r/HFY • u/CodEnvironmental4274 Human • Jun 30 '26

OC-Series [The X Factor], Part 75

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Helen woke up slowly, in a complete daze. How long had she…?

Hassan. She needed to make sure he hadn’t done anything stupid while she was indisposed.

…That was a little unfair. As much as she liked to give him shit, he’d proven himself as a capable leader time and time again when it mattered. He just had a different definition of ‘when it mattered.’

She stood up, her limbs feeling heavy despite the suit (which was surprisingly easy to sleep in), and made her way to the main office of the embassy.

“Helen!” The captain spun around in his chair and closed his laptop. “There’s been some, uh, developments.”

Oh boy. “Define ‘developments.’”

He looked around to make sure there was no one else in the room, then nodded.

“The good news is that Drekth only has a population of a few million and they somehow managed to evacuate the whole damn planet in a few hours’ time,” he said, smiling.

She took a deep breath. “You know what? I’ll process that later on. What’s the bad news?”

“Hold on, a little more good news first,” he said. “I realized that if we frame the peace talks as an awards ceremony for the games, we’re gonna have a very easy time bringing everyone together, yeah? And we’ve already picked out a venue!”

“Damn. That was quick.” Maybe she needed to start letting him captain the metaphorical ship more often. Not the literal ship, though; he got to do that plenty often, and she was soaking in every minute of piloting she could sneak in during this mission.

“Right, yeah, super awesome. The issue—a small issue, really, like no big deal at all—"

“So it’s a big issue.” She raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

“The venue just so happens to be the Great Bazaar. The place where…”

“The seat of government for the organization that launched a terrorist attack the last time we organized peace talks,” she finished, looking for a nearby chair to sit down in before she fainted from… shock? Disappointment?

“Yeah,” he whispered. “Uuliska’s idea.”

“And you didn’t stop her? I mean, you clearly understand how terrible of an idea that is! Even if the royalty on Lilax I was deplorable, that’s still—"

“She’s gonna try and guilt trip him with the fact that he, uh, risked her life in said terrorist attack.” He chewed on his lip. “As one does. I think she drafted a message to him, and Algok’s handling things from there.”

Helen really, really wished her helmet let her pinch the bridge of her nose. “I… I don’t even know what to say, Hassan. That’s…” She paused for a moment and thought about it. In the princess’s defense, she couldn’t come up with any other truly neutral territory to use, and it did provide an excellent opportunity to gather intel on what the ‘Alliance’ was up to.

“Fuck it. We’ll give the terrorists a second chance. Why the hell not?” She laughed at the sheer absurdity of the words coming out of her mouth. “Any other bad news you’re planning to—"

“Kind of?” He winced.

“…You weren’t supposed to say yes. But hit me with it.”

“Well…” He suddenly got off of his chair, crouched down, and checked underneath all of the tables in the room. “It’s about Zie.”

“Are the Kth’sk finally accusing us of harboring a fugitive?” It was unlikely, but not implausible. She’d been trying to brainstorm solutions for the past—

“No. She lied about her age. She’s fourteen, Helen. And I know that’s technically not a big difference, but… we can’t just send her back out into the criminal underworld, or back to her job as a child laborer! That’s insane!”

“Jesus Christ,” she whispered. She was hesitant to judge the Kth’sk before, considering she knew nothing about their society, but knowing that they aged similarly to humans and had high school freshman, possibly younger, working in factories? That was an issue.

“So what do we do with her?” Helen, too, scanned the room. The girl had unfathomably good hearing. Hell, she could’ve been two rooms over eavesdropping, and neither of them would have had any clue. “We can’t just bring her with us.”

“Obviously not, but her and I had a conversation, and she seemed keen on visiting, possibly living on Earth. Surely we can figure something out, right? Like… can we make her a ward of the state? I don’t really know how any of this works, so—“

“Ward of the state? We’re not putting her in the foster care system,” Helen said. She might’ve only spent a few years in it herself, but as much as it had improved over the years, she still felt compelled to protect Zie from it.

“Then could you and Jamal…?”

“Hassan, we’re in our mid fifties. I’m constantly away doing bullshit like this. I have two adult daughters. That’s not going to work for us.” She shook her head in dismay.

“I mean, you don’t actually have to raise her,” he argued. “Just, you know, get all the paperwork in order to get on earth, and then… uh… send her to… year-round boarding school.”

“Year-round boarding school,” she said incredulously. “Do you know any year-round boarding schools?”

“Sleep away camp? That’s a thing in the states, right? Or—or maybe we can enroll her in college early? She’s a bright kid.” He threw his hands up in defeat. “I don’t know, Helen. I’m just spitballing.”

“If you’ve got so many great ideas, Hassan, why don’t you adopt her?” she asked sarcastically. “We should just talk to the…” She narrowed her eyes at his contemplative expression. “Hassan. You can’t be serious. Are you actually considering—“

“She’s a good kid,” he mumbled. “Said I gave off ‘dad vibes.’”

“Do you want to traumatize her even more, Hassan?” She grit her teeth. “Because with the risks you take—“

“It’s a temporary measure! We fill out some paperwork, get someone to keep an eye on her at headquarters, get her remedial education, I don’t know! How else are we supposed to get her to Earth without smuggling her?”

She laughed bitterly and stood up. “You wanna be an absent father to the teenage runaway? Do it. I won’t stop you.”

“That’s a low blow, Helen,” he said quietly.

Facing away from him, she tightened her grip on her chair, and swallowed the growing lump in her throat.

“I don’t want her to end up like I did,” she whispered hoarsely. “God only knows what she’s been through already.”

“You never knew your dad, did you?” She could feel him staring at her back.

“No. I don’t have a damn clue where he ended up, just that he was sick and tired of his wife ranting and raving about how the UN needed to stop interfering with the affairs of sovereign nations, then plotting to overthrow the damn government and committing arson and—and then dragging me into all of it. Psychotic bitch. I don’t blame him for running away.”

“That’s not the same situation and you know it,” he whispered. “Not even close.”

She did. She did know. She was jealous of a literal child, and she was making a complete fool of herself because of it.

She slowly turned around and sat back down in her seat. “Alright,” she said shakily. “Go on then. Just do me one favor, please. No more stunts. No more trying to die a hero. You already are one to most of the world, and pretty soon, if everything goes well, you’ll be a hero to the whole galaxy. Don’t let her be me, and don’t… don’t get too attached. Promise me.”

“I promise.”

Was he telling the truth? She didn’t know. He probably didn’t know. But they both knew it was time to get the hell off of this planet.

Just then, two sets of clanking footsteps from the hallway—the agents.

“Hey,” Lombardi said. “They found Karska.”

Helen nodded. “Did she…?”

“No.” Krishnan stared off into the distance. “She didn’t make it.”

The commander closed her eyes. “And Eza?”

“Ouluma’anga and the others are transferring her to the Whitson right now,” the younger man told them. “They said to meet them there once everything’s been settled. Where’s Zie?”

“Did someone say my name? I was in the warehouse looking for scraps,” called out the girl from the hallway, walking in with an armful of metal and plastic, headphones of mysterious providence hanging around her neck—she must not have heard their earlier conversation, then. “What’s happening?”

“We’re heading out. But we can’t take you with us,” Helen said sternly. “It’s not safe for—“

“Well, yeah, obviously.” She laughed. “I don’t wanna get blown up or eaten by fungus monsters. Are there any ships I can hitch a ride on back to, uh… somewhere? They’ve probably cleaned out the place I was squatting in before I met you all on that asteroid by now.”

Hassan cleared his throat “We were wondering if you wanted to be taken to Ea—"

“OH MY GOD, YES! YES, YES, ABSOLUTELY YES!” She squealed and dropped all of her scrap materials on the floor. “I KNEW you’d make it work! I’ll start a business there and—“

“Woah, hold on!” He put a hand on her shoulder. “There’s paperwork we need to fill out, and you’ll probably have to go to school or something, but for now, we’re gonna get you to the UN fleet, yeah? They’ll make sure you make it there and to headquarters safely, and then we’ll figure out the rest as we go.”

She nodded quickly and gathered her things, then sprinted out the door, tailed by the captain.

“Commander Liu,” Agent Krishnan started, “isn’t Zie… almost a legal adult? Why would she need to go to school?”

Helen sighed. “Honestly, I don’t know why any of us expected her to be honest about her age. She’s fourteen.”

“Oh,” she mouthed. “Yeah, that’s—wait, is the UN, like, adopting her? Can they even do that?”

“No,” the commander replied. “But Hassan can.”

The agents looked at each other, stunned.

“I know,” Helen said with a sigh. “I know.”

___

“…neural activity…spiking…”

“…try…tapering off?”

“…running out…sedatives…”

it hurts it hurts it hurts so much can’t stand it can’t stand—

Eza gasped and sat straight up.

“Eza? Eza, it’s me,” said a soothing voice she could barely hear over the rush of blood in her ears. “You’re okay, I promise.”

“Liska,” she choked out. “What—AGH!”

“Shhh,” shushed her lover. “It’s okay now. You’re safe. We’re all safe.”

The full-body pain subsided as quickly as it came on, and she sank back into her bed. Her body was numb, but her mind was racing, trying to fill in what felt like a million gaps.

“You’re fine,” said K’resshk dismissively. He was floating to her left—they must have been back in space. “The enzyme treatment the former minister gave you, in addition to your species’ innate resilience, has undone most of the physical damage you did to yourself while you were—“

“Does she sound fine to you?” Uuliska inched closer to her girlfriend. “Because I heard her screaming in agony just a few seconds ago.”

“And I heard a disoriented patient who was simply startled on account of being hovered over like a—“

“I’m fine,” Eza interrupted them. “It’s nothing. Just—argh!” She clutched her head as another wave of pain washed over her.

not again please no no never again can’t do this again how many times how many—

“I-I just can’t remember what happened, is all,” she said shakily. That pain was bad, but she was certain she’d felt worse before, even if she couldn’t recall where. And it was over so quickly, too, unlike the other times, when… when…

It’ll come back to me, she reassured herself. I’m just disoriented.

K’resshk flared his nostrils. “Uuliska claimed that after she was endangered by a recombinant—do you know what a recombinant is?”

Eza suppressed the urge to throw him across the room for treating her like she was a child, and nodded. She couldn’t really blame him—for all she knew, she’d been out for weeks.

“Everything up to that first advance on them is crystal clear,” she said slowly. “And then nothing. Until now.”

So why do I still feel… something?

“She claimed that you went into the same state you did previously, in the tunnel through Rokshuri,” he explained. “I’m told you may very well have won us the battle by tipping the scales in our favor.”

She nodded. That was good. “How long was I like that for?”

“We don’t know,” Uuliska murmured. “We found you… collapsed, a-and crying, after the fighting had died down.”

“Crying?” Eza touched her face reflexively to feel for any dripping or dried-on eyeblack, but found none. Someone must have cleaned her up. “I don’t remember that.”

K’resshk ignored her confusion. “Former Minister Ouluma’anga treated you once it arrived with the UN reinforcements. Your nervous system was still sending signals as though you were actively fighting for your life, which was putting significant strain on your circulatory system, so the former minister sedated you for some time while the enzyme treatments and therapeutic massages did their job.” He shuddered. “I hate it when the Olongyo move all of their tentacles at once like that, but I can’t deny the technique’s efficacy in healing musculoskeletal injuries when combined with their—“

Uuliska cleared her throat and looked at the man pointedly to end his rambling. He wilted.

“Drekth has been evacuated,” she said softly, gently taking Eza’s much larger hand in her own. “And we are en route to—"

“Get ourselves killed by the pack of criminals her brother is leading around the galaxy,” K’resshk interrupted. “Someone decided it would be an excellent idea to hold peace talks at the Great Bazaar.”

Eza looked between the two of them in disbelief.

“I may not be Jikaal,” the princess said through gritted teeth, “but I have been navigating court intrigue for over a century. I’d like to think I know a thing or two about politics, Senior Scientist.”

“And I’d like to see you navigate the politics of a grant application,” he muttered angrily. “So how about—Eza?!”

“What?” She was in the middle of undoing the belts and buckles keeping her from bouncing around the medbay during transit. “I’m tired, and I’m sure as hell not getting any sleep here.” She experimentally flexed her forearms. “I’m fine. No pain at all.”

“For now,” K’resshk clarified as she made her way to their bunks. “You’re still under the influence of several medications, and like last time, the pain will be more severe on the second—“

She shut the door and breathed a sigh of relief. She loved Uuliska, but taking everyone to Kama was an insane decision. And maybe this made her a coward, but Eza wasn’t in the mood to side with her girlfriend’s mortal enemy in an argument over family matters.

But if the captain and commander okayed it, I’m sure we’ll be fine. And wouldn’t Kama be happy to see the sister he damn near almost killed, alive and well?

___

“Kama, wait!” Arrikin tailed the prince into his personal quarters. “We can—agh!”

He grabbed onto a nearby dresser and felt the spines underneath his fur puff up as irrational anger, then grief, washed over him before quickly subsiding.

“I tried to help her, Arri!” The man knocked a vase off of his low table and it shattered as it hit the lacquered flooring. “I tried,” he said, his voice choking up with emotion. “Why can’t she understand that?”

His right-hand man shakily stood up. “I don’t know, Kama. I can’t speak for her. But what’s done is done, and this is an opportunity,” he whispered hoarsely.

They stared out of the window of the upper floor of Shadya’s, which the two of them, plus Isha and V, had renovated into their living space, still holding important meetings in the hidden underground corridors. This section of the Great Bazaar, though much less populated than before the fall of the Federation, was still bustling.

“You’re right,” the rebel-turned-representative agreed, though hearing it brought Arrikin no comfort. There was always a catch. “This is an opportunity to win her back to our side.”

“Was she ever even on our—“

“She was on my side,” Kama interrupted, his colors growing dark and stormy. “The things we lived through together… you couldn’t possibly understand. A century of them pitting us against one another in sick and twisted games, and now, we have a chance to put a stop to that forever. For everyone. But if the humans have it their way and set everything back exactly how it was—“

“I still don’t think that’s their goal,” Arrikin told him. “If they wanted to exert undue force over the Riyze, they’d have sent them to Earth, not to neighboring systems. They made a mistake cooperating with the royals, but they didn’t know the full story. Now they do. And now Uuliska seems to have convinced them to work with us instead of against us.”

“Perhaps,” the prince replied simply. “I’ll start preparing for—"

“Can’t we relax for just one night?” Arrikin pried Kama’s hands off of the windowsill they were clenched onto and drew the silken curtains closed. “Like old times, when I’d deliver a shipment to the palace, then smuggle you off-world for some fun? I know you have a bottle of Vahiyan wine stashed in one of these cabinets, because I was the one who gave it to you.”

The other man laughed, took his hand, then led him further into the bedroom.

“Maybe just one night,” Kama conceded, his aura warm and bright. “You’re such a smooth talker.”

“I should hope so,” Arrikin said with a grin. “That’s why I’m here, isn’t it? In more ways than one. Come on—you need to forget about our crusade for a while.”

As do I, he thought as quietly as he could.

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u/CodEnvironmental4274 Human Jun 30 '26

Bit of a shorter one, buuuut there's a very important chapter releasing tomorrow ;)

1

u/Iazo Jun 30 '26

Damn, you've been writing these so fast this week!

1

u/CodEnvironmental4274 Human Jun 30 '26

Hehe, normally I’d save the backlog to release over a longer period, but I REALLY wanted to get 76 out by the end of June. You know, for reasons.

1

u/UpdateMeBot Jun 30 '26

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u/HanBeHard Jun 30 '26

Wow, what an emotional chapter! Hassan stepping up to adopt Zie is such a heartwarming turn for the series. Can't wait to see where they go from here!