The Stars Have Aligned

Chapter One

Aimsey grunted, sliding out from under their ship, The Kite. The last time Aimsey flew it, a couple days ago, they had a bit of a... crash landing. Some of the lower mechanisms had been damaged when Aimsey had landed their ship a little too harshly. After several hours across the two days of rebuilding, Aimsey had finally finished the repairs. They... hoped. They couldn't entirely be sure until they flew the ship out for a test run.

They snatched their toolbox out from underneath The Kite, and walked over to their tool shelf. They sat their toolbox on top of the shelf, and put a few individual tools, like wrenches, hammers, and bolts away. The noises of sliding the drawers open and closed echoed throughout the garage. Aimsey sighed, before they began to hum the song "Mr. Brightside", one of their favorite songs, as they put their tools away.

It didn't take long for them to all be put away, and the timing was immaculate. Once all of their tools were put away, two knocks echoed throughout the gigantic room. Aimsey stopped their humming, and looked to the entrance of their garage. Standing there was Eloise, one of their closest friends. Aimsey grinned. Eloise was also a mechanic for the corporation they worked for and when they had met during training, they kind of just clicked and had became friends.

"Anyone home?" Eloise's question echoed.

"Hey!" Aimsey waved, catching Eloise's attention. Eloise smiled and jogged up to Aimsey, greeting them.

"Hey. How are you?" Eloise asked.

"I'm doing okay. You?" Aimsey responded.

"Doing alright, I guess. Nothing's ever really happening nowadays, so I've been kind of bored." Eloise shrugged. And boy, Aimsey hated to admit it, but she was right. Days had kind of began to blur into each other; nothing new, interesting, or out of the ordinary had really happened recently. At least, other than Aimsey busting up a few parts of The Kite. Even then, though, that happened often enough to the point of it being called "an every now-and-then occurrence". It sucked how boring it had been the past few days, though.

"Hey, did you repair your ship?" Eloise asked, eyes now on The Kite.

"Oh, uh, yeah, I just finished repairing it." Aimsey paused. "At least, I think so. I need to take it on a test drive." They explained. Eloise nodded.

"Well, I can take an extra look for you, if you want? You know, like another set of eyes double checking for you." She offered. Aimsey smiled.

"Honestly, that would be nice." Aimsey admitted. "Only if you want to, though." They added.

"Yeah, sure. I've got time." Eloise assured, shrugging. Timing was crazy today, though, wasn't it?

Just as Aimsey took a flashlight off their tool shelf and gave it to Eloise, soft footsteps echoed into the corridor. Aimsey recognized those footsteps immediately, without even seeing who it was. The pattern in which the person walked, the power of such a soft noise. Scott. Their older brother, head of security, and a total jerk who knows how to do his job a little too well.Scott approached Aimsey and Eloise, grinning as if he had already planned out how to ruin the next few hours for the two.

"Hello, Eloise. Hello, little brother." Scott greeted.

"Hey, Scott..." Aimsey greeted weakly.

"Hello, Scott." Eloise greeted harshly.

"Eloise, isn't your break time over?" Scott asked with a teasing tone to his voice. "You need to get back to work, you know. The ships aren't going to fix themselves." He added with a smug grin. She gave Scott a small glare, yet looked down at her wristband

 Everybody who worked for the corporation had one: it was permitted. It had times and schedules, communication, occupation, pretty much anything needed for the job.

"I should still have time..." She murmured, looking at her wristband. She pressed a few buttons, and it brought up and displayed the current time:

1:47 PM

"Shoot." Eloise realized. She was late. "I'll check The Kite later, alright?" Eloise said to Aimsey, handing them the flashlight back. Despite her words, her eyes sparkled something different; Good luck with Scott. is what they said, loud and clear.

"Yeah, alright." Aimsey mumbled, putting the flashlight back on their tool shelf. Eloise jogged out of the garage, and both Scott and Aimsey watched her leave. Once she was out of eyesight, Scott looked back at Aimsey.

"So, you finally fixed your ship?" He asked. Except, there was no kindness or genuine questioning in his tone. In fact, it sounded like he was almost making fun of them. Like he was also saying, "After you crash-landed it into our landing port?" even if it was true.

Aimsey bit back a snarky comment. They had learned to just sit back, and be quiet. Standing up to Scott wouldn't get them anywhere; Aimsey had learned that the hard way.

"Uhm, yeah, actually, I have." Aimsey said to Scott evenly.

"You've got to be more careful. You know you almost took out a coworker, right, little brother?" Scott teased, walking over and examining the ship with his arms behind his back.

"You.. told me. Several times." Aimsey murmured, loud enough for Scott to hear. Scott chuckled.

 "You know, it's funny. How—" Scott turned to Aimsey, but got cut off by the loud noise of his wristband going off. Aimsey blinked, ears perking.

Scott clicked a button, and it displayed one of the security guards. Aimsey knew him by the name Oli. They had never properly met him, but they had heard that he was a pretty nice guy for his job.

"Oli, what's the matter?" Scott demanded, a bit irritated sounding. Aimsey shied away a bit from Scott's irritation.

"Scott, a mysterious ship has just crashed into our port. We don't know what kind of ship it is, or who the pilot is. We need you down here immediately." Oli spoke with such an intelligent-sounding voice, even if it was a tad bit distorted by the wristband. Honestly, he seemed like the kind of guy to be fitting for the role of mechanic. Maybe, if he had become one, then him and Aimsey could've been friends. But... he wasn't. He was a security guard, like their older brother.

"On my way." Scott told Oli, before ending the call. He glared at Aimsey, as if he had something to say, but he wordlessly left. Aimsey, though hesitant, kind of wanted to see what was going on. A mysterious ship crashing into the port? They had to check it out.

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Aimsey dove behind one of the ships, having a good view of the situation. They watched as Scott rushed out, having a plasmablaster in-hand. They saw him, Oli, and some other security guards surround the mysterious ship. As Aimsey took a glance at the ship, they finally realized that the ship was more of a pearlescent white than the usual silver or obsidian black color that the corporation ships were.

"Captain of the ship; exit slowly and reveal yourself!" Scott's voice echoed throughout the mostly hollowed port, practically booming.Then, out exited the captain of the ship. Aimsey struggled to make out who it was at first, but slowly, they realized. The odd features, Aimsey had somehow recognized.

An alien had crashed into the port.