Escaping Relativity

“It’s not my ship, Captain Collins, but I don’t see the harm. Where I’m from the team is your family, and we all have our different strengths. It’s up to you. I honestly don’t know what tomorrow, or even tonight will hold for me, so I shouldn’t have a vote,” Charlie answered.

It angered him to hear her talk that way, and it wasn’t because she was speaking against him, it was because she was speaking the truth, and he couldn’t force anything else. What could he do or say to make her understand, to make her believe?

“Of course you can both stay Rolara. Just pitch in wherever you can, and we’ll figure out the rest as we go. Tell The Wizard to have his brain in top gear, and everyone meet on the deck in fifteen,” Xander told her.

The smile on Rolara’s face could have melted Sojo. Xander just stood there, and Rolara ran up to them, hugging them, Charlie’s clothes crushed in between them all. Then, as though she remembered herself, she stopped, and backed up.

“I’ll tell Lennie, and don’t worry, Charlie. We’ll make sure to save you. I swear we will,” Rolara had tears in her eyes as she turned to walk hurriedly down the hallway.

“See, we all want to keep you, Charlie,” Xander said, reaching down to kiss the tip of her nose.

She smiled a sad little smile and moved away to dress in her pants and boots, but she kept his shirt on. To anyone else, it might not mean much, but to Xander, every god in the universe was smiling on him in that moment. No matter what she thought would happen, she was going to go into it with Xander, and would keep a part of him.

They didn’t say anything else to each other as they got ready. He strapped on every weapon he could, the few he couldn’t he gave to Charlie to improve her personal arsenal––even though he knew her knife was her favorite. She liked up close and personal. She wasn’t afraid of death, in fact, sometimes he thought she craved it, called to it like an old lover.

It was everything he could do not to rant and rave and throw something. He was the one who had started all of this, and he would finish it!