The pained expression, combined with the long, drawn-out sigh almost answered my question by itself. There was no confusion visible on her face, only a look of resignation, mixed with annoyance. I only had to wait for a short moment, before she started to speak.

“They want me, aren’t I fabulous?” she asked in an achingly sweet voice, as she tossed her hair with a disdainful gesture, before letting her shoulders slump. “And the real question is, why do they want me, isn’t it? The obvious answer is, they want me for my connection with the Void Guard. There’s more to it, yes, but that is what I can tell you. Please, don’t ask, I can’t give you a better answer, not without breaking my word.” she explained, her voice thick with emotions.

I considered for a bit, taking a sip of the hot tea in front of me. It was a slightly strange taste, a pleasant mix of bitter, sweat and even slightly spicy undertones, quite different from anything I had ever tasted. Strange, but definitely not bad.

I let out a sigh on my own and nodded. “I suppose that has to be enough.” I said, not satisfied by the answer but at least she hadn’t tried to obscure things by claiming that they wanted her, just because of the Void Guard. No, she had admitted that there was more but that she couldn’t tell me.

“Earlier, you were about to tell me what happened after the Sixth Fleet under Admiral Kezost left Federation Space. Now, I’m not an expert but if that fleet is still around, they have to have made a base somewhere, some sort supply-station or something like that and acquired a supply-line.” I changed the topic, accepting her earlier answer. There was a look of relief on her face and she nodded, before grabbing a mug of coffee and starting to talk.

“So, leaving the Federation. From what I’ve been told, it was both difficult and easy. Difficult, because they had to leave behind everything that wasn’t on their ships. Easy, because they had access to an insane load of goods and money. You see, Admiral Kezost had been raiding enemy shipping and supplies but she didn’t just destroy everything, no, she was smarter than that. I don’t know if she had an idea she might need it or she just wanted to store it somewhere, for later use by the Federation or even herself, either might be true. Or it might be that she just thought it would be a waste to destroy all those goods. No, she had taken as much as possible and left it in one of the many star-systems between Tellurian- and Federation-space.” she explained before stopping for a moment.

“That being said, how much do you know about interstellar politics?” she asked, in a strange non-sequitur. I had to think for a moment, it wasn’t a topic that came up all too often. Even with hyperspace-drives, the distances involved were, quite literally, astronomical.

“What do you mean? I know that there are a few alien races out there, with their own political units and that Humans have treaties with some of them. But their territories are generally far away, aren’t they?” I asked, a little confused.

“Their main-territories, yes. Most of them have their own, main political unit, something equivalent to the Federation and claim dominion over their territory. But, let’s take the Federation as an example, they claim an area maybe three-hundred light-years across and about two-hundred light-years up and down the spiral arm. Don’t even try to conceptualise that area, it’ll only give you a headache.” Airah added, causing me to chuckle.

“Yet, despite that insanely large area, there are only thirty-six planets that deserve the label habitable, some of them only thanks to human intervention, thirty-six out of about two-hundred fifty thousand.” she let the numbers sink in for a moment, numbers I was quite aware off. While I focused on the theoretical aspects of Hyperspace-Navigation, the underlying principles, I had studied stellar maps quite a bit, even if that part was mostly left to the computer, because the amount of information.

“On the other hand, the Federation Explorative Service has moved up and down the spiral arm for almost two-thousand light-years, at times with the blessing of the local species, at times without. That’s where most of our information about the other species comes from.” Airah continued, while I was still looking for the connection between other political entities and the Void Guard, only to realise what the connection might be.

“That sounds like the Void Guard worked with another race to set up shop. How does that fit with the stated mission of guarding humanity?” I asked, taking a stab at it.

“Not bad, but not quite right. The Void Guard set up shop and managed to establish contacts with one or two of the Federation’s Mega Corporations but also with a few other entities, especially the Lox and the, well, we call them Cephs.” Airah explained her expression a little strange.

“The Void Guard facilitates trade between those political entities, acting as a broker, while our ships work as escorts, smugglers, mercenaries and, if necessary even pirates and enforcers.That’s how the Void Guard is paying the bills. In addition, operating on the shady side of society gives the Guard a wide pool of talent to recruit from, if they manage to pass a series of tests to ensure the Guard’s safety.” she finished and now it was my turn to make a face. Smuggling, that I could somewhat get behind, even if the idea didn’t make me too happy. Even working as mercenaries was somewhat palatable, similar idea with the escort-work. But I wasn’t sure if I wanted to become a violent criminal, even if my marketable skills were mostly in a violent direction. I had spent the last four years learning to kill other people using a Starfighter after all. And before that, I had prepared for that period of learning.

Instead of worrying what might happen in the future, I decided to focus on something else.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard those names before. Care to elaborate?” I asked, mostly to give myself time to think.

“Not a surprise, for one, I doubt that, even in the Starfleet, more than one in a thousand officers will ever have contact with either of those races. There was a small module for bridge-crew at the Academy but it was, quite frankly, boring and badly designed.” she shook her head, as if remembering something unpleasant.

“Let’s start with the Lox, they are easier to wrap their head around and you might even meet one face to face at some point. They are tetrapod mammals, just like humans, but that’s where the similarities pretty much end. Where we use two of our limbs and opposable thumbs to make and manipulate tools, they have a pair of long, highly prehensile trunks, sitting on their face. Due to that, they never developed a bipedal gait but that’s not the most remarkable thing about them. They are one of the few non-predatory species that became the dominant life-form on their world, which gives them a unique mindset and a very stable society.” she paused for a moment, before continuing.

“But never make the mistake to think that their serene, almost passive, disposition makes them into pushovers. They are one of the few species everyone leaves alone, because if they get angry, the only thing you can do is get out of the way, or you’ll be flattened. They trade quite a bit with the Void Guard and, through us, the Federation.”

“And the, what was it, Cephs?” I asked, now quite curious.

“Those, you’ll never see face to face. Maybe over a vid-screen but even that is rare. They are an aquatic species and even their ships need to be filled with their specific mix of water at all times. Their whole language is a system of colouration-change, that nobody but them fully understands, without a computer and a lot of work from the Lox, it would be impossible to understand them, at all. With the Lox, it’s easier, at least their language uses sounds to communicate, even if speaking it is pretty much impossible unless you are a brass-band.” she shook her head again, before focusing on me.

“I’m afraid that is pretty much what I can tell you about the Void Guard, without you, going through some additional evaluation. Personally, I trust you but you are seeing just how far the Federation is willing to go to get inside information on the Guard.” Airah added before focusing on her coffee again.

We just sat there for a while, slowly sipping our drinks in silence as I was contemplating if I wanted to join an organisation that sounded like a strange mix between military organisation and organised crime-syndicate. The sad part was that there seemed to be little choice in the matter. Even if the Federation had failed to directly link me to the shooting of their security-officers, which was possible, I’d be listed as a person of interest and, as soon as the Academy started back up, a deserter. Unless I wanted to go to jail, I needed to go somewhere outside of the Federation.