The strangest part about flying in a spaceship that appeared literally out of nowhere, aside from the fact that it literally showed up out of thin air, has to be the speed it travels.

I am no rocket expert, but I'm pretty sure this ship is traveling way faster than it should be able to, considering we passed the moon so quickly that it was merely a grey blur that disappeared within three seconds of us passing it.

I can't even see stars. All there is, is pitch black for as far as I can see, aside from the occasional planet or asteroid.

Pulling my eyes away from the window, I uncomfortably shifted my weight in the bar stool Conner offered me shortly before taking off. After acquainting me with the chef, who will apparently prepare anything I "need", Conner left to attend a meeting with several officers that were already on board the ship, leaving me with little to do other than to stare out the window in silence.

I quietly asked the chef for a lukewarm glass of water, which she all too happily delivered, and have been taking minuscule sips, while staring out the window for at least the past twenty minutes.

Since Conner dropped me off, the chef has taken several undiscreet moments to stare at me curiously as if I bore some unknown secret. I've tried to tune out her occasional glances, instead focusing on the dark color of the night sky against the sparkling glass or the comforting temperature of my half-empty glass of water, but my patience of avoiding her continued to thin as I ran out of suitable distractions.

Finally after another ten minutes of enduring strange glances and draining my now empty glass of water, I turned the barstool so I faced the curious chef, sticking out my hand awkwardly.

"I'm Elena."

The chef blushed a rosy shade of red upon my acknowledgement, briefly looking away in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.

"Hannah," she said with a bright smile that overtook her less prominent features such as her blonde curls of hair that grazed her arm, just past her shoulders.

I offered her a small smile.

"It's nice to meet you, Hannah."

"As it is my pleasure, Miss Elena."

I frowned briefly, scrunching my face as I absorbed her words.

"Just Elena is fine," I murmured, trying my best to be comforting instead of reproachful.

"Of course," she sputtered. "It's just that General Conner told me to call you that and I would never mean to disrespect you in any way and-" she gasped quickly as her lungs ran out of air.

I got the feeling that rambling was a common occurrence with Hannah. I smiled as I took note of her little quirk.

"It's fine, Hannah. Really, I would much rather prefer if you would treat me like a friend than someone to wait on and please."

She bowed her head gracefully.

"Of course, Mi- Elena."

I patted the bar stool next to me and gestured for Hannah to take a seat. At first she hesitated, almost if she were debating whether she was allowed to sit with me or not, but she didn't linger long before happily taking the seat to my left.

"I don't mean to be a bother, but I was wondering why General Conner told you to call me 'Miss Elena'."

A cross of confusion and wonder passed over Hannah's face.

"Aren't you engaged to the prince?" She asked innocently.

I could feel the blood drain from my face into an utterly pale color. If I had been sipping my glass of water just now, I am all too certain that I would have just spit it out to the floor.

"What?!"

Hannah cringed away from the sound of my shout, and gently shook her head so her blond curls covered more of her face.

"You didn't know," she almost silently whispered.

I stared resolutely into her golden eyes.

"No. I didn't. But I can assure you that I am not getting married any time soon, and certainly not to a prince I haven't even met."

Suddenly, all of the pieces feel together. Why Conner was looking for me specifically. Why everyone on the unexpectedly large ship have insisted on addressing me formally by the terms of "lady" and "miss" instead of my preferred, "Elena". I nearly groaned at the realization, and the sudden feeling of revulsion towards Conner.

A voice behind me interrupted my thoughts and I turned to see a familiar figure leaning by the door way.

"Now what's all of this talk about marriage?" Conner asked sporting a smirk, which he wore surprisingly well for his age.

I crossed my arms and stood up from the stool.

"You lied to me," I accused in my most menacing voice.

From Conner's relaxed expression, I gathered my menacing expression was far from menancing.

"About what?"

He furrowed his eyebrows, and frowned innocently as if he truly did have no idea what I was talking about.

"You're trying to marry me off to a prince!" I yelled, jabbing a finger in his direction.

He paused for a second before breaking down into a series of chuckles and laughs.

Hannah visibly paled.

"Who told you that? Surely we both know that nobody in their right mind could force you to do anything that you don't want to. Even the king and queen themselves know that. Of things certainly not marriage."

I raised my eyebrow between him and Hannah. I certainly didn't want to throw Hannah under the bus to Conner, but I didn't want to disregard her statement as an outright lie either.

"Then why was the idea brought to my attention if it was false? Certainly such obtuse rumors don't surface by themselves?"

Conner pressed his lips into a firm line and grimaced.

"You're not exactly engaged to the prince." He hesitated. "Excuse me for my lack of formality, but I heard from several people that you preferred to be addressed informally. But, continuing, the engagement talk is more of an assumption than true fact. It is assumed that you will eventually marry the prince, but if you don't want to, he certainly wouldn't force you to. In fact, he ensured that you wouldn't be forced to marry him, despite whatever circumstances arise."

I frowned.

"Is that why the king and queen offered me hospitality and protection?" I nearly choked on the words. "So I will marry their son?"

Conner twisted his face into a deep frown, and sighed.

"I don't know, Elena. His and her majesty didn't brief me on their intentions, when they ordered me to pick you up. I can make an educated assumption, but the last thing I would want would be to put the wrong idea in your head, and make you wary of them before you even get the chance to meet them."

My lips curled down in distaste.

"I already have the wrong idea in my head," I muttered, irritated, under my breath.

Hannah gave me a sympathetic smile, as she moved to place a comforting hand on my shoulder. The gesture made me miss Lily.

"Don't worry, Elena. King Chandler and Queen May are two of the kindest souls I've ever met." She looked embarrassed as her head shifted to the floor. "I actually work as their personal chef."

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"Then how are you here? It must bother them if you're so far away from the palace."

Her head quirked up as she softly made her next statement with obvious pleasure.

"They asked me to serve you until you reach the mothership."

I choked on a cough.

"The what?"

"The mother ship..." she said slowly as if I should know what it is.

As thoughts of alien apocalypses and the fact that we are on a silver ship travelling far too fast registered in my thoughts, hesitantly, I backed away from Hannah and Conner with my hands out as a sign of caution.

Hannah and Conner exchanged a look of confusion between themselves before turning to give me a comforting smile. However, strangely enough, nothing about their smiles were comforting.

"I don't know what the 'mother ship' is, or why the king and queen want to host me as their guest...but at this point I would much rather not find out." I turned to face Conner. "Officer Conner, when you asked me aboard this...ship, you said I could see my sister. I wish to take full advantage of that offer, and...exit this vehicle as soon as possible."

Conner rubbed a finger against his brow and scrunched his eyebrows in confusion.

"Why would you want that?"

I could feel my face flush a bright pink as I pictured telling Conner that I wanted to leave because I thought him and Hannah were potential aliens. I squeezed my eyelids tightly and groaned. Surely I had been watching far too many science fiction movies with Lily.

I tried to brush off the statement with the excuse that I missed my sister and friend too dearly to be apart from them, but the glint in Conner's eye told me he knew I was lying, but either way he never called me out on my white lie, so we both chose to ignore it like it never existed.

"I will be happy to bring up the matter with the king and queen once we arrive," Conner said calmly.

I frowned.

"Why can't you take me back now?" I argued.

Conner smirked and gestured out the sparkling glass window, which I've ignored for the entirety of our argument.

When I caught sight of the large ship that sparkled like the reflections of thousands of diamonds I gasped. It's beautiful, I whispered against silence.

Flanking both of my sides, Hannah and Conner also watched as our ship slowed to a moderate speed, and approached a docking station on the underside of the grand ship.

My palms moved to touch the window, entranced by the gleam of silver that continued to reflect the light of the stars, as we docked with an audible click.

I peered up to Conner with my brow raised, and in return, he offered me a quaint smile.

"I can't take you back yet, Elena, because I'm afraid we're already here."

I stared out the window in an attempt to gather where "here" was. But, unfortunately, after we docked, a screen of black closed off the window so I could longer look outside it.

"Besides," Conner continued, "I doubt the king and queen will let you leave without saying goodbye."

Wonderful, I muttered to myself.