The Invictus followed the course laid in by Alyssa, making quick and determined progress towards Port Heracles. The communications officer who contacted them sounded surprised that the Assault Cruiser was a civilian vessel, but such things were not totally unheard of. He granted them docking clearance for docking bay four.
The Invictus stalked closer, before gliding into the docking bay under Alyssa's careful hand. It was a tight fit, but with her skilful guidance they avoided any mishaps. Lateral thrusters fired as their ship eased up to the docking gantry, and once they had finally made gentle contact, docking clamps locked them securely into place.
"Nice job," John said, admiring her handiwork.
"Thanks," she said, smiling up at him. "Flying something this huge is so much fun!"
They headed out of the ship across the docking gantry, and then up an elevator into the Spaceport proper. Although not on anywhere near the same physical scale as Olympus Shipyard, this spaceport had a large retail and trading emporium, so saw a lot of traffic from independent traders. Those traders included a broad selection of space-faring aliens, which had Alyssa whirling around wide eyed to take them all in. She gawped at the exotic creatures, marvelling at their bizarre shapes and colouring.
John leaned over to the gawking teen. "Try not to be too obvious," he whispered into her ear quietly. "Some of these species don't like to be stared at."
He smiled as he watched the curious young woman darting furtive glances at the various different aliens, whilst trying to be discreet. He looked around himself, and noted that the Kintark were conspicuously absent.
*Excuse me, young one,* a melodic voice sounded in Alyssa's head. She whirled to see a dark green, solid looking, gelatinous blob stopped at her side, waiting to pass by.
"Oh pardon me!" she exclaimed, before stepping out of the way. The creature squelched past, followed by a pair of robotic humanoid porters that were loaded down with boxes.
*It is of no consequence. Be well, young one,* the kind melodic voice chimed again.
"What was that?" she asked John quietly, as soon as the creature was out of earshot. It had no ears, so she hoped it couldn't overhear.
"That was a Bolon," John explained. "They are a friendly species, but communicating with them is very difficult as they can't speak. They use the robots as interpreters when trading."
"Ah ok, thanks," Alyssa mumbled distractedly. "How very interesting..." she thought to herself.
John led Alyssa to the Terran Federation medical facility where Calara was recuperating. John nodded courteously to a couple of soldiers standing guard outside, and they were ushered into the reception area of the facility. The walls and floor in the facility were blindingly white, which took a little getting used to.
The receptionist was a middle aged woman, who looked up from her work at her console, and smiled at them in welcome.
"Hello, can I help you?" she asked the smartly dressed visitors courteously.
"We're here to see Calara Fernandez," John replied, bracing himself for questions if it turned out that she had been hauled off to the brig.
"Certainly sir, one moment," the receptionist replied, before scanning through a list of names on the console.
"Ah yes," she said, finding Calara amongst the list. "May I see your identification please?" she requested politely. John and Alyssa handed over their IDs', which were scanned by a nearby reader, logging them as visitors.
"Take the elevator up to floor three, Lieutenant Fernandez is in room 347," the receptionist said, passing back their IDs, and pointing to the elevators in the corner of the room. "I'll let her know you're on your way," she added kindly.
John and Alyssa thanked the receptionist and then walked over to take the elevator up to the third floor. The hospital was well sign posted, and they found room 347 easily. John knocked politely on the door.
"Come in!" Calara's excited voice drifted out from the room.
He opened the door, and saw Calara standing by a desk, turning to face them as she closed the call with the receptionist. Alyssa glided past him, and the two young women came together in a warm embrace.
"Oh! It's so good to see you!" Calara gasped, delighted to see her visitors.
"You too!" Alyssa exclaimed, a beaming smile on her face. "You look so much better!"
Calara reached up to touch her nose self consciously, still swollen from the break that had been straightened. Her black eyes had mostly disappeared now, and John could see that the young Latina was actually very pretty. Unfortunately her lack of sleep made her look very tired, with big bags under her eyes.
John moved forward to greet her with a hug, and she moved into his arms, holding him tightly. "Thank you for saving me, both of you," Calara mumbled into his chest. "You don't know how good it is to see you."
Alyssa stepped up behind her, and they both hugged the distraught young woman comfortingly for a while. After some of the tension had relaxed from her shoulders, they stepped away, with John taking the nearby reclining chair, and the girls sitting on the bed.
"So, Calara, can you tell me more about the trouble you're in?" he asked gently.
A dark wave of depression seemed to crash over the poor girl, and her shoulders slumped in defeat.
"I'm being charged with 'dereliction of duty', and there's going to be a court martial!" she exclaimed, her voice panicked. Alyssa moved closer, and wrapped an arm around her, supporting her comfortingly.
John took out a small handheld device and connected to the station's security network.
"He said I'd have to answer for my shocking lack of judgement. That I was to blame for the Corvette being boarded, and all those people being killed!" Calara blurted out, on the verge of tears. "I was asleep at the time though! As the junior tactical officer, I had handed over the next shift to Lieutenant Crowe."
