You are our friends, we got your back

Waaaaaauuuu... Waaaauuuu.... Waaaauuuuu...

John looked up from his pad and frowned. "What is that?"

"That is the alarm." said Alira unhelpful with the same irritation on her face as John felt.

"Yes, love. I can hear that." He gave her a kiss on the forehead. "But why? - Sarah?"

"Yes, John." came the modulated answer from the Artifical Intelligence. "The long-range sensors around the ruling planet Xerubia of the Nemeians picked up a solar eruption."

John shrugged. "So? They have them every two to five years. They have shields against those." He raised an eyebrow. "The eruption is outside the parameters?"

"Way above." In front of John and Alira appeared a holographic screen, showing scales displaying magnitudes, gravitational forces, energy output. All of them dark red and out of the scales. "The eruption causes solar winds and electromagnetic waves strong enough to crush their shields and level half of the planet."

"Fuck!" sweared John, Alira nodding. With the flick of his wrist the scales disappeared and his - and Aliras - private line to the Grey Empress opened. Only a few seconds later the Empress picked up, with uncombed hair and sleep in the eyes, wearing a silken nightgown, her bare shoulders reflecting the light of the holofield.

"Ah, shit." said John apologetical. "Sorry, hadn't thought about timezones. What time is it at your place?"

"Close after midnight." grumbled the fair woman, blinked a few times and looked up. "John, aren't you lightyears away? You aren't calling me just to ask how the time on Terra is, right?"

"No, love." John gulped. "Long-range sensors picked up a solar eruption way above the scales close to Xerubia. It appears it is their own sun."

"What...what do you mean by way above the scales? How bad is it?"

"Close to an extinction event. They might survive, but their shields won't hold."

"Oh fuck."

"Exactly my thoughts."

"And you need what of me? Resources?"

"Authority and resources, yes."

"Ok." Valeria nodded, a pad seemed to come to life since her face got a little brighter. "Try to rescue the royal family, you hear me? Besides that I grant you every authority and resource you need." She looked up. "What do you need exactly, Undying One?"

"I hate it when you call me that."

"Humour me." smiled Valeria and Alira chuckled a bit.

John sighed. "Two cruisers, one hospital ship and every flying thing which can hold a Tier 1 emergency medbay and/or medical personal. And one open priority line to every human ship. And a reward of tenthousand Vals plus expenses for every ship which comes to our aid."

Valeria said nothing. She poked her pad two minutes. Three minutes. Six minutes. John and Alira waited patiently. But only on the outside. John was doing things. He activated the factories of his island and the clone tanks. Machineries started to boot, systems powered up, resources were pulled.

"Granted." said Valeria suddenly. "We have an opportunity here. Don't waste it. If you can, should Alira accompany the royal family as the human ambassador. I'll send you the passcode for the emergency line. And John" she looked at him pleadingly, "save them."

"I will." grinned the Undying One and the holographic window disappeared. John sighed and Alira hugged him.

"Shall I do it?" She looked at him. "I am the human ambassador. I have the same rights and authorities as you now for the moment. If you aren't up to the task or your mind is elsewhere..."

"I got it, love." he whispered, kissed her and opened the emergency line, broadcasting via the quantum-transmitting network. He only transmitted his voice, but the passcode should show the transmission was trustworthy.

"To all human ships who can hear me. This is John Sullivan speaking. First of all: this is not an order. If you answer my call, you are doing it on your own free will and voluntarily. There is a reward, but let me explain the situation. At 0900 Terran Standard Time our long-range scanners near Xerubia, the seat of power of the Nemeian society, picked up a sun eruption, causing solar flares, storms and electromagnetic waves storming in the direction of the planet.

Their shields won't hold. They are looking into the grim face of death and destruction, a near extinction event. We have no idea how big the damage will be, but I do know that they need help. Otherwise they all die.

So, fellow humans and friends, I ask of you your help. Your time, your compassion. If your ship can hold two medics and a Tier 1 medbay, please embark immediately to Xerubia. My clones will give you the medbay and are the medics. You only need to come.

If you are a medic yourself, please enlist as well and get on one of the ships to Xerubia. If your ship can't hold a medbay or you don't want one, please pick up as many supplies as you can manage. Water, food, blankets, heaters, emergency tents, antibiotics, medical gel, bandages. Every bit helps.

If your ship isn't capable of traveling the distance and you can travel to our position, come and land on our surface, we will give you a ride.

And last, but not least: your expenses are covered by the Valerian Empire. Fuel, ammo, supplies. On top of tenthousand Vals as well for every ship." He took a quick look at the watch on the top right corner of his vision. "The Alira starts the journey in twelve days. We aren't able to prevent it. Even if we start now the flare hits hours before our arrival at top speed. We need to rescue as many lives as we can. Please start your preparations now. May the Grey Empress be with you and the engines in your favour. Sullivan out."

He closed the line and opened a second line, this time with video. A thin looking man appeared on the screen in front of him and Alira.

"Admiral." smiled John and the Admiral sighed. "I am in dire need of your ships."

Meanwhile on the Nemeian seat of power Xerubia...

I was tired. Exhausted. I have cried and slept and cried a lot more during the last days, trying to keep my baby alive. My sweet little Irola. She had not so many burns as me, but a lot of her fur, her beautiful and soft fur, was burned off. She was breathing, barely. I fed her every food I found and every ounce of fluid I could muster, but it wasn't enough. I felt it. She would die long before I would. But at least she doesn't need to see her dead grandparents.

I crumbled onto one of the charred large stone pillows in the rest of what the royal park was. The buildings behind me smoking ruins, collapsed, some still burning. The once beautiful and comfy palace with its gardens and small lakes and springs and animals now laid crumbled and still smoking in ruins. My father was among the rubble, I saw... saw his body. I did not found my mother, but my husband too. And the rest of our children.

I cried again. Irola didn't wake up. She kept breathing; small, ragged breaths. I tried to free her throat from anything which might block the airways and wrapped her again in the ripped cloth which once was my cloak, now more ash than the silver fabric it used to be.

Around us other Nemeians were laying on the floor, on benches, pillows, trying to scavenge what they could from the ruins if they could muster the strenght to do it. I could only gaze upon the star above us. Our beloved orange sun which now has killed us for good. Somewhere in the distance buildings crumbled, deep hammering in the back of my ... mind?

My ears picked up more collapsing buildings. More than there should or could be. And it came from a different direction. It came from above, so I looked up again. Our shields were devastated, the remnants of the once glorious installations only fragments, their skeletons held in place by powerful engines, but the shields were gone. Another eruption would be our doom.

But behind the shield things were moving. And what I thought were the sound of buildings crashing down were actually sonic booms. One of the stations which holds the shields came crashing down and the sonic booms were getting louder, drowned the mourning of parents and children and the screams and whimpering of my wounded kin.

And then a supersonic boom nearly shattered my ears and woke Irola for a few seconds. She whimpered and fell back into her delirium. Tears fell out of me eyes and I looked at a long tube with spikes and burning engines, high up in the sky. I knew this shape. It was a human warship and it accompanied dozens of smaller vessels.

They came to finish us. In our most desperate time, when we were at the bottom of everything, they took advantage and tried to finish us off. Us, who had never voted against them in the Galactic Council; who never had bad blood with them and who never tried to anger them.

"I'm sorry, my love." I didn't know to whom I was apologising. To my husband or my children who I failed because I couldn't protect them? We knew that humans were ruthless. Reckless sometimes. They were predators and warriors, a force like the Simiiforcs.

The humming of engines came closer and I saw that the human warship has opened huge doors at its sides. A lot of flying vessels came out of its steel belly, circling over the remains of our city. Six of them were flying in my direction, aiming at the park and ... landed there?

I sat up, ready to defend Irola and me, my claws already extended, as humans jumped out of the ships - small winged tubes with engines and a cockpit - grabbing coffers and jogging in different directions, one purposefully coming directly to me. He did a strange movement with the hand and arm and I noticed, he was greeting me. Was this "waving"?

"Hello." It was a man as I could see his facial hair. Women normaly didn't have that. I learned that from my studies and the videograms of the conferences with their people. His voice came out of his helmet, translated with a computer. "The name's Tom. Can you understand me?"

I nodded slowly. What was happening? He didn't attack me? That was unusual. Humans were considered a threat, vermin by some, warmongers by others.

The human male - Tom - waved a thing over me and Irola, a thing with a blind mechanical eye and a datapad attached to it. Then he blinded me with a torch and I hissed.

"Reactions are good, but you are in no stable condition." He opened his coffer and brought out a lot of bandages, fluids in various colours and containers and other things I couldn't understand. Then he spoke to someone. "I need a medtank and a medic. Two females, one child, probably toddler. Burns of second and third degrees, organ failure, fractures and a failing system on the toddler."

"What... what are you doing?" I dared to ask and tried to shield Irola from his gaze and his strange tools.

"Helping." he said with a shrug. "What were you thinking?"

"But... humans are not our allies. You are no ones allies. You aren't even in the Galactic Council."

"So what?" He looked up and did a strange thing with his mouth. Was he smiling? "We picked up the solar eruption, we decided to help as fast as we could." A loud sonic boom let me flinch. "Ah, there she is."

High up in the sky, probably in low orbit, a huge platform with engines and lights did appear. "What is that?"

"That, love, is the Nightingale, one of two hospital ships of the Second Terranean Fleet." Another sonic boom, this time much louder than everything before. A round shape appeared high in orbit, black against the sunlight. "And this is the Alira, the mobile island of John Sullivan."

"Sullivan is here?" I squeaked and he laughed.

"Yes, of course. He picked up the alarm and mobilised everyone he could reach."

"But... why?"

"Because we had the opportunity to help. The Council was... not responsive, to say the least." He reached slowly for my arm and pulled it away. Tender, carefully. Then he gave me a container of a transparent material with liquid in it and a straw attached to it. "Here, drink. You need the fluid. Once we have the medtank, I take care of you."

"But, but but my baby..."

"Is also taken care of. The medtank is for her. And no worries, we won't seperate you." He smiled as another human came up to us, towing a hovering white tank behind him. He looked very different and was young when my education wasn't failing me. Tom opened his arms, kneeled before me. "Let me take care of her for a moment, would you?"

I didn't know how to respond. His strange brown eyes looked kind and serious. Not like the predator I feared humans were. Not as the monster under our pillows as the Council had pictured them. Sure, as the Voidwalkers tried to seize their trade routes and wanted to opress the Sylphids - destroying a few human trade vessels in the process - the humans responded with grief and a cold rage nobody could foresee. Nobody knew how the humans did it, but they destroyed nearly the entire military of the Voidwalkers in two days.

Tom was kind. Tom was huge compared to me. Tom tried to help. Slowly I let go of Irola. She looked so tiny in his arms as he hold her like the baby she was. Wait, he hold her like a baby? How did he knew?

"The tank is ready." said the other man, opened the lid of the tank. Tom put Irola in the strange silver gel inside of it and she whimpered.

"What are you doing?" I screamed and sprang into action just to see that Irola was covered to the chin in this silver gel.

"Nothing. We help her." said Tom, eyeing me from eye to tail. "Let me help you now, eh? Can you sit back?" I did and started to drink the bland liquid. It was cool, but nothing else. Tom applied the same silver gel on my burns, the patches where the sun had burned off my fur and crumbled my skin. It burned and tickled and was cool and pleasant and hurtful at the same time. I growled unwillingly.

"Sorry." he said, putting bandages around my tail, my hands, arms, head and legs. "But this should keep you going and healing at the same time." Then he pulled up the small pad again. "For reference and where to relocate you, what is your name?"

"Murrola." I said quietly and both men exchanged surprised looks.

"You are the princess?" he asked carefully. I glanced back at the crumbled, smoking, still glowing hot buildings behind me, the ruin of the beautiful palace and the grave of my family.

"Queen." The word hurt in my throat, as it was filled with blades and dry as sand. Both men bowed before me and I held them back. "No no, please no bowing. I am just a normal Nemeian, please no."

"As you wish, Your High... Murrola." But Tom spoke to someone in his helmet. "We found her. Yes. Yes. A child in a medtank. Yes. Yes, Sir. Right away." He turned to me again. "The Undying One wishes to speak to you."

"The... Sullivan?"

"Yes." He pulled out a thing which looked like a gun and as I thought he would now shoot me, he just shot a red glowing ball high into the sky. A signal, I thought and I was right as a black and red painted vessel descented with roaring engines from the island of Sullivan in our direction. Tom helped me to stand and I leaned onto him. He was strong and I would like to smell him, but their white suits with the window in their helmet let no smell through.

"How did you know that your medical equipment would be working on us?"

"We prepared for this case. We had a few samples and could set up the medical tanks and the gel just in time." Tom accompanied me and the medtank with Irola in it into the vessel with comfy seats where he placed me after giving me a long jacket to cover me. The jacket was heavy and warm and it was all what I wanted, what I need in the moment aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah the ship was taking off!

The medtank and the two men didn't budge. The younger one was quiet during the flight and Tom gave me more liquid and something he called "chocolate bar" which was dark and sweet and left me craving for more.

I don't remember much of the flight up. But I did remember that the ramp of the ship opened into a blue sky and lush grass. I recognised the humans in front of me: the Undying One and his wife. Both bowed before me before I even got out of the ship and a feeling stirred within me: Anger.

"Your Highness..." began Alira who I knew was the human ambassador, but I hissed at her.

"Why are you treating me like this?" I asked loudly. "Why are you bringing me up here? Why aren't my people getting the same treatment as me?"

"Your Highness." It nearly threw me off as the Undying One bowed again. "They are treated as you. Right now thousands of ships across the planet with thousands of medtanks and medics are rescuing survivors, taking care of wounded, feeding adults and children, applying first aid and bringing them onto the ships and the Nightingale for further treatment. We just brought you here to ensure that you are safe and sound." As the medtank hovered to the ground, a huge blanket... towel ... from... appeared from out of nowhere in his hand and picked up Irola carefully with a loving smile, dried her from the medgel and spoke a few words. Golden light shimmered above my baby, encapsulating her for a few moments and as he gave her to me she was... whole. No scars, no burns, her fur as it was before the sun tried to kill her.

"How... what...?" I looked up as he laid his hand on me and suddenly I was all warm and fuzzy and the bandages fell off, replaced by new skin, fur and for some reason I could hear better from one moment to another. My skin tingled and I was... was whole again as well.

"I healed both of you." He smiled and it was this moment that I noticed he didn't use a translator. He could speak my language! What kind of human was he?

"But that answers not my question to Tom." The man looked up surprised while he was getting out of his suit. He looked strong and his head-fur looked really fluffy. "Why are you helping us? Healing us? We are not even allies!"

The female one - Alira - chuckled and stepped forward, her hand caressing the fur of Irola who was blinking against the sun. My heart was suddenly a lot lighter. "We aren't allies, that is correct. But you were in need and we had help to spare. That is what friends do, right?"

"But we aren't friends either."

"No. Right now we are not. But we humans think a good friend is better than a bad ally. What do you think? Would you like to be friends?"

I looked at Irola, gazed over Tom, John and Alira and I couldn't help myself from crying uncontrollable. "Yes! Yes, I would like that!"