"Anna."
Her name left my mouth before I knew it and just like in all of my dreams of her I saw her ears twitch. In my dreams no matter how softly I said it or how far away from each other we were, if I could see her she could hear me. I saw her turn as if in slow motion and when she saw me her eyes went wide.
We stared at each other for what felt like hours until, before I knew it, we were running to each other. I held my arms open and she jumped into them. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight, I didn't ever want to let go. Holding her felt like a piece of myself that was missing had been found. It felt good. It felt right.
Pulling back a little I looked down at her as she looked up at me. Tears were forming in her eyes.
"Hey what's wrong?"
I used my thumbs to brush her tears away as I cupped her face in my hands.
"Nothings wrong. I'm just so happy to find you."
"Me too, me too."
It took me a while to notice that the bridge, which had been very noisy upon entering, was now dead silent. Tearing my eyes off Anna I looked around, only to find every eye on the two of us. Looking back to Anna I chuckled.
"I think we gave everyone a good show, but now we both have jobs to do."
She nodded and let go of me. Turning my attention to the General I noticed his eyes were blazing. Dude was pissed.
"Would you care to explain to me how exactly you know my daughter?"
"Daughter?"
I looked from his pointed Elf ears to her fluffy fox ears and back again.
"There's not much resemblance."
I heard Anna laugh and it was a musical sound.
"I'm adopted. My birth parents were warriors who fell in combat. They were friends with the General and he adopted me after their deaths."
I smiled at Anna in thanks.
"It is a complicated story General and this may not be the best venue for it. Perhaps we should jump away first?"
".....Very well. Your AI wouldn't calculate a jump without your permission. If you could sort this out I would be grateful."
"Oracle please calculate a maximum distance jump towards the capital."
"Yes Captain. Calculations complete, you can engage when ready."
Turning to the General I raised an eyebrow and he nodded.
"Engage jump."
And with that our journey to the capital began. Unbeknownst to us a mere six hours after we jumped away an entire squadron of Akvari ships jumped into space surrounding the battlefield. Luckily they were unable to trace our jump and follow us.
We were able to make three jumps before the stores of energy were depleted and we needed to recharge. While waiting the General assembled all of the crew in the corridor leading to the cargo bay where we had placed the fallen crew members.
"Everyone. I know how you must be feeling right now. That you know we had to get away quickly but deep down you regret that we had to leave our fallen behind. However, that is not true."
Opening the cargo bay door he waved for everyone to follow him in. Almost every single person who stepped through the door paused and was bumped into from behind after seeing what was in the cargo bay. Once everyone was inside I was called forward. When I was next to the General he spoke.
"While our pilots were learning how to fly the Akvari shuttles, this man was retrieving our fallen from the battlefield so they could be brought home for a proper burial."
One of the pilots Interrupted the General.
"Are you sure that's why he did it? Maybe he made that up when you caught him retrieving the bodies. He was probably planning on eating them."
There were gasps both at him interrupting the General and at his insinuation. The General looked at me a little confused so I whispered just loud enough so he could hear.
"I'm an Earthling."
His eyes widened a bit in surprise and he nodded slightly in acknowledgment.
"Yes. As most of you may have already guessed from that comment this man is an Earthling."
There was scattered murmurs and whispered conversations upon hearing the Generals words.
"HOWEVER! Most of the rumors you have all probably heard are false or over embellished. In fact many of those false rumors have been spread by many in the upper echelon of our people as a deterrent against needless conflict."
"Sorry about that bit."
He whispered to me. I just shrugged.
"Think about it. If you were going into battle and found out that the enemy you faced would eat the flesh of your comrades if you lost would you instead want to talk peace if you were not 100% sure of your victory?"
"The rumors about the savagery of the Earthlings has helped us maintain peace for several hundred years now."
As the General gazed around at his crew he saw skepticism clear as day on their faces.
"I won't ask you to change your minds immediately but at least get to know the person before you judge him unfairly."
"Now I would like to ask for a moment of silence for our fallen friends."
Everyone bowed their heads and kept silent for the next five minutes. Then the General called for volunteers.
"Now I would like ten volunteers to help sort through and piece together the limbs that were detached from their owners."
When that was done the General signaled for me to follow him. We walked all the way back to the bridge, where Anna was keeping watch on the monitors, in silence. When Anna saw me she smiled brightly and my heart skipped a beat as I smiled back.
"Cut that out you two."
Anna blushed but I chuckled and smiled when I noticed her tail wag a bit faster when I did.
"Anna. Why have I never heard you mention being so friendly with a boy? And did you know he is an Earthling?"
"Father. Just because I never mentioned it to you doesn't mean I never told anyone, and yes I was pretty sure he was an Earthling but not 100%."
The General glared at me.
"If you have put your hands on her I'll have your head on a spike."
"Father stop it. This is our first time actually meeting."
"You have turned down many men who wished to court you and yet you are willing to throw yourself into the arms of a man you have just met for the first time today?"
Anna was getting flustered and talking in circles so I decided to cut in.
"If I may General?"
He glared at me again but nodded.
"For the last few months I have been having strange dreams that seem to last for days or even weeks at a time. Anna has been in a lot of them, if I had to say I have spent years with her in those dreams and judging by the way she reacted upon seeing me I believe she has had those same dreams."
Looking at her she nodded.
"That's right."
Then she asked a question that she definitely shouldn't have.
"Am I the first or have you already found the others?"
"What do you mean by others Anna?"
"His two other women Iris and Megan."
It was a damn good thing I ducked when I did. I have never seen someone draw a side arm that fast. I felt the wind from the bullet ruffle the top of my head and a cold sweat broke out across my entire body.
"Adam! Are you ok? Father why did you do that?"
Anna ran over to me and stood between me and her father.
"Get out of the way Anna I'm going to deal with this two timer right now."
It was at that moment that a woman's gentle voice came from the doorway.
"Dear that's quite enough. If you do anything to hurt that boy your daughter will never forgive you."
"But, but, but."
"Put the gun away Marcus. I'll handle it from here."
"Mother!"
Anna ran over and hugged the woman and then practically dragged her over to me.
"Mother, this is Adam. Adam, this is Alexis Kane, my mother."
"It is my pleasure to meet you ma'am."
"Oh please Adam. Call me mother. After all...Anna has told me everything. E.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g."
I gulped when I heard that and could hear the Generals teeth grinding as he obviously understood what she ment as well. I looked at Anna and she wouldn't meet my eye but her cheeks were a bright crimson.
"It's a good thing Anna had one of the crew wake me from stasis or things could have gone badly for you Adam."
I turned to look at the fresh bullet hole in the wall.
"Yeah. I can see that."
"So I'm guessing the last pod has the member of the royal family in it?"
There was silence as the three people stared at me. Realizing that none of them were there when I explained my guesswork about the rumors, I explained. It was the General that spoke first.
"How did we miss something so obvious?"
"It is highly possible that there is a traitor somewhere in your command structure."
"What? Not possible."
I looked at the General as I would at a not very bright child.
"It is thinking like that that allows traitors to exist. If you don't believe it's possible for there to be a traitor you will never find one."
"Think about it. Rumors about your ships have been circulating for years but you have not heard mention of it and now one of your ships was attacked. I don't know how the attack happened but did it seem like it was an ambush? Were they waiting for you? Did they greatly outnumber you?"
Every point I brought up seemed to strike home until he was slumped in his chair. So I gave him a bit of hope.
"General. We have one of their ships, maybe some of the data survived your EMP."
He started to nod but then froze as he looked me in the eye.
"What EMP would you be talking about?"
I had just stepped into a minefield and wasn't sure how to get out of it.
"Um..do you really want me to answer that?"
I nodded my head in the direction of the two women and he shook his head.
"You and I will talk later. Alone."
A stay of execution. I was safe for now.
"So I have a question for you General. Is it safe for us to be traveling alone?"
"What do you mean?"
"Um....We are on an Akvari ship with an obviously battle damaged High Elf ship on a docking hard point with no escort. Last I checked that would be grounds for swift combat action."
"Good point. Any ideas?"
"Oracle would you please open the star charts from our current location to the capital?"
"Yes Captain."
Twelve star charts appeared on the display as Anna came running up to me.
"Did you just say Oracle? Where is she?"
"I don't have the hardware to give her a physical body yet that will have to wait. She is currently running this ship so you can talk to her any time you want."
"Yay. Oracle it's so nice to finally talk to you."
"It is a pleasure to speak with you as well Anna. Adam talks about you a lot."
The four of us continued talking until the assigned bridge crew made it back, after the ships power was sufficient we began jumping again with a different heading. Instead of going straight to the capital we would first meet up with a picket ship captained by a friend of the General who would be able to escort us safely to the capital.
It was a month long journey and I spent as much time as I could with Anna. Unfortunately as Vice Captain her duties kept her busy most of the time. I also had to avoid the General, I wasn't ready to have a sit down conversation alone with him. On one of the occasions when Anna and I had some time together she finally told me which member of royalty she worked for, and Holy Shit was I surprised. Anna was a direct subordinate of the queen herself.
I had asked if they were going to wake her but was told that the queen had been injured during the chaos of battle and would be brought to a hospital on the surface so she could receive immediate care upon waking up. I had also given her a way to contact me so when we got to the capital I could slip away and meet up with her later. She just gave me a wry smile.
"Sorry Adam but you're not going to be able to just slip away. The General has made sure of that."
"Why not? How will he stop me?"
"Adam you rescued the queen. Do you really think you can just run away? It would tarnish the name of the royal family if they did not reward such action and as for how he will stop you. He has stationed guards by your ship to prevent you from going aboard."
I was unhappy about the situation but there wasn't much I could do about it and that's how it came to be that two weeks later I found myself as a guest in the royal palace until the king was ready to have a form audience with me.