The Olympi looms from a distance. At first it appears as another star among the field of lights. As we approach, the angular shape forms. It strikes out against the rest in proximity and jagged lines. The enormous mountain is dull from far away, but as we glide closer, the more luminescent it becomes.

None of us say a thing as we speed toward it. When we're close enough for their comms to reach our receivers, we slow to a crawl. I grip my controls and watch Ledi—as Umpire now instead of Dean—do the same. His massive hands hold his controls tight.

My communication line buzzes. "This is the Olympi dock zero-zero-three. You are approaching Olympi airspace. State your purpose."

"Hello Olympi dock zero-zero-three. This is Commander Janika Lorn of ARC10. I have a present for Juno."

The line fizzes as we wait for a response. "Speak plainly, Commander Lorn. What is your purpose?"

I make a big show of my exasperation. "This is Commander Janika Lorn and Specialist Francis Umpire of ARC10 requesting boarding access to the Olympi in order to speak with Empress Juno of the Olympi. I have the prisoner Captain Moon of the HMS Valediction and would like to parlay for an exchange of hostages."

The line dies. No fizz. Not a single noise. The line goes dark as if we'd been cut off for good. Ledi shrugs. We wait.

A sudden, new voice blares through the speakers, startling me. "Commander Lorn, you are issued a warning. You must stay three ships' lengths from the Olympi."

"What the fuck? Why am I being issued a warning. Are you deaf? I. Have. Moon."

"Stand by for boarding."

"What? No!" I squeeze my controls tight. "Why the hell do you need to come all the way—"

Before I can finish my statement, two drop ships speed away from the Olympi like fireflies at the base of a hill. At lightning speed, they reach our airspace and drift about menacingly, halting inches from my airlock.

I brace myself.

In cream and gold-threaded suits, four guards exit their shuttle and push off, drifting into the gravity-less gap between our ships. They grab hold of my shuttle and walk their way to my sealed hatch.

"Remain seated, Commander Lorn."

I raise my hands in surrender. "This is fucking stupid, but fine. Tell Juno I submit. But if this is how she's going to negotiate, she's got some fucking—"

"Do you ever shut up?" Moon's voice softly emits from the button on my fleece that I'd pulled up around my chin. "Just sit there and it will be over soon. Jesus Fucking Christ. You act like you're the one being taken and humiliated in front of an entire colony of people."

I clamp my mouth shut as I peer over my shoulder at Moon who sits against the wall in one of my drop seats. He's alone in the cabin staring directly ahead as if he hadn't said anything. Beyond him, the shadows of the embarking soldiers appear in the porthole of my airlock.

I unbuckle myself from my seat and throw off the restraints.

Four men, enormous men, burly men in tight ivory suits enter. Their heavy boots clunk around my floor. They each scan the contents of my ship, their observations rolling over my drop seats, my hammock hanging from one end of the shuttle to the trash I hadn't bothered to clean. And there, in the middle of the chaos, sits Moon with his hands together.

"Captain Moon?" The closest soldier faces him. In his bubble, I see a snarl of disgust flash across his face.

"What?" Moon snaps.

The soldier brandishes a small, golden spearhead and stabs moon in the throat.

"What the fuck!" I lunge at them. If it wasn't for Ledi using Umpire's thick arms to wrap around my waist, I would have clawed off their bubbles and gouged out their eyes. "I brought him as a prisoner! He came willingly."

Moon jerks forward and gags, but after a few seconds of bubbling orange goo from the gash in his throat, he raises his gaze to his assailant as his skin stitches itself together around the open wound. "Does that satisfy your mistress you brainless, dickless meat-pouch?" he gurgles.

The soldier turns to the others. "It's him."

"Did you need to stab him?" I shove Ledi off and cross my arms.

The four soldiers turn to leave. "Follow us. We will escort you into port three."

I nod and return to my seat. When they leave, the airlock sucking their presence out of my ship for good, I hold myself tightly but whisper into my collar. "Are you okay?"

"Keep your goddamn gaze forward and don't talk to me."

I bristle. "Maybe I should flag them down to come back and stab you again."

"Lorn, I swear to God, you're going to fuck this whole thing up if you keep up your verbal flatulence."

"I'll go back there and stab you myself."

"What part of shut the fuck up—"

"Sir, I'm gonna ask you to refrain from speaking to my Commander with disrespect." The real Umpire's gruff bass joins the line. "And I only ask once."

The voices die, but I detect Moon's angry glare burning into the back of my head like lasers. I feign a stretch and flick him off. From his hidden place in the jelly overhead compartment of my shuttle where my stowaways remain undetected, I'm sure Umpire notices my thanks.

After a few seconds, the Guilded board their ship and ease forward, leading us closer to the Olympi. Instead of heading directly toward their largest docking port, they take us around the back.

Phase two.

You did it, Nuna. You're a godamn genius. I wipe the triumphant smile from my face and keep my deliberate, resolute focus on the port ahead. Ledi recites all the checks for docking. When we touch down, Ledi, as Umpire, gazes back at me with two heavy thumbs-up.

"Go get 'em, Reaper Boss."

"That's creepy as fuck," the real Umpire says from his place above us.

"You ready, Ump?" I stand and brush myself off. Ledi closes the metal blinds to my massive view. All other windows shut up.

"Ready, Reaper Boss." He drops from the ceiling.

Immediately, I leap up and grab the pipes in the ceiling and fling my body into the mess of metal and jelly.

All eyes are on Ledi.

He shrinks from the enormous bulk of Umpire and shifts, the pixels covering his hardware dissolving like they're spinning around a drain until they return to rearrange themselves into a new shape. His exterior shrivels and pops until new curves appear. Ledi's transforming image settles into the more petite, compact shape of me.

He looks pretty rough—or I... I look pretty rough. My hair is a shaggy mess around my head, blackish strands flopping around my eyes that are bright brown but sunken into the center of puffy circles from sleepless nights. I'm plusher than I've ever been in my life. Not fat. Plush. For the first time, I notice that I fill out my pants in the seat a little more. My jacket hugs me tight, my breasts definitely heavier as they were when I was pregnant. I never realized how my son had changed my body until I finally get to see it from above. Is that really who I am now?

Umpire's right. This is really fucking weird.

Ledi, as me, slaps open the airlock and lowers the hatch just as the Guilded soldiers approach the ship.

All is as it should be. Just three people in a trashed room. Me, Umpire, and a tied-up, pissed off Captain Moon.

The Guilded search the place.

"We're ready whenever you are," I say. Or, Ledi says as me. I watch myself grab Captain Moon by the jacket and pull him to his feet.

"Hands off," he growls, jerking away from my—Ledi's—grip. "You lied to me."

Ledi grins in the way I do when I know I'm about to cause trouble. Dean has been on the receiving end of that face countless times. Seeing it now makes me ache for him and worry for the crew down there in the mess of this plan.

Moon tries to steps back as Ledi pushes my breasts up against his black-clad chest. It's futile. Moon is trapped. Ledi glares at him with predatory focus, fluttering my lashes and leaning my shoulder into his.

I gnash my teeth together. The display makes me want to punch Moon, myself, and then vomit all over the whole crowd.

Ledi runs my finger along Moon's sharp jawline. My lips are centimeters from Moon's. "You had no idea who you were dealing with. You or your first mate."

Ledi, as me, swipes my tongue over the bottom of Moon's lip as if stealing a taste of someone's dessert.

Moon doesn't move his face from Ledi's grasp, but his concentration is so steely, I'm lost in the rising steam from the heat generated between their intensity, even from a meter above their heads. I look away, unable to handle the scene any loner. Coodi, however, is riveted. Her gaze is hooked on the duo.

I'm about to elbow her in the side to grab her attention from this shameless display when Moon leans in and kisses me.

Oh Lady.

It's not a kiss, it's a devouring. Ledi opens my eyes wide as Moon captures my lips as if starved for them.

That fucking idiot.

I squeeze the bars holding us up and clamp down on every nerve ending in my body that ignites.

Do not stray from the plan, Nuna warned. Do not improvise. Do not adjust—we are a house of cards and will collapse with a hint of a breeze.

This kiss was not part of the plan.

I'm going to fucking strangle him.

Ledi takes one step back and swings my arm around, hitting Moon square in the jaw with a swift right hook.

Yes, Ledi. Yes.

When Moon recovers from stumbling back after Ledi's assault, the Guilded step in. They break Moon and Ledi apart, shoving my hostage ahead of their party. They leave my view. From this point on, I won't have eyes on Ledi, Moon, or Umpire. My plan was to trust the plan, to put all my faith in a path I have no control over except to continue to execute each part I was instructed for.

Sudden vertigo hits me. I'm somersaulting around the horror of being out of control. With Moon adding his own flare to the steps, how will I know this is going the way it should? How will I know that this will work?

An old feeling slithers its way from my screaming heart. It's the one that prays when I'm up against the wall and unsure if I'll see another morning.

Please. I close my eyes and take deep, calming breaths through my nose. Please protect my VIPERs. Please let this work.

When the last soldier departs and I can't see their bodies or hear their voices anymore, I wait another few blips before nodding to Coodi. We drop to the deck. She avoids my gaze, preferring to stare a hole through the metal floor.

"What?" I already know what she's thinking, but I need her to confirm it.

"I didn't say anything."

She's just as tense as I am. "But you're thinking something. I can tell, Coodi. Just spill it."

Coodi spins to face me. "Can you trust him, Commander? Can we really trust him?"

Like when I was having this conversation with Knuckles, I want to blurt out a loud yes. But after watching Moon kiss me, something that was not on the agenda, I can't give that answer anymore. He is playing with my son's life. With ARC4 and ARC10's freedom.

"Maybe he did it because it would make the situation more realistic?" Coodi offers as I continue glaring at the ground. "It was believable. That's for sure."

"Maybe." I don't want to be worried about this anymore. "Let's head out. John!"

John crawls from his hidden spot tangled in the pipes.

"Let's keep going. We have our next actions and I'm not going to fuck this up just because Moon knows how to piss me off. Most likely, that's all that was. I'll deal with him later." I'm rambling, I know. But I'm anxious and my displaced energy needs to go somewhere.

John rises on his six spindly legs until Coodi and I are able to duck down and climb underneath him. His underbelly is alive with moving gears and mechanics. I turn around and line my back up with his belly. Coodi does the same.

"Okay John, you know what to do." I touch his leg with a gentle hand.

The middle legs of his six bend and create a support beam for our hips to rest on. Coodi and I raise our arms to grab hold of whatever we can and raise our legs to completely line our bodies up with John's underside. On four legs, he waits for us to find the best position to hang on. Once adjusted to our uncomfortable ride, we move out. John's movements are jerky and tight. We crawl through a gelatinous opening at the top of my ship that usually works as the hatch between my shuttle and ARC10.

Undetected, John crawls along the walls of Olypmi's hangar. The Guilded stand guard, unaware we're scaling their walls, tik tik tik tik tiking our way over the metal that separates us from the rest of the ship. John finds a darkened corner and hunkers down.

Then, we wait.