"Sir Arthur? We have a problem."
Arthur looked up from the book he was reading to his children, blinking his eyes. The solider at the door squirmed slightly, looking away. Arthur looked at his children, before sighing, and setting the book on the bed and standing up. He gave both of them a quick kiss on the forehead, before sliding the bottom half of his helmet back on and walking over to the door.
The door closed quietly, and Arthur turned his attention to the soldier. "What's the matter, soldier?"
"HAL picked up a ship on her scanner." The soldier explained, leading him down the hall, towards the hangar. "It was a Starship. Apparently, it had been damaged by an asteroid of some sort."
"Is the Star Warrior still alive?" He was worried – he prayed to NOVA that the warriorwas still alive. They needed every Star Warrior that they could find.
"Yes sir." The soldier tapped in the code for the hangar, and the door opened.
"Then what's the problem?" the Star Warrior questioned, walking into the hanger. Almost immediately, his eyes landed on a silver Starship, one with dents and panels ripped off. A few mechanics were trying to pry the cockpit open, but were apparently having issues.
"He won't come out, and we can't get in. According to Vul, you're good with kids, so we thought… ya know."
Arthur blinked, and hobbled over to the ship, hauling himself onto the top of the silver chassis. The mechanics cast him a glance, before returning to what they were doing. Inside the cockpit they were trying to get into was a bundle of dark blue cloth – the color was vaguely familiar, almost like the night sky.
Arthur curiously traced the cockpit's glass, before finding the almost invisible seam between the pieces of glass. He pulled Excalibur from its sheath, and pressed the tip against the glass seam. Slowly, he pried the cockpit opened, until there was enough space between the glass for the mechanics to get a specially-made bar in and fully open the cockpit.
The general hopped into the Starship's interior, and slowly reached out to the bundle of cloth. He tugged on it, pausing when something tugged back. A bright milky white eye stared at him from the shadows of the cloth, narrowing. It rapidly disappeared underneath the fabric a moment later.
"Hey…" Arthur tugged on the cloth again, holding it tightly to keep it from slipping through his grasp. "It's okay – we're good people. You don't need to hide."
The cloth was pulled away enough that Arthur could identify a dark blue child – Batamon, much like himself – with milky white eyes. The child stared from under the fabric, tiny mouth pulled down into a frown.
The general pulled his Warp Star from his subspace, holding it out for the child to see. It glimmered in the artificial lighting, casting strange lilac shadows and highlights across the fabric. The child's milky white eyes widened, before it tried to hide under the cloth again. Arthur's hold on the fabric stopped that.
He put his Warp Star back, immediately placing a hand on the child's head. It was a fatherly gesture, one that often calmed his own children down. In this case, it backfired – the child let out a ear-piercing wail, foot lifting to kick the general's hand away. He backpedaled, lilac eyes widening.
"Calm down, calm down …!" he lifted his hands submissively, trying to calm the wailing child down. "It's okay – I'm sorry! We're not going to hurt you!"
He vaguely heard Vul yelling for a medic to bring a tranquilizer, which the child seemed to hear – the wailing increased in volume, actually shattering a nearby ship's cockpit. Arthur clapped his hands over his ears, muttering quiet prayers to NOVA that his hearing wouldn't be impaired from now on.
A medic leaped into the cockpit, quickly grasping the child's arm and pressing a needle into it. The child wailed louder, tearing itself free of the medic's grip and hiding under the fabric again. A few moments later, the wailing died down.
Arthur took ahold of the cloth once more, pulling it away from the child. The child was on its side, milky eyes shifting in and out of focus – obviously, the relaxant was doing its job well. Maybe too well, he noted.
The medic picked the child up, and made her way out of the Starship. As she took the child away, Arthur noticed the cloth that he had assumed was a blanket was, in fact, a cape of some sort that was attached to the child's back somehow. He saw no seams or attachments, just… at some point, the cloth melded with the child's skin. He picked up the end of the cape, making sure it didn't catch on anything.
Once the child was gone, and on his way to medbay, Arthur busied himself with finding the child's Warp Star. If the child was really a Star Warrior – the fact he had been found in a Starship supported this – then he would have a Warp Star somewhere.
He found a little dark blue and gold box in the back of the Starship, nearly obscured by a set of armor. He ignored the armor, and picked the little box up. It was the right size to hold a Warp Star, but Arthur was puzzled – most Star Warriors had their Warp Stars on them when they were born, not in some sort of box in the back of their ship. He opened the box, revealing a strangely colored star badge lying on a bed of velvet.
Black.
What kind of Warp Star was black?
There was an old legend that the color of a Star Warrior's Warp Star reflected the color of their soul. No one was sure if this legend was true – the ability to Soul Seek had long been simply a myth – but if it was… Arthur found a shiver travel up his spine, and he turned to face where the child had been seated.
He needed to know more about this child. Now.
