It took Parvati far too long to realize that maybe Felix had been on to something about her, too.

She'd dismissed it out of hand, initially. How could she be sweet on the captain if she already had eyes for Junlei? She certainly couldn't like two people at once. There was hardly space enough in her heart for one gigantic crush.

Right?

She'd believed so, of course. But Felix, against all odds, had got her thinking a little harder about the whole situation.

One night, while she was alone in her bunk listening to the ship hum around her, Parvati decided to make a list. Her dad had always been fond of lists. They kept things organized. Made them easier to remember. Lined them up side-by-side so you could compare them, tit for tat.

She was most interested in that last part right now.

She wasn't going to write it down, of course. Imagine the embarrassment of another crew member finding it, or—worse—the captain! No. Parvati's neck was prickling uncomfortably just thinking about it. So, instead, she settled for closing her eyes and imagining this list in her head.

First, she thought about the things she liked about Junlei. That seemed easiest, since Junlei was on her mind all the time. There were her arms, of course, and her wonderful height. Her dedication and the way she could fix anything practically just by looking at it. Her silly, awful poetry. Her kindness. Her ability to make Parvati feel so much with just a handful of words.

Then, more hesitantly, Parvati started tallying up the things she liked about the captain. Her private, crooked smile. Her hands that could master any tool, pilot any ship, fire any gun. The way she spoke to Parvati so gently, patiently, like she did with nobody else. Her selflessness, constantly on display as she ran errand after errand for people who couldn't give her anything in return. Her determination to make the galaxy a better place, even when it was an uphill battle. The way she—

It was in the middle of this train of thought that Parvati started noticing a problem. One side of her list was growing decidedly longer than the other. And she wasn't even finished.

Oh, golly, she groaned internally. Outwardly, she began massaging her forehead with one hand. Did she—was there a chance she had a crush on the captain, too? An even bigger, even older crush than the one she had on Junlei?

She thought back to the first time they'd met. The captain had seemed different, then. Less dangerous. Less sure of herself. She'd been wearing some sort of outdated spacesuit and toting a Spacer's Choice pea-shooter of a pistol. But there had still been something alluring about her—something that had made Parvati jog to catch up with her and volunteer her services. She'd seemed…driven. Capable. And everything she'd done to save Edgewater had only proven that fact.

Parvati had doubted her for a second, standing in front of that switchboard that would decide the fate of her home. But Danika had listened to her pleas, and she'd done the right thing. Or at least the best thing she knew to do. When she'd directed all the power to Edgewater, Parvati had wanted to throw her arms around her and hug her tight, and that wasn't something she did with anybody.

Right. Okay. Maybe that should have been a pretty big hint.

That and the way Parvati had felt absolutely sure of her decision to follow the woman away from her homeworld and into the great big void of space. Danika had been a stranger, for Pete's sake, and Parvati had thrown in with her without a second thought!

Not that she'd regretted it. As questionable as the captain's methods could be sometimes, she was a good woman. She tried to do the right thing. She ran her ship like a topsy-turvy sort of family, and Parvati had started thinking of it as home. And she got to work on a real live spaceship.

And spend time with Captain Danika. Whom she definitely, positively might have a very big crush on.

Crap.