It doesn’t feel good to return to this...ship. What was I thinking, telling all these things to him? I let myself get deceived by a man that I don’t even know. What would my father tell if he saw me act like a child?

The picture of my father reprimanding me for my childish actions brings a feeling of anger inside me. That old man always makes sure to shame me when I don’t meet his expectations. Like, what does he expect from me after all? Aren’t I supposed to live my life the way I want? Maybe I was born to save the galaxy from a Nusae relic that is threatening the well-being of my people.

Or maybe I was born to fall in love with this man; Doctor Dale Cross, the Swamp of the Organization.

We’ve been talking for some time now, me and him. He doesn’t hesitate to answer all my questions, even the hard ones. Why do the humans want to destroy us? What is this technology that no one knows about? How can a human like him oppose his kind’s wishes?

Everything; I just have to ask. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy for me to fall for him. Information in the Phadh culture was always a high-paying resource. If you want people to share information with you, you have to spend countless hours socializing, earn their trust before making your demand known. But with Dale, it’s easy as that.

I just have to ask.

“So, you tell me that Jasih is a general from a species of fighters that thrived over a hundred years ago? And...how is it possible for him to be alive right now?”

He smiles at me; I smile back as a reflex. My cheeks are numb from all the smiling, only that I don’t remember smiling at all.

“Eladia, the black-haired lady you saw before, is a Chronicler. In one of her trips to Primordial Earth, she found his crashed spaceship and saved him from his failing cryo-pod. Then, they also found the so-called Nusae Relic, almost dying in the process, and they started traveling around the Galaxy after that, trying to solve its mystery,” he says, looking around him at the same time.

In my opinion, this Eladia person sounds like quite a bit a bothersome human, but I don’t care about her adventures. The only thing that matters is that melancholic light in Dale’s eyes, a light that suits him well. Telling me that story brought out that light and since then I can’t stop looking at him. So, it takes me a moment to actually listen to what he just said to me. I gasp in surprise.

“No, no, no. I don’t understand. Didn’t you just tell me that if we unlock this artifact, then my people will go extinct? Isn’t it dangerous to just let them unlock it?”

He sighs and looks at me straight in the eyes. I lose the sense of place. At that moment, I swim in those two oceans of blue.

“Yes and no. The cube isn’t build to kill the Phadh, but to follow the user’s orders. If Jasih decides that your people should go extinct, then the cube will use its power to do just that. If he decides that the humans should go extinct, for example, then that it will happen. It’s a weapon of mass-extinction guided by feelings.”

“So, the more hateful the wielder, the more harm he can cause,” I say.

Dale nods at me. I’m scared. It’s like a world full of dangers suddenly opened up in front of me. A man controlling this thing will be the most dangerous being in the whole galaxy. He can be a God.

I’m falling in a whirlwind of unpleasant thoughts. My people are already facing an under population problem after the last Intergalactic War. The Galaxy is afraid of us because of our technological prowess and our ability to wait off all our problems, but this...this is something completely new.

No Phadh deals well with everyday changes, especially our Elder leaders. If they learn about this relic, then we’re looking at another galactic-scale conflict. That would be the end of our species. Maybe unlocking the cube is the best solution after all, but that would mean...

I feel something warm engulfing my hands. I look and see Dale’s hands holding mine. I glance at him and see his eyes changing to a sympathetic look. “Jasih might look like a brute at first sight, but trust me, he won’t kill your people or the humans. We just have to unlock the cube to disperse its genetic pull towards Jasih. If that happens, then it’ll be safe to take that thing and hide it somewhere nowhere can find it and use it again,” he says.

I want to trust him, but it’s not that easy. He’s only a human after all, and I’m just a young Phadh. Even with the combined forces of everyone in this spaceship, humans are dead set on using their power to control the Galaxy. And, the Phadh are too old to discuss an alternative route.

Even so, with his warm eyes and his big hands, this man manages to make my worries go away. The only thing crossing my mind right now is how it would feel to kiss him. To open my lips and feel the sweetness of his mouth in mine.

I’m confused. I never thought I could fall for someone so hard after just meeting him. And the fact that he’s looking at me and sees me, just me, makes my heart go crazy. No one has treated me like this since I was just a clueless child, traveling with my father on the edges of the Known Galaxy. Now, almost a woman, I feel my stomach turn upside down every time his hands touch mine, or his eyes examine my face.

I feel like I should say something. I open my mouth only to stop when I hear the swishing sound of the automatic door opening behind me. A second later, our intimate moment has turned into a fleeting dream.

“Eladia, Prime Officer Jasih; where have you been? We have to come up with a plan to--”

“Relax, Cross. We have seven days before we arrive at Yaerus. Don’t you think it’s enough time to clear up any details about our plan till then? It’s not like we know what we are up against.”

Her voice is belittling this great man, making him seem like a small ant asking for mercy before she crushes him under her boots. Anger quickly fills my veins.

However, his eyes tell another story. He’s looking at this unusual couple and seems truly miserable. Dale suffers quite a lot watching them be happy, and they don’t seem to even notice. Or if they do notice, they don’t seem to care.

The tall guy, the one even taller than Dale, Jasih, turns and looks at the human woman with a look of pure confusion.

“What’s wrong with you, Eladia? Doctor Cross is the one that kept you safe all this time. You should be more grateful to him,” he says.

Dale is looking at Eladia; she’s looking back at him. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that these two are either madly in love or passionately hate each other to the gut. The air around them seems electrified and for once, I don’t know if I would like to be in their shoes.

“I’m grateful for the man that saved me, but not for the one who lied to me again and again.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Eladia?” Jasih continues.

“I’m sure Doctor Cross knows what I’m talking about,” she says with as much vile in her words as possible.

“I don’t know. I, for once, would like to discuss with you, Dale. I’m concerned about the situation of Yaerus myself. We found a First Kind down on Zeania. Alyce helped me get rid of her, but it seems that they’re more people involved in this mess than we previously thought.”

At that moment, I look at Dale one last time before he leaves the room to head towards the bridge. His face has suddenly aged as he lowers his head and hunches his back, walking out of the room. He seems defeated.

And then it hits me, and I most certainly don’t like the thought that comes to my realization.

Dale is in love with one of those two, and seeing them together it clearly hurts him.

I didn’t think I could actually feel hurt after realizing the truth, but I do. So, I quickly leave the room, tears running down my face.

My short, human romance is over