"Did you hear? Tyler the undefeated Is coming to our town!" Hanna spoke she was excited. Her hands waving around were evidence enough of that. "Isn't he your Hero Jessica? I mean of couse he is but like didn't he save you specifically one time?"
I looked at the excited Kaṣ̌hin girl with a bit of confusion. Her long tube like ears on top of her head weren't pointing at each other so I knew she wasn't lying. And her back two hands were just as mobile as the front two. So she wasn't hiding something. But still...
"isn't that impossible? What would he be comming here for?" I mumbled, my thoughts trailing out of my mind into words. I stood up and with a quick word told Hanna I was heading to the bathroom to freshen up.
"I'll come with you! So anyway it's not impossible because it's happening, he is coming on a capital class ship on a journey to save more lives! And we are a stop on the way! Isn't that crazy?" Hanna spoke quickly hardly giving me time to think before she spoke again. "The Inter-system radios have been buzzing with activity like a wisĥcağnin wasp. And apparently he is showing up in five days!"
"Wait, wait, slow down we are talking about Tyler Yoco right?. Tyler Yoco. The man who slew a hundred yicumes. The man who saved tango 53 from the locust incursion. The man who beat up a ķĝén̈ so bad it spit out the moon it just ate? That Tyler?" I asked. My head shaking in disbelief. As we walked out of the office into the hall.
"That man is a walking myth. And yes. I did get saved by A Tyler Yoco. But that was years ago before all this 'undefeated hero' propaganda, And it's probably not even the same person. There are millions if not billions of Tyler Yocos in the galaxy. And if you ask me he probably hasn't even done most of what the United federation say he has." I responded my rebuttal short and brief.
"But didn't you say he looks like the one who saved you?" Hanna asked a bit confused but more defensive. While we turned the corner and saw the woman's bathroom sign glowing slightly ahead.
"I did, but that was when I was drunk. And while they look similar it's most likely a coincidence." I replied calmly. I pushed open the door to the bathroom and stood infront of the mirror. And took a good look at myself.
My black hair was straight so I didn't need to fix that, and my eyebrows were still brown to fit with me eyes. My skin was a dull white with tinges of blue from my qtyațian heritage. Something I was proud about. I was technically royalty. But then again it was only that way through a technicality I had no power as a royal. My shirt was a bit big right now so I twisted the tiny accesor at the bottom and the shirt tightened and shrank a little. The ĝaunṣ̌ĥ I wore on my legs looked wonderful. I'm so glad the haspariatins figured out how to make pants that automatically grew and shrank and bent to cover my skin differently to ensure a even tan and warmth and cooling. It was a crazy idea but now it's just so popular I hear the makers of it own a planet all to themselves.
"Have some faith Jessica he could be the one and you need to go and ask him personally!" Hanna said matter-of-fact-ly as she straighten my shirt and started pulling out some makeup from her bag with her other hands. "There will be a autograph session where anyone who wants to can have a few seconds to talk with him, and get something signed. You need to go and ask if he was the one who saved you."
"Hanna you know I'm too busy for that. I have to be here keeping the sheild active on the reactor. I have gaurd duty tonight and for the next week." I wispered knowing she could hear me. I wasn't supposed to tell people I had guard duty. It's a secret each time but no one actually cares to keep it a secret. It's basically a pleasantry at this point.
"I could cover for you!" Hanna offered "this is a once in a life time opportunity!" She really wanted me to go apparently.
"Won't you miss out on it too then?" I asked pointing out the obvious.
"Not at all! Grizzly owes me a favor and he doesn't like Tyler. So he will be fine missing it." Hanna replied promptly, suddenly it made sense, SHE wasn't going to cover me. She was going to get someone to cover me.
I sighed, I had to admit I was tempted, and grizzly was a ĝact. Definitely a much better candidate for gaurd duty then me. Those guys were practically built for war.
"Come on, you know you want to." Hanna pressed on. Undeterred about how big of a breach of protocol this was, this was the kind of stuff that could get you discharged or arrested.
The reactor was the single most important power source for the small town providing enough energy for the million or so people here. But that's not why it's so important, no instead if someone with malicious intentions for to the reactor it would only take a few minutes to disable the sensors and cause it to explode in a wave of fire, energy, and TM-432 killing the entire town. As well as making half the small moon we lived on completely inhospitable for the next 2 years as a fleet of millions of drones called TM-432 scrubbers cleaned the land.
Suffice to say it would cost quaddrillions of credits in total and that wasn't the kind of money that people would like to spend.
Even if it was extremely unlikely anyone would be interested in sabotaging the reactor as it's against every single factions law to even touch a Tim reactor without clearance. And for reasons I'm sure you know, no one wants to risk the kind of backlash you would get if you tried. So only individuals or small groups would even try to cause a reactor meltdown, which they do, but very rarely. So I couldn't just leave my post. Especially if we have a capital class ship docking in space, they would get caught in the cross fire.
"Sorry Hanna, I've been thinking about it and I don't think I can get out of gaurd duty, if we get called out for it I could lose my salary for months at best" I said, I finished up my makeup and look one last look before I helped pack up Hanna's makeup and left the bathroom Hanna following.
"But it's a..." Hanna begin before I cut her off.
"No Hanna, there is no But, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, yes. But I can't risk the lives of others just so I can figure out something that happened years ago." I told her I saw her ears drop almost instantly like a puppy who was yelled at. I sighed. "We can ask after work"
"YES!" Hanna yelled while throwing a fist out and pulling it back. Three of them actually. I shook my head and we walked back to the office to finish off the day of work we would head to the commander after.
********
Standing outside the office Hanna and me just got thrown out.
Long story short. We did in fact not get permission. But hey it never hurts to ask.