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Approximately four seconds after Grendel landed on Alarbus, she was restrained by a group of resort robots.
Thirteen minutes later, she was standing in a holding cell, a hologram of a Space Guard officer questioning her.
It had all started with Stella, really. She had invited Grendel to join her and her crew on Alarbus, since they were already vacationing there for a few days. To Stella, it had been a completely innocent offer, a chance to see Grendel again.
Apparently, she hadn't known Grendel's history with Alarbus.
The next day, Grendel tried again.
This time, though, she made some changes. Her usual armor would make her too obvious; so, instead, she wore a simple blue doublet and indigo leggings. Her wings were hidden, too, and her helmet had been removed to expose her dark brown hair.
No one had recognized her but Stella, who, upon seeing her, had immediately stood from the place where she had been resting with her crew. She seemed like she’d had to stop herself before saying Grendel's name, instead linking their arms together and pulling her along while trying to ignore the curious looks her captain and pilot were giving her.
“Care to explain what happened yesterday?” Stella asked once they were far enough from her crew that they couldn't hear her words.
Grendel shrugged sheepishly. “I… may have once tried to take Alarbus for my own. Unsuccessfully.”
Stella laughed. There was a note of affection in her next words, though perhaps Grendel was just imagining it. “Why am I not surprised?”
As they walked, it became more and more obvious that Stella had done some exploration of her own the day before; but Grendel supposed that made sense. This was, to her knowledge, the first time Stella had visited Alarbus with her body, the first time she had been able to explore rather than sitting in the parking lot. The idea almost made Grendel angry, knowing that her crew had to have known Stella was alone, but Stella's childlike enthusiasm about the beach around them erased it. It wouldn’t do to spoil Stella’s excitement to show Grendel the things she’d found the day before, and it was all new to Grendel as well; she had never gotten a chance to properly explore either, since Mission Force One had shown up just minutes after she’d claimed Alarbus and set up her castle.
Eventually they settled down on the warm sand, close enough that Stella could still see her crew but far enough away that they wouldn't be able to hear them talking to each other. Grendel wouldn't realize it until later, but Stella had laid her head on Grendel's lap and was looking up at her with bright white eyes.
“It's an outrage, really,” Grendel said, though her tone didn't suggest that she was at all upset, “I come here to spend time with the most glorious robot in the galaxy, and I instead get interrogated by an unshaven ruffian in a fancy uniform!”
Stella's machinery hummed at the compliment as she heated up, the closest response her robotic body could make to blushing.
“For your information,” she said with a light tone, “That unshaven ruffian is my pilot's brother.”
“ Him? ”
Stella nodded. “Captain Joe Callisto. Am I correct?”
The name did sound familiar. And the space guard that had questioned her had not only been human, but also bore a resemblance to Stella’s pilot. Grendel turned her face away. “Perhaps you are.”
Stella was smiling up at her; not smugly, but Grendel had a feeling that Stella knew she was right.
Stella's eyes were as bright as the stars she was named after.
“It means star, you know?” Grendel said softly, though she was certain Stella already knew. The smartest computer in the TTA; there was no way she didn't. “Your name. It means star in Latin.”
“I know,” Stella replied.
“That's where we get words like stellar,” Grendel continued. “And interstellar, and constellation.”
Stella was smiling now. “I know.”
“I don't care what you say, you're the TTA's shining star. Not Mission Force One. It's you.”
Stella's cooling fans whirred to life as she turned her head away shyly. “Am I?”
“Of course.”
The sunset cast an orange glow over the beach, and was quickly replaced with the starlit darkness of night. Grendel only noticed that she and Stella were the only ones on the beach when a robot approached them.
“Are you aware that it's the middle of the night?” He asked. Ah, Grendel recognized him now. It was Ruggles, one of Alarbus’ activity robots. “Your captain asked me to check on you, Stella. Doesn't your body need to charge?”
“It does,” Stella said, sitting up. “Thanks, Ruggles. Just give me a moment to say goodbye, alright?”
Ruggles nodded, looking suspiciously at the orange woman next to Stella. She seemed oddly familiar, but he couldn't think of where he had seen her. He drifted away from the two women, wanting to give them a bit of privacy for their farewells.
When he looked back, he saw an orange and indigo sword fly into the air, leaving a trail of shimmering golden pixels behind it, and he abruptly realized when and where he had seen the woman in the blue doublet before.
—
Stella tried to close the door quietly. Ruggles had been right; it was late, and she would hate to wake her crew.
“So who was she?” Asked a voice from behind her, and Stella nearly jumped out of her spacesuit.
“She… her?” She replied awkwardly. Phoebe and Leo were sitting on the hotel room's couch, watching some show; or, they would have been, if they weren't both looking at Stella with knowing looks on their faces. “She's… uh, a friend?”
“You were lying on the beach all day with your head on her lap,” Phoebe said. Stella didn't reply, instead fidgeting with the ponytail over her shoulder. “Do you have a crush on her or something?”
Stella turned away awkwardly. Perhaps the motion would have hidden her blush if she had blushed like a human; but her cooling fans were loud now, loud enough that Phoebe and Leo could surely hear them. “I… am going to charge now. Goodnight.”
As Stella left, Leo turned to Phoebe. “You were right. She’s definitely got a crush.”