Spaceships and Magic, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Chapter 63: On A Whim

I let Fal's statement hang in the air as I absorbed the weight behind her words and the implications that they would have going forward.

For a start, I had already begun to consider the idea that perhaps staying with the Guard after this disaster had cleared up wasn't the right move for me. I had the feeling that I would be able to get much more done on my own than I would by taking orders from some stuffy Squadron Leader like Belana, in fact, I'd already proven as much by ruining Lara's plans in the Clan Pren base.

There seemed to be a real lack of leadership in the upper ranks of the Guard. The leader of the whole outfit had landed their most well-protected planet in serious hot water, pun not intended considering the ocean-world nature of the planet. Did I really want to get stuck in a situation where I wouldn't be allowed to help someone just because my commanding officer didn't want me to?

The answer was, of course, simple.

No, I didn't ever want to get put into that sort of a situation.

But, on the other hand, the resources that I had access to as part of the Guard was something that I couldn't just simply ignore.

As a member of the Guard I'd have access to transport from action site to action site, I'd have access to food and drink, I'd even have access to specially created battle armour like the type Belana had given us. Not that the armour had proven particularly effective against the Null Space Hybrid.

Could I really give all of that up on a whim?

It was the question I had been struggling with ever since we had returned from the underwater battle, and while Fal's declaration had led me more in favour of leaving than staying I still didn't have a definitive answer for myself.

I was drawn out of my mental musing once again by Yr'Arl, though this time it was the simple act of the feline alien placing four glasses of a milky green liquid down onto the table. It didn't look like any alcohol I'd ever had before, but after the revelation of Pax's imminent demise, I'd take anything that I could get.

"Thanks, Yr'Arl," I said before taking the drink.

A smarter man would have only taken a little sip of the unknown beverage. Tested the waters, so to speak. Sometimes I was not a very smart man. Instead, I took a colossal gulp of the liquid.

Back on Earth, I'd been a vodka man. No other alcohol really did it for me. Beer tasted terrible and whiskey was too strong. This was like whiskey that had been turned up to eleven. It was like a liquid fire rolling down my throat and into my belly, where it broiled away like acid eating away at my insides. By the green colour of the liquid, it could have been acid for all I knew.

"Bloody… Hell…" I managed to gasp out, sweat forming on my brow and my cheeks no doubt turning a deep shade of red.

That was some seriously strong stuff. So strong that I was half-convinced I'd died, or at the very least passed out for a couple of seconds.

By the time I managed to get a hold of my senses Yr'Arl had already sat down and the trio that made up my current drinking companions were all doubled over themselves in laughter. Well, at least I could help cheer the group up a little bit, all of them needed that.

"Well," I croaked hoarsely, "I guess you got your revenge for the Chilli."

"Indeed I have, Jacob Lyre," Yr'Arl replied smugly, "Though revenge will not be complete until this holovid begins to go viral."

Before I could stop the alien from following through, he had already swiped upward with his finger across the holographic display emanating from his watch. I really hoped I would be able to live this one down.

"Joking aside," I said, trying to regain control of the situation before it devolved too quickly, "Fal just broke some pretty big news. Would you like to say it again, for Yr'Arl's benefit?"

Fal took a deep breath to steady herself before repeating her previous statement, she was planning to leave the Guard, and she wanted all of us to come with her.

"I can understand your apprehension around the Guard following the tragedy of what happened to Pax," Yr'Arl said, "But I have placed my faith in Jacob Lyre, and thus I shall follow whatever he decides his course of action to be."

That whole faith thing was starting to become troublesome, mainly because I'd been planning on using Yr'Arl's own answer to shape my own. I took another mouthful of the green alcohol, though this time I only took a measured sip like everyone else had been doing. The burn was easier to manage this time, pleasant even, with an aftertaste that had hints of citrus.

I already knew what my answer was going to be, of course. I was just trying to put off saying it for some reason. I guess because, after I had said it, it made it real. My course of action would be practically set in stone. But there was no getting around it, with the eyes of all three aliens on me I had to say something.

"I think… I think I'll probably have to join you," I said eventually, relieved to have said the words. It was like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

Clearly I'd said the right thing, too, because those mismatched eyes of Fal had changed in an instant, from their deep blue and angry red to a smouldering orange. My instincts said that she was feeling the need for revenge, and orange was the colour for that.

She turned toward Akash, "and what about you, Akash? Will you join us as well?"

The last of the Eldrani took a heaving sigh, his breath crackling like a thunderstorm in a forest.

"The Guard may have healed me, but it was their incompetence that led me to be captured in the first place," Akash said. "Besides, I couldn't very well leave a human as troublesome as this one without appropriate supervision, could I?"

His words had a teasing tone to them, and I couldn't help but smirk at the dig.

All four of us would be leaving together, our very own team.

And we were going to kick some serious ass.