Four hours and five conversations later, Rose's Rowdies reconvened in the pilot's mess. Oscar, looking no less nervous than before, sat beneath the screen once again.
"Time's up," said Ruby. "I'm guessing he calls us?"
Incoming Transmission flashed across the screen.
"I'll take that as a yes."
Oscar connected them, and once more the ComStar logo appeared on their screen. "Hail, MechWarriors."
"Precentor Ozpin," said Ruby neutrally.
"You've had ample time to consider my offer. So? What will it be?"
Ruby reached out her hands to Weiss and Blake, while Yang's strong hand rested comfortably on her shoulder. They were together. They'd face this together.
"We decline," said Ruby.
"Really!" said Ozpin.
"Starting a war isn't the sort of job we'd ever take," she said, "and we're not gonna change that just because the payday's bigger. No matter how tempting it is… a mission like this just makes the galaxy a worse place for everyone. We can't be part of that."
Happy noises came over the connection. "Your reputation preceded you, and I am delighted to see it was not exaggerated."
The Rowdies looked at each other in confusion. Out of all the reactions they'd expected from Ozpin, that they'd workshopped responses to, delight hadn't even been on the list.
"You ladies deserve a reward. Oscar, if you please."
Oscar reached into his backpack again and, with visible discomfort, put something on the table.
Another Gauss rifle magnet.
"Consider this," said Ozpin, "a reward for virtue, and for indulging an old man's caution."
There was silence as the Rowdies tried to parse this strange turn of events (and phrase). Then Yang sprang to her feet. "This was a setup!" she shouted.
"It was a test," Weiss corrected, her anger as cold as Yang's was hot, but no less deeply felt. "We were being evaluated for some other purpose, and this was just the skin of the onion."
"Well put," said Ozpin, sounding impressed. "Yes. The layers of this onion go deep, and are just as likely to make a person cry."
"Starting with deception is a bad way to earn trust," Blake said, her voice low and suspicious.
"You are the resident expert in matters of trust," said Ozpin; Blake flinched and looked away. "Hence, the second magnet. Consider it my apology. As I said, you have a reputation for having high ethics, but I'm loathe to put my faith in word of mouth. I had to see for myself. Now that I have, I would like to present my genuine job offer to you."
Ruby hadn't spoken when her lancemates looked to her. She hadn't so much as looked at the magnet; her eyes were glued to the ComStar logo on the screen, as if she could see Ozpin hiding somewhere in it.
"I'm not accepting this yet," she said. "But I'm listening. I might not be for long."
"The magnet is yours either way. Regardless, I would defend myself by saying I was as truthful as possible. This is an off-the-books mission. It will be against ComStar. And the target is, in fact, an HPG facility."
Yang, with the reflexes of a trained hand-fighter, grabbed Blake before she bolted.
"The differences are where this facility is and why it must be destroyed," Ozpin went on. "And for that, I must disclose something I only ever could to the most ethical of mercenaries. It is something I share only with those I most trust can keep it hidden."
He paused, letting the thought hang. Ruby, for the first time, looked down at the magnet.
Now she understood why it was on the table. Just like the first one, it was payment. It bought silence.
She scooped it up before the Blake voice in her head could talk her out of it.
"She took it," said Oscar, and Ruby flushed; she'd forgotten that Ozpin wouldn't have been able to see her do that over a voice line.
"Excellent. Now, there are two parts to this story, one from two hundred and fifty years ago, one much more recent. What do you ladies know about Nikolas Kerensky?"
Weiss sniffed with dignity. "It's a sad excuse for a MechWarrior who hasn't heard that name. General Kerensky was the last commander-in-chief of the Star League Defense Force. He helped design mechs like the Atlas, was an ace pilot in his own right, and led the SLDF during the Amaris Civil War. He finished that war himself…"
"…by kicking down the doors of the bad guy's palace like a total badass!" said Yang.
"Quite," said Weiss, and it was unclear if she was more bothered by Yang's interruption or that Yang had put it better than Weiss could have.
"All true," said Ozpin. "What happened next?"
"He saw that his victory ended that war, but also started a new one," Ruby said quietly. "Beating Amaris didn't save the Star League. It just meant that people started fighting over the Star League's corpse."
"Morbid, but accurate," said Ozpin. "So began the First Succession War. The Third continues to this day, though the distinction is academic. But what of Kerensky?"
"He left," said Blake in a carefully neutral voice. "He saw another galactic civil war coming on the heels of the one he'd just fought, saw no Successor State as having a better claim or better prospects for being the next Star Lord, and wanted no part of the next war. So he took the cream of the SLDF and left known space."
"Then what?"
The Rowdies shared looks of confusion. This was as far as history went. "No one knows," said Weiss. "They might have jumped into oblivion, or settled on planets that couldn't support them and died out, or went so far out of range no one could ever reach them again, or even fought their own war and killed themselves off. All we know for sure is that they were never heard from again."
"Very good. You all do know your history. Now, let me add in some things you might not know, although I have to start with an uncomfortable admission. ComStar is not immune to the divisiveness that plagues this galaxy. It has factions."
"You don't say," said Blake, sounding quite unimpressed.
"It's sad but true. We go to great lengths to conceal this from the galaxy at large, but ComStar is, in the end, a human organization, and subject to human frailty. We all want a peaceful, prosperous galaxy, but how to get there is a topic of hot debate."
"If by 'hot' you mean 'shooting', then our heads are in the same spot," said Yang.
"Less so within ComStar, but your point is valid. The viewpoints are strongly held. There are factions that advocate helping one Successor State or another win the Succession Wars. There are factions that suggest the States weakening themselves until they can't fight is better. There is a faction—which includes myself—which believes ComStar's proper role is merely to maintain galactic communications and let the Inner Sphere determine its own affairs."
"How magnanimous," said Weiss, though her voice belied her words.
"And there is a faction," said Ozpin more darkly, "that believes only an outside force can impose peace."
He stopped there, apparently waiting for the Rowdies to make the connection, and a moment later, Weiss did.
"Part of ComStar thinks Kerensky can fix all this?" said Weiss incredulously.
"Kerensky's descendants, but yes, that is the gist of it," said Ozpin.
"Yeah, we're in fairy tale land now," said Yang. "Weissicle here just rattled off all the things that might have happened to Kerensky and pals, and none of that makes it seem like his kids are ready to jump back in."
"I'm aware," said Ozpin serenely.
"And you believe they can anyway?"
"I thought I demonstrated my skepticism to you. I don't even believe in reputations until I see for myself. My faith is reserved for Blake alone. That said, it's not all about what I believe. It's enough that some in ComStar do believe it."
"So let 'em," said Yang with a shrug. "If they wanna go off and chase ghosts, so what? That'll keep them from causing any more trouble for the rest of us."
"I would love to be able to be as sanguine about it as you. Unfortunately, our researchers have done the math on the odds of survival for Kerensky's expedition. The range of outcomes is enormous—anywhere from extinction in a single generation to a new civilization on par with the old Star League. That said, the probabilities of the more dangerous outcomes are high enough that I have to honor them. The Grim Queen certainly is."
"Are we supposed to know who that is?" said Blake.
"Hopefully you don't. It's an alias I'm using to protect my rival."
Blake hmphed at him. "The illusion of unity again?"
"That's right. Misguided as she is, she is ComStar, and I am obliged to respect that and protect her from outsiders. Still, she is wasting ComStar's resources on something extremely dangerous."
Weiss shook her head. "I can't get over how dangerous you think this ghost army might be."
"Not just a ghost army. The descendants of the SLDF. As you pointed out, that civilization might have regressed… but what if it didn't? Set aside the possibility that they've advanced—which is real and terrifying, if remote. What would happen if Kerensky's army reappeared in the Inner Sphere today?"
"Every Great House would try to recruit them," said Blake. "They're hungry for any weapons they can get."
"Not just weapons," Ruby said quietly. "Lostech."
"Miss Rose is approaching the heart of it," said Ozpin. "Consider, ladies. Miss Rose's Star League-vintage Sentinel is the scariest forty tons on any battlefield she joins. Wolf's Dragoons appeared out of nowhere with five regiments of Star League-era Battlemechs and instantly became the most dangerous mercenary outfit in the galaxy. Now, imagine divisions of MechWarriors with that caliber of machine arriving in the Inner Sphere, and deciding they don't like what they see."
No one had snark or sarcasm to reply to that.
"I have to respect even the possibility," said Ozpin after he let them stew a bit longer, "which is why I have to stop the Grim Queen. Her goal is to find Kerensky's children, contact them, and bring them back to the Inner Sphere in the hope they'll end the Succession Wars."
"By launching a new war of their own," Ruby said, looking and sounding ill.
"You know," said Blake harshly, "I was just thinking that what this galaxy really needs is one more cataclysm."
"Precisely."
"That's why you need us," said Ruby. "ComStar can't fight ComStar. It'd be blasphemy to destroy the Grim Queen's comms. You need mercenaries who are willing to do it for you, and also take all these secrets to the grave, while giving you deniability."
"Indeed."
The weight of his words hung over the room. Weiss' brow was furrowed in intense concentration as her mind whirred along. Blake's arms were crossed, it seemed, even tighter than before; she seemed to occupy less space, like this conversation had deflated her some. Yang's attitude, normally so devil-may-care, had fallen away to expose how much she did care.
Ruby's eyes were unfocused in the direction of the ComStar logo.
"I know this is a lot to take in," said Ozpin, "and, as before, I wish to give you time to digest. The problem is that we have substantially less time than before. The Grim Queen's installation will be ready to begin its search soon, and I don't have much of a window to find other ethical mercenaries if you turn me down.
"Here is my proposal. Your JumpShip departs your present system in twenty hours. If you wish to decline this contract, simply send Oscar back aboard the JumpShip and detach. I will remit funds to your account to reimburse you for having to wait for the next JumpShip. On the other hand, if you wish to accept, take this JumpShip as you had planned. A vessel of mine will contact you on the far end to provide transport and the remaining mission details.
"I do hope we get the chance to work together. Finding units like yours is… non-trivial, and the need is urgent."
Transmission Ends.
Predictably, it was Yang who broke the silence. "Yeah, not to pressure us or anything."
"I still say this is all fairy tale talk," said Weiss defiantly.
"I dunno," said Yang, poking a finger on the table next to the magnet… but deliberately not touching it. "This seems pretty real to me. Whether you believe all that Kerensky talk or not, Ozpin's sure willing to pay like it's real. Seven million C-bills buys a lot of steak."
"I suppose trying to stop an army of ghosts is a nobler cause than starting a war for ComStar's benefit," Weiss conceded.
"As much as I hate the idea of working for ComStar," said Blake, her distaste audible in her tone, "there's something appealing about blowing up ComStar stuff and getting away with it."
"You know that this one's non-reportable, right?" said Ruby meaningfully at Blake.
"Obviously."
"Obvious or not, we still need to say it."
Oscar was bewildered by that exchange, but the pilots didn't stop to elaborate. "Okay," said Ruby, "same deal as before, just on a shorter timetable. Take a few hours, run a few sims, do some maintenance, chew all this over, and then we'll have another chat after lunch. Got it?"
The other pilots made noises of affirmation and floated out of the mess. After a few seconds, only Oscar and Ruby remained.
"Well," said Ruby, looking at Oscar, "you said you thought of ComStar as a force for good. Is this better?"
"Maybe?" said Oscar. "We're not starting wars, that's nice. But ComStar having so much disagreement within it that we have to use mercenaries to fight our battles feels… pretty bad."
Ruby smiled wryly. "That's what's so sad about my job. The more work that comes my way, the worse things in the galaxy are. If there was a sudden outbreak of peace and everyone put down their guns, I'd be out of work. The best thing for me is the worst thing for everyone else, and vice versa."
"That's the advantage of ComStar," said Oscar. "Peacetime, wartime, people still need to talk."
"Job security," said Ruby, and chuckled. "You know, Blake's not even here and I can hear her saying stuff about monopolies and job security."
"You're pretty close with your team," Oscar observed.
"It's the only way to live," said Ruby, rising from her seat. "Speaking of my team, I think they need some humbling in the sim. I'll head over there for now."
"Hey, before you do," said Oscar, "can you do something about this wristband? It's starting to chafe."
Ruby looked at Oscar's wrist, gained a look of fury, and slapped at the intercom.
"Yaaaaang!"
Jump time was fast approaching. If Ruby hadn't already known this, Maria's call would have reminded her.
"We have to either pay the transit fee or disengage," said Maria over the intercom, "and we're out of time to dilly-dally about it."
Looking at her teammates for strength, Ruby spoke to the intercom. "Pay the fee, Maria. We're sticking with this one."
"And after that, we're going where, exactly?"
"We'll know when we get there," said Ruby, looking meaningfully at Oscar.
"Oh, so it's gonna be one of those transits," said Maria. "Sure, don't tell your pilot where she needs to take you, just sit on your secrets while I'm..."
"…flying blind?" said Yang, grinning like an imp.
There was a long pause, then Maria said, "I'm transferring our JumpShip fee and, while I'm at it, I'm giving myself a bonus for putting up with you brats."
"If you do, I'll have to garnish your salary at the end of the month," said Weiss.
"Kids," muttered Maria, and the comms clicked as she signed off.
"I feel like I ought to give her a raise," said Ruby.
"And that's why I handle the money," said Weiss primly.
There was nothing for it now but to wait. JumpShip travel was commonplace, normal, but it still gave its passengers a sense of helpless anticipation while they waited for the JumpShip to do its business. For active people used to controlling their own destinies the way the Rowdies did, it was almost unbearable.
The pilots watched through the cockpit feed, seeing what Maria was seeing. There didn't seem to be any visible signs that their JumpShip was preparing for its leap. Maybe one of the spinning regions along the ship was going faster? But that could just as easily have been an illusion created by nerves. There were no true visual indicators, they didn't feel anything but their own tension, and of course nothing sounded different.
There was a chime of alarm, informing all aboard to brace for jump. Everyone held on to something, even though a true accident would rip them apart on a molecular level regardless of how they were braced.
The screen flickered, went to pure white for as long as it takes to snap your fingers, then reverted to a star field, except none of the stars were in the same places as before.
Everyone's stomachs lurched as well, gripped by the impossible sensation of having traveled light years in an instant without seeming to move.
"I will never get used to that," said Blake queasily.
"Even now?" said Yang. "You've got more jumps under your belt than anyone here but Maria and maybe Ruby."
"I also suffer more for it," said Blake, reaching up to fluff up her cat ears.
"That's fair."
"Detaching now," said Maria, and the crew felt when the Huntress disengaged from the JumpShip. Maria's voice swapped from the all-hands call to a direct call to the pilot's mess. "I still don't know our destination."
"We have it on good authority that we'll be contacted with further instructions," said Ruby with a nod in Oscar's direction. "What's the traffic like up there?"
"Busier than I'd expect for a backwater like this," said Maria. "I'm seeing a second commercial JumpShip, that's not too surprising, those overlap sometimes, but there's a third JumpShip further from the jump point that's not transmitting on IFF. Looks like a small one, maybe a Scout-class."
"Is that our contact?" said Ruby to Oscar.
Oscar looked helpless. "How should I know? I only had instructions to get you to this part of the mission. From here on out, I'm as much in the dark as all of you."
"Some liaison you are," said Yang.
"Reclassify that JumpShip," said Maria. "It's Magellan-class. You know, the kind operated exclusively by ComStar's Explorer Corps? And, surprise surprise, it's hailing us by name."
"Put it through," ordered Ruby.
A new staticky voice crackled over the intercom. "Dropship Huntress, recognition check. Bah weep gragh-nah…"
"…weep nini-bong," piped up Oscar.
When the four pilots looked at him in confusion, Oscar shrugged. "It's a standard ComStar sign and countersign. That way we know when we're talking to someone else on the inside."
"And you're okay with us knowing it?" said Blake.
"It won't do you much good, they change every month."
The Magellan transmitted again. "Countersign accepted. Initiate Pine, MechWarrior Rose, may the peace of Blake be with you both. Request you dock with our ship for transit."
"Transit to where, exactly?" said Ruby.
"I'm not authorized to say over a non-secure channel. I'm transmitting a data package. Your answers are within."
"We'll look at the data package and then decide if we intend to dock," said Ruby obstinately.
There was a long pause from the other hand, as if whomever would have been speaking to them needed to have another conversation first. At last, an older voice came back, "You have ninety minutes to make your decision and dock, or decline. Our ship will jump in two hours with or without you."
"Again with the rushing," Yang said without transmitting.
"We'll take it," said Ruby openly. "Give us the data and we'll let you know."
"Transmitting now. Standing by for further comms."
The Incoming Transmission warning lit up again. "I'll get it," said Oscar.
"Why do you have to get it?" said Ruby.
Blake raised an eyebrow. "That JumpShip wouldn't even say where it's going over an open line. Whatever they just sent us is probably buried in encryption."
"With at least two keys required," Oscar agreed. "My master's public key and my private key at a minimum. Like I said, I'll pull it out for you."
Luckily for the socially awkward in the group, it didn't take Oscar long to unpack the data. It turned out to be the formal contract for the mission Ozpin was offering them, to include non-disclosure statements.
"All the good stuff is redacted," Yang said, puzzled. "Time, location, target—it says "see attached annex" for all of it."
"That's so we can have this on record," said Ruby, waving at the contract, "without breaking all the secrecy stuff. It's all still MRB-covered and official even when it's secret. Ozpin's doing it by the book."
"Are we sure?" said Weiss. "Because this contract includes the fee, and it's not what he promised us."
Yang laughed. "No, it's not. It's more than he offered before."
Ruby's eyes skipped lower and saw that her sister was correct. The cash payments, comms time, and parts payouts were all slightly higher than Ozpin had previously promised. "Trying to hold our interest, I guess," she said.
"We've gotten all we can from this," said Blake. "Let's look at the annex, that's where all the details will be."
She was right. The annex was a rich source of information on the target site. It held star charts that pointed out the target world, topographical layouts of the site and its surroundings, and the laydown of the site itself. There was even attached commentary to the site laydown that made Ruby want to laugh.
"'Due to an entirely unforeseen error,'" Ruby read aloud, "'these transceivers will not be installed per the plan and will instead be accidentally angled towards deep space.' That's sarcasm, right?"
"Right," said Blake. "The Grim Queen isn't supposed to be looking for Kerensky's kids, so it's an 'accident' that the site will be set up to allow that."
"This is a lot of data," said Weiss. "Is it enough to program the simulator so we can dry run this?"
"Nope," said Ruby. "Because this pretty important part of it is pretty unspecific."
She scrolled the display down until it reached the 'security arrangements' portion. It detailed at length what turrets were built into the base perimeter, with enough model information that any of the pilots could look up readouts on those turrets' capabilities. The rest of it, by contrast, read, "One reconnaissance and surveillance element. One lance of garrison Battlemechs."
"Well, that's not sketchy at all," said Yang.
"Everything else here is super specific," said Weiss at Oscar. "But this most important piece is the vaguest. What's with that?"
"Garrison assignments are up to the ComGuards, which is not my master's department," said Oscar apologetically. "He could get all this other data and have it look like part of his official duties, but he can't poke into someone else's duties without raising red flags."
"I'll raise red flags for him," said Yang, pointing at the offending sentences. "Here, here's two red flags right away. Want more?"
"There is a little more," said Ruby, continuing on. "It gives a range for those elements. According to this, a 'recon element' is up to six VTOLs and up to four tracked vehicles. A typical security lance is 250 tons of Battlemech, plus or minus twenty-five."
The pilots grew somber at that announcement. "Is that a lot?" asked Oscar curiously.
"Kinda, yeah," said Blake. "If you look across the Inner Sphere, a typical lance has one or two light mechs, one or two mediums, and a heavy. If you assumed the high end for everything, a heavy-ish lance comes out to 220 tons. Our lance is lighter than that, we're 200 tons even. Even if we fight like more, going up against 250 tons puts us at a big disadvantage, especially if we also have to deal with turrets and vehicles, too. And we don't even know what 250 tons we're up against."
"Assuming it even is 250," said Weiss. "Apparently it could be as high as 275. With the vehicles included, we could easily be out-tonned 3 to 2."
It was a sobering pronouncement, one that made all the pilots grow quiet and contemplative.
"You don't actually need to fight them much, though, right?" said Oscar. "Your mission is to destroy the base's equipment, not wreck the defenders."
"Yeah, I thought that too," said Ruby, "but then I looked at the site laydown. You folks designed the sites to be super tough for exactly this reason. The HPG is under thick armor, it'll take some serious dedicated fire to burn it out. Not something that we can do in a hit-and-run. If we're going to blast through that, it'll take a bunch of shots, which means we have to stick around and not be distracted. We'll have to beat the defenders first."
"Maybe not," said Blake. "Do we have to destroy the HPG? What if we just take out all the transceivers? They're external, and they're not nearly as armored. Installing them wrong once is a 'mistake', but I don't think the Grim Queen could get away with installing them wrong twice. Is taking them out enough for mission completion?"
"Alright," said Ruby, "everyone start writing down all the questions you have. We'll let Ozpin know we're planning to take the job, but only if we get decent answers to our questions first."
"And you expect Ozpin to give them?" said Blake. "How will we even contact him?"
Ruby's eyes tracked over to Oscar. "He sent us a person," said Ruby. "Most clients don't do that. They do all of this remotely. Ozpin gave us a go-between. Let's use the go-between."
Weiss pursed her lips. "The answers we get had better be good," she said severely.
"We'll see," said Ruby. She reached for the intercom once again. "Maria? Go ahead and set a course for that unmarked JumpShip. They'll be taking us on."
"Oh, sure," said Maria waspishly. "Nothing bad ever happens to people who let unmarked JumpShips take them into parts unknown. Perfectly safe."
Despite her grousing, the pilots still felt the acceleration kicking in as Maria fired up the engines to set a course for rendezvous.
"In the meantime," said Ruby, "we're hitting the books, girls."
The ComStar JumpShip must have been waiting for them, because it was ready to jump almost as soon as the Huntress docked with it.
Reality rearranged itself again. They'd arrived at a new system. The pilots felt the small g-forces of the maneuvering thrusters as the Huntress detached, then the much more reassuring push of the main engines as they set course for the target planet. They'd told Maria that much, enough for her to know where to go and what vector to take to get there. They'd undoubtedly have to tell her more as their operational plan developed.
In the meantime, they didn't want to tell her, and she didn't want to know. The less she knew about what the Rowdies were doing, she always said, the safer it was for her. The Rowdies were willing to take her word for it.
"The JumpShip is calling us again," said Maria.
"Put him through," said Ruby.
"We'll be jumping out as soon as we're recharged," said an older voice, presumably some senior officer onboard who was getting his marching orders from Ozpin. "It'll be less conspicuous that way, letting you make your approach unnoticed. We'll be back again in time to pick you up."
"Why is it that every time someone from ComStar talks about this op, it sounds more and more like a setup?" said Blake at large.
"I beg your pardon," said Oscar, off-put.
"I know what I said."
Ruby answered the JumpShip. "I suppose that makes sense. See you on the other side."
"Roger that."
For all her reassuring words, Ruby didn't feel very comfortable. It was one thing to know there was a JumpShip out there, or that another JumpShip was coming because they'd been running the same schedule for two hundred years. It was another thing to have to take a single officer's word for it.
She understood the security argument; most incoming JumpShips used the same jump points, and a ComStar-unique Magellan hanging around would beg the question of what it was waiting for. Even so, Ruby didn't fancy being stuck as an intruder in a hostile system about to commit blasphemy against ComStar zealots with no guarantee of extraction. She dreaded the moment when she would look back at the jump point and see nothing.
To be fair, she'd probably see nothing because space was vast and even the largest JumpShips, which a Magellan wasn't, were small compared to the grand scale of the cosmos, so she wouldn't see it whether it was there or not. Telling herself that did nothing to calm her feelings down.
"Do you think Ozpin can get us answers to our questions before that ship jumps out?" asked Weiss. "I don't imagine he'll want to send us anything through the HPG we're about to strike."
The question forced Ruby to reengage leader mode. She took a calming breath and gathered herself. "He'd better, or we're going to have to rethink doing the op at all. But let's assume for now that he will. We've got another day, maybe two, before the Magellan jumps out. Until then, we can still use this time to get ready, just, you know, generically. Yang, how are the mechs?"
"All that time attached to JumpShips in near-zero G slowed Smith down a bit," said Yang, "but it'll be easier now that we have some thrust beneath us. The good news is there's not that much to do. No one took internal damage during the last fight, it's all just armor repairs, mostly to the Dragon and the Griffin. Shouldn't take that long to finish off, we'll be done way before we make planetfall."
"See to it," said Ruby. "Blake, Weiss, you two hit the simulator. Get good at killing turrets. We don't know what mobiles the base has, but we know it has those, so if we can knock those out quickly we're ahead of the game."
"And what should I do?" said Oscar.
Blake gave a noise of disgust in his general direction. "What would you do for us, anyway?"
"You're our guest," said Ruby. "You don't have to help us run our own ship. Besides, I think you did your part already."
Oscar looked no more comfortable at that. "Maybe it's just because I grew up on a farm, but the idea of lazing around and not pulling my weight doesn't feel right. There should be something I can do to help."
"Can you cook?" said Yang.
Oscar started in surprise. "Well, maybe a little? Nothing fancy or elaborate."
"Doesn't have to be fancy, we don't have the stuff for fancy anyway. Just look through what we've got and see if you can't take things up a level. Honestly, anything better than the Ice Queen's starvation rations would be an improvement."
"Hey!"
"I'll see what I can do," promised Oscar.
"And I'll work with Maria on plotting our approach vector for planetfall," said Ruby. "Because we're Rose's Rowdies, and leaping head-first into the unknown is just another day on the job."
To be continued...