Among the Stars (TEASER)

Questions, Questions, and More Questions

My chest felt heavy, conflict weighing on me like a fifty pound weight. Reading the report on what happened in the last mission was mostly depressing, to say the least. According to the report, backup had to be called in, and despite my efforts on trying to keep everything calm before I lost consciousness, pretty much all hell broke loose.

While the alien I had encountered was secured, and still alive, my own team suffered heavy casualties. For a single being, and heavily injured, they managed to kill and incapacitate most of the team I flew in with, and inadvertently damaged the shuttle. Only once backup arrived did it start to turn to our favor.

Still, the report confused me. The alien went into a blind frenzy once I was pulled away from it. At least, that's what the report said.

"Are you sure about this?"

Lyatisk looked over my shoulder, pure black eyes staring at the report. She gave me a faint nod after a moment.

"Yes. I finalized the report and double-checked that it was completely understood."

I frowned, resting my heavy head on one hand, my injured arm still in its sling.

"What holding cell are they in?" I gingerly stood up from my desk and moved towards the door.

"Guardian, please, if you are planning to do what I think-"

I unlocked the door in front of me with the omnitool on my wrist, the door sliding open after a brief moment.

"I have questions that need to be answered," I countered, barely looking back to Lyatisk as she hurried up to me. "Take me to them."

Oh stars, please tell me this is a nightmare and that I'm going to wake up soon...

What news and info were about as confusing as an LSD trip. The crashed ship they arrived in? My suspicions were correct, but it explained nothing. The alien's wounds? Bite marks, but they were from a huge beast, and we didn't find any other life forms in the ship. And the alien itself? It's armor was proving extremely difficult to remove to get to its injuries, but the techies had finally managed to make some headway on that by the time I arrived. We still didn't know their species, or gender, biology, or anything. There was nothing like this in the shared databanks of the Havens.

Had we come across an unknown species?

"You're shaking."

Taj's comforting voice was the only thing that kept me from jumping out of my skin as I watched the techies. They were painstakingly slow on the monitor.

"Something isn't sitting right about this," I said after a moment, crossing my arms over my chest. Taj stepped up beside me, watching the screen for a moment.

"About?"

I let out a heavy sigh, frowning at the live video. "Nothing is adding up. Their injuries, the ship, everything. We don't even know what species they are. And that's troubling me, too. None of us have any idea on how to go about this." I looked down towards my booted feet, my foot tapping on the floor in my stress. "I don't know how to go about this. Mom would have. I just-"

"Hey." Taj's hand firmly rested on my shoulder. "I know you think your not good at this. Being the Guardian. I know. But we all believe in you. You've always done good by us. You're a good leader, and we wouldn't have anyone else. Don't underestimate yourself."

"She would have done so much better, Taj. I was never supposed to do this."

"And yet, here you are," the male countered. "And you're doing a good job of it."