"Abi! Guess what!" I burst into the room and grabbed her by the shoulders, unable to contain my excitement. Rojjel looked up from the seat across her with fear in his eyes, and moved his diagrams out of me-knocking-them-over-distance, which, like, rude but fair enough.
Abigail laughed, a beautiful sound, and grabbed my arm to steady me. "Hey, Sophie. What's up?"
I waved my communicator in her face and her eyes lit up. "Really?! That's such good news!"
"I know!"
"Uhhhhhh... did I miss part of the conversation?" Rojjel raised an eyebrow as he took a sip of whatever drink he was holding and looked incredulously between us.
"I was just talking to Mickey! Cos the Alliance is arriving today."
Rojjel tilted his head and looked directly at me for a few moments, completely deadpan. "Okay." He slid his headphones on and immediately tuned out. Abi and I smirked at each other, amused.
"So you coming to meet everyone?" I asked, bouncing up and down and pulling on Abigail's arm. "We have to go to one of the ships in the blockade cos that's where their fleet is going."
"Of course. Let's go." she jumped to her feet and I pulled her with me towards the corridor.
"Bye Rojjel!" I called. He didn't hear.
I let our supervisor overlords know where we were going, and Trista and a few other important people all got into the ship with us and it wasn't long before we had docked in a chunky ship that formed quite a bit of the blockade. The moment the engine started to thrum down I ran with Abigail to the door, anxious to go see my friends. Trista gave me a weird look.
"Do you know where you're going?"
"Um." I smiled sheepishly.
Trista laughed and pressed the button that opened the door of the ship. Shuk shuk. "Across the hangar, through the scanners, turn right, through the blast doors, then left and they should be checking in the orange bay down the end of the corridor."
"Thank you!"
Abi offered me her hand and a supportive smile and then we were off. This place was pretty big, which is probably why all of the Alliance ships had been sent here. From what Mickey had said, they'd been able to secure hundreds of people and also a bunch of resources to bring here to give assistance to us, so that meant, like, at least two ships.
Finally, not without Abi pointing out that I had gone in the complete wrong direction and correcting my course, we entered a room filled with Alliance people. I was so excited to see them! I looked around eagerly for anyone from my team.
"Sophie!" Beth noticed us first, and turned from whatever authority they'd been dealing with, and at the sound of their voice other Alliance people turned and saw me. Beth whooped and held out their arms in my direction.
I ran towards them, leaving Abi and the rest of our escort behind. I reached Beth and gave them a hug. I hadn't really thought about it, but since I joined the Alliance when I was a teen I had gotten used to some sort of stability, normality in my life; I hadn't been away from my colleagues at the Alliance, my family, for more than a week before. This war had caused me to be separated from them all for months.
"Where's Mickey?" I looked around for my best bud, my dude.
Beth glanced over to the shipyard they'd landed in. "He's helping someone, of course. Classic Mickey. He should be about done. MICKEY!" they yelled suddenly, so loud that the people around us covered their ears and winced. "SOPHIE'S HERE!"
"SOPHIE!!!" Mickey normally wasn't loud but we hadn't seen each other in a long time so he was probably ecstatic, as was I. He ambled through the doorway into view, barely fitting through - Mickey was very tall and gangly. His tendrils rippled at the sight of me. He rocketed towards me and swept me into an embrace. "I missed you so much! I'm so glad we're finally here to help you."
"Mickey! I missed you!" I hugged him back tightly.
"Ey Sophie, man, don't forget about me. Your old mate Steve. Gawd I can't believe you're just ignoring me like that." Mickey laughed and swung round the bag he was holding. Steve was poking his head out of the open top and wagging his head at me. He could fit in there because he was an alien known as a Thriftite and therefore about the size and shape of a slug. He was the pilot of our ship back at the Alliance, and a damn good one too, so no wonder he'd been drafted here with the others. I wondered if they'd come in our usual ship.
I gave Steve an elaborate fist bump (not that he had a fist) which we'd practiced to perfection. "Hey Steve, didn't see you there! How was the trip?"
"Ah you know, they wouldn't let me fly the Knife Edge, so it wasn't the usual smooth sailing we're all used to." I laughed - Steve was a pretty reckless pilot. "The interstellar ships have some nifty gadgets though and you should hear how my tunes sound through their system."
I nodded bobbily. I was thrilled to be with my teammates again; their presence was so comforting. I suddenly realised something was missing, the final member of our team.
"No Robyn?" I asked, disappointed but not surprised. Robyn had been our team leader for years, until she got offered a placement on the planet Thoo in a diplomatic role. She was very busy nowadays and we didn't see her very often, except for when she had reason to visit our base. The chances of her being available to come along to the Staarus system had been slim. It was a shame though.
"No." Mickey sounded pretty sad. "We were barely able to get in contact with her; we were completely swamped coordinating a relief squad to bring here."
"Fair enough."
"Hey Sophie." Peg, another member of the Alliance, interrupted us and then spoke directly to Steve. "Steve, they need you to log your ship's cargo specs in their systems."
"Aw yeah, alright. Let's go then." He crawled onto her outstretched arm and they moved off to the access port for the shipyard.
I glanced back for a second at Abi, who was standing back where I'd left her and watching us in her normal measured way. I knew her though; she was nervous of the new arrivals, feeling left out, left behind. I needed to make sure she knew I wasn't ditching her for my new friends so I beckoned to her and watched her eyes soften as she shuffled nervously over. A rush of affection ran through me and I grabbed her arm and pulled her closer, anxious to introduce my best friends to the most important person in my life.
"So guys, this is my best friend in the whole world, from Flauraan, Abigail!" I put my arm around her and Mickey nodded knowingly while Beth glanced a sideways smirk at me - I talked about Abi a lot.
"Hi Abigail," Beth said with a wave and a smile. "I'm Beth."
"Hi," Abi looked relieved at how happy my friends seemed to be to meet her. Her eyes sparked for a minute and I knew she'd noticed something about Beth. "You're... half human?" she observed with interest.
Beth blinked in surprise, then grinned wickedly. "Yeah, half Plosnian. People can't usually tell. Sophie did tell us about how smart Paladanians were though, especially you."
Abi blushed furiously and changed the subject. I smiled to myself. "So you work in the Alliance too right, in communications?"
Beth's smile grew wider. "Yeah, I keep track of transmissions and alerts and help coordinate things. Not quite as fun as this nerd going around on missions." They elbowed me and I laughed.
Mickey nudged forward a little and extended his arm, with raised and spotted appendages on the end and Abi smiled excitedly and took his grasper. "And I'm" He said his name, a prolonged combination of incomprehensible clicks and tonations, and Abi nodded. "But most people just call me Mickey."
"Oh." Abi eyes were alight with curiosity. "What planet are you from?"
A smile crossed his very alien features. I'd seen so many aliens in my life, and worked with Mickey for so long now that it was weird to me that some people, including Abigail, who'd only met people outside of her star system recently, hadn't met aliens who didn't look humanoid. Mickey was big and blue, with smooth skin and tendril things coming out of his head and chest, three eyes and an elongated head and jaw, almost insectlike. It was probably a very frightening look, but Mickey was one of the softest and sweetest people I knew, and my best friend (besides Abi of course).
"I'm from Ranigrous." He said excitedly; he loved making new friends and I could see how happy he was to be chatting to Abi.
"I know that name, it's one of the places Sophie visited when she was trying to find her dad." Abi said and I interjected, "Ranigrous is really cool. We should go there sometime."
"Oh yeah?" Mickey gave an appreciative click. "Hey, Sophie told me that you're studying healing. You should tell me about what medicine is like on your planet. I'm a medic for the Alliance and I love hearing about different culture's approaches."
"Oh, that's awesome!" And just like that Abi was off on a ramble, talking about different plants and techniques and the history of healing in the Staarus system. Mickey equaled her enthusiasm and Beth let out an exaggerated sigh and pulled out their scanner, flicking through apps. I understood bits and pieces of what they were saying, but anyway I just stared at Abi animatedly discussing something she loved, her eyes practically glowing, and I couldn't even have stopped myself from grinning like an idiot if I'd tried.
We got a few minutes for our little get to know each other gathering, and then things moved into more official business. It was really good to see the reception the Alliance got. Once it was clear that they were here to help relieve the tired Staarus forces, the relief (ha!) was obvious on the faces of the officers who'd been assigned to meet with them. The next couple of hours involved a sharing of star maps, discussion of strategic points, of communication and the assigning of various Alliance teams to different sectors and bases, whether part of the blockade or the medical teams or wherever they were needed. At one point Abi and I stood to the side as Beth and Mickey were talking to two of the officers, going over the allocations, and I squeezed Abi's hand and smiled at her. She smiled back, and my heart felt full. Even though this whole war wasn't a great situation, it gave me hope to have people I loved around me, and I know it eased Abi's worry to see her people being helped, to have more solidarity with the rest of the universe than just me.
Once the basics were sorted out, we were all set to head back to base. It turned out the leaders wanted Mickey and Beth to come back with us to discuss logistics or something, since they were the point people for the Alliance work. The other Alliance ships were spreading out to different places, since they'd brought some supplies and stuff. I waved goodbye to some of my colleagues including Steve in his new ship and we got on our ship too. While we made our way back, Abi took Mickey to the cockpit and showed him the new gel thing and how the system worked. I smiled fondly as I watched from the entry; it made me so happy to see them getting along. Then I headed round the corner where Beth was sitting draped over the seat and plopped myself down in their lap. Beth scoffed and pushed me off.
"Wooww." I placed my hand on my chest dramatically and then sat next to them more normally.
"Absolutely no respect for the personal bubble. Is this really what Abigail has done to you?" they smirked at me.
"No actually you're the one who taught me that." I pushed her playfully.
"Oh yeah, uh huh." they said dismissively, pulling a swirly green marble from their pocket and munching on it. "It was so weird not having you about babe. Me and Mickey were going wild trying to sort everything out."
"Yeah, I'm glad you guys are here now. And you got to meet Abigail!"
They narrowed their eyes at me. "Yes, finally seeing her in person has given me a bone to pick with you."
Instead of responding I flashed them a curious smile with my head to the side, waiting for said bone.
"So... when you told us 'there is this one girl I kinda like', you conveniently left out the part that you and Abi are actual soulmates." Beth had this cheeky grin on their face.
I blinked and sat upright saying, "Beth... what?"
I did remember the conversation they were referencing. On one of our off days at the Alliance base we'd been hanging out and drinking, having a pretty chill night, and people had been talking about past boyfriends and girlfriends and whatnot. I hadn't dated anyone so I just said that but they haggled me, saying that surely there was someone I'd had a crush on or whatever and I trusted these guys and so I told them about Abi, how she was my best friend and the most wonderful person in the world. Beth was right though, I'd intentionally underplayed it, partly because I didn't want to mess with my own feelings. Of course I liked Abi, (how could I not?) and I'd known for years, since Halapatov, but with the way everything was I'd never done anything about it. Back then I knew I'd barely get to see her because of my work searching for the expedition, and joining the Alliance didn't make things any easier, and anyway the chances of her liking me back were so so slim. I mean, the fact that she put up with me at all was a miracle. Now we were in this fun wartime and it was really hard but seeing Abi all day every day was a very good part of it. I didn't want to make us being together now awkward, so I wasn't going to say anything. I think Beth had been talking while I'd stood there looking a bit bewildered.
Beth smirked. "Don't play dumb with me. The sheer chemistry radiating off of you two is immense. You cannot help yourself could you? Do you stare at her with that much love in your eyes all the time? Dude otp come on."
"Beth... she doesn't know. I don't want things to be weird."
"Don't worry," Beth said. "I'm not gonna say anything, just watch from afar and wait for the wedding." They punched me in the arm. "Kidding." I forced a smile and they raised their eyebrows. "Soph, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out, I was just joking."
"Yeah, I know haha." I said but my eyes were on the cockpit, desperately hoping that Abi's observant ears weren't hearing our conversation.
When we got back to base, Mickey and Beth were in a meeting for a bit. While I waited for them, Abi had to go off and do something, so I was left on my own which was sad. I entertained myself, fiddling with the teleport watch and then the door whooshed open and my friends came back in, with one of the leaders they'd been meeting with.
"Miss Lestari, it has been agreed that, since Beth and Mickey are the coordinators for the assistance the Alliance has given us, that they should stay here at headquarters for ease of liaison between the Alliance forces and Staarus leadership, integrating with the existing taskforce."
I nodded, not understanding the significance of these fancy words.
"He means we're joining your team, and organising the Alliance from here." Beth explained and I grinned.
"Oh! That's so great! Guys we get to be together!" Mickey beamed at me.
"Ahem." the leader interrupted. "Would you be able to orient them to the base and introduce them to your teammates, Miss Lestari?"
"Oh yeah, of course." I said, grabbing Beth and Mickey's arms and pulling them with me. "Come on, I'll show you around."
As we walked through the base I updated them on the basics of what we'd been doing; machine stuff, training, space stations, blah blah blah. They both seemed quite interested. We found Rojjel in the workshop, looking startled as we entered, and I introduced him to Beth and Mickey first. He nodded awkwardly and then mumbled something about getting back to work, so I headed towards our quarters instead, where I found the remaining members of our team in the shared living space.
"Beth, Mickey, this is Alexa and Jayken." I introduced the two brightly, swinging my arms in their direction. Jayken and Lexie waved, respectively excited and tired looking. "Alexa is from Aandrigo, that's like a moon settlement for refugees from Werayne from before they were all brainwashed and weird. She's cool. And Jayken actually is a Weraynian! But he's chill. He went through a portal or something and now he's unbrainwashed. We're good buds. Guys, Beth and Mickey boy here work in the Alliance with me. Beth does admin work and Mickey is a medic. They're great. From what the high ups said, it sounds like they're gonna be a part of our team."
Alexa narrowed her eyes. "That seems suspicious. Why do they want more aliens involved in this mission if it's so top secret?"
Huh. That was a good question. Mickey and Beth looked at me for an answer. I rested my chin on my fist, pondering for a moment. "I mean, it's not as if they're actually telling us very much secret stuff. I mean, out of all of us, Abi and Rojjel are the only ones the leaders actually seem to consider trustworthy right? Abi has this theory that they've made this team mostly to keep an eye on us. Maybe that's why they want my friends here with me. And to have more control over the Alliance probably."
Beth elbowed me playfully. "Very insightful Sophia. Love has made you wise."
I blanched and stammered before I could help myself. I could not believe them! My eyes flashed between my teammates in fear. "Beth." I hissed.
Beth raised their hands defensively. "You said not to tell her not to not mention it at all. Besides, I'm pretty sure everyone is already clued in."
My eyes widened and I looked at the others. Alexa had an eyebrow raised and Jayken was smirking affectionately.
"You guys... know?" I asked tentatively.
Don't know what answer I wanted but they glanced at each other and then at me and then nodded. They both looked quite amused.
I put my head in my hands. "What! How! This is a disaster." I looked up again forlornly. "Is it really that obvious?"
Jayken acted like he had to think hard about this. Meanie. "Well... you are constantly hugging her and holding her hand."
"Also, going on about how amazing she is." Alexa added.
"You're always trying to get her attention when you see her talking to anyone else."
"You guys are literally sleeping in the same room."
"Honestly I thought you were already dating."
"Hmmph." I crossed my arms and frowned in annoyance at my transparency. "Oh well. We're just friends by the way. Best friends who sleep in the same bed and hug each other all the time. Which is normal."
"You guys are sharing a bed?!" Beth exploded and I immediately vowed to myself to never talk to them again. "Dude..."
"Yeah yeah okay. Can we maybe change the subject?" I pouted.
Mickey immediately swooped to my rescue. He knew how much I cared about Abi and had been a good friend this whole time and not made any comments. "Yes, we have new friends to make. Its so good to meet you two!" He directed at Jayken and Lexie.
"Good to meet you you too man." Jayken shook Mickey's grasper and they grinned at each other.
In his usual friendly way, Mickey asked them both about their families and hobbies and favourite ingestible fluid (Alexa's was blat, interesting), and this went on for a bit but the more we listened the more Beth frowned like they were trying to figure something out.
Suddenly they interrupted. "Hey can I ask you guys something?"
The others immediately stopped talking and looked expectantly at them.
"Yeah?" Alexa said.
"So I got a basic downlow from the leaders, but I'm still a bit confused on this whole Weraynian situation. I've been thinking - how can you be at war with an entire planet? Why were they trapped in a force field? Like, it all sounds pretty dodgy to me."
I blinked in surprise, then me, Jayken and Alexa all glanced at each other. Jayken eventually explained. "Well, you see, my people back then had some awful leadership, and when they wanted to pick a fight with the other planets they decided to genetically alter my people to be warriors, and once that happened they started a horrible war. Werayne used to be a peaceful place, it even had a different name - Pecayen - but now everyone there is born with that cursed stuff in their DNA. I had those parts of me suppressed, but it's still there, and in everyone I know. Every Weraynian is a threat."
Beth shook their head, still baffled. "I don't understand this, it doesn't make sense. How could a whole planet end up like this? Even if the effects were exponential surely Halapatov or Flauraan would have noticed. Why didn't they stop this?"
Lexie spoke up, looking angry. "They didn't notice because they didn't care." Her expression was dark. "When Pecayen withdrew from things it affected nothing because the Halapatovians and Paladanians thought they had nothing to trade, nothing to offer. They started building factories and the others went 'hey they're finally listening to our suggestions and using our technology.' And communication wasn't great, so the Pecayen who had cordoned themselves off, my people, had no way of telling anyone of the danger, until they eventually fled. The things Pecayen had been given warped them, and then the conversion programs started, the propaganda, and their technology kept getting better too, until one day even those who had slipped through the cracks were messed up too. So they were trapped in a force field for their crimes."
Mickey looked horrified. "But surely there have been opportunities for reconciliations, for them to make things right? Surely they didn't just trap them there without trying for negotiation."
"Negotiation is an insult." Jayken blurted out, the answer seemingly automatic. "They believe that by trying to sweet talk us they can gain our submission, and put us in our place. They fear our strength, and want to derail our purpose. Do not bow to their lies for one second. If they did not feel threatened by us, would they be willing to offer us any sort of freedoms or understanding? Of course not, they do so only to placate us. They do not care about us, they never have and they never will. So we refuse to negotiate; we won't accept any terms but our own. And we will show them what is right." He trailed off, before noticing what he'd just said and the shocked looks we were all giving him and his eyes widened as he blushed. He cleared his throat. "At least, that's what we were taught."
Beth bit their lip. "This is all so messed up."
Mickey nodded. "Alexa, Jayken, I am so sorry for the hardships your people have gone through."
Lexie looked in shock at him. I guess people were so used to vilifying the Weraynians that no one ever considered that they were technically victims too. Mickey was so good with empathy. "Thank you." she said softly.
After that, the conversation was a bit less tense, and we had some chill vibes going on until Abi suddenly entered the room.
"There you all are!" she said, smiling. "The leaders have just sent me to collect everyone. They want us to take the ship with Mickey and Beth to the part of the blockade where they need reinforcements, so we can help scope out the situation and get the Alliance relief forces set up."
"Ooh, cool." I jumped up and ran to Abi's side, holding onto her arm. "Let's go gang."
Rojjel was still working on his stuff so he stayed behind, but the rest of us joined Trista on the ship and we zoomed back to the blockade. It was a bit of a back and forth day.
Rounding the far edge of the blockade, with the eerie mass of Werayne before us, we approached the orbital station and surrounding spaceships that were our destination. From the front window we could see the interlocking ships branching out forever, blocking the Weraynians passage. Beyond you could see lights and debris which told me that there were skirmishes going on. We'd seen this sort of thing before. The Weraynians were being relentless at trying to break through. As we prepared to dock, Trista turned and said, "Abigail, come here, put your hands in the gel matrix. I need your opinion on the signal I'm receiving."
Abi hurried forward and connected, a look of intense concentration on her face. Suddenly, her eyes widened in alarm. "Trista, swerve, they're about to-"
She broke off as a huge ship appeared out of nowhere, ramming through a whole line of the blockade. There was a lot of screaming and yelling, the comm line started to crackle with static and Trista spun to avoid the debris of ships rocketing haphazardly towards us. I stared in horror at the gaping, flaming hole in the blockade made by the ship.
The Weraynians had broken through.