Chapter 3

It arrived in the predawn hours.

At 5:54 a.m., East Coast time, communications were disrupted by solar interference. The Dead Zone cut them off from mission control and all contact with Earth.

They were on their own.

Kento stared at the communications console, his hands braced on the counter that displayed the confirmation of what he had known was coming for weeks. In the background, Inferno's soft voice gave him verbal confirmation.

He could not banish the rock sitting in his stomach.

He sighed, drummed his fingers on the counter, and flipped on the light box communication system that he developed years ago, one that cancelled out the noise of background interference like radiation storms and solar flares. The light box comms system was a thick beam of light between two pieces of computer equipment that picked up signals from the communications towers spinning near the tail end of the ship. When Kento leaned forward and the beam of eerie green light washed over him, he could hear nothing but what lied in space all around them, letting him know if anything came their way that could harm the ship or damage communications.

What he heard was the space equivalent of static on an old telephone with a bad signal.

He blew out another breath.

Was this how Dais, the communications officer of Hariel, felt when their comms system went down? Helpless, isolated, and alone?

It wasn't as if mission control could do anything to help us, anyways, he reasoned. Even if contact remained intact. It had always been up to them: their perseverance, their intelligence, their capabilities. And he had faith in every member aboard Inferno.

Dais had faith in his crew, too, and look where that got them.

"Quit it," he groaned to himself, leaving the beam and the space noise to rest his elbows on the counter and press his thumbs into his closed eyelids. A headache brewed behind his eyes. "Inferno," he said heavily. "Estimated time for reestablished communication with Earth."

"Fifty to fifty-six days, Kento."

"Great."

Which also meant that his main job was obsolete for almost two months. What the hell was he supposed to do with himself now?

Kento left the communications room with a dark cloud hanging over his head. So dark, in fact, that he nearly ran over a white and black cat in the hallway. White Blaze meowed at him indignantly. "Sorry, buddy." He bent down to pet the animal and continued on his way to the Oxygen Garden. When he entered, the small cat streaked inside before the door slid shut.

"We've hit the zone," Kento announced. "Comms went down two hours ago." He found Cye perched on a metal counter, harvesting beans from a vine into a bucket. The biologist looked way more at ease than Kento felt; his auburn hair was still damp, probably from a recent shower, and he was barefoot. Music played softly from an iPod on the counter next to him. Cye's brows furrowed as he digested the information, but he only shrugged.

"Nothing to be done about it."

"Yeah, I know. I still don't like it," Kento muttered. "Despite the data, I had kind of hoped the updated system would preserve the signal longer than Hariel's had, at least for that week, but no dice. Now I guess I'm twiddling my thumbs for three, four months."

"Shouldn't be a problem for you," Cye teased. His gaze focused on something in another row, and his voice sharpened. "White Blaze, no."

"He's not doing anything but chilling," Kento defended. "You need to learn forgiveness, compadre."

"An entire box of basil, Kento."

"Cat's gotta eat, too!"

"Purina donated four years of food for that animal. He doesn't need our food, too. Nor does he need to use it as a litter box."

"Let him live, man."

"I'll keep an eye on him," came a feminine voice from somewhere Kento couldn't see. He moved to another row and spotted Regan sitting on a small ladder, in the act of repairing an oxygen unit. She'd removed the protective casing over the fan and was inspecting the inside, carefully pushing aside the lush green plants that lived in the circular compartments and transported fresh oxygen all throughout the ship.

"Nah, I got him," Kento said. He found White Blaze dipping his paws in the water chestnuts and whisked the cat in his arms before Cye could see. "Quit that," he whispered. White Blaze mewed innocently. "What's going on, girlfriend?"

"A working sensor is what's not going on."

"So it is broken?" Cye asked.

"You bet," she said faintly, distracted by the hardware in front of her. "I used your other reader, and the oxygen levels in this unit match the rest. You're overproducing, if anything. Just to be sure, though, I'd like to do a check on all of your units to make sure there aren't other frayed wires giving you false readings. It'll take me a few days, unless boyfriend here wants to help a girl out."

"He wants to." Kento clapped her on the shoulder. "It'll be like our postgrad days all over again."

"I don't see any alcohol around here."

"Girl, we could make our own moonshine. We've got some yeast around here somewhere, don't we?"

"That's exactly what mission control wants to hear," she said dryly. "That we made moonshine with the supplies they gave us."

"They don't have to know."

"It's not like we're surrounded by cameras," Cye quipped, sharing a grin with Regan.

"Kento, use your powers for good and help me start testing these—the unit log is by the computers," the engineer said. "Then go rescue Mia from math calculations. She could use a break at some point today."

"I like that second order."

"I'll bet."

Having a plan for the day settled the comms officer down almost as well as the company and the garden did. The prospect of bugging his favorite navigator was the cherry on top.

"If we survive, the first thing I'm going to ask for is a giant cheeseburger, loaded with toppings. With seasoned fries. No, I want to eat it at a restaurant: I want to gorge myself and sit and watch people walk by."

"Go bigger than that, man. Know what I'm going to do if we make it back?"

"Tell everyone to call you mankind's savior, fire up all the religious folk?"

"That, and do a Rolling Stone spread. Right before my worldwide TED Talks tour."

"Of course."

Rowen gazed ahead as if he were seeing that future instead of the blinking lights, maps, and space charts that comprised the majority of the pilot deck. "The masses have to know. Our story needs to be told. I'd also find a ridiculously hot model—she'd be at the Rolling Stone New York office—and she'd keep me company while I'm on the road. She can bring her friends, too."

Robyn grinned up at Rowen. "How generous of you."

"I have a giving nature."

She laughed at him, and although he frowned at her, his blue eyes sparkled with amusement. Robyn was glad Rowen came to visit her while she did her routine check of the pilot operating system and the route. She didn't think the communication shut down would bother her, but she lay in her bunk that morning and realized that all the weekly check-ins with real live people on Earth would completely stop. Cye wouldn't get to flirt with that cute mission control botanist he sent reports to. Rae and Kento wouldn't be able to touch base with their families.

Inferno would get that much quieter.

Rowen's loud presence and morbid sense of humor was exactly what she needed.

"I'd want to hole up in a library for awhile, too," Rowen supplied. "Specifically this library in Vancouver that looks like the Colesseum. My mom took me there once when I was a kid, on one of her assignments. It used to have a rooftop garden."

"Yeah? That's cool. I have another one. I want to invade a bakery."

"Ohh, that's a good one."

"The smell of baking bread, those giant display cases of pastries and cookies and muffins. The cute little bars with honey and cinnamon to add to your drink." Robyn hugged herself, closed her eyes, and breathed in as if she could smell it.

Rowen chuckled. "You and food."

The redhead shrugged. "It's not just that. It's the people, too. Clinking glasses, brewing coffee, talking and laughing. The sound of life. I miss it. It's so silent up here." Her wistful, lighthearted demeanor dimmed a little. "When I'm sitting here alone, the air is so still and empty." She gestured to the pilot deck around her; the equipment and vid cameras. "And at night. It's easy to forget the rest of you are here sometimes. I never knew a living space like this could be so enclosed and boxed in, yet feel so large, you know?"

He knew. Rowen stayed quiet, but gently nudged her knee with his foot. He sat on a counter opposite of her with his feet resting on her chair. "You know Sage's precious Earth Room has that simulation."

"You, of all people, recommending the Earth Room?"

"Doesn't work for me, but it might work for you."

"Maybe. It has occasionally." Robyn's gaze strayed to the monitors to keep an eye on the space aerial graph; always on the lookout for passing meteors, space debris, or anything that could get in their path and harm the ship. "You know what I miss? Grass. I miss grass under my feet."

"Overrated."

"You're overrated," she shot back.

"That's not what you said—"

"I will punch you in the face if you finish that sentence."

"Why? Gives them something to talk about," Rowen smirked.

"Gives your ego a boost." Robyn shoved his feet off her chair, making him stand upright. "No one is even here to hear you, goofball."

Instead of leaving, the physicist strolled to the empty seat next to Robyn and sat down. "We're in space, Robyn, of course no one can hear you scream." He cocked an eyebrow. "Unless you wanted them to and you were into that sort of thing."

The redhead immediately went for his ribcage. Having nowhere to escape to, Rowen tried to fight her off and lost due to the enclosed space. Both of them were gasping with laughter as she tickled him and taunted, "Who's screaming now?"

A fine mist gathered on the forest floor. Early evening sunlight slanted through the trees in thin slices of golden light. Katydids sang their low, droning tune in the background, signaling the end of summer.

Sage sat on his haunches in the center of the small room, his head bowed. He breathed deeply; he could even smell the pine and cedar. The trees looked real enough to reach out and touch. The ground under him, however, was flat and cool. Not at all like a busy forest floor.

Nonetheless, his mind was at peace.

"Inferno," he said softly, "please end simulation when I exit."

"Yes, Dr. Date."

He rose smoothly and padded out of the room in socked feet. At home, he preferred to meditate barefoot, but he found the entire ship to be a mite too cold for his liking. After he shut the door to the Earth Room, he could see the simulation dissolve through the frosted, opaque glass, turning the forest inside into an empty white room. The clock on his computer told him half an hour had passed; that was sufficient. The twinge of apprehension he felt from their entrance into the Dead Zone was gone.

Now he could work.

He sat at his desk in the main open room of the medic bay and opened the files for each crew member to update them. Mia's showed up first. He wasn't overly concerned about Mia—she was good about talking to him when she needed it beyond the monthly check-ins, and almost always forthright about what bothered her. Regardless, he had a mind to ask Kento to begin tai chi with her again. Their rendezvous with Mercury was only a month away, and they relied on Mia's expertise to leap that last hurdle before the payload was delivered. It would be stressful and time-consuming for her in the coming weeks. Inferno informed him that Mia was in her room, already going over calculations. He would touch base with her in a few days.

Cye was next. The biologist was also honest with him, and always able to occupy his time with the garden and their food and oxygen supplies. He called up the video cameras in the Oxygen Garden, and found Cye, Kento, and Regan inside. Cye was picking beans and laughing, his head bowed; Kento had White Blaze in his lap, absently stroking his back while he talked animatedly. Regan sat on a step ladder with some parts in her hands, her head tilted as she listened to Kento. He found Robyn and Rowen in the pilot deck, talking. That was good. The pair of them were his worst patients, prone to scoffing at his attempts, like Rowen did, or flat out refusing to talk to him, like Robyn. At least they were talking to each other. No one else on the ship could keep Rowen in check quite like Robyn could.

He spent longer than he intended on updating and prepping their files for the next two months, inputting appointments, reviewing notes from previous sessions with all of the crew members. By the time he finished his last—their captain—his lower back was protesting the length of time he'd sat and worked. It was a good place to stop; their captain was his main concern of the moment anyhow, second only to Rowen. This, he could do something about now.

Sage found the captain in a small conference room they used for meetings or to do solitary work. Ryo was filing reports that would be stored and delivered to mission control when communications returned, just as diligently as the doctor did.

"When you are finished," Sage told him, "your session with me begins."

Kento spent the rest of the afternoon helping Rae check half of the units, and then took over while Regan performed the mainframe's maintenance check.

Sometime after lunch, he left the garden to grab something out of his room. On his return, he passed by the pilot deck and spotted Robyn sitting in the pilot's chair with Mia standing behind her, leaning over and gesturing to something. He was surprised to see the navigator out of her room, and a little disappointed that he missed the chance to go get her himself.

Robyn was laughing and talking in a hushed voice, sitting with her feet tucked under her. A small smile quirked Mia's lips. Her auburn hair was loose, and she reached up to tuck some of it behind one delicate ear. She was wearing a shirt made of a material that hugged her figure, and Kento let his gaze drop and move back up to her toned arms and graceful neck. Damn, but it was hell to share such close living quarters with someone like her. His harmless crush during training developed into something Kento tried his hardest to suppress, since mission control generally frowned upon fraternizing among crew members.

Well, shit, they should have thought of that before they picked the crew. The brightest minds in mathematics, aviation, and engineering couldn't have been old, grizzled men; no, they had to be beautiful women he happened to like a hell of a lot, one of which he'd give a kidney to have in his quarters every night. And he knew he wasn't the only one struggling. What did they expect?

He watched Mia for another moment as she laughed at something Robyn said and ran her fingers through her hair. Kento prowled over quietly while they were distracted by whatever they were watching on the vid cameras.

Kento was directly behind Mia now, close enough to touch her hair. She smelled faintly of ginger and cinnamon. He wanted to lean in and breathe her in, but instead he lightly pinched her sides and said, "What are you two doing?"

Mia yelped in surprise and whirled around. She slapped his hands away. "Kento!"

He grinned at her as she flushed and tried to step away and out of his space, but couldn't because she backed right into Robyn's chair.

"Got an answer for me?" he asked. He knew he was crowding her, but by the darkening of Mia's already deep green eyes and the way her glance darted down and up to his face, he knew she didn't really mind. It made his heart sing.

"I do," Robyn said, looking back at the pair of them with amusement. "And it's none of your business. Go pounce on someone else."

"Naw. The only one I'd pounce on is right in front of me." He winked at Mia.

She tilted her chin up and gave him a superior look despite the color in her cheeks. "Kento Rei Fuan, that kind of talk is unbefitting among present company."

"You mean Robyn? She doesn't mind."

"Robyn minds," the redhead said.

Mia poked him in the chest and drew closer so their noses were almost touching. He swallowed as all of the humor drained out of him. "Go help Cye, I'm busy," she whispered.

Kento nodded as if he was a genie and she held the lamp, instructing him on what to do. He let out a breath and backed away, glaring at Robyn when she smirked at him and waved goodbye.

He made it back to the Oxygen Garden by memory only, because the trip there was a blur.

Cye raised an eyebrow at him as Kento collapsed on the stepladder and scrubbed his hand through his hair.

"Woman is killing me," Kento said. "I am not going to survive the trip home."

"Might I suggest indefinite cold showers?"

"Why don't you take a long walk off a short pier, pal?"

Ryo almost didn't see the attack coming in time.

A bamboo sword whipped by his ear in a rush of hot wind. He dodged it and retaliated. The crack of wood on wood splintered the air of the exercise room.

"Distracted?" his opponent asked mildly.

"Hardly," he gasped. Chest heaving and muscles taut with anticipation, the captain slowly twirled his bokken and watched the blonde swordsmen and kendo master masquerading as a doctor circle him. Sage looked like he'd barely broken a sweat.

"Your attention has been diverted lately," the blonde observed, raising his bokken to a guard position. "It fractures your focus; plays into your fears about Hariel. What good can come from pulling away from the crew to dwell?"

Ryo rolled his shoulders and neck. They continued to circle one another as he reflected on a response and watched Sage like a hawk.

The exercise room was empty except for them. The informal practice wasn't following traditional kendo rules; neither of them was armored or even wore shirts, just thin, dark blue hakama. No shoes. The room grew hot quickly, and after a few kata practices, the formalities were abandoned in favor of all out sparring.

This was good. Ryo appreciated the doctor's suggestion and knew the sparring doubled as exercise, stress relief, and therapy. Ryo could feel it working on him: he felt alive, centered, and steadier than he had in weeks.

"This is the answer to helping me focus," Ryo began, "letting me take swings at you with a weapon?"

Sage smirked. "If you would ever land a swing, Captain."

Ryo's breathless laugh doubled as a baring of teeth as he settled into a ready stance, his blood humming with life, adrenaline coursing through his body. He had been so focused on his opponent that it took another circle in the center of the room for Ryo to notice that they weren't entirely alone; he could see the shadow of figures hanging around the doorway. A glimpse of unmistakable red hair identified one of the watchers.

Something swelled in Ryo's chest as he averted his gaze back to Sage. Normally he didn't care for an audience, but in this case…

He didn't mind.

The doctor's attention on him was steady and his face composed, but his violet eyes sparked with the same fervor and force of will. Sage needed the release as much as he did. It had to be hard to bear the emotional loads of everyone on board at the expense of his own. The blonde hung back like a cobra waiting to strike, and Ryo felt his hackles rise like a wolf's.

Sage sprung, swinging the bokken forward. Ryo slapped away the wooden sword with his own. A flurry of motion ensued as the weapons clashed with sharp cracks and the two dodged one another's barely checked blows, feet skidding on the floor, sweat flying, muscles burning as pent up pressure exploded with the force of their body's movements.

The watchers creeping out in the hall never averted their gazes from the ongoing match in the exercise room. Mia had one hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. Robyn looked like the cat that ate the canary as she sipped hot chocolate from a mug.

"Kento is not the only one in excellent physical condition," Mia murmured.

"No he is not," Robyn agreed. Her eyes followed the captain's movements; the deeply tanned skin, the defined abdominal muscles, the broad shoulders and strong back muscles moving sleekly as he guarded his torso from a hit and drove Sage to the other side of the room. His thick black hair was damp with sweat and there was a glow to his bright blue eyes that she hadn't seen in months. Sage was paler but just as gloriously lacking a shirt; his build was solid and defined, almost broader in the chest than Ryo. His blonde hair was damp, too, and occasionally swept back from his face to reveal both piercing violet eyes. The skill they both displayed was breathtaking. They moved like predators. She forgot, sometimes, that all of the men on the ship were not just scientists, doctors, and astronauts: they were martial artists of one variation or another and just as physically formidable as they were mentally.

"Bless us, everyone," Robyn said.

"Amen," Mia replied. "And I knew Sage was talented, but … dear me ... Should we go fetch Rae?"

"It would completely shatter her concentration, and she's working," Robyn said regretfully. "Besides, I feel like it would be rubbing salt in a wound."

Mia made a noise of sympathy that quickly turned into a smothered gasp as Ryo almost whopped Sage on the head if the blonde hadn't jumped gracefully out of the way.

The captain paused in his pursuit, bokken out in a guard position as Sage circled him. Without taking his eyes off the doctor, he called out, "Can we help you, ladies?"

Mia instantly turned red, her hand flying to her mouth again. They knew! How inappropriate, how improper to get caught gawking at her captain and her doctor while they—how long had Ryo known—

Robyn grinned and stepped around the frozen navigator to stand in the doorway. "No," she said, sipping her cocoa. "You can carry on, though." Ryo flicked his gaze over to her and then briefly to Mia, his eyes brightening with amusement.

Sage raised an eyebrow at Robyn. "Care to join us?"

"Nope," Robyn said, her green eyes sparkling over the rim of her mug. "Please continue." Ryo grinned.

Mia wanted to sink into a hole in the ground. She backed out of the room slowly, grabbing Robyn's shirt sleeve to take her with.

"Bye!" The pilot called cheerily. She raised her mug in a toast. "Ryo, I hope you win!"

"He won't," Sage said as Mia hustled Robyn out of the exercise room.

Music played in the outer room of the dual engine area, audible even though the dividing door was shut.

The engine room itself held all the warmth of a meat locker.

It housed Inferno's core mainframes; massive, triangular pieces of machinery that acted as the heart of the craft, running its veins and arteries through the entire ship. Keeping the heart beating. They worked hard and so the machines, like any computer, overheated easily. Each of the four towers was submerged in coolant tanks of frigid water with temperatures ordinarily found in the arctic, keeping the engines cool and operating normally. The small room that housed them was just as chilly.

Inferno's engineer made a habit of keeping a hat and gloves on hand; she'd pulled her hair back in a ponytail underneath the gray stocking cap that kept her ears warm. Her nose was still cold and the chill seeped past her insulated, long-sleeved top. Her breath plumed as she took each mainframe out of the coolant for maintenance checks.

"Regan?" Inferno asked serenely.

If the towers were the heart, Inferno's intelligence system was the brain. Regan's brother used to make uncomfortable references to HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey (watching the movie had not helped), but his fears were unfounded. Inferno acted like a den mother, hovering just in the background and ensuring her children didn't do anything to jeopardize their health—or the mission.

"Yes?" Regan replied on a hard exhale. She didn't know how this bit came loose on a portion of the motherboard, but it had at some point since the last check. It was lower on the mainframe and therefore closer to the pool of water it rose from. She had to get on the floor, roll up the sleeves of her top, and lie on her side to fix it. Regan put her body weight into tightening the bolt with a wrench, the cold metal of the floor digging into her elbow.

"Your maintenance program allows fourteen minutes for the mainframe to remain out of the coolant tank." As the ship spoke, a red warning sign flashed at her from a display face on the tower, declaring the temperature growing too hot as it remained exposed to the cool air of the room and not inside its home of frigid waters.

"Noted," she said shortly. She bit her lip and twisted the bolt a few more times, and then addressed another that looked like it wanted to be a problem in a few weeks. The physicality of it was a welcome distraction, as the work for Cye was earlier. She hadn't slept well after sending that last message home to her brother, her father, and four-year-old niece.

Five. Five years old now.

She went through bouts of homesickness that cut her to the bone, but she'd gotten to a comfortable place where it was bearable for long stretches. The inability to communicate at all, however, was doing strange things to her state of mind.

She suddenly couldn't remember the last thing she said to her twin before leaving Earth. Couldn't remember the last time she heard Jude's infectious laugh. Not that he'd laughed much in the past few videos. He faked cheerfulness well, but the separation wore on his ability to lie to her through body language. Jude had known the Dead Zone was coming for weeks, and he had grown graver in their correspondence as it approached. In their last talk, he'd looked like she felt right now. Wearing that unspoken worry like a second skin.

What if you don't come home? What if I never hear from you again? What am I going to do?

Regan's heart twisted. She mimicked the pinch of pain by turning the wrench with a little more force than needed.

Maybe that was it, coupled with the chilled air of the room numbing her hands—has she really forgotten her gloves?—she didn't know, but Regan lost her grip on the wrench. It slipped from her grasp and fell in the icy water.

With a curse, she plunged her hand in to retrieve it before it sank. She searched the waters even as the shock of the cold jolted her system and set her skin on fire, all the way up to the wrist. A warning sign flashed in her brain that the coolant water was not suitable for human beings. Her fingers grasped metal as a low panic gripped her, because she could not have a foreign object floating around in the coolant tank and if she had to dive in…

As soon as the wrench was pulled out and clattered to the floor, the white hot pain of the extreme temperature engulfed her hand. Regan hissed held her hand to her chest, opening and closing it into a fist over and over. Little clumps of slushy ice clung to her knuckles and the back of her hand.

"Might I suggest running lukewarm water over the appendage," Inferno coolly recommended.

"Thank you," Regan said through gritted teeth. She stood and paced, cradling her hand like a wounded animal, forcing herself to wiggle her fingers to encourage circulation, even trying to place it between her bare skin and the insulated shirt before the cold became unbearable. She didn't do what Inferno suggested until her maintenance check was completed, finishing a check on the last mainframe and logging it in the system one handed.

After assuring herself that the heart was functioning fine, Regan turned her attention back to her throbbing hand and left the engine room, pulling off the stocking cap and dropping it on the counter in the warmer vestibule area. She walked quickly to the communal bathroom area, one that branched into two sections by gender for the showers. The central area housed the sinks, towels, and basic hygienic needs.

Regan turned the hot and cold valves on one of the sinks and tested the temperature with her unaffected hand until it was satisfactory. Her left hand was a curious mixture of numb and riddled with pins and needles traveling up and down her fingers, palm, and into her wrist. It burned like fire when she placed it under the stream of water.

Her hand was turning an angry red, but she was gaining a little feeling back, which was encouraging. Regan turned off the water, thinking she could probably wrap it in a warm damp washcloth and then slather it with lotion later. She pressed her still cold hand to her face, whimpering a little as the pins and needles still stabbed her tender flesh.

Last time she ever made that mistake again.

She turned to get a washcloth and almost ran into an oncoming shirtless Sage Date.

"Excuse me," he said with surprise.

Regan stared at him, heart in her throat.

Sweat beaded on his collarbone, down his temples, over his shoulders to his biceps. His broad chest was inches from her. If she wanted to, she could reach out and touch the impressive abdominal muscles owned by the ship's doctor.

Regan's brain short circuited, and there was suddenly no air in the washroom.

"Hey, Rae," Ryo chirped happily. The captain sidestepped the frozen physician and smiled at her. He was also missing a shirt, and had the body of an ancient Greek marble statue wrapped in bronzed skin.

Dear Christ.

The engineer knew her face was as red as her hand. She quickly hid the injured hand behind her back and said weakly, "Hello. I—excuse me, I need to—"

She'd been too obvious about hiding her hand, and realized her mistake the moment Sage's eyes zeroed in on her awkward stance.

"Is everything all right?" he asked.

"It will be when you both dress." She needed to get away from him.

Sage shook his head at her. "Let me see your hand. What did you do?"

She sighed with despair. He would dig in his heels now. "It's nothing. I dropped a tool in the coolant tank and fished it out."

"With your bare hands?" Ryo asked.

"It was instinctive," Regan shot back defensively.

Sage made a let me see motion. She looked at him stubbornly.

"Regan," Ryo said firmly.

She shot the captain a hard look that dissolved as the throbbing in her hand intensified. Reluctantly, she produced her left hand for the doctor's inspection.

His lips pursed as he laid his large hand over hers, turning it over palm up and inspecting her fingers to check for blistering. Damp blonde hair fell forward, and with his free hand, he scooped it back from his face. "How long was it in the coolant tank?"

"Seconds. It looks worse than it is, I promise you. It's fine."

"Let me get a towel," Ryo said, skirting past her for the bin of washcloths.

"Put a shirt on first, Ryo Sanada," she demanded. She could sense more than hear him laugh at her. She backed away from Sage, but he wouldn't relinquish her hand. "You, too," she told him, feeling the desperation of an animal in a trap. Regan stared at the floor as Sage covered her inflamed hand with both of his to warm it. He knew better than to rub her fingers; he simply held her hand and applied very little pressure.

"Does it hurt?" he asked with a particular gentleness.

Pain, embarrassment, the weight of the mission, missing her brother, the kindness in his voice—it all compounded until her throat hurt with held back tears. Regan nodded without looking at him.

"Go into my office and wait there; we'll get you an ointment and wrap it until the swelling goes down. Watch it for blistering. I'll only be five minutes or so."

Ryo handed over a towel and Sage loosely wrapped her hand in it. She thanked him, glancing up at him quickly. His face was composed, his violet eyes steady on her but unreadable. She took a deep breath, nodded to both of them, and left.

Regan didn't go to Sage's office first. She wandered to the pilot area and found Robyn sitting at her station, reading. White Blaze was curled up on her lap, sleeping. The engineer sat gingerly in the chair next to her, back ramrod straight.

Robyn brightened to say hello, but then her gaze sharpened. "Rae, are you okay?"

"Let me tell you about the time I embarrassed myself like a champion."

"When?"

"Just now."

Robyn turned in her chair to face Regan, waking up White Blaze. She appeased the cat by scratching under his chin. "Do tell."

Regan leaned forward and buried her face in her hands, the left one still wrapped in the towel. It was scratchy against her cheek.

"Did you drop something in the coolant tank again?"

"Don't say it like I do it on a weekly basis," Rae mumbled into her hands. "If Sage thought that, he'd insist on supervising."

Robyn took Regan's hand and removed the towel. "Ow," she said, clasping the engineer's cold red hand between hers to help warm it. "Speaking of our hot doctor, I saw him and Captain Gorgeous sparring not too long ago. They were shirtless." Robyn's face split into a wide grin, her eyes taking on a dreamy quality. "It was glorious. Ryo has the best skin I've ever seen, especially when it's glistening with sweat. And Sage is hiding a physique to die for. I always seem to forget, and then when he lets his hair down like a normal human being, those abs are the most pleasant surprise ever. I wanted you to see it, but I knew you were earning your keep in the refrigerator everybody calls an engine room and I thought it'd be a terrible distraction and you might, I don't know, drop something in the coolant tank as a result, but you did that anyway. Should have called you over."

Regan rolled her eyes. She leaned over to pet White Blaze. "Don't worry, I saw them."

Robyn's mouth dropped. "Say what now?"

"I was taking care of my hand in the washroom when they came in. I almost ran into Sage's naked chest."

The redhead clapped a hand over her mouth. A squeal of delight escaped. "No! What did you do?"

"I acted like I've never seen a shirtless man in my entire life." Regan's face felt flaming red again. "He found out about my burn and then stood there—didn't even bother to go fetch a shirt first—just stood there shirtless, and warmed my hand with his and then told me to go to his office."

Robyn barked out a laugh and Regan shushed her, looking around in paranoia. "First of all, I am so jealous you saw them that close and that naked. Was Sage sweaty? Were you as red as you are right now?"

"Worse," she groaned. Robyn shook with laughter, bowing her head to rest on White Blaze's furry back. The cat abruptly got up in her lap, arching his back and yawning. He glanced at them both in sleepy irritation.

Regan gave the cat a stroke of apology, and because it was Robyn, added with a shy, almost giddy laugh, "I was so close I could smell him. He smelled like sweat with a faint hint of the incense he sometimes burns when he's meditating. And…man."

The pilot lifted a fist to her mouth and closed her eyes.

The brunette was disgusted with her own thoughts. He wasn't just her doctor, he was her therapist. He knew more about her than most people, because his psych evaluations of the crew were big factors on whether or not they were ultimately chosen to join the mission. She kept trying to tell herself that feeling attraction towards someone in a position of authority who occupied such an intimate role—like a therapist—was not uncommon and would pass.

It would pass. It had to.

"I will never be able to scrub that image from my head whenever I see him now," Regan whispered.

"At least you made him feel appreciated."

"I'm so sure he sees it that way."

"He's still a man. Ryo didn't mind an audience. That fox."

"A lot of help our captain was. He just laughed at me."

"You don't get flustered all that often, I'd have probably laughed, too." Regan looked so miserable that Robyn ruffled her hair affectionately. "Don't over think it. You were caught off guard. Sage will be totally professional no matter what." Robyn heard herself and made a face. "Not what you wanted to hear, I'm sure."

Regan waved it off. "It is what it is. It's my problem, not his."

Robyn looked at the engineer and one of her dearest friends thoughtfully. After having ample time to watch every member of the crew closely and see how their interactions with one another changed over the long months, Robyn wasn't so sure it was just Rae's problem.

But that wasn't her secret to tell.

"Ladies." A large, tanned hand clamped down on Robyn's shoulder, and the other on Regan's. They looked up, and Ryo looked down at them. He had changed into a simple gray t-shirt and pants and his hair was still damp from showering.

"Did you win?" Robyn asked.

"Only because you were there to cheer me on," he said, tousling her hair a little. Robyn beamed. He leaned over to greet White Blaze; the cat nuzzled his hand and purred. Regan watched them, noting the faint flush on Robyn's pale cheeks with the captain so near. They caught one another's eye and Regan smiled slowly. Robyn covered her mouth with one hand, her eyes sparkling.

Ryo turned a slightly disapproving gaze on the engineer. "Someone is waiting for you." He glanced at her hand again. "Please be more careful."

"I will," she sighed.

As she loitered, a green button on the comms device around her neck blinked. Sage's calm voice emitted from it. "You are not in my office, Miss Sundari."

Robyn smirked, but patted Regan's hand. "Enjoy your office visit."

"Thanks." Regan saluted Ryo as she walked by.

The captain slid into the empty chair. White Blaze abandoned Robyn's lap in favor of his owner's.

"I see how it is," Robyn complained. I'd sit in his lap, too, she thought.

"He has attachment issues. Thanks for keeping him company. Got a report for me?"

She leaned back in her chair, running her fingers through her hair and shaking it back. "Aye, Captain. The coordinates are already set for next month's rendezvous with Mercury, thanks to Mia, once we get close enough to cross it in its orbit. This gravitational slingshot should go smoother than Venus's."

"No medical emergencies this time."

"Definitely not!" Robyn agreed. "I'll keep you posted the closer we get."

"Good. Thank you."

They fell silent. And then, Robyn continued in her head, they would be two months from their destination. At some point, they would drift right past Hariel, and then pray for a miracle when they released the stellar bomb. Provided nothing happened to them on the way there. Or back.

Robyn snuck a glance at Ryo. His gaze was distant as he stared at the vid cameras, idly stroking White Blaze while the cat purred. She knew it weighed on him so much. The mission, Hariel. She didn't want to broach that subject at the moment, though. Because any time she thought of it, really picked through the landmines of worst case scenarios, she had terrible nightmares where it felt like all the air was already sucked out of the ship.

All of the precious air keeping them alive.

With fear, that old companion, tightening in her chest, Robyn asked, "Want to help me make dinner?"

Ryo roused himself from his own thoughts. When he smiled at her, something inside her eased. The tightness loosened. "You bet. Let's go raid the garden."

Chapter Title Song Reference: "The Wolves," by Ben Howard