Nyx is standing in front of an imposing building as they make their way to see the governor. One she recognized as the one being attacked by the enemy in power armor, and there are still scars on the surrounding buildings, though the rubble is now cleaned up.

  It’s concrete and metal, much like every other building in the colony, although it now has scarring from the fight. The words ‘Colonial Security’ are above the front entrance in large golden letters. Leading up to the entrance is a set of stairs that are definitely taller than needed, giving the building a prominent height above the others. There’s a dead lawn with dead trees along the front that she imagined made it less imposing, but now that everything is dead, it looks more ominous. Past that is a wall and fencing, and she can see various vehicles and drones past it. Some have blades like the fans in life support and ventilation systems that she’s not sure what they’re used for.

  They walk inside, and it’s much the same as the outside. Concrete and metal, with some rugs in front of windows that she can see are where employees would help visitors. The walls have holographic pictures that rotate between various figures and landscapes, which help make it seem more inviting. There are also vases that she imagined used to have plants in them, and a few larger pots with larger plants that have now died, like the ones outside.

  A tall man in an exo-suit approaches them, “Captain Cai Halley and crew?”

  Cai steps forward, “Yes.” He introduces each of them: “This is my chief engineer, Nyx. Vice-Captain Roxy, and my gunner officer, Twoey. There is also my operations officer, Zone, but he wasn’t able to come.”

  The man nods, “I am the new secretary to the governor, Louis Marks. I will take you to the governor now.”

  They’re led to an elevator. Once inside, he scans a card on the control panel and they descend. As the elevator stopped several floors down, it pressurized.

  The man takes his helmet off after it finishes, revealing an older man with graying hair, and with a kindly face and prominent smile lines.

  Nyx and the others take their helmets off, clipping them to their backs.

  They exit the elevator, and the man leads them down a short hallway, “This is the emergency command room in case the command center is unavailable. The governor is waiting inside.”

  The door opens, revealing a room filled with consoles showing various video feeds, data, graphs, and other things. It’s dimly lit and smells of sweat and even a little shunk. Several men and a few women look up as they enter. They’re all older and are wearing uniforms that suggest they’re all high-ranking officials.

  Louis waves them in, “Captain Halley’s crew.”

  Louis closes the door behind them as they enter.

  Nyx feels her tail bristle as several eyes look at her with interest. She knows they’ll treat her professionally, but she still can’t get past being told her whole life that they’d hate her here. She wonders if they told her that so she wouldn’t try running away here?

  Another elderly man approaches. He’s the only one not in a security uniform and is wearing a suit that looks much too hot for the room, though she admits it looks good on him. He’s got a serious look about him despite his smile that doesn’t quite reach his blue eyes that seem to take in more than she would like.

  He holds out a hand to Cai, “A pleasure to meet you in person, Captain Halley.” He turns to look at the others, “And these are three of the… victims from Mankind’s Salvation’s vile laboratory that you have taken in?”

  Cai takes his hand, and he looks a little nervous, “Yeah, it’s nice to meet you in person too.” He glances at the three of them, “Yeah, I’m taking these three and one other with me. How are the other children?”

  “They’re still in the Mankind’s Salvation’s facility. Once we pressurize the dome, we’ll take them to a childcare facility.”

  Roxy lets out a sigh of relief and blushes as the governor glances at her.

  Cai continues, “That’s good to hear.” A pause, “Is there anything else?”

  He nods, “You were instrumental in uncovering and exposing the Mankind’s Salvation. We had suspicions, but never enough to act on them. I never expected my own secretary to be one, and there were many others. Still, despite the damage to the colony, it’s a relief to have the taint gone.” He looks between them, “So thank you for exposing them.”

  Nyx pushes Twoey forward, “Twoey was bein’ the one that was thinkin’ about sending the sparkin’ data.”

  Twoey grins and gives a thumb’s up.

  The governor smiles, “Thank you, Ms. Twoey.” He turns to each of them, “As thanks, we’re offering each of you honorary citizenship. Yes, we know you’re not staying, but consider Sandel Colony a second home if you decide to take a break from exploring the stars. And we’ll offer you help with anything you need.” He then turns to a nearby console, “And for the reason I brought you here? I thought one of you could do the honor of giving the command to pressurize the dome.”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Twoey grins and steps forward before he can finish speaking and presses a button.

  Zone groans, “Twoey....”

  Nyx catches herself giggling.

  Cai gives Nyx a look, then pats Twoey on the head, “Why am I not surprised.”

  Nyx blushes. When was the last time she had laughed like that?

  The governor nods, “Okay… In about…” He checks a display, “Five hours, provided there are no leaks, we should be able to open the shelters.” He turns back to Cai and the group, “I should also mention that you and your crew will be given awards. We would also like you to speak at the memorial to those who died.”

  Everyone looks solemn at the mention of this.

  Nyx would never forget the trap that killed all the soldiers she’d helped board the ships. With the pirates, she’d been with the ones hurting others, which made her feel dirty and loathe herself and the crew. This time she was trying to help others from bad people, so in a way, it hurt worse.

  The governor continues speaking, “Of course, we also want to get your version of events before we start the trial. Do each of you mind taking time to talk to our lawyers as witnesses?” He looks between them, “But you don’t need to if you don’t feel comfortable.”

  Nyx is about to speak when Roxy steps back, “I… I don’t feel c-comfortable t-talking about it.”

  Nyx looks at her and wonders what they did to her in the facility. In the time they’d spent together, Roxy hadn’t left the room once or had anything done to her there.

  The governor nods, “I understand. I read each of your files, and I imagine much of what happened to each of you is hard to talk about. We’d still like to talk to you, but if there’s something you don’t want to talk about, just let them know.”

  Roxy stares at the floor and shifts her weight from foot to foot as if she wants to run.

  Nyx looks back to the governor. She feels nauseous thinking about the things they did to her, even after the drugs they gave her took some of the edge off, “I’ll be talkin’ about the dum shunk they were doin’ to me.”

  Zone scowls, but nods, “Me too. I wanna see that bastard that killed Gwen hang.”

  Twoey shrugs, and Nyx doesn’t remember her being taken away either. But she thought that maybe by the time they put her with them, they’d already finished with the experiments they’d made for each of them? She wonders what they did to Twoey that made it so that she doesn’t speak much and in such simple sentences.

  The governor nods, “Good.” He waves to a room to the side where there are several chairs lined up against the wall. “Please wait here until they call you in.”

  Roxy raises a hand, “If… if I need to talk, can it be with a woman?”

  The governor nods again, “We can arrange that. Now… I should get back to other matters. And thank you again.” He gives a slight bow, then goes back to the console he was at when they entered after they say their thanks back.

  They walk over to the chairs and sit.

  Nyx feels nervous as they wait.

  Cai turns to Roxy, “Maybe you can have someone go in with you? I… I hope you don’t mind, but I looked at each of your files and I wouldn’t want to talk about it either if I were any of you. I can’t even imagine what it was like growing up in that lab.” He looks at Nyx, “And with pirates.”

  Zone almost spits, then looks around and instead picks at his teeth with a fingernail, “The boredom was the worst. Or at least I thought it was.” He glances at Nyx, “Never got blinded and some of ‘em were nice to us…” He scowls and clenches his fists.

  Nyx notices Roxy’s breathing is ragged as she looks at the floor and takes her hand, “Ya bein’ okay?”

  Roxy nods, “I’ll be okay.”

  Zone gives a pained look at Roxy as if he knows what’s happened to her, then looks away.

  Nyx recalls how much she lost control of her emotions when watching that movie. Something definitely happened to her in the past. All of them had.

  Twoey jumps onto Roxy’s lap, her head nestling into her chest, “Love you, Roxy!”

  Roxy hugs Twoey, “Love you too.”

  Zone looks like he wants to join in, but picks at his ear instead, blowing the earwax off his finger.

  The door opens, and a middle-aged woman with blonde hair in a dress suit walks out, “Ms. Roxy?”

  Roxy jumps, letting out a cute startled noise as Twoey nearly falls out of her lap. “Yes!”

  The woman looks mildly amused, “Follow me, please.”

  Roxy fidgets and then stands as Twoey jumps off her lap, “Can I bring my friend?”

  The woman thinks for a moment, “I suppose so. One on one is preferable, but we can ask your friend questions as well.”

  She turns to Twoey, “Can you come, Twoey?” Twoey nods. She turns to Nyx and gives her an apologetic smile, then back to the woman, “Okay. I’m ready.”

  Roxy is shaking.

  It disappoints Nyx that Roxy doesn’t trust her enough to come, but Twoey probably already knows what’s happened to her, and Nyx really has only known her for a little while.

  Nyx gives Roxy a smile to show it doesn’t bother her.

  Others come out and invite them in for interviews. Nyx gives her account of her time there as a child, when Cai and she went to Barnard Station, Heidi, Allison, her kidnapping and time in the lab, the escape, the trap in space, the fight in the command center, and even the time she spent with the kids in the lab.

  She feels drained by the time they’re done with her, and leaves to find the others too, especially Roxy, though she looks relieved, which makes Nyx wonder what they talked to her about.

  Cai stands as Nyx comes out, “Well, that’s everyone. I’m starving. Should we head back to the Donati and eat something? I’m thinking of a good Margherita pizza?”

  Twoey nods enthusiastically, “Yeah!”

  Zone perks up, though still looks broody, “I remember seeing those in some movies. They look good.”

  Roxy looks interested too, “Oh… yes. I want to try too.” She looks at Cai and blushes, but still looks nervous.

  Cai nods, “Great! Let’s head back to the Donati.

  Nyx feels a stomach cramp coming on, but it’s minor, so she ignores it as they leave the command center.