Homestar Saga

Chapter 17: Take Me To Your Leader

"Have you tried talking to him about it?" Yvian had finished scanning the Xill Hub. The Random Encounter's sensors were now assessing some of the individual planets in the sector.

"I don't know what to say," Lissa sighed. "I mean, I like him. But love? That's a lot to process."

Gas giant, gas giant, lifeless rock... Yvian was seeing a ton of resources, but no stations or even drones making use of them. The only station in the sector was the Hub. Not that the Hub wasn't station enough. The thing was over eight hundred kilometers across. "I don't think he was planning to drop the L-bomb," she noted. "I'm pretty sure he only did it cause our lives were on the line."

"I know," Lissa acknowledged. "That might actually make it worse. The way he looked after... I don't think I realized how lonely he is. I kind of thought he was made of stone, you know? I thought we were just having fun. I didn't mean to... I didn't..."

"Holy fucking Crunch," Yvian swore.

"Right?" Lissa sighed again. "I don't know what to do, now."

"What?" Yvian looked up from her screen. "No, not that," Yvian rolled her eyes at her sister. "No one cares about your interspecies boytoy drama." She pointed. "I'm talking about this."

Lissa's face screwed itself up as she tried to decide whether to be offended or curious. She settled on both. "You suck, Sis." She came over to look at Yvian's screen. "What are we... holy fucking Crunch."

"Right?" Lissa stuck her tongue out at her. The sensor screen revealed a planet. With life on it. Nitrogen atmosphere with a twenty two percent oxygen content. Gravity nearly identical to standard. Enough water to cover three quarters of the world's crust. It was teeming with carbon based life.

The United Confederation of Systems controlled over a hundred and fifty sectors. In all that space, there were only sixteen habitable worlds. Fifteen, if the Klaath had succeeded in taking Krog Prime. Only nine of those worlds had been habitable at the start. The others had been terraformed. Here was a bounty yet untouched.

"There is no Xill presence on the planet," Yvian reported. "Or any of the others, for that matter. It's like they don't have any use for them."

"They probably don't," Lissa surmised. "They're just intelligent ships, right? They don't need food or water or anything."

"Well, they've got to do something for resources," Yvian guessed. "They need a way to refuel, make repairs, all that stuff." She glanced sideways at her sister. "You should just talk to him. You're both adults. I'm sure he'll understand."

"What if he doesn't?" Lissa worried. "I don't want to lead him on or anything, but... What if I hurt him?"

Yvian shrugged. "Then he'll get hurt. He's a big boy, Sis." She didn't say what they were both thinking. A heartbroken Mims would be a huge problem. They were at his mercy at the moment. Yvian didn't think he'd try to hurt them, but if he did they were in deep shit. Or he might decide to cut ties, flushing Yvian's plans down the toilet. Crunch, even letting his emotions distract him and making a mistake could end very badly. They needed the motherless son, dammit, and they needed him on his game.

"Has he said anything to you?" Lissa asked.

"No," Yvian frowned. "Why do you think he'd talk to me about it?"

"Who else would he talk to?" Lissa pointed out. "There's only three of us on the ship."

"Plus she thinks she loves me," the human quipped as he walked onto the bridge. "If I was looking for a confidant, that's a good place to start."

The girls stared at him. Well, Lissa stared. Yvian glowered. "How long were you listening?" she accused.

"I was only able to hear from 'Why do you think he'd talk to me' on," the Captain replied, taking a seat. "I'm not trying to eavesdrop, but if you ladies want to have a private conversation the bridge isn't the place to do it." He pulled up a sensor display. "So what'd you find?"