With the help of so many members of the Force, we get the women to Dr. Trevvula in record time. Marilyn stays with them, all of the other officers leave them. They’re hesitant of us and I can’t blame them for that. I stand close by without being intrusive. I watch as Marilyn sits with Dr. Trevvula as he makes his way around to all five women. She reassures them that we are the good guys and that we’re here to help. She has come so far from when I rescued her from the Atronox. My heart swells with pride with how my mate steps up and offers a helping hand.

Physically the women are okay. They weren’t harmed aside from not being fed enough, at least from first glance. Their emotional health is another story completely. I’m curious to know how long they were held in captivity. I want to know if they were all taken from Marilyn’s home or if the Atronox somehow managed to abduct women from all over. It’s a disturbing turn of events, that’s for certain.

Now that the women are in good hands, I decide to take my leave and head to the command center to get an update on everything that has happened since we were gone.

The command center is a bustling hub of activity when I arrive. With an entire shipment of weapons and women recovered, there’s a lot to be done.

“General Koba, glad to see you back on your feet,” Admiral Garon says as he excuses himself from a group of men and walks over to me.

“Thank you Admiral.”

“Nice work recovering the weapons and women,” he says. “I’m impressed with your quick thinking and problem solving abilities in such a strained situation.”

“I can’t actually take all of the credit, Admiral. It was Marilyn’s idea to fly the Atronox ship out of there.”

“You both did well. And it turns out you were also quite lucky.”

“Yes, Admiral. We were lucky, indeed. The women we have saved will be well cared for. We now know, however, that there are many more women out there that are currently being held captive by the Atronox. It’s imperative that we find out how many women Stosk has before he is able to sell them off to slavers.”

“I understand the urgency to recover the women, but if we can find the base of operations for the Atronox, we can stage a wide scale attack and put an end to all of this tedious back and forth. We can confiscate all of their weapons and women. We will continue to track the ship, which gives us the location of the women. When it makes sense to make a move, we will.”

I understand his logic but I want to rescue the women now. I don’t know if I feel this way because of Marilyn and how important it is to her, or if I would make the same decision purely as a General. Either way, there isn’t much I can do about it now. I dread disappointing Marilyn, though.

“Thank you, Admiral,” I say. “I’d appreciate being kept in the loop. And I also volunteer to be part of the team that rescues the women, when the time comes.”

“Of course, General. You’ll be the first to know.”

I nod, even though I’m disappointed.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to check in with Raydn to see if he has made any progress finding Earth.” If he has made progress, at least that’s some good news I can share with Marilyn.

“Raydn passed that job off to Cyrox. He wasn’t having any luck and I needed him elsewhere.”

“I’ll check with Cyrox, then. Hopefully he has been able to make some progress.”

I signal goodbye and make my way to Cyrox’s workstation. Cyrox is a behind-the-scenes member of the Force. And if Raydn was struggling to make a breakthrough with figuring out how the Atronox got ahold of the women from Earth, Cyrox is the next best man for the job. His work place is in a small room just off of the main command center. It’s small, with just enough room for him, but that’s the way he likes it.

“Hello, Cyrox,” I say when I enter the room. At first, it’s as if he doesn’t hear me. The screen in front of us is cycling through some sort of digital code. I have no idea what it means, but Cyrox is completely absorbed. There is stale bread sitting on the edge of his desk, one arm swipe away from falling onto the floor. From the three empty cups sitting next to the bread, I assume he has been at this for quite some time.

“Cyrox,” I say again, louder this time.

He jumps and clicks a button in front of him, freezing the screen in place. “General. I didn’t hear you come in,” he says, swiveling around in his chair. He begins to stand to greet me but I motion for him to stay where he is.

“No need to stop what you’re doing. The Admiral mentioned that Raydn passed along the job of finding Earth to you. I’d like an update on your progress.”

“General, it’s fascinating. So much so that I don’t know if I can believe what I’ve discovered.” He motions for me to sit next to him while he spins back around to face the screen in front of him. “Let’s start at the beginning,” he says, obviously excited that he has someone to share with. “The one thing we all know for certain is that we have never heard of Earth before. From what I have been able to find, the Atronox stumbled upon a wormhole that served as a bridge from here to a completely different galaxy.” His fingers fly over the keys in front of him and a digital picture of a theoretical wormhole appears in front of me. “Basically, they found a shortcut that took them to Earth and then back here.” He’s looking at me with surprise and fascination on his face. I understand why; this sounds like a scientific anomaly that is unlike anything ever heard of before.

“The only way we would ever be able to find Earth ourselves is if we were lucky enough to find another wormhole. Unfortunately, they’re incredibly unstable. This, right here, is where the wormhole collapses.” He points to the screen again, a recording of an image from one of our satellites. The Atronox ship appears and then shortly after there is an obvious disturbance in space.

“I mean, there has never been any reason to believe wormholes actually exist until now. Your woman is proof that the Atronox found a shortcut through time. The obvious problem is that there’s no way to predict whether there will be another wormhole. Traditional space travel isn’t an option for taking these women back home. It would take a lifetime.”

“So that’s it. The only way to return the women to Earth would be if we were lucky enough to miraculously stumble upon another wormhole.” After letting that sink in, I continue. “So you’ve just confirmed that there’s no hope in finding a way back to Earth.”

“Sorry, General, I suppose I did. The existence of the wormhole in the first place is a once in a lifetime occurrence. The odds of it happening again are close to nonexistent. And even if it did occur again, we have no way to predict when.”

I sit for a moment while feelings of disappointment and relief seep through my veins. Somehow I need to find a way to tell Marilyn that, not only have we not rescued the other women yet, but there is also no way she’ll ever go home again.

How devastated will she be to learn this? How would anyone react when they learn they’ll never see their home again? Then there’s the small part of me that feels relief. I would never admit it, but I’m glad she won’t be leaving me. I had even been thinking about asking her if she’d stay with me, but I pushed that thought out of my mind, knowing it wasn’t right of me to force her to make that kind of decision. But now, the decision has been made for us. I don’t want to be the one to cause her pain but there’s no way around it.

“Thank you, Cyrox. Once again, you’ve come through for me.” I pat his shoulder and stand up to leave. The information weighs heavy on me. It was easier when we didn’t have answers and the possibility of finding Marilyn’s home was still a hope for her to cling to. I leave Cyrox and slowly make my way back to my quarters.