Vessa stood and said something angrily to the Captain and he barked back, the two of them bickering. It amazed Lina that the fearsome Captain let such a tiny woman talk to him in such a manner, even if she couldn't understand what was being said. Then the pieces began to fall together. The guards looked uncomfortable and the Captain seemed annoyed rather than furious. It also seemed like Vessa was winning, the Captain's arguments being silenced before he could manage to get them out.
Soon, the Captain turned to his guards and gave them an order. They looked among themselves before turning and leaving the room as Vessa breezed back to the table.
"I'm sorry about that. I told him that he shouldn't bring the heavy artillery. That's not a good precursor to peace negotiations. Sometimes it's still hard to explain that reasoning," she said.
"How long have you been in love with the Captain?" Lina asked.
Vessa's eyes widened, but that was nothing compared to the look Bain had — his eyes looked like they were liable to pop out of his head.
Vessa cleared her throat and shook her head. "It's no secret. Our relationship is part of the reason I was able to convince them to give up their war-mongering ways. They had a royal family once, but with the homeworld dead, the only person in charge is the Captain. If he decides there's no more war, then there isn't."
Lina knew there was more she could say. More accusations burning in her mind. Was Vessa's relationship with the Captain a factor in her decision to send Lina away? Did the Captain not want to raise an alien child? How did he feel about finding her now?
She could dwell on the matter and demand answers and get herself all worked up over it again, but she chose not to. Not this time. They were so close to securing a way out of here, to going back to Earth, to seeing her mom again. She just couldn't risk it. Not now.
"A fortuitous arrangement," Lina said simply, letting the matter drop.
The Captain joined them at the table and dropped a translator cube in the middle, flipping it on.
"You wanted to speak?" the cube said after a series of grunts from the Captain.
Bain nodded. "I first wanted to apologize for my behavior. I was not myself and I handled the situation poorly. I believe it's in both of our best interests to put the past behind us and look toward the future."
The Captain was silent as the cube translated, then he muttered something to Vessa who in turn muttered something back — it seemed like he was asking for clarification by the gentle instructional tone she took.
"I agree," the cube began translating, "that our initial encounter had unfortunate results. Have you recovered from your injury?"
Bain nodded. "Thanks to the excellent medical care I received."
"Your companion said that you requested a ship," the Captain said. It wasn't a question, but still, it was obvious he expected an answer.
"Yes. Ours was rendered inoperable when you... apprehended it."
"You will go back to your planet and tell them we are not enemies?"
Lina shifted in her seat and Bain turned, giving her a reassuring look. She didn't want him to lie to the Captain — that only seemed like it could make matters worse — but she also didn't want the truth to risk the Captain denying them what they asked.
"We will, yes, but we have another stop first. Lina's mother is quite worried about her welfare and we'd like to set her mind at ease."
Vessa shifted in her seat now, and the Captain's hand moved to cover hers. She didn't seem bothered at all by the slimy residue clinging to him. In a way, Lina admired that; the woman was able to look past the vast differences between them and still see the good inside. She'd almost single-handedly brought an end to the war that had been plaguing both species for generations. Sacrificing her daughter probably seemed like acceptable collateral damage.
And Bain was right: Lina's mother wasn't the woman sitting across the table from them, she was on Earth, worried sick about her. If Vessa hadn't sent her into space, she'd never have met Mom, never have had her in her life. Mom would have been lonely, her life empty without Lina.
Okay, so maybe that was overstating her importance a little, but Mom never stopped telling Lina how much she loved her, how happy she was that Lina had appeared to her, how fortunate she felt for the gift from the unknown. Lina had never felt much like a gift, but she knew her mom thought of her that way, and the thought of them never having encountered one another made Lina sad.
Vessa had made a decision that Lina couldn't get behind, couldn't understand, and would never make on her own. But it was a decision that Lina was grateful for, because it brought her to all of the people she cared so much about. Bain included.
"And then you will go back to your planet?"
Bain nodded. "That's the plan."
Lina swallowed. Did he really believe his mother would take them back? He'd said himself they couldn't just fly back to Mabnoa, that it would be too much of a risk even if the Fibbuns were as harmless as they now believed.
The Captain nodded. "We will ready a ship for you, then."
Lina's jaw dropped. Just like that? It was that easy?
The Captain turned his yellow eyes to her and she fought not to squirm under his unsettling gaze. "I would not have so readily agreed to this, but your efforts aboard this ship have been appreciated. I do have one more favor to ask of you before you leave though," the cube translated.
She stiffened, praying it wouldn't have anything to do with Vessa. Even though she'd come to terms with their past in the last few minutes, remembering all the things in her life she would have missed out on otherwise, Lina couldn't say she wanted to be friends or anything with the other woman.
"What is it?"
"We have a device gifted to us by another civilization. One that is meant to make an uninhabitable world habitable in less than a generation's time. But it... suffered damage during its delivery and we've never been able to get it working. With your skills, I hoped that you would repair it for us."
Lina chewed her lip. That sounded way above her skill level. She normally worked on small things. Simple things. The last time she'd worked on something that powerful, the portal sucked her in and sent her to Mabnoa.
But she saw the hope shimmering in the two pairs of eyes across the table. Hope that they could return to their world. That they wouldn't have to be space-bound nomads anymore. That they could have a home.
If that wasn't worth the risk, she didn't know what was. She nodded. "I can try my best. I can't make any guarantees; I've never worked on such a device before."
The Captain nodded. "Your effort is enough."
"There is one more thing," Bain said. The other three people at the table all tensed simultaneously, the buoyed mood from successful negotiations almost fading. Everyone expected the prince to say something to ruin it now. What more could there possibly be?
Lina tried to silence him with her eyes. Don't ask for more. They've already agreed to more than we could hope for, she tried to say with her mind. Bain noticed, but he ignored it.
"We will need a way of contacting you once we've arrived and spoken with the queen."
"Of course," the Captain said. "We will give you one of our communicators."
"They work long-distance," Vessa added.
Bain nodded. "It's settled then."
"Goblak can escort you to the lab," Vessa said to Lina. "You have no idea how much it means to us — to all of us — that you're willing to help."
Lina shrugged. "It's the right thing to do," she said, standing from the table, nervousness bubbling inside of her. What if she couldn't do it? At least they were unlikely to find out if her repairs worked or not until they were ready to deploy it. And by then, she should be long gone. That should have brought her some comfort, but it only made her feel guilty. There was still so much she could do to help these people and she was doing everything she could to get away from them. It wasn't hard to see why Vessa had been so compelled to stay.
In the lab, Lina found the device. Bain had been invited to join the Captain to look over the available ships. She wasn't sure how he'd pick one, and really, she would have preferred to be a part of that decision, but she could only be in one place at a time and the sooner she got this thing fixed, the sooner they'd be off.
It was a complicated piece of machinery. More complex and advanced than anything she'd ever seen. It didn't resemble any technology she knew of either. Whichever civilization the Fibbuns had gotten it from had to be incredibly powerful. The ability to terraform planets and make them habitable was about as close to actual magic as technology could get.
And as good as she was, Lina wasn't sure she could do magic. Other than the plant thing.
Okay, so she could do something that seemed an awful lot like magic, but it wasn't the same and it wasn't anything that could help her fix this machine.
She focused on the task at hand, trying not to think about all the people who would be disappointed if she failed. Trying not to think of all the hopes and dreams resting on her success.
But the more she tried not to think about those things, the more they were the only things she could think of.
At the very least, it wasn't hard to identify where the damage had occurred. She could see the dents and places where connections had been broken and then repaired. So the first thing she did was to undo all the attempted repairs from the Fibbuns. If she could see what it looked like immediately after it was damaged, rather than all patched up piecemeal, maybe she could sort it out. Just another puzzle like the spaceship. Like the music box. Just a far more complex puzzle.
Once she undid all that hard work, Lina's mind was entirely focused on the task at hand and she was so engrossed with the project that when someone came up behind her, she nearly jumped through the roof with surprise.
"Hey, calm down, it's just me," Bain said softly. In one hand, he had a device like the one Goblak had carried earlier, and in the other, a bowl of that spicy stew they both enjoyed so much. "I thought you might be hungry. You've been down here for hours and hours."
She blinked, her eyes suddenly blurry with exhaustion now that she was looking away from her intricate work. She hadn't noticed until she looked at Bain and struggled to make out his features.
"I guess I am, yeah," she said. "Thanks." Sure enough, when she smelled the stew, her stomach had started to rumble.
"Any progress?" he asked, rocking on his heels as she inhaled the food.
"A bit. It's more complicated than anything I've ever worked on. I don't know if I'll be able to do it..."
"I know you can," Bain said with utmost confidence.
Lina sighed, shaking her head. "I'm not so sure. This is really some next-level stuff."
He just smiled. "Time for another pep talk already, is it? You already know I think you can do anything. You've never failed before and I don't expect you to start now."
She couldn't fight the grin that curved her lips upward. "I guess you're right."
"Of course I am. Besides, I don't imagine you want to abandon this to come look at our new ship and you're gonna wanna see it, so you should finish this up because I'm dying to show it to you."
"That good, huh?"
He just beamed. "It's a pretty nice ship. I don't have the first idea how it works, but it's solid and plenty big for the two of us."
"I would hope so, since we're about half their size," she teased. "Still, anything has got to be better than the thing I cobbled together for us."
"It got us this far, didn't it? I think we could have made it all the way to Earth in it if we hadn't run into this little... snag."
"Maybe," she said. "Can I ask you something?"
"Anything."
"You told the Captain that our plan is to go back to Mabnoa after we visit my mom..."
"I did," he said. "And you're worried I wasn't truthful about our intentions?"
She nodded slowly, pushing the empty bowl away.
He smiled and kissed her. "I do so love that honest streak in you. But I meant what I said. I know you may not want to make it a permanent home, but I want us to revisit Mabnoa someday. If nothing else, to carry this message back to them."
"But the ship... the danger..."
"I know the hows aren't obvious, but I have faith we'll find a way. The Captain doesn't need to know all of the obstacles in our way, only that our intentions are true."
"Don't you feel that's a bit... disingenuous?"
"Would you have preferred I lay it all out for them?"
She looked down and sighed. Explaining all the difficulties to the Captain and Vessa wasn't the part that would be difficult. Doing so without insulting them would be. Part of the reason they couldn't just fly back is because there was still the tiny thread of uncertainty that this was all a trap of some kind. Mentioning that would have certainly put a quick halt to all their peace talks.
"No, I suppose not."
"Sometimes being in charge means getting creative. And sometimes it means doing the most good for the most people, even if it's not the best outcome for everyone."
"I suppose..."
"It will all work out, I promise," he said. Lina couldn't see how he could be so sure about that, but she had to trust him. For all the times she asked him to trust her when he had no real reason to, she owed him this tiny bit of leeway.
So instead of voicing any more of her concerns, she just nodded. "You're right. I'm sure it will."
"And in that vein, " he said, his voice raising in inflection like he was about to ask for something. "They gave me this thing, the communicator that we're to use once we've spoken to my mother. I was hoping you'd take a look at it?"
She frowned, looking at the rectangular device in his hand. The entire face of it was a screen, a touch screen it seemed, and at the moment it displayed what looked like a map of the ship.
"Looks handy," she said.
He nodded. "It's how I found you without an escort. Certainly useful. But I can't help but be a bit concerned..."
"That it has some kind of locating device that they could use to find Mabnoa?"
"You read my mind."
"Yeah, I'll look it over," she said. "Once I've finished this. It's going to be awhile still. I'm not sure I'll finish any time soon. You should just go on to bed."
"If you're sure..." Bain said, looking toward the door. He was trying to seem casual about it, but ruined it with a yawn. Lina chuckled under her breath.
"Yes, I'm sure. Thank you for the food."
He gave her a kiss on the temple and left her to her work.