“I have a thing. It’s like a plan, but with more greatness.”

–The Eleventh Doctor

“What on Archavia happened here?”

Aertimus looked around the wreckage of the infirmary which had until very recently housed Hala Nejem. The two idiot guards were just coming around from being stunned; Dr. Geen was tending to Rixie, a nasty cut on his own head leaking greenish blood. There was no sign of the Major, nor whomever had attacked the group.

The only thing that gave him some solace was that Eyrn was going with the crew of the Lem as they were taken to detention. She would look after them.

“There was a woman,” Geen said, looking at a medical scanner, and shaking his head. “She attacked Imperator Tam without warning. Major Nejem escaped, along with another human who had been with the Imperator. I assume it must have been Izzy’s friend, Alex.”

“Where? Show me.”

“In a moment. I’m trying to get her stabilized. She took a stun-probe right to her artificial larynx. It gave her about twice the dosage a normal stun would deliver, enough to be potentially dangerous. Ah, medic – I need two cubic centiunits of cortexifan,” he said to a young first responder whose sleeve bore the interlaced triquetra of a paramedic.

“Kir, any answers from them?”

Kir Oden was bitterly angry. These men were supposed to be better than this. “No, Navarchos. Young woman came in, had a keycard. But the datacenter was destroyed, probably by the attacker – they both left their post, and neither activated the alarm.”

“Somebody activated the alarm.”

“Yeah, I think it may have been the attacker. My guess is that they wanted to get medical help here. Don’t think they intended to kill anyone. Their target must have been Nejem.”

“Why would someone want to attack her?”

“Maybe they didn’t. Maybe they wanted to free her.”

Aertimus ran a hand through his hair absently. This was just great. He’d had a reasonably good idea of what his next moves were, but that was all going to change now. Because in just a moment, Kir was going to say….

“Sir, your sister, her group…could they have been involved?”

“They wouldn’t have attacked Rixie, Kir.”

“Well, you did activate her. Maybe that threw a wrench in their plans. I’m not saying they did, sir, don’t get me wrong, but I think we had better bring them in for questioning. Figure out if they know anything. If nothing else, it eliminates a potential wildcard going forward.”

Aertimus knew that Kir was right; with the station at double-black, anyone who could potentially be disruptive would need to be detained. The woman married to a human, and their half-human daughter, while the station was dealing with a crisis involving humans? They were obvious.

“All right. Assemble a small crew; they should be in their hotel suite. No force more than necessary, Kir; it’s my sister and brother-in-law. I agree we should question them, but we don’t have to be cruel.”

“Yes, sir,” Kir said, snapping off a salute, which Aertimus returned. As Kir filed out, Aerti turned on his pad, and hit a few keys, decrypting just one folder on his desktop and making it readable by the communications grid. He knew they were monitoring it; he’d just have to hope Naskia was paying attention.

* * *

Alex led on numbly, trying to figure out where he and the human could go.

It wasn’t what he wanted to do. What he wanted to do, desperately, was turn around and go back to Rixie, go back and make sure that whatever had made her scream had died at his love’s hands. He hoped with frantic fervor that Rixie had made her suffer.

But Rixie had given him a directive, and while that would rarely matter much, right now it meant everything. She had stayed and fought to give him and Hala time to run. So run they would.

Well, metaphorically. Right now they were walking. Still, the principle was the same.

He sighed as he felt his ear again. No, the comm device was still gone. Probably dropped it when he’d been hit. So…

“So are you from Earth?” the woman finally asked. Alex paused for a second, and turned back to her.

“Yeah,” he said. “Sorry, guess we haven’t really had a chance…Alex Carey,” he said, reaching out his hand.

“Maj. Hala Nejem, deputy chief engineer on the Stanisław Lem. How…how did you get here? Did the JTSA send another ship? What am I saying, of course they didn’t. But….”

“It’s a long story,” Alex said. “Very long. Let me put it this way: what year is it?”

“Hm? 2155.”

“Yeah. Okay. It’s a 142-year-old story.”

“What, did your grandparents get captured by these aliens 142 years ago?”

“No, I did.”

Hala laughed nervously in reply. “I don’t know if now is the time for jokes.”

“Always time for jokes. But I’m not joking.”

“You can’t be much older than 40.”

“Can be. Am. Although I try not to be older than 22 if I can help it. Which lately, I can’t as much.”

Hala looked dubious. “So how is this possible? Have these giants cured aging?”

“No,” Alex said, looking both ways at a junction. “Their genes did that all on their own. So a number of us have borrowed those genes. Not enough to make us stop being human, but long enough that I should live about to at least 300 – or in Titan years, my late forties.”

Hala looked dubious, so Alex added, “This is usually the point where I make a witty remark about humans living faster and dying younger and everyone laughs and laughs, but I’m dead serious, Major. I was kidnapped by a couple insectoid smugglers who’d gotten through the Imperial blockade and made it to Earth. Luckily, they got caught, and more luckily, Rixie took me in afterward.”

“Rixie – the woman who was questioning me?”

“Yeah,” Alex said, turning away briefly. “Yeah, Rixie has been…she’s…I know you don’t know her, or have any reason to trust her, but she’s saved my life more times than I can count.”

“You live with her? Are you…are you like a pet?”

Alex laughed. “No. No, Rixie might have thought of me that way when she first took me in, but…not for a very long time. She’s my….” Alex struggled for the right word; friend was wrong, girlfriend felt like not nearly enough, and if Rixie ever found out he sometimes thought of her as his wife, she’d never let him hear the end of it.

And frankly, even wife didn’t seem like enough. Not for her.

“Rixie is everything to me,” he said, quietly. “Everything.”

Hala’s eyes opened wide as saucers. “You…you love her?”

Alex turned and smiled.

“With all my heart. And a lot of effort.”

“Does she love you?”

“I really hope so; we raised a kid together.”

“What?”

“He was adopted.”

“Oh. Oh, that makes sense. Obviously, interbreeding…well, that would have to be impossible.”

“Not at all. I can’t wait to introduce you to Sorcha….”

* * *

“So…I’m sorry, I still don’t quite know…your father was human?”

“Is human,” Sorcha said. “I’m hoping he isn’t going anywhere for a long time.”

They were sitting in a small, private office suite, the kind travelers can rent by the hour. Sorcha had paid for three; she figured it was probably good to lie low until the station’s public address system stopped warning them all that the station was at double black alert. The two native Terrans were staring up at Sorcha, trying to determine how this young, beautiful girl speaking perfect English (with more than a hint of a Northern Irish accent) could possibly be simultaneously the size of a small office tower.

“But…how?”

“Team of scientists, lot of money,” Sorcha said.

“Also, sex,” Alesia added, stretching. “That was involved too.”

Viktor’s eyes bugged out at that as Sorcha blushed; Tatenda chuckled kindly. “Your father is a brave man. I have three children. I remember what children are like at two. Or fourteen. And I didn’t have to shout up from their feet to be heard. Very brave. Conceiving a child would be the easy part.”

“And you haven’t known Sorcha very long,” Alesia said.

“I probably haven’t gotten much easier. And my teens lasted a long time. Thanks to my Titan heritage, I age about six times slower than a full-blooded human.”

“My God, 36 years with a teenage daughter? Your father may be the bravest man I’ve ever heard of,” Tatenda laughed.

Viktor jotted something down on his gool. Sorcha and Alesia had explained the retroviral treatment, and how it had lengthened both of their lives; still, a retroviral treatment would have meant nothing if the two species were not so closely related. That they could interbreed, at least after genetic therapy, made it quite clear, at least to him: somewhere, somehow, they must have been one species.

“You’ll get a chance to meet him. Once the security guards calm down, we’ll bring you back to headquarters.”

“For what good that will do us. If they’ve captured the Lem, it may simply be time for us to surrender.”

“I…” Sorcha said, but she did not complete the thought.

“Lysis, Zhan, Sorcha, Alesia, Alex?”

“Sorcha, affirm?” she responded to the calldown. The others quickly checked in, save Alex.

“Go to ground. We’re being detained.”

* * *

Naskia had, in fact, been paying attention.

It had been kind of Aerti to give them a five-minute warning. She wasn’t happy about it; she intended to allow Niall to lay into him angrily once they saw him. But between Eyrn and the packet of information he’d sent her, she couldn’t say he was working against them. Not exactly.

“If arrested, go willingly,” Darren was saying, “but try not to be. We want to get as much intel as we can before we’re detained. Speaking of which, last bit I can pass along, courtesy Lysis and Zhan – they are taking the human crew to the detention level, that’s what got called in to the command center. Twat is with ‘em, so they’ve got someone on their side.” Darren sighed. He couldn’t blindly trust this to Eyrn – but save possibly for his wife, there was nobody he trusted more.

“All right, we’re going offline now, so your comms will not work. If you haven’t heard from us for 168 hours, try to get off the station any way you can. Headquarters, going dark.”

Naskia quickly passed the information along to Avalon; as soon as she got receipt, she nodded to Niall, who punched a few more buttons on a pad, causing all the screens to go blank; it would take them months of cryptographic analysis to recover the data they’d accumulated. By that point, it would hopefully all be over.

The door’s buzzer chimed.

Naskia quickly lifted Darren up to an air vent, giving him a nod and a smile. She looked down at Niall, and nodded toward the vent; he smiled, and shook his head. She wasn’t surprised; she knew he wouldn’t leave her.

She scooped him up with her left hand and gave Darren a quiet salute with her right; he returned it, and then took off.

“I’m coming,” she said, as the knocking grew more urgent.

She opened the door, and six armored peacekeepers entered the room, weapons drawn. “On the ground! Get on the ground!” they shouted. Naskia sighed, but she complied.

“Undeclared human, sir,” one of them said, as Kir entered the room. He ran a quick scan. “Registered to Freeman, Naskia.”

“I see,” Kir said. He frowned, and looked at Niall carefully, as if contemplating something. Instead, he said simply, “Search them for weapons, and take them to the detention level.”

“What are we being charged with?” Naskia asked; she had a brother who was an attorney, and he’d trained her well.

“Nothing yet,” Kir said. “You’re being detained as potentially dangerous sentient beings on a military station during a double-black alert. You will be questioned, and hopefully for your sake, you will answer truthfully. Starting with this: where is your daughter?”

Niall looked at Naskia, and she back at him; nothing good could come of this.

* * *

“What do we do?” Alesia asked.

“We stay here,” Sorcha said. “At least for the moment.”

“We’ll be sitting ducks,” Alesia said.

“True, but if we go out, they could see her.”

“Excuse me,” Tatenda said, sitting on a tape dispenser. “I’m not sure I can give our friends orders, but I can give them to you, Viktor. We’re not going to leave this room until we have some idea of where we’re going. Do either of you know the station?”

“Only the basic layout,” Alesia said.

“Once the initial sweep is done, the civilians will come back out. We can blend in then,” Alesia said.

“If we could get to a shuttle….”

“Not without the rest of the crew,” Tatenda said.

“They’re in detention,” said Sorcha, frustrated. She was human; the last thing she wanted to do was sit around and wait.

“Well then,” Tatenda said. “There may not be much we can do.”

“There is,” Sorcha said. “Lessy, you could take Tatenda and Viktor and run for it.”

“No,” Tatenda said, surprising even himself.

“Beg pardon?” Lessy asked. “That’s a pretty good idea, Commander Marechera.”

“It is,” he said. “But I have seen what it is like for humans who decide to run, to hide, to scavenge, to live like a mouse. Our crewmates are in custody. Quite honestly, even with your help, Sorcha, and yours, Alesia, we are not going to free them. We will surrender. Our place is with our crewmates.”

Tatenda looked over at Viktor. “That is to say, I will surrender. Viktor –”

“Sir, you’re right,” he said. He smiled at Alesia, and goggled at Sorcha; these girls were doing their best, but Tatenda was right. It was over.

Sorcha wanted to shout at the men not to be idiots, but she took a look at Lessy, and sighed heavily. “I disagree with that decision, commander, but…it’s your decision to make. Do you want us to surrender now?”

“No,” Tatenda said, with a quiet smile. “Let them find us if they want us.”

* * *

Tig watched Ted as he rested fitfully on the battered mattress.

He had been tormented by those…those…they weren’t women. Women wouldn’t treat a sentient being like a toy to be destroyed. Hell, women wouldn’t treat a shaar like a toy to be destroyed. They were monsters. She hoped they suffered when they woke up.

She stroked his hair, idly, and dabbed him with a washcloth; he looked to be mostly bruised, with some abrasions. She didn’t think he had any head trauma; he was just exhausted by the ordeal.

They had stripped him naked, she noticed; adorable as he was, she had grabbed the washcloth’s twin, and once she concluded cleaning him, she covered him again. She did not wish to embarrass him, nor make him feel at a disadvantage. She had debated stripping herself, to put them on equal footing…but she didn’t know how he would take that, and besides…she was scared of what he would think.

She kept watching him for signs of movement, signs of life. He had thanked her, and just the thought of it warmed her soul. She had been afforded the chance to protect him, and she’d succeeded. If that was all she got, she would cherish it always. She wanted to make sure he recovered fully. If she could ensure that he lived a happy life, safe and free…that was all she wanted. She could die happy.

* * *

“Careful, Imperator. Sit up slowly. Do you know where you are?”

Rixie opened her mouth to reply, but no sound came out; her artificial larynx had been damaged by the attack. She tried a few times before mouthing some profanity, and signaling for her pad.

Doctor Geen signaled to a paramedic, who brought it over; Geen punched a few dozen keystrokes in, and handed it to his patient.

Rixie sighed; at least she was familiar with this program.

Alex okay? she typed, looking at Aerti.

“We don’t know. We haven’t found him or Maj. Nejem.”

Rixie nodded. Dr. Geen, am on Titan Station. I was attacked by a woman; I remember being stunned.

“That is a good sign, Imperator. And do not worry about your voice; the data we retrieved showed the damage is not major; indeed, very brief endoscopic repair could restore partial functionality in about 15 minutes.”

No time. I need to find Alex.

“Rixie, we’ll do everything we….”

Rixie looked angrily at Aerti, and simply hit repeat three times on the pad.

“All right,” Aertimus said, finally. “As Alex is probably with Major Nejem, frankly it’s good if you can find both. But stay careful, Rixie.”

“Navarchos Bass, I have not cleared her for duty yet,” Dr. Geen said. He looked over at Rixie. Seeing the look on her face, he said, “You are cleared for duty, Imperator.”

Thanks. Rixie got to her feet unsteadily. She needed to find Alex; more than that, she needed to find the woman who had attacked her, and beat the hell out of her.

* * *

Someone knocked on the door.

“Is our time up?”

The knock grew more urgent. Sorcha sighed heavily. She’d been arrested before; she wasn’t going to do anything stupid. That didn’t mean she was looking forward to it.

She opened the door, and two peacekeepers stood there, staring at her. One spoke into a wrist communicator. “Centurium Oden, we have her. Ms. Freeman,” he added, “I need you to step out with your hands behind your head, and get down on your knees.”

Sorcha looked back at Alesia with a mirthless half-smile, and put her hands behind her head.

“Sir,” the second peacekeeper said, as Sorcha came out. “Three humans.”

“Three?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Okay,” the first peacekeeper said. “Orgin to base, we have three humans.”

Sorcha stepped out of the office, and was about to get down on her knees. That’s when Orgin said seven fateful words.

“Contact animal control. We need a cage.”