Yorogo was in awe.

The Lieutenant was twenty metres in front of him, dispatching any supernatural creature that dared to show its face with supernatural efficiency. His suit somehow had more compartments for weapons than Yorogo thought could even fit something that size. It was somehow targeting monsters by itself, while the Lieutenant personally dealt with the ones in front of him. He had what had to be a gun, but it was unlike any gun Yorogo had seen before. It constantly spit forward a stream of white projectiles, which absolutely ripped apart any monster audacious enough to be in front of him. Any creature that somehow got close enough to him to be within reaching distance was cleaved in two by what seemed to be a glowing sword attached to his arm.

It wasn’t only the weapons that were proving themselves useful, Yorogo noticed. The Lieutenant seemed to be aware of his surroundings at all times, with none of the projectiles launched by them finding their mark. Yorogo watched him weave between the creatures and destroy them, flowing through them when needed and absolutely crushing them when he found it useful.

He reminded Yorogo of a raging river, sweeping aside anything in its path. What was a verifiable swarm of monsters was now completely destroyed, much to Yorogo’s joy, and admittedly slight disgust? There wasn’t a spot that wasn’t covered in blood and viscera, but this didn’t seem to faze the Lieutenant. The alien turned towards me, with a slight smile on his face.

“Well, that’s the problem dealt with, isn’t it? We should have a clear path to my ship now, so you will be safe. I promise you that”, he announced reassuringly.

“Well, thank you Lieutenant. I would have surely died had you not found me. I don’t know how to repay you.”

“Repay me? I won’t accept any repayment, Yorogo. As a member of the C.S.S navy, its my job to help people like you. By the way, you seem tired. Do you want me to carry you? Now that the monsters are dead, it’ll be easier for me to carry you to my ship.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that”. I was more than happy when he offered to carry me, as running for as long as I did took a toll on my body.

“We’re not too far from my ship anyway, but for your safety I’ll secure you to my suit. I don’t want you falling off, after all”, he said, chuckling while he did so.

“Fall off? What do you mean fall off? Where’s your ship?”

In response, he pointed up. I looked up, yet I could not see anything. What did he mean? Apparently, he knew I was confused, so he proceeded to answer my questions immediately.

“My ship is directly above us. About a hundred metres or so. As for why you can’t see it, its cloaked.”

Ahh, that made sense. I had never even heard of cloaking tech, but I seemed to accept it way too easily. It wasn’t the strangest thing to happen today. He approached me and instructed me to climb onto his back, which I did immediately. I was just happy to get out of there, after all. Staps seemed to materialise out of thin air, and suddenly I was fastened securely to the suit. He then proceeded to fly straight up. I wasn’t afraid of the height, as my people had evolved from avians so we still possessed vestigial wings, however it was undeniably a weird sensation.

As we proceeded to climb, I saw one of the most fantastical sights I had ever seen. An object that had to be his ship materialised out of thin air and a hatch opened itself; however, I was too worn down by the events of the day to really care about it (which I had to admit was slightly concerning). Once he rose through the hatch it proceeded to close behind us smoothly. As a prominent scientist among my people, as well as a leading member in out space program, on any other day I would have been in total awe; nevertheless, this day took a heavy toll. Either way, it was best to be aware of my surroundings, so I got off the Lieutenant and took a look at my surroundings.

The first thing I noticed was the smell, or rather the complete lack of it. I had a pretty keen nose, yet I couldn’t get a whiff of anything. I looked around what seemed to be a loading room of some kind and took in the details. The most important thing was that there were other Kimbri in this place, which was definitely good. Very good actually.

At the very least it didn’t seem like we would go extinct, which after a day like this is a massive blessing. There were at least fifty of us on this ship, with most of them seemingly being in worse shape than I am. Many were sobbing, some alone and some in tight embraces with others, which was something I needed dearly. Nearly everyone was covered in some kind of dirt, soot or grime, and many had some sort of minor injury. One thing I noticed was that there was nobody with a substantial injury, which meant that there was probably somewhere they were receiving treatment.

Or maybe they had abandoned anybody not worth saving.

No, I had to get such negative thoughts out of my head. They had saved me at my most vulnerable, so it stands to reason that they would do the same for others; after all, there’s nothing outwardly special about me.

The Lieutenant was still standing next to me, conversing with someone that looked similar to him; although, they did have their differences. The Lieutenant was taller than the newcomer, with a wider frame along with darker skin and…fur? Perhaps they were the same species and what I was seeing was sexual dimorphism. Anyhow, this train of thought is irrelevant, so its best to try and gain some information, since I doubt I’ll be returning home any time soon. The Lieutenant was busy, so I figured it was best to explore my surroundings.

I walked to the nearest entrance, which had a corridor beyond it. I took a moment to breathe, clear my mind and ground myself. This whole situation was to be honest, quite fantastical. I would be able to see how aliens travelled through space, which is something that, if the circumstances were any different, would have been the highlight of my life. As I continued to walk through the corridor, a faint rumbling sound grew louder and louder. I was once struggling to hear it, yet as I walked on it became almost deafening. I stopped in front of a door which had to contain the source of this noise. I touched the door, but much to my shock I felt something touch the top of my head. With a yelp I spun around, and there stood the Lieutenant.

“Care to explain what you’re doing here”, he said in a slightly stern voice, which did nothing but unsettle me. Shit, I had to come up with an excuse on the spot, otherwise who knows what he’d do?

“Umm, well I…uh… was looking for…the bathroom?”

He stood still for a few heart-pounding seconds, looking at me apprehensively. I was almost ready to prepare for my fate, but he suddenly threw his head back and let out a series of raucous guffaws, which left me absolutely bewildered. I let him go on for a while, and once he was on the verge of calming down, I decided to try and figure out what the fuck was wrong with him.

“Are you okay”? upon hearing this the Lieutenant seemed to calm down, composing himself before he replied.

“Mate, if you’re gonna look for an excuse to faff about, then at least make it believable. You could have just asked to look around the ship and besides, its not like any of the crew is gonna care. We’re here to help you, after all.”

Damn. Maybe I really was worried over nothing. If that was the case, I could potentially start getting answers to my own questions, namely knowing what was behind the door.

“What’s behind this door”?

“The engine”.

“Soo, what does it do”?

“What engines usually do”.

“I mean how does it work? It’s an FTL engine, right? And how do you power it”?

“Whoa, calm down there, I’ll answer everything in time but you need to rest. The past twenty-four hours have been catastrophic, so there’ll be a lot of work ahead of us if we are going to restore the Kimbri people. That means we need you to be well rested and at optimal health, since you were one of your people’s prominent scientists.”

Even though his reply was perfectly logical, it still took the wind out of my sails. I turned away dejectedly, preparing to return to the chamber from which I came; however, I felt the Lieutenants hand grasp my shoulders. I turned around and looked at him puzzledly.

“What is it”?

“That doesn’t mean that I can’t show you anything now”. Upon hearing this my eyes widened. Could he mean what I thought he meant?

“Don’t you want to see the engine room”?

Even though the events of the past day had been harrowing, I felt a ghost of a smile form on my face. It would be a long, long time before I would probably feel truly happy, but maybe today didn’t have to be all bad.

It looked like I had an inspection to do.