I let out a slow breath, making a decision. What had happened was in the past, it couldn’t be changed. While I didn’t know if Airah had an ulterior motive in the past, I doubted that she had planned the events in any way, in some sort of attempt to trap me. That idea was just ludicrous and thus could easily be discarded. Understanding that made me realise that Airah hadn’t acted with malice towards me, or, at least going by her explanation, anyone, really.

In addition, there was the simple fact that we were in this together, like it or not, and needed to rely on the other. Trying to fly through the void of space alone was a good way to get yourself killed.

The decision made, I stood and followed the sounds that had caught my attention, walking past the additional two cabins and into the engineering-section. Stopping for a moment, I listened and looked around, trying to find the source of the sobbing and had to suppress an inappropriate chuckle. I could see Airah’s legs stick out from a small space between the reactor and the bulkhead. It looked like she had more or less crawled into the smallest space she could find on board, like a small animal hiding in its burrow. It was just too cute for words.

I considered what to do for a moment, before walking over so that I could see into the space. She was sitting with her back to the wall, her shoulders bunched together, sobbing into her sleeve. If there was more space, I might have considered crawling into it but that just wouldn’t work here. Instead, I reached out, gently taking hold of her arm and startling her into a strange mix of sob, hiccup and squeal.

“Twitch…?” she asked, her voice hoarse with tears.

Without answering, I simply pulled, dragging her from her hiding space, until she was out in the open, if still on her behind. Still without words, I knelt down, straddling her legs, and enfolded her in a warm hug, giving her a shoulder to cry on and a warm body to hold, as we had done at the Academy, when things got too much.

I felt her freeze for a moment, just a second, before her arms went around me, clutching me and the sobbing returned. But I noticed that it had changed, before, there had been a note of despair in her sobbing, now, there was relief.

It took a few minutes for her to wind down and a moment longer for her arms to relax to the point that I could sit back a little, getting a bit of distance between our faces so we could talk.

“We will have to talk about what has happened and what will happen in the future. But I don’t believe that you acted with malice and I want to believe that you are my friend, even if you didn’t tell me quite a few important things and lied about some others.” I told her, getting a nod in return.

“I’m not sure how long I’ve slept, but the course I set earlier, out of Celraph, should have us in hyperspace for a little over ten hours. We might want to make plans, where to go and what to do, before we get there. It’s just an uninhabited system but still, we might need to act fast once we are there.” I explained, realising that I had absolutely no idea who was currently keeping an eye on things in the cockpit.

“You were out for about nine hours.” Airah answered, still sounding a little muffled. “I’ve been napping in the cockpit, with alarms set just in case anything happened, when your scream awoke me.” she continued.

“That so? How about this, I’ll go into the cockpit and keep an eye on things and you take a shower. We can talk once you’ve done that and feel a little better.” I suggested, pushing myself back to my feet and holding a hand towards Airah, so she could pull herself up.

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She only nodded in response and I walked to the front, once again realising just how small the ship we were on was. Overall, the ship was a little over forty meters in length and six meters wide. There was a central hallway, connecting all parts of the ship, with a short stub going to the airlock, roughly in the middle of the craft. In the front, taking up the whole width of the ship, was the cockpit, with a plethora of computers to help fly the ship. Behind the cockpit were two cabins, which we now occupied, followed by the galley on one side and the head on the other. The galley was a little larger than the head and next to it were two configurable spaces that were currently used for freight but they could easily be turned into another cabin each. Next to the head was a small stub, leading to the airlock, with two more configurable spaces next to it. Finally, the aft of the craft was taken up by the engineering-space, housing the reactor, environmental systems and the engine. Above and beneath us, accessible by crawling into narrow tunnels, were more engineering-areas, containing weapons, sensors and all the other systems needed to keep a ship in space and the crew alive.

The cabins were, in a single word, spartan, about two meters on three meters, with a bunk taking up a third of it. Additionally, there was a small desk, some storage-space but that was it. A luxury yacht, this was not.

But it made me wonder, just how did Airah had such a craft on standby, just in case she was discovered? While it wasn’t a luxury yacht, it was a viable and expensive spacecraft, easily worth a few hundred thousand federation mark, if not more. Hell, if I factored in the military-style weapon-systems it apparently had, I couldn’t begin to put a price-tag to it, those were normally not sold to anyone, unless you had some serious contacts with the mega-corps or, well, unless you were the Starfleet. More questions that needed to be answered.

Sitting in the pilot-seat, I put on the headgear and connected to the ship, considering whether I wanted to delve into its databases, looking for more information. I doubted that I’d find anything truly interesting, that would be seriously sloppy work by Airah and her people but it might give me hints at what questions needed to be asked.

I also made sure that I had a countdown for our projected emergence from hyperspace, so that I’d be able to get ready for it. The system we were jumping to was barely worth the name, the so-called primary having only just made the cut to become a star. According to the database, there were no planets in the system, merely a lot of rocks ranging in size from a grain of sand to a few dwarf-planets, none of which had any resources worth exploiting. Sure, there was an abundance of nickel-iron, various silicates and a couple other metal-oxides but those were only worth mining if you needed them in system for some other purpose. Here, there was just nothing, to the point that I was a little worried that someone might have used the incredibly boring system to hide something. But, realistically, I doubted it.

The databases were, as I had expected, thoroughly scrubbed, revealing nothing that looked even remotely out of place, If I wanted answers, I would have to ask Airah.

Luckily, I soon heard her coming out of the head and stepping into her cabin. I had to force myself not to turn around, curious if she was still comfortable enough to walk around naked, as we had been at the Academy. Soon after, she stepped out of her cabin and, after a short visit to the galley, into the cockpit.

Only now did I take a good look at her and she looked better than she had earlier, but there was still fatigue on her face and the manner in which she was sipping the thermal mug she was holding, I could see that she was barely holding it together.

“Let’s talk. We have some twenty-eight minutes before we come out of hyperspace and once we do, I’ll have to pay attention.” I told her, pushing away all emotion, trying to keep as calm as I could.

“That’s fine. What do you want to know?” she asked, taking a seat next to me.

“Before I’ll even begin to ask questions, I need you to promise me something.” I said, taking a deep breath before I continued, “I need you to promise me not to lie to me. I know that there will be things that you don’t want to tell me, or that you can’t tell me. In those cases, please, just tell me that you can’t tell me. Don’t lie to me.” I finished, looking into her eyes.

“That, I can promise you. I may have fudged a few details here and there, but it is something I have tried to do, ever since I realised that I wanted you on my side.” Airah said and I was as certain as I could be that she was telling the truth.

Now we just had to figure out the rest. The most important step was done.