“What the fuck was that?” Copperfield asked.

  Heath groaned. It was a fair question, and he couldn’t avoid answering, not after everything. But explaining was going to be a nightmare. And he didn’t even know all the details.

  They were out of the range of most of the station’s weapons, anything else they could dodge with their speed increase, if it came to that. Though the distraction might be helpful, Heath was out of time.

  “I have some questions as well,” Jenny Mae said. Even after a chaotic fight like the one they’d just escaped, her coveralls were ironed into perfect pleats, and only a few flyaway brown hairs showed any sign of the day’s stress. “In fact I have a list.”

  “Yeah, you and me both,” Heath said. “But we’ll get to that in a bit. Loon, can you ask Ekaterina to come meet us on the bridge.”

  “I have to object, Captain. She had proven herself dangerous and untrustworthy already.”

  “There’s four of us.” Heath looked at where Emerald was slowly coming around. “Three and a half of us. Not like she can do much while we’re in space.”

  “Very well. But do register my strong objection.”

  “Registered.”

  Copperfield was frowning at the ceiling, and Heath realized the mistake. He could kick himself for it. Months without a slip-up, all down the drain. But that would have to be later’s problem. Maybe the Swashbuckler would forget it if they just ignored it. Jenny Mae didn’t seem as suspicious, but she didn’t have the same experience on normal ships to draw from.

  When the door opened, their passenger didn’t waste time before crossing through. The fast snick of the closing hatch still almost caught the hem of her calf-length coat. The ‘scion of House Althalas’ stared down her nose at Heath, sweeping the icy gaze across the crew, faltering on Emerald. As well she should. Whatever the older Spacer had done was taking a toll they could all see. Their skin was waxy and damp, every pore slowly oozing sweat. At least their eyes were open now, if only halfway.

  “Care to explain?” Heath produced the good luck charm for all to see. A jet-black orb, no bigger than a lime, swirling with gold flecks that seemed to move deeper than the object itself could allow.

  The woman in front of him humphed, though it was unconvincing. Like she didn’t even believe herself that she was in the right. Her shoulders pulled back as she stuck her head forward, still avoiding eye contact. “You clearly don’t even know what it is.”

  “Enlighten us,” Copperfield said.

  Heath wished the first real test of his crew’s loyalty wasn’t quite so high stakes, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

  “That, is a lynthocite condenser.” Ekaterina pointed to Heath’s hand. “They are extraordinarily rare dungeon drops, and any major House would pay a fortune for one.”

  “What’s it do?” Jenny Mae asked. She was leaning over Heath’s shoulder now, staring at the swirling designs, shifting ever so slowly across the condenser’s surface.

  “Legends vary. It might be better to ask what can’t it do. Pure level increases. New skill trees. Permanent attribute boosts. But only a fool would waste it on themselves.”

  “How would someone who wasn’t a fool use it?” Jenny Mae asked.

  “For anyone that controls powerful dungeons, such a tool could cause a marked leap in power.”

  “How?” Copperfield said.

  “I… do not know.” Said with such confidence, it took a heartbeat for everyone to realize what she had admitted.

  His crew members went to exclaim, or ask more questions, but Heath held up a hand to stall them.

  “So you just took it? Saw it lying around and decided to steal? Is that how House Althalas raises its members?”

  That got a reaction. A small one. Ekaterina looked away just slightly, shoulders hunching. At least she could feel guilt, even if she shook it off from one breath to the next. Or appeared to.

  “You were doing nothing with it. Leaving it around as a bauble to play with. I saw you playing catch with it three weeks ago!”

  “Don’t bother, kid.” Emerald’s voice rasped, breaking into the conversation. Jenny Mae passed over a bottle of water. “Rich classers think the world owes them everything. They won’t pay.” They paused for a moment to chug half the bottle. “Let me guess. On your Journey, like a good little noble, got lost and decided delving was too hard, or too dangerous. Figured you might as well steal something from the spacers hauling you around. Safer than the dungeons. Then you take the loot back and become the family hero. Not like anyone would believe a nobody on the Rim if they complained.”

  Ekaterina stiffened her spine, her perfect posture and clipped diction becoming even more pronounced. “I am not a coward. I am perfectly willing to delve. My cohort for the Journey was insufficient for my goals and I chose to strike out on my own for better results. Becoming Classed is to walk the path of strength, is it not? Why pursue power if not to achieve your goals. If others cannot defend what’s theirs, then why should they keep it.”

  “That’s weak.” Jenny Mae had stepped back, but Heath could feel the fury radiating off her. Along with an accent that only came out when she wasn’t paying attention. “Stealing is wrong, no other way to split it. Even worse for Classers. You should be using that power to make your own way.”

  “A naive approach. I admit I may have gone too far in a moment of weakness. Which is why I was returning, to put it back.”

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  “If you’re that rich, can’t your family just get their own?” Copperfield asked. Heath was a bit surprised at how easily the man was taking everything. If there was a member of his crew he expected to jump at a treasure, it was the former pirate. But he was getting to the heart of the matter. Walt may have been keeping something precious around, but that must pale to what a noble House in the Core could produce.

  “The rarity precludes such an action. No one who found such a thing in the Core would sell it on the open market. Hence why my instinct was to return to the Core early.”

  “Why give it back then?”Heath asked. “You could have been on another ship and away before we even noticed.”

  Her lips pursed and turned her head to the side. “I did not wish to sully the honor of my House in such a way. You all have treated fairly with me, and that would be poor repayment.”

  Emerald’s laugh was harsh, and empty of anything that could be called mirth. “A crisis of conscience in a noble? More likely ran out of money for the fare and realized delving crews out here don’t want an inexperienced mage throwing off the dynamic and taking all the loot.”

  “It doesn’t matter why you did it. What matters is that you did, and how we’re going to move forward. By most standards, we could kick you out of the airlock right now, and no one would blame us. I’m not going to do that. But next station we come across, you’re on your own.”

  “Wait.” Finally, a crack in the facade that didn’t close up immediately. For a moment, Ekaterina looked her age, young and out of her depth. Just like him. “I made a mistake. But I fixed it. We can work together. You all want to delve, but you don’t have strong combat skills. I can join you.”

  Heath gaped at the audacity. “We can’t even trust you on the ship. Why would we trust you in a dungeon?”

  “I’ve already admitted I was wrong. Our recent confrontation proves my experience –”

  “No apology though,” Jenny Mae cut her off. The loyal Administrator was still glaring daggers at Ekaterina.

  Their resident noble rolled her eyes. “I apologize. But think about it. We worked well together to escape the station. And your crew anticipated the situation admirably. We could do good work and split the loot. You need argo, yes? Judging by the state of the ship?”

  Now it was Heath’s turn to avoid answering. Yes he needed the money. No he didn't trust this woman to have his back.

  Sensing the partial victory, she pressed the advantage. “Think about it,” she said. “You get what you need, and I get the levels and materials to mark a successful Journey.” Then she swept back off the bridge, leaving the crew silent in her wake. Though from a certain angle, it looked like fleeing. Heath didn’t know much, but he knew nobles didn’t usually beg.

  Somehow, that whole situation had been left unresolved, while Heath was contemplating accepting her favor.

  “Now that the ice queen’s gone, are we gonna talk about the rest?”

  Heath turned his frown on Copperfield. “What do you mean?”

  The man looked to Jenny Mae, who was also confused, to Emerald who gave nothing away, and back to Heath.

  “Let’s see.” He held up his hand and started ticking off his fingers. “How did the ship know what was going on in the station, enough to intervene? It gave us specific instructions. What were you doing on your ‘personal errand’? How did you escape at all? Why is Emerald barely functional? And maybe most importantly, what the fuck is going on with the AI? It argued with you earlier. I heard it. We all heard it.”

  Shit. So much for not drawing attention to the special aspects of the Loon. He looked over at Emerald.They rubbed the bridge of their nose and shrugged, which Heath interpreted as the decision being up to him.

  This was an absolute horror show of a day. But Copperfield and Jenny Mae had come through it with him. They had heard he was being chased off the station by dangerous Classers, and chose to join in and fight. Without questioning it at all. Either of them could have slipped off, taken their cut for the work so far and hopped on a different crew. Geb was big enough to get lost. But they stayed to help him. They fought with him, for him. That had to mean something.

  And maybe more importantly, keeping secrets all the time was exhausting. Heath liked these people. He wanted to build something with them. He made a decision and hoped it wouldn’t come back to bite him later.

  “The Loon is awake.”

  The blank stares that met his statement were not the expected reaction from his big reveal. Which led to an outpouring of the whole story. Losing Walt, finding out about the Loon, spending everything he had on the chance to make it work. Deciding to do some smuggling on the side, hiring the crew, all the way up to getting chased through a busy station and nearly being blasted to smithereens, left to float away in the vacuum of space.

  “So the Wandering Loon is alive?” Jenny Mae was darting her eyes around, as though she couldn’t tell where to make eye contact. “Hello?”

  “Hello, Crewmember. Yes, I am alive. Through the vagaries of fate was I awakened. And through the compassion of our Captain was I resurrected. Today the two of you rose to a challenge you could not have expected to face. Please accept my humble thanks, and sincere hope for our future friendship.”

  Tears sprung to Jenny Mae’s eyes. “Yes, of course!”

  “Um, sure.” Copperfield just looked uncomfortable with the whole conversation. “I can see why you kept it tight though. Most of the outfits I’ve worked with would slit your throat for a ship that can fight for itself.”

  Emerald grunted at the validation of their original argument.

  “More importantly, what do we want to do with Ekaterina?” Heath’s relief at their easy acceptance of the Loon was almost overwhelming, as he slumped back in the Captain’s chair. Copperfield would need some more assurances but it was about the best he could possibly hope for.

  “Passenger Althalas has proved herself untrustworthy.” The Loon reveled in her new freedom of expression, putting video of the bridge on the view screen for everyone to see.

  On it, Ekaterina used some sort of Skill to force the hatch open and stepped onto the bridge. She approached Heath’s station, hand outstretched. Then she shook her head and turned back around.

  “Sound on, Loon.” Heath could see Ekaterina’s lips moving as she paced the bridge.

  “He’ll forgive anything if you bring that with you.” Ekaterina walked back to the Captain’s chair. Then back to the hatch again. “By the Huntress,” she hissed. On the last lap, she picked up the lynthocite, tucked it away, and left again, dissipating the blue spell that had forced the door open in the first place.

  Heath was left conflicted, the exact opposite of what he had hoped for in the review.

  “Your original offer was more than generous, Heath. I’m sure Crewmember Jenny Mae would admit that all naval regulations allow malicious actions that harm the crew to be punished at the Captain’s discretion.”

  “That’s true,” Jenny Mae drew out the last word. Like she didn’t quite agree but couldn’t say why.

  “She didn’t go through with it though. And she wasn’t wrong about the opportunity.” Copperfield leaned back and put his feet on his console. “If we’re gonna fight off Classers like that on the regular, we need levels. Fast. A mage for some cover would be a good addition to what we’ve got already. Miss [Sharpshooter] over there for ranged damage, I can get up front in the mech or with the sword, the green machine can handle themself in a fight, and Captain ... .Well you won’t get combat skills without practice.”

  Heath took the jab with all the grace he could muster. If today had shown him nothing else, it was that he was woefully unprepared for a fight. “Is it worth delving with someone we can’t trust? I felt the level up notification when we got back to the ship, that should get me another Skill. I can take something more combat-focused.”

  Emerald staggered to their feet and swatted Heath in the back of the head, before collapsing back onto their chair.

  “Was that necessary?”

  They ignored him and went back to their own seat. “If you pick skills based on solving every little problem that pops up, you’ll end up with a useless build. Pick your role and work towards it. That goes for everyone.”

  “Fine.”

  The whole crew, finally including Loon, went around in circles. They could use Ekaterina for the delve profits. But they couldn’t trust her. But she was useful. But she was also mean. There wouldn’t be a decision anytime soon, and every moment the adrenaline of the day faded, and exhaustion weighed more heavily on Heath’s eyelids.

  “Enough,” he said at last. “We’re days away from it mattering. Loon, can you map out local rank one dungeons for us, along with known loot tables and difficulty ratings?”

  “I shall set to it immediately, Heath.”

  “I’ll help!” Jenny Mae chirped.

  “Great. I need food and sleep. Not necessarily in that order. Tomorrow we can look at our options and decide.”

  No one contradicted him, and everyone understood the dismissal and started moving. When the others had left the bridge, Heath held Emerald back.

  “You never answered. What did you do back there?”

  A wan smile flashed across their face, there and gone so quickly Heath might have imagined it. “Captain Skill. Can buff crew member stats for a short timeframe.”

  “Using the Skill, that’s why you were so sick?”

  “I’m not a Captain anymore am I? I’m Disgraced. System doesn't take the Skills, not entirely, but the cost of using one can be hard to pay.”

  Heath nodded and took his life in his own hands by pulling Emerald into a hug. “Thank you,” he whispered.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Emerald awkwardly patted his back a few times before Heath took pity and released them.

  Getting to bed was a challenge, not because he wasn’t exhausted down to his bones, but because he kept anticipating waking up. Only the memory of Uncle Walt kept Heath from impulsively choosing a Skill that would have made the whole day easier.

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