“Something on our radar, Captain,” Heldiun called out.

Heldiun was a young Zaytarian, the same species as Gar. His skin was paler than Gar’s, as white as glue, his eyes a brilliant blue. His Captain was older with a bushy beard of green, and bald head. His skin was a dark blue, Zaytarian’s ran the gamut in terms of coloring.

Captain Salta was nearing retirement age, and looking forward to it. He was captaining a reconnaissance ship with a small crew of only ten; a ship built for speed rather than fighting. They were on the lookout for the Aeon army, trying to find if they were amassing their ships anywhere in the universe. He felt tense hearing Heldiun call out. Had they found their enemy?

“Bring it up on screen,” Salta said, sitting in his chair. A screen near him glowed to life. “Hmm, small, but it looks Aeon.”

“Should we fire?” Heldiun asked.

Salta considered his options for a moment. He could fire, and probably destroy the ship before they even knew what had hit them. Though he wasn’t well-armed, his ship could handle that surely. The problem was that it was doubtful this little ship was out by themselves. Surely there were more nearby, and if they managed to raise the alarm, Salta and his crew could find more than they bargained for.

A beep came from a nearby panel while Salta was considering his options.

“They’re flagging us,” Heldiun said, unable to keep the surprise from his voice.

“Hailing us?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Open the channel.”

“It’s great to see you guys,” a voice said in Zaytarian language.

“Who is this?” Salta asked adamantly.

“Private Gar, a member of infantry,” the voice replied.

“Zaytarian?” Salta questioned. More to himself than anyone else.

“Yes, sir. Trying to get home. I have something that’s going to help us.”

And so it was ten minutes later Gar and Sarah found themselves aboard Salta’s ship, their stolen Aeon ship tethered by a plasma cord and towed. Sarah was fresh from the shower, her hair still damp. The translator in her ear did its job, and she could understand everything. The captain of the ship hadn’t been wearing one, but he slid one into his ear as he looked her over.

“Who is this?” he asked Gar.

Her name is Sarah, she’s from Earth.”

“That backwater blue ball? I didn’t think they ever left. Only to their own moon.”

“I was taken,” Sarah said, and then she added a bit defensively, “And we’re close to getting to Mars.”

The Captain laughed. “Impressive,” he said, but it sounded as though he was teasing her, though not in a mean way.

“The Aeon’s took her,” Gar informed the captain. “Because of this.”

He reached over then and pulled at the chain around Sarah’s neck. She had zipped her flight suit up fully before boarding the ship, and so the other aliens didn’t know what she possessed until it was pulled free from her collar.

“Is that…” the Captain began.

“They key,” Gar said, nodding. “I think. I don’t know much about it, but I think that’s what it is.”

“We must take her home, quickly!” Salta said, and suddenly the small ship was full of commotion as a new course was set, and the engines were pushed to their limit.

Sarah was given a room of her own; small quarters with a cot of sorts and nothing else. Gar was gone from her for some time, and when he returned she went to him, but he reached out and took her by the arms.

“I’m not sure what they would think,” Gar said quietly, and Sarah was forced to nod, even though she was filled with hurt. He had never kept his distance from her before. Why would he do so now? The alien went on. “We’re going to my planet. There we’ll decide what to do next. If we can end the Aeon threat for good, I think we should do it.”

“I think you should do it. You and your people. I don’t understand why I keep getting shuffled about,” Sarah said, truthfully. She loved Gar, but she was angry at him at the moment, and she was getting tired of all that she had been through. “Just take the damn thing,” she said, and she pulled the necklace from around her neck and held it out to him, the crystal at the end swaying slowly.

“I cannot,” Gar said.

“They’re scared of it, right? That’s why they wouldn’t take it? But you… you shouldn’t be scared of it. Whatever this thing is a key to, it’s just their superstition, isn’t it?”

Even as she spoke, Sarah slowly realized something. There was something Gar wasn’t telling her, something he had been keeping from her all this time. “What is it?” she asked. The alien had enough sense not to lie to her.

“The crystal, it… it’s bonded to you. A subtle bond that you cannot feel, but the power it possesses, at some point after your father gave it to you, it made this bond. The crystal cannot bond with an Aeon. It could with someone of my species, a Zaytarian, but once it’s bonded it is done. There are many crystals like it, but only one which will have been coded to the Aeon’s machine.”

“And what is their machine?”

“We don’t know. Not exactly. It’s something large. We aren’t sure they can move it from their planet. We know that much.”

That didn’t make sense to Sarah. “If they can’t move it, how are they threatening your people with it?”

“They can move their planet,” Gar said in a grim voice, which was mostly lost on the translator in Sarah’s ear.

“What?”

“They’ve made a technology. They can… beam their planet to any location in the galaxy. We think.”

“You think.”

“We have spies. It’s a dangerous job. We don’t get as many reports as we would like, as often as we would like.”

“This damned crystal. I don’t understand what you mean when you say it bonded to me.”

“It’s not a crystal in the same way you have on your planet. It looks like it, sure, but that one, those found on the Aeon home world, they’re living.”

“Living? It’s never moved. It’s never talked,” Sarah said, feeling foolish even as she did so.

Gar smiled, and responded as kindly as he could. “Do plants? Does the tree in your backyard? They’re living though, just as that crystal is. It’s alive, and it could sense you, and it grew to…” Gar trailed off.

“It grew to what? Like me? Love me?”

“Like you. We can put it like that,” he replied, and it was clear that he was flustered. “I don’t know everything, I’m not a scientist, all right? I don’t know what they know. I’m just trying to explain this all to you.”

“Why didn’t you explain it to me earlier? Why wait until now?”

Gar sighed and ran a hand through his long hair. “I don’t know. I messed up. I didn’t want to... scare you I guess. I didn’t want you to hate me. Everything we were going through, all the danger, I didn’t want to add to it.”

“I just want to go home,” Sarah snapped. “You should have told me that I wouldn’t be.”

Gar shook his head softly. “I’ll get you home,” he said. He stepped forward and hesitated, and then reached out and took the Earthling’s hand. “If you want to go home. I promise you, I’ll get you there.”

Sarah sighed as she looked up to the alien. “Of course I want to go home. Did you think I would stay here, out here, forever?”

Gar let his shoulders rise and fall, and once more Sarah was reminded that some things didn’t change, even in outer space. Beings who had evolved on a planet lightyears from Earth still shrugged. It was almost too much for her mind to grasp.

“I don’t know,” Gar said truthfully. “I’ve been so focused on surviving, I didn’t even have time to consider what you… what was next for us.”

Sarah nodded, and then she pulled her hand away. “Well, now you know. I want to go home.”

Gar nodded, and then left her alone.