"... I kind of don't want to leave now."
"Yeah, well tough shit. Let's go."
After spending just a few days in the lap of luxury, Mike was now reluctant to leave the hotel he and River had been recovering in after being imprisoned and tortured by the Trane Imperium for weeks. Although both River and Mike had recovered from malnourishment the Imperium was willing to pay for their stay for a few more weeks it was time to move on and get back to pirate hunting. In the few days since the Imperium had started stabilising after a change in leadership, the local security forces had started getting their act together, which meant the profits River and Mike had originally travelled to the Imperium to tap were disappearing fast.
(Not that we're lacking credits after rescuing the princess, but getting more cash isn't a bad thing and we're both rusty.)
Having changed back into his vacuum suit Mike took no chances and put on his helmet with its tinted glass before loading his pistol and checking on River.
"Ready?"
Like Mike, River wore her brand new vacuum suit and loaded her brand new PDW with a fresh magazine before holstering it and responding.
"Sure, let's get back to Phillip station."
Exiting the hotel Mike got a proper look at the inside of Crown station for the first time. Inside a 1 G residential ring, Mike looked straight up to see starlight leaking through truly massive window panes, although doing so made the rotation of the ring he was currently on quite apparent and made him slightly dizzy like being on a train and not realising it is moving. Although the 1 G residential ring was considered prime real estate on stations, Crown station's 1 G ring was filled with large, open avenues and greenery in the form of parks and vertical gardens hiding the massive tower elevators used to travel between rings and the central docking bay. Finding the nearest elevator Mike and River were met with someone they didn't expect to see.
"It is good to see you're both in good health, Sir Mike, and Miss River."
Standing right in front of the large elevator tower, the fourth princess of the Trane Imperium drew a massive amount of attention both with her flawless looks and pure white dress and the sheer amount of black-suited security guards forming a tight circle around her.
"We're not interested."
"... Excuse me?"
Immediately declining the offer even before Lissandra made it, Mike was forced to explain when the naive princess didn't quite follow, or at least that's what the look on her face told Mike.
What was on her mind was an entirely other matter.
"You're here to recruit us or at least convince us to stay in the Imperium after the pirates leave or get wiped out, that's what we're not interested in. We're mercenaries, we move to where there's work available."
"Well that's quite a shame, but please allow me to accompany the two of you to Phillip station, I would like to personally extend my thanks for saving my life once again."
Studying Lissandra's expression it seemed she didn't take Mike's disinterest in joining the Imperium, but some of her guards were clearly upset at the way Mike spoke to their beloved princess.
"Okay, then let's get going."
Figuring nothing good would come of rejecting the princess' courtesy outright Mike and River headed to the Crown station hangar bay where a luxurious shuttle and no less than 16 escort crafts awaited them for the relatively short trip to Phillip station.
"Is there really no way to persuade the two of you to at least stay for a few more days? My dear older brother wishes to meet both of you and extend a personal thanks."
Once underway and with a considerably reduced number of guards, Lissandra once again did her best to try and recruit Mike and River, if not for outright duty in the military then at least as short-term instructors or even private contractors.
"It is not like we're leaving right away, there's still quite a bit of pirate activity so we'll be hunting here until that dies down."
Not able to outright shoot down Lissandra made it her mission to get him and River released from prison, Mike made a vague promise to not outright run away while planning to do just that first chance he got. While River saw straight through Mike's words, Lissandra seemed to cling to the hope of further chances to recruit the pair and settled for Mike's vague promise. Getting back to Phillip station Mike and River said goodbye to the overly attached princess before heading to a hangar for long-term ship storage where their craft had been stashed.
"... UZ-PMC Scorpion, callsign GCV-43. I've missed you, my dear."
The moment Mike laid eyes on his and River's ship he rushed over to it and straight-up hugged the hull, entirely ignoring the looks he got from both River and other people inside the hangar.
"Look I get it I really do, but please stop embarrassing me like this, let's go hunt already."
"Sure, just give me a few more seconds."
"... Fine."
-
Getting back into space Mike felt just as relaxed in the pilot seat as he had in that expensive bed back in that hotel suite, while the Scorpion was currently free-floating in deep space Mike realised just how much he had missed the control just at his fingertips. At Mike's command, he could accelerate and throw the ship around as he wished, if River hadn't been there Mike would no doubt be spinning around and racing nothing for absolutely no reason.
"So we've cleared the ship for bugs and checked the system for any worms, I think it's time you finally explain yourself."
Staring at Mike through the screens in her cockpit it was clear on River's face that she had come to trust him a lot more than the last time they had both been in the same position, but she would still like to know the reason behind Mike's ominous words that were still echoing inside her head.
"Where to start… Oh right, I'm clearly insane."
Starting by stating the obvious, River rolled her eyes as she still had a slight grin on her face.
"I've realised that already."
"No, I really am… Guess I'll need to start at the beginning."
With River still not getting what he was saying, Mike took a deep breath as he thought back to the 'normal' life he had lived only a month ago.
"My name is Mike Odinson, I'm 25 years old, and like I already told you, I was born on a planet. More specifically Earth, the birthplace of humanity."
While River didn't seem to understand yet, the clear unease now visible on her face told Mike that she was starting to understand.
"Being a college student living in a peaceful and prosperous little country I usually spend my spare time drinking with classmates or playing games on my computer instead of actually studying."
"What are y-"
"Although I do mingle with classmates and go out drinking once in a while I'm a nerd at heart, if given the choice to do so I'll spend weeks inside my small apartment eating chips and playing games on my computer, my favourite game is a really obscure one none of my friends plays, I doubt any of my classmates have even heard about it before. The name of that game is Interstellar Online, a space flight simulation massively multiplayer online game where you start out as a space mercenary in a shitty little fighter without any real guidance from there, you were free to do exactly what you wanted, you could become a trader, a fighter pilot, a pirate hunter or even a pirate lord yourself, what really drew me to the game in the first place was the total freedom of options available to me, I even bought an insanely expensive HOTAS controller so I didn't have to pilot all those cool ships with my keyboard… You know what I'm saying right?"
While River wore a clear frown on her face she was now totally silent, her eyes seemingly staring a hole into Mike's face through the intercom system and waiting for him to continue.
"So instead of studying, I continued playing Interstellar Online and wracked up an insane amount of hours in it over a few years, basically mastering every part of the game and new expansions as they came out. One Friday after letting lose and being out drinking all night I got back in the middle of the night and figured I could spend a bit of time calming down hunting some pirates still being drunk I fucked up and ended up crashing my favourite fighter but seeing it was just a game I thought nothing of it and went to bed. Imagine my surprise when I didn't wake up in my shitty little apartment but inside the fighter I just wrecked?"
After an excruciatingly long silence she spent staring at Mike's face with a serious expression, River finally spoke up again.
"... This isn't a joke right?"
"No it isn't, that's why I said that I'm clearly insane. There's not a shred of doubt in my mind that I am Mike Odinson, a 25-year-old nerdy college student that spends most of his free time playing an obscure space flight simulator game called Interstellar Online. While this world isn't exactly the same as the one in the game, all the trade goods are exactly the same as in the game and while the ships aren't exactly the same I still recognize their makers and brands, what's worse is the food from my reality has somehow found its way to this world… But that's not why I'm telling you all this in the first place."
Having spent a long time explaining his own situation, Mike almost forgot why he was telling River all this in the first place.
"There's one thing which really differentiates the game world of Interstellar Online from this world and that's the date. The Interstellar Online date is 4525 but in this world, it is the year 4522, a year before the world of Interstellar Online finally lived up to its title and expanded the playable map by having the galaxy invaded through a series of interstellar gateways, sparking a first-contact free for all war with multiple alien races at the same time… I honestly don't expect you to believe all this, if I was in your position I wouldn't believe me, but I still wanted to warn you against what was coming when we saw each other in that prison. Even if I am insane it became quite clear to me inside that cell that I care about you River, but I fully understand if you want to split up with me after all this, after all, I've done nothing useful and just needlessly endangered you, I even helped kill all your associates."
Mike was completely aware of what he was doing and how his words must sound to River, but this was still better than constantly lying to River when she had put this much trust in him and he had just ruined said trust forever.
Staring wordlessly at Mike for what felt like an eternity, River eventually told him she needed some time alone to think before cutting off the intercom system, as she did Mike breathed a deep, somewhat painful sigh.
Although he felt he had done the right thing by telling her the truth, it still hurt Mike explaining he was a faker who had basically lied about everything straight to River's face.
With nothing else to do while River was thinking everything over Mike's mind turned blank as he stared out at the stars outside his cockpit until that eventually got boring, after that Mike ran system tests on both his vacuum suit and the Scorpion before disassembling his pistol, cleaning it and putting it back together. Still with nothing else to do Mike returned to stare out at the stars outside the cockpit, since he last looked the Scorpion had rotated and now showed a new view of the outside, but after also getting tired of that impressive vista and counting the number of stars he could see (4319) multiple times he eventually decided to just sleep.
"Hey! Mike, wake up!"
After an unknown amount of time had passed Mike was woken up by River's shouts, initially confused about what was going on, Mike remembered what had happened before as his mind started working again.
"... Have you thought things through?"
Swallowing audibly it was clear to anyone who watched Mike how nervous he was, although it was pretty certain River didn't believe him Mike still held a childishly naive hope that she believed him. That hope made the words that came out of River's mouth next even more confusing to Mike.
"So this calamity or whatever you were referring to was an Interstellar war between humankind and a lot of different aliens? In that case shouldn't we try and get as far away from the galactic centre as possible?"
"... Wait what?"
Initially thinking he had heard wrong, Mike asked for River to repeat herself which only inspired a sigh and slight smile from River like she was dealing with a child.
"I said why did you want to get towards the galactic centre when that's where the war will start?"
"Because not all of the aliens are hostile, and given that this body of mine here is my in-game avatar from Interstellar Online I should be able to communicate with them. Imagine how many credits we could earn from brokering peace with an alien race?"
Still quite dazed by the situation, Mike answered River's question entirely on instinct and without any sort of filter, seeing how utterly confused Mike was River's smile grew wider while a warm light seemed to have been lit in her eyes.
"And what's the real reason?"
"One of the peaceful races that came to aid humankind in Interstellar Online were honest to god beastmen straight out of a JRPG, I would honestly give my dominant arm for a chance to pat some of those fluffy ears in person."
"Right, then let's get to it."
Although he didn't realise it the moment it happened, the exact point in time River agreed to his ridiculously silly plan was the moment he fell in love with her.