#incoming transmission ≪•◦ dash comm. ◦•≫

[etherbonded]

" AWWW. "

Yes she's cooing over hearing a childhood story with Ren and Akira. It's adorable but also.. kinda funny.

[sparksliberated]

tag dump !

[danthekickingman]

As if the day hadn't been full of enough surprises already.

Vaal rose after the stranger, following cautiously behind - worried more for her own state than any danger she might possibly present. The Captain in turn watched with wary eyes, while Nebi and Chac merely looked on curiously.

Dan himself wasn't perturbed in the slightest. He had no idea what was going on - who the stranger was, nor how she'd arrived there - but he sensed no ill intent in her movements. Even as she reached for his face, he remained unflinching, doing nothing more than looking down to better observe the being before him.

Her eyes caught his attention more than anything else.

In the next moment a sudden warmth spread from her fingertips, the sensation forcing a blink of surprise. Still, he did not pull away. The being before him looked so determined, fierce in a soft sort of way.

He was too curious to pull back.

And then, the warmth faded. Vaal made a noise of surprise, but he hardly took note of what it might be over. Instead he was focused on the teetering stance of the stranger, his hands darting out to catch her before her head could hit the hard deck floor.

"Your wounds-"

The beep of the comms cut off Vaal's voice, the entire crew in turn looking to the nearest computer station as the voice spelled out the sender.

"Dan, Chac," the Captain called sternly, motioning them towards the hall. She then nodded at Vaal, pointing towards the now empty box before heading over to the computer station.

Behind her, the crew immediately sprang into action.

Chac tossed the collar over to Nebi, who disappeared into a side room with it. He then zipped off into another room himself, giving Dan a brief word over his shoulder. Dan, in turn, lift the stranger into his arms (as well as the blanket), dashing off towards the hall he'd been pointed to.

As the others hurried off to their destinations, Vaal made his way back to the box, closing the lid and putting the lock back in place. The break was then weathered just so, a trick intended to warp the perceived time of its opening. The moment he finished he was up and sprinting towards Nebi, placing the lock tool back in its spot as if it had never moved at all.

By then, Nebi had thrown the released collar into a vat of acid - singing a gleeful little tune as she watched the last of it disappear.

Meanwhile, down the hall, Dan was placing Hilda into an open alcove. For all intents, it was an absolutely absurd hiding spot. The alcove was plainly visible from the path, one of the first places a person would see upon exiting the dock.

If they were lucky, though, that fact would work in their favor.

Chac appeared a moment later behind him, tossing him a small, clunky device that he'd retrieved from the other room.

"Guess you can't always choose your field tests," the rotund being mused as Dan worked on setting it up, clipping it to the side of the alcove and fiddling with the various buttons.

"I trust your work," Dan returned with a small, amused smile. An angry beep followed - then suddenly a flicker of texture -

And then the unknown being vanished before their eyes.

"All my hands crossed," Chac shrugged as he watched Dan stick an arm through the thin shield. So long as one didn't go past, the alcove beyond would appear to be empty.

With nothing else to tend to, the crew began returning to the landing bay. The Captain had remained all the while, currently in the middle of verifying her identity in order to set up the incoming transmission.

"Ah-" Nebi suddenly mused quietly, regarding Dan with hand on chin as he neared. "Hmm...no, this won't do."

She began pulling at Dan's shirt - an action met with quizzical brows before the rest of them realized all the blood that was covering it.

Blood that now had no wounds to source from.

Dan helped her get it off, and she slithered off with it back towards the acid vat. Vaal and Chac in turn began wiping at the blood on Dan's face and arms, getting as much of it off as possible before it could raise suspicions.

Behind them, the captain let out a tired sigh - the transmission flickering to life a mere second later.

Hilda lowered her eyes as she let him work. She was uncomfortable being stared at by so many people. It was almost like she was such a wild animal to be handled with care. Not that it could be helped when languages were not shared. The large figure seemed to be coming from a place of good. 

She winced a little upon hearing the click, as it reminded her of the sound of the box’s lock being put in place. The purple-black bruise on her neck began to breathe now that the tight collar was removed. But that was not the only injury to smart. 

There was a swell of ethereal wind that picked up about her in whisps. Her skin glowed with a gentle warm light. She doubled over with a gasp. The edges of her vision began to blur, as her body attempted to readjust to this new access to a magical font. She held the blanket closer to her as she suddenly felt both hot and cold at once. There was a sensation of both body and senses expanding. Then she felt light headed. 

Perhaps, the collar should have waited until her body readjusted after the hibernation sickness. 

Then, the sound of engines filled her with gratitude. It was something else to focus on. Something else for the others to pay attention to. She looked up to see Vaal clearly upset at something. Hazily, she turned her attention to the new arrival. Though her vision was slowly recovering from the fog, she could still tell by the blotches of colors and the responses of the others that something wasn’t quite right. 

She slowly got to her feet. They were kind enough to return her magic to her, then she could show her gratitude by using the gift. Shakedly, and without hurry, she walked up to Dan. Too close perhaps, for one's comfort with a distressed stranger. She reached up to place warm palms on each of his cheeks. Then, she closed her eyes. 

Her magic flowed warmly throughout his energetic meridians. Effortlessly, it healed his injuries by warming and encouraging the tissue to reconnect. It sped the healing process to be a matter of seconds. Dan’s injuries were soon nothing more than fresh pink skin upon his form.

Then, she fell aways from him. Her knees gave out as she spent what little energy she had left. The glow left her, as she sank back into sleep at a heap at his feet. 

That was when the ship’s PA system gave a low beep followed by “Incoming Transmission from Morasys Dynamics. Identification key verified.” The ship’s interface awaited the Captain’s orders on how to receive the transmission. More than likely, they were here for their package.

@danthekickingman

[victorywar]

          blog tags

[dcmxnictrxnsmissixn]

((time to dump these tags))

[fxght4]

tag dump

[takingthefastlane]

Tag Dump

[cupcakemolotov]

At Horizon’s Edge

I promised @lalainajanes​ a space fic sometime before Covid, so that could have been two years ago or three, who can remember anymore, but here it is. I hope you enjoy it!

You can read the story at A03 here if you prefer!

Synopsis: Sometimes when a girl goes on a shopping trip to pick up a new pair of boots at the local, and somewhat hostile, human space station, she accidentally aids and abets a prison break instead. What happens in the black really doesn't stay in the black.

Warnings: Alternate Universe; Alternate Universe - Space; Alternate Universe - Fantasy; Alternate Universe - Soulmates; Alien Cultural Differences; Alien Technology;  Werewolves; Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known; Werewolves in Space; Werewolf!Klaus; Alien!Caroline; Mostly Alien at Least; prison break; Accidental Rescue; Some Gore; Non-OTP Charachter Death; Found Family

                                                              -

Caroline slid into her pilot’s chair just as the comm on her dash beeped for an incoming transmission. Glancing over at the seat where her co-pilot sat, Enzo gave her a grim look. He didn’t agree to her plan, and she didn’t blame him. She wasn’t usually given to bouts of insanity but every day in space was a new one, and sometimes life tossed surprises at you with the impact of live grenades.  

“Five minutes until gate clearance.” He paused and then sighed, rolling his shoulders with a reluctant acceptance. “I hope you know what you are doing.”

So did she. 

Five minutes was an eternity when facing the guns of the space station they had just left. Named after a moon in the humanities home solar system, Titan was one of the few remaining stations that still traded directly with Earth. They were also very proud that they maintained the largest population of pure blooded humans outside of Earth Solar System, even by Earth’s exacting standards of what was considered human these days. 

If she’d cared to check, the history logs on her computer would tell her all about the wars that had nearly decimated Earth and its colonized planets, of the laws that banned anyone who carried alien DNA in their veins. The justifications of a world terrified by how humanity could change in the cold void of space and their desperate, grasping fingers trying to avoid change. 

Caroline had long since stopped caring about earth’s collective opinions, and the stars cared not all about the blood in your veins. Not all of humanity bent to fear, the far flung colonies that still lingered though they’d been abandoned by their home world. They’d learned to adapt, to change. There were wonders and nightmares in space that Earth could never imagine, but right then, none of that was particularly helpful. 

What she cared about was getting out of Titan’s airspace as quickly as possible without getting blown to bits. The conversation she needed to have to do that would require her to be very, very careful. Blowing out a breath, Caroline hit accept. 

Half a heart beat later, and the familiar eyes of Marshal Tyler Lockwood popped up on her screen. He looked worn, older than the last time she had seen him. The thick black of his hair had faded to more gray than the salt and pepper she remembered from their last conversation, and the creases in his forehead, and at the corner of his eyes, were a sign of his human heritage more than any of the military patches on his uniform. 

Old. He had started to look so old. 

“Marshall Lockwood,” Caroline said, tucking away any hint of sorrow. “This is a surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

He grimaced, his face telling her exactly what he thought of either of them enjoying this call. Her ex-lover did not enjoy being reminded of their past, which was why she made a point to do it every time he initiated one of these little catch ups. A little pettiness always did wonders for her mood. 

“Forbes. You’re leaving early.” He looked down, the line between his brows deepening as he clearly checked something on his tablet. “We had expected your stay at the station to last for another 48 standard hours.”

Brows arched, Caroline tipped her head to the side and studied him. “I wasn’t aware that you were watching my flight plans so closely.”

A hint of derision entered his eyes. “You are dangerous, Forbes. I keep an eye on dangerous things.”

She was dangerous. But not in ways that Tyler could plan against, and they both knew to target her specifically because of her heritage went against a dozen interstellar laws. His team could enforce station laws while she was standing on it, but here, on her ship, minutes from making a FTL jump, what she did should have been of no concern to them. This wasn’t space owned strictly by humanity, where it could control its population down to its DNA. 

Tyler was walking a fine line. 

Smiling, she settled a bit more comfortably in her chair. “Awe, that’s so sweet of you. Being so concerned about your people. I think you’d be more relieved to see the back of my ship than making demands to justify why I would leave when we both know you're not entitled to that information.”

His mouth tightened at her jab. “Generally that would be the case but you’re predictable. This breaks your usual pattern, and that gives me cause for suspicion.”

She shook her head in false exasperation, deliberately misunderstanding him. “My personal life is none of your business, remember? You made that choice decades ago, no reason to get sentimental now in your final few years.” 

Her words were below the belt, but Caroline had never really been able to help herself where he was concerned. Walking away from her, walking away from the future they had been building together had hurt. Decades had softened the sting, but some scars still bled. 

“I wasn’t asking for personal reasons.” His words were clipped, the edges sharp and cutting. 

She laughed. “Such lies you tell. But there isn’t anything dramatic about my departure, Tyler. Your collection of goods suck right now. Did someone piss off High Command again? Would it honestly kill you to announce it when you have trade-shortfalls? Manifests exist for a reason, you know, and it’s such a waste that your ‘council’ won’t let anyone bring in additional goods. Seriously, I could have avoided this whole trip and it would have saved me some time and docking fees.”

Absently, she wondered if his jaw got stuck like that these days, clenched down on a brutal line that left the muscle jumping tautly. “You expect me to believe you couldn’t find the correct dress size so you decided to ignore two days of your itinerary? I know you better than that.”

Caroline scoffed. “Actually, you don’t know me, Tyler. It’s been fifty years since we last had a conversation that didn’t involve us insulting each other. Your personal opinions about my love of a well organized schedule are outdated.” The lie slipped easily from her tongue, and next to her Enzo rolled his eyes. She flipped him off, just outside of view of the camera. “My irritation at the lack of proper boot sizes available aside, you’re not usually this pushy. You want to tell me what’s really going on? And why you need a scapegoat?”

Tyler’s jaw turned to stone for a long moment, and she forced herself to appear bored. Every moment he delayed was another that they crept closer to their escape. He finally unlocked it enough to speak, words harsh. “We had a prison break.”

She didn’t have to fake her surprise, brows arching high at both his reluctant admittance and what it meant. Very, very few people knew that Titan had an advanced and secure prison system. Dear Old Earth had always enjoyed making its problems vanish, and Titan was one such place they used to keep their hands clean. Those shipments from Earth of goods and perishables that made Titan so popular as a trade station came with a dirty secret: in the belly of those ships were people. Political prisoners, murders, terrorists, inconvenient witnesses who needed to disappear. Titan housed them all. Some would be kept in the cold bowls of the station and others shipped off to one of the max-prisons deep in the black of space. 

None of them ever escaped. 

That Titan was a prison was a dirty little secret and not one that could be allowed to get out. But such secrets, buried in metal and technology, were very hard to hide from her. Tyler knew it, though he was bound to keep some of her secrets. As she was bound to keep the worst of his.

“You don’t lose people.” Caroline said slowly. “What happened?”

“He had help.”

Brows coming together at the word ‘he’, she frowned. “And now you want me to find him.”

Tyler’s face could have been carved from stone. “No, Caroline. I want to know if he is aboard your ship.”

Next to her, Enzo lifted three fingers in her peripheral vision. They’d only been talking for two minutes and it’d felt like twenty. 

“Tyler, that’s far fetched even for you. I don’t let random people on my ship. You know that.” She didn’t have to fake the bitterness in the curve of her lips. “If I remember correctly, it was a major point of contention in our relationship.”

He ignored her, only the flex of his jawline a sign that her words had hit home. “I want to board your ship.”

“Absolutely not,” Caroline said flatly. “You have no grounds.”

“I have more than enough circumstantial evidence.” He spread his hand in her view, eyes like flint, shoulders square. “We scanned your ship, and while there are only three bodies registering onboard, we both know you have the capability to hide someone.”

She arched a brow. “That’s a violation of at least three treaties, Tyler.”

Marshall Lockwood didn't seem bothered by that. “I also know that there are at least two smuggling compartments on your ship that are capable of housing a human for short periods of time without them suffering from asphyxiation.”

There were now four compartments, and all of them could hide people for up to four hours without risking asphyxiation but were rarely used for such purposes. Smuggling people was difficult, goods were safer. Goods didn’t talk about ships and captains and give people ideas. But there were some things she couldn’t stomach, and sometimes a girl needed to be prepared. 

But Tyler didn’t know that. 

It’d been fifty years since she’d let him step foot on her ship. And unfortunately for him, she was hardly the only crew member with secrets. Smuggling had brought such interesting bedfellows into her life, and she’d violate more than three treaties to keep them safe. But her ex didn’t need to know that, and none of it would save her, if he opened fire at her. The point blank range of those canons would destroy her and everyone who would be caught in the crossfire. 

Right then, Tyler was a problem and she could show no weakness. 

“Circumstantial evidence of what exactly? “ she tilted her head and let scorn drip along her words. “That your super secret prison had an escapee and I am conveniently close to blame? That is ridiculous and we both know it.”

“You’re a Tech Witch.” 

Next to her, Enzo tensed at the derogatory term and Caroline let her smile sharpen. Her mother’s blood wasn’t an unknown quality of hers, but saying so here, on this channel with who knows how many witnesses, put him perilously close to breaking the agreements that bound them both. 

“Marshall, my ship cleared your security systems ten minutes ago. We accepted the standard cargo check before we left the docking bay, and I am told they were very thorough. Other than requiring a scapegoat in the form of my non-human DNA for whatever inside job you're attempting to cover up, you have nothing.” She nodded when he remained silent. “You have nothing.”

Something beeped, and he glanced down. When he glanced up, nothing had shifted on his face. “I could request you return to the docking bay or face the canons, Forbes.”

Caroline shook her head. It was a threat, but here, for now, she had the upper hand. This kind of PR move for humanity would be costly, but Tyler didn’t worry about those decisions. But him, personally, and the blackmail she had?

“We both know why you won’t.”

The skin near his eyes visibly tightened and she let her smile dimple. They both knew her death would act as a trigger for a number of unpleasant consequences for Tyler. What bound them was contractual, but she had never trusted him to do more than keep the letter of the law, and today had proved she’d been correct in her assessment. If he could have violated the spirit of their contract, he would have. Lucky for her, he couldn’t. Tyler’s secrets could destroy everything he had worked to build in his life, and even now, less than a decade or two from his death, he wouldn’t risk her ruining him. 

Her previous lover had always been a coward when it counted. Earth had its enemies, and so did Titan, and she knew almost all of them. Today might cost her, but it could cost him far more. 

Letting her knowledge show on her face, she showed her teeth. “Do you even want to tell me who it is that you lost that has you so desperate?” 

There was a long, long silence as he stared at her and she just waited. Time was on her side now, the clock burning down. In the back of her head, she counted down. 

Sixty seconds. Fifty-five. So close. 

The gleam behind Tyler’s eyes turned calculating, and he dropped the name as if it was supposed to mean something, as if it was supposed to bring the weight of her guilt crashing down on her shoulders. “Klaus Mikaelson.”

Caroline just stared at him in surprise; she hadn’t expected him to tell her. The ghosts between her and Tyler faded a little more every year. Humanity might have extended their lifespans as far as they could be stretched, but they would never match those whose DNA held the remnants of long lived, non-human races. Soon Tyler would be one of the few living memories left from the single year of her life she had spent planetside. 

Klaus Mikaelson was another. 

Gathering her thoughts, Caroline shook her head, forcing herself to focus. “If he is alive, he should be nearing a century on a planet with less medical knowledge than your Station. He should be either senile or dead.” She pushed back a loose strand of hair that slid into her face, the pale gold as much as her mother’s blood as her fathers. “Out of all of us, I’m the only one cursed, remember?”

Next to her, Enzo made a grunting noise of disagreement, his disapproval clear. She waved a hand at him. Her hidden clenched fist relaxed as Enzo bared his teeth but started the sequence to activate the first of what was going to be several jumps. Right then, she didn’t care how much he hated Tyler. They’d be harder to trace once they arrived at the major traffic lanes, but first they had to make it. She didn’t dare take her eyes away from her screen. 

Tyler sighed, the sound deep and an echo that caught in her chest. His dark eyes creased, and for the first time the Tyler she’d once known peaked at her from behind the Marshall. “You’ve never been gifted at lying, Caroline.”

She laughed at him, the sound bitter. “No, Tyler. You’ve just never believed me when I spoke truly. I was never your enemy.”

His face told her that he didn't believe her. He never had. “I won’t forget this, Caroline. When we prove that you helped, and we will prove it, not even your precious interstellar laws will be able to protect you.”

The call ended just as their clearance to enter the gate came through. Caroline cut the open line, and immediately started backtracking through her systems to make sure that Tyler hadn’t tried to leave her a present. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Earth, and it’s subjects, tended to see laws as flexible when it suited them. 

The initial scrub didn’t take long, she’d never skimped on security and her ship did not endure itself to strangers programs, and the surface diagnosis came back clean. Jaw set, she triggered the deeper scrub that would erase the identifiers that they had used to dock at Titan. 

She’d known she’d have to burn the remaining dregs of that life soon, but hadn’t expected it today. Better to make a clean cut, erase her existence here in Pure Human Space now than end up in the darkness of its prison, driven mad by the hum of machines she could hear but not touch. 

“Ten seconds until FTL.”

Switching to her main screen, Caroline pulled up the screens to monitor their progress. Closing her eyes as the universe started to blur with the faster than light speed jump, she inhaled slowly and didn’t breathe again until the sound of space tearing around them drowned out the anxious rush of her heartbeat. 

-

It took twenty minutes after they passed through the gate to clear enough space to make the first jump. They didn’t quite dare engage their cloaking device until they left the jump points. It took another precious half hour before they finally winked out of existence as far as radars were concerned. But the muscles along her spine didn't relax until Enzo finally gave her a nod.

“We’re clear. No one followed us, which means they didn’t have enough time to scramble a ship. We’ve got a sixty minute window before this airspace becomes too hot for us.”

Caroline laughed. “Good thing we won’t be here that long. Go ahead and start planning our next jump.”

Enzo tipped his head. “Are we sticking to our plan then?”

“For now. I don’t want to risk picking up a tail, and they won’t be able to follow us from here. As long as we stay out of Federation space, we should be okay for the short term.”

For now. If they were going to stay that way was entirely dependent on what exactly she had gotten them into. Grimacing a little, she hit the comm button. “Bonnie? Everything alright down there?”

There was a pause and then the droll voice of her closest friend came back over the mic. “So far everything is holding up. I did a fast scan once we cleared the gate, and I didn’t find any extra tech that might have been dropped in the ship.”

“Thanks, but we’re clean.” She pressed her hand against the panel, listening to the hum of engines and the computers that were as familiar to her as the back of her hands. The curious hum of its voice. “I’ll be down shortly to deal with our pickup.”

“Better you than me.”

Enzo leaned back, watching her with dark eyes as he waited for her to finish her conversation. “You sure this is what you want?”

Caroline snorted and unbuckled herself. “I think it's a little late for second guessing, don’t you?”

A shrug. “We could space him.”

She laughed, this one far more genuine. “If he threatens you or Bonnie, I promise, he’ll find himself ejected. But until then…”

Enzo crossed his arms, gaze dark. “You think he might know something about your mom.”

Eyes sliding shut, Caroline sighed. She wished she could have given him that as the reason, but it hadn’t been. Not then. Now… “I don’t know if anyone knows what happened to my mom.”

“Be careful, Gorgeous.” Enzo’s mouth tightened at the corners. “The past can make you bleed.”

She knew that far better than anyone should, but arguing with Enzo about unnecessary reminders wouldn’t get her anywhere. “Yeah.”

Tipping back into his chair, Enzo studied her. “I’ve still got a friend or two on that station. I could arrange it so Lockwood stops being such a problem.”

She shot him a look and he shrugged unrepentant. “He has no teeth.”

“Gorgeous, we both know that’s hardly the truth. He’s going to do his damndest to make your life difficult. Even if he sticks to your bargain until he dies, you’ve got nothing to protect you after his death.”

Caroline shook her head. “Legacy means everything to Tyler. I don’t think he’ll so easily let me ruin it.”

Enzo snorted but turned back to his computer. “I’ll make the next jump.”

Understanding it for the grumpy acceptance but not an approval that it was, Caroline lifted hand to acknowledge she heard him, and left the bridge. The door closed behind her, leaving her in the quiet corridors, only the sounds of her boots loud over the hum of the ship as she walked. 

She wished she could explain her impulsive reaction to Enzo, wished she could find the words that gave her actions any kind of logic. Particularly since she couldn’t explain to herself. 

Walking around the corner, she found Bonnie waiting on her. There was grease smeared on one cheek and her mouth was pulled into a frown. Sighing, Caroline rubbed her forehead. “Are you going to yell too?”

Bonnie seemed to consider that, the data pad she held tapping against her thigh before she sighed. “I’d like to. But would it do any good?”

“Probably not.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She held out the data pad with a sigh. “I still have a bottle of that shit you call liquor in my room. When this is over, you’re going to owe me an explanation.”

Caroline’s fingers curled around the peace offering. “It’s a pretty long story.”

“You noticed I said an entire bottle?”

There wasn’t much she could say to that. “Deal.”

Bonnie nodded and tipped her head towards their small medbay. “Good luck.”

Taking a deep breath, she nodded and pressed her palm to the door, unlocking it so she could step inside. He was waiting for her, the familiarity of him the same punch to her system as it had been before. He’d lost the horrible prison uniform, Bonnie must have felt far more charitable than she’d wanted Caroline to know. But then, her friend had spent her own time in the prison uniforms herself and still avoided the color orange. 

But that meant he was now shirtless, his bandaged ribs on display, his expression guarded. 

Caroline gave herself a moment to absorb that change in perspective, to take him in. The tumble of curls still touched the tops of his ears, but he’d cleaned up his beard so that only a short stubble remained, leaving behind a man’s face, thin from his time beneath Titan but hardly weak. His eyes were gold touched blue, and awareness brushed down her spine. The decades since she had last seen him were stacked behind his eyes, visible in the way he had grown into his skin.

But the impact of him, the jolting rush of recognition from earlier still lingered beneath her skin. The sudden awareness of who he was and the bone deep hello she couldn’t explain. Which made no sense, had made no sense when she was hauling his ass through Titan. If the boy who had once been kind to her was buried beneath lean muscle and a hardness she recognized from her own mirror, she didn’t see him. This man, with his steady gaze and roughened features was a stranger.

She didn’t know what to think of the way he watched her. He brought so many complications with him. Tipping her head, she arched a brow with more casualness than she felt. 

“Werewolf, huh?” Caroline kept her voice even, and the edge of his mouth curled. “I’d have remembered that if you’d mentioned that little detail before.”

He took his time responding, gaze dragging down her body in a thorough perusal that left her skin tingling as if he’d touched her. “Caroline Forbes. I must say, you were not who I was expecting.”

She snorted. “Yeah, well, me either. I wasn’t there to rescue you.”

His gaze narrowed. “Then why were you there?”

Caroline kept her voice bland, shifting her weight to tap one boot against the floor. “New boots.”

And Klaus Mikaelson blinked at her as if the words that were coming out of her mouth were in a dialect he had never heard before. She felt a perverse amount of satisfaction from that. The Klaus she had known had been a few years older and nearly unflappable, outside of the mercurial moodiness of his temperament.

“New boots.”

“Yup. And lucky for you that I decided I needed them. There are reasons that Titan has never lost a prisoner before.” She tossed the data pad in front of him. “I don’t know who or what you were expecting when you made it onto the surface level, but if I hadn’t found you and decided to help, you’d have been collared and sent right back into the depths of the station.”

Caroline wasn’t certain she’d ever shake the shock of it: turning the corner, and finding Klaus standing there. Klaus, who she had thought of only in the safety in the dark of space, when she allowed herself to remember that tumultuous year she’d spent with her feet on solid earth. She had hoped for him to have married, to have had a batch of sarcastic moody children, to have grown old having survived the machinations of his mother. 

Another quiet piece of her past disappearing before she’d gained even so much as a hint of a wrinkle. 

But he hadn’t, and now she didn’t know what to think. 

When she’d seen him, his beard had been too long, the shackles from his cell had still been curved around the bones of his wrists. He’d been slightly hunched, the blood on his uniform not just from whoever had gotten between him and his escape, and the way he stood said something had hurt but he was on his feet. 

Somehow, she hadn’t gotten any of that blood on her. Right then, she was regretting that a little. A single touch of his skin against her own, and she’d have managed to avoid some of this conversation as she’d been given the answers. For the first time, she cursed the prison uniform for more than its obnoxious color and terrible material.

And now here she was , struggling to understand the certainty she hadn't felt in decades when she’d seen him. Her mother’s blood never forgot an enemy, but it also never forgot a friend, and once, a very, very long time ago, she’d thought of him as such. The punch of that knowledge had been staggering as they’d stared at each other, too much between them, and she’d heard the alarms blaring from beneath the soles of her feet. 

She hadn’t been able to turn, to leave him like she should have. Swearing at him, at herself, she’d moved forward and slid her arm beneath his and gritted out an order to stay quiet and to follow her. 

And he had. Now here they were. On her ship, trying to outrun the long reach of Titan. His gaze finally left her face and lowered to the datapad before returning to hers in a silent question.

“Bonnie is med-trained,” Caroline lied easily. “She did a data scan before I came in when she was tapping up your ribs. I know earth uses the prisoners below Titan for experimentation, but did you ever hear them mention what they were putting into your blood?”

“Bonnie,” Klaus said softly. “Is a witch.”

She didn’t lower her eyes. Esther had been a witch. “Is that going to be a problem for you?”

Not even a flicker of a lash. “No.”

“Because if it is,” Caroline said, “I will toss you into the airlock myself. Werewolves can last for a few minutes in the black, you know. Not long enough to live, but long enough to fight for it.”

The yellow in his gaze spread in a wash of power. “Threats already?”

“Duh,” she replied. “This is my ship, my crew. I might have saved you, but you try to harm them, and you’re going to see what it’s like trying to breathe in a vacuum.”

Klaus laughed, low and rich, and it ran across her senses like a touch. “Your threats have gotten better, love. I approve.”

Caroline snorted. “I’m touched. Really.”

He didn’t move towards her, but the sudden intensity to the way he watched her, the wolf clear in his gaze, left her very aware of the careful distance and one table between them. “I think you’ll find that even here, on this ship you’ve claimed and marked as your own, that I am not so easy to destroy.”

She didn’t doubt he believed that, that he was capable of horrible things, even injured, but she refused to give him an inch. Not here, not now. Not yet. Not when her ship would tear itself apart to protect its heart. “So says the werewolf that had to be rescued from humans.”

Klaus’ gaze narrowed, a flicker of deep seated rage there and gone again. “The result of an unfortunate betrayal, one I plan to deal with as soon as I am off this ship.”

There was something dangerous there, something terrible that kept her from asking the questions that lingered on her tongue. “Are you going to be a danger to my crew, Klaus?”

His head angled to the side, and there was nothing soft about his expression. “Will you believe my answer?”

“You’ve never lied to me before,” Caroline said slowly, feeling her way through the strange sense of knowing she hadn’t been able to shake. The buzzing of her mother’s blood. She wanted to believe him. “I don’t have a reason to think you’d start now, though you were apparently keeping some pretty big secrets.”

Klaus went motionless in front of her, the flex of his jaw unexpected as he stared at her. The wolf slowly faded from his eyes as he clearly weighed her words. “I intend no harm to your people, Caroline. Witches or no. But I cannot say the same for my enemies.”

She shoved her fingers through her bangs. “And just who are they?”

“Why did you rescue me, Caroline?”

She blinked. “Does that matter?”

A hint of a dimple curved along his cheek, and Klaus crossed his arms, leaning against the table. She tried very hard to ignore the shift and flex of muscle, the bare skin still on display. The fascinating movement of his tattoo. “Very much, I’m afraid.”

She mirrored his stance, arms crossing across her chest. “And why is that, exactly?”

“Caroline.”

“Klaus.”

“I’ve answered a number of your questions,” he pointed out in a reasonable tone that made her teeth clench. “It's only fair that you do the same, don’t you think?”

“I wasn’t the one rescued.”

His teeth gleamed in the lighting. “A man has reasons to be concerned when a near stranger offers him his freedom. Particularly in such… serendipitous circumstances, don’t you think? The black is full of terrible things. Slavers. Blood Witches. Those influential human scientists who wish to unlock the immortality of magic without the cost. We knew each other a long time ago, love.”

Her eye roll was automatic. “Oh yes, I’ve risked my reputation and my neck to drag you off to a backwater moon so you can become someone’s wolf bitch. How did you guess?”

The hint of amusement that had tugged at his lips disappeared, and something hard entered his eyes. “The truth, if you please.”

It was a velvet threat said in a voice lined in steel. She hadn’t liked that tone from him when she’d been seventeen, and she liked it even less now, knowing of the wolf that lived under his skin. She forcibly reminded herself that she’d have questions if he’s just up and rescued her too. Locking him in the med bag until he was reminded of his manners wasn’t a smart decision. Yet, at least. 

She lifted her chin and held that inhuman gaze, unblinking. “You were something of a friend, once. I hadn’t forgotten that and I have no love for cages. Though I suppose I should worry why humanity decided to bury you in their favorite graveyard. There are some things even I won’t look past. Are we going to be enemies, Klaus?”

Truth and lies, they tangled together and she wondered if he saw them. None of that had been in her mind when she’d seen him, none of that had mattered. Her reaction had been inexplicable and confusing, and it wasn’t something she was willing to discuss. Not now, preferably never. 

“You don’t want me as your enemy, love.”

Caroline scoffed. “I’m not sure I want you as my friend. The last werewolf I made an acquaintance of was a real dick, and this conversation isn’t shaping up to prove you’re much different.”

“And would that werewolf happen to be the esteemed Marshall Lockwood?” His words were casual, as if that information actually existed outside her head. As if he knew. But Klaus had known Tyler once, and that made her wonder. 

“Marshall Lockwood is not up for discussion .”

Klaus brow arched with intrigue. “So the rumors are true.”

“That would depend on the rumors.” It was a strain, to hold that slightly bored expression. To keep her pulse steady. 

“Lockwood should have been promoted past Marshall decades ago.” Klaus dragged his gaze down her face, and for a heartbeat she imagined those eyes lingered on her lips. “The why’s have always generated a great deal of speculation. He passes as human, you see. He is also loyal even when that loyalty is detrimental. The rumors of blackmail, of alien involvement have been rampant for years.”

She’d made a point not to follow those rumors, and it was a struggle not to wince. No wonder Tyler hated her. But she remembered the way he’d spat Tech Witch, the way he’d made it clear to anyone around him, and that wince turned to anger. He’d made his choices. 

“You’re pretty knowledgeable for a man who was locked away in the depths of Titan.” Caroline said slowly. “Why exactly did they toss you into their comfy retirement home? Werewolves take resources to hold.”

His smile was slow and sharp. “Humanity considers me a threat.”

“That hardly makes you special.” She waved a hand towards the walls of her ship. “Earth considers everyone not fully human a threat. It’s a long, extensive list.”

“True. Let’s say then, that I have made an effort to be noticed.” His eyes glittered. “They are well aware of who I am.”

“How wonderful for you. How?”

Klaus studied her for a long moment. “When you said you couldn’t return, you meant it, didn’t you?”

Her breath caught in her throat at those softly voiced words, the memories they dragged violently to the surface. The way she could almost smell the smoke, feel the splash of her mother’s blood against her face. 

“I never lied to you.” Caroline said. “Even then.”

Especially then. 

Not when she had a choice.

He gave a nod, the wolf back in his eyes, as if he had come to some internal decision. “Esther didn’t survive you leaving the planet.”

She blinked, frowned. “Esther was amassing a cult following, how did anyone get through that? And how does this answer my question?”

A sharp slash of a smile. “I killed her.”

Caroline stared at him. Esther had been his mother. “I don’t understand.”

He lowered his arms, shifting his weight carefully. “My mother… Esther was a monster. And so was Mikael.”

“They did try to sacrifice my mom, so no arguments there.” She let the bite of her nails into her palm ground her. “But they were also powerful, which is why we ran.”

And why she’d been willing to barter with Tyler’s mother to get him off that world, the one family with limited permission to leave the planet without the terrible protocols. Not that it’s done her any good, in the long run. Tyler had chosen to bury what he was and to become something he wasn’t. And she...

She’d woken to the cold berth of her ship alone, the only clue the blood that had stained the walls, the floors, of what had been her mother’s room. That ship had been destroyed in the heart of a sun, the blood too potent and the horror of it too binding. The ship sang too mournful song, a song of rage and sadness even as she watched it disappear in an explosion that erased it down to the last molecule.

“Yes,” Klaus agreed. “But by rescuing Liz, you allowed the rest of us to find our freedom.” A lowering of his lashes, charm in every word. “I suppose that means you’ve saved me twice.”

For a long moment their gaze held, and the room felt several degrees too warm. It had been Klaus’ hands who had caught her when she had staggered at the weight of her mother. Klaus who had told her to go, as the screams around them had grown in fever pitch as the fires Kol had set to burn began to consume houses. 

Clearing her throat, Caroline shook her head. “If you killed Ester that debt is even. But what does any of this have to do with you escaping that planet and pissing off enough people you got tossed into Titan? Stop avoiding my questions.”

Another flash of teeth, a deliberate god behind his eyes. “And where have you been all these years, Caroline?”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

Hand sliding to her hip, Caroline glared. “What do you mean? Space is a big place.”

“You’re not an easy woman to find,” Klaus said casually. “Even when one knows what to look for.”

Unexpectedly, her heart jolted into her throat. “You shouldn’t have been looking for me at all.”

The dip of the crease of his cheeks, the curve of his smile were all predatory. “No?”

“My mother paid her debts,” Caroline said bitterly, chin lifting. “I owe you nothing.”

“No,” he repeated, voice softening. “You do not. I believe if anything, if what you say is true, I owe you.”

Her gaze narrowed, but his eyes didn’t waver from hers. Motioning towards the pad on the table in front of him, she firmed her words. She was done discussing her mom. “I bet Titan’s food sucked. I’ll find you an energy bar while you read that report.”

She turned her back to him, and it itched along her spine. But even a werewolf couldn’t get a clean jump on her in her own ship and to flinch now would be to lose ground. Digging through the supplies they kept for emergencies, she found a shirt that would probably fit with something like regret. Another drawer for one of Bonnie’s stashed meal replacements, and she walked over and set them both in front of him. 

For a moment, she imagined she could feel the heat radiating from his skin, even with the table between them. She shook the thought off, ignoring the way she could almost pick out the scent of his skin beneath the sterility of the prison smell. Klaus, for his part, had done as she said and was looking at the data pad, the full line of his mouth pressed into a thin line. 

“You’re sure this is accurate?”

“Bonnie doesn’t make mistakes,” Caroline said. “Not about this. And neither do I.”

“Why show this to me?”

She tipped her head and studied him. Considered the words she wanted to say. “Titan is full of the echoes of old ghosts. The kind humans cannot see, even in the black. The kind that skitter along nerves, that flicker with the hum of an engine, that race across a tablet screen in the shape of quick anomalies and distortions. What that station swallows, it keeps.”

There was no judgement in Klaus’ eyes at her reminder of her alien blood, the gifts that left her far more integrated into technology that should be possible. Tech Witch. If only it was so simple. 

“So you’ve said.”

“So I did.”

Those brilliant eyes narrowed. “Tell me, love. Your people avoid human space. Yet, here you are. Why?”

Her lips twisted. What few of them were left. “We avoid humanity for good reason. We… the best way to put it is we leave behind our own echoes, and too many… well, this ship would swallow its enemies too. Titan would never allow that sort of integration, but they fear it. What it could become.”

“Titan has no consciousness, no knowing.” Klaus said, as if he’d been prepared for what she would admit. “It’s halls are lined with human nightmares, not the kind your people give shape to.”

“Humanity has never been so simple.” Caroline returned. “The remnants of my people… they litter empty colonies like broken alters. What humanity tries to do with those bits and pieces could never be allowed on earth, could never be allowed to be seen as anything but human invention.”

“Nanotechnology is not new.” He pointed out, referencing the report she’d given him to read, the details Bonnie had included for him. So he could understand. “Humanity has been experimenting with improving vaccinations and healing for more generations than have passed since your people’s first contact. Even in the black, the science of it has trickled out into space. Improved healing, improved health, longer life spans as organs stop failing quite so quickly.”

“What we suspect that they have injected you with is not so simple.” She gave him a brief smile, barely more than the bitter curve of her lips. “Over the last twenty years, we’ve discovered that the scientists on Titan have been less than satisfied with the dozens of prisoners that earth sends them each year as experiments. They’ve turned their eyes towards slavers, towards their own people when it suits them. I can’t imagine how delighted they’d have been, to have found themselves in the position of having a werewolf in their grip. Whatever they injected you with, it’s going to be dangerous.”

Klaus ran his finger thoughtfully down the screen of the pad. “Experiments with what technology survived the fall of your people seems like a bit of an extreme jump in logic. Earth would never sanction such things as the fallout should it be proven would be terrible.”

She’d once thought the same. That had changed. Caroline held out her palm, nudged her chin towards the pad. “There is an easy way to tell. If Bonnie was right. If we’re wrong.”

A simple touch, and she would know just what part her people’s cast off ruins were being used in the torture of those Titan claimed as its own. To see what they had shoved in his veins, this man-made monster who might now carry worse sins in his blood than he knew.

In front of her, the line of his throat went taut, the cords of his throat in sudden, sharp relief. What blue had returned to his eyes disappeared under a wash of gold so potent, she felt it sizzle across her nerves. 

“Ah,” he murmured, voice dipping low and deep. “That might be more complicated than you know.”

She frowned. “Why? If they managed to inject you with their bastardized nanonites, touching you will let me confirm. Removing them is the complicated part.”

And would require help. Not something she thought the wolf would enjoy. Not when he was injured. 

“Tell me, Caroline, do you know why Earth, why the Federation, put such a strict quarantine on my home world?”

The sudden switch of topics sent warning fingers dragging down her spine. “You mean other than it being infested with witches and apparently the occasional werewolf, the two things they like to pretend don’t exist?” She wrinkled her nose. “I always assumed it was one hell of a prison planet.”

There were a few of those, scattered around the galaxies. Klaus’ homeworld had been unique in that it was beautiful, and it inhabited more than just a prison carved into an otherwise uninhabitable chunk of rock. But it was also full of horrors, and not all of them had been man made. 

He laughed softly, but there was no amusement in his eyes. “You’re not entirely wrong. But what they wished to trap there is more complicated than blood and magic.”

“Very few things are more complicated than either of those,” Caroline said carefully. “And all of them are alien in nature.”

The flicker of approval on his face shouldn’t have mattered. “Earth has mostly forsaken its children spread among the stars, but not all survivors consider themselves lost. My mother certainly didn’t.”

“Your mother was a fanatic.”

A tip of his head in casual agreement. “My grandmother called it an artifact, my mother thought it was a map. My father knew it for the danger it was, and it cost him his life.” He gave a careful shrug of his shoulder. “The werewolf homeworlds have long since been thought to be lost, though most people believe their Armadas must disappear to somewhere. Esther sought to change that.”

“The werewolf homeworlds?” Caroline repeated incredulously. “No one even knows if they truly exist, or if they do, how they came to be.”

A thoughtful glance from beneath his lashes. “So you do know the stories.”

“Yes, because they are stories.” She crossed her arms with a scoff. “It’s everyone’s favorite boogeyman bedtime tale. Particularly once their ships started to have more frequent sightings.”

“Enlighten me.”

Caroline rolled her eyes. “Of what, rumor? Urban legend? Seriously, Klaus. What could you possibly have not heard? The stories that blame witches for your existence, the gift that the black pulled from your blood? The ones that blame earth's scientists who went deep into the heart of a solar system that no longer has a name. Or my personal favorite, the ones that blame my mother’s people, though how they came to those conclusions I don’t know. They left behind experimenting on flesh and blood eons before they were destroyed. There is no fact behind any hint of a rumor that currently exists.”

“The werewolf gene is an interesting one,” Klaus murmured. “It breeds true but not always in strength. Ansel thought it had to do with our longevity, that when born on planets where it was peaceful, we didn’t need that strength.”

“Ansel?”

“My father.”

“Your…” staring at him, she struggled to find a coherent thought. It hadn’t occurred to her that Mikael couldn’t have been Klaus’ father. But perhaps it should have. Esther had been a witch, as were her children. All except one. 

“What are you saying?”

“Esther’s ambition knew no bounds,” Klaus said. “She planned to use your mother’s blood to find the werewolf homeworld, to activate the map she suspected your people had left behind. And then she hoped to conquer it. But to conquer, she needed a weapon, one she could bind with the familial bond.” Another careful movement as he rolled his shoulder. “Ansel wanted to know if having a son under the horrors of our moon would grant strength back into his line. For a while, they’re politics aligned. It was short lived, as was with most things my mother touched.”

Caroline swallowed hard at the implications of his words. That he was that weapon. That her mom was a key to finishing worlds long lost. “That’s insane.”

“Perhaps. My mother was certainly many things, and sane was not one of them. But my father.” A slow tilt of his lips, the blunt edge of his teeth barely visible. “My father was not wrong. Though he was not entirely right, based on Tyler’s pathetic existence.”

“This,” Caroline said slowly, straightening her shoulders. “Is not your home world.”

The I am not your prey, hung between them. 

His smile widened. “Esther did not expect you or your strength to defend your mother.” His wolf glimmered in jagged shards behind his eyes. “That seems to be a weakness in my family, as twice now, you have surprised me, when I know better. I’m very aware of where I stand, love.”

Strength that had eventually failed her. That had left her with nothing but the smeared remains of her family. “Why tell me this? Why bring up any of this?”

“I looked for you,” Klaus said, voice dipping into a caress that was almost a touch. “All these long years that I’ve spent among the stars. Hunted for a mention of your ship, chased every glance of gold from the corner of my gaze. And yet, when I looked for you naught, when my only thought was survival, there you were.”

Caroline’s stomach flipped at his words and she forced herself to hold his gaze. “I didn’t want to be found.” 

“So I’ve gathered.” The dryness in his tone almost wrangled a smile from her. “But finding you has never been about just want, Caroline, but need.”

She bared her teeth. “So I am just an alien to you.”

Klaus moved, a slow deliberate shift of his body to remove the barrier of the table between them. Caroline had to sink her heels into the floor to hold her position, and while he didn’t touch her, he was close enough that when he dipped his head, his breath brushed along her chin. 

“If only it was that simple.” He tipped his head, the movement strangely wolffish. “If only. You know what I am.”

Her fingernails dug into her palm as she wondered when she’d started to lose control of this conversation. “Yup. Werewolf, asshole, planet born. Big deal.”

An exhaled noise of amusement. “Alpha.”

She blinked. Blinked again. “Alpha of what? A backwater planet that eats its people regularly as it’s own wonderful world of sacrifice? Sounds awesome. Big congrats.”

A dimple creased his cheek. “You wanted to know who my enemies are, love? They are many, and varied. Earth, certainly. A number of werewolf tribes. The families of those whose son’s I left broken in my path to ruling. My inheritance from my father came with a heavy price, but it did not come without its gifts. Thankfully, the Armada did eventually see my value.”

“Armada,” she rasped. Swallowing, she tried again. “The werewolf armada. You are seriously trying to tell me you escaped your homeworld, and… what. You challenged your way right to the top of leadership? In the werewolf armada. The ships that are nearly impossible to find, that are made up of mercenary bands and other wonderful, loving people and they just let you stroll in and start killing people?”

“Yes.”

He sounded so unbelievably satisfied. “Well, clearly that didn’t stick since you ended up in the bowels of Titan.”

“Careful,” he murmured.

“Or what?” She wiggled her fingers, careful to not touch him. “You’re still on my ship, presumed alpha or not, and I can still space you. I probably should.”

An arch of his brow, though nothing about his body said he was worried about her threat. “Oh?”

Caroline gave him an annoyed look. “Have you not listened to a single thing I’ve said? Nanobites, Klaus. My people’s technology that’s been fucked about by humans into who knows what, swimming around in your bloodstream. Do you know what else they put in those things? Trackers.”

“Ah.”

“Yes, ah.” She lifted her chin. “Which brings us full circle to the original problem. I need to see exactly what they injected into you, and then Enzo and I might have to remove them, which is going to be a bitch for everyone. Otherwise dumping you on a planet to apparently contact your armada to come pick you up will mean absolutely shit. You’ll be cooling your heels on Titan in a matter of hours.”

“Enzo.” His voice turned cool, the line of his shoulders stiffening. “Who is Enzo?”

“My co-pilot,” Caroline said. “And someone I trust.”

Klaus moved, a quick shift of his weight that put his nose and mouth excruciatingly close to the skin beneath her ear. His breath was hot and damp, and she froze as he breathed deeply. “You don’t smell of him. So not lovers. Good.”

Caroline spluttered and took two steps back, cheeks hot. “That is none of your damn business.”

“I think you’ll find that is not entirely the case the moment you put your hands on me, Caroline.” His eyes met hers, and there was nothing human in the expression behind them. “You marked me decades ago.”

She straightened her spine, denial on her tongue, even as beneath her feet, her ship hummed with attention. “I did no such thing.”

His laugh echoed harshly between them and he prowled towards her, the line of his jaw set. “No? I disagree. So does my wolf. You’ve been in my blood so long, what does a mere echo of your people compare? Even the other wolves, the ones who sought my favor, who wished for my benevolence never quite dared ask for more than what I offered. They too, saw the claim you’d etched into me.”

“That’s impossible.”

An amused, indulgent glance that spoke of too many things that left her so very aware of how close he was standing to her. “Is it? You know the stories of your people as well as I do. My kind have a similar belief, though it is rare away from our worlds. Of claiming, of mating.”

Her fingertips tingled with the need to feel that uncompromising edge of his jaw and she swallowed. Tried not to think of the way her blood reacted to him, the impulsive need to help him. Mate. Impossible. “Klaus…”

His head lowered, lips lingering so close to her own. “Why did you save me?”

Caroline gave a tiny shake of her head, terrified that she’d give into the need to lean just a little forward. “I told you.”

“New boots,” Klaus murmured. “I suppose it doesn’t matter.” He straightened, and smiled, dimples on full display, cutting deep. “There is an easy way to tell. If I am right. If I am wrong.”

Her throat ran dry. 

Klaus spread his arms slowly, moving to lean back against the table. “Do your worst. Go ahead, tell me what runs beneath my skin. All of it. But, Caroline.”

She took in a deep breath, lifting her chin to meet those moon glow eyes, that daunting smile. 

“Don’t say that I didn’t warn you, love.”

[gumnut-logic]

John was tired.

It had been a very long forty-eight hours and if he was honest with himself, he had nothing left.

International Rescue was at its limit and had overflowed. He ran out of brothers to deploy and found himself rerouting tasks to both local emergency services and the GDF.

He, himself had been out as well at one point. Picking a stray astronaut out of the shipping lanes where an unexpected explosion had thrown her. It had been a challenge to grab her, but his exo-suit did the job and he was able to return her to Global One.

Usually it would have been a job for Alan, but the younger astronaut was already caught up in a shipping issue several thousand kilometres from the other side of the moon. He and Kayo wouldn’t be back for some time.

The profanity over comms emphasized that. Alan was far from happy.

Scott was in Japan with Virgil. Actually, they were in Japan. The symbols of both One and Two were drifting across the Pacific, One keeping pace with the slower Two. John frowned as he fingered comms.

“Thunderbird One, what is your status?”

Scott’s hologram flickered into being. “En route to Tracy Island, Thunderbird Five. Mission complete. One injury -  Vir-“

“I’m fine, Scott. It’s barely a scratch.” Virgil’s figure flickered into being beside a suddenly glaring brother.

“Thunderbird Two, we will let Base decide that.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. Base equalled Grandma and was the ultimate threat.

John frowned as he peered closer at the hologram of his second eldest brother. “Thunderbird Two, what happened to your wrist control?” He absently poked a code into his interface to bring up Virgil’s vitals. He frowned at the results before pulling up the incident logs. The accident occurred while he was out earlier. The spike in his brother’s heart rate about an hour ago was clear. “Eos, why didn’t you report Virgil’s injury?”

“He asked me not to bother you.”

“Virgil!”

“What? You were busy and besides it was nothing!” Of course, Virgil being Virgil took that exact moment to peer at John. “What is your status, John?”

“Tired but functional.”

The pilot poked at his dash and a series of graphs appeared in the holographic stream. “That’s not what your stats say, John. Do I need to order you to rest?”

“John?” And there was Scott.

Great.

“I will be resting shortly.”

“John, you said the exact same sentence to me exactly twenty-three hours and forty-two minutes ago.” Eos was quite smug.

“John! When did you last sleep?” Virgil knew how to deploy a glare.

Scott didn’t give him a chance to reply. “Thunderbird Five, I’m ordering an immediate shutdown of services. Eos, you have incoming and redirection.”

“Yes, Commander.”

Smug, definitely smug.

“FAB, Thunderbird One.” John didn’t groan, not in the slightest.

“Thunderbird One out.” His eldest brother cut transmission, his sudden absence from the stream pure punctuation.

Virgil still hung there, glaring. A flicker and a blond head stuck itself into Virgil’s feed before appearing fully. “Woah, bro, you’ve roasted yourself.”

“Gordon…”

Virgil was still glaring.

“Hey, you have to admit, you look like shit. You presented yourself looking like that in front of smother brother and nurse nanny. What did you expect?”

“Gordon!” Two older brothers, one voice.

He ignored them, of course. “Though I have to say, Virg, excellent deflection on the hand issue.” Gordon’s grin was malicious.

“Shut up, Gordon.”

“You know Scott’s going to deploy Grandma when we get home.”

“Shut up, Gordon.” Said hand issue tightened on the yoke. Even wrapped in bandages and tens of thousands of kilometres away, John could still see those knuckles turning white.

“Uh, Gordon…” John bit the inside of his cheek. Back off.

“John, he took a layer of skin off the back of his hand. You should have seen it. Totally gross.”

“Gordon…I wouldn’t…”

Virgil’s lip literally curled up in a snarl.

John took a step back. “Actually, you know what. I’m tired. I’ve been ordered to close up shop, so good night. Thunderbird Five out.” He shut down the link and turned away with a sigh. “Eos, please monitor Thunderbird Two. Let me know if I have to get out the water spray bottle and separate those two.”

“Yes, John. Virgil is currently yelling at Gordon. Did you want to view the video?”

John rubbed his face with one gloved hand and waved the camera away with the other. “No, no, that’s fine.” A sigh. “I’m going to go clean up.”

“Yes, John.”

With that he headed off to the facilities and the ability to strip off his suit for that one blessed moment of the day.

-o-o-o-

TBC

[blazerought]

SOME NEW TAGS. misc + verses.

because they were all broken so why not.

[etherbonded]

" He does NOT flirt with me. " They are simply good friends that hold hands. He's flushed in the face because he's annoyed, no other reason!

[capricornus-rex]

Hey Hon! I have another request if that’s quite alright with you? What about Cal being needy and mushy for your attention? Like he’s clingier than usual? I haven’t seen any clingy!Cal (maybe bc it isn’t in his character?) on my dash so I thought I’d give it a shot! Let me know if this is okay :) Thanks, hon! 🥺💘

Hi Hon! Oooh, I like this one you got 😉 I personally think Cal is a closeted clingy Jedi bf, but when push comes to shove, I think he’s not afraid to be very cuddly and mushy. I think he’s great at hugging and cuddling!! 🥺🥰 I hope you’ll like the fic! You’re welcome, sweetie! 🥰💞

“His Spark of Light”

Cal Kestis x Reader

Read Part 2 next | Masterlist

1 of ?

Greez cranked the auto-pilot lever, hopped out of his seat to stretch his legs and arms, and then joined everybody out of the cockpit.

Cere was lounging in the holotable couch and Merrin was tending the terrarium. Cal was in the lounge by the dining area, lying down on the couch while hovering a ball over his face using the Force.

“Hey guys, quiet day today, huh?”

“Indeed, Captain,” Cere replied on behalf of everyone.

“Well, I was thinking of cooking up some deep-fried Nuna legs for lunch,”

The simple mention of that dish got everybody’s attention—for various reasons: Merrin was intrigued given that she hasn’t had a taste of many different dishes around the galaxy, Cere’s stomach growl when she started imagining it from its cooking process until it’s served, Cal had the same reason as Cere’s but another thing came to his mind—it was one of your favorite foods too.

The verdict was clear.

“Alright, I’ll start cookin’,” Greez hobbled to the galley.

Cere noticed that Cal had been quiet, a little dejected, but mostly bored the whole day. As a matter of fact, this was the only time he’s somewhat settled down; over the past four days, he’s busied himself with tinkering with his lightsaber—changing the parts whenever he feels like it—or simply meditating with the attempt of reaching out to you, even with the faintest connection.

“Trouble meditating again?” Cere said while standing by the open doorway to Cal’s quarters.

“Not much, just…”

“Your thoughts dwelling on [y/n] again?”

Cal had no escape from that question, he pursed in his lips and Cere took that as a yes. She called him for lunch and they went to the galley together. The smell of the deep-fried Nuna legs wafted around the ship, it made everybody’s stomach grumble. Greez added his personal touch of adding mushrooms and tomatoes as a side-dish.

Small talk revolved around the table as the crew ate, little BD-1 curiously scanned the food and drink on the table.

“You know, you better teach that droid some table manners, kid!” Greez grumbled as he gobbled his food.

Everybody except Greez chuckled over BD-1 and Greez’s antics. Cere still sensed Cal’s uneasiness. She quietly noticed that he took long in-betweens after taking a spoonful, he was quiet too even during conversations. In the middle of the meal, the holotable was emitting a ringing sound—indicating an incoming transmission—the first three rings of the alarm made Cal jump out of his seat at the table, jump over the three steps and ran to the holotable to switch on the projector.

A projection of you fizzled into the center of the holotable. Cal’s eyes lit up. Cere joined Cal at the holotable, and then later Merrin and Greez paused from eating to hear from you. It has been four days after all.

“[y/n]?”

“Hey Cal. Hi Cere,” you greeted. “Sorry I didn’t transmit as soon as I finished in Geonosis. I actually got sidetracked, I managed to hitch a ride with some rebel fighters.”

Through the transmission, you narrated how you met the rebel fighters during your solo mission on Geonosis. They didn’t ask much questions, although they did offer you a ride.

“Where are you headed to with them?” Cere asked, leaning closer to the rim of the holotable.

Despite the slightly blurry resolution of your hologram projection, the withdrawn expression in your face is evident. You sigh and then bite your lip as you carefully choose your words.

“It’s… well, they prefer not to have it said aloud, I’ll explain later. I’ll send the coordinates after this transmission instead,”

“Is it their base?”

Cal was trying his best to conceal his eagerness. The energy that was missing from him this morning finally appeared since you showed up—albeit as a hologram projection.

“I believe so,” you calmly said, clueless to Cal’s sudden mood shift. “They’re very… discreet about it.”

“Alright, we’ll be expecting the coordinates soon,”

“Sure, Cere,” you smiled and slightly angled your head to Cal.

“We’ll meet you there,” Cal concludes.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Along with the coordinates, I’ll be sending a code—for security purposes—once you get close enough to connect with their comms, they’re going to need that code to secure your entry.”

“Gotcha,” Cal replied.

You smiled before your projection on their end crackled and vanished into thin air. Shortly after the transmission ended, a “ping” sound rang in the holotable. Cal’s fingers typed away on the small control screen as the terminal received the said coordinates; a hologram of a planet with a single moon pops out into the center.

“The coordinates point out to this moon right here,” he zoomed in on the smaller sphere in the projection. He reads out the planet name on the terminal’s screen, “Yavin IV.”

“We’ll meet her there, but first: finish your lunch, please, Cal?”

“Okay, okay,” Cal childishly threw his hands up in surrender and marched back to the dining table and emptied his plate in a heartbeat—he practically beat everyone else.

“At least drink something so you don’t choke from all that food stuck in your throat,” Greez commented.

Cal snatched his stainless tumbler and chugged away at its contents, he wiped his lip with the sleeve of his jumpsuit and marched down the three steps from the dining room.

“Cal, kid, we aren’t leaving in the next ten minutes. We aren’t even finished with our food yet!” Greez exclaimed, stopping Cal from getting any farther from the lounge.

“Right, right…” Cal skidded his boots against the floor and returned to the dining table with everyone else. “Sorry.”

“Have you ever been to that place where we’ll be meeting [y/n]?” Merrin started the conversation. Her curiosity was always a good conversation starter.

Yavin IV was an addition to the list of firsts for everyone. The rebel fighters that you were with are just as mysterious. Cere presumed that it may not be the same rebel fighters as Saw’s back in Kashyyyk.

“But if they did help her, then we know that they’re on the same side as ours,” Cere added.

A few minutes later, Greez was finished with his food—along with the rest of the crew—and then marched back to his seat in the cockpit; Cal followed behind him and flopped down on his shotgun seat, he typed away the coordinates on his side of the control panel while Greez prepped the Mantis for the jump to hyperspace.

“Yavin IV is five parsecs from where we are,”

“Well, you all better strap in your seats!” Greez announced, slowly cranking the hyperspace lever until the stars were beginning to appear as thin, blue streaks of light.

[changingourdestiny]

Beyond Light Part 8: Shadebinder

Summary:

With Tif and Marcia fully wielding Stasis, it’s time for Rae to take the first step to wielding it herself, and prepare for the final battle between Fireteam Paralight and Eramis.

Previous Part: Here

Finale: Here

“Helvete!”

Adam slammed his fist on the table, causing his teammates to jump in surprise, “How…how could I have allowed that to happen?!”

“A-Adam?” Rae began but was cut off by Adam’s sigh, “Sorry, I…I remember. How I died. My brother knocked me out and sabotaged one of my inventions to blow up after he left the room. Said something about deserving my position. That son of a…” Adam went to yell again but stopped himself, “Sorry. I’m just trying to take in a lot right now. SIVA…of all the things that I had to work on…I don’t know if I can ever look Saladin in the eye after this…”

“Adam…” Rae placed a hand on the Titan’s shoulder, “No one blames you for what happened. Even if you did have a hand in SIVA’s development, that Adam died a long time ago. You’re a new person now. What happened, happened. Focus on what you can do now.”

“Yeah. Who cares about that smug-looking doc?” Blaze grinned, motioning to Adam’s old picture in the file, “You’ll always be the big ol’, easily flustered grizzly bear that we get to call our teammate and best friend.”

Adam glanced between Rae and Blaze before feeling his eyes begin to water. He quickly wiped his eyes with the back of his gauntlets before smiling, “Thanks guys.”

“C’mon. Bring it in, big guy.” Blaze held out her arms before she and Rae were enveloped in a Titan bear hug.

“Yeah, see? I bet ol’ smug Adam would’ve hated this!” Blaze chuckled.

“Funny, considering six years ago you hated group hugs.” Adam smirked.

“I got character development, c’mon man!”

Rae couldn’t help but laugh at Adam and Blaze’s back-and-forth before pulling away, “Alright. We still have work to do. Marcia still needs to link Praksis’s splinter to the Ziggurat so she can use Stasis…and then it’s my turn.” Rae muttered the last part.

“Nervous?” Blaze asked.

“A little, yeah. I know it’s the best way to stop Eramis but…” Rae stared down at her hands, “I’m a Vanguard. So many Guardians look to me, Cayde, Zavala and Ikora. If they see me wielding Stasis – a power fuelled by Darkness – what will they think? Will they think that the Vanguard have really become so desperate? I just don’t want to drag everyone else through the mud because of a dumb thing I do.”

“Y’know what I think?”

The three Guardian’s attention was drawn to the door where Marcia was leaning against the doorframe, “I think you’re holding yourself back.”

“Huh?” Rae seemed genuinely confused at Marcia’s statement.

“For as long as I’ve known you, your top priority was always other people. Whether it was these two, the Vanguard, me, the freaking system, you always focused on others…but I’ve never seen you focus on you.”

“Now that she mentions it…” Blaze muttered, glancing at Rae as Marcia continued. “You’ve always worried about what others wanted to do or what other people think is right. But what about what YOU want? What do you think is the right call?”

“I…never gave it much thought.” Rae muttered.

“I know I’m not the best person to go to for advice.” Marcia let out a light chuckle, “But I honestly think you need to start thinking about you a bit more. You’re a fireteam leader and a Vanguard. So prove it. Show us that leadership.”

Rae seemed surprised at first before looking down in thought. She remained silent for a moment before looking up at Marcia and nodding. Marcia smirked before motioning for her to follow with her head, “C’mon. Let’s go get our Stasis on!”

 Blaze and Adam stayed by the campfire with Cayde while Rae, Tif, and Marcia walked up to the Stranger. “Darkness is a parasite.” She began, “It burrows its way into your soul and feeds on your most selfish desires. Your every wish, tainted and twisted as you become the very thing Darkness wants you to be. In that world, there is no future for any of us. I…have witnessed this first-hand. I refuse to let it happen again.” The Stranger turned to face Rae, “So know this as you step away from the Light once more: Inside us all is the strength to control Darkness. We need only look inward, and remember why we’re here. We are humanity’s final salvation.”

Rae nodded, “We won’t let you down.” As the trio began to walk away, Rae stopped and turned to the Stanger, “I just realised…I never caught your name.”

The Stranger was silent for a moment before replying, “Elisabeth. But my friends call me Elsie.”

“Nice to finally meet you, Elsie.” Rae smiled before running to catch up with Tif and Marcia.

 “Is it bad that I’m getting used to the whispers?” Tif asked as they made their way up the steps of the Ziggurat. “I don’t even know at this point.” Rae sighed. “Alright.” Marcia breathed as they reached the top, “Time to do this.” Marcia walked to the shard on the right and held her splinter to it. The shard glowed brightly before Marcia felt of surge of energy rush through her as the kama blades appeared in her hands. She did a backflip as she tossed them both into the air before catching them as she landed. She smirked at Tif and Rae, “Now we’re getting places!”

“You feel any pull?” Tif asked Rae. “Yeah, but…” Rae began, “It’s pulling me in the direction of Riis-Reborn.”

“Chances are we’re heading that way to take down Eramis once and for all.” Marcia noted as she dismissed the blades before smiling, “So how ‘bout we get you Stasis-ed up and take down that Kell of House Nothing once and for all?”

Rae smiled and nodded, “Right.”

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Fireteam Paralight quietly snuck through Riis-Reborn. “It’s quiet in here.” Adam muttered. “Must be out dealing with the Vex-tival outside.” Cayde added. “Hold up.” Ghost piped up, “Eramis is sending another wide-range transmission.”

“Judgement day is upon us, my fellow Eliksni. Another foundational pillar of our beautiful society has been knocked down. Praksis dear friend. Your death at the hands of those puppets will not go unavenged. Soon they will answer for what they’ve done. I will see to it myself. Rise now, my fellow Eliksni. Do not let this scum take more of our sisters, brothers, fathers, and mothers. We are the future to our kind, and we will destroy all who threaten us. Leave no pawn alive.”

“Welp. Looks like we know who we’re after next.” Rae sighed, “Or rather who’s after us.”

“Don’t worry too much about it.” Tif reassured, “I was able to take down Phylaks by myself. Then you, me, Marcia and Blaze took down Praksis with nearly no sweat. Now there’s six of us with nearly half of us able to use Stasis. Eramis doesn’t stand a chance and she knows it!”

“Tif’s right.” Blaze grinned, “Eramis has gotten desperate. She knows how strong we’ve gotten and that we have reinforcements now. She’ll try to stop us before we get to her no doubt but when we do get to her, she’s as good as dead.”

“Well, let’s not get too cocky.” Marcia warned, “She’ll still put up a fight. Plus she’s been using Stasis longer and there’s no way she’s stupid enough to fight us one-on-six. We’ll be evenly matched at the least.”

“So let’s keep our guards up and hope for the best.” Rae added, “We should be close to where we saw that shard the first time we snuck in here.”

“Lead the way, Sunrae.” Cayde nodded as the six Guardians continued towards Riis-Reborn.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 “I should’ve known it’d be guarded!” Blaze growled as she blasted a shank with her flames. Tif carved through a group of dregs before turning to Rae, “Get to the shard! We’ll cover you!”

“Right!” Rae yelled back before dashing for the shard, narrowly dodging incoming fire. “Please work!” Rae muttered as she leapt for the shard, holding her splinter up to it. With a flash, Rae found herself on the ground as her joints slowly began to freeze up. With a strained yell, she broke out of her frozen state with an icy staff in her hands. She glided straight up into the air as she shot down orbs of Stasis down at the Fallen below, freezing them in place. She then held the staff up high as Stasis energy swirled around the staff and the Fallen below shattered into a million pieces. She tossed an orb at an entrance where the Fallen were flooding in from, forming an icy wall in front of it. “Wow…” Cayde watched as Rae struck down Fallen after Fallen with her new powers. “Cayde, your six!” Adam yelled out. “I know I’m si- woah!” Cayde narrowly dodged the arc blade of a heavy shank who was frozen by Rae not long after. Rae slammed her staff down on the heavy shank, shattering the Fallen into a thousand pieces, finishing off the last of the Fallen as the Stasis energy left her. Rae stumbled a bit, caught off guard by the power leaving her, but was steadied by Cayde, “You alright?”

“Y-yeah.” Rae panted, “Wasn’t expecting that much power at once.”

“Just got a message from Variks.” Tif called out, running up to Rae, “Variks is helping Eliksni who have defected from Eramis get off planet. I’ve contacted Misraaks to help them get safely to our base on Earth so they can join House Light!”

“That’s great news!” Blaze grinned, “Eramis is losing numbers and House Light is gaining them.”

“The more Eliksni that escape, the better I feel.” Ghost added, “They deserve safety, away from Eramis.”

“And when I find them, they’ll all die.”

Everyone jumped as Eramis’s voice came through the comms, “Good riddance to the traitors…unworthy of my empire.”

“Eramis…it was never meant to be an empire.” Variks’s voice began, “It was meant to be home.”

“Home? Our home was taken from us by your once Great Machine. There is no home for us while it still lives.”

“Variks had hoped somewhere within, the friend I knew remained. But after what you did, I knew I was wrong.”

“You think me insane, don’t you pawns?” Eramis turned her attention to the fireteam, “One day you’ll understand – when your City falls, and your people die. When your ‘Traveller’ abandons you.”

Everyone had a grim expression on their face until Rae spoke up, “Believe it or not, Eramis, that has already happened.”

“Oh?”

“A few years ago, the Red Legion caged the Traveller. All Guardians were stripped of their Light and we lost the City. We thought it was the end of everything…” Rae went silent for a moment as memories of her months alone after the City fell, Lightless and alone, before shaking them from her head, “But we didn’t give up. Even Lightless, we still came together and took our home back. Because we still had hope and each other. As long as we have something to fight for; something worth fighting for, we’ll never give in. And I swear on my Light, I won’t let you lay a claw on the Traveller.”

“Then come face me, pawn!” Eramis growled through the comms, “I’ll be waiting.”

“Eramis…is wrong.” Variks began, “About Variks. About Eliksni! Variks came to Europa for a second chance. For the right thing. That is strength, not weakness!”

“Oh please, Variks. You only came here to hide. Like a coward.”

“No!” Variks roared, catching everyone by surprise, “Releasing Vex put Eliksni lives in danger. Many have already perished. Eramis…you are the real coward!”

“You tell her, Variks!” Tif cheered.

“Silence!” Eramis yelled, “I’ve had enough of you, Variks. I will enjoy watching your skull shatter into pieces.”

“Not if we shatter her first!” Blaze grinned. “Hell yeah! Let’s show her who’s the strong ones here!” Marcia smirked as they all rushed into the teleporter.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 “I am sick and tired of these FREAKING BRIGS!!!” Marcia roared as she threw kama blade after kama blade at a brig as the others dealt with the surrounding Fallen. “Rae, more reinforcements incoming.” Ghost warned. “Damn it…” Rae cursed under her breath. “Rae!” Cayde called out as he finished off a group of vandals with Golden Gun, “Blaze, Adam and I will handle them. You, Tif and Marcia handle Eramis and we’ll catch up!”

“We got this, Rae-Rae!” Blaze added with a grin as she threw a dagger into a dreg’s head. Rae nodded before turning to Tif and Marcia, “Let’s go!”

The trio ran past the brig and though the doors which lead to an open room. But as Rae entered, she heard Marcia and Tif let out a surprised yelp. She spun around to see that they had been separated from her by a forcefield.

“Welcome back.”

Rae spun around to see Eramis standing at a table.

“It’s time to meet your end.”

 To Be Continued…

[immortalizedlove1]

Jacen got back to hut and entered catching his breath. He looked around and finally asked. “Is there something wrong? Shiraya said that something isn’t right and dashed back here.” He was confused as to what was going on and why everyone was acting strange.

Izax sat down on the edge of the bed he heard an incoming com from the security advisor. “Is there any news on that conflict happening in the unknown regions?” Izax asked, waiting for a response he suspected would come. “The conflict has erupted into war and is spreading towards wild space.” The advisor answered. “Alright gather the rest of the advisors and we will discuss this further on the base, we will be leaving here shortly. “Yes, High justice we will meet you there shortly. But, there’s one matter that requires your immediate attention mostly the empress’s attention. Iokath the planet we were investigating has made contact with us. The A.I. wants to meet with you more specifically the empress.” Izax didn’t respond back, he looked over at Jysella who was sitting next to him and listening to the conversation. He then turned his attention back to the comm. “That’s good to hear but I feel that trying to protect our home and our people from a war should take top priority. We will discuss this further after we depart from the outlands.” Jysella responded to the advisor. Then looked at Izax and nodded her head. He ended the transmission and looked between Tyrelis and Jysella. “We have to pack our things and depart immediately.” Jysella said still looking at Izax. He nodded his head and looked up at Tyrelis who was standing in the doorway. “Notify the crew on the flagship and have our shuttle ready for departure. We will be leaving soon.” Tyrelis bowed his head and left for the shuttle. As Jysella started packing her things he knelt on the floor and started packing. He stopped and looked up at Jysella who was still packing. Jysella stopped packing and looked at him. “What is it?” She asked him. He compressed his lips and said. “We are going to have to inform our hosts that we are going to have to depart and thank them for hosting us.” He put the last of his things into his bag and pulled out his uniform “Yes, we should inform them that we are departing.” Izax looked down then pulled out the outfit that he typically wore as the high justice. “I know I guess I should inform them of the development and I don’t think our security advisors are used to seeing me without my uniform on. I better change before we meet with them.” He changed out of the outfit that he was wearing. After changing he packed the outfit into his bag and closed it. After Jysella finished packing she handed her bag to Izax. Who turned and carried the bags out of the room where he met Tyrelis coming towards him. He handed Tyrelis the bags who went back to the shuttle. Izax went to the main room of the hut to find Galen. Jysella got up and followed him out of the room they had been staying in.

Promises @IMMORTALIZEDLOVE1 [CLOSED]

Over the planet of Naboo in the city of Theed storm clouds gathered. Within mere minutes releasing their burden onto the ground below. Standing before a stained glass window overlooking the palace courtyard Shiraya took a deep sigh. She wore a simple shoulder-length sky blue dress with her hair tied back into a knotted braid.

It had been months since she last saw Jacen and her family. When she had left it was due to an urgent matter back home. Naboo had to do to plan for emergency elections as the previous queen, Queen Kyltantha, had passed on to the next life. With the votes of the people, Queen Liani, a former handmaiden was elected to represent them.

At the coronation people from all over attended. But, to Shiraya's surprise, she didn't expect the one and only Queen Mother of Hapes, Tenel Ka Djo, to be present. Yet once the gossip got to the Queen Mother's ear of Shiraya's involvement with Jacen Solo; it was as if time stopped. She did not know if the word had gotten to Jacen on the matter. Though she knew maybe even at the distance they shared he could sense the tension.

[un-enfant-immature]

Inside Harley Davidson’s EV shift with a ride on its LiveWire

Harley-Davidson will release its first production electric motorcycle in September, the LiveWire.

Yes, the American symbol for internal combustion, chrome and steel is going all in on two-wheeled EVs.

Founded in Milwaukee in 1903, Harley Davidson opened a Silicon Valley office in 2018 with plans to add a future line-up of electric vehicles—from motorcycles to bicycles to scooters.

With these moves HD joins a list of established transportation companies that are redefining themselves in the transformation of global mobility.

TechCrunch talked to the company’s senior management on the EV pivot and got a chance to test the  LiveWire on New York’s Formula E race track. 

The battery powered Harley will do 0-60 mph in 3 seconds, 110 mph, and charge to 100 percent in 60 minutes for a $29,799 MSRP.

The motorcycle’s 15.5kWh battery and magnet motor produce 105 horsepower and 86 ft-lbs of torque for a city range of 146 miles (and 95 for combined city/highway riding).

In contrast to some of Harley’s minimalist gas motorcycles, the company teched out the LiveWire. The e-moto has five processors to manage performance and app-based connectivity, according to HD’s Chief Engineer for EV Technology, Sean Stanley.

The LiveWire’s tablet type dash synchronizes with smartphones and allows for preset and customized digital riding modes. From the dash or a smartphone one can calibrate and monitor the LiveWire’s power output, charge-status, traction-control settings, and ABS braking characteristics. The EV has navigation capabilities and a Bluetooth system for music, helmet comms, and to accept incoming phone calls.

Harley Davidson is famous for its internal combustion rumble—which warranted a new signature electric sound generated from the LiveWire’s mechanical movements. “We spent a lot of time optimizing it…The sound comes from a combination of the electric motor, the transmission, and the drive line,” explained Stanley.

You can power the LiveWire on a home outlet or get your electric motor running to head out on the highway with the same fast-charging networks that power Teslas—such as Chargepoint.

HD is also adding charging stations at its LiveWire selling dealers and announced a partnership last week with Electrify America to provide new owners 500 kW for free.

Harley Davidson’s electric-shift puts the iconic American company in a position to hedge competition from e-moto startups, as it jumps out front as the EV leader among established motorcycle companies.

The major gas names have been slow to embrace production e-motos. None of the big motorcycle manufacturers—Honda, Kawasaki, BMW—offer a street-legal, electric motorcycle in the U.S. KTM introduced its Freeride E-XC off-road motorcycle in 2018 and will soon offer a junior version for the first all electric Supercross racing class.

Supercross to debut first EV class and tap startups to go digital

Harley’s electric moves come after a period of revenue decline for the company and stagnation in the powered two-wheeler market.

The U.S. motorcycle industry has been in pretty bad shape since the recession. New sales dropped by roughly 50 percent since 2008—with sharp declines in ownership by everyone under 40—and have never recovered.

Analysts, such as UBS’s Robin Farley, have suggested that appealing to the preferences of more tech-savvy millennials, over those of baby boomers, should be a priority for Harley Davidson.

For the last several years, e-motorcycle startups have worked to produce models that rejuvenate interest from a younger generation, while creating gas rider converts. In addition to offering more tech features to attract new riders, companies such as California based Zero have worked to close gaps on price, range, charge times and performance compared to petrol powered motorcycles. The startup began shipping its 2020 $18,995 SR/F model—a potential LiveWire competitor—with a 161 mile city range, one-hour charge capability, and a top speed of 124 mph.

E-moto startup, Fuell, will debut its $10,995 Flow with 2.7 second 0-60 speed, 150 mile range, and 30 minute charge times in Europe this year, then the U.S., according to founder Erik Buell.

So market competition aside, what’s it like to ride Harley Davidson’s LiveWire? Nearly a dozen laps around NYC’s Formula E circuit offered a solid first impression. The LiveWire is everything that’s becoming the e-motorcycle experience: lightning-like acceleration with little noise beyond the wind cracking around you.

The biggest distinction between the LiveWire—vs. gas motorcycles—is its monster torque and uninterrupted forward movement. The machine has one gear, so there’s no clutch or shifting. With only a battery, processor, and drive-train there’s much less that needs to happen mechanically to deliver power from the throttle to the rear wheel. You simply twist and go.

As Harley Davidson rolls out its adrenaline inducing LiveWire, there are several things to watch. The first is how the $29K price-point fares in the market vis-a-vis startup competitors, such as Zero—who are launching comparable, yet less expensive e-motos. HD’s Paul James (see video) gives LiveWire an edge over Zero on performance attributes and Harley’s service and dealer networks. Sales figures will soon tell if buyers agree.

Harley Davidson’s EV foray could also create the spark that pushes the gas motorcycle industry toward electric—which would make HD a case of the almost disrupted transportation company becoming the disruptor.

And even more significant than the LiveWire release is what Harley Davidson offers next. The company has committed to produce a lighter, lower priced, e-motorcycle in the near future, as well as e-scooters and e-bicycles.

At an event this spring, Harley Davidson’s VP for Product Marc McAllister stressed the need for HD to remain a premium motorcycle transportation company, while developing products for a more on-demand, urban mobility era.

Harley Davidson’s LiveWire is a leap in that direction, but the company’s next round of two-wheel EVs—and the market response—will tell us more about HD’s relevance in the transformation of how people chose to move from place to place.

[astralvulpine]

( COYOTE )

Tag dump, don’t mind this!!!