Selenia backed up against a cold wall as a small crowd of people closed in on her from her front and sides. They blocked off her path of escape. She turned her head from side to side as the crowd stared her down. They looked intent on their goal. The mixture of faces—human and human-like—avian, reptilian, and human—burst with collective purpose.

  Then, all at once, they attacked.

  “Can you shoot proto-particle beams like that all the time!?”

  “What’s the proto particle density on the ones you can make!?”

  “Can you make them bigger!? I mean, wider!? How about narrower!?”

  ‘Can you fire multiple proto-particle beams at the same time!? How about splitting them up into multiple beams?!”

  “How do you even generate proto particles to begin with!?”

  “I-I don’t know!” Selenia said. Her eyes darted to and fro between the same crowd in panic. They seemed to ignore her as they continued their barrage of questions, getting even closer to her as she held up her arms to defend herself. “I-I really don’t! Believe me, please!”

  Then an arm grabbed her and pulled her away through the small crowd, running off with her as the small crowd stared at them, unsure of whether to follow or not.

  “Hey, wait! Come back!” they called after her.

  Selenia looked at Garrod in thanks after they had escaped their pursuers after turning around several corners. “I really appreciate it, Garrod, thanks.”

  Garrod sighed. “For how icy of a princess you look like, you really need to push back and tell them you can’t answer all of their questions.”

  “I… I guess…” Selenia said. Ever since her quarters had been assigned to the Rakaila, after the recent incident, the warship they were on, the crew, which initially had been stand-offish and cold, had quickly warmed up to her. And she had responded in turn.

  The crew of the Rakaila had appeared to be a crisp, no-nonsense, and professional group, which was in complete contrast to just how inquisitive and cheerful they actually were, as she had found out. And now that she apparently was on good terms with the crew, they took every opportunity to ask her as many questions as they wanted to. About everything and anything. Whenever they saw her.

  Garrod had a point, though. With her silver hair and eyes, along with her silver clothing, robes, half-cloak, and cape, and all, she did make for an easy-to-spot to spot sight.

  Then again, she supposed it did cut both ways. She had to admit, she did look pretty icy.

  “It’s just they're so nice and friendly, so I can’t help it. I just didn’t expect everyone to be that nice and friendly,” Selenia said as both she and Garrod continued towards their destination, their footsteps clinking on the polished metal flooring of the passageways of the warship.

  Garrod chuckled at her.

  Selenia looked at his arm. His regrown arm.

  “Well, at least your arm’s looking better,” Selenia said.

  It feels as good as new! Well, considering it is actually new,” Garrod replied.

  “I’m glad,” Selenia said as they approached their destination, one of the warship’s hangar bay. Selenia coughed, then patted herself down and made sure everything was in order, her clothing, hair, and all.

  “You don’t need to be nervous around the Captain all the time,” Garrod said.

  “I can’t help it. She seems like the first real military officer I’ve seen around here,” Selenia said.

  Garrod raised a brow at her.

  “Sorry!” Selenia continued, suddenly remembering he was also an officer. “I didn’t mean anything by it! I just meant that out of everyone here, she just seems so professional and no-nonsense compared to everyone else.”

  Garrod coughed. “Well, that is a true point.”

  They entered the warship’s hangar bay, one of several in the Rakaila. As a warship, the Raikaila carried an assortment of equipment and supplies. Though purpose-built for warfare, it had plenty of internal volume for other non-military purposes. As it did so now. In the huge, cavernous space, lay basic building supplies and tools neatly wrapped in pallets, stacks of special alloy metals in neat rolled bundles, various other special materials needed to reconstruct Alsium Two’s artificial dome in large containers, and many other things. There were even agricultural supplies in certain sections to make sure that Alsium’s Two’s agriculture fields could be salvaged.

  Which was great, because she was more than happy to help in salvaging the important melon crops that she had helped plant and care for in her relatively short time here. Even if she had to roll up her sleeves and do it herself!

  A short distance away, directing the beehive of activity in the hangar bay was Captain Rakaila. As they approached her, Selenia politely pretended the various stares she was getting didn’t exist.

  Captain Rakaila was imposing. She was tall. A full head taller than her. And not just her, but also taller than Garrod and most of the crew. So whenever Selenia interacted with her, the captain was looking down at her all the time with her icy and stern crimson eyes, the color of human blood, whenever they spoke.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  The captain always appeared in full uniform dress, black and red with outlines of gold, a captain’s peaked service cap on her head, rank insignia along with ribbons and medals on her coat’s breast, black leather gloves on her hand, half-cloak and cape adorning her. It all tied neatly with her own black hair and red eyes. Her appearance oozed authority. And her no-nonsense and professional demeanor suited her appearance just the same.

  Captain Rakaila turned to them as they approached her.

  Selenia bowed, one foot stepping back, the other bending forward, a hand to her breast as she tilted downward, a formal greeting of someone in her standing.

  Garrod snapped a crisp and formal salute.

  Captain Rakaila returned a salute, effortlessly graceful and perfect as any living being could do.

  “Thank you for approving my request,” Selenia said, rising from her bow.

  “Think nothing of it,” Rakaila said as she glanced over, off into the distance. Then, she grew annoyed.

  “Captain Bernard!” Rakaila said, and it was as if her voice teleported over in the distance. “A bit more to the left!”

  The dragon was in his full form outside of his usual humanoid one.

  “I know where it goes!” Benard replied, huffing in annoyance, carrying a near mountain in pallets in his forelimbs, balancing himself on his hind legs. Then, he dropped it with a thud, shaking the entire hangar and causing many people in the hangar bay to stumble and nearly fall.

  Captain Rakaila stood completely unaffected and twitched in annoyance while she and Garrod steadied themselves from the sudden impact.

  Rakaila ground her teeth at Bernard and held up a gloved fist at him. “You idiot! Put it down softer! Even I could feel it!”

  “Alright, alright! I got it!” Bernard glowered back. He resumed his manual labor as the entire hangar bay resumed its activities.

  The hangar was a veritable beehive of activity. Hundreds of people in an assortment of clothing walked and ran to and fro along the floor of the hangar or one of its many causeways that worked their way along and through the hangar bay’s cavernous interior.

  The hangar bay doors were open, and numerous blocky transport craft would fly in on blue jets to land to load all the various goods that the Rakaila carried for Alsium Two’s repairs. From where she stood, Selenia had a good view of the outside. And she could see the damage that Alsium Two had far better than she could on the ground’s surface from as the Rakaila hovered in the air, hundreds of meters from the ground’s surface.

  In the wake of the recent internal infighting between the AXIS and SETI units of the Gaia Sphere Federation’s military that had wrecked Alsium Two, the warship Rakaila, along with its crew, had been reassigned by SETI to Alsium Two for the foreseeable future. Both to serve as a big stick to deter any more infighting, and also to assist in its construction. In its many hangers were all the much-needed supplies that Alsium Two needed, along with various equipment for agricultural and industrial purposes, which Captain Bernard was helping move.

  Captain Bernard looked grumpy. Which wasn’t surprising, considering this was his punishment for failing to intervene quickly in AXIS and SETI’s previous in-fighting, which had wrecked Alsium Two, as one of SETI’s officers who had been assigned to ensure nothing would happen.

  Most notable of all were the mobile frames. Selenia gazed upward at the humanoid machines, even unpowered and in their berths, without all of their equipment, they looked monstously powerful. They lined up in rows. Some machines with scaffolding and in the process of being worked on by the hanger crew, some of the machines with their thick armor plates removed, exposing all the complicated machinery and wiring underneath that made it possible. One of the machines had half of its head exposed, and it looked like a skeletal, eldritch monster undergoing brain surgery with synthetic artificial muscle fibers, wiring, and intricate machinery on full display.

  Selenia felt a chill work its way down her spine.

  Garrod whistled beside her as he put her hands on his hips. “DMF-09 Arvans. The latest models and variants, too.”

  “Indeed, they are,” Rakaila said, looking in the distance. “Garrod, how about you see to your friends?” She motioned off in the distance to Fafapan and Saphie, who waved at him in the distance with a slight nudge of her head. Garrod took the hint, snapping another salute, then leaving them.

  Rakaila looked at her for several moments. Selenia tried to stand before her gaze as best she could as a princess should.

  “Walk with me, moon princess,” Rakaila said, motioning for her to follow as she began walking the length of the hangar bay, politely off to the side of the busy crew. Selenia followed after her from behind.

  “I trust your accommodations have been well?” Rakaila said.

  “More than well,” Selenia nodded happily.

  “Good!” Raikaila said, not bothering to turn around. “Listen, I will tell you now that I don’t like your presence here. As you are no doubt aware, there continues to be much discussion about what to do with you. To the point that a warship such as I needs to be here to watch over and babysit you when I could literally be doing anything else. Imagine my surprise when I was informed that my crew and I were to be pulled out of all of our many important responsibilities, specifically for you? I believe it would be better if we rid ourselves of you, or at the very least, make you someone else's problem. That being said, I don’t have much choice in the matter.”

  Then, Rakaila stopped by a nice vantage point of the open hangar bay doors where they could not only see Alsium Two outside, the hangar bay, but also the linear catapults for the mobile frames, which were extended forward, and the mobile frames could launch themselves from.

  “I do not doubt that more trouble is soon to come. Whether it's because of you or not. But I believe that it’s most likely going to be because of you,” Rakaila sighed as she turned around to face Selenia. Then, she bent down to truly glare at her, crimson eyes mere inches away from her. This close, Selenia could see just how unnaturally flawless and beautiful her pale skin was.

  Rakaila continued. “So I will say to you, moon princess, that you are a pain in the ass. But you’re my pain in the ass now. And so long as you’re my pain in the ass, that means I have to keep you safe. And I will do so to the best of my abilities. Because not only is your life at risk here, but also the several thousand of my crew whom I care very much about. Do you understand?”

  Selenia nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I do.”

  “Good!” Rakaila smiled without any humor, pulling back from Selenia.

  Then, the hangar bay shook from the tremors of large, heavy thuds. In the distance, a mobile frame, one of the DMF-09 Arvans, walked forward with careful steps to avoid the hanger crew. It stepped onto the launch catapult, its feet slotting into clamps, preparing to launch.

  “That being said, you said you wanted to see my mobile frames?” Rakaila said, and a small smile cracked on her stern face. Selenia cracked a small smile, too.