The entire crew sat huddled on the bridge sandwiched together in various stages of shock, anger and confusion. Captain Vir sat in the Captain's chair head in his hands looking exhausted and confused. Krill stood next to him unsure what to do.

"Captain, this is insane." One of the crewmembers was saying, "How could you let it aboard this ship without asking us first."

Another crewman stood from the other side of the ship, "What if she's here for revenge captain, what if she kills you in your sleep. It could kill us all if it wanted, and we are just supposed to trust it."

The first lieutenant stood up arms angrily crossed over his chest, "When has the Captain ever done anything contrary to our safety.... I'm sure he has his reasons." He glanced over where Captain Vir sat hunched on his chair, "Right Captain?"

They sat in silence for a long time Krill nervously watching the human reactions. Despite being just as, or even more confused and afraid than the other humans around, he was also worried about the Captain.

That creature, standing in the hallway, had been the very creature that took the captain's leg, and now it was demanding to be a part of the crew. He didn't even know why the captain had allowed the creature to step aboard.

The silence dragged on for a long moment as the humans of the crew began to mutter quietly to themselves. Captain Vir lifted his head from his hands and sat up straight. The dark bags under his eyes signaled the mental exhaustion, his nails dug into the armrests of his chair, but otherwise he seemed composed, "HER name is Sunny, not it, and this isn't a democracy, this is an autocracy, I am captain, and I make the rules. Additionally, if anyone has any reason to dislike these creatures, it's me, considering she is the very creature that nearly ripped me in half."

The room was silent, the humans were shocked.

"How many of you here were actually IN the war?"

One or two hands.

"That's just my point, none of you were there, none of you know. All you know is what was told to you at the academy or in reports. Those of you that were there understand exactly what I am giving up to be able to do this. I ran at the front in the last line against the Drev. I was there when they surrendered. IF we held grudges against everyone we fought, than we would hate ourselves most of all. If I don't give her a chance than what kind of person would I be."

Another human stood from the other side of the room after a moment, "I..... I don't know what to say captain.... But you must understand our hesitance."

The man nodded, "More than you know, but she's agreed that if she steps one foot out of line than she forfeits her life. If you want to make me make her sign a contract than I'll do it, but somehow, I don't think she's lying. If none of you will be willing to, I can deal with her."

Another member of the crew stood. Krill recognized them from his medical team, but understood he specialized mostly in psychological health, an area Krill was not familiar with, "Will you be able to handle that, Captain?"

He took a deep breath, "I let her in didn't I? So we are about to find out... Let her in."

One of the humans, standing by the door walked forward and pushed the door to the side with a hydraulic hiss. And there, kneeling on one knee, the massive creature sat, and to her side lay Waffles flat on her back paws in the air tail thumping spastically as Sunny gave her a belly rub.

The humans were very quiet.

The dog tilted its head back to see them, rolled over, and ran to the captain resting her head on his knee with a wagging tail.

The Drev sat back on her heels, and then stood. Both sets of arms dangling at her sides.

The captain took a deep breath and motioned her inwards.

Against the metal catwalk, her thick feet thudded ominously as she moved forward into the wary circle of humans.

"You see these people." The captain asked gesturing around the room, "They don't trust you, I don't trust you. All of them want to know why you are here and why I should let you stay. Would you like to explain yourself?"

Sunny was silent for a long moment turning her head to look at the assembled humans before looking up at the captain, "I do not ask for trust simply an opportunity. You defeated me once and you could do it again, so I would be in the wrong to assume that I could make any attack against you crew."

The room went silent again.

The dog seemed to be the only creature in the room that couldn't sense the tension. She moved from the captain's feet to the Drev tail wagging tongue lolling.

Eventually, the silence was broken.

The commander stood from her seat, "Sunny, that's your name isn't it?"

The Drev nodded.

"Do you sleep?"

Surprisingly, the Drev nodded again.

"Well we may as well get you settled in, my quarters have an extra room that you can have." The other humans shifted in surprise turning to look at her in surprise.

Captain Vir seemed confused as well.

Krill was again surprised to see the humans hesitantly begin moving forward as curious as they were scared about their new companion. Additionally, sunny was surprisingly receptive to the humans she let them examine her armor and her strangely humanoid hands.

Captain Vir sat in his chair watching the entire exchange silently and thoughtfully.

They dragged her from the bridge eventually to show her around the ship.

***

Krill sat with the human in the darkness aboard the ship. The rest of the crew slept silently in their quarters. As Krill didn't sleep, he had heart the human exit his quarters and walk into the deck. The thud of his metal foot contrasted with the soft pad of his other foot. They hadn't really said anything joining each other in companionate silence as they made their way onto the observation deck.

With a quiet whirr, the captain released the blast shields. Outside, the ship's hull slowly cracked open over the observation platform bathing the dark deck in the light of a million stars and a delicate light form the blue and purple nebulae. A distant spiral galaxy rotated silently in the vastness of space. He leaned himself back against the wall sliding to the floor with a soft rustle. Krill floated next to hi absently staring out at the stars as they spiraled past.

The thudding of the ship's distant engines added a lulling monotony to the scene. The human's eyes drifted towards closed head slowly lolling to the side, but then, a soft repeated thud, thud, just over the sound of the thundering engine. The human was the first to detect the noise and turned towards the hallway.

Krill turned faced with the light glittering over a metallic blue armor, a towering figure seven feet tall.

The human stiffened.

Was this it?

Were they going to die, was she here to take her revenge now that he was alone?

She stood over him a silent statue of horror backlit by the universe.... And then she shuffled off to the other side of the viewing window placing her back to the wall and sliding down in much the same way the captain had.

The human watched the Drev for a long moment as she leaned her head against the window eyes glittering with the reflection of the universe.

Krill was ready to get up and run, and didn't notice the soft humming noise. It didn't come from te human, but from the Drev.

The human was sitting up now watching her with narrowed eyes, but he hadn't moved from his seat on the floor.

After a while. Krill noted the human begin softly and slowly rocking his head to an unknown beat eyes half closed light rolled into the window as they drifted slowly past a band of red mist, "Metallica, right?"

The Drev shrugged.

"Where did you learn that?" He asked quietly

She paused looking out towards the sky, "I heard one of your kind humming it as she died. It was towards the end of the war."

"Oh," There was silence.

"Once leaving my planet, I heard a human sing for the first time, and I remembered that song. They don't have music on my planet, and I wanted to find it, but I never heard it again."

A distant ice field reflected and winked at them from the darkness. The Drev began to hum again, at first the human simply listened, but after a while he began to hum softly along with her, filling in the parts that she missed or did incorrectly. Minutes after that he was singing quietly to the music, and now the Drev was listening as the darkness faded around them.

It didn't occur to anyone that the Drev could copy the human beat.

No other species had been able to before.