Ruby yawned and stretched as her ship dropped out of jump near the Fleet rendezvous point. For the last two months, they had been sent scurrying hither and yon, running errands and carrying mail for Fleet Command, but now their little crew was definitely due for some downtime.

"Hey everyone, the mail's here, don't get too excited," Yang muttered from her corner of the command deck.

"Carrying messages from one part of the Fleet to another is a vital task, and one scout-class vessels are often assigned," Weiss replied in a harsh tone from her own station. "And all things considered, we are hardly in a position to argue."

Yang glanced at Ruby. "Sis-" she began, only to have Ruby glare at her. "Weiss is correct, Yang. And she is the acting XO, remember."

"Yeah, but-"

"You're just still mad Ruby caught the two of you." This time the interruption came from Jaune as he put their ship on course to dock with the titanic Mothership. "And it was kind of funny you know."

Yang scowled, but before she could lay into Jaune, Ruby's console chimed, signaling the arrival of a priority message. Ruby's face fell as she read it. "We're ordered to report for a disciplinary hearing."

"Who's the hearing for, Rubes?" Yang asked, trying to read over her sister's shoulder even as Ruby swatted her away.

"Me. Well, it's been nice being your captain, everyone."


"Ensign Rose, would you say you have discharged the responsibilities of a ship's commander correctly?"

Ruby bristled but held herself firmly in check. Admiral Ironwood had given her a provisional rank of Lieutenant, and since she was still in command of their scout, she was entitled to be referred to as 'Captain,' but the asshole one-star admiral was determined to belittle her at every opportunity. He'd even had her disciplinary record from the Academy read into evidence, for crying out loud! Ruby could think of three, maybe four people in her graduating class that didn't have at least half a dozen demerits or reprimands. Even goody-two-shoes Weiss Schnee had seven! "Sir, I have attempted to do so to the best of my ability."

"And you have, at all times, conducted yourself with the demeanor expected of a ship's commander?"

"I will admit that I feel I still have room for improvement there, sir."

"On that, we stand in agreement." The admiral tapped a datapad, scrolling through its contents. "I asked Ensign Schnee to keep an eye on your little band of misfits, with a special eye towards any behavior she considered… questionable. Anything you'd like to confess to us now, Crewman Rose?"

"I'm not sure what you're referring to, sir."

"Let me refresh your memory. Ah, here we are. Three weeks ago, you caught your sister and her girlfriend, Ensign Belladonna, 'getting affectionate' to use Ensign Schnee's words, on the command deck, while they were on watch. Does this jog your memory, Ensign Rose?"

Ruby took a deep breath to steady herself. So that was the rock this asshole was going to turn into a moon to deep-fry her crew's careers with. "Yes, sir."

"What did you do when you discovered their inappropriate behavior, Ensign Rose?"

She opened her mouth to answer him, but before she could speak, the hatch to the courtroom hissed open and shut. "According to her own logs, she tripped the hazard alarm, sending her crew scrambling to the command deck. Where she proceeded to discipline both Ensign Xiao Long, her own half-sister I might add, and Ensign Belladonna. Without letting them finish getting dressed first." Admiral Ironwood stood just inside the hatch, his hands behind his back. "Which, while perhaps slightly immature, might be forgiven considering her inexperience. Overall, this concerns me less than a flag officer violating a direct order, Admiral Maglen."

Ruby scowled. Now she remembered where she knew this asshole from. A month ago, Admiral Maglen had met her ship in the docking bay, cornering Ruby and questioning her for almost half an hour. Afterward, she'd reported it to Ironwood, who had simply said, "I'll take care of it."

"Admiral Ironwood, I was only-" Maglen sputtered, only to have Ironwood cut him off.

"-interfering in an official investigation that you were given a direct order to steer clear of. Captain Rose," Ironwood continued, stressing the courtesy rank Ruby was entitled to, "there is a hearing today at 1400 Fleet Standard time; there should have been a message in your mail. Did you get it?"

"Yes, sir, but-" Ruby's eyes flickered toward Admiral Maglen, and Ironwood grimaced. "Let me guess, the order to report for this hearing also put your ship and crew on communications lockdown. And I note that your defense counsel looks relatively young and inexperienced, Captain Rose. That's no slight to you, Lieutenant, it's just another irregularity in these proceedings. On my authority, this hearing is hereby suspended until such time as I can consult with the Fleet JAG office. Admiral Maglen, you and I will proceed to the Fleet JAG office immediately."

Ruby couldn't help but notice Weiss hanging back as they wandered down the corridor in search of lunch while they waited for that afternoon's hearing. "Something wrong, Weiss?"

"Ruby, I-I'm sorry, I didn't think-"

"Stop." Ruby held up a hand to forestall any more apologies. "You were following what you thought were perfectly legitimate orders, and in the end, no harm was done. You don't have anything to apologize for. Now let's get lunch. You're buying."

"Hey! Aren't you supposed to be getting a Lieutenant's pay?"

"From your mouth to payroll's ears..."


"Well, isn't this a fine mess."

Ruby gulped. This was a lot more terrifying than her 'disciplinary hearing' that morning. Instead of being led by a one-star admiral with the balance of the board being made up by a pair each of captains and commanders, the board sitting across from her crew was led by a three-star admiral, with two-star and one-star admirals making up the remainder.

"First things first. Captain Rose, you are not on trial here. Part of the purpose of this hearing is to deliver unto you and the official record the results of the investigation into how you ended up with your current command. We'll come to that in due time." Admiral Tolwyn folded her hands and frowned. "First, however, we have to deal with a matter of insubordination.

"Admiral Maglen, by your own admission, you have disobeyed a direct order not to involve yourself in an investigation being undertaken by Fleet Command. Do you hold yourself above Fleet Command, Admiral?"

Maglen gulped. "No, ma'am, I merely thought-"

"Somehow, I doubt there was very much 'thought' involved in your actions. You flat-out tried to bully a junior officer into confessing to a crime, and when she refused and reported it, which she was correct to do, you resorted to questionable means to find something, anything, to hang her on.

"Moving on to Captain Rose, and the laughable 'charge' you attempted to bring her to trial on. Since you managed to convince someone to convene a court, and who and how is going to be investigated, we do have to resolve that issue. Captain Rose, did the events happen as reported in your official logs, and in the report Admiral Maglen received from Ensign Schnee?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Does anyone wish to dispute either of these versions of events? No? Very well. Captain Rose, that could and should have been handled better. But poor judgment like this is something that can be corrected, and I think you'll find Admiral Ironwood and Commander Goodwitch will both be willing and able to provide you guidance on better ways to handle similar situations in the future. Now, one thing missing from your official logs is the punishment you leveled on your sister and Ensign Belladonna. Pray tell, exactly how did you punish them?"

"I, uh, I had Ensign Schnee adjust the watch schedules so they wouldn't be standing watch together for a while. Or have much time off-watch to be together."

Laughter rolled across the courtroom, and even Admiral Tolwyn smiled a little. Just a little. "A punishment befitting the crime, then. Very well, then. That matter is settled.

"Now to the final matter before us. The original reason you were to be called before a board today was to deliver to you and your crew the results of the investigation into how you came by your current command. Admiral Ironwood, do you have the report?"

"I do, ma'am."

"Can you summarize the investigation's findings for us?"

Ironwood stood in front of the board. "The investigation found that neither Captain Rose nor any member of her crew took any actions to place her in command of the scout-class vessel, or to cause any member of her crew to be assigned to that vessel, with the exception of Ensign Xiao Long and Ensign Belladonna filing a standard request to be assigned together due to their personal relationship. Unfortunately, they were unable to determine who was responsible or what their motivations were. No action against Captain Rose or any member of her crew is recommended at this time."

"I see. So what do you intend to do our wet-behind-the-ears captain and her merry little band?"

"I plan to give them low-level scout missions, for the time being, to give Captain Ruby and her crew a chance to grow into themselves. I've already selected their first mission. It's a simple little preliminary survey. Just jump in, do a standard survey sweep, and come home. Do you think you can handle that, Captain Rose?"

"Ruby's Freakshow reports ready in all respects, sir," Ruby answered with a grin, and her crew laughed. As the story about how an ensign just out of the Academy had ended up in command of scout had spread across the fleet, more than a few rumors had spread with it. 'Ruby's Freakshow' was probably one of the kinder things they'd been called over the past two months.


Ruby's palms were slick with nervous sweat as the Freakshow dropped out of jump. This was the first time she or any member of her crew had been in uncharted territory. And it literally was uncharted, since they were the first people ever to visit this star system. "Welcome to beautiful downtown LV-426, everyone. Be sure to visit our gift shop before you leave," Yang quipped.

"Yang, enough. Blake, anything?" Ruby asked, glancing over at Blake.

"No artificial emissions detected, and no energy emissions other than the star," Blake answered as she worked the sensor array.

"Okay, good. Standard survey protocol, then. If we don't see anything in four hours, go active and deploy the probe array."

Three days later, Blake called Ruby to the command deck. "I found something, Captain. Last night's sensor take found a moon around the larger of the two gas giants."

"Gas giants have moons, Blake, just like Yang has horrible, horrible puns," Ruby yawned. It hadn't quite been time for her to get up when Blake had called.

Blake grimaced at the comment about Yang but carried on. "This one has free oxygen in its atmosphere."

Now Ruby froze mid-yawn. Generally speaking, you didn't find free oxygen in atmospheres; it tended to react and combine with other gasses or rocks. Free oxygen usually meant one thing. "Life," she whispered.

"Possible life, Ruby," Blake corrected. "I've already re-oriented the probes to focus on the moon. But to get a really good look, we'd have to get closer."

"Good call. Okay, keep scanning the rest of the system, but focus on that moon. And have Jaune prep for a micro-jump to give the moon a closer look when he gets up. Imma go find coffee."

For all his flaws, Jaune Arc was a wizard at the helm. Their micro-jump dropped them right behind the moon in its orbit, just far enough away so their sensors could get a nice, wide look. "Nice job, Jaune," Ruby said, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Th-thanks," he said, tilting his head just enough to grin at Pyrrha.

"Now, drop us in orbit and redeploy the probes for a standard orbital survey. It's not part of our original orders, but I think Fleet will forgive us for checking out signs of life, right, everyone?" The moon was breathtaking, wreathed in the mottled colors of a life-bearing world.

"Captain, I'm reading something on sensors," Blake called out. "A large metallic object in high orbit of the moon, almost to the point where it's orbiting the planet instead."

"Everyone, to your positions. Get me a visual," Ruby ordered, following her own orders by dropping down in her command chair. Artificial objects generally meant bad news.

"Holy cow," Jaune whispered as the object came up on the main screen. "Is that-?"

"-a Reaper orbital platform," Blake whispered as she worked the sensors furiously. "But if I didn't know better, I think this one is, well, heavily damaged. Its energy signature is very low; that's why we didn't spot it earlier."

Ruby frowned. 'Reapers' was the nickname given to one of the non-human civilizations the Remnant Fleet had encountered as they searched for a new homeworld, and their only response to communication attempts was weapons fire. And nobody had ever seen one of their ships or platforms that was badly damaged. Not even the mightiest ships of the fleet had managed that.

"Somebody kicked the shit out of it? Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys," Yang growled.

"Blake, drop our Omega beacon, but set it to echo ping only, with constant tight-beam updating. Sensors, bridge logs, everything; if someone's in the head when the beacon loses contact with us, I want Fleet to know it. Also, set it to slow-crawl to the edge of the system if it loses contact," Ruby said softly, making Yang glance over from her own console. "Sis, you're not thinking something crazy, are you?"

"I'm thinking we have an intelligence opportunity that's worth the lives of everyone on this ship, Ensign Xiao Long," Ruby answered, putting a hair of Command Tone in her voice. "Nobody's ever been as close as we are now to a Reaper platform without it opening fire, and if we can get closer -"

"It's suicide!"

"No, she's right." Everyone turned to look at Jaune in surprise. "I'm setting up an approach course now, minimal engine power. And I'm setting up a micro-jump that will get us well out of even a Reaper platform's weapons range, assuming we don't get blown out of space with the first shot," he finished with a weak laugh. "That's what you were thinking, right, Captain?"

Ruby blinked. "Yep, that's pretty much what I had in mind. I didn't think of the micro-jump though; nice thinking, Jaune. Note that in the log, Blake. In fact-" she hit the intercom. "Ren, warm up the jump drive and keep it on standby. We're about to do something really stupid and may need to make a quick exit. Pyrrha, Yang, you're on guns, just in case."

"Will do, Captain, but keeping the jump drive on standby for extended periods is not recommended. It will seriously reduce the lifespan of critical components."

"Oh trust me, there's a really good reason." Captain Ruby Rose settled back in her command chair, a grin spreading across her face. "In fact, after you get the drive set up, head up to the command deck. You don't want to miss this."

The tension on the command deck was thick enough, you couldn't have cut it with a chainsaw. Slowly but surely, their fragile little scout crept closer and closer towards their wounded enemy. "So, should we be glad that someone kicked the crap out of some Reapers, or scared that someone kicked the crap out some Reapers? I'm confused," asked Yang.

"I think 'both' adequately describes the situation," Weiss answered absentmindedly from where she stood just behind Jaune's station at the helm.

"Yeah," Nora agreed. Even the normally irrepressible orange-haired girl was speechless as she clung to Ren.

They all stared in shock and horror at the damage that had been done to Reaper platform. Whole sections had been blasted away, gaping rents blasted in its armor. Yang put a closeup of one of the rents on the main viewer, and she whistled. "Look at this, guys. There's no corridors or living quarters or anything like that visible through any of the openings. Maybe—" Yang hesitated before continuing—"maybe the whole thing's automated?"

"It is theoretically possible," Ren said. "And it would be consistent with their reflexively hostile behavior."

"No," Blake said, holding a hand to her head as she shook it. "I'm, I'm feeling something from it. Pain, and, and rage, and hate, absolute hatred of anything other." She shuddered, and Yang unbuckled herself from her seat and rose to wrap an arm around Blake.

"I'm feeling it too," Ruby muttered. "Whatever's aboard that thing, it hates us, and anything else not like it, maybe the whole damn universe. The only reason it hasn't attacked us yet is because it doesn't know we're here. It's too blind and in pain to pay us much attention right now."

Blake turned her head from where Yang was comforting her to look at Ruby. "I… didn't know you were an esper, Ruby."

"Kinda," Ruby blushed as she realized she'd just admitted one of her biggest secrets. "They ran me through the whole standard battery and couldn't figure me out. They just labeled me 'unclassified,' so I asked for my test results to be sealed and mostly forgot about it."

They started coming across clusters of debris, and Ruby sent Yang and Pyrrha out on EVA to pull some of the smaller chunks aboard. "Keep the storage bay depressurized, and nobody goes in there without my authorization," Ruby ordered, paging through the images of the debris.

"Might I suggest sealing the bay under your authority as Captain?" Weiss suggested with a slight cough. Even she could feel her normally iron-clad self-control itching to go down and look through the debris, not that she'd be able to figure out much outside of a lab. Ruby nodded and punched the commands into her console, grateful for the suggestion.

"Look at this, guys." This time it was Nora putting something up on the big screen. What looked to be small craft of some sort were hovering around some of the damage, and they could see warped metal getting cut away and new components being put into place. "It's fixing itself. But don't those things look all weird? Kind of like, um, what's that sea creature from Old Earth? Arms in all directions?"

"I think she's talking about a starfish," Ren said, nodding. "And these do bear something of a resemblance, although there isn't any symmetry here. The arms seem jammed on haphazardly, and no two of them are quite the same. It's very optimized for zero-gravity, without any sense of top or bottom like we'd build one."

Even as they stared at the spectacle of their wounded enemy, a prickle was tickling at the back of her mind. Ruby had been honest with everyone when she said her esper talents were undetermined, but she hadn't told them everything. Sometimes she'd get little impulses in the back of her mind, telling her to do this, or not do that. Mostly it turned out to be something minor, but once at the academy, it'd told her to double-check that a hatch was sealed. It hadn't been, and she'd gotten commended for noticing. She'd learned that the impulses weren't always reliable, but usually, they were at least worth considering.

One of those impulses had made her send them closer to the wounded Reaper platform, and now another was busily telling her that the time to make their exit was rapidly approaching. "Okay, I think we've seen as much as I'm comfortable with. Jaune, start easing us out of here. Nice and slow, just like we came in. In and out like a cat."

Too late. As one, the workpods they were watching spun and started swarming. "Jaune, get us out of here!" Weiss shouted, her fingers digging into Jaune's shoulder hard enough that he would have yelped if he hadn't been too busy furiously working the helm to notice.

All pretense of stealth was cast aside as their scout surged away its maximum acceleration. Scattered weapons fire began to come from the wounded platform, and Ruby couldn't help but notice how random and light it seemed compared to what she would have expected from a Reaper platform. "Jump in five, four, three, two, now!" Jaune counted down, and they held their breath.

Nothing happened for a moment, then alarms began to sound from the scout's engineering compartment. "Ren, get back there!" Ruby ordered, but he was already gone, Nora fast behind him. "Jaune, maximum evasion. Buy us time." Ruby was fingering the pendant she wore around her neck now, wondering if this where her journey ended.

Suddenly the scout's nose swung around, aiming them back toward the moon and the platform orbiting it. "What the hell are you doing, Jaune?" Yang yelled as she worked the scout's dorsal laser cannon, trying to at least cut down on the numbers chasing them, Pyrrha matching her efforts with the ventral cannon.

"I got myself a plan!" Jaune called back as he took the ship even closer to the platform.

Ren's voice came over the intercom. "We have a hardware failure in the drive. I can't fix this fast. We need somewhere to hide."

"On it." Jaune brought them around toward the moon, the weapons fire from the platform dwindling as their course took them between the platform and the moon.

"That's right," Blake said in surprise. "Reaper platforms don't fire on things between them and whatever they're orbiting. But what now?"

"Well, we do have wings and landing gear. Setting down is an option. Or I can try to swing around the moon, putting us in an orbit to keep the moon between us and the platform. Your call, Captain," Jaune finished, glancing at Ruby out of the corner of his eye.

"What the hell. Depending on what's wrong with the drive, we could be here a while. Find us a beach, Blake. Maybe on an island."

Their scout swooped over the surging ocean, and Ruby couldn't help but feel a mixed shiver of fright and delight at the sight of it. Like everyone else aboard the Remnant fleet, she'd lived her whole life on ships, never breathed the air of a living world, never seen a body of water that wasn't bounded by the artifice of man. She and her crew would be the first to land on a living world in hundreds of years.

Finally, they found the island Blake had chosen for their resting place. With a touch of nervousness, Jaune extended the landing gear and set them down. Ruby glanced out the porthole at the setting sun. "Okay, I am going to officially call today done for all of us. Sleep yourselves out everyone, and we'll get to work in the 'morning,' whenever that is. First priority is the jump drive. Ren, use whatever you need to get that working again, draft whoever you need, me included. Second is damage assessment and remaining repairs from playing chicken with a Reaper platform. The bar is officially open, folks."

Ruby found herself one of the last ones of the command compartment, right behind Pyrrha. As the hatch slid shut behind her, she swore softly. She'd forgotten to upload her log to the Omega drone still dutifully recording everything. Ruby hit the hatch control, only to stop dead in her tracks at what she saw.

Weiss had Jaune shoved up against the helm and was making her intentions quite clear. Well, there goes that idea, Ruby thought, only to be interrupted by a soft "Go, go, go," from behind her.

She spun around to find Pyrrha standing behind her, a bashful grin on her face. Ruby slapped the hatch control, matching Pyrrha's grin with an embarrassed one of her own. "Uh, I'm guessing you two have an open relationship?"

Pyrrha frowned, a puzzled look on her face. "I'm sorry?"

"Well, isn't he your boyfriend?"

"Eww, no."

"Then-"

"He's my half-brother."

Ruby blinked. "What?" she said flatly.

Pyrrha sighed. "Let's take this to the galley."

Ruby got two cups of coffee from the dispenser, handing one to Pyrrha, who sipped it carefully. She settled against one of the counters and waited for Pyrrha to speak. "Jaune didn't know his dad wasn't his biological father until one of his sisters needed a tissue donation. Since siblings and parents are the best candidates, the whole family got tested.

"Someone did something they shouldn't have and decided to contact the unknowing biological parent. Unfortunately, the contact code they used was one that's shared between my mother and father, and my mother picked up. She was furious and filed for divorce as soon as the results were double-checked. The divorce was all over the newsfeeds." Ruby nodded, mostly to encourage Pyrrha to go on. Even she remembered the Nikos divorce, and high-society stuff bored her to death.

"I am, or was until that point, an only child, and the idea of having a brother, even a half-brother was exciting. I reached out to him, and we bonded. That's why it's my fault that Jaune doesn't go home anymore.

"You see, Juane's family is die-hard Colonists, and Jaune wanted to join the Fleet, but his family refused to help him. So I tutored him so he'd pass the entrance exam, helped him with his coursework, that sort of thing. His parents hate me for it, and my own mother barely talks to me anymore." The redhead looked up at Ruby. "So I guess I spent a bit too much time around him at the academy. Did everyone really think he was my boyfriend?"

"Let's say I know more than a few people who made a pass at you and bounced, or didn't even bother trying."

"Oh." Pyrrha's voice was soft and quiet. "Jaune kept complaining about how every girl he asked turned him down flat; I guess I know why, now."

"Well, maybe he and Weiss will hit it off long-term, who knows? Never would have thought Blake and my sister would hit it off like that, and here they are, one step short of being married. But that does leave one question." Ruby set down her coffee cup and stepped over to Pyrrha, setting her hands on Pyrrha's hips and looking her in the eye.

"Do you want company tonight?"