Shortly after being seated, Lazlo started questioning the crew about their familiarly with the new technology he’d given them.”…Is that correct?” Lazlo prompted. Gunther, Ellie, and Quincy responded in the affirmative. Seita didn’t seem to hear the question while Ryen simply sighed out. ”Well enough.” Next the captain began briefing them over deep space and their final destination.

Quincy wasn’t the only one who was concerned about the travel time. From the look of shock on everyone’s face, no one expected the time frame to last that long. Well, no one except for maybe Seita who was taking the news in stride. That or she was very hungry. Or both. Probably both. Still almost everyone else looked as excited as she felt to be stuck with just the six of them for possibly the next two years to say nothing of going to the Federation’s High Council.

***

”Heh,” Quincy grumbled after Lazlo disappeared of out the galley again, ”I’m second to last to being captain.” Ryen snickered a bit as the doctor got up and walked over to the replicator to order up some food. Ryen was pleased, if not a bit confused, about why she’d been ordered ahead of him but behind Ellie. However, if it ever came down to it, the prospects of being captain and stuck in deep space with only Quincy and Seita remaining was daunting. Almost as much as the idea of being on a strike team with Lazlo. On one hand the captain was obviously versed with weaponry, as he’d previously demonstrated. On the other hand, it was Lazlo. Ryen felt a tinge of jealousy for Seita being paired with Gunther.

”There…were a lot of codes.” This came from Seita.

Prompted by Seita’s words Ellie pulled up the information on the holographic screen again. There were roughly thirty in all. ”Aah,” Gunther commented after another forkful of steak, ”That’s not so many. Mind you, knowing the codes, and actually being able to do the actions they require is a different story.” Neither Ellie nor Quincy seemed phased by the amount of information but Ryen wasn’t so sure.

”It’s too bad they’re all numbers.” Ryen replied. ”For example, ‘Code Pink Whale’, is a pretty catchy name and would make it easier to memorize.” The look the rest of the crew gave her said they pointedly disagreed. ”Anyways,” Ryen continued, ”It’s not as bad as it seems, Seita. Most of them you don’t have to memorize right away since you don’t have to do anything. Like Code 0 when I have to go direct power to the oxygen area and shielding. Or Code 17 where Quincy needs to report immediately to the medical bay. It’d be good to know those ones eventually just so you know what’s going on but you probably won’t need them right away.” Ryen continued reading over the list. ”We could study together later this evening if you like.”

Seita was hesitant but eventually nodded. Ryen smiled back at her. Studying was something Ryen was well accomplished at. It was a good thing too since almost 80% of the codes pertained to either her or Gunther.

”So what is deep space like?” Quincy asked, placing a bowl of some kind of bright orange soup on the table before taking his seat. Looking around, Ellie finally answered first. ”The ship I was on had a Slipstream License so we didn’t need to spend much time in deep space but … it was very empty.” Ryen nodded her agreement. Everyone’s eyes turned to Gunther.

”It is very empty.” the solider remarked, his eyes growing distant, ”Very black. It’s a big ol’ ball of nothingness most of the time. Planets, strongholds, even other ships are few and far between. And the planets and people you do meet… well… they aren’t usually the friendly type. There’s usually a reason why the Federation’s not involved with them. Sure, there’s a few good places to stop since not everyone can afford a Slipstream License, but still. Not seeing anything at all is almost always the best kind of deep space travel. Then again, you get caught out there and you might as well be planet dust. Ain’t no one going to come to you rescue you anytime soon.” Looking up from his meal, Gunther saw the looks on the women’s faces and quickly added, ”But we'll keep our heads about us and I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

An awkward painful silence fell in the galley. ”Why don’t we talk about our first stop!” Ryen offered, trying to brighten up the mood. ”Ellie, can you pull up any information on Leruta? I’ve never heard of it before.”

Shortly after, Ellie projected an image of a swirling tiny blue and tan planet. The others listed attentively as the technician timidly began to read off facts about their next destination.

***

”So, who would like to learn how to play Three Rascals?” Gunther prompted.

”I… would.” Seita said, beaming shyly. Meanwhile, Quincy stood up and stretched. ”Not me. I was up late last night. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” He paused and let out a big yawn. ”Plus there’s a few things I need to check on.”

Ellie said that she would like to just watch, all the while typing away at her pad. Ryen shook her head. ”I’d like to get started studying those codes.” the mechanic said, putting the clean dinner dishes away. Seita’s face fell at the reminder. ”I… have to do something first,” Ryen suggested to the girl, ”So if you want to play a few rounds first, I can stop by and get you after I’m done.” Seita nodded enthusiastically at the suggestion.

The clock above galley door showed that the ship still had almost 45 mins before Lazlo said they would be entering deep space. Walking over to the control panel, Ryen began analyzing and tweaking the various power signatures of the subsystems.



***

Ryen fidgeted nervously outside the captain’s cabin. Since he wasn’t in the ship’s cockpit chances were good he was inside. She buzzed in using the panel located outside of his door. ”It’s me…” she said through the voice communication system, ”Ryen… I wanted to talk to you.”

Nothing. She waited. Still nothing. Perhaps he was taking a nap? Just as she was about to turn and leave, the door slid open. From where she stood, she could see that his room was larger than hers and, rather surprisingly, had enough gadgets in it to rival her father’s smaller lab spaces. Before she could look any further, Lazlo was standing outside in the hallway and the cabin door behind him was firmly shut.

Ryen smiled uncomfortably at the man who seemed to be looming above her. Gunther who was both taller and burley never made Ryen feel this uncomfortable. Then again, Gunther hadn’t yelled at her… or shot at her either.

”As stated before,” Ryen began with a formal air, ”I wanted to speak with you. It isn’t about my father, although I’m assuming at some point you’ll want to discuss the situation in length…?” Ryen paused to give him a questioning look before quickly continuing. ”Anyways, I wanted to speak with about Seita. I don’t… I can’t agree with having Seita on the ship. It isn’t fair to her.”

Ryen let out a sigh. ”The others of us are adults. We have an idea of what we’re getting ourselves into. I just… Two year? I mean, that’s a lot and that’s just getting there. She’s so young and by doing this… think of how much she’ll miss. She should be in a school. She should be learning and interacting with people her own age. She shouldn’t have to be our scout. I know she volunteered… or at least I’m hoping she did,” Ryen paused here to give Lazlo another questioning look, ”but did you give her a choice? I mean, the rest of us had other options. And then what happens after everything is done? What’s she supposed to do then with a good chunk of her life stuck popping around deep space? I don’t… I don’t like it.”

Done

Ryen nodded when Lazlo mentioned the slide regarding Seita’s qualifications. Yes, the girl was a street urchin and true, she had managed to slip past security measures on the Federation Stronghold and yes, the captain had instructed all of them to treat her like an adult, but that didn’t mean Seita was an adult. By Syrae societal standards, Ryen was barley considered an adult herself.

Then Lazlo started in on what would happen to Seita if she were caught. It was a far cry away from what would happen on Syrae. If the person was young enough, and not deemed hazardous to society, they would receive different guardian, go to a correctional school, or if all else failed, be apprenticed in the mines. Ryen had a sudden flash of herself using an Ertug, digging away deep underground in the crystalline mines of Syrae. Assuming, of course, that she was caught and wasn’t executed instead after her trial and, of course, that she didn’t end up as some kind of lab rat instead. It was a good thing that no one knew that one of the most valuable and technologically advanced pieces of AI technology was currently making its way steadily towards deep space.

”How do you know?” Ryen asked as she followed him back down the hallway to the main elevator. At the mention of the word murderers Ryen shot him a look. Was the captain talking about her charges or was he talking about something else? Ryen decided on the former being the most likely. Cautiously she rode with him down to the bottom floor of the ship. At first she thought they were headed to the medical bay, but they continued on past it. The room they stopped in front of was small and unoccupied. Ryen knew this much from the ship’s schematics she’d previously studied.

The mechanic stepped inside. Everything had an old, worn look about it but the place was clear of dust. It felt like she was walking back in time, to a childhood she never got to experience. ”Now I see what you were up to when you weren’t captaining the ship.” she commented and walked over to investigate books on the nearest shelf. She reached for one and opened up the cover, touching the pages gently. Holoscreens were all good and well, but there was something comforting about a good tangible book.

”My mother used…” Lazlo began. ”…Would you accept the responsibility of schooling Seita during your downtime?”

Ryen considered the offer, the praise, and all the implications that came with it. It was one thing to help the girl learn the emergency codes and quite another to be in charge of Seita’s entire education for possibly the next years.

”My schooling was on Syrae.” Ryen said, turning away to continue browsing through the book selection, ”so it wasn’t through the Federation.” The selection was nice and varied. The books had bright pages and titles. Some even had large, colorful pictures. Some were even purely for entertainment. They were nothing compared to the heavy, dry, encyclopedic volumes she had to study as a child. Here were books for learning, not just memorization. What would that have been like?

”I’ll tutor her if she’s willing,” Ryen acquiesced, ”but you should consider giving her the option to leave. She could live on a non-Federation run planet. Somewhere like Syrae. Somewhere where people are less likely to care about her past.” Then again, her father had said that Syrae was unique in that respect, a 'planet of forgiveness'.

Done

”Code 3.”

”Brace for emergency landing or was it… the air lock one?”

”What do you think?”

”The air lock one.”

”Which air lock one? There are four that specifically refer to air locks.”

”I’m… I’m not sure…”

”Maybe it’s time to take a break. We could order up some ice cream from the replicator or something. What? You’ve never had ice cream before? It’s much better than it sounds. Promise.”

Ryen sighed and stretched. Like most evenings, Seita and she were holed up in the spare room. Both were sitting cross legged on the ground, a worn but clean throw rug the only thing that separated their bottoms from the ship’s hard, cold metallic floor. Books, instead of occupying their usual space on the shelves, were piled according to topic and difficulty on the floor. Above, projected by a nearby computer, major star formations and planets slowly rotated on the ceiling. Ryen could name them all. Seita could accurately point out and breakdown almost fifteen. It was a good start. The girl caught on quick but sometimes her facts got jumbled up.

”We’re… only supposed to use the replicator during meal times.” Seita said and frowned.

”Yeah, I know but Lazlo won’t find out,” Ryen replied. Seita gave her a look. ”Alright he probably will but a little ice cream won’t hurt anyone. Plus, one small trip to the replicator won’t affect the ship’s power efficiency.”

”How do you know?”

Ryen offered Seita a cheeky smile and helped the girl to her feet. The mechanic was pleased that Seita was beginning to open up, at least when it was just the two of them in the spare room. However, once they went through the door, the shy, childlike creature came back. It was as if this room was their secret place where they could just relax and be themselves. It was nice. Even Ryen felt her guard slipping.

”What was Code 3?” Seita asked, taking the mechanic’s outstretched hand.

”All personnel should clear the airlocks. There could be multiple reasons for this. Like if someone were about to use their ETL or, maybe, if certain portions of the ship needed to be sectioned off. “ The two of them stepped out of the room as Ryen took the lead to the galley. Outside the hallway was dimly lit, indicating to the crew that it was already ‘night time’.

Done

”Are… you sure this is okay?” Seita asked for the third time as Ryen plopped down a double fudge mini-Sunday in front of her.

“Yes. Just like I’m sure it’s okay Quincy gets a few rationed hours in the medical bay, Gunther occasionally accesses the cargo hold for practice, Ellie keeps syphoning off energy for her tablet, and Lazlo pulls the ship off autopilot.” Ryen said, trying to reassure the girl. She knew about the first three for certain, having had the other crew members ask her for those favors directly. As for their captain, well, it was her best guess on why the energy signatures in the ship sometimes showed slight variations. ”I, on the other hand, get a little ice cream every now and then. It’s one of the perks of my job.” With that, she sat down across the table from Seita and dug in, her promise to eat healthy after her run in at the hotel, long forgotten.

Watching Ryen, Seita tentatively ate a spoonful herself.

”How do you like it?” Ryen asked, enjoying her own delicious mixture of vanilla, chocolate sauce, and bananas.

”It’s… cold,” Seita said before trying another small spoonful, ”And sweet.”

”I’m glad you…” Ryen never finished her sentence as Lazlo’s announcement burst over the ship’s intercom.

”Code 3- U.”

”Clear the airlocks?” Seita asked, happy that Ryen had just reviewed that code with her. ”What’s the U for?”

”Something that’s unidentified,” Ryen said as dread filled her. A scene played in her head from a few days back. Gunther was sitting as this same table, talking about deep space. ”Not seeing anything at all is almost always the best kind of deep space travel.”

”What do you think it is?”

”I don’t know.” Both of them had stopped enjoying their icy treat. ”Behind your seat back is an emergency harness.” Ryen continued as she grabbed her own and locked it into place around her torso. “We should…”

”Code 20” Gunther’s voice prompted over their communicators.



”Ryen. G. Green.” Ryen called out to the device on her wrist and nodded for Seita to do the same. The girl had barely gotten out the three words before Lazlo’s voice rang over the intercom again.

”Code 1 –CE.” The ice cream platters went flying and smashed against the galley walls, smearing across a nearby cabinet. Ryen felt her stomach lurch as the restraint dug into her torso. "Prepare for Code 13 - H, on Go." The mechanic barely had time to catch her breath when she felt the entire ship lurch again. A small light on her wrist device blinked red. Soon after a holographic warning message hovered in the air.

Ryen shouted an expletive as she unhooked her restraint and jumped up. She had to get to one of the ship’s terminal. Maria had been hit and her shields were about to fail.

“Ryen!” Seita called out, starting to unlatch herself. Ryen turned and fell to the floor as she did, the ship shifting under her, the ship’s gravitational controls failing to keep up with Lazlo’s maneuvers.

”No!” The woman replied as she made her way back to her feet. ”Just stay here! I’ll be back… I’ve just got to…” The gallery door slid close as Ryen headed over nearest ship terminal by the elevator. Strapping back into to the ship’s restraint system again she hastily logged in.

Ryen checked the other subsystems and gave a sigh of relief. Just as she was feeling more confident she was rammed against the belting as a loud, crumpling sound echoed down the hallway. Seita appeared through the Gallery door. Ryen didn’t have time to chat as she saw what the noise had come from. Maria’s shielding had been diminished and part of her hull damaged at a location not too far away from where the mechanic was currently sitting.

”Go.”

Ryen worked alongside Lazlo to quickly powering down all non- emergency functions in the residential rooms, galley, medical bay, and storage lockers while diverting the excess energy to try to rebuild the ships shields. It was a slow process to undo all the previous work she’d had set up under Code 5.

"Code 3 – H."

Words appeared in the back of Ryen’s head as adrenaline surged through her veins. Accompanied by the lack of stabile gravity, the mechanic felt giddy and a bit squeamish.”Invaders?” Biting her lip hard enough to make it bleed, Ryen tried to work through her next course of action. ”Air locks?”

”Shut… them… down.” It was Seita’s voice. Ryen looked up and saw the girl was next to her pointing a wobbling shock pistol down the empty hallway. The mechanic swallowed hard and began to override the airlock controls starting from the oxygen subsystem and working her way down sealing off sections of the ship.

Done

Eleanor was thankfully in the relatively safe confines of her personal cabin typing away as usual on her tablet. She was nervous, of course, but the repeated sensation of her fingers against the surface of her device helped her relax. Despite being shut away, she could still hear the ship groaning around her. The sound of shooting echoed down the hallway outside.



So far Ryen had successfully locked down the oxygen and reactor core. She ignored the pain in her lip as she started the process of locking down the airlock for the cockpit. Hopefully Lazlo wouldn’t be trapped inside but if he was, he should be able to easily override the system again. As if on que, the captain’s announcement played over the communicators.

“Ryen!” The mechanic barely had time to register Seita’s voice before a weight slammed into her. Ryen automatically cover her face with her hands as the interface terminal and surrounding wall sheeting exploded around them. Pain lanced through her left forearm. Her fingers there tingled and felt wet and sticky. She was lying on the ground. Something heavy was on top of her… Seita? From her vantage point she could see the underside of Seita's shock pistol as it spun lazily on the floor. A shot rang out nearby, barely missing them. Ryen's brain struggled to come to terms with what had just happened. Was someone was shooting at them. From the crew quarter’s airlock? The lack of cover in the middle of the hallway meant the two women were practically sitting ducks.

“Maria- Override: Delta- Foxtrot-072” Ryen called to her communicator. In an instant, every light in the hallway blinked out including those for emergency landings.

In the distance, something crashed to the floor. Ryen quickly grabbed for the abandoned shock pistol she knew would be there. Fumbling Ryen quickly sat up before reaching out and gently shaking the girl’s body. Seita didn’t move. Standing up Ryen pocketed the gun into her tool belt, and hurriedly carried the girl further down the pitch black hall, away from their assailant. There wouldn’t be much time left before the lighting kicked back on again, her oral override only being temporary.

Ryen continued to smear blood over the ship’s internal paneling as she felt for the elevator doors. As she’d hoped, Gunther had already shut the machine down and, since the last place it had stopped had been their current floor, the doors had opened automatically due as a safety mechanism. If she knew the oral codes, she might have been able to override the manual shut down and have the doors close behind them, unfortunately Ryen did not and the control panel was both in the hallway and shot to pieces. Going inside the open elevator was risky and might lead to them being boxed in but it was far better than simply lounging around in the hallway without any cover.

Pain continued to lance through her arm as she dragged Seita inside. In the dark she felt for the pistol again, not surprised to find that it had already been loaded and the safety was off. Tiny blue and orange squares cast by the gun’s holographic display shook violently as Ryen readied to use the weapon. She’d never shot anyone and had only reluctantly attended the daily afternoon training session’s Gunther had started the past week. Now she wished she had paid more attention. There’d been something about lining up X’s. She didn’t see any X’s. Maybe she wasn’t doing it right? Maybe it was too dark?

Concentrating hard, Ryen could hear the sound of feet shuffling slowly down the hallway. Slowly the hallway lights flicked back on again.

Done