"Oh, Lucy...talk to me, it's been too long since I've heard your gorgeous voice," Johnny said as he and D'avin boarded the ship. The smile quickly slipped from his face and his arms fell back to his sides when Lucy didn't respond. "Luce?"

"I turned her off...too annoying," Zeph said as she approached them and then went to hug them both.

"Wait...you turned off Lucy?"

"I mean, not the entire system, just her voice."

"We've been gone for-"

"A month!"

D'av interrupted now. "Okay, okay...so, it's great that we're all back together again-"

"Where's Dutch?"

That brought everything to a full stop silence.

"We don't know," D'avin finally told her quietly and calmly. "We were being held...and then we woke up in the Hullen ship thing...we realized that we lost time-"

"What do you mean, you lost time?"

"Like, there's no way that we were held for a month as far as our memories go, but obviously we've been gone for that long," Johnny told her as he pushed past her and headed for the cockpit. He could hear Zeph and D'avin following him. It was bad enough to not have Dutch with him, he really needed Lucy. Maybe it was stupid, but that ship...the AI...it was his friend and it was also a connection to his life with Dutch. So, his priority was to get Lucy fully back online and then get to figuring out where Aneela's fleet was.

"So they screwed with your brains-"

"Or majorly drugged us," D'av offered up from behind.

It didn't matter, all that mattered was that they got their acts together. "Zeph, why don't you fill D'av in on all the crap we've missed out on over the last month and I'll go sweet talk Lucy."

"What do you mean sweet talk her?" Zeph asked. "All you have to do is flip a switch, boy genius."

"First of all...it's man genius," Johnny told her quite seriously, though he didn't miss the amused look on his brother's face. "Second, I gotta sweet talk her so that she won't have you sucked out into space for being so cruel to her."

"All she'd talk about was you."

"And what is so wrong with that?"

Zeph just rolled her eyes. "Come on, D'avin, I have a lot to tell you."

Once Zeph and D'avin were gone, Johnny found his way into his seat in the cockpit and as he looked over at the empty chair beside him. Dutch should be in it, was all he could think. His hands went to work as he forced himself to focus on the task at hand. He sighed and then looked upward, even though he knew nothing above him would have changed. "Lucy, you there?"

"I am, John," Lucy responded almost immediately. "It has been thirty-four days since you were last on board. Where have you been?"

"Kidnapped," John told her as he smiled. "I missed you."

"I've missed you as well."

As much as Dutch was home...so was Lucy...it just didn't feel right without Dutch there though. He hated how wrong it felt...empty even. "Lucy, we're going to need your help."

"You and D'avin have returned without Dutch, is there something I should know, John?"

"We're getting her back. That's all you should know. We just have to find the Hullen fleet-"

"Dutch has left specific protocols in place in the event that she is unable to return or in the event of her death."

Johnny had a really hard time hearing those words. All he could think back to was when Dutch had told him about how she'd put things into place for him...that he'd have Lucy and he'd have money. Tears pushed forward, but he pushed them back and snuffed instead. He tried to focus on readings and scanning instead. "Yeah, well no special protocol is going to be needed. She's coming home. We just have to find where they've gone to. Was hoping that maybe we could link into the nav systems of the pod that D'av and I were left in."

"You will require D'avin for that."

John sighed. "I know, but I just needed to be with you for a little bit first."

"I love you, too, John...but you sitting on your ass talking to me isn't going to find Dutch or the Hullen any faster," Lucy told him.

All he could do was huff out a half, "huh" mixed with a laugh. She was right. Lucy was absolutely right, but that didn't make it any easier. He just wanted to sit there for one second and pretend that the world made sense. "Okay, Lucy...let's start scanning for ships and any reports that might give us a lead."

"Scanning now…"

TBC…