that her hair flew up behind her head and hit Reb in the face by accident. "Where did you learn such garbage?" She looked away from him and toward the view outside their window instead of looking at him anymore, which meant she was depressed again after a short time spent being angry with him for no good reason other than she was tired of living under poor conditions when she didn't want to be poor anymore any more than he did himself. He was glad she wasn't looking at him now because it gave him a second to collect himself before speaking again without sounding angry back at her when really he wasn't angry at all--just sad that she was sad most of the time now ever since that day five years ago on their home planet when terrorists had attacked them both in broad daylight on a busy street somewhere near where they lived together alone together happily quietly together in a big house with three floors and lots of rooms plus a basement down below full of things important just to him him alone not even to her anymore because she didn't need those things any more than he did either in order for them both to live long happy lives together happily quietly together forever doing nothing but loving each other every single moment of every single day until the end of time itself unless someone tried to take that love from them or separate them one from another even temporarily or permanently which would never happen because they were too strong together too smart together too good together too married together too much alike in all the right ways both physically mentally emotionally spiritually morally practically. They complemented each other and brought out the best in one another, truly two halves of one beautiful whole. This love they shared was something that could stand the test of time, weathering any hardship or obstacle that life might throw at them.

Yet here they were, in a spaceship far away from their home planet, stuck in a seemingly endless loop of arguments and misunderstandings. Each moment they spent bickering felt like a waste, as if some invisible force was stealing away the precious time they had left to be happily, quietly together. Reb felt his heart ache at the thought, longing for the simpler days when it was just them, existing in harmony with one another.

As they continued to argue on this small ship hurtling through the vast expanse of space, Mirabel's voice trailed off into a rambling mess of repetitive, nonsensical thoughts. Both of them felt the weight of their current situation pressing down on them, making every word and action feel heavy and meaningless. "I wish we could go back home," Mirabel