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i.
Alara is the last to make it out of Xelayah before the invasion. She has to hope that her body will not betray her in the midst of searching for Solana -- she is beginning to understand why ancient Xeleyans would devote their lives to pleasing the divine; she could use some holy intervention right about now.
She does not have time to mourn her parents. She has to find Jintann 9. John and Gordon allow her the ability to rescue her sister before they flee into uncharted space—and Jintann 9 is remote enough to stay undetected by Kaylon targets for at least a little while. So off they go, in an old ship Gordon got his hands on long ago. She has to save Solana; she couldn’t save anyone else. She cannot leave Solana behind again—--Solana cannot fight, she does not understand combat or bravery in the way Alara does. She needs Alara to be her knight, to wield the sword in defense of her, to curl around her and form a sphere of safety.
Their ship is hailed by an unknown vessel. John and Gordon say nothing when Alara emerges from the bathroom with unkempt hair and an unbuttoned collar—they’re too focused on the beautiful woman in front of them, who is telling them some sort of web-spun lie about other universes and split timelines.
It has to be a lie.
She steps up to the front of the ship’s bridge, faces Kelly Grayson with crossed arms.
“In this other timeline,” she asks, confident in the commander’s falsehoods, “did my family ever call me when I was on your version of the Orville?”
Kelly smiles, a sad, solemn gaze. “Only your sister, and you had a… difficult relationship. She never understood why you felt so alienated.” She sighs. “John and Gordon, go in another room.”
“Wait, how does she know our names?” asks Gordon, glancing in paranoia around the vessel.
“Just do it,” Alara orders. She’s Xeleyan-strong; they would be unwise to disobey. She would never harm them, but - things have changed, since Isaac, since the war began.
If you can even call this a war. It’s more like a decimation. They never had a chance.
“Look, I can tell you something that you told me once after a few Xeleyan tequilas, but it might hurt to hear, okay? But I think it’s the only way I can prove to you that I’m for real.”
Alara feels sick.
“What is it?”
“You’re in love with her,” Kelly offers.
“Who?”
“You know who.”
Alara looks away. She bites down on her bottom lip—-too strong, too much blood.
“Gordon,” she yells. “Let her board.”
vi.
“We can end the war?” Solana asks, her forehead pressed against Alara’s as Solana crouches down.
“Well, technically, but—-“
Solana lurches forward, her body embracing Alara in Alara’s all—-as she kisses Solana her chest begins to hammer itself into an anchor, tethering her to the bottom of a drowning love.
Alara pulls away.
“What?” Solana asks.
“We have to erase this timeline,” Alara replies with a broken voice, each word strained.
“Oh.”
“It’s the only way to fix this,” she tells Solana, taking both of her hands. “The Orville was supposed to have a different captain, a different CMO who Isaac fell in love with. It made him betray the Kaylon. We have to restore that timeline or we have no hope, Solana.”
“But it will be like we… as if we never…”
Alara gives a terrified nod. With a sigh, Solana takes a seat on their small shared mattress, gestures for Alara to sit next to her. “How much time do we have?”
“I don’t know.”
So Solana kisses her again. Alara’s hands brush through seas of blonde, her red lipstick pressing marks into Solana’s jaw——they can deal with that later. Alara’s hands give a gentle wrap around Solana’s neck to pull her closer, to keep her inescapable.
Her sister’s touch is exactly what Alara had imagined it would be, when she thought about it - at first it was fantasies of contempt and punishment that mutated into pangs of desperation when the Kaylon began their genocide. She has always craved Solana in some way - this war simply gave her an excuse.
She’s warm. Solana is warm when she towers over Alara, moving above her as Alara’s frame is pinned down. Solana is warm when her tongue slips into Alara’s mouth with the starved fury of an animal biting clean the bones of its prey. Solana is warm when a hand dares bravely to slip beneath Alara’s waistband; none of them have showered properly in months. But Alara melts underneath her touch regardless, feeling herself soak as Solana’s pink nails circle over her clit and sink deep inside.
“ Solana,” Alara breathes, whimpering for her sister as Solana’s wet lips roll over Alara’s neck. She steadies herself on the bed with her other hand, whispers a shh against Alara’s ear.
If the timeline will be erased, Alara thinks, it doesn’t matter if they get caught. She can’t think about that right now, though; the thrusts and curls and massages of Solana’s slender fingers overwhelm every sense, scorching her unrecognizable. She wants to breathe something like I love you, but she cannot bring herself to speak it aloud—-this fascination has haunted her ghastly since childhood. Solana, this once loathed figure of eternal fixation, thrusting deep within her, fucking her with her fingers until she soars into a better timeline, a better world.
Alara only gasps and grips Solana’s shoulder.
x.
“Hey, what exactly did Kelly say to you that day?” Gordon asks, moments after they send her back.
And then—-
