We slept until the next morning. By then, huge news came in.
“Noah!” I exclaimed, lifting my tablet. “Wake up! We won the war!”
Noah woke up, groggily lifting his head. “Whuh?”
“It’s all over the news. We must’ve slept through it, but it looks like the main GU fleet was able to take control of the Haivu home planet yesterday night!”
“Wow… that’s great, Saka.” Noah said. “We can finally get out of here.”
“Absolutely.” I agreed. “We can go back to what we were doing. We should have enough money to buy a new ship, thanks to Ceel’s military contract.”
Since the recruits from Maralu were actually civilians and not exactly soldiers, Captain Ceel was paying us like we were private mercenaries instead of actual enlisted soldiers. This was also the reason why Noah’s identity wasn’t exposed yet. If we were actually enlisting, then the ID checks would’ve caught Noah. The contract also meant that she would be paying us once the war ended, since it was legally one “job.” Four months of pay would be coming in at once, and with Noah and my funds combined, it should get us back up on our feet. Not to mention the savings I already had before Maralu was destroyed weren’t bad. It wasn’t too much, but it wasn’t like I was completely broke, either.
“What are we even going to do after we’re out?” Noah asked. “Back to looking for a lead on Earth’s location?”
I sighed. “Yeah, that’s really the only thing we can do. We’ll just have to do odd jobs and interrogate any poachers we come across.”
“Back to the same old, then.” Noah said while yawning.
He stretched his arms into the air, and climbed down his bunk. He grabbed his tablet to check the time.
While Noah was doing that, I checked the military tablet that was assigned to our room. There, we would find our orders, messages, and updates on the ship. According to the military tablet, the Spear of Kain was being sent back to GC space. The warp drive technicians had secured some important data on the Haivu superweapon, so the Spear of Kain was delivering it back to the capital. The rest of the fleet had secured the Haivu home world and had forced the Haivu to surrender. Apparently, the GU council and whoever the leader of the Haivu was were writing up a treaty.
Yori had sent Noah and I messages, too. They didn’t congratulate us for winning the war or anything, though. Yori jokingly called us military dogs and they hoped to see us soon. They said that they’ll keep working as a military contractor, making and selling their suits until they made enough money to open up their own shop again. Yori didn’t have insurance on anything, apparently. Which would’ve been a smart move. I should’ve done the same for my ship.
The rest of the day passed by relatively uneventfully. Random soldiers that we passed would occasionally praise us for our little takeover of the Haivu warp drive. I wondered how they knew it was us specifically for a little while before realizing that I was the only Togumo on the ship and was easy to identify.
The atmosphere on the ship was light and relaxed. Soldiers that were tense and uneasy just a day ago were now lounging around and relaxing. People loitered in hallways and the living quarters, conversing about their postwar plans and bragging about their achievements. Even Captain Ceel appeared to be relaxed. She always wore a hardened expression and was usually raising her voice, so it was a little jarring to see a relaxed Ceel strolling throughout the ship, talking to random soldiers. According to her, our Hero’s Medal award ceremony would be soon. I wasn’t really looking forward to that. Ceremonies weren’t really my thing.
We met up with Keshi, Sil, and Needle and exchanged stories about the battle. Apparently, Keshi, Sil, and Needle executed another boarding of a Haivu ship after ours. It took a lot longer than the first, but they managed to capture the bridge after hours of fighting. Needle almost had a mishap with a grenade, but otherwise, it went smoothly. It wasn’t to say that we lost soldiers, but at least the trio was safe.
Noah made up with Keshi, Sil, and Needle as well. Keshi and Sil sincerely felt bad about what they did, and it was hard to stay mad at Needle. His constant silliness could get annoying sometimes, but Needle was kind of like a dog. He may do something stupid or annoying, but you just can’t hold a grudge about it. It went away as soon as he did something funny.
The trio closely listened to Noah and my story about our little incursion into Haivu territory. We’d cut out the parts where Noah lost his cool, of course, but otherwise we gave them the full thing. I felt bad about continuing to keep things from them, especially when I considered them as close friends at this point, but it was for the best. Maybe one day.
After we exchanged war stories, we talked about our futures again. Keshi, Sil, and Needle had decided to stick together and work as mercenaries. They were experienced, skilled, and made a great team, so it was the right choice. I felt like Needle especially would be wasted being somewhere like the military. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t be seeing action, since the GU had two other fronts with other factions to worry about, but the military was simply too restrictive for him. I was surprised that Sil was leaving the military though. She had proven herself to be an effective commander and led our platoon quite well. Sil making the difficult but correct choice of leaving Noah and I behind was proof of that. I wasn’t surprised Keshi was going back to becoming a mercenary, though. Even though he was a little normal and maybe a little bland, he’d been a mercenary at Maralu for quite some time. Like me, he desired the freedom that mercenaries had.
Of course, even if we went our separate ways, we agreed to stay in contact. It didn’t hurt having people you could rely upon out there.
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We still had a day of travel left, but the Spear of Kain was almost at the GU capital system. Noah and I were planning to take full advantage of our opportunity to get into the capital to find leads on the whereabouts of Earth. Ceel would be dropping any Maralu contracted soldiers off once we had arrived, which meant we automatically received full access to the system. Usually, you needed credentials and a whole lot of paperwork, but Ceel bypassed it in favor of speed. She’d been ordered to deliver the details on the Haivu superweapon, after all.
Ceel sent Noah and I a message saying that we were expected up on the bridge for the medal award ceremony soon. I was wondering when she was going to do it, but a part of me was hoping that she would do it once we arrived at the capital so we could sneak off the ship before it happened. It appeared that my hopes were dashed, however. Noah and I hastily cleaned our suits and got ready to head for the bridge.
As we were on our way to the bridge, Noah spoke up.
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“You know, this is the second time we’re going to the bridge even though we’ve been here for a quarter of a year.”
I stroked my chin. “You’re right. The little guys like us aren’t important enough to be up there anyways.”
“Well, we’re getting some sort of medal. That has to make us important, right?” Noah said, jokingly.
I scoffed. “I don’t want to be important. It’s too much work.”
“Agreed.”
We arrived at the giant airlock door that sealed the entrance of the bridge. A bored looking soldier quickly ran their eyes over us. They pushed a panel next to them and the airlock opened. The soldier waved us in and shut the airlock door. A few moments later, the other side of the airlock opened to reveal the bridge.
Captain Ceel sat in her seat at the far end of the bridge. Columns of seats and consoles lined the bridge, and were occupied by officers and technicians. Ceel noticed our entrance and strode over to us.
“Private Saka and Private Noah, welcome. I’m going to make this quick. Nobody really likes award ceremonies, after all. So it’s not going to be much of one.”
“Thank you, Captain.” Noah and I said in unison.
“Alright, follow me.” Ceel said, walking over to a little counter next to her captain’s seat.
On the counter sat two velvet wrapped boxes. Ceel opened both of them up to reveal a frankly tacky looking medal. It was silver in color, and it bore the logo of the Galactic Union.
“Now, I know it doesn’t look like much, but I wanted to give these to you two. You turned a bad situation into a good one, and didn’t give up hope. And that hope ultimately nudged the course of the war in the right direction. I hope nobody else earns these medals because I don’t want to say anything sappy like that ever again.”
Captain Ceel put the medals over our necks with surprising care from someone who was several meters tall and had thick sausage fingers.
“Thank you, Captain Ceel. I really appreciate everything you’ve done for us.” Noah said.
“Likewise.” I added.
Ceel waved her hand dismissively. “Hey, it was just a way to get a boost to my forces. It was a good choice, though. All of you did good work out there. Also, I haven’t announced this yet, but I’m going to throw a little party tonight, to celebrate the end of the war. Well, it’s not going to be exactly a party, but it’ll be a fun little gathering. I want to see you two there. And don’t tell anybody until the announcement is sent out.”
Ceel proceeded to shoo us out of the bridge. Our tacky silver medals adorned our chests, and they made an annoying clanking noise whenever we took a step. Soldiers we passed congratulated us, which made my face heat up with embarrassment. I hated wearing this medal. But I couldn’t take it off immediately either, since it would be disrespectful to Captain Ceel. Noah and I endured the annoying clanking and the praises from fellow soldiers until we got to our living quarters. Once we were in our room, we took them off as soon as possible.
Noah took off his helmet, letting loose a long sigh. I stared at him.
“What?” Noah asked.
“Noah, I haven’t seen you take off your helmet once while we were on this ship. You even kept it on when you were sleeping!” I said.
“Yeah, that’s because I wanted to keep it on in case of emergencies. But I was tired of keeping the helmet on, and there’s no danger anymore, right? So I can just keep it off while we’re in this room.” Noah replied.
“Yeah, I wasn’t complaining that you took it off. I was just surprised because I hadn’t seen your face in a while.”
Noah grinned. “What, did you miss my face or something?”
“Hey, stop being cheeky.” I retorted. “I was just commenting on the fact that you took your helmet off!”
“Uh huh.”
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We chilled in our room until Ceel’s announcement rolled by later that day. Any soldier that wanted to could come down to the cargo hold to enjoy drinks, food and music. Honestly, I didn’t think Ceel was the type of person to do this. She was really tough on the outside, but was apparently really really nice on the inside. I haven’t ever heard of a captain of a warship throwing a party for her soldiers.
Later that night, Noah and I made our way to the cargo hold. Noah had his helmet back on, of course. We were technically ordered to be there by Ceel, so we obliged. I wasn’t too sure about going, since there would be a lot of people, but Noah wanted to, and Ceel wanted us to, so I went.
The cargo hold had been temporarily cleared out to create some space for the party. It was pretty crowded, considering how the warship housed several thousand soldiers. The cargo hold was huge enough to house several thousand people, but it appeared like not many of the soldiers were actually here. It appeared like a lot of them didn’t want the hassle of attending a celebration that could have thousands of people. Chances are, it would be an absolute mess.
And it was. Food from the mess hall was laid out on rows of tables, and they were constantly crowded by hungry soldiers. Noah and I had expected this, so we made a visit to the mess hall before the party had started, and filled ourselves up. That way, we wouldn’t have to deal with all the pushing and shoving to get to the food. Also, there was no alcohol being served. That would be an absolute disaster.
Loud music pumped through the speakers in the cargo hold, but the lyrics were almost indistinguishable by the loud buzzing of the chatter in the cargo hold. Noah and I had to weave in and out between hordes of dancing soldiers and people standing and eating at the same time. This might’ve been the worst idea that Ceel has ever had. There were too many fucking people at this party.
Speaking of Ceel, towering head and soldiers over the entire population of the cargo hold, stood the gargantuan captain, wearing a slight frown on her face. It appeared like she realized that maybe a party wasn’t the greatest idea.
Captain Ceel caught my eye and waved me over. I wasn’t surprised she found me in the large crowd, since I myself stood taller than most of the soldiers here. My extra arms also made me easy to spot.
“Looks like we’re being summoned, Noah.” I leaned down and told Noah.
“What? By who?” Noah asked. He tried to get on the tip of his toes to look over the people in front of him, but it was useless. As a human, Noah stood shorter than most people, after all.
“Ceel caught my eye and she’s waving me over. I don’t know what she wants, though.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
We pushed our way to Ceel. It took a little while, but we made it.
“I’m beginning to think that this wasn’t the greatest idea!” Ceel boomed, smiling.
I was worried she was upset, but she actually looked like she was enjoying herself. This might’ve been the warmest Ceel has ever been.
“I think you misjudged the scale of this party by a few magnitudes, ma’am!” I shouted, trying to make myself heard over the chatter of the people around us.
“I’ve learned my lesson. I’m never doing something like this again!” Ceel said, laughing. “Are you enjoying yourselves?”
“It’s pretty lively.” I replied. “I might decide to go fight over some drinks later.”
“And you, Noah?”
“I’m having fun. It’s a little too loud for my tastes, but it’s an opportunity to relax.” Noah said.
“That’s good to hear. Oh, if you’ll excuse me.” Ceel stepped away to talk to an officer who was trying to catch her attention.
As Ceel walked away, Keshi, Sil, and Needle approached us.
“Hey, look over there! We’ve found two heroes!” Needle’s voice came from behind us.
Noah and I spun to face the source of the voice. There, we found Keshi, Sil, and Needle strolling up.
“Hey, we finally found you two. We’ve been looking for a while.” Sil said.
“I’ve had my boots stepped on countless times.” Keshi grumbled. “How are you two doing?”
“I’d rather be back in my room.” I complained.
“I’m having a good time.” Noah said. “Although it is a little crazy over here. I have to be careful and make sure I don’t get crushed.”
“Yeah, you are a pretty short guy.” Needle mused. “Don’t get trampled, buddy.”
We talked about random things for a while, and eventually decided to group up and try to secure ourselves some drinks. We managed to shove through a bunch of soldiers hogging the drink stations nearby and secure ourselves some non alcoholic beverages. There wasn’t a wide array of choices, since we were on a military warship, but they were decent enough. Most of the options were carbonated drinks, and a few artificially sweetened drinks. No fruit juice, of course. Those were expensive.
While Noah was distracted trying to navigate his straw into his mouth, Needle snuck up behind Noah.
“Y’know, you’ve kept me curious for a while.” Needle said, laying his hands on the sides of Noah’s helmet.
Noah immediately tensed up and raised his hand to try and swat Needle away.
“Needle, don’t!” I yelled. I reached out a hand towards Noah, but I was slightly too far away.
“Sorry, but I’m taking this off! I’m just too curious! You can’t be that ugly, right?” Needle shouted, yanking Noah’s helmet up and away from his head.
Noah’s face of surprise and shock was revealed. His very human face. Soldiers, hearing the commotion, turned to face the source of the shouting. Needle kept his arms raised dramatically over his head, raising Noah’s helmet up high. He did a double take at Noah, who had turned to face Needle.
“Ah, fuck.”