November 2, 2081 Earth Calendar. 

Earth 

With a deep sigh Kikata took in all the rich smells of nature, it had a familiar feeling but the smells themselves were so alien. Her golden eyes remained shut as she could feel the bright sun caressing her skin. The shallow, warm water beneath her gently lapped at her legs, thighs and the small of her back. As the faint whirring of a small engine flowed into her ears her golden eyes finally opened. Her soft, serene smile broadened into a gleaming white grin as the small water craft slowly came to a halt by her knee. 

"These things are a blast!" Richards voice called up. He sat back on his jet ski and removed his sunglasses, his right hand reaching up to brush the water out of his freshly buzzed hair. 

"I believe it. You've been out there since morning." Kikata replied with a giggle. She lowered a hand into a water and twirled her finger within the shallow bank, kicking up a brown swirl of silt. "It is so nice here. What do they call this lake again?" 

"Well, it's not a lake it's a bay. The Chesapeake Bay." Richard said as he slowly puttered up to the shoreline. Richard had relocated his mothers house to a small town on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. It had been five years since he and Kikata met, but this was the first time Kikata had ever accompanied him back to Earth. It took a lot of effort considering the closest port with Alien access was in Washington D.C. So to avoid any complications Kikata agreed to simply hike from D.C to the small town where they were now. For her it wasn't a terrible journey at all, the hardest part was the swarm of paparazzi and media constantly flowing at her feet. Luckily for them, the small town was in love with their celebrity residents before they even arrived and did a good job of barricading the annoying reporters and photographers out of the couples vacation retreat. 

"Oh, right. Now I remember." Kikata said, brushing her hair out of her face as she glanced around the scenery. All the trees had turned such a fascinating array of colors, "I wish our trees looked like this!" She said with a wide smile. 

"Yeah it's nice here in the fall." Richard said as he dragged his jet ski up onto the narrow beach. "Pretty soon though all the leaves will fall off and all the trees will be bare." 

"Ooh." Kikata cooed, "I wish I would be here to see!" 

Richard nodded as his eyes trailed along the landscape, he had been back home for a month and everything was just starting to feel normal again. Over the past five years he had only traveled all the way back to earth about once a year. He and Kikata were made an official team of what was a growing section of the Guard. And though it seemed possible to simply leave the Guard behind, they decided that it was the life they wanted in the end. And their status did bring them some perks within the ranks. For one they got a much nicer and more comfortably equipped ship. The human facilities were more carefully designed so that Richard could be completely mobile within the ship, though Kikata still enjoyed carrying him around with her. 

As his eyes slipped over the shining water, glowing with the mixed orange reflection of the dying sun and the forest that surrounded them, his gaze funnily landed upon her. Her toes wiggled lazily as they breached the waters surface, her knees rising like small islands before sloping back into the water which barely hid her titanic form. Black fabric draped between her legs and hugged her body in narrow strips before connecting with the skimpy top of her bathing suit. Her shoulder length black hair nearly matched the dark fabric perfectly except for two stripes of blonde hair, one running from the tip of her right ear to the base. And then the other starting from near the center of her scalp and flowing down along the hair that clung to her left cheek. It was a look she went for a few years ago after much coaxing from Prila who insisted that Kikata needed to liven up her look. 

The memory of Prila brought a slight frown to Richards face, it had been so long it seemed since they had been in contact with her. 

"So uh." He started, "You talk to Prila like you planned?"

Kikata cringed slightly at the question, "I never heard back." She said with a sigh, "I don't know what has gotten into her…" Kikata said as her voice trailed off slightly. 


"Well you know she was pretty tied up with stuff back home?" Richard offered as he sat back against the cushioned seat of the jet ski. About a year ago he and Kikata had accompanied Prila to a huge ceremony for her Cho'ottoo advancement into the highest possible ranks within the martial arts. 

"Yes…but now? I am afraid something has happened." Kikata said, her golden eyes falling onto Richard with concern. 

"If anything happened we would be among the first to know. Prila is a mysterious girl, she will turn up sooner or later, you'll see." Richard assured her with a smile. 

Kikata laughed lightly, "Well you have got a point there." She took in another deep sigh, "It's just I wish she would at least check in."

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Later that night Richard and Kikata found themselves back at Richards mothers house, who luckily had a large enough back yard now to accommodate Kikata comfortably. Richard stood over a wide charcoal grill, standing on either side of him were his brothers David and Isaac. David was the eldest brother at thirty two years old, and Isaac was the youngest at twenty two years old. 

"So how's business?" Richard said eyeing his older brother with a grin. He had not seen David in nearly two years now, just missing him on his last visit to earth. 

"The bar is doing well." David said, eyeing the sizzling steaks upon the grill hungrily. He had a tangled mat of brown hair that sat upon his head seemingly at random. A tangled beard clung to his cheeks and chin completing his disheveled look. At first glance you would think he was a bum rather than a rather well off owner of a sports bar in D.C. "And I tell you that night Kikata flew in I think our profits doubled, we nearly dried out the taps." 

Richard laughed, "Glad to hear we could help." He turned towards Isaac and landed a strong hand on his shoulder, "How about you bud? Still graduating on time?" 

"Yes." Isaac replied quietly. "The engineering program wasn't as challenging as mom played it out to be." Isaac was a contrast to his older brothers other than the brown hair. His hair was very straight, he hardly even ran a comb through it but it stayed pretty much the same either way. He was a bit taller than both David and Richard, and weighed seemingly half as much. 

Richard laughed "No I think the program is plenty difficult." his little brother was definitely the brains of the family. He had gotten a full ride to a state of the art engineering school out in Northern California and even they had trouble keeping Isaac occupied. Isaac only replied with a shrug before taking a slow drink from the dark bottle of beer that hung in the loose grip of his fingers. Richard followed suit, closing his eyes as he tasted the cool, bitter tasting liquid. He sighed with satisfaction as he lowered the bottle from his lips. "Nothing else in the Universe like it." He said, admiring the bottle with a smile, the letters I.P.A printed in bright green letters upon the black label. 

"Because no one else in the Universe subjects themselves to gross tasting drinks in order to get drunk." Kikata's voice boomed surprisingly behind them.

"My you sneak around for such a large creature." David said with a laugh. 

Kikata giggled and shrugged, "I suppose I do. It's an acquired skill from living with such a tiny man all the time!" 

"Yeah. There is no sneaking around this woman." Richard said, grinning up to her brightly, "So how are you and mom doin'?" 

"Great!" Kikata beamed, "She was showing me some pictures on the projector." 

"Oh lovely. I am sure they were full of embarrassing and naked childhood pictures."  Richard mumbled. 

"Yup!" Kikata said with a laugh. "I can't get enough of them, but you mom was just wondering how far off dinner was?" 

"Soon." David said, poking at one of the steaks with his finger. 

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Kikata scrunched her lips as she tried to feel the tiny slab of meet against her tongue. Her eyes brightened as she got just the slightest flood of flavor, "Oh! That is good!" She insisted, smiling down to the small table that sat atop the upstairs balcony. 

"I doubt you can really taste it." Richard said with a laugh, "But thanks for pretending." 

"No, I can!" Kikata continued, "I mean it came and went pretty quick…but it's better than this stuff!" She said, holding out a slender metal tube of what some government agency assured was all the nutrients you needed with the added bonus of actually filling your stomach. It was possible to live off water and pills for months, but your stomach is never really happy with the end result. 

"That's for sure." Richard said with a laugh, "You'd think by now we'd have something better than those tubes of space food." 

David laughed heartedly, "I don't see the point to all that space travel. Subjecting yourself to all of that…I'm plenty comfy here at home." 

"Not me." Isaac said, a sort of rare interjection by him. But the beer always helps. "Earth is pretty boring." 

"Spend a few weeks on the moon colonies and then get back to me." David retorted, though a friendly smile remained plastered to his face as he glanced over to Richard. "But I suppose I'm the only one in this family who likes this planet enough to stick around." 

Richard shrugged, "Well you and Mom." 

"Yes. Someone has to stay and keep me company." Richards mother responded as she leaned back in her chair. She hardly looked like a woman in her late fifties but then again not many people looked their age anymore anyway. She had thick brown hair that hung down to her shoulders, her face giving slight sign to age with wrinkles around her eyes and lips. Her youthful beauty had transformed into a sort of beautiful wisdom of her age. 

"Well I'm not going anywhere soon." Isaac said with a sigh. The table fell quiet with his last remark, he glanced around as everyone seem to share a strange look, "What?" 

"I guess it's time to tell him?" Richard asked looking towards his mother. 

"Tell me what?" Isaac asked, shifting in his seat nervously. 

"Well." Richards mother picked up, "It just so happens that your early graduation in a month will set you up for a particular job opportunity."

"Job?"

"Yeah." Richard said, "Flying with us. We've got a new ship and they are looking for an engineer to tag along, check on things and report some stuff back to base." 

Isaac sat back in his seat as he glanced between Richard and Kikata, then back to his mother.

Before he could speak his mom spoke first, "We talked about this a few months ago…and not that you need my permission anymore, but you have my blessing to do this." She seemed to be a little choked up about it.

"Well…um. Yeah definitely! Wow." Isaac said. "So, what am I going to be a Guard too or what?"

"Oh please don't tell me Isaac gets to hold a gun?" David pleaded sarcastically. 

Richard laughed, "Oh no. No guns for you. You will be employed by the Alliance to accompany a Guard ship for a currently undetermined amount of time. You probably get a nicer paycheck and ours anyway."

Isaac laughed, "Wow that is awesome, thank you guys."

Kikata grinned widely, "We are really looking forward to it!"