Medusa, true to her word, kept her very busy. After serving supper to the entire crew, who were starving after the hard work of launching the ship, Maka was told to clean all the dishes from the meal.
"And you need to finish all of them," Medusa had said, pointing at six different pots with six different snakes. "I'll need these clean for breakfast."
Maka's world became a whirlwind of scrubbing and scouring and washing and drying. Medusa clearly had no qualms about using as many pots and pans as needed now that she wasn't the one in charge of keeping them clean. In between breakfast and supper (Medusa never bothered with a real midday meal - crew members would come to the galley when they were hungry and she fed them fruits and salted meats), Maka had to chop all the ingredients for that night's meal. Before the crew sat down to dinner, Maka took a small tray to Captain Mjolnir's private chamber to bring food to her, her first mate, and Stein, who seemed to delight in asking Maka to "give his compliments to the cabin girl for her excellent presentation." Maka, who had spent most of her life feeding the man, did not find as much amusement in the charade.
For the most part, the other crew members ignored her. The unpleasant alien from the first day scowled at her whenever they made eye contact, but he didn't approach her. Captain Mjolnir had been right: the crew was a little rough around the edges. Maka often saw them engaged in less than legal card games whenever she passed, mopping the deck, and they shuffled so that their backs were to her to prevent her prying eyes from seeing anything.
They were all a wide variety of alien, many of which Maka had never encountered before. If they had been friendlier, Maka might have asked curious questions (politely, of course), but they did not invite scientific inquiry.
Of all of them, Medusa took the most interest in her. She seemed impressed when Maka would talk about a book she had read, and after about a week, opened one of the cabinets in the small cramped galley to reveal a little stash of books.
"If you are done with all your work for the day," Medusa said, metallic snakes hissing slightly as she wagged a finger at Maka, "you may come here and borrow a book. I've been cultivating this little collection across many ships through many star systems. I would be very angry if anything were to happen to any of them."
"I'll be careful," said Maka eagerly, wrapping her hands around one lovingly. Medusa nodded in approval.
Crona had taken to sometimes joining her in her small bunk bed. They would curl into her side, snuggling under the thin, ragged blanket. Their skin was cool to the touch, apparently a characteristic of morphlings (one of Medusa's books was a book on the rearing of morphlings) and at first it made Maka feel as if she were sleeping with a corpse, but she soon got used to it. Medusa found it highly amusing that Crona had taken such a shining to her.
"Morphlings tend to imprint on only one handler; it's very uncommon that they decide to trust anyone else." She smiled, her tongue flicking briefly between her lips. "You must really be something."
"Maka, this must be your recipe," said Stein, fork hovering near his mouth.
She turned to him in slight surprise. "How did you know?"
"I'd recognize it anywhere; did Medusa let you actually cook a meal?"
Captain Mjolnir folded her hands and rested her elbows on the table. She gazed at Maka with her one good eye, waiting patiently.
Maka felt herself color under the scrutiny. "Just for the private chambers. Medusa always makes this meal separately and the crew's supper was taking longer than usual this evening-"
"It's quite tasty," said Captain Mjolnir, cutting across her. "I see I made the right decision in assigning you to the galley."
Maka hesitated. She wanted very badly to say she would have far preferred working anywhere above deck - working in the open air, watching the many suns rise and set beyond the sides of the ship, that would have been her dream - but she knew it wasn't worth bringing up; indeed, it could get her in a lot of trouble.
Stein turned to the captain, looking mildly amused. "Might I ask that Maka be excused from her duties tonight?"
Her brow rose. "For what purpose?"
"I would like her to accompany me on a walk around the deck this evening. I'd like to discuss some of my research with her. She's always been such a good sounding board for me every time I visited her father's inn."
That was a lie; Maka had never been asked to consult on any of his research - she wasn't even sure if she knew what kind of research he really did - but she felt surge of affection for Stein and his attempt to give her a break.
Captain Mjolnir leaned forward to gaze into Stein's slightly-lined face. After a moment, she smiled. "Yes, that sounds acceptable. She will need to finish her chores with our cook first, but so long as there is no work left undone, I see no reason she should not help you out." There was something in the way she said the last line that Maka wondered briefly if the captain knew very well that Stein had never asked Maka to do help out before, but the captain was already tucking back into her meal, expression indiscernible.
The conversation turned to other topics, and Maka cleared their plates with particular care, eager to prove to Captain Mjolnir that she had earned the walk with Stein. She washed the dishes quickly that evening, and while there was still a little bit of something burned onto the bottom of the large pot, Medusa waved her off, saying she was sure it would cook off the next day and if not, it would flavor the next meal.
Stein was waiting for her on the deck of the ship, gazing into the sky as she joined him. Maka shivered slightly under her coat; it was cold out. Maka knew it was evening from the holographic clock that hung in the galley, and it was actually dark at the same time. The ship traveled in and out of the light of many stars during the course of a single day, and it could be very disorienting. But tonight it was actually consistent with what time the clock said.
"Thank you for joining me, Maka," said Stein, turning to look at her.
"Thank you for giving me an excuse," she murmured, and he chuckled.
"Well, it seemed like as good a chance as any. Captain Mjolnir is quite the hard ass, isn't she?" His voice was filled with more admiration than his words belied, and Maka quirked an eyebrow at him. He looked out into space. "Let's walk."
They fell into step as they began to stroll along the edge of the ship. The sky was alive with the twinkling of distant stars and gas clouds.
"How are you enjoying your time on the ship?" asked Stein conversationally.
"I guess it's all right." Maka scuffed a boot against the deck she had previously cleaned herself. "I mean, I'm working as a cabin girl, which is annoying, but-"
"We all have to start somewhere," Stein interrupted.
Maka grunted, but after a moment, she continued. "I guess I like working with my hands. I don't know. Medusa seems all right. For a cook."
"Your father's a cook."
"My father's a philanderer," she said scathingly.
"And what does that have to do with anything?"
Maka stopped walking. Stein's hands were clasped behind his back as he kept walking a few paces before turning to look at her gently. Maka turned away, unwilling to meet his gaze. Instead, she examined the whorls on the wood railing next to her, patterns like ocean waves.
"Your father loves you very much," he said simply.
"But my mother-"
"Left of her own accord."
A vein twitched in her jaw.
"He drove her away."
"Perhaps. And you can be angry if you'd like. But don't let yourself be too angry that you can't appreciate this." With that, he spread his arms wide, encompassing all of the wide open sky.
"I am!" she protested.
Stein dropped his arms to look at her more closely. "I hope so. Because keep in mind, neither your mother or your father is on this ship right now." He stepped toward her and tapped her twice on the collar bone. "But you are."
Maka didn't fully understand what Stein meant, but she did feel a shifting in her after that. Something felt looser, as if a dam had broken, and there was a certain lightness to her step that hadn't been there in a long time. Her shoulders straightened more readily, and she threw herself into the work Medusa assigned her.
The cook seemed to notice Maka's new dedication and was pleased. Maka noticed her portions at meal times grew larger and Medusa began tossing her the good pieces before she threw everything into the pot for the crew at large.
Medusa would also slip small pieces of advice into their conversations about the chores. Even though she was discussing the drudgery of scrubbing the floors or the tediousness of washing dishes, something sage with slither out between the words, and Maka began to pay close attention. Medusa wouldn't meet her eyes, just stroke Crona's head as she observed Maka's work, but a small smile would play around her lips as she watched.
One bright afternoon, Maka found herself sweating in a rowboat below the main hull. Her arms were sore and her neck felt hot, burned by the glowing star behind them. Medusa had her peeling barnacles off the side and tossing them into buckets at their feet; Maka was very concerned that they weren't just cleaning, but harvesting.
Medusa was whittling a small piece of wood in her hands as she reclined in the rowboat. Maka glanced over to see that she was using the head of one of the snakes that made up her arm: it had produced a small blade from between its fangs, and Medusa was deftly carving away. The cabin girl found her eyes drawn to the appendage over and over, and because Medusa's face was lazy and relaxed, she found her courage and asked, "How did you get that?"
Her eyes flashed as she focused on Maka. They were calculating, but there was no real malice in them. Medusa shifted to sit up straighter, tilting her head to examine the girl.
"Sorry," Maka muttered, turning back to a particularly stubborn barnacle. "Forget I asked."
"When you have a… a dream. A goal. A purpose," and Medusa's eyes glittered again, "you come to the realization that you will give up… almost anything in the pursuit of it."
Crona chirped suddenly from her shoulder, and she began to stroke their chest absentmindedly.
"When you find yourself between a rock and a hard place - and in some cases, this can mean literally - you make a choice." The snakes began to hiss lightly. "You give up part of yourself for the dream. For the pursuit."
Maka was staring, mouth slightly agape. "So you had to-?"
"Tell me about your wings." Maka must have looked taken aback, because Medusa continued, "I overheard Dr. Stein telling Mr. Buttataki about your, shall we say, misadventures with the law. You constructed wings and flew them in a restricted section of Neh Vah D-A Prime."
"Yeah."
"Multiple times."
Turning back to the ship, Maka jammed the crowbar under the belly of another barnacle. "Yeah, well. There's not much else to do there."
"I've never been, so I can't really speak to the veracity of that," Medusa said lightly. "But I am impressed that you were able to create such things. I have heard of people using automaton tech in such a way, but I have never seen it." She lifted her hand to gaze into the small faces of her snakes. "We have been together for a long time. We're a little out of date."
Maka wrenched the creature off the wood and tossed it over her shoulder. She missed the bucket, but Crona flew down and grabbed the barnacle in their mouth and plopped it down where it belonged. Shooting the creature a smile, Maka moved on to the next. "Yeah, it's pretty advanced tech," she said through gritted teeth. "It drives four needles through the skin and into the spinal column to connect to the nervous system. The needles are chitinous and biodegradable, so if you fall and the wings get ripped away, they don't linger. People have been experimenting with non-permanent automaton tech for a while now, so that you don't have to… well…"
"Make any permanent changes," Medusa finished for her. "Yes, that makes sense."
"Yeah."
They were silent for a few minutes save for Maka's small grunts of effort as she peeled the barnacles away. Medusa seemed to be lost in thought.
"Crona, be careful," Maka said, watching the small morphling flit around her hands. "I don't want to hit you."
"I am fairly certain," came Medusa's voice, "that Eibon the Inventor was the creator of the original tech."
Maka froze. She swallowed, then resumed attacked the hull of the ship, trying to keep her voice steady. "Oh yeah?"
"Indeed. My sister was quite interested in his work growing up. She would often tell me facts about him, totally without me asking for them, and I think he created the prototypes for many of the tech pieces we use today." She flexed her snakes. "Including my friends here."
Turning, Maka's face was carefully neutral. "That's really interesting," she said.
"No, it's not," said Medusa with a grin. "My sister was always a bit of a nerd. Anyway, I think you're just about done here." She gestured at the rest of the boat. "These things take a lot of work to get off, as you've seen, and we need to get started on dinner. I think we have just about enough now anyway."
Maka blanched. "Do… do you mean-?"
Medusa threw her head back and laughed. "You don't have to eat them if you don't want to!"
Maka was tossing the scraps of food left over from the meal when Captain Mjolnir approached her.
"Maka, there is a task I require of you in my cabin. Who better to do it than the cabin girl?" Medusa must have appeared at the top of the stairs to the galley because Captain Mjolnir leaned around Maka to shout, "Thank you for lending me her! I'll return her in due time."
"I still have dishes to do-"
"Those can wait. This is an order from your captain."
Maka set the bucket down near the edge of the ship with a loud clang, but followed without further protest. As she stalked across the deck, she saw many members of the crew stare at her. Maka kept her head as high as possible.
Captain Mjolnir opened the door to her quarters and stepped aside to allow Maka in first. Maka walked in and the captain closed the door behind her with a snap.
"I believe we're close," she said without preamble.
"Close?"
"To Treasure Planet."
Maka felt a thrill run through her veins. "Are you sure?" she asked in a hushed whisper.
"Almost. I used the coordinates you gave me from the map to get us this far, but we need to see how close we are. In the eight hundred years since that map was made, some of the planets might have been knocked out of orbit, and we need to double check."
Her first mate and Stein were already in the cabin, standing by the window. Joe Buttataki stood straight as an arrow, eyes fixated on the captain, but Stein shot Maka a small smile.
Captain Mjolnir produced a small key from beneath her coat. She opened the cabinet and pulled out the small, unassuming cube. She held it out for Maka, who took it gently. It felt so strangely familiar, like a gentle handshake. For a moment, Maka let her fingers settle into the grooves of the map, feeling the sleeping energy below her fingertips.
"Do you remember-"
Maka rapidly pressed the buttons in the right order and the cube glowed green, and Mr. Buttataki licked his lips as he settled his mouth into a thin line. The shadow of a smile on her face, Maka turned to see the tiny lights shoot out of Brew to coagulate into large, slowly rotating planets.
"Excellent," breathed the captain. "This is where we are. Now we need to find the-"
"It's right here," said Stein, moving forward and pointing. Captain Mjolnir followed his finger eagerly, single eye wide. "We're not far at all, we've just veered a little to the left."
"Incredible." There was a catch in her voice that made Maka glance at the captain, but she was steeling her shoulders again and turning to her first mate. "Chart a course. Do not alert the crew just yet. It's dark and they've had their meal, let them sleep it off."
He gave her a stiff salute, then strode from the room.
Captain Mjolnir turned to Maka, and her face was unreadable in the gloom. When she spoke, her voice was gentle though. "Why don't you head to the bow," she said, putting a hand on Maka's shoulder, "and watch us approach. You are what got us here, and you should be the one to see us reach it."
Maka felt almost dizzy. She nodded vigorously, and Marie Mjolnir chuckled. "Go ahead, but try not to look too excited just yet. We'll tell the crew in the morning when we're ready to descend."
"Right."
"Go on now."
It took every ounce of self control she had to walk calmly across the deck. Maka saw Joe Buttataki out of the corner of her eye at the ship's helm, slowly steering the ship towards their destination. Maka moved right past the steps to the galley and stole into the shadows, sliding forward to the bow.
Her eyes took a few minutes to adjust to the dark. The ship passed between two cratered moons as she slowly regained her sight. This deep into space, everything felt wild and raw. There was a sense of smallness, of insignificance out here, but at the moment all Maka could feel was anticipation. She curled her hands around the railing and waited.
The minutes faded into each other. It began to get cold on the deck. Maka put her hands in the pockets of her jacket and was a little startled to discover the map in there. She hadn't meant to run off with it, but in her haste and excitement, she must have. Well, they were almost there; the map wouldn't be relevant anymore.
The prow of the ship pointed towards something looming ahead, and Maka looked up. Her breath caught in her throat.
A large planet grew slowly larger in front of the ship. Despite the darkness, Maka could clearly see the large double rings around it made of tiny particles of ice. The surface of the planet glowed a faint pale green, clouds swirling across the top of it. It looked exactly like the map had showed to her, exactly like the pictures in the books. It was surrounded in the distance by other planets, but there was something about this one, something about the giant 'x' formed over the center by the rings, something that drew her towards it. She would meet her destiny on that planet.
Without warning, an earth-shattering boom hit her ears, and everything went dark.