Izumi's Epic Journey: The Reality Of Fear and Faith

The alien floated on the other side of the glass, his large gray body and four small appendages held aloft by a strange, bubble-like patch on his back. His four large eyes were fixed on Izumi as she stared at him through the thick glass.

"What's it doing?" She asked.

"He's stretching," her mother replied. "They do that to stay limber."

"That's... interesting."

Izumi approached the creature, studying it closely. It looked like a cross between a whale and an elephant seal, but its skin was smooth, without any hair or fur. Its flippers were long, ending in sharp hooks, which Izumi could only assume were weapons of some kind. She squinted at its head, trying to pick out its eyes from the rest of its face. The way the creature moved wasn't too different from how an elephant seal would move; shifting from one foot to another before launching itself forward with impressive speed and agility. A light traveled along the creature's back and stopped over the bubble patch before disappearing again. Izumi had no idea what that meant or what it meant for her personally, but she knew she wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. It was going to be at least another year before they could make contact with the space creatures properly.

She turned away from the creature and walked back to where her mother was standing. Her mother had been watching her intently since she walked into the room. To Izumi, her calmness was unnerving; she always seemed collected even when things were getting hectic. This made Izumi feel uneasy in this moment because she felt as though her mother thought this whole thing was exciting rather than terrifyingly dangerous.

"When can I go back home?" She asked suddenly. "I really miss everyone."

Her mother sighed softly and put an arm around her shoulders as they walked towards their ship's exit. "You know you can't go back yet," she said gently, "but you'll be able to talk to them soon."

Izumi paced around the small room in frustration. It was so frustrating! They'd been studying these creatures for years now, but now that they finally had a translator installed in their ship, they couldn't communicate with them! Izumi didn't have time for this! She had family waiting for her back home! She couldn't just let them sit there wondering if she was alright! This mission shouldn't have taken this long in the first place!

The door opened suddenly and Izumi spun around to see who it was that entered without knocking first, which was something everyone had learned to do after Izumi started punching people in their faces when they accidentally knocked while talking to her while she was reading or doing something else that required total silence or focus. Standing in front of her, looking just as frazzled as she did, were two of her crewmates: Fumiko and Hiroto. They both looked at Izumi with looks of distress on their faces; Fumiko moreso than Hiroto because Hiroto didn't really care about personal relationships and generally kept himself busy most of the time anyway so he didn't notice when someone wasn't acting normally until it got unbearable for him to ignore them anymore and he had no choice but to ask about it directly or indirectly through subtle hints that only he understood and nobody else picked up on so he'd eventually tell them directly after realizing he'd have to at some point anyways because otherwise people would start asking him about it until he answered them finally anyway because he hated being pestered like that so much that it hurt his head when people pressed him about things too much so he avoided them as much as possible by doing whatever it took not to get pestered like that unless he couldn't avoid it anymore because sometimes people just bugged him too damn much so that's why Izumi punched people sometimes because they bugged her too damn much) but Fumiko cared a lot more about personal relationships than Hiroto did so she definitely noticed when something was wrong with one of her friends way earlier than Hiroto would've done (Hiroto would've probably noticed eventually if someone died right next to him while he ignored everything else happening around him though).

They quickly shut the door behind themselves before approaching Izumi slowly and putting their hands on either side of her shoulders gently in an effort not to scare her too much (it didn't help much). In spite of their efforts though, Izumi still jumped away from them slightly before glaring at them furiously as if daring them to say one word about how childish she was being right now (she didn't care; she already knew exactly what they'd say).

Fumiko sighed softly before speaking up softly with a look of understanding on her face (which made Izumi want to punch that look off more than anything else right now) "I know," she said soothingly while putting an arm around Izumi's shoulders gently (which calmed her down a little bit), "but maybe you should take a break? You haven't left your room all day."