Life Goes on

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This is a short, but not unimportant chapter to close the story and forecast a shadow onto the future.

I got a lot of useful feedback, thank you guys for reading and reviewing! A beta reviewer is making a thorough check and when she's finished, I'll rewrite the story. Chapter 15 will get a big overhaul, it needs a more character-oriented POV.

In the future, I want to write more stories that involve Rocket and Sam. I think they are an interesting couple with a lot of contrast, but also similarities in background that may or may not strengthen their bond. There's a lot more fancy technology on the Tangerine that can be put to good use so who knows what strange things will happen in this universe and what the various heroes can do about it if they continue to work together.

A busy time was at hand. The species that were indigenous to the Local Group of galaxies (which includes the Milky Way and Andromeda) were transported to the frigate 'Corona'. Tama and her team had already started the process of curing the captives.

The Fish People and the octopus were a bigger problem. Nova Prime felt responsible for them. Although Rocket didn't care much, he used Sam's holographic equipment to query their world of origin. A long sequence of jumps through the secondary transporter network was needed to find this world, the ocean moon Nattigheid 2.2, the second satellite of a gas giant planet close to a star in an uncharted region of the universe. It took quite some diplomacy and a custom translator Nova Prime had borrowed from Sam to establish a friendly relation after an initial skirmish. Finally, the surviving abductees were brought back to their home world. Including the octopus, who was quite friendly once he was cured.

The Slevoth presented a problem that was under debate for a long time. The Nova Corps kept them as prisoners. The Centurions engaged in lengthy discussions about the question if the Slevoth should be punished or if they were the victims of their own evolutionary path.

When the abducted Kree and Skrulls were returned, their people responded almost with friendliness. After all, the Nova Corps had helped them out without even being asked. But soon things changed back to normal. Both the Kree and the Skrulls quickly concluded that the Slevoth had performed an act of war against them and should be extradited and convicted. But the Nova Corps, traditionally more geared towards intergalactic policing than most peoples, had no intention to hand them over. The latest news is that the Nova Corps is planning to transfer the matter to an Intergalactic Council. However, the terms of this transition are still under negotiation.

The Guardians were united again. Sam healed Gamora. After her operation, she had been sleeping for a few hours. She woke up in confusion; luckily, she was surrounded by her friends who had already forgiven her for the things she had done without being in control. As she healed faster than anyone else, it took her about an hour before she could dismiss the faint delusions she had about her stepfather, Thanos.

When she was clear in her head again, Peter couldn't resist to give her a long, warm hug. As it grew a bit uncomfortable for her taste, she gently tried to push him off her skin. But then Groot was all over her. Her eyes met Drax's, who just smiled. Rocket stood near her, a bit lost. She tugged him towards herself and gently petted the back of his head, below his ears. The racoon closed his eyes for a moment and swallowed. He had missed her a lot.

Sam just sat there and watched this special group. He had been a part of this story. He wasn't a part of this family of aliens, but enjoyed to see how they fitted so well together.

He had his own family and a mission. There was the rescue and health care operation, and he felt happy about how successful they had been able to help out. But there was a deeper mission too, which was to simply connect to this universe and make friends. He had learned that he could rely on the Guardians and his new friends could rely on him and his extended family. Who knows what the future would bring?

Moved by the love this group shared, he slowly walked towards Gamora and laid his paw on her hand. Gamora stroke the hairs of his neck, which he liked a lot. Then he went back to the bunk he sat on and continued watching the Guardians. He felt connected, but this was their special moment and he didn't want to disturb it.

Sam decided to stay a few more days. Rocket liked to use the holodeck for all kinds of reasons and Sam didn't mind. Drax liked to do combat training with all kinds of creatures he could find in the database. There was more of Groot's cooking and a bit of planet exploration for spare parts.

Finally, Sam got a call from the Tangerine. His friends wanted him back to prepare for another mission. He shut down the holodeck and put the entrance disc back in his backpack, just like the augmented vision goggles and other stuff he wasn't supposed to leave behind.

Peter and Rocket flew the Milano to Knowhere, where the Tangerine had a small mission centre. The place could be recognised by a large white circle with an orange fruit logo on its door. Like most rooms on Knowhere, the 'office' was half filled with tubes and wires. The rest was furnished with functional furniture, equipment and a kind of cat basket bunk bed that looked very comfortable, somewhere in the back of the room.

Sam's colleague Susan, the Siamese cat, had joined him in the Tangerine office. Seeing her in real life made an even bigger impression on Rocket than the hologram he saw before. He looked at her with big eyes and tried to suppress a silly smile. He liked the way she was dressed - this time she wore a two-piece white dress - and wondered why Sam preferred to walk around undressed. Although he wouldn't mind seeing the female cat in the buff too.

Susan asked Peter if everything had been going well.

Peter answered, "You guys were a great help to us. I don't know what we would have done without you."

"I'm really pleased to hear that," Susan responded happily.

"We may want to use your services again in the future."

"I was hoping that. We're still in the process of getting around in this universe. We certainly would like to work together on a next project," she said formally.

Sam gave Peter a small business-card-ish datasheet. He said, "If you ever need us, use this to contact us."

"OK, we'll do."

Sam shook Peter's hand to say goodbye. Shaking hands was not the custom way of greeting or saying goodbye for his people, so it looked a bit clumsy. Then he shook hands with Drax, who fluffed the fur on top of his head. Sam didn't know what to say. He had a lot of respect for this giant humanoid and knew that Drax wasn't a talker.

Next, he wanted to shake hands with Gamora. To his surprise, the woman lifted him up and hugged him shortly, then put him back on the floor. Sam smiled and again, didn't know what to say. He hadn't expected such a warm goodbye. Or maybe it was just that they started to see him as a cat again and liked to hug him a bit.

Then Groot did the same. A little tear appeared in one of Sam's eyes. He mumbled, "You're the best, Groot."

The gentle tree-man replied, "I am Groot!"

Finally, Sam wanted to say goodbye to Rocket but felt a bit awkward about it. Rocket had a special place in his heart but Sam didn't know how to say this.

First, they had been fighting a lot, and later on, they seemed to work together OK. But the thing was, Sam felt that Rocket was kind of family too. Most inhabitants of the Tangerine were medium sized furry, mammal-like beings like Sam and Susan. They lived in a world where no humanoids towered above them; no one ever made them feel small or insignificant. Quite opposed to this universe, where this tough raccoon was the only furry being around for light-years and where he had learned to fight like a man three times his size.

Many thoughts went through Sam's head, as he gazed at Rocket and the raccoon looked back, not sure what to do or to say either. Then, finally, Sam grabbed Rocket and hugged him. Rocket stood there as a wooden puppet, feeling way too macho to be hugged or to hug. But then he folded his arms around Sam. He noticed the softness of the cat's fur and was swept away by the warm, fuzzy feeling of this last embrace. So he forgot about himself for a moment and hugged Sam back, before they let each other go.

Sam said, with sadness in his voice, "We had fun together, didn't we? You're such a great guy! I hope you come by some time," and wiped a tear from his eyes.

Rocket said, "Yeah sure, I will." He sounded a bit uncertain. He was confused about the sudden outburst of affection. But then he looked at Susan, who smiled at him. And he added, "You know what, I just might."

The Guardians left the Tangerine office and went to one of the many bars on Knowhere to have a drink and a snack. They had much to tell to each other. Especially because two of them had missed out on parts of the adventure. Not soon after, Rocket was standing on the table in the establishment, half drunk, bragging about his accomplishments in battle. Peter tried to top that. Drax made compliments to Gamora's fighting skills and Groot said, "I am Groot," and he was right about it. If he hadn't beaten Gamora's sword out of her hands, Drax would have been cut in half.

A bit drunk, but still able to walk, they went over to the Milano and flew off towards new adventures.

- The End -