Jimmy found the Martian starfighters very much to her liking and occupied the Master Chief Engineer's time for the next hour.

A little nervous and feeling responsible for the only other Reyjak on the ship, Araken went back to the Machete to check on Gort.

Tom was escorted by the Martian Marine he had just faced in combat.

"I'd still like to see a Martian kickboxing match gunny." He told the Marine.

"Sure, that can be easily arranged. I thought you were mocking us earlier."

"No, I was truly interested. I learned most of what I know from my grandmother. I was kinda spoiled and stubborn at first but she persevered and ended up getting me to like martial arts. She sent me to the Reyjaks for a year when I was sixteen to iron out my little kinks, as she called it, so I could learn Khanos Thoo. She could have taught it to me herself but she wanted me to experience the Reyjak's humble and simple way of life. I learned in school how they had indulged in war, considering it an art. Sacrificing millions of lives to it. An advanced civilization that had mastered bio-engineering and so much more, reduced to simple creatures living from the land. Peaceful, but never forgetting their nature. I made quick friends with a lot of them, including our stoic friend, Araken." Tom said.

"That's one clueless alien, if you ask me." The Martian said.

"Sargent Caulfield, if you remember anything from this conversation, remember this. Never provoke a Reyjak into loosing that cool outer shell that they put on display for us. You wouldn't like what you'd find."

"Roger that sir. Well, here we are. The infirmary. I can't go any further with you. Visitors not allowed." Caulfield said.

Tom took in the scene before him. People everywhere. Sitting on the ground, separated into small groups, talking to each other. Waiting for news of their Commander.

"Wow." Tom said. "I'm royalty and all my people do is gossip about me and my family. You guys are something else."

"We sure are." Caulfield smiled and yelled after Tom's receding back. "Hey royalty, how many forms of martial arts do you know?"

"Fourteen!" Tom yelled back at his new friend before disappearing into the infirmary's reception.

"Well, I'll be a mudcrawler's ass." Caulfield commented before sitting down with some friends to wait on his Commander.

Tom found the infirmary well manned. He was directed to a luxurious room where he found an empty bed and plunged in darkness. Worried, he looked around and found Catherine looking out a simulated porthole.

"There you are! I was worried when I saw an empty bed." Tom said.

"I just needed some rest." Cat answered, turning her head to look at him. Tom was small like Jab but had some of Zack's facial features. He didn't have red hair like his grandfather, his hair was dark brown and worn short at the temples. His eyes had a hint of an almond shape to them. His eyes... his eyes were purple. Like his famous grandmother. Whitney Gates. The Queen mother. Fearsome ancestors. Just like her own ancestry.

Tom saw the tears on her cheeks and exclaimed. "You sure you're okay?" He came closer and seized her shoulders. He looked her straight in the eyes. "I'm worried about you."

She disengaged from his grip and gave a short bark of a laugh. "You don't get to be worried about my well being. Your family is the reason I'm in this situation."

"You're the reason you're in this predicament. Don't blame others for your actions." Tom said rather hotly. He turned around, wanting to leave her room but it was Catherine who put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

"Wait. I'm sorry. Of course, you're right. I'm just... Messed up right now. I don't know what to think anymore. I've got my ideas and Jab's conflicting in my head and I don't know how to cope with it all. Her death. Her selflessness. All this time I've been thinking about how poorly people have been treating me and not on how I've treated people." Another short barking laugh escaped her and she continued. "And I've treated people so horribly. Saying to myself that I was justified by the way I had been abused in the past. I was such a hypocrite. I told myself that I had a loveless childhood but I was wrong. Clara loved me like a sister. Her love was unconditional and selfless." Her face showed Tom a rare vulnerable glimpse of her torment. "Oh Tom, how I wish I was more like her." By then, she was sobbing uncontrollably. Her whole body shaking with unbearable sadness.

Tom said nothing. He turned around and came closer. She looked at him approach through teary eyes. She felt his hands slip behind the small of her back and he kissed her on the mouth. She closed her eyes and let the moment take over.

At the other end of the ship, an exhausted Alejandro lay next to the Captain of the UMS Tyran.

"Had enough?" Asked McGriffin.

"What do you think?" Answered Alejandro.

"Well, it's gonna have to do, because believe it or not, I have other duties besides entertaining my guests." He got up and walked to his uniform dispenser.

"Guests, plural?" Alejandro admired the other man's naked body and suddenly wished they had more time. But duty was duty. As McGriffin was unwrapping a clean uniform, he grabbed his old clothes from the floor and started to put them on.

"You know what I mean."

"So... you're the Captain of a Martian dreadnought and you didn't care to share?" Alejandro asked his lover.

"With your close ties to the Murakami bitch? Hell no! And, with your mercenary character, you'd sell the information to the highest bidder to pay off your considerable debts. Am I wrong?"

Alejandro started to protest, but stopped, his friend knew him too well. He smiled and replied. "Fair enough. Can you at least tell me how you guys pass these space elephants through Space Gate Security?"

"Now that you're here. Yes. But you'll have to wait for a demonstration. Easier to explain that way. We should be at the gate in a few days my love."

"Oh alright. But why tell me now?" Alejandro asked the Captain of the UMS Tyran.

"Because my friend, you and your friends are never going back home. Ever."

When Tom and Catherine disengaged from their embrace, he noticed with a start a strange silhouette in the corner of the dark room. "Lights." He ordered the room.

"Wait!" Cried Cat, but it was too late. He'd seen it.

"What's this?" He asked her, his eyes the size of credit coins.

"You know what it is. It's the Commander armor. They expect me to wear it." When she saw Tom's horrified expression, she quickly added. "No! No! I'm never wearing this thing again."

"Have you told them?"

"No."

"Seriously. I saw footage of you in this... horror. You were a different person in it. You were scary, unstoppable, ruthless and monstrous. This..." he pointed to the empty armor standing in the corner of the now well-lit room and said, "should be destroyed, crushed, atomized and spaced. God. Look at it. How could you ever agree to wear such a horrendous symbol of Martian power?"

"I was out of my mind at the time. Pushed too far and I lost control of the effects of the serum."

"Convenient." Tom said sourly.

"Fuck you!" Cat whispered under the hand that was covering her mouth by now.

"Sorry." Tom said. "All my life, I've seen video documentaries about the horrors you did during the war. Every kid had to learn it in school. When my grandmother finally accepted to let me see you in your cryopod, I must confess I was fascinated. You were so beautiful. I couldn't conceive such horrible things from the girl I saw sleeping before me. I know it was superficial of me but I was fourteen at the time." He gave Cat a shy grin. "I had an instant crush on you. When the Martians kidnapped you and brought you back to life, I finally had a chance of meeting you in the flesh and I must confess you puzzled me greatly. I couldn't grasp your character. You looked repentant, but you gave an aura of missing the old days."

"The old days! Like when I was killing and maiming people? Those old days!?" Cat exclaimed.

"I badly expressed myself, I meant, you seemed nostalgic." Tom corrected himself.

"If by that, you mean that I missed my people? Then yes. I also went to school." She gave a short laugh. "When Jabrina was having acne breakouts." Tom had to laugh too. "I learned the struggles and the drive the Martians displayed in their colonization history. Yes, there were a lot of bad decisions, mostly from my family's influence, but the Martian. The regular people. Building and struggling with Mars's harsh conditions and conquering them bravely. Those are the people I miss. Not the warmongers, but the little people fighting for a better life for them and their children. I want to fight for them and amend for my family's wrongdoings. They deserve better than what my family did for them."

"You mean the Neo-Martians?"

"I mean all Martians! I mean for them to realize their full potential and terraform Mars into a blue Mars! A Mars where you don't need to wear a spacesuit to walk on its surface. Where you don't have to worry about radiation."

"Granny Jab never told you?"

"Told me what exactly?" Cat asked Tom.

"She began terraforming Mars half a century ago. She built factories that spout out super greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The temperature went from -63 Celsius to -32 Celsius. Water and carbon dioxides thawed into the thicker atmosphere. Rain fell on Martian soil 32 years ago for the first time in billions of years. That water added to the carbonites and the acid soil released more carbon dioxides trapped in the soil to warm up the planet even more. She recently introduced algae, moss and lichen to the Martian ecosystem. When Mars reaches 5 degrees Celsius, they'll be able to plant pine trees! That means oxygen! A breathable atmosphere for all Martians." Tom stopped when he saw Cat's face turn pale.

"Jab... started... terraforming... Mars?" Cat said in a small voice.

"Yes, more than fifty years ago."

"I saw Mars when I was held on Phobos. I didn't see any indications of terraforming on such a scale as you just described it! It was red and barren!"

"Sensor images can be modified Cat." Tom said.

"So Martians might have a living world in what? A few hundred years?"

"More like fifty more years. The colonists there are working hard and they're not solely composed of Neo-Martians. There are people from Earth. The ones that didn't want to leave. Mars is still in our original solar system and for them, it makes a world of difference."

"Mudc... Earthers on Mars? Do the Martians from Bellona station know anything about this? Especially the part about having people from Earth colonize Mars?" Asked Cat.

"No, we kept that little tidbit a secret. But hiding a whole planet is a little bit tricky and as a result, Mars is very heavily patrolled. There's not much space travel right now in the Sol system but better be ready than sorry. Those Dreadnoughts of yours have a tendency of showing up in the most unexpected places."

"Wow, that could change a lot of my people's lives. It will make my job much easier convincing them that war is counterproductive and the Presidium's persistence on raiding parties is pure madness."

"That would finally integrate your people to the other Martians and they could concentrate their efforts into building a better world for their children. Do you think your people will go for it?" Tom asked Cat.

"It's either that or annihilation from Jab's god and this time he won't stop at a small planetoid I'm afraid." Cat said out of the blue.

"What did you say!?" Tom exclaimed.

"I said, I met the guy and he looked serious as death." Cat said with finality.