I'm not sure why I'm having a hard time focusing, but with Coodi strapping into one of my shuttle's drop seats and Ledi and I already fastened into our positions, nervousness creeps over. I shiver despite the warmth radiating from the instruments in my cockpit.

"Buckled in?" I flip the switch at my side.

"Yes, Commander," Coodi says in a terse voice.

"Okay, spill it. What's wrong?"

"Am I able to speak freely, Commander?"

I twist in my seat to face her. Her sharp brows are drawn together as if concentrating on something difficult. Her hands rest in her lap, the white gloves of her formal regalia stand out in contrast to the dull stone-gray fabric of her dress pants. Her posture is so taut, I could tap her shoulder and she would shatter. "Of course. Coodi, we've seen some shit together—we don't have to hold these old formalities anymore."

She shifts in her seat. "Moyra should be here."

I snort. "No way." Facing the front again, I wave away Coodi and her impossibly rigid stance.

Ledi murmurs through our checklist, reciting each switch and safety check before we disengage from ARC10.

"Why not?"

"Because Moyra's stubborn. If I were to take her to Moon, she'd try blasting his head off before we even start negotiations."

Any noise of disagreement or frustration Coodi could have made is swallowed by the shuttle's engines thundering to life. But who am I kidding? It's Coodi. She never would have outwardly disagreed with me even if I told her I was sticking my hand into a barrel of acid.

While my shuttle doesn't make the same monstrous ruckus as ARC10, it's still a painful clamor. I flinch as it grinds to life. We disengage from ARC10.

The return trip to my previous hangar on the HMS Valediction is too short. Part of me wants to show off—to let Coodi take in the majesty of a window-full of stars. I linger for a minute. Ledi peers at me from the corner of his eyes while keeping his focus up and toward the window. He smirks.

We cruise straight for the HMS Valediction. As if expecting us, the enormous hangar door opens to welcome me back.

Dropping to the floor and shutting the engines off, I sit up a little taller. My first round-trip drive. "Not bad," I say, smiling at Ledi.

He gives me a thumbs-up. "For a first flight? No. Not at all."

Coodi watches us, her attentive gaze focusing on me and my co-pilot as she slowly releases herself from the seat's restraints.

"Okay, what's wrong now, Coodi?"

"Permission to speak freely, Commander?"

"Lady Almighty, didn't we already go over—"

"This is all very confusing."

My smile fades. "Yeah, well, welcome to the HMS Valediction."

We exit the ship. Nuna is just beyond the port, leaning against the hangar wall as if she'd spent hours there before our arrival. She perks up, uncrosses her arms and pushes off. "You've returned."

Seeing her again with the soft glow of HMS Valediction's overhead lights bathing her halo of curly hair in warm light sends shockwaves through my arms and legs.

"It's good to see you again, Nuna." I'm surprised by how much I truly mean that. "I mean, I was only gone like half a clyk—"

"Approximately five hours," Ledi whispers in my direction.

"—but, you know, it's just. Good. You know? Good to see you're... good."

I can feel Coodi's accusatory glare burning into the side of my face. I purposefully ignore her and the heat rising over my neck.

Nuna taps my cheek. "I've missed you too, Janika."

I wipe my hand down the front of my shirt, hopefully smoothing the electric buzz in my belly.

"Who is this?" She faces Coodi and extends a hand. "First-Mate Nuna Kinnwah at your service."

Coodi doesn't move.

"I need to speak to Moon," I say quickly, covering up for Coodi's rudeness. "And, actually, your help would be appreciated. I've got a plan."

Nuna's lips form a perfect 'o' of surprise. "Oh have you? Ledi?"

He nods and nudges me in the shoulder with his elbow, unbalancing me. "Eight-point-seven is her highest success rate."

"That's terrible."

I stabilize myself after Ledi's playful attack. "It's not that bad."

"No problem is too great. We can fix it. But I assume you are searching for Moon's help?"

I heave an enormous sigh. "Unfortunately."

"Come with me. Teeno will want to meet your..." she nods to Coodi "—your friend."

"This is Warrant Officer Orra Coodi. She's my second-in-command and friend."

Coodi loosens at my side. Her shoulders slacken from their stolid position.

"Welcome to the HMS Valediction, Warrant Office Coodi." Nuna spins around on her heel to usher us through the halls but halts mid-spin.

I become mush when she grabs the zipper on my jacket.

"What happened to the beautiful uniform Teeno gifted to you?" Her fingers trail the zipper and caress the soft fur of my collar. She hoists the edges up, caging my cheeks betweenthe fleecy parts.

"This is my old jacket."

"It suits you. Very much." Her finger trails down the opened zipper again and tugs on it when she reaches the bottom. "This color is good on you. Almost as good as ours."

I wish Nuna could save her games for another day when I don't have Coodi mentally recording everything.

Stepping back until I'm out of Nuna's reach, I clear my throat and nod to the hall ahead. "Is Moon with Teeno? I think I've got a proposal that's going to get that cadaverous heart of his to start bumping around again."

Nuna leads the way, back through the familiar winding of elegant corridors until we arrive at the silver double-doors before Teeno's penthouse. I wish I could see Coodi's face as we pass the milling people of HMS Valediction. In their colorful garb that drapes over their plush bodies and luminescent skin, with vibrant eyes alight with curiosity, I wonder if Coodi is quietly comparing them to the haggard crew dragging their sickly corpses through our halls. I wonder if she's remembering the sallow skeletons of our civilians and the weak way they shuffle through their pointless days.

She needs to see this. She needs to tell Moyra what I've been experiencing because, coming from me, Moyra will never believe it.

Some of the passengers extend their hands to shake hers, mine, and Nuna's as we pass. They smile. They smile with full, rosy lips and touch us with soft hands of health.

I peer over my shoulder. Coodi is wide-eyed and tight-lipped. Her body is so fragile. She's thin and yet curved, like a tendril of dust rising into the sunlight. Among the passengers, Coodi is so mangy, they could crush her in their fists. Stepping to her side, I wrap an arm around her bony shoulders.

"This could be us."

"How?"

"I want this for ARC10. For us, for our people. What we're doing isn't living. This is. This is what is possible for us with Captain Moon's help."

Coodi nods.

Once at Teeno's entrance, I release her and straighten, fixing my jacket collar and tugging at the ends.

The doors slide open. Teeno greets us in his traditional fashion—drink in one hand, arms open, head tilted enough to express his fondness for our arrival.

"My goodness. Commander Janika Lorn. Back again, are we! And who is this charming goddes?" He takes Coodi's hand and raises it to his lips.

She retracts it like he was about to bite it.

"Coodi, meet Teeno."

"Sir."

Teeno bites his bottom lip, scanning Coodi from the tips of her sleek, black boots to the mop of shiny black hair falling over her black-lined eyes. "What a delightful biscuit."

I walk past him. "Don't be gross."

We enter the room, Teeno heading straight to the bar to begin pouring the traditional libations one must carry like a torch whenever in his cabin. "What brings you back so soon, my dear?"

"I have a proposition for Moon."

"Oh? This should be rich."

"What makes you think you have anything worth offering?" A raspy, gloomy voice emits from the darkness.

"Oh good, I thought you'd be lurking around. Want to sit?" I gesture to the chair next to me, the one he usually claims.

He glowers from the shadows.

I plop down in my spot. It's the same place where I discovered how fucked we were. Swiveling the liquid in the glass, I watch the cyclone until I gulp it all down in one swallow. The stuff burns like honey on fire.

"I need you to help me sneak into the Olympi."

"No."

"So I can find my son and free my people."

"No."

"And use our combined forces with the military presence aboard ARC4 to overthrow Juno and take over the Olympi."

Moon says nothing.

He crosses his arms across his chest and glares at me for a long stretch of time. It's so long, I wonder if he heard me. "I want to finally give my people place to call home. I see your people working, living good lives. They're happy. They're healthy. If anything, I just want my people to not be so sick and miserable anymore."

"You are the one who is sick and miserable if you think I'll risk my men for a ship of humanity's scraps."

Coodi flinches.

"Yeah, I'm miserable because I'm back here looking at your stupid face again." His callous words don't affect me like they used to. I know where they're coming from now. I sit straighter in my chair. "I want my son back. You said you'd help. This is how."

"No one simply waltzes into Juno's ship and demands to "take over". You're an idiot if you think that has any chance—"

"Ledi gave it eight percent."

Nuna leans forward. "It's true."

Ledi the computer's soft voice infiltrates the tenseness, startling Coodi. "It is true, sir. Nearly nine."

He emerges from the darkness, his head high, and stands before me, glaring down his nose at me. His golden eye reflects beams of light from the overhead lamps. "Even if it is nearly nine based on whatever rudimentary dot-connecting you've managed to smash together, what makes you think I'll risk my men on you or your suicide mission for your spawn?"

I lean back, swirling the drink casually. "Once we take over the ship, we'll be in control of Juno's enterprise, correct?"

Teeno perks up. "Go on."

"What if we offered two-percent of the Olympi's profits?"

"Twenty percent," Teeno jabs his finger in my direction. "And I'll agree to continuous protection of the Olympi and her inhabitants."

"Ten percent. We have to live too, Teeno."

"Eighteen."

"Eleven."

Nuna put her drink to her lips. "We all know you will land at fifteen. Why not save us all time and agree now."

Teeno leaned back again. "Fifteen?"

I nodded. "Fifteen."

"No." Moon's booming declaration shook the room, shattering the slight buzz entertaining my drifting thoughts.

"Come, now Moon, my dear—"

"No. Absolutely not. I don't care what Ledi says. This is going to be a fucking disaster that will never succeed."

"I mean, not in the half-assed way I planned it so far, but I think if we can combine our forces and include ARC4—"

"No."

I put the glass on the table between all our chairs and stand. "You're not listening to me."

"There's nothing to listen to. The answer is no."

"Why?"

"I don't need to explain myself to you."

In my peripherals, Teeno and Nuna turn away from our conversation as if trying to avoid watching two lovers in an intimate quarrel. This isn't just my fight, though.

"People are dying. Earth's refugees aboard ARC10 don't have the nutrition available for long. They are sick and hopeless. Doesn't that mean anything to you?" I regret the words as soon as I say them.

"Why would I care about any of those pathetic skin rags trapped in the guts of that Xani monstrosity you call a ship? I hope they're digested so they're finally put out of their misery."

"Fuck you."

He glares at me. We stand off. Hatred radiates through me as I lean toward him, closing the small distance between us. This is our familiar dance. He riles me up until the coiled hatred inside me flares like a tongue of fire, shooting up and charging my body with intense heat. My skin sparks. My fists clench at my sides and I'm ready to grab him by his black coat's collar and swing him to the floor to give his face a good pounding again. But Coodi appears in my peripherals, ready to raise her own fists. Calm down. I repeat the mantra in my head until my fists unfurl and I begin to relax, calm dribbling down like an egg cracked over my head. Coodi can't be thrown into the brig. If I start another fight, who knows what will happen.

"Fine," I say, backing off. "That's totally fine. I'll find another way. Let's go, Coodi."

I wait for Nuna or Teeno to say something, but they're too busy glaring at Moon to watch me depart. When we reach the door, I am stopped by a hand on my shoulder.

Nuna keeps me in her grasp as I turn around. "I will not let you do this without a proper strategy. While I cannot release my forces to you, I will at least help you in this capacity."

"Any help is appreciated. Thank you."

She flicks one of the longer strands of my hair away from my eyes. "You will have your child back. And our brothers and sisters. Captain Moon has his reasons for avoiding action. I have mine for stepping into it."

I'm lost in the magnetism of Nuna. Her warmth, her kindness, her words, and the promise of her participation of my half-brained rescue mission brings me the hope that I wished for in this meeting. It's not perfect, but it's something. My hand closes over hers.

Coodi clears her throat.

"Thanks, Nuna." I squeeze it and retreat.

As we return to my ship, Coodi's concentration seems to be honed in on the brilliant royal-blue carpet.

"What's wrong, Coodi?"

"Holy Heap."

"Yeah. That's about right."

She looks over her shoulder. "I understand your logic now."

"I don't think Mo would have handled Moon's comments well."

She shakes her head. "Crisis averted."

"For now."

**A/N**
Hello my loves❤️❤️❤️❤️

I'm so sorry about the delay. New work has been consuming so much of my time, I've had none left to get edits done. This chapter is pretty raw—so are the ones coming up.
Thank you to all who have left me kind messages and congratulations on my new job. This his a really exciting time in my life. Now to get my writing career back on track.

❤️L