Space. It has been described as a dark, endless, and lifeless void. But it's more than that. It's always been more than that. Scientist Carl Satan once said: "Across the sea of space, the stars are other suns." And it's true, more suns than grains of sand on earth. It's all so close, and yet so far. At least, it used to be.

Captain Alex sat in his office pondering this. His office was small but he liked that. It had a desk in the corner on the far wall across from the door, where he worked on everything. The room was furnished with books, trinkets, and things he's gotten from past expositions. His favorite part of the room however, was the window. It was in the middle of the wall to the right of the door.

Why was this window so special you may ask? Nothing special about it. Took up most of the wall, pretty bland in design. It was what it showed that always entranced Captain Alex: everything. The window showed him everything that existed in the universe, but to be more literal it showed the outside of his ship.

Even when Alex was a boy, he thirsted to go into space. It was his dream. After long years of training, he finally was given his captain title, and given his own ship. No crew however, too expensive. Besides, he wouldn't have wanted their boring lifeless crew. He needed a crew with personality, with life. One by one he found his crew, handpicked by him. Sometimes, he thinks they picked him in a way.

Suddenly, the captain got an alert on his computer, interrupting his thoughts, telling him to come down to the bridge. He sighed, putting on his leather jacket.

-

He entered the bridge and sat down in his chair. "What's the status?" Alex asked, scratching his 5 o' clock shadow. A crewman turned his chair to face him. "We're getting closer to the designated planet." The crewman said. "Very good. Proceed on course." Alex turned to his third in command, Sarah. "How's it shakin' beautiful?" He said with a laugh.

Sarah was a friend he met while training to be a captain. She was extremely intelligent, and dare he say, extremely beautiful. She had long black hair, was very thin, and had a sort of mousy face. She looked looked at him unimpressed and pushed up on her glasses.

"We're right on schedule captain. Oh, and if you want to keep all ten fingers by the end of this trip, I would advise against calling me beautiful." She said walking away, clipboard in hand. "Love you too!" He yelled as she walked out of sight.

"She doesn't seem very interested, maybe it's time to flirt with some other crew members." Said a familiar voice behind Alex. He turned around and saw Cameron. Cameron was his second in command, and his childhood best friend. He was of African-American decent, and had braids tied up in a ponytail, and had a beard. Alex chuckled at his statement. "Me? Flirt? Don't be ridiculous." Alex said sarcastically.

Cameron scoffed. "Please don't insult my intelligence. You bed anything that moves: women, men-" "That was one time!" Alex said in his defence. Cameron ignored him, "-and even a few alien species that didn't have any way to tell between the two. You're what us humans would call: a "douchebag".

Alex laughed for a while, and eventually, Cameron joined him. When the laughter died down, Alex put a hand on Cameron's shoulder. "I'm going to check on the rest of the crew. You're in charge until I return." Alex said as he left.

-

Alex was walking through the maintenance walkways when he spotted Aaron walking with a hologram clipboard with Camila following him. Aaron was a small guy who looked pretty nerdy by Alex's standards: Big fluffy hair, black glasses, and short. He was the tech expert of the ship, and God bless him for it, because Alex couldn't understand some of the new gadgets they brought on if he tried.

Camila was a big and strong looking girl, and was the muscle of their ship. She also was the weapons expert of the ship. She was tall, muscular (much more than Alex, which made him jealous to no end), and had the sides of her head shaved but hair on the top. She was varying some huge piece of machinery over her shoulder.

"What's the status report on the ship tech Aaron?" Alex asked Aaron,causing both him and Camila to stop. "Everything is in tip-top shape as of right now, though knowing how we operate, after this mission, the ship will need lots of work." Aaron said, voice lowered and fidgeting with his hands. Alex felt bad how shy this kid was.

Camila put the machinery down and ruffled Aaron's hair, causing Aaron to instinctively move out of reach. "Don't worry! I'll help you with the heavy lifting." She said kindly to him. Aaron blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Y-yeah that'd help thanks." They said their goodbyes and they walked away.

Alex walked into the doctor's office. Doctor Tyler was a creep, plain and simple. The guy couldn't keep himself from flirting with every female patient that walked through the door. Alex judged him, trying to ignore the fact that he did the exact same thing.

As he walked in, the doctor was sitting on his stool flirting with the nurse. He said something about her breasts, to which she replied by docking him in the face, causing him to fall out of his chair. He got back on his chair when he saw Alex.

"Ah! Captain Alex! Come right in!" Tyler said. Tyler was an odd looking guy too. He had long black hair that sometimes fell in his face, a black mustache and goatee, and big glasses. Half the time the light was reflecting on the lenses too much to see his eyes.

"Actually Doc, I just came by to let you know we were almost there." Alex said. Tyler spun in his chair as he saluted. "Aye aye captain! Just let me know if there are any gorgeous aliens on this planet of yours!" Tyler said as Alex walked out.

Finally, Alex walked into the engine room to find his mechanic. He didn't see her anywhere so he started calling for her. "Where could she be?" He said out loud. "Up here!" He heard a voice say. He looked up and saw a girl in suspenders hanging up in the rafters. She jumped down and landed right in front of him.

Tina was an odd bun fun girl. She had big poofy red hair, a bandana around her head, freckles all over, suspenders, big round glasses, and was always covered in some sort of oil or dirt. She smiled a big toothy smile, holding a big wrench over her shoulder. "Almost finished with the tune-up! I've been having TôrEn help me." Tina said.

Just then, there was a big crash of metal over by the shelves, and the two of them ran over to see what happened. The contents of a shelf had spilled, and right in the middle of it was TôrEn. "Sorry! I shouldn't have climbed up there!" She said apologetically.

TôrEn had a tragic past. She's an alien from a planet that was wiped out by a genocide. They brought her onboard without telling the council and she's been a crew member ever since. She had blue skin, curly link hair, and six, yes six, eyes, all on top of each other in two rows of three right where normal human eye placement would be.

Tina helped Torên up and helped her get dusted off. "Do I, as you humans say it, still look ok?" Torên asked, causing the captain and Tina to laugh.

"Torên, you always look beautiful. Now suit up, we're almost there." Tina said, causing what the captain supposed was a blush to appear on Torên's face. "Ok! Good luck captain!" Torên said to Alex as she hurried away. He nodded and went back up to the bridge.

- They finally landed on the planet. According to the info they had on it, which was very scarce, it was only inhabited by one colony of people. Alex, Sarah and Cameron left the ship to talk to the colony. The planet was smaller than most but in what it lacked size, it made up for in beauty.

Every plant, body of water and living creature was filled with color and life. The plants a mix of green and blue that made it look as cool as water. The water was crystals clear, and when the sunset hit it, it plummeted like the thousands of stars that soon would fill the very sky above it. They began to walk through the dense wildlife area to the colony.

The wildlife smelled of freshly cut grass and the water smelled fresh and clean. It reminded Alex of Earth. He was snapped out of the trance the wildlife around him seemingly had when something jumped out in front of him.

It was a four legged creature that was a dark shade of red and brown. It's body was the size of a bear but was shaped differently. It's body round and back hunched but it's legs toned and ready to pounce. It's yellow eyes a stark contrast from it's dark fur. It had a large thick about and small ears. It's growl was so low and long, it almost didn't sound like it wasn't coming from the beast. It shook the trees.

The three got in their battle formations when suddenly they heard an odd yell and chant from all around them. The beast never broke eye contact, but somehow still seemed like it was ready for an attack from anywhere. A man who looked similar to an elf from folklore but with blue skin and red hair jumped from a bush with a sword with the darkest metal Alex had ever seen. It had a purple tint to it.

"Chrotinium. That's what we're here for." Sarah whispered to him. The sword slashed the neck of the beast. The beast jumped out of the way so fast, none of them even saw it. Soon, other began trying to fight the beast. It all seemed so strangely...synchronized. Planned almost. Alex saw this was going nowhere and pulled out his blaster. He shot it in the head, hoping to main it.

If only he had heard the warnings of the attackers. It only infuriated the beast. Or roared a mighty but low roar, and charged at him. Suddenly, it stopped before it hit him. That's when Alex saw why. A man dressed in clothing different from the others had slammed his sword into the head of the beast, killing it instantly.

The warrior pulled the knife out, covering his knife in what looked to be a yellowish-orange substance. Blood. The man turned to the three as the attackers celebrated and started to carry the beast away. "We apologize for that, the beasts here are very dangerous and will kill on sight. We were hoping to send a guide to collect you but you got here earlier than anticipated." The warrior said.

"And just who are you exactly?" Alex asked the man. The man chuckled. "My name is Tar-Raj, the chief of the colony Sun-Ra. Welcome, to paradise."