Chapter Text
”Alfor, I found something.” Zarkon’s voice, low and taut, cut sharply across the comms. Even through the distortion, Alfor could hear the edge beneath the words—the same tone Zarkon used when instinct told him something was wrong.
Alfor adjusted his ship’s heading, peering through the drifting haze of micro-asteroids. Against the starlit backdrop, a derelict vessel floated lifelessly, its hull gouged and blackened.
“This craft…” Zarkon’s eyes narrowed from his cockpit. “It’s not one of mine.”
Alfor swept his scanners across it, watching the readout flicker with static before resolving into shape. “Ancient design. Nothing like anything we’ve built in centuries.” His fingers moved quickly over the controls. “I’ll run a lifeform scan.”
A deep pulse radiated from his ship, washing the wreck in ghostly blue before vanishing into the void. The display blinked: One lifeform detected. Faint.
Zarkon’s silence lingered before he finally said, “Our criminal isn’t here, but someone is.”
“Alive,” Alfor confirmed.
“Alive for now,” Zarkon countered. “Could be a trap.”
“We won’t know until we check,” Alfor replied, though his hands were already adjusting the thrusters for approach.
Zarkon followed reluctantly. “Your optimism will get you killed one day.”
Both ships clamped to the derelict’s hull with hollow metallic thuds. The airlocks cycled open, releasing the stench of burned metal and stale oxygen.
Inside, the narrow corridors were a graveyard—panels ripped from the walls, conduits exposed like severed arteries, black scorch marks licking up the bulkheads.
“What happened here?” Zarkon muttered, his hand brushing the grip of his weapon.
A sudden whirr broke the silence.
From the shadows, a small robot zipped erratically through the ruined cockpit, boosters sputtering. It slammed into consoles and kicked off walls in its frantic orbit, its glowing digital face pulsing red in agitation.
“Master? Wake up! Oxygen levels critical—critical—critical—”
Alfor spotted the pilot—a lone figure slumped in the crash chair, slanted awkwardly against broken restraints. His scanner pinged again: multiple fractures, severe internal trauma, oxygen loss.
He took a step forward—only to have Zarkon’s arm block his path. “You don’t know what they are,” Zarkon said flatly. “Or what they could bring to Altea.”
Alfor’s jaw tightened. “They’re dying. That’s what I know.”
The robot whirled on them, buzzing so close to Zarkon that he instinctively stepped back.
“Aid? Help master? Please!”
Alfor’s gaze met Zarkon’s—steady, imploring.
Zarkon’s nostrils flared. “…Fine. But this is your responsibility, Alfor. If they prove hostile, if this brings danger to Altea… remember this moment.”
Alfor crossed the ruined deck in quick strides. The closer he got, the worse the damage became—hairline cracks spiderwebbed across the pilot’s visor, a crude patch sealing one of them, but oxygen still hissed in a slow, lethal leak.
As he touched her shoulder, her eyes flickered open—unfocused, glassy. In the blurred edges of her vision, his features were little more than shadow and light. But when she locked onto his face, something softened in her expression.
He gave her a faint smile. Her eyes slid shut again.
“She’s barely holding on,” Alfor said grimly. “If we wait, she won’t survive.” He freed her from the restraints, her body limp in his arms.
Zarkon followed, voice low. “You’ve brought strangers into our fold before, Alfor. Not all of them have been worth the risk.”
“Then let’s hope this one proves you wrong.”
The robot zipped at Alfor’s side, boosters steady now, as if proximity alone could keep its master alive. “Stay with master. Must stay at side.”
“You will,” Alfor promised.
The airlock sealed behind them with a heavy clang, cutting off the smell of scorched metal. The derelict faded into darkness as the wormhole generator whirred to life.
A sphere of light bloomed ahead, folding the black into blue swirls of impossible color.
“You trust too easily,” Zarkon muttered over comms.
“And you fear too quickly,” Alfor replied. “One day, one of us will be wrong.” The duo soon flew through the wormhole.
Weeks have passed after Alfor and Zarkon rescue, the girl still showed no signs of waking from the cryopod. Alfor still paced back and forth in front of the girl’s pod. “Alfor, stop pacing,” Zarkon spoke as he soon approached the man.
“I cannot, vitals still show no change, if anything, they seem to have gone worse than when we rescued her. I don’t understand this.”
“What of the robot stationed next to the pod?”
Alfor shook his head. “Still no response.”
“You tried moving it again?” He smirked at his reaction.
“NO! I will not be fried to a crisp again.”
Zarkon laughed. The robot had shut down once the girl was placed in the healing pod, to recover from the ordeal of her ship. If anyone tried moving it from its spot, they will be greeted with shock with each attempt getting stronger. Alfor learned this the hard way as he tried three times.
As the duo spoke privately, the robot soon powered back up and soon caught the attention of the two. “Oh, good to see you’re still operational.”
“Servo, at your service!” It did a little salute and turned it head, as though looking for something. “Where master?”
Alfor soon looked up to the unchanged pod. “She still in there.” Servo turned and back to the young man. “Can Servo look at vitals? See how pod works?” Alfor tilted his head, unsure of what the little bot could do. “By all means,” Alfor touched the bot, allowing Servo access to the pods controls.
The two soon watched the bot scan the pod, studying how the pod is supposed to work, how it heals, how it operates and his master’s vitals. “Servo understands. Open pod, please.”
“Now hold just a minute, why should we open it now?” Zarkon protested.
“Servo understands how pod works. Pod cannot heal what is no longer there. Open pod,”
Both men raised a brow. What was missing that the pod is trying to heal. Alfor didn’t question it and opened the pod. Catching the girl before she fell. “Lay her down,” Once she was laid on the ground, Servo rolled over to her right leg and popped it off.
This disturbed and shocked the two men. “Master has been missing leg for one and a half years. Your tech thinks there is a leg to heal, but there is nothing.”
“Zarkon, do you think you could make a new one that will not disrupt the pods healing capacity?”
“Think? I know I can. But will she be able to handle the stress of such a thing?”
Servo turned to the purple man. “You don’t have a choice, purple man.”
Alfor tired holding in his laughter as Zarkon frowned at the bot. “Purple man? I am Zarkon, First Lieutenant of the Galran Empire!”
“Okay, purple man. Help master,”
Zarkon glared at Alfor, who by this point was laughing on the floor. “If you are finished busting your gut, get your best alchemists ready.”
Alfor wiped away the tears from his face, as he called for healers to aid. Another man showed up, trademarking orange hair, spoke up first, “Might I ask why you need some of the best alchemists?”
“Zarkon and I rescued a young girl from the rubble of what we assume is her starship. Though the ship was completely destroyed, we encounter her barely clinging on life. It came to our attention that the girl faced a gruesome amputation. Though she was in possession of an odd looking replacement limp, our cryopods couldn’t aid in healing her other major injuries.”
“Servo can answer from here. As princely said, cryopod tried to fix the leg which needed no aid. Master’s stump would have been in need of new leg as she gets older.”
Alfor looked at the bot. “Princely?”
The other glared at the bot, “How dare you address the crowned prince of Altea!”
“Coran, its alright. Servo had called Zarkon purple man earlier.” Alfor said.
Coran couldn’t decide whether to laugh or hold it in. Servo turned its body to head in the direction Zarkon went towards. “If princely is finished with conversation, gorgeous man needs to help bring master to the room.”
“Gorgeous man? Now that has a ring to it. Coran the gorgeous man,” Alfor narrowed his eyes as Coran was given a very obvious compliment.
“Help me carry the girl!” Alfor said. With the two helping one another, Servo soon entered the room where Zarkon and some others waited for them. “Took you long enough.” He said.
“Princely talked to much. Servo will aid with oxygen and blood supply,”
Zarkon looked up at Alfor now also given a nickname from the bot. He instantly busted out a laugh. “Princely, now that suits you. Have you the healers?”
Two of the best healers soon entered from behind Coran and they immediately took their places. Zarkon’s two specialist in fashioning new bionic limb request the two to leave. Without agreement, they left the main helpers in the room.
Time seemed to flow in slow motion as the girl’s screams could easily be heard from Alfor and Zarkon. Alfor couldn’t image what kind of pain she was going through. Zarkon soon placed his hand on his friends shoulder, as his best attempt to comfort him. Servo soon rolled up behind them. “Master is going to be fine now. Cryopod should work as indented.
One of Alfor’s people approached him. “The girl, she’s quite young, not even past her childhood.” Servo did an error noice which spooked everyone.
“Madam, you conclude wrong. Master is known as a human. Master is a teenager, past childhood, yet not quite adult.”
“Explain,”
“Master comes from a galaxy far from here. Millions and millions of light years away. It is known as the Milky Way galaxy. Home planet is Earth, home to the species of humans. Humans are, to the best known other galaxies, the weakest species. Do not let that fool you. Earth uses years to count age. Master is 15 years old, she is young.”
“Fascinating. Coran, I want you to find any information on this planet earth.”
“Right away,”
“Wait a tick, how can you be sure this planet even exists?” Zarkon protested.
Servo turned to face him. “Purple man, have you seen master? Master is a human, she is your proof. I can show you everything of earth too.”
Zarkon seemed to be annoyed the nickname was being used again, but at this point, he couldn’t care anymore. He watched the young girl be carried to the cryopod with the new prosthetic leg. “Show me then, little bot,”
“Servo is not a little bot! Servo is Servo!” It’s round digital face turned red and angry. Zarkon flinched at the sudden change to it. “Then don’t call me purple man!” Alfor chuckled at his friend arguing with a robot.
After a few moments of Zarkon arguing with Servo, eventually it ended in a mutual agreement. Servo will call him Zarkon and Zarkon will call the bot Servo. Alfor soon brought them to another room off the healing pods, which was perfect to lounging around or relaxing. Servo opened a digital screen and showed off memories of his master’s life. Some of them were just documentaries of her life within the garrison, how she met her friends, roommate and even the love of her life. Then it turned off just before another memory played.
“Servo, how did she lose her leg?” Alfor asked, curious how a girl of her age could go though such a loss.
“Master wishes not to remember the horrid act of it. Only master, if she trusts you enough, will say. Has Servo helped you both in understanding earth?”
“Earth looks like a wonderful planet. So vibrant and full of life. Though your technology is far behind ours, why is that?”
“Servo cannot answer that. Humans are ever evolving, seeking new knowledge everyday. The latest exploration was to the edge of the Milky Way to the dwarf planet Pluto’s moon, Kerberos.
“Have you any record of the attack of your ship?” Zarkon asking the harder question. Alfor gave him a look like he was insane.
“Servo does!” It turned back to the digital screen and showed the record of the attack. To the shock of Zarkon and Alfor, the ship which attacked the girl’s ship was of Zarkon’s people. Alfor soon noticed a white trail which the girl promptly followed, which lead to a wormhole, out came out of his own ships and suddenly her was pulled in. Once her ship was on the other side of the wormhole, she lost all control, slamming into quite a few rogue asteroids and soon banged her head on the main console. Servo panicked and swiftly patch her helmet, and the video feed cut out.
“What was that!” Zarkon questioned.
“Servo cannot answer that. But Servo can show the time difference,” It showed the first feed being in the the year 23XX and the next showed a completely different year. Alfor couldn’t understand the earth years as it was foreign to him and Zarkon. Servo soon spotted their confused faces and began to calculate the timeline for them. “In earth years, master ‘s ship entered a wormhole which brought her 10,000 years to the past and in an entire different galaxy and star system.”
“10,000 earth years! Is that even possible?!” Zarkon said, jumping to his feet. Alfor folded his hands on his lap. He was trying to process the information Servo granted him. “Alfor?”
“While it takes an extreme amount of energy to create a wormhole alone, it is not impossible to make one to just to a future. Only problem, it would take a highly skilled alchemist to achieve such a level.”
“The rouge criminal! The first ship we spotted leave the wormhole was one of your own, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. Garrom, he was highly skilled alchemist, well respected too. He found a way to jump a few hundred deca-phoebs to the past or even future, but 10,000 years. I didn’t want to believe he would betray the crown. Selling information to the Lamonites. Servo, is there a way to scan if he survived that jump?”
Servo rewound the feed, using its built in tech, the feed shut off. “This criminal as you say, did not survive that jump.”
Alfor hung his head. Though Garrom managed to make a wormhole of time difference and in a new galaxy, he still ended up dead. A new sound came from Servo as it rolled away i a rush. “Master is awake!”
Alfor rose to his feet and chased after the bot with Zarkon at his heel.