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Captain Andriet walked onto the bridge with a massive smile on her face. The Admiral had done his best to keep the knowledge of the Aasteran a secret. Rumours got out, of course, scan techs not keeping their mouths shut, bridge crew talking to other bridge crew.

But luckily for Captain Andreit, her ship was a carrier-class heavy fabrication ship. Which meant the scanners were on the weaker side to make more room for more fabricators.

"You seem, happy captain." A materials engineer stated plainly, as Andriet sat in her crash couch.

Her smile only grew bigger at the observation, and she thrust her hand out dramatically for effect. "We have new orders." She said, sending a file to her helmsmen through her implant. "Take us into the Aaster system and start warming up all the fabricators, load for disaster relief, approximately three billion."

All the eyes on the bridge swung to the Captain. No one said anything at first. They just stared, expecting an answer. Andreit's smile split her face in half as she continued her silence, teasing her crew as she waited for someone to ask the question.

"Um, did we find an old space colony that needs help or something?" An ensign asked as crew members continued gawked at their Captain.

"Yes, yes we did find a colony." The Captain replied as she happily went about her business. She then watched as her crew got to work while disappointment hung in the air.

"Just another failed colony" She heard some mutter.

She waited a few more moments, watching as crew members poked away at their panels. "A Colony of cold-blooded lizard aliens." She stated calmly.

The bridge immediately exploded into excitement from her words, some nearly jumping out of their seats to eye up their Captain.

"DID WE REALLY FIND ALIENS!?!" The bridge engineer shouted over the commotion.

"Yes, and they need assistance. The short story is, one of their planets shattered and ruined their cradle planet. Our orders are to provide as much assistance as we're able. Run the fabricators to their melting point if we have to. We'll clean the slag later."

Within moments she felt the familiar sensation of warp travel, and her crew began excitedly talking amongst themselves. "Time to arrival forty-seven minutes." Her helmsman announced.

"So Captain, what are they like... Did you get to meet them?" A crewman asked.

"Yeah, cap, we know you were off-ship for a few days, so spill." The breach of protocol warranted disciplinary action, but she could understand their excitement and decided to regale them of her story.

"Calm down. First off, they are extremely distrustful. They know something unnatural destroyed their closest planet. So don't get too friendly right off the bat if you get to meet one. They have a pretty human face with a bit of a longer snout, I suppose. And they're around five feet on average. From what I saw, they have longer necks with a hood thing they can expand. They have soft skin on the front, and it looks like hard scales along their sides and back. I don't know much about their colours. I've only seen a few males and one female. One male was white in front, and his side scales were Gray. He was the leader. The other was light grey with yellow-white scales. They also have horns. Oh right, the female was white with light purple and white scales and had some short messy white hair around her purple horns, but I didn't see the males with any hair."

Her crew continued to listen happily as she talked about her interactions with the aliens and what was known about their system. Many were angry when she spoke about the tampering. Others, more worried about saving who they could.

"We're about to exit warp, Captian." The helmsman reported excitedly.

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First Tail Chrarada was looking at her screen in an attempt to figure out what the male was thinking. Currently, she was frustrated with his announcement of allowing alien ships into the system, but something about his calm demeanour prevented her from being fully angry. "So Ethuci, you decided to let them into the system? I read your report, watched the videos. You yourself stated you don't trust them, So why grant them access?"

"Ma'am, honestly, their Admiral showed me a few of his fleet statistics. Currently, these Terrans have one hundred and fifty ships, just sitting outside our visual range. If they wanted to, they could storm the system and destroy everything we are in hours." Ethuci replied.

Chrarada sighed in slight annoyance. He was right, of course. The fleet the Terrans had just outside their system. They had ships larger than some space colonies designated as fabrication ships... Whatever that meant. "Do we have any options if they attack?"

Ethuci hesitated for a moment as he thought about options. "No, Ma'am. Our ships are not ready for their style of weapons. But, I don't think they will attack us. Even with my limited time with them, they were... Excited to meet other sapients. I want to believe they're sincere in their offer of assistance." He answered, stepping forward to look Chrarada directly in her eyes as if he was trying to convince her that the world wasn't ending.

Chrarada sat there looking back at the male. He was pleasant enough, large as well, but the look he was giving off made her smile.

"Bridge to Chrarada." Chrarada huffed in annoyance and keyed the com channel to listen. "Two unknown energy sources approaching. We believe them to be our guests."

"Well, our time here is up." She announced, looking back to her display. "Commander Ethuci, integrate your ships with my fleet when you return. I still need to have words with you. Perhaps over dinner?" Chrarada smiled, watching the male's eyes go wide and his subtly hood vibrate.

"Ahh, yes, Ma'am. I should return to the inner system in a few days. Ethuci out." He quickly replied, shutting down his link.

Chrarada chuckled and turned her link off. "Time to go meet these Terrans," She thought, leaving her chair and making her way to the bridge.

Upon entering her command centre, she kept her eyes on the main viewer. Currently, it was displaying two ships that were making their way at extreme speed into the system. "Ma'am, they'll arrive in approximately two minutes at their current speed." A helpful subordinate informed her.

"I want weapons ready, don't target them, but make sure if they try anything, we're ready." She firmly commanded.

Only moments passed as the ships finally arrived at the designated coordinates. Chrarada was now standing tall and putting on a brave face while looking at the screen. She had a rough idea when it came to the size of the ships but never expected anything like this. They were long, smooth, with a broad back, and they were slightly constricted in the middle.

They had two wide wings on either side in the rear, both swooping forward into the front middle of the ship. The front section was vertically thicker and had what looks to be some sort of open bay underneath it. "They're each the size of the Ralcer colony station," She whispered, immediately agreeing with Ethuci's decision. "Ma'am, one of the ships is hailing us."

Putting on a stern face, she nodded at the com's tech to switch to the call. What greeted her was... She didn't expect it. It began showing its teeth upon seeing her like an idiot.

"Greetings, I am Captain Andriet of the T.S.N Gentle Winds. We're here to help." It said with a chuckle, was... Was it bouncing?

Shaking herself out of her stupor, Chrarada responded to the smiling alien. "I am First Tail Chrarada of the Vusis, Council Leader of the of the Aasteran people. I will be your escort." She stated without friendliness while putting on a stern face. "Helm set course for Aaster." She announced, turning back to look at the alien on her screen. "Follow the fleet and don't diverge from the path." She stated Hotly.

The Alien was still smiling while telling her crew to follow the fleet, so Chrarada cut the com to look over to her tactical officer. "Any idea what that thing can do?"

The officer looked back with resignation on his face. "Ma'am, I don't know what weapons they have, but I do know that if they put the energy they're outputting into them, we'll be dead very quickly."

Even though Chrarada expected such an answer, she didn't enjoy it.

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"SHE WAS PINK!!!" Andreit shouted, wanting to jump through the screen and hug the pink lizard that was trying its best to be angry.

"Helm, make sure you keep in close formation with their fleet." She said with a giggle.

"Captain, I think you're enjoying this a bit too much." Her second informed her while trying to keep a straight face.

"Oh, come on! She was PINK! And she was so cute, did you see her hair? IT WAS IN A BUN! Oh, and did you see how angry she was trying to be?" Andreit was giggling, finding the recent video of her conversation with Chrarada, and moving it to her personal folder.

"Captain, I hate to inform you that's against regulations." Her second informed her, failing to keep a straight face as his normally calm and composed Captain was acting like a child.

"Captain, we will be arriving at the planet in one hour." Her helmsman cut in.

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Srettia was looking at the data provided to her by the engineer Tanda. The D-class Shuttle was amazing! Faster than anything in the system and more armoured. The rail guns could demolish even military ships, which she was pretty sure could get her in a lot of trouble, but Tanda said something about civilians and being standard, so she just ignored it. The Gravity beam would let her pull in even the largest asteroids, and the reactor was self-repairing as long as she had mass to feed something called nanites. She was set for life.

Currently, she was waiting in her pilot's chair. Watching the massive Terran ships head towards her people's home. "Are all Terran ships that big, Jack?"

"No, some are much larger, some are much smaller. We have entire moons we've hollowed out. Just to put ships and weapons in them."

"Why would your people need that? Haven't your people been at peace for nearly nineteen hundred years?" Srettia asked, quirking her head to the side in confusion.

"My understanding is they were more afraid of what was out here than themselves. Once we entered space and began discovering advanced technology, Terrans adopted a philosophy of, 'If you want peace, carry a really big stick.' It also makes pirate activities extremely difficult. Though it also made said pirates band together, creating a massive pirate army recently. However, they were put down hard in the end."

"Oh, ok... How long until my shuttle arrives? I'm kinda stuck here, and everyone left us." She said happily.

"They need to replace the armaments with civilian-grade weaponry before handing it over. However, it should only take another three hours before your shuttle arrives."

"Ahhh, I'm So Bored Jack what the hell am I gon-"

"Michael has awoken."

"What!? I thought you said I had to wait at least another day." She returned, getting up and started walking towards the pod.

"He woke up unexpectedly. He should not be awake or moving."

"Well, at least I'll have something to do now that the idiot is awake." She smiled and quickened her pace, descending towards the pod.

Walking up the stairs into the pod, Srettia moved towards the med bay. That's when she saw Michael sitting up, rubbing his head as he looked towards her. She smiled at him and looked back at her.

"Ahh crap, what do you want?" Michael asked her.

Anger. Like a volcano erupting inside her... "wHaT dO yOu WaNt?" She thought to herself. She stomped forward and punched him as hard as she could in the face... And hurt her hand.

"You hurt my hand with your face, you idiot." She shouted, walking towards a cabinet and grabbing an ice pack Jack had helpfully highlighted.

"Damn it, woman, what the hell!" Michael protested, trying to take her ice pack away.

Moving to the far side of the room so the ice thief couldn't steal her relief, Srettia got a good look at him. "Your idiot plan worked, ya know."

"Ahh, did it? I guess I'm still here, so that's a good sign." Michael said with a roguish smile.

"Yeah, it did." She replied quietly.

Srettia Spent the next two hours explaining what had happened while Michael was asleep. How he stopped the Terran fleet, how their people had fought, and how their people met, resulting in the Terran aid.

"So I guess you're stuck with me for a bit." He smiled.

"What, why? can't you go back to your people?" Srettia said in protest.

"Well, they left me here for a reason. They most likely can't pick me up due to ship restrictions. We can slam Jacks's pod in your shuttle storage, and I can teach you how to fly a Terran ship." Michael said, then explaining the difference in their species ship design philosophy and technology, making it hard for her to turn his offer down.

"Fine, I'll allow you to stay on my new ship." She said with a smile. Doing her best to keep her hood from vibrating in excitement. "But I'm going to ask the Admiral why he left you here when I see him next!"

"It will be a pleasure, teaching how Terran tech works, Srettia."

"Thanks, Jack! Now, all we have to do is wait for my new ship." Srettia replied.

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The crew of the Gentle Winds looked down at the planet from orbit in terror. They were surprised a species could survive the damage it received as they took in the sight of massive craters and rock formations. Captain Andreit was busy ordering her people to relief shuttles and making sure the drop pods of rations were ready when she received a communication from her new favourite person ever.

"Captain Andreit, we have informed our people of the incoming relief. Your shuttles are to follow our own and not deviate from the flight path. I must warn you that your people must stay with their escorts at all times. And we have no guarantee for your people's safety while they're down there." Chrarada remarked, sending the updated flight path and landing locations for the drop pods.

"Thank you, First Tail. My people are happy to help, and we'll do our best to abide by your rules." She said with a smile and almost bouncing out of her chair

Chrarada Cut the transmission, and Andriet pouted for a moment before getting back to work. It was her duty to make sure the fabricators ran at total capacity, the drop pods were full and landing where they should, and the shuttles were following proper paths. Watching her crew do what it did best was always a treat; Chrarada just made the mission that much better.

"Captain, we are getting the first reports of landing. No issues so far." a crewman reported.

"Good, keep me up to date. I want an hourly report on how things progress." The ship shuddered as it dislodged more drop pods of food and mobile heaters.

"Ma'am, we're getting video from the surface, putting it on the main screen."

Andriet smiled. Everything seemed to be going smoothly as her people quickly deployed their tents and began distribution. The locals seemed to care more about the supplies than the fact it was aliens that were helping them.

Watching the locals wrap themselves in heated blankets, grabbing ration packs, and thanking the soldiers, made this shitty sixteen-month trek worth it, she thought. "Now, if I can find a way to get Chrarada over for a drink, that would make staying in the navy really worth it." She smiled to herself.

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