Feo and Sam had rushed to the bridge the instant Lt Ashter yelled about a wormhole opening, and the moment the door opened, they saw the face of a grey-furred Aeteri staring at them. He smiled warmly as he saw Feo approach, “Captain! Am I glad to see you’re alright!” he exclaimed, “When Alish briefed us, we were expecting the worst!”

Feo smiled and held out her arms in a gesture of greeting, “Admiral Olan! It’s great to see you again! You came in the nick of time, it seems!”

Olan inclined his head towards her, “Indeed. It appeared that they were seconds away from firing as we came through. Will the Gladius be able to make it up here, or will you need some help?”

Feo shook her head, “I’m afraid not, sir. Our thrusters are still down, and we’ve got some major hull breaches. If we seal off those sections with emergency bulkheads, we would be fine, but, well, we’ve got a giant hole in the side of our bridge…”

Olan nodded, “Okay, we’re sending down recovery frigates now, evac the areas you need and seal them off. Let me know when you’re ready,”

Feo saluted, “Will do, sir. Talk to you soon!”

He returned the salute, before cutting the channel. Feo glanced around the bridge, at her crew, “Milian, reroute core controls to Engineering, then meet us there. Everyone else, follow me!”

She turned on her heel and strode out, with Sam and Ashter in tow. A few moments later, they were back in Engineering, and the instant they opened the door they were met with the sound of cheering; evidently, good news travels at near lightspeed, Feo thought. A minute later, Milian joined them as they settled to their temporary posts. Feo keyed the comm system, “Attention all hands,” she called out over the ship-wide intercom, “Please evacuate the main bridge, as well as the shuttle bay and cargo bay one. In one minute, emergency bulkheads will be sealed and pressurised in preparation for rescue.”

As she disengaged the intercom, she hailed the Haali still in orbit, “Admiral Olan, we’re ready for you. Just a heads up, we spotted a moderately sized city approximately twenty kilometres to our south. Ingress and egress should be made from the north only; it’s daylight here, so you shouldn’t be spotted,”

The grey-furred admiral nodded, “Copy that, Captain, I’ll pass that onto the salvage crew. They’ll be with you in a few minutes.”

Feo cut away from him and pulled up the intercom once more, “All hands, emergency bulkheads are now closing. Salvage crews will be here in a few minutes. Secure all stations and await further instructions!”

She pulled back from the comm system and glanced at her officers; Lt Ashter, to her left, was helping to direct the rescue frigates, while on her right, Ensign Jinser and Lt Milian were chatting animatedly about what they would do when they got back. Raalic and Sam were back to talking over the different specs of the Gladius, which elicited a chuckle from the vixen; it seemed Raalic had finally found someone who could keep up with him.

Everyone was startled suddenly as the ship shook, while Lt Ashter continued to speak into his console, “Contact one confirmed. How do the maglocks on your end look?”. The ship shook a second time as the second ship settled into place next to them, before the Ilfemyoo turned to Feo, “We’re green across the board, Captain. We’re ready,”

Feo patted him on the back, “Good work,” she said as she keyed the intercom one last time, “All hands to brace positions, we’re going up!”

It truly was a sight to behold. The black and grey hull of the Gladius shone mutely in the daylight, while beside it, connected by two short arms on each side, sat two somewhat narrow, but still chunky looking frigates. Each ship had a pair of rings, upon which the arms rotated around. The arms ended in a pair of large pads, which were presently magnetically attached to the hull.

The loud hissing of the frigates’ atmospheric thrusters was heard as they slowly pivoted the Gladius towards the heavens, before, with a deafening roar that could likely be heard for tens of kilometres, they started ascending at quite a rapid speed. The Gladius continued to shake and rumble as they were lifted higher and higher, kilometres above the surface, then tens of kilometres. Before long, the dazzling blue of the Terran sky gave way to the inky darkness of space, with three ships in orbit that were far, far larger than theirs. In fact, it made the Gladius look positively diminutive in comparison.

The frigates aimed towards the largest of the three, a vessel that was almost a kilometre and a half in length, and started boosting towards the main hangar. In moments, the three ships landed gracefully on the main deck, with a loud whine as engines spun down. The magnetic arms from the two salvage ships disengaged from the hull of the Gladius and retracted back to their ships, finally separating them again.

As Sam and Feo stood up from their terminals, a loud siren was heard overhead, from outside, in the hangar. At Sam’s questioning glance, Feo shrugged, “They’re closing the hangar blast doors,” she explained, “Besides, I expect we’ll have a welcoming party…”

Feo sighed and started walking out of Engineering, before glancing back at Sam, “I can almost hear the lecture starting already…” she groaned.

Sam raised an eyebrow as they left the room and made for the shuttle bay, which had since had the emergency bulkheads retracted, “What do you mean by that?” he asked, confused.

Feo chuckled softly and turned around to poke him in the shoulder, “Well, what are you, again?” she asked, smirking as she turned back around.

Sam had to think for a minute before it came back to him, before cringing a little, “I’m sorry to cause you so much trouble…” he mumbled softly, starting to look a little uncomfortable.

At that, Feo spun around to glare at him, “Considering you saved my life twice over, it was the least I could do. Besides, Sabre would have hunted you down if I hadn’t stepped in,” she said coolly, “Now come on, we may as well get this over with…”

They resumed their plodding to the shuttle bay, which by this point already had the main ramp lowered. At the bottom of it, maybe a few metres away, stood a small congregation of people. There were a few Aeteri, as well as an Ilfemyoo and a Serani, but as Sam glanced around, he saw more aliens than he could have ever imagined hurrying to and from the various hangar bays.

Admiral Olan was at the head of their meeting party, but had turned to one side and was evidently giving orders. However, as Feo and Sam approached him, he cut short his call and turned back to face them, his vulpine face beaming in relief, “Ahh, Feo, I’m so glad we got you back safely!” he exclaimed, suddenly pulling the diminutive Aeteri into a hug; evidently, they had a lot of history together, Sam thought.

As Olan went to greet Sam though, the penny finally dropped, so to speak, “Hang on, you’re a…” he stammered, before casting a worried glance at Feo, “I thought you said none of the local population noticed you?”

Feo smiled sheepishly, “Well… In my defence, he did save my life twice… And Sabre are hunting him too, now, I couldn’t just leave him to die!”

Olan blanched, “But the Prime Laws! Goodness, Feo, I know you’re reckless, but this is a truly disastrous turn of events! What if it’s discovered?”

Feo sighed softly, “We were monitoring their data nets, making sure to erase any sign of us. And what was I supposed to do? You know as well as I do that it isn’t the Aeterian way to leave behind someone who rescues us…”

Olan growled a little, “That isn’t the point, Feo!” he countered, “His people will know! He will be missed!”

Feo glared at him in response, “So what would you do, then? Put him back on the damn planet? We both know how terrible an idea that is!”

There was silence between them for a moment, before Olan rolled his eyes, “Fine. But he’s your responsibility from now on, understand, Captain?”

Feo nodded, “That’s fair, sir,” she replied curtly.

Olan sighed, “Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way…” he said, before turning to Sam, “So, you saved my niece’s life, huh?”

Sam blinked in surprise, “Niece? Oh, err, yeah, just a little… She refuses to admit it, but she definitely returned the favour,”

The Aeterian admiral chuckled good-naturedly, seeming to return to his more jovial self, “That sounds exactly like her,” he said, patting him on the shoulder, “Come with me you two, our repair crews will get to work right away patching your ship up. Given it’s your first time in space, you might find this interesting, err, what was your name again?”

Feo smirked softly, “His name is Sam, sir. And given how intensely he and Raalic were talking, I’m certain he will too,”

Olan led the two to an elevator and bustled them inside. As he instructed it to take them to the bridge, Sam tapped Feo on the shoulder, “So, don’t tell me the bridge is directly above the hangar? That can’t be safe,” he queried.

Feo nodded, “You’re right, it’s not. Admiral, would you say it’s about five hundred metres away from here?”

Olan inclined his head towards her, “Glad to see you still remember the ship’s specs. It’s precisely 512 metres horizontally, and ten decks vertically,”

Sam went wide eyed, “So, how do you get stuff done on a ship this big? Trams? Or just lots and lots of walking?”

Before either of them could respond, the doors of the elevator opened, revealing the wide, expansive bridge before them. It was truly like nothing Sam had ever seen before; Instead of banks upon banks of terminals, like the Gladius’ Engineering, there were rows upon rows of seats, upon a great many of which sat Aeteri. Those that were seated were reclined, data cables connected to their necks, and were manipulating holographic projections above them.

There was a steady hum of chatter going on among those in the chairs and the various technicians and officers around the bridge, but as the three of them walked down the walkway between them, it slowly died away. By the time they reached the observation platform at the end, the eyes of everyone not plugged in were looking at them, or rather, at Sam, out of sheer curiosity.

He shifted around uncomfortably, but Olan ignored it and addressed his bridge crew, “Alright, good work everyone! The Gladius is safely aboard and the Sabre forces in the area have been forced to retreat! Helm! Set a course back for the wormhole, and instruct our escort to do the same,”

A muttering of affirmation was heard as his crew got back to work, before Feo turned to Olan, “So, where were you before you were called in? Lanka?”

Olan shook his head, “We had actually just left Lanka and had jumped to the Tref system when we got the call. The Tala and the Ere jumped straight from Kaara and caught us half way through our cycle, so they didn’t have long to wait.”

There was a brief period of silence between them, broken only by the thrumming of the vessel’s manoeuvring thrusters pivoting the behemoth of a ship back towards the wormhole.

“I know I don’t have the clearance for this, but was your mission successful?” Olan asked, glancing at Feo.

She sighed softly, “Partially… But I still need to head back to inform the Elders personally. We can’t risk broadcasting it, even if it’s heavily encrypted…”

Olan nodded, “I understand. We should be finished with repairs to your ship in a day or so, drive core and all.”

Feo smiled a little, “Thank you, sir,” she replied, before casting her glance back to the window. The wormhole, glowing orange and red in front of them, was rotating ever so slowly. But compared to even the large carrier they were in, this was a monstrous structure. Tens of kilometres across, this gaping hole in the vacuum of space took up more and more of their view.

Olan turned back to his crew and started giving orders again, “Bring our speed up to one-half standard maximum. Go to blue alert and prepare all stations for wormhole contact,”

The lights dimmed as blue strips started glowing in the walls. The ship started to shake slightly as they approached the massive, artificial phenomenon.

“Bring us up to standard maximum, helm,”

The carrier started shaking harder as they got nearer and nearer to the horizon of the wormhole, before it jolted hard as it made contact. Sam staggered and nearly fell, but it seemed like practically everyone else maintained their footing. As he looked ahead, the swirling orange and red had given way to a deep maroon, but was otherwise impossible for him to describe.

“We’re in, sir,” one of the seated Aeteri called out, “Calculating transit time… Approximately twenty seconds until we’re clear!”

Sam staggered over to the wall and clung on tightly; the way the ship was shaking and vibrating, he was extremely worried that it was going to fall apart right under his feet. He squeezed his eyes shut as he held on. Each second seemed like an eternity, and it was all he could do to not freak out.

The shuddering came to an abrupt end, and Sam opened his eyes tentatively. As he glanced nervously out the window, he could no longer see the glowing blue and green marble he grew up on. Instead, the planet beneath them was a red, seemingly barren rock. As Sam gazed at it, he could spot the barest sliver of shimmer from the edge of the planet; apparently it had little to no atmosphere.

Olan called out to his crew, “Cancel blue alert, and once they’re through, re-establish contact with our escort.”

Almost as if a result of his words, the two cruisers that were the carrier’s escort cleared the wormhole and re-entered normal space.

“Alright, power down the main drive core and collapse the wormhole,” Olan ordered, before looking over at Feo, “Is there anything else you needed, Captain?” he asked.

She shook her head in response, “No, sir. With your leave, I think I’ll return to my crew to help with the repairs,”

He nodded at her, “Understood. You’re dismissed, Captain.”