A few hours after we made our escape from the Spear of Kain, videos of Noah started to circulate around the net and on the news feeds. There were at least three different perspectives of what happened, and they were all clear enough to clearly see that Noah was a human. Some people thought it was fake, or staged, but many more thought that it was real. It had been a while since the last human was seen in public, and the recordings were also incredibly clear. I was in the videos too. The part where I slammed the helmet back on Noah’s head was on a couple videos, and although my face wasn’t visible, it was clear that I was a Togumo. The fact that I led him out of the crowd was also apparent. On the forums, most people came to the conclusion that I was connected to the human.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like our names were out there. I didn’t know if it was Ceel’s doing, but our identities were completely safe, for now. The only way we could be identified was my suit. It was way too unique and would be easy to recognize. Noah’s suit looked pretty generic, so he would probably be fine. I would have to order a new suit from Yori if I wanted to play it safe.

Yori messaged us soon after the videos started circulating around the net. I assured them that Noah was fine, and we made it out safely. I asked Yori to make me a different suit, something that wouldn’t catch attention. They agreed, and said they would send it to me once they were finished.

I looked up from my tablet. Noah was slumped in his seat, scrolling through his feed. He was looking at the feeds about the mysterious human, of course. I couldn’t imagine how he felt. A lot of forums were talking about finding the human, how much it would sell for, and of course, various obscene things about humans. It wasn’t pretty. Sure, there were many sympathizers that felt bad for humans when they popped up every once in a while. But a lot of other people were disgusting, opportunists, or both.

“Hey, Noah.” I called. “Can I ask you something?”

Noah looked up. “Yeah?”

“I’m not mad at you or anything, but why did Captain Ceel know you were human? How long did she know, exactly?”

Noah sighed. “It was pretty soon after we did our first training simulation, like a couple days later. She summoned me to her office and pretty much directly asked if I was human. I couldn’t lie to her face, since she seemed pretty confident that she was right. I was ready to run away, but she promised me that she wasn’t going to tell anyone else.”

“And you told her?” I asked.

“Not before she made a deal. She said she’d help keep my identity safe, since that would be tough to do as a soldier. That’s why I managed to avoid some of the ID checks that we went through. They say that they don’t ID you if you’re a contracted soldier, but that’s a lie. They just do it sneakily. But yeah, since she basically already knew I was human, and she made a good deal, so I confirmed it for her.”

I nodded. “It was probably the best choice you could make. But why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t trust you or anything. I just knew you were protective of me, and you’d freak out and try to get us out of there. That probably would put us in a worse spot, with no money and no ship, so I decided to not tell you. Sorry.” Noah explained.

I sighed. “Alright, I guess that’s fair. I would have definitely pulled us out of the military. It’s just too risky to have a high ranking officer know about you. But it seems like you were right to trust Captain Ceel. She let us escape, after all.”

“Yeah, Ceel is a lot nicer than she looks, for sure. She occasionally invited me to her office because she wanted to ask me questions about humans and Earth. At first, I was reluctant, but she bribed me with real food, since I couldn’t eat anything other than nutrient paste in the mess hall. She was really curious about humans, like you were.” Noah laughed.

I looked at Noah incredulously. “You were friends with the captain of our fucking warship?”

Noah shrugged. “If you put it that way…”

“Whatever. It’s fine. It worked out, and Captain Ceel is probably a good friend to have. It saved our asses, for sure.”

“Oh, and she told me that she’d tell me Earth’s location if she found it. She has a lot of clout with the GU, especially after taking the Haivu superweapon, so she’d have a pretty good chance of getting that information. She’s a really good connection to have.” Noah said.

I rubbed my chin. “Well, that’s definitely good. I don’t know if you have a way to get in contact with her, but that’s a great start. Good job, Noah.”

“I just got lucky. After getting unlucky, I guess. When Ceel figured it out, I thought I was fucked.”

I laughed. “Yeah, there’s not many good people like Captain Ceel out there. We have to be more careful than ever.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“By the way,” Noah asked, “where are we headed now? I know Ceel told us to find a station and ditch the transport ship there, but where exactly are we going?”

I pointed towards the navigation console. “Oh, just some random nearby trade station. It’s big enough to be easy to blend into, and they sell ships there. I was planning to stop there, buy us a new ship, then quickly hop over to the next station. We have to start doing jobs again soon, or else I’d run out of fuel money.”

Noah nodded. “Makes sense. We have to get back on our feet as soon as possible.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “and there’s mercenaries and bounty hunters that are bound to be looking for us. We can’t hide from them forever, so we need to stock up on weapons and whatnot as quickly as we can. Hiding from bounty hunters is one thing, but escaping is another. Those guys are always packing heavy firepower. We need to be prepared.”

“Yeah, you’ve only got your shotgun and I only have my handgun. I’d like something bigger, for sure. I really liked the bullpup back on the Spear of Kaine.” Noah said wistfully.

“We’re definitely getting you something better than that peashooter. We can’t have that aim of yours being wasted, after all.” I joked.

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

A couple hours later, we finally arrived at the trading station. Simply named Miwa Station, named after the small planet it was orbiting, it was a bustling hub of activity, much like Maralu. It was a little smaller than Maralu, but was still a pretty busy trading station. I docked the transport ship at a docking station that was a little bit away from the main areas.

Before we disembarked the ship, I fiddled around with my suit.

“What are you doing?” Noah asked.

“I’m taking off the armor on my suit.” I replied. “It was on the video, and it’s way too recognizable. Not a lot of people have armor panels on their suits. If I just take these panels off, my suit will look a lot more normal.”

“Are you sure?” Noah asked. “I thought you preferred the armor?”

“It’s better than getting caught.” I grunted as I pulled another panel from my suit. “Besides, I already put in an order for Yori. They’ll be replacing my suit with something more inconspicuous.”

“Alright, then.” Noah said.

A few minutes later, we were making distance from the docking bay and were heading towards the main part of the harbor. There, I would buy a new ship. Preferably something similar to my old ship, the Leviathan.

Nobody gave us any mind as we passed them, thankfully. A Togumo traveling with someone wasn’t that suspicious yet, it seemed. Although Togumo were rare, it wasn’t like we were extinct. I hadn’t seen another in a while, but I knew a lot of them were still around. Like my father, for one. He was probably still around.

I shrugged away memories of my father and kept walking briskly towards the ship sales area, with Noah in tow. I had briefly considered leaving him to wait at the transport ship while I bought a ship, but I ultimately decided that it wouldn’t be all that safe. A military transport ship was already pretty suspicious enough. Someone could come investigate it.

Walking through the streets of Miwa reminded me a lot of Maralu. Like Maralu, it was a gyroscopic space station, and like Maralu, it was always busy and crowded with people. I would’ve stayed here for a little while to do some jobs, but we had to keep moving. Maybe I’d revisit it someday.

Eventually, Noah and I made it to the main harbor, and the ship sales area. A ship dealership owned by the station was there. The ship dealership was a large building that extended underground. Once I checked in at the front desk and waited for a little while, an attendant led us down underground into a docking bay of sorts. It was built so that multiple ships could cycle through the room and showcase them. If I chose a ship, I could check the inside to see if it was my liking. I could purchase it on a little terminal in the docking bay. It was very hands free. No salesman would be bugging me about “homey rooms” and “several hardpoints for heavy weapons/”

Noah and I cycled through the small to medium sized ships. The large ones would be useless to us, so we completely ignored them. The dealership sold agile fighter ships, personal cargo ships, exploration ships, the usual. I was keeping an eye out for exploration ships, since my last ship was one. They were basically the jack of all trades of ships. You could use them for practically anything and get good results. I avoided the fighter ships, of course. You couldn’t live in them. The cargo ships were also something I ignored. They were too slow and had very little firepower.

We sat there and looked through the options for a while, but not many caught our eye. I did keep tabs on a regular exploration ship that was pretty similar to my last ship, but it wasn’t exactly perfect. I wanted something with a little more firepower to ward off any potential bounty hunters.

Eventually, a sleek, triangular, all black ship was rotated in. It had two wings and two fins, and was relatively flat in shape. The cockpit had windows that went around the entire nose, which meant that you could see what was below your feet. The terminal in the docking bay room said that it was a stealth scout class ship, the Komori.

I gasped. “Noah, this might be exactly what we’re looking for. It’s a stealth ship!”

Noah started at the dark clad ship. “Yeah, it definitely looks like one. What does it do?”

I read the terminal. “It’s got high firepower hardpoints… speed isn’t bad, it’s got silent running. Oh fuck! It’s got cloaking!”

“Cloaking?” Noah asked. “You wanted a cloaking ship, right?”

“Yeah, but they tend to be pretty expensive. Look.” I pointed at the terminal.

The ship cost about as much as Noah and my military contracts combined. We could buy it, but we’d be pretty poor afterwards. Even with my meager savings.

“I don’t know, then.” Noah said. “We might need that money for later.”

I opened up my tablet to check my bank account and do the math.

“Huh?” I said. “That’s weird. That’s more money than what I’m supposed to have.”

Since Noah’s account was part of mine, it showed the amount of money both of us had. But it was more than what Noah and I made by being soldiers. The anomaly came from Noah’s account.

Noah’s account had double of what it was supposed to have. A second transfer had been made. Ceel had transferred our original contract money while we were on our way to this station, but it appeared like she made another one just a couple hours later. It came with a message.

I thought you might need extra funds for a new ship. Consider this a farewell gift. Good luck.

– Ceel

Noah peered at my tablet to read the message..

“It looks like she helped us one more time, huh. Now I really owe her.”

I agreed. But now, thanks to Ceel, we could get one of the things we needed to get Noah back to Earth.

Noah and I explored the interior of the ship to make sure that it was exactly what we wanted. This ship was smaller than the Leviathan, but it was much more combat capable. It had several hardpoints for different weapons, a small cargo bay, and just one bedroom, unfortunately. It did have two beds though, so Noah and I would be avoiding having to awkwardly cram into the same bed. My arms needed a lot of space, after all.

The cockpit could hold two people, much like the Leviathan. Overall, it was a small ship, but it perfectly served our purposes. It didn’t stand out much, it had cloaking technology, and it was good for combat. It was pretty much all we needed.

We headed back to the terminal and reinspected the ship’s specs. After a few minutes of staring at the ship’s cost, I pressed “purchase.”