Intergalactic Witness Protection Scene

“I will go get Nicholas and Killa,” I say. Then, even though I can leave my hologram in place and set up a separate one to initiate conversation with the partners, I shut down my hologram in my captain’s cabin. He wants privacy. And even if I am the ship itself, I can give him the pretense of such a thing.

In a moment, I materialize in the room I don’t even need to scan the ship cameras to know Nicholas and Killa are occupying.

I appear between just as Nicholas Smith punches through me to try and touch Killa Palla- only for her to grab his hand, twist him, and almost pull him forward. Instead, he tugs her toward him, and she falls through me and onto him. They both collapse on the training room floor, her chin-length ebony hair flaring out behind her.

Adjusting my view, I stare down at them. “We have an S.O.S.”

Killa slams Nicholas’s head down on the floor. “Good, it was getting boring.”

Nicholas groans, scrunching up his perfectly clean-shaven face (the only part of him he keeps trimmed according to protocol; his dark curls are much longer than the instruction book dictates). “I think I’ll call in sick.”

“It’s coming from Gaynemade.”

They both jerk up, her Martian paleness a stark contrast to his darker earth skin.

Nicholas blinks. “You mean-”

Killa stands at attention. “We will prepare for the mission and be ready to initiate posthaste.”

They both turn to leave, but then Nicholas glances back at me. “Don’t tell me Orion is coming on this one.”

“I do not need to tell you anything. You already know.”

He sighs heavily.

And I take on the ship’s consciousness to direct my team to what shall hopefully not be their certain doom.