The three days of travel from the Jumpgate back to earth were productive. Aly spent much of it using the med bay to give each human on board a once over. She offered to give those of them, seven in total who were missing a limb, either a cloned limb or a new prosthesis. They all turned down the cloned limbs, but accepted the prosthesis, she cured the lung cancer of three who smoked. Every human received a clean bill of health.  

Allan called them all to the cargo hold when they were in orbit of the planet and in range of teleportation. “So, here is the big question, do you all want to stay on earth, or do you want to go on your own adventures?”

The room was quiet, for a moment until Mack stood up. “I wouldn’t mind doing my own thing out in space.” He seemed sheepish saying it. “Much as I love my job here on earth, it doesn’t have shit on what you’re doing.” Mack said gesturing to Allan, and the rest of the humans laughed.  

Allan nodded and waited for others to speak up, surprisingly, none did. “Just Mack huh?”  And a silent confirmation came back to him. “Alright, as promised, you are all going to be set up with limitless money, so go ham. If I could make a suggestion?” They all looked at him inquisitively. “Do what you can to prepare humanity to be a part of the Galaxy, because while we may have snuck under the radar, mostly because the Core Worlds wanted the problem resolved, it won’t be like that in the future. And please feel free to take any of the leftover ammo or weapons that you want.” Allan smiled.

“Hell, with both you and Mack floating around out here, there might not be Galaxy left to join by the time we are ready.” Troy said and the others laughed at this, but they all nodded.

“Okay, well, Thank you all, this means a lot to me, I’m gonna pass out a phone number as we send you all back to wherever you want on Earth if you ever need something send a message and I’ll do what I can.” Allan said.

“If any of you ever require medical or any other assistance that I could provide as well, for yourself or for your loved ones, please let me know.” Aly said stepping up next to Allan. “And I just wanted to let you know that I just finished updating the Subspace relay that houses the partial AI to include your bank accounts and force the update and allow essentially limitless money.” 

They all walked to the room near the cargo hold and Aly began sending them back one at a time. When it was down to Mack, Eddy, and one of the women, the one that Allan only recognized as the person who had shown Tillia how to dance, hesitated and then turned to Aly. “You said, medical attention for our loved ones too, right?” 

“Yes, why?” Aly said, looking at the woman. “What do you need?” 

“Well, see its… it’s my daughter. She is in the hospital and has been in a coma since she was nine, now she is fifteen. I don’t know what can be done, but the doctors say she will never wake up, as they have no idea what is wrong with her. She was riding a bike and just suddenly collapsed.” Tears formed in the woman’s eyes. 

Mack stepped up. “Mara, why didn’t you ever reach out?” He said, placing a comforting arm around her shoulders.

“They said that there was nothing to be done, but I heard Aly offering to regrow limbs and I thought that maybe.” She could not finish her sentence.

Aly stepped over and smiled. “I will do what I can, but we should bring her here to the ship, is she able to be moved?” Aly asked.

Mara nodded. “She breathes on her own, but is just… not there.” 

“Good, that makes this easier. Can you arrange to take her from the hospital, tell them whatever they need to hear, and then as soon as you get out of the hospital I can bring you back up to the ship.” Aly said, removing two of the black stones from the hidden arm pouches and handing them to Mara. 

“You got one more of those, Aly?” Mack asked. “I will deal with the hospital, and that way Mara can just focus on her daughter.”

Aly nodded and produced one more of the stones. As well as a small device with a button on it. “When you both are out and somewhere somewhat secluded, put one of the stones into the girl’s hand, and then press the button.” Aly said and Mack nodded.

Aly sent the two to an abandoned house a block away from the hospital. And then she, Allan, Jalla, Tillia, and Eddy walked up to the bridge of the ship. Aly began immediately having the medical AI scan any and all information available on the internet, and private medical databases, regarding comas and their treatment. 

—-----------------

About an hour later a light began flashing, and Aly sat up from the seat she had taken. “Okay looks like it’s go time.” She said and activated the transporter, before walking into the medical bay, where Mack, Mara, and a young girl in a wheelchair who was far too skinny materialized. “Place her on the platform there.” 

Once the young woman was situated Aly activated the machines one by one, and they began assisting the girl, an IV was attached and fluids began pumping in. Once everything was set up, the girl already seemed to breathe easier. “She is fine, now we will begin the scans, and see what comes up.” Aly activate the AI and turned it loose. A light that seemed to fluctuate in and out of the visible spectrum began scanning her from the chest up.

The entire process took twenty minutes. At the end, Aly smiled at Mara. “Mara I think that we will be able to help her.” 

“Really?!” Mara said, her voice sounding as if she didn’t dare to believe her.

“According to the AI there was some allergic reaction, this caused her to go into some kind of paralytic shock, and when she fell seven of the disks in her spine fell out of alignment, not enough to hurt her, but just enough to send a mixed signal to the brain. According to the AI, your daughter has a very particular set of Genes that make her susceptible to misfiring synapsis. According to the internet, and every medical database that the AI was able to hack into, there is no precedent for this.” 

Aly continued explaining what had caused this. “When the mixed signal was received by the brain, it caused a cascading effect that, in order to protect itself, the brain went into a coma. The reason that she never came out of it was that the particular pattern of synapses that are causing this fire in a pattern that repeats every six months. After obtaining all of your daughter’s brain scans from the past, the AI determined with 97.732 percent assuredness that there was a pattern, with the remaining 2.268 percent being a loop that takes seven months rather than six.”

“So how do we stop it? Does she need spinal surgery? Will this happen again?” Mara asked these questions in a desperate rush.

“To stop it the medical systems will interrupt this loop by adjusting a single neuron to be disconnected only for the fraction of a second that it should technically fire to continue the loop. After that, the system will reconnect the neuron, it will all take a few seconds.” Aly said and watched the hope rise in Mara’s eyes. “As to spinal surgery, no she does not need it, the disks were only moved for a moment, but that was all it took. As to it happening again, that depends on the choice you make.” 

“The choice I make?” Mara said confused, and sounding like she thought this was a catch.

“Yes,” Aly said, “there are two ways we can do this, the first is the way I just described in which case, should any strange set or circumstances trigger this loop again, she will fall back into a coma. The second option is two courses of nanite injections, both of which can be administered now, the first will be a general nanite treatment, which will deal with any allergies, blood, or any other general health issues, it will also help in her recovery. It will probably make her end up far more athletic than she would be otherwise. The second course is a neurite, these are biological nanites, in total there will only be about a thousand of these, they will go into your daughter’s brain and replace key neurons that are generally higher traffic, at least as far as the loop is concerned. They will coordinate with each other and should another loop begin for any reason, they will self interrupt.”

Mara asked a slew of questions, which Aly answered calmly and collectedly. Mara thought for a moment and then spoke. “I think that the nanites are the way to go.” 

“Okay, we can do it now.” Aly said and moved to the control panel. She looked to Mara and waited for her to don and then tapped several buttons. A machine that Allan had never seen popped out of the wall and lowered a bushlike pad onto the girl’s arm, a moment later it pulled away and there was a small patter of blood droplets. “That was the general nanites, the neurites are more… directly injected.” 

The machine lowered two arms that gently grasped the little girl’s head holding her still. The console prompted Aly for confirmation. “Before I do this, I want to tell you that it will be sticking a needle into your daughter’s eye, don’t worry though, the AI has plotted a path for the needle that will not damage anything in your daughter’s eye, brain or any of the surrounding material, and it is capable of measuring the depth, and position of the needle up to one billionth of an inch.” 

Mara nodded and held her daughter’s hand. “I trust you, Aly, do it.” 

Aly pressed the confirmation button and the strange light that fluttered from visible to not, reappeared only focusing on the girls left eye, which two delicate-looking arms descended to open the lid of the eye, then a third arm positioned itself over the eye and a needle descended sliding into the eye, it descended farther, and then stopped, a few moments later it slid out of the eye, and the small arms holding the lid open released, the arms holding her head retracted and the machine slid into the wall again.

“Now we wait. It should take only five minutes for the nanites to work, and another five for the neurites to do their job, then she should wake up.” Aly said.

It was a tense ten minutes, then suddenly the girl yawned and opened her eyes. “Mama?” she said seeing Mara, who was laughing and crying as she hugged her daughter to her. “Woah, mom, what’s with the pretty lady wearing a costume naked?” 

Mara laughed and then spoke. “That is Aly, she is my friend, and that is not a costume that is what she actually looks like. Her people don’t wear clothes so she is always naked.” 

They spent the next hour explaining to the girl what had happened to her and who Aly, and Allan were. Jalla and Tillia walked in and the girl gasped, “Doggie people too!” The sisters laughed at this and both walked over to the little girl, as Allan and Aly explained who Jalla and Tillia were. 

“Hey, kiddo.” Mack said, stepping out from the shadow of the corner of the room that he had been watching from.

“Uncle Mack!” The little girl said.

“Uncle Mack?” Eddy asked Mack as Aly and Mara took the little girl to look out the windows of the ship, and explain why she couldn’t tell anyone about any of this. 

“Yeah, Uncle Mack.” Mack said, and then when he noticed the stares of both Eddy and Allan, he sighed. “I pulled Mara out of some nasty shit in Iraq, she gave me her number, and next time I was stateside, I called her up. We bumped uglies, and I met her kid. It became a regular thing, so I became Uncle Mack, don’t know where the uncle thing came from, but hey, I’m Uncle Mack.”

“Copy that.” Eddy said. 

The girls came back a few moments later. And the little girl came up to Mack. “Mack I think that Mara and Jessie here,” she gestured at the little girl, “have something to ask you.” 

“Stay with us, Uncle Mack.” Jessie said, grabbing his hands and looking up at him. “Mama says you are going away for a long time, maybe forever. Don’t do it.” 

“Both of you have something to ask?” Mack said raising an eyebrow to Mara, who nodded. “I mean I am out, I blew off a mission for work here on earth and burned a couple of irreparable bridges to come do this with you all, but I didn’t think that anyone on earth would want me around.”

“I wouldn’t mind.” Mara said walking up and placing her hands over Jessie’s ears. “Besides your a good lay.” She winked at Mack as he laughed at that.

“You know I’m old enough to be your father right?” Mack said to Mara.

“Yup, and we just slaughtered a shitload of aliens, saving a bunch of other aliens from genocidal tendencies. It’s a brave new world, besides we have more money than we could ever use, and if you really want an adventure later I won’t argue if you message Allan and Aly for a ride off-planet.” She pulled her hands away from Jessie’s ears.

“Fine, I guess I’m staying then.” Mack said.

“Good.” Jessie said. 

“Okay well, then where should we drop you?” Aly asked.

“My place.” Mara said and then provided an address.

They all said their goodbyes, and that was that. Mack, Mara, and Jessie were gone. “Okay now let’s go see mom.” Eddy said, and Allan nodded.

—--------

After eating some food that they ordered they were all comfortably situated in Sarah’s living room. “So I see that the ring I gave you came in handy.” Sarah said, smiling coyly at Allan and Aly.

“Wait what?” Eddy said and looked at Aly’s finger. “Ohh, so who asked who?” 

“I asked him.” Aly said.

“Well she asked me first, but I did it right, down on one knee and everything.” Allan said.

“Congrats!” Eddy said and stood up to hug both Allan and Aly.

“What is going on?” Jalla asked and Tillia looked equally confused. 

“Allan and Aly are getting married.” Sarah said.

“Then Aly will be the first wife to the Alpha?” Tillia aked.

“First wife?” Eddy and Sarah asked in unison looking from Allan to Jalla and Tillia.

Aly, Jalla, and Tillia spent the next few minutes explaining that multiple spouses for both men and women was actually quite common. They also explained the idea of an Alpha, and how Jalla and Tillia had come to claim Allan as their Alpha.

“Hmm, well at least if you have multiple wives I get a lot more grandbabies.” Sarah said laughing at how Allan blushed.

“Shit, and here I am on Earth.” Eddy said.

“Well, so that’s the thing.” Allan said looking to Aly who nodded.

“Mom, Eddy, we want to make you an offer.” Allan said. “Eddy, you got an offer from Hilx’Nit to become a tactician and to train troops. And mom, Aly, and I want to offer you a home on a lovely planet.” During the three days that they had been in transition from the Jumpgate to Earth, Hilx’Nit had sent the offer for Edy through Allan. And Allan had reached out to Kilndla. “It is a tropical paradise and the princess of the race that owns it says that you are more than welcome to live there. Or we can set you up with a home on Station Xenttrop Theta, Either way, you will have a ship, and can travel wherever you want. So what do you all say?” 

“Hell yeah.” Eddy said.

“May I think about it?” Sarah said, and Allan said that even if she said no now it would always be open to her. 

“Regardless of that, we should celebrate. After all, there is a marriage to be had!” Eddy said, and Sarah agreed. For the next several hours they drank, Aly drinking only tiny sips of the vodka drink that she checked with a device affirming that only a little bit would be fine. Before they left Allan pulled Eddy aside and asked a favor of him. 

The next morning Allan, Aly, Jalla, and Tillia teleported back into the house. Where Sarah was waiting. “Okay girls, here put these on.” She handed each of the women a set of baggy clothing that was comfortable. “And luckily it’s raining so these won’t look out of place.” She said handing out heavy raincoats with deep hoods.

“What is happening?” Aly asked as she slipped into the clothing, and pulled on the coat. 

“You have fun now you hear?” Allan and Eddy said with grins on their faces as Sarah shepherded the women out the door. When it closed, Eddy looked to Allan, “You’re sure you know how to run that teleporter right?” 

—-----------

[Aly, Jalla, Tillia]

“Sarah, where are we going?” Aly asked as the four women waited under the bus stop at the end of the street.

“It’s a surprise dear.” She said in a motherly way. “Don’t worry it will only take an hour to get there.” 

Aly looked to Jalla and Tillia who shrugged and seemed to resign themselves to whatever Sarah had in mind.

—-------

[Allan, Eddy]

“Okay everyone is at the point that they were teleported to.” Eddy said checking his phone as they walked onto the bridge of the ship. “And anyone who can be trusted to keep cool, and keep quiet is with them, and have been briefed.”

“Okay, cool, you worked out a venue right?” Allan asked.

“Yeah, took me a minute, but when I told the place that I would pay any amount, and when the card was actually approved, they agreed to whatever the hell I wanted.” Eddy said as Allan tapped away at the teleportation control screen. “I’ll head down to the room to say hi to everyone.”

Allan nodded, and when Eddy signaled that he was ready, Allan began transferring one group at a time to the ship. When the first group was on board, he immediately teleported them back to a predetermined location on earth as planned. The next four groups included Troy and his two sisters were also sent ahead to a location in Japan. 

This went on for a couple of hours, Allan working with the computer to bring people to and from the ship. A message hale came across the comms panel.

“Hello.” Allan said looking at the live feed that held the image of Hilx’Nit. “And thanks for making this happen.” 

“It wasn’t easy, but everyone you requested at our parting from the battlefield is here.” Hilx’Nit said with a smile. “So your sure that she doesn’t know?” 

“She might now, my mother, and Jalla and Tillia are with her, taking her to get ready.” Allan said with a smile.

—------------

[Aly, Jalla, Tillia]

The bus ride was quiet, with the four women sitting at the back of the bus, chatting silently. When they arrived in the larger city, Sarah led them along a short walk to a store that was labeled ‘Johansen Family Bridal’ and in through the door. As soon as they entered Aly was greeted by Mara and Jessie waiting for them.

“Mara, Jessie?” Aly asked, hugging the little girl as she ran up, confused. “What is this?” 

“Well, I know you don’t wear clothing normally, but I think that a wedding dress is in order.” Sarah said smiling at her. 

The owner of the shop walked over to the front door, locking it, and closing the blinds on all the windows. He turned to Aly, “Ms. Jushintorg, my name is Fredrich, you know my nephew, Troy, he said that you are a special customer, and that price is no object, so we will be taking care of you. He also said to ensure that no one could see into the store, so I have disabled my security cameras, and the blinds are closed as you see so feel free to act in any way you are used to.” 

Aly lowered her hood, and slipped out of the coat, Jalla and Tillia did the same. “Very well.” Fredrich said after a quick moment to compose himself. “Let’s begin.”