Whatever Gran had been expecting from the golden portals, it certainly wasn’t this. She was now standing in a grove, with a single grass path leading elsewhere. Sitting a couple of feet away was a small, fluffy, white mammal with large ears staring at her. She wasn’t quite sure what it was - maybe a rabbit? Earth animals had never been her strong suit. The rabbit bounced away as soon as Gran took a step towards it, a hand raised slightly. She began following it, taking in her surroundings as she went. The trees seemed to reach up forever, and the sunlight filtering through the leaves dappled the path. The grass was soft - much softer than she recalled it being, but then again, she hadn’t felt proper grass since Giygas conquered the Earth.

The trees became less packed together as she went along, and eventually, the path led to a small town. There were three buildings, all made of wood, and some people milling about the town, as well as a fountain. One of the buildings Gran recognised - it was the bar back in Shambler Village. If Gran had a mouth, a smile definitely would have been on it. She went inside the bar to find the Bellyflop crew having drinks of something. It certainly didn't look like anything she had seen, or anything incorporeal. Captain Casey, who was sitting at the counter, swiveled around upon hearing Gran enter, then cheered. The rest of the crew joined in.

Captain Casey flew off his seat and over to Gran and grinned as he said, "Amie! Didn't think I'd see ya 'ere! 'Ow's it goin'?"

"I'm just fine, thank you," Gran replied.

Captain Casey returned to his seat, and Gran rested her arms on the counter beside him. Captain Casey called out to the bartender, who refilled his glass with a strange, pink liquid.

"I'm still not sure what it is, t' be 'onest," Captain Casey told Gran. "But 'pparently this place be called Magicant. Th' folks here are a bit… strange. Don't say much. Even me own crew."

'How strange,'Gran thought to herself.

"But this stuff, whatever it be, is good!" Captain Casey said before chugging down the pink liquid in one go. He let out a loud belch as he slammed his empty glass on the counter.

With a chuckle, Gran said, "Excuse you!"

Captain Casey laughed under his breath.

"So how did you find your way here?" Gran asked Captain Casey.

The ghost captain shrugged. "Good question! I know I've always 'ad a knack fer knowin' what's gonna 'appen next, but bein' able to communicate with ya through yer own mind be a tad bit ridiculous!"

"Pardon?!"

Captain Casey clicked his ghostly tongue before muttering, "Right. Forgot ya didn't know that." After getting another refill, he explained, "I don't understand 'alf o' it, but 'pparently us ghost types can communicate with people if they be in their Magicants."

Gran slowly nodded. She stood upright and said, "I would love to stay, but I have other important things to get to. It was nice seeing you again!"

Captain Casey waved as she exited the tavern. "Was nice seein' ya again too! Best o' luck!"

Gran explored the little town of Magicant a bit more. She found Rammy and the Shambler child hanging out together by a building. Rammy was pleased to see her, and the Shambler child asked her if she had seen the white rabbit. Upon hearing Gran's reply, he said, "You have? Cool! I wonder if it has, like, a house, or something? You better not keep it waiting."

Tori, Buzz Buzz and Leicra were also in the town, sitting by the fountain. Tori, with Buzz Buzz perched on her shoulder as a spectator, and Leicra were playing what appeared to be at least three card games mixed into one. They were all very happy to see her, and Tori attempted to explain the card game she and Leicra were playing. She got lost immediately. With all the sights of the town seen, Gran headed in the rabbit's trail. It was waiting in front of a hole in the ground, framed by tree roots. It was tapping its foot impatiently when Gran arrived. When she did, the rabbit dived into the hole.

"Wait!" Gran cried. The hole grew twice as large when Gran stepped in, and she fell. Her beanie flew off her head as she did. The hole was pitch black, and it was impossible to tell when she would land on solid ground. Until she did.

She hit the ground face-first with an echoing clang, and her beanie soon floated down onto her head. She gingerly sat up and adjusted it so it sat on her head like usual, then looked around. The walls and floor were made of a deep purple metal, and veins of light flowed on the former. The orange light they emitted barely helped light up the hall she had fallen into, and worst of all, the white rabbit was nowhere to be seen. Gran stood up and dusted herself off.

‘I hope I can find my way out of here soon.’

Gran began walking down the hall, looking for any sign of the rabbit, or an exit. Only a couple of meters into the hall, Gran heard a click from underneath her. She looked down at the floor to see a small indent in the floor under her foot - a boobytrap. A screen on the wall to her right flashed alive, and three yarn balls with legs and eyes dropped down from the ceiling. A foreign language she somewhat recognised began writing itself rapidly on the screen, then a voice called out over an unseen intercom.

“Enemy: Yarnbo. Commencing battle against subject.”

The three Yarnbo ran towards Gran, and each headbutted her. For balls of yarn, they sure hit hard. Gran fire a PK Freeze Beta at the middle one, which it withstood. The leftmost Yarnbo wrapped part of itself on Gran’s leg. She managed to shake it off and send it flying into the wall, but not without falling over. The other two Yarnbo climbed onto her and began jumping on her. Their feet weren’t as damaging as their heads, but the combined efforts of the two Yarnbo was a problem. Gran fired another PK Freeze at the middle one again, which was enough for it to unravel, then be beamed away by some strange force. By now, the Yarnbo that had been flung into the wall had recovered, and ran up to Gran as she began to stand up. The Yarnbo that had been jumping on her slid off, and Gran stomped down on it before it could get up. The leftmost Yarnbo headbutted her again, and Gran retaliated with a PK Freeze Beta. The Yarnbo unraveled then got beamed away, only leaving one Yarnbo left. Gran fired a PK Freeze Beta at it, unraveling it before it could attack again. With that, all three Yarnbo had been defeated.

“Winner is subject. Proceed with test.”

Gran frowned.

‘This is the test? A mechanical lair full of enemies? What other horrid things are going to be here?’

Gran healed herself with a Lifeup Beta, then continued walking down the hall. She quickly came across a fork in the path, and decided to go left. She navigated the halls for what seemed like quite some time, occasionally coming across a Yarnbo or two. They were just a bit tougher to defeat without using PSI. She figured that if this place was just as large as the lairs she had come across in her life, she would need to conserve it.

Gran had gone quite a way in, still no sight of the white rabbit, when she stepped on another boobytrap. This time, three red, oversized screwdrivers came down from the ceiling. They hovered off the ground, and had thin, black arms and large eyes near the head of their bodies.

“Enemy: Senile Screwdriver. Commencing battle against subject.”

The middle Senile Screwdriver raised a hand, letting loose a PK Fire Gamma. Gran shielded her face as the flames burned her. The rightmost Senile Screwdriver twirled around then rammed into her side, spinning as it did so. Gran retaliated with a PK Freeze, but it came out a lot stronger than she intended. The Senile Screwdrivers were clearly shocked by this, but not as much as she was. Gran followed up with a slap, which then took out the rightmost Senile Screwdriver. Like the Yarnbo, the Senile Screwdriver was beamed away by an unseen force. The leftmost Senile Screwdriver rammed into her other side, and Gran used PK Freeze Beta on it while it was close. The middle Senile Screwdriver used PK Fire Gamma again. Gran quickly used Lifeup Alpha on herself before slapping the middle Senile Screwdriver. The leftmost Senile Screwdriver used PK Fire Gamma as well, to which Gran retaliated with another dose of PK Freeze Beta. This was enough to take it out and be beamed away. The last remaining Senile Screwdriver rushed up to her, but she smacked it down before it could make contact. Gran then stomped on it before it got up. With that, it was defeated, and beamed away.

“Winner is subject. New techniques learned: PK Freeze Gamma. Congratulations.”

Confetti rained down from the ceiling all over Gran.

“Proceed with test.”

Gran healed herself with Lifeup Beta, then continued to navigate the maze the halls were. Now, the Yarnbo were sometimes accompanied by Senile Screwdrivers, and sometimes the Senile Screwdrivers showed up by themselves. The enemies loitering about in the halls continued to attack her, and she learned Lifeup Gamma along the way. More confetti rained down on her. But she still hadn’t found the white rabbit again. Where could it have gone?

Some time later, another boobytrap was set off. Two glowing blobs of dark orange energy came down from the ceiling. They hovered off the ground too, and their surfaces, decorated with stars, constantly shifted, giving them a face that constantly changed its appearance.

“Enemy: Amorphite. Commencing battle against subject.”

The left Amorphite started with PK Thunder Omega. Gran barely managed to dodge all four bolts of lightning. The right Amorphite used PK Freeze Gamma. Gran retaliated with a PK Freeze Gamma of her own. It didn’t seem to bother the right Amorphite that much. The left Amorphite then used PK Freeze Gamma, and the right used PK Beam Gamma. Gran healed herself with Lifeup Alpha quickly, then attempted to slap the right Amorphite. It simply curled its shape around Gran’s arm as she swiped at it. It then followed up with another PK Beam Gamma. Gran used another PK Freeze Gamma just before the left Amorphite used PK Thunder Omega. The first bolt hit her square on the head, but the rest missed. The right Amorphite seemed to smile at its cohort, and decided to lay back for a bit. Gran took the opportunity to use a third PK Freeze Gamma on it, which made the Amorphite burst into twinkling dust and be beamed away by the unknown force. Gran then used Lifeup Beta on herself before the remaining Amorphite used PK Freeze Gamma on her. The rest of the battle played out fairly normal - Some Beam Gammas and Thunder Omegas from the Amorphite, three PK Freeze Gammas from Gran, and the battle was over. Although she was starting to run out of PP by the end of it.

“Winner is subject. Proceed with final leg.”

A portion of the wall to her right lowered into the ground with a thundering rumble. The opened path looked like all the other halls in the maze, but there was a very high chance that this was the right way to go.

There were only a few enemies in this new hall - two Yarnbo, two Senile Screwdrivers, and an Amorphite. They were all taken care of. Past the Amorphite, the end of the maze was in sight - a white light at the end.

Gran felt a tap on her foot. She looked down to see the white rabbit staring back up at her. They held gazes for a moment, before the rabbit took off down the hall. Gran followed it to the light at the end, and at the end…

…was a small, round, white room. There was a round, white table in the middle of the room, and white cushions and white chairs strewn about. On the table was a book with a brown leather cover. It had no title. The rabbit had sat down at the end of the room atop one of the cushions. It stared at Gran as she looked around. After a few moments, the rabbit twitched its ears, and motioned to the book with its snout.

Gran walked up to the table, pointed at the book, and asked, “You want me to read this?”

The rabbit nodded once.

Gran slowly opened up the book to the first page, and the corners of her vision went white…

---

The spaceship had been sitting there in the valley for quite some time now. Amienafleece wasn’t really sure what the crew were doing, but if they had been there for just under a day, then they can’t have been doing a lot. Her father always said to work hard during the day, and these offworlders… weren’t doing that. Probably.

The mayor had said to stay away from the ship - nobody knew what could be on there and who could be piloting it. She knew that he had everyone’s wellbeing in mind, but how was anyone supposed to know if there was danger if nobody went to find out?

Her younger brother, Corrie, walked up to her and crouched down beside her. “Amie, you’re not seriously going to go over there, are you? The mayor will go crazy if he finds out.”

She waved a hand as she replied, “Come on, Corrie! Someone’s got to find out what the offworlders are up to.”

“But they might-”

“I can take care of myself, Corrie. You know that.”

Corrie was silent for a few moments, then replied, “Yeah, you’re right. I guess. But if you don’t come back by 114, you know what Dad will do.”

“I know, I know! I promise, I’ll be back by then.”

Amienafleece and Corrie bumped their hands together, then the former stood up from the bush she was behind and scurried over to the offworlders’ ship. The crew looked a lot stranger than she had expected. There were three aliens with a single eye on their face and two more on stalks, and tentacles for both arms and legs - a dark green one with deep red eyes, an orange one with bright red eyes, and a purple one with dull magenta eyes. The dark green one was talking to the slightly smaller orange one, while the purple one paced around the ship with a frown.

“Um- Hello, excuse me-” Amienafleece called out.

The dark green one flinched as he looked at her, the orange one seemed unfazed, and the purple one looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

“My name is Amienafleece, I’m an inhabitant of this planet! What are you three doing here? You’ve given everyone in town a bit of a scare.”

“Oh… we have?” the dark green one asked, a look of concern on his face. “That’s- Oh no! That’s not what we planned at all-”

The orange one gave the dark green one a pat on the back. “Hey. It’s okay. Yeah, we’ve taken a little longer than we meant to, but at least we're not going to get attacked!”

“But we’re not supposed to be scary!” the dark green one cried.

“Calm your Saturns, Colunne,” the purple one said. “We’ll be gone before this weirdly long day is over.”

The dark green one, Colunne, frowned skeptically at the purple one for a moment.

The orange one smiled as they said, “Don’t mind him. He’s always been a bit sensitive.” He pointed at himself and said, “I’m Sollas, that’s Colunne next to me, and over there,” he pointed at the purple one, “is our weird uncle Vega! We’re travelling all over the solar system for fun!”

“Well, we would be, but our ship, the Starlaze, broke down,” Vega added. “We’ve been trying to fix it for day- a day? How long has it- ...A while.”

Amienafleece’s eyes lit up. “I could help you fix it!” she offered.

Colunne’s face immediately lifted upon hearing this. “Really?”

Amienafleece nodded. Colunne cheered.

“I’ll go get my toolbox and I’ll be back soon!”

Amienafleece ran back to her house, rather small for a Wooly Shambler home, and only told Corrie that she was going to get her toolbox. The trip to her house and back was only about 30 minutes. Colunne watched with wide eyes as Amienafleece opened her toolbox, got out a small torch, and looked under the ship. It didn’t take long to find what was going on.

“Your engine managed to implode. I don’t see it at all.”

“It can do that?!” Colunne questioned.

“I only heard stories about imploding engines. Where did you get it?”

“We made it ourselves, with the help of this sketchy looking friend of Uncle Vega’s,” Sollas explained.

“He’s helped me out a lot, you shut your yap!” Vega barked.

“I think there was coffee in there?” Colunne added. “I’m not really sure, I don’t remember what was used to make it, exactly.”

Amienafleece was more than confused by this. Coffee? In an engine?

“Well I could get you a new one,” she offered as she crawled out properly from under the ship and stood up. “Should last for quite a few years.”

“Really? You’d do that for us?” Colunne asked.

Amienafleece nodded. Colunne let out a squeak of excitement, then wrapped his arms around her in a hug. It was unexpectedly tight, too. Colunne soon realised what he was doing and let go.

“Uh, sorry,” he mumbled, his face flushing a little.

Amienafleece giggled. “It’s alright. How about I go get that engine?”

Colunne nodded. Amienafleece ran off to her dad’s friend’s workshop, which was located not too far away from her house. She explained to her dad’s friend her situation, and while he was confused, he let her have an engine for half price. It was a good thing she had her wallet on her. The run back to the ship was a little longer due to having to carry an engine, but she made it back before the sun started to sink. It was installed just before 114 o’ hours.

“There you go!” she said once she had crawled out from under the ship. “I would love to stay longer, but if I don’t get going now, my dad’s going to get really mad.”

“Understandable,” Sollas replied. He flashed a sly grin at Colunne before telling Amienafleece, “We really do need a mechanic - none of us are that good with the workings of the ship - so if you’d like, you could be our mechanic?”

Amienafleece’s face lit up with excitement. “I would love to! I will have to talk about it with my dad, but I’m sure he’ll understand!”

“Great! See you in the morning, then?” Colunne asked.

“Of course! See you later!”

That night, she talked about her day with the ship’s crew at the dinner table, and while her dad was angry at her for going near it, he commended her for being so kind. He let her join them the next day.

---

This Earth town was a lot different to the one Amienafleece had been in last. It was a lot colder. Snow was falling from the sky at a leisurely pace, but she knew it could very easily get a lot worse. But there was no time to double as a weather presenter - she had to get to the spot she had been told to go to meet up with the Starlaze crew…

Amienafleece did the best she could to stay out of sight of humans, but it was quite hard to do so with her white wool standing out against the brick houses and the bag on her back sticking out too. She was lucky there were so few of them out and about. She wandered around for hours, but there was still no sign of the park that she was supposed to go to? Perhaps Captain Casey had got the wrong town? Maybe she was going in the wrong direction? She didn’t want to worry Colunne and the others - she knew how antsy Colunne and Bababa could get.

She decided to turn back around and go a different direction. It was risky, but maybe going where there were more buildings would lead her to the park. The snow had started to come down quicker now, and the wind was starting to howl. It was a good thing she had such thick wool - she doubted her beanie and her vest would do much to keep her warm if she didn’t have it.

As she walked down a road with many buildings, she heard a small cry. It came just a few paces behind her, but was mostly drowned out by the wind. Amienafleece walked back to find a small human wrapped in a blanket in a basket, sitting on a doorstep. There weren’t any lights on inside, as far as Amienafleece was aware - humans hadn’t invented lightbulbs yet. The small human continued to cry.

Amienafleece carefully picked up the small human and cradled them. “Oh, you poor thing… You aren’t going to survive out here in the cold, are you? Don’t worry, I’ll look after you. I’m sure that the crew will understand.”

The tiny human seemed to calm down a little, but Amienafleece still worried for their safety. She picked up her pace and continued down the road. Luckily for her, the park was only five minutes away, and the Starlaze was already there, too. The hatch door opened, and a ladder dropped down from it. Amienafleece climbed up it and back on board the ship. The ladder was pulled back up, the hatch door closer after her, and the Starlaze exited the Earth’s atmosphere. Colunne gave her a quick hug, and sat down beside her as she set the small human down on her lap and took her bag off. She handed it to Colunne, whose arms trembled under the weight of everything in it. Sollas cracked a smile.

“Good to see yeh safe n’ sound, Amie!” the ship’s navigator, an Octobot named Ochy, said. He frowned and pointed at the small human, and asked, “Wot’s dat thing.”

Amienafleece held the small human and replied, “It’s a human! They were out in the cold and it didn’t look like they would survive the night, so I took them with me.”

“Looks bloody small for one,” Ochy remarked. “Ain’t dey bigger?”

Brane, the Cerebrum of some extrasolar being, padded over to Amienafleece and (somehow) looked at the small human. After a moment’s silence, he said, “It’s an infant. It surely wouldn’t have survived overnight if it was as cold as you say it was, Amienafleece.”

The Starlaze’s chef, a Barbot named Bababa, crouched down in front of them and inquired, “Ba?”

The baby human’s bottom lip trembled, then they began wailing at the top of their lungs. Bababa moved back a bit and cried, “Ba! Ba! Ba ba!” They were quite upset that they had upset the baby.

As Brane comforted Bababa, Amienafleece cradled the baby in her arms and held them close. It took a while, but the baby managed to calm down and cling to Amienafleece’s wool.

“So I guess… this is our kid now?” Colunne asked.

“Well what else are you gonna do with a baby human that you found outside in the cold?” Vega said.

“Okey, but dem male humans have those funney things down… there, right? What’re they called again? Di-”

Colunne gave Ochy a frown as Amienafleece checked under the baby human’s blanket. This prompted some growls and squirming from the baby.

“Well, it doesn’t have one of… those,” Amienafleece said.

“Ba, ba ba?” Bababa asked.

“They ask if we should call the human infant a they or a she,” Brane translated for the rest of the crew.

Amienafleece thought about it for a few moments, while Colunne looked down at the baby human. The baby made a grabbing motion at Colunne’s right eyestalk, and a big smile spread on their face.

“I think she looks like a she,” Colunne commented. “Look at that cute little face.”

There was no disagreement from the rest of the crew. Then again, none of them knew all that much about humans.

“We’ll have to give her a name, too, you know,” Sollas said. “We can’t go around calling her “the human” for the rest of her life.”

“Oh! One of the ghosts I met down on Earth told me about this human woman they met once - her name was Lucy,” Amienafleece said. “Should we call her that?”

Colunne looked down at the baby human. “What do you think? Do you like Lucy?”

The baby human laughed.

Colunne smiled. “…Yeah. We’ll call her Lucy.”

---

It was just another day of sailing the stars. That was what it should have been. But fate had other plans. Other, much worse plans.

Amienafleece was knitting another shirt for Lucy, who was sitting next to her and watching intently. Ochy was sitting at the control panel, as per usual. It was stars as far as his eye could see one moment, then out of nowhere appeared a ship so large it almost covered up the entire window of the Starlaze. Ochy yelped and almost fell over. He muttered some curses under his breath as he took a good look at the ship.

“Cap! Yer gonna want to see dis!”

Colunne ran up to the control panel and stood next to Ochy.

“Dis ship dat jus’ came outta nowhere ain’t from dis galaxy, Cap!” Ochy explained. “I doubt we can outrun it…”

Lucy, who was 10 Earth years of age now, asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper, “Colunne? Ochy? It’s not gonna hurt us, is it?”

Colunne drew in a sharp breath as he and Ochy looked at her.

“…No. We’ll be fine,” Colunne told her.

By now, Bababa, Brane, Sollas and Vega had turned their attention to the giant, otherworldly ship that had appeared before the Starlaze.

“Maybe we shoulda taken those thrusters from dat guy on Jupiter…” Ochy muttered.

“He was a conman and you know it, Ochy,” Vega said. He walked over to Lucy, kneeled down beside her and told her, “And besides, if anyone does get hurt, I’ll fix ‘em right up. It’ll be okay.”

Lucy smiled, if only for a brief moment.

Everything was quiet for a few moments, before Colunne asked, “Hey, Ochy, is it just me, or are we getting closer to that ship?”

Ochy’s eye widened as realisation sunk in. Then he yelled, “Brace yerselves!”

The Starlaze was pulled in towards a hatch located at the bottom of the giant, extrasolar ship. It was slammed against a wall as the hatch slammed shut. The giant ship started moving at unfathomable speed, but it still felt like a long time before it stopped again. The Starlaze crew sat in complete darkness until the ship jerked to a halt. They were thrown about their own ship when the giant one stopped. Before anyone could understand what was going on, something latched on to the Starlaze’s roof and pulled it up. The light was almost blinding at first. But then, standing outside the Starlaze, were several bipedal creatures made entirely of metal. About three or four of them had a golden hue, while the rest were blue. On their chests were emblems of a triangle with two lines to the left and right of it.

“Get the occupants out of their ship,” one of the gold ones said. Several blue ones saluted, before blasting a hole into the side of the Starlaze and dragging everyone out.

“Good work, team,” the gold one said. “Now take them over to Commander Rueneeg’s sector. He’ll be there in a few moments.”

The blue ones holding them saluted again, before marching them off the giant ship and onto the strange new planet they had been taken to. It was devoid of much detail, and the sky was a light grey. Strange, large-eared creatures with long tails and colourful eyes hovered about, and turned their heads when they and the blue ones holding them came by. Amienafleece heard some of them mutter to one another.

“Looks like Commander Rueneeg’s back already.”

“What would he want with weird things like that?”

“You know Commander Rueneeg does things his way. This is just part of it.”

“Great Leader Zewytomu, I hope those Starmen don’t get infected with whatever horrible germs those things have…”

The Starlaze crew were taken into a gigantic building with what appeared to be a glass roof. The blue things, Starmen, if Amienafleece was getting it right, directed them into a segment of this building with orange walls. More images of that emblem the Starmen wore on their chests appeared all over the place. Screens, towels, what appeared to be a drinking fountain - it was horrible. The Starmen eventually let go of the crew once they arrived in a large room with several green tubes lining the walls. It wasn’t long until another one of those white creatures they had seen outside teleported into the room. This one was much larger than the ones outside, and had pointed ears and and an orange glow around its white pupils.

“Starmen, you are done here. Go,” the large white creature said. The Starmen saluted, then teleported away.

The white creature looked down at the Starlaze crew, and looked them all over before saying, “Welcome, Milky Way inhabitants. I am Rueneeg. I’m sure you’ve heard of me by now.”

Ochy immediately snapped, “Now wot the he- heck was dat for, abductin’ us like dat?!”

“Wow, you’re annoying,” Rueneeg commented.

Ochy growled, and almost lunged at Rueneeg, but was stopped by Bababa crying, “Ba ba! Ba ba!”

“Oh? And we also have an idiot Barbot here,” Rueneeg added, looking down at Bababa. Bababa frowned. “You should be over in the Hyneta dump on Mercury, idiot. Same goes for you, Octobot.”

“Hey now, why would you go and insult our friends like that?” Vega questioned.

“I’m just speaking the truth,” Rueneeg replied. “You’re all weak and pathetic. But especially you.” He pointed at Lucy.

Lucy hugged Amienafleece’s arm. Using her free one, Amienafleece put her hand on Lucy’s head.

“But we Zanue have been making many advancements over the last few years! We’ve been making things better. Stronger. And that includes living, breathing weaklings like you, too!” Rueneeg grabbed Lucy with a fingerless hand and pulled her closer to himself.

“Amie!” Lucy cried.

“Now you shut up, human,” Rueneeg told her. “This is for the greater good.”

Rueneeg hovered over a square control panel against a wall, and pressed a button on it. One of the green tubes opened at the front. Before he could do anything else, Colunne fired a PK Freeze Beta at Rueneeg. He dropped Lucy to the ground and he looked around for the source. As he did so, Bababa, Brane and Ochy rushed up to Lucy. Rueneeg’s eyes fell on Colunne, whose face was held tight in a frown.

“Oh! It was you who did that. You almost got me there, I’ll admit,” Rueneeg said, a hint of surprise in his voice. “But it’s no use trying to stop me. I have powers far beyond your comprehension. Watch this!”

Rueneeg turned his gaze to Ochy, then raised a hand and pointed it at him. Something, something bright, something harsh, something terrifying hit the Octobot, and before anyone knew it, he was… dead.

“He should have been dead long ago,” Rueneeg stated. “Not only was I putting him out of his misery, I got the job done for that stupid Cerebrum, too!”

“Alright, listen here,” Vega growled, “You can’t say how someone feels for them. That’s something only they can decide.”

Rueneeg raised an eyebrow. “Was that part of an emotional speech? Gross.” He turned his gaze back to Lucy and said, “Right. Now. Back to what I was doi- OH FOR GREAT LEADER ZEWYTOMU’S SAKE, WOULD YOU STOP?!”

Bababa and Sollas began beating Rueneeg’s leg, while Brane used PSI attacks. It wasn’t doing very much to hurt him, but it was the distraction that counted.

Sollas turned his head to the rest of the crew. “Colunne! Vega! Amienafleece! Get Lucy and GO!”

“But-! What about you?” Colunne asked.

“NOW!”

Colunne and Amienafleece ran over to Lucy, while Vega leapt up onto Rueneeg’s tail and bit it. Rueneeg let out some kind of aura, maybe, that made Bababa, Sollas, Brane and Vega turn to ashes. He glared daggers at Amienafleece and Colunne.

“Now. Now that I’ve taken care of them, I can finally show you the power of our technology." He grabbed Lucy by the arm, and Colunne grabbed her legs. He tried to pull Lucy back to him and Amienafleece, but Rueneeg was much stronger. he flung Lucy into the green tube, and it closed itself once she was inside. Lucy called out to Amienafleece and Colunne, but her cries were muffled by the tube.

“Now,” Rueneeg’s hand hovered over a single red button on the control panel, and it slammed down on it as he shouted, “WATCH!”

The green tube filled up with a liquid of some kind within seconds. Rueneeg turned a dial to the very right, and Lucy’s skin rapidly paled.

“When this machine is done with your stupid little human, she’ll be a fighting fit soldier! I don’t care if speeding up the process this much is “more likely to cause malformations”; I’ve HAD IT with you STUPID MILKY WAY INHABITANTS! Cselir can go there herself if she wants specimens so much!”

Already Lucy had been transformed from a human child into some kind of sick caricature of both the white creatures of the planet and a human being. And by the second, she was becoming more alien, more unrecognisable. One leg had grown longer than the other, the tail that had forced its way out of her back was too high up and had a thick chunk in the middle, and her eyes, now completely black, had fogged over.

Once the transformation had been completed, Rueneeg opened up the tube. Green-tinted liquid spilled everywhere as what was Lucy stumbled out. She propped herself on all fours. Her ears, now pointed and resting atop her hairless head, twitched, and her tail lashed.

“Soldier, go get those stupid idiots!” With that, Rueneeg teleported away, and the malformed creature that Lucy had become lunged at Amienafleece.

Amienafleece stepped out of the way, then told Colunne, “We have to get out of here!”

Colunne nodded, then the two of them ran out of the room. They ran down the halls, struggling to remember which way they went earlier in the heat of the moment. The creature that was Lucy snarled at them and tried to bite their feet as they ran. They eventually found their way out of the ginormous building, almost barrelling into a golden Starman. What was Lucy pounced on the Starman, prompting him to scream.

“Sorry!” Colunne called out to him.

The smaller white creatures watched with confusion as Colunne did this, then what was Lucy leaping off the golden Starman and chasing he and Amienafleece again. Before long, they had returned to the docking area, where Rueneeg’s ship was still parked. They ran aboard, chase by the creature that was Lucy. Amienafleece pushed several Blue Starmen out of the way, Colunne apologising to them as she did, as the two of them made their way down to the Starlaze. What was Lucy was just behind them as they found their ship having the hole that was shot into it being repaired. Amienafleece pushed a Starman over, causing a domino effect to occur and end with several Starmen laying on one another on the ground.

Colunne ran up to the control panel and scanned it over.

“Go! What are you waiting for?” Amienafleece cried.

“I don’t remember which one is the start button!” Colunne replied.

A bang sounded from outside the ship. The creature that was Lucy was trying to get in.

“It’s green!”

“What shade of green?”

“Just press all the green ones, we don’t have time!”

And so Colunne did. Thankfully the other green buttons just made the kitchen go a little bonkers. Colunne grabbed the control stick, and flew the Starlaze down and out of Rueneeg’s. A sharp scratching sound came from the outside of the ship. Then, only the hum of the engine.

---

The stars in the night sky twinkled, and the grass billowed in the cool breeze and felt nice on Gran’s wool. Wait, hadn’t she seen this before?

Colunne slithered over and sat down beside her. He stared up at her for a few moments before saying, “You’ve already been here before. You’ve already been to this memory. That’s… That’s not supposed to happen. I don’t know how you did that.” He paused before adding, “I mean, that time was a little off, what with the whole voice distortion thing from me… I also don’t know how that happened… but I guess... we could just talk for a little while?”

Gran put an arm around Colunne. “Of course.”

The two were silent as they looked out at the stars, trying to think of what to say.

“So…” Colunne said, “what have you been up to lately?”

Gran sighed. “Well, I stopped a war with the help of some very lovely young people.”

Colunne blinked. “A war?!”

“Yes. I know, it’s hard to believe. And what have you been up to?”

“Waiting for you. Ever since the Earth invasion.”

Then Gran blinked. “…All that time?”

Colunne nodded. “I couldn’t move on without talking to you one last time.”

Gran held Colunne closer. She found it hard to say anything. Colunne put an arm around her.

“I know, it’s hard to believe,” he said.

The two of them sat in silence, their arms wrapped around each other while the cool wind gently blew.

After a few long minutes, Colunne asked Gran, “Where are you headed next?”

“I don’t rightly know, my dear. But wherever it is, I’m sure it’ll be for a good reason. And I’ll be sure to think of you.”

Colunne smiled. “Thank you, angel.”

Colunne gave Gran a peck on the side of her face. The two of them sat together for a few minutes more. And after a while, Colunne began to glow.

“Well, I’d better get going,” Colunne said. “I don’t want to hold you up from your important adventure. And I’m sure the others will be happy to see me again.”

Gran’s vision blurred as Colunne let go of her. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too.”

Colunne began to glow brighter, and the ends of his tentacles began to dissipate and turn into small orbs of light.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

The rest of Colunne’s body turned into small orbs of light, and they traveled up into the starry sky. A tear fell from Gran’s lower eye as he waved goodbye. And then, the corners of her vision went white...