“Jump in 15 minutes. All crew report to the bridge. Passengers, seek secured location.”

  The Loon’s announcement was redundant. Heath and the others were already strapped in. Ekaterina presumably was as well, not that he could confirm it. Their mysterious passenger had been a ghost in the five days since leaving Atala and traveling to the system’s farthest jump gate, leaving her room rarely, and only when the rest of the crew was elsewhere. How she could stand to be cooped up like that day after day, Heath didn’t know, and he didn’t ask. Not many things were sacred on a spaceship, but privacy was one of them.

  Something Jenny Mae hadn’t quite picked up on yet. She’d continued to pester everyone for Class details and stories, until Copperfield had finally snapped at her the day before to mind her own business. And the problem with small ships and small crews was that they all now got to experience the ensuing awkwardness. The only reason it wasn’t worse was that their resident combat Classer, while he might have been curt, hadn’t been mean. There were some rules you only really learned by living the life, and not everyone had a kindly uncle that indulged their never-ending-questions phase.

  “Umm Captain?” It was the first time he’d heard Jenny Mae’s voice all day.

  “Yeah?”

  “Can I put on a playlist for the jump? I found it on the way to Atala from New Thetan and it helped with the vertigo.”

  “Yes, please,” Emerald said in a bout of uncharacteristic politeness. “He’ll take anything that will help with a godsforsaken undampened jump.”

  “What they said.”

  “Great.” Jenny Mae turned back to her station and started fiddling with the controls.

  The sounds that came over the speakers should not have existed. Heath tried to stand but was jerked back down by the flight harness. Copperfield hadn’t strapped in yet and fell out of his chair on the other end of the bridge.

  The door to the bridge slid open, Ekaterina sliding in, staff in hand and eyes wild.

  “Off, off!” Heath shouted.

  The noise cut out, leaving everyone with a racing heart and ringing ears.

  “What in all the hells was that?” Emerald said.

  “Warp metal! It sounds different as you’re going through the gates. Pretty cool right?”

  “Like every ancestor was shouting their death throes at once.” Copperfield said, finding his voice. “Where did you even find that?”

  “Well, there’s this alt-inspired prog demo stream I listen to when I can. They recommended it and I just went from there.”

  “Jump in two minutes. Crew to the bridge. Passengers seek secured location.”

  The reminder got everyone moving. Copperfield and Jenny Mae continued their discussion while securing their harnesses. For a moment Heath thought Ekaterina would ask to join them on the bridge, but the enigmatic woman turned and stomped off, back to her bunk.

  The music, and he was being generous calling it that, resumed. Even prepared, it was still horrendous.

  “Look at it this way kid,” Emerald said. “This time we get to start the headache before we even get to the gate. Probably why people think it helps.”

  *********

  Their first stop as a crew was one Heath was familiar with, having visited regularly with his uncle. Murmex was unremarkable, no planetoids big enough to be worth terraforming, just a few gas giants way out towards the edges of the gravity well. But the station founders were smart enough to realize any system with eleven natural locations for jump gates was going to be important. More than a few trade routes used the system as a crossroads, and the station was one of the nicer ones in this sector. The dockyards here were where Walt had usually taken the Loon for any necessary maintenance or repairs.

  They approached as they had done everything for the last few days, to the sounds of Copperfield and Jenny Mae in an argument.

  “You can’t do that!” Jenny Mae wasn’t screaming, but only by a hair. “Imperial Regulations make it entirely clear that such behavior is unacceptable, and grounds for dismissal or pay docking.”

  “Imperial Regulators can kiss my ass. Nobody enforces all the rules. You’d go mad within a month. Well not you. You’re clearly already there. But normal Spacers.”

  “That is absurd,” she hissed. “Keeping standards up is the foundation of any crew. No one wants to be out in a vacuum with the person who ‘doesn’t remember’ if they completed all the tasks on their maintenance shift.”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Heath felt a migraine that had nothing to do with a jump building behind his eyes.

  “Captain! Can you please weigh in on the topic?” Jenny Mae had a smile that was more manic than kind, convinced Heath would take her side.

  Copperfield wore the exact same expression, if anything just a tad more manic. “Yes Captain. Maybe you can inform the yokel –”

  “Yokel! I graduated from the Marini 9 Academy!”

  “-- tell the academy-educated yokel about how things go around real Spacers.”

  He thought fondly back to those first days, where it was just him and the Loon. With Emerald quietly drinking in the corner.

  “You’re both right. And you’re both wrong. Jenny Mae, no civilian can adhere to every one of the Regs. It’s exhausting. Like, do you want to make it so no personal belongings can leave crew quarters?”

  The woman in question fingered the end of her current knitting project, tucked into her station, and avoided eye contact.

  “Copperfield, just because we might let the little things go, doesn’t mean the big things aren’t important. Everyone with the skill does a round of [Ship Maintenance], everyone who doesn’t has to pick up the slack cleaning by hand. And you always log at the end of your shift. You know that. You can’t tell me that’s not how it worked on every ship you’ve ever been on.”

  Their as yet untested mech-pilot, looked away. “Yeah, well, maybe I’m just tired of cleaning.”

  “We have about an hour until we dock. Why don’t you both take the time to cool off. We’ll have free time after unloading but I’m going to book time in the training hall tomorrow morning for everyone. Understand?”

  He got some grunts which he was choosing to interpret as enthusiastic acknowledgement and then he was finally, blessedly, alone on the bridge.

  “Did I somehow become a parent in the last two weeks?”

  “You’re uncle often expressed the same sentiment, though I was unable to appreciate his struggles at those times,” Loon said.

  The Loon could only really talk when it was just Heath or Emerald, and otherwise had to act like any other ship AI. A fact he was increasingly guilty about.

  The difference grated on Heath, and he could only imagine how it felt for the ship. They’d discussed it and agreed it was for the best, but every time they got a chance to chat, the Loon seemed just a little sad. It pained him to realize that as much time as they’d spent together, he had still treated the Loon like just the ship, not an individual with feelings of their own. Which made him feel like an absolute asshole. It was too soon to let the others in on the secret, they weren’t even out of their probationary periods yet. But maybe that would come sooner rather than later. Once they figured out if this crew would stick.

  Docking went fine and unloading was a snap. An extra pair of hands in Copperfield, who knew his way around a cargo hold, was a boon, and they were left at loose ends after an efficient hour and a half. Which gave everyone the chance to split up. Thank all the gods. Keeping his crew dynamics healthy without all the spatial-expansion and crew amenities was going to be a struggle.

  Emerald set off to the seediest alcohol vendor they could find to restock, Copperfield to places Heath really didn’t want to know about, and Jenny Mae to a job hall. Her guilt about not having the stats to be useful as they unloaded was pouring off her, and Heath had no doubt she would find something they could squeeze into the hold to replace their offloaded cargo.

  Ekaterina stalked past him, reminding Heath he hadn’t given himself anything to do in his free time.

  “Oh hey, where are you…” he trailed off when their passenger failed to even glance back or break stride.

  “Nevermind then.” He was left standing in the cargo hatch and looking out over the sliver of the docks he could see. Which were just like every other station on the Rim, with hover dolleys and standardized crates making up most of the scenery. Stevedores and other station Classers hurried around with cargo. Ship crew and combat Classers on focused missions to enjoy the change of pace while they could made up a hefty amount of the traffic as well.

  “Where are you off to, Heath?” The Loon asked once the others were well out of earshot.

  “What? Oh, I figured I’d hang out here. We can chat or watch something while the others are out.”

  “Heath. My friend. You are young, at the cusp of life, sipping from the well of opportunity. The cosmos is a vast and unyielding realm, which we are lucky enough to traverse. There will be many moments for us to bond, but fewer for you to enjoy free time. Do not let my stationary days force you into the same. Go. Explore. Live!”

  “Umm. Okay I’ll do that.”

  “Good. I have run a scan through some of the passive station systems. Former crewmember Carter is on board with his new crew. You should say hello.”

  “Oh wow. I didn’t realize. Yeah I’ll go find him.”

  “Farewell young Heath. We shall be reunited e’er long.”

  He hurried off the docks out into the station proper. It was bustling, as expected for midday local time. The scent of magical cleaning and old grease hung in the air while he found a bench to sit on and pull up his comm contacts. Sure enough, Carter had a green bubble next to his name, showing he was within range. A few minutes and a flurry of messages back and forth, they had a place to meet. Unsurprisingly, it was one of the local job halls. Not one of the high class options where the richer Captains and Merchant classes would hang out, but not the hidden ones either, where locals drowned their sorrows while complaining about visiting crews.

  Carter was already there when Heath walked in. His shaved head was gleaming brighter than his smile in the low light, reflecting the dark brown of his skin, far healthier than the last time Heath had seen him.

  “Thanks for this,” Heath said, dragging one of the frothing pints towards him and taking a long draught.

  “You’re welcome man,” he laughed. “I can’t believe we ended up on the same station so soon. How have things been?”

  “Things have been good. Different. Way different. But good.”

  “What crew did you end up on?”

  Heath paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to say it. Carter had already been off the station by the time everything went down with the Loon. A fact that had hurt at the time, even if Heath understood why his bunkmate had done it. Carter had even tried to get Heath to come along. If the Loon truly had been scuttled, that gesture would have saved him months of stagnation or, more dangerously, years under a predatory contract.

  “I’m on the Loon, actually.”

  “Wait what? I thought it was scrapped.” Carter waved off the waitress coming to take their orders.

  “Right. Yes. Well. I decided not to.”

  “Damn. Walt had more socked away than I realized if there was enough to fix her up. Especially way out in Madrigan. Surprised there was even a shipyard to go to.”

  This was a crossroads. Carter had given him an out. Unintentionally, but it was there. Heath could just let everyone think he’d been able to pay for a fix. Surprising himself, he refused to do so. He was a Spacer, a Captain now, by all the hells, and that meant doing what you had to in order to survive. He wouldn’t be ashamed.

  “He didn’t. At least not after the Loon’s last round of upgrades. I paid with enmeshed argo crystals.”

  Carter’s mouth hit the floor. “We need more booze for this.”

  Another two rounds, and a more thorough explanation later, Carter was still shaking his head in disbelief.

  “That took guts. Not sure I could have made the call. It’s good though?”

  “Yeah man. It’s really good. Got some hauling contracts and a shoestring crew. Not making a lot but it’s enough for now, you know? And I’ll get there eventually. Something nice about doing it all myself.”

  They enjoyed some laughter and another beer before they both needed to head out. Carter had to be back in his bunk for an early morning departure, and Heath for some hangout time with the Loon. No matter what the ship said, being left on the docks would still get lonely, and there were only two people she could be herself around. And one of those actively avoided conversation.

  Back on the main thoroughfare, traffic had thinned, but what remained were spacers who’d had or were in the process of having a fun night out. Shouts and the aroma of spilled beer filled the passageway, along with sickly sweet crystal smoke that was certainly contraband on any station that relied on air-filtration systems. Blinking neon made the whole area feel like a nightclub, flashing and strobing to entice drunk spacers into the nearby shops or bars for a purchase. It was a party atmosphere that had Heath on edge, remembering one night after he was first Classed, and the week-long recovery that had been necessary afterwards. His hair stood on end, as if sensing something was going to go terribly wrong.

  That reason came barreling in at the other end of the concourse.