• • Sunset: Heroes of the Milky Way
• October 6, 2024

Sunset: Heroes of the Milky Way (Chapter 9)

Alloya Ra’non     

New Arrivals

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“We’re coming up on Apoderus now!” Terra sounds off. 

The Rango is just exiting the wormhole as he calls out to us. 

Now I realize that this is my home solar system, but I have to admit that I never thought to take the chance to see Apoderus’s massive size myself. Massive does not describe it. I know that I can technically destroy it, or light it all on fire, but still, the size of it scares me. For something to be so huge and not be a star… is quite impressive. 

“Damn,” Clay mutters. “That’s bigger than Jupiter, but with… less colors.”

“What’s Jupiter?” Aleti asks.

“The largest gas planet in my home system.” 

“Oh.” 

I try to bring us back to the task at hand, “Terra, how long will it take to find Nolan?”

‘Thirty seconds, Captain,’ the Rango says.

“I asked Terra,” I remind it.

‘Apologies.’

Terra chuckles over the brief conversation as he looks for Nolan’s location behind Apoderus. The giant planet is much too big to find by only looking for some artificial lights behind it.

  In less than a minute Terra’rork has the location. “I’ve located the space station. On our way now.”

“That was thirty-six seconds, not thirty,” Hideo points out. 

‘I had found it at thirty seconds but the Captain had asked Terra’rork,’ the Rango adds. For an AI, the Rango does add some accidental humor to the ship now and then.

Terra’ grumbles, “Sorry I’m not a high-tech computer. You want to try finding a pin size hole in a fruit the size of my hand, then we can switch jobs.”

“I could easily do that.” 

The Rango moves in fast around Apoderus to get to the dark side of the planet. Apoderus has nice shades of swirling blues, which looks to have a much more rigid surface as we get closer to the planet. When we enter the area behind Apoderus, the Rango’s bridge grows dark.

I’ve spent a lot of my life being told I’m supposed to be a giant among people, but giant is in the planet’s name. It’s giant you can’t cut down at the knees. Being in it’s shadow just about the darkest a room has ever felt for me. 

The bridge is quickly lit by the neon lights of our panels. I never realized before how much the bridge’s inner lighting depended on stars.

“Are you sure you know where we’re going?” Clay asks. His are but one of several sets of chattering teeth that I hear behind me. 

Makes sense, he’s a star, he wants to be in the light, but he’s not the only one. 

Aleti and Hideo are strange too. Aleti has never done anything like this, so who knows what’s normal for her, but Hideo should act — I don’t know — less nervous. I can see the goosebumps running up his skin, just like Clay. Maybe it’s more of a stimulus induced response, considering their both mammals. Maybe their bodies naturally seek out some kind of light.

“Of course I do!” Terra barks at Clay. “Any novice could set the autopilot to our destination with ease,” with this information everyone begins thinking that the Rango is on autopilot and becomes at ease, “which means I can fly this in my sleep using only the compass.” 

And the ease is gone. Everyone else immediately becomes on edge. I rest my cheek on my fist. It’s easy for me to have faith in Terra, so much so that I feel comfortable closing my eyes. 

I try to see if I can catch some rest for a few minutes, but the teeth chattering and the nervous talking stop any of that. I settle for the moment to rest my eyes.

“I see it!” Aleti yells out. I open my eyes to see the installation. It’s no slouch either. While it is nowhere near the size of Apoderus, it’s not that far off from the average moon.

“Oh thank god,” Clay gasps.

“Calm down, pansy,” Terra mutters to himself, before warnings start appearing and disappearing around his piloting helm. “Now here’s hoping they’re friendly to us…” 

“Let’s try contacting the installation first, Terra, but if they don’t answer, or answer threateningly, Clay and Hideo will go make a door, I’ll stay to protect the Rango from incoming fire. Get ready to move.” 

Despite their nerves, my orders are quickly followed, with Clay’s eyes burning, and Hideo jumping out of his seat onto his wings and feet.

We move towards the installation and stop a couple hundred miles away once we are able to make contact.

Terra calls, “Captain, I’m calling for a verbal connection now, do you want to speak or should I?”

“I’ll speak,” I tell him.

‘They should hear you now, Captain.’ The AI interrupts Terra just as he opens his mouth.

The grumble tells me that he’s questioning this upgrade.

“Installation Noland of the Regnorian Republic,” I begin saying as if I’m on a mission for them. I guess I never really lost some of my old habits. “This is Captain Alloya Ra’non of the Rango, we would like to dock and inquire about an individual we hope is on your installation. Please respond, we mean no harm.” 

It’s always been protocol, something that needs to be said, but it, sounds suspicious to have to say we don’t mean any harm.  

We wait a minute, then another. Clay and Hideo get a move towards the air lock, but I raise my hand. I want to wait just a little longer.

I order the Rango, “Access their communications so we know what they’re saying to each other.” 

“We can just hack them like that?” Aleti questions, because the powerful AI was the hard to believe thing about our setup.

No, don’t be snippy in your head, Alloya. Soon you’ll be snippy with your mouth too.

Then voices come over the coms slightly muffled.

“It’s the Guardians’ ship, let them in,” one gruff male says.

“But I thought we were supposed to report in if we had any information about them? Isn’t the Captain a fugitive?” another, more anxious voice questions. That remark makes me nervous.

“The same people who have been refusing to send us an adequate resupply? Don’t be daft, we’re not one of them.

“Besides, didn’t you hear? She said they mean no harm.” 

“How are we hearing this?” Aleti whispers to Clay behind her.

“Jackal was a bit of an eavesdropper,” he explains. “He spend a lot of time upgrading and modifying the systems on the ship. Everything except a weapons system, since you know, everyone on board is a walking weapon.”

“Captain Ra’non?” the second, anxious voice asks.

“Still here,” I respond.

“You have been cleared for approach and entry to the docking bay. I’m sending coordinates and access codes to your pilot’s systems,” he says.

“Thank you, soldier.”

“Um, just a civilian ma’am,” he remarks before sounding off. Maybe some old habitats get mixed up.

Terra begins the Rango’s approach of the designated docking station, and we manage to get into Noland without any trouble or violence. 

Let’s hope it stays that way when we get inside the facility.

Terra follows the designated points to the Rango’s temporary spot. Once the ship is parked I give everyone their orders.

“We’re all getting out, no one left on the ship. They trusted us and let us in without an argument, we should act as if we have nothing to hide,” I explain.

“Well, we have nothing to hide, don’t we?” Aleti asks slightly confused.

“Well,” Terra’rork begins, “it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to tell anyone what we plan to do on Riverteria, and it may not be a good idea to tell everyone about the time dissonance if they don’t already know.” Aleti cocks her head, showing him that she doesn’t understand his logic.

“Let’s be honest with ourselves,” Clay mutters to the group, “we’re not the best at explaining things, so let’s not be the ones to break that kind of news. With our luck we’ll start a panic, and when people panic, they hurt each other.”

“Another problem for us,” Hideo points out.

“You got that right.” Clay and Hideo trade this tired smile, as if they just had some bro-moment.

My daughter looks at the two boys with this disgust turn of her lip. Mother like daughter. 

“Sure, I’ll keep that to myself.” 

I sigh and stand up from my seat. I grab my duster and put it back on. When I turn around they’re all up and ready, exuding confidence. 

I nod approvingly.

“Well, let’s go introduce ourselves.”

As I walk past them, I hear Hideo whisper to Clay, “I’m pretty sure they already know who we are.” 

The ramp opens for us, and as I walk down the ship I see Regamorphs waiting for us. The one in the front, I almost don’t recognize because of the new beard.

“It’s been a long time Captain,” I tell him. 

Aleti comes up behind me and asks, “Mom, are you talking in third person? That’s crazy.” 

“No, the man right there,” the uniformed man walking towards us, “was my old Captain.”

The other three follow suit and Terra recognizes the man I’m talking about. He says, “You’re Captain Starden, I remember you at one of our Captain’s accommodation ceremonies.”

“A captain that our Captain pulled out of the fire?” Clay asks for clarification. Based on his grin I can tell that all the talk of Captains is getting ridiculous.

Starden walks up to me and offers me his hand to shake.

“It’s good to see you again First Lieutenant Ra’non, or Captain now. Before this gets confusing, call me Commander Starden, that’s my current title on this installation, Noland.” 

Interesting, after he led our platoon into an ambush he was demoted. I wonder how he got promoted to this new job, or maybe this new position is a promotion in name only. 

“Now what brings you to this research station?”

We walk from the Rango’s docking station to a corridor which I presume leads to somewhere we can talk. 

I inform my old Captain that, “We’re here because we need to speak and possibly take with us any scientist who may have escaped the expansion of the Dion, particularly someone from Omniguard. We think one could help us figure out the… current situation in the Milky Way.”

“No worries, we have several ex-Omniguard here, from the Dion installation and beyond. In fact, I have one in mind named, Tyraid, he’s an Ex-Omniguard scientist.”  

I had to catch myself from tripping. The commander is being more than a little forthcoming.

This has trap written all over it.

I make a light snap of my fingers, something only Clay and Hideo would hear to signal to them to be on guard. I can hear them both moving, one to walk with Terra and the other to protect Aleti if need be.

I try to keep my game face on as my old captain tells me the details of the escapee he’s willing to offer me. 

“Tyraid is being made to work on a number of different projects, but currently, he’s assisting our leading quantum physicist with building a device to controll the time displacement on the level of a solar system.” 

I stop walking after the shoe just dropped, but Starden doesn’t look at me like he’s about to make an empty threat. He looks… genuinely confused.

“Haven’t you all noticed the time dissonance?” When we all sort of tilt our heads at him, he decides to keep talking like we’re a bunch of uninformed dumbasses, which… to be fair, I’m sure we looked it. “Don’t confuse it with time dilation, there’s something very wrong with—”

I hold up my hand to stop him. “Oh no, we know that, what we didn’t know was that anyone was already working on a fix, let alone that you would be so forthcoming with us about it.”

Commander Starden smiles at me and admits, “Alloya, I owe you my life and I owe the cohorts in charge of the republic a kick in the ass. For god’s sakes, when they stuck me on this base away from society I really got to thinking, and wondering about just how stupid I am, how many of us are, and we’re just listening to what we’re told.

“We’re not even really a republic, we just call ourselves that.”

“I’ve been saying that!” Hideo yelled with his arms thrown towards the Commander.

“When? When have you once said that?” Clay questions.

“Probably one of those times where head was muffled.”

Clay goes to hit him, and suddenly, the adults find ourselves ignoring them.

At least I am. This is probably a bad thing to think, but it makes me happy to hear that I was one of many being screwed by the system. 

Then he adds that, “Many others on this station specifically feel that way about you, or really any of you. This station is mostly run by personnel who have been saved one by of you.”

That is strange, horrifying, and oddly soothing all at once. I hate that people we helped are being punished for some reason, but I like that most people here have a reason trust Team Sunset. I have had this worrying itch in the back of my mind that we would become the most wanted criminals in the galaxy, meaning that I would never be able to go anywhere and live in peace. Now I know that may not be the case, I know it’s possible that people don’t believe that I betrayed them.

“That’s very honest of you,” I compliment him, “but now I have to ask that you tell me why people we saved are being put here.”

“I’ll explain in my office,” Commander Starden replies.

Clay interrupts to ask a question, all while his arm is wrapped around Hideo’s neck, trying to choke the Waverite. “I realize that you have important information that we should know, but we also need to talk to Tyraid. I’m sure the Captain can explain to me later what you tell her, but you would mind pointing me as to where our egghead friend might be?”

Commander Starden smiles and turns his head to me, “You taught him to keep his head on track at least. Couldn’t do anything about the snarkiness or impatience, or the…?” Clay squeezes Hideo’s neck one more time for good measure. “… violence?”

I chuckle and shrug. “Eh, it was a funny Human thing that I wouldn’t want him to lose.”

Clay acts offended, “Hey! That is generalizing, there are next to no Humans as charming as I am.”
“Yes, so charming,” Starden comments sarcastically. “I’ll have my assistant lead you there once we get to my office. It’s only a few minutes away.” 

I’m starting to feel like most of my exercise is from walking to people’s offices. I should get an office and make people come to me instead.

During the walk, and duly calmed down, though not completely, I actually get a chance to look at our surroundings.

The hallways aren’t especially large, just enough that Terra’rork can fit, but with no one standing next to him. The walls are all white, as one would expect from a clean empirical station. But now and then, there are drawings, paintings, or carvings on them. One is like a children’s drawing… 

… and one is a frightening biblical drawing of Rega. I rather not describe it.

Commander Starden catches me staring and explains, “After a while we all got bored of seeing these white walls. I encourage that anyone do whatever as long as it doesn’t damage the hull. If we are being made to stay here, why not make it nice to look at?”

“A demon looks nice?” I question.

“Well… to the religious people I guess. Sometimes art is disturbing, and gross, and strange… but also I can’t draw for shit so who am I to tear it down?”

I lean over and mutter to tease him. “You’ve really mellowed out, Captain, you know that?”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No, I suppose not, not yet anyway.”

This Starden is a very different leader from the one I fought under, and there are mixed feelings to be had.. Back then he was headstrong, and arrogant, the opposite of accommodating or understanding, but he was still a soldier who could lead when someone gave him good instructions to follow. 

This man still gives off a vibe of arrogance, but more in a rebellious way where he respects his co-workers and hates his boss. Kind of reminds of how I used to feel about myself when I served under him, and it’s a bit uncomfortable to see the reflection. Did I seem so indecisive, like I didn’t know anything at all?

He is much more laid back than I’ve ever been, though, and I guess one has to be so they’re not driven crazy.

Terra takes a gander of Rega. Whether he knows who it is, is anyone’s guess. “While I respect the skill and craft, the art itself can be anything from embarrassing to disturbing. I would argue whether or not it’s nice to look at.”

Starden shrugs. “Yeah well, can’t get rid of it now without having to get rid of everyone’s work, apparently adults hate that as much as children.”

We eventually get to his office. Starden opens the door and it leads to a middle room that sits a man at his own desk and computer. There is another door directly across from him that’s probably where the Commander spends his time.

Starden turns to the man who is probably his assistant or some kind of secretary. He asks him,  “Tome, can you locate Dr. Tyraid for this gentleman?” 

He gestures to Clay with his thumb.

The secretary, Tome, starts replying before lifting his head.  “Ugh, sure thing Star—whoafuck!” He quickly leans back in shock to see us all standing here. He can be surprised by any of the aliens before him; the huge Techanot, the practically endangered Waverite, or a never before seen Human. 

“I’ve never met a Human before,” he comments quietly. So it was the Human. It’s almost always the Human. 

“Oh, I’m glad that’s it. I thought something was wrong with my face,” Hideo jokes.

“There is something wrong, but he doesn’t want to hurt your feelings,” Clay jokes only for Hideo to hit him in the arm as they both chuckle.

Tome immediately becomes disinterested after watching this encounter. He quickly learned that Humans are like every other guy he’s met. 

He even sighs again and begins searching on his computer, I assume for Tyraid.

“I’ll bring him down to Tyraid once I find out where he is, Commander,” Tome assures his boss.

“Thank you,” Starden goes. “Captain, would your team like to speak in my office?” Then he gestures towards the door across.

“Sure,” I tell him.

Then I feel a tug on my arm. I turn around to see Aleti looking at me like she really needs to ask me something important. “I would actually like to… look around. Can I go with Clay?”

I smirk at her before saying sure. She rolls her eyes at me and turns to wait with Clay when Hideo raises a finger and announces, “I would also like to go with Clay

“Because meetings are boring.. I also want to see the look on Tyraid’s face, see if he recognizes me. It’d be funny if he were one of the scientists I went all spooky on when were  fighting on the Dion.” 

“You know we were fighting over the Dion, not on it?” Terra asks.

“Terra, sometimes you have the vibe of someone who corrects whoever and whomever.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

Aleti and Hideo both answer, Terra’rork at the same time.

“No.”

“Yes.”

They both share a mean little squint.

I tell Tome, “Please get them out of here as fast as possible.” 

He mouths, “I’ll try,” to me.

I towards the old men and say, “I guess it’s just you and me.” 

“I see no problem with leaving the children to wander,” Terra jokes as he manages to fit through the door after Starden. I wonder if it ever gets painful for him to squeeze himself together in order to fit through everything.

Commander Starden’s office is… rather unspecial. He feels more like a business office with filing cabinets, a desk, a rather older looking holographic display that doesn’t move, and seats that still use plastic stands. 

They truly stuck Starden in a little square box to die in, didn’t they?.

Commander Starden moves his hand to a drawer from one of his cabinets and pulls out a pipe with a lighter. He offers it to me as he moves to sit back down in his chair. I shake my head and say no thank you. He also offers it to Terra but he also declines. “Are you two sure? It’s water with a-”

“We get it, you vape,” I interrupt. “Can you now explain what you meant when you said everyone here was someone saved by us?” 

“Hmm,” he mumbles before blowing a few puffs. “Well, maybe I’m over exaggerating when I say everyone, but a significant number of individuals with skills were forced to work on this installation after they were saved by Team Sunset.”

“But why?” Terra’rork asks again. “Why have you all been punished? For needing saving?”

“No, because they wanted to use our skills for their own purposes, but they couldn’t make us disappear without a good excuse,” Starden explains. “When you would save people and hand them off to soldiers, I bet you thought they were being relocated. If they were useful, they would be, but those with any kind of skill and talent… In reality they would be kidnapped or blackmailed into working on this facility.”

“So certainly not everyone we save, just useful scientists, soldiers, and engineers,” I assume.

“Correct, don’t expect all the civilians you’ve saved from burning buildings to end up here,” Starden jokes. More somberly he adds, “A lot of people here are recorded as dead or missing. Probably have families who miss them and don’t even know they’re still around. Some of the more high value individuals or those willing to comply, they got to bring friends and families along, so a decent portion of people here are just… normal. We have a lot of kids born and raised on here even.” 

I have to wonder though, if Starden is the Commander and hates working here, why not try and leave with all the people? 

“Commander, you’re the highest authority on Noland, right?”

He cracks this sad smile. “May not look it with this small office, but I am. What I say goes, and for some reason everyone is relatively okay with that. Tome says it’s because I’m not as big an asshole as I think I am, but you and I know better, right, Alloya?” 

There’s a part of him that is goading me, but truly, he’s just a depressed man.

“I may have to agree somewhat with Tome, the demotion and follow promotion seems to have changed you.”

He chuckles, and grunts to avoid choking on the phlegm in his throat.

His expression falters, and you can see all the lines and wrinkles in his face as he tries to avoid showing what state he’s truly in. 

Show an inch, and you reveal how all the years have not been kind.

“You may be right, Captain,” he responds with a smile. Then he remembers that I had brought up the topic. “Why did you ask about my rank again?”

“Didn’t say,” I tell him, “I was just wondering why — if most people listen to you, and most people don’t want to be here — why haven’t you tried to revolt or leave?”

Now Starden’s smile seems more genuine. “Well, honestly we all talk about doing something like that, a lot actually. We’re actually planning to leave as soon as the eggheads help Tyraid make enough of his do-dad fixes for the time dissonance. Noland has movement capabilities to stay behind Apoderus, and we have a one-time emergency use wormhole drive that some of the eggheads say they can fix to make it for regular use.”

“Sounds like we came at just the right time,” Terra comments. Then he asks suspiciously, “Why wait until now though?”

“Well, before we heard of your Captain’s newfound wanted status, we were afraid that the Regnorian establishment would come after us.”

I get a little confused over what my leaving of the Regnorian Republic has to do with anything. “What changed after I left? The Republic can still send people after you.”

“Soldiers are soldiers, we shoot them, they die, if they attack us today there’s always a chance we can win or at least escape.

“When you were on their side, we were afraid that they would send you. There is nothing we could do against you.”

Aleti Ra’non

At first I thought this whole place was only connecting white corridors, and while the varying wall decorations are interesting, this place was starting to get very boring. 

Then Tome leads us to the center of Noland, which I now realize, is home not just to Regamorphs, but everyone. 

It’s not just our own we’ve been kidnapping.

Techanots walk around and Waverite fly through the sky. There are even a Rivertan or two walking around.

I can tell that it wasn’t originally designed to be a place where people congregate, but the thousands of inhabitants on the space station have turned the center into a massive flea market. 

It’s pretty dingy looking, which contrasts with the clean and proper uniforms many wear, but this only makes it a more interesting picture. I would have thought that they didn’t have many spare resources, but then again, space is where people put their trash. Who knows what they’ves collected from Reganora, or just Apoderus. Then it’s a matter of sculpting.

And a lot of sculpting has been done.

One Techanot woman has a beauty parlor and hair salon where she uses her body’s ability to shift and change to style the looks of people who came looking for a makeover. As we walk past, she’s changing the coloring of a Regamorph woman’s hair from its natural blue to a deep and opaque shade of red. It would take me hours to dye my hair.

A Regamorph man is using filings and materials from scrap around the ship and is moving them on paper to make this pretty imagines using magnets behind them. They remind me of rorschach pictures, but somewhat 3D dimensional.

The food is the best part. I can smell the different food carts and restaurants creating smells familiar, yet foreign. I see one small food cart where a Regamorph and a Waverite combine their own food to make something I’ve never seen before. 

I walk up to it to try a sample. It looks to be a meat I’ve never had on Reganora, seemingly grilled into a sphere. I look behind them and see this spherical grill, where meat is cook from the outside in, instead of cooking up to the bottom. On the piece of meat is a familiar dressing and seasoning from tittle leaves and juice from a roidus, a fruit.

“Hey, look over there!” I suddenly hear someone say. I turn around before I get the sample in my mouth and realize that I lost my group. Luckily, I find one being swarmed by people.

Regamorphs, Techanots, and Waverites alike are all interested to see the Human Guardian, because odds are, they will never get to see another one up close.

I begin walking towards the group around Clay as I also look for Hideo and Tome. I hear one man, who sounds somewhat out of it, say, “Whoa, they really do look like shorter Regamorphs. I was kind of hoping for something more.”

“What does he have on his head? Fur?” I hear another ask. 

I get to the edge and push my way around people. I get there just in time to see people shoving each other just to get a chance to ask him a question. 

Clay is doing his best to contain his grin, at least until one Regamorph guy asks, “I wonder what else is the similar between us.” 

Clay turns beet red. 

I grab Clay by the arm before he answers the guy’s question.

“He’s the Guardian,” I remind them, and him too, “we have important business we have to take care of. We don’t have time for tours, or conversations, or gawking.”

Clay turns his head to look at me befuddled, but doesn’t correct me.

“Who are you?” some Regamorph girl spits out at me. 

“Fuck you, that’s who I am,” I tell her, which makes Clay let out a loud snort.

Then Clay stops in place, with his eyes closed and his ear to the sky, like he’s listening for something.

“Who are you looking for?”

“Hideo and Tome, who else? Let’s go.” 

Then without asking, he wraps his arm around my waist and flies up above the ground. It’s not like he was grabbing me anywhere inappropriately, but you know, you should ask before flying away with a girl.
That being said, flying is still so cool. This time I have people to look down at while I do it. Even with the short distance between us and the tops of the shops, people look like heads with pencil thin bodies. While they look up in awe of us, I can’ help but think of how small they look.

He flies with me over some buildings towards one with steam coming from the roof. He sets us down in front of it and another smell overtakes my senses. I look over to my right to see Hideo and Tome sharing some kind of dumplings that smell divine and look equally delicious. 

Clay lets go of me and walks up to them, shouting, “What are you two doing? We’re supposed to be going to find Tyraid! ”

Tome sarcastically reminds him, “Well, sorry that we didn’t want to wait around for you to get swarmed by your fan club, and for Aleti to go sightseeing.” 

Wow, this guy is a charmer, and by charmer I mean rude.

Then after Tome says that, Hideo mutters, “I should have a fan club.”

Clay defends himself, “Hey, not my fault no one’s seen a Human before. I can’t help it if I get swarmed.”

They continue to argue and I watch, waiting for them to finish. I walk next to Hideo and steal a dumpling from his plate. Before he can say anything I take a bite, and it is really good. I don’t know what meat it is, but it’s surprisingly sweet. 

Now that my appetite is nowhere near sated, I have to get everyone back on task, no matter how much they rather waste my time.

Then I notice them getting louder when Clay says, “Well maybe, when someone under your watch gets mobbed, you shouldn’t leave them to get lost!”

Tome challenges in response, “Well maybe, when you decide go visit someplace,  give some notice so someone who actually cares, can lead you around!”
“We don’t have time to wait around for stuff like that!” Clay yells.

“Not my problem!” Tome yells back.

“Would both of you shut up?!” I yell at the two of them. People around us turn to look and then back to what they were doing, only to do it faster so they can leave. “Come on, we have somewhere we need to be, and I promise that we’ll try better to stay close. Let’s go.” 

It’s like I’m surrounded by children. I don’t know which is worse, Clay or Hideo, how does Mom trust either of them to ever get anything done? It’s like they’re running at superspeed all the time and…

Oh yeah, they do have superspeed. Do they think really fast too? How do they concentrate on anything?

Before I leave and contemplate what it must be like to have all the power in the world, I take the last dumpling right before Hideo can. He shoots me a sad face of betrayal before saying, “That’s mine!”

“Not anymore,” I say as I plop pieces into my mouth. “Now let’s go, we’ve already wasted time, let’s not waste anymore.” 

I look between Clay and Tome as they are hesitant to keep walking, while Hideo is up and sulking. I realize that I’m gonna have to push them towards what I want.

I move towards Tome and shove him in front of me like battering ram, and I grab Clay by the arm and start pushing one while dragging the other. Hideo follows… calmly.

Clay complains, “Let me go.”

“Nope,” I say in a deep voice. He shut up only to allow Tome to complain.

“Hey, watch it! And stop shoving me into people!” If it’s not obvious I don’t care for their well beings at the moment. I shove Tome through a crowd as he scrapes his arm against a Techanot.

“I’ll shove you where I want. Now point us in the direction of Tyraid,” I command.

“But-” Tome starts.

“Now!” I can hear Tome gulp.

It takes some time but we manage to escape the center of Noland unscathed, or well I did. Tome almost certainly hates me now, which is fine; Clay is somewhat frightened and intimidated by me, which is fine; Hideo is mad about his food, which is understandable.

After nearly ten minutes of my rude shoving and Tome’s apologies we come to another white hallway that Tome says will lead to an elevator.

“Just follow the hall, and on the second right is an elevator that will take you to the labs. Floor 42,” Tome says. Hideo turns to thank him but he is already walking away.

Hideo then realizes that Clay and I have begun walking away from him so he quickly moves to catch up. He comes up on my right and gives me a frown to show he is still salty about the food.

“It was one dumpling and I hadn’t eaten yet!” I remind him, since the food had to be what he is upset about.

“Hmph, I wouldn’t steal food from your plate,” Hideo comments. 

“Yes, you would!” Clay calls him out. 

Then we come up on the elevator. I quickly hit the button so we can get on with our day. For superpowered Guardians, who are also supposed to be two of the most feared fighters in the galaxy…  they’re reallyannoying, like normal person annoying. 

We get in the elevator and I make the mistake of standing in the middle. Now I’m the tallest, an inch above Clay and several above Hideo, yet I am the one who is being squeezed in the elevator.

“What room did he say we should go to before?” Clay asks.

“42,” I remind him.

“Um,” is all Clay says as he looks at the buttons numbered in another language.

“Move over,” I mumble as I reach my arm in front of him to push the button.

The elevator makes one bump before it starts moving. Other than that, it feels like we are standing still. I wonder if that’s a side effect of building an elevator for a space station. This also means we are all confused when the elevator door quickly opens and brings us to another hallway.

“Is it me? Or did this thing not move?” Hideo questions us.

“I don’t know, there’s a different hallway, but I didn’t feel any movement,” Clay somewhat agrees.

“Modern elevator engineering. Now which room is the lab?” I say.

We start walking down the hallway, and I begin to read the signs of each room, looking for the lab. I get barely a few feet, before Clay stops me.

“It’s at the end of the hall. Don’t you see it?” he says. I turn forward and squint, but I can’t see that far ahead. The hallway has to be half a mile long.

“How can you see that far?” I ask. Then I remember who, or really what I’m talking to and I quickly correct, “Nevermind, that was a stupid question.”

As we start walking we don’t make much conversation. As we get closer to the end of the hall I start making out the door to the lab. It is literally, the size of the hallway. Instead of a wall there is a giant door, and that giant door has diagonal yellow and red stripes as a warning for dangerous substances.

By the time we get to the door, I’m panting just from the long walk. I really should have put some more time into gym class.

“Not an athlete in high school I’m guessing?” Clay asks me.

I shake my head. “What’s high school? Is that like, a way you rank your education?”

“Yeah, most places on Earth go elementary, middle, and then high school,” he explains.

“Oh, we split it into four schools, first, second, third, and fourth school. Fourth school is really only for law and medicine though.”

“That’s all really interesting guys, but I think I’m going to just buzz for the door to open,” Hideo says. He quickly unwraps one arm and presses this big red button on the side of the wall. As predicted a buzzer sounds, and we wait for someone to come talk to us. Surprisingly, the door opens instead. One should think to vet people before they’re allowed into a laboratory. 

As the door open, we are introduced to several dozen scientists and/or engineers moving around this giant core, maintaining it as others are working on the ground, seemingly on smaller versions. 

“Whoa,” Clay and I say in unison.

Hideo whistles and then comments, “This thing is just like the core of the Dyron sphere, albeit smaller, and not a sun.”
“Really?” I ask. Everything that happened with the Dyron sphere was before I was born.

It was this colossal energy producing machine, born from the arrogance of one man, a man who ended up putting his own people on the endangered species list.

Rogar.

The explosion his Dyron sphere caused killed Jackal who had to sacrifice himself for my mom and Team Sunset to escape,, it stole a third of the galaxy, and spaghetti-fied most of the Lupians.

 If they are recreating that structure, I hope they’ved figured out what went wrong in the first place. 

“Something tells me, Dr. Tyraid is more integral to this place than any of us thought,” Clay adds quietly.

“That he is,” says a happy voice coming towards us.

We quickly turn to face an approaching individual who has overheard our conversation. To say the least, I am surprised to see a very young Lupian boy coming towards us. Why would he not be somewhere else, breeding and reproducing?

He quickly holds out a hand for any of us to shake. Clay takes it as the Lupian inspects the Human hand as he begins to introduce himself. “Hello Guardians, we were told of your arrival and I volunteered to be your guide. I’m Tylorn of the Cylon, I’m a electrical engineer here.” I guess being an engineer made sense considering the padded pants and tank top he was wearing, and explains the grime and slime in the fur on his face, arms, and the goggles now on his forehead. “I apologize if my appearance puts you off. I haven’t had a chance to shower.”

“It’s fine, I think you look spectacular either way,” Hideo jokes.

Tylorn chuckles and tells Hideo, “You’re funny, but I assume you didn’t come here to make me laugh, you want to meet Dr. Tyraid, the Lead Director on this project. Follow me.” As he starts walking we follow him past several other scientists and engineers from the different species working on projects.

Tylorn curiously then asks us, “If I may, what do you want to speak to Tyraid for?”

“To catch up.” 

I explain, “We need to speak to Tyraid about some kind of device that would allow us to go between the planets without losing massive amounts of time between the time zones.” 

“Ah, you want to fix the time dissonance,” Tylorn repeats to himself. “The core you see above us has fixed that for the Noland. It changes time dilation in a certain area so you can live without watching the world fly by you.” 

“Wow! That’s incredible, and exactly what we need.” 

“What’s time dilation?”

“In the way an engineer understands… the closer we are to the speed of light, the less that time passes.”

That’s more of less what the history books taught us, but knowing that the different planets and stars in the galaxy are moving at the same rate, it has to be more thant that. Some force is also keeping the different sections in place as time passes by different around the Dion.

Hideo asks the important questions as I think myself into insanity. “How long would it take you to make another?”

“It took a year and a half. We don’t really use it honestly, we prefer the time zone we’re in, though I would still be surprised if we could part with it.” Tylorn’s response was immediately disappointing. Then Tylorn adds, “But we have several in storage, I’m sure we could let you take one of them.” Well that’s a relief. 

Hideo has an idea about this, and asks, “How many do you have? If you have enough, would you be willing to part with some to help out more than just one planet?”

Tylorn suddenly gets nervous, like he realizes he is talking about things way above his pay grade. “Um, I don’t know, I’m just speaking in hypotheticals. We should just really get you to Dr. Tyraid.”

That ends that discussion since we can’t get any definite promises from Tylorn. We continue under the core that can change the timezone of the Noland. I ask curiously, “Have you tested it?”

Tylorn turns around and explains, “We haven’t personally, but we have made others that the Regnorian higher-ups have taken and used on colonies outside of the Regnorian time zone. They said it worked so we can safely assume others would of the same design. Now we’re really just working on smaller versions to use with smaller fighter and cruise ships.” This explains how the Regnorian Regime kept this a secret from the majority of Regamorph colonies. 

“Might want to grab one for the Rango,” Clay mutters.

“This is all very interesting. I appreciate you indulging me, Tylorn,” I thank him. He is a much better guide than Tome. 

“Oh, no problem,” Tylorn replies.

As we move from under the Dyron core, Hideo asks, “So, if this thing blows up, are we gonna have to worry about the time zones changing?”

Tylorn laughs, and then realizes that it was a serious question. “Oh sorry, no, you don’t have to worry about that. While Dr. Tyraid used the same design to create the Shatter Drive that makes it all work,” so that’s its name, “it isn’t the same as the Dyron core. He said that had a whole different function that he wasn’t privy to.”

“Damn it,” Clay curses under his breath. “Well at least we know there’s a fix for this mess. I just really wanted to know what happened back then.” 

“A mystery for another day, I guess,” I tell him with a shrug.

He has this sigh of defeat when he says, “Sure.”

“Let’s take this elevator here.” Tylorn points it to us. “This will take us to Tyraid’s personal lab.”

“Seems like he has a lot of freedom. Doesn’t it bother anyone that he was a part of Omniguard?” Hideo asks. It is a fair question, considering that Omniguard was an organization that used its money and science to steal and attack colonies across the galaxy. One would think that people would have serious problems with someone who worked for terrorists who would never tell people what they wanted.

“Well, some hold it against him,” the Lupian starts, “but his knowledge is necessary to help the galaxy at large, and the private office is so most people can be separated from him honestly.” That makes sense. He needs to be able to work for them, but he can do so where no one has to see him. 

Tylorn leads us to an elevator on the other side of this expansive laboratory, and presses the button that summons the elevator. We wait and then board. 

This time when it ascends, it has glass windows so we can tell when we are moving, and again we notice that we feel nothing. 

“I can’t tell if this elevator bothers me since I can’t feel it move, or just really impresses me,” Clay comments.

“Maybe a little bit of both, at least until one of us gets sick,” Hideo suggests.

“You first,” Clay challenges. 

“You’re out of your mind,” Hideo replies.

“We’re about to get the right floor,” Tylorn say. We ascend up a dozen floors very quickly, and after not many more we stop. We turn around and exit into a more typical and smaller lab. One with many of the same computers and mechanical tubes as the larger lab, but none of the huge structures.

“I sense him! I’m gonna go say hi!” Hideo exclaims. He unwraps his wings and starts flying over in the direction of two individuals. 

One is a Regamorph, and he is talking to another tall Lupian. I wonder how many are on this station. The Lupian has a fur coat that is a mix of white and gray, and he is balding around his eyes. He’s an old one. 

I haven’t met that many Lupians. The ones that remain are survivors who were scattered across the stars for some reason or another. They usually run in packs, and when most have lost their packs… well, they don’t want to live very long.

That makes an old Lupian pretty special.

The Lupian looks to be speaking to the Regamorph, who has to be Dr. Tyraid, as he handles a coil and trying to connect two circuits. Hideo surprises him by planting his feet around the sides of the contraption.

Hideo obnoxiously yells, “Tyraid! My old friend!” 

Tyraid immediately screams and stumbles backwards while the Lupian bares his teeth. Tyraid turns around as if to run, but suddenly in an instantaneous flash of light, Clay appears behind him, looking down at him as he floats. 

“Sorry doc, you’re not going anywhere.” Both Tylorn and I look between us to make sure Clay isn’t there on reflex. Now both Tylorn and I have to catch up to make sure no one fights.

Tyraid is yelling incessantly, so Clay lowers himself to the ground and grabs him by both shoulders. He tells him, “Get a hold of yourself. If we wanted to kill you, we would have already.”

The older Lupian is removing his white jacket as if he is getting ready to fight. Tylorn, who is much faster than me, comes up behind the older Lupian and pushes his jacket back on. He starts explaining what is happening and the older Lupian calms down.

Tyraid starts breathing systematically to calm himself. When I get to them, everyone else is calm. Hideo then moves to sit his butt on the table while Clay has stopped holding Tyraid, who begins rubbing his temples. The older Lupian looks none too happy understandably. 

“Was that really necessary?” I question Hideo sternly. 

“Of course! I wasn’t sure if this guy was anyone I saw, but don’t worry he is! Your pal here never forgets a face, I wanted to see my old friend again,” he repeats. Hideo then gets off the desk and walks up to Tyraid to plant a hand on his shoulder. “It’s been a while, buddy.”

Tyraid tells him plainly, “You threatened to flay me alive with a sound wave.”

“Oh you remembered! Here’s a tidbit for you, flattery does work on me.”

You know, I bet he really does feel complimented by Tyraid’s fear. 

“Why is he so scared of you? He couldn’t have been with you for what, five minutes on the Dyron?” Clay questions. 

“He asked me more questions when the Republic after you brought me into the brig,” Tyraid admits timidly. 

“I treated him like we would any Omniguard scumbags,” Hideo says, as if that is an explanation.

Clay replies, “Ah, I understand what you mean now.” I guess that was an explanation to somebody.

“Aagh!” comes a loud groan. I turn to see the older Lupian obviously annoyed and with a hand over his face. 

Tylorn, who is standing next to him, thinks to inform us that, “This is my mentor, Dr. Challan, or Challan of the Cylon. He’s helping me expand my-”

“Quiet, Tylorn,” Challan chides, instantly silencing his protegee. “No one’s here for that, but they are here for something. Why are the Guardians intruding on my laboratory?”

“How do you know we’re all Guardians?” Clay asks.

“The only Human to leave that backwater planet was the Guardian, and the friendship you have with the Waverite Guardian is well recorded by cheap news outlets, despite how unimportant it is.” 

Based on the way Challan is talking about them, he knows them through what other people say, and he still doesn’t care for them.

I can see both Clay and Hideo getting irritated based on their expressions and the last thing we need is another confrontation. I walk in between the stare down going on between Clay and Challan against better my judgment, and hold out my hand to Challan. 

I introduce myself, “I’m Aleti Ra’non, a new member of Team Sunset. We just came so we can use a Shatter Drive to be able to work on Riverteria.” I expected Challan to disregard the handshake, most stuck-up individuals don’t shake hands with just anyone. 

Challan looks me over, analyzing and forming some sort of biased opinion of me. Not anything I haven’t experienced before from an instructor. Then surprisingly he lifts his hand and encompasses mine to shake it.

Challan reminds me that, “You’re the child of the Captain. I recognize your last name, it’s one that will be hard to live up to.” 

Ah, so that’s it, he paid my mother and her legacy respect, not me. This happens to me too, and I should be used to it by now. “You say you need a Shatter Drive for Riverteria? Then why are these thugs intimidating my co-worker?”

“Thugs? I don’t rob people on street corners!” Hideo exclaims. I think he is offended, but his tone still seems far too playful to be serious. Hideo has to work on tone.

Clay does this fake chuckle. “Rather be a thug, than an ex-terrorist.”

Challan acts as if Tyraid association with Omniguard isn’t an issue. “He was offered a chance to further science, and now he furthers it with us. He traded one evil for another so why bother judging?”

We call the Regnorian Republic a regime, mainly for kicks, but they’ve never bombed anyone, kidnapped people, and invaded our institutions. 

“Are you seriously trying to compare my government to a terrorist group? Sure they do shitty, shady stuff, but they never attacked innocent people by spreading terror. Even now, we worry that they’ll steamroll the other races through plain old fashioned war. At least we’ll look you in the eye before we shoot you. He helped bomb your library! Your house! He traded an evil for something natural, a superpower.”

Challan is taken aback by what I said, and so is everyone else. All Challan can muster is, “As naive as you soundI, I apologize, I didn’t mean to say your people, I just meant-”

“Our government, the government where we choose and elect those who represent us,” I finish for him.

Everyone look between us as this has obviously gone to a more personal place.

“Sure they do, how about that Shatter Drive?”

Challan arched his brow.

“We need a Shatter Drive so we can be on Riverteria without the world passing us by,” I explain. “Without Riverteria and help for the Waverites, there is no chance against the Regnorian Republic if we go to war.”

Challan just looks at me confused and somewhat distraught. He asks, “Can you tell me how fast time is movingon Riverteria?”

I inform him, “It has only been two weeks on Riverteria since the Dion expanded.”

Challan stares at me in silence for sometime. No one else says a word, not brave enough to break the tension between us all.

Challan finally responds by saying, “I’ll talk to the engineering teams and Commander Starden about transporting a Shatter Drive once the wormhole drive has been fixed.”

“Thank you,” I say. After that, he turns is back and starts walking towards the elevator. Tylorn looks between us and his mentor, then nervously leaves to follow him.

“What do you want with me?” Tyraid asks us.

Hideo goes back into his usually self by wrapping an arm around Tyraid’s shoulder and asking, “Well now, you’re going to answer some questions since I know actually important ones to ask. Like, is Tyraid your first or last name?”As I sigh, comes a loud BANG! as a drill blasts through the wall.