“Live from the riots in the capital of Kija province, peacekeepers stand their ground against the violent protestors when the sudden arrival of an unidentified woman threatens the…”

  “This just in, reports of an unidentified woman singlehandedly defending the protestors here at the capital of Kija province have been confirmed by multiple sources…”

  “The anti-Coalition radicals don’t know what they’re doing—they act out impulsively on their emotions, always expecting things to go their way. Do you want to live in fear of constant demonic presence? How am I going to take my kids to school without knowing if the person across the street will swallow their souls up?”

  “Define ‘demonic presence’? This has only ever proven to be a vague catch-all term for an unspecific looming threat that we have yet to verify is even there—we stand more threat tolerating such rhetoric, as it will open us up to increasingly dangerous blame and witch-hunting…”

  “It is important for us here in the free stars to allow discourse from all sides, no matter how unpopular; the freedom of speech, expression, and thought must be protected at all costs…”

  Arriving at the scene, Gahn looks down at the events unfolding before him.

  What in the cosmos is going on?

  Looking far down the wide street, there he sees it. A single woman, staring down an impossible number of guns and cannons pointed directly at her, and the rest of the protestors cheering on her name behind her, though a hobbling man on a broken leg is seen attempting to direct the protestors to stay back, presumably for their safety.

  As he attempted to gain a closer look through his telocular, two simultaneously coordinated tank shots fired upon the woman. For a moment, he was appalled at the shocking action, before the next instant in which he sees that the woman had caught both shells in each of her hands, and in disbelief, he watches as she sends the shells hurtling straight back into the tank’s barrels faster than when they first fired, igniting the tanks and sending the turrets flying up from the subsequent explosive force. After a few seconds, the large, heavy turrets crash back down to the ground with a thundering smash that echoed through the urban environment.

  Something catches his eye. Shifting his telocular’s view once more, he zooms in on the hobbling man, traces of a mechanical leg trailing behind him; this must be a prosthetic that was damaged in the chaos. But—

  Vertan?!

  “Order your men to hold their fire,” Gahn commanded his subordinate.

  “But sir—,” he responds.

  “Do as you are told!”

  Nodding hesitantly, he sends this order down the chain of command. One by one, the armed grunts are instructed to lower their weapons but stand their ground.

  Looking back outwards towards the woman, Gahn could see that the woman was not retaliating any further, only standing her ground the same way they were. His risky move paid off.

  The protesters continued their clamoring.

  Joined by a few of his cohort, Gahn began to run down the wide street towards the woman and Vertan, against the advice of his comrades.

  “Vertan!” he shouts.

  Ahead of him, the man hobbling on one leg with a makeshift cane turns around.

  “Gahn?!” Vertan shouts back.

  The two stared at each other for a moment, bewildered, having not expected to see either one present at such an event, let alone on opposite sides.

  On the back of Gahn’s head, he swore that he could somehow feel the woman watching him. His anxiety slightly rises.

  “Gahn!” Vertan shouts again, trying to make his way towards him. “Gahn! It’s me!”

  “What are you doing here?!” Gahn replies, continuing to motion for his men to stand down.

  “Don’t shoot!” Vertan shouts again. “Everyone here is unarmed!”

  Turning his head around, Gahn once again takes in the sight; multiple casualties, cratered roads, and tanks blazing in fire.

  The woman continues to hold her ground.

  Thoughts race through his mind.

  “Sir!” one of his men exclaimed. “We were told that thing over there returns 100% on the Daero, it remains a threat—”

  “I said hold your fire!”

  The men with him stood by stunned, but nonetheless complied. They trusted Gahn’s actions, even if for the moment, they found them to be unbelievable.

  Gahn’s eyes flicked between the woman and Vertan.

  “Take these two in for questioning,” Gahn ordered. “Reinforcements are on the way, hold your position around the complex’s perimeter, but deescalate.”

  Two men tentatively make their way up towards the imposing woman, but she offered no resistance and respectfully complied with them. They move forward with the motions of binding her hands behind her back with cuffs, knowing this would do nothing.

  Likewise, the two others do the same for Vertan, and there was an initial struggle. Vertan looked up angrily and confused at Gahn, about to say something. Gahn moves up to walk with Vertan.

  “I’m trying to save your ass, alright?” he growls in a low voice. “Just keep quiet for now and do as you’re told, and you’ll have your chance to explain yourself soon.”

  *****

  In the interrogation room of a facility across the city, Vertan and Lym sit next to each other, waiting when Gahn enters the room alone.

  He stares at Vertan for a moment with a mildly exasperated look, and rubs his eyes.

  “Gahn—,” Vertan starts.

  “Yeah, hold on man, just pause for a second,” replies Gahn, exhaling. “Relax for a moment, won’t you? We’ve known each other long enough for me to skip the formalities.”

  Lym’s eyes flicked between the two, scanning them both. Gahn eyes the peculiar woman.

  “I know you had to disarm the both of us,” says Vertan. “But when can I get my other arm back?”

  “You can get your prosthetic back when you leave,” grumbles Gahn.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  “Leave?” asks Vertan.

  “What, you wanna be sentenced?”

  “Right, no.”

  “Mhm.”

  With another sigh, Gahn pulls up a chair on the opposite end of the table and sits down. He leans forward a little whilst resting his arms on the table.

  “Look, Vertan,” he says, now in a calmer and more earnest tone. “We both know how Hilgo and I have been there for you since the beginning. Since we were kids. Now, I can pull some strings in your favor, but I can’t keep doing this, you know? I’m going places, and I even got kids of my own now.”

  “Whatever it looked like out there today,” says Vertan. “It’s not what you think it was.”

  Gahn raises his eyebrows, almost annoyedly.

  “Really?” he says. “Then what was it? You’re just going to tell me that you got caught up in that protest by coincidence?”

  “Erm, yes, actually,” says Vertan.

  “You’re serious?”

  “Yes, I’m serious! Let me talk.”

  “Fine! Fine, explain yourself.”

  “Alright, so, my acquaintance and I drove here today because we were both looking for something of hers,” Vertan nods over to Lym. “We just couldn’t find a way around the protests.”

  “Uhuh,” mutters Gahn. “And who is she?”

  “Oh, her name is Lym,” continues Vertan. “We met a few months ago—”

  “No, I mean, what is she?” interjects Gahn. “Where did she come from? You forget that I’m trusting you here, because otherwise that person, if she is one, is a national security threat that I got to witness with my own eyes today.”

  Vertan grimaces slightly. Lym’s eyes glance over at him.

  “I can’t tell you that,” he finally says.

  “Why not?” Gahn asks.

  “I just can’t—”

  “That’s not an acceptable answer—”

  “I’m legally restricted from doing so, Gahn.”

  Gahn blinks for a moment at this, and leans back, perplexed.

  “What?”

  “I said, I’m legally restricted from doing so, Gahn.”

  “I know, I know, you said that, but why?”

  “I’m legally restricted from telling you about that, too.”

  “And if you do tell me?”

  “I tell anyone, and they’re coming for me and everyone I care about.”

  “Who is coming for you, Vertan? What are you talking about, here? What did you even do?”

  “I can’t answer those questions either—!”

  “Look, if your concern is about information as to who she is, you’re already spotted with her today and that’s broadcasted all over the news right now as we speak. Whoever it is probably already knows. You’re safe here right now. Just get on with it and get this off your back!”

  “Fine,” says Lym. “I’ll talk if he doesn’t.”

  Vertan looks over to Lym, slightly wide-eyed, but Gahn gives her a nod in approval.

  “My native name is Lym Alzie-Rugen. I hail from a world called Happia, and my people are called the Happians. I pronounced them differently for ease of digestion.

  We are a people great in power but small in number. We have been waging war against extinction for our independence anywhere from decades to eons, across multiverses and dimensions, depending on when and where you look.

  I crash landed here on Ulminh shortly after my mission, and my gunship landed elsewhere on this planet. Meeting Vertan was a coincidence. He helped me repair my navigator so that I can track down my gunship and find a way back to Happia. We believe it may have been discovered and relocated since; the navigator led us to track its location down to the complex in this city where the protest occurred.

  I have every intention to leave peacefully without any further interference.”

  Gahn nods, absorbing the information.

  “See, Vertan?” he says. “Now was that so hard?”

  He turns back to Lym, now with an air of curiosity.

  “Happia, huh?” he says. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such a world, let alone Happians. Tell me more about it, what is it like?”

  “Perhaps you have heard of us,” Lym continues.

  “Really? How so?”

  “You may know us as the cosmic demons we’re painted as. The Special Expeditions to you are our Extinction Wars.”

  *****

  “What?!”

  The council room temporarily erupts into a fervorous chatter.

  “Gahn, is this really true?”

  “Why would it not be true? How and why would he come up with something like that?”

  “Do we have proof to verify this?”

  “What more proof do we need? Look at the disaster today! It’s reached all over the news now!”

  “So no cosmic demon is going to warp itself out of spacetime around here?”

  “Have you seen the woman? She’s just an ordinary-looking woman like the rest of us!”

  “What’s ordinary about her? Have we not seen her catch tank shells barehanded today?!”

  “What are the implications of this? In all the decades of the Expeditions, not a single peep managed to get out that there’s a genocide going on!”

  “Hey, watch it!”

  “Be careful with what you call it!”

  “I’m going to call it what it is!”

  “Happia—whatever it is—be damned! We have enough issues here, and that thing is a national security threat!”

  “That ‘thing’ is a person!”

  “What is this about anyway?!”

  “If these ‘Happians’ are so dangerous, then surely there’s a reason—!”

  *****

  Returning to the interrogation room, Gahn sits down on his chair, seemingly exhausted from the ordeal.

  “What happened?” asks Vertan.

  “Hoo boy, yeah, you were right,” replies Gahn.

  “I told you,” says Vertan. “Are we in trouble?”

  “I’ve worked with them, I doubt it,” says Gahn. “It’s already out far and wide, and you technically have a personal bodyguard if you don’t upset her. They’re going to put their resources elsewhere.”

  “So, what happens now?” asks Lym. “When can I regain access to my gunship?”

  “Here’s the issue, uh, Ms. Rugen,” answers Gahn. “Yes, the gunship was there earlier today; it is not anymore. It was relocated and transferred offworld to a Coalition research facility in Alpharion during our interview. Likely in the Eraln sector. As of now, the gunship is no longer under Ulminhan custody.”

  “So it’s in their hands now?” Vertan exclaimed.

  “Yes, legally, they are now in control of a highly sensitive asset,” replies Gahn. “But, here’s what I planned that we can do.”

  He looks over to Lym.

  “Ms. Rugen,” he continued. “You stated to me that you intend to leave peacefully with minimal interference possible, is that correct?”

  “Correct,” Lym answers.

  “Alright, so,” continues Gahn. “We’re going to bend the rules a little bit and work a tad outside the normal legal and diplomatic bounds. You both will be coming with me, and I will act as a Special Interventionary Envoy for this situation, authorized to negotiate the recovery of the foreign vessel and facilitate the repatriation of its sole occupant, Lym Alzie-Rugen, back to Happia.

  Coming with us will be a military attaché so that we can set this up as formal and peaceful dialogue between our militaries, as well as some of my troops so that we can at least demonstrate we have this ‘danger’ under our control. As long as you emphasize that you will leave peacefully and out of our hands, and bring no further interference or trouble, things should go smoothly.

  Sound good?”

  The two sitting across Gahn absorb this, and then turn to look at each other. After a tense moment, they both give the other an approving nod.

  “I owe you one, Gahn,” says Vertan.

  Silently, he thinks back to the protests earlier that day. The sounds of the chants and dialogue ring in his mind.

  A hidden part of him wonders if somewhere within this predicament, was the moment he had long hoped and waited for all these years.