“You want noodles? Then you need Lao Chang’s! They have a menu as large as the cosmos. You can’t get any more authentic than Chef Chang. Traditionally taught by his grandmother, his flavors are outstanding! Try the pork knuckle, you won’t be disappointed!” – restaurant review on Phoenix Prime.

  The two halves of Spier squad regrouped late that night at a bar offering a hefty discount to soldiers on leave. Never one to pass up cheap booze, Dave ensured nobody could leave without being dragged through a long and tedious guilt trip.

  “Come on Candice,” Dave whined to the girl through his Vis-HUD, “We only have a few nights, and by few, I mean two. Are you really going to bail on us for some stuffy hotel?”

  His face dropped into despair as she spoke before eventually morphing into understanding and finally to extreme interest. While Jack was more than capable of connecting a thread to listen to the conversation, he was reasonably certain it was none of his business.

  “Alright girl, go get you some. If you can still walk in a few hours, come buy me a beer and tell me all about it.” If the words themselves didn’t give away her plans, the wide grin on Dave’s face most certainly did. “Hey guys, uh… Candice had to make an emergency trip to the uh… toilet. She probably won’t be back tonight.”

  “Hey bonehead, we literally just heard you tell her to go get some. Do you really think we’re that stupid?” Alec asked.

  “I know you’re not, but you been around me long enough to know my lingo. These guys have only been part of my entourage for two years. They might not be capable of keeping up with my subtle conversational skills.” Although the man has lost none of his physical faculties, yet, everyone realized Dave was well past toasted and well on the way to blasted.

  “Hate to burst your bubble, but if you thought that was subtle… you may be just past your limit,” Cecile smirked.

  “We don’t blaspheme against the drinking gods here. When there are drinks to be had, bad choices must follow,” he said with a finger raised.

  After finding a nearby booth to claim as their base of operations, Dave and Alec wandered off to mingle with the bar’s patrons. The two men had been friends longer than most and knew how to play off one another’s energy. If Jack had to put money on it, he would bet they would take over the stage in a matter of minutes.

  “Well, now that copycat Randy Houser and his best buddy are gone,” Jack said, setting his glass on the table, “I think I’ve got some good ideas for training the squad.”

  “Go on,” Cecile said after the silence dragged on.

  “They used their powers together,” he replied vaguely.

  “Who?”

  “The people, the teams we were watching tonight.”

  “That’s nice. We do too,” Thea said.

  “No, no, no. I mean really together. We work together like part of a military unit, only extending ourselves far as needed to accomplish the next task. They worked in concert to create completely hybrid strategies.”

  “Hey Jack,” Nessa said, returning from the bar with a round of drinks, “Not that I don’t enjoy imagining new and interesting ways to rip my enemies limb from limb, but do you really think this is the best time to be talking about it? This is our first true day off in nearly two years. If I can find a way not to think about the AHF, that’s what I want to do.”

  “But, I-”

  “She’s right,” Thea interjected, cutting him off before he could reply. “Tonight is about relaxation. Soon, we will be back on the Washington and in soldier mode. You can tell us all about it then, but tonight… I want whatever passes for Chinese on Phoenix Prime.”

  “Wait… You’re not even staying with us? Who is going to control those two?” Cecile asked, pointing at the men who were indeed singing on the stage.

  “Hell no, you think I’m going to hang out in a bar—the same thing we do on the ship, by the way—on the first night Jack and I are on a planet and not being shot at?” Thea joked, pointing at the sky, “No, he and I are going to get some real food, the kind we just can’t get up there. Then… who knows, we may even come back here.”

  “We are?” Jack asked, mouth twisted into a grin.

  “Yes, we are… well, probably not. Either way, slam that drink and let’s get out of here.”

  Not needing to be told twice, Jack downed the beer and stood. Nodding goodnight to his friends, he and Thea walked out and into the crisp night air of the utopian city.

  “So, Chinese food?” Jack asked, strolling down the street with her arm locked in his, the gentle tinkling of the sapphire tree providing a strange harmony to their conversation. “Any particular reason?”

  “No, I just needed an excuse to keep you all to myself. I wasn’t kidding about spending time with you,” she said, stopping to stare at the majestic city. “I mean, we only have a few days of fresh air before we go back to our tin can.”

  “True.” Taking a deep breath, he looked up at the sky in wonder. “I can’t believe how clear it is. It’s not the same as the vacuum of space, but it is a hell of a lot better than Earth. It’s just so beautiful.”

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  “I wonder… so much about this world. It’s just so… alien. How can we see so clearly despite these lights?”

  “Best guess? Lack of elevated pollution levels.” As much as Jack loved marveling at what mankind built in this wonderful city, it didn’t stop him from feeling a pang of sadness for Earth. If the people, government, or even companies would’ve put in a tenth of the effort they did here, their ancestral home could once again become a haven for their people, “Why… why couldn’t they do this back home?”

  “Take your pick,” she said, storm blue eyes staring through the crystalline branches of the tree and into the stars beyond. “There is too much money to be made in pollution? The planet is nothing but a body farm for the military? Any number of things, really. What I don’t understand is your love for a place that was essentially a prison.”

  The couple resumed their directionless walk toward a river that sliced through the city. With nothing but whimsy to guide them, the couple simply took joy in wandering aimlessly without needing to worry about their friends.

  “I don’t necessarily love the planet, just a few people on it,” he replied slowly. “More specifically, my family. If I could get them away from that barren wreck, I highly doubt you’d ever hear another word from me about it.”

  In the distance, a snow-capped mountain range brought feelings of majesty and longing. The wild, untamed hills called to their souls in a primal way. It was a landscape utterly unexplored; they instantly knew it was exactly what they were looking for.

  “We could stay…” Thea said, unwavering gaze giving life to unspoken words, “We could stay and wander this planet together. Never again being forced to kill a sentient creature simply for the crime of existing.”

  “We could, but we gave our word.” Jack replied with an unnecessary finality in his tone, “We swore to protect places like this so that one day we can return and know that we are protected.”

  Much as he wanted to disappear into the wilderness with her, Jack knew doing so would abandon the people he’d come to call family. They knew what they’d signed up for, and they both knew what it cost.

  But it didn’t mean they wouldn’t find peace at the end of this journey.

  “Yeah,” Thea said after a few moments, conviction on her smiling face, “Not to mention the fact that our friends would hunt us down and kill us slowly with guilt.”

  “Nessa would, for sure. But it would be a knife, not guilt,” he replied with a chuckle, “But enough of all that, do you have any suggestions for this Chinese food you wanted?”

  “Yes,” she said, “I spent that entire inquisition looking up places to eat. If I remember right, I think one of them is just a block or two away.”

  ~~**~~

  The couple stepped onto an elevator in the lobby of a hotel that was far out of their price range. Fortunately, being stuck on an all-expenses-paid, two-year cruise through space had the benefit of creating quite the savings account.

  When Thea saw the building, she tried to convince Jack to give up the room and return to the ship for the night. However, he eventually won her over by reminding her how rare these nights on solid ground were.

  “Tell me, tall, dark, and glowing, how did you manage to get us a room?” she asked as a nearly opaque blue barrier sprang to life around them and the elevator started rising, its slower-than-normal pace revealing yet another glimpse of the incredible city.

  “Easy. I cheated,”

  “How?”

  “I booked the room the moment they announced our destination. In fact, there is one reserved for each member of the squad if they want it.”

  “And what made you think I wanted to share a room with you?”

  Jack let out a bark of laughter. “Maybe the fact that we share a cabin on this ship? Specifically, the bunk we share in that cabin? Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because I am wildly in love with you.”

  The platform came to a stop, and the barrier faded into nothingness. Like any other hotel, the hallway was lined with dozens of doors, each leading to a temporary home for the weary to rest their head.

  The two lovers walked hand in hand, counting off doors until they eventually found the one leading into their temporary home. Through the door, they were astonished to see what they could only describe as the most luxurious apartment either had ever imagined.

  “Even the hotels here are nicer than my house on Earth,” she said, dashing through the doorway like a kid in a candy store and throwing herself onto the bed, “If my family could’ve afforded something like this, I would’ve never joined the AHF.”

  She’d only joined because her life was directionless. She never had the opportunity to attend college and fail, like Jack. Even with the scholarships she clearly deserved, she would’ve needed to hold a full-time job just to pay the tuition.

  But she never held it against anyone. The idea of pulling yourself up and paving your own way was a mantra for her, and not one she held lightly.

  “The room is nothing without the company,” Jack said, as he stepped inside, locking the door behind him.

  She was still in bed, staring out at something Jack couldn’t see.

  Jack jumped into the bed to join her, but only found an enormous pile of pillows and blankets scattered across the softest mattress he’d ever felt. His target had cleanly rolled off the bed and was now staring out of what someone could only loosely describe as a window.

  The outer wall was made of a single piece of glass that allowed for an unbroken view of the city below. Light from the many stores and streetlamps proved it was yet another city that never slept.

  “It really is something, isn’t it?” She said, relaxing against his shoulder when she sensed his presence behind her.

  “Yeah,” he replied pensively, “This is what we fight for, isn’t it? The idea that we must defend this place?”

  “This and every other world home to human life,” she leaned her head back, nestling into his neck, “This city, this world, it’s only a small representation of the beauty mankind can achieve through something as basic as freedom to live your life as you see fit.”

  “What about non-human life? Is it only ours that matters?” It was a question he needed the answer to, but he was always too afraid to ask in the presence of other soldiers.

  “No… but it’s the only life you and I understand,” she replied, “and even if we could understand the others, who is to say they could do the same? As much as I would love to see peace in this universe, we have to continue fighting… and praying that we aren’t explicitly wrong for doing it.”

  “In hardship,” he said, starting the phrase that was so deeply ingrained in who he was.

  “We rise.” She finished.

  They stood there, holding each other for what seemed like ages. The passage of time slowed for the lovers, almost as if that moment could last a lifetime. Eventually, she spun, dancing out of his arms and across the floor. “That said, if we are going to rise tomorrow when they call us, we might want to consider getting a little sleep.”

  “Oh, really now?” he said with a wry smile.

  “Yeah, but first I need to wash up and get the rest of this spa treatment off my skin. I couldn’t get it off with the towel and it has a strong smell, so I need to scrub.” she replied, walking slowly toward the bathroom, unbuttoning her uniform jacket, “That and the fact that we have no water limitation makes this shower irresistible.”

  Jack simply smiled at the thought and continued to stare out into the city. Behind him, a soft thump of cloth hitting the floor was enough to make him turn and take in the beautiful sight of his best friend.

  “Are you coming, or do I have to wash my back all by myself?”

  The words were hardly out of her mouth before Jack bolted across the room and joined her in a similar state of dress. After two years of no true privacy, it was more than time for the couple to enjoy a truly unforgettable night.