Space Station Electra 1 - March 19, 2089

Patrick's POV

Computer: Receiving Message from Liaison Gabriel Sapporta
To: Captain Stump

Hello. I hope you are doing well. We are en route to Electra 1 and will arrive tomorrow at 09:00hrs. We're all looking forward to seeing you very soon. This will probably be the last message I can send before landing.

There is a piece of information I've been trying to figure out how to tell you for some time. I didn't want to do so in front of all the military guards but this doesn't seem like something suitable for a written note either. You've come to mean more to me then I could ever express to you. Your happiness is of the utmost importance. Please don't think I've been trying to keep this from you intentionally. I should have spoken up sooner but i just didn't know what to say. Hailey, the woman you are betrothed to, is a wonderful person. She'll make you a very fine wife. She's also

Transmission Ended - Network Lost

She's also what? What?!? I felt a strange feeling in my stomach. It wasn't the usual excited feeling I got when I had the chance to talk to Gabe. It wasn't even the nervous feeling I got where my stomach was in knots because I wasn't sure what to say or do when I was around him. This was a strange sense of foreboding. Something very bad was coming I just wish I knew how bad. I wish I knew what.

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About 2 days after we landed on the small space station, we settled into what I hoped would be our temporary home. Although one of a station's functions was to provide a temporary place for deep space travelers, no station in this solar system was equipped for 11 people plus the current station crew of 3. But those assigned to Electra 1 were so gracious to us. They always made us feel like honored guests instead of the impromptu refugees we were.

A woman named Carmen was the one in charge of daily operations. She was somehow able to find some space for the 3 of us. Our room had a bunk for each of us and a large observation window. Once the others arrived, well, nobody knew how things would proceed but it was going to be a tight squeeze with so many.

"Beautiful view, isn't it Captain?"

"Oh, yeah. Certainly is, no matter where you travel." I turned my head briefly to face Carmen. She walked up beside me and stood at my side, looking out at the perpetual darkness sprinkled with the twinkle of stars. "This is the first time I've have a chance to really see this part of this sky."

We stood in silence for a little while longer. In the distance, I caught other specks of light as well. To the naked eye, they could easily be mistaken for stars. Once I engaged my internal tech interface, I could automatically zoom in and see details. This solar system had 8 planets, one with several moons orbiting it and one with interesting rings. There's a mass that was once considered a planet but was then deemed too small. There were at least 2 detectable meteors passing through this galaxy. It was all fascinating! I thought. I never thought I'd get to travel this far. The planet Earth hung in the distance as a constant reminder of our ultimate goal, a destination that was no longer a certainty.

"I have worked on space stations for close to 30 years but I never tire of the view. The day that we don't see the magnificence in the heavens, we will have truly lost of piece of ourselves." She mumbled then chuckles a little to herself, like she has made a private joke.

“It's the perspective, I think. Your priorities become clearer when you see how small you really are. When this could be your last day alive, you start asking tough questions. Are you with loved ones? Did you lead a full life, even if it was a short one?” Or did you let the man you love slip through your hands because you were too afraid to do something about it. Do something about it you freaking coward! Yeah, I needed to take action. I realized right then that something had to be done. Carmen was too polite to say anything, but she could tell by the look on my face that I was struggling internally at that moment.

"So I was able to obtain more space for your friends when they arrive tomorrow. We screened off a common area to form 2 makeshift rooms. It will be a cozy fit, but I think it will be comfortable enough."

"That's great. Thanks so much. We all appreciate your kindness so much."

"Is there anything else that I can do for you right now?" I shook my head and thanked her again. Ok, so what something was I supposed to do? I had no clue. Maybe if I lay down and think on it. I turned to leave the observation room when my network alert went off. I sat down again and checked. It appeared as if Gabe's message came through completely this time.

Computer: Receiving Message from Liaison Gabriel Sapporta
To: Captain Stump

Hello. I hope you are doing well. We are en route to Electra 1 and will arrive tomorrow at 09:00hrs. We're all looking forward to seeing you very soon. This will probably be the last message I can send before landing.

There is a piece of information I've been trying to figure out how to tell you for some time. I didn't want to do so in front of all the military guards but this doesn't seem like something suitable for a written note either. You've come to mean more to me then I could ever express to you. Your happiness is of the utmost importance. Please don't think I've been trying to keep this from you intentionally. I should have spoken up sooner but i just didn't know what to say. Hailey, the woman you are betrothed to, is a wonderful person. She'll make you a very fine wife. She's also my sister.

Gabe

Transmission Ended

I'd been sitting on my bunk, trying to read (unsuccessfully) in an attempt to take my mind off of Gabe (even more unsuccessfully). Gabe's confession took the wind out of my sails so to speak. Does that mean I shouldn't go for it, because she'll get hurt? Then, Pete and Lindsay bounced into the small room, chattering happily. Pete was practically glowing and they both had that 'I've got a secret' look. Even though I was suspicious, I told myself to ignore the feeling and at least pretend to read. So after greeting them, I tried again.

“Good morning, Patrick. How are you this fine day?”

“Fiiine, Pete. Why are you acting so weird?”

“I'm not acting weird. I'm acting happy. Wouldn't you say, Lynz?” Ze nodded with way too much enthusiasm. I shook my head slightly, resisting the strong urge to roll my eyes. “So, Pat.” Pete sat on the foot of my bunk while Lindsay sat on the floor near us.

"Why do you both look so … so?" I flopped down on my bunk in a prone position, on my side facing away from the wall, leaning on one arm. The other arm was gesturing wildly, in a fruitless attempt to explain my meaning. I gave up and laid on my back. “Argh!”

"Why do we look so, argh?" Pete had a slightly mischievous glint in his eyes. "We were just taking a walk to stretch our legs and having ourselves a little chat. Didn't realize that could cause whatever it is you're talking about.” I rolled my head to the side so I could see his face, then wished I hadn't. His teasing just made me more irritated. He couldn't actually know why I was upset, could he? No, that was impossible.

“Happy!”

“What?”

“That's what I was trying to say before. Why are you acting so happy Don't you know we're at war?”

“Can't we enjoy the moment without an inquisition? Can't really get into too much trouble in a place this small?"

"Hmmm." I glanced at Lindsay but zir face stilled into the picture of innocence.

"Don't look at me. We just went for a walk, like ze said." I flopped down on my back and let out a sigh, staring at the ceiling. I tried to think of somebody, something, anything but Gabe, but all I could think of was him. Even though I was pretty sure he was a brick wall to bang my head against, I couldn't stop myself. Was there anything I could do? I couldn't believe he was coming tomorrow. I knew it was going to make forgetting about him so much harder. I shouldn't have been surprised when my shipmates asked about my behavior. They had obviously sensed my tension, but I was pretty sure they didn't know why. Maybe they could help me.

"So, what's up with you Pat? Something's been bothering you? Don't even try telling me it's the war or the detour to the space station because I can tell that it's something else."

"I don't know if I want to talk about it, Pete. I think it's something beyond my control and I'm going to have to learn to live with. I do appreciate you caring. It's just a situation that sucks."

"Well, I don't see how anything can be beyond your control. Maybe if you told me what it was we could work on it together." I remained silent for several minutes, and surprisingly they did too. Where they really waiting for me to spill my guts? Was I that important to them?

“Promise not to laugh at me?” They nodded. “I mean it. Promise not to even tease me a little, because this is really bad.”

“Of course, Patrick. You can tell us anything. We're here for you.” Pete's face had lost all traces of amusement, genuine feeling replacing it.

“Well, I'm.... in love with … the Human Liaison on Earth. But of course I'm engaged to somebody else. Even worse, at least I think this is worse, I haven't decided yet, he'll be on the ship landing tomorrow. He was added at the last minute.”

“But that's great news, Pat!” Lindsay puts zir hand on zir. “Imagine how hard it would be if he was still on Earth.”

“Yeah, but if I'm marrying to someone else. We'll be seeing each other all the time, be we won't be together?”

“No. Finding out for certain that you love Gabe is great news. It was actually the first step toward getting you 2 together.” What? I'm sure I looked as confused as I felt. “Hailey contacted me about a half hour ago, you know your fiancee? Turns out, Gabe and Hailey are close, they grew up together or something. She called me because she wants to help get you 2 together.”

“She does?” I was frozen in shock. It never occurred to me that I could talk to her or that she might want out of the engagement too. “But I got a message from Gabe saying Hailey would be a good wife. I could tell he was sad, but he didn't sound like he knew about any of this.” Pete smiled.

“He probably didn't when he sent it.”

“I, I don't know what to say.”

“You don't have to say anything. She wanted to make sure you felt the same as Gabe before she started trying to get out of the engagement officially, which I understand. He's in love with you too.” Pete put his hand on my shoulder. “I tell you, that girl is spunky. If I saw her taking on the entire fleet on Killians herself, I wouldn't be surprised.”

“You like her, don't you?”

“Yeah, I do. And guess what? I hear she'll probably be single soon.” I shove zir playfully.

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Gabe's POV

It was done. My confession was made. Well, sort of. If my confession was really complete, I would have told zir that loved zir. I would have begged zir not to marry Hailey. Ze loved me too, I could just feel it in my heart of hearts. I saw it in the look ze gave me when I told zir I was coming too, felt it when we flirted, heard the pain in zir voice at the mention of the marriage. But, I didn't and I knew wouldn't because Hailey meant way to much to me. Someone bounded in, breaking the private commiseration I was having in my head.

"Why are you laying there moping Gabe?" I had been laying on my bunk facing the wall. My bags were all neatly tucked under one of the bottom bunks, ready to be unpacked once we land tomorrow. Nothing to do now, but wait. I turned around and found myself face to face with a smiling Halley. Her bright red hair was cut in a blunt bob and pinned behind her ears with 2 equally bright colored barretts. She leaned down to kiss me on the forehead.

"I'm not..."

"Pfff, don't even try to give me that. Move over BB." She slapped my thigh playfully to signal that she was going to sit where I was currently laying. Here it comes. She squeezed in beside me once I moved over. It was a tight fit but Hailey was a tiny girl. "So, since I've known you my whole life, which is your whole life minus 3 years, I think it's safe to say I know you. As someone who knows you, all your tells and quirks, you've been moping for quite some time. Weeks at least. Possibly since your official duties required you to interact with Captain Stump?"

"What? No!" Damn it. Am I that transparent or does she just really know me that well? I sighed and closed my eyes when she started stroking my arm in an attempt to be soothing. That's just cheating. She gently raked her fingers through my hair until I relaxed.

"I'm not upset. I'd like to help you."

"What?" I kept my eyes closed, because for some idiotic reason it made me feel safer. "Why aren't you upset? You should be."

"Why, because you happened to fall in love with someone who was arranged to be married to me? Neither of us exactly signed up for this. You just planned to pine away for zir and do nothing about it, didn't you? You weren't even planning to steal anyone away." I shook my head no. "So what on earth would you possibly need to be sorry about? You're feelings?" I just shrugged. "Do you think the captain feels the same?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Then you are going to get zir. I'm going to help you."

"No Hales, I can't let you..."

" I don't remember asking for your permission. Besides, the situation has completely changed."

"You know, we can talk about it later. I'm just going to rest here a little, ok?" She sighed but nodded. She's continued stroking my hair as I drifted off to sleep.

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Hailey POV

I spent about 5 minutes petting Gabe's hair before he fell asleep. The peaceful look on his face made me happy. I carefully got up from the bed so I wouldn't wake him up and tip toed out of the room. There was an observation room available so I took a seat on the couch. I was anxious to put my plan into action. Using my laptop, I accessed the personnel roster from the network. Captain Patrick Stump, crew members Peter Wentz and Lindsay Ballato. Perfect.

Me: Computer, would you please put me in touch with either of the pilots Wentz or Ballato? And can you make it discreet? I would rather Captain Stump not hear this conversation, so please let me know if he's anywhere nearby.

Computer: Of course... one moment

I have Peter Wentz on the line and have sent a written message with regards to the discreet nature of the transmission. Capt. Stump is on the opposite side of the ship. Will that be all?

Me: "Yes, thank you computer." Then, a face appeared before me. But, not just any face, a gorgeous face. Dark eyes, dark hair, cute smile, dimples. I was completely thrown off and forgot what I was going to say. That has never happened to me before. I'm certain ze could tell what was happening because the cute smile chuckled, causing me to blushed and look down, embarrassing myself further. Then ze spoke.

"Hi, I'm Pete Wentz. I'm guessing you are Hailey? At least, that's what the message said."

"Y-yeah, s-s-sorry. I'm really nervous because unlike Gabe, I'm not trained to be a Liaison. I'm not good at talking to people or good with words in general, and I realize that I'm rambling so that this is probably going to be the longest sentence ever but please, please, you just have to bear with me, okay?" I really needed to calm down. "A situation has come to my attention that I think you and Lindsay might be able to help me with. Or just one of you. Or both. I don't know."

"Oh ok. Relax. We are friendly allies so you can relax. I'm listening." His expression seemed to be a mixture of amusement and curiosity. I could tell ze was trying to joke around to loosen me up but I didn't feel loose at all. I needed to throw myself into what I was doing, so that's what I did. This was for Gabe, this wasn't about me.

"Have you noticed Captain Stump acting strange the past few weeks? I know that Liaison Supporti has been. I believe that they have developed strong feelings for each other, but due to the circumstances neither want to admit it." Pete's eyes suddenly lit up with understanding as if I'd had given zir the missing puzzle piece ze'd been searching for. "They are both trying so hard to remain loyal to the original plan that they are making themselves miserable.”

"That's what's going on! I've been trying to figure out what's bothering him for some time, but I've had no clue. Our network is surgically implanted, so we can have complete privacy during transmissions if needed. I'm guessing that's probably not the same on your end?" Ze flashed me that dimple making smile again, causing my stomach to somersault like crazy. but I needed to focus on the job at hand.

"No, especially not for official transmissions. I'm by myself right now because I snuck off and because everyone else is asleep. But when Gabe is acting as a liaison, he has 5 armed guards standing behind him at all times. Plus quite a few more high officials are right outside the door for safety reasons. Gabe and I have always been close, so I can usually read him like a book. I know when he's in love. But we do have a lot of things going for us. First of all, I'm the person engaged to be married to Patrick." Pete's eyes widened.

"And why is that good?"

"Well, we already know he's engaged, right? What if his fiancee was someone who didn't want to let him go so easily? I don't know if we could even work around that. But we don't have to worry about that. I just want them to be happy, so I'm cool with letting them be together." Pete started nodding and understanding appeared on his face. "Things have completely changed since the Alliance was first formed and the marriages were arranged. The original plan of 3 couples on Earth and 3 couples on Corlia was during a time of peace. But we are fighting to make sure the human race survives now. There will be more Human couples coming to meet here. We're not even sure if the Earth will survive. I don't think sticking to the original engagements are going to be as important now. Sai Gerard is ruler now and soon ze will have a Human mate and co ruler. They are very much in love from what I hear. Once they find out how much Patrick and Gabe care about each other, I think they will be receptive to the change. Even the original rulers said that we always had the choice turning down the matches once we met each other. They wanted us to be as happy as they were."

" Well it seems like you have it all figured out. what do you need Lindsay and I to do?

"I don't know the first thing about contacting anyone on Corlia. I don't know who to talk to, what official things are necessary. It took all my nerve just to talk to you and I didn't do so well at the beginning."

"Seems like you're doing pretty well now." Ze flashed that deadly smile again, which caused me to look down reflexively then up through my eyelashes. Wait, was ze flirting with me? Was I flirting back? I hoped so. No, not now I had to concentrate, because I QAS doing pretty well right now.

"Yes, well it took a while and you turned out to be pretty approachable. But this is the only contact information that my computer has. If only you were the one with the power to change the engagements, then we would have it made."

"Yes now I guess you would wouldn't we?" Zir smile was lifted up on just one side now, and the twinkle inzir eye was definitely mischievous. what was ze up to? Focus Hailey, focus. Yes, I'm focusing.

"Ok, let's do this - if you and Lindsay could make sure Patrick definitely does feel the same way Gabe does, and make sure that ze wants to proceed forward with a relationship if the way was paved, that would be the first step I suppose. How first grade does this stuff sound? I was able to get Gabe to basically admit he definitely likes Patrick a lot. It should be quite a bit easier for zir to admit considering ze will already know that Gabe likes zir and that I am ok with them getting together. Ze just needs to man up now, uh so to speak. You know what I mean?"

" Right. I can do that." Pete had the amused look back and chuckled.

"Then, we need to know who to talk to about okaying their relationship and breaking our engagement? I don't suppose anyone can just call the ruler of your planet. On earth, we have Presidents, Prime Ministers, Chiefs and the occasional King or Queen of various countries and they are all super busy. In the United States, the country that I'm from, you can't just call up the President. You can't even call up a small representative like your state Governor. Although I guess this is a special case, being as how we are the ones chosen to be 'guinea pig couples'. but still... I'm sure Sai Gerard and Sai Frankie have an awful lot on their plate right now with this war. they probably have more important things to think about then our love life." he started laughing heartily.

“You are the most unusual person I have ever met.”

"Uh...thank you? I think. Not sure if that was supposed to be a compliment or not." Great. Ze thinks I'm a freak. Definitely, not talking to the rulers on behalf.

"I like unusual. You fascinate me. Hopefully we'll get the chance to become friends, at the very least. I have never met anyone who would go to such great lengths for another person. You're a wonderful friend."

"Oh, he's so much more than a friend. I would die for Gabe and I know he would do the same for me. I've looked up to him my whole life. He protected me from some really awful stuff, loved me when no one else did, basically raised me."

"He sounds like a really great person." I simply nodded in the affirmative. We both stared into each others eyes, getting a little lost in them, until the silence became awkward and we both stuttered our goodbyes. Pete promised to message me as soon as ze had any information. Ze said something about messages probably be more discreet. I nodded and acted like I could understand what ze was saying but at this point it sounded a lot like the gibberish language spoken by all the parents on the Charlie Brown cartoons. I just smiled stupidly as my heart did a gymnastic routine.

Computer: transmission ended

I sighed in relief, glad that it was over. I was just getting a small taste of what Gabe must have gone through every time he had to an official broadcast. I can't even imagine how hard it must've been for him. He had to keep it together on an daily basis, with the least 5 military guards standing at attention behind him. I didn't know how he stood there, fake smile on his face, while his heart broke because the one he loved was engaged to someone so close to him. Well, I may not have had to face Pete every day or stand there in front of anyone else, but my situation was far from ideal. I didn't know if ze could even fall in love with me? If ze did, he was still technically matched up with someone else also. But it was someone I didn't know.

Guess we will just have to see what happens when we get to the space station. At least I got in there first, right? Shit, I sounded like a world class bitch. Well, whoever was engaged to Pete might have been interested in somebody else once we were there, who knows? I was sure there was going to be more than enough for people for everyone. But Gabe's happiness meant the world to me. I would have done anything, and I do mean anything, for my big brother!

Notes

Hi there,

Your patience has been rewarded! 2 updates in less than 24 hours. I've been a busy girl. Remember, comments make me happy.

B