While Hyuna was completely and utterly dumbfounded to see the Pandora’s communication-ID pop up onscreen in the cockpit, she was wholly unsurprised to see Moonbyul’s face in the video instead of Elly’s.

Even after all this time, Elly wasn’t ready to forgive her.

That was fine. Hyuna could accept that. (At least that was what she was telling herself.) It hadn’t been a very personal message anyway.

Moonbyul’s voice was cold and professional as she explained the situation – the Pandora had been destroyed in pursuit of Kwon Jiyong and Elly, Moonbyul and Sunny had joined forces with a group of girls from a ship called the Unity. While pooling their resources and continuing their fervent investigation into Jiyong’s disappearance, they uncovered some secrets that Moonbyul said could change everything.

“I can’t give too much away in a video message,” Moonbyul said in the recording. “Sunny says that this is being sent over a secure connection but you know I’m not one for taking chances. You meet us on Geum Haneul and we’ll tell you everything. We’ll explain everything.” At this point in the message, Moonbyul shifted a little in her seat and leaned closer to the camera. “I know how you feel about the Cosmos. Trust me, Hyuna. You’re going to want to hear this and you’re going to want to get involved.”

The video ended as abruptly as it began and Hyuna watched it three more times just to make sure she fully understood what she was hearing and what was being asked of her.

Hyoyeon watched from the doorway of the cockpit, her arms folded over her chest. She didn’t move a muscle, didn’t make a sound, didn’t give her two cents. This was dangerous territory, both personally and professionally. Seeing the Pandora girls again was likely to have disastrous emotional consequences for Hyuna and following them on a potential wild goose chase could blow whatever head start they’d earned getting that file off of Jeongbu.

Ultimately, it was Hyuna’s call, and Hyoyeon’s theories and opinions could end up doing more harm than good. Whatever Hyuna decided, Hyoyeon would have her back.

She was just going to have to be ready to deal with the fallout.

“What do we do, unnie?” Hyuna asked when the video ended for the fourth time. She didn’t bother turning around, knowing damn well that Hyoyeon was lurking and waiting to be addressed.

“It’s your call, kitten,” Hyoyeon said, abandoning the doorframe so that she could move closer to her friend. “You know that.” She looked down at Hyuna, unsettled to see her captain so rattled and deflated, and reached out to play with the ends of her dark hair. She hoped the gesture didn’t seem too consoling or overly-affectionate, as that would probably make ever-proud Kim Hyuna uncomfortable, but she simply couldn’t resist doing something.

“There’s that sushi place on Geum Haneul,” Hyuna said absently, seemingly oblivious to Hyoyeon’s presence now that she was beside her. “Even if we don’t like what they have to say, we can get dinner.” She glanced at one of the screens on the dashboard, the one that showed their position in the ‘verse, and shrugged. “We can be there in a few hours.” Hyuna peered up at Hyoyeon, her eyes tired. “What do you say?”

“Whatever you think is best,” Hyoyeon said, faking the nonchalance in her voice.

Hyuna nodded slowly, chewing the inside of her cheek as she looked out the windshield, literally staring into space.

In the end, Hyuna made her inevitable decision and Hyoyeon courteously pretended not to notice the way the captain checked her hair and makeup before recording a message back to Moonbyul, agreeing to meet. Moonbyul didn’t bother sending a video back, choosing instead to reply with a three-line email, and Hyoyeon suppressed a familiar pang of irritation.

She’d never cared much for Moonbyul.

And that was how Hyoyeon end Hyuna ended up at the ever-popular Juyuso refueling station on Geum Haneul, the very same station that the Pandora girls had visited less than a month before when they’d heard about Jiyong.

They’d been parked for a while, both of them in their usual seats in the cockpit, both of them utterly silent. Hyuna was staring at the clock, not moving, not blinking, barely breathing and Hyoyeon was worried.

But she was also torn.

She wanted to help but she didn’t want to pry. She wanted to extend a hand but didn’t want to overstep her boundaries. She wanted to know how Hyuna was doing but she didn’t want to ask.

This was a sensitive subject.

Hyuna had never really recovered from Elly.

That breakup had been like a nasty accident, leaving Hyuna wounded and scarred. With no real closure, Hyuna’s heart was like a broken bone that had never been properly set – it had healed, but incorrectly. It had mended itself, growing back together and stitching itself back up, but it was never the same.

Hyuna was never the same.

And now, as sometimes happened when you got romantically involved with other pilots, Hyuna’s complicated past with Elly was bleeding into her professional life. And Hyoyeon had a feeling it was going to get ugly.

They weren’t scheduled to meet until five o’clock, Moonbyul implying in her ridiculous three-sentence email that it would be some sort of dinner date. While it made Hyoyeon’s skin crawl to think of breaking bread with the Pandora girls, she tried to remind herself of the greater good.

As much as she disliked them, the girls of the Pandora were incredibly smart and incredibly capable. If anyone could uncover potentially universe-altering government secrets, it was them. Hyoyeon had no idea what it was they’d dug up but for Moonbyul to reach out Hyuna? It had to be something significant.

And possessing significant government secrets could mean anything from a giant payday to saving the universe and so, despite all of her misgivings and all of the alarms blaring in her head, Hyoyeon had to it up and deal with it.

Hyuna was a big girl and she could take care of herself.

If she didn’t think she could see Elly again, she wouldn’t have agreed to meet them.

Or maybe she would have done just that. Hyoyeon wasn’t really sure anymore.

Anxious, Hyoyeon checked her watch.

4:47.

Thirteen minutes left to kill and Hyoyeon was all out of fingernails to chew.

She looked to Hyuna out of the corner of her eye, trying (and mostly failing) to be inconspicuous. The younger girl had showered and changed and with the tight, black-and-red outfit she’d chosen, Hyoyeon figured that Hyuna was trying to look tough. That made sense to Hyoyeon. Hyuna wanted to look like the confident, dangerous space criminal that the Pandora girls had known, not the heartbroken fool who sometimes still wore Elly’s old flight school sweatshirt to bed.

Christ, this was going to .

“What are you thinking about over there?” Hyuna asked casually. Her feet were rested on the dashboard, her hands folded comfortably over her stomach. She almost looked relaxed.

“Politics,” Hyoyeon lied. She was a very good liar.

Hyuna snorted.

“You hate politics,” she said.

“And that’s the part I’m thinking about,” she said. “That guy from Daedosi, the one running for senator, what’s his name?”

“Kim Sungsoo.”

Hyoyeon nodded.

“I think he’s a .”

Hyuna laughed out loud but as soon as her giggles faded, it was quiet again and Hyoyeon balled her fists at her side, wishing that they could just fly away from this stupid planet and get back on Jiyong’s tail.

She would always support Hyuna and she would always have her back but Hyoyeon just couldn’t help wondering what they were getting themselves into, couldn’t help wondering if they were walking right back into the mess they’d left two years before.

And she couldn’t help wondering if this would end up doing more harm than good.

“Are you okay?” Hyoyeon finally blurted after ten of their remaining thirteen minutes had passed by in thick wordlessness.

Hyuna’s responding smile was joyless, humorless.

“Tens of thousands of ships in the ‘verse,” Hyuna said dreamily, “and it had to be the Pandora?”

Hyoyeon smiled, another boldface lie designed to hide the way she was screaming inside.

“It’s a small, small ‘verse after all,” she said, then she gestured to her watch. “We should probably get going. Moonbyul is going to be waiting for us.”

Hyuna nodded and stood, clapping her hands once – a nervous habit.

“Guess it’s now or never, huh, unnie?”

“Seems like it,” Hyoyeon said.

As they headed for the door, Hyoyeon held her breath and tried to will the universe to give her best friend a better ending this time.

Elly sat in the cockpit, somehow sure that she could feel each and every second as it ticked by and brought her closer to seeing Hyuna again. She could feel it in her teeth, a dull ache that pulsed in the enamel and grew stronger as time passed her at warp-speed.

She was in Sooyoung’s usual seat, her knees pulled to her chest and her chin rested on top.

Solji was the captain’s seat, trying not to stare.

“You’re looking kind of green,” she observed. “If you’re going to throw up, can you do it, like, in the hallway?” Elly shot her a look and Solji shrugged. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be insensitive. I’m just saying we can’t really open a window and air out the puke smell, you know? And I spend a lot of time in here.”

Elly opened to say something snarky but words failed her. In any event, even if she had been able to think of something witty, she would’ve been cut off by the whoosh of the doors opening. A second later, Hyerin appeared with a mug in her hand a bright smile on her face, both of which, Elly could tell, were for Solji.

“Here, baby,” she said, offering first the cup and then a kiss on the cheek. “Tea.”

“You’re the best,” Solji said lovingly and in spite of how awful she felt, Elly smiled. Whenever these two were in a room together, they radiated love and warmth. It was gross and wonderful. They were so in love with each other than it was almost tangible and even small, simple interactions like this seemed to fill the whole room with light.

“Can I get you anything, kid?” Hyerin asked, nodding her chin at the tightly-wound ball of self-pity formerly known as Ahn Elly. “Some soda? An aspirin? Hard liquor maybe?”

Solji laughed but shooed Hyerin away.

“Don’t worry, ladybug,” she said. “I got this. You just go make sure Sunny and Yuri are still working on cracking Jiyong’s code, okay?”

Hyerin nodded, smiling, and Elly could hardly miss the way her new friend gazed back at Solji like she was the only woman in the entire galaxy.

“You two have fun,” she said, walking backwards towards the double doors. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

Even though Hyerin had left, the air of happiness and affection remained and Elly said, “You two are really cute together.”

Blushing and looking away like a schoolgirl in love, Solji said, “Thank you.”

“How long have you two been married?”

“Two years,” Solji said matter-of-factly. “But we were together for a long time before that.”

“Is it weird,” Elly asked, “to work and travel with your wife like that?”

Solji shook her head, though the sudden crease in her forehead said that she was thinking about her answer.

“No, not really,” she said. “Not for us at least.” Swinging thoughtfully in her seat, Solji shrugged and added, “But I guess that could have a lot to do with our timeline. It wasn’t like we were platonic co-workers first or friends that happened to fall for each other over time. I was at a clinic stocking up on medical supplies when I saw Hyerin and I just knew that I was going to marry her.”

“Really?” Elly asked, her eyes lighting up just slightly from the story.

Solji nodded.

“I never thought that the ship needed a doctor,” she said, “until I saw this doctor.”

“And what if it hadn’t worked out? Would you have fired her?”

Solji smirked.

“I guess we’ll never know,” she said and laughed at the absurdity of the thought of firing her own wife. But Elly didn’t laugh. If anything, she seemed to pull her legs closer to her body. Solji barely knew this girl but her heart was breaking over how pitiful she looked. She could tell that Ahn Elly was once the fiercest of the fierce but losing her beloved ship had weakened her. Now, being forced to reunite with someone from her past, someone who had clearly meant a whole hell of a lot, Solji worried that this girl was going to crack. “Seriously, kid, are you okay?”

Elly shrugged as best she could without breaking her own embrace.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she countered feebly and her voice, brittle and dull, reminded Solji of chalk.

“Tell me about this Hyuna character,” Solji said after a beat, trying to mask her bluntness in a soothing tone of voice. Hyerin sometimes said that Solji was too straightforward with people and needed to work on softening the blow a little, and Solji had taken that advice to heart. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. You don’t have to go into detail. But, , kid, look at you. You’re a wreck. And if for no other reason than I’ve known you longer, I want to be on your side. So tell me what I need to know so this runs smoothly tonight. Okay?”

Elly swallowed hard but nodded anyway, slowly dropping her legs to the floor and getting into a more comfortable position in Sooyoung’s chair. She took a deep, avoiding Solji’s stare as she tried to decide where to begin.

“We met at a bar,” Elly said after a quiet moment of thought, “less than a year after I started working with Sunny and Moonbyul. I was in a booth, people-watching, and this girl comes up to me and starts flirting. My first thought was that she was way, way too pretty to be talking to me. But somehow we hit it off. We had a lot in common. She thought I was funny and as for me, I guess I’ve just always been into bad girls.”

Solji cocked an eyebrow, intrigued.

“So Hyuna’s a bad girl?”

“She thinks she is,” Elly said. “She’s good in a fight and she’s good with weapons and she talks a big game but inside, she’s always been a really good person. And before I lived with the girls in my crappy, banged up ship, Hyuna and I lived together on Jugeo. It was nice, you know? Being all domestic and cute. I couldn’t cook and she never cleaned but we worked it out. She had her ship, I had mine. We’d come home from work and just be happy to be together.” Elly shrugged, remembering how it felt to just be with Hyuna – no expectations, no requirements, no pressure. “We were just really in love with each other. From the very beginning, we just fit. I saw through all her tough guy bull and I saw the real Hyuna. And I loved her. I thought I’d been in love before but I was wrong. It was never like this.”

Solji nodded, trying in vain to put a face to the name.

“What happened?” Solji prompted when it seemed like Elly wasn’t going to say anything else.

Elly shrugged again, staring down at her feet.

“We had a friend,” Elly said. “Nana. She was in our circle, someone we hung out with a lot. Nana was basically a decent enough person but she liked to start trouble. She didn’t believe in monogamy, always talked when someone in our group got a girlfriend.”

Solji had an inkling where this was going.

“Oh no,” she said.

Elly just nodded.

“I didn’t think anything of it when they were spending time together,” she said. “They were friends and I’m not at all the jealous type. I didn’t even blink when Hyuna said they were going out drinking one night. But apparently I should have been worried because that night, Hyuna brought Nana back to our apartment and ed her in our bed.”

Solji clenched her teeth, inhaling sharply.

“How’d you find out?” she asked.

“Moonbyul walked in on them,” Elly said, suddenly reliving the eviscerating conversation that had followed that terrible night. She laughed bitterly, remembering every word. “You know, I didn’t even believe Moonbyul when she told me. I thought she was lying, trying to break us up. She’d never liked Hyuna, not even in the beginning.”

“Why not?”

“Moonbyul has this ridiculous image of me,” Elly began, gesturing wildly out of frustration. “She thinks I’m some insanely moral superhero who always does the right thing. And she thought Hyuna brought out the worst in me, like she was a bad influence or something.” Elly bit her bottom lip, fighting back the lump forming in . “Maybe she was. I don’t know. They say hindsight is twenty-twenty but it’s all a little fuzzy for me.”

“What happened after you found out?”

“I confronted Nana,” she said, “which was hilarious because she didn’t think she did anything wrong. She laughed it off and said she was sorry but I knew she didn’t regret it. She would’ve done it again. For Nana, was always just a game. And I guess she’d always been a little bit into Hyuna.”

“Did Hyuna deny it?”

“No. She admitted it. What followed was probably the worst fight in the history of Jugeo. We screamed, we cried, we broke , we blamed the other person for all our problems, took cheap shots just so we could hurt each other. It was really bad. We just went to war and destroyed everything that we’d had. And then I packed a bag and went to stay with Sunny.” She wasn’t sure when it had started but her hands were shaking. “It wasn’t even all her fault.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was a ty girlfriend towards the end,” Elly admitted. “Distant, absent, inattentive. I didn’t mean to be. I’m independent, sometimes to a fault. I was an up-and-coming captain trying to prove herself. I didn’t have time to dote on my girlfriend. And Hyuna, for as tough as she is, she really needs attention and validation. She needs a lot more than I do. She needs more to remind her that she’s still loved and appreciated. And I was so wrapped up in me that I forgot how to take care of her. And that’s on me.”

“Still doesn’t make it okay for her to sleep with someone else,” Solji said.

“I guess I just understand why she did it,” Elly shrugged. “Nana was willing to give her the attention she needed, the attention she deserved, while I was playing space cowboy.” Elly sighed deeply, releasing a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “And now it’s been two years and Hyuna is about to walk onto this ship.”

Solji ran a hand through her red hair and stared down at her mug of tea, suddenly feeling very, very fortunate. She and Elly had had an extremely different last two years, and she sent up a silent prayer of gratitude to whatever all-knowing deity may have governed the universe.

She was so lucky to have Hyerin.

“Can I be honest with you?” Solji asked.

“Please do,” Elly said.

“Tonight is going to hurt like hell,” she said, “but you’ll live. It’s not going to be pleasant but you’re going to survive. And for the good of the ‘verse, you’re going to stay strong and figure this out.” She put her mug down on the ledge of the dashboard and moved to the very edge of her seat. “Elly, from one pilot to another, there is some seriously shady happening in our galaxy and we have some unique resources that can potentially make a big difference. She reached across as best she could and put her hand on Elly’s knee. “You’re a captain, Elly, so I know you understand sacrifice. And if Hyuna is as good as you say she is, if you think she can really help us, you need to fight through the pain and help me navigate tonight’s meeting.”

Elly sniffled. She hadn’t even realized she’d started crying.

Wiping her eyes, with her sleeve, Elly said, “She is good and we do need her help.” She nodded, resigning herself to Solji’s wise words. She was thinking like a captain now, already bracing herself for impact, trying to prepare herself to the pain. She looked up and met Solji’s eyes, feeling nothing but respect for the older woman. “I’ll be fine. It’ll hurt but I’ll live.”

Solji patted her leg and then stood up, retrieving her mug and taking a long sip.

“Good,” she said. “In the meantime, feel free to take my wife up on her offer of hard liquor.”

Once again, Solji laughed but Elly didn’t.

“I really thought I was going to marry her someday,” Elly said quietly. “I thought we’d get married and have kids and be together forever.”

Solji clicked her tongue, a habit.

Kids. That was a complicated subject.

She offered Elly her free hand, aiding in pulling the younger captain to her feet. Once they were both up, she wrapped her left arm casually around Elly’s shoulders, suddenly feeling like they’d known each other a lot longer than they had.

“Buck up, soldier,” she said as they headed for the door. “You’re going to help save the ‘verse and then you’re going to have more girls than you can handle.”

Moonbyul was smart and knew how to delegate.

That was why she’d sent Wheein and Solar to pick up the Juggernaut girls and bring them back to the Unity. No point in rushing the inevitable fighting that would follow.

But Moonbyul was nervous as she bode her time in the spacious common room. She wasn’t alone – Yuri was on the couch, her computer in her lap, typing so fast that she was actually sweating. She and Sunny had spent the last thirty hours trying to crack Jiyong’s code to no avail. Frustrated and sick of the computer room, they’d split up, the redhead now working from the comfort of the observation deck.

They were still working on an open line of communication, though, with their computer’s microphone’s catching every word. Every few minutes, Yuri would curse or Sunny would ask a question and break the silence.

Moonbyul didn’t mind. She was too busy being worried about seeing Hyuna again, too worried about Elly seeing Hyuna again. Moonbyul hadn’t actually seen much of Elly that day but she’d expected that. Elly wasn’t the type of person who liked to feel things out loud. If Moonbyul knew Elly like she thought she did, Elly was probably hiding somewhere, bracing herself.

That’s what Moonbyul would be doing if she wasn’t so busy pacing.

“You’re making me dizzy,” Yuri said without looking away from her screen.

“Sorry,” Moonbyul muttered, making zero efforts to stop. She was chewing on her fingernails, wishing she kept them longer so that she had something more substantial to bite. “Sometimes when I get nervous, I tend to–”

Her words were halted by the whoosh of the door.

“…and this here is the common room,” Solar was saying and for the very first time, her sweet voice didn’t make Moonbyul’s heart flutter.

She swallowed hard.

Their guests had arrived.

And as soon as she heard Hyuna’s voice, Moonbyul’s nerves transformed, hardening instantly into something much, much colder.

“It’s a really nice ship you have here,” Hyuna said and Moonbyul felt like snarling. “How many people can you guys house? Comfortably, I mean?”

If Solar planned to answer, she changed her mind when she saw Moonbyul, choosing instead to step aside and let the other girls enter the common room.

Moonbyul held her breath…

…and then she saw Hyuna’s face and everything came rushing back – the rage she’d felt when she walked in Elly’s bedroom to find Hyuna with Nana’s head between her legs, how much it hurt her to see Elly crying on the bathroom floor of Sunny’s apartment, broken and drunk off her , and how hard it was watching her best friend struggle to move on from the girl who wrecked her heart.

It took all of Moonbyul’s restraint not to clutch her fists and square up to fight.

When Hyuna and Moonbyul did finally make eye contact, it felt like a showdown out of one of the Wild West movies that Elly liked.

Long gone was Hyuna’s anxious apprehension. All Moonbyul could see in the eyes of her long-standing enemy was cold-blooded confidence.

Hyuna stared at Moonbyul like she had something to say but instead turned to Solar and asked, “Can I use your bathroom?”

Moonbyul scoffed. She hadn’t wanted to be outwardly belligerent, wanted instead to try and be the bigger person, but she couldn’t help herself. The emotions were still too raw.

“Don’t let her,” Moonbyul warned, her eyes never leaving Hyuna. “She’ll probably jam something into the electrical socket to hack your computer system.”

Hyuna smiled, clearly charmed by Moonbyul’s lack of control, but Hyoyeon exploded.

It was like they’d never been apart. They were picking up exactly where they’d left off, the two years that had passed doing nothing to lessen the animosity between them.

“Still a snitch, huh?” Hyoyeon barked, her tone icy. Moonbyul ignored her.

The last time they’d seen each other, Hyoyeon’s hair had been darker and a whole lot longer. Now, it was platinum blonde and chopped above her shoulders.

It was actually cute.

Moonbyul always thought Hyoyeon would be pretty if she wasn’t such a all the time.

“How’ve you been, Moonbyul?” Hyuna asked, her attempt at being friendly. She swallowed hard and turned to face Moonbyul, putting up a smile that almost looked genuine. But Moonbyul wasn’t fooled. Hyuna had always been good at faking things, always good at putting up painted walls. Her smile almost looked real but, then again, Hyuna almost looked human.

Moonbyul knew better.

“Oh, you know,” Moonbyul said casually, crossing her arms over her chest as she spoke. “A little busy, what with this hundred-million-dollar space race, but otherwise? Just peachy. What about you, Hyuna? Still a dragon ?”

From behind them, Wheein snorted. She’d been so quiet that Moonbyul had forgotten she was there. She took a step back when everyone glared at her but the attention was only on her for a second. Hyoyeon and Moonbyul couldn’t keep their angry eyes off of each other for very long.

“Well,” Hyuna said, clapping her hands together. “This is surely going to be a party but I really do need to pee. Bathroom?”

Solar cleared and nodded, gesturing for Wheein to come with her.

“Right through here,” she said, pointing.

Hyoyeon and Moonbyul went back to glaring at each other, the deafening silence only broken by the sound of Yuri’s frantic typing. Moonbyul was clenching her jaw, grinding her teeth so that she wouldn’t spit.

“So, Byul,” Hyoyeon began. “What’s it like flying around the galaxy in something other than your ty Pandora?”

Moonbyul shrugged.

“I don’t know,” she said. “What’s it like flying around the galaxy with the queen of darkness?”

Hyoyeon her lips.

“Still so dramatic,” Hyoyeon said. “I guess not much has changed. How’s your friend Elly?”

Moonbyul squeezed her fists even harder.

“Don’t you talk about her,” Moonbyul warned but Hyoyeon wasn’t impressed.

“Or what? You’ll tell on me?” She scoffed. “What else is new?”

“She broke her heart,” Moonbyul growled. “Your precious Hyuna destroyed my best friend.”

“That’s not how I remember it,” Hyoyeon said.

“You don’t remember Hyuna ing Nana?”

“I don’t remember Hyuna being the one who did the heart-breaking.”

Moonbyul snorted.

“Hyuna cheated on her,” Moonbyul barked.

“Yeah? After how many months of Elly being ty and distant?”

“In what ing universe does that justify having with someone else?”

“Are you really still pretending that Elly is completely and utterly innocent in all of this?” Hyoyeon asked, dumbfounded. “Really, Moonbyul? After all this time? You really still think the sun shines out her ?”

“You’re still a ing idiot,” Moonbyul said and that was the first thing that made Hyoyeon laugh.

“You keep telling yourself that Elly is totally perfect and Hyuna is the villain,” she said. “You keep living in that ridiculous dream world, Byul. You keep thinking Hyuna was the one who hurt Elly. Keep thinking she’s the big heartbreaker.”

“You know what I think, Hyoyeon? I think–”

“Jesus!” screamed Yuri as she slammed her laptop closed. “Agree to disagree, ladies! They broke each other’s hearts, okay? Shut the hell up! For ’s sake, I am working here! Trying to crack the code and save the universe remember? Aigoo!”

She stood up, mumbled more swear words under her breath and stormed out, leaving Hyoyeon and Moonbyul with matching expressions as they watched her leave.

“Save the universe?” Hyoyeon asked, an eyebrow cocked.

Moonbyul exhaled roughly, realizing with concrete certainty that she and Hyoyeon were going to need to temporarily bury the hatchet in order to make this work.

Nodding, she gestured to the door.

“Come on,” she said reluctantly. “Someone will explain everything.”

By the time Moonbyul and Hyoyeon made it up to the kitchen, Solji, Elly, Hyerin, Yoona, Sooyoung and Sunny were already in attendance. Everyone but Solji and Elly were seated at the long table, waiting patiently for the guests of honor to arrive and kick things off. But the captains were standing against the wall and looking steely and authoritative.

Elly’s poker face was just a very convincing façade. Inside, she was a wreck and she was suddenly very worried that everyone else in the room could hear her heart pounding. She knew that Sunny could see right through her. Moonbyul, too. She just really hoped that the girls from the Unity and the Juggernaut couldn’t see how weak she truly felt.

When Hyoyeon appeared, Elly felt the expected rush of pain and memories, but it was duller than she'd imagined.

“Solji,” Moonbyul said, her voice flat, “meet Kim Hyoyeon.”

“Hyoyeon,” said Solji, pushing off the wall long enough to shake Hyoyeon's hand. “Thanks for coming.”

“What can I say?” Hyoyeon remarked, blowing her bangs out of her face. “Moonbyul can make a very convincing speech.”

Moonbyul shot Hyoyeon a look and exhaled through her nose, already regretting having any part in this meeting. She gestured to an open chair and Hyoyeon took a seat, not bothering to say anything else.

Sensing the tension, Solji cleared and said, “So now we're just waiting on--”

A second later, the remaining girls arrived. Yuri was first, her laptop in her arms and her eyes still glued to the screen. She took the empty seat next to Sunny like she'd done it a thousand times and mumbled something to the redhead that was riddled with tech jargon.

Wheein was next, looking just slightly less bubbly than usual, followed by Solar who looked downright troubled.

And then Hyuna walked into the dining room and Elly felt like someone had opened a window during flight, all of the breathable air being out into the dark abyss of space and being replaced with an ice-cold pressure that was crushing her bones.

She tried not to look directly at her, afraid she'd go blind or turn to stone or, worst of all, acknowledge how pretty she looked with her hair that length.

Elly suddenly wished that she was beside Sunny or Moonbyul. Sunny would do something comforting like hold her hand or rub her back, and Moonbyul would probably pinch her, saying later that she was trying to use a little bit of pain to keep her focused.

Elly wasn't sure which she needed more.

Solji swallowed hard, recognizing Hyuna from the pictures Moonbyul had showed her. She didn’t want to hate her, didn’t want to let Elly’s sad story to cloud her head and interfere with her professional responsibilities, but it was hard. For whatever reason, she actually kind of liked Elly. Having her shipped destroyed was hard enough but having to face the ex that had broken her heart?

It had been a ty few weeks for everybody but Elly was certainly suffering more than most.

“Kim Hyuna,” Solji said, her professional tone hiding all of her inner turmoil. “Thank you for coming. It’s great to have you onboard. I’m Heo Solji.”

“Thanks for the invite,” Hyuna said.

Their handshake was firm and brief and then Hyuna took the seat next to Hyoyeon, staring back at Solji like she expected her to sit down, too. But if Elly wanted to stand, Solji would stand with her. It wasn’t the grandest of gestures but it was what Solji would’ve wanted someone to do with her.

Everyone else filled into their seats, though the ones to Hyuna’s left and Hyoyeon’s right stayed noticeably empty. Everyone wanted their help and wanted to hear what they had to offer but nobody wanted to get too close.

“So,” Hyuna said, folding her hands on the table as she leaned forward in her seat. “What’s happening in the universe, ladies?”

Solji would’ve had to have been blind to miss the looks on Sunny and Moonbyul’s faces. After all this time, they were still pissed and they didn’t care if the Juggernaut girls knew it.

And Solji had to admit that Hyoyeon and Hyuna were a little intimidating. Hyuna, with her studded leather jacket and heavy eye makeup, almost seemed like she was playing a part but from the stories Moonbyul had told Solji, there was nothing fake about the captain of the Juggernaut. She was tough as nails and her reputation as a bandit and a badass preceded her. And Hyoyeon? Her body language screamed that she didn’t give a and from what Moonbyul had explained, that was spot on. Hyoyeon didn’t give a  who she needed to with to achieve her goals.

They were talented and resourceful and just a little bit reckless, a dangerous combination when it came to well-funded, well-armed freelancers in a powerful ship.

But if they really had connections on Jaesan and an axe to grind with the Cosmos, they were exactly who the Unity needed to help find Jiyong.

“Sooyoung,” Solji said. “You want to get us started?”

Sooyoung cleared , looking up for the first time.

“Yeah,” she said slowly. There was a pile of papers in front of her, printouts of research on Jiyong and Seunghyun and wormholes and encryption, and Sooyoung played with the corners of the pages as she wondered where to begin. “Okay.”

She introduced the rest of the Unity’s crew, awkwardly skipping over Sunny, Moonbyul and Elly, and then dove headfirst into what they’d ascertained about Jiyong’s past. She started with a brief summary of where they’d been so far, explaining the breadcrumbs that had led them through the first half of the galaxy and eventually to Cheoeum where they ran into the Pandora – literally. Sooyoung blushed a little as she explained the mishap that led to the Unity and the Pandora joining forces but quickly moved onto the topic of wormholes and everything new they’d learned about Jiyong.

She told Hyuna and Hyoyeon about Jiyong’s pseudonym, about Seunghyun, about the encrypted code that Sunny and Yuri were trying to crack. She talked about Jiyong and Seunghyun’s group, about all they did to protect to Berm and the lengths they went to in order to spread their message. Hyoyeon seemed a little surprised that these deeply-connected, fiercely-protected criminals were Berm preservationists but at no point during Sooyoung’s spiel did Hyuna even blink.

Solji was splitting her attention between Hyuna and Elly, trying to make sure that the former was paying close enough attention and taking Sooyoung’s words seriously and that the latter wasn’t going to burst into tears. So far, they were both passing. Hyuna was listening intently, nodding along as Sooyoung spoke, but not doing anything over-the-top like taking notes or asking questions. And Elly? She was just staring at her shoes. That was okay, Solji figured. That was an appropriate response.

Moonbyul was doing the same thing, her gaze either pointed angrily at Hyuna or soft and directed at Elly. Solji could appreciate that Moonbyul was a loyal friend who was simply concerned for someone she loved, but she really hoped the girl could keep her emotions in check until the meeting was over.

At least Solar was beside her. It was glaringly obvious the way she and Moonbyul had taken a shine to each other. Maybe Solar’s presence would be enough to keep Moonbyul tethered.

Sooyoung wrapped up her speech by explaining that Seunghyun was somewhere on Jaesan and still actively posting about Jiyong.

“At least,” she said, gesturing with her hands as she spoke, “that’s what we can tell from the stuff not written in top-secret code.”

Once it was all explained and laid out, everything from the wormhole to the encryption to the accident on Cheoeum to theories regarding Seunghyun’s actual location on Jaesan, Sooyoung took a deep breath and then a long sip of water from the glass next to her.

Solji smiled contentedly. Sooyoung may’ve been a questionable copilot but she was one hell of a public speaker.

There was a pause after Sooyoung finished her lecture, a sudden silence that was so noticeable, Sunny and Yuri both looked up from their computers like they were worried they’d missed something.

Before stepping up to break the quiet, Solji looked around the table, scanning each face and trying to determine the emotional break-down of the ladies in the room. Sunny and Yuri looked confused by the silence but otherwise completely focused on their work. Moonbyul looked angry but Solji understood the extenuating circumstances there. Hyerin, Sooyoung and Solar all looked content and caught up, like they’d already accepted their new realities and were ready to tackle whatever came next. Wheein and Yoona almost looked amused, like they couldn’t believe how big and intense and heavy things had gotten in such a small frame of time.

And then there were the Juggernaut girls. Hyoyeon seemed just slightly agitated, like she was anticipating a confrontation that Solji was never planning to let happen, but there was a clarity in her eyes that showed she’d absorbed everything Sooyoung had thrown at them. Hyuna, meanwhile, appeared to be staring blankly into space but Solji recognized the nod of her head and the clench of her jaw – she was listening and she was thinking very deeply. Hyerin had a similar body language when she was working something through in her mind.

Last was Elly. Solji tried to be discreet when she turned to the young captain but her discretion was futile. Everyone onboard knew about Elly and Hyuna’s past and, as such, they’d been stealing glances the whole time Sooyoung was talking. It was hard to tell whether or not Elly had even noticed. Her eyes were still on the floor, her arms folded protectively over her chest, like they’d somehow keep her heart from breaking a second time.

Solji felt for the girl, sympathized with how ty she must’ve felt inside, but couldn’t dwell on it for long.

“Do you have any questions?” Solji asked, looking to Hyuna. “Comments? Anything?”

Hyuna squinted a little as she looked at something on one of the papers Sooyoung had given her.

“You ladies have done an awful lot of work,” she said after another few seconds. “And it’s impressive how much you’ve uncovered.” She looked up and caught Solji’s eyes. “But there’s a whole lot you don’t know.”

Wheein gasped at this, an overly dramatic reaction that stemmed from how much she was enjoying the tension in the room, but Solji just raised an eyebrow.

“Such as?” she asked.

“This wormhole,” Hyuna said. “I mean, why do you think that Jiyong’s group is so obsessed with it?”

“Alleged wormhole,” Moonbyul pointed out dully.

Hyuna shook her head.

“There’s nothing alleged about it, sister. Sure, so far, there have only been whispers and rumors but I’m willing to bet my entire ship that this is the Bermhole.”

Moonbyul snorted.

“The what?”

“It’s a nickname,” Hyoyeon said, “that dark-net conspiracy theorists have given to a wormhole. But it’s not just any wormhole. It’s a wormhole that leads to another ‘verse – the Berm ‘verse.”

“What do you mean?” Hyerin asked.

“This universe is mostly humans, right?” Hyoyeon continued. “Well this wormhole leads to the Berm’s home universe. They’re not from here, not originally. And after hundreds of years of searching, some guy, Kim something-or-other, found the wormhole that linked the two universes. How do you think the Berm ended up here in the first place? There needed to be some sort of door between our world and their’s, right?”

Solji was so taken aback by that, she was almost grimacing.

Luckily, Sunny wasn’t so shocked.

“If that’s true, why haven’t we found anything online about it?” she asked.

“You wouldn’t know where to look,” Hyoyeon said, her tone condescending. Sunny shot her a look so nasty, Solji nearly laughed, but Yuri touched her shoulder, a nonverbal reminder that Hyoyeon wasn’t worth her rage. “But just because you haven’t come across anything doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It very much exists, Sunny, and there’s an incredibly high chance that this is the wormhole Jiyong’s group is fixated.”

“Okay,” Solji said, speaking over the quiet pulse of murmurs that had broken out. She looked to Hyuna whose confidence suggested she had a lot more information to share. “Say that’s true. Why would Jiyong’s group care about that?”

“You’re asking the wrong questions,” she said. “It’s not why Jiyong would care. It’s who else would care.”

Solji shrugged and shook her head.

“Can you stop speaking in riddles, please?” she demanded. “We have different resources and different pools of knowledge. Tell me what I need to know to understand this.”

Nodding almost apologetically, Hyuna said, “Do you know what Jiyong was arrested for? The official charge, I mean. The reason he went to jail.”

“Treason,” Moonbyul said. “Whatever that means.”

Hyuna nodded again.

“Exactly. Doesn’t that seem like a weird charge? When was the last time you heard of someone being tried for treason?”

“What is your point, Hyuna?” Solji said, irritated as she rubbed at her temples.

“Treason,” she continued coldly, “is just a fancy way of saying that Jiyong wasn’t cooperating with the Cosmos. He pissed off the government and they threw him in jail because they couldn’t get him to talk.”

“Talk about what?” Yoona asked, speaking for the first time.

Hyoyeon groaned and pounded both fists on the table before rubbing her face with her hands, completely exasperated.

“How are you broads not getting this?” she snapped. “Jiyong’s group found out the location of the Bermhole. The government wanted to know where it was. Jiyong wouldn’t tell them so Jiyong rots in a maximum security prison until he’s willing to give up the goods. You with me? You following me? You dig?”

Hyuna opened to say something but instead just shook her head and patted Hyoyeon’s knee, trying to get her friend and partner to take it down a notch or two.

Exhausted and sick of the way getting information from the Juggernaut girls felt like pulling teeth, Solji abandoned her spot on the wall and took the empty seat directly across from Hyuna. Elly felt the loss immediately but didn’t react outwardly in any way. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself.

“Hyuna, stop beating around the goddamn bush,” Solji said sternly. “Why the would the Cosmos care about this wormhole?”

Hyuna shrugged.

“That,” she said, “I don’t know. I mean unless there was some sort of–” She felt a jolt like she’d been struck with lightning and then froze suddenly. After a second, she turned to Hyoyeon, her eyes wide. “Heechul,” she said quietly.

It took Hyoyeon a minute to catch up but when she did, she put both hands on her head in utter despair.

“Heechul,” she parroted back. “God-ing-damnit.”

Officially out of patience, Solji snapped her fingers.

“Ladies, back here please,” she shouted. “Who is Heechul?”

Hyuna sighed, fighting the urge to bury her face in her hands and start screaming.

“Kim Heechul,” she began, “is a military contractor. He claims to be an independent third-party but he works very closely with the Cosmos government.” Sensing a question coming, Hyuna gave a preemptive answer. “Sometimes the government needs to get something shady done and they don’t want to get their hands dirty. They’ll call someone like Heechul and he’ll find a way to make it happen. Get it?”

“And how does he play into this?” Hyerin asked.

“A few days ago,” Hyoyeon said, “we found out about a file on Jeongbu. Like an old-fashioned, paper file in a manila envelope with important, Jiyong-related information inside. But when we tried to get it, someone had already taken it.”

“It’s kind of a long story,” Hyuna said, remembering the lengths they’d gone to breaking into that ship-turned-museum-turned-storage-facility. “But the gist of it is that Heechul was the one who swiped the file.”

“But not Heechul directly,” Hyoyeon said. “Turns out, he also doesn’t like to get his hands dirty.”

“Meaning?” Solji asked and Hyoyeon bit her tongue to keep from saying something sarcastic.

“He wants to find Jiyong, too,” Hyuna explained. “Until now, I didn’t understand why. But rather than go boots-on-the-ground and look for Jiyong himself, he hired a crew to do it for him. This little blonde girl named Kim Taeyeon and her cronies, they’re the ones who went to Jeongbu and got the file. They’re the ones doing Heechul’s dirty work. He’s using his connections and resources to help them find Jiyong. What would happen after that, I have no idea.”

“Kim Heechul,” Solji repeated, reaching for a pen and a piece of paper so that she could write these names down, “and Kim Taeyeon.”

“No relation,” Hyoyeon deadpanned.

“There’s just one thing I still don’t understand,” Yuri said. “Why does the government give a about any of this? Why do they want the wormhole? Why does Heechul?”

Hyuna and Hyoyeon exchanged worried glances.

“I can’t say for sure what the government is trying to pull,” Hyuna said. “But Heechul…” Her voice trailed off and she shrugged, looking troubled.

“What is it?” Solji asked, her eyes narrowed. “What aren’t you saying?”

“He’s a military contractor, right? He’s the type of guy who takes great stock in weapons and news ways to fight and win wars and do damage. He spends a lot of time on Byeongsa, working with new recruits and testing new strategies. He’s someone who wants to revolutionize the art of war. It’s how he gets his jollies and how he makes his big bucks.” Hyuna stared back at Solji expectantly, waiting for it to finally click.

And when it did, Solji felt sick.

“He wants to weaponize the Berm,” she said quietly and suddenly, all eyes were on her, the rest of the crew sure they hadn’t heard her correctly.

“Think about it,” Hyuna said, not allowing a long enough pause for anyone else to speak up. “Think about Jiyong. Those max security prisons are no joke. He wouldn’t subject himself to that without a damn good reason. Think about the rest of his group. These are wealthy, educated kids hiding from the Cosmos on a ty planet like Jaesan. Berm preservation is their life. They would risk anything to keep that wormhole away from people like Kim Heechul.”

“Weaponizing the Berm,” Moonbyul said slowly. “That goes far, far beyond just normal preservation debates, Hyuna. That could start a civil war. That could ing end with nukes and . People could die.”

“Yes,” she said. “I know that, Moonbyul. Kim Heechul isn’t someone who s around and he isn’t someone you want to go toe-to-toe with.” She cocked her head to the side, looking contemplative. “Well, he’s not someone you want to go toe-to-toe with if you’re unprepared.”

“What exactly are you suggesting?” Solji asked.

Hyuna shrugged.

“Nothing yet.” She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. “Look, you wanted our help on Jaesan, right? Wanted us to help you track down this Seunghyun character?” Hyuna reached into her pocket and pulled out a memory chip. “On here is everything you need to know about Kang Daesung and Lee Seungri, two more guys in Jiyong’s group. We’ll go with you to Jaesan and we’ll help you find them. From there, we’ll just have to figure out the rest as we get to it.”

Taking the chip from her, Solji nodded.

“You okay bunking here?” she asked. “I’ll feel better if you’re on-board if we need you.”

Hyuna looked to Hyoyeon before nodding.

“As long as you have room for us.”

Elly felt like she was sinking in wet cement.

“Why are you so willing to help us?” Hyerin asked and Hyuna shrugged.

“The Cosmos is made up of some real shady ers,” she said. “They’re capable of you wouldn’t believe. It’ll be nice to feel like I’m working for the good guys for once.” She bit the inside of her cheek. “Plus we really just ing hate Kim Heechul.”

“So much,” Hyoyeon said.

Solji nodded.

“Understood.”

“Now that all of that is taken care of,” Hyuna said, exhaling, her hand falling to cover her stomach, “you ladies have anything to eat here?”

Yoona lit up like a Christmas tree.

“Finally,” she said, “my time to shine.”

A little relieved that everything had gone so well, Solji laughed as she rose to her feet.

“Yeah,” she said. “We’ve got plenty. Come on, I’ll show you to your rooms while Yoona fixes you both a plate.”

Solji, Yoona, Hyoyeon and Hyuna left the dining room in a flurry of laughs and light chit-chat, as if the last hour (and the last two years) hadn’t happened and Elly felt a fresh wave of nausea hit her like a comet.

Here she was, so fragile, so weak, so broken up inside, and Hyuna was talking about dinner. Elly didn’t even feel like a person, instead feeling more like a glass sculpture someone had shattered and tried fruitlessly to tape back together, and Hyuna was so goddamned polite and composed. She was so confident that it was almost charming. She was completely and utterly fine.

How could she be so fine?

She pushed herself off the wall, a little stiff and a little dizzy from staying so still for so long, and headed out the other door, trying to hide the tears that were suddenly streaming down her cheeks.

But she couldn’t hide them from Moonbyul.

Once she was gone, and once everyone else was busy working or engaged in conversation, she slammed her hand down on the table.

“God, I ing hate this,” she said, looking to Sunny for guidance.

“She’s a big girl,” she said, not remotely the answer Moonbyul wanted to hear. “She can handle herself.” She looked up from her computer, catching Moonbyul’s eyes. “She’s going to be alright, Byul. I promise. This ing but I mean–” Sunny gestured to her computer, to the papers on the table and to the people all around them. “ing Kim Heechul and maximum security prisons and Berm civil wars,” she said. “This all just got a whole lot bigger than us, sweat pea.”

“So that means I can’t be pissed?” Moonbyul chided.

Sunny went back to typing.

“Be as pissed as you want,” she said, “but be productive while you do it.” She shrugged. “If you feel yourself getting off-track, just remember that sweet, sweet money. Maybe we won’t cash in the Cosmos’ bounty but I’m sure someone out there is willing to shell out serious dough to keep that Bermhole a secret.”

Moonbyul sighed and pushed her chair away from the table, pointing to the door from which Elly had just fled.

“All the money in the ‘verse won’t make it any easier to watch Elly get her heart broken all over again,” she said and, with another huff, left before Sunny could say something wise and maddeningly reasonable in response.