Family

She felt wrong in this attire, but this was needed. The ship was huge and the view couldn't be beaten. From twenty meters under the water of the Pacific Ocean, the light from the sun arced through the transparent bulkheads overhead and painted the corridor in shimmering light. Sara smoothed the gown over her arms as Nalania nodded to her and they moved to the large doors that led to the assembly hall. She wasn't sure why or how Xur had built such a submarine, but in many ways, it was useful. The ship doubled as a haven for so many former Xurians. It also, coincidentally, would work as a clandestine point of contact by both interstellar polities on Earth. It was the perfect base of operations.

Sara still did not like Earth, but she was stuck here. If she left, the League would arrest her, the Ko-Dan would try to rescue her and the war would start up again. She wasn't going to be responsible for that. Add to that, she had families to worry about now.

She stiffened. She heard someone crying.

"Nalania?" Sara asked.

"I hear it." The guard moved to locker and swept it open, her weapon ready. But the small child that huddled inside was no threat. He wasn't armed. The shipsuit he wore wouldn't have concealed a knife, let alone anything bigger. It was torn and very dirty. She scanned him and it came up negative for any toxins or explosives. He wasn't anyone Sara knew. His features were Middle Eastern, but not recognizable. He couldn't have been more than five years old.

"A child? What?" Nalania demanded. He looked up and froze on seeing the Ko-Dan.

"Ah! A Djinn!" He begged. "Please don't eat me!"

"Eat you?" Sara inquired. "You would taste terrible." She and Nalania were taken off guard when the child bolted to her and hugged her legs tight.

"Please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me!" The boy was babbling in a language Sara did not know, but her translator did. Nalania reached for him, but Sara shook her head. He was terrified.

"He is scared, Nalania. He has to be one of the kids. But why hide?" She asked the boy. "I am not going to hurt you. Why were you hiding and for how long?"

"Hide and seek game, but they leave and not come back." The boy pleaded. "Didn't mean to be bad."

"Neither do I, boy." Sara said with sigh. "And you know what?" She hefted him into her arms and he stared at her. "I am not going to be bad."

"You are her." The boy inhaled and shook his head. "The Empress. I… No…"

"Come on, boy." Sara sighed as she marched to face her future with a crying little boy in her arms. "Let's find your family. I bet you have obligations to them. I know I do to mine."

She reached the hatch and it opened for her. She nodded to the stunned guards as they saw what she carried. The room was packed with people. Humans, League races, Ko-Dan, Sara had tried hard to get everyone she counted as close to this meeting and had managed. A fanfare started and she winced. She fought hard to remain impassive as the fanfare continued. At least they hadn't gone with what Alex had suggested. As good as the music was, she was not going to hear John Williams' 'Imperial March' every time she entered a room, dammit! The fanfare reached its end and she stepped forward again. She raised her voice and the room silenced.

"Can anyone claim this one?" She hefted the boy who curled closer to her, his heart beating fast in his distress. "He was hiding and was a bit too good at it for the other kids to find."

"Empress." A pale faced Middle Eastern woman Sara recognized as one of her former Xurians ran forward. Salia was a good accountant and yes, Sara remembered she had two children. An infant boy who was in the nursery and this one had to be the other."Oh Mikel! You bad boy!"

"He is not a bad boy." Sara held out the boy to his mother who took him and hugged him tight. "I have seen bad, known bad. He is not. He is just a child. I took no offense and I will not. He is a good kid and good at hiding."

"Thank you, Empress." The woman bowed deeply.

"Tonight is not about me." Sara said firmly and her voice carried. "It is about all of us. I may lead you, but that does not make me perfect. Far from it. We have been in dark places. We have done dark things. But we are not dark." She looked at the ceiling, at the myriad aspects of light that swept through the ocean to reach the submerged ship.

"We face an uncertain future. All we have known for so long is unending war. That war may be over, but eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. Space is vast and we have seen only fractions of it." Sara said as she looked around, Alex, Maggie and Oprisa stood slightly apart The Ko-Dan also had formed their own cluster. Everyone else had milled around waiting for her. "The only absolute truth that we know is that things will change. I am trapped on Earth, but most of you are not. You know the truth of the universe, that we are not alone in it. You have your future ahead of you. This boy, Mikel will likely do things that I cannot imagine. All I can do and will do is make sure that he is safe to grown up to do those things. You are my people and I am your Empress. Now and always." She bowed her head and there was utter silence.

Mikel patted his mother's arm. She set him on the floor where he knelt. His eyes were far too old to be on five year old as he nodded to Sara. Every single one of her people knelt. Then Profiri did. Maggie did. Alex did, Oprisa did. Suddenly the only one standing in the hall besides Sara was Nalania who looked a bit sheepish, but shook her head. She could only kneel to her Emperor. Then Sara bent to one knee and the silence could have been cut with a knife.

"The obligations of family cut deep." Sara said into the sudden silence. "I cannot say I will always be nice or polite or even gentle, but one thing is sure. Now and forever..."

"YOU ARE ALL MY FAMILY!"

The roar that answered her should have burst the ship asunder.

This was both easy and very hard to write. The Last Starfighter was a very good movie for 1984. Today, we look back and see its graphics as dated, its story as cliche and its alien costumes as laughable. Does it matter? It is a good story. If you have not seen the movie, do so. Get it, stream it, borrow it, whatever. (Preferably not pirate it because that actually DOES hurt people like me who try to sell stuff in real life but I am not going to judge.) It is an old movie, but I believe it is a good movie to this day.

I had this idea way back in 1987. Alex fought, rebuilt the Legion and Maggie found a place at his side, not as a simple wife, but as an equal. Then I realized... Alex and Maggie are both American teenagers who are in love. They are suddenly out of supervision and have lots of free time! What are they GOING to DO? (*Smirk* What do you THINK?) Sara was the result. It exploded from there. Yes, I have been writing this story or one like it since 1987!

There is nothing in The Last Starfighter about psis. Only a reference to a Rylan spy captured by Xur and executed on live holo to try and scare Starfighter Command. But the Star League HAD to have some kind of intelligence service for said spy to work for and that service HAD to be good at their jobs or Xur would have rolled right over them even without the Ko-Dan. Insurgencies are hard to fight even when they are not fanatics.

There is next to nothing in The Last Starfighter about the Ko-Dan or their culture. They were just 'the enemy'. The novelization by Alan Dean Foster had a lot more, but it is sadly out of print. It is available on Amazon as a used book but the copies are degrading since they were paperback. Profiri and her priesthood came out of a brainstorm that the Ko-Dan almost certainly didn't like Xur any more than the League did. Maybe less.

So, we have the Last Starfighter fighting as he always has and always will. To defend the Frontier! Even if Xur and the Ko-Dan armada are no longer threats, there will be others. There always are.

But Alex Rogan is not alone now.

Greetings, Starfighter.