Vulka and I ended up finishing our dinners in silence. Vulka being this quiet almost worried me more than Nate storming off. He usually had a joke or good advice to cheer me up, but this time he just sat there, idly sipping at the mylar bag of nutrient paste. I did my best to eat what I could, but the whole event had ruined my appetite. By the time I had spent several minutes shoving a vegetable around on my plate, Vulka decided to speak up.

“We should go to Stripes,” he said.

I looked up. Vulka had finished his dinner, and was folding the bag into as small of a square as he could. “You want a drink?” I asked, then realized I wasn’t feeling too hot, myself. I sighed. “Maybe not the worst idea.”

“No, we should talk to Helga,” Vulka said. “Drink is good, yes, but that will be our secondary objective.”

“I mean, you heard what the guard said, right?” I asked. “She already told everyone not to mess with him, and it clearly didn’t help.”

“She gives good advice,” Vulka said, giving me a shrug. “Maybe she has ideas of how to keep Nate here.”

“She doesn’t want Nate here,” I reminded him. “The only reason she’s going along with this is… I dunno, she keeps going on about ‘strays’.  Sometimes it feels like she’s just trying to keep me happy so I don’t run off.”

“I’m sure she has her reasons,” Vulka said. “Better you here and safe than tossed into Frontier to figure it out yourself.”

“I know, I’m thankful, but…” I began, then stopped. It didn’t help anything to interrogate Helga’s motives. I was stuck here whether I wanted to be or not; better to have someone in control of my situation that was kind and willing to listen to me. “Whatever, let’s just go.”

Blessedly, there were fewer eyes on us as we left the canteen. Regular old Casey and Vulka, nothing to see here. The walk to Stripes was punctuated with the occasional question from coworkers and people who knew us, asking about Nate. I shrugged off what I could, but it almost felt like I was back in those first couple weeks again. No, he’s back at his ship. No, he isn’t trying to kidnap me. Please don’t call him that, I happen to care about him a lot. I couldn’t believe how tired I was. This one day felt like a week.

Stripes, when we got there, wasn’t crowded yet. Enough people were at dinner that the only ones here had drank their dinner, or were very fast eaters. I was just glad to not have to elbow through a crowd. The music coming from the corner speakers was quieter than usual, matching the atmosphere.

“Thought I’d see you two soon,” Helga said as we walked up. She gestured to the stools in front of her, where our regular orders were already waiting. “Saved you both a seat.”

“Our dear leader!” Vulka said as he sat down.

I half-mumbled a thank you and sank onto my own stool, then slumped onto the bar, staring at the bubbles in the glass in front of me.

“I heard what happened. Was it that bad?” Helga asked. I didn’t move as she tapped one of my horns.

“Pretty bad,” Vulka replied.

“He wore his military jacket,” I said, which I knew was all the explanation Helga needed.

She sucked air through her teeth. “Pretty bad,” she said, agreeing with Vulka. “I imagine you’re here to ask me to help.”

I slowly lifted my head and took a sip from my soda, then propped myself up on my elbows. Sitting straight just wasn’t going to happen at this point in the day. “I don’t know what to do,” I said. “He already seems convinced that we’re going back to Ulthea together.”

“Well, then we’re in the same ship,” Helga said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I mean I don’t know how to help you,” Helga explained. “This is a genuine, first-of-its-kind situation for me, and he’s your buddy. I can’t tell you how to talk to him.”

I sat there in silence for a moment. A part of me knew this would happen, but I was really hoping for something, anything else. Right now, keeping Nate here felt like getting across the galaxy under my own power.

“We don’t work tomorrow, right?” I asked Vulka.

Vulka nodded, lifting his drink vessel in salute. “Nothing but free time!”

“I would like to try alcohol now,” I said, turning back to Helga.

“Maybe not that much free time,” Vulka said, putting his drink back down.

Helga gave me a sympathetic smile. “You can try it when you don’t look like you’ve been run over by a pack of Haulers who’re late to happy hour,” she said, nudging my soda closer. ”Not a good idea when you’re already feeling low.”

“Mrnghh,” I replied. 

“Surely we can figure something out,” Vulka said. “What about Frontier news articles? Every day I see reports on what planets Ulthea is bombing or enslaving.”

I winced at the reminder, but Helga nodded. “If just telling him about what they did to you didn’t work, those articles are pretty strong proof,” she said. “I remember you changed your own tune pretty quickly after just a few of those.”

“I hope it’s that easy,” I said. “I don’t know that I would have been so receptive if I wasn’t already on the run.”

“Only thing you can do is try,” Vulka said. “You would do anything you could to save him, yes?”

I nodded, though I wasn’t sure how much power I really had. We were up against a Blessed of Ulthea, who allegedly had eyes that could see the entire galaxy. It might have been getting harder to believe things like that, but it was easier said than done to shake the constant feeling of being watched.

Helga rummaged around behind the bar. “I’ve got a spare tablet here,” she said, producing it with a flourish. She placed it on the bar in front of us. “Why don’t you and Vulka do some planning? Find some news you can use. I’ll check in when I can, but looks like things are picking up.”

They were. More people filtered into Stripes as they finished eating, and the noise level slowly rose as conversations began and the drinks flowed. The music was turned up to meet the crowd, requiring Vulka and I to scoot closer together in order to hear each other better.

We spent the rest of the evening poring over news feeds, pointing out evocative pictures and useful paragraphs. Helga dropped by when she could to check our progress, and even offered a few news feeds we hadn’t thought of. As much as it hurt again to see what my former home was capable of, it also gave me a second wind. Nate couldn’t deny this evidence. There were hundreds of articles showing the horror of Ulthea’s expansion that we didn’t even get to. It had to convince him that we came from a malevolent empire, and that going back meant death.

Time slipped by. We had gathered our hand-picked references into one large document that I could show Nate tomorrow. It ended up being bigger than I expected, but we figured it was best to be thorough. Looking up, I hadn’t realized that the bar had been slowly emptying behind us. Helga strolled up to us, cleaning a mug. 

“How goes Operation Hearts and Minds?” she asked.

“Hearts and Minds?” I asked back.

“Sure, winning Nate’s heart and convincing his mind,” Helga explained. “I guess it’s just the one heart and mind, but that doesn’t sound as good.”

“Oh, well, take a look,” I said, handing her the tablet. “We tried to stick to more recent incidents, but there were still more than enough.”

“It really doesn’t hit you how widespread it is until you gather everything together,” Vulka said. “I can’t tell if they’re ramping up their aggression or if it’s always been this bad.”

Helga took some time to scroll through our document. “Oh, it’s always been this bad,” she said. “I chose the location for Brock Station very carefully. Far enough that it’ll take them a while to get here, but close enough to be in a few major shipping lanes. Plenty of pictures, I see.”

“If it made Casey squeamish, it went in,” Vulka said, poking at one of my horns.

I pushed his hand away. “I figured if I didn’t like it, Nate wouldn’t either,” I said. “I think our chances are pretty good now.”

Helga smiled. “Getting a little confidence back?” she asked.

“Yeah, for once I’m not feeling so bad,” I replied. “Thanks for your help, I know you don’t really like him.”

Helga tilted her head, considering what I said. “I don’t like who, or what he represents,” she said. “I might not have liked you much if you kept going on about how great Ulthea was. We can reevaluate that once you turn him around.”

“Deal,” I said, then yawned. “What time is it?”

“Bed time,” Vulka said. “I feel about ready to leak out of my suit.”

Both Helga and I pulled a face at that. He looked between the two of us. “What? That is normal Spacewalker turn of phrase!”

“Well, you better not leak on my floors,” Helga said, taking our empty glasses (or vessels, in Vulka’s case). “I’m a couple hours before I close up, but you two have a good night.”

She turned to help a customer, leaving Vulka and I to make our way out of Stripes. It was a contemplative walk back to the employee dorms. Vulka and I chatted about our plans for our time off, what the rest of the repair job we started today would look like, simple things. Meanwhile, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I would present our document to Nate. Regardless of how real it all was, I knew it would be a struggle to convince him. Belief in the Blessed was absolute. 

We said our goodbyes at my door, and I flopped straight into my bed. What a day. I could hardly believe it, but there was a real chance that Nate and I could be together again. Just had to get through tomorrow without scaring him off, try to start slow and ramp it up. Maybe I could even leverage what they did to me again, what they did to him. As long as we’re friends, we’ll…

I was asleep before I knew it.