The Weraynian war. The terror that had haunted me for years finally here and people suffering because of it. Already many people had died or been captured in their attempts to stop the Weraynians from emerging after the force field had finally been broken through. The reports of monstrosities invented by them, destruction caused, predicted doom, filtered in more and more every day. It had been a month since my father had been conscripted to technical support in the war, and headed off to a space station to serve. My mother could barely hide her despair but was still dutifully working overtime in the fields to produce food to be sent off to the forces forming the Weraynian blockade. And me?
I was doing absolutely nothing. Well, I wasn't doing anything to do with the situation at hand. I was deep into my studies in healing, which included extensively learning paladanian (and alien) anatomy and physiology, medicine and skills for diagnosis and treatment of injury and diseases, as well as a part time apprenticeship in a healing centre in the city near my home. This was something I'd been working toward for years, and had been really excited for. Even the looming war hadn't dampened my hope for this pursuit - especially since I'd figured it would put me in a position to be useful as a medic for the many eventual casualties. However, when the war started I was too early in my studies for the leadership to allow me to be drafted in any capacity. I had applied so many times, tried to find some loophole, but to no avail.
Not only was the war finally and horribly here, there was nothing I could do but sit at home and wait it out... go about my life as if things were normal, which they were anything but.
I was completely overwhelmed with this whole scenario. More than anything I wanted Sophie to be there with me, even if not to find some way to do something, to just have something to give me some hope in this darkness.
Sophie... I got wistful just thinking about her. The last time I'd seen her had been a month before the Weraynians escaped the force field, and between her being busy with the Alliance and the chaos going on here with the war, we hadn't been in contact at all since. I probably should have done whatever I could to let her know what was happening; she'd want to help. But that fear kept creeping in, that something would happen. So I'd waited, hoping that this war would end, that everything would be okay, and no one would get hurt.
Does this mean that I wasn't elated when she showed up at my door, just like old times, with a mission? Not at all. She flashed me a warm smile and I threw myself at her and held her tight. We stood in the doorway pressed against each other for a long time and I tried to stop myself from shaking. When I pulled away Sophie looked flustered for a moment, the look in her eyes so soft, and then she regained her composure and stepped inside my house.
"Hey Abi," she tried to say cooly but I saw the thoughts battling in her mind.
"Yeah, the Weraynian war started." I interjected before she could try to figure out what to say that wasn't depressing.
She bit into her cheek. "I'm sorry, I only found out just today. How long...?"
"Four months." Her eyes widened. "My dad's been at a space station in an engineering role for a month now. Things have been insane. And I don't quite have the qualification to go as medical support so I've just been stuck here and my mum's going crazy with worry, and you got intercepted right? Of course you got intercepted, so is there something they want you to do, or want us to do, I mean I know there is I just don't know what it is yet so i want to hear everything and how did you find out anyway probably a scout ship right I heard one escaped so anyway and... what's this look for?" For Sophie was looking at me with this deeply intense look and a smile gracing her lips. She chuckled in response.
"I've missed hearing you ramble." Sophie said simply, so much affection pouring out of her eyes that it was my turn to be flustered. She smiled.
I took a deep breath and tried to speak simply for once. "So what's the plan?"
"Well," we moved into the main room and took a seat, creating the illusion of relaxation, and that we were going to stay. Sophie was far away however, but grounding herself for me. "I was just at the main space station for this whole shebang, that's where I got redirected to. They told me that they have a... mission or something in mind for us - you and me and a few others. Something big, to do with some majorly secret tech, I don't know, I guess we'll find out. They told me to round people up first." I listened intently, staring at her face as she played with my hand, not looking at me as she talked. She looked up and smiled at me, and I glanced away for a second before looking back. I had missed her so much. "So I came to get you. This whole thing is crazy but at least we get to be in it together again."
"Yeah," I said softly, squeezing her hand and she chuckled a bit. "I guess we have to go pretty soon right?"
"We do." she fixed me with a look I couldn't quite fathom. "It would be nice to just have some time together to catch up. We have so much to talk about. I missed you."
"I'm sure we'll have a chance to be together, whatever this mission is."
"I hope so. Anyway, come on!" She dropped my hand and jumped up, only to offer me her hand again. I laughed and accepted it, her restless momentum pulling me to my feet. In the next few minutes Sophie and I packed up some of the stuff from my room, clothes and toiletries and the sort of things you should take with you when you go to outer space. I was going to space. This was such a weird thing to wrap my head around. I mean, I'd spent so long trying to find a way to get involved in this war, and here I was being asked to go into the thick of it. I was excited and nervous and confused all at the same time. I wondered what we'd be doing. I wondered why they wanted specifically us for this task. I wondered if I'd be able to cope with the immensity of everything. But these were all things to worry about later. For now I could just chat and laugh with Sophie as we chucked my stuff into a bag, and just revel at the fact that I was once again with my best friend. No matter what happened, her presence made things more than bearable.
We tracked down my mum, explained things to her. Saddened but not surprised, she bid me farewell and, although it pained me to leave home, Sophie and I were holding hands and off, transporting by teleport watch through the Staarus safety net to Halapatov, where we were to find the next members of our assigned team.
We arrived in the rundown backstreets of a city, one we'd been to before.
She and I glanced at each other and I knew from the fixed look in her eyes that she recognised it too - this was the same town as where we'd encountered ghost like beings on our last trip to Halapatov, and our friend Riowyn had died in her effort to save us from them. A few streets away from where we stood was the basement that had held the machine that had allowed their manifestation. It was a very surreal feeling, being back here. I gripped Sophie's hand tighter and we pushed through our dark thoughts, approaching the address she had been provided.
The door was opened by an older Aandriggian with a young child balanced on his hip. I could tell he was curious and fearful about us, and when we mentioned who we were here to speak to his expression told me we had confirmed those fears. He ushered us into their living room, where we were promptly offered hot drinks and snacks by other members of the household as we waited for Alexa and Jayken. I hadn't had much interaction with Aandriggian culture before, but this household fulfilled a lot of the stereotypes that I'd been exposed to - passive and hospitable, with large families, small houses and poor surroundings. Of course, a lot of these were most likely the result of systemic disadvantage, as the Aandriggians had originated as refugees from Werayne, in the days before their enhancements, when their planet was known as Pecayen. There'd been a lot of talk in my history classes about integration and kindness shown to Aandriggians, but it had always been clear to me that they were often treated as second class citizens, with little representation in government and distanced from their home planet and culture. Not that I'd put that much thought into it really, which was making me feel especially uncomfortable and privileged sitting here in this house in the slums of Halapatov.
I didn't have long to dwell on this before Jayken and Alexa arrived.
I was apprehensive of the Weraynian turned good. I remember the year after I'd been on Halapatov there had been a broadcast about a Weraynian incursion on Halapatov, near the place where we'd fought the ghosts. I'd looked into it because of that fact, terrified that Sophie and I had caused more damage, and that's how I found out about Jayken. In the aftermath it was discovered that a teenage Weraynian male had been instrumental in preventing the attack, and he was taken into custody, interrogated at length, studied, brain scans analysed, and found, shockingly, groundbreakingly, to be peaceful. Yet it was hard to shake off everything I'd been taught about the Weraynians my whole life, and especially to forget the Weraynian who Sophie and I had met on Flauraan, who'd slaughtered people in front of me, and tortured us, who was trying to incite our peoples to kill each other. It was unfair of me to cast judgement on him based on just my prior experience with Weraynians; thus I sized up the one before me. Jayken had the hallmarks of a Weraynian - greyish muscled skin, bulging veins, rounded ears, small cybernetic additions - but beyond the obvious enhancements he seemed... totally normal. He was younger than me, just barely an adult. He had an unassuming smile on his face, and came off as genuinely friendly and carefree - which was a little disarming - yet there was a wariness to his expression. All in all, I didn't quite know what to make of him. Standing slightly in front of him and surveying us back with narrowed eyes was who I assumed was Alexa Trobit. She was much smaller than Jayken, though she was average height, her grey skin less pronounced; definitely not a Weraynian. Her gaze however was fierce and her stance protective, which was amusing, considering physically she would be much weaker than him. I understood the sentiment however.
Jayken nudged her and she glanced back at him. They had a silent conversation in a moment, and then Jayken strode forward, hand extended in an Aandriggian greeting.
"Nice to meet you guys, I'm Jayken and this is Lexie." He said goodnaturedly as we each returned the greeting.
"Alexa." she said sharply and he smiled and shrugged an apology.
"My name's Sophie and this is...." Sophie gestured dramatically to me and I rolled my eyes.
"I'm Abigail."
"You guys came from the government or something? What's that all about?" Jayken asked.
Sophie pulled out the information she'd been given and handed it to him. "This should help explain things." He glanced over the info, Alexa held out her hand and he passed them over. She read through it all with a frown as we explained the situation. Once we'd finished, Jayken's carefree expression was a little strained and Alexa was barely hiding the anger in her eyes. I knew that being called into war wasn't the greatest notion, but this response seemed excessive to me. It wasn't an awesome situation, but at least we had an opportunity to do something to make a difference.
Sophie leaned forward. "So what do you think? Do you wanna be part of the team?"
"Uh, we have a choice?" Alexa said scathingly, crossing her arms and glaring, giving me in particular a distrusting look.
Sophie bit her lip and glanced at me. I frowned. "Of course you do! Our governments don't conscript people; they're not the Weraynians." Alexa's eyes flared and I realised how thoughtless that sounded. Sophie smiled tightly and gave me a 'what the hell is going on' look and I took in a breath and forced myself to step back and evaluate my prejudices.
Everything about the way she talked, dressed and held herself told me that Alexa was the kind of person my mum would tut about if she saw her out in public. Not that my mother is a great judge of character. More than that though, I could see how fearful she was, not trusting the authorities who were summoning her and Jayken for some mysterious ordeal. Honestly, I'd been struggling in my head for years as to the morality of my people and their treatment of the Weraynian situation; I wanted things to be black and white, for the Weraynians to be the bad guys and everyone else to be the good guys, but I knew that life was not that simple, and that drove my reasoning brain nuts, trying to figure everything out. So Alexa was making me uncomfortable and I was responding inappropriately.
Jayken broke the awkward silence, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Nah, it's all cool. We know we have a choice. There's a war going on and we can be helpful. We'll come with you guys."
Alexa nodded stiffly. "Yeah."
I looked at Sophie, silently asking her to be the one to keep doing the talking. She gave me a small smile but I knew that she was holding back the urge to wiggle her eyebrows at me. "Uh, well, that's good to hear!" She said. "If you wanna gather some stuff to bring with you, me and Abi can wait outside or -"
"Yeah that sounds good. We'll get packing." Alexa nodded rapidly and stood up, arms still crossed. She headed off into the house and Jayken kindly followed us to the door and told us they wouldn't take long, before heading back in.
Sophie slouched against the wall, flicked briefly through the intel she'd been given, and then looked up at me and wiggled her eyebrows. I shook my head in bemusement and then slumped against the wall next to her. Thoughts of war and terror and Alexa's anger spun through my head. "This is going to be an interesting experience."
"Yep." Sophie said lightly, almost cheerily. I turned my head and raised an eyebrow at her. She opened her mouth in mock outrage. "So judgemental! You know I'm not good with emotion."
I managed a tired laugh. She was only half joking. I, personally, didn't know, emotionally, how to respond to everything going on. It had felt like the world had been ending for years, and now the Weraynians were actually here and Sophie and I were actively on our way to aid the war effort, and yet it was as if the world didn't know anything about it. Life felt mundane, boring, normal. Possibly sentient beings are just not equipped to process things as shattering as war. I glanced at Sophie, remembering all of the crazy things she had been through. She had travelled the universe, constantly becoming a part of situations bigger than herself, and learnt how to adapt to them and build and fix machines along the way. She'd lost her mum and her dad and been separated from her siblings, nearly died so many times and watched two of her friends die before her eyes. A Weraynian had broken her arm when we infiltrated the Eridanus spacecraft on Flauraan. She'd been transported into another dimension and almost transformed into a ghostly being. After years after years of searching planet after planet, under immense pressure to find the lost expedition and compile data on the places she visited along the way, she discovered the truth and ensured the recovery of hundreds of people, and then afterwards instead of resting or settling for some kind of respite from the craziness, she'd taken up a job in an organisation established to maintain peace and security on an intergalactic scale. Sophie had experienced so much and survived the worst and achieved incredible things. She was... astounding. I was beyond privileged to be her friend, to be a part of her life. I wished I could be like her, and look so calm even when it felt like the world was crumbling. What could I do not to go insane worrying about the future? The only thing I could think of was to hold onto the good things happening right now, hold onto them tight, and right now - despite everything - Sophie was beside me, and focussing on her was enough to stem my anxieties.
She looked up once more after I'd been silently studying her for a few moments, and smiled at me. I ducked my head.
"Have I mentioned how much I like your new hair?" she ran her hand through it and I grinned. Not long before then I'd decided to change my hairstyle from a long mess to something more practical. It was quite short and very easy to take care of now. I hadn't aimed for it to look good per say but it made me feel good to know Sophie liked it.
"I mean, its okay. Not like your hair." I twirled my fingers in her tangled curls and she giggled. I did like her hair quite a lot. It framed her face well, and added to the manic energy she emanated all the time. Her hair was shorter, too, than when we'd first met, bobbing just above her shoulders. She probably had some sort of uniform expectation in the Alliance. I wondered how everything had been going. I loved hearing stories from her life. "So how has the Alliance been?"
"Interesting." A bright spark appeared in her eyes as she thought back to her work and home. "A lot of the usual stuff, helping out in some crisises and all that, but, hmmm... probably the weirdest one was when this group stole a Molodian moon and we had to track it down."
"They stole a whole moon?" I laughed, surprised.
"Yeah I know right? Still not entirely sure how they pulled that off, but we found it a system over and it got transmatted back in place. It was wild. Beth was going on about all these conspiracy theories for weeks. And Mickey rattled on about all the health effects caused by a planet losing a moon. Robyn was so fed up with us by the end of it. Yeah, that was a fun one."
She trailed off, lost in her reminiscing. I could see markedly her fondness for her friends, and how hard it was for her to be away from them. I wondered if she talked this way about me when she was there. "Reinforcements from the Alliance are coming soon right? It's a relief to know we'll have help, and I'll get to meet your team!"
She perked up again and squeezed my arm. "I'm very excited for that. Curious to see how the Staarus system receives all those aliens."
"Oh yeah, the Alliance is really diverse, isn't it? I guess that wouldn't be weird to you, you haven't exactly spent much time around lots of humans."
"Yeah, it'd be weird for you though."
"Yeah it will be." My brain ran around in circles envisioning potential alien lifeforms Sophie could work with.
Sophie and I were at peak rambling discussion about things when Alexa and Jayken exited their house and moved towards us, holding a couple bags each, Jayken's slung over his shoulder casually, while Alexa held hers defensively to her chest.
"You guys ready to go?" Sophie asked brightly, pulling her foot down from where it was poised against the wall and tightening her backpack around her shoulders.
"Yeah man." Jayken said. "Uhhh, how are we getting there anyway?"
"With this!" Sophie flipped open the teleport watch and started tapping buttons furiously.
"It's a teleport." I explained when Jayken continued to look confused. "Sophie's people have technology that can, essentially, instantaneously transport people across space."
Jayken and Alexa both looked impressed.
"Well," Sophie added, not looking up from her inputting coordinates. "It's not exactly going to be instantaneous. This time I've gotta wait for clearance from the Staarus peeps because theyve got a lot of shielding going on, cos, you know, the war. Also four people is a lot more than the watch's normal capacity, so I've gotta calibrate it for that too. So it'll take a few minutes but then we can zap across space and get debriefed at the space station."
"Cool." Jayken said, nodding appreciatively.
"Yeah, fantastic." Alexa said flatly.
Sophie finished her tapping and flipped the watch shut. It glowed faintly beneath the covering. "Now we just have to wait." She put her hands in her pockets and started whistling.
I could see her fishing around in her head for conversation topics, and then Sophie asked, bluntly, as she would. "So they told me a little bit about you guys, good Weraynian and all, but how did that actually happen?"
Jayken screwed up his face and was in thought for a moment and Alexa said, "You don't need to tell them."
"Nah it's cool." His carefree smile returned, although there was something in his eyes that I couldn't place. "It was technically because of you guys, the ghosts and stuff right?"
"What." Sophie said, face dropping, but I nodded as I knew somewhat of this story. She looked sideways at me, eyebrows furrowed in shock. I probably should have warned her.
"So," Jayken began, with a slight little reminiscent smile. Alexa crossed her arms and leaned her head back. I got the impression that she was tired of reliving this story. "After the whole ghost thing happened on Halapatov... well, people have tried to explain it to me with big fancy words but basically it ripped a hole in space. Part of Werayne and part of Halapatov were connected by this, uh, portal; I've heard people call it a rift. And one day I was just doing my thing - on Werayne we had training most days but also a lot of freedom - and I got pulled through. I woke up near Lexie's house with no memory of anything really. Lexie had been having all these funky visions too, caused by the rift we think, and that's how she found me. Her family is awesome, they took me in, looked after me. Eventually my memories started to come back, that was fun. And then more of- of my people figured out about the rift and made it so that they could invade through it. And Lexie knew it was coming so we were able to stop it. That's how the government found out about me, and uh, naturally, given Werayne's situation, I've been kept under close watch and all. Making sure that I'm not some evil plot to take down Halapatov from the inside..."
In the silence that followed, Sophie said, "That... sounds pretty sucky."
He nodded, forehead creased thoughtfully. Then his words tumbled onwards. "I think I'm one of the only good ones, ya know? I can remember, now, everything. I grew up hearing that the people who trapped us, who made us suffer, who thought they were better than us, that we needed to show them they were wrong, make them pay. Cast down the privileged, make a better world. And there was this stuff in my brain you know, this sort of haze. I didn't even realise it was there until I was here. It was whack. It's messed up. I can see why we were so keen, so compelled to go to war, you know? But now, I'm not like that anymore... I feel like the rift, you know, gave me a second chance..."
Sophie and I shared a look.
"I probably shouldn't have talked about that stuff guys. Sorry." Jayken muttered.
"Why not?" I asked, snapping my gaze back to him. "You're one of the only people who doesn't want to kill or convert us who can tell us what the Weraynian are really like. That could be so important to ending this war and fixing things."
Sophie nodded. "What she said. It's really cool to hear your side of the story, dude." I glanced at her with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Was she intentionally mimicking his 'chill' speech pattern? She looked at me in confusion for a second while she processed what my judgement was and then scrunched her face up mockingly in response.
Interrupting this sombre moment, the teleport watch beeped decisively, and Sophie quickly flipped it open again and scanned the info panel.
"Okay, that means we're all good to go. Join hands everyone." She grabbed my hand and offered her other hand to Jayken, who took it and proffered his arm to Alexa, who held on somewhat hesitantly. "This is gonna be a little trippy for you guys since it's your first time, but don't worry, everything will be fine."
And with that Sophie pressed a button and we disappeared across the Staarus system.