“Like this?”

“Yeah, just like that!”

The buzzing of the welding torch could only be discerned by the two individuals standing by the intersection of two large metal beams. The rest of the factory floor was crawling with various other activities that nearly drowned out their conversation, from other welders performing their jobs to workers conversing while on their dinner breaks. After the buzzing and glow of the torch ceased, one of the men raised his mask to pat the welder-in-training on the shoulder. He was a vaguely canine species, one that appeared to have features from other races as well, which was the tell-tale sign of someone being from a planet with multiple dominant species. His body was covered in orange fur, with it slightly longer on the top of his head to resemble messy black hair. His fur was dirty, full of dirt, soot, grease, and other residues from his line of work. Nevertheless, he wore a cheery smile, indicating that he was proud of the one he had been instructing.

“The trick is to make sure you’ve got a good straight weld that goes all the way through. It’s better for structural integrity, and it looks nicer on the metal. Just keep that in mind, and you’re golden!”

The recipient of the advice nodded as he raised his mask as well. He looked vaguely canine as well, but mostly vulpine with his snout, sharp and striking deep blue eyes, and ears all resembling the features of many fox-like species out in the cosmos. His cobalt blue fur was similarly dirtied like his companion, with the blue fur covering most of his body. His lower face, neck, abdomen, and tip of his tail sported a gray color that contrasted nicely with the blue. His hair was long as well, normally flowing past his shoulders when he didn’t tie it up while on the job, and his physique was quite muscular, even more so than his instructor, who already had an impressive build.

“Thanks.”

The blue creature responded to the advice with a faint smile and a nod as he flipped his mask back down and got back to work, with the instructor quickly doing the same to protect his eyes from the bright sparks.

“So! What brings you here? And why’d you choose welding?”

“Didn’t have anywhere else to go. And this pays better than any other job I could get.”

“Hah! Fair enough! You’ll meet a lot of others just like you in this business. Buncha welders drifting around the systems looking for work.”

“Just like me, huh…”

The creature mumbled that part quietly to himself as he continued working. About half an hour later, he fully completed the weld and pulled his mask up again.

“Guess that’s that.”

“Oh, yeah! For a beginner, you’re better than most professionals I know! It makes me so proud to know that you’ve already made it so far!”

He patted the blue creature on the shoulder while the fox took his mask and welding gloves off.

“Guess I’m just a fast learner.”

“Hey, I’m not complaining! Also, I don’t think I actually ever got your name?”

“Hmmm?”

He looked back over his shoulder at the orange canine as he took his equipment over to the various lockers.

“It’s Pax.”

“Oh, well it’s nice to meet you, Pax!”

He shook the creature’s hand with the same cheery smile from before.

“Everyone here just calls me Desk, so you can too!”

“Desk? What is that, a nickname or something?”

“Nah, it’s the name the rest of the crew working here gave me. I was an orphaned infant that got stuffed inside of a desk somehow, and they nearly smashed it with me still in it at the nearby junkyard!”

“…”

Pax blinked a few times.

“Ah… I uh… I see.”

“Yeah! Pretty crazy story, huh? And I’ve been here ever since, just learning how to fix anything and everything!”

“So you don’t have a family or anything? And you don’t even know where you come from?”

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, this place is my family, and this factory and workshop is my home!”

Pax looked away as he finished locking up his equipment.

“Good to see that things worked out for you, I guess.”

“Thanks, Pax! But what about you? You thinking of sticking around and maybe living here with us?”

Pax closed his locker and quietly sighed.

“I’d love to, but I can’t. As soon as I finish learning how to fix things on my own, I’ll need to leave.”

“Ah, yeah. I get how it is. But hey, I’ll always be here if you ever wanna swing by. We’ve only known each other for like a week but you’re easily one of the best people I know!”

Pax looked at him with a confused expression while he crossed his arms.

“Really? Not gonna ask me where I’m from or where I’m going or why I need to leave?”

Desk scoffed.

“Doesn’t really matter in the end. This place is just a pitstop for wanderers and drifters. I know they’ve all got their reasons, and I just try to help them the best I can.”

“You’re being awfully nice to some random guy looking for work.”

“I was in your shoes once. Well, kind of. I just know what it’s like to not exactly have all of your ducks in a row, if ya know what I mean.”

Pax seemed to ponder his response for a bit until Desk gently punched him in the shoulder before walking off.

“Eh, don’t worry about it! We better get down to the mess hall before those Nutri-Bars are the only thing left!”

Later that night, Pax laid on his bed inside of the sleeping quarters. Well, sleeping quarters was a bit of a stretch. It was a shipping container with two mattresses inside of it. The red paint inside was already mostly chipped away, exposing the layers of rust underneath. Despite the harsh appearance of the container itself, it managed to be quite cozy. There were various metal shelves that had been welded to the side of the interior, along with an old dresser, desk, and some other simple furnishings and appliances that gave it the look of a small apartment. There was even a small space heater in the corner that looked as if it had seen better days, but still performed quite well as it kept the container warm despite the frigid air outside. The mattresses were old as well, containing several scratches and stains here and there.

Despite this, they still managed to be very comfortable for their occupants, providing much needed relief after a long day of work. His companion, and also the owner of the crate itself was already fast asleep, with his figure bundled up in several raggedy quilts and covers as his breath was peaceful and calm. Pax however, was not asleep. He was laying on his back on the mattress, with his arms out over the covers and his hands resting on his stomach. The creature’s deep blue eyes were still open, staring at the ceiling of the crate with the occasional blink now and then. Pax desperately wanted to sleep. He had already been trying for hours now to no avail. His body simply would not allow it.

Eventually, the canine creature would let out a defeated sigh, sitting up on the mattress and rubbing his face. Pax glanced over at Desk with an expression of jealousy as he quietly stood to his feet, taking care not to wake him as he collected his leather coat and boots. He was wearing nothing more than a pair of simple cotton pants as he put the jacket on over his bare torso and slipped the simple shoes on his feet, with the combined outfit making him appear almost like an eccentric homeless individual, which wouldn’t be far from the truth.

Once clothed, the creature quietly opened one of the heavy metal doors of the shipping crate and slipped outside, quickly closing it behind him so as not to let any of the frigid night air disturb the well-deserved rest of his companion. If it wasn’t for the bitter cold, the night would’ve been beautiful. The factory’s rural location placed it a considerable distance away from the city, far from the bright lights that obscured the night sky as well. The sky in question was beautiful tonight. Stars, planets, nebulas, and many distant celestial objects could be seen in the clear night sky. The moon of the planet could be seen in the shape of a beautiful crescent, perfectly accentuating the gorgeous night sky. This beautiful sight would be breathtaking to anyone who was fortunate enough to see it. However, Pax was a rare exception.

As he looked up at the sky unmoving, Pax could only feel sadness and pain, accompanied by a feeling of dread and guilt. Every star he saw, every planetary system he could glimpse into, all of them were places where he did not belong. All of them were places where he had no purpose.

Pax’s eyes shifted towards the ground, staring at his worn shoes slightly sinking into the cold and wet dirt. He was incredibly fortunate to be where he was today, but also incredibly unfortunate. He had escaped, yes, but what did he leave behind? His original intended purpose was not a desirable one, but it was a purpose nonetheless. Brutally perishing in a battle against an even more powerful warrior seemed better than simply drifting around the stars, slowly withering away.

A glint out of the corner of his eye caught Pax’s attention and pulled his mind out of the pit he had dug for himself. A shooting star blazing across the atmosphere. Pax weakly chuckled. After all, occurrences such as this were rare, and a little wish couldn’t hurt. The creature closed his eyes and quietly muttered to himself, opening them a few moments later. When he did, he noticed something a bit off.

The shooting star was getting closer.

It took Pax a few moments to realize what was now occurring as the object falling towards the surface of the planet was now getting larger and larger as the distance between it and the factory steadily decreased. Pax blinked a few times and grunted, looking around himself as if he was expecting something to happen, with that something being the asteroid alarm, which should’ve been ringing extremely loudly by now. The creature muttered under his breath, cursing the old and unreliable technology before jerking his head back to the direction of the factory and the various workers in their sleeping accommodations.

He could easily wake them all up, but Pax’s ears twitched as he now could hear the falling object due how close it was now. Pax craned his neck upwards, realizing that there was no time to evacuate everyone due to how the object appeared to be speeding up. He squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look at it. If it was speeding up, it meant that it might be a malfunctioning or damaged ship coming in for a crash landing. It could be an escape pod. It could even be an Orbital Drop Shock Pod, full of foreign commandos looking to take over the factory. Although Pax thought this was unlikely, he didn’t rule it out entirely as the planet was in a somewhat unstable system.

Regardless of what the object was, Pax realized that he had to act fast. He threw off his jacket and kicked off his shoes, leaving him only in the cotton pants as he widened his stance and took a few deep. breaths. Pax’s eyes, consisting of deep blue irises with pitch-black sclera, began to glow brightly in the darkness of night. The air began to distort around him as his muscles tensed and flexed. The plane of his hands began glowing the deep blue color of his irises, with the glowing extending to his fingers and sharp nails while also growing along his forearms and parts of his biceps. The same glow could also be seen through the cotton pants, starting in his feet and working down through his toes and up through his muscular legs as well. All of this happened extremely quickly, with Pax never taking his eyes off of the object as he counted down in his mind.

Three.

Two.

One.

Execute.

In an instant, Pax was gone, leaving only a blur and a flash where he once was at the creature rocketed upwards at unbelievable speeds. He made certain to limit his speed to subsonic levels, as not to wake up the rest of the factory with a sonic boom. As Pax climbed higher and higher like a rocket, the distance between him and the object decreased extremely quickly, only giving Pax a second or two to act. Upon reaching the object, the creature rotated his body, putting himself in a position where he was flying feet-first at the falling object. He then violently rotated himself, striking the object with his foot and kicking it downwards at an angle to where it would completely miss the factory and land in the uninhabited forest nearby.

Pax was left breathing heavily as his body remained suspended in midair. As he hovered a few thousand feet above the surface of the planet, he saw the object crash into the aforementioned forest, causing quite the loud sound as it struck the surface. It flattened a number of large trees and left a sizable crater, but no lives were lost as the creature slowly descended until both of his feet were back on solid ground. With a satisfied sigh, the glow of Pax’s body abruptly ceased, ending the distortion of air around himself as several lights around the factory and the various sleeping accommodations began flickering on, followed by panicked voices. Pax quickly grabbed his discarded jacket and shoes from earlier, hastily putting them back on to avoid suspicion as he heard rummaging inside the shipping container he emerged from earlier. Soon enough, Desk popped his head out from the doors of the container with a shocked expression.

“Pax?! Are you okay?! What the hell was that?!”

Pax wasn’t exactly the best actor, but he was able to put on a somewhat convincing panicked expression and tone of voice as he pointed towards the forest and the plume of smoke rising in the distance.

“It was an asteroid or something! I saw it fall and hit the forest over there!”

“An asteroid? Wait, did the alarm even go off?”

Pax shook his head.

“I was just out here uh… getting some fresh air when I saw it coming down. I didn’t hear an alarm or anything…”

He then doubled over to make it look like he was catching his breath as Desk exited the crate with his own jacket on.

“Damn… we got real lucky there…”

“Yeah…”

Pax glanced back over towards the smoke, now illuminated by the factory spotlights. His eyes narrowed as he felt a sense of dread about what the falling object actually was. When he kicked it, he felt his foot strike against metal.

“You think anyone’s gonna check it out?”

Pax asked as he stood up fully and glanced back at Desk.

“Nah. Not right now. It’s definitely still super dangerous to go look at it right after it lands.”

The orange canine looked back towards the plume of smoke and sighed.

“I know it’s kinda… hard to ignore… but we’ll probably get fined by the county commission if we go poke around without a cleanance.”

Upon finishing the sentence, the lights of the factory began flicking off one after the other as if on cue.

“I don’t suppose everyone can just… go back to sleep after that though.”

Desk shook his head as he sighed again, his breath being seen in front of his face due to the cold temperatures.

“Yeah… but at least we’ll have something to talk about during breakfast tomorrow… heh heh…”

He weakly chuckled as he walked back towards the crate before turning back towards Pax.

“You… coming back in or what?”

“I’ll be back in later. I just need some… uh… time to clear my head. Get some more fresh air after all of that.”

Desk nodded with an understanding smile.

“Yeah, I don’t blame you. You’ll get used to these kinda things happening around here though. Part of being so close to an asteroid belt and not having one of those fancy ADS thingamajigs…”

And with that, Desk retreated back into the warmth of the crate, with Pax immediately turning back towards the plume of smoke as the last spotlight illuminating it was extinguished.


Well, if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! This will be the first of many stories about my Pax and my other characters, so stay tuned for more!