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It was cycles ago, on a cargo ship, as it traversed the well-worn interstellar Zutofian highway. Giant stars filled the galaxy, bathing space into a luminiferous aether, the heat radiation powerful enough to feed magitech engines for light years. You landed in this world after some cops broke down the door of the hotel you were staying at at the time, right into the supply closet of a spa resort center, to be exact. There you stayed for a few weeks to recuperate with bottomless mimosas and a swimming pool large enough that your float would be considered a minuscule island in its depths. Good times.

You managed to hitch a ride on a cargo ship after the crew sloppily crashed into your pod (or at least that's what you told them). They had one of the better ships on the dock, the helm polished with fresh copper paint lining its exterior. The bulk of their cargo were universal snacks and other beverages kept in temperature controlled rooms, the space equivalent of a vending machine refill crew. A minuscule target for space vagabonds. All the better for you.



Between trips from rec center to rec center, you'd ply whatever wares you'd acquire from each stop. Banned raunchy media and cigarettes were the main stock of interest to that particular crew, so it was easy to meet their demands. Guns didn't mean much to them except to flex, since their routes were on the safer side of space. They also really liked board games. A lot. You learned more about TTRPG's on that ship than you ever did at any other point in your life.

On this particular day, you managed to pin down the captain of the ship as they were taking a walk in the rec dome. They were a hard duck to catch, always busy with whatever paperwork or travel coordinates they had to keep track of at all times of the day. But, they were the most loaded out of everyone there, and had a fascination with knick-knacks and other sentimental junk that could catch their eye.

Also, a real easy mark. You could practically hear slot machine noises every time you saw them.



"Just got this one in stock. It takes in light through a modified glass lens and captures images of particular scenes that you point it at. And get this, it will take that captured image and synthesize it into a physical object in your hand. No need to buy anything to transfer the data and manifest it."

"Fascinating... And it doesn't use magic?"

"Not at all. You only need to plug it in for about 2-3 hours to let it charge. Should be good for days. And I'll give you the captain's discount of course."

"Hmmm.. Oh. Is that?"



In the corner of your eye, you just made out the vague movement in the distance.

You had never seen that before. Even with your excellent vision, you could only just make out their translucent forms as they swam through the endless ether. Space seemed to distort in them, the vague rays of light from the ship and stars just barely managing to capture their forms. The roiling masses, as it moved, vaguely clicked in your mind, as the shape of a whale. You were reminded then of how the ocean mirrored space.

"What are those?" It was awe in your voice.

"Hooohoo look at those! They're cosmodaes. You don't normally see them in this part of space, must be migrating."



A big one. Two small ones. Mother and child. Their bodies naturally translucent in order to blend in with the darkness of space, but when the light hit them just right, they would refract, as if made from glass.

"Looks like they're surrounding those asteroid chunks."

"Yup, they eat space debris. When they get real big, they'll be grown enough to eat a whole asteroid in one gulp. Maybe a moon too."

The mother cosmodae swam around the other two, gesturing, like it was teaching the others what they could eat.

"I haven't seen them before."

"Yeah, they're pretty rare nowadays. They get hit by ships a lot since they're hard to see. Poor things."

It's not often you see things like this anymore. For every world you've seen, you slowly became desensitized to the extraordinary. What is a bird to super computer? Walking on a scenic route to the act of calling fire to your hands? In this moment, you thought, what are you to this space whale? It likely didn't even understand what you were, or that you were even there.

As you both watched the cosmodaes eat their fill, you hear the radio on the captain's waist go off, a crackle of static. They moved to grab it and chuckled at you.

"She's singing."



Somehow, the vastness of the world seemed to wash over you as the whale song captured the ship radios, resounding in every inch of the ship. An alien yet familiar twinkle, the depth of a sonar and the rumble of shaking earth. A song of happiness about her family being fed. A simple thing. Beautiful.

The sheer size of this cosmodae could have been big enough to swallow all of you in a single gulp. Yet, she carried on, indifferent to her audience as her children had their fill.



"After that, we stopped at a planet that was really into clowncore honking music. Like it was gospel. One of the crew members became obsessed with playing it on the ship aux, so I left not too long after."

Eiko stares at you, speechless.

"I'm not lying, you know. I've seen a lot."

She contemplates this for a while, processing all that you've told her, and likely what she wants to do with this information. You don't blame her for not believing it outright.



Eventually, she takes a sip of her tea, staring off, "You're fucking with me."

"I'm not. Even if I took a pic of them it wouldn't be good. Like trying to capture the moon."

Eiko still seems suspicious, but eventually relents, tone wistful, "I wish I could've seen it."

You laugh and lean back to take a sip of your tea, "Yeah, it really was a once in a lifetime thing."

"Maybe I could see it one day."

You aren't sure how to answer that. The topic drops easily as she moves onto asking you other questions, though you can see in her eyes that she's still thinking about it. It's a dangerous hope brewing there. What you both have is temporary, after all.

What do you do?

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