Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Homeworld - Tales of the Vjel-Amaj: Aira's Quest - Part I ❯ Chapter 4 - Off Duty ( Chapter 4 )

(A narrative voice voice speaks as your eye focuses on the most edge of hiigaran territorial space)
Born generations after the planet fall upon Hiigara, the Kiith Amaj is a young Kiith, unlike those originating of Kharak. Unlike the others, whose powers reach throughout hiigaran space, the Kiith Amaj only consists of seven grouped star systems, as represented upon the kiith's emblem and the naval segment regime following the will of the kiith. Independency and unification, for which this kiith stands, is the main trait of its existence. Disregarding any heritage, the Kiith Amaj is proud to welcome and embrace those who are willing to join, no matter if those who wish to join are descendants of other Kiithid or not - should it be Sobaan, S'Jet, Gaalsien and others...

and even... Manaan.

Yet. None would ever believe how such a small Kiithid would possess such significance as of today, for they possess a unique connection with the enigmatic Bentusi, much closer than the prominent Somtaaw - as a thankful reward for supporting the Grand Bentus in many dangerous occasions- who usually only would respond to the presence of Karan S'Jet...
(End of narration)

-----------------------------------

Chapter 4 - Off-Duty


= Somewhere in the gaseous lost space within the M'randara Star System =


Alone. Surrounded by the endless regions of clouds and the beautiful but mysterious wakes, it is Aira who is encircled by this somewhat strange feeling. Ever was she to hope to see something alike her homeworld in her life and finally, it happened - Yet the distance view of the shrouded sun now, glowing in a different color, enclosed by the never-ending prismatic fields of colorful nebulas left her soul in fear. As she stared upon the structure, memories once again filled her mind... A tale... A tragedy.

- "Is it you, Rahji, the one who lost its love one?” -

The silence of space remedied her fear as she closed her eyes.

She was in safety... and the terror of her past faded away. But it was her ears that began to hear something.

A faint cry... A faint plea... distant and far beyond...


- Invitation... -

Slightly unease, Hailynn looked upon all her screens, only able to see nothing but low detailed displays of the region that surrounded her. All screens only showed nothing more than a circle representing the systems sun and an object very close to ship, representing the vaygr fighter. Noticing her discomfort, the Captain raised his head and demanded with a simple voice, “Report.”

“My surveillance systems are on minimal focus, sir. I don't think I can confirm that we `phasejumped' out of danger - but... I can't see any incoming danger either. - Or maybe we did clear the region?”
“Don't worry, ma'am”, Officer Orelis announced, “All surveillance systems will return very shortly. As far as I can say, Captain, I am able to confirm that the ship is no longer marked by any hostile guidance emitters.”
"Confirmed", an observatory operative added, "None of such."

Giving out their reports, every bridge operative spoke one after another:

“Engineering, all green. Phasedrives are on cooldown, sir. Only minor instability in the power grid, but nothing our maintenance crewmen can't handle”, one female officer reported.
“Fire control sees nothing more than the vaygr fighter out there.”
“Sickbay reports only negligible injured casualties that occurred during the blast wave impact. Other than that, both marine teams and medical personnel are treating the `refugees' under custody. The supervisory officer is requesting your orders as well, sir. ”

“The ships status is green. No damage sustained. < 'Other than that crash that Vaygr did, Hailynn snitched'> ”, the last officer announced.

More voices filled the bridge. Albeit the many speeches around, Hailynn, who tried to contact Aira over her intercom, only heard the girl's voice whispering, speaking in a totally different language - that strange language, for sure. Yet, the girl did not respond at all. She only kept whispering. Before hiigaran woman spoke up, her screens immediately caught her attention as they rebooted, once again filling her screen with data and a currently distorted live-feed visual of the ships surroundings. With the main screen and the secondary ones of the bridge beginning to focus, the whole bridge crew stared at them, waiting to see what they would reveal.

As the screens aligned with all sensory systems, the crew finally was relieved from the tension.

“Unbelievable... The `phasejump' was a... success, after all. But...”, Hailynn said, but then her voice dropped.
“What is it, Sub-Commander?”, the Captain asked.
“I am unable to verify our position by myself, but just by judging by heart, I am afraid we have blind-jumped several HUs closer to the systems sun... only deeper into the shrouded regions... We are still... lost.”
"Hey, the sun changed its color, too", somebody recalled.
"You're right...", she replied.
“Heads up, Commander”, he replied, “Despite our blind navigation, we are cleared of the hostile Kadeshi Needleship that ambushed our units.”

Remaining quiet for the moment, Hailynn thought about the words of her captain. He was right. The Needleship was capable of destroying the `Vjel-Amaj', but they did manage to escape. The least success next to the successful initialization of the rather experimental phasejump...

Aira spoke further, still whispering to herself. She has seen the exact formation of streams among the sun more than once in her life, but never was she in this star system. Why was her mind feeling aware of this? Her view resembled the same structure of the symbols in her past... Did she find Rahji, the lost? She was too young to remember... but her mind nonetheless made her whisper the tragic tale that even caused a tear to run down her cheek. Again, she heard that distance cry... That cry coming from the very deep of the endless shrouds...

Worried about Aira, Hailynn requested to leave her station. Allowed to leave, Hailynn detached herself from the seat harnessers and other systems and pressed a few keys at her side of her seat, causing it to slowly retain itself from her station, giving her more space to lift herself. Just as she rose herself, she felt weariness from sitting so long for endless hours along with a hiccup, coming from the side effect of the pills she took. Making her way passed the stations of others and captain's chair, she looked up at Aira's station that resided at a higher position at the center of the bridge.

The blue holographic sphere and layers of other untouchable pictures and clouds surrounded the girl. Her lips was still moving...

Just what was wrong with her, Hailynn thought, and made her way up to her, taking the integrated ladder as a quick way to get up to her spot rather than taking the slipway on foot on the other side, and shook her. Still not responding, Hailynn spotted a crystal drop reflecting the light upon her cheek.

A single tear.

The girl's eyes did not blink at all. Hailynn's head poked through the many layers of the holograms and observed first at what this strange girl was looking at before looking upon her.

This was the first time that Hailynn insisted to take a sharp look upon this girl. Never was she really able to take a long look. Aira, being rather smaller than Hailynn, was probably the most strangest looking girl she and the crew have ever met. Hidden among her forehead were strange looking platings right at the borderline of her hair. Her hair had a strange tone, rather pale than blond. Despite its color, her hair was silky, straight and gently held by unusual 'clams' causing the hair to flow further behind her neck.
With the unusal color of her eyes, Hailynn spotted the strange but beautiful markings, somewhat tattoos, among the side of her face.
Looking slightly down, Hailynn's eyes wondered about this girl. For the past three months, this girl was the most important person of the crew and yet, she did not wear the common service uniform of such. Instead, she wore a beautiful robe, riddled with many symbols and patterns of her heritage. Up to now, Hailynn still did not know how old this girl was. Just simply judging the develpment of this girl, she was not really a 'very young girl' but more of a young adolescent on the cusp of being a 'young woman', somewhere at the age of 17.

Only staring back at Hailynn, Aira's glare at the holographic sun and the clouds around seemed to have full control of her. She kept on speaking as if she were under trance. Removing Aira's hands from the orbs, Hailynn then laid her hand upon the girl's cheek,then rubbed it slightly.

Shocked by surprise, Aira woke up from her trance, her mind mentally freed from the system - Feeling a familiar warmth upon her cheek with her back leaning upon the seat as she only saw the head of Hailynn poking through the holo-sphere ...

“H-Hailynn? W-Why are you here?”, the lost girl asked.
“Heh - I should be the one asking, girl. What were you talking about? Who is this... `Rahji'?”

Aira lowered her face...
“I cannot... explain, really”, the girl responded, shy of speaking to her.
“Well, don't worry, I'm sure we -”, Hailynn speech was disturbed by the deep voice of a transmission emitting from one of the speakers.

Among the intercom, Hailynn heard one of the female operatives wanting to talk to her, ““Captain. Commander Delixa, Ma'am, its the vaygr pilot requesting to speak with us. What should I do?””

“Go ahead”, the Captain added, “I'll leave it to you, Commander Delixa.”
“Yes, sir. Patch him through over the bridge's speakers and my intercom, Averin. Thanks.”, Hailynn said and looked away from Aira, her face aimed at the speakers from her spot.
“”Yes ma'am - Done. - Attention, vaygr pilot, we are listening, you may speak.””


Again, the deep voice of the vaygr pilot spoke, interfered by quality his affected communication system:
“”Hiigaran Cruiser... Well, well. It looks like we have escaped. I am... impressed. One mighty ship you have there...””
“”Vaygr pilot.””, Hailynn called out as she stood next to Aira's seat, “”Yes, we are clear of all hostilities...””

Hailynn paused, not knowing what else to say. Just by staring at the one of the screens, questions began to fill her mind.

Who was this man?
Why was he here?
Why was all of this happening?

“Err, ma'am?”, the communication operative asked, wondering why she paused.

“”What is wrong, `Lady Commander'? Something... breath-taking, I assume... I know what is wrong...””, the vaygr pilot continued, breaking the silence.

Hailynn took a deep breath.

“”You are asking yourself... What is this all about?””, he asked, speaking slowly.

A few of the bridge operatives turned their heads, looking upon the female commander as she stood high above at the Aira's station. Hailynn did not know what to say.

“”...Needless to say how one hiigaran could be at unease with so many Vaygr onboard.””
“”Enough.””, Hailynn demanded, “”Yes. I do. I want to know what is this all about.””

“”The `hiigaran curiosity' once again wanting to uncover secrets””, the deep distorted voice spoke over the commline, “”I am willing to answer. Yet my fighter has sustained moderate damage...””

The memory dashed shortly through her mind, remembering the vagyr fighter leaving a trail of smoke among its path.

“”One moment, vaygr fighter. Stand-by.””, Hailynn said and pressed one of the buttons on her shoulder-radio unit, causing the commline to be held on stand-by. Looking down at one of the technician officers as she leaned her body against the railing, she made an annoyed face and shook her head, “....”

“What is it, ma'am?”, communication operative Averin asked, “Is something bothering you?”
The superior commander looked down at both the communication operative and one of the technicians, still with a somewhat disgruntled expression.

“I can't believe what I am about to do”, she replied and rubbed her face, “Captain, with your permission, I would like to -”.
“Granted.”, was all what the Captain said, not even turning himself up to her. Alas, it seemed as if he expected her to ask what he already sensed.
“<Am I that predictable?> *she sighs to herself and clears her voice* I remember one of you saying that the vaygr fighter is too large for it do dock onboard?”

One of them nodded, “Yes ma'am. Our fighter bay and hangar actually only provides capacity and compatibility for hiigaran strikecrafts. I don't see any chance of that fighter docking. It would not even fit through the launching bay. I don't know but if you ask me -”

“No wait. There might be a way”, another one of the technicians added and explained his thoughts: “Look. The ship has three primary mineral storage bays... and two secondary cargo bays - having one almost over-filled with the refugees. The other cargo bay is stored with equipment, but it is large enough for a fighter of such size to dock. We would require a while to relocate all the gear and a bit of help considering cabin pressure control, but it just might work. His fighter should be able to dock through the belly or dorsal side of cruiser and can be loaded into the junction between the bays. Once we have the junction's access gateway locked, we can repressurize and load him to cargo bay II. I'm sure we can even maintain his fighter there with the space provided there.”

“Wha-, you've got to be out of your mind. What if this is some suicide attempt just to blow up the ship from the inside -?”, the other technician snitched.

“Don't be silly”, the other one who suggested the idea replied and shrugged with his shoulders, “That vaygr doesn't seem to kill his own people. And hey, I'm not the crazy person who asked, y'know... err”
Again, the few slowly turned their heads back up to Hailynn, who was still leaning against the railing.

“-Eh, sorry ma'am. I mean.”

“No. You're right”, she sighed again and lowered her eyes shortly. Shaking her head, she focused her view upon the screen of the Vaygr fighter floating in space, “But I want to know what this is all about. I already assume this man will only talk once he is allowed to dock. Proceed with all preparations for this...unusual... docking procedure for the vaygr fighter.”

“Yes ma'am. We will need quite some time but we should make it.”
“Will do. Contacting crewmen for support”, the other man announced.
“I will contact a few of the marines”, the female communication operative added, “I'm sure a few can be sent to the bay for security measures.”

Hailynn's mood raised itself slightly. She knew that becoming a commander of a ship was never going to be an easy task, but she nonetheless smiled shortly as she watched the officers getting to work. Looking back the vaygr fighter upon the large main screen to left, she used her right hand to reopen the channel by pressing the same key upon the radio-unit of her left shoulder and called out:
“”Alright, vaygr fighter. This is the plan.””

“”I am listening...””

“”To maintain your fighter, we wish you to board the cruiser and also explain what this `situation' is all about.””

“”I understand your `curiosity', Hiigarans. But how is that to work? With all needed... respect... but I now also see that my fighter is larger than your `puny' fighter bay.””
Hailynn smiled shortly again, a bit over-proud, “”We are working on `preparations' to adapt to the docking of your fighter. We will need some time for that. When we are done, one of my officers will contact and guide you through the docking procedure. ””

“”I understand. `Only the enduring shall be rewarded'. I await your call, Hiigaran.””

With the sound of vaygr pilot ending the transmission, Hailynn lifted herself from the railing. He was a mysterious man indeed.


“Ma'am? Commander Delixa?”, somebody asked from below again, but this time on the other side. Being called for her attention, Hailynn walked around Aira's station to the other side and looked down beyond the railing.

It was one of the lead miners onboard the `Vjel-Amaj' of Kiith Paktu heritage. Easily distinguished that he was a miner, just by seeing him wearing the common jumpsuit for miners, he and his subordinates belonged to the ship's mining service unit for the extraction of any source of mineral in space. The mining stock market always offered many opportunities for any Kiithid in financing practically anything just by trade. The mining crew onboard belonged to a company not really known to Hailynn. She only knew that this company was well-spread among hiigaran space and probably beyond. Despite the military agenda onboard, these people were independent and autarkic in their intentions...

“Greetings, Asad. How may I help you?”, she asked down to him.
“One of our scientists has detected a class `7'mineral strain region situated approximately 4100km away from our position. At least our coupled hyper-wavelength telescopes were able to reach that far through this dense region with the aid of sensory. ”

“Class seven what??”, she asked, though not sounding interested.
“Yes”, he confirmed and gave a grin, “A `high density yield' - in other words, a mineral rich field of energy... Just waiting... to be harvested.”

“Well, hmm, we are clear of danger for now, but I am still worried about that... Kadeshi `Needleship'. We have yet to confirm our position and if you ask me, I do not want to meet that thing again. With all this trouble that happened, I do prefer to get out of here as soon as the hyperdrive module has replenished itself from the recent jump.”

“Ma'am, please. I know our objectives were to rescue and extract those in need of help - but now that we have them safely onboard, I do insist we should fill the our storages. It would be a highly profitable for our `finances'... Only the stupid would ignore it.”

Damn, you Paktu, Nabaali and LiirHralis, she thought, Greedy for credits and all what use can be found from those fields.

“For the sake of `Amaj' and respect to you, Asad. I don't think we will survive another inhibitor trap if we stumble upon another Kadeshi ship.”

“I mean - c'mon, Missy. It's for our Kiithid-, ya know.”

Already tripping the wire by being “disrespectful” to her, Hailynn began to become annoyed by his requests. He was right that ship needed to be maintained over their own finances, but it was the sheer danger in this star system that disturbed her greatly. This was a really bad time to be flying on a sightseeing tour through this `place'. Bringing one argument after another, Hailynn found no way into pleasing the man's request, who even ignored what happened to one of the freighters just a single hour ago . Needless to say, this conversation was about to burst into a loud verbal argument...

“-but right now we don't have the need to be flying across the galaxy just to pick up some gravel and get us killed!”, Hailynn argued down to him.
“Oh yeah - sure! As if the hiigaran navy - bless S'jet - were going to pay enough credits other than a simple `thank you. very kind of you. get lost you'!”

“You can't be serious, Asad! Do you even know what the frell happened to one of those freighters...”
“Um...NO!”
“That fracking Kadeshi Mothership blew it away with a fracking focused ION beam!”
“Well! - Then - But the Mothership ain't out there anymore! We escaped it! ”
“ngh!”, Hailynn grunted loudly as she slammed her fist against the railing.

“Both of you, seize the argument!”, the Captain's voice demanded.

Both immediately stopped. She breathed a few times, calming down... slowly.

“Commander Delixa, I understand your concerns - and I, too, have the same - but we are in safety, nonetheless. Delixa, over the meantime, the `Vjel-Amaj' will still be capable of escaping through a second `phasejump', should we ever be compromised again. As of your request, Dr.Asad, permission will be granted.”

Clapping his hands once together with a big grin, Dr. Asad replied with sleezy graditude in his voice, “Thank you very much, Captain! You all won't regret it, that for sure. Now if you will -excuse meh-”, Dr. Asad said up to Hailynn victoriously, “I need to spread the good news and have the resource collectors and crew ready for the job.”

Hailynn sunk her head between her shoulders.

That guy is going to kill us... Oh why is the captain always on `their' side...

The Captain continued his speech, ”Though I do not like the idea of staying here too long in this system, I wish the `Vjel-Amaj' to relocate itself to the designated energy fields for mining extraction with cruise flight IV after the vaygr fighter has completed the alternative `docking sequence'. With cruise flight IV, we should only require approximately 10 hours to our destination. With this speed, we should be able to escape any inconveniences, should they emerge from hyperspace or elsewhere. Delixa, you must understand that leaving this place empty handed is not good. We have already depleted much of our stored resources just to reach this system on schedule. We are capable of returning but we would still require to harvest resources on the way back.”

Having the Captain's word over hers, she was not willing to object his order.
“As you command, Captain, I will return to my station and -”, she replied with a silent sigh.

“Negative”, he replied interruptingly.

<huh?>

“I want all of you to be replaced by the next shift as soon as possible.”, the Captain demanded suddenly.

Many surprised faces turned themselves over to the Captain's spot. He continued with his explanation, “Never should your physical health exceed the limits unnecessarily... ”

“Sir? I do not understand?”

“All of you have been awake and on-duty over more than four shifts ever since we have been assigned to this operation. All of you have willed yourselves to receive inhibitor pills to keep your senses fully focused over the time. I cannot allow this to continue. The result would be devastating to your health.”

Many people of the bridge looked at him, wanting to say something, but instead, they looked up at Hailynn who for sure knew what was best for them. Just as Hailynn was about to say something, the Captain's words caused her mind to think about it. The others and herself have been awake as he said beyond 24 hours, excluding Aira, who had very rough times at resting during the long flight of the hyperjump. The rush for rescue caused them to exceed the limit by taking treatments - but now that they have somewhat completed the assignment, there was not any need anymore to worried about.

“You all deserve rest”, the Captain added.

“But-”, she was about to say - but the Captain interrupted her, “Don't worry about me. I do not require any sleep or food right now. A skeleton bridge-crew should be able to maintain the ship and command as we venture to the mineral extraction point. Engage condition yellow as well.”

The Captain had always been a strange man she never understood...

“Very well, sir. Everybody, you heard the order”, she replied to everybody within the bridge.

Seeing nearly everybody raising themselves, a large portion of the crew saluted to their Captain before they left the bridge. It only took a short while until a small number of new faces entered the bridge, taking over several primary stations of the ship.

“Well, Aira *sigh*”, Hailynn said and turned over to her, “I guess you'll be coming with me. Permission to leave the bridge.”

“Granted, of course.”

Aira began to feel worried as she heard the man they called `Captain' wanting them to leave the bridge. She did feel slightly tired, but she was indeed afraid of leaving her station. She hesitated as Hailynn offer her an open hand to help her out.

“Don't be shy, girl.”
Reaching out, her hand softly touched Hailynn's, who then helped her up and through the layers of the holographic displays and sphere.

With a slight surprise, the Captain suddenly asked, “Delixa? Does Aira have her sidearm?”

Looking at the girl again, Hailynn did not spot any holster on the sides of her hip, “Err, no sir.”
“Aira, please. Take it with you. Security level two is active.”

Shortly climbing back upon her station, the adolescent girl opened the small metal hatch to the little cabinet where she stowed it and pulled it out along with holster with its small integrated magazine straps. Shortly taking it away from her small hands, Hailynn pulled the black handgun from the holster and did a routine check-up by pulling the rear end, spotting a small but lethal round loaded in its chamber, letting go of the sled causing it to retract and checking the magazine fed into the gun. She did it so fast that Aira's eyes could not follow the steps she did.

Pushing the gun back into the holster and fitting it upon the right side of Aira's hip, Hailynn added, “Okay, she has it now. Be careful with it, Aira. The gun is lock and loaded and will unsafe as soon as the trigger is pulled. Just letting you know...”

A nervous feeling overcame the as she climbed down from the station with Hailynn. Making a shy but akward farewell, Aira shortly turned herself to the Captain, “May prime bestow you, Mister Captain sir - huh`?”

Hailynn gently grabbed her and pulled her arm, exiting the bridge with her, “Let's go. - and its `pride', Ai' - not `prime'.”

“Oops - but - Um.. uh... Ma'am...”, she nervously asked, “W-Where are we going?”
“Messhall. I am starving!”, Hailynn said - undermined by her growling stomach.

Aira's eyes went wide open as Hailynn said `messhall'. Oh no - so many people...


- ...Hailey's heroes... -

The crew messhall was quite full of people. Only very few familiar faces and many more of strangers Aira had never seen before. The majority belonged to the ship's main crew, while others seemed to be civilians, such as scientists and miners. It was pretty loud for the girl, needless to say how many looked upon her since she was the one who actually looked strange - Some even with questionable staring, wondering what this beautifully but foreign clothed girl was doing on a hiigaran ship. Many stared upon her, just at her looks. She leaned her head to the side.


Her eyes were unlike those of hiigarans or vaygr. They shimmered a blue-purple color. The side of her face and her right side of her hand were tattooed by beautiful looking stripes and ancient patterns. Despite them being strangers to her, she knew that she was the only girl with a patterned robe in the messhall...

She tried to understand that `she' was the `stranger'...

Hailynn, whose heavy appetite did not hold her back from finishing the meal, sat across Aira who hid her view downwards. Aira's tray was still loaded with food and she still had not taken a single bite. After taking a sip from her cup, Hailynn settled it down and crossed her arms while putting her elbows upon the table, looking at the girl who sunk her head. She had never seemed so depressed as of today - that is, more depressed than ever.

“Aira, what's wrong, girl? You haven't eaten anything.”

At first, she hesitated.

“Hmm”, looking around, Hailynn started to understand what was wrong. Suddenly becoming aware, she came to the fact that she forgot how the young girl did not like overcrowded and loaded places. Hailynn's hunger must have made her blind about Aira inner fear... It was so arrogant of her to pull her into this place again...

“Oh my, Aira, I am so sorry.”, Hailynn apologized to the timid girl.

“Huh? No-No, its... okay. I'm alright -”

Hailynn smoothly raised her hand, “No. I totally forgot how you hate places like these, it is not you who needs to be sorry, Ai'. Look, tell you what. Let's get out of here and let me bring you to the officers' mess. Stupid of me not to bring you there as usual thanks to my hunger... but it's a place where you can be alone...”

“Yes - I would enjoy more quietness... but please -”, the foreign girl squeaked with soft voice, Hailynn listened carefully as she heard her please. The hiigaran officer assumed leaving her alone was the only thing she could do as an apology. She knew that Aira sort of hated company and noise. During the last months, it was common for Hailynn to leave Aira alone during her meals where the girl would afterwards head to her quarters.

“Please - don't leave me alone there anymore either... I would really... enjoy... you with me there - O-Okay? Please, don't leave alone... anymore.”

Hailynn leaned back slightly. An unexpected answer for sure, but she returned a smile to her and answered light heartened, “Sure thing, girl... ”. Hailynn avoided to think about it. She did not know why all the sudden Aira wanted her company.

“M-maybe I am asking... for too much... but could you... promise to take care of me?”, she asked with her foreign accent, “Could you be my... caretaker?”.

A surprising question.

Hailynn needed not to think twice, her answer would be yes for sure - but the thought did exist that the recent events were possibly responsible for her worries and fear.

“Ah, uh - I'm sorry - I am asking for too much!”, Aira's shyness overwhelmed her as the embarrassment she felt become too much. Already foreseeing the shy girl to get up, Hailynn already laid her hand her shoulder, the touch of Hailynn's hand already stunned the girl that she caused her not even to move a muscle.

The noise around them stayed the same, voices talking, plates, forks and knives sounding the usual noise - yet the silence remained between Hailynn and the girl who asked her to her caretaker.

But then, just as Hailynn opened her mouth, her eyes looked beyond Aira... Something disturbing.

“Oh no...!”

A group of men and women entered the large and filled messhall from the other end. Easily distinguished by their uniforms and looks, along with the few colored to their appropriate Kiithid heritage, it was easy to say that they belonged to the strikecraft pilots of the `Vjel-Amaj'. But it was the person at the lead of the group, who Hailynn feared - Too late, their eyes crossed.

Waving straight at Hailynn passed the countless heads of others, she was marked by the attention of that tanned-skin woman who lead that group...
"Yoooouuu-whooooo!", Hailynn's eyes read from the woman's lips far away... from that annoying and loud-mouthed Kiith Manaani woman, Kaydaana "of the" Manaan, as she would say.

Hailynn's heart skipped a beat as it crossed the staggering eyes of the manaani woman. She was practically paralized. Leaving the place in a hurry too would probably excite Aira too much...


- Of mythical tales... Of scientific facts... -

(Narrative voice)
Every star in the galaxy has a story of its own - A story of its birth, A story of its death - and beyond. Some beings of the galaxy witnessing the story of stars, tell this story to their ancestors. Every believer of the truth never match each other albeit all trying to tell the story of stars among others. Some call these ancient stories “tales” - blessed by their religious belief, while others call these stories “facts”, based on the scientific studies of observation and naturalness. Among generations, those who opposed the belief were either liquidated or proselytised. None, the belief or the fact, would ever dare to unite one another - despite them both telling the truth of the story...
(end of narration)


Hailynn's eyes followed the group approaching their rowed table. She sighed, even a hasty escape would not have helped with the crowd in the way.

Great!, Hailynn's thoughts shouted, Kaydaana...

“Mah - oh - my, look who weh have here, eh?”, Kaydaana said loudly with the usual famous manaani accent, raising an eyebrow with great interest at the foreign girl in front of here.

Feeling a soft slap on her shoulder, Aira shocked up quietly as heard the loud voice surprising her. Aira turned her head to the right and slowly looked upwards.

Scanning upwards, her eyes revealed the view of a somewhat dark-skinned woman, her hair colored just like of a reddish chestnut and with stinging dark green eyes. She wore a tight flight suit, only wearing boots, leggings and torso pieces. The flight suit was colored just alike the symbol of her Kiithid heritage and Aira's eyes, purple-blue - which she carried with very extreme pride. Aira never really met many Kiith Manaani among her way, but for sure, she has never met a person, not to mention a woman, with so much energy and who was proud about every centimeter of her body.
Aira's thoughts came to a point where she began comparing both Hailynn and Kaydaana. Every time they met, there was some always some `harmless hostility' between the two. The manaani woman, though only slightly smaller than Hailynn, always subtly showed off with her body, which was in fact more curvy, slightly... `bustier', and athletically built than Hailynn's - and every time Aira felt like she was in the crossfire on their rivaling turf...

Kaydaana, being ranked Lieutenant Colonel, was in command of the small squadron unit operating on board the `Vjel-Amaj' - and it seemed they both tried rivaling in any possible discipline. Comparing their ranks, both equaled each other, having Hailynn's being naval while Kaydaana's being naval space force. Whatever Hailynn were to say, Kaydaana always had the better remark, subtly insulting her as usual.

The pilots of Kaydaana's unit now surrounded both Hailynn and Aira. A few sat down right next to their superior officer, while others sat down left and right of the girl as Kaydaana remained behind her, putting both hands on her as if she were precious treasure. Both the shy girl and the annoyed superior officer were surrounded by Kaydaana's "henchmen".

“Don't any of you have any respect to the commanding offi-?”, Hailynn said.
“Oh - my bad, Hailey -”, one of the male pilots next to her said and then began to chuckle shortly, “Oh c'mon, my-navy-commanding-career-is-more-important woman, is that how you say hello to your ol' wingman? You can't be serious, Honey-Gunny!”

Aira continued to observe the people around her. Judging by their speech to her, Hailynn probably belonged to their unit long ago, perhaps until she decided to start serving as a superior commanding officer. Aira did not have much knowledge of ranks, but she did remember the name `Gunny', referring to `Gunnery Sergeant'... Maybe - huh?

Aira's face turned red in full embarrassment as Kaydaana leaned down, embracing her neck softly from behind and laying her head gently upon the top of her. But it was not that, that was giving Aira the embarrassing feeling, it was Kaydaana's disregardful way of hugging her, her flight suit covered right breast cushioning her cheek away.

“Aww, cutey. Betcha old lady boring you with her blabbering, huh?”, the manaani woman snitched and hugged the girl a bit more, “Don' worry now that I'm here, hun-!”
“Hey hey, guys, knock it off and - Hey, who you calling old lady?! You're even older than -”, Hailynn grunted but was interrupted by Kaydaana.

“Ah-ahahha, stop lyin', Honey-Gunny, no-need-to-be-ashamed-of!”
“Ngggh - Look everybody, we just had several shifts on our backs...”

“Yeah”, another one of the male pilots said with a deep voice, “Heard about it.”

“We are tired...”, Hailynn added.

“Know about it.”

“And we could need a break...”

“But we AIN'T here for it, Gunny! Wouldn't happen like this if you wouldn't have left the `Strike Force'! Not for a night with a vaygr, ha!”, he yelled.

The angle of Hailynn's mouth edge frowned downwards in annoyance.
“You bet!”, Kaydaana proclaimed loudly, “But, now that you've mentioned it...”

Aira's head, which was already as red as a hiigaran honeymelon, was now shoved ahead by Kaydaana's body slowly that was leaning slightly closer to Hailynn while her arms still rested upon the girl's neck, “Hey, Hailey, yah don't happen to know about that Vaygr fighter pilot, do yah?”

Aira looked ahead from this awkward angle to Hailynn.

“Whoa - What a minute”, Hailynn said and now grinned too. Aira was surprised how Hailynn's attitude switched from annoyed to self-secure, “Don't tell me you're interested in that Vaygr guy. Please - DON'T tell me somebody's skills in maneuvering strikecrafts... still arouse you -?!”

“ - And may the gods of Kharak strike mah soul!”, Kaydaana followed up to Hailynn's sentence with a strange glare in her eyes, “Ya shoulda seen the man in action - takin' down those lightning fast torpedoes!”

“Yeah”, that deep voiced pilot added, “She kept chattering about that Vaygr guy. But hey - she's right. That guys has some skill alright. He blew most of the torps on his own actually.”

Aira's eyes looked back at Hailynn - who seemed happy that she did not have to listen to the radio chatter between the fighter pilots back then during the rally-point rescue operation.
“Don't get to enthusiastic, Kaydy -”, Hailynn said with a firm voice and rose an eyebrow, “This guy is still a vaygr. We are still enemies. You should hate them as much as the rest of us do...”

“- And that man `s just like those-”, Kaydaana added and leaned back slightly, laying one of her hands on her chest, while letting Aira straighten her head, “- who are only able to get this manaani's heart racin'. Can't hate 'em forevah, `Career-ley' - that's why ya still a single - virgin.”

Hahahahhahahhahaha -eh. Every pilot circling Aira and Hailynn laughed but then immediately stopped - exclude Kaydaana who chuckled further. The men and the other female pilot stopped as they noticed that Kaydaana already pushed Hailynn's nerve over the edge. Manaani checkmate, they say in such situations.


“But anyways. This mission of ours was a bit tedious after the missile hunt until that Kadeshi ship blasted on that freighter”, one of the men continued, trying to do his best to switch the topic, “Man, if we would have been out there, we might have been killed. Heck, that ship had some heavy stealth somehow -”

“Oh c'mon -!”, Kaydaana interfered, “Now yer soundin' like Hailey!”

“No really. Actually - ”, the man concluded, “This place gives me the creeps. How could a place such as this star system develop like this?! Where are we? In the Garden of Kadesh?!”

Aira suddenly rose her head when she heard the name that caught her attention.

“Have you been ever there? Can you tell me more about it?! Please!”, the girl anxiously asked to him.

“Easy, easy- girl... Was never there. Only heard stories from those S'Jets white-suit scientists who are onboard. But hey, they had much to talk about -”

“Yeah - right”, that deeper voiced man snitched, “You only tried to learned more about that single woman scientist onboard, didn't you?”

“Heh-heh, Manaani tactics I learned and am using, ya got me there. But no, really. At first, she was boring me and mentally slaughtering me her talking - but when she started taking about gas clouds, gas giants, why she was here, how the realm of the 'Kadeshi Nebula' scientifically came to existence and how it's `birth' is alike this star system was amazing!”

“Well - tell us about it”

The pilot scooted closer and explained, “Look. Kadesh and the M'randara system both used to be some kind of gas giant. No, not just gas giant like Hiigara VII and VIII - No, SUPER gas giants. Their masses waaay”, he swung his arms to the outside, “over our imaginations, people. She said that not many `hypermass' or whatever gas giants like these existed. Now you all heard of the story of scientists in science chips explaining gas giants so I won't bore you with that talking. That scientist lady then talked about all this stuff about the millions of colors that existed in this system, saying stuff like `those red and green clouds are the evidence for the existence of this system just formed by countless numbers of colliding gas giants' and stuff like that that just blew my mind. And blah-blah-blah*Sigh* - however it looks like I impressed her with my interests and she seems to be looking forward to meeting me again, so I still have some hopes, heh-heh.”

“-No...”, Aira shyly said.
All pilots looked surprised at her, even Hailynn.
“Whaddaya mean, `no', honeh - hm?”, Kaydaana asked with big green eyes.

“That's not how it happened... Not like that!”

Aira, unaware of her sudden shouting voice, caught most attention of the messhall. Despite the messhall being a very large room, conversations seized among the tables around them, having others turning around shortly - wondering who shouted.

“That's not how it happened. That is not what happened to `Kadesha' and `Rahji'”

“Kadesha? `Rahji', who's Rahji?”, he asked.

“Rahji is what you call... M-M'randara, today.”

“Hey girl, listen. This s'jet lady was the one who told me all about this. S'Jet! Hello? S'jet! It's based on hard'n'heavy scientific facts and not on some `myth'!”

“It's not a `myth'!”, Aira shouted in her foreign accent, gaining more attention from others. Hailynn was surprised to see the girl actually defending the knowledge of her beliefs. She shortly looked down, spotting that Aira's hand had that necklace tightly in her hands again.

Aira now stood.

“It is not a `myth'!... It is... a tale”, she said and calmed down again, dropping her shoulders, “A tale of the lost... love between Kadesha and Rahji... A love like no other. Beyond eons before our time, both loved each other when our galaxy was young. It was a forbidden love, for Kadesha was a Maiden of another Sunfather and Sunmother of the Sungarden while Rahji was `unclean', not blessed or born within the Sungarden. Love bound the two. Both not willing to ever release the bound to each other, no matter the cause! It was only that the rage of the Sunfathers that struck upon Kadesha's love, cursing both him and his beloved one. Rahji survived... but the embrace to Kadesha perished. Their bond was released and Rahji fell into the deeps as of being `unbound'. Eons passed and Kadesha everlastingly cried, for she would never see Rahji again. As result of her lost love... Kadesha refused the Sunfathers' will and the grace of the Sunmothers to bound with a Sunborn. Her lost love tormented her soul that she... stopped... her existence. Her once everlasting soul perished away, left was the everlasting beauty and her sorrow - The tears that fell after her lost love. Tears sent after him.. For every eon that fell, Rahji heard the sorrow cries of Kadesha - until her sacrifice for her lost love caused and her cries seized. Rahji's sorrow was heard only - once - before he ended his everlasting fall... Rahji died in sorrowfulness of his lost love, his remains lost in the galaxy... We Kadeshi praise Kadesha. I never thought my `essence' were ever to be embraced by Rahji. And Kadesha's sacrifice shall never be forgotten - Her lost loved one never to be forgotten and never should any essence desecrate the tale. Rahji is no longer alone for my essence has found him! Maybe my only hope in... returning one of his tears to Kadesha...”

Aira was slightly out of breath as tears ran down her cheek in sorrow for Rahji. Noticing the silence, she looked around. Her surroundings were silent as she told the kadeshi tale. Only amazed faces stared upon her. The girl's beliefs went through her, that she somewhat lost her mind in the tale.

Despite it being already known, Aira just outed herself again as of being of kadeshi heritage...