Waking up is just part of the routine. Everyone has to sleep and wake up to start another day. Though, this time, it didn't feel like I was "waking up" per se. I could hear a voice next to me. I still wasn't fully conscious, so picking up everything was hard. "He seems stable at the moment. If he wakes up, I'll alert the captain," said the unknown voice. Okay, so I'm not at home? Where am I? Did something happen? Who would've taken me here? I thought to myself.

It sounded like a woman, a very soft and warming voice for a lack of better words. I finally can open my eyes after a bit of struggling with my muscles. Everything feels so weird, almost like gravity itself has changed. I see a bright white light; the light blinding me as I fully open my eyes. "He's awake! Captain, Captain. He's awake!" the same unknown voice yells. She seems a bit too excited about this.

I raised my head up and got a look at my surroundings. I'm laying on a bed that looks like an operating table. Was I dead? She said something about me finally being stable or something like that. I thought to myself as I looked around. The heart rate monitor looked a bit too high-tech for this to be back at home. It was a hologram instead of a generic screen. The device was circular, with a clear round center. Emerging from the clear round center of the device was the hologram. So, a dream with high-tech systems, maybe?

The walls were a light gray color, with lights at the top and bottom of the walls. I look to my left to see a beautiful woman sitting in a chair next to my bed. She has long, blue hair that's parted down the middle, large cat ears that match the color of her hair, and a high-tech dark tracksuit or what I think is a tracksuit. This really is a different world. The woman looks at me with wide eyes. She has amazing heterochromic eyes. Her left eye is a dark yellow and her right eye is a bright green. Her eyes shine as if she's just seen something extremely important to her.

The woman speaks with a pensive look on her face, "Uh, Sir, could you not stare please? It's a bit... much."

"Where am I?" I ask as I look away.

"You're in the Akunara. We found you just floating in space. Your face had turned a dark blue, so I did my best to convince the captain to pilot the ship towards you. I think we just barely made it in time."

"You mean, I'm in space?"

"Yes, you are indeed in space, Sir."

Wait... huhhhhh!! So I'm really not home? This isn't a dream? I thought to myself as I looked down at my body's current condition. Everything seems okay, but I was on the brink of death. Shouldn't I be missing something?

I stutter as I try to confirm everything. "Wait, hold on. Where am I again?" Just barely after getting that question out I hear a voice coming from what I can only guess are speakers, "Captain, we got enemies inbound, shall I... dispose of them maybe?" The woman sits up and grabs a helmet. "Okay, not sure how much time we have before they get here. Just put this on and I'll fill you in on the details as we go."

The ship shakes as we take enemy fire. "Charging eruption ray," said the same unknown voice over the speakers. A loud shock fills the ship as they fire the ray. "Enemy down, another one for my count. Easy as stealing loot from the Imperials." said the same voice with a triumphant tone.

"So, that's Luna Kitsune. She is unaware of your presence. Try to avoid her at all costs. She doesn't like new people." I turn my head towards the cat woman after hearing this revelation. They rescued me and didn't even tell a crew member. This may not end well. My face quickly turns to one of worry and guilt. The cat woman tries to calm me down. "It'll be fine. Usually Luna is fine with whatever the captain allows." She then jumps after thinking for a second. "I just realized I never told you my name. I'm so sorry Sir. I'm Numi Neeko. I plan all the missions we take from our Alliance." Neeko? Similar to Neko. Maybe it's because she's a cat, cool. I reply to Numi's apology, "No, no, it's okay. I just still don't know what's going on."

"As I have already explained, this will have to wait, Sir. I have to go help the captain."

Numi ran away as I tried to regain her attention. I lay down in silence... until a sudden bang coming from my side of the ship sent me into the floor. I try to get back to my feet and just end up falling. Something doesn't feel right... ow. I look down at my legs. Something had snapped my left leg. My leg was facing the complete opposite way it should from the knee down. The pain in my leg rises within and I writhe from the pain. I try to stand up as the adrenaline is hitting me and I slip and fall back down. My leg contorting more than it already had. The pain, thankfully, wasn't worse, but it didn't look good. I felt sick just looking at it. I could see my knee bone sticking through my skin.

I look at the wall that the bang came from. The wall had a massive indent in it. Looks like some kind of non-explosive ammunition hit us. Luna announced over the speakers. "Captain, I'm firing our expulsion rounds." The ship shakes as the guns fire each round. One after the other. Then finally... silence. "Shit! They ran away. That would've increased my kill count. Fuck! Captain, let's chase these fuckers down!" yelled Luna in a defeated tone. I hear a response from who I can only assume is the captain, "We will not chase them Luna... Not after all of your recklessness back at the Imperial Station. It's not worth it. Let it go. You actual child."

I hear footsteps running down the hallway. I slowly start feeling light-headed. My vision pulses in and out. I faintly hear who I am assuming was Numi yelling. "Sir! Sir! Are you okay?" Suddenly, darkness. My mind had faded. Numi lifts me off the floor and rushes me to another recovery room.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Captain, get the other holo device. I need an active heart-rate monitor."

The captain scoffs at Numi. "We saved him once. Why can't that be enough?"

Numi places me on the bed in the new recovery room and begins setting up the holo device. Completely ignoring the captain, Numi murmurs to herself. "He's more than just a normal human to me." Numi attaches the monitors to me and turns to the captain. "Just... go find some medical stims please." The captain scoffs again. "Fine, I'll be back."

Numi grabs another holo device out of her pocket and opens a private intercom channel with Luna. "Good job keeping the ship in one piece, Kitsune."

"Yeah, yeah, what do you want?"

"I'm going to tell you the real reason we deviated from our flight path after our last mission."

"Only took you forever... go ahead."

"I convinced the captain to let me save a human ... he just doesn't seem, well... normal. He was on the brink of death without a suit or any oxygen. You can come see him while he's unconscious."

"Ugh, fine. I'll go see what makes you so in love with this human."

Luna leaves her quarters for the first time in ages. She opts to stay in the gun of the Akunara and just lives within that small space. Could explain a lot about her anti-social tendencies. Luna walks into the new recovery room and looks at my leg. "Seems he got into a bad situation once we got hit by that annoying ship. We should've just chased it down... but whatever."

Numi grabs some medical supplies from a nearby tray and begins tending to my wounds. Luna walks out of the recovery room after telling Numi to stop bringing in more strangers. "I see we're out of medical stims." Numi says to the captain after noticing her coming back from her search empty-handed. The captain responds, "Yeah, it looks like the stims were damaged from being too close to the ship's walls during that battle. Well, the few stims we had left, anyway."

"He'll be in so much pain when he wakes up. We have to buy a stim."

"Do you not know how expensive those fuckers are? What the hell, Numi? We can't just waste money on some random human that you mystically became mesmerized by."

"I'll pay for the stim Ari. Calm your shit for a couple of minutes will ya? It's annoying when you get all captainy with me."

"It's Captain Yamada. Numi. You're about to be in deep shit if you keep watching over this meat-bag, but what-the-fuck-ever I guess. The second he impedes a mission, I'm capping him myself. I'll force you to watch the whole ordeal."

Captain Yamada storms out of the room in anger. Numi signals the captain to find a nearby space station that sells stims. Captain Yamada turns on the station beacon and searches for nearby stations. The station beacon acts as a form of GPS in this world. Though, it is required to be turned on in order to find any other entity that contains a beacon with the same signal. The beacon’s information can be accessed by any holo-device from the same Alliance.

Captain Yamada finds a station that produces stims and sells them in bulk. Station A-29K of the Aoro System. "Numi, I’m only doing this to keep you quiet. Okay?" said Captain Yamada after steering the ship towards the station. "Yeah yeah, whatever, let’s just go please. I’d like to keep this human in one piece."

"You don’t even know his name and you’re trying so hard to keep him alive. I like the persistence, but why can’t you use this for our work?"

"Ari, I said not to get captainy… didn’t I?"

"Sorry," Captain Yamada engages the jump-drive and prepares the ship for faster-than-light travel or FTL for short. The captain then states over the intercom, "Jumping in 3… 2… 1…"

The ship jolts and shakes as it speeds up. The acceleration seems strong enough to slam a human into a wall and turn them into a literal wall decal. Numi waits patiently for the ship to reach maximum velocity before moving from her chair. Moving could cause instant splatification for that unlucky individual. Numi joins Captain Yamada in the ship’s cockpit. Numi apologizes to Captain Yamada. "Sorry about that captain, just don’t say things like that. I’m paying for all of this out of my own pocket."

"Yeah, sorry, are you sure you can afford this? Even bulk stims aren’t cheap Numi. Remember when we bought our last batch? Three-thousand DAQ each Numi, there’s no way you can afford it."

Numi smirks and pulls a pistol out of her leg holster as she responds, "Oh I can get a discount if need be."

"No, no, no, no, Numi! We’re not going to just go in gun-blazing like Luna,"

A loud ringing sounds throughout the intercom. "I heard that Captain."

Completely ignoring Luna’s interruption, Captain Yamada continues. "Listen Numi, I know you want to stock up and help your wonderful human and all, but we have a reputation to uphold here. Especially with our faction. What do you think will happen if we shoot up a friendly Alliance’s station just to help some human that we aren’t even supposed to care about? "

"Fine… no guns, I’ll just buy what I can."

"Well, that’s an improvement… I guess."

Luna interrupts through the intercom again. "You two done with your lover’s quarrel yet? How much longer till we’re at the station?"

Captain Yamada responds in an annoyed tone. "Thirty-seconds Luna. And Numi, please grow out of this. I’d like to make some money one day this week."

Numi sits in a nearby chair to prepare for the deceleration of the ship. If acceleration can splat you, then deceleration will surely do the same. The ship decelerates at a speed unheard of, for a human anyway. Coming to a halt faster than it sped up. Finally, they reached the station.

"This is Captain Yamada from the Akunara. Identification number is 0DN-1325, requesting docking." Captain Yamada transmits over the radio.

A voice is heard over the radio. One can only assume it’s the station docking controller. "Captain Yamada, Identification number 0DN-1325, ship… the Akunara. Request for docking granted. You are in dock 12-3. Have a nice stay at Station A-29K."