“You don’t understand, Axel.” Boom didn’t look away from Jun even as she answered Axel, staring him down while Jun pulled up schematics alongside the map, his lips a tight, hard line. The schematics expanded to display the largest space station Theo had ever seen, topped with a massive dome. All around it, smaller stations were clustered in a wavering band.
“This isn’t a joke,” Boom continued. “He’s talking about walking back into the blood-soaked cesspit he clawed his way out of five years ago when he stopped running Crew with Barnes.”
The absence of Axel’s laughter was far louder than his voice. “Oh, shit.”
A chill crept onto the bridge, settling cold in Theo’s bones as he searched their stark expressions. Marco looked as if he might be sick, face pale and huge hands clutching the console behind him like he needed it to hold him up. A sense of foreboding shivered down Theo’s spine.
“Is there, perhaps, an alternative to said blood-soaked cesspit? I’ll admit it doesn’t sound particularly appealing. It might be prudent to consider your options before settling upon certain doom.”
Jun didn’t move apart from flinging one of the schematics off his screen with a sharp flick of his wrist. “No.”
With a gentle hand on his bulging bicep, Boom guided a stricken-looking Marco down into her chair and ran her glowing fingers through his curls. She then approached Jun’s console to examine the map with him and focused it on the largest section with a slide of her hand. “Alright, well, if you’re going to be a suicidal dingus, you’re going to be a suicidal dingus with a plan.”
It was somewhat shocking to witness Jun’s companionable nudge of Boom’s shoulder with his own, hints of a grateful smile on his face. “Thanks, Boom. This is going to be a hell of an undertaking.”
Boom reached across Jun to open up a new screen, tapping on it until hundreds of flashing red dots appeared across the station on display. “If any asshole can do it, it would be you, Park. You’re just filled to the bottled-up brim with—what’s that you’ve got written on lefty, there? Fearless stupidity?”
The flat lack of amusement on Jun’s face was practically a beacon aimed in Boom’s direction as he lifted his left hand and displayed one tattooed finger in particular. “You know what it says, Boom.”
Boom wobbled her head from side to side as though that were debatable and continued tapping the screen, turning half of the red dots yellow. “It’s all pretty much the same to me. Valor, bravery, stupidity. That’s you to an emotionally constipated T, Park.”
Jun shoved her aside with his shoulder. He bent over his console, typing furiously and muttering low. “You weren’t complaining when I blasted you out of that rust-bitten holding cell in Zingaria.”
Boom shoved him back with her hip. (Theo noted he didn’t budge.) “I’ll admit that occasionally your ridiculous heroic nonsense can be beneficial. But only occasionally. Usually, it’s annoying and dangerous.”
Sensing an opportunity to jump into the conversation, Theo leapt with both proverbial feet. “Oh, I have plenty of experience with both of those. Possibly more the former and less the latter, but, nevertheless. Ignoring danger and providing annoyance are both well within my skill set.”
The glint of appreciative humor in Jun’s eyes lightened his dour expression sufficiently that Theo was willing to make an utter fool of himself if it helped to keep that light going. “Yes. I’ve noticed.”
Boom looked between the two of them, brows climbing as Jun hastily looked back at his projections. “Seriously, Park? You’re gonna involve him in this?”
The lack of immediate denial from Jun was promising. Excitement bloomed through Theo like a morning glory beneath the rising sun. “I would like to be as involved as the captain will allow me.”
Axel talked around some kind of neon-colored gummy snacks he had retrieved from his station. “I think we can all see the two of you are plenty involved already.”
“Get my ship ready to navigate the crowds around the Dome, and keep your sticky mouth shut,” Jun barked as he closed out two schematics and opened a third.
His clipped tone didn’t seem to deter Axel at all. The pilot just tilted his chair back with an ominous metallic creak and chewed louder. “Sure thing, Captain. We got nothing to worry about on my end. Sylvia’s a good girl; she’ll cooperate if I ask her nicely.”
Marco made a sound of disgust off to the side but remained focused on his odd contraption.
It was baffling. Theo would have noticed another crew member. He needed clarification. “I’m sorry. May I inquire, who is Sylvia?”
Marco didn’t glance up from his work, but he answered nonetheless while everyone else ignored Theo’s question. “She’s the ship.”
Oh. How exceedingly odd. Back home everyone referred to ships by their make and model. “I see. The ship is a girl?”
A metallic creak, and Axel’s chair was upright again while he goggled at Theo, aghast. “Of course she’s a girl. All ships are girls. Well, I should say, she was a girl. Until I made her a woman.”
Axel finished with an unholy grin and a waggle of his bright green eyebrows.
Marco and Boom gagged in theatrical stereo, Marco still pretending to retch as Boom gave her scathing remarks. “Wow, there’s so much to unpack there that I’m just gonna leave it in the box. Please never say anything like that ever again.”
Jun expanded a section of the map filled with red dots. “Seconded.”
Arm flipping to a pointer attachment, Axel aimed it at Boom accusingly. “Oh, come on! I’ve seen the way you practically lick your knives clean. You have no room for judgement. If anything, I’m the only one on this ship with a healthy investment in my job! You’re obsessed with destroying things, Marco’s obsessed with fixing things, and the captain is obsessed with kidnapping brainy little Doll-faced professors, apparently.”
The balled-up piece of paper Jun threw his way bounced off Axel’s face right between the eyes. He scrunched up his freckled nose
