The Sergeant stared at the little furry creature on his monitor as the video was looping for the fourth time. What did he just watch? Was that thing serious with what it said? Of course, it could be a ruse by the lizards. Then again, if they tried bating, who would make the story so ludicrous?

"Private…" the Sergeant mumbled and stopped the recording as the creature was about to repeat itself again. G'nush's loud shout "Yes, Sir!" almost swept the Sergeant off his feet.
"Stand at ease!" he ordered and G'nush moved from the salute he was frozen in for a while into a more comfortable position. "Now, Private, you said at the border of the Fang?"

"Yes Sir." G'nush repeated with a calmer voice that still reverberated memories of his basic training.
"But there is nothing in there…" The Sergeant opened a star map on his monitor and zoomed into the Fang nebula. "Just these three clusters, why should they…"
"Maybe they're hiding something, Sir."

"Hiding? Maybe… A genocide if we believe that guy." He gave a quick glance to the screen and shook his head. "This is alarming."
"Sir, what do you suggest Sir?" G'nush's arm has moved back upwards and he saluted once more.

The Sergant eyes examined the soldier. He wouldn't touch making a decision without backing from his superiors. But one soldier, nobody would miss just one soldier. Especially not in times like this. "I will pass this further up the ladder. You, on the other hand, Private, I have a special assignment for you."

Kitty laid down the tablet and smiled, the last task, the organigram, was finally done. It had taken them a few hours, most of them filled with discussions about any possible obvious seam they could have overlooked, to get the structure ready for their new temporary parliament. In the end, this solution was meant to work until there was something like a semblance of civilization again that could redefine these basic ideas.

At the bottom of all of it all were the people.A democracy of survivors seemed fair to them as they all shared the same burden. The people were split into smaller groups that elected an official electoral college.

For now, that eased the burden of gathering everyone to elect the positions of power. Every electoral delegate had to elect, from the pool of volunteers, for a certain office. For now, four offices were conceived for a council which would be molded into a full fletched government further down the line.

A speaker as link between the people and the council, solely there for communication. An educator and scientist, tasked with the future of their kind no matter if this future was flesh or knowledge. A logistician, with the task primarily focused on keeping the people's bellies full. A security chief, for inner security and military purposes. And an overseer, the council leader and communicator to the humans. Each of these positions had a staff of people chosen by them underneath to ensure a smooth working government.

The 2-D image of this organigram now hovered peacefully in the middle of the table. Kitty looked into the faces around her, though not all beaming with the same pride she exuded, a general sense of accomplishment was obvious on all of their faces.
"Well, now let's hope the elections are over quickly," Carmelita said and laid her hands on the table.

"I don't think Olivia likes to dwell on these elections forever." Kitty smiled. Olivia had shared a lot of tried and tested ideas with them. Although colored from a human perspective, her words still held validity. She had left them a few hours ago, after they agreed on the basic structure and the idea with the electoral college she got to work to get the ball rolling.

"I do not doubt that she won't drop the ball now, after all the sweat she put in." Syan the tall and thin dog with golden fur said.
Rose, the small white mouse next to him nodded and said. "Wouldn't have gone down so quick without her."

"Now don't sell ourselves short." Kitty crossed her arms grinning proudly. "We weren't lazy."
As a response to that Carmelita moaned while she stretched her back. "No, not at all. I could use a cup of coffee. Anyone else?"

Though yawning the others seemed to be rather up for a night of sleep than a coffee. Except for Kitty, coffee was exactly what she wanted.
"Wait, I'll join you."
"Good…" Carmelita smirked. "Because I have no clue where to get one."

"Leave it to me." The cat smiled and once more turned to the group. "Great work everyone, some of us will meet again as members of the council. Good luck to everyone who volunteered."
After receiving and giving a short round of applause, the two left towards Dudley's cabin.

"How do you feel about your accommodation, everything alright?" Kitty asked driving a sneaking silence away before it could settle between them.
"Great to be honest. Laura sleeps in a bed again, meets with other kids… she's laughing a lot more lately. Couldn't wish for more." Carms smile widened. "And having a not-cold, time-unlimited shower feels like winning the lottery."

"I never thought I would miss warm water so much." Kitty shook her head chuckling. "And the human in your room? Everything okay there?"
"Lieutenant Rivers? He's quite pleasant, doesn't talk a lot but very helpful."
"Good to hear that… there were a lot of complaints after all."

"I heard it, some of the humans seem to act weird."
"I don't have any clue what's wrong with them…" Kitty shrugged. "They are maybe locked up in space for too long."
"You think we become like that after a while?"
Kitty stopped in her tracks for a moment and shuddered. "That's horrifying to imagine."

"Let's hope we can find a place to settle before the cabin fever gets us." Carm laughed. The two crossed several more hallways and entered an elevator, bringing them to the crew's quarters.
"I know this sounds crazily optimistic but, where do you want to end up?" Carmelita smiled softly as the blue lights of the elevator panel illuminated her face.

"You mean like on a planet?" Kitty asked and Carm nodded in reply. "I want to end up on the beach somewhere. Lying on the ocean, watching the waves."
"Sounds relaxing, I would have imagined something more action-packed."
"I think we all had enough action for a lifetime." Kitty stopped once more as a thought constricted her throat.

Lifetime. She shouldn't use the word so sloppily. It did not bear the same meaning anymore. Carmelita could talk about a lifetime, how she grows old and sees her daughter grow up. She would be the same when her friend was long dead and even when Laura was dead too.

"Are you alright?" Carmelita had turned around to her and questioningly raised an eyebrow at her friend.
"I am good just a train of thoughts that… where do you want to end up?" Kitty turned away from her dark thoughts and back to Carmelita.

"I want to be in a city eating some really good food. I don't care about the cuisine it just needs to be good and savory and maybe also fried."
"Ha, Katty would probably agree with you the way she eats lately."
"Katty wouldn't even recognize good food if it flambéed itself in front of her. I rather be on this journey without her."

"Got it." Kitty chuckled and the two left the elevator swiftly arriving at the door of her temporary accommodation. With a push of a button, she opened it being greeted by a short dog who lay in bed and looked down onto a holo-tablet. She hadn't heard the door open, her reading matter must have been too exciting to let go of her senses.

"Is that the right room?" Carmelita whispered as she leaned over to Kitty.
"Don't worry, that's my mother-in-law," Kitty said and cleared her throat making Peg hide the tablet device underneath her blanket in a hurry.

"Kitty! Sweety I didn't expect any of you to enter this room so soon."
"I see…" Kitty would not ask about whatever Peg had just read on the tablet. She wouldn't burden her mind with that knowledge. "So, Peg, you are looking a lot better." The cat walked to the Molecular readjuster ordering two cups of coffee.

"Oh thank you." Peg genuinely smiled. "I also feel better now. In general." She held up a pair of badly damaged blue cat-eye-shaped glasses. "Can you believe it, I don't need these anymore!"
"That's great but." Kitty smiled and then looked at the glasses. A few shards clang with dear life to a frame which was mostly black molten plastic. "You might want to get rid of them," Kitty commented and Peg's hand grasped closer around the remains.

"I will sweety, just not right now I… I just like having them around."
"It's okay Peg." Kitty carried the two mugs the machine had produced over to Carmelita and handed one to her. "I think I know where you coming from."

"Thank you," Peg said like Kitty agreeing to let her keep them was a form of absolution to her. The two of them shared a short but intense smile before Peg's gaze moved to Carmelita. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I haven't introduced myself, have I? I am Mrs. Puppy, but you can call me Peg, sweety."

"Carmelita." The fox refrained from walking to the bed and shaking Peg's hand so she just gave her a nod. "Nice to meet you."
"It's great to see that you made a new friend, Kitty!"

"Oh, we go way back!" Carmelita and Kitty shared a grin. "We met at the agent exchange, do you remember?"
"How could I forget the time you yelled at the chief for the 'dump of a department' he was leading." Kitty laughed. "Things got better after Nutz and his idiot friends were fired. Even if Dudley still caused loads of chaos."

"But you two brought results." Carmelita nodded at Kitty and then turned back to Peg. "You know your son, he was always a loose cannon."
The elder dog smiled amusedly. "That's my Dudley, always going his own way."
"Indeed, I liked that about him… And still do." Carmelita let out a sigh which sounded like she breathed out a thick cloud of nostalgia.

"It's good to see that Kitty is among good people." Peg gave the fox a wide genuine smile. "You know, Carmelita, after Dudley, well, went missing, Kitty was so reclusive. She only went out with colleagues."

"I did not." Kitty sighed annoyedly.
"Well, besides the few men you dated, you never went out with friends!"
"My colleagues were my friends!" Kitty protested but Peg shook her head vehemently.
"Colleagues are colleagues." The dog stated firmly.
"So, then what about Carmelita?"

Peg once more gave Carmelita a wide warm smile. "Carmelita is an exception."
"Thank you Peg." The fox turned giggling to her friend. "I agree with her."

"Besides," Peg added with a sterner voice. "I bet you mostly talked about work-related things."
"Well yes but just because-"
"See! No friends."
Kitty could feel the blood rushing towards her face. A feeling amplified by Carmelita joining the conversation more actively."Were the men also from her place of work?"

Kitty knew she would, given the opportunity, pay this back to Carmelita. At least twice. But for now, she was nearly helpless as her almost mother-in-law raised her voice.
"No, I had to help her with that."

"Peg please…" Kitty looked at her feet as her head had the color of a well-prepared lobster.
"Oh no need to be ashamed sweety, dating is tough."
"Okay so, you had to pick the guys for her?" Carmelita cackled like a witch "Why so?"
"I had more time than her and it is quite easy to persuade men. I just showed them a photo of her."

"Uhh, so you lured them in with bait." Carmelita nodded like one hunter does to another after presenting the slain prey. "Not bad Peg."
Peg shrugged acknowledging the compliment. "Couldn't just let her live alone forever, the constant grief would have eaten her up eventually."

"Could we please stop that?" Kitty begged having her back turned on both of them.
"I'm sorry sweety, I will stop." Peg winked at Carmelita and the fox grinned in response.
Kitty took the initiative and left the room, Carmelita followed her shortly after and caught up with her.

"I like your mother-in-law." She said as the two of them got into the elevator.
"I do too, but she can be a handful sometimes." Kitty took a sip from her coffee and quickly gulped it down. "Especially thinking that we will live all together in this small room."
"You will need some kind of shift system I think. To know whose turn it is to use the bed." Carmelita sighed. "But I think we all will need that soon."

"Do we have the final number of survivors?" The elevator doors opened and a group of tiredly-looking humans stepped in. Kitty knew by now the color codes of the uniforms and could associate most of them with their place of work. But even without the colors, she knew that these were from the ship's engineering department. Only they looked like they could fall asleep standing. As the humans had filled up the elevator an equally tired bunch of her people entered the lift. She and Carmelita exchanged glances.

"Excuse me," Kitty tried to start a conversation with a blonde dog that had just placed himself in front of her and now stood there like a zombie.
"Y..Yeah?" the dog answered drowsily.
"Is everything okay? What happened to all of you."

"Oh we…" he let out an extended yawn, "…we are helping…"
"Helping? With what?"
"Keeping the hull intact." One of the humans close to her said which was automatically translated by voices in the ceiling.

"Yep…" the dog swayed in a non-existent breeze. "The Captain asked for volunteers to help keep us alive and that's what we do."
"Did he… Uhm… great job thanks for your service." Kitty quickly said and the dog gave her a tired but genuine smile before focusing back on his exhaustion.

"I didn't know the situation got so out of hand," Carmelita whispered to Kitty as the elevator doors opened again and the mass of people flocked toward the cafeteria.
"Me neither," Kitty said and watched the crowd as the elevator doors slowly restricted her view.
"Didn't Dudley mention something?"

"I don't see a lot of him lately… and the last times we did were a bit tensed, to say the least…"
"Yeah, I saw that." Carmelita and Kitty got out of the elevator and walked back to the officer's mess. "What's wrong?"
"He lately starts giving orders," Kitty said restricting her teeth from grinding on each other. "He treats me like I am a subordinate and-"

"You do not like that a bit." Carmelita nodded. "I mean, I see your point, I wouldn't like that either."
"I lately feel more like a crewmember than his wife." She said and then groaned.
Carmelita quickly spoke out what annoyed her friend. "Fiancée." The fox remarked and added. "I am surprised that the two of you just tried to pick it up from where it ended back then."

"It's weird, I know… It was even weirder when Rob-" Kitty took a deep breath. "Everything is weird and hard and annoying and Dudley with his new dominant character does not make it easier."
"Maybe…" Carm stopped in her tracks and looked pensively at the ceiling.
"What?"

"You might hate me for this." She slowly said. "And don't get me wrong I agree that he shouldn't treat you like his crew but he is still the Captain of this ship and we are more or less guests in a way."
"We didn't go through hell to get up here to be labeled guests on this ship."

"See, but that's the point, what are we then?" Carmelita held both of her hands up like she was a beam scale. "What should we be labeled? What should he label you? You don't want to take orders from him because you're not a crewmate but you want to help because you're not just a simple passenger."

"It's not that it's more about the way he says it."
"So you have a problem with him then?"
"No, it's…" Kitty sighed once more. "Could we continue this some other time?"
"Hey, I'm just saying."

"I know, I know." Kitty and Carm entered the officer's mess where a short squirrel was just telling the few people left there something that was interesting enough to form a circle around it.
The two women stepped closer to the gathering and could hear the squirrel talk with a surprisingly deep voice for someone this small.

"I just took a look because I was curious, you know, just peeked around the corner, and he lay there, on the bed staring blankly at the ceiling. You know, like people do when they, you know…" The squirrel dragged his thumb over his throat making an unpleasant sound. "I don't know if he is or not but, you know, just telling you what I saw."

Kitty gritted her teeth. It had to come to this point sooner or later, the first death amongst the survivors outside the war. Kitty stepped closer to the circle, she needed to know who it was, maybe she knew him. The least she could do was pay her respects to him and his relatives if the war had left any of them.

"Excuse me?" Kitty stepped inside the circle. "What happened?"
"Wh- You don't know? Why do you not know that?" Rose was one of the few left who had joined the gathering around the squirrel and she gazed dumbfoundedly at Kitty.

"Know what?" The premonition of something coming she might not like to hear reared its ugly head in Kitty and as she heard the squirrel's words "I saw the Captain." Her feet dragged her quicker to the door than her facial muscles could react to the message.
"Hey wait!" Carmelita ran after her. "You don't even-"

"Medbay." Kitty robotically called out as she started running. "Tell Peg, and try to find Nick."
Kitty's feet ran through the ship, she knew where the medbay was. Even if they sometimes forgot the way to their quarters, every survivor knew the way there to the medbay.

Most of them went there several times a day just to get sent away most of the time. The medical staff was quite occupied after all. The few seen by one of the practitioners recounted tales of miracle healing. There was a lynx, Tina was her name, Kitty remembered her from the time in the bunker, who had been pretty beaten down by life even before the invasion.

She had white hair at the age of 35, glasses as thick as table tops, arthritis in every limb, and a tooth situation that could be described as sparse at best. She never had the money to get treatment for the treatable issues. But just one visit at the medbay and Kitty just recognized her by her hairdo. It felt like they swapped Tina with a younger less frail version of herself.

Kitty wasn't a friend of myths, legends, and miracles but then again the humans had the technology to make her almost immortal, so the myths were probably true, the legends too and the miracles were just everyday occurrences. Yet these facts did not slow her down a bit. It was time depended, what if too much had passed?

"Where is he?" Kitty rushed into the medbay and talked to the first person who stood close to the entrance. A tall blonde woman who was checking a hologram of a squirrel.
"Wh- Who?" She asked and Kitty took a deep breath to calm her thoughts.
"Du… The Captain."

"Oh…" The woman gritted her teeth like she thought of something disgusting and pointed toward a separate part of the ward. Again Kitty's legs worked before her mouth could form a thank you and she was about to burst through the door when she heard the voices behind it.

"That would be the second genocide you ask for." The voice sounded harsh, mirthless, and obviously not in the mood to call a spade a cuddly blanket. All in all, a combination she had often heard from Isaac, although she heard from Keswick that he behaved quite differently when in his lab or in front of a class.

"It's our only choice." Dudley's weak voice was barely audible through the door but Kitty immediately relaxed as she heard him. At least he wasn't dead.
"The cryostasis maybe, but this is a weapon we would hand to a population that would approve its use in every situation."

"Since when do you oppose this so vehemently?"
The sounds of pacing that had been a constant background noise suddenly stopped. "The mission we met was one of my attempts to free myself from it. Do not make me fall to my lowest lows again, Dudley. Please."

"Isaac, it is about our survival."
"At the potential cost of a species."
"They weren't gentle either."
"Yes, but we are not them." The sound of a fist angrily punching a metal table rippled through the wall. "We have a responsibility towards this strange universe. We could unleash an event beyond our control."

"I hear your objections Isaac just… we need something to strike back when it happens."
"This ship is everything we need-"
"This ship consumes more energy than the whole planet produced when it wasn't in ruins. You either get me a stable source of energy or a tangible solution."
Kitty could hear the resigned sound of gritted teeth like a bell in an empty cathedral. "I'll think of something."

The door opened and she hopped to the side as an angered Isaac left the medbay without even acknowledging her. Kitty peered into what looked like a repurposed storage room with a stretcher crammed into it. Lying head down on it was a very deconstructed-looking Dudley.

His arm, Kitty had almost forgotten that it was a robotic limb at this point, had been detached and only the short stump on his shoulder was a reminder that there had been an arm. Two thick tubes jutted out of the flesh of his back and led red fluid to a device on a table nearby. Kitty inadvertently gasped and Dudley's head moved to meet her gaze.

"Oh Kitty I…" He tried to get up, a fruitless attempt. His arm was in the right position and angle but as soon as he tried to push himself upwards, all it did was shiver in defeat.
"No don't!" Kitty laid a hand on his back and gently held him in place, she didn't need much strength for that.

"For crying out loud this is pathetic." Dudley sounded like a child not getting his will. "I can't lie here I need to get up."
"Dudley… we heard that you died… I-"
"Who told you that? Someone of the crew? Figures, rumors spread faster than orders on this ship." Once more he tried to use his arm to get up, this time his hand slipped and he fell the few centimeters he could push himself up from the stretcher.

The device attached to him beeped warningly as his face landed on the leather.
"Dudley, stop it." Kitty now used strength to hinder him from any other attempts.
Dudley groaned in exasperation into the stretcher. "Everything moves so slowly. We're hitting brick wall after brick wall and-" once more the device beeped and Dudley took a deep breath through gritted teeth.

Kitty knelt down closer to him and saw the familiar eye rings on his face. Kitty knew the telltale signs of someone straining oneself with work beyond the point of good or bad reason, though she hadn't ever expected to see these on Dudley.

"You need rest." She stated and cautiously touched his cheek, like she was scared he would bite her. Dudley relaxed under her touch and sighed.
"I would love to but there is so much left to do."
"And you would handle it a lot better with a little sleep." She whispered and started scratching him behind his ear. He loved being scratched there back then and, hearing him moan, he still appreciated that.

"Now you're mean. I cannot even defend myself."
"As if you defended yourself back then when I did that." She grinned widely.
"No, I definitely didn't…" He enjoyed being caressed a little longer before something resting on his mind oozed out of him unwilling to hand this moment to him so easily. "Kitty, I'm sorry for what happened in the officer's mess. I… sometimes have to use my authority to prevent crewmembers from acting out but… you are not part of the crew, you are...more. I'm sorry, it's just hard to get used to, you know?"

"I also have a hard time…" Kitty stopped scratching him for a moment and tried to think how to word her feelings properly. "You know the situation changed a lot."
"I understand, things don't get easier, huh?" his still existing hand took hers. "I am not fair, I expect you to put up with all of this and then on top of it deal with my baggage. How do you even handle that?"

"Oh well, you know me." Kitty shrugged smiling a crooked smile.
Dudley nodded and his face turned from sorry to concerned. He knew how she handled these things, hiding in work and suppressing everything unpleasant for now. "I do know you." He confirmed and squeezed her hand. "We're in this together. Till the end."

They shared a long moment just falling into each other's eyes when suddenly, the rest of the Puppy-Katswell family disturbed the tranquility like a lawn mower on a quiet Saturday morning.
"Sweety!" Peg stormed in front of the bunch and careened into the room barely able to stop next to Kitty who she used as a buffer stop. "Your arm y… what's that on your back wh…"

"It's okay Peg…" Kitty held her mother-in-law in place so she wouldn't try to hug her son to death.
"How is it okay where is his…"
"Grandma, you were… asleep back then." Nick said and gently pulled Peg back.
"It's just a flesh wound." Ryan entered the booth carrying two containers in his hand, both black and monolithic besides the black handles attached.

"I hope you are finally happy you micromanaging maniac." He put down both vessels on a table and proceeded to put on a pair of gloves. "I had to cut out resources and time from the plethora of patients up here and down on the moon to tend to a func-"

"I am aware and probably more upset than you, so could you please just cut it?" Dudley had closed his eyes tightly. He knew what would come next and he knew that Ryan would not be gentle with him at all.

"Oh sure, I shut up while you go and spend your precious time mediating disputes in the neighborhood." Ryan let out a growl that was worthy of a dog, in a different situation the present members of that species would have nodded in approvement. "If you want my advice as your physician, Captain, get someone else to do this task."

"I am already-" Nick wanted to speak up but Ryan interrupted him.
"Someone fully capable of bearing the responsibility."
Nick looked at his father like Ryan had just slapped him. "Dad, we do our best and-"
"I know Nick." Dudley smiled reassuringly at his son. "I think he wants me to give up even more things… Worst thing is, he's right."

"Ah, state of clarity." Ryan had turned to the smaller of the two black containers and started a complicated-looking opening process. "It seems the sedatives kick in."
"It seems like…" Dudley started blinking, for a moment surprise flashed on his face before he nonchalantly remarked. "I seem to be blind."

Peg's legs gave in at this news and it was Nick's quick hands who caught his pale grandmother.
"It's temporary." Ryan finally unpacked the first container and its content send Peg, who had fought with fainting, over the edge to blissful sleep. Nick's knees started trembling but not from the weight of his grandmother.

Kitty just averted her eyes. She had seen much on the battlefields all of them fought on, still, a beating heart inside a transparent cylinder was a sight rather not to behold.
"I would suggest…" Ryan screwed off the cylinder's lid. "… leaving for a moment, I will have him ready in less than half an hour. You can of course stay and..."

The Katswell-Puppy family compound vacated the room almost faster than they had entered. There was no need to discuss, they all waited. Peg even came back to sense as Ryan's 'less than 30 minutes' turned into one hour. The wish to just take a quick peek inside was vivid in all of them, yet they were too sure to see something unforgettable in the worst kind of way.

Another 20 minutes passed as anxious-looking Anabell joined their family congregation.
"Nick are you… is he…" She fearfully stepped closer to him.
"Dad is… it's hard to say."
"Mutilated… blind… my poor Dudley." Peg whispered to herself. She sat on the ground and leaned against the wall constantly on the verge of another breakdown.

Nick gently patted her shoulder. "Well, that."
"He will be fine." Sighed Kitty not sure if she was saying that to Anabell or herself. She had just returned to the scene after a quick visit to her mother's bed. Contrary to her fiancée, she seemed quite well. However, the joy of her first visits had yielded to a familiar feeling of dread Kitty so often felt when she visited her mother.

Now with her and Katty both in the same place and time she had fallen into the habit of comparing the two of them again. She never knew if Katty got the short end of the stick when she was alone with her, but when they were, Mrs. Katswell criticized her down to the core. After all, at least it was certain now that something was definitely wrong with her mother. If you criticize your child, who went through a similar hell as you, for looking chubbier than her malnourished sister, something is definitely wrong.

"Anabell, are you okay, is everything alright?" Nick asked with more worry in his voice than he had for his father's situation.
"We are struggling with some mediations but everything is okay I… just wanted to check up on you." She smiled coyly her eyes alternatingly focusing on him and the ground at her feet.

"Oh you… that's very nice… thanks…" Nick lately behaved a lot more like an adult and Kitty found it cute to see how this façade was ripped off like a band-aid by a few words.
Kitty watched the two exchanging a bit more sweet banalities and felt the memories creeping in.

She was just recollecting her first prom and the tacky dress her mom made her wear. It looked like it was from a different time period, and it probably was. It with the petticoats and embroidered skirt it looked rather Victorian. Kitty's memories reached the point as her date ripped the historic cloth when the door behind her was pushed open. Slow steps limped toward her.

Turning around revealed Dudley, gazing into the distance and just walking into her general direction.
"This isn't the Chimera!" Ryan yelled after him as Dudley slowly walked into a wall close to the medbay's exit. The dog got up, and rubbed his nose before it was his son who gently grabbed his arm.

"Who…?" Protested Dudley and Nick just sighed.
"I have some practice with this dad, don't worry."
"Oh Nick…" the elder dog coughed slightly. "Thank you."

"No need, I'll bring you to your bed. Hey, Bell, can you help my grandma wi-"
Peg seemed to realize just in that moment what was going on. Like a bouncy ball thrown by a sugar-rushed child, she sped towards her son.

There was a short moment missing in Dudley's memory and in everyone else's too. They saw her sprinting at him but the process of her embracing him was instant and, in a for Peg typical fashion, bone-crushing.

"Mom…" He gasped for air as the first hands tried to pry Peg off him.
"I lost him once you won't take him away from me again." She howled and closed the vise further on him.

Drenched in deep darkness her scaly hand slowly closed around the metal cup. She had been looking forward to her nightly treat for hours and just now, between the sheer endless berage of meetings, the time had come.

Relishing in anticipation she moved the burnished metal to her mouth where her split tongue was vibrating. The first drop was always the best and she would have loved to enjoy it if not for the urgent call that pushed itself fore on the small screen on her desk.

Urgent. Priority level one.
She rolled her eyes and put the mug down. The grand admiral. She straightened up in her sear and peeled a few dead scales from her forehead before taking the call.
"Grand Admiral Zuul." She greeted with false friendliness. "What can I-"

The grand admiral didn't bother with any form of formal greeting, he had never been a patient man. "Have you sssseen thissss… thisssss…" he almost spat on the ground saying it. "Creature?"
"If you are talking about the transsssmission of thissss Captain Puppy I-"
"It daressss to lift its hand against us" he shuddered. "After all the benevolence we have shown thesssse peonssss."

"Here we go again." She tried not to show her frustration as he kept on talking about how much these beings owed them. It was an odd thought to him that sentient beings might not like to be attacked, enslaved and slaughtered. He would keep on talking for a whole while, she needed to put an end to this.

"In my opinion we should have erredicated them right-"
"It was the will of the emperor." These words made him not only stop but also lose his momentum, he was like a stumbling hurdler. She couldn't stop now, if she played her cards right she and her mug would have some private time very soon.

"Grand admiral, you sent an urgent request, what can I do for you."
Zuul maybe did not find back into his stride again but at least regained his footing. "Admiral Banora, you are part of this punitive expedition, how is the progress."

"I am leading this expedition." She calmly corrected. "And we are ready to leave the station in 5 hours. The whole 27th fleet is at my service to strike down the uprising."
"Don't grant them a drop of mercy." Zuul hissed furiously. "We cannot let this happen, especially not during the precarious situation in Gal-Gamash."

"I will fulfill my orders satisfactorily." She said and added "as always" in her head. She often did that lately when talking with the grand admiral. The last thing she saw of him was a salute before turning off the screen too early.

"Great" she thought, the geriatric salamander would probably remember that. Be it as it may, in a few hours she would be on her way gunning down rebellious slaves.
"Exciting." She sighed and grabbed her mug.

"So you want to tell me this is the whole sum of it. Just this?" Isaac towered over the group of scientists sitting on the ground as he skimmed through a meager holographic projection showing a handful of stars.

"This is all we could gather from the lizards' logs!" The nasal voice of Bentley fall silent as quick as it gained volume when Isaac stared him down dissatisfied.
"This is not sufficient! How are we supposed to calibrate the sensor phalanx with this?!"

"Well uhm sorry…" One of the other scientists in the group coily interrupted. "We have no data scientist among us also… The lizards' nomenclature is still mostly unknown to us so…"
Isaac let out a long agonized sigh. He was too hard with them again. "Fine… I suppose also none of you has asked Seema for help with that?"

The group exchanged confused looks, like he just suggested if drinking acid would help.
"Of course not, she…"
"Listen. All of you, listen up." He took a few seconds and made sure to have all their eyes on them. "We are doing science here, leave the ideology, the xenophobia and the ressentiment to the politicians and smaller minds. Everybody in this lab is on the side of progress. So work together, do you understand?"

Even though he saw nods throughout the group Isaac wasn't sure if the message had penetrated their thick skulls. And in a way he could sympathize with them. It was demanding turning the whole belief structure upside down. But cooperation was the maxim for survival, not ostracism. Tiredly he turned to Seema, who sat at least two meters apart from the group on the ground.

"Would you mind helping with the map? I need to wrap my head around these familiarities and… the special task from the Captain."
"Sssure! I will certainly try!" With the vim of a new post-graduate Seema ran to Isaac and received a tablet under the disapproving looks of all her 'colleagues'.

Isaac struggled with himself about to make another comment arguing for better cohesion in the group. But he would really prefer if they could, for once, focus on their task and not get lost in bickering. He knew that he had a group of people used to constantly shake the status quo but couldn't they do so in a cooperative manner?

Seema could benefit from their expertise and they from hers. Their technological levels weren't so far away in his eyes. However, his point of view was that of an onlooker pointing at the sky and calling two close looking stars not far away. There was a gap of 6000 years from the first farmers to the first plow even if this step felt like the only logical progression for him.

The door opened and behind them and only hearing it made the internal anger in him rise. No class was planned, and everyone who needed to be here was here, so it was someone needing something. Exactly what he needed, more annoyances.

He took a deep breath and was about to spew his anger onto the probably innocent visitor. He turned around and gulped his bile back down seeing the patched up shape of Keswick limping cautiously into the room.

"I heard t..t..there's a personal shortage." Keswick grinned a pain stricken grin into their group but especially towards Isaac who simply answered by nodding without being able to hide the earnest smile on his lips. Keswick stumbled towards Seema and sat down next to her.

"Very well…" Isaac said defragmenting his brain to get back on track. "I think everyone has their tasks. Keswick, will stay here so I can brief him really quickly, the rest of you is dismissed to work on the project. And now hurry up, our life depends on this." He clapped his hands and the scientists got on their feet and hurried to their workstations.

"I see you also run a tight s..s..ship here." Supported by Seema Keswick walked up to his human colleague.
"We have no time to slack off. Not now." Isaac sternly said and eyed the short scientist head to toe. "Ryan did quite well."

"I can't r..r..run yet but I feel a lot better."
"Figures." Isaac said and looked over to the working researchers. Their behaviour made him sigh again. "Keswick, I know I should not utilize you in your current-"
"I am here to h..h..help." Was it the time in the vat or simply what he's been through but Isaac had never seen Keswick confident enough to interrupt him.

He felt like a lion quickly approached by a gazelle, of course, he was stronger but the situation was too odd to risk evaluating that claim. "I would have s..s..stayed in the medbay if I wanted rest." The small creature added his breast swelling with confidence.

"Well… fine I suppose." Isaac cleared his throat gaining the needed time to get back on track. "Coordinate the workforce to better work with Seema. They still will not comply. If they keep insisting, just be the interface, I do not care, we need results.
"N..N..Noted!" Keswick saluted and almost carried by Seema, he limped towards the workers.
Isaac watched them leaving taking a deep breath. "At least one person to work with," he mumbled and concerned himself with things at eye level.

-Authors note: Seems like this message did not just receive those it was meant for... Anyway, folks, a little later than expected but better late than never I guess. As always, I hope you liked the chapter, tell me what you think in the comments and, most importantly, stay tuned :)-