Blur.

Sleep.

Smoke.

Fire.

I jolted awake and frantically looked around me. There were flames engulfing the walls of the cockpit, and the intense smoke was making me hack and cough. As fast as my legs could carry me, I ran to the door and quickly put my hand on the print sensor. Instead, it made a weird mechanical sound as of it were using the last of its life to try and scan my hand, and suddenly exploded, knocking me on my back.

The world became blurry again. I heard footsteps. A crash. My name. Another crash. Some other words. A final crash.

Then darkness.

-

"RUBY!"

"RUBY?!"

Pearl was hovering over me with a terrified look on her face. "Thank heaven," she muttered as she covered her mouth with her hands. I had a throbbing headache, and my right hand and back felt like they were on fire. "Pearl? What the..." Her expression turned from relieved to fuming angry, and she retorted, "You have second degree burns all over your body including a third-degree on the back of your arm, there were multiple shards of broken glass lodged in your right hand, you have a concussion, and your back is severely bruised! And you said, 'Oh, it's fine, we'll just get it fixed when we get to Glavani.' You would have died if I hadn't decided to bring the fire tablets!" Tears were falling out of her gray eyes, and she was tugging on her blonde hair like she does when she's upset. "Pearl..." I managed to mutter, "I'm fine now..." I did a little half-smirk to prove my point. "You're not fine!" She yelled. "I mean, look at you... even if you fully heal, you'll still have a few scars..." At that, she sat in a chair behind her, covered her face, and wept.

-

I opened my eyes again, and this time, I felt more alert. Looking around I noticed I was in the First Aid room in the medical chair, its back folded out to make a flat bed. My right hand had a bandage wrapped tightly around it and had spots of red on parts of it. Holes had been burned in parts of my clothes, and there must have been burns there too, since there were white patches where the holed had burned through. My body stung all over, and I had a massive headache. My right arm had a cast, and surprisingly, it didn't hurt much. I tried to sit up, but my back wouldn't let me.

"Hey, Ruby, how ya doin'?" Asked a familiar voice behind me.

"I've seen better days," I said with a light chuckle. She appeared on my right and sat down in a chair beside me. Then, I realized something. "Pearl," I said hastily, "The ship, how-"

"Don't worry," she interrupted, "I turned on emergency autopilot, and it's headed towards some sort of man-made settlement. It's called something like... Jarry Barti..."

"You mean Jaruri Birati?" I corrected. That's a Parakan reservation. They accept visitors and get a lot of them yearly for their outstanding cuisine and love for luxury, but they can often be cold to certain people who are not quite on their level... which would include us.

"Yeah, that's it." she said. "You know anything about it?"

"Not much, but I do know that they're pretty high-class."

"Oh," she said, getting out of her chair. "Well, we'll be arriving at... Jarhohe Beartea in about a week, more or less, so get some rest and you might be well enough to leave the ship."

"Got it, sis. Don't worry about me. And it's Jaruri Birati."

"Whatever," she said with a slight smile. I smiled back, and she left the room.

-~-

A/N

Hey guys! So I know it's been a while since I've been active, but I think I've got a story idea! IT will be a rough draft for now, but once I write the whole story I will go back through it. Tell me your thoughts and I'll try to get chapter 2 written as soon as possible!