When Stinger returns to check on the Bolotnikovs, Nino stops him in front of Aleksa's door. She animatedly shakes a finger at him and babbles, "I'll have you know, you've created a monster!"

His face screws up, showing his absolute incomprehension of what she's talking about.

"Aleksa was an applied mathematician back in Russia. She hasn't touched the subject in over two decades. And now? Well, go in and look! I don't think she slept a wink! She made me come over and see and I had no idea what she was going on about. But I've never seen her so excited. Whatever you showed her woke something inside."

He presses the notification bell and when they hear no reply, Nino commands the door to open. The sight makes him wipe his hand over his face. Every possible surface is covered in vid screen overlays with all manner of equations, charts, simulations and little verbages that they're all committed to the ship's memory. Then seeing her on the floor propped against the wall, he zips over — checking her vitals.

A dreamy expression covers her visage as she mutters almost incoherent, "I found it…"

Scooping her up, he asks, "What did you find Missus Jones?"

She just giggles into his shoulder as he carries her to the bed. If she weren't so tired, he guesses she'd sound quite smug.

Nino fills him in as she tucks in her sister, "She said something to the effect of better portals and possibly time travel."

"Are you serious?!" Stinger interjects, then asks the ship's presence to confirm.

"Affirmative Captain Apini. She has likely discovered a way to make portaling 75% more efficient."

Sleepily Aleksa taunts Stinger with a triumphant smile, "You doubted me…"

"I shan't doubt you again," he swears and squeezes her hand. "Our legal advisor'll get your work registered. Sleep now, m'lady."

With an almost drunken sounding chuckle she badly mimics him, "M'lady…"

...

As he and Nino leave the room he asks, "Was she makin' fun of me accent?"

"You really don't know?" Nino doesn't believe he's this daft.

He shoves his hands in his pockets.

"She likes it when you call her m'lady. Been over 20 years since there was anyone who made her feel special like that."

"Beeswax," he mutters. "Complicates things."

"You don't think my sister's good enough for you? Or is there someone else?" Nino rounds on him.

"That's not it." Slumping against the wall, his arms cross and his mood turns sour.

"Then what?" Nino presses.

"She's royalty and I'm just a bloody splice for cripes sake."

"Chort (hell). And that means what? As if we're hoity toity. We're illegal immigrants that clean other people's houses." Nino isn't falling for it.

"It means…" He closes his eyes then kicks the bulkhead behind him. "It means she's gonna hafta find someone like her. I'm not even human and I refuse to be treated like a toy. It's why I asked for my contract to be sold to the Legion, Aegis or to your niece."

"Why can't it work? It works for Caine and Jupiter and he's a splice, right?"

"Splices are created to serve. Period."

"My sister and I could give a flying rat's ass about what this new fangled crazy intergalactic universe thinks. If you like her, pursue her."

The door opens and a very cranky Aleksa appears at the door. She grumbles through clenched teeth, "Does the whole ship need to know such things? Shut up, both of you!"

"And you, " she growls at her sister, "mind your own damn business!" The door shuts with finality leaving Nino blinking at Stinger's back as he storms down the hallway.

…

Nino stays out of Aleksa and Stinger's path all the next day. But that doesn't mean she's leaving them alone. Nope. She's found access to the Captain's records…

After a giddy little wiggle dance in her chair, she has the ship's presence convert his 'birth/hatch' date to something that makes sense in Earth terms. January 19...that causes her to do a fist pump. Damn she's good. She called him as a Capricorn right away. And after asking about the year and time the computer reads off '1893 at 6:35 am'. Nino's reaction is not so delicate, "What... the...?"

Mentally she tallies...a 122 year old Capricorn. How is that even possible? It sends shivers down her spine and she absent mindedly chews on the closest thing she could find to a pencil. She thinks it's a stir stick. But never mind that.

She calls up the star chart for that date: The house of Capricorn, with Saturn, Venus and Jupiter in Conjunction.(2) Ooh, a trio and a complex one! Considering his age, almost all of this will be in the past, since the birth horoscope represents early on in life. Quickly she works the reading.

'The house of Capricorn: calculated and disciplined, seeks rank in life, there's a battle between his ego and self esteem, able to win over people but cautious, and also frugal.'

'Saturn represents boundaries - so he has or had serious obstacles to overcome but he's got so much potential after they're dealt with. It also represents his mechanical aptitude. He works with machines very well. Venus represents his relationships. The strong Saturn and Venus conjunction says he's very guarded. Something hurt him badly - traumatically. He has to be patient with relationships, yet they often don't last. He's responsible, conservative, practical, and realistic.'

Nino hears a crack, and she realizes she bit through the stir stick. Tossing it aside she continues the interpretation of his astrological chart.

'Jupiter is the opposite of Saturn. It has a very 'now' oriented approach — so changes happen suddenly in his life. He's very moral and has a good sense of judgement. A natural advisor, counselor and confidant. With Saturn in the lowest position - it means he was held back. Wanted desperately to expand his horizons, but was kept from it.'

Her hand goes to her heart as it pounds in her chest. No wonder Captain Apini caught her attention. He's got to be the most astrologically interesting person she's met since Jupiter was born. And she can't even share this with Aleksa right now! How is she going to hold this all in? Nu ti dayosh (holy crap)! She has a ton of questions right now and isn't sure how to make them all congeal in her head to even start researching his past.

To calm her mind she looks up Dipesh (who loaned her his jacket).

Notes:

(2) Totally making this up. Though I did look up house of Capricorn and the conjunctions. House of _ means the sign on the east horizon when the person was born. So it's not usually the persons sign AND house - FYI. Also I *think* the signs and stars WHERE a person are born would be the ones used. So using Earth's would be odd. But it's the only reference Nino knows and Stinger did spend time on Earth. So with a little imagination - poof! It works.