Part 1

The mission resulted a failure.

Stella and Micah had finally tracked Carina's space pod land on a dwarf planet in the Pinwheel Galaxy.

It was a teal and brown planet that was rich in oxygen, nitrate, iron, water and other elements that sustain living organisms to inhabit the dwarf planet.

Once they arrived on the dwarf planet, they have investigated about her whereabouts and interrogated the natives with the use of a universal translator, albeit with minor adjustments.

The civilized colonies within the planet have not known about her whereabouts, nor her existance and the uncivilized colonies were not very happy about strangers tresspassing into their territory. Barely escaping with minor injuries. Stella and Micah scaled the topography of the dwarf planet with the aid of rovers placed within each continent, all 12 of them. Three Earth months wasted gathering information about the dwarf planet: from the vegetation, to the microorganisms. Micah sent a 560 page report to the I.B.I. and the OuterCorps about the unchartered dwarf planet via virtual document, covering topics such as: History, logistics, topography, culture, administration, languges, religion, vegetation, minerals, nature, economy, biology, etc.

By the time Micah put down her tablet, Stella came to the shuttle of the starship in a huff with her disguise, stomping angrily before she sat down at polychromic chair adjusting the accesory that composed her attire.

She looked like a humanoid green elefant with four trunks on her face, yellowish white horns and tusks protruding on opposite sides of her facr, three beady black eyes on her forehead,  with tendrils on her shoulders before she reverted to her natural form. Her luscious magenta locks, pristine light grey skin, red eyes, and a nose on the center akin to a human's. Once she touched her face, she felt relief, though her anger hadn't diminished in the slightest.

"Judging by your tone, your mission resulted a failure." Micah commented, not bothering to take a glance at her colleague.

"It was terrible! The male Elepherdants wouldn't stop harrassing me! One of them grappled me with one of their trunks and tendrils. I had to headbutt one of them in order for them to let me go." Stella groaned.

"Headbutting forcefully is a sign of dominance in their culture." Micah replied as she watch her coworker fumed.

"I was this close from getting raped, Micah. I never want to return to their planet nor see another Elepherdant ever again." Stella laid down on the white bunk bed with steel grey cushions with a flop.

Micah noticed that her holster was dented with no galactic gun in sight. "What happened to the galacitc gun?"

"The Elepherdants stomped on it."

"What?! That galactic gun was brand new! It had polychromic steel, Stella!" Micah yelled.

"They also punctured the titanium blaster with their tusks." Stella mumbled.

Micah bellowed loud enough that the starship felt the vibrations of her ire within the vowels of the ship.

"What are those monsters made off?!" She screeched.

"That's exactly what I thought after they broke the guns." Stella said as she laid limp on the bottom row of the bunk bed.

"Oh my—crobe! No wonder you're like this." Micah wasn't the most sociable of her species but even she could tell that that was unacceptable. She is more of an analytical thinker that perferred to use logical solutions for complex decisions while Stella was more creative, sentimental, a dreamer. The dynamic duo that balanced each other out like polar opposites.

"I just want a hot fudge vanilla sundae with cherry, almonds and sprinkles with extra whipped cream on top to forget that this nightmare ever happened." Stella said as she sounded like she was about to cry, though emotional support wasn't exactly Micah's line of expertise, at least she was able to follow her request for a frozen dairy treat.

🍧🍨🍶

After Stella took a shower, she got dressed in her pajamas while she tied her hair up into a bun with her bangs clipped back as she ate her ice cream sundae. Micah steered the starship to the Solar System of the Northeast region of the Milky Way (which was 68 light years away). Micah estimated that it would take two Earth weeks to get there with hyperspeed. Stella fell asleep four hours after she ate her ice cream. If humans slept eight hours a day, Izarians slept for 16 hours. The Izarian day is the equivalent to 60 hours, meaning that it would take 2½ Earth days for a day to pass in Izar.

Micah uses Stella's sleep cycle to her advantage, meaning that she has the upperhand to make experiments without distractions, Micah could fully sleep twice in a row and she could still get her paperwork done without distractions. The only downside, she had to plan which hours she could sleep when Stella is active in the starship. Once the Izarian starts training, there is no shut eye for the Amoebian. Imagine suffering three days without sleep while the noisy neighbor raises the volume to an amplifier and the neighbor could still keep partying for three more days non-stop. Only add the sound of galactic guns and light sabers to the mix. You would want to go on a killing spree, but your body would drop to the ground like a pile of rocks from the lack of rest.

Micah would worry about the sleep cycle, right now she set the coordinates to the Solar System. The starship bolted at hyperspeed.

The Amoebian worked on the blueprints for a new galactic gun that was heat resistant and Elepherdant proof. She had to look for the database to search which metal was stronger than titanium. From what she could gather from the database so far was that Tungsten was stronger than titanium, but in terms of impact, it became brittle. The tusks of an Elepherdant are on parr with that of tungsten, but she needed to find a metal that was much stronger, durable yet malleable. For now she had to settle with the materials that she had at her disposal.

Stella was in a world of her own, in some bits of the dream, she longed to be back on her home planet, stepping on the blue green grass of her mother's farm. Heck! She even missed talking to Betsy, the smelly spacecow that mooed in the fence every morning.

"Mooooooo!"

"Betsy!" She ran up to the fence to give her a hug.

"Moooooooooooo!" The spacecow mooed while Stella caressed the purplish blue and white fur of the mammal. "Moooooooooove!"

"I wish I could Betsy, but I still have to track down Carina before I could come back to visit." Stella said in her native Izarian valley girl accent.

"Moooooooooooovvvvvvvvve iiiiiiit!" Betsy mooed before she moved her head to the side repeatedly to warn her.

"What's wrong, old girl?" Stella asked at the alien farm animal before she felt a dark presence, she turned around to see the face of the last person she would expect to see. Her crimson eyes glared disdainfully at the shadow of her past. "Orion, why are you here?" Stella stood to protect the spacecow that was no longer there.

With a deep Vader-like voice he responded, "Silly farm girl, you thought that I could be destroyed so easily. You have forgotten that my cohorts are dispersed around the universe." Orion's black cape moved to the side to reveal Carina smirked with her feline-esque frame present, holding a polychromatic large galactic gun as she cocked it, the device whirring.

As Stella raised her arms to defend herself from a potential blast, she saw that her wrists had thick neon bracelets that could link to each other like handcuffs, reliving the day that one of Orion's cronies abducted her to bring her to the overlord to be his personal slave. She was at a dead end, that one more step would cause her to fall into an abyss while Orion was in front of her as he cupped her chin. "I will make sure that you suffer a fate worse than death." His shrouded face beamed. "Elef! I brought you a new doll for you to play." Orion made her look at the large Elepherdant that towered them in height, he had a similar build to an actual elephant as his stood on his two feet, his three eyes locked on Stella with hid four trunks ready to grab her. "Nooooooooooo!"

Stella woke up in a cold sweat. "No!" The Izarian looked around the room. She got out of the bedroom to find the Amoebian asleep in her desk. She squinted to look at the hour on Micah's tiny wrist watch. [5:14 AM]

She headed to the refrigerator to grab the milk, a bowl and a box of cereal. While she ate, she ckecked on her tablet if she received a new assignment.

None so far.

After the Izarian ate her breakfast, she walked to the cockpit of the starship to check on the coordinates. She found a strange reading on the map, a black dust clouds.

Uncharted territory.

Stella change the course of the starship to reach the strange nebulae.

Micah woke up as she rubbed away the mucus from her eyes with her hands. She blinked and checked her watch.

[5:46 AM]

The Amoebian got down from her chair to wash her face, after she got out of the bathroom drying her face with a towel. As she was about to grab a granola bar from the kitchen, she saw that Stella was dressed in her uniform. A red jacket with pointed shoulder pads with a badge of the I.B.I. pinned on the lapel, black trousers, reddish-brown boots, a black velcro belt with a golden buckle, and a plain white shirt. She also saw that Stella had her magenta hair tied in a bun. Micah hadn't seen Stella dressed like that since she passed the test to gain her weapons license, Stella was still in training at that time but now, instead of the joyful glint in her eye she had a cold sneer.

"Good morning." Micah greeted, she wasn't one for pleasantries though she did it to guess what was her mood. No response, until Micah walked behind Stella's seat.
"Morning." Stella responded, detached. Strange, but she ignored her tone to take her seat. Micah took a bite of the granola bar before she checked on the coordinates.

*Those were not the coordinates...* Micah thought before she eyed at the Izarian surreptitiously. *of course.* Stella changed the original coordinates and now they were setting on a course to a nebulae. Judging from the map, these dark clouds weren't exactly nebula. To their surprise, they picked up a reading from a space pod drifting off from space which belonged to none other than Carina herself. They retrieved the space pod using a tractor beam to attract the metal husk and was within the shuttle of the ship.

Micah stepped foot into the pod to examine the condition which the pod was found and to collect any data. From what little footage that they could find, Carina ejected herself out of the pod wearing a space suit and a jet pack when a dark spaceship appeared and opened the shuttle to receive her before the shuttle disappeared in a dark cloud.

So that explained why they couldn't find her in none of the planets (or dwarf planets) that were near the Pinwheel Galaxy, she sent them out on a wild goose chase.

⚔ 🌌 ⚔

Carina was on a planet that had a similar mass and density as planet Earth. She was disguised as one of the endangered homosapiens, preserving her natural black wavy hair, but instead of resembling a humanoid feline, she had suntanned skin, a black jacket, a spaguetti strap red blouse, a knee-length skirt and stilettos. She was slurping on a latte as she looked at wide poster sign about the Colosseum.

The sign electronically rolled announcing: Welcome to the Auctorian Stadium! Where the greatest fighters from all over the world come to compete to prove their worth at the Collaboration Colosseum; a place where competitors show their strength in the arena. We value camaraderie, courage and integrity above all. If you have these qualities, you are more than welcome to partake in the arena for the prize that is in store for you.

Carina wasn't too keen on fighting matches, but the prize really got her attention. The amount of currency on the planet she was inhabiting at the moment had no value to her, but the power source that was embedded on one of the awards and on one of the entrances of the stadium had the materials she needed to power the spacecraft she built to help escape from that miserable planet. She lowered her sunglasses to reveal her feline eyes.