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There’s an irregular sound, like a hiccup, and then the tiny machine spurts cold, dirty water right into Maggie’s face.Maggie grumbles. She’s just about to kick the fabricator right into its robot-y gut, but it scuttles away into a corner.“One hundred fucking years of human space tech and food fabricators still haven’t gotten better,” she complains. The tiny machine takes a second to crawl out of its hiding corner. Its computer screen shows a frowning face with big, cute eyes, looking at her indignantly.“Your food tastes like crap!” Maggie defends herself. “When I was little, Alex’s Mom found an old Earth granola bar in one of the containers, and that tasted better than your ‘fresh’ tomato soup!”
Your survival relies on me,
the tiny machine’s screen reads.
“No need to be so smug about it,” Maggie growls at it. “Alex will be back soon with some new charge for your batteries, so chill out and make me some tiramisu, please.”
Not enough charge for tiramisu, Captain Sawyer,
the machine reads.
Maggie groans one more time, and turns away. “Right,” she mumbles vaguely, “Alex said we should stop talking to the machines so much, didn’t she?”
This counts as talking to me.
“Oh, fuck off,” Maggie spits, until she remembers she’s still talking to the machine. Well, she hasn’t got anyone else around here, has she? Alex is off with the jump ship to another planet to get new supplies—what was its name, something with R? Rypto?
There’s a brief moment of sadness when Maggie thinks of a time where it wasn’t just them. Alex was born on this ship, the
Supergirl,
to her two astronaut parents, Jeremiah and Eliza. Maggie was born on another one,
Gotham,
named after an Earth city, to her mami and papi, but she was an unwanted space kid. Those were usually thrown into space to die; they were not needed for new colonies on other planets. They had a whole embryo center for that.
The
Gotham,
though, had crossed paths with the
Supergirl,
and Alex’s parents had decided to take little Maggie in. Maggie had been four, and Alex three, and they’d become best friends. The
Gotham
had sailed away. Then, when Alex and Maggie were around twelve, an explosion on the original jump ship had killed Jeremiah. Two years later, Eliza had died of the repercussions. They’d been all alone, two girls with astounding technical, medical and mathematical abilities who’d never known another home than the infinity of space.
The
DEO,
Earth’s international space bureau, had lost interest in them. All except for one of its agents, Hank Henshaw. His real name
is
J’onn J’onzz, he’s
from Mars—information he’d only bestowed on Alex and Maggie—and they’ve
secretly been keeping up communication. He’s
an Earth Dad to Space Daughters, and he promised them that when they’ll
have found a planet to settle on, he’ll
fire up his old Martian space car and go live with them.
Maggie
can’t
wait. It
will
be weird to have someone else than Alex around again, though. They
are
lonely, in a way, but having each other
has
always been enough. They’re twenty-three and twenty-four now, and instead of forming a sibling bond like Alex’s parents anticipated, they’ve been in love forever.
Alex.
Maggie’s stomach flutters at the thought of her. Her love. It’s a pity they can’t marry on here, because being
wives
sounds like the kind of sappy thing they’d just love to be. J’onn’s been passing around the word of their existence on Earth secretly, on something called the internet, and they’ve gotten some sweet emails since. Being like them,
lesbians,
can get pretty lonely on Earth apparently, and J’onn tells them laughingly that they’re somewhat of an icon in the queer community on Earth. They’ve been dubbed
Space Lesbians #1,
and even if Alex doesn’t quite understand the concept of it, something in Maggie relates to that longing of community and that longing to be seen, and it makes her proud to know she can give that to other young girls like her.
At least, she’s proud of it when she’s not busy wanting to beat the
crap
out of her ship. The food tastes like dirt, all except the tiramisu, which is decent—the showers only work if they’re in the right mood, and the workout and sleep areas are the only places that are…
nice.
In more than just the way they’re intended to.
Maggie smirks to herself and wants Alex to come back all the more.
Maggie’s always wondered why the
Supergirl
is such a weirdly equipped ship.
The bits and pieces she remembers from the
Gotham
and her parents—however confusing they are, with how they mingle together; the cold and the dark and being told she’s a dishonor to her family and their mission, being told her mere existence puts shame on her papi; the warm and the quiet and the lovely when her parents had been tired of telling their daughter how truly unwanted she was—those memories tell her that the
Gotham
had been a relatively sporadic ship. Cold blank metal surfaces, impersonal machines, and the only true light lying in the fact that the food fabricator had actually known
spices.
The
Supergirl…
is a little different. It’s a little older, a little smaller, rustier, yes. It’s still all metal, though. But the machines… they’re not
alive
alive but…
intelligent.
They’re sassy, and aggravating, and almost like children or little siblings.
Captain Danvers’ jump ship has arrived!,
the security system tells her. A winky face appears on the screen.
Or should I call her Alex?
It always says that when it’s insinuating that Maggie is horny as heck, and usually, it’s right.
The security system’s name is Winn, and it’s perhaps the most annoying of all. Not that Brainy the calculator, James the message service, or the food fabricator, which has developed a shine to the simple name
Danvers,
aren’t equally as infuriating.
“You’ve been calling her Alex for literal years,” Maggie snaps at it, but it doesn’t have any real bite. Alex is coming home, and she doesn’t want any of the machines to sulk in case they tell Nia—the jump ship—to slow down.Nia is the nicest one, and still, she just loves to prove that she has free will.
No talking to the machines
is a rule Alex established after Winn had crashed them into an asteroid for fun.
They need to learn some respect,
she’d explained, exasperated. She still tells everyone to shut up on a regular basis, though, so maybe it’s just unavoidable.
Please shut us down this time,
Winn retorts, the smiley changing to a mock-pleading one.
Danvers was in the room by accident and she’s still traumatized.
“Is that why she sent Alex away? Is her charger even empty?” Maggie exclaims in indignation.
Can’t tell you that,
Winn retorts smugly.
“Oh, shut up, you dumb fucking machine,” Maggie says, just as a green light announces Alex’s arrival.“Just the hello I was expecting,” she says from behind, wrapping her arms around Maggie.Maggie turns around, instantly forgetting they’re surrounded by a bunch of childish machines. “I missed you, sweetie,” she says, greeting Alex with a kiss. Alex leans into it, sighing happily. It’s unimaginably cute, even though Alex’s lips taste of grime and smoke and just thoroughly… unfamiliar.“I missed you too, Mags.”“I love you, you know that, right?”“Forever,” Alex responds sweetly, giving Maggie’s lips another peck before she steps away. “I should shower now, yes?” She smirks. “You wanna come with?”“You know I do.” Maggie frowns. “God, you know what I’m most grateful for in this entire endless universe?”Alex gently cards a hand through Maggie’s dark hair, her eyes big and vulnerable. “What?”Maggie grins. “That our shower, at least, isn’t a goddamn robot.”Alex just rolls her eyes and laughs, tugging at Maggie’s hand and leading her into the direction of the bathroom.
“So… ya wanna… y’know… tell me ‘bout that planet you visited,” Maggie mumbles, tired and very clean after their shower. They’re lying in bed together, the thin blankets wrapping them both into a body-heat-filled girl burrito. “What’s it called ‘gain?” Maggie can feel Alex shift under the blankets, facing her. Maggie’s eyes are half-closed already, but she forces them open to look at her beautiful girlfriend. Alex’s eyes are big and serious, way too serious for all the laughing and all the fun they’d just had. Maggie can hear Alex breathing. The ship is very silent; they’ve called of all the machines that aren’t essential life-support, so they’re rotating quietly on the spot in the endless width of space, the air charged with only the faintest, most far away whirring of electronics.“It doesn’t matter now, Mags,” Alex whispers, her lips curved into the smallest of smiles. “We’ll talk tomorrow, okay? I love you.”“Love you,” Maggie mumbles, until the rest of Alex’s word register. She’s wide awake all of a sudden. Her eyes are clear and open. “Wait, sweetie, what do you mean? Are we being pursued by hostile aliens? Was the planet’s atmosphere toxic and you’re dying? Do you wanna leave me? Let’s talk now.” “God, Mags, it’s nothing like that,” Alex reassures her, her eyes twinkling a little. “It’s good news. I… I think.”“You’ve gotta give me something more than that, babe.” “Yeah, okay. But promise you won’t be mad.”“I trust you, Alex.”“Tell me you won’t be mad,” Alex insists pettily. Maggie sighs.“Fine, Danvers. Now spit it out.”“Okay. So.” Alex clears her throat. She opens her mouth, but knows as well as Maggie that when she’s nervous she’ll start to ramble, so she closes it again and takes a deep breath. “I may have…” She stares away again, looking like she’s desperately praying to… what? They’ve long surpassed Heaven by now. They’re beyond a god. They’re in the realms of the goddesses now, as Eliza used to say. Way beyond the power of men. Maybe that’s why the Earth lesbians are so obsessed with them little Space gays, Maggie thinks. Isn’t this every gay girl’s dream?Anyway, Alex is blushing, and it’s part cute and part making Maggie nervous as heck.“Spit it out.”“Fine,” Alex breathes. “I may have acquired a sister on another planet.” Maggie stares.“What?”“You promised not to get mad,” Alex reminds her, absentmindedly taking a strand of Maggie’s hair between her fingers and playing with it. “So, the planet’s name is Krypton. It’s inhabitable, in fact, it is inhabited. It’s very similar to Earth in pretty much every aspect, negative and positive. It’s a tidbit smaller, though, with only one country, and the society works a little differently. They’re also super advanced tech-wise…”
Maggie puffs out a breath. “Let me get this clear,” she says. “You’ve been on this ship for
hours.
We had shower sex, for fuck’s sake, and you decide to tell me this
now? We’ve been looking for a place like this ever since we were
born!”
“Uh, yeah.” Alex blushes. Maggie can’t be mad when she’s like this. She can’t be mad at her at all. Also, she’s promised she wouldn’t be. “I really missed you.”
Maggie lets herself fall back exasperatedly. “So, before we discuss this Krypton, tell me more about that sister of yours? You’re
sure
it’s just a sister?”
Alex rolls her eyes at Maggie. “How the hell can you be such a jealous person when we’ve literally never met anyone else our age?”“Maybe that’s why,” Maggie says, half jokingly and half very serious. She’s often wondered if she and Alex would have fallen in love, had they grown up on Earth like regular girls. Have they latched onto each other only out of desperation? Is their love perverse because they’ve known each other since they were kids? Are they even real lesbians? Would Alex be into boys if they’d grown up on Earth? Would Maggie?
As always, one look at Alex, and those questions are silenced. Maggie is so in love with her sometimes it physically hurts. Even if Maggie had stayed on the
Gotham
and Alex had sped away on the
Supergirl,
putting distance between each other light year by light year, Maggie knows they would’ve found each other anyway.
Hey Space Lesbians,
one girl had written to them once.
I just wanted to say you helped me a lot. You made me realize I could be into girls anywhere in the universe, even in the town I’m from, which is really close-minded. Knowing you’re out there safe and with each other makes me so happy and so proud to be me. Last year I met my girlfriend, and I think tomorrow I’m gonna ask her to marry me. I think she’s my soulmate. She just gets me, you know? There she is! She says hi! Love, the luckiest girlfriends on Earth
Maggie had cried after that, secretly, because they’d sent a picture with their rings on after and it had struck a deep chord with her—this need for eternity, safety, love. The word
soulmates
had latched onto her then, and not let go.
Alex is her soulmate, she’s sure of that.Which means whatever new sisters Alex gets, Maggie gets too, when she finally tickles out the whole truth from her.“Sister,” Alex emphasizes like she’s still scared Maggie’s going to take it the wrong way. She isn’t. She’s sure of Alex like she’s never been sure of anything in her whole life, and on a ship where literally nothing ever changes, that’s saying something.Alex knows Maggie has a trickle of abandonment issues running through her constantly, parallel to the painful stream of memories of her parents’ rejection. She was four, but remembers too much not to feel hurt by them. Alex has a deep-rooted fear of being left, too, of being alone, and she still has nightmares of her parents’ deaths. They fit right into each other. They’ve learned to be enough for each other.They have a Martian dad, though, so why not a Kryptonian sister?“Her name is Kara Zor-El,” Alex goes on, inching closer to Maggie like she can’t get enough heat. Maggie wraps an arm around Alex so they’re as close as possible, their bare legs touching, their foreheads leaning into each other. Their eyes close. They’re both tired, and Alex was right, they should discuss this tomorrow. Maggie’s just going to learn all about her new sister, and then she’s going to sleep.“She’s younger than us by, like, three years,” Alex murmurs. “Her parents are kind of dead? They died in an earthquake when they were saving her planet from exploding. Her aunt, too. She has a little cousin, and she’s really smart, and by Earth definition, bi. I think she might have a crush on this girl from another planet—Lena. I was kind of just wandering around Krypton when I ran into her, and she invited me for food? She eats so much that I think we finally know what Danvers’ real name should be.”“You’re always hungry too,” Maggie murmurs.“Not as hungry as Kara,” Alex insists with conviction. “Anyway, so we ate, and I think we clicked, you know, in that family kind of way. It’s weird ‘cause I’ve never had a little sister before but she’s super annoying and also really sweet and a little scary so, I think we have a sister on our hand, Mags.” Alex’s hand caresses Maggie’s cheek, the dimples forming as she smiles at the touch. Alex leans into her and kisses her softly, and Maggie positively melts. “Is that okay? I mean, we still need to discuss if we’re gonna stay and it’s all so exciting, and I know everything isn’t perfect, and this is all kind of quick, and I forgot to charge Danvers—Kara?—and I know I’m—”Maggie sleepily lifts a finger to Alex’s mouth. “You’re perfect,” she murmurs. “I mean, it’s okay. You’re going to pay if Danvers doesn’t spit out any breakfast tomorrow, but I love you anyways.”“Love you too, Mags,” Alex whispers. “I promise you’ll love our new sister. God, we need to contact J’onn. He’s gonna want to come as fast as possible; I think the DEO is getting a little insufferable. He’s gonna love Kara. Maggie, what if he loves her more than me? I don’t want to meet J’onn for the first time and he doesn’t want to be our dad anymore—”“Sleep,” Maggie demands. “This Kara can’t be any cuter than you, okay? Let’s just sleep.” “Okay,” Alex whispers.And as Maggie is already drifting away, towards sleep, she hears Alex say, smiling through her drowsiness, “Hey, Mags, you’re the cutest too.”
Winn wakes them up by flooding the entire room with artificial sunlight.Maggie bares her teeth at him, and Alex fumbles for the light switch. It’s funny because this ship doesn’t have any, never had. Maggie wonders if pointless human habits get passed down genetically, too.God, it’s way too early for this. Alex isn’t even in bed anymore.Maggie reluctantly untangles herself from the bed sheets, her bare feet freezing on the cold metal floor. “Alex?” she mumbles as she walks through the dimly illuminated corridor, rubbing her sleep-swollen eyes.She finds Alex standing, barefoot and in pajamas, at the ship’s docking bays. As she steps up to her, Alex wraps a heavy arm around her shoulders, squinting against the slim metal pod sidling up to their spaceship.“Who’s that?” Maggie asks incredulously. “Babe?”Alex groans. “It’s Kara.”“Your new little sister decides to drag us out of bed to visit us?” “I thought she was supposed to be our sister,” Alex says. “Not if she keeps dropping in in the middle of the night,” Maggie answers firmly.“There’s no night in space?” Alex says helplessly, but all they can do is hold each other closer against this vicious invading force.The glass doors slide open soundlessly. Winn’s, James’s and Brainy’s screens light up simultaneously, showing wildly flickering smiley faces ranging from overjoyed to terrified to excited to shocked.A blonde girl strides towards them. She’s wearing a white robe with hideous pink blotches, and a weirdly shaped family crest is imprinted on her chest.“Maggie! I’ve heard so much about you!” she says as a greeting, her smile wide and strangely terrifying. She extends her hand. Maggie looks at Alex, but she merely shrugs with an alarmed look on her face. “I’m Alex’s new sister!”“I thought she was our new sister,” Maggie mouths as they’re enveloped in a big, surprisingly strong hug. Alex shrugs again. They both look at Kara, who’s hugging them tightly, her eyes closed peacefully. Maggie feels soft suddenly, and she lifts Alex’s hand that she’s been clutching and presses a kiss to her knuckles. Kara squeals in delight. Something clicks. They’re family.