Foreword:
I can't believe this used to be chapter 2. o_0 This story has really expanded in my head since I posted the beginning. Lest anyone get confused, this chapter takes place almost a year after the previous chapter, so now Alister is 18 and Kaden is 17... Oh, and Nayeli is 16. ^-^
"Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them."
— Ecclesiastes 9:12
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Alister stared at the status readout on the computer screen in front of him, his ears sagging from boredom. A few weeks ago, when Kaden had turned seventeen, he'd said that instead of a present he just wanted some help making some 'slight modifications' to his ship. Alister had cringed at the suggestive way he'd said that, half expecting him to tap his fingertips together and let loose a demented laugh. But, feeling that he owed him at least that much, he consented—after getting Kaden's word that these new modifications didn't involve any unstable chemicals or experimental weapons.
"So, remind me again why your ship needs an AI system?" he mumbled. He'd sworn he would never get in a ship with Kaden again, and yet here he was, sitting beside him monitoring energy output while the younger Lombax experimented with the exposed wiring before him. He looked like he was performing open-heart surgery on the ship— which in essence he sort of was—and the thought brought back the 'mad scientist' imagery that Alister had found so amusing.
Kaden stopped what he was doing and stared off into the distance. He appeared to be off in his own little world, only present in body as he babbled out his response to Alister's question. "Think about it: the galaxy's already full of robots that have their own personalities and can think for themselves... So, why couldn't we do the same thing with ships? Imagine having a ship you could talk to, and that could reason in an emergency and had the sense to hightail it if you got knocked unconscious or something... I mean, wouldn't that be cool?!"
"But isn't that a bit risky?"
Kaden smiled coyly. "You and your 'risky.' Everything worth doing is at least a bit risky... And anyway, you can relax; I'm not giving her complete free will."
"Her?"
"Yup! Check it out—I've even come up with a name for her."
Kaden pointed with his thumb behind him. Alister climbed out of the cockpit, welcoming the chance to stretch his legs, and circled around to the ship's left wing, where he read aloud the symbols emblazoned on the hull in bright gold.
"'Aphelion...'"
"Whaddaya think?" Kaden asked.
Alister pulled back and looked over the vessel in its entirety as he replied, "Well, I think anything that minimizes the amount of time you're in control of the ship is worth pursuing."
Kaden predictably gave him his signature annoyed eyeroll, and Alister smiled as he waited for a snarky comeback. When his friend failed to deliver one and just returned to the task at hand, Alister added, "Anyway, we've been working on this thing all morning and I have to leave soon, so I think we should call it quits for the day."
"Hang on just a second," Kaden muttered, connecting two wires and fussing with a few of the controls on the panel in front of him. "I think I've almost—"
Suddenly the ship lurched upward, causing the hatch to slam shut with Kaden still inside. Out of nowhere a mechanical female voice spoke with a light accent.
"Error. Error. Where am I? What is my directive? My programming appears to be incomplete..."
Alister gritted his teeth sympathetically as he watched Kaden getting knocked around inside the cockpit while the panicked infant of a ship jerked from side to side. Finally she noticed the presence of a person in the room and held still to face him.
"Oh! Are you the one who built me?" she asked.
"No," Alister replied, pointing to the cockpit. "That would be the little guy in there who—probably has a concussion now."
"Oh, dear..."
The ship settled down onto the ground and opened her hatch, and a discombobulated Kaden came tumbling out. Alister rushed over and helped him to his feet, worriedly asking, "Are you okay, buddy?"
Kaden placed a hand on his head, his eyes meandering about unfocused.
"I do apologize," Aphelion said in her strangely expressive voice. "I didn't realize someone was in there."
The two Lombaxes turned to look at the ship, then Alister glanced at Kaden to see a familiar ecstasy painted all over his face.
"Congratulations, my friend, it looks like your experiment was a success," he said, masking his sincerity with a tone of mild sarcasm. Then he gestured to Kaden while addressing the ship, "Aphelion, meet your maker: Kaden; Lombax—teenage wannabe engineering extraordinaire of Planet Lumos. Cue applause."
Kaden retorted, "Cue sarcasm."
"You're welcome."
"You're annoying."
"You're confusing me..." the ship interjected.
Kaden turned his attention back to his creation and said, "Don't worry, Aphelion... Your AI is new, and I haven't worked out all the bugs yet, but for now I just need to make sure you can process information logically and we'll take it from there."
"Very well. Shall I attempt to calculate pi for you?"
"No, that's okay," Kaden said, touching his chin as he added, "I have something else in mind."
"Fly away, ship, there's still time!" Alister mock-exclaimed.
"I think you've missed your calling, Al; you should've been a comedian," Kaden said dryly. He looked down at his wrist and started pushing buttons on his communicator as he went on. "Okay, Aphelion, I've synched up your hailing frequency with my comm unit so I can call you remotely. I'm gonna head into town to test the range, and when I call you I want you to try and find me... Oh, and try not to hit any people or buildings, okay?"
"Affirmative."
Kaden turned to his friend and asked, "Wanna come, Al?"
"Can't. I have to go to—"
"Oh, right," Kaden recalled, touching his forehead. "Militia meeting."
"It's getting pretty bad out there, Kade," Alister stated, his tone suddenly very serious. "A lot of developed planets are still having trouble forming a stable government, and the constant attacks by raiders and mercenaries isn't helping. Lombax planets seem to be the only ones enjoying any kind of prosperity... and the military is concerned that makes us prime targets for all the desperate characters out there."
"You really think anyone would try to attack one of our planets?"
"Our defenses aren't what they used to be," Alister explained. "With all the damage control we've been having to keep up with, we're spread pretty thin. And besides, some of the more competent thugs out there are actually beginning to amass enough resources and followers to pose a significant threat. I'm not saying we will get attacked— but it's definitely possible."
Kaden held his friend's gaze even after he was finished talking. He said nothing, but his face told Alister all he needed to know.
"I really hope you're wrong," Kaden muttered despondently.
Alister heaved a deep sigh. "You and me both."
He made his way back to the massive archway leading out of the workshop while Kaden followed. The two friends then filed outside and went their separate ways.
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Kaden looked around thoughtfully as he wandered up and down the streets of the small but well-developed town he called home. Many of the central buildings stood over a dozen stories tall, and technology was prevalent everywhere. Whichever way one looked Lombaxes jetted around in hovercars, hoverbusses, hoverboots—it was practically unheard of to walk anywhere.
He wandered through the crowded streets for what felt like hours, passing food shops, workshops, and many other sorts of shops, until at last he reached the central plaza. It was quite a sight to behold. Streets branched off at least eight different ways, while overhead traffic webbed out in even more directions, and all this activity orbited the centerpiece: a gigantic fountain spraying liquid in a variety of beautiful patterns as an internal lighting mechanism lit the whole thing up and changed the color of the water every few seconds. Kaden smiled at the sight of it. This was as good a place as any to wait for his ship to come calling.
Suddenly the ground at his feet shook. It felt like something large had made impact nearby, and the sound reminded him of a ship landing—a big ship. Within seconds he heard screaming not far away, and a crowd of Lombaxes appeared around the corner of a nearby building, running down the street in a panic. Kaden's ears retreated behind his head when he saw the cause of the stampede: close on the heels of the fleeing crowd was a band of pirates.
They were strange, grotesque creatures, and Kaden could hardly tell if they were robots, organics, or some unholy fusion of the two. Some of them carried notched swords with curved blades, which they brandished threateningly to clear the path ahead. Others wielded blasters, firing in random directions to prove they meant business. They wasted no time scattering about and breaking into whatever buildings they came across, stuffing bolts and other valuables into the sacks they carried.
Kaden gasped when he heard the loud shriek of a huge engine, and turned around to see another ship approaching. It swept right through the plaza, decimating the central fountain as it made its decent, and a gust of warm air whipped against Kaden's face as the huge machine alighted in the middle of the street not twenty meters away. This one, too, began spewing out pirates who stirred the panicked throng of Lombaxes to scatter even further.
Kaden dashed into a nearby alley, gasping in shock as his recent conversation with Alister returned to the forefront of his mind. He knew his friend was serious, but he never imagined the disaster he warned of might be so close at hand. Flattening himself against a shadowed wall, he opened the communicator box on his wrist.
"Al! Are you there? The city's being attacked!"
"I know, we just got the alert," Alister's voice shouted through the receiver, "The militia is on its way."
"What should I do?"
"This is a material raid. The pirates won't stay long because they don't plan on engaging in heavy combat. So the best thing for civilians to do is stay out of their way."
"Are you telling me to just lay low and wait this out?"
"Talk about trying to restrain the wind... Look, whatever you do, just try not to get killed before I can get to you, okay?"
"Roger that!"
Kaden punched a few buttons on his communicator and shouted into it once more.
"Aphelion! If you can hear me, get over here fast!" He switched the machine off, muttering to himself, "Not quite the field test I had in mind, but—"
Suddenly his ears perked at the frightened scream of a voice he recognized. With a worried gasp he dashed from his hiding place and ran the length of the building, skidding to a halt at its far corner and glancing down the street to the right. Sure enough, there was Nayeli. She was being dragged toward one of the invading ships by a pirate twice her size.
"Let me go!" she screamed, resisting him with all her might but to no avail.
"Hah! She be feisty and pretty," the pirate said in response, eying her with a lusty smile as he added, "Ye'll make a fine cabin maid."
Kaden's blood ran hot, a hateful glare consuming his face as he fixed his eyes on Nayeli and the beast who threatened her. Without a second's hesitation he raced forward, remembering a maneuver that Alister had taught him. He sprang up, used his target's shoulders as a springboard, and vaulted in front of him, grasping his neck with both hands. Kaden held fast as he let all his weight fall forward, and before the surprised pirate knew what was happening his face had been dragged to his feet in one fell swoop. His head smashed against the ground with enough force to render him unconscious.
Kaden pulled himself out from under the corsair's blubbery, unconscious carcass and immediately looked up at Nayeli. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Nayeli gasped in shock, trying to catch her breath.
Kaden cocked his head and saw that several other pirates were already flocking to the defense of their fallen comrade. He reached down to pick up the blaster that Nayeli's would-be captor had dropped, and shot down three approaching raiders. Their bodies struck the ground with sparks of electricity flying off of them.
"Come on, let's go," he said urgently.
"Wait!" Nayeli ran over to where the pirates had fallen while Kaden watched her in nervous confusion. What was she doing? He was surprised to see her kneel beside one of the vanquished pirates and pick up an abandoned gun as he had done a moment ago. She returned to his side with her weapon in hand and said, "Okay."
Kaden smiled and nodded in approval, then took flight away from the pirate ship with Nayeli following close behind. He led her into a secluded alley and the two of them leaned back against the wall, breathing heavily.
"Kaden, what's going on?" Nayeli asked nervously.
"It's a raid," Kaden replied. "The militia is on the way, so we just need to hold out until they get here."
"What should we do?"
"You stay here,"
When Kaden started to leave, Nayeli reached out and grabbed his arm. "Wait! Let me come with you."
"No! It's too dangerous."
"I can help! I can try, at least... I don't want to just sit here while you go out and fight."
Kaden's pulse quickened a bit, and his arm felt warm where Nayeli was still grasping it. Her pleading eyes fixed stubbornly on his, filled with determination. He'd never be able to say no to her now.
"All right," he reluctantly consented. "But stay close. I don't want anything to happen to you."
"Right," she said with a nod, and the two of them cautiously stepped out into the open.
Kaden surveyed the chaos before him, summarizing all the important facts in his head. Remembering how he'd found Nayeli, he reasoned that the best thing they could do was look for pirates who were taking women and children captive, and stop them.
"Cover me," he instructed, and dashed down a nearby street.
Without stopping he fired off a few well-aimed blasts to incapacitate the pirates he saw as he ran, and heard Nayeli doing likewise. She wasn't a very good shot, and usually took several attempts before even grazing her target, but she was there in the thick of it, trying all the same. Kaden smiled in admiration as he pressed on, looking for civilians in need of rescue.
Momentarily he saw a pirate nearby carrying off a young girl who screamed in his grip, struggling in futile desperation. Kaden growled under his breath, seething with a fresh charge of angry disgust. That child couldn't be more than eleven years old.
Heart pounding with righteous indignation, he put a little more strength into his run, and reached the unwitting pirate before he saw him coming. The monstrous creature turned his head just in time to see Kaden shove the barrel of his weapon against his burly left arm and pull the trigger. A freakish, blaring shriek whistled through the air as the robotic limb blew apart, shattering into a thousand metal fragments. The surprised little girl fell to the ground in the absence of the arm that had restrained her, and Kaden snatched her up and backed away.
"Why, you!" the pirate fumed, turning on his attacker, but he was quickly silenced as a flurry of plasma bolts showered his immediate vicinity, two of them striking him in the chest and head. As his massive body crashed to the ground, Kaden looked over at Nayeli to see the girl holding out her gun, finger still poised against the trigger, staring ahead of her in disbelief with her ears wilted on either side of her head.
"Nice work, Nayeli!" Kaden shouted, waving to her as he set down the little girl, who scampered off crying.
"Uh-huh..." Nayeli muttered, not moving from her position.
A series of threatening shouts from nearby jarred the girl from her freeze, and Kaden snapped into action when he realized that several raiders were approaching them. He dashed to her side and grabbed her wrist, dragging her behind him as he ran.
They didn't get far before a trio of blaster-wielding pirates appeared in front of them, blocking their escape. Kaden turned around only to find that the other pirates were closing in on them as well.
"Ye troublemakers'll not be gettin' in our way anymore!" the leader of the brigade thundered.
Kaden gritted his teeth and kept his weapon at the ready, but he knew it was no use. As many as the advancing thugs were, firing now would only expedite their doom. He positioned himself to shield Nayeli as best he could while they drew menacingly nearer. What could they do now?
Suddenly the sound of a blaring engine announced the swift approach of a small ship. It flew dangerously low, and zipped right through the place where the pirates converged, and they scattered in a panic. Kaden and Nayeli had to duck low to avoid getting grazed by the ship's underside as it swept past directly overhead.
"Unhand my pilot, ruffians!" said a familiar voice as the vessel came about for a less aggressive return.
Kaden's face broke into a relieved smile, and he happily shouted, "Aphelion!"
The ship 'turned' to Kaden and matter-of-factly stated, "I was able to find you in precisely three minutes and forty-six seconds. Have I passed your test?"
"You aced the test," Kaden replied. "Now open up quick, before any more of those freaks show up."
"Of course."
Aphelion alighted on the ground and opened her hatch while the two Lombaxes rushed toward her. Kaden leapt into the cockpit first, then reached down to help Nayeli into her seat. Gasping, the girl looked around at the inside of the ship in puzzled surprise as the hatch descended around their heads and the airlock snapped back in place.
"Your ship talks?" she exclaimed in surprise, turning to Kaden who was already grasping the control stick and deftly pecking away at the buttons beside it.
"Yeah, that's new," he answered, and with a sharp downward yank of the steering mechanism, the ship launched back into the air. Nayeli gasped and braced her hands against the panel in front of her when the streets and buildings of the city began zipping in and out of view. Kaden couldn't help but roll his eyes. Her too? Why was everyone he knew so skittish about serious maneuvering in the air? At least she wasn't screaming her head off like Alister would've been.
"All right," he said with subdued excitement. "Now we're in business! Aphelion, arm your weapons."
"Affirmative. Warning: several ships are approaching from the starboard bow. Shall I fire on them?"
Kaden looked worriedly in the direction stated, but then smiled in relief and said, "Absolutely not. That's the militia."
"What does that mean?" the ship asked.
"Pressing a few buttons, Kaden answered, "It means this fight is over. Aphelion, fall into formation with them and mimic their attack strategy."
"Are you sure about this, Kaden?" Nayeli whimpered.
"Nope," Kaden replied.
Moaning, she closed her eyes and sank even further into her seat.
It didn't take long for the militia to crush the raid, and Kaden almost enjoyed the next few minutes in Aphelion's cockpit where pretty much all he had to do was sit back and admire his bird's-eye view of the pirates getting driven out of the city. He watched as the invaders raced to their own ships (the ones that hadn't been destroyed, anyway) and took to the skies with mortal urgency. It was delightful.
One thing he saw that he didn't like, however, was just how widespread the raid really was. He'd only seen it within the radius of a few city blocks, but from where he was now, he could see that it extended much farther. Pirate ships jetted off from all over the city, and there were at least a dozen of them. He wondered how many had Lombaxes onboard— innocent youths like Nayeli who weren't lucky enough to be rescued, and who were now being carried off as spoils of war, to be utilized or bartered however their captors saw fit as though they were nothing but soulless trinkets.
Kaden drew a little comfort from his indirect role in saving a few. Besides Nayeli and the little girl from earlier, several others narrowly avoided abduction due to his intervention as Aphelion swooped down into the ravaged city streets, firing her rudimentary but effective weapons and felling pirates left and right.
When the battle was over and all the raiders had been either killed or chased back into space, Kaden landed Aphelion. He and his high-strung passenger deboarded, and a militia member promptly marched up to him to sternly rebuke—and later thank—him for getting involved. When he was through lecturing, the Lombax joined his compatriots in directing and organizing the panicked civilians. Kaden looked for Alister among them, but he was nowhere to be found. Probably tending to his duties in another part of town, he reasoned, hoping that his friend hadn't been seriously hurt.
Kaden returned to Nayeli, and joined her in sadly surveying the damage to their home. Hovercars lay crashed against poles or traffic dividers every few blocks, and there was hardly a building that wasn't missing a wall or at least a few windows. It was a depressing sight that robbed all the glory from their recent victory.
"I can't believe this happened..." Nayeli murmured distantly.
Kaden sighed in wordless agreement, standing beside her and lamenting the wreckage in like manner.
"Nayeli!" a voice shouted out of nowhere, and a young female Lombax came running, tackling Nayeli with a powerful hug.
"Callista!" Nayeli greeted in surprise, smiling in spite of herself.
"You're okay!" Callista bawled in fervent relief. "I was so worried when I heard about what happened at your house... I assumed that you were—"
"Wait," Nayeli said worriedly, pulling away from the other girl's grip. "What happened at my house?"
Callista looked confused as she stared at her friend. "You mean... you don't know?"
Dread enveloped Nayeli's face, and Kaden's heart sank as the girl's fears manifested clearly in his mind.
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The ship landed with the usual warble of the engine as it made its descent, and when the hood opened Nayeli got out in a hurry, dashing off the second her feet touched the ground. Kaden climbed out after her, and stood still for a moment as he watched her run away.
"Stay here, Aphelion," he instructed his ship, and he took off in pursuit of Nayeli before she could disappear from his sight altogether.
When they reached her house Nayeli stopped dead in her tracks, staring at the place with a horrified look in her eyes. The building was a wreck. Almost all of the second story had been practically mowed down, and the foundations were showing in several places. The front yard was littered with debris, and all the remaining windows were broken. Several gaping holes in the wall gave view to the equally horrible damage inside. Kaden gasped at the sight of it. Even for pirates, this amount of destruction seemed unnecessary. It seemed that they had ravaged Nayeli's home... almost out of spite.
Unfortunately, the house wasn't the real tragedy.
The two teenagers had still barely had a few seconds to take in the sight before them when an even more disturbing horror caught their attention.
"You say there were only two people in the house?" asked an unfamiliar voice nearby, and Nayeli immediately took off in the direction from which it had come. Kaden followed her around the side of the house, where they saw a Lombax wearing a nurse's uniform talking to someone who was holding a notebook— probably compiling a casualty report.
"Yes, a married couple," the nurse said. "If anyone else lived here, they weren't at home when the raid happened."
"And they've both been confirmed dead, is that right?"
"More or less. The husband's body hasn't been found, but we suspect he was vaporized, as there have already been multiple deaths confirmed as the work of such a weapon. The wife was found dead in the living room with multiple plasma burns on her chest. Her body is being taken in for examination as we speak."
The nurse morosely pointed off to the right, and Kaden followed Nayeli's gaze in the direction indicated, where they saw an ambulance ship and two Lombaxes somberly loading a covered bed onboard.
Kaden heard a very faint, heartbroken gasp, and turned to look at Nayeli. She was frozen in shock, eyes gaping in aghast disbelief. Her only movement was a small automatic shaking of her head, as she couldn't bring herself to say the words this gesture symbolized. Overwhelmed with sympathy, Kaden couldn't tear his eyes away from her, and the two of them stayed quietly rooted where they were while the ambulance flew away and everyone else present dispersed, too busy to take notice of the two young ones still standing on the property.
Just as Kaden was about to work up the nerve to say something, Nayeli's legs gave out and she fell to the ground on her hands and knees, sobbing grievously.
"I don't understand..." she whimpered through her tears. "They took everything... Why did they kill Mom and Dad, too?"
"Nayeli..."
"They were the only family I had, Kaden..." the girl muttered without looking up. "What am I going to do?"
The desperation in her voice cut into Kaden's very soul. Over the course of less than an hour she had lost everything. Every comfort and security that she once had was suddenly gone, and she was left with nothing. Now she had to face not only her grief at the loss of her entire family, but also her uncertain future as an orphan with no home and no assets. Her plight would have been enough to move Kaden's heart to pity even if she were a total stranger... But since she was no stranger—since she was the girl who had unwittingly captured his dearest affections these last three years—he was moved almost to tears. He burned with a desire to help her, but what could he do?
Out of nowhere, it seemed, a strange idea occurred to him, but when it took form in his mind he almost slapped himself. There was no way—no way he would even consider... The timing couldn't be worse, for one thing. Nayeli had just lost her parents, and she was heartbroken. Kaden couldn't imagine a less romantic setting. She was bound to think he was just taking advantage of her when she was most vulnerable, and how could he ever prove to her that he was sincere?
No. It was completely out of the question. End of story. He shook his head, resolved to drop the idea...
Then he looked once more at her face—so beautiful and so sad. Her tears were darkening the dirt between her hands, and her soft, muted cries assailed him like some kind of nerve toxin. He had to do something. He had to at least offer to help her, and if this was the only way... it didn't matter what she thought of him.
Kaden swallowed hard, attempting to banish the fear rising in his chest to the pit of his stomach. He dropped to his knees at Nayeli's side, drawing in a deep, uncertain breath, and timidly murmured, "Nayeli, will you—marry me?"
The girl gasped as she turned to look at him. "Huh? Wh-What did you say?"
"Look, I—I can take care of you," Kaden hastened to explain. He could already feel his chest tightening and his courage beginning to fail him. "I won't expect anything from you, I promise! We don't have to live together, we don't even have to see each other. And it doesn't have to be permanent, either. You turn seventeen next year, right? We can break it off as soon as you're old enough to get along on your own."
Nayeli held his gaze for a long, uncomfortable moment. He felt like he would collapse under her scrutiny, and bit his tongue as he hoped with all his pounding heart that she would believe him.
Finally she spoke, slowly and with abundant pauses. "You would... do that for me? Why? What would you get out of it?"
"I don't have any ulterior motive, I swear!" Kaden exclaimed.
"Why, then?" Nayeli asked sternly, raising her voice to match his. "Why would you do that for me?"
"Because..." Kaden felt like he would faint as soon as the words left his mouth. "Because I love you."
Nayeli gasped, her eyes flying open as she shied back. Kaden struggled to hold her gaze as she stared at him in shock, his cheeks burning and his heartbeat pulsing out of control. The moment dragged on in torturous stillness, as though time had stopped, until Kaden was sure he would faint from holding his breath.
"You... You mean it?" Nayeli muttered with difficulty when the silence became unbearable. "You would really marry me, and then let me go a year later if that's what I want?"
"Yes," Kaden answered.
Nayeli exhaled hard, and turned away from him as she stood to her feet and walked a few paces away. Kaden stood up as well, but didn't have the nerve to move from his spot or to say anything. He watched her intently as she stood still with her back to him not two meters away. She was trying to act composed, but he could see that she was shaking.
"Wow..." she muttered in a choked breath. "I never thought I might mean that much to someone..." She turned to face him, not even trying to hide the fresh batch of tears streaming down her dirty cheeks. "But Kaden... I could never take advantage of you like that."
"Nayeli, I don't mind!" Kaden at last worked up the courage to approach her, and placed a hand firmly on her trembling right shoulder. "I just want to protect you."
The girl gasped back a sob and swept several fingers over her cheeks to wipe away the tears.
"Okay," she said, looking into Kaden's eyes with a smile that made him melt. "I'll marry you... on one condition."
"Anything."
"You said it doesn't have to be permanent?"
"Right."
Nayeli reached up and rested her left hand atop his so that they overlapped on her shoulder, then said, "Take that back. I want it to be permanent."
This time it was Kaden's turn to gasp as his eyes flew open in surprise. He searched the girl's face for any sign that she was joking or making fun of him, but saw none. Just new tears falling from her soft, sapphire eyes— only this time they were tears of joy.
Author's Notes:
- Aphelion— I might be pushing my luck with this one. ^^' When I first came up with the idea to have Kaden's ship be Aphelion, I immediately dismissed it, thinking it would be too big of a coincidence to be believable. But when my little brother came up with the same idea he also came up with a bunch of reasoning to support it and eventually convinced me that this development, coincidental though it is, could work... If you disagree, I totally understand, but at least let me assure you that I plan to deal with Aphelion at the end of the story so that it makes sense for Ratchet to end up finding her.
- Nayeli's Predicament— It was a little awkward to explain this situation through dialogue, so I apologize if the details were too vague. Basically what I was thinking when I conceived this notion was that Nayeli, being suddenly orphaned and technically not yet an adult, would become a ward of the state. I'm sure Lombax laws regarding this sort of thing are different from human laws, but I still imagine she would be stuck in a less-than-ideal situation for a while. Kaden's offer to marry her was built on the assumption that if she got married, she would be free from the system and there would no longer be any need for drama about custody and whatnot. Marriage is the #1 loophole for avoiding all kinds of legal difficulties, and I would assume this is true for Lombaxes as well as humans. ^-^
- Theme Song: "If You Believe Me" by Relient K— Another song depicting Kaden's feelings for Nayeli, culminating at the moment when he gathers up his courage to ask her to marry him, hoping she'll believe that he really loves her.