BETH

Beth entered Birgitta’s lab. “Birgitta! Are you busy?”

“Always,” Birgitta said, clad in a lab coat and standing over an experiment. There was always a new experiment, very Birgitta-like.

It was guilt that filled Beth’s gut, having to tell the maker of the weapon that she had lost it. Again. Technically, she had thrown it away. Again.

“The weapon. I lost it,” Beth said. “Struck Carl in the chest, though. It sent him through a wall and then some. But the weapon could not be recovered. It is not like it flew back to my hand and I could not go after it.”

Birgitta removed herself from the experiment, walking across the lab floor. “I see.”

Why did she react so cold? Beth had expected at least some anger in her eyes or her flailing her arms. Something! Not this. “But I have learned something new about Tern’s kind. They are called omf. Orbs of Modules and Fusion.”

“How accurate,” Birgitta said.

“It’s not their real name, but the English language and human languages overall are too strict to express it properly. So Tern created this acronym. Omf.”

“Omf. It just slides weirdly across my tongue. Well, well, they get to call themselves whatever they want. It’s not like ‘human’ is such a cool word. By the way, where is your friend? Where is Tern?” Birgitta asked. “It is strange seeing you without that sphere floating by your side.”

Beth swallowed. “He needed to be alone. Being separated like this from his clan, our clan, it makes him sad.”

“I hope he will be alright. I have enjoyed his company on this ship,” Birgitta said.

“I am doing my best to help him,” Beth said. “Another thing. The alien space station was part of an intergalactic hub network. It worked as an anchor, from which they could travel quickly between distant places. The star it had been built around, created enough energy to sink this end of the anchor down. But when those fuckers portaled in their dreadnought in the middle of the station, it spooked them. They terminated the anchor. They were not fond of the idea of having a battle inside their space station.”

Birgitta nodded. “The omf just gets weirder and weirder. I was there, on the bridge when it vanished,” Birgitta said. “It blipped into nothingness. As if it had never been there. Before we confirmed that the dreadnought was still present where it had emerged, I thought you had vanished with the space station. A tough couple of seconds.”

“I can imagine. Having a friend vanish into nothingness or something worse without you having any agency to affect it. That is horrible,” Beth said.

“Aliens doing alien things. But what else can we do other than to accept it?” Birgitta moved across the room. “But I cannot lose you. So don’t go dying on me.”

“I won’t,” Beth said. “I promise.”

“The mace I built for you. It would be something if you were able to summon it back into your hand. You would think that I was clever enough to prepare for such an occasion,” Birgitta said, grabbing the corner of a cloth, which covered a table. “Alas, I am.”

Birgatta pulled the sheet away in one smooth motion and revealed the content of the table. Copies of the weapon. Five of them laid out in a row. Exactly the same. Yes, of course she would have been clever enough. She has probably been running battle simulations since the first iteration and constructed new designs.

“That you would throw it too far and too hard, was not a surprise. You are able to shatter boulders with your fists,” Birgitta said. “These are cheap to make.”

“But we should solve the issue that I can only use them once,” Beth said. “Doesn’t seem too useful in battle, if my weapon is dispensed like that.”

Birgitta towered over the row of weapons, smiling wide and her rows of teeth showing. “I have some ideas. But I will need some time to implement them. Would you rather hold onto a cable or a chain?”

“I don…,” Beth started, but Birgitta placed a hand over her mouth.

“Shh. Don’t answer. You cannot answer that. I will cook them both up and you will be able to try them out,” Birgitta said. “Get a feel. You make your best decisions when you have tried out for a bit.”

“Thank you,” Beth said.

“By the way, how did the mission go? Before it all went to shit,” Birgitta said.

Beth turned away. “Milo thought he could take on a space dragon on his own. We pulled him away or that thing’s claws would have crushed him.”

“Lovely,” Birgitta said. “I am not the one to reprimand the idea of fighting a space dragon. But he fought it on his own? I thought you were on the same team? Why did you not fight it with him?”

“I don’t know,” Beth said, with a lack of better words.

“You two are siblings. It is so obvious,” Birgitta said. “You two are so divided, but yet on the same team. Always struggling to be the best, always with different views. Maybe you should try to work together instead? That’s what I would have done. A team up against this space dragon. That would have improved your chances by a lot.”

Beth nodded. “Yes. Of course it would have. But I could n...”

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Birgitta placed her hand over Beth’s mouth again. “Shh. Just think about it.”

Beth shoved the hand away. “Please don’t do that again.”

“Try it out before making a decision. That’s all that I ask of you,” Birgitta said.

Beth nodded.

“Alright, back to the hub network. What is our next move?” Birgitta asked.

Beth cleared her throat. “Tern gave us the coordinates for the closest alien point of interest. The neutral planet, where we had the clan meeting. But it is a bit to travel. We will need to hibernate for 18 months.”

“I know how you feel about those,” Birgitta said.

Beth rubbed her head, her hair almost reaching her shoulders now. “Yeah. I will be alright. But I am concerned about how we should handle Tern. He is not keen on hibernating on a human ship, Captain Samuels gives him strange looks. So maybe someone should stay up and watch him? And we all know who that will be.”

“Don’t be like that. We will sort something out. I am sure of it,” Birgitta said.

“Unless the Captain throws me and Tern off ship first,” Beth said.

Birgitta’s face expressed disgust. “He cannot do that! That is outrageous.”

“I might have lashed out a little too much this time. Might have cracked a few of Milo’s ribs and given him a concussion,” Beth said.

“But still! It is outrageous,” Birgitta said. “I will solve it, be sure of it. Be off now. I will solve your weapon too. I solve everything I put my mind to.”

Beth exchanged a smile with the nordic scientist. “Yes, you do. Thank you, Birgitta.”

“But wait, what will happen when we arrive at the meeting planet again?” Birgitta asked. “How will clan Devou and Chieftain Argus react?”

“They will be in shambles after what happened and any potential ally would turn their help away from them. We will need to push through and distinguish ourselves,” Beth said.

Birgitta looked up. “Like challenging a space dragon?”

“Don’t get started,” Beth said.

“Crew wide message. Capt’n wants everyone on the bridge,” Leopold said through the ship’s speakers.

Beth exchanged a look with Birgitta. “I will get Tern. See you there.”

-

With Tern in tow, they approached the bridge, where the crew meeting would take place. And hopefully they would not be tossed out the airlock.

“She saved you!” Birgitta’s distinct voice yelled. “We are not abandoning them. We need them and they need us!”

Birgitta was furious.

Beth entered. The bridge was packed with the entire crew. Claire wore a cast on her leg, but even so she was present, and with the Doc on her side, prepared to help her if needed. Leopold sat at the helm, Captain Samuels stood by the Captain’s seat with Birgitta in front of him, yelling on the top of lungs. Milo sat at the side.

“We have a plan,” Beth said.

Captain Samuels turned. “Of course you have. And it starts with the two you off my ship.”

“Hey!” Birgitta said. “What did we talk about?”

The Captain bit down, he was a small step away from beating Birgitta into a pulp. “Screw you. This is my goddamn ship and I am giving the orders. Take your seat!”

Birgitta looked surprised and taken aback, she stumbled away from the Captain. She was hurt.

“No,” Captain Samuels said. “This has gone on for long enough.”

“You will never find back home without us. Too much has happened to be undone. Too much shit. You cannot keep living in this ship. You cannot ally yourself with the aliens without us,” Beth said.

Captain Samuels placed his cybernetic hand on her arm. “You have become this entitled shit. Thinking that you are better than all of us, because you have befriended an alien being. My ship is not run like that. We need a plan.”

Beth kept the sweetness and her metal skin away, as Captain Samuels squeezed her arm. The cybernetic arm felt cold against her skin and the squeezing was starting to hurt, but she was not the one to show weakness.

“We have a plan.” Beth stepped closer to the Captain, with the sweetness on the tip of her tongue, ready to be released. It was as if her body knew action was coming and she had difficulties holding it back.

“Does this involve more aliens and goddamn peace treaty with them again? More ‘clan mingle meetings’?” Captain Samuels said. “We tried that. You failed. Why would it work better this time? Carl and that dreadnought is still out there! We fought them twice, barely scraping by. The next time we might not be as lucky.”

Beth held back a moan, her arm was starting to hurt. The cybernetic arm’s motor muscles constricted.

Drops of his spit landed on her face when he spoke. Samuels was furious.

“This is our only choice,” Beth said.

Her eyes twitched. The sweetness rushed forward and her skin flowed into metal, even underneath the Captain’s cybernetic hand.

Captain Samuels let go. “You are nothing without that. Nothing.”

Milo stood up. “I am with Beth. It’s our only plan.”

“Blue, what? We can do other things. Find a nice planet, settle down. We don’t have to do this. We don’t have to save everyone from Saif. There will always be a next bad guy. Always. Let them fight themselves. Let’s hide, let’s live,” Captain Samuels said.

“No,” Milo said.

“What do we do when Carl comes for us again? Because he will, that is the only sure thing that will happen. The stubbornness of that man is incredible and not to be underestimated,” Captain Samuels said. “There will be violence, there will be casualties.”

Milo straightened his back. “We will have to end them properly this time. Permanent.”

Beth smiled, exchanging a glance with her brother.

“Goddamnit,” Captain Samuels said.

“I am with the girl and her alien, Capt’n,” Leo said.

“We too,” Claire and Diego chipped in.

Captain Samuels shook his head. “Of course you are. A merry band we are.”

“Don’t be like that,” Beth said.

“Fine, Captain, you see sense,” Birgitta said.

Captain Samuels muttered in Birgitta’s direction, before turning to Leopold. “Set the coordinates, prepare the hibernation pods. We are going a long way, we will need to be awake in shifts in order to keep the ship under control. I am not letting backlogged maintenance sink us, so everyone will have to stay awake for three months. We will do it in shifts, except for Tern and Beth. Beth, you are going to stay awake with that thing, or else this is over, I cannot have an alien roam free in these corridors.”

Beth nodded, accepting without saying anything. There would be no arguing with the Captain about this point.

“Crew, get to work,” Captain Samuels said. “And start sleeping.”

Birgitta stepped up to her and put a on Beth’s shoulder, whispering in her ear. “Give the weapons a couple of swings when you have time.”

“Of course,” Beth said.