Chapter Text
They were cruising through space, completely chilled out, when the ships collided.
It had been a pretty ordinary day for the crew of the S.S. Alexander. The aptly named Ravaxis Starburner was currently on a three-star streak and he had no intention of stopping there; his rescuee-turned-crewmate Commander Cosmo had recommended some white dwarfs a few lightyears east of Jupiter, so that's where they were headed . As for the non-humanoid residents, things were just peachy - Booplax was busy chomping on a nice fresh leg of Galaxian goat meat, and Gidget was conducting his regular inspection of the hydrogen tanks .
Exhausted from the destruction of several cosmic entities in the span of six hours, Rav had let his friend take the wheel . Instead of captaining the ship as usual he was lounging in the passenger seat, sea-green legs splayed out across the control panels .
"This is the life," sighed Rav happily , slurping on a pouch of liquified mac-and-cheese that Cosmo had procured from the ruins of Moon Base Gamma One . "Three stars in one day; en route to the fourth. Got ma fave commander beside me. No Booplax in sight. And now this. " Here Rav gestured in front of him to a brilliant view of Europa, its striated visage spanning the whole of the ship's convex front window . "Ain't she beautiful?"
"Mhm," replied Cosmo, too focused on piloting to care very much. It had been a while since he'd taken charge, and besides, he'd flown past Europa dozens of times. By this point any object in the Milky Way was second nature to him; the novelty had worn off decades ago. But somehow Rav could wax poetic about even the smallest of comets. He was just apathetic towards stars.
"Don'tcha wish your Moon was like that? Smoothest surface in the whole Solar System, high albedo, metallic core--"
"Well, Rav, that's only a possibility," pointed out a tinny voice from behind him. "No one has verified the nature of Europa's core as of yet . Studies have suggested a mixture of iron and nickel."
Rav rolled his eyes as he swivelled around, plastering a sarcastic grin on his face. "Gidget! Boy am I happy to see ya." Cosmo laughed from beside him as Rav leapt up from the passenger seat and gave the poor robot a hearty slap on the back, sending it stumbling forward. "How're the tanks?"
"Working to regular parameters," Gidget began, "but our supplies are limited . We have enough fuel to get us to your-- targets, " he added disapprovingly , "but the surplus will only last 0.3934 light years . It is imperative that the ship is able to refuel before we return to automatic control."
"BOOPLAX!" shrieked an ungodly voice from under the passenger seat.
"Tell me somethin' I don't know," Rav grumbled. "What are we gonna do? We can't make it back to Jupiter on fumes."
"There's a blue matter portal just past Erinome," Cosmo replied, reaching under his chair to scratch behind Booplax's ears . The quadruped purred in contentment. "We can easily make it through with what we have. After that I'll steer us to Kazooland and we can stock up in Preferbia. While we're there--"
Rav's eyes lit up, a rush of amber and gold as he realised --
"We'll visit Biscuit Town!" Ravaxis cried, grinning ear to ear as he whooped and hollered. His razor-sharp canines gleamed in the light as he rushed back over to the command deck and threw his arms around his crewmate, resting his head on Cosmo's shoulder .
"Can this day get any better? Yer the best, Cos'. The smartest. I could kiss ya right now." And he did - he pressed his viridian lips to the deep purple of Cosmo's cheek before sitting back down.
This sort of affection between them had been going on for at least a few decades, but it never ceased to make Commander Cosmo flush a vivid pink all the way from his cheeks to the top of his ears . The constellations in his skin twinkled and shone, shooting stars dancing across the bridge of his nose . "Well, uh, thanks, Rav."
"No sweat," said his alien friend with a smile, and Cosmo's crystalline heart would have skipped a little beat if it could beat at all . But he shook it off as he always did - Rav was his only friend out here and he wasn't going to sabotage that for anything. Besides, he had some serious piloting to do. No time for feelings.
Satisfied that that brief pang of adoration had subsided, Cosmo returned his focus to the convex front window . But before he could fully take in what was before him
"LOOK OUT!"
CRASH. Glass smashed and splintered everywhere. The impact blew Rav, Gidget and Booplax backwards, the captain's mouth wide open in a silent scream. Only Cosmo remained upright- his superhuman endurance certainly came in handy at times like these . Everything seemed to go into slow-motion as he assessed the situation, and before he knew it he was hovering over the control panels, pushing whatever had just slammed into them backwards with all his might .
Alarms sounded. Sirens wailed. Rav grabbed onto a piece of metal railing, wincing as Booplax clutched at his back hard enough to draw blood. Gidget anchored himself to the floor with one hand, slamming the other onto a big red button on the wall.
Emergency blast shields initiated, resounded a feminine voice from the overhead comms. With a groan, Cosmo gave one great push - and just like that the ship that had crashed into them was gone, hurtling back through the broken window and off into space . The blast shields kicked in as soon as the foreign object had been ejected , shutting with enough force to knock Gidget over again .
The entire ordeal had lasted less than a minute. It took about a millisecond for Cosmo to fly over to Rav's side and even less so to yank Booplax off of him, causing the humanoid to hiss in pain .
"Rav, Rav, Ravaxis," gasped Cosmo, hands running over the claw marks that had ripped the captain's shirt, "I'm so sorry, I'm so stupid, I didn't see-- I wasn't-- are you okay ?"
Rav lifted himself up with one arm and a pained grunt, shooting the commander a weak smile as he did so. Cosmo's face shifted again into a bright rose hue. "I'm fine, Starboy. Jus' worried about the ship. Gidget, how we doin'?"
"Not great, Rav. The window is damaged beyond repair and our oxygen levels are at 80 perce..." Gidget trailed off, staring into the distance, his photoreceptors dull and glazed over. It was as if he could hear something the others could not. "You might want to check the airlock."
Cosmo didn't think twice before zooming out of the control hub and through the corridor to the other end of the S.S. Alexander . He rushed towards the porthole and checked what was outside.
"A starship," Cosmo called out to the others. "It's a starship!"
"No shit," grumbled Rav, stumbling into the entry room. Gidget followed close behind with a roll of bandages that the captain had refused, photoreceptors darting about nervously as he examined Rav's injuries . Cosmo just rolled his eyes at his friend's blunt nature.
"No, Rav, it's a star ship. A star-shaped ship."
Rav scoffed. "Whatever ya say, hotshot. A star-shaped starship? That's the most redundant thing I've ever--"
He was quickly cut off when Cosmo grabbed him under his elbows and lifted him up to the porthole's height. Not only was it actually a star-shaped spaceship, but an array of neon lights flashed through the ship's many portholes, dousing its surroundings in a rainbow of colour. Their airlock was painted similarly, with decals of flowers and hearts and peace signs plastered all over, and Rav swore he could hear the faint hum of funky music from inside. Most interesting, though, were the fresh dents covering the colourful ship's exterior.
"Well, damn. You were right."
Once Cosmo had put him down, Rav turned to the others with a sheepish grin.
"Sooooo, are we lettin' them in?"