The day before launch was a busy day. Gabriel and Madeline first had to manage to get their stuff over to the ship, and while their luggage was not any major concern, the ordered clothes and armors were slightly more of a hassle. And while Khrihana had gotten word to Captain Densiri about the Cecaiampal food Gabriel had asked for, no more orders could be made in time. She had offered to have someone run an errand to get some but Gabriel decided to go himself. He didn’t feel right pushing that onto someone else. Plus, he didn’t have much to do on the ship while the rest of the crew did.

Shopping, waiting for deliveries, helping with moving boxes, and storing everything for launch took quite some time and they were done at dinner time. Then it was free time and getting settled, though for most of the crew that was already done. Gabriel and Madeline spent the evening not really doing anything. Well, Gabriel was a bit restless and took several trips around the ship.

“You alright?” Madeline asked as he returned to the room for the third time.

“Yeah, I just want to get going,” Gabriel said, pacing slowly around. He sighed and sat down in a chair. “I’ll be fine, it’s just now that we are actually on the ship and getting ready to leave, I keep thinking about Victoria.”

“Hard not to,” Madeline said and sat down next to him. “I keep doing the same.”

Gabriel smiled and took her hand. “I can’t wait for you to meet her. I think you will get along perfectly.”

Madeline smiled, “Then tell me about her,” she said. “If you want,” she added.

“She’s… hmm,” Gabriel began. “Personality-wise I'm told we are very alike. She might be more outgoing but we have the same sense of humor and mostly the same temperament, but we have different interests. I like boxing, games, and movies, she’s more into music and reading. She reads at least one book a week, usually more. I might have mentioned that she likes singing and she can play the guitar. And she works out more than me, well used to anyway.” Gabriel paused looking for anything else to say. He had not needed to describe his sister like this before. He smiled before continuing, “And when she gets agitated she swears like a sailor.”

Madeline grinned and cocked her head, “I don’t know that phrase but I can guess what it means.”

Gabriel chuckled and continued, “We have always had different interests and hobbies but we were always close. She’s the one that got me into boxing, though she dropped out and tried something else.” Gabriel shrugged. “I don’t know what to say, I’ve never had to describe her before.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Madeline said. “I was just curious, you don’t have to force it.”

Gabriel smiled, this very small talk had made him feel a little better. Maybe it was just reminiscing about the past. Before he could continue the conversation, however, his pcu beeped showing a message from Krihana that said to meet her at the front airlock.

Krihana was, as the message said, waiting just inside and they headed for one of the upper meeting rooms. Both were identical but mirrored, featuring a large table with several chairs and a screen on the wall joining the two rooms.

“Since you are leaving early tomorrow, I found it best to make sure everything was in order this evening,” Krihana said and took a seat. Gabriel sat down at the head of the table but felt kind of awkward in the chair as technically Krihana was closer to the owner of this ship. Madeline took the seat opposite Krihana.

“Alright, what do we need to know?” Gabriel asked.

Krihana slid over a few pages to him, “These are the terms for Deana’s employment which is the main reason I needed to be here in person. But there is a change in plans I need to tell you about, and before you say anything,” Krihana began and Gabriel closed his mouth. “It is not anything major. You need to make a stop on the way and pick up a Roniean Justicar.”

“I thought the Justicars were Union?” Gabriel said.

“Yes, but they would only allow us to operate in Roniean territories if they could join,” Krihana said. “Regardless, this order came from over my head,” Krihana finished and handed Gabriel a pen. “You need to sign to get custody over miss Deana.”

Gabriel signed on the dotted line and Krihana did the same, “And remember, Zura and Rik’Tensel outrank you,” Krihana said. “I know about your rash actions, and while I think you could have made a pretty good Justicar, given other circumstances, you need to follow their orders.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Gabriel said.

“Good, that is all,” She said and stored her part of the contract. “Ambassador Walker, Miss Nioni, I wish you both luck.” And with that, Krihana bowed politely and headed off.

Gabriel picked up his copy of the contract and began reading. “Deana will remain in my custody, I’m responsible for her actions, I can send her back to jail should I wish,” Gabriel said, skimming the contract that was fortunately written in English, though since it was run through a translator, some sentences were a little odd. “She can refuse any jobs she does not have training for but any she does have training for and refuses I can fire her for,” Gabriel finished, struggling a little over the translation.

“So a little harsher than a normal employment,” Madeline said. “But probably more varied.”

Gabriel chuckled, “Yeah I guess, she did offer to clean the floors.”

“I’m sure the rest of the crew don’t mind an extra crewmember on the particular duty,” Madeline said. “But that’s not a full-time job.”

“Yeah, I know, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Gabriel said. “But, now that we’re done with chores, what do you want to do for the rest of the evening?”

“Let’s see,” she said. “We are done with our luggage, we’re not waiting for any shipments and have no meetings.” She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes in thought. “Want to see some pictures my mother sent over?”

“Yes, please!” Gabriel said immediately. “Of Zilg?”

“I haven’t had time to go over them,” Madeline said chirping. “But I did ask for some.”

They headed back to the room and took a seat on the couch. Madeline connected her pcu to a tablet to get a larger screen and paused before sighing and handing Gabriel the tablet.

“I hope mother didn’t add anything embarrassing,” she said.

Gabriel chuckled and clicked an arrow, opening the first picture. It was a Zilgi woman with red fur with thin green stripes and two other Zilgi, one more woman, and one man. The other woman looked almost like Madeline but was colored more like her mother, and the man, or maybe boy as he looked kinda young to Gabriel’s untrained eye, were green with red stripes, like the opposite of Madeline.

“So,” Gabriel began, determined to remember their names, “This would be your mother Mharisi, this is Mersia and your brother Khriniean?”

“Correct,” Madeline said.

Gabriel swiped on through several family pictures, taken inside the house before getting family pictures taken outside. Massive trees with red bark stood in the background, green leaves on the branches. Even the smaller trees had red bark, for the most part, some were almost rust-colored and a few smooth-barked trees were pink. Then the picture switched over to that of a child and Madeline groaned.

“I should have known,” she sighed. Gabriel grinned at the picture of a small Madeline, tongue sticking out a little as she concentrated on a puzzle.

“It’s a very cute picture,” he said. He moved to the next and froze. This one was also of Madeline a few years younger than now, holding a creature that looked sort of like a fox, but with similar fur to Zilgi, though the ‘feathery strands’ were thinner and more forest green. It had large eyes and was snuggling in her arms. “What is this adorable creature and how can I get one?”

Madeline chirped, “That creature is right here,” she said.

Gabriel paused, looked over at her smirk, and burst out laughing, “Good one,” he said.

“Thanks, and that is a Bradril, I think I have told you about them,” Madeline said.

“Now that you mention it,” Gabriel said, “Now how can I get one, or rather, at least five… to start.”

Madeline’s brow lifted, “Well, we likely have to go to Zilg to adopt one, but why do you want five?”

“This will take some time,” Gabriel said and launched into an explanation of pets, starting with how wolves were tamed and bred into dogs and cats self-taming. Then all other pets humans have and the fact that most people were hardcoded to take care and love cute creatures.

“Right, so because it’s cute, you want to pet and love it?” Madeline asked.

“Right,” Gabriel confirmed.

“And am I not cute?” Madeline asked.

“Of course, and I love you very much, It’s different,” Gabriel said and put an arm around her.

“Aw, thanks, love you too… wait, is this the reason you petted Taurana?”

“Um, probably,” Gabriel said.

“Hmm.” Madeline grabbed his hand and put it on her own head, “I want to try.”

Gabriel shrugged and stroked her head. Madeline closed her eyes and seemed to process the feeling.

“Yeah, not for me,” she said. Gabriel changed to running his fingers through her fur and scratching at her scalp. “This on the other hand,” Madeline said and laid her head down in his lap. “Yep, this I can get used to.”

Gabriel chuckled and used his free hand to look through the rest of the pictures while lowering the tablet so Madeline could also see. There were not that many more, a few from a vacation to some arid-looking place, a few when they were out on a boat and that was it.

And so, the day of the departure came. Gabriel had trouble sleeping but at least got a few hours in. He joined the bridge crew as they were making the final preparations. Madeline had decided to scrounge up breakfast but said she would join him later if she had time.

“Ambassador, good of you to join us,” Captain Densiri said. “We are almost done, just waiting on clearance to launch.” She pointed to the couch on the lower section of the bridge. “You are welcome to stay, but this ship is of an older model so you will need to strap in during launch. Not as smooth as you might be used to. The Zilgi emissary ship model is quite smooth.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Gabriel said and wondered if he would have a better view here or through some other viewport. “But we are on schedule?” He asked as he found that the couch had four-point harnesses tucked away.

“Yes, the rain is not heavy enough to cause any problems,” Densiri said and gestured to the large windows where rain was pouring down. It was far from monsoon levels but still quite substantial.

Just as they got clearance to launch, Madeline walked into the bridge with a large food container, “I got sandwiches for everyone. One we get to space that is,” she said and sat down next to Gabriel, storing the food in a drawer under the couch.

The pilot Ares began warming up the engines while Densiri announced the departure. After she got confirmation from all departments that all gear was stoved and everyone was strapped in they began taking off. It was not much worse than taking off in a plane, just slightly more turbulence but at a sharper angle.

Still, they managed to leave the atmosphere just fine with a nice view of grey clouds on the way up. Though once they passed into space Gabriel saw the orbiting space station in the sun and was glad he chose to sit here. He had felt the gravity generators kick in and bring them down to the usual Union gravity.

Madeline served sandwiches to those who wanted, most accepted but a few went to the galley for some other food.

“So, how exactly do these gravity generators work?” Gabriel asked the crew on the bridge. “Wait, trade secret right?”

“Yep,” Madeline said.

“So, how are they laid out on the ship?”

“There are two generators,” Densiri said. “One for the upper floor and one for the lower. The upper floor has two fields that intersect at the stairs down, this floor has three fields. The upper ones are weaker as the lower fields also cover some of the space.”

“So if I climb on something tall, the gravity will lessen?” Gabriel asked.

“Yes, but the ceiling height is not quite tall enough to feel much of a difference. Far down in engineering, you can feel a little change,” Densiri said.

“But how are the fields created?”

Densiri shook her head, “By emitters, I don’t know more like you said, trade secret.”

“But somehow, the fields can move through pipes to be emitted into domes right?” Madeline asked.

“Correct,” Densiri confirmed.

“Weird,” Gabriel said.

“But useful,” Densiri said. “Without the emitters, we would have to build ships around the generator. Or go back to no gravity.”

Gabriel felt relatively satisfied with that answer, and so they began coasting towards the FTL gate. They were on schedule and had to wait two hours before launch, quite different from arriving 45min early for a flight. But soon enough, their slot arrived and they entered the FTL gate, with the same feeling of weightlessness as before.

During the first part of the trip, Gabriel spent most of the time either trying to find something to do or working out so he wouldn’t stress. As concrete as this lead felt, it was still very much rumors and guesses.

They briefly stopped at a space station, refilled some supplies, and picked up the final member. The Ronian woman was a little short but looked muscled and had slimmer facial features and most Gabriel had seen. He imagined Ronieans would find her cute.

She was called Nyria but Gabriel suspected she was using a codename, same as the other two Justicars on board. She wasn’t as talkative as Zura or Rik’Tensel but followed their lead and suggested some tactics for getting Turan Irnik to slip up.

But the rest of the trip was uneventful. Gabriel and Madeline watched movies, he trained and fretted. They arrived an hour after breakfast with Gabriel just sleeping an hour or so. Roniean II looked like he remembered. Large forests, large icecaps, and a few smaller deserts scattered around.

Zura and Rik’Tensel called a meeting an hour before they were to enter the atmosphere.

“Gabriel, we need to go over the plan once more,” Zura said.

“Walk in, interrogate, or rather trick and arrest?” Gabriel asked.

“More or less,” Zura admitted. “But there is one issue.”

“Which is?” Gabriel asked, now a little worried.

“We can’t bring an Ambassador in on a meeting about faulty reports,” Zura said. Gabriel clamped his lips shut to not say something stupid. Of course, it made sense. Why would he follow along with Union business.

“So, are you just expecting me to sit around doing nothing?” He asked, probably a little harsher than necessary.

“No, we will broadcast the entire conversation to you to start,” Zura said and nodded to Nyria, “Her idea.”

“And,” Nyria said and nodded to Gabriel. “We have another phase of the plan we have been talking about, should this lead to an arrest.”

“...As much as I would like to have you charge in wearing full armor, and trust me, that would make my job easier,” Zura said after explaining the plan. “He might be innocent.”

“Yeah, I got it,” Gabriel said, still miffed about having to stay on the ship, but feeling a little better after hearing the Justicars idea. “I’ll stay.”

“Thank you,” Zura said.

“Not that I have much choice right?” Gabriel asked, with more humor in his voice, “You can arrest me, correct?”

“We have the authority to, yes,” Rik’Tensel confirmed.

“Will I be able to talk to you during the meeting?”

“No, we can’t be distracted, it might tip him off,” Zura said.

“Well, I’m not entirely happy about it, but I do understand,” Gabriel said.

“Good,” Zura said. “Then let’s prepare for landing.”

Gabriel headed back to his room and spilled the plan for Madeline, something he had gotten permission for.

“That’s...” Madeline began. “I mean, it’s the second-best thing right?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Gabriel said.

“Not quite kicking down the door yourself, but then again, what if she’s not there.”

“Right,” Gabriel said. He sat down in one of the chairs and strapped it, they all had harnesses tucked into the back. He reached out his hand and Madeline clasped it after strapping down.

They landed without issues, Zura, Rik’Tensel, and Nyria walked down the ramp and headed into a car, Gabriel and Madeline sat in a meeting room, watching a monitor of the car while a package Gabriel and Madeline had prepared stood to the side.