#yes still thinking about a human crew going through a wormhole and ending up in the future and being found by a ship

[theshadowrealmitself]

A: So anyways with the captain and backup captains out of commission, we all took a vote and voted for B to be our next captain

B: I begged them not to! :)

B: But they didn’t listen to me

C: The only order we didn’t follow, but for any after that, we’re your loyal crew

[asher-the-diaster]

Sister planets part 7

soldiers being diplomatic

this is of course the 7th installment of a series and will make no sense without the other ones. you can find them here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DYMuKK5CIgJgDapNbu5sBqr_b5uT1Yz4pJoJ2fuAk4w/edit?usp=sharing

We found the humans with their breathing masks on refilling thru the burning wreck of the oracle.

“This looks like the wreck of the Hesperides,” captain penner commented, from the side standing on her crutch. I had no clue what that meant.

“Maybe that's because it’s an actual reck?” Oliveria said, continuing to seachthrew the ship.

Did they not notice it was in a containment chamber for health hazards?

“It's a turn of phrase.”

“Will you two stop arguing if I tell you that I found the food?” Richardson said, pulling a box out of the ship with his good arm.

“Probably.” the two who were fighting said at once.

They stepped out of the rubble and began to go through the contents of the box, dividing airtight packages.

“Don't waste it,:” penner said, we could be here for days.

“What are you doing?” I was wearing my diplomatic translator which flittered out a large amount of causes.

“Well you aren’t feeding us so we got the emergency rations form our ship.” Davoin said, jumping down.

“We were feeding you because our scans said you can go weeks without eating. Oh and all of your food is just biohazards or pisones.”

“1 we can’t go that long comfortably. 2. They aren’t really to us at least 3. You really don’t want captain penner doing this whole “diplomacy thing on an empty stomach.” oliverra replied.

“Why not?”

“They and the person that we have the best chance of contacting have made a game of… trying to strangle each other.”

“What!”

“Not really,” penner explained, “it's a siblingly joke.”

“I don’t know the words, siblingy, game or joke. The only part of this I understand is trying to kill somebody.”

“Not literally.”

We made it back to the airlock so the humans could eat a quick “breakfast,” as they called it, then made our way to the lab.

Here we had set up systems that could enter the humans “cellular network” and make contact with the humans, formally.

We had set up two sets, the captain took one, Davoin took the other.

First they made contact with their old pontoon, to tell them most of them had survived the wormhole.

“Most?” the person on the other end asked, “what do mean by that.”

“Lieutenant Mills,” Davion said, “he didn’t survive.”

The other line was silent for a long time.

“How did the rest of you?” the voice finally asked.

“We were saved… by aliens.”

“This isn’t a joke, sergeant!”

“I'm not joking.”

“Where are you? Really?”

“In an alien star station.”

“Sargent! We can’t help you if you're not being serious. And we can’t find your ship on the maps.”

“Because the thing was wrecked in the wormhole.”

“This isn’t funny! Tell me where you are!”

“We're telling you!”

“You know what, just don’t hang up, we will trace this call.” they went on hold.

“Well that was about as productive as expected.” Richardson snarked.

“We had to contact them.” Penner said.

“Why?”

“Because now even though we're still missing in action we aren’t presumed dead.”

“Yes, just presumed troublemakers.”

“Well it’s going to tacka while for them to trace a call from outside of the solar system, might as well do the worst thing.” Penner sighed, “can this tap into two signals at once?”

“Yes, why?”

“Because we need to contact a world leader.”

“How ecstasy are we planning on doing that? We would need some sort of connection that we don’t have.” Richardson asked.

“I know you're the newest member of our team, but dude.” Davoin said.

“What?”

“It’s just obvious how new you are to the team.” oliverra said.

“It's fine, not like I want to advertise it.” Penner said, puting their odd numerals into the system to connect to a specified line.

“Somebody tell me what I'm missing!” Richardson yelled.

I was glad he did so before me.

“You don’t happen to know the name of the Canadian prime minister do you?”

“Mathew Pinner, right?”

“It’s actually Mathew penner.”

“As in captain penner?”

“Exactly.”

“What?” I asked.

“The captain's older brother runs the government in their country.”

The captain pressed the call button.

“Hello this is prime minister penners office, ms smith speaking. How may I help you?”

“July, this is Sam the pm’s younger sibling. I need to talk with him.”

“Look mx. I cannot put you through to the prime minister. He is not currently taking calls due to a family crisis.”

“I’m the family crisis! Please let me talk to him.”

“I’m sorry but I cannot.”

“July please i-” the person on the other end hung up.

“You didn’t happen to have a plan b did you?”

“I don’t understand why my brother hired her, she’s imcomptent.”

Penner bagn to angrily press the buttons again. Into a different combination. Right before she could press the call button however, a voice came on from the other line.

“We were unable to verify your location, we’ll bring you home, just hang tight.” the voice hung up.

“Excellent.”

I shuffled on my paws nervously, these were our best chances and they were not going well. It was my first time running a contact crew and the species refused to make contact.

“One last shoot for this to work.” Penner pressed the call button.

“Hello?” The voice on the other side was raspy and tired.

“Mat, this is sam.”

“That’s just cruel. Look, I don't know who you are or why you think it’s funny to pretend to be people's dead siblings, or how you got your number for that matter, but it's not funny.”

“I can prove that I'm part of your family,” the captain yelled before he could hang up.

“How?”

“Sing the song of the dozos.”

What the hell did that mean?

“Were the weird ones,” the person on the other side said, “proud and tall. It’s really you?”

“Yeah.”

“They told us that you can gone missing through a wormhole. What happened?”

“We were saved by aliens.”

“Please tell me you’re not being serious.”

“I’d be lying.”

“Well you always were good at getting into trouble.”

“We need your help.”

“How?”

“To establish diplomatic contact with earth through the un.”

“Why me?”

“Your prime minister?”

“Oh right that.” the voice on the other side sighed.”I'll see what i can do. Hang tight sammy.”

The call ended.

*+*+*+*

sorry it took me so long to get this installment out. hope it isn't to bad.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “What Happened.”

Sorry for any issues this one might have, but I am trying to write it between flights and and scrambling to find a plug that will work, so I hope you like it anyway, and I hope it answers some questions you have 

Three months leave

IT was going to take an extra three months  before the ship would be ready for launch. Even as they spoke, it was docked at the Europa station as they put on the final finishing touches. Until then, it had been Commander Vir’s job to go through files on the personnel he wanted aboard his new crew.

He had suggested some alien additions to make the crew more diverse, which the GA had loved considering that the ship was an amalgamation of both human and alien technology. It had Rundi communications systems, Celzex weaponry, Vrul shields, and  a Tesraki warp core. The design otherwise was completely human. But for those reasons, the project was obviously very time consuming, and they were lucky that it was going to be finished in as little a time as it was.

Sunny hadn’t seen Adam very much in the last month or so considering that he had been working hard to find an extra five hundred members for his crew, and speak with the brass about what he had seen on the other side of the wormhole.

Sunny knew that it was important that Adam do his job, but a part of her was annoyed they hadn’t been able to speak properly since getting back.

Instead, she was stuck in base housing on the cost, alone and with nothing to do aside from long walks on the beach. She had never been the the beach beforehand as anin didn’t have any substantial bodies of water like that, at least near her, and there was something about the endless water that unsettled her. Even Krill and Conn were off doing important things. Krill was giving his services to a level one trauma center in New York, and Conn was helping the base MPs conduct polygraph tests, though he had sort of replaced the polygraph.

That left Sunny alone most days to think.

She hadn’t gotten over Adam’s disappearance, and not how he had tricked her, pushing her from the bridge before turning around and preparing himself for death. She felt a bit cheated, and like a decision had been made for her. She wasn’t stupid, logically she knew that is what she would have done if she were in his place, so she couldnt fault him for that, though she still coudln’t help feeling hurt over it.

And these thoughts she was left to stew on, tossing and turning in the quiet of the night while everyone else was out and busy.

Needless to say she didn’t expect the little bell on her front door to ring late one evening, and when she opened the door she certainly didn’t expect to see Adam waiting on her front porch.

HE was smiling, though the skin around his face and neck were already flushed a light pink with embarrassment.

In his arms, he held a large collection of flowers.

“May I come in?”

“Adam!” Her surprise was a bit delayed 

He shuffled his feet, “I uh, I got the go ahead to take the day off so I…. thought I would see you.”

He shifted again.

He looked better now than he had on returning from his ordeal, face clean-shaven and in clean clothes that actually fit, though she had to admit his cave-man look hadn’t been so bad.

She stepped aside, and he tentatively followed.

She closed the door and he turned to face her, “I uh…. um … well I…. flower…. Or I mean, I got you, flowers I…… Bought some, but also picked…. some ….. I not that that really matters I just.”He sighed took a deep breath and cleared his throat, “I got you flowers.” he held them out, and she took them in half amusement, picking one from the top and popping it into her mouth before setting them down on the little side table.

“Look, I’m sorry we haven't been able to talk since I got back… and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little bit of me avoiding having a tough conversation.”

“I like that you are at least being honest with me.” She said quietly., “Do you want to sit down?”

He rubbed the back of his neck, “Actually, I was going to ask you if you wanted to go on a walk…. I.. I think better when I walk.”

She shrugged and agreed, following him outside to where a thin layer of clouds had veiled the sun which was slowly inching towards the horizon. The clouds muted the colors and the sea was grey in the distance.

Together they walked a little ways along the sand, him shifting nervously, and her walking to the side, relaxed though she didn’t feel like it 

The silence stretched on for nearly a mile before Sunny -- growing frustrated -- was forced to break it.

“You tricked me.”

He looked down at his feet, “I did.”

“You tricked me, and because of that I have had some of the worst few months of my life.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I understand you did what you thought you had to, and I get it that if I was in your place, I would have done the same without hesitation, but…. I I feel cheated, and I feel used, and for some reason I can’t stop it.”

He looked away, “I’m not sure what to say.”

“At least say SOMETHING.”

HE turned to face her single green eye wide. Looking down she could sense that his hands were shaking. A part of her felt bad about that, but they needed to have this conversation, and she wasn’t going to let him out of it.

“I… would do it again to save your life, and I won’t apologize for that, but I’m sorry that that’s how you feel.”

“I thought we were a team.”

“And we are.”

She paused, her feet digging hard into the sand, and he drew to a halt beside her, “I need you to understand Adam, when Drev say a team, they mean a battle pair and that means….”

“I know, I know……. I know what it means, and I am agreeing with you.”

“Will, you try, for me.”

“Yes, but sunny, I I don’t know how well it will work out, I…. well I’m broken when it comes to this sort of thing I don’t even know if I can.”

They went silent again and she could see the veins pulsing in the side of his neck. Beads of sweat collected on his brown and face. He looked almost nauseous, like he was scared or something, that too made her feel bad, but she didn’t really know how to help.

On instinct, she reached out a hand, inches from his before pausing, “I…. Can I?”

He paused look down at her hand.

His clenched into a fist.

He was pale whit like snow now.

“I…. I don’t think I can right now but…. Thanks for asking.”

She watched the expression on his face closely, and on his face she saw him proceed through a rapid series of emotions starting with fear, working over to shame, sadness and finally ending on guilt.

He turned away.

She walked up next to him, head tilted, “You don’t have to, Adam, but maybe if you told me why I could better understand. Of course you don’t have to.”

He took a deep shaky breath, “You deserve to know. But just don’t… I don’t know laugh or something. I know logically it wasn’t a big deal but….”

“Adam, I promise I won't laugh, you have my word.”

He nodded his head slowly and sighed, “I can trace it all back to one event I think. It was MY freshman year of high school…. Maybe and I was the awkward, nerdy sci-fi weirdo who believed in UFOs and Aliens.

***

Adam Sat Under a tree outside the school arms wrapped around his knees back tucked against the bowl of a tree which cast the shadow of its leaves down over the ground to wave and rustle in a light breeze.

It was lunch break, and he was watching the other teens standing around in their cliches. The football jocks were playing a game to one side, the cheerleaders were clustered around a bench, and all the rednecks were sitting in the back of their trucks in the parking lot laughing loudly and occasionally turning on their trucks just to rev the engines as loud as possible.

His hair was long-ish, kind of scruffy and hanging down around his ears. The clothes he wore were baggy hand me downs from his older brother Jeremy (a senior) and shoes with holes in them from his older brother Thomas.

He didn’t mention the holes to his mom, dad was in between jobs right now, not that it was a big deal, he would find work, it was just paperwork in the way, but he didn’t want to worry her with something extra that didn’t matter right now.

He looked down at the ground where he had a stack of books waiting in the grass for him, The Martian, War of the Worlds, and an old tatty compendium of start wars stuff with pictures and diagrams.

The T-shirt he was wearing was one he had purchased online, and had a diagram of the star-trek enterprise on it.

He shuffled his feet in the grass waiting for his brothers to show up and feeling sort of lonely as he waited.

Since he was a little younger, he got out a half an hour before they did, and only got to spend thirty minutes of his half hour lunch break with them, otherwise he tried to avoid people as much as possible. It wasn’t that he was bullied per-se, because he wasn’t really, neglected by his peers was probably a better term for it.

They were nice to him in the way you are nice to small children or crazy people, keeping up polite conversation just long enough to leave as soon as possible. He was used to the treatment, and didn’t bother subjecting people to his presence more than he had to. He knew he was weird.

He was sure he would have a harder time if it were not for his older brothers. Jeremy, who was a popular football player, David because he was student body president, and arguably the best looking guy in school, though he never seemed to be dating anyone, and Thomas, who was a bit of a loose cannon and didn’t mind getting in fights to protect his family members when he wasn’t hanging out with the other weird and unpredictable kids.

He was sitting there thinking about his brothers and staring down at the grass, when he saw a pair of shoes appear in his vision. They were white vans, or something similar with bright green laces, and when he looked up he saw a girl standing over him. The school was small enough that he recognized her immediately. Her name was Amanda and she jumped between the Drill team and the Basketball Girls click.

She was smiling, and he watched her as she turned her head back to her group of friends who were giggling and trying not to look like they were looking over in their direction.

Adam sat up a little straighter, “Can I help you.”

She smiled at him, her cheeks slightly pink, “HI…. Adam.”

He frowned, eyes narrowing suspiciously.

She shuffled her feet, and off in the distance, her friends giggled and looked away.

“Can I help you with something?’ He wondered, waiting for the punchline somewhere. Something about the weird UFO kid, or maybe they were going to ask him to help them do something against school rules, so when they got caught they could all blame it on him. Or maybe they were going to ask him to be the designated Sherpa for their bags or something.

He had been tricked into most of those things before, though by now the teachers and the principal knew that he was just socially stupid and not a troublemaker.

“Relax ok, I’ve just come to say sorry?”

“Sorry for what?”

“Sorry for treating you like you were weird.” When she smiled it seemed genuine, “You see its…. One of my friends.” More giggling I the background, “She thinks you’re cute, but she didn’t know how to act before.”

He glanced past her to where  the group of girls had burst in to excessive giggling.

He frowned again, “I’m not stupid, you know.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

She crossed her arms, “Serious, Adam.”

“Who is this friend of your.” His eyes narrowed, but past that he was looking towards one of the girls in the group. She was pretty  with honey blonde hair and an infectious smile.  She played the violin, and he knew for a fact that she was a comic book nerd. He had seen her carrying them around, and she was a petty good artist too. He felt his face flush a bit but tried to fight it back.”

“She smiled, “Avery.”

His eyes shot wide, and he felt his face turn scarlet. The part of his brain that had been skeptical immediately shut off as the human brain is prone to do when they think something good might be about to happen.

“I… really.”

She grinned, “Really.” She reached into her pocket and passed him a note, “She wants you to meet her by the stadium.”

His hands were shaking a bit as he took the note, but he felt his heart hammering in excitement.

Was this his way out of exile?

He had always been extroverted, starved for all the friends he wanted and all the people he wanted to talk to. Avery had the life that he wished he did, a large circle of friends, and fun things to do every weekend.

Maybe with her around, he would finally have that.

All the better if they were dating, but he was getting ahead of himself.

He watched as the group of girls dispersed and Avery moved towards the back of the building over towards the stadium, her beautiful, honey-blond hair blowing in the wind.

He stood awkwardly gathering up his things and shoving them in his bag without zipping the zipper all the way before turning and cutting around the other side of the school. His heart hammered in his chest and his hands were cold and sweaty as he made his way around the other side of the building and towards the stadium.

His heart only began to race faster when he saw her standing alone under the stadium between the cross-bars and in the shade of the metal benches above.

He approached nervously, his hands shaking in excitement.

She turned her head, bright blue eyes catching his.

He stopped in place at the edge of the shadow. But she smiled and waved him in, “Adam over here.”

He followed nervously his feet trailing in the dirt. As she approached she nervously rocked back and fourth on her heels hands in her pockets. He paused a few feet away. She looked up at him through her lashes, and he noted she was wearing little Iron Man earrings.

“Hi.” She said nervously

“Hi.” He replied back

She shuffled her feet, “Look I…. I’m sorry about laughing at you earlier today In class I…. well I think your funny, not, like in a bad way or anything.”

HE knew he was bright red at this moment, probably brighter red than any tomato, “Really?”

“Yeah, so I wanted to say sorry, and…. And maybe make it up to you.”

His heart was in his throat, “Oh, you, you don’t have to.”

“But I want to.”

It went quiet as she stepped forward, and he was frozen in place. She was right in front of him now. She leaned forward a little, and he was frozen in place. Her eyes closed, and then so did his, he waited for the moment, and waited, and waited, but nothing came.

Someone snickered, and he cracked an eye to see Avery’s once pretty face twisted up into a sneer of contempt and malicious amusement.

“April fools.” She jumped at him, and in surprise he tripped backwards over one of the metal bars landing hard. The zipper of his backpack, not all the way done up, erupted outward spilling all his books out onto the dirt.

Laughter.

He turned his head looking around to the cracks in the stadium seats where dozens of eyes stared at him laughing.

Avery stood over him as others began flooding down from their spots laughing.

He crawled back, his head down, “But it’s not even April.” He whispered

“Its not even April.” Someone mimicked from behind, and he ran into soemthing hard looking up to see one of Avery’s friends standing over him. She was state shotput champion last years, and her arms were as big as his head, “What is this.” She reached down and picked his book off the ground.

“Please, give it back.” He said crawling to his knees and reaching up for it.

“The Martian.”

“please.”

She flipped open a few of the pages. He stood up trying to reach for his book but he was blocked by another two of her friends.

The laughter continued, the mocking voices over and over and over again.

He tried to push forward reaching for his books which had been picked up off the ground.

“Gross, Its all sticky!” the friend yelled.

“No it isn’t.” He protested, it was true, he took very good care of his books. But of course no one listened. A chorus of disgust rose up around him. His books were dropped, one clattering to the rocks its pages bending, the other one landing halfway in a puddle of stagnant water.

He cried out and dove forward pulling it out of the water even as mud dripped form the hardback.

He cradled it in his arms, feeling hot tears of anger and humiliation begin to prickle at the corners of his eyes.

Laughter continued.

“Look.”

Fingers pointed.

HE stood fists clenched ready to hurt someone, but when he turned the same girl from before hand his book in either hand and when he moved she pulled.

There was a sharp ripping noise as the spine of the book tore a quarter, and as he cried out she laughed and dropped it into the puddle.

As a paperback, the book didn’t stand a chance.

Mud and water caked his hands as he reached in to pull it out on his hands and knees. Something hit him hard in the back and he pitched forward into the puddle getting the book wet a second time as the kids laughed.

He scrambled sitting up coughing and spluttering feeling the slimy grittiness of the water on his lips.

Someone knelt down next to him. A voice in his ear, “If you tell anyone. I’ll tell the teacher you tried to touch me.”

Tears dripped down his cheeks as he tried wiping mud from his face. The laughter receded and he was left along kneeling on the gravel.

His face grew hot and read as he stared down at the ruined cover of his book. Hot tears dripped onto the mud coating his hands.

His breathing started up in great gasps his heart hammered so fast he thought it was going to burst out of his chest. His head was going to explode either from anger or frustration he didn’t know. Choked sobs broke from his mouth as he knelt over the books ruined in his hands. He couldn’t breathe. He stood vision clouded face hot wet and muggy from the heat.

And then he ran.

He had no idea where he was going or what he was doing.

His paperback held muddy and dripping in one hand he pelted into the woods and didn’t stop running until his foot caught on a branch and he went rolling into the leaves.

He lay there on his stomach heart still hammering breath still coming in ragged gasps. He just couldn’t calm his breathing down.

He didn’t know where he was.

He felt like he was having a heart attack, or dying, or something. He lay there gasping on the forest floor for hours.

It grew dark. The mud dried on the back of his book and against his chest and hands.

It was only when he heard the voices did he finally sit up, mud caked and bleary eyed.

“Adam!”

“Adam!”

There were no other sounds for a long moment before the call started up again.

He stumbled over, it was dark so his feet kept coughing on branches and twigs.

“Adam, ADAM! I swear ADAM.”

“Thomas?” He said his voice so raw it was barely above a whisper.

“ADAM!” Footsteps rushed towards him through the trees, and Thomas burst from the foliage his scruffy blind hair run wild, his jeans covered in dirt, “Adam there you are where have you-“

He didn’t have time to say much else as he was hugged tight around the middle.

“Adam I…. what’s wrong. What happened! Who did this to you!”

Thomas looked ready to rip someone apart, but Adam didn’t say anything. He wouldn’t say anything about the event for the next two years.

***

Sunny stared wide eyed as Adam turned away again.

“Look, I know its stupid, it happens to plenty of kids and they don’t take it the way I did, but. I mean, with the panic attack on top of it, and then a few years later the same thing happened on my first date, so now I just… I can’t…”

Sunny was quiet for a moment while he looked away.

“Who the FUCK do they think they are.” She snarled.

He looked up in surprise, “I what.”

She marched around in a circle, “What the hell kind of person does that to someone. That’s just sick and wrong. That is just… horrible.”  She pulled out her spear, “I swear If i ever meet someone like that if i ever meet THEM, I am going to-”

He caught her arm, “Sunny stop, it was a long time ago.”

“It doesnt matter!”

A small smile cut across his face, “IT doesn't matter sunny, you want to know why.”

“Why.”

“Because I saw their pictures.” he grinned, “Avery got really fat and her friend got hit by a car, not fatally but I consider it Karma doing me a solid.” He paused, “It’ll be ok…. I just need some time. Think you can do that for me?”

She paused and nodded her head, “Yes, I think I can.”

[farelian]

Origins

“The way Humans entered the galactic stage will surprise you, they do not use Anti-gravity disks for their ship, they didn’t even discover how to create anti-gravity.”

“So what do they use scholar?”

“Not warp drives, not anti-gravities, not even jumpdrives. They use chemical thrusters at their early stage of space exploration, they colonized their neighboring barren dead planet somehow. But that doesn’t matter, you requested me here to explain how humanity became what it is, today.”

“Many solar cycles I spent traveling through the stars and empty void of space, stepping foot onto planets that are known to host humans, and meeting them. I remember my first time meeting a human, he was tall, brawny and a beast. It could not stand still, it will keep moving it appendages, even when talking making strange, illogical motions”

He chuckled. “I was so fascinated and confused by it that I forgot what he said the past half-cycle. We met in this recreational center that served liquids and sustenance for humans, barely anything for a Zarqonian. We sat on a table, he was across from me. He smiled”

“What is a “smile” scholar?”

 “It is a gesture made by a human mouth, sometimes the end of their lips curl up with their cheek muscles contracted, sometimes they added teeth into the mix”

“Please speak clearly and logically scholar”

“Right, right sorry. I heard it’s a phenomenon... what was its name... “Humanizing” yes... Back to my story. I am no doctor or surgeon, so I could not explain their biology correctly so please excuse my lack of vocabulary”

“It won’t be a problem”

“Thank you councilor, we sat in that bar for what felt like hours, my heart pounded my insides from fear, but my mind is filled with fascination as if I'm fighting with my own self in that situation” 

“He told his stories, doing some jokes that gathered some laughs from other patrons, I did not understand of course but I did not question it. He told the stories of the first humans to board their intergalactic spacecraft, he described the vessel as "sleek" and great. A mix of aerodynamic to penetrate the atmosphere and mixture of heat-resistant materials. It's primitive of course, they blasted themselves up from the surface of their planets and into space"

"Sounds barbaric, don't you think scholar?"

"It is, my first thoughts are exactly that but the more I hear from the human I slowly come to the realization that humans are just as intelligent as we are, as logical. They know the concept, they know how to make Anti-Gravity disks, it's predecessor is the Maglift, they're just limited to the technology they had at the time"

"He described the sight of the vessel launching from it's launching pad as glorious, and I quote. "2000 years of human engineering, packed into the size of a small town" A small town, he described the size as a small town and need a crew of 40.000 humans from all departments, engineering, bio-engineering, medical crew, bridge crew and so on"

"...And they did it, they reached their goal. They activated their Hyperdrive and warped space and time itself, and Hyperjumped to the nearest solar system, Alpha Centauri and it's binary star system"

"Insane"

"My thoughts exactly too, barbaric and primitive, insane to the core. But the more time I spent with this human, the more I understood their way of thinking, They utilized everything they know about Astrophysics and formed something fascinating, beautiful, and insane. Did you know that the money that went into their space program is only 2% of their budget? Instead, ours was half of our governmental budget”

“With such a small budget, I was surprised they managed to make something new, unique. Instead of going lightspeed they create an artificial wormhole and travel through it... imagine that councilor

“I wish not to Scholar”

“W-well that’s okay councilor, you don’t need to. Our conversation stretched on for another cycle, or an hour the human said. Only then i asked, ‘Could you explain the rumors that have spread about your species?’ and the human sat there, looking out of the window for a few seconds staring at something before he looked back at me and answered...”

“What is its answer?”

”Some of it was true, but the majority of it are exaggerated stories made to create fear. I would like to express some of the truth he told me”

“Go ahead, we would not believe it anyway”

“...Remember when the Murumur announced the first contact with the humans? The Drev scoffed, we hummed, the others are a mix of amusement and shock. That’s when rumors started to spread, describing humanity as a group of lunatics and an insane species, but that is simply not true, they are wonderful creatures, intelligent and logical. When Earth simply does not have enough resources to sustain humans, they expand to space to their neighboring barren dead planet, Mars. Instead of giving up, they think wide and far, and once they landed they adapted, building gigantic glass domes to sustain life, residential, agriculture, and commercial needs. It brings jobs to the human race, and the resources they mined made them prosper, thrive. But they wanted more... more glory but not by war, exploration, and expansion.

Instead of lounging around in their riches, they use those riches to develop their sciences, their technology, they have dreamt in sailing across the black void, created entertainment, recreational movies about space and humanity being there and they will make that dream come true.”

A call from the councilor’s bracelet cuts his speech. “Councilor, urgent news, five of our people are attacked by humans”

The councilor listened in, then looked back at the scholar who seemed shocked. “Intelligent and logical you say? What’s intelligent and logical in killing our people, scholar?”

“N-no it must be a misunderstanding, they are peaceful! They would never do this...”

“Relay this message to the rest of the council, we will talk with the humans” To the scholar’s misfortune, the councilor left.

[annoyinglyjovialbird]

Voltron: Next Generation

Nuclear Decisions: III

Word Count: 2177

AN: It’s a little shorter today, but I hope you find the end well worth it. :)

As Yorak finished his comment, Kova began resisting. She pulled back from Yorak’s grip, physically leaning back and away. Yorak smiled like he knew this was going to happen. His grip on her arm grew tighter as his knee pushed the back of hers. Kova fell on the ground hard, shaking her arms in vain. 

“Now, now, Kyla,” Yorak said like he was speaking to a child. “You better stop now unless you want your precious team blown into atoms.” Kova panted, pushing back one last time until her body sagged. She was hauled up to standing and pushed towards a heavy metal door. Yorak turned to Kova, smiling widely at the glaring girl. “I’m releasing you. You better not do something you’ll regret.” Kova nodded as the violet cuffs faded, falling to the floor with heavy, echoing thuds. Vhix appeared from behind, taking Yorak’s place on Kova’s upper arm. 

Together, the trio marched up a set of stairs on the other side of the metal door. It opened, and the bright lights briefly blinded the teen. Within a minute, Kova could see again. The entire crew of the ship she was on was standing below in perfect squares, looking up at the trio as they walked in. Huge screens were on two of the walls, showing a better view of the balcony they were on. A screen appeared in front of the balcony as Yorak approached. He smiled smugly as the telecommunication started with a swipe of his finger. 

On the Coeus, every screen on board had tuned itself to the incoming transmission. The same happened at the Garrison, where the programmers who trained to take care of unauthorized transmissions like this set to work. Unfortunately, the head programmer was on vacation and the team couldn’t get through the Garrison’s firewall. The Garrison was the only place on Earth that received the transmission, but that was enough to send panic through Curtis’s heart. 

“Ladies and gentlemen of our lovely universe,” Yorak said, stepping forward to become more prominent on the balcony. “Today, you are witnessing a historic event. One that can change the universe as we know it." 

Shiro had ordered everyone on the Coeus to report to the bridge. Keith, of course, didn’t listen, charging towards the transport bay. While he hadn’t been under supervised care in awhile, he was still recovering. Before he could even leave the transport bay in the MFE jet, the quick lapse in oxygen knocked him out. Shiro and Liz found him and hauled him back to the observation room. He would be fine. He just needed to rest. 

"The Fire has long remained in the darkest corners after a humiliating defeat and highly publicized death of our founder and first Emperor. I, Emperor Yorak, am now changing that.” Vhix pulled Kova along so she was sandwiched in between Yorak and Vhix. “The Fire is finally ready to make our grand premiere, with Voltron supporting our cause.” He gestured to Kova, who sneered. “My brother, Commander of the colonies, my sister, the leader of Voltron, and I swear to make the universe equal and whole. A balance that should’ve been since the beginning.” Vhix stepped forward, kicking Kova’s foot forward so they were closer to the screen. Kova’s fists began shaking with anger as Vhiz took the stand. 

“Imagine the possibilities of an equal and balanced world. The doors that will open to all those who join us in our cause.” For a brief minute, Vhix let go of Kova to make wide hand gestures. She took a step back so that she could look over Yorak’s shoulder. “Voltron stands with us. You will too." 

"No.” Kova stared directly at the screen. “We don’t.” With a right hook, Kova’s right fist connected with Yorak’s jaw, making him fall onto the ground. With a quick turn on the ball of her foot, she knees Vhix in the stomach, also making him fall. Yorak tried to stand, but he slips on the topmost step on the staircase and falls backward. Vhix didn’t have the same luck, so Kova kicked him down the other set of stairs. She turned to look forward, where her face was projected onto large screens. Her eyes look shocked, then determined. 

“My name is Kovalia, and yes, I am the leader of Voltron. My team has remained hidden for the past few weeks, but we have used our time to train and prepare ourselves to defend our home. My parents formed the Galactic Coalition in their prime, and I am not going to let anyone, friend or foe, destroy something I swore to protect. To everyone who stands on the side of good, of peace, I ask you to stand with Voltron. With us. To those who stand with the Fire, be prepared for war.” With that, Kova slashed her fingers through the air to cut off the connection. By that point, the soldiers down below had begun to find their way up the staircase. Kova climbed onto the wide railing of the balcony and jumped over the balcony railing before anyone could reach her. 

Her jetpacks were a godsend as she landed harmlessly on the ground below. As soon as her feet met the ground, Kova ran towards the huge doors that the soldiers were running out of. Several of them tried catching her but met the business end of her bayard. The weapon had morphed itself into a long vaulting pole. With a push, Kova vaulted over the soldiers, and the bayard morphed in mid-air. It became a small stun gun, to which Kova used to shock the door’s control. She didn’t take a second look, dashing down the hall. Through a matter of twists and turns, Kova found herself in the same area she had found herself the last time she was kidnapped. The doors refused to open, welded shut. 

“Halt!” Someone said behind Kova. She turned to stare at half a dozen soldiers pointing the barrels of their weapons at her. “Surrender!" 

Kova was panting in her helmet, slowly putting her hands up. Her bayard morphed again, turning into the long curved sword. With a swing, the barrels of the three weapons directly in front of had fallen off, the cut so clean, it could’ve been done with a razor. With two hands now on the hilt, Kova widened her stance, ready to fight. 

A heavy thud sounded on the outside of the door, throwing everyone off balance. A heavier thud and an imprint on the metal door was the only warning Kova had to get out of the way. Diving into a barrel roll, she held onto the frame of the door as a third hit from outside revealed the Lion. Yellow’s head bursts through the heavy metal. With a deafening roar, Yellow extracted itself from the ruins as someone complained about just replacing the door. Kova ran to the opening and dove out. Red opened its jaws and ate Kova whole. Quick as can be, Kova ran to the cockpit of the Red Lion, where Caleb was navigating Red back to the Coeus. 

"Where’s Black?” Caleb asked. 

“No clue.” Kova was panting, staring at the large ship that she had just escaped from. “They have multiple holding bays." 

"We can’t check them all.” Caleb agreed with Kova’s train of thought. “Griffin, use the BLIP. Try to find the Black Lion.”

“On it,” Liz replied, directing Green far away from the ship so it could properly scan it. “Large number of guards in bay three.”

“Got it.” Red flew towards the ship again, but Kova put a hand on Caleb’s shoulder. 

“Bay three has low-grade explosives." 

"How do you know?” Kova opened a screen on her arm, showing a picture of the ship map time-stamped on the day Kova was kidnapped the first time. With a swipe, Kova sent the image to the other Lions. 

“Bays three to six hold all explosives for the entire ship,” Kova explained, highlighting the respective bays. “I escaped from bay two, a transport bay." 

"What are we supposed to do, then?”

“Leave the LIon." 

"What?” Caleb turned to give Kova an incredulous face. If they didn’t have the Black Lion, they couldn’t form Voltron. 

“We have to.” Caleb tried to fight her, but as he continued thinking it over, he agreed with an exasperated sigh. 

“Team, retreat. Coeus, open a wormhole.” The Coeus opened a wormhole, slowly creaking its way through as the cannon on the front end of Yorak’s ship charged up. By the time it was ready to fire, the Coeus and the Lions were long gone. 

Onboard, Shiro said nothing as the teens filed past. Four of them went to their rooms, and one went to the bridge. Shiro eventually followed the teen as she removed her helmet to reveal her bright green hair. The teen stared at the bayard in her hand, a remnant of the Lion she had lost. That realization struck her deep. Kova, the jack of all trades, the pride of the Garrison, had lost. 

Shiro approached the teen from behind, placing a warm hand on her shoulder. Kova turned to meet Shiro’s sympathetic eyes, causing tears to fall from Kova’s eyes. With arms wrapped around Shiro’s large waist, she let the silent tears shed. Shiro patted the back of Kova’s head with his human hand, letting the robotic one turn off the lights in the bridge. While he said nothing, Kova could understand his meaning behind it all. 

It wasn’t her fault. She did what she could. 

Shiro led the teen back to her room, where she slept like a baby with the reassurance on her mind. Like a mantra, she repeated it over and over. It’s not my fault.

————————

In the distance, far away from the Coeus, further away from the colonies Yorak mentioned before, someone important watched the footage, too. Their face was partially obscured by the shadows in the room as they rewinded and played Kova’s speech over and over again. Specifically, the scene before the footage cut out. The glare on Kova’s shield made it impossible to see her at times, but in that quick second, her entire face was on display, albeit obscured slightly by the helmet. 

Over and over, the shadowed individual played the second. There was something about the girl’s eyes that stuck familiar. The way her dark eyebrows pinched together as her amber eyes filled with determination. While her hair was completely covered by the helmet, it could only be assumed her hair matched her eyebrows. Yorak and the Fire had been watched for months, to the point where there were several moles in various ranks throughout the organization. Yorak had referred to Vhix as his brother, already known as a fact by the individual, but he referred to the girl as his sister. 

More details about the girl began to become more apparent to the shadowed person. How the girl’s eyes weren’t as sharp as once thought, they held the same fiery spirit. Her chin and nose were more pointy, likely coming from her mother. Her armor and helmet were signatures of Voltron Paladins, leaving a small space at the bottom to allow her to talk. Her skin tone didn’t match either parent, but this was suspected to be from other causes. Her name was the nail in the coffin. While her suspected surname didn’t match any records, the unique first name she used did. 

Kovalia. 

With a press of a button, the individual opened a second screen with the image of a young girl. The little girl was seated in between a man and a woman with small smiles, but expressionless eyes. The woman wore a green shirt and dark pants with a pair of mint green glasses. Her chestnut hair was swept to her left side. The man wore a black shirt under a brown and red leather jacket, with dark hair tied in a ponytail. The little girl wore a pretty black dress with a lace overlay with a green ribbon around her stomach. Her dark hair had been braided to form a crown on her head. She was the only one who seemed happy to be there, giving the camera a big smile. She couldn’t have been more than three years old, but the picture was enough to get an age-progression of the girl. 

Leaning forward, the individual laced their fingers together in front of their mouth as the program did its work. As it aged the three-year-old and made an overlay of the teenager, it slowly confirmed what the individual suspected. 

The screen stopped, showing a 98% match between the adorable child and the fierce teen. 

“Finally.” The individual said, showing off their toothy grin. “We finally found you,” As they leaned further into the light, more features became apparent, like their pointed Galra markings on both cheeks, their two-toned hair, and their sharp eyes. “Kyla." 

Krolia stood from her chair. As she picked up the screens, deactivating them in the process, she walked to the door. Her smile never left as the automatic door opened, then closed with a thud.

[sharpnothashtag]

The Good Ship CrushWay, Chapter 14

Scene: Conference Room, Picard, KJ, Bev, Geordi, Data, Worf, and DeAnna are all there.

KJ: In the basement, where we can only assume Mayble was hiding when she sent the distress signal, we found extremely concentrated levels of Lyantrium. Picard: Can you be more specific?  What do you mean by “extremely high”? Data: A normal concentration of Lyantirum in well-traveled space is about 100 parts per million.  What we found in that basement was 10,000 parts per million.  It is relatively surprising Commander Janeway and Dr. Crusher were not staring into the face of a Lyantirum wormhole. Picard: I’m grateful they weren’t.  What would cause that kind of Lyantirum buildup? KJ: My theory is a weapon of sorts--one harvests the Lyantirum, calculates the exact coordinates to place the Lyantirum, and then shoots.   Geordi: But the Borg have to know that Lyantirum is a very unstable way of traveling. KJ: My guess is they don’t care.  They must use the Lyantirum wormhole as a means to travel TO somewhere.  Since the Borg never retreat, they do not need an escape route.  The wormhole does not have to be stable for any longer than it takes for them to get from Point A to Point B. Worf: Is there any way to predict where they are going to use it next so that we may have a tactical advantage against them? Geordi: If I am looking at these schematics correctly, no.  We can try to build that weapon ourselves by cleaning up the mess that they left here, but that’s about it. Worf: Why did they come to that basement? Bev: The family would put up the least amount of a struggle if they caught them off guard, but the Borg don’t really care about that, do they? KJ: My crew member, Seven, is the biggest stickler for efficiency and time management I have ever seen.  If there were a way save time, the Borg would take it. Picard: If they came directly to the basement, how did Mayble send the distress signal? KJ: I think she was out playing.  I think they all were outside, and then the Borg came from inside their houses. Worf: The family room was torn apart, but it did not look like a struggle.  It looked like there were intruders that sabotaged everything important to the family. KJ: That brings me to the next point: this is the Borg, but there is something wrong.  These Borg are angry.  Picard: Why do you say that? KJ: I have seen Borg destruction before.  It’s cold...empty.  It served a purpose.  This did not.  The faces of all the families in the pictures were slashed: the portraits torn apart with bare hands. Picard: Data, will you do a bit of research on the families?  Maybe we can find some connection between them and the Borg...maybe find an enemy that could have been assimilated. Data: I have already checked.  The families were all human, and they have a common ancestry. Picard: And that is? Data: They are all French, Captain. DeAnna: Why go after the French, Data? Data: I do not know, Counselor.   DeAnna: What was the purpose of the colony? Data: They were there for archaeological study.  The ruins on Jouret IV have fascinated many for some time now, but this group was the first to decide to actually study them in great detail. Picard: I was looking forward to getting to see them while we were in the vicinity.  These are all confusing findings, but I know we can piece something together.  Commander, you and Data should study all the known Borg attacks--see if there was any other time when the Borg displayed such anger.  Geordi, you should prepare more advanced schematics of this Lyantirum weapon--see if you can find a way to predict where they are going to strike next by digging deeper into how to build this weapon.  Divert any of the necessary crew from Engineering.  Dismissed. (everyone gets up to go except Worf and DeAnna, who exchange glances, nod, and approach Picard.) Worf: Captain, DeAnna and I would like to have a word with you. Picard: Certainly. DeAnna: Don’t you think it’s odd that they HAPPEN to be going after French archaeologists? Picard: I was trying to believe that was a coincidence. Worf: Do not be a fool, Captain.  You are an important man, and the Borg would have a great advantage on the Federation if you were to be assimilated. DeAnna: What Worf really means is...well...we’re worried.  And we want to protect you in the best way we know how. Picard: And that is? Worf: Please allow me to be your personal security detail.  I can stand watch over you at all times. Picard: Worf, you will need to rest occasionally. Worf: I can sleep in your quarters when you sleep. Picard: I certainly appreciate the gesture, but just posting someone at my door is plenty. Worf: Their weapon is precise enough to get into someone’s room; how can we be sure they will not get to you while we are standing watch outside? Picard: Mr. Worf, you may accompany me every second of every day until we have cleared up this mess, but I will not allow you to sleep with me.  That is the end of this discussion. DeAnna: (grabbing Worf’s arm and trying to reassure him that he did try) Thank you, Captain. Picard: Now.  Is there anything else? DeAnna: I did want to ask you one more thing. Picard: Yes? DeAnna: Would you preside over our wedding? Picard: (smiling) Of course. DeAnna: We are still working out the details...I’m not sure there’s ever been a Klingon-Betazoid wedding. Picard: Nor will there ever be again. Worf: What is important is that my heart beats only for this woman (looks lovingly at DeAnna).  And I want the whole universe to know it. Picard: And know it they shall.  Now, I have some studying of my own to do.  DeAnna, go help Kathryn and Data research the Borg attacks.  Worf, I suppose you’re going to stay here with me? Worf: Yes, sir. Picard: DeAnna, you’re dismissed.

The holodeck, Bev and KJ’s nightly walk.

KJ: (jogging, carrying coats) I’m here!   Bev: It took you long enough. KJ: I’m sorry!  I got caught up--Wolf 359 took a lot of debate on the anger issue. Bev: Fair enough.  What’ll it be tonight, m’lady? KJ: There’s a spot in Finland we haven’t tried yet.  I brought coats so we won’t get too cold. Bev: Great idea.  (pushes the buttons. door opens, Bev gestures.) After you. KJ: (smiles, nods) Thank you. (KJ enters, Bev follows.  The room is transformed into a mountain in Finland where the Northern Lights are out and in full force.  Both are silenced immediately as this natural miracle dances around them. They walk in silence for a moment.) KJ: There’s something about this that just makes everything make sense. Bev: Yeah?  Why are the Borg so angry, then? KJ: (rolls her eyes) That’s not what I mean.  I mean...everything is in its place. Bev: I know what you mean.  These programs are how I survived after Jack died. KJ: How long ago was that? Bev: 11 years.  It was an away mission...Jean-Luc had to tell Wesley that his dad died a hero, but all Wesley heard was that his hero was dead.  He’s 16 now, and he still struggles with it some days. KJ: I lost my father at a young age, too.  Growing up without a father figure is very difficult, and I can understand what he’s going through. Bev: Jack used to say if something ever happened to him that I shouldn’t feel guilty when I moved on. KJ: And how do you feel?  When you do date, that is. Bev: I haven’t dated anyone.  It’s been 11 years, and I am just now getting to the point where I might be able to. (They stop and sit on a rock near the top of the mountain.) You mean the world to me, Kate.  You’re my best friend. KJ: You’re mine, too, Bev. Bev: If you got assimilated, I’m not sure how long I would last. KJ: ...Bev, you’re not talking about-- Bev: I’ve lost a lot in my life, Kate.  My parents, my husband...I couldn’t live if I lost you, too.  (KJ hugs her close.) My grandmother gave me that copy of Frankenstein after my parents died.  I read it then, and I realized that everyone questions why they’re here, and that it’s okay to do that. KJ: You know, when I first read it, I realized that there’s no hurt that can’t be overcome. Bev: How exactly did you come to that? KJ: At the end of the book when the narrator meets the monster for the first time, he is definitely startled at first, but after a minute or two, he collects himself and invites the monster in. In life, I’ve found that if I sit with my demons, they aren’t as scary, and they don’t have as much control over my life. And, sometimes my demons are just as misunderstood as I am. Bev: Promise me something, Kate. KJ: Yeah? Bev: Promise me you’re going to do all you can to help me sit down with my demons.  I’m not usually open about my depression...only Jean-Luc and DeAnna really know. KJ: I’m not going anywhere, Bev.  Nothing can take me away from you.  I love you. (looks at Bev and wipes away a tear from her eye)

Bev takes KJ’s face in her hands and kisses her.  Bev’s tongue strokes the roof of KJ’s mouth slowly.  KJ returns the favor. Bev lays her down on the rock and unbuttons her coat.

KJ: Beverly, are you sure you want this? Bev: (stroking KJ’s hair) More than anything in the entire universe. (Bev unbuttons the coat, and then unbuttons her own.  She lays down with KJ and uses her coat as a blanket.  They hold each other for a while.) KJ: I’m getting kind of cold.  Do you want to take this back to my place? Bev: That’s enough for now.  We both need some rest. KJ: I guess so.  I just thought-- Bev: I know.  And I do want that...just not tonight. (KJ nods, and they share their last kiss for the evening.) I’ll see you tomorrow morning? KJ: Of course.  Sleep well, Bev. Bev: Sleep well, Kate.

[bladekindeyewear]

Boots Reads Homestuck Epilogue(s) Part 12 - Candy Page 18

==>

Time to see what all the fuss was about Page 18.  We’re with Jane... that might not be good.  Especially given Lollipop proximity.

Jane scoffing at troll genocide again.  :(

Gamzee seems more woke than Jane here.

GAMZEE: sO yOu SaYiN yOu NeEd DiFfErEnT sHoEs FoR yOuR hUmAn DiCkS aNd WhAt NoT?

Pfffff

Jane narrows her eyes at the disingenuous buffoon.

I dunno, he sounds like he’s being pretty goddamn ingenuous right now.

It’s not the first time they’ve had this conversation?  Are they black with each other or something??

What’s more likely is he’s attempting to get a rise from her. To get her a little hotter under the collar. To put her in a certain mood.

Oh my gosh she’s genuinely black for him, hahahahah

GAMZEE: AnD AlL I EvEr bEeN TrYiN To dO Is gEt yOu rIgHt tOo, WiTh mOrAlS AnD GoOdNeSs, AlL fIlLeD uP iNsIdE yOu As TiGhT aS yOuR tAsTy HoE bAlLoOnS aRe WiTh HuMaN mOo JuIcE.

Jesus christ that’s not the kind of metaphor i want to be hearing from canon

or anyone for that matter

JANE: No! I’d rather die than touch your disgusting clown baton ever again.

....yyyeah, context is showing she’s PROBABLY super Black into this.  Still, pretty jarring to see a clear consensual “NO” right in the middle of things.

Quit calling her a dairy queen!!! D: D: D:

Oh god they named the baby Tavros.

Alright, there’s some grade A discomfort in this scene, which I’m enjoying, really.  I can see why they singled out page 18.  I could traumatize some people with some of these paragraphs out of context.

HOO HOO HOO, THIS LITTLE PIGGY WENT TO THE DARK CARNIVAL!!!

Eeeeuugh

JAKE: Anyway whats up with you? Hows life with davekat going? JADE: oh its great! im really glad i just went for it JADE: all of us together... it really is the best of every world

God damnit Jade why are you obliviously torturing them????????

You could’ve been REALLY GOOD for them both if you just FUCKING LISTENED TO THEM AND RESPECTED THEM INSTEAD OF SITTING ON THEM.

JADE: theres no way me and dave could have a regular baby together because im... JAKE: Whats wrong? JADE: well lets just say that after all the sburb stuff its done some things to my body JADE: like merging with bec mostly

Oh my FUCKING GOD please don’t canonize this.  This didn’t need to be spelled out so-- D:

jesus

D: D: D:

This... is actually making my stomach roil again????

like

not because id object to-- i mean, it’s one thing to deal with

FAN SCENARIOS

ISOLATED divergences from canon where she has to deal with that and its kind of hilarious, but can be safely ignored when it comes to her character arc as a whole

but once its CANON????????   D: D: D:

suddenly you can’t IGNORE the full import when you’re done with, like, an RP or something, of the psychological struggle she would be forced to deal with given an abnormal biological situation.  Instead of thinking “Oh, that could be pretty painful to deal with! Let’s explore it temporarily for fun” it becomes “Oh, that would be painful to deal with and you have to think about her having to deal with all the complications of that whenever you hear about her LITERALLY FOREVER.”  D:

andrew i know you couldnt resist because of how funny and practically-xenoprogressive it was but whyyyyyyyyy did you have to canonize that WHYYYY

Now instead of a fun joke thought it also has to be SAD FOREVER

AAAAAAAA  D’:

i dont know why this would be the line thats crossed to upset me

Rose surrogate?

JADE: no jake, dave wouldnt be the father in this scenario!

Pffffff.  Andrew’s just diving RIGHT into the, er, doggy fanfics here.  I should... TRY to lighten up about this.  Try.  D:

(...wait, shit.  Knowing my friend, THIS whole bit is why they alluded to this page.  God damnit.)

[[ EDIT:  askshenhibiki said:

Now that you read Candy 18, flash back to Meat when Roxy is talking about gender... and look at Jade's reaction looking at "where her hands rest on her lap". Yes, Meat hinted at that "mix" too.

Ah, let’s see...

ROXY: and so i got to thinking ROXY: what even is gender ROXY: amirite lol? JADE: oh yeah JADE: that makes sense i guess........

Jade looks at where her hands are folded in her lap. Bites her lip. She has her own concerns about this, her own thoughts. Reasonable thoughts, I’d say. But I’ll refrain from any further comment. I’m staying away from this subject, from now on.

...yeah, guess Dirk at least had the decency not to spring all that on us before Jade got the opportunity to do it honestly. ]]

Guh, back to Jake suffering in his sad, trapped scenario.  I hope THAT gets at least resolved by the end of this.  Someone save Jake from this, because it looks like he’s not really that capable of saving himself?

==>

Dammit, Jade, I’m cringing at these descriptions of your intrusion.

Oh wow, John went for the mustache.  Guess we knew that from, like, his stuffed statue oldself?

Jade doesn’t pick up on the obvious subtext in the conversation, however, because she’s been willfully undermining the subtext in her own personal life for nearly a year now.

D:  D:  D:

Seriously, Jade, how is what YOU’RE doing any better than what you were frustrated at seeing THEM doing, avoiding the real feelings and truth of anything even if it was conspicuously on body-language display?

KARKAT: THE NEW ADMINISTRATION IS CRACKING DOWN ON CERTAIN KINDS OF INTERSPECIES ADOPTION LAWS.

It’s like Andrew wants us deprived of even a happy imagined future for Earth C on top of everything else!!!  What the hell! >:(

Is this about politics?  Is Andrew just venting his anger that the Orange Guy is going to get away with ruining everything forever??  Because as understandable as that is, he could at least give us some imaginary happyfutures to look forward to.

Reading on... Hm, yet another intentionally-misused fridging reference.

KARKAT: HIS RELATIONSHIP IS A FLAMING WRECK OF AN INTERSTELLAR WARSHIP HURTLING TOWARDS THE PLANET AT TERMINAL VELOCITY WITH THE ENTIRE CREW BRUTALLY SLAUGHTERED UPON REENTRY, SHOVED STRAIGHT DOWN THE CHAGRIN TUNNEL AND THEN IMMEDIATELY SHAT OUT THE OTHER SIDE, THUS FLOODING THE ENTIRE FUCKING NEIGHBORHOOD WHEN IT CLOGS UP THE LOAD GAPER.

Yep, that triangle’s fucked.  Wonder if the conversation’s going to transition to the CURRENT triangle’s problems...

...yeah, John using the R word there isn’t far from the fucking truth from the looks of things.

JADE: maybe that would work for a few days, but one thing i learned from dating around a lot in my youth is that no ones going to leave a bad relationship until its THEIR idea to leave

She takes in a shaky breath and shuts her eyes. Her hair spills around her face when she leans forward to put her chin on her knees. Dave and Karkat exchange a look that is equal parts confused, miserable, and desperate.

Oh SHIT.  Is JADE going to be the one to finally vocalize about the problems here???

Something else comes hurtling out of the hole in the sky, too fast for Jade to catch. It hits the ground with a clap of green lightning. The collision sends a geyser of dirt, rock, and vapor into the air. Dave flash-steps to shield Karkat. Jade doesn’t move, taking the brunt of the explosion face on, using her abilities to warp the energy around her so that she’s a mote at the center of the storm. When the dust clears, she’s the first to jump in the crater, trailing smoke behind her.

There’s a body at the center of it. The torso is bloody, tangled, and curled into a fetal position. Its shoes are missing, but otherwise the outfit is quite familiar to her: it’s a dead ringer for her old Witch of Space uniform. Jade touches the body with the toe of her shoe, and then gasps when it rolls over to reveal its face.

JADE: its... JADE: ME???

Okay what the FUCK.  It sounds like there’s going to be some context for that postscript after all.  Something to bridge the gap between when that 16-yo Jade falls into the singularity and when Aradia goes off with her through a wormhole

I’m going to guess up front that this happens BEFORE the postscript... this younger version of Jade fell into the black hole and came out in THIS alternate timeline, possibly rather changed by the experience.  But then again, the way the sky opened up... actually, couldn’t that be just a “natural” manifestation of the black hole abilities encouraged by Calliope or done by the singularity alone, followed by later in the Postscript this Jade actually getting control of it??

And... reading on, from the sound of it, her eyes aren’t black yet, either.  Sounds like that’s to come, before the postscript.  Question being, is it alt!Callie black eyes, or some black-hole-powers visual manifestation?  Wait, never mind, I misread; this teenage Jade-corpse has NOT opened their eyes yet, so they couldn’t possibly tell, and the stuff about them “shaking” was about the adult Jade standing over her.  Never mind.  Let’s see which timeframe this Jade came from.

Also STOP TRAUMATIZING ADULT JADE ON SCREEN ITS NOT OKAY IM SICK OF IT ANDREW

==>

Page 20...

Stop letting babby not!Vriska bully babby not!Tavros.

Hm... same stupid tooth poison?  No, Jade didn’t get hit with a tooth... so it’s more getting hit with shards of spacetime and spiraling down a black hole.  Also whatever alt!Callie did to just barely keep her alive.

Hm, so the Heart stuff falls apart if you’re too separated from the mass-whole at Light’s center?  That’s certainly a hypothesis at least.

ROXY: sounds like its time for another funeral lmao

ROXY WAKE THE FUCK UP AND STOP BEING A VAGUELY ROXY-LOOKING LMAO-ZOMBIE.  WHERE THE FUCK DID REAL ROXY GO.

And where the fuck is Calliope anyway, she’s just being left in the dust and nobody’s even talked to her from the looks of it.

Hm, cut apart by political differences, this group...?

ROXY: woah ok karkat i get ur all fired up about politics and stuff but lay off gamz ok

ROXY WHO REPLACED YOUR FUCKING BRAIN WITH A BLOCK OF CHEESE

ROXY YOU’RE MY FAVORITE CHARACTER PLEASE GIVE US AN EXPLANATION FOR WHY YOU’RE ACTING NOTHING LIKE THE COOL SMART PERSON WE READ ABOUT.

JADE: dave what the FUCK did you say to him downstairs?

Oh my god you asshole don’t blame DAVE for this >:(

ROXY: this time next week well corpse party like its the end of the world!

I don’t want to think this has anything to do with Aradia, but we DID see her in that postscript bit...  And, I mean, what the hell could she even do??  It’s not like this Roxy is just Aradia in really convincing cosplay or something.

==>

She leads John and Jake into the building and down the center of the nave, humming happily to herself the entire time. An equally effusive Calliope trails behind her, carrying a bouquet of purple flowers.

Well there’s Callie. What is WITH these hypnotized motherfuckers.  I need a revelation on these shenanigans STAT.

What is with people being bathed in light here?

each time we witness death, we fall in love in with the important people in oUr lives all over again.

Calliope is gazing at Roxy with glassy eyes. She sniffs as she plucks the last petal from her rose. A breeze washes through the cathedral from the crack in the door at the end of the room, brushing the petal off-course and causing it to get stuck in Roxy’s over-sprayed hair. Calliope reaches out with a visibly shaking hand to remove the plant offal, but she does not draw back. Instead, she lets her hand graze down the side of Roxy’s face and cup her cheek. Roxy puts her own hand over Callie’s and holds it.

Uhhh.... huh.

So.

If Roxy was just lying to herself, then............ WHY??????

John tilts his head and squints at the image in front of him. Hmm.

Is John realizing he’s in some sort of fanfic drawn by another character, hence all the people in serene lightbeams at tender but unjustified moments?

Everyone whips their heads around to see, of all people, Aradia hovering in the foyer

Pff

(...I hope Aradia didn’t come here, like, from the postscript.  Where the “action” she talked about might have just been this corpse party.  Because that would be pretty fucking lame.)

KARKAT: MAYBE FUCKING NEPETA IS ABOUT TO POUNCE FROM BEHIND THAT GROTESQUE STATUE OF THE HUMAN SUFFERER T-POSING OVER THERE.

Pfffffffffff

The description of Human Jesus we all had in our hearts, but were too afraid to voice.

Alright, now we see the body we took our eyes off of.  Is it going to get back up, or did it escape earlier?

since nobody was willing to dislodge the huge, otherworldly shard from her chest

My damn god, people.

...alright finally, everyone’s talking.

JANE: Agreed. I’ve always felt that Kanaya has done an exemplary job of providing a model for compassionate, empathetic behavior, which others of her kind would do well to follow.

JANE STOP BEING A XENOPHOBIC BASTARD

CALLIOPE: please. roxy gathered yoU all here for a reason. CALLIOPE: at least listen Until the end. CALLIOPE: after that yoU can argUe all you want.

...Huh.  Huuuuhh.  What the fuck is all this for.  Are you saying ROXY caused this? Or...?

Okay I like this reinforcement she’s making in her speech about how different changes can influence how all of this unfolds, gives me hope that maybe these two cliffhangers aren’t all we’re going to be left with and we’ll be able to at least think of an IMPLIED future different from them if we wanted to like we thought about the seemingly-infinite-possibility original ending of Homestuck that I’d rather have been stuck with than this oh god breathe boots

okay there’s the labor going into good distraction

alright corpse get back up

JADE: i am not jade.

Right, so like the black eyes in the postscript suggested this is more just a... vessel for alt!Calliope now?  To give HER a future beyond the one she sacrificed for that black hole business?  And between alt!Callie’s became-the-black-hole nature and Jade’s Spacey Green Sun connection that’s been singularified, she has access to cool Black Hole powers?  And is gonna do cool shit with them in implied future adventures we won’t see while Aradia gleefully watches the carnage?  Huh.

The congregation watches her go, but no one moves to help her, or even looks in her direction. In her wake, she leaves a primal, echoing wail.

Oh my god why wouldn’t they have just a brief discussion or something IT’S NOT THAT BAD  D:

JADE: and while i cannot say the same thing for the rest of you, JADE: i, at least, am exactly where i am meant to be.

Well fuck.  So she just disconfirmed this timeline as... something.  Relevant, possible, I dunno.

JADE: and i have entered this body to protect your world.

Okay that’s good.  So thanks to alt!Calliope these side timelines where things unfolded differently MAY be preserved.  Pretty fitting given alt!Callie’s origins.

.......unless there’s some other stupid interspecies civil war threat that she’s going to be fighting too, here, when the political situation falls apart.  Dammit.

==>

Terezi talk Terezi talk

-- JOHN EGBERT sent TEREZI PYROPE the photo “ghostrain.jpg” --

TEREZI: WH4T TH3 4CTU4L FUCK JOHN: it started a few days ago. the sky above the capital of the troll kingdom just cracked open and ghosts began raining down everywhere.

Oh my GOD.  So alt!Callie kind of “saved” all the doomed ghosts that got swallowed up in the black hole by redirecting them all to THIS UNIVERSE and timeline???????

That’s pretty interesting!  Heck my stomach’s even calming down!

they can’t even be judges! TEREZI: G4SP

Yeah that’s pretty terrible!

...yep, the resistance WOULD put him in charge.  I had a feeling it may have ended up in that direction in Candy since it wasn’t in Meat.

--oh FUCK YOU Jade for splitting up what he had with Karkat before they could sort it out!!! You did the OPPOSITE OF HELP and neither of them are going to end up happy thanks to you! D:<

PFFF wow, John’s so concerned about babby not!Tavros’s living situation that he’s considering legit kidnapping.  That means things must be pretty fucking bad.

--okay Calliope’s still out and about with Roxy instead of being cooped up in her room like in the other timeline, that’s good.

Pff, trying to redeem Ghost Eridan in front of Ghost Feferi.  Yep, that’s Gamzee.

GAMZEE: fIrSt, A LiTtLe RiGhTeOuS sPlAsH oF tHe NaNnA nEcTaR tO cLeAnSe ThAt DaNkNeSs FrOm YoUr SoUlS...

Gamzee takes out a baby bottle and flicks it, covering them both with little drops of milk, as clergy does with holy water. He then takes a swig from the bottle himself before returning it to his codpiece.

Jesus.  Fucking.  Christ.

I don’t want to believe that what’s in that bottle is what he’s making it sound like it is, but OF COURSE it is.  Why would it be anything else.  I bet there’s not even any Lifey hypnosis going on, it’s just the literal stuff.

The crowd falls silent as they raise their heads to watch a drone ship pass by overhead.

Jegus fuck stop going whole hog condesce janey

ROXY: lmao you worry too much ROXY: janeys got her head on straight shell show you yet

ROXY.  WHERE DID YOUR BRAIN GO.  I MISS IT.  YOUR BRAIN WAS THE BEST FUCKING PART OF YOU.

Touching photo.

Alright lemme post split.  I haven’t gotten as far as the last post plowed through since I’ve been typing so much... ah well.

[darthkvznblogs]

I wrote a Voltron: Legendary Defender X Steven Universe oneshot!

It was supposed to be, like, a 1k word cute little blurb, but it ended up at over 5k because I have absolutely no self-control. Also posted over at:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17733932

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13203652/1/Close-Encounters-of-the-Gem-Kind

Also, this is technically part of a larger gamut of crossovers, but this isn’t really connected to those, so feel free to enjoy this on its own!

It’s kind of funny, how much of a backwater the Milky Way is considered to be. Pidge likes to think so, at least - how many humans throughout history have proclaimed Earth to be the center of the universe? It couldn’t be further from the truth, of course, but that certainly didn’t stop them.

The reality is that galactic civilization is practically nonexistent around these parts. There’s nothing like the ancient Alteans, and certainly not like the universe-spanning Galra Empire here, and it shows; the Milky Way lacks any kind of hub worlds, or even designated hyperlanes. It’s the Wild West out here - or, more accurately, the galactic equivalent of an empty Denny’s parking lot at two a.m.

Still, it’s nice to almost be home again. She didn’t expect to be headed back so soon - heck, part of her didn’t expect to return to Earth at all - but it seems Allura found herself a heart, and is allowing the Paladins of Voltron a brief, week-long window before they really take the fight to the Galra for them to let their families know they’re, y’know, still alive.

For how much longer, Pidge has no idea. They’re Public Enemy No. 1, but like, on an intergalactic level. That certainly doesn’t bode well for their continued well-being.

In any case, they’re a few thousand light years out - they’re doing short jumps, so as to avoid leading the Galra back to Earth - when they catch an urgent sounding alien communication, one that makes Allura frown, and summon the other Paladins to the bridge.

“What’s wrong, Princess?” -Shiro asks once he gets there, all armored up - first as always, if not for the fact that Pidge was already there, analyzing star maps with Princess Allura - confused at her expression.

“The Castle’s short range sensors have picked up what appears to be a repeating distress signal. The language is...familiar, but I can’t quite place it.” -she admits.

Shiro crosses his arms. “Familiar how?”

“Yeah, we’re super far away from ancient Altean space.” -Pidge points out.

“Altean civilization became space-faring almost a hundred-thousand years ago. We explored most of the universe.” -she says, as if it should be obvious. “We may not have colonized much, but we did visit.”

Pidge deals with this mind-boggling fact the same way she deals with most things regarding Altea or the Galra. “...oh.”

Allura looks smug, but only for a second, because Coran pipes up after only absently following their conversation. “Oh! That’s Gem code, Princess.”

Allura raises an eyebrow. “‘Gem’ code?” -she asks, on the verge of recognition.

“Yes! I guess it makes sense that they’d still be around.” -he says, eager. “Gems are inorganic life forms - they don’t eat, sleep, or drink, so they are effectively immortal. They were one of the last intelligent species we discovered before the war.”

The Princess snaps her fingers - a gesture picked up from Pidge herself. “That’s right! I remember my father leaving to meet with their diplomats.”

Shiro interrupts the nostalgia train. “Then let’s take a detour and see if we can help them out. Earth can wait just a little longer.”

Allura doesn’t seem like she appreciates the commanding tone, but she clearly agrees, immediately bringing up the Castle’s controls. “Generating wormhole now.”

Lance, Keith, and Hunk come together into the bridge as the starship accelerates into the rift. Seconds later, they re-enter realspace, only to find themselves staring at an ongoing space battle some two thousand kilometers in the distance.

“Well, that can’t be good.” -Lance says, helmet under his arm. He doesn’t sound particularly worried.

“What the hell are the Galra doing so close to Earth again?” -Keith asks, crossing his arms. He, in turn, does. Angry-worried, at any rate.

Lance cringes. Pidge is fairly certain he didn’t put two and two together. “Oh, yeah, that too.”

Allura immediately takes command. “Coran, jam their comms. Paladins, to your Lions.”

The five of them grimly fall into place, taking the chute to their respective giant mechanical familiars. The Paladins burst out into the void, supernatural roars audible even in the oppressive silence of vacuum.

“What are we looking at, here?” -Shiro asks everyone.

“Hands, mostly.” -Hunk says drily. “It’s not just me, right? Everybody else can see the multi-colored giant hands shooting at the Galra fleet?”

Hunk has a knack for summing up the crazy situations Team Voltron usually encounters, and this is no exception. Indeed, a fleet of massive, human-accurate, hand-shaped warships is trading blasts with a Galra dreadnought and about a dozen cruisers. They’re about half the size of the Castle of Lions each, which means they’re all dwarfed by the Galra capital ships. Pidge can make out green and yellow ones, mostly, but there’s a couple blue ones in there, too. She also notices that, while they’ve obviously suffered some damage, the hand ships are all still more or less intact, while a couple Galra cruisers have already become superheated chunks, slowly falling towards the planet, caught in its gravity well.

Judging by the fleets’ positions - the Galra are sandwiched between the planet and the Gem warships - the Galra got here first, and the hands are reinforcements for the Gems below.

“It doesn’t matter what they’re shaped like. They’re outnumbered and we’re here to even those odds.” -Shiro finally says. “Allura, can you contact the Gems? We don’t need them shooting us, too.”

“I will try. I’m not sure the Castle’s translator software includes Gem language.”

“It included human, didn’t it?” -Lance asks rhetorically. “Er, I mean English.”

“No, it did not. English was just relatively easy to decipher. Gem language, on the other hand, seems to be a combination of computer code and spoken word. We’ll whip up a message, but there’s no telling if they can even recognize it for what it is.”

“It’ll have to do.” -Shiro says as they enter firing range for the Lions’ main cannons. “Lance, Keith, focus on the fighters - try to draw them away from the Gem fleet. The rest of us will take out the Ion Cannons. Stay on your toes, everyone.”

The Paladins split into their respective groups - Pidge feels a bit awkward going with the heavy hitters, but her and Green are probably second worst at dog-fighting, so she gets it - and get to work. The Galra immediately begin attacking them instead, completely ignoring the Gem warships, likely overcome by their desire to please ol’ Zarkon with a nice, Voltron-themed gift basket.

Pidge is pleasantly surprised; they’ve only been at this for about a month - just last week, they saved the Balmera and its rocky inhabitants - but they already fight like a coherent unit. Part of it is the Garrison’s training, sure, but this newfound success is largely owed to the mystical link they all share as Paladins. She’s aware that Keith just melted down a squad chasing Lance, that Shiro just took a Jaw Blade to the dreadnought’s main battery, and that Hunk just spotted a cruiser’s Ion Cannon targeting her. Pidge simply dodges out of the way at the last second, letting the overwhelmingly powerful blast tear through the cruiser behind her and Green.

With the final Ion Cannon disabled, the Castle of Lions moves in. Particle blasts pepper the Galra fleet, which wastes no time in retaliating, but these bolts come from point-defense cannons - they’re meant to take down fighters and other such small ships, like the Lions technically are. The Castle’s barrier holds steady against this attack.

“I am detecting a significant Galra field presence on the planet.” -Allura says. “Several hundred Sentries, at the very least, possibly some Galra officers. They seem to be attacking a major Gem installation.”

“Then we better finish this up quick.” -Shiro says. “Everyone, regroup! Let’s form Voltron!”

The Lions roar in unison, flying towards a relatively safe point in space, and begin the morphing process. Pidge has studied it before from the Castle’s recordings, frame by frame, but in the heat of the moment, she can’t quite tell what’s going on - only that she’s now not quite just Pidge Gunderson, or Katie Holt, but a vital component of the immensely powerful whole that is Voltron. There are no longer five Lions and their respective pilots, there is the titanic warrior and their collectively melded minds.

Well, that’s what it’s supposed to be like, she instinctively knows. Eventually. But they’re all still rather new at it, so they still speak up like they’re separate individuals.

“Form Shoulder Cannon!” -Shiro commands, and Hunk immediately complies. The Cannon materializes, targets the remaining cruisers, and fires, swirling ribbons of deadly light tracing wild paths for a second or two before reaching their marks, burning through thick hulls and the decks within. Cataclysmic explosions tear some of the vessels apart, while those that survive are left like wounded beasts, venting atmosphere and spitting out plasma.

The dreadnought is mostly undamaged still, and its repair crews have managed to get the Ion Cannon somewhat operational again - they probably should’ve ripped it off instead of just slicing at it - and so it fires at them.

Before Shiro can call it out, Pidge is already forming the shield. It’s just in time, too, snapping into place as the beam reaches Voltron. Purple energy flares out around them, dissipating into harmless, free-floating ions a couple dozen miles out.

Voltron’s wings return to their original position, and Shiro bellows: “Form Sword!”

“Wait!” -Allura calls out. “Incoming energy signature!”

They turn, and sure enough, a massive shape warps into the battlefield. It’s a complete yellow right arm, a little longer than the Galra dreadnought, and its fist is clenched. It zips past Voltron at ramming speed, completely heedless of the fact that the dreadnought is charging another shot.

“Why aren’t they dodging?” -Lance asks the question on everyone’s mind.

The answer is apparent as soon as the beam washes over the yellow hull, and does absolutely no damage.

“Jesus.” -Hunk says. “What the heck is that arm made of?”

The arm then smashes into the bow of the dreadnought, sending it backwards in spite of its powerful engines trying to compensate. Voltron boosts towards the two warships, but stops in its tracks just as they’re about to reach them, as what looks like a large, yellow bubble - about the size of Black’s protective particle barrier - sprouts from the arm’s surface.

“Is that a woman?” -Lance asks, dumbstruck, as the bubble disappears, leaving behind its single occupant.

Pidge is not as impressed by the person’s apparent gender, as she is by their sheer size - they’re about as tall as the Black Lion while sat on its haunches. Their skin and helmet-shaped hair is the same yellow shade as the arm ship, and they’re wearing what looks like a short tailcoat, olive pants, and brown boots. A square, equally yellow gemstone about as tall as Shiro protrudes from their chest - and, strangely enough, it’s the only part of their body showing up on Green’s sensors.

“I...I guess that’s a Gem.” -Shiro says, his usual stoic composure broken up a bit by the sheer awe this being provokes. Judging by the off-the-charts telemetry Green can make out on them, Pidge is more inclined to label them as some kind of pseudo-divine being.

The giant person spares a brief look for the stunned Voltron, before becoming enveloped in a crackling electric aura, raising their left hand, and blasting the Ion Cannon.

The superweapon briefly becomes incandescent, then explodes, and so does the superstructure beneath it. The Gem then leaps, seemingly unaffected by the lack of gravity, and smashes into the burning wreckage of the Cannon, plunging into the dreadnought’s innards.

“Should we help?” -Keith asks, uncertain.

Lance scoffs. “Help!? Let’s throw her at Zarkon!”

Shiro shakes his head as small, fiery holes begin to violently blow through the warship’s hull. “Let’s leave them to it. I know for a fact the Galra don’t have anything inside that can actually put up a fight. Split up and head to the surface, instead.”

Voltron breaks apart into its constituent Lions, which begin the descent into the Gem world. Pidge notes, somewhat uncomfortably, that the hand ships have moved in, literally grabbing onto the wrecked Galra warships. It reminds her of Facehuggers, which, now that she’s an intergalactic traveller on the regular, she can only hope exist solely in movies.

The planet below isn’t really one to write home about; it’s a lifeless rocky world, not unlike a large Mercury, its thin atmosphere is primarily nitrogen-based - but the mixture is unbreathable for most life forms, humans included - and its soil is rich with aluminum oxides. Why the Gems would choose to settle here, Pidge has no clue. Maybe they like inhospitable worlds? They’re inorganic, so...maybe they’re not all that bothered by them?

The atmospheric burn doesn’t last long, even with the added challenge of dodging the falling debris caused by the battle above, and soon they’re diving through the thin cloud layer. Several artificial structures dot the landscape on the way to the battlefield - enormous columns beaming with light, intricate spires reaching towards space, and colosseum-like buildings floating between the clouds. The ground battle is taking place near a massive canyon network, inlaid with Gem machinery. This is where most of the Gems on the planet are concentrated, if sensor data is to be believed. Then again, their sensors can only pick up the individual gemstones on their bodies, so it’s really anyone’s guess.

“So, what’s the plan? A bombing run, maybe?” -Lance suggests.

“Negative. Some of the Gems seem to be fighting hand-to-hand with the Galra.” -Shiro says. “We’d be risking hitting them, too.”

“So, let’s join them. Let’s fight on foot.” -Keith says. Of course he does.

Hunk groans. Pidge winces to herself, too. Neither of them are too into the pedestrian portion of Paladinhood. “Let’s land nearby and try to find their commanding officer. They’ll probably know where we’ll be the most useful.” -Shiro says, finally.

The Lions come in hot, dust blowing as the massive mechs trot to a stop. Pidge readies herself, manifesting her bayard and hoping against hope that she won’t have to use it.

She runs out of Green’s mouth, meeting up with the others. All their weapons are out already. Shiro leads the way, approaching a small outpost from which a dozen Gems seem to be observing the nearby battle. None of them have anything she can identify as a gun; she spots some spears, a warhammer, several swords, and a bow and arrow. The weapon selection seems highly paradoxical, given their apparent technological prowess, but, then again, Keith’s bayard turns into a sword, too, and that’s über-advanced Altean techno-sorcery.

The next thing she notices is that the Gems are...eerily similar. Even the Balmorans were easier to tell apart; there are three types, all completely different from the last. The smallest are a head shorter than her, all colored in similar shades of red, with thick but stubby arms and legs, and a sort of blocky afro for hair. Their gemstones are all over the place - back of the hand, knee, chest, forehead, nose. Same goes for the other two kinds; one is about as tall as a full grown Galra, their stone an upright rectangle in the middle of their chest, with a poofy head of cheddar-colored hair, orange skin, a red jumpsuit, white gloves and boots, and a glittery yellow-red cape, and a green colored Gem with a triangular gemstone for an eye, a perfectly square head of light yellow hair, and odd, free-floating fingers manipulating some kind of hard-light screen.

“Greetings. We are the Paladins of Voltron.” -Shiro announces, following protocol because he’s, well, Shiro. “We picked up your distress signal, and have come to help.”

Pidge half expects to hear gibberish back from the Gems, but when the tall, orange one replies, it’s in perfect english. “Oh? Is that so?”

Their tone takes all of them aback. It’s the condescending ‘it’s cute that you think you know better than me’ kind of voice Pidge knows very well from years of...overachieving in academic endeavors. It’s also far from the way you’d expect a Commander in trouble to sound like. “Uh...yes? We’re at your service. Where do you need us?”

They languidly turn to the green Gem. “Peridot, where do we need the Paladins of Voltron?”

Pidge vaguely remembers something about the mineral peridotite coming from the Earth’s mantle. Peridot’s voice is kinda nasal, and she sounds...bored. “Ruby squadron theta is requesting assistance, my Hessonite.”

Judging by the way the small, red Gems worriedly fidget at the mention, they’re Rubies, too. Now the colony makes sense; aluminum oxide forms corundum, a mineral real life rubies - and sapphires, which Pidge is guessing is another type of Gem - are found in.

Hessonite hums. “Well, there you go. Go, go! I’d love to watch.”

The Paladins look at each other in confusion, but silently decide not to think about it too much. They rush towards the nearest fight, which is definitely going in the Gems’ favor.

The Rubies may lack any sort of projectile weaponry, but they don’t seem to be fazed much by the Galra Sentries’ laser blasts. They wince and yelp when hit, but otherwise continue charging. They’re also surprisingly strong, taking down the drones in a single punch more often than not. Still, the Paladins join in, blasting and slicing away at the robots. Again, their teamwork has experienced a marked improvement. They’re hardly commandos, but they cover for each other’s weaknesses fairly well. Most of the Rubies ignore them, but a couple of them cheerfully greet and thank them - with the absolute cutest voice ever - before moving on to the next skirmish.

That’s when the first Galra tank pops up over a nearby ridge, points at the departing Rubies, and shoots.

The plasma burst explodes at their feet, and when the smoke clears, one lays groaning face-down, while only a circular, soot-covered gemstone remains of the other. “Lance, Hunk, cover fire!” -Shiro barks out. He dives to cover the Ruby with his body, while the Paladins distract the tank. Pidge and Keith follow suit, bringing up their particle shields, since a squad of Sentries has taken aim at them.

“I’m...sorry about your friend.” -Shiro says, gravely. A large, striped, yellow-orange Gem with a mane of white hair roars past them, and absolutely demolishes the Sentries shooting at them. It’d be funny, if someone hadn’t just died before her eyes.

The Ruby - her gemstone is on her right knee - seems very confused. “What? She’s fine, she’s right there! Not even chipped or anything.” -she says, all earnest and adorable, pointing at the gemstone on the ground. “Haven’t you guys ever seen a Gem poof before? It happens to us Rubies all the time…”

Ah. Pidge thinks she gets it, now. That’s why Green’s sensors and her armor’s onboard systems can’t make out anything but the actual gemstone: the humanoid body is some kind of light construct. The gem is the Gem.

The Gem blanks out for a second, then looks at them with guilt. “Um, listen, I have to go.” -she say. “We’ve been ordered to defend the western entrance to the Kindergarten.”

Keith balks. “You have children here!?”

The Ruby doesn’t seem to understand that word. “No? We have a vein of potential Sapphires, though, so we can’t let the organics anywhere near there.” -she explains, then grabs the other Ruby’s gemstone from the ground and hands it to a very surprised Shiro. “We’re supposed to leave poofed soldiers behind, but...she’s my friend. Just...take care of her until she reforms, please?” -she pleads.

Knee Ruby doesn’t wait for an answer, just bolting - well, more like hup-hup-hup-ing - towards the western side of the canyon network. Hunk and Lance return, fresh from taking out the Galra tank. “Oh cool!” -Lance says, catching the glint of the scarlet gemstone. “That’s gotta be worth like, a cool million.”

“This is, apparently, a person.” -Pidge says, rolling her eyes.

“Wait, what? I thought they were just really into body mods.”

Keith shakes his head. “Were you not paying attention to your Lion’s sensors?”

Lance scowls. “Don’t sass me, Kogane. I’ve got Earth on my brain right now and not much else.”

Shiro puts his flesh and blood hand on Lance’s right pauldron. “We all do, but we need to focus for now.” -he says, understanding, rising as he cautiously pockets the gemstone. “Let’s try to find the Galra commander.”

Pidge pipes up. “Oh, let me.” -she says, then closed her eyes. She finds that thread in the back of her mind and pulls on it, grabbing Green’s attention. Their connection is nowhere near as good as it could be, one day, but this is more than enough for now.

Green is more in tune with life than any of the other Lions - as in, she can sense living organisms better than any of the others - so Pidge asks her to scan the horizon for living Galra combatants. Green roars, and a quick scan later, the actual Galra on this world are marked, and their location relayed to the Paladins. Disturbingly, Green detects none in orbit.

Shiro takes a moment to strategize. “Okay. There’s three groups of Galra soldiers. One seems to be established at their FOB, and lightly guarded - Pidge and Lance, you take those out, and see if you can figure out why the Galra are so close to Earth in the first place. Another squad is establishing static defenses nearby - Keith and Hunk, that’s you. I’ll join the Gems in taking down the ones fighting alongside the remaining Sentries.”

Pidge grimaces. She’s no stranger to taking lives by now - Galra warships may be mostly crewed and defended by robots, but there’s still an organic element in command, and she’s taken down several - but killing up close is an entirely different matter. Something tells her that her mantra of ‘one less Galra is one less obstacle between me and my family’ probably won’t cut it this time around.

Goddamn it, she’s fifteen.

Lance winks at her. Pidge doesn’t think much of it, considering he flirts with pretty much every being that could be argued to be sapient. “Think you can keep up, Pidge?”

“Doesn’t sound like I have much of a choice.” -she replies, deadpan. Pidge turns to Shiro. “I might not be able to interface with their tech without your arm, just so you know.”

“Try it anyway. If you can’t, just destroy their outpost.” -he says.

They split up, and head towards their targets. It’s a short hike, made only a bit sluggish by the debris from the battle. Pidge spots several dormant gemstones among the broken Sentries.

“So, why do you think they all look like girls?” -Lance asks.

“Let’s not assume their gender.” -she says. “We don’t even know if they have one.”

“No, I get that. I’m just saying, they do present themselves as feminine, more or less.”

“Well, it’s not like we’ve met them all. Maybe those Sapphires the Ruby talked about look different.”

Lance hums. “And the big one? What kind of Gem do you think she is?”

Pidge jet-boosts past a Galra hovertank that looks like it’s been physically crushed. “A Topaz, maybe? I don’t know that many yellow gemstones. Could be a Yellow Diamond too, I guess.”

“Yeah, that sounds pretty regal.” -he says. “She’s gotta be like, their queen or something, right?”

“If they’re the leader of Gemkind, fighting on the front lines would be a very poor judgement call. There’s a reason Zarkon’s lived to rule ten thousand years. He just spits out orders from his throne room.”

“Well, that plus magic, right?”

She sighs. As much as she’d love to say that ‘magic is just really fancy tech they don’t understand yet’, she’s seen enough weird Altean and Galra bull to recognize that the phrase is worthless in reality.

“...yeah, that too.”

Her HUD flashes red in warning, just as they’re about to crest the hill overlooking their target. She looks up, and sees a fragment of burning Galra hull falling towards their general vicinity.

“Uh...Pidge? Is that headed for…?”

“Us, yeah!” -she screams, grabbing his arm and punching her thruster pack to the max. They zoom away just in time, as the artificial meteor slams into the hill, the shockwave sending both of them careening across the landscape. The come to a tumbling stop a couple hundred feet away, groaning. The Paladin armor takes the worst of it, for sure, but Pidge is already dreading the bruises she’ll find when she hits the showers later today.

“Are you okay?” -Lance asks.

She shakes her head, more to check for concussions than to say no. “I’m alive.”

He steps into her field of view, offering a hand. She takes it and rises. “Are we still keeping score after this? I’m pretty sure the save is worth a lot.”

Lance smirks. “No, no, I’m pretty sure this just makes us even.”

“What? For what?”

“Sendak, remember?”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that’s true.” -she says. If not for his clutch save, the cyborg might’ve taken them out, instead of the other way around. “I’m pretty sure the game is over anyway, they’re probably all dead by now.”

Lance raises an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”

“The fragment that almost hit us, it exploded in midair. The other piece should’ve landed right on top of the Galra base.”

As if to confirm her hypothesis, an explosion shakes the ground on the other side of the hill. Lance winces. “Alright, let’s go check it out.”

They nearly crest the ridge, before they’re stopped in their tracks. A Galra soldier pops over the hill, running towards them. Pidge brings her bayard to bear, but it’s ultimately unnecessary. It’s the briefest of moments, and the most terrifying sequence of events she’s witnessed in this little space opera she’s on: a blinding light appears behind the Galra, catches up to him, and consumes him. As in, when the glow subsides, the alien has completely vanished. Disintegrated, presumably.

“Oh my God.” -Lance says. Funny, Pidge didn’t peg him for a God-fearing man. Teenager. Yikes, she’s already rambling.

The Galra’s killer soon becomes apparent, as the massive yellow Gem they’d seen in space nonchalantly walks toward them, each step shaking the ground beneath their feet. Pidge can’t quite nail why it’s so different from staring up at the Lions; the height is similar after all, but the approaching Gem is so much more intimidating. Maybe it’s the humanoid shape. Maybe it’s their irritated frown.

It’s probably the fact that their electric aura still crackles as they approach.

“I had not realized that humanity had achieved spaceflight.” -they say. Their voice is definitely feminine, their tone that of someone who knows themselves to be superior. There’s an undercurrent of weariness, too, but Pidge is all but certain it’s not of the physical kind - they move like they’re on a leisurely stroll, as if they hadn’t just dropped from orbit and atomized someone. “With the amount of technology Homeworld left behind, it’s a wonder it took so long.”

The being squints at them. Pidge notices that their irises - yellow, of course - have diamond-shaped pupils.

Ah. Yellow Diamond, then.

“Then again, that armor is hardly of Gem make. Too...flimsy. Much like the rest of you organics.”

Well, that certainly sounds like an insult.

“Not just any organics.” -Lance says. He’s afraid, and covering it up with bravado. Classic Lance. “We’re the Paladins of Voltron, ma’am.”

Yellow Diamond seems...unimpressed. “Is that what you call the waste of quintessence I saw in orbit, Blue Paladin?”

“What do you mean waste? Voltron is like, the most powerful weapon in the universe!” -Pidge says. So she’s feeling defensive of Green and her little found family. So fear makes her lash out a bit. Sue her.

“I mean that the amount of quintessence powering your so-called Voltron would create enough Gems to conquer every planet in every galaxy. And yet, its makers chose to concentrate all that power into five vulnerable little puzzle pieces, and then put them in the hands of humans.”

“Jesus, lady. Calm it down, will you? We wouldn’t even be here if not for your distress signal. We came here to save you from the Galra.” -Lance says. Pidge isn’t sure if it’s intentional, but he’s protectively stepped in front of her. Not that it’ll do much good once Yellow Diamond tires of this conversation and vaporizes them, but it's, y’know, a nice gesture.

“I assure you, your assistance was neither needed nor wanted. These Galra may be a threat to your kind, but as you can plainly see, they are mere annoyances for Gemkind.”

Pidge grabs Lance’s arm. “It’s okay, Lance. Maybe we should just go back to Shiro and the others.” -she suggests, rather urgently. “We’re obviously not welcome here.”

“Good. I thought perhaps I was being too subtle.” -Yellow Diamond says, disdainful. “Take your mechanical pets and leave my world, Paladins of Voltron. Return to that doomed mudball you call the Earth.”

The Gem’s aura subsides, and they turn to leave. Pidge breathes a sigh of relief because yeah, Yellow Diamond was definitely considering offing them. Green and Blue fly towards them as the massive arm ship pokes through the clouds above. The Gem matriarch leaps onto its palm, and disappears into its depths. The ship then points towards the sky, elongates impossibly, and disappears in a vortex of warped space-time.

“Yikes.” -Lance says.

“Yup.”

“That could’ve gone better.”

“Could’ve gone worse, too.” -she points out. “We’re not exactly great at diplomacy.”

“True.” -he says, as their two Lions land beside them. “Hey, what do you think she meant by calling Earth doomed?”

Pidge shrugs. Her nerves are a bit too frayed to really think about it. “Global warming? I dunno, Lance. I just hope we never get to ask her. At least, not in person.”

“Yeah, no argument here.”

They board the Lions, and head towards their fellow Paladins. They’re already taking off, and it’s not hard to figure out why.

“Gems are nuts, you guys.” -Hunk says when they join them. “Like, not even the fact that even their tiny Ruby guys could toss me around like I weigh about half a Pidge…”

“Hey!”

“...they turned on us the moment the Galra were done! We didn’t even have a chance to give them their buddy back!”

Pidge’s eyebrows shoot up. “You kept the Ruby!?”

“I did.” -Shiro says, gravely. “Which means this won’t be the last time we deal with the Gems. We’ll have to figure out a way to approach them safely, now that we know that they aren’t exactly friendly.”

“Earth first though, right?” -Lance asks, hopeful, then amends himself. “I mean, I don’t know about you, but I desperately need some strictly human comforts. Pizza, videogames, beautiful human women…”

Pidge laughs to herself. Trust Lance to ruin a somber moment, even if it’s his own. The internal laugh is, admittedly, a little hysterical - they did just meet a space goddess, after all.

Shiro smiles. “Earth first, Lance.”

[trek-b]

“Such Sweet Sorrow” Pt. 2

Spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery Season Two

(Which, I realize, is almost two years old at this point but just in case...)

This continues to take much longer than I would've anticipated—I started “Such Sweet Sorrow” Pt. 1 on February 16, part 2 on the 24th, and then it took me four days to get back to watching the last five minutes of part 2 (and after a few days had passed I considered not doing so but I think it was worth it anyway) and it took more than a week for me to start season three it's more than a week later and I still haven't started season three... Overall, I don't think my impressions really changed over the course of this mini-rewatch—“Such Sweet Sorrow” parts 1 & 2 were an excellent way to cap a good season. I think Discovery's biggest problem the first two seasons has been that they've had trouble telling an entirely coherent and satisfying season-long story and that's true for season two but one thing I take from the re-watch is that I was perhaps a little harsh on season two.

No, Control as an antagonist didn't work, was effectively just an excuse for the rest of the story (Control as a character or idea didn't really say anything about artificial intelligence or humanity despite that being territory Star Trek likes to tread) - but still, as alluded to last time, the sibling dynamic between Burnham and Spock was good, it felt authentic; fitting the pieces together was pretty good - i.e. unraveling the mystery of the signals and what they meant and all this leading Burnham and Discovery to go to the future; specifically in “Such Sweet Sorrow” Pt. 2, a crystallization of this being when Spock realizes Burnham had to send the remaining signals before she could jump forward (not sure it makes sense but it did work well story-wise). Further, while the Red Angel being Burnham's mother (at least in part) wasn't the most original plot point it still worked for the most part as it gave Burnham some chance to deal with the fate of her parents. And then it all built to a rather thrilling conclusion...and the second time through it was still thrilling. I do find it somewhat ironic that while the first season was theoretically built around a war, it was the second season that ended in a rather epic battle.

Yes, there were plenty of thrills in the final battle (though how can Discovery and Enterprise field that many auxiliary craft? Not to mention how do they have enough people to pilot all those craft?). But the climactic moment (moments?) came from ultimately solving the rest of that central mystery and Spock and Michael’s goodbye; while I feel like some of the affection between Burnham and other members of Disco's crew felt a little forced, I though her relationship with Spock felt absolutely authentic and it paid off well in that final farewell.

And yet...

...if I had to put one word to some of my more major issues with DSC it's sloppiness—lots of things seem to have made it onto the screen seemingly without being thought through: those hundreds of auxiliary craft, the massive voids we're meant to believe are inside Disco, Control as generic AI antagonist, themes being practically dropped and then hurriedly brought back, the Enterprise's new uniforms (which I like but introduce a whole new continuity issue when presumably they're meant to address continuity (unless the rationale was that it just feels right to have Enterprise crew in TOS-esque uniforms). Now, it's not as if any proceeding series or movies didn't have those kinds of issues at times as well but the prevalence in DSC bugs me. Granted, I will defend some things that others might put in that same category (mainly because I like them) but overall, there's too much of that sloppiness.

Put another way, it's a lack of rigor over details that bothers me—and don't mean canon, I mean the big or small things that don't quite seem to make sense (etc). I can't help noticing Alex Kurtzman is and has been a major figure in Star Trek's TV (streaming) revival and he was co-writer on the first two Kelvinverse movies which I enjoyed for the most part (though I like Discovery more) but which I also would not say felt all that concerned about the details (e.g. throwing a bunch of cadets into service, promoting a cadet straight to captain, a supernova that somehow threatens the entire galaxy, etc...it could be said that these things serve their purpose in the given story but don't seem to me to make much sense at least without more explanation than we are actually given). I'm not going to say it's all his fault because I really don't know but the parallel sloppiness is hard to ignore. There certainly have been shakeups with the showrunners which couldn't help, I wonder if DSC might've suffered from lack of a steady hand at the tiller; but further, I wonder if there's a philosophic issue higher up...

Well, whatever my quibbles, Burnham succeeds, sets course for almost a thousand years from her present and, in what I have to say was a lovely scene leads Discovery through the wormhole toward the future. No, season two of DSC wasn't perfect but they nailed the ending...oh...wait, there's more?

[thelordice]

When In Rome

Author’s note: This story takes place around Season 5 SG-1, though no date in particular applies. In Star Trek timeline, the year is 2412.

Rygo looked up from the desk console in his quarters as his first officer summoned him. Exiting his quarters, the status lights in the corridor lit up – the ship had gone to Yellow Alert. Rygobeth Ircretian Lerginas jogged through the corridors to the command center of the Congregation Naval Vessel Founder’s Glory near the heart of the ship. Unlike the Starfleet ships he had served on for nearly a century, the building convention of the Malrissian Congregation combined the main engineering bay and bridge into a CiC at the center of the vessel. And while the Founder’s Glory had not been built by the Congregation Navy – it had instead been discovered adrift in the Betreka Nebula with her sister ship, the Founder’s Wrath, and was a Jem’Hadar battlecruiser – the Malrissians had significantly retrofitted the vessel with their own tech.

It had taken little time for the Malrissian admiral to reach the CiC – while Malrissian convention had all crew quarters on the outer hull line (so they could be used as lifeboats in the event of an evacuation), Rygo had requested his quarters be near the CiC for instances like this. He entered through the portside bulkhead and addressed his officers. “Report.”

Commander Zhe La Luna, his first officer, sounded off. “Admiral, sensors are detecting an anomalous subspace signature on the surface of Toron III. There are no settlements recorded on the planet, and the signature does not match the profiles of known communications or propulsion systems.”

Rygo’s science officer – a Jem’Hadar named Garara’usan, given to the Malrissian Congregation as part of a cadre of such officers in exchange for data on the Founder’s Glory and Wrath – chimed in. “Sir, the signature is intensifying. We will not be able to reach Toron III by warp or ellipse before it increases to the point of disrupting our engines. However, it is weak enough presently that we should be able to establish a stable wormhole.”

“Very good, Garara’usan. Vel’sh, spin it up.”

The Breen helmsman – a refugee from the Confederacy – replied in the affirmative in the raspy machine garble of his vocoder. The ship began to hum with power as the device that made this ship unique came online. The Wrath and the Glory had been found adrift, devoid of all life, as a result of it. The war-era prototype Dominion portable wormhole generator had functioned perfectly, shooting the ship more than a hundred light-years in seconds. However, there had been an unforseen consequence: the wormhole had been filled with metaphasic radiation, and the short jaunt had disintegrated every living thing on board. Malrissian technology had held the answer: utilizing their subspace vortex technology (morphologically similar to a short-range wormhole), they had corrected the metaphasic issue by projecting the generator’s verteron matrix through a vortex, forcing enough of the metaphasic radiation back into subspace that the resulting wormhole was safe to traverse, though the downside was that this limited the wormhole’s maximum range to 74 light-years, as well as destabilizing the vortex whenever a ship passed through, rendering the system useable by only one ship at a time. Toron III was well within that range.

“Attention all personnel,” Rygo said over the shipwide intercom, “prepare for wormhole travel.”

Garara’usan reported, “Vortex established. Wormhole verteron matrix… generated. Wormhole in five seconds.” On the forward viewscreen, a brilliant spiral of bright blue blossomed into space, and grew large as the ship’s pilot sent the vessel through.

The vessel rocked with intense turbulence, and the alert lights went from yellow to red. This was not normal. But before Rygo could ask what was going on, the turbulence subsided, and the vessel shot through the far end of the wormhole. They were alive; that was a good sign, at least. “Report,” Rygo said.

“Coallating sensor data, sir,” Garara’usan reported. A moment later, he continued. “It appears that the subspace anomaly in the system disrupted the wormhole, though I’m still determining precisely how. Additionally, I am no longer detecting the anomaly on sensors.”

Gammo’toran – another Jem’Hadar, posted at the ship’s Operations station, followed that report. “Shields are down to 56%, but still holding. Minor power fluctuations in the EPS grid. And the turbulence has temporarily disrupted our warp and ellipse drives.”

“Time to repair?”

“Unknown, sir, Commander Galli reports that she is still assessing the nature of the disruption.”

Vel’sh Kohpawka, the pilot, then reported, the crew’s universal translators interpreting his vocoder garble. “Admiral, astrogation sensors are reporting anomalous data. Based on our readings, we have been sent downtime 411 Earth years. The year… is 2001.”

“Initiate counter-detection systems,” Rygo ordered. “We can’t risk being detected by contemporary powers.”

Garara’usan reported again. “Sir, I’m detecting a settlement on the surface of the planet. There have never been any signs of habitation on this world, past or present. Life form scans indicate… this is not possible.”

Rygo rose from his command chair and walked to Garara’usan’s console. “What is it?”

“Sir… the readings indicate that the settlement is populated by humans.”

“But the year is 2001. The Eugenics Wars have been over for only half a decade on Earth, they can barely make Earth orbit right now. There should be no way for humans to be out this far.”

“And yet, here they are, sir. And I am detecting a minor subspace distortion on the surface, though the distortion itself is preventing me from scanning its source. There are, however, four human life signs in the vicinity. They are moving away from the distortion, in the general direction of the settlement.”

Rygo considered things for a moment. “Garara’usan, get Kudso’ikat and Remata’klan and head down there. Use your shroud to study those four humans, and the settlement, then report back.”

“Yes, Admiral.” He rose from his console and used his communicator to signal the other two Jem’Hadar. Rygo took his place at the science station – he had been trained as a Starfleet science officer, and had never been above doing the work of his officers when duty called them elsewhere. Focusing the ship’s sensors, he managed to pierce the subspace distortion just enough to detect an anomalous crystalline structure at the heart of the anomaly. Further scans proved inconclusive.

A few minutes later, the away team hailed the ship. They had split up to cover more area. Kudso’ikat was the first to report. “Admiral, this is extremely strange. The human settlement appears to be primitive – very little in the way of metalworking, no electricity or anything approaching advanced technology. I am returning to the transport site.” Garara’usan followed up. “I have reached the source of the subspace disrtortion, sir. It is some kind of ring structure, approximately 6.7 meters in diameter. There appears to be a control device in front of it. I will approach it and attempt to analyze.” Finally, Remata’klan reported back. “Sir, the humans moving away from the ring structure do not appear to match Kudso’ikat’s reports of the indigenous population. They are weilding some form of firearms, and are wearing clothing made of synthetic fibers. One of their number is carrying a staff of some kind, which is emanating a low-level energy signature that my tricorder cannot match to known profiles. It appears to be some form of energy weapon.”

A suspicion began to sink into Rygo’s mind. It shouldn’t be possible... but in his career, Rygo had encountered many seemingly impossible things. “Remata’klan, these humans… are they wearing black vests over green jackets?”

The Jem’Hadar seemed surprissed. “Yes, sir, they are.”

“And the one carrying the staff, did you happen to see his face?”

“Yes, sir. There was a strange gold marking on his forehead. I have never seen its like.”

Ho boy, Rygo thought. That was just about all the confirmation he needed. “Remata’klan, head back to the transport site and return to the ship with Kudso’ikat. I’ll assemble a more proper away team and meet these humans myself. I think I have an idea what’s going on here.” He triggered the intercom. “Doctor th’Zeph, report to the CiC for away duty.” Then he addressed his first officer. “Commander Luna, I want you with me. If I’m right about this, it’ll be helpful to have a human face on this mission.” The petite Asian woman nodded and surrendered her station to a relief officer, just as Rygo did the same. Once the Aenar chief medical officer arrived, they stepped onto the starboard CiC transporter pad and beamed down to the planet. The coordinates they selected were only a hundred meters from the position of the anomalous human party. “Approach quietly, people. We don’t want to startle these people too much.” It took them very little time to get close to the group, and they used the wooded terrain to hide. “Tasop,” he whispered to his medical officer, “do you see anything weird about the bald human?”

Tasop nodded. As an Aenar, he was congenially blind, instead “seeing” with his subspecies’ advanced telepathy. Tasop had honed his blindsense to be able to see within the bodies of others to diagnose internal injusries without a tricorder, making him a surprisingly good surgeon for a blind man. “There’s… some kind of pouch in his abdomen. There appears to be a creature inside it, but I can’t make anything out about it from this distance.”

“That lines up with my hypothesis. Time to see how right I am.” Rygo raised his voice and spoke. “Attention humans! We are approximately twenty meters to your nine o’clock. We are lightly armed, but will approach without our weapons drawn. We come in peace, we just want to talk!” Rygo took point, raising his hands to show they were empty. Tasop and Zhe La followed suit. When they caught sight of the group, Rygo was unsurprised to see they had their weapons drawn and leveled at them. They exchanged looks as Rygo’s team approached. Once they were three meters away, Rygo stopped. “Hello. My name is Rygobeth Lerginas. This is my first officer, Commander Zhe La Luna; and my chief medical officer, Doctor Tasop th’Zeph.”

The male human near the center of the group responded. “I’m… Colonel Jack O’Neill, this is Major Samantha Carter… Doctor Daniel Jackson… and Teal’c. You said you wanted to talk.”

Rygo sighed. That was the confirmation he’d expected. “Indeed we do, Colonel. This is going to sound weird to you, but I am an officer in an organization… called Starfleet. It’s the military and exploratory branch of the United Federation of Planets.”

O’Neill traded looks with Carter and Jackson. “You’re right, that does sound-”

“Like Star Trek, I know,” Rygo replied, cutting him off. “That’s what makes this situation weird. My ship was investigating a subspace distortion on this planet when we were sent downtime more than four centuries. For us, the Earth year is 2412. And for us… none of you are real. I know all of you because inb our universe… you’re fictional characters in a holonovel series, within which the events of my universe are fictional. But given that multiverse theory pretty well supports the idea that there’s a potential universe where any fictional story is real, I suppose it’s possible we’ve transitioned universes due to the anomaly. To prove my knowledge… you four are SG-1, the flagship team of a top secret United States Air Force organization known as Stargate Command, based under Cheyenne Mountain. Jack, you were called out of retirement when the program was relaunched a few years ago. Sam, you were promoted to Major for your participation in it. Daniel, you are the Earth’s foremost expert on both Goa’uld and Ancient languages, having been laughed out of academia for your ultimately correct theory that the Egyptian pyramids were landing platforms for alien ships. And you, Teal’c of Chulak, were the First Prime of Apophis until Colonel O’Neill convinced you to rebel. Tek’ma’te.” Rygo bowed his head respectfully. Teal’c raised an eyebrow in surprise and nodded back.

Jack decided to sass. “So you’re from Star Trek, eh? Say something in Klingon.”

Rygo sighed. “Jack… taHqeq chaH DaDaghu'.” Jack glanced at Carter. “Sounded Klingon to me.”

“It was,” Rygo replied. “I said you are the largest idiot on this planet. Now, can we get down to business?” Carter chuckled. “He’s got you pegged there, sir.”

Jack affectionately glared at her for a moment before turning back to Rygo. “What do you want, mister…”

“Just call me Rygo, for simplicity’s sake. My ship reached this world using a prototype artificial wormhole generator. I now suspect that the subspace anomaly we came to investigate was somehow tied to the Stargate. Major Carter, since you’re the brains of this merry band, I’d like you to accompany me back to the Gate. My science officer is already there, taking readings. Jack, you can accompany us if you don’t trust me – and I suspect you don’t, all told. Doctor Jackson, if you like, you may chat with Commander Luna and Doctor th’Zeph – I’m willing to bet you’re excited to learn about their cultures.”

SG-1 collectively exchanged looks. Carter shrugged, and that seemed to be the deciding factor. “Alright,” Jack replied, ‘we’ll help you out. We came to make contact with the village on this planet, but we can come back Why don’t you, uh, take point back to the Gate?”

“Very like you, Jack. Don’t want your mystery guests behind you. That’s fine.” They began the short walk back to the Stargate, SG-1 chatting quietly to themselves behind Rygo. Along the way, Colonel O’Neill spoke up. “So uh, when you said that Klingon stuff… you really think I’m an idiot?”

“No, actually, Colonel,” Rygo replied, “I have nothing but the upmost respect for you, and all of SG-1. But I figured you’d believe an insult before a compliment.”

“You really do know us, Rygo. So, if you’re from the future, and you know what’s going to happen to us…”

“Don’t ask, Colonel. Not only do I not want to spoil your future for you, it would violate Starfleet’s Temporal Prime Directive. It’s bad enough that I communicated with you at all, but I suspect we’re going to need Sam’s know-how on the Gate to get home. And speaking of…”

They rounded a corner into a clearing, and there sat the Stargate. “Even more impressive in real life,” Rygo remarked. “Garara’usan! Show yourself and report!” Rygo turned to SG-1. “Don’t be alarmed, but my science officer can turn himself invisible.” And as if that was his cue, Garara’usan unshrouded with a shrill hiss. “Admiral, I have made my initial scans of the ring structure. It appears-”

“It’s alright, Garara’usan, I know what it is now. Long story short, the turbulence with our wormhole transit shifted us into a parallel universe. We’re… basically in one of my holonovels. It’s a long story. The ring is called a Stargate. It channels energy from the control device to create an artificial wormhole between it and another gate – the symbols on the control device determine which other gate it connects to.”

“That would explain the subspace anomaly, sir – and, possibly, why our wormhole was affected. If our wormhole intersected with the path of the… Stargate’s… wormhole, the subspace interaction could have caused the crossover.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Rygo replied. He gestured to the humans. “This is SG-1. They’re from Earth in this universe. The woman is Major Samantha Carter, she’s the scientific expert of the group. Consult with her on your findings, please.”

“Yes, Admiral.” Garara’usan approached Sam and bowed briefly. He showed her his tricorder and got down to the minutae of the problem.

“Hey,” Jack said, “since when do people in Star Trek have superpowers?”

“It’s a long story, Jack,” Rygo replied. “Garara’usan is a member of a race known as the Jem’Hadar. They were genetically engineered to be supersoldiers for a power known as the Dominion. They worship the leaders of the Dominion as gods – something you might like to talk to him about before we leave, Teal’c. I’ve done all I can to convince him that the Founders are false gods, maybe your… unique perspective could help with that.” Teal’c raised his eyebrow again, and then Rygo’s combadge chirped. Rygo tapped it. “Lerginas here.”

“Admiral,” Gammo’toran reported, “Sensors are detecting a subspace signature approaching at FTL velocity. It appears to be a ship.”

“Can you get a reading on it? Hull configuration, weapons systems?”

“Yes, sir. It appears to be apyramidal vessel with anciliary framework around it. Detecting numerous weapon emitters.”

“A Ha’tak vessel. ETA?”

“Fifteen minute, sir.”

“Launch a recon probe, then get to the far side of the planet and await my signal. Switch to ansible comms and do not engage. I repeat, do not engage.”

“By your command, Admiral. Glory out.”

Rygo turned to his science officer. “Garara’usan, shroud up and stay here. Observe the number and disposition of enemy landing parties and report back. Tasop, hive us up. Colonel O’Neill, we should probably head back to that village. I suspect the Ha’tak detected the subspace anomaly caused by our wormhole drive and is coming to investigate. When they don’t find the source, they’ll try to question the villagers, and I’m not about to let innocent people get hurt because of a misunderstanding. Prime Directive be damned.” Rygo drew from its holster a phaser, and Commander Luna  and Doctor th’Zeph did likewise. “My ship will hide on the far side of the planet until the recon probe determines the Ha’tak’s relative strength. If we have a chance of taking them on, I’ll order my ship to engage the enemy. If my ship is overmatched, I’ll have Garara’usan try to sneak aboard via the ring platfor and see if he can sabotage the ship.”

Jack nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Let’s get moving, we can probably reach the village in time if we hurry.” The humans and Starfleet officers took off at a jog back the way they came.

* * *

Nebulous purple energy swirled and tore a hole in space. A massive ship shot out from it, emerging from hyperspace. The black and gold mothership entered orbit quickly, and within moments a matter stream shot down to the surface.

As ordered, Garara’usan, crouched low and hidden by his shroud, observed the rise of the ring platform and its deposit of half a dozen alien warriors – seemingly human, but all bearing a mark on their foreheads – a square-like character with a line vertically through the middle. Garara’usan focused his mind, projecting this mental image into the temporary groupthink Tasop had created between the Starfleet officers.

Back at the village, Tasop drew this symbol into the dirt before SG-1. “This is the symbol of Lord Yu.”

“The one the System Lords sent to Earth during the negotiations with the Asgard?” Carter asked.

“Indeed.” Rygo chimed in. “I remember a holonovel chapter about those negotioations. Yu is fairly reasonable, maybe we can talk this out.”

“Unlikely,” Teal’c replied. “With a secret this potentially powerful at stake, Lord Yu is more likely to try and claim it by force.”

“How did your doc know to draw that symbol?” Daniel inquired.

“Before we left the Gate,” Rygo explained, “I had Doctor th’Zeph use his telepathic abilities to establish a temporary groupthink, so we could communicate with Garara’usan without risking him being heard by the Jaffa.” Daniel nodded. “Good idea, I suppose.”

Rygo, from his crouch, looked up at O’Neill, looking him in the eye through the visor he wore. “Okay. I brought these Jaffa here, intentionally or otherwise, I’ll take responsibility for getting them out of here. Jack, if you would be so kind as to take cover in the village. My people will take point on the defense, I want your people to hang back as a second line… in case we don’t make it.” Jack nodded in reply and gave his team the needed orders. Rygo projected thoughts into the groupthink.

“Alright. Garara’usan, tail the Jaffa as they head this way. Keep them second-guessing themselves – create diversions, stall their approach as long as you can, but stay relatively close to the Gate. If the Glory can’t fight off the Ha’tak, be ready to get onto the platform they used to get down here. It works on a principle of matter swapping – if you’re on it when they send down reinforcements, you’ll automatically be sent up to their ship. Tasop, hang back near the village. Keep the groupthink up, and use your illusion abilities to distract anyone that gets through us. Luna, you’re with me. We’re going to try and talk this out, but be ready to start shooting if we fail. Set phasers to stun – the Jaffa may be aggressive, but they’re slave soldiers. They don’t deserve to die over a misunderstanding like this.” His officers projected acknowledgements and the officers moved into position. Garara’usan kept the team apprised of the Jaffa’s approach, and before the Jaffa got too close, Rygo activated his ansible comms and hained the Founder’s Glory.

“Lerginas to Glory. Tactical report.”

Gammo’toran replied, “Recon probe suggests the enemy vessel is of comparable strength to a Romulan D’Deridex-class warbird, and is armed with a battery of plasma cannons. We should be able to fight them off if we have to, sir, but it’ll be dicey – shields are only back up to 73%.”

“Good. Fire to disable weapons and shields only, we don’t want to kill these people. The situation is complicated. Maintain your position until I signal for you to attack. And prepare a security team for transport to my position, we may need reinforcements.”

A few tense moments of waiting later, the Jaffa became visible. Rygo looked to see if one of them was Yu’s First Prime – but none were. That did not bode well for negotiations. He stepped out alone into their sight and shouted to them. “Jaffa, kree!”

The Jaffa started and leveled their staff weapons at him. “I just want to talk!” He approached, hands up and empty. The lead Jaffa approached him. “What are you?”

“A member of a species never before encountered by toe Goa’uld. I’m not from around here. You were sent to investigate anomalous scanner readings, correct?”

“No. We have come to claim this world for our god, Lord Yu. If you stand against us, you will die.”

“Oh.” Rygo sighed. “That’s not what I wanted to hear. Alrighty then, I’’l just… be on my way…” Rygo started to turn, but the Jaffa shouted, “Stop! You will be taken to Lord Yu as a prize, if you are as you say, a species never encountered by the gods.”

“I don’t think so. You’ll just have to kill me.”

The Jaffa smirked. “Very well.” The tip of his staff opened, crackling with energy. Rygo remained still. The Jaffa fired.

The blast passed right through Rygo, who disappeared a moment later. It had been an illusion created by Tasop.

From the flanks, the real Rygo charged, phaser in hand, and stunned the lead Jaffa. Zhe La Luna stunned two more, a phaser in each hand. The three remaining Jaffa turned, activated their weapons… and were stunned as Garara’usan unshrouded behind them and fired quick bolts from his Jem’Hadar rifle at both of them. “We need to press the attack. We’ll head to the Gate, secure the ring platform. I’ve already informed Tasop of the Jaffa’s intent, and he’ll alert SG-1.” He activated his ansible comm again. “Lerginas to Glory, hostile intent confirmed. Move to engage, beam down the reinforcements as soon as possible. Set Emitter Configuration Alpha and stick to it, we don’t want the Goa’uld seeing weapons they’ve never conceived of before.” Emitter Configuration Alpha was a protocol for the Congregation Navy that set their weapons to fire plasma pulses, similar to what they’d used durung the Peacekeeper Era thousands of years before. Rygo hoped that by using it, the Goa’uld wouldn’t be too curious about the technology being used.

Rygo and his team arrived in the clearing just as another group of Jaffa ringed down. A third group guarded the Gate. Rygo issued orders through the groupthink.

“Garara’usan, shroud and flank the enemy. Once they’re distracted, we’ll attack from the tree line. Keep them guessing where we are and keep them pinned down until the cavalry arrives.”

Tasop chimed in. “Admiral, SG-1 insisted that they assist you. They’re on their way.”

“Follow them, Tasop. Be ready to assist them if they’re injured. The gate is guarded by a dozen Jaffa, and more are likely on the way.” As if on cue, the ring platform activated again, and another squad of Jaffa arrived. “Wait! I have an idea.” Rygo projected his plan to Tasop, along with the necessary images to project. It would be mentally intensive, but it just might work. Rygo hailed the Glory. “Lerginas to Glory, hold off on the attack. I have a plan.”

By the time Tasop and SG-1 rendevoused with Rygo, two more squads of Jaffa had arrived to guard the Gate. Rygo filled SG-1 in on the plan as Tasop focused his mind on the task.

The chevrons on the gate lit up, one by one. When the seventh turned on, the Gate opened with a bright blue flash and a whoosh. The Jaffa turned and leveled their weapons. A hologram faded into view.

It was Lord Yu.

“Jaffa, Kree!” Yu called. The Jaffa stood at attention. “I have lost interest in this meager world. You will return to the mothership and make ready to leave.” He faded away again, and the gate whooshed closed. The Jaffa exchanged looks, then reluctantly began to gather at the rings. The first group left as Jack commented, “Neat trick.”

Rygo was distracted, however, examining Tasop. The massive exertion of such an illusion had fatigued him. “Let’s hope they buy it. It won’t be long before they realize the deception. Let’s make the most of it. Wait for a couple more squads to leave, then we’ll stun the rest. After that I’ll signal my ship to attack. But this is only a temporary fix. Yu will return to this world, and he’ll be pissed that his Ha’tak was attacked. Once we secure the Gate and drive off the Ha’tak, would it be possible for you to relocate the villagers? Maybe Yu will lose interest in the world if there’s nobody to enslave.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Sam replied to Jack.

“I’ll talk to General Hammond about it.”

“In the meantime,” Rygo said, “I’ll try my best to head back from whence I came. Much as I’d be proud to stick around with you guys, the galaxy in my universe isn’t the most peaceful place, either. But rest assured… your future is bright.”

Once it was down to the last two squads, Rygo and his team charged alongside SG-1. With the element of surprise, a dozen Jaffa were no match for the teams. Rygo signaled the attack in orbit.

* * *

Just as the Jaffa realized they’d been tricked, the Founder’s Glory came around the planet at full impulse. Loosing a volley of plasma pulses, the Ha’tak’s shields flared under a withering barrage. They responded quickly with a flurry of their own. The Glory bobbed and weaved, Vel’sh Kohpawka’s Breen helmsman training making the ship hard to hit. Several blasts still found home, however, and the ship’s shields drained with each hit. But under sustained fire themselves, the Ha’tak’s shields dwindled and finally collapsed, and with a series of surgical strikes, the ship’s weapons were knocked out. Exercising the better part of valor, the Ha’tak broke orbit and – in a similar violet cloud as had brought it to the world – jumped into hyperspace. The day was saved. And with Sam’s data regarding Stargate wormhole dynamics, it was a simple matter to calibrate the Glory’s drive for the return trip – they needed only for the Stargate to be active. Before beaming up, however, Rygo collected himself a souvenir, taking the staff weapon from a Jaffa felled by SG-1. Shaking each of the team’s hands, Rygo removed his visor and looked each in the eye. When he came to Teal’c, who he saved for last, he pulled the Jaffa in close and whispered in his ear. “Kel shak lo, Teal’c. You will see the Jaffa freed from their false gods sooner than you think.” He pulled back, raised a finger to his lips, and nodded with a smile. Teal’c nodded with a smile as well. As his team prepared to beam out, Rygo gave the group a crisp salute. “Keep up the good work, my friends. Open the Gate as soon as I leave, please.” O’Neill and Carter returned the salute as Rygo dematerialized.

Back aboard the Glory, staff in hand, Rygo accessed the intercom. “all hands, prepare for wormhole transit. We’re in for another bumpy ride.” He sat in his command chair and said to Garara’usan with a smile, “Dial us out.”

“Yes, Admiral.” Humming again with power, the Glory tore open another hole between universes, and returned to Federation space. Rygo suspected that he would never quite be able to enjoy the holonovels of SG-1 the same way.

Meeting one’s heroes tended to do that.

[squirenonny]

You Try Leaping a Canyon on Jupiter

A meta on the first episode of Season 2, “Across the Universe.” Thanks to @bentfire for providing such quality screenshots.

[Image: Shiro in S2E01, sitting against the canyon wall with a pained expression on his face and his hands pressed to the glowing wound in his side. The Black Lion is visible in the background. /end]

"It takes more than a glowing alien wound, a fall from the upper atmosphere, and crashing into a hardpan surface at what I'm guessing is about 25 meters per second squared to get rid of me. How are you?" --Takashi Shirogane, master of gallows humor

Okay, so this line has been on my mind since season 2 came out, and I’ve been meaning to do this meta ever since. Specifically, I’ve been meaning to do a meta in response to all the jokes about Keith’s, ah...

[image: series of four screenshots showing Keith using a geyser to blast out over the canon on a wedge of stone, the stone disintegrating beneath him, a close up of his panicked face, blurred with speed, and him free-falling into the canyon. /end]

Yeah. That.

Now, look, I’m not denying that there’s some innate humor in the way he just sort of... plunges into the abyss. The (literal) downsides to running on impulse, I suppose. BUT! There’s one big factor at play here I think most people aren’t aware of.

“...twenty-five meters per second squared...”

Shiro says this so off-handedly that you may not have even considered its significance, but it actually provides a bit of crucial context for the rest of Shiro and Keith’s portion of this episode. Why?

m/s2 is a unit of acceleration. We know the Lions were entirely offline when they came out of the corrupted wormhole--i.e. no engines running and either slowing or inadvertently accelerating their descent. The only force acting on her during the descent was gravity--thus any acceleration Shiro and his lion experience is due to gravity.

As a reference, Earth’s acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/s2. That is, about 40% of the number Shiro cites.

“But wait!” you cry. “Couldn’t he be talking about the (upward) acceleration he experienced when he hit the ground and came to a stop?”

No. No, he couldn’t have. First of all, it’s really hard to calculate the acceleration at impact, because the time interval is so small. You could do it if you know exactly how far the falling object moved or rebounded from initial impact to complete stillness, or you could measure it with an accelerometer, but...

Yeah. I’m not going to try to calculate the G-forces Shiro experienced when he hit (not least of all because I have no clue what kind of crumple zones or other safety precautions the Lions possess) but as a frame of reference: If you’ve been on a big roller coaster, you’ve experienced anywhere from 3.5 to 6+ g. 2.5 g, the number Shiro gives, is about what you would experience on a Gravitron-style ride. (You know, the ones where you stand up against a padded wall and the ride spins around really fast? Yeah, that.) Humans can survive impacts that exert upward of 100 g, so no, an impact of 2.5 g isn’t in the same category as “glowing alien wound” and “fall from the upper atmosphere” on Shiro’s list of things that should have killed me but didn’t.

So what Shiro is actually saying is this planet’s gravity is 25 m/s2, or about 2.5 times Earth’s gravity.

I can easily believe he could estimate something like that. He’s an astronaut; he would have trained on how to handle himself on planets with different gravitational pulls. Granted, he was going to Kerberos, which would have a much lower gravity, but it’s not a stretch to assume they exposed the crew to a variety of g-forces so they’d know how to deal with problems during launch/reentry/at any point when they’re out there alone and vulnerable.

Speaking of which, you know what else is right in the 2.5-3 g range? The maximum g-force experienced inside a Space Shuttle during launch.

Shiro knows how to move under those kinds of forces. He’s a pilot. He knows what it feels like, how it affects him, how much more effort than usual it takes to move. If he says this planet has two-and-a-half times Earth’s gravity, I’m inclined to believe him.

This planet they landed on has roughly the same gravity as Jupiter (25.95  m/s2).

So Shiro and Keith are essentially carrying two other people (or, like... one plus Pidge) while doing all this:

[image: three images showing Keith running from geysers, falling off a cliff, and catching himself by driving his bayard into the chasm wall. /end]

[image: two screenshots of Keith hanging off the edge of a cliff, then using his jets to boost himself up. /end]

[image: four screenshots of Shiro fighting the lizard monsters, first getting grabbed by the leg and flung through the air, then dodging an attack, and finally pushing himself up off the ground, looking pained and exhausted. /end]

Keith, who isn’t used to working under different gravitational forces, misjudged the leap across the chasm, yes--but if they’d been on Earth, his plan probably would have worked. (At least, worked better than it did.)

Really, though? It’s no wonder Keith went to Black when he found Shiro. He knew there was no way he could fight four giant alien creatures under those conditions. And Shiro? I can’t blame him for looking like he just wants to collapse and let the creatures eat him.

[image: close-up on Shiro’s exhausted face, sweat dripping off his nose. /end.]

Just... think about that the next time you watch the episode.

[aristarshower]

Star Catcher

Masterpost

Adventure Three-The Big Lesbian Wedding

Ugh, my jell still stinks from that stupid tank. Dig was back in their usual bio suit that translated their luminescence for others. It also let them move to their liking without being restricted by the lack of liquid around them. They were also enjoying all the attention the crew was giving them.

“Sorry you had to go through that, Dig. How about I cook for today and you take the day off?” Nisha offered. Dex knew she felt bad even though no one was hurt. It had been a close call and neither the ship nor the crew were truly capable of withstanding close calls.

It’s alright. Cooking relaxes me. Dig removed something from the forge in front of them and blew into tiny shapes.

“Is that glass?” Dex whispered to Nisha.

“Have you never seen Harpie eat?” Dex felt it again, that gap that separated him from the others. He hadn’t really had the chance to know any alien species when he was on Earth and the few weeks he was aboard Star Catcher were a whirlwind of wedding preparation. He had a bad feeling that at the end of this he would have to leave. The only reason SC needed a new navigator was because Nisha was busy with the planning. Dex wasn’t even truly qualified. He had lied his way through and soon it would all come crashing down.

There was a little noise on the comms and the captain’s voice came through. “Hey guys! We’re back!”

The rest of the crew had gone away for a little recreation. They had shot forward thanks to the reserve star dust from the escape pod and got to a intergalactic wormhole. But the wormhole didn’t lead to the right galaxy. It led to Galaxy-G-YKOQA which had a wormhole to G-ETA or as Dex knew it, the Milky Way.

Galaxy-G-YKOQA was a strange system with two galaxies devouring each other. It was considered unstable for dust collection and made an excellent place for some quick down time while staying innocuous.

“Which planet are we on again?” Nisha made a noise that Dex assumed was the answer. The only sure thing was that it began with a Y. “So each galaxy is named after the live supporting planets in it right?”

“Yes.”

“Which one are you from?”

“Same as you. I am from the A though.” Araite. The first alien world humans found long long ago.

“What’s it like there?”

“Oh it’s nice.” She was busy clicking away on the hand-held before her..

“Weather good? Sunny?”

“I guess you wouldn’t call it sunny considering the temperatures on Earth but it is hot enough for humans to survive.”

“Pleasant winds?”

“Most of the time.”

“Then why aren’t you getting married there?”

“Uhhhh Dex we are getting married there. Why do you think we are heading to ETA?” Dex couldn’t answer. He had assumed Alina and Nisha would get married at Alina’s father’s place but that would be too absurd to say out loud. Of course they wouldn’t want everyone at a criminal headquarters. V saved him by entering quite explosively. He bounced off a few chairs and threw his arms around Dex.

“He...Hey...V…”

“Dex!!!” V shouted right in his ear.

“Alright, you idiot, get off him!” Alina dragged V away. “Sorry he gets a bit too ...drunk sometimes.”

“What did he drink?”

“Something Retmarians call the Qoedy.”

“Cody?”

“Eh close enough. V is a fucking lightweight but it wears off fast. He should be bearable by dinner. Speaking of dinner, Dig what are you cooking up for us?”

Burgers.

“With meat?” Dig made a vague motion Dex decided not to interpret.

“Oh Dex, I wanted to ask you what will you be wearing for the wedding?”

“Uhhh...I am invited?”

“Of course! You’re part of us now!” The words were warm but Dex didn’t feel it.

“I don’t know.” He left before Nisha could ask more questions. He hadn’t left the ship with the others because he had felt safest there. Somehow without him noticing the ship had become home. And it might all go away too soon.

“Dex!” V was hanging out of his door, dripping wet.

“Hey V.” Dex kept walking. Not even an almost naked V could cheer him up.

“Heeeeeeeeeeey buddy….”

“V stop patting my face.”

“Sorry but why is it all sad?”

“My face?”

“Yeah it looks bad.”

“Thanks.”

“No. Just tell me what’s wrong?” Dex couldn’t resist V’s pout.

“I like this ship.”

“Me too!...wait should I be sad about this too?”

“No! I just mean I am temporary. As soon as this wedding is done, it’s back to the boss for me and whatever the hell that means. And I like y …...this ship.”

V was grabbing the wall really hard making choked noises. Then he turned away from Dex and threw up all over the floor. Dex left as the cleaning bots hurried off to the mess beeping furiously.

***

The call for dinner went up on the comms. The crew usually did not eat together owing to the different dietary needs but once in awhile one of them decided they needed a meal together. Dex hadn’t been to one yet and was standing in front of a mirror nervously adjusting his hair. He didn’t know what the protocol would be. He understood that the crew unanimously deciding for a joint dinner is probably because of what happened with the Wadmians. He understood the need to stay close but at the same time facing all of them together would mean facing how much of an outsider he was.

Dex, done with your hair? Dig was at the door. They had modified the speakers on their suit to make the voice sound really deep making Dex jump.

“Yeah.”

You don’t have to be nervous Dex. We are not going to eat you. Just a heads up, don’t stare. With that ominous statement Dig threw open the door to the dining area which was just the cooking area with a few more chairs crammed around the table.

“Hey!”

“There he is!”

“Dex!!!” V was still a little loud but the others shouting with him made Dex laugh.

There was a lot of variety among the food on the table. Dex did not understand some of it but he knew burgers well enough. He grabbed a couple and sat down between Dig and Amani who was feeding Mel not so secretly under the table. Mel was opening up different sets of jaws snapping away the food passed to her.

There was a hiss from the door and Harpie entered dazzling everyone. Dig elbowed Dex to stop him from staring. Harpie had had their exo skeleton painted in a dazzling array of colours and then coated it all with some kind of glitter. They picked up the bowl with shaped glass shards and hissed in delight.

There’s no need to thank me Harps! I love shaping glass! Harpie hissed again in obvious delight and the conversation went on. Dex felt a pang when he realized he was the only one who could not follow it. Harpie’s language was still a mystery to him and Dig’s luminescence was too alien for him to piece together. He only understood them because of the suit. He bit morosely at the burger and made an involuntary delighted noise.

“This is amazing Dig!”

Thanks.

Nisha and Amani had a plate of burgers to but Alina had a bowl of something blue. Dex nudged Nisha.

“Why isn’t Alina eating?”

“She is. Are your eyes ok?”

“But…” Dex made a vague motion towards the blue something.

“Oh that’s Desr, a delicacy where she comes from. Don’t try it though. It’s poisonous for humans.”

“Alright.” Her words caught up with Dex. “Isn’t Alina human?” He hadn’t meant to shout but the rest of the crew fell silent. It was true that Alina was a couple of feet taller than the tallest human Dex knew but other than that she looked completely human, brown skin, golden brown hair, two dark eyes, two small ears, one two lipped mouth, one small nose and two pairs of limbs with five fingers each. The others burst out laughing.

“Who owes me money?” Amani demanded. V and Nisha raised their hands looking disppointed.

“Come on Dex. I really thought you knew humans.” V’s words made Dex flush. He didn’t dare ask what Alina was. Nisha changed the topic to flowers soon and Dex finished his meal in silence.

***

Dex turned again on his bed unable to sleep. Every time he tried sleeping he felt like the world was falling from beneath him and then he woke up and realized there was no world beneath him and he was hurling through space. He had felt like this the first time he was aboard a spaceship but he had gotten used to it easily.

There was a soft knock on his door and V slipped in. The room was dark and Dex could clearly see the lines of luminescence on V’s limbs. They weren’t used for communication like Dig’s as far as Dex knew. He didn’t know if it would be rude to ask so he made a note of studying Retmarian anatomy when he had the time.

“Hey! Sorry about earlier.” Dex shrugged.

“It’s not a big deal.” He really didn’t know what was a big deal.

“Not just about the uhhh…” V mimed throwing up and Dex smiled. The tension in V’s shoulders dropped a little. “I wanted to talk to you properly about what you were saying before that.” It was Dex’s turn to tense up.

“It’s alright, V. I was just being a little paranoid.”

“No, it’s not. You’re upset and that’s not nothing. Look I can’t pretend to know the captain’s mind but I assure you she won’t just leave you behind. Not after everything we have all been through.”

“You really think so?” Dex hated himself for the little hope in his voice.

“Yeah. And hey if she wants to kick you out, I’ll go with you!” Dex laughed. V’s bio luminiscence glowed a little brighter. “No I am serious. We’ll leave together and make ourselves a new life among the stars.”

“Thank you, V.”

“You are a part of us now, Dex. It will all be okay.” V patted Dex’s hand again and walked out.

***

Araite was a beautiful planet. Dex fell in love the second they landed. The whole wedding area was covered in light flakes of snow. The venue itself was decorated with little dust lights and balloons. Dex had dressed in his best clothes which was an old jacket and a clean shirt. Dig looked amazing in their new bio suit and Harpie’s glittery exoskeleton was drawing all the eyes. Amani had gone simple like Dex did and wore a soft jacket with a silk shirt. All of Dex’s thoughts scattered when V walked in. He was dressed in some kind of scaly armor that left most of his chest uncovered. The armor ended at his knees and he wore soft warm pants underneath. V’s luminescence showed prominently through the clothes. Dex realized that was the design. The beautiful golden scales reflected the light back onto V’s dark skin making him glow.

“Close your jaw, kiddo.” Amani snickered and Dex looked away hurriedly. He wasn’t the only one staring. Half the conversation had stopped the second V walked in. V noticed all the attention and bowed to everyone. There were a few giggles and everyone went back to what they were doing before.

V winked at Dex and walked away to talk to other people. Amani and Dex were having drinks when V appeared at their side. The glow was completely gone from his skin.

“We have a problem.”

***

“How the fuck did this even happen?” Nisha hissed. They were all bundled away from the wedding venue while the emergency team neutralized the threat.

“I don’t know. I assumed anyone making balloons would know not to fill it with flammable gas?” V had put on a few more layers. While the inside of the venue was dusted with snow for the aesthetic, outside the planet was a nightmare covered in snow with cold winds ripping them apart.

They had just managed to avert disaster. V had smelled something off when one of the balloons popped.

“At least no one was injured.” Alina was wrapped in the huge rainbow coloured thing Amani was knitting earlier. Dex realized it was a huge gown. Alina could wrap the train around her twice. She didn’t even need a coat. Nisha on the other hand was wearing the delicate wonderful Wadmian dress. Dex could see why it was special. The cloth itself was the softest Dex had ever touched and there were no threads like usual fabric. It was continuous and etched on it with utmost care and precision were designs like Dex had never seen before. And to top it all off there were crystals embedded at regular intervals making the dress glow more than V which was saying a lot.

“Yeah but what the hell are we going to do?” Nisha sounded close to tears. Alina drew her closer enveloping her in the rainbow fabric.

“Our ship is right there. Lets just get on for now. V find out how long it’s gonna take.”

V came back to the ship dejected. “Sorry guys it might take too long.”

“Why don’t you get married in the ship?” Dex wished he could take his words back the second he said them. The whole ship was crammed with wedding guests. There weren’t more than thirty but Star Catcher wasn’t built to hold that many people.

Dex was desperately trying to avoid being seen by Alina’s father. At the venue, the man was already seated at the front so Dex could just slip in the back but on the ship there was no escaping his presence. Alina’s mother was with Nisha’s parents but her father was with her. And now his whole attention was fixed on Dex.

“I...I..m...mea...mean...everyone is here.” Alina nodded encouragingly. “We can bring in some of the lights.”

“Or we could go into orbit.” Nisha’s eyes widened at Alina’s suggestion.

Harpie hissed something. “We can enough boost for the extra weight from the leftover star dust and we won’t need it later anyway.”

“We can totally make it happen! You can get married in front of the control panel with all the stars behind you!” The guests were warming up to the idea.

V patted Dex on the back. “Thank you.”

***

The wedding was beautiful. Mel had jumped up to Alina’s side and handed her the locket. Alina slipped it around Nisha’s neck while V cried silently behind her. Dex even saw a little tear in Amani’s eye but he knew he would die the second he mentioned it. Dig made little snuffling noises and punched Dex when he laughed. 

Nisha brought Alina a bracelet to go around her elbow. She pulled Alina forward and slipped it on. The entire ship erupted into applause when they kissed. Alina laughed when Nisha lifted her and almost toppled back.

A few people spoke in languages Dex did not understand. Alina’s father gave a short but sweet speech and wished them luck. V’s speech was filled with so many innuendos that Amani dragged him away before he could finish. Dex was worried someone would ask him to talk but the talking part was done soon.

“Lets dance!” Alina shouted and was met with more cheers.

There wasn’t enough food on the ship. None of them had thought of loading up the food from the venue. But there was plenty of booze so it was all okay in the end.

Harpie sang a slow song in their own language. Dex did not understand it but felt the sentiment flow throw him. Alina’s mother was dancing an old dance from Earth with Nisha. The woman was taller than Alina but Dex could see the resemblance in their eyes.

“Care to dance?” V was holding out his hand for Dex. There weren’t many people dancing and Dex had never danced before.

“I don’t know how to.”

“I could teach you.”

“I don’t really want to?” Dex said softly. He didn’t want to hurt V but he really didn’t want to dance either. V withdrew his hand and sat down beside Dex.

“Hey, you still worried about Alina kicking you out? I talked to her.”

“Why would you do that?” Dex didn’t care that he was whining.

“Shhh...I talked to her and she told me she would talk to us about this after the wedding.”

“Wait. So she didn’t tell you she was keeping me?”

“Well no…”

“Oh good. That’s reassuring.” Even V didn’t have an answer for that.

“Wanna get drunk?”

“Yes please.”

***

Dex and V were wasted by the time Alina took to the stage again. Stage was in this case was the slightly raised place before the control panel. Alina patted Mel and Mel screamed her kettle whistle until everyone went silent.

“We have an important announcement to make.” Alina took Nisha’s hand. Nisha’s mother gasped.

“Are you pregnant?”

“What? Ma! No!”

“Our announcement is that we are finally settling down!”

“Yes! We got a house. An actual house with walls and everything here!” Nisha hiccuped.

“So this is might as well be our final journey into space. And I love that we are finishing up on my first ship!”

There was a shocked silence. Everyone seemed to be waiting for one of them to laugh to call it a joke. Nisha’s parents broke the silence with tearful congratulations. Alina’s parents looked as shocked as the rest of the crew felt.

Dig’s voice was low but Dex felt the words in his bones. What the fuck.

Previous/ First / Next

[avidbeader]

Voltron fanfic: “Scattered” Chapter 18

Season 2 AU. No ships, K+ to T rating. Begin at the beginning here. 

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 Matt ran into the room that Allura had indicated and nearly fell over as he stumbled down the unexpected stairs. The center of the viewing gallery with its long chaise-like seats and sofas was sunken. Shiro spun around at the unexpected noise and a sudden laugh bubbled up. “Oh, good grief, Matt. You still can’t walk in a straight line, can you?”

 Matt steadied himself and shook his head. “You know me, hands of silk, feet of banana peels.”

 That made them both laugh. It had been a running joke at the Garrison, how Cadet Holt could be so dexterous with measuring chemicals and assembling tiny bits of tech, yet have the gait of a drunken giraffe. It was one of the reasons Shiro had faked his bloodlust and taken his friend down when they were faced with a match against Myzax. He knew Matt would not have survived.

“What did you need?”

 “You. Mom says your parents are asking for you.”

 “My parents? They think I’m dead.”

 “Nope. As soon as we told her that everyone was all right, Mom started getting in touch with the other families. She said your dad texted her, because Lance and Hunk are talking to their folks but they haven’t heard from you.”

 “I…I…I was going to stay dead. I can’t come back yet and I can’t promise that I’ll survive the war we’re in. I didn’t want to put them through that pain again.”

 “Come on, Shiro! Don’t be a martyr! They’ve known ever since you chose space flight as your career that you could be killed. Yes, they thought you were dead and yes, I’m sure it hurt. But now they get you back, even if it’s only for a while. Were you seriously going to waste that chance? Come on, I’ll help you put through the call.”

 As they left the gallery, Shiro steered Matt away from the bridge and toward the meeting room Allura had mentioned. “This way. I’d like a bit of privacy for this.”

<> <> <> <> <>

Allura moved to her control station and quietly set an alert to tell her when the cycle for Keith’s cryo-pod was fifteen doboshes from ending. She listened to the babble of various conversations around her, noting something a little odd. She paid closer attention and heard how Lance and Hunk’s voices had shifted just a little in tone and rhythm, and the words seemed to flow differently. She thought she might have heard Lance do this before, mainly when he got so frustrated with Keith that he was just spouting off what passed for profanity on their world.

Coran came up to her, a crease in between his brows. “Well, there’s yet another mess to clean up. This Galaxy Garrison told everyone that the Paladins were killed in a training accident instead of last seen flying the Blue Lion through a wormhole. I expect we’ll be needed to make at least one large public appearance to show that they are all alive and healthy.”

Allura blew out a breath in frustration. She was just done with these people. Once she had seized upon these five humans because they were all the Alteans had if they were going to form Voltron. Now she realized that fate had possibly given her the five (seven, if you counted the Holts) wisest and most sensible humans on the planet.

She heard shrieks and looked up. She could see a pair of presumably female humans on Lance’s screen, jabbering excitedly with him in that slightly odd cadence. And then she realized Pidge, who was standing behind him, had a look of fierce concentration on her face.

Curious, Allura moved toward them. Pidge saw her coming and met her halfway. “Did you need something, Allura?”

“I just wondered why you were listening so intently to Lance’s conversation. They’re mostly screaming over seeing one another and trading bits of news about friends.”

“How can you—they’re speaking in Spanish. How can you understand them? Although,” Pidge broke off and suddenly looked very disgusted with herself. “How the heck can we understand each other? I can’t believe I never stopped to think about it before, but we—the Paladins—have been speaking English the entire time. Oh, Lance sometimes goes off in Spanish, mainly when he’s irritated, and I’ve heard Hunk sing to himself in Samoan when he’s cooking. Shiro and Keith talk to each other in Japanese once in a while. But you two sound like English to us.”

Allura stared at Pidge. She had gotten lost about halfway through. “I…I’m afraid I don’t understand. Are you saying that the translators aren’t working?”

“Translators? Is that what it is?”

“Yes, we have quite advanced technology to allow us to speak to other civilizations. It involves just a few tweaks to the language centers of our brains and it was the custom to have the process done a few months after birth. And of course the Castle does it for any new aliens who enter since it’s quite painless.”

“Wait, what? The Castle did something to our brains? When? Why didn’t you ask us first?”

“It…it’s part of the process in the automated identity scans.”

Pidge’s affronted expression faded and grew thoughtful. “I remember. That happened right after we set foot in the Castle the first time. But I can still hear the different languages when the guys use them.”

“I don’t understand. What do you mean by different languages? You’re all from the same planet.”

“Yeah, but there’s over five thousand different languages used. It’s standard at the Garrison that you know at least two languages going in and three when you graduate. I speak English and Norwegian—Dad’s family came from Norway—and I was studying German at the Garrison and wanted to take a stab at Hindi at some point.”

Allura was still trying to internalize the concept. Five thousand languages on one planet? How in all the stars in the sky could they possibly communicate?

As she attempted to pull her thoughts together, Pidge was still talking. “Maybe there’s a difference in our brain structure—after all, sometimes you all use a word that just doesn’t translate, like your time terms or ‘quiznak’. Or maybe we still hear our languages because we know they exist and that’s enough to defeat the translator…which I kind of hope isn’t the case, because if I suddenly started hearing you speak nothing but Altean I’d be in big trouble…”

Pidge seemed to realize that Allura was struggling and trailed off. She tuned back in to Lance and listened for a moment, then looked back at Allura. “So, you really are hearing Lance go on like normal?”

“Not quite like normal. I still understand everything he says, but I’m hearing something different in his voice.”

“Interesting. How do I sound to you right now?”

Allura tilted her head. “Yes, like that. What are you doing?”

“I’m speaking in Norwegian right now. And you can tell a difference even though it still all sounds Altean to you?”

Allura nodded.

“So how does the reverse work? You hear everything in Altean, but someone who hasn’t been in the Castle yet talks to you? Do they hear you in their language?”

“I…I don’t know how it works. It just does. Coran might know more about it. His grandfather was one of the people who helped design and build the Castle.”

“Okay, I have got to research this. Because if there’s a way for the five of us or seven of us to have a second language in common, one that the translators can’t translate, we’d have our own secret code if we needed it!” She started laughing. “Can you imagine us facing off someone like Sendek again and shouting ‘skjerp deg’ at him?”

“Shouting what?”

Pidge stared at her befuddled expression and hooted in glee. “It didn’t translate! Yes! Even if the translator goes both ways we can find words in our languages and use them as codes! I need to make a list! Thanks, Allura!”

And with that, Pidge raced out of the command center, leaving Allura feeling very, very lost.

<> <> <> <> <>

Shiro brought up the comm panel in the meeting room and Matt quickly pulled up the necessary screen. “Email or number?”

Shiro rattled off his mother’s number, slightly amazed that he remembered, and Matt entered it. As the screen showed a connection being attempted, Matt gave Shiro’s shoulder a squeeze and retreated to the hallway.

The screen blinked into life, showing him a pair of faces. His breath caught in his throat for a moment. When did his mother’s hair turn so gray? When did his father’s face get so lined?

“Kaa-chan? Tou-chan?”

They also seemed stunned to look at him, and Shiro immediately realized why. If they looked so much older in less than two years, what must he look like to them? The shock of white hair falling over his forehead, the scar slashed across his face, the silver arm… If he, with months to adjust to his changes, still did a double-take when he saw his reflection, how much harder was it for them?

“Takashi? Is it really you?” His mother reached up and touched her screen, her eyes drinking in the sight of him.

He raised his flesh hand to meet hers, but didn’t touch the panel as it would break the connection. “Yes, kaa-chan. It’s really me.”

“We are so grateful to know you’re alive, Takashi. We missed you so much.”

“I…I missed you, too. I missed you so much. I’m sorry I didn’t try to get in touch with you before—”

“We do not blame you, son!” His father broke in. “We blame the Garrison for not listening to you! You have nothing to apologize for.”

“But, you don’t know what happened! You don’t know any of it!”

His father’s expression hardened. “Did you cause those aliens to take you and your crew?”

“No, of course not!”

“Did you deliberately lead those cadets into danger?”

“No! But—”

“Have you acted in any way less than your honor demands?”

Shiro recognized his father’s tactic. Growing up, he would pose question after question, usually in order to ruthlessly unravel Shiro’s attempts to get out of trouble or push him to examine a problem from a new angle.

In spite of himself, it was working again.

“No, tou-chan.”

“Then you will stop apologizing and tell us the good parts version.”

Shiro smiled in spite of himself at his father’s reference to a favorite book. His thoughts leaped from his father reading the book to him…to him reading it to Keith during the all-too-short time that Keith was fostered with them.

“I found Keith. Or, more accurately, he found me.”

His mother brought both hands to her mouth. “Oh, that’s wonderful! Is he there? Can we speak to him?”

“He’s…he is here, but he’s currently in the—the infirmary, and needs to stay there a while longer. It seems that the Garrison tried to learn from its mistakes with me but Earthforce interfered. They shot him up with at least three different drugs trying to force information from him.”

“That poor child! Will you bring him with you when you come? We haven’t seen him since your graduation!”

Shiro’s smile widened at that. “Yes, of course I will. I’ll need to coordinate with Pidge. She can sneak us in and out to avoid Earthforce.”

“And the media,” his father added. “There’s talk that Earthforce is finally going to issue a statement. I’m relieved that we kept our numbers private when we switched to mobile phones, although we have had to ignore several people knocking on our door.”

Shiro growled at that. The last thing he wanted to have to deal with was trying to sneak around pushy reporters, or worse, hold a press conference. His stomach twisted at the thought.

<> <> <> <> <>

Allura’s monitor pinged to alert her that Keith would be through with the healing pod in a few minutes. She slipped out of the command center and ran for the cryo room. Once there, she paced, her eyes never leaving the screen that showed the progress of the procedure. The second the control panel turned blue to show the completed cycle, she rushed up and deactivated the pod.

Keith moaned and staggered forward. Allura grabbed and steadied him, “Keith? It’s Allura. Can you hear me?”

“Princess?” He opened his eyes and focused on her. He straightened, gaining his balance, and she frowned slightly in puzzlement. Lance had taken several minutes to find his bearings when exiting the pod.

She focused and took his left hand, seeing the glow of Quintessence appear. It was very faint, at least. She still felt that he was carrying more than a human should, when compared to the other Paladins, but it was no longer dangerously high.

He looked at their hands and back at her. “Is everything all right?”

“I think so. How are you feeling?” She guided him to sit on the stairs leading from the floor to the pods.

“Ridiculously healthy. Do you know how long it’s been?”

“You were in the cryo chamber for less than a varga.”

“I mean, how long was I on Earth? I lost track pretty quickly.”

“Over seventy-two of your hours, if I’m converting correctly. Why?”

“If you’re right, in over four days I haven’t eaten or slept properly, was in a massive battle, and then drugged repeatedly. And yet I feel fine after a quick nap in a cryo-pod.”

“I believe that would be due to the excess Quintessence in your body. What I don’t understand is how you came to absorb so much of it at once.”

“Did Coran tell you what I found at that Galra hub?”

“No. We’ve been rather distracted trying to find all of you. Wait—Coran did say something about a facility there with a large amount of stored Quintessence?”

“Yeah. There was a massive room, lined floor to ceiling with these glass vats of a yellow substance. I was following somebody in robes and a hood. It did something to one of the vats that condensed the yellow stuff into a much smaller amount of purple liquid.

“I tried to steal some of the purple version. I had a container in my hands, but that hooded thing spotted me and took it back. I attacked and it started firing what looked like black lightning at me.” He held up his right hand. “At one point the energy backlash between my sword and its firepower ate my armor off and burned my hand so badly it was useless.”

Allura’s eyes widened as she took in his unmarked skin. He’d fought a Druid?

“A few minutes later, one of the large containers, with the bright yellow Quintessence instead of the concentrated purple stuff, broke behind me. I got soaked through with it and suddenly my hand was back to normal. And other than being kidnapped and drugged by my own people, I feel fine. What is going on?”

“What I think is going on, is we now know how Zarkon has continued to live for ten thousand years.” She tightened her grip on his hand. “My father was aware of experiments going on in certain civilizations. They tried to find a way to use Quintessence to heal people faster, then to enhance their strength. But people exposed to it more than a few times would suffer terrible symptoms of withdrawal. It was addictive.”

Keith squeezed her hand reassuringly. “Well, I’ll do my best to make sure I never fall into another vat of it. And it’s our first sign of weakness in Zarkon, if he has to have this Quintessence to live.”

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The news anchor took one last swig of water from her bottle behind the desk and cleared her throat before the red light on the camera lit up and signaled that she was on the air. This was a long statement and it was important to get it right. History was about to happen.

 The light went on and she looked into the camera with a serious but calm expression. Above all else, Earthforce had insisted that they do whatever it took to help prevent panic.

 “Good afternoon. This is Rachel Hayes with the latest information surrounding the day’s reports of UFO sightings and alien contact. Earthforce has given us the following statement, which I am about to read in full.

 “Earthforce wishes to address reports of an alien ship that was spotted in numerous locations of the western half of the United States. We can confirm that this ship is real and that it currently poses no threat to Earth. We repeat, there is currently no alien aggression toward the planet.

 “The ship, in the form of a blue lion, is part of a squadron called the Voltron Force. Again, they are not here to invade us. In fact, the various members in this force include five Earth citizens.

 “The chain of events as we know it begins with the Kerberos mission over a year ago. The reports of pilot error killing everyone aboard were false. The evidence instead pointed to the entire crew being taken by a hostile alien presence and our leadership at the time chose to report their deaths instead to prevent widespread panic in the general population and because we had no means to investigate further or try to rescue our people. But Doctor Samuel Holt, his son Matthew Holt, and Captain Takashi Shirogane are alive and have been freed from the aliens who abducted them.

 “The next event happened seven weeks ago. Captain Shirogane managed to escape his imprisonment and fly back to Earth in an alien spacecraft. When he crash-landed near Galaxy Garrison Headquarters, the Garrison and Earthforce followed protocol to quarantine him. However, a group of cadets from the Garrison witnessed the crash, investigated on their own, and managed to take Shirogane with them to an unknown location. Together, they discovered the presence of the blue lion ship deep in the desert. Our own investigations of the area since then show that the lion ship had been there, dormant, for thousands of years. But the group activated the ship and flew it away, leading a much larger hostile ship away at the same time. That hostile force has not returned to our solar system. There is currently no known threat to Earth.

 “Earthforce chose to report the group of cadets as deceased, as there was absolutely no trace of them once the lion ship was out of range. But we are now sharing the truth. Cadets Tsuyoshi Garrett, Pidge Gunderson, and Lance McClain are alive and have become part of this Voltron Force, along with Captain Shirogane and former Garrison cadet Keith Kogane.

 “Three days ago, Kogane crash-landed his own lion ship near Mount Rushmore. He willingly came to Galaxy Garrison to report, but an Earthforce official overreacted and treated Kogane as an enemy agent, including assaulting him. That official is facing court-martial for his actions. These are the circumstances referred to in the conversation that was accidentally broadcast over a wide range of media this morning.

 “We ask that the media and the public leave the families of the Voltron Force in peace for now as they reunite with their missing children. We will issue further information as soon as we have it. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to stay calm. There is no threat against Earth at this time.”

 The anchor drew a deep breath, relieved at getting through the statement without stumbling. “As Earthforce stated, there is no threat to our planet at this time. Everyone should remain calm and wait for further information. Please tune in this evening for full coverage. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.”

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skjerp deg

– Norwegian phrase that sort of translates to “You’re about to make a complete fool of yourself.”

kaa-chan – Japanese for “mom”

tou-chan – Japanese for “dad”

Next chapter

[aion-rsa]

Does The 100 Need a Spinoff?

https://ift.tt/3gNSu7i

With “Anaconda,” The 100 has joined the pantheon of TV shows (including Supernatural, Gossip Girl, and The Office) that have introduced a backdoor pilot in the hopes that it will be greenlit to a full spinoff series. Now that we’ve re-met Bill Cadogan, his Second Dawn cult, and his family (whose clashes and burgeoning Grounder culture will be the heart of the series) we debate: Is The 100 a show that really needs a spinoff? After seven seasons, can we say “your fight is over,” or are there as many story ideas as there are symbol combinations on the Anomaly Stone?

Pro: Yes, “Anaconda” proves there are still stories worth telling in The 100 universe.

Prior to watching “Anaconda,” the backdoor pilot episode meant to sell us all on the value of a The 100 prequel series, I’ll admit that I wasn’t completely sold on the need for one. But this hour did one important thing right: It reminded me how great this universe is at telling stories about characters struggling through their darkest hours, and how that duress can forge heroes  – or monsters – from ordinary people.  

And there isn’t much that’s darker than life in a nuclear wasteland. Except maybe a nuclear wasteland that we already know will only grow much darker, more divided, and more terrifying as the story continues. 

Thanks to a luck of timing – or “our current hellscape nightmare scenario” depending on how you look at it – “Anaconda” also illustrates why right now is the perfect moment to tell a story like this, positioned to begin at the end of all things. Though we’re only given a brief glimpse into the show’s world of 2052, it certainly has an uncomfortably familiar feel, with its climate protests, police brutality and worries of overpopulation. Not to imply we’re all headed for bunker life anytime soon, but the overtones of a world we can recognize do make the hour feel more timely and relevant than its predecessor generally does. 

Though we already know what Calliope Cadogan’s world will look like a century after she and her merry band of Nightblood teens climb out of the Second Dawn bunker hatch, we’re less clear on how exactly that will come to pass. And suddenly, I really want to know. How does this group of relatively familiar-seeming twentysomethings who want to save the remnants of humanity eventually turn into the violent and combative Grounder clans we met back in The 100’s initial seasons?

By the time our The 100 faves reach the ground, the world on post-apocalyptic Earth feels pretty well established. But “Anaconda” shows us that wasn’t always the case and now I desperately want to know how humanity got from one extreme to the other. What other kinds of survivors are out there? How do these people, so firmly united at the outset of this story, inevitably split apart? And where do other familiar horrors like the Mountain Men and the Reapers come in? 

Full disclosure: I want to see this prequel get dark. I want the Bunker teens to struggle with the basics of survival, and pay the price for not knowing how to do things like hunt or forage. And beyond that: I want betrayal and horror. I want the full and complete breakdown of everything we understood as humanity in our world before the one the Grounders inhabit rises to take its place. 

As a character, I really liked Callie, who seems to be a mix of Clarke’s bravery and Abby’s savior complex, topped off with an activist mentality/morality that feels entirely new to this universe. It’ll be interesting to see how a character like Callie adjusts to life in a world that’s almost exclusively focused on survival and the sort of hard choices she’s likely never had to make. She’s much more optimistic and hopeful than any character currently on The 100 and she has yet to embrace the tribalism that will come to define her people in the years to come. 

However, for all that Callie is the “good” one in her family – if you define good by simply the act of not embracing a weird and creepy cult – she’s still been raised in a life of relative privilege and luxury, and even in the bunker her status as Cadogan’s daughter likely protected her from the worst of post-apocalyptic life. What sacrifices will she be asked to make, and how will they change her? (It feels as though she’s started down this path of darkness pretty definitively by shooting her brother.)

The idea of placing Callie at the center of what will essentially become Grounder culture as the first true Flamekeeper is also intriguing. To be fair, the idea of that entire culture tracking its roots back to things like Callie’s made-up childhood language or the fact that “Tree Crew” was originally an environmental activist group does seem a bit convenient. (It also feels a bit “chosen one”-ish, as well, which is admittedly tiresome.) But it’s never actually made a lot of sense that Grounder language would have changed so thoroughly in what is essentially three generations, max, so most of this really works for me. And it makes me wonder what other answers I didn’t know I needed that a The 100 prequel series based on “Anaconda” might give me.

– Lacy Baugher 

Read more

TV

The 100 Prequel: Would Any of The 100 Cast Crossover?

By Natalie Zutter and 1 other

TV

The 100 Prequel Series Would Use a Lost-Like Flashback Format

By Lacy Baugher and 1 other

Con: No, “Anaconda” is not the way to expand The 100 universe.

It kills me to say no, because I love this show and want to see its mythology live on beyond seven seasons. I’m just not convinced that this particular prequel series is the way to go.

It’s not personal; I have trouble justifying prequels in general, because I often find that they rely overmuch on dramatic irony and other established knowledge rather than finding ways to tell a good story that doesn’t rely on knowledge and emotional attachment to a different show. Prequels are often working within worldbuilding constraints when it comes to characters, in-show mythology, and the in-universe timeline—which doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In the case of The 100, we know that the Ark fails and that the Grounders ultimately suffer when they first cross paths with Skaikru. Prequel spinoffs can either adjust to the limits of a canon that was entrenched years earlier, or retcon it.

Unfortunately, it feels like “Anaconda” has done the latter. While I can’t make sweeping judgments based on one backdoor pilot, the reveal that Trigedasleng is, at least in part, a whimsical language that Calliope Cadogan made up as a child undercuts so much of what we’ve learned about Grounder culture over the past seven seasons. I’m in complete agreement with Lacy that it’s just too convenient that this Special Girl is at the center of everything, when the series had already explained how Trig came out of desperate years of survival and attempts to reunify after the world seemingly tore itself apart. Remember that the survivors all think various world leaders pointed nuclear warhead at each other; only Becca seems to know A.L.I.E.’s dirty secret.

Speaking of—Becca already somewhat occupied the too-convenient role of being a key player in so much of the series’ history! From A.L.I.E. to Polis to Nightblood to being the first Heda, this character was already centered in a half-dozen preexisting plotlines, a ready-made protagonist in whom the audience was emotionally invested. To jump ahead to her death (that we already knew was coming) and pass on the Flame to Callie seems like The 100 prequel is trying to forcibly justify its own existence through new, untested characters for the sake of having unfamiliar faces.

What could save this narrative choice, to Lacy’s other great point, is the possibility of Callie confronting her own privilege as she voluntarily moves through the nuclear post-apocalypse. It’s one thing to bravely decide to shrug off the comforts of the bunker and to go looking for the people who weren’t considered “worth” saving. It’s another to actually survive: learn to hunt and forage, set up the necessary hierarchies so their ragtag group doesn’t devolve into anarchy, and make the difficult decisions (about laws, about justice, about consequences) when people stop cooperating.

In many ways, it could be a poetic parallel to the early days of the original 100, as the delinquents debated whether they were in an eternal, no-parents-allowed party, or their own futuristic Lord of the Flies. And as we all know, the party was over when Jasper got speared by a Grounder.

Even if Callie is the creator of Trig, and even if she and August establish clans inspired by his Tree Crew tattoo, they need their own foil, the way the Grounders were for the 100. That could be some sort of survivalists or militia, to foreshadow the bloodier side of Grounder society; or people like her friend Lucy, who were left behind to die but didn’t, and who have had two years of resentment to take out on these Second Dawn defectors. But none of that is in the backdoor pilot, so it’s difficult to judge if the series might go that route.

My biggest mental block is that I’m just not emotionally invested in Callie or the Cadogans. Despite “Anaconda” setting up broad strokes for their different relationship dynamics, none of Callie’s decisions seemed truly difficult. Again, she was privileged enough to decide to leave, even if it were for the noble cause of finding other people who deserved to be saved more than she did. I’m just not sure that that noble thinking is enough to justify an entire TV series.

“Anaconda” took too many narrative gymnastics to recontextualize the show’s mythology that was already pretty well-established. I would rather see a The 100 spinoff that takes place in the future. We’ve already done a six-year time jump in real-time and a 125-year jump thanks to cryogenics, and now there’s a quintet of planets with convenient wormholes and screwy timezones—the show has established various routes to tell a story even farther in the future than its own future! We don’t know how The 100 will end, with the Disciples’ great war or the fates of the handful of survivors that started out as the original 100; but I would rather see their descendants’ adventures, covering entirely new ground as opposed to retracing old steps.

– Natalie Zutter

What do you think? Does The 100 justify a spinoff? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The post Does The 100 Need a Spinoff? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[lighterandpaper]

Wormhole and Pee in the Spacesuit

Photo by @nasa

They stop at a gas station about halfway back. 

The four of them spill out of the Lamborghini.

“Let’s not miss the boat,” Soren says, poking at the gas cap that he can’t figure out how to open. Henry tries to help. 

Laurie steps inside the gas station. The first thing her eye is draw to is the TV with her own name on it. The news ticker reads: “Laurie Blaum missing day before launch” 

“How do they know that?” she says to herself. 

“I wouldn’t put it past Mr. Hand to go to the media in the hopes that you will see it and come back,” Tina says. 

“He would do that,” Laurie says. She grabs an ice coffee. “Need anything? We better go.” 

“Ladies room,” Tina says. Laurie agrees. 

Back outside, Soren finally has the gas pumping. 

It’s a beautiful day and the sun is shining. They all seem to notice at once. 

“We’re going to be in space today,” Henry says. It’s hard to imagine there is an endless, vast, black universe just beyond the baby blue sky.

They all take it in for a moment. Laurie glances at Henry. The gas pump clicks to indicate that it is finished. 

They pile back in and Soren takes them back, nearing 200 MPH; everyone screams until the terror fades into the regular dull roar of the wind. 

As they approach home base, they can see their rocket has been delivered to the launch pad and is waiting for them. Laurie’s heart jumps into her throat. 

The car begins to slow. “Hope everyone has been meditating like I showed you!” Soren says. “Because this is going to be a stressful day.” 

When the door opens, Mr. Hand does an awkward little dance. “You’re back!” he says. Tears are in his eyes, and he grabs Laurie by the cheeks. “I knew you would come back because I was chosen by the universe to help you save humanity.” 

“Are you alright?” Laurie asks. 

“Are you kidding?” he says. “I’m fantastic. Are you ready to launch.” 

She takes a deep breath. “Yes.” 

Anna, George, and Horatio greet her. “I’m glad you’re back,” says George. He touches her shoulder in a way that Laurie understood as apology.

“I feel like I barely know you two,” she says to Anna and Horatio. “I’m sure that will change soon.” 

Anna smiles. 

“Just ask Tina,” Horatio says. “Can she get you to talk about anything, or is that just me?” 

Laurie laughs. “No, she does that to people.” 

Soren gives the keys back to Mr. Hand. “I waited my whole life for that moment, thanks,” he says casually. 

Mr. Hand seems to just remember that he lent his car. “What did you do to it?” 

“I filled her up. I’ll text you so you can reimburse me.”

“You’re going to space,” Mr. Hand says. 

“For when I come back.” 

They walk toward the rocket, and they can see people in hazmat suits making adjustments and onboarding supplies. 

“This is really happening,” Laurie says. 

“It hasn’t felt real until just now,” Tina says. “Where is Mr. Davidson?” she asks. 

“He decided to spend time with his family before the end,” Mr. Hand says. “He said to tell you that he grew to love each of you and to wish you very good luck on your journey.” He wipes his eyes. “What is happening to me? I haven’t cried in forty years and suddenly I can’t go a day...” 

Tina rubs his back. 

“I’m very proud to have worked with you all,” he says. “It has been my dream since I was a child to build a rocket to send to an alien planet. I never could have dreamed that it might be humanity’s last hope.” 

“Things are bad here, but you’ll bounce back,” Horatio says.

Mr. Hand shakes his head. “We’re looking at an extinction-level event. The virus has mutated and it has an almost 100% death-rate. If it doesn’t wipe us out, it will send up back to the dark ages. That’s why Mr. Davidson went home. He knows it’s only a matter of time.” 

The gravity of that sits on the group. 

“To me, this is home. You are my family.” 

Initiated by Tina, they all gather around Mr. Hand for a hug. 

After a moment, he pushes them away. “Alright, that’s enough now. We need to get to work. I just hope to Christ none of you have it now.” 

Laurie turns pink. 

They disinfect in sealed rooms and put on their space suits. Laurie is hungry and tired, but knows her body has a lot more left in it. 

They walk the plastic tunnel to the ship. 

They take their seats facing up, just like the movies. 

“Has anyone here been to space before?” asks George. 

“I have been in high orbit before,” Anna says. 

“Just wondering...” George says. 

Mr. Hand’s voice comes over the radio. “Everyone ready?” 

Laurie’s heart is beating so fast she thinks she might pass out. “Ready,” she hears herself saying. 

“Ok...” Mr. Hand says. A pause lingers. “God’s speed.” 

The countdown begins. The rocket rumbles. 

When she hears 1, she closes her eyes tight. A force like captured thunder pushes the enormous vehicle upward. Slowly at first, but before they know it, the blue of the sky is turning dark. They shake violently and the sound is even louder than Soren driving the car. 

And very suddenly, everything goes quiet. She can feel a big weight release from the rocket as it sheds the biggest fuel tanks. 

She opens her eyes, can only hear her breath. 

“...You have safely exited Earth’s atmosphere,” says Mr. Hand over the radio. 

They cheer. 

Laurie notices for the first time that she is weightless. 

“OK, first things first,” Horatio says. “We’re going to make a pit stop at the ISS to pick up our bio dome for Eden.” He takes manual control of the ship. 

“Everything is reporting as ready on the ISS,” confirms Mr. Hand. 

Out of the darkness appears the Internation Space Station, and on one of its arms is a transparent dome with what looks to by hydroponic farms ready to grow, and seven rooms, one for each of them.  At the bottom is a place which is designed to connect with their ship. 

Horatio skillfully connects on the first try. The dome is bigger than the ship itself, and it is clear why they didn’t attempt to haul the thing from the ground all at one. They pull away, and Laurie can see the ISS crew waving at them through the little window. She waves back. 

“Now, everyone keep an eye out for my wormhole,” Anna says. 

Laurie and Soren giggle. 

“Stop it,” Anna says, humor in her own voice. 

“Shouldn’t you know exactly where it’s going to be?” 

“Yes, pretty much. But it’s easy to miss. Just a little distortion in the stars behind it,” she says, scanning. “Should be coming by right around here...” 

“What is the orbital period?” George asks. 

“This thing will come back around here in about a hundred years,” Anna says. 

A silence. 

“So we’re going to be there for at least a hundred years,” Tina says. 

“At least,” agrees Anna. 

“What keeps the wormhole open?” asks George. 

“In the beginning of the universe, cosmic strings were just fluctuations in the fabric of the soupy hot stuff. When the universe suddenly expanded, they were pulled far apart, but still connected by the cosmic strings, which are sort of like negative matter. There are countless wormholes all over the universe, this is just the first one we have happened to find.” 

“What if it is just a little black hole?” Soren asks. 

“I can’t wait to find out,” Anna says, “fuck you” in her voice. “And, there it is.” 

It takes a while for Laurie to see, but her eyes are drawn to a ripple of the stars. In the center of the ripples is just a very black spot. 

They thrust toward it. 

As they approach, another set of stars seems to grow out of the middle of the hole, pulling into focus like a rounded mirror. 

The ship shakes as it enters the pull of the hole. 

“Here we go!” Anna says. 

The stars warp all around them at increasing speed. Flashes of light give the impression of impossible velocity, but everything is quiet and still inside. 

Finally, the stars fix themselves again. They have been spit out on the other side. 

“We did it!” Anna shouts. “Not a black hole, I told them!” 

“Am I supposed to just pee in the suit?” Soren asks. 

[voyagerafod]

Star Trek Voyager: A Fire of Devotion: Part 4 of 4: Hotter Than Hell: Chapter Ten

“A party?” Brian Sofin asked.     “Well, yes,” Neelix said. “I’ve been shirking my duties lately as morale officer, and things may seem normal, but I think you know as well as I do, Brian, that morale hasn’t recovered any in the past two months.”

    “Can you blame them?”     “Of course not,” Neelix said. “But I knew Commander Chakotay pretty well, and he would not want us to use his death as an excuse to stop living.”     “Neither would I, but... A party?”     “It’s the best way I know to boost moral for the majority of the crew,” Neelix said. “And it’s not like it’s completely random, I have a justification.”

    “Which is?”     “We’re a few days away from the the 315th anniversary of Vulcan-Human First Contact. Without that event, the Federation you know and love probably wouldn’t exist today.”     Sofin winced. “Right, I forgot this week was First Contact Day. My parents always liked to watch old recording of Zefram Cochrane speeches on FC day. I would watch with them when I could, unless I was on assignment, before, well…”

    “Exactly!” Neelix said. “I’ve already thrown one FC day party before; five years ago for the 310th. I think I even still have the decorations that Kes helped me make in storage.”     Brian looked like he was considering Neelix’s idea carefully. He smiled, and Neelix knew he had a helper to put this thing together for the crew. He knew from experience that nothing would be 100% exactly as it was before the Commander’s death, just as things changed to one degree or another after the loss of any crewmember, but at least the ship would start to feel like a home again.

---

    “Enter,” Joe Carey said, staring at his unfinished ship-in-a-bottle. The tiny Voyager inside only had one nacelle left to go. It had had only one nacelle left to go for months. Work on the project, despite it being his favorite hobby, came to a screeching halt when Commander Chakotay died.     “I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” B’Elanna said as she entered Carey’s quarters.

    “No,” Carey said. “How can I help you?”

    “I’ll get straight to the point. You know I’m starting my maternity leave next week. The Doctor thinks I should start it sooner but, screw him. The point is, I need you to take over as chief engineer while I’m on bed rest, and for at least the first few weeks with Miral.”

    “Mir- Oh, I didn’t know you and Tom had picked a name,” Carey said.     “I said it in engineering the other day, Joe. Which you’d know if you’d shown up on time.”     “Sorry, about that,” Joe said. “I just-”     “I know why,” B’Elanna said. “I know what survivor’s guilt looks like, Joe. I let it slide for a good while, made everyone else keep quiet and not report it to the captain, but you’ve been slacking. Showing up late, doing the bare minimum…”     “Then why are you asking me to take charge?” Joe said.     “Vorik’s not ready for a leadership role, Mulcahey’s a floater between engineering and transporter control, and Gilmore hasn’t earned back all her clearances yet. That leaves you. I know you took it hard and that you blame yourself, but two months is too long. Especially when it’s not like we can just pop over to a Starbase or colony and give you extended shore leave.”     “Yeah, you’re right,” Joe said. “Fact is I’ve been feeling guilty about my survivor’s guilt. Don’t tell me how silly that sounds, I know. I’ve been thinking for awhile I need to just get back to work. I guess I just needed a kick in the pants to do it.”     B’Elanna smiled and gave Joe a friendly slap on the shoulder. “Well, that went easier than I expected. I was worried I’d have to shout at you.”     Joe laughed. “Better that than breaking my nose.”     B’Elanna shook her head. “Seven years later and you still won’t let that go huh?”     “Hey, I forgave you a long time ago, you know that. But forgiveness doesn't automatically mean I stop ribbing you about it.” Joe laughed. He was pretty sure it was the first time he’d laughed in awhile.     “There’s the Joe Carey I know and tolerate,” B’Elanna said with a wink. “Now get your ass to engineering so I can give my last set of orders to the team.”

---

    Captain Janeway sat in her chair as the current bridge shift started, coffee in hand. Tuvok, still looking like he felt out of place in command red, sat in the first officer’s chair, looking at his monitor. Sue Brooks was at the helm today. Harry was at ops, and Lieutenant Ayala at tactical. Seven of Nine and Samantha Wildman were on the bridge for this shift as well. All was normal, or at least the new normal.

    A beeping from the ops console broke Janeway’s train of thought.     “I’m picking up a signal from an emergency beacon. It’s degraded considerably, the beacon looks to be decades old, at least.”     “Can you decipher the signal?” Janeway said.     Harry tapped a few buttons, and Janeway saw his eyes go wide.     “I recognize this,” he said.     “Harry?”     “The signal. It’s a distress beacon, I can tell that much. Text, no audio, or at least none I’ve registered yet. References to a ‘generation ship,‘ I think. Captain, the message is in an old dialect of Talaxian.”     “Well, that’s certainly unexpected,” Samantha Wildman said from the main science station.     “To put it mildly,” Seven said.     “Shall I have Mister Neelix summoned to the bridge?” Commander Tuvok said.     “Absolutely,” Janeway said. “He’ll want to see this. And maybe have some idea how a Talaxian signal got out this far.”     “If Mister Kim’s translation is correct,” Seven said, “I believe the phrase ‘generation ship’ may be the answer.”     “I don’t recall him saying anything his people having sent out generation ships before,” Harry said, “but then again based on how old the sensor data tells us that beacon is it’s older than he is. It’s possible it just never occurred to him to mention it.”

---

    Neelix watched the viewscreen, pacing because he was too excited to sit down. Upon being informed of the situation he had to give it considerable thought, but a quick skim of his old ship’s historical database confirmed what he suspected; this was from a ship that his ancestors had launched in the early days of their exploration into space.     Its name was in a dialect that hadn’t been used on his homeworld since before he was born, but it’s name translated roughly as The Future. It had left Talax with 7 female and 5 male crew members, plus 1300 Talaxians from all walks of life in cryogenic sleep. His people had gone looking for it once they’d developed faster-than-light drives, and made contact with other species, but no sign of The Future had ever been found, and it was presumed lost. Neelix wondered how it had gotten this far out. Even back then, according to Seven of Nine, the Borg were active in the Delta Quadrant, along the most likely path the ship would’ve had to take to get from Talax to where the beacon had been found.     “Perhaps the Talaxians found a wormhole that we missed,” Harry said.     “Possible,” Seven said, “though the timeframe, based on our estimations of when the emergency beacon was deployed, would place the generation ship’s passage through Borg space at the height of our conflict with the El Aurians.”     “How long did that last?” Neelix said.     “Hundreds of years. Prior to Species 8472, the El Aurians proved the most difficult species to assimilate,” Seven said.     “I’d always wondered about that,” Janeway said, “but El Aurians in the Alpha Quadrant are notoriously reluctant to talk about it. I hope they got a few good kicks in before they went down.”     “While only a few hundred survived to make it to the Alpha Quadrant as refugees,” Seven said, “before the end they managed to destroy nearly a dozen cubes, more than half of them in the final year of the conflict.”     “I apologize for interrupting,” Harry Kim said, “but I finished the translation of the message. The translation program Neelix gave me was a big help.”     “So what happened?” Neelix asked.     “Apparently there was an engine failure caused by their main computer. Apparently it was a very crude A.I. and, for want of a better phrase, lost its mind.”     “I didn’t even know my people had ever tried to create artificial intelligences,” Neelix said, surprised.     “When did this happen?” Janeway asked.     “Only about fifty years ago, surprisingly,” Harry said. “The crew was able to get control back, but the computer shut down several dozen of the cryo pods, killing the occupants. The next paragraph is corrupted, I can’t tell what it says, but after that it says they sent the last of their probes out to find a suitable place to land.”     “A lot of habitable planets between here and Rinax,” Tom said. “Wonder why they didn’t pick any of those.”     Neelix shrugged. “Maybe they didn't want to settle any place that already had sentient life? That’s just a guess, don’t quote me.”     “We won’t know until we find any of the crew’s descendants,” Janeway said. “If this was only fifty years ago, there’s a good chance we may find some. Seven, do a full long range scan. See where the most likely place the Talaxians would’ve ended up and give the data to Tom. Mister Paris, once you have a location, plot a course.”     “Aye, Captain,” Tom said, while Seven simply nodded and manipulated the controls at her console.

---

    “There is definitely an M-class planet on the other side of that asteroid field,” Samantha Wildman said, looking at her console while both Neelix and Captain Janeway looked over her shoulder. “And I’m pretty sure I’m getting lifesigns from it, but something in the field itself is interfering with the sensors.”     “It is awfully dense,” Neelix said. “I don’t think I’ve seen an asteroid field that densely packed before.”     “I have,” Janeway said, “but it’s not common, no argument here.”     “I could dodge those rocks easily enough with Voyager,” Tom said, “but given that interference Sam’s talking about I’d rather not risk it.”

    “Captain,” Sam said, “now that we’re closer, I’m thinking this interference might not be naturally occurring.”     “Agreed,” Janeway said. “Which could mean the Talaxians set-up makeshift bases in the the larger asteroids. Or they could’ve settled that planet on the other side and are mining the asteroids. Either way, if there are survivors from The Future, we’ll find proof in that asteroid field. We’ll take Voyager around the field to go to the planet. A small team can take the Delta Flyer through the field itself. If nothing else, they can confirm if the interference is naturally occurring or not.”

    “Captain,” Neelix said, “I’d like to be on the Flyer team.”     “Why?” Captain Janeway asked.     “Call it a gut feeling,” Neelix said. “If I’ve learned anything travelling with you Captain, it’s that it’s a good idea to listen to one’s instincts.”

    As long as I don’t have to go, I’m happy, Samantha thought. Me, the Delta Flyer, and giant rocks? No thanks.

---

    The Delta Flyer entered the asteroid field, and Neelix marvelled at how close together all the rocks were while not appearing to collide with each other.     “I wonder if maybe someone put this here,” Neelix said to Lieutenant Ayala, who sat at the tactical console, while Tom Paris piloted the craft.     “Just because it’s rare for asteroid fields to be this dense,” Ayala said, “doesn’t mean it’s not naturally occurring.”     “Could be the debris from an exploded planet,” Tom said. “Last dense field like this I ever saw in the Alpha Quadrant had been a planet a thousand years before the Federation existed. Well, I only saw it in pictures taken by the Enterprise, but still.”     “Sounds interesting,” Neelix said. “What happened?”     “Well, there was this war between two ancient-”     “Mister Paris,” Ayala said, “I’m picking up lifesigns at bearing 108, mark 26. They appear to be Talaxians. Hundreds of them, inside three of the larger rocks.”     “Well, that answers one question,” Neelix said. “Can we hail them?”

    Ayala touched a button, and waited.     “No response. No sign they didn’t receive it, it looks like they’re ignoring us.”     “Maybe if we try greeting them in Tal-”     Neelix wasn’t able to finish his suggestion, as a loud noise, followed by the ship shuddering, cut him off.     “What was that?” he said.     “A thermalyte explosive,” Ayala said.     “How close was that?” Tom said.     “30.6 kilometers to port,” Ayala said. “If it was that close and shook us that little-”

    A much more severe shudder passed through the ship.     “That one was closer,” Ayala said. “Are these mines or did we accidentally stumble on the Talaxians blasting these rocks to get the raw materials?”     A third shudder.     “That one took out our shields,” Ayala said. “It threw the impulse drive out of alignment too.”     “Switching to thrusters,” Tom said.

    “The main Talaxian asteroid is close enough for us to make a landing,” Neelix said, looking at his own console.     “If they’re doing this on purpose that might be a bad idea,” Tom said. Before anyone could reply there was another explosion, and the Delta Flyer shook so violently everyone was thrown forward painfully into their consoles.     “Dammit, main propulsion is off-line,” Tom said. “I’m gonna have to put us down on that rock anyway before we crash into one without people who can help us fix the damage. Better get ready to do some fancy talking, Neelix.”     The Delta Flyer jerked forward. Neelix watched the main viewport as the asteroid, structures sticking out one side of it, got closer and closer; much too fast for his liking.

    “This landing’s gonna be a bit rough,” Tom said, “but if it’s any consolation, the Flyer’s been through worse.”

    Upon impact, Neelix was knocked out his chair. He winced as his head hit something, and everything went black.

---

    Neelix groaned as his eyes fluttered open. He heard before he saw the sound of a medical device, or at least what he hoped was a medical device, hovering centimeters above his head. When his vision cleared he saw a sight he hadn’t expected to ever see outside of old family photos or the holodeck.

    A Talaxian. A woman, who held the device, sitting on the edge of the bed Neelix was in.     “Stay still,” she said when neelix tried to sit up. “Don’t worry. It’s not serious.”     Her bedside manner is about as warm as The Doctor’s used to be, Neelix thought.

    “I’m inside the asteroid,” he said.

    “Yes,” the female Talaxian said.     “Where are my friends?” Neelix asked.     “If you mean the aliens who were on the ship with you,” the female Talaxian said, in a tone that suggested she wasn’t using the word alien in the nicest sense of the word, “they’re safe.”     Define safe.     “I’d like to see them,” Neelix said.

    “You need your rest,” the female Talaxian said, standing up quickly. “What were you doing in the asteroid field?” she asked as she placed the device on the table by the side of Neelix’s bed.     “Looking for you, actually,” Neelix said. “We found the old beacon.”     “Really? It still works after all this time?”     “Yes,” Neelix said. “Our ship, Voyager, came across it, so we came to look for any survivors.”

    “Well, here we are.”     “I see. My name’s Neelix, by the way.”     “Dexa,” the female Talaxian said. “It’s funny, I had an uncle named Neelix.”     “Really? I had no idea my name stretched back that far. Your generation ship left so long ago it took us awhile to translate the message on the beacon.”     Dexa looked puzzled. “Then how come I can understand you so plainly?”

    Neelix pointed to his comm badge, which had been left on him. “It’s called a universal translator.”     “Interesting,” Dexa said. “I’d like to know more about this translator, but first, I’m curious, are there any other Talaxians aboard your ship?”     “No, just me,” Neelix said.

    “Why are you living with aliens?” Dexa asked, her nose scrunched up as if she’d smelled something offensive.     “They’re my friends,” Neelix said. He’d considered telling Dexa the truth; that he just didn’t like what the bulk of his people had become in recent years, and that apart from a few good friends he largely did not miss his people at all. He realized though that if the other Talaxians on this and the other two asteroids were as xenophobic as Dexa appeared to be, that would probably be the worst thing to say. “We attempted to contact you from our shuttle,” he said instead. “Did you receive our hails?”     “Yes,” Dexa said.     “Why didn’t you respond?”     “We avoid contact with outsiders,” Dexa said.     “There were explosions,” Neelix said. “Did you-”     “No,” Dexa said. “Not deliberately, I mean. We were making holes in the surface of those particular rocks to start mining them for resources. They weren’t supposed to go off so soon though. Perhaps something from your shuttle triggered them early. My turn to ask a question now. Why were you and your.. Friends, carrying weapons?”     “Standard procedure for an away mission,” Neelix said. “On stun of course.”     “Stun? Non-lethal energy weapons? I didn’t even know such a thing was possible.”     “Oh, absolutely,” Neelix said. “We had weapons similar to phasers on Talax not too long after The Future left. We never got as good at mass producing them as Starfleet did though, so they fell out of favor after a while.”     “Starfleet?”     “Oh, the organization our ship belongs to. Our ship is called Voyager by the way. The shuttle that crashed is called the Delta Flyer.”     “Is Starfleet a military organization?”     Neelix thought about that for a moment. “Sort of, but not really. It’s like a hybrid of a military organization, a scientific one, and a diplomatic corp. There’s no real analog to it in Talaxian history, so that’s the best way I can explain it.”     Neelix thought he saw someone moving behind Dexa, so he shifted. He smiled when he saw a child, holding some kind of toy, peeking around the corner of the entrance into the room.     “Hi there,” Neelix said. “What’s your name?”

    Dexa looked confused, but then turned around when the child responded.     “Brax,” he said. “What’s yours?”     “I told you not to come in here,” Dexa said, bending down to look the child in the eyes as she took his hands.     “I wanted to see him,” Brax said.     “You’re supposed to be helping Oxilon,” Dexa said.     “He doesn’t look dangerous to me,” Brax said, an inquisitive look on his face not too dissimilar to the one Naomi Wildman would get when she was convinced that adults were not telling her the whole story about something.

    I guess some things are just universal, Neelix thought.

    “I think you might have the wrong idea about us,” Neelix said.     “I’m not supposed to be talking to you at all,” Dexa said.”   

    Neelix had a suspicion about the room he was in. He stood up. “I’m feeling better,” he said, which was mostly true. His head still hurt, but it was a dull pain. He’d been through much worse. This year, even. “I think I should go see my friends now.”     Dexa stepped back and touched something that was out of sight, and a force field visibly snapped into place.     Yep, I’m in a cell, Neelix thought. Not a terrible one though, I’ll give it that. The bed is comfy.     “I’ve been told not to let you leave,” Dexa said.     The look on her face was all too familiar to Neelix. He’d seen looks like that before, on those among his people who’d bought the propaganda about the Haakonians “hook, line and sinker,” as Tom would say.

    They’re repeating the same mistakes their descendants made back on Talax, he thought sadly. I suppose I should be grateful there isn’t an alien race nearby for them to launch an unprovoked war against.

---

    “Captain,” Harry said, “there’s a ship approaching from astern. We’re being hailed.”     “Good,” Janeway said. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and they can explain why we lost contact with the Flyer. On screen.”

    “Identify yourselves,” the captain of the other vessel said. He wasn’t Talaxian, that was for sure.

    “I’m Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager,” Janeway said.

    “Commander Nocona,” the other ship’s captain said, his tone immediately shifting to one more polite than the one he’d had when asking for identification.

    Perhaps in his culture it’s acceptable to be rude to people if you don’t know their names, she thought.     “I request to know why you sent a vessel into the asteroid field,” Nocona continued.     Janeway gave the thumbnail version of how Voyager had ended up here, and how they’d hoped to make contact with the Talaxians.     “Ah, I see,” Nocona said. “Perhaps your friend, this Neelix, can convince the Talaxians to move on.”     “Assuming he’s alive,” Janeway said. “We registered multiple explosions in the field and lost contact with our shuttle.”

    “Likely just mining charges,” Nocona said. “The Talaxians have never been violent. Smug and verbally abusive, but not violent. Your shuttle likely just got too close.”     “I take it you’ve had problems with them before,” Janeway said.     “Ever since they came to our world seeking shelter years ago,” Nocana said. “But for now, if you require our assistance, our ship is more heavily armored than yours. We have few weapons, this is a patrol ship, but if any charges go off we won’t be harmed.”     Janeway appreciated that the alien captain was being so direct with her. It was something she wished were more common in this quadrant.     “If I may ask, what exactly were the problems the Talaxians caused?”     “To be fair,” Nocona said, “it’s largely the younger generation, those born after their ship arrived, that are the issue; they settled in that asteroid field without permission and began mining resources that by rights belonged to us as the field is in our solar system. As it stands, we have no way to remove them without violence, and neither the government nor the public wants that.”

    Oh great, Janeway thought. We stumbled into a political mess. I’d hoped we wouldn’t have another one of those for a good long time.

---

    Neelix heard a noise, and turned to see Brax standing on the other side of the force field with a weapon that was clearly too big for him to be using. If it wasn’t a dangerous weapon, the site of him trying to look intimidating with it would be amusing.

    “I don’t think you’re supposed to be here,” Neelix said.     “This is my home,” Brax said. “You can’t tell me what to do.”     “No, I suppose I can’t,” Neelix said. “I just don’t want you to get in trouble.”

    Brax moved the object in his arms and Neelix realized he’d made an error. It was a not a weapon at all, the child had just been handling whatever it was like one.     “What’s that?” Neelix said.     “A model ship,” Brax said.     “Really? A Talaxian one?”     “You don’t recognize it?”     “Our people’s ships haven’t looked like that for a long time,” Neelix said, trying to get a better look at the model. “I think I saw something like that in a museum once though, on Rinax.”     “People live on Rinax now?” Brax said.     Neelix winced. “Well, they did, but something bad happened. It’s complicated, and sad to say it was kind of our own fault. Maybe I can explain it to you later.”     “I overheard you tell my mother your ship was named Voyager,” Brax said. “Is it big?”     “Not as big as the ship your ancestors came to this asteroid field on, but she’s a decent sized ship,” Neelix said. “But she is fast. Nothing faster than her within a hundred light years, I bet.”     There was a clanging noise, and Brax gasped. “That’s my mother.”     “Well you better hide then,” Neelix said.     “You won’t tell her I’m here?”     “No, of course not,” Neelix said. Brax ran off. Another clanging noise followed by footsteps drew Neelix’s attention to his right, and he saw Dexa walk in with a male Talaxian, who had to duck slightly to get through the door. Neelix was pretty sure he’d never seen a Talaxian that tall before, and figured that it must’ve had something to do with having been born in lower gravity environments.

    “Neelix,” Dexa said, “this is Oxilon, our Council Regent.”

    “I wish I could say it was nice to meet you,” Neelix said, “but this isn’t exactly the welcome I was expecting.”     “You’re free to go now,” Oxilon said, touching a button. The force field dropped and Neelix walked forward. He looked at Oxilon, expecting him to say something else, but he gave no indication he planned to.     “What about my friends?” Neelix said.     “We’ve determined they’re not hostile,” Oxilon said. “They’ve been treated for their injuries and asked to leave.”     “They’re aboard your shuttle, making repairs,” Dexa said. “I’ll take you to them.”     “Well,” Neelix said, “now that everything’s been cleared up, maybe we could talk? Get to know each other a little?”     “If you’d like,” Oxilon said, though he sounded to Neelix like he was just humoring him.     Probably figures the faster he gets me to talk the faster he can get me to leave, Neelix thought.

    “My friends too?”     “No,” Oxilon said.     “May I ask why not?”     “We’ve learned to keep to ourselves,” Oxilon said.     “Oh. Well, if they’re not welcome, I’m not staying either,” Neelix said. “I had just hoped…”

    “Hoped what?” Oxilon said.     “This may be my last chance to speak to any Talaxians before Voyager reaches the Alpha Quadrant,” Neelix said. “That’s where my friends are from. Long story. I may not have left Talaxian space under the best of terms, but-”     “Were you a criminal?” Dexa said. Oxilon glared at her, and she sheepishly looked at the floor.     “No,” Neelix said. “Well, my government certainly thinks I am, but I’d be lying if I said I cared.”     Oxilon looked confused at that comment.     “I’m going to go see my friends,” Neelix said, choosing not to elaborate. He felt put off in Oxilon’s presence, like the man only tolerated being the same room as him because they were both Talaxians. Neelix knew that kind of attitude all too well; had seen it in his own home in the run-up to the war with the Haakonians. He’d heard it in Dexa’s voice earlier that day, but had hoped that she was an outlier.     “Escort him,” Oxilon said to Dexa, then unceremoniously turned and left.     “I apologize,” Dexa said once the door closed. “I know he seems overly cautious, but we’re not used to having visitors. Brax is young enough to have never seen a non-Talaxian before.”     “I was curious about that,” Neelix said. “Our ship picked up what looked like, at least from where we were, a perfectly livable M-Class planet on the opposite side of the field from us.”     “That’s the homeworld of the Badoon,” Dexa said with a hint of contempt in her voice.

    “Did they mistreat you?” Neelix said.     “Not directly, no,” Dexa said. “It was more subtle than that. But I’d rather not talk about them right now.”

    “How many of you live here?” Neelix asked.     “Close to 500 here,” Dexa said, “about a hundred each on the other two asteroids.” She sighed. “And there are a dozen or so who chose to stay with the Badoon, but we don’t talk of them much.”

    “From a ship that had 1300 people in stasis?” Neelix said. “The beacon said some of them were killed when the generation ship’s computer went bad, but-”     “Few of the survivors had children,” Dexa said. “Procreation has been placed on hold until we can hollow out another asteroid. None of the children you see running around were actually conceived here, though a few were born here.”

    “It must’ve taken years to build all of this,” Neelix said.

    “Almost five,” Dexa said, pride in her voice. “We had to completely scrap The Future, and, well, borrow some Badoon tools to get it done, but we did it. Mostly. There are some places that aren’t at a hundred percent yet. If you look over there you can see our medical bay. My husband designed that.”

    “I’d like to meet him,” Neelix said.     Dexas sighed. “He’s dead.”     “Oh,” Neelix said. “I’m sorry. I… I suffered a loss recently myself, though yours is certainly-”     “I’m not… I don’t feel like talking about it, right now. Your friends are just this way,” Dexa said, leading Neelix down a neatly excavated cave.     Neelix saw the Delta Flyer. It looked pretty scraped up on the outside, but he imagined that Tom was going to save fixing the non-essential parts until they returned to Voyager. The priority would be engines and life support.     He stepped inside.     “Neelix,” Tom said. “Good to see you. They told me you were okay but wouldn't let us check in on you.”     “Yeah, they seem to be really shy about aliens around here,” Neelix said. “Dexa, this is Tom Paris. And this is Ayala.”     “Given name or surname?” Dexa asked.

    “I don’t really talk about that,” Ayala said.     Dexa looked confused for a moment but shrugged it off.     “Okay then,” she said. “It was nice to meet you.” She turned and exited the ship before anyone could reply.     “Guess that was as much politeness as she could muster for the day,” Tom said,.     “So, what can I do to help?” Neelix said.     “Well, you can help me with this plasma manifold,” Tom said. “How’d it go by the way?”     “I didn’t exactly get a welcoming committee,” Neelix said. “I was in a cell for most of the time I was recovering. I get the feeling their leader doesn’t like me very much.”     “You sound disappointed,” Ayala said.     “Yeah,” Neelix admitted. “I guess my expectations were a little high. I’d just assumed that since they were the descendants of people who left Talax before our society went bad they’d be more open minded. A shame really. This could be the last time I ever see another Talaxian, and they remind me so much of why I was so willing to leave them behind and travel with you in the first place.”     “We’ll probably be another night,” Tom said. “I’m sure you can meet a few more before we go. Here’s your phaser back by the way.”     “Thanks,” Neelix said. “And maybe you’re right. Maybe I’ll meet a Talaxian who’s not as stiff and xenophobic as Oxilon. That would be a nice way to remember my people.”     After another hour of work, the lights inside the Flyer flickered back to life, and the consoles were active again.     “There we go,” Tom said. “Now we just need to run a systems-”     “Intruder alert,” the computer said.     “Well, at least we know internal sensors are working,” Tom said, as Ayala pulled out his phaser and moved towards the rear compartment. Neelix followed him, hand near his own phaser.

    The lights in the rear compartment were still out, so the two of them descended the steps slowly. Neelix took out his tricorder with his other hand and did a quick scan.     He chuckled when he saw the lifesigns he were picking up from behind a panel were Talaxian.     “I think I can guess who this is,” he said. “You can come out, Brax.”

    The child climbed out of his hiding place, and touched a button on a panel that turned the lights back on. Ayala lowered his phaser.     “Friend of yours?” he said.     “Dexa’s son,” Neelix said.     “You said you’d take me to see Voyager,” Brax said.     “I said no such thing,” Neelix said. “I told you she was a good ship, not that I’d bring you aboard. Besides, your mother wouldn’t approve. Now come on, I’ll walk you home.”

    Brax didn’t argue, something Neelix was grateful for. He realized that child rearing was not really something he had that much experience in. He’d been spoiled in a sense, the only children he’d really been around as an adult were Naomi, who matured rapidly as a result of her mixed parentage, and Icheb, who had matured rapidly as a result of the Borg. He was ill equipped to deal with a tantrum if it were to come to that.     “Okay,” Brax said.     “I’ll be right back,” Neelix said to Ayala. The two walked back the way Dexa had brought Neelix before. Before he could reach Dexa’s home, however, he saw Oxilon arguing with an alien he didn’t recognize.     “They’re free to leave once their ship is repaired,” Oxilon said.     “I’d like to confirm that for myself,” the alien said. “I’m sure it is what their captain, Janeway, would do if she were here. Assuming you didn’t try to blow up her ship with mining charges of course.”     “How dare-”     “Excuse me,” Neelix said, waving. “Hi. I’m Neelix, the Talaxian member of Janeway’s crew. You’ve spoken with Voyager?”

    The alien nodded. “Commander Nocona,” he said. “You must be Neelix. Are the other members of your team harmed?”     “You know this… thug?” Oxilon said.     “Calm down,” Neelix said. “Commander, may I ask why no one from my crew is here?”     “Our ship is better shielded against explosions from mining charges,” Nocana said. “And with good reason,” he added, glaring at Oxilon. “Captain Janeway agreed to let us come for you.”     “Right,” Oxilon said dismissively, “and I’m sure intimidating us with how thick your ship’s armor is had nothing to do with it. You’re trying to scare us into giving up the asteroids again.”     Nocona groaned. ��   “Believe what you want, Oxilon. My people own the rights to these minerals, and we will get them back. Without violence. You’ll see.”     “Well, Commander,” Neelix said, “our shuttle is almost repaired. We’ll be able to leave on our own in a few hours. Our communications array is still damaged, so perhaps you could tell Captain Janeway-”     “Yes, do so. Once you leave,” Oxilon said, sounding like he was trying to make a threat.     “Very well,” Nocona said. “Good day to you, Mister Neelix.”     “Thank you,” Neelix said.     Once Nocona was gone, Neelix was about to tell Brax to head on home when Oxilon rushed him with unexpected speed and shoved him against a wall.     “Why did that Badoon know who you were?!”

    “You heard him,” Neelix said. “He spoke to my captain.”     “You expect me to believe that?” Oxilon said.     Neelix saw a crowd gathering. Some smiled, as if silently cheering on Oxilon or maybe hoping for a fight. Other just shook their heads, like disappointed parents.     “Yes, because it’s true,” Neelix said, finally shoving back. “He’s a Badoon then? Seems nice enough. Why do you really have a problem with them? I get the feeling there’s more going on than asteroid mining rights.”     “Get out,” Oxilon said. “Get back to your ship and leave us alone.”     “I know that look,” Neelix shouted at Oxilon’s back as he walked away. “It’s the look our leaders on Talax had on their faces when they argued for a war based on lies. Now, I don’t know what’s going on with you and the Badoon, but if I look into it, who’s really going to be the bad guys here?”     “Go home,” Oxilon said. “Go to your alien friends.” There were murmurs among the crowd as Oxilon walked away. Neelix got the feeling that most, but not all of the people here were completely on Oxilon’s side. He took a small amount of comfort in that.

---

    “I think I can see why they’re so suspicious of outsiders,” Tom said when Neelix told him what had just happened. “Did the kid make it home safe at least?”     “Yeah,” Neelix said, looking frustrated.     “It’s good to know the Badoon were willing to help the Captain,” Ayala said, “but we don’t have the full context for what’s been going on between them and the Talaxians here.”     “I think we do, at least a little,” Neelix said.     Tom was about to ask what Neelix meant, but the latter continued as if anticipating that question.     “Oxilon never actually denied what Nocona said was true. I think that except for a few stragglers, the survivors from the generation ship and their children and grandchildren settled these asteroid without permission from the race that holds the mining rights to them. It would be like if someone just walked into your quarters, set up a tent, and threatened you if you tried to kick them out.”     “Plausible, sure,” Tom said, “but there’s decades worth of context we don’t have, like Ayala said.”

    Neelix sighed.     “Yeah, you’re right,” he said.     Tom put a hand on Neelix’s shoulder. “I’m sorry this trip didn’t turn out like you hoped, Neelix. I really am.”     “Thanks, Tom,” Neelix said.

    Tom was about to say it was time to go, when a noise from his console alerted him to someone standing just outside the entrance to the Delta Flyer. He checked his monitor, and saw Dexa, and a young boy, presumably Brax.     “Looks like you’ve got visitors, Neelix,” Tom said. Neelix came over and looked at the monitor. He shrugged.     “Go ahead and let them in,” he said.     “No problem,” Tom said, pushing a button to open the door remotely.     When the two Talaxians made their way to the cockpit, Neelix asked them why they were there.     “Brax told me about what happened,” Dexa said, “and I thought you deserved to hear our side of the story. Oxilon, he, can let his anger cloud his judgement sometimes, even though he’s been a good leader for us overall.”     “Okay,” Neelix said. “I’m willing to listen.”

    “Actually,” Dexa said, “I’d like to talk to your Captain, if I could. If your ship is as powerful as I imagine it based on what I’ve gleamed from scanning your shuttle-”

    “Wait, you were scanning us?” Tom said.     “Of course,” Dexa said. “Security precaution.”     “It’s what I would do,” Ayala said.     “My point is,” Dexa continued, “if your Captain is going to be working with the Badoon in any capacity, she deserves to know the truth.”     Neelix didn’t seem to like the idea very much, but rather than say no himself he turned to Tom.     Oh great, make the buck stop with me. Thanks, Neelix, he thought. Minus sarcasm he said aloud, “Well, okay, but I don’t think there’s going to be much need. I’m pretty sure that once she knows her team and the Flyer are okay we’ll just be moving on.”     “Or maybe, once she hears about what we’ve gone through, she’ll be willing to help us.”     I doubt that, Tom thought.     “Okay,” Tom said, “but I won’t promise anything more than asking her to speak with you.”

---

    Captain Janeway looked up when Neelix and the Talaxian woman named Dexa walked into her ready room.     “Hello, Dexa,” Janeway said, standing up and offering her hand. “Neelix told me you’d be coming. Where’s your son?”     “He’s playing with… what was her name?” Dexa said.     “Naomi Wildman,” Neelix said. “With Samantha and Seven’s permission of course.”     “So strange,” Dexa said, “to see a cyborg so well adjusted. Granted, we never had any real cyborgs on Talax, only ones in stories, but they were always cautionary tales. This Seven of Nine though seems like a perfectly normal humanoid.”     “There still aren’t any cyborgs on Talax,” Neelix said, “but that’s mainly because we don’t really have that level of technology yet.”     “Neelix says you have something you wanted to discuss with me about the Badoon?” Janeway said. Of course, this was all a polite formality. Neelix had warned her ahead of time that he had concerns that the Talaxians in the asteroid field were unnecessarily mistrusting of the Badoon.

    Dexa went on to explain in great detail about what had happened to The Future, though Janeway already knew some of that from the beacon.     “When the Badoon found our ship, they brought us here, to their world. They set aside some farmland for us, but wouldn’t interact with us for years. I was born under what they called ‘quarantine.’ But it was just an excuse, they didn’t want outsiders mixing with their people.”     “But,” Neelix said, “you told me that a few Talaxians still live on the Badoon homeworld. Are they still in quarantine?”     “Well, no…”     “Dexa,” Neelix continued, Janeway deciding it best not to interrupt. “You weren’t born yet. Is it at all possible that it really was a quarantine? I mean, there are procedures for first contact with new species aboard this ship too.”     Dexa looked hurt that Neelix would think that.     “My husband died on one of those farms,” she said.

    “Did the Badoon kill him?” Janeway said.     “No,” Dexa said reflexively. Then paused. “I mean… it is their fault but…”     “Do you really think that,” Neelix said, taking Dexa’s hand in his, “or is that Oxilon talking?”     “Please,” Janeway said, “Dexa, tell the rest of your story.”     Dexa nodded. “It wasn’t long before we realized there wasn’t enough land to feed all of us, especially once babies started being born. Our leader at the time, Oxilon’s uncle, told us we would just have to conserve resources.”

    “That doesn’t sound very unreasonable,” Janeway said. “Was any attempt made to negotiate with the Badoon for more land?”     Dexa looked down.     “In the past, whenever children asked me about our time there I’d say no, but what Neelix just said… I don’t know, truly. Many have said that we tried and failed, but some of the elders claim that we tried to take land from poorer Badoon citizens. I never believed it before, but why does it seem so plausible to me now?”     “I imagine meeting Neelix had something to do with it,” Janeway said. “He’s giving you a perspective you’d never considered before. Back on Earth we have a saying. ‘A fresh pair of eyes.’ It doesn’t literally mean replacing your eyes of course, it means that sometimes getting input from someone who hasn’t been directly involved with a thing long enough to form a bias can be very valuable.”     Dexa nodded.     “Tell me more,” Neelix said, “about what happened to your husband.”     “He didn’t like being told what to do by Badoon authorities, so he started farming outside the restricted zone. The owner of the land killed him.”     “What happened to the landowner?” Dexa wiped a tear away from her eye.     “He was arrested,” she said. “Oxilon liked to tell me that they only did it to save face, but now I wonder if that’s true. The Badoon imprisoned him on grounds of unnecessary use of lethal force. I remember now, they told me that the landowner killed my husband after only one warning, and there was no sign my husband had used violence. I never thought to find out but…” Dexa stopped for a moment and looked up at the ceiling, “Yes, I think it’s possible he’s still in prison.”

Neelix put a hand on Dexa’s shoulder. Janeway stood up and walked around to do the same on the other shoulder.     “Oxilon is going to get you killed,” Neelix said. “I’ve seen this happen before.”     “What do you mean?” Dexa said.     “Years ago, when I was a young man, the Talaxian people launched a war against a people called the Haakonians. They’d done nothing to us, but the government spent months convincing the people they were an imminent threat. A few people like me saw through the lies though, and fled the system before we could be drafted to fight. Our people were ruthless. Killed civilians without any concern or remorse. Eventually, as an act of desperation, the Haakonians used a weapon of mass destruction on our colony on Rinax. The moon had been terraformed nearly a century after The Future left, but our colony there is gone now. Including my family.”     “And you aren’t angry at the Haakonians?”     “I was, for a little while,” Neelix admitted, “but in the end, that weapon would never have even been built let alone used if our aggression hadn’t driven them to it.”     “And you see that kind of aggression in Oxilon,” Dexa said. It wasn’t a question.     “I do,” Neelix said.     Dexa cried, and Janeway felt for her. She had no idea what it felt like to grow up surrounded by xenophobia your whole life, but she had some experience with being lied to so she could empathize at least. She looked at Neelix.     “So, what now?”

“I don’t know, Captain,” Neelix said. “I’m really worried, like I said. But at the same time, what can I do? Oxilon seems so dead set on hating the Badoon for perceived injustices there’s no way we could get him to come to a negotiating table.”     “We can talk to him together,” Dexa said. “He listens to me, sometimes. He helped take care of me and Brax when we came to the asteroid.”

Neelix looked at Janeway.     “It’s worth a shot,” she said. She watched as Neelix and Dexa left her ready room together, and sighed. She wasn’t completely sure, but she had a nagging feeling that when Voyager left this region of space, they would be leaving without Neelix. And the possibility filled her with so many mixed emotions, she decided to forego her afternoon coffee and asked the replicator to give her tea instead.

---

    “This is what Talaxian ships look like these days?” Dexa said as she and Brax climbed into Neelix’s ship.     “On, no,” Neelix said. “This one’s older and smaller than most. Still, we’ve been through alot together. Some of those superficial scratches on the hull you might’ve seen on the way in? Some of those the old crate got without even having to leave Voyager’s shuttlebay.”     Neelix continued his pre-flight check, glad he’d taken Tom’s advice to keep in practice despite the fact he rarely left Voyager with it, especially since they left the sector of the Delta Quadrant he’d known the best a mere three years into their journey.     “Why are we taking your ship to the asteroid?” Dexa asked.     “Lieutenant Ayala and Commander Tuvok convinced me that a ship with a Talaxian signature would be less likely to get mining charges blown up in it’s face. Deliberately anyway. Plus, Voyager’s too far away to use transporters if I need to leave in a hurry.”     “You think Oxilon will try to hurt you?” Brax said.     “It’s possible,” Neelix said. “Though I hope it won’t come to that.”

    “Shuttle control to Neelix, you’re cleared for launch,” Harry Kim’s voice said over the ship’s comm.     “We’re just about ready, Harry,” Neelix said.     “Good luck,” Harry said.     “Thanks,” Neelix said. I’ll need it, he thought. He strapped in after helping Brax and Dexa do the same. The inertial dampeners were in excellent shape of course, but if there were any shockwaves or some other cause to do evasive maneuvers, best not to risk the child getting thrown around into walls.

    The trip to the main asteroid was less dramatic than the Delta Flyer’s had been, much to Neelix’s relief, but it had taken informing the Talaxian that Oxilon had left in charge of communications that he was returning two of his people to convince him to allow a landing.     When the three stepped off the ship, Oxilon and two armed men waited for them.     “I was ready to fear the worst,” Oxilon said. “That you had kidnapped them. I am relieved to see I was wrong. Thank you for bringing them home. You can go now, Neelix.”     “Not yet,” Neelix said. “You and I need to have a conversation about your situation here in the asteroid field and the Badoon mining rights.”     “What is there to say about it?” Oxilon said. “They had no people and only a smattering of probes to take samples here. It was open territory based on every space law I know of.”     “I believe a peaceful solution can be found,” Neelix said, “but it needs to happen now, before you antagonize them too much. There’s no popular support on Badoon for just forcing you out right now, but I doubt that’ll hold forever.”     “We’ll be more than ready to defend ourselves,” Oxilon said. “We’ve got mining charges on rocks with low ore count, we can use them to force back any potential invasion.”     “You can’t be serious,” Dexa said. “If we damage or worse destroy their ships, they’ll bring a whole fleet to bear on us. Neelix was right, your ways are going to get us killed.”     “Have the aliens been poisoning your mind, Dexa?” Oxilon said.     “No, that would be you,” Dexa said. “Filling it with hate. The Badoon aren’t perfect, they’ve done things they shouldn’t, and I will never forgive the one who murdered my husband but we can’t keep living like this. We can co-exist with them if we make a real effort.”     “Nonsense,” Oxilon said. “They’re aliens. It’s what aliens always do in the end.”

    “How would you know?” Neelix said. “How many other species besides the Badoon had you met before the Delta Flyer crashed here?”     Oxilon was moved to silence by that.     The guards looked even more furtive, one even lowering his weapon as he appeared to contemplate what was being said.     “The Badoon have traded with other worlds before,” Oxilon said. “My uncle told me he’d sometimes see other aliens at the spaceports on Badoon. And he said they always looked at Talaxians like we were less than them.”     “Maybe that’s just how he interpreted it,” Neelix said. “There’s a race in the Federation, the government that Voyager belongs to, called the Bolians. In their language, the word Frederick is a vulgarity. Among the most offensive words a native Bolian speaker could use. But to humans, the word Frederick is an uncommon but not rare name given to boys upon their birth. And yet, despite this, the humans and Bolians have gotten along for over a century. In fact, Bolians are one of the most common races to be found on Federation ships, apart from Humans, Vulcans, and Betazoids. How could your uncle, who had so little experience with aliens, automatically know what their facial expressions would mean, especially after only a few encounters?”     At some point during the conversation, a crowd had gathered. Quietly enough that Neelix had actually failed to notice while he was maintaining eye contact with Oxilon.

    “Tell them about Rinax,” Dexa said.     “Rinax?” Brax said.     “It was one of our moons,” Dexa told Brax. “back from the system our ancestors came from before they ended up here.”     “What’s this about Rinax? What is she talking about?” Oxilon said.     Neelix told Oxilon, and the whole crowd, everything, including details he’d not shared with Dexa aboard Voyager. Some of the crowd looked shocked and horrified, though if it was at the war, or Neelix’s refusal to fight he couldn’t be certain. The angry ones though, them he was pretty sure resented Neelix for refusing to fight.     “That won’t happen here,” Oxilon said. “If the Badoon just let us keep this asteroid field, there need not be any bloodshed.”     Some of the gathered crowd shouted at him.     “You had us set up mines!” one Talaxian yelled.     “You’ve been telling us the Badoon are savages for years but we’ve never seen them actually do anything!” another shouted.     Some other Talaxians began shouting back at the shouters, defending Oxilon, but as best Neelix could tell from the din they were the minority.     Oxilon was losing the crowd, Neelix could tell. He dared not push his luck though.     I didn’t think it would be this easy, Neelix thought. I can’t afford to tempt fate.     “Get off my asteroid!” Oxilon shouted at him, taking a gun from one of the guards standing next to him, causing gasps to ripple through the crowd.

“Leave him alone!” a Talaxian woman Neelix couldn't see yelled.     “Send him back to his alien friends!” a man shouted.     Brax tried to get in between Neelix and Oxilon, but Dexa grabbed him and struggled to hold him back. Neelix took a deep breath and walked forward.     He had not planned to say what he was about to say next, but the words came to him anyway. He hesitated to say them, knowing there was no walking back from it, and already feeling the guilt starting to well up at the thought of abandoning his crew of the past seven years, especially when they had not yet recovered from the loss of Commander Chakotay.     “No,” he said to Oxilon, quietly hoping that the angry Talaxian in front of him wouldn’t fire. “I’m staying. I’m staying, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure that what happened to Rinax doesn’t happen here.”

Oxilon snarled at him, so angry that he appeared to forget what kind of weapon he was holding and swung it at Neelix instead of trying to shoot him.

Neelix did not have the best rating with a hand phaser on Voyager, even after having done some training with Tuvok, but he was good enough to pull it out and fire it at Oxilon, stunning him.     “He’s not dead,” Neelix shouted, holding up this phaser. “This weapon has a stun setting. He’ll wake up shortly.” The guards who had been flanking Oxilon seemed unsure what to do. Dexa walked up to them. Neelix had to admit to himself he found her confidence in that moment inspiring, and even a little attractive.     “Take him to his room,” she said, pointing at Oxilon. “He is not under arrest, but don’t let him have a weapon. I think we can still convince him to see reason, and if he does that will only make him a better leader.” That last part was directed more at the crowd than the guards.     Eventually, the crowd cleared, leaving Neelix alone on the landing bay with Dexa and Brax.     “So,” Dexa said, “now what?”     “Now,” Neelix said, sadness in his voice, “I go and say goodbye to my friends.”

---

There were times when Captain Janeway hated being right, and as she finished her personal log entry about her mixed emotions regarding Neelix’s impending departure, this was one of those times. She’d seen this coming the moment Neelix told Dexa about Rinax and the Metreon Cascade, but a part of her had thought, or maybe hoped, that Neelix would stick around.     It was unsurprising that Naomi had, according to Samantha, been the one to take the news the hardest. She’d grown up with Neelix. He was her godfather after all, and up until the time when the little girl was mature enough to walk around the ship unsupervised and until Seven of Nine entered her life, she’d spent more time with him than anyone apart from her mother.

That didn’t mean that anyone was happy to see him leave, though.     She heard the chime noise, and said “Enter.”

She looked up, surprised to see Brian Sofin enter her ready room.     “Mister Sofin,” she said, “I wasn’t aware we had a meeting today.”     “We didn’t, Captain,” he said. “In fact we haven’t really spoken much beyond the odd ‘good morning’ since the last time I was on this deck, two years ago.”     “When I stripped you of you rank, yes, I remember,” Janeway said. “You’ve done a good job since then. I know I’ve failed to make that clear, but I’m really proud of how well all of you from the Equinox, even Angelo Tassoni, have integrated into this crew.”

“Thank you, Captain, but that’s not why I’m here,” Sofin said. “It’s about Neelix.”     Janeway nodded. “I’d heard the two of you had become good friends,” she said. “But if you want me to try and talk him out of leaving…”     “No, Captain,” Sofin said. “I mean, I’m requesting permission to stay as well.”     “I’m sorry, what?”     “He told me what the situation on those asteroids is like, Captain, and it seems to me that if this Oxilon has as many supporters as Neelix thinks he does, and if they’re angry enough…”     “You want to be Neelix’s bodyguard,” Janeway said, deducing where the young man was going with this. “I appreciate the thought, but what about your family in the Alpha Quadrant?”     Sofin looked down, the most ashamed he’d looked since after the Equinox had been destroyed.     “I can’t face them, Captain,” Sofin said. “With what I did, what I was party too. My parents are pacifists to the core. They didn’t even fight the Dominion. Not that they oppose self-defense mind you, just, well, I mean Mom’s a fifth generation member of the diplomatic corp. Her great-grandfather was the first Federation ambassador to set foot on the Gorn homeworld. And Dad, Dad’s a xenobiologist. He studied creatures like the ones we killed for fuel.”

“You think they won’t forgive you?”     “They already did,” Sofin said. “I got letters from them through the Midas array. They say they understand I was in a difficult situation, and that I never actually killed one of the Ankari Spirit of Good Fortune directly but…”     Janeway was tempted to just reject the request outright, but looking at the man standing at attention before her, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Mostly because she realized she couldn’t think of a good reason to.     “What do you want me to tell your parents?” she said.     “Tell them that I’m staying behind to help protect a friend,” Sofin said. “And that I hope one day that I can reach a point where I can forgive myself for letting them down by agreeing to help Captain Ransom kill those creatures. Tell them that I’m looking for a second chance to be someone that Paul and Elisa Sofin can be proud to call their son.”     Janeway smiled a sad smile.     “I think you already are, Brian,” she said. “The ceremony for Neelix’s departure is at 1300 hours tomorrow. It’ll be in the shuttlebay, by Neelix’s ship.”     “Thank you, Captain,” Brian Sofin said, smiling as he left.     Janeway sighed.     “Shit, might as well update the log entry.”

---

    Seven of Nine, holding one of Naomi’s hands while Samantha held the other, thought back on some of her experiences with Neelix. She found that, even when she thought about some of the more annoying ones, like him trying to get her to try foods she wasn’t interested in, or his early attempts to convince her to go by her birth name, she was still going to miss him. Sam and Naomi seemed to be using all their strength to keep from crying. They’d known him longer than she had, so the reaction was not unexpected.

She looked at Icheb, who luckily seemed to be taking it better than most. He said he was going to miss hearing old Talaxian stories, but that he felt that what Neelix was doing was admirable enough to warrant celebration rather than sadness. Seven decided she’d explain it to him later.

    The door to the shuttle bay opened, and Captain Janeway gave the order to stand at attention. Everyone did, even Naomi and Icheb. Not every crew member could fit in the shuttlebay of course, but as many as could fit were here for the send off. Janeway and Brian Sofin, whose announced departure had been as shocking to the crew as Neelix’s, stood by Neelix’s old ship. Neelix walked in, looking at everyone, saying goodbye to each crew member, a Starfleet issue duffel bag over his shoulders. Seven realized that without any warning, she was ready to cry too, and had to choke back a sob when, after shaking Marla Gilmore’s hand and giving a Live Long and Prosper salute to Tuvok and Vorik, he walked up to Seven, Sam, and the kids.     “Good luck, Neelix,” Sam said. Naomi grabbed Neelix in a big hug while Icheb shook his hand and offered him some tips on how to spot possible assassination attempts.     I’ll have to find out how he knows that, Seven thought.     “You know,” Neelix said, “I think the four of you are gonna be the ones I miss the most. It’s been a pleasure to watch you become a family.”

    “Thank you,” Seven said. “It has been a pleasure knowing you. Even the times when you could be… vexing, proved valuable to my learning how to be more human.”

    Sam, Naomi, and Neelix all laughed at that comment, and Seven smiled.     “Neelix,” Captain Janeway said. “Before you go, I have one last gift for you.” She motioned to Lieutenants Ayala and Anderson who lifted a crate and carried it onto Neelix’s ship.     “What is it?” Neelix said.     Seven stepped forward. “It is a small version of the technology that allows this ship two-way communication with Starfleet,” she said. “It is limited unfortunately. Much like our own communications prior to Project Watson, it’ll only be usable every 31 days. However, it will allow you to contact us as well. And if we make it to the Alpha Quadrant sooner than projected by any means, be it new technology, or wormhole, or some other phenomena, we’ll be able to let you know.”     “That’s amazing!” Neelix said. “Thank you so much, I don’t even know where to start with how much I appreciate this.”     Janeway stepped forward, and gave Neelix a hug. “Show your appreciation by saving this Talaxian colony from making the same mistakes your homeworld did. Show it by surviving. Show it by bringing the Talaxians and the Badoon together. That’s an order, Mister,” she added with a smile.     Neelix saluted the Captain. “I won’t let you down, Captain.”     Neelix turned around and looked at the gathered crew.     “Goodbye, my friends.”     He waved at everyone, and turned and climbed into his ship, Brian Sofin walking in with his own duffel bag on his shoulders. Ayala and Anderson exited and retook their places in the procession. Everyone stepped back as the ship’s engines powered up and began to move towards the open shuttle bay door. They all watched quietly as it passed through the force field out into the stars.     Seven leaned against Samantha, who kissed her on the the cheek.     “I’m sure he’ll be fine, Annie. They both will.”     “I agree,” Seven said.     “I’m surprised Jaffen wasn’t here,” Seven overheard Tom say.     “He didn’t know Neelix that well,” Janeway said, shrugging. “At least that was his excuse. I get the feeling he’s not a fan of farewell ceremonies. Which is fair. Plenty of people don’t like goodbyes.”     Seven tuned out the rest of the conversation and she and her family left the shuttlebay.     “Mom?” Naomi said.     “Yes, sweetie?” Sam said.     “Could you and Seven tuck me in and tell me a bedtime story tonight?”     “I thought you were too mature for those now,” Sam said, repeating words that Naomi had used over a year ago back to her.     “I know, but…” Naomi didn't finish the sentence, looking embarrassed. Sam hugged her, and looked at Seven. “Neelix used to do that for her almost every night when she was real little, before you and I got together.”     “I see,” Seven said. “Well, in that case, I see no reason not to to do it tonight.” She looked at Icheb while Sam and Naomi headed towards their quarters. “Icheb, before we do any of that, we need to have a talk about how you know so much about assassination attempts.”     “Well, there’s this holonovel that Mister Paris invited me to play with him last week…”     Seven sighed. “Dare I hope this one was age appropriate?”     “Lieutenant Paris does still regret that previous incident,” Icheb said.