"…you're not serious." Halsey blinked, looking between Kai and Oscar. The girl and boy were in her room, proposing a… radical idea, to say the least. "A cruise?"

Kai nodded emphatically, turning proudly to the presentation they'd prepared. "We're still getting paid, so it wouldn't even be a difficult bill to foot! Look," She gestured to the image of the ship, "This is the ship, all right? The Odyssey." She tapped the image, "The fastest, the most luxurious… we could all make it aboard."

"Kai," Halsey rubbed her head, "We can't just… go on a cruise."

"Why not?" Oscar asked in response. "It's not like we're actually growing anything on this damn farm. Two, two-and-a-half weeks." He gestured quickly. "That's all this cruise will take."

"No it won't, it's two-and-a-half out there, two-and a half back, that's a little over a month." Halsey retorted. "Besides, why would you want to go on a cruise to… the Soell System?"

"Because!" Oscar gestured excitedly, "I…" His excitement dropped as he frowned. "I don't actually know. It just… seems like a good idea, you know?"

Halsey frowned. "No."

"But Doctor," Kai began, pleadingly.

"I said no." Halsey repeated. "If you want to go on a cruise, you'll need to think of a reason other than 'I really really want to.'"

Oscar let out a defeated sigh. "Fine…"

Halsey nodded, turning back to her computer.

However, that wasn't to be the end of it.

"…so what we'll do, is buy our own tickets anyway, get aboard the ship without Halsey realizing, and badda-bing-badda-boom, we're done!" Oscar outlined, looking between the members of Blue Team.

"…dude," Fredric began, "That's an awful idea."

"No, no, no, it's brilliant," Oscar cleared his throat. "We pay our way onto the ship. Halsey can't provide any proof that we're her children or that we're underage, so the thing won't just turn around to drop off paying passengers in the hands of a random woman, so we can live in the lap of luxury for a month!"

"Why even go to the Soell System?" Kelly asked sufferingly. "It's empty. There's no suitable worlds for colonization there, it's your bog-standard star system that's mostly gas giants."

"Because, this is what the cruise company calls their 'Odyssey Tour.'" Kai answered, "Offering passengers the chance to be the first people in a star system."

"Space-age imperialism," Cortana looked to John with a smile, "It's a classic."

"I'm with Fred on this one." He shrugged. "It's a terrible idea."

"No, it's so bad," Linda spoke up, "You went into negative overflow and it looped around into becoming good again."

"See?" Oscar pointed at Linda. "She agrees with me!"

"Because she and Sam are manipulative pieces of shit!" Fred replied, "How do you know they haven't planted the seeds for this idea!?"

"Come on, John, a cruise would be fun…" She looked at him with a gentle smile, fluttering her eyes. "Good food, relaxing activities that we can't do here, a dance floor…" Cortana turned away with a contemplative look. "There's this dress that I've been waiting for the perfect occasion to use." She looked back to him with a wicked smile now, for she already knew his answer. "Come on. Take a girl for a ride."

Douglas, in the corner of the room, choked, a chunk of food going down the wrong way in shock at Cortana's statement, before Alice pulled the Heimlich maneuver on him, and he found himself able to breathe again.

John's face flushed, but he nodded. "Well, if you're committed to going on the cruise anyway, I suppose I should come… to keep you out of trouble."

"Aw, dude, you are so whipped!" Jerome heckled from the corner.

"Hey Jerome?" John replied. "Shut up."

"You know what?" Kelly smiled, "A cruise is a lovely idea."

"Oh no…" Fred whispered.

"Well in that case!" Linda grabbed Sam's hand. "We'll come too."

Fred covered his face, groaning as he could feel the trouble already brewing.

Sneaking off in the night to make out somewhere was one thing-

-sneaking off for a month… was another.

When Halsey woke up one morning, a full month after she denied Oscar and Kai's request to go on that cruise, nothing felt out of the ordinary.

She sighed, going about her morning routine…

Then, she started to feel sick.

Steadying herself, the Doctor popped an eye open.

Something was going on. She could tell. But without any idea of what was wrong, or where, she couldn't very well bring it up, could she?

And so, she continued, heading into the kitchen. She stopped, looking around with a frown.

John always helped her with breakfast.

Sighing with a roll of her eyes, Halsey walked up to the rooms, knocking on door before she entered. She'd enter anyway, so the knock was always more warning to those on the other side to stop doing whatever it was they were, and less asking for permission to enter.

However, the door was locked.

Frowning, Halsey jiggled the knob. She knocked on the door again. "Whoever's on the other side of that door, I'm going to give you to the count of ten to open it. If you don't, then-"

The door opened immediately, revealing Jorge on the other side. "Oh, h-hello, mum- ma'am." He cleared his throat, shifting. "What's, er, the problem?"

Halsey narrowed her eyes. "Where's John?"

"He's… sleeping." Jorge answered.

"Really?" Halsey questioned, looking past his shoulder. "John's sleeping… in an empty bed?"

Jorge spun around, coughing, "N-No, he, um, he's with Cortana! And Blue Team."

"Okay…" Halsey crossed her arms. "And where're they?"

Jorge gulped. He couldn't tell her, he couldn't…

A few moments later, the loudest, ear-piercing screech to ever echo through the mountains emanated from the Farmstead.

"THEY WHAT!?"

"Whoa, look at this place…" Fred breathed, looking around the Galaxy-class starliner. It looked more Covenant in construction than human, all sleek curves and tapering points, shaped into the silhouette of an actual sea-faring vessel. At the moment, they were standing in the vast lobby, jittering as stars and objects trapped in-orbit around Reach passed by the domed window overhead.

"I get the feeling that we've overdressed now." Cortana sighed, looking down at the blue sundress she'd been so excited to try out. "Oh well." She shrugged with a smile. They'd sat through all the safety briefings and whatnot, gotten their cabin arrangements squared away, and now, they were just ready to enjoy the experience. "What should we do first?" She asked, looking at John as she looped her arm though his.

John, not realizing her proximity due to being nose-deep in the brochure, hummed. "They've got gravball!" He gasped, and Cortana jumped in surprise. That had to have been the most emotion she'd seen from him since… well, ever. "I love gravball!"

"You are not getting me on a gravball court." Cortana emphatically shook her head.

"But it's so fun." John replied.

"How about shuffleboard?" Cortana replied, walking with them, "A nice, safe activity that we can do…" Their voices faded out as they walked away to find something.

"Welp, ladies and gents," Fred clapped his hands, throwing an arm around Kelly's shoulders, "The way we hear it, the pool on that deck is heated, so…" He snapped his fingers, pointing, as he and Kelly walked off.

Linda blinked, looking to Sam. "I just realized, there's not really an abundance of things to do around here that's different than what we normally do."

"Huh." Sam frowned in agreement. "Yeah, that's kind of a rip-off, huh?"

"Wait," Kai looked between them, what do you mean, 'no different than what we normally do?' What the hell do you and Sam get up to when nobody's looking?"

"Playing cupid and manipulating stock markets." Linda answered, dead serious. "There's a lot of places we have to go to make that happen."

Oscar spluttered, looking at the duo. "Wh-How? How do you do that!? How do you do that without anyone noticing!?"

"Not important." Linda shrugged. "The fact is, this cruise doesn't really have a lot for us… what were we thinking we'd do?"

Sam shrugged in response. "I don't know. I didn't think we'd make it this far."

"Attention, all passengers." A voice announced overhead. "We are now entering Slipspace, well underway on our tour to the Soell System. Please, relax and enjoy your stay."

"Just a month in space," Oscar gestured to the two, "We get back home, nobody notices we've been gone."

"Yeah." Linda huffed. "Because Halsey definitely won't notice the eight of us missing."

"Of course she won't," Kai scoffed, "Have you seen her? The woman's so obsessed with science, it's all she notices."

"I'm going to kill them," Halsey grumbled, packing her bags, checking her comm unit, "I'm going to catch up to them, and I'm going to kill them."

"Catherine," Keyes began-

"No, don't Catherine me!" She replied. "Mendez said I needed to step up to the plate? This is me, stepping up to the plate." She growled. "Those kids want to be the death of me, well, I'll make sure I'll bring a few with me when I go…"

"…I was only going to ask if we should take them with us." He glanced at the door, referring to the rest of the teenagers.

"Hm?" Halsey looked at the door, to see the rest of them standing. "No!"

"Please…?" Serin asked with a hopeful look on her face, having never been into space. "…mom?"

Halsey sighed, clutching the side of her head. "You kids are going to give me a damn aneurysm… Fine."

The teenagers cheered triumphantly.

Now… to find a ship that could carry seventy-something people.