Simple Complications #1000
Lance Tucker was stocking shelves in the store while Jake Johnson was sitting at the till trying not to get up and start pacing. “If you want to put that nervous energy to some use, I could use some help over here,” Lance said. “How long are we even going to be doing this?” Jake asked. “It’s been a month that they’ve been gone.” “I’m sure they’ll be back.” “And what happens if they don’t ever come back.” “I mean, I don’t know. Curtis doesn’t have any living relatives, so the store would go to…I don’t know.” “It’s not really the store I’m worried about,” Jake said. “Yeah, sorry, I wasn’t thinking.” “Like, what do I tell Lex. She doesn’t know that Curtis is really the Amazing Archer and that Liz works with him on that, and that they went on this mission.” “Then what does she think happened to them?” “I don’t know. I’ve been avoiding her for a while, because I just don’t know what to say. She’s a smart girl though, she’ll figure it out, if she hasn’t already.” “How would she figure it out?” “She does know about the mission, her girlfriend went on it too,” Jake said. “And our other brother. It’s just a matter of connecting the dots.” Alexandra Johnson knocked on the door to Jake and Skyler’s apartment. Skyler Nickel answered after a little bit. “Hey Lex, what can I do for you?” he asked. “Is my brother home?” Alexandra asked as she went in and looked around the main area of the apartment. “No, Jake’s at work right now,” Skyler said. “Why, what’s up?” “Do you know why he’s been avoiding me for the last couple weeks?” Alexandra asked. “He’s been avoiding you?” “Yes, and repeating a question back at me is a terrible way to avoid answering it. It makes it pretty obvious that you know he has.” “I mean…it’s not really for me to talk about.” “It’s about Liz, isn’t it? She’s my sister too, and if something happened to her, he shouldn’t be keeping it from me. I’m already having to deal with not knowing what happened to Gina, I need answers somewhere.” “You should go to the store,” Skyler said. “Like I said, Jake is working right now, and it’s not really for me to talk about.” Becca Williams was keeping her composure as she was berated by her boss, Staff Sergeant Laura Connor. “And now, thanks to your negligence, we have to let him go,” Laura said. “Sorry ma’am,” Becca said. “What’s even been going on with you lately? You’ve always been a bit loose with the rules, but mishandling evidence is not like you.” “Sorry ma’am. It won’t happen again.” “It better not. Dismissed.” Becca left Laura’s office and went back to her desk. “So, how’d it go?” Madhur Singh asked as Becca sat down. “Better than I expected,” Becca said. “But I need to be more careful next time or, I don’t know.” “I know you’re worried about Drake,” Madhur said. “Just like I’m worried about Kira.” “It’s been a month, no contact, no word on if they’re even still alive. And we’re just sitting here like everything’s normal, because it’s not like we can tell anyone that your girlfriend and my boyfriend went on a covert mission into alien territory, and are now missing and probably dead.” “We can’t think like that. They’ve been in dangerous situations before and made it out. What makes this different?” “I don’t know, but I just have this feeling in my gut that something’s happened. Something bad.” Jake looked up as someone entered the store. “Hey Jake,” Alexandra said. “Lex?” Jake asked. “What are you doing here?” “You’ve been avoiding me for a couple weeks now,” Alexandra said. “I’m sure you know something about Liz and Curtis, and you’re afraid to tell me.” Jake looked around the store. It was just them and Lance. “Lance, I’m going to take a break.” “Sure thing,” Lance said. “Follow me,” Jake said, and Alexandra followed him into the back. “Liz and Curtis went on the same mission as Gina and Lyle.” “What? Why would they do that?” Jake opened up the broom closet and hit the secret button, causing the back to slide up, revealing a secret staircase. “What’s that?” Alexandra asked. “Follow me,” Jake said again as they went down. “Curtis is Amazing Archer,” he said as they got to the bottom of the stairs and entered the Lair. “And Liz is his sidekick.” “Huh,” Alexandra said. “Well, that certainly explains a lot. Do you know anything more about this, are they still alive out there?” “I don’t know,” Jake said. “There hasn’t been any word from them since they left.” “Has there been any contact from them?” Ted Jones asked as he sat down on the couch with Krissy Jones, his wife. “Nothing yet,” Ricardo Lopez said from the recliner he was sitting on. “But if they are still in the Caldore galaxy there wouldn’t be. The fastest communication methods we have would still take centuries to make it here, since they can’t be sent through the wormhole.” “Something has definitely happened though,” Krissy said. “A few days after the Majestic left, the Caldore diplomatic team became a lot more secretive and aggressive.” “Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?” Ted asked. “If they’re angry, it indicates our friends at least hurt them in some way,” Ricardo said. “So that’s a good thing. It’s just a matter of how much, and if it’s enough.” “And what happened to them afterwards,” Krissy said. “Are you putting together a team to investigate, and hopefully rescue them?” “My company had one starship, the Majestic,” Ricardo said. “So we don’t really have a way to send a rescue mission.” “But?” Krissy asked. “We’re looking into options,” Ricardo said. Back in the Lair, Alexandra and Jake were still talking when Alexandra noticed a blinking light on one of the computer consoles. “What’s that?” she asked. “Not sure,” Jake said as he went over to it. He pressed a few buttons on the keyboard, trying to figure out what it meant, but he had no idea. “Wait a second, that’s morse code,” Alexandra said. “It’s an SOS. That means they’re still alive, right? And that they need help.” “Probably?” “How do we help them?” “I have no idea,” Jake said. Meanwhile, in another galaxy, on a prison planet, Curtis Hammer was knocked to the ground by a punch from his opponent. “You got a decent left hook there,” Curtis said as he got back to his feet. His opponent just grunted at him, and came at him again, but Curtis dodged the attack, and elbowed him in the back as he went by. It did not do much damage, but threw him off balance, giving Curtis time to get him into a chokehold. His opponent tried struggling, but Curtis was able to keep the hold up long enough for him to pass out. He dropped him to the ground as soon as he was satisfied the guy was not just faking it. There were various people cheering and booing at this, but Curtis pushed his way through the crowd, to find Elizabeth Johnson. “How much did we make on this one?” Curtis asked. “Not much,” Elizabeth said. “We’re probably going to have to relocate soon, as less and less people are willing to bet against you around here.” “Well, we have a whole planet at our disposal,” Curtis said. “Even if we are trapped here.” “I did manage to hack that Caldore ship before we got captured. If it goes through the wormhole to our galaxy it’ll send out an SOS.” “If they don’t figure it out beforehand. And we have no reason to think it will go through the wormhole. And even if it does, we don’t know that anyone will go down to the Lair and see it. And even if they do, what can they do about this?” Elsewhere on the planet, Drake, Henry, and Jennifer were sitting around a fire, cooking a dinner of some small rodent-like animals they had caught. “Hear from Curtis recently?” Henry asked. “Not in a couple weeks,” Drake said. “Heard a bit about him,” Jennifer said. “He’s fighting for money in the camps over by Iklon Lake.” “Not sure why,” Henry said. “We’re getting by just fine without money on this planet.” “By living on our own, and hunting our own food,” Drake said. “I don’t think it’s even about the money,” Jennifer said. “Sometimes you just feel the need to fight. I’ve been thinking of giving that sort of thing a go myself.” “Come on, it was bad enough on Earth, but at least there you were fighting for a purpose,” Henry said. “I mean, if we need to fight to survive, that’s one thing, but going out and seeking a fight just for the sake of it?” “I just need to do something,” Jennifer said. “I’m getting restless here.” Lyle Johnson returned to the hovel he was currently calling home. Murshidah bint Haris al-Farooq was in what they referred to as the kitchen, making some sort of soup, while Rachel Kepler was messing with what few electronics they had managed to get hold of during their time on this prison planet. “Get anything new?” Rachel asked, looking up as Lyle came in. “A short range comm unit and a flux capacitor,” Lyle said. “We planning on using time travel?” Murshidah asked. “Not that kind of flux capacitor,” Lyle said. “I might be able to make use of those,” Rachel said. “You still haven’t mentioned what it is that you’re trying to build,” Lyle said. “Not entirely certain myself, yet,” Rachel said. “I mean, at this point I might be working on a long range communicator, or maybe, if we’re really lucky, a teleporter. It all depends on what other kinds of parts we can get.” “I mean, pretty sure we already have most of the electronics available in this town,” Lyle said. “Do we move on to another one then?” Murshidah asked. “I don’t know,” Lyle said. “This town is relatively safe. Most of the people here were imprisoned for non-violent crimes. We’re lucky to have found this place.” “I mean, for this planet, this place isn’t bad,” Rachel said. “But I’d rather we continue trying to find a way off this planet.” “It’s not your fault we’re trapped here,” Gina Farrell said. “If you hadn’t surrendered, we would’ve all been killed.” “Instead we’re all trapped here,” Kira Siegal said. “The crew is scattered all over the planet, or at last this section of it, and there’s no way home.” “But we’re alive.” “If we had made a run for the wormhole, we might have been able to make it.” “Maybe, but we can’t live in the past. Decisions were made, and now we just have to figure out where to go with them.” “We’re not going anywhere with them,” Kira said. “There’s no way off this planet.” “I’ve been chatting with a few people who are trying to make a ship out of the pods that bring prisoners and supplies down here.” “What about the ships in orbit? We’d be shot down the second we left the atmosphere, maybe even earlier.” “Maybe, but it’s something to try, if nothing else.” “Maybe if we could make multiple ships, or something, some sort of distraction,” Kira said. “See, that’s the ticket, we have a problem and we just need to figure out the solution.” Ricardo stepped through the time door into the headquarters of the ESS Time Division, which was situated in the Cretaceous. Abigail Esau was waiting for him as he arrived there. “Hey Ricardo,” Abigail said. “You said you needed a favor?” “Yeah,” Ricardo said. “Several of our friends went on a mission deep into Caldore space, and haven’t returned. It’s been over a month.” “I’d love to help,” Abigail said. “But I’m kind of confined to the base currently. It’s complicated.” “That’s unfortunate, your assistance would have been appreciated, but that’s not the only thing I’m here for. The UES can’t send a ship into Caldore space. And the only ship my company had was the one that our friends were using for this mission.” “You want to borrow a ship from us?” “It would be appreciated. You have a Palore timeship, and that would be a great help.” “I mean, I can talk with Harkon, see what he says, but I don’t know how likely it is,” Abigail said. “That is all I can ask for,” Ricardo said. “Thank you for whatever you can manage.” “Yes, I’d like to speak to Admiral Teleros,” Jake said over the phone. “May I ask who’s calling?” the voice on the other end said. “I’m Jake, I’m a friend of Curtis Hammer.” “Who?” “His dad was a friend of the Admiral.” “I’m sure he was, but Admiral Teleros is pretty busy. What’s your reason for calling?” “Umm…I’m not sure how much I should say over the phone.” “Is this some kind of prank call? How did you even get this number?” “No, this is important,” Jake said. “Umm, I just need to uh, think for a second.” The person on the other end apparently decided not to give him that second. “So, how did it go?” Alexandra asked. “I couldn’t get past the receptionist,” Jake said. “She hung up on me.” “Isn’t there any other way to contact him? Like, this place is full of ESS equipment. Maybe a direct line of communication to him?” “Maybe, I don’t know. I’m usually only down here if Curtis needs some patching up after a night out of vigilante stuff.” “Well, let’s get searching than,” Alexandra said. “Unless you want to try another phone call.” As Ricardo came out of the time door back into the present day, he found Admiral Jon Teleros waiting there. “Hello, Ricardo,” Jon said. “Decided to take a trip into the past?” “Just catching up with a friend,” Ricardo said. “Of course, of course. You wouldn’t be planning on having the timeline altered or anything, would you?” “Of course not. But you probably don’t want to know what I was talking about.” “So, you are planning something?” “We still have people behind enemy lines.” “We’re not technically at war,” Jon said. “And we don’t know that any of your people are still alive.” As they were talking, a beeping sound started coming from Jon’s jacket pocket. He took out a communicator. “Hello? Who is this? How did you get on this frequency?” Ricardo waited as whoever was on the other end was talking to Jon. “Hmm, that is interesting,” Jon said. “I’ll be there shortly.” He hung up. “Well, the chances of your friends still being alive, at least some of them, seems to have gone up.” “Oh?” Ricardo asked. “That was a friend of Curtis. Apparently they’ve received an SOS.” Elizabeth and Curtis returned to the shack they were living in. Bobby Anderson was living there with them as well. He was napping, but woke up at their return. “How were the fights today?” he asked, as Curtis went straight to his room. “Curtis is still the undisputed champion,” Elizabeth said. “That’s good,” Bobby said. “Not so much, less and less people are betting against him.” “I could fight then. I’m almost as good as him, but no one here knows that yet.” “You know he’s not going to allow that.” “He will if you talk him into it.” “Yes, because he always listens to me.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “He listens to you more than he listens to anyone else anyway. Especially me.” “He just doesn’t want you to get hurt. He doesn’t want anyone to get hurt.” “Other then the people he beats up, you mean?” Bobby asked. “Yeah, other than them. And himself.” Jake almost jumped when Jon and Ricardo teleported into the Lair. “That is so cool,” Alexandra said. “You said you received an SOS?” Jon asked. “Still receiving,” Alexandra said as she pointed at the blinking light. “It just keeps looping over and over.” “It’s not much to go on,” Jon said as he sat down at the computer, and started working on it. “I can trace the signal back to near the wormhole. It was probably sent from a Caldore ship that came through.” “So, Curtis and Liz and them made it back into our galaxy?” Jake asked. “Maybe, maybe not,” Jon said. “They may have just hacked a Caldore ship to send out the message if it passed through.” “It at least indicates they are alive,” Ricardo said. “Or at least that they were when they did this,” Jon said. “Anything could have happened since. And either way, the UES still can’t send a rescue mission.” “No, I understand,” Ricardo said. “I don’t,” Jake said. “It would be considered an act of war,” Jon said. “And what? Them occupying most of Europe isn’t?” Alexandra asked. “We had to let them stay there in order to negotiate a peace treaty,” Jon said. “A peace treaty they were going to break by sending another invasion fleet that our friends went to stop,” Jake said. “Yes,” Jon said. “But we can’t afford to let it be broken.” “Which is why we’ll wait until you leave before discussing our plans,” Ricardo said. Drake was having trouble sleeping so he left his tent and went out to sit by the fire. Apparently he was not the only one who had that idea, as Jennifer was already sitting there. “You can’t sleep either?” Jennifer asked. “Yeah, I had trouble for the first week or so we were here, and then it got better, but now it’s bad again.” “For me it’s just started up recently,” Jennifer said. “Like, I can get a decent sleep while also being ready to wake up in an instant if something happens, but here, I’m just restless. In London I was fighting pretty much every day. Here we’re just existing, and waiting for I don’t know what.” “A rescue mission, maybe?” “We went on this mission because no one else could or would. Who’s going to come rescue us?” “I don’t know,” Drake said. “I mean, I’m sure Ricardo is trying to figure something out, but I don’t know what even he can do in this situation.” “So, what are our plans?” Jake asked after Jon had left. “If we’re lucky we’ll be able to a ship from Abigail’s people,” Ricardo said. “I’m not sure how big of a crew we’ll be able to put together though. I suppose I’ll be going. Krissy will probably want to go too.” “And if she’s going, I imagine Ted will be as well,” Jake said. “I’m going too,” Alexandra said. “What?” Jake asked. “No.” “You’re my brother, not my boss. And our other brother and sister are out there, as is my girlfriend. I’m going.” “Then I suppose I’m going as well,” Jake said. “So, that’ll make five,” Ricardo said. “What about your boyfriend?” “Skyler?” Jake asked. “He’ll probably come along if I am, yeah, so he’s six.” “What about Madhur and Becca?” Alexandra asked. “They’ll probably want to go with as well. And no offense to us, but they’ll probably be a bit more useful than the rest of us.” “Very good points,” Ricardo said. “I’ll check with them, and that may make eight.” “Hey Gorthos,” Gina said as she lead Kira into the back of the shop, where Gorthos was working on some sort of device. “Gina, my friend,” Gorthos said as he looked up from his work. “And I imagine this is your friend Kira that you spoke of.” “Nice to meet you,” Kira said. “Gina said you’re working on a way off this planet.” “Indeed, indeed, trying anyway,” Gorthos said. “There is a lot of work yet to be done though.” “Anything I can do to help?” Kira asked. “Are you an engineer?” Gorthos asked. “No, but I know quite a few,” Kira said. “I could start tracking them down and bringing them back here to help with the effort.” “That would be greatly appreciated,” Gorthos said. “We can use all the help we can get.” “Of course we’re in,” Becca said after Ricardo had explained the situation to them. “What’s the plan though?” Madhur asked. “Even with a ship, how are we getting to the wormhole without being destroyed? If we get through it, what then? Do we even have a starting point?” “Not yet,” Ricardo said. “We’ll need to get there first.” “Which we’re doing how?” Madhur asked. “We’ll figure something out,” Becca said. “We’re not going to just leave them out there.” “The ship I’m trying to get use of has a cloaking device,” Ricardo said. “That should allow us to get to and through the wormhole undetected.” “Assuming they haven’t figured out countermeasures after the last time,” Madhur said. “Then we’ll just have to figure out how to countermeasure those countermeasures,” Becca said. “The cloaking device it has is a lot more advanced than what the Majestic did,” Ricardo said. “Now we just need to take time off work,” Becca said. “When are we leaving?” “So, do you trust Gorthos?” Kira asked as she and Gina headed home. “I mean, this is a prison planet. Do you know what he’s here for?” “I mean, from what I know, he probably does deserve to be here,” Gina said. “And I definitely don’t trust him, but I trust that he wants to get off of this planet, and we need all the help we can get.” “True, very true. I just don’t want us to do anything we’re going to end up regretting later.” “Okay, here goes nothing,” Rachel said as she plugged a new battery into the device she was working on. “How do we know if it’s working?” Murshidah asked before a light bulb on it turned on. “That’s how we know,” Rachel said, standing up with a big smile on her face, and kissing Murshidah. “Unfortunately without more parts, my work on it is kind of stalled.” “So you’re saying you have a bit of free time?” Murshidah asked. “Lyle’s going to be gone for the next few hours, so we have the place to ourselves.” “Well let’s not waste our time then,” Rachel said as she followed Murshidah to their bedroom. “So, I take it something big is going on?” Lance asked Jake. “What with all of the comings and goings in the past few hours.” “We got an SOS signal from Liz and Curtis,” Jake said. “It’s not much, but it’s a sign that they are at least out there, and it gives us a starting point, maybe.” “You’re planning a rescue mission?” “Yeah, I mean, I don’t know what we can do, but it’s not like anyone else is going to be doing anything, so we’re all they’ve got.” “I’d like to go with,” Lance said. “If that’s okay.” “I mean, we definitely need all of the help we can get, but why would you want to? Like for me, I have two siblings and a bunch of friends out there.” “I don’t have friends, haven’t really for a while, not since high school, and if I’m being honest it’s not like I was a great friend back then.” “Okay?” “I want to do better, I want to be better. This is a way I can try.” “So what are we going to say for why we need the time off work?” Madhur asked. “I’ve already used up my vacation days.” “Same,” Becca said. “We’ll have to figure something out. Maybe a conference of some kind?” “Maybe,” Madhur said. “The problem is that we don’t know how long we’re going to be gone for, or even when we’re leaving.” “So, yeah, we have to decide between asking now and saying we don’t know.” “Which is suspicious.” “Or we wait until we do know, which’ll likely be at the last minute.” “Which will also be suspicious.” “So, no matter what we do, it’s going look suspicious,” Becca said. “Pretty much.” “Hello again,” Ricardo said as he returned to the ESS Time Division base, where Abigail was waiting for him again, this time with Harkon Smith. “Mr. Lopez,” Harkon said. “It’s good to finally meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.” “Likewise, Mr. Smith,” Ricardo said. “I told him about your request,” Abigail said. “I understand it,” Harkon said. “But I’m not sure I feel comfortable lending you a timeship for this excursion. If it were to fall into Caldore hands, that could be disastrous. We already have enough enemies with time travel capabilities.” “How difficult would it be to remove the time travel capabilities from it?” Ricardo asked. “We need a starship, but we don’t really need a timeship.” “Honestly, not difficult at all,” Abigail said. “I spent a lot of time on that ship with little to do beyond learning it backwards and forwards. I could remove the time travel tech from it in a few hours.” “I’m still hesitant,” Harkon said. “But we do owe you and your friends for the help you provided in dealing with Deanna at the rogue planet. Just try and get the ship back to us in one piece.” “I’ll do my best,” Ricardo said. “I just wish I could go with,” Abigail said. “Hey, boss,” Becca said as she and Madhur entered Laura’s office. “Ma’am,” Madhur said. “Please sit down,” Laura said. “Of course,” Becca said as they did. “So, we’re going to be needing some time off.” “Yes, I just heart about that myself,” Laura said. “You heard about that?” Madhur asked. “I just got a call from the chief of police that you two have been requested to provide security to some sort of conference on Maltork Six,” Laura said. “Apparently Ricardo Lopez asked for you two specifically.” “Yes, well, he does know us,” Becca said. “It’ll be a shame to be missing two of my best detectives, but I’m not exactly going to be ignoring an order, no matter how strange it seems,” Laura said. “Dismissed.” “Yes, ma’am,” Becca and Madhur said before leaving her office. “Did you know Ricardo was going to be doing that?” Madhur asked. “No, but I suppose it’s not that surprising,” Becca said. “I mean, it is Ricardo.” Kira walked through the marketplace of this town. She knew Lyle, Rachel, and Murshidah were living in this area, but she did not know exactly where. She asked around at a few stalls, if anyone knew where they were. Humans were not exactly common on this planet, so it was not long before she got pointed in the right direction. As she was about to head that way though, she actually ran into Lyle who was in the marketplace himself. “Lyle, it’s great to see you,” she said. “Kira, how’s it going?” Lyle asked. Kira looked around, but no one seemed to be paying them much attention. “We’re working on a way of getting off this planet.” “So’s Rachel,” Lyle said. “Or so she keeps saying, but I mean, let’s be honest here, do you really think anything we come up with is going to be something the Caldore aren’t already prepared for?” “They’ve not been prepared for a lot of the things we’ve thrown their way so far.” “Well sure, thanks to the fact that we have plenty of tech they were unfamiliar with. But here on this prison planet all we have access to is the stuff they’ve allowed to be here.” “So, you’ve just resigned yourself to being stuck here?” “I don’t know, I just don’t know.” “So, is this everyone?” Jake asked as him and Skyler walked onto the bridge of their borrowed ship. Ricardo, Lance, Madhur, Becca, and Alexandra were all there. “Not quite,” Ricardo said. “We still need to pick up Krissy and Ted from Maltork Six.” “Who’s piloting the ship?” Skyler asked. “We haven’t figured out who’s doing what yet,” Madhur said. “It’s not like any of us really have much experience running a starship.” “I mean, I’d like to give it a whirl,” Lance said. “Same here,” Becca said. “And I’ve actually been on a starship before.” “Yeah, but I’ve seen your driving,” Madhur said. “I’d prefer someone else.” “I could do it,” Alexandra said as she went and sat down at the piloting console. “I’ve watched Gina fly ships before.” “And what do the rest of us do?” Jake asked. “Well, you’re the closest thing we have to a doctor if anything goes wrong, so why don’t you go check out the infirmary,” Ricardo said. “I’m pre-med. Pre means before. Why does everyone think that means I’m qualified to be a doctor?” he asked before heading off to find the infirmary anyway. Rachel and Murshidah were basking in the afterglow of sex, when they heard the door to their home open. “I’m home,” Lyle shouted out. “And we have a visitor.” “Who’s visiting?” Rachel asked Murshidah as she went to pick her clothes up off the floor and start getting dressed. Murshidah just shrugged as she did the same. After Rachel was dressed, she left their room, and found Kira was with Lyle. “Kira, hey, what’s going on?” Rachel asked. “We’re working on a way to get off this planet,” Kira said. “Lyle tells me you’re working on something too?” Rachel pointed at her device that was on the table. “Yeah, it’s still a ways away from completion, but it’s getting there.” “What is it?” Kira asked. “Still not entirely certain,” Rachel said. “At this point it could be the start of a few different things. What are you working on though?” “Ships, made with whatever can be scrounged up,” Kira said. “Wouldn’t those just be shot down?” Murshidah asked as she came out into the main room. “Probably,” Lyle said. “Maybe not,” Rachel said. “I mean, it wasn’t something I was considering, but my device could be a crude cloaking device.” “They eventually managed to see through our not crude cloaking device,” Lyle said. “Yeah, but we wouldn’t need it to work for very long, assuming we’re just trying to escape the planet,” Rachel said. “Getting back home through the wormhole would be another matter entirely though.” “One step at a time,” Kira said. “Just gotta take it one step at a time.” After picking up Krissy and Ted, the ship was now on its way to the wormhole that would bring them to the galaxy that the Caldore Imperium called home. “So, what happens if they can see through our cloak,” Madhur asked. “Depends on how quickly,” Ricardo said. “If we’re close enough to the wormhole to go through, then we just punch it and get through before they can destroy us.” “And if we’re not close enough?” Madhur asked. “Best case scenario, we escape and formulate a new strategy,” Ricardo said. “Worst case?” Madhur asked. “Never mind, don’t answer that.” “We’re going to do this,” Becca said. “And it’s going to work. It has to.” Curtis punched his opponent in the face. One hit and he was down. There were a few half-hearted cheers from the crowd, but not many, as they were getting pretty bored of Curtis never losing. He walked past the crowd to Elizabeth. “Well?” he asked. “No one’s betting against you anymore,” she said. “We got nothing.” “So, we’ll have to move somewhere else, where I don’t have a reputation yet.” “You’ll have to go pretty far for that,” a familiar voice said. Curtis turned around. “Jennifer, hey, how’re things. How’s Henry doing?” “Henry’s fine, Drake’s fine, I’m bored,” Jennifer said. “But word about you has been going around.” “How far?” Curtis asked. “A better option might be getting someone else to do these fights for a while,” Jennifer said. “That’s what Bobby’s been saying,” Elizabeth said. “We’re not putting Bobby into street fights,” Curtis said. “What about me?” Jennifer asked. “I thought you guys were living out in the wilderness and such, so you didn’t need to make money,” Curtis said. “It’s not about the money for me anymore than it is for you,” Jennifer said. “We’re fighters, it’s the type of people we are, and we’re bored when we’re not.” “Well, even if that’s true, then wouldn’t I be bored if you were taking my place?” Curtis asked. “Just because I start fighting, doesn’t mean you have to stop,” Jennifer said. “But living in these camps, you need money even if that isn’t the reason you fight.” “We’re dropping out of superspace in three, two, one, now,” Alexandra said from the piloting console. “How many Caldore ships are out there?” Ricardo asked. “I’m picking up forty-seven ships,” Madhur said. “I’m ready to start firing on them at a moment’s notice,” Becca said. “Hold off on that,” Ricardo said. “Any sign that they’ve noticed us?” “I don’t think so,” Madhur said. “There was just an increase in the amount that they are talking to each other,” Krissy said. “Looks like they’ve detected some changes in the wormhole’s behaviour, which they are saying means there’s another ship in the area.” “So they know someone’s here,” Ricardo said. “But they don’t know it’s us, and they don’t know where we are. In that case, keep us on course, let’s get through that wormhole before they do discover anything, and be ready to enter superspace the second we’re on the other side.” “On it,” Alexandra said. “That was pretty close to actually admitting why you’re really getting into these fights,” Elizabeth said as she and Curtis were heading back to their place. “I’m not doing it cause I’m bored otherwise,” Curtis said. “I was just pointing out the flaw in her logic. Remember, my plan used to be to become a lawyer.” “Right, but she does bring up the point that we could be out in the wilderness, where we wouldn’t be needing to make money to get by, just hunting and gathering. And it’s not like that wouldn’t present its own challenges. Hell, you’re an archer, that would be more useful with hunting.” “Maybe, but it wouldn’t be…” Curtis trailed off. “It wouldn’t be what? It wouldn’t be punishing criminals?” “My job isn’t to punish criminals, it’s to apprehend them, and these ones are already apprehended.” “As are we,” Elizabeth said. “Which means your job, like all of our jobs, is survival.” “We have left the wormhole,” Alexandra said. “Entering superspace now.” “Okay, so what next?” Madhur asked. “We’re in this galaxy, but we have no idea where to even start.” “We’re going to check out the location of the shipyard first,” Ricardo said. “That’s our starting point.” “And what are we expecting to find there?” Madhur asked. “We’ll see when we get there,” Ricardo said. “The shipyard could be in perfect working condition, or it might be damaged, or if we’re really lucky it’s been fully destroyed.” “And what will each of those things mean?” Ted asked. “Like, it’ll tell us how successful they were, but it won’t tell us where they are.” “Maybe, maybe not,” Becca said. “We know they made it into this galaxy, so the status of the shipyard may help indicate if they made it that far.” “But in theory, the plan was to go straight from the wormhole to the shipyard, and then straight back the other way,” Madhur said. “So unless the Caldore have a way to force a ship out of superspace, they were presumably captured in one of those two locations. And if the Caldore do have such a method, it was presumably still on that line between them.” “Well, if that’s the case, we might end up getting pulled out at the same location,” Alexandra said. “So that’ll at least be a lead.” “And if not, depending on what we find at the shipyard, we might head back to the wormhole,” Ricardo said. “But we should check on the shipyard first, just in case.” “And either way, it’s important to know if they were successful,” Krissy said. “So?” Kira asked. Rachel poked her head out from under the engine she was looking over. “Yeah, this is definitely workable.” “That’s what I said,” Gorthos said. “And we’ve got a few of them.” “How many?” Kira asked. “Eight, which’ll be enough for two ships,” Gorthos said. “We’ll need four per ship.” “Naw, that’s overkill,” Rachel said. “We can easily get by on two a ship, might even manage one per ship.” “That’s ridiculous,” Gorthos said. “We can’t manage that.” “Why not?” Rachel asked. “All we need them for is escaping the gravity of the planet. So we don’t need to worry about overloading them as long as they get us that far.” “And then what are we supposed to do next?” Gorthos asked. “Just slowly float through space?” “Floating through on momentum, or traveling through with those engines, either way we’re not getting to another system in at least a decade,” Rachel said. “Whatever we’re planning once we’re in space, these engines aren’t what we need then.” “Seven ships they notice increases the chance that they don’t notice the cloaked eighth ship,” Kira said. “I’m not going up there to float around unless we have a plan for what to do next,” Gorthos said. “And this is my equipment.” “No problem,” Kira said. “We’ll figure something out.” “Dropping out of superspace now,” Alexandra said. “What are we seeing?” Ricardo asked. “A hell of a lot of debris,” Becca said. “Whatever was here was big, and got destroyed.” “Well, at least we know they were successful then,” Madhur said. “Which means we know they got at least this far.” “Wait, I’m picking up a signal from the Majestic’s transponder,” Krissy said. “It’s in the area?” Becca asked. “Where?” “Umm, amongst the wreckage,” Krissy said. “Yeah, I’m looking over these sensor scans,” Ted said. “And I’m pretty sure I’m seeing a bunch of pieces of it.” “Any lifesigns?” Ricardo asked. “Nothing,” Skyler said. “No lifesigns.” “So they succeeded, but at the cost of their own lives,” Becca said. “We’ve lost them.” Drake brought some firewood back to the campsite, and found Henry pacing. “Hey Henry, you okay?” “I don’t know,” Henry said. “Jennifer went off to do some hunting earlier, and she’’s not back yet.” “How long has it been?” “Several hours, I’m not sure exactly, but she’s usually not gone for this long.” “I’m sure she’s fine, but if you want I can go search for her.” “No, that’s okay, I’m sure she’s fine, that’s not what I’m worried about.” “You think she went to one of the nearby cities or camps to participate in some street fights?” Drake asked. “Yeah, I mean, honestly I’m surprised she hadn’t done so sooner.” “Well, she can hold her own in a fight. There’s no reason to be worried.” “I’m not worried that she’ll get hurt,” Henry said. “I mean, okay yeah, I’m always going to be at least a little worried about that, but the bigger issue is that I’m worried about how much she enjoys fighting.” “Oh?” “I mean, violence should always be the last resort, right? Not the default.” “We’re seldom given a choice in that matter. Like, we didn’t ask for the Caldore to come and invade Earth, and we didn’t ask for them to succeed in conquering parts of it, and we sure as hell didn’t ask for them to build another fleet to finish the job.” “Yeah no, I get all that. I understand why she’s been fighting this whole time, and you and Curtis and everyone else. But here, now, with these street fights Curtis is taking part in, and maybe now Jennifer too. That’s a choice.” “You can take the soldier away from the war, but you can’t always take the war away from the soldier,” Drake said. “Eventually the fighting becomes part of who you are, and it’s not so easy to leave that behind.” The mood on the ship was pretty grim after Becca had made her comment. No one quite knew what to say. Some of the people were not even quite sure what to do, while others were obsessively looking through sensor readings, trying to find something, anything. “I guess, set course back for the wormhole,” RIcardo said. “This wasn’t what we were hoping for, but it’s what we’ve got, so we should head back. The longer we stay here, the more the risk adds up.” “Wait,” Krissy said. “I’m picking energy signals that indicate there was teleporter usage in this area.” “So?” Lance asked. “What does that matter?” “Because the Caldore don’t have teleporters,” Jake said. “That means it was our friends.” “Okay, so what does that mean?” Becca asked. “They used teleporters to get over to the shipyard and blow it up? Or are we thinking they teleported over to another ship and managed to escape that way?” “It’s possible,” Ricardo said. “And if that’s the case, they likely would have tried to get to the wormhole to escape.” “But without a cloaking device,” Becca said. “Which means there’s a decent chance they would have been caught,” Ricardo said. “Okay, where would they be brought if they were caught?” Madhur asked. “The Caldore have a prison planet,” Krissy said. “I don’t know where it is, but that’s where they send all of their criminals and prisoners and such.” “So, we just need to figure out where that is?” Alexandra asked. “How do we do that?” “Well, the easiest way would be for one of us to get captured,” Ricardo said. “If we put a tracker in that person, we can just follow the signal.” “I volunteer,” Becca, Alexandra, Jake, Krissy, and Lance all said at the same time. “We only need one volunteer,” Ricardo said. “Jake is the closest thing we have to a doctor,” Lance said. “Krissy is our linguist, and Alexandra is our pilot.” “So that narrows it down to you and me,” Becca said. “And I’m doing this.” “I’m more expendable,” Lance said. “If something goes wrong, better we lose me than anyone else.” “I’m sure that’s not true,” Becca said. “But tell you what, why don’t we both go, that way if something happens to one of us, there’s still a chance the other will make it.” Jennifer snuck back into camp in the middle of the night. She was trying her best to be quiet as she entered the tent she shared with Henry. She had been hoping not to wake him, but unfortunately for her, he was already awake, and sitting there. “Hey, welcome back,” Henry said. “Hey Henry, I didn’t think you’d still be up,” Jennifer said. “You’ve been gone all day,” Henry said. “I had no idea where you were, or what you were doing.” “Really?” “Okay, yeah, I can assume you went to participate in some street fights.” “Well, I haven’t taken part in any yet, but yeah, I was in those camps I was mentioning before. Met up with Curtis and Liz briefly.” “How are they doing?” Henry asked. “They’re doing fine, but running low on money as no one wants to bet against Curtis anymore in his fights.” “He’s doing that well?” “I mean, he’s been a vigilante crimefighter for how long now?” Jennifer asked. “He’s got some pretty decent skills in that time. Just like how I got mine fighting the Caldore.” “I understand that fighting is what you guys do, and I’m not going to stand in the way if this is what you feel you need to do, but I do wish you wouldn’t.” “Okay, there’s some Caldore ships up ahead,” Lance said as Becca piloted the shuttle they were in towards them. “Have they noticed us yet?” Becca asked. “Yeah, they are running scans on us right now. Let’s hope they don’t decide to just blow us up. Oh wait, we’re getting a comm signal now.” Lance opened the comm channel. “Hello, please don’t blow us up.” “What are you doing here, Human vessel?” a Caldore asked. “We’re kind of lost, not sure what happened, can you help us out?” Lance asked. “Surrender now, or be destroyed.” “Yeah, okay, not a problem, we surrender,” Lance said. “Their lifesigns are still good,” Jake said. “Which means they haven’t been killed. And they are on the move.” “As soon as they enter superspace we won’t be able to track them again until they emerge,” Ricardo said. “So we’ll just have to wait patiently for that.” “And hope they aren’t killed,” Jake said. “Then hope that they are actually brought to this so called prison planet.” “Yes, exactly,” Ricardo said. “As far as I know, they only have the one prison planet,” Krissy said. “And from what I understand that’s where they send everyone they want to lock up.” Kira brought some more of the technicians that had been aboard the Majestic into Gorthos’ shop. She sent them into the back to assist Rachel with the work. “Just how big was your crew?” Gorthos asked. “A few dozen,” Kira said. “You’re worried we won’t be able to fit everyone?” “I have some friends as well, and it’s my equipment so my group takes priority.” “Well, then hopefully there’s enough room.” A light on Gorthos desk started blinking. “What’s that?” Kira asked. “That means a pod is coming down with some prisoners,” Gorthos said. “Which means we should get there quickly if we want to get some of the equipment from the pod itself.” “The signal has reappeared,” Jake said. “In a system not too far from here.” “Set a course,” Ricardo said. “Setting the course,” Alexandra said. “Looks like that system has eight planets around a single sun,” Madhur said. “That sounds about right,” Krissy said. “I mean, we don’t know much about the prison planet, but I do recall hearing it was in a system of eight planets. Security in that system is probably going to be pretty high though.” “Hopefully they won’t be able to see through our cloak,” Skyler said. “But what are we going to do when we get there?” Kira and Lyle followed Gorthos to the location where the pod was landing, and got there just as it touched down. Gorthos had a crude energy rifle which he was pointing at the pod door as it opened up, and Becca and Lance stepped out. “Don’t shoot them,” Kira said, raising her hand. “Kira!” Lance exclaimed. “And…Jake’s twin.” “You all know each other?” Gorthos asked. “That’s good, means we don’t need to fight over the equipment in this pod.” He went to get to work on stripping the useful stuff from it. “What are you guys even doing here?” Kira asked. “We’re on a rescue mission,” Becca said. “Is everyone else alive and okay?” “As far as I know,” Kira said. “We were all in good shape when we were brought here, but I haven’t seen some people in a couple weeks.” “Drake?” Becca asked. “Him, Jennifer, and Henry were living out in the woods, last I heard,” Kira said. “So, what kind of rescue mission exactly is this?” “Ricardo borrowed a ship from Abigail’s group,” Becca said. “They are on the way, we just needed to figure out where this planet was.” “So, what happened?” Lance asked. “We know you took out the Caldore shipyard, and your ship was destroyed in the process, but what happened next?” “We got on another ship,” Kira said. “But without a cloak we couldn’t exactly hide, and when we returned to the wormhole we weren’t able to bluff them into thinking we were Caldore. Our choice was surrender or be destroyed.” Henry watched as Jennifer was wailing away at her opponent in the street fight. “She’s really good at that,” Curtis said. “I mean, yeah, that’s never been in doubt,” Henry said. “My problem with her fighting, and you fighting for that matter, isn’t that I don’t think you guys can win.” “Yeah, I know,” Curtis said. “I’m surprised you’re even here watching though.” “I may not agree with her, but I still love her and want to be supportive.” “Speaking of, you two ever actually going to get married? You’ve been engaged for how long now?” “It’s been a while, but then she went to London, and now we’re on this prison planet, and who knows when it’ll even happen.” “It’ll happen when you guys make it happen,” Curtis said. “There’s always a million reasons to put something off, and you just have to decide what’s too important to listen to those reasons.” “Yeah, that’s pretty good advice,” Henry said. “Thanks, it’s been a while since we’ve had a good talk like this.” Drake was still at camp, by himself, eating some lunch, when he heard someone approaching. It seemed a bit early for Jennifer and Henry to be getting back, so he climbed up a tree, to get a view of who was coming, while also getting out of sight himself. Two people came into the clearing. One was Lyle, and the other was… “Becca!” Drake said as he jumped out of the tree. “Drake!” she said. “You’re alive.” She ran over and they embraced. “What are you doing here?” Drake asked. “Rescue mission,” Becca said. “We’re here to save you guys.” “Who’s we?” Drake asked. “Her and Lance are here on the planet,” Lyle said. “And apparently they have a ship on the way with Ricardo commanding it.” “Huh, I figured Ricardo would try something, but I didn’t want to give myself false hope,” Drake said. “So, what’s the plan?” “Lance and I came here so that Ricardo and them could locate the planet,” Becca said. “The next step of the plan is up to them, depending on what they find when they get here.” “Fair enough,” Drake said. “I suppose sometimes you just have to make things up as you go along.” “Kira’s also working on something,” Lyle said. “A way to possibly get us into space.” “That’s good,” Drake said. “I imagine this planet has anti-teleportation fields set up, just in case. If we can get up there, and meet Ricardo, that’ll make things easier.” “I don’t think any of this is going to be easy,” Lyle said. “We’re dropping out of superspace now,” Alexandra said. “There’s a dozen ships around the planet,” Madhur said. “And a lot of people on it.” “None of them have picked us up though?” Ricardo asked. “I’m not noticing any change in their activity,” Krissy said. “They seem to be unaware of us.” “Excellent,” Ricardo said. “We are picking up anti-teleporter fields from the planet,” Skyler said. “We won’t be able to just teleport them up from the surface.” “We didn’t think it would be that easy anyway,” Ricardo said. “Both Becca and Lance are down there and still in good shape?” “Yeah, they both appear to still be in good health,” Jake said. “So, what’s our next move?” Ted asked. “We’re possibly going to have to go down and land on the planet,” Ricardo said. “If we do that, they’ll know we’re here,” Skyler said. “Our cloak isn’t going to stop us from air moving around us if we enter atmosphere.” “I am aware of that,” Ricardo said. “But unless they can come up and meet us, I don’t see what other options we have.” “So, how are going to let them know that we’re planning on going up to meet them?” Gina asked. Kira turned to Lance. “The trackers you have in you, do they include communication devices of any sort?” “They can be used to track our location, and they keep track of our vitals,” Lance said. “We might be able to work with that,” Kira said. “I mean, Rachel could probably manage to turn them into fully functioning communicators, but we need her working on the escape ships. But we could probably use them to send a morse code communication, if nothing else.” “One way though,” Lance said. “They just send information, they can’t receive.” “So we won’t know if they get our message,” Gina said. “We’ll know when we get up there,” Kira said. “It’s not a perfect plan, but it’ll have to do.” “There you guys are,” Drake said as he pushed through the crowd and found Henry and Curtis. Becca came following after. “Becca?” Henry asked. “What are you doing here?” Curtis asked. “Rescue mission,” Becca said. “So, get Jennifer and Liz and that sidekick of yours,” Drake said. “And let’s get going.” “It’s almost done?” Kira asked. “Just about,” Rachel said. “Just making some final adjustments.” “And how many people will fit aboard?” “That’s the bad news,” Rachel said. “We can fit all of our people, and maybe one more.” “Gorthos isn’t going to like that. Although to be honest, I am a bit wary of bringing a bunch of people with us that we know nothing about.” “Well, we should still be able to bring Gorthos himself. Which I mean, this is his equipment we’re using.” “Yeah, we at least owe him that,” Kira said. “Uh, I’m getting some weird readings from Lance’s tracker,” Jake said. “It keeps cutting out and reappearing, like something’s blocking it.” “That’s odd,” Ricardo said. “Yeah, sometimes for two seconds at a time, sometimes for five,” Jake said. “Send it over to my computer,” Krissy said. “Sure thing,” Jake said as he did that. “It’s morse code,” Krissy said. “They are saying that they’ll meet us in space.” “How are they going to manage that?” Madhur asked. “They aren’t giving details on that, just where to meet them, and an estimate of when” Krissy said. “Can we respond?” Ted asked. “No,” Ricardo said. “How much time do we have?” “A few hours,” Krissy said. “They’re going to give us a more exact time when they know.” “Then let’s make sure there’s a distraction ready for when they are ready,” Ricardo said. As Rachel was finishing up the escape pod, while their other technicians were working on the distraction pods, Kira went up to the front of the shop, where the rest of her crew were. Curtis, Elizabeth, and Bobby were just arriving, which meant everyone was here. “You have quite a lot of people,” Gorthos said as he walked up to Kira. “Is everyone going to fit?” “I’m sorry Gorthos,” Kira said. “You can fit, but none of your friends can.” “That wasn’t the deal.” “We could always convert one of the distraction pods into another escape pod,” Kira said. “But we only have the one cloaking device.” “Yeah, but that cloaking device is ours,” Kira said. “Rachel made that, most of it before even coming here.” Gorthos growled. “Your original plan was to go up without a cloaking device,” Kira said. “And we have friends up there with a starship, so you’re still better off then before we were helping you out.” “That’s the last one,” Madhur said. “Each of these asteroids has an explosive on it.” “Good work,” Ricardo said. “That should provide a decent distraction. Bring us into position to be ready to meet up with them, Lex.” “On it,” Alexandra said. “We’ve just got an update from them,” Krissy said. “They are ready to launch.” “Okay, everyone start getting aboard,” Kira said. She looked around as everyone started boarding the escape pod, and pulled Gina aside. “Where’s Gorthos?” “I haven’t seen him in a bit,” Gina said. “That’s worrying,” Kira said. “Uh, we have a problem,” Rachel said coming over to them. “What’s the problem?” Kira asked. “Nobody told me that Becca and Lance were here,” Rachel said. “We can’t fit everyone.” “We’ll have to squeeze in a bit more,” Kira said. “It’s not just that, we won’t be able to escape the planet’s gravity,” Rachel said. “Someone needs to stay behind, or use one of the distraction pods.” “How about all of you take one of the distraction pods,” Gorthos said as he approached, with a dozen of his friends, and they were all armed. “Is everyone aboard?” Kira asked. “Other than the three of us,” Rachel said. “Then you two get aboard, and leave,” Kira said. “We’re not leaving you behind,” Gina said. “It’ll take a few minutes to launch anyway,” Rachel said. “You can’t hold them off for that long by yourself.” “Just get started on it,” Kira said. “Right,” Rachel said as she went to go work on it. “She’s right, you can’t hold them off on your own,” Gina said “Good thing she’s not alone,” Curtis said as he came up beside them. Jennifer, Henry, Drake, Becca, Bobby, and Lance came up as well. “Get on the ship,” Kira said. “We can get on when it’s ready to launch,” Drake said. “For now, we need to stop them from stopping us.” As Gorthos and his friends came up to them. “One last chance,” Gorthos said. “Surrender the pod to us, and you can live.” “Or you can surrender and we won’t have to beat you guys to a pulp,” Jennifer said. Gorthos and his friends attacked. Gorthos himself went for Kira. He had a sword and swung it at her, but she ducked and went into a roll and came back up behind him. She elbowed him in the back, putting him off balance, while she turned around and got him in a chokehold. “We’re ready to launch,” Rachel shouted. “Everyone get to the ship now,” Kira said. Gorthos was still struggling in her arms, but it was lessening. And around her the fight was still continuing. “We’re not leaving you behind,” Gina said as she dodged to avoid getting hit by a club. “Somebody has to stay behind,” Kira said as she dropped the now unconscious Gorthos. “Watch out,” Lance screamed as he jumped into the path of a spear that was thrown at Kira. It hit him in the shoulder as he fell to the ground. “Lance!” Kira said. Curtis went after the guy that threw the spear, while Kira kneeled down next to Lance. “It’s fine, I’m fine,” Lance said through gritted teeth. “We need to get you aboard the escape pod, and get it launched now,” Kira said. She tore off a chunk of her shirt and wrapped it around Lance’s shoulder. “How long will it take us to get up into space and aboard Ricardo’s ship?” Curtis asked as he came over. The fight was pretty much over, and Gorthos’ friends had been soundly defeated. “Ten minutes, at least,” Kira said. “Lance won’t survive that long with that kind of wound,” Curtis said. “You did say someone had to stay behind,” Lance said. “I’d like to volunteer for that.” “Lance…” Kira said. “You don’t have to do that.” “If I’m not going to make it anyway, I’m the right choice,” Lance said. “I know that, you know that, I’m okay with that.” Kira closed her eyes for a second. “Right, thank you. You didn’t have to do that, but thank you.” “I haven’t always been a good person,” Lance said. “But I’m glad I finally got to do something worthwhile with my life.” “Everyone aboard the escape pod,” Kira shouted. “Let’s go.” “We’re detecting a launch from the surface,” Madhur said. “No wait, seven launches.” “They’ll be the eighth launch,” Krissy said. “The one we won’t detect, assuming Rachel’s cloaking device works.” “Oh, I assume,” Ricardo said. “We’re in position to pick them up?” “Yeah, we’re where they told us they’d be,” Alexandra said. “The Caldore ships are opening fire on the pods,” Madhur said. “Just the visible ones?” Ricardo asked. “Looks like it,” Madhur said. “Three of them have been shot down so far. Four now.” “The remaining pods just left the atmosphere though,” Skyler said. “And the remainder of the visible pods have been destroyed,” Madhur said. “Our friends should be here in about half a minute,” Skyler said. “Then time for our distraction,” Ricardo said. “Blow up the asteroids.” “Detonating the explosives now,” Madhur said. The viewscreen showed the asteroids in the distance exploding. “Several of the Caldore ships are going over there to investigate, but a few are still staying here.” “It’s the best we’re going to manage,” Ricardo said. “The shuttle bay doors are open?” “They are,” Ted said. “Our friends should be here any second,” Skyler said. “Lex, make sure we’re ready to jump into superspace at a moment’s notice,” Ricardo said. “Understood,” Alexandra said. “Decloak, and let’s hope they are fast,” Ricardo said. “Decloaking now,” Ted said. “The Caldore have noticed us,” Madhur said. “They are locking weapons.” “The lead ship is hailing us,” Krissy said. “They are demanding our surrender, and saying if we don’t that we’ll be destroyed.” “Tell them we surrender then,” Ricardo said. “What?” Jake asked. “We’re surrendering?” “Of course not,” Ricardo said. “We’re buying time.” “Something just landed in our shuttle bay,” Ted said. “Confirm what it is,” Ricardo said. “The lead Caldore ship is approaching and preparing to dock,” Madhur said. “The pod in our shuttle bay just decloaked and it contains our friends,” Ted said. “Let’s get out of here,” Ricardo said. “Entering superspace now,” Alexandra said. “We’re out of here.” “Wait, that’s odd,” Jake said as the ship went into superspace. “Lance’s tracker is still back on the planet.” As the ship flew back towards the wormhole, everyone was reconnecting. Kira’s crew telling them what had happened, and about their time on the prison planet, as well as being informed of what had been going on while they were there. There was some apprehension as they approached the wormhole back to the Milky Way Galaxy, as that was where Kira’s crew had been captured, but with their cloaking device they made it past the Caldore with little difficulty this time. And it was not long before they returned to Earth. “Did I make the right call?” Kira asked as she lay on the couch, her head on Madhur’s lap. “Leaving Lance behind?” “Leaving someone behind is never easy,” Madhur said. “But someone had to stay behind, and he wasn’t going to make it back alive.” “So Curtis said, but what if he was wrong?” “You can’t think like that. You made a decision, and you can’t change that.” “We know time travellers.” “Do you really think that’s a good idea?” “No, rewriting history to fix my mistakes is not a valid solution.” “And that’s assuming this was a mistake. You made the best decision you could at the time. That’s not a mistake, it’s just a shitty situation.” “What if I was wrong?” Curtis asked. “What if Lance could have survived. I should have been the one to stay behind.” “You’ve described the wound to me, and I agree with your opinion,” Jake said. “It sucks, but he wouldn’t have made it. You staying there would have been pointless.” Curtis punched the wall. “Why does everyone keep dying around me.” “Because sometimes people die,” Elizabeth said. “It’s an unfortunate side effect of reality. But there are also a lot of people that are alive because of you. If it weren’t for people like you, the Earth would have been conquered by now, with millions dead, and everyone else enslaved. Dark Hawk knew and understood that. So did Lance. They gave their lives trying to help, just like you try to help.” “But…it’s not fair,” Curtis said. “It’s not,” Elizabeth said. “That’s why we just have to keep trying our best every day to try and make it fair. It’s not always easy, but we just have to keep trying, because the other option is to give up. And we can’t give up.” “So, I suppose now that we’re back on Earth, you’ll be heading back to London shortly,” Henry said. “In a bit,” Jennifer said. “But not right away, I don’t think.” “Oh?” “That fight is important to me, and I do intend to return to it, but you’re important to me too, and I can’t lose sight of that either.” “I don’t want to stand in the way of what you need to do,” Henry said. “I never have. I just want to be able to stand with you.” “We’ve been engaged for a while now,” Jennifer said. “Maybe it’s time we finally actually did something about that.” “Well, the first step is setting a date, I suppose,” Henry said. “How long until you go back to Maltork Six?” Rachel asked. “I’ll be on Earth for another few days, catching up with friends and family and such,” Murshidah said. “But I do have a job to get back to.” “I’m going to miss you.” “You can always come visit, it’s not that long of a spaceflight.” “I guess not.” “If you wanted you could even move out there with me,” Murshidah said. “I…you know that’s actually not a half-bad idea,” Rachel said. “I never really thought about moving to another planet before, but yeah, I’d really like that.” Many months later, Drake entered a room. “Well boys, here we are,” he said. “Henry’s about to get married. Nervous?” “Not really,” Henry said. “I mean, maybe a bit, but overall, I’m just really happy that this is finally happening.” “Yeah, it’s about time,” Curtis said. “See, this is why you plan things out in advance,” Drake said. “So things don’t drag on endlessly.” “Oh yeah?” Henry asked. “How long until you and Becca tie the knot?” “Still another two years on that,” Curtis said. “Assuming his plans from three years ago are accurate.” “What?” Drake asked. “I didn’t even know Becca back then.” “Yeah, but that’s what you were saying the day we started university, that your plan was to get married in five years,” Curtis said. Ricardo came into the room. “Hey guys, sorry I’m late, just taking care of some business.” “No problem,” Henry said. “Although, considering the kind of work you do, anything we should be concerned with?” “No, things have been rather quiet on that front as of late,” Ricardo said. “Which is nice, one should never have to be defined by their job.” “Depends on the importance they put on their job,” Drake said. “Being a journalist is pretty important to me.” “As is my job,” Curtis said. “Isn’t being a costumed vigilante more like a hobby than a job?” Henry asked. “I mean, it’s not like you get paid for it.” “Maybe not in money, but there are other benefits,” Curtis said as he snapped the fingers of his new robotic hand. “You know, helping people out.” “What about you Henry?” Ricardo asked. “You have some big career in something planned yet?” “I’m not sure yet,” Henry replied. “But the important thing is that whatever I’m doing with my life moving forward, I’m doing it with the woman I love.” The end…