“Growing up with three brothers, I always wondered what it would be like to have some sisters.” Cra confessed.


    “Now I guess I know.” she said, looking at the two of them fondly.


    Sparks and Alyssa’s eyes welled up with tears. For a couple of orphans, who had wished for family their entire lives, Cra couldn’t have said anything kinder.


    “You’re the best!” Alyssa said,ing over to hug the brte tightly, tears rolling down her cheeks.


    “I love you so much… sister!” Sparks said with a sob, as she moved over to hug Cra tightly too.


    Cra sighed happily, loving the incredible, rock solid bond that had grown between the three of them. She knew that people developed strong friendships when fighting asrades and the three of them had certainly done a lot of that in thest few weeks!


    When the tears had dried up, the girls separated, Alyssa and Sparks blushing a bit at the strength of their reaction to Cra’s heartfelt words.


    “I wonder how we’ll get on with Jade?” Sparks asked curiously.


    “She seems really nice.” Alyssa said, remembering the innocent warm smile the alien had given her back on the Kirrix dropship.


    “I don’t think it’s in her nature to be deceptive, jealous, vindictive or anything like that. She’s just naturally friendly and open.” The beautiful blonde exined.


    “I wonder how old she actually is?” Cra asked curiously.


    “We could ask her I guess, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know.” Alyssa said, recalling her conversation with the green hued girl down on the bottom deck earlier on.


    “How long do you think she’ll be asleep for?” Cra wondered.


    “Well the first time any of us had dinner with John,” Alyssa said, causing the other two girls to smile in amusement. “we slept for 14 hours”.


    “She isn’t human though.” Sparks said. “Perhaps her body will react faster or slower?” she said logically.


    “Well we’ll just keep an eye on her and make sure she’sfortable.” Cra saidpassionately and the other girls nodded agreeably.


    John strode back into the officer’s lounge looking pleased with himself. The girls looked up at him and smiled affectionately.


    “How did the chat with Charles go?” Alyssa asked him.


    “Oh great thanks. He seems pretty keen to buy our cargo!” John grinned. “I think the trip to Olympus should be fun!”


    “I’m more looking forward to going shopping with the girls on Gravitus.” Alyssa confessed.


    “I wonder how Rachel’s getting on?” She asked John with an arched eyebrow.


    “Who’s Rachel?” Cra asked curiously.


    “A lovely girl we met at the boutique I bought my clothes from.” Alyssa exined. “She could probably retire after themission she made that day!” she said, grinning up at John.


    “That’s why I need to sell this ore, to fund your shopping trips.” John smiled at her fondly.


    They settled down and chatted with each other happily, enjoying the quiet after all the action over thest few days. Before they knew it, they had talked their way through the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening. A soft beeping on John’s watch interrupted the current conversation.


    “We’re nearly back at Port Heracles.” John said, turning off the rm.


    He noticed a worried look sh across Cra’s face.N?velDrama.Org owns all content.


    “Oh sorry honey, I should have said before. Rupert Grant fled. He’s wanted for treason now and is fleeing a death sentence.” John said reassuringly. “You won’t have to worry about running across him there”.


    “I’d still like to leave as soon as we can if that’s ok?” Cra asked tentatively. “I have a lot of bad memories from that ce.”


    “Sure, we’ll drop the civilians off and leave as soon as they’ve been taken care of.” John said.


    “Thanks John, I appreciate it.” The gorgeous Latina said, smiling at him warmly.


    They headed up to the bridge and sat in their familiar ces and Alyssa brought the Invictus around to approach the immense space station, as soon as they jumped into the system and exited hyper warp. She received docking clearance and brought them in towards Port Heracles, while John contacted the new stationmander and arranged for support teams to meet them and take care of the civilians.


    Sparks was seeing Port Heracles for the first time and she marvelled at the size of such a huge piece of Terran construction. The space station reminded her of a stack of tes, with a big round disc in the middle that held the docking bays. The smaller discs above and below twinkled with lights from the hundreds of viewports sprinkled around their circumference. Their view of the station disappeared as the Invictus moved in to dock with Port Heracles.


    “I’ll let our guests know we’ve arrived.” John informed them as he stood up.


    “Cra and I will wait up on the bridge.” Alyssa said, throwing a warm smile the brte’s way.


    “I’lle.” volunteered Sparks.


    John smiled at her affectionately and held out his hand, as she came up the ramp to join him at the elevator. They went down to deck 4 and rallied the civilians, who were eager to disembark, eventually heading down in the elevator as one big group. John strode forward to open the airlock into the docking bay and two medical teams escorted by Terran Federation troopers were there to meet them. A balding middle aged man strode up to John.


    “Commander Clive Steeran.” he said, throwing John a respectful salute.


    “Commander John ke, but you can call me John.” John replied, returning the salute.


    “It’s nice to meet the man who was instrumental in removing my predecessor!” the new station Commander said enthusiastically. “Oh and call me Clive, by all means!”


    He stuck his hand out, which John took and Clive shook it warmly. “You’ve be a bit of a hero around here John!”


    John smiled graciously and nced over at the medical teams who were speaking to the civilians, most of whom were waving away any medical attention.


    “Don’t worry about them, my men will take good care of them!” Clive said eagerly. “Are you staying at Heracles for long?”


    “I’m afraid not Clive, we’re on our way to Olympus shipyard. We only came here to carry these people to safety.” John replied apologetically.


    “That’s a shame.” Clive said, clearly disappointed. “Let me know when you’reing back this way and we’ll roll out the wee mat.” he grinned.


    John smiled and nodded.


    Sparks saw Geoff looking back at her with a wistful expression on his face. When he saw her looking at him, he blushed and then waved goodbye shyly. The redhead beamed a big friendly smile at him in return and waved him farewell.


    “Safe travels Commander!” Clive bade them farewell, as John and Sparks turned to board the Invictus.