“Hyuna?”

“Yes?”

“Do you have, like, I don’t know, a plan or something?”

There was a pause. Hyuna lowered her binoculars.

“I am working on it,” she said bitterfly.

Solji glared at her, more irritated than disbelieving. She wasn’t in disbelief – she could believe all of this. Her life had been nothing but trouble since Hyuna and Hyoyeon had walked into it. (Technically, it had been trouble ever since they’d crashed into the Pandora but she was willing to look past that for her moment of pouting.)

All four of them were laying in the dirt, behind a row of bushes, atop a hill on Gangcheol. From left to right, it was Elly, Solji, Hyoyeon and Hyuna, and the latter was wracking her brain trying to come up with a way to get inside the factory without raising any red flags.

Because that was Gangcheol – factories, steel mills, industrial parks. The planet was one big assembly line, a big, dusty rock set aside to manufacture building blocks for the rest of the Cosmos. Hyuna had been here a few times before but she didn’t like it. Expectedly, the whole planet reeked of oil and burning rubber. Pollution was a serious problem and clear skies were a thing of the past.

While the sun still managed to shine through, the planet was cloaked in a smoky haze, though Gangcheol’s government vehemently denied any accusations about poor air quality. Whenever Hyuna was on Gangcheol, she felt like she was choking on a perpetual cloud of toxic gas. But Gangcheol was, without a doubt, the most important planet in terms of the significance of their exports and without Gangcheol, the rest of the Cosmos System would crumble and fall.

Hyuna still wished she’d brought a facemask.

When Seunghyun had explained his plan, and mentioned Gangcheol by name, Hyuna had fight a grimace. But, as the saying went, beggars didn’t get to choose. Seunghyun and his crew needed a key. Hyoyeon assumed that he’d meant a cypher, something to crack a code or help hack into a security system but, no, it turned out they needed an actual key, a little jagged metal thing to open a lock.

Humanity had advanced so far in math and science and there were people who still used things as obsolete as traditional key-locks.

Whatever. Hyuna had figured that Seunghyun was old school anyway.

The key, Seunghyun explained, would be used to unlock a safety deposit box on Gachug, a farming planet that was basically the Cosmos’ leader in outdated techniques and procedures. The whole damn planet was obsolete, choosing to use technology and ways of life that had gone out of style hundreds of years before.

Presently, the key they needed was on Gangcheol, in a rubber factory, inside someone’s locker. If it helped, Seunghyun had said, they knew the locker number.

“So why don’t you just go in and get it?” Hyuna had asked him.

“We can’t risk raising any eyebrows,” Seunghyun told her. “We’ve got reason to believe that this factory is being watched. We need to get in quietly and peacefully, and make off with the key like we were never there.”

“So why not just pretend to be a worker?” she went on.

Seunghyun had smiled wryly at her. She really must have thought they were stupid, like they hadn’t already considered this problem top-to-bottom and suggested every single solution imaginable.

“It’s a popular company,” he said, “but it’s still a mom-and-pop factory at heart. It’s small. Everybody knows everybody. If you don’t belong, you’ll stick out like a sore thumb and you definitely won’t be granted unsupervised access to the employee locker rooms.”

Hyuna bit her lip.

It would be tough but, hell, she liked a challenge. Beyond that, she was arrogant. She had more faith in Hyoyeon, Elly, Solji and herself than she did in Seunghyun and his men. Maybe they couldn’t figure it out but Hyuna and the girls would be able to crack it, no question.

Unfortunately for all involved, it was turning out to be a lot more difficult than Hyuna had anticipated.

Halin Rubber was a popular brand. Hyuna recognized the name from pieces that she had on-board the Juggernaut. But, like Seunghyun had said, it was still run like a small business; these people all knew each other.

It was a beautiful day on Gangcheol – well, as beautiful a day that could exist under a dangerously smoggy sky – and several Halin employees were helping load pallets onto a truck. Others were doing just the opposite, unloading transport trucks and taking inventory on what had been delivered.

Halin Rubber’s specialty was, very obviously, rubber, but Hyuna was pretty sure that they’d branched out to some paper and plastic products, too. She couldn’t think of anything specific, and she couldn’t remember when or where she’d heard about their expansion, but she immediately ejected those thoughts from her head since they wouldn’t help get her any closer to that freaking key in locker 114.

This was going to be harder than she thought.

The ease with which the employees interacted spoke directly to their comfort and familiarity with each other. If a stranger tried to get through the bright yellow double doors that led inside the factory, they’d be met with questions and unease, especially if that stranger looked as much like a grungy space smuggler as Hyuna. (Most of the time, she didn’t care that she looked like a ne’er-do-well but in cases like these, she found it problematic. Since neither was used to jobs like these, she didn’t fully trust that Solji or Elly could pull it off. And Hyoyeon looked even more sinister and provocative than Hyuna did.)

They’d need some kind of ruse to get inside but truthfully, Hyuna couldn’t think of any. She was usually pretty quick on her feet, years of unscrupulous activity forcing her to get very good at improv, but that day, she struggled. She figured it could be any number of things – the pessimism from Seunghyun, the way the fate of the universe and the fate of the Berm might have been resting on her shoulders, the fact that the love of her life now hated her guts and was laying only five feet to her left.

Whatever it was, she just couldn’t get all the pistons in her brain to fire.

They’d been laying in the dirt for the better part of an hour when Solji finally spoke up and questioned her. Although it was complicated, Hyuna had to admit she liked Solji. In a lot of ways, Solji reminded Hyuna of herself. She was ruthless, driven, someone who would do anything for her crew.

But right now, she was just pissing her off.

“And here I thought you were a super badass space criminal who had the answer to everything,” she muttered, swatting at a beetle that had crawled too close to her arm.

“And here I thought you were the goody two-shoes daughter of a millionaire music mogul who would never, ever get into this sort of illegal activity,” Hyuna countered shortly, shooting Solji a brief, irritated glance. “ happens, Captain.”

Solji grumbled something vulgar and went back to what she’d been doing for the last fifty-four minutes – ripping up blades of grass and arranging them in a neat little pile.

Hyuna went back to thinking, ignoring the way Hyoyeon was staring up at her like she was waiting for something to just happen suddenly. Maybe they could find a back entrance. They’d still have the issue of being seen and identified (or, unidentified, as it were) by the employees but at least they’d have a chance. Maybe if they had security cameras, Hyoyeon could hack them. She’d be Hyuna’s eyes. If someone was coming, Hyuna could just duck into a bathroom or a supply closet. Maybe if they…

“You can pretend to be a supervisor,” Elly said suddenly, the sound of her voice sitting Hyuna square in the chest like she’d been kicked. “Or, I guess, an inspector. Someone from the Cosmos, someone checking on safety regulations. They wouldn’t recognize you but they’d let you in and give you access to whatever you wanted if only because they were afraid you’d give them a citation otherwise.”

Hyuna had heard Elly’s voice more than once during these last few days but this was the first thing she’d said so far that was actually directed ather.

This was the first time Elly had spoken to her in two years.

Hyuna was too dumbfounded, too effected by it to think of anything to say back, instead choosing to stare blankly at her like Elly had just started speaking fluent Russian.

“They’d ask for ID,” Hyoyeon said, breaking the tension and pointing out the obvious flaw in Elly’s plan.

Elly huffed, blowing the hair out of her face.

“I’m sure you could come up with a temporary fix,” she said. “Hack into their system. When they scan Hyuna’s ID, or her fingerprints, make it say that she works for the Cosmos Department of Regulations.”

At the sound of her name on Elly’s lips, Hyuna nearly doubled over.

The truth was that Elly had had this idea almost immediately. It seemed very obvious to her, very simple. She just really hadn’t wanted to speak up. The initial shock and horror of seeing Hyuna again had more-or-less warn off but there was still a very present, very real ache. It was duller now, not the sharp, unbearable stake in her chest but a low hum of pain, something she felt all over her body. Still, it was something she could suppress, something she could cope with. It was relentless but not debilitating and even though it made Elly viciously nauseous to think about talking to Kim Hyuna after all this time, it became clear around the half-hour mark that Hyuna had no idea what to do next.

Elly had spent the next twenty-four minutes working up the courage to say her idea out loud.

Hyuna, still stunned by this turn of events, spent another half-minute just blinking and trying to process what she was hearing, but when it all clicked in her brain, she gave a very small smile.

“That’s a great idea,” she said and stopped before she added Elly or El or some cute nickname that came reflexively even after all this time apart. Forcing her feelings down into the scary depths of her being, Hyuna looked over at Hyoyeon. “Can you do that?”

“Already on it,” Hyoyeon said. She had one of her computers, the smallest laptop she owned, in front of her and her hands were moving at lightning speed. “Give me fifteen minutes.”

“In the meantime,” Solji said, “you should probably go back to the ship and get changed.” Solji pushed herself up so that she could sit and Hyuna did the same, frowning as she looked down at her clothes. In an old band t-shirt and leather pants, she didn’t look very much like an officer of the CDR.

“Good point,” Hyuna said. She tried to picture her closet, tried to think if she had anything remotely professional that she could wear, but nothing sprang to mind. She stood up, brushed the dirt and dust from her pants and cracked her back, an old habit that Elly knew well. She nudged Hyoyeon with the toe of her boot, lovingly. “Work hard. I’ll make myself pretty and come back as fast as I can.”

“Take your time,” Hyoyeon said, not looking away from her screen. Solji glanced over Hyoyeon’s shoulder, watching letters, numbers and characters fly by and not understanding a word of it. “Once I have your fake ID programmed in, it’ll be smooth sailing.”

Hyuna nodded.

“You two keep an eye out,” she said to Solji and Elly. “I don’t suspect anything interesting will happen but just in case, keep your eyes peeled.” Solji nodded.

“Roger that,” she said, offering a mock salute. “Consider them peeled.”

Hyuna took two steps back before stopping and biting her lip. It had only been a few seconds but the words burning in made it feel like hours.

“Elly?” she said and Elly looked up, her expression blank but her heart shredding.

“Yes?”

“Great work.”

She her heel and took off towards the Juggernaut without giving Elly a chance to respond.

Elly didn’t have anything else to say anyway.

Hyoyeon looked up when she heard footsteps in the dirt and turned just in time to see Hyuna approaching.

She narrowed her eyes, trying to make her brain understand what she was seeing.

She didn’t even know Hyuna owned a red pantsuit.

“You look like a realtor,” she said.

Hyuna had washed her face, applied new makeup and straightened her hair, too. Gone was her thick eyeliner and bright red lipstick. Now she looked feminine and professional, the type of woman who the Cosmos would trust with the safety and reliability of Gangcheol’s many factories.

That was an amusing thought.

“You think I’ll pass for a safety inspector?” she asked, smoothing the wrinkles out of her pants with the palms of her hands.

“You’ve got the look,” Solji said, nodding. “Are you a good liar?”

Elly laughed out loud, a short, harsh burst of humorless amusement that sounded cruel but came completely of its own volition.

“Don’t worry,” Elly said. “She is.”

Hyuna looked hurt but only for a second. She felt like she’d been slapped but didn’t have time to be offended, that key in locker 114 calling to her. The perpetual chemical smell of Gangcheol was burning her noise and she wanted to be back on her ship and back in the sky as soon as possible. She could swallow that comment the way she’d swallowed every hurt look and purposeful avoidance of eye contact so far. She was becoming very good at compartmentalizing.

“Lying is the easy part,” she said, fumbling with her sleeves. She was primping to avoid looking at Elly, focusing on tiny, unimportant details so that she didn’t get too wrapped up in her own head. If she paid too much attention to Elly, she’d get distracted and something would go wrong. And none of them could afford for something to go wrong. “Are we all set?”

Hyoyeon nodded.

“I put a temporary wall up around your ID page,” she explained. “You won’t have a CDR badge for them to see but they can scan your fingerprints. You’ll pop up as Boo Jaekwan, thirty-year-old Cosmos Department of Regulations employee. And, for good measure, I hacked their ty, out-of-date network and back-dated an event on their calendar. Whoever’s at the front desk will see an inspection scheduled for today.” Hyoyeon looked pleased with herself. “You’re all set, kitten.”

Hyuna grinned.

“Thanks, unnie.” She gestured down the hill, towards the factory that was still atwitter with productivity. “I guess I’ll get at it, then. You three can wait back in the ship if you want. This shouldn’t take long.”

“I’m gonna stay here,” Hyoyeon said. “Just in case something goes awry.”

Hyuna’s resounding nod was one of gratitude. Hyoyeon always had her back.

“I’m going to stay, too,” Solji said. She grunted as she tried to make herself comfortable but it wasn’t really possible against Gangcheol’s packed dirt. “No offense but I don’t like your ship.”

Hyuna resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Briefly, she looked to Elly but Elly didn’t say a word. Hyuna took that to mean that she’d be staying with Solji. Elly hadn’t known Solji very long but she’d grown attached to her, the stress of trying to save the universe and seeing Hyuna again having accelerated their bond.

“Hurry,” said Hyoyeon, waving her hand in front of her face like she was clearing something from the air. “All this asbestos is starting to hurt.” Hyuna nodded and started towards the edge of the hill but Hyoyeon stopped her. “Take the long way, kitten. Make it seem like you’re coming from the parking area, not like you were sitting up here, staking them out.”

“Huh,” Hyuna said. “Good point.”

She took off in the other direction, doubling back to where cars and rovers were parked in excess.

“What would she do without me?” Hyoyeon teased under her breath.

It wasn’t very hard to get inside.

There were no security measures in place at the door, though Hyuna had figured that. It was a big company that still operated like a small business, and mom-and-pop stores rarely splurged on big, bad security systems. When everyone knew everyone, what was the point?

There was a man behind the front desk no older than Hyuna, and his collared shirt was the same bluish-grey color as the jumpsuits worn by the employees. His dark hair was parted neatly to one side and the nametag on his chest read Leo.

“Hello!” he greeted cheerfully, straightening up in his chair. He’d been doing something on the computer but looked away from the monitor when he heard the door. “I’m Leo! How can I help you?”

“Hi,” Hyuna said, smiling brightly. “My name is Boo Jaekwan. I’m with the Cosmos Department of Regulations. I’m here to do your bi-monthly safety review.”

Leo looked surprised.

“Yeah?” he said.

“It should be in the computer,” Hyuna said, leaning over the counter a little so that she could pretend to glance at the screen. “I mean, if this is a bad time, that’s fine. But I’ll have to write it in my report…” She trailed off dramatically, painting an expression of mild concern across her face.

“No, no, no!” Leo countered quickly. “Let me just double-check. Sometimes the weekend receptionist puts things in the calendar and forgets to tell me.” He looked back to the screen, typed something, and this eyes went slightly wide with understanding. “Ah! There it is. Sorry about that!” He rubbed sheepishly at his neck. “I’m kind of new here,” he went on, “so I don’t know what these evaluations entail. Should I call my boss?”

“No need,” Hyuna said smoothly. This guy was so eager-to-please that she didn’t think he’d even take her scans. Hyoyeon would be pissed she did all that work for nothing but it was always better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. “You just give me a security badge that’ll get me onto the floor and into the electrical rooms and I make sure you nice folks are up to code.” She punctuated it with a smile that Leo returned easily.

“Sure,” he said. “No problem.” He pulled open a desk drawer and, after some shuffling around, produced a laminated security badge. “This will get you where you need to go.” He looked her up and down, surveying her. “You don’t need a clipboard or something?”

. She’d forgotten about that.

“It’s all digital,” Hyuna said slyly, gesturing at the expensive smart-watch on her wrist.

She wasn’t even sure what that meant – would that require her to speak her notes directly into her watch? – but Leo accepted it without further question.

“Right,” he said. “Of course. We’re a little old school here. Sometimes I forget the rest of the Cosmos is so far ahead.” Grinning, he ran a hand through his hair. “Anyway, you go ahead and do your thing. If you need anything, let me know!”

Hyuna thanked him and disappeared down the first hallway she saw.

It occurred to her suddenly that she had no idea where this locker room was. She looked to her watch, about to shoot a frantic message to Hyoyeon, but Hyoyeon was, as always, a step ahead of her, having already sent a message of her own.

Northeast hallway. Go towards the cafeteria. It’s around the corner, left-hand site. Employee Locker Room #1. Yellow door. You can’t miss it.

She almost sent back a message of gratitude but decided not to waste any time.

She followed the signs on the walls and the lines on the floor until she reached the northeast corridor, nodding politely at employees who passed by. Everyone seemed nice enough, diligent factory workers who helped keep the Cosmos up and running. They were all friendly, all clean-cut, clean-shaven and Hyuna couldn’t help but wonder why she was here of all places.

Seunghyun hadn’t told her the specifics, hadn’t told her why this key was here on Gangcheol, why it was here inside a rubber factory, why it was inside someone’s locker. He hadn’t told her how it had gotten there or how he knew where it was. Other than making it clear that this key was a priority and that it opened a lockbox on Gachug, he hadn’t told her anything at all.

But it was very obviously important. This key, and whatever it unlocked, was somehow tied into all of this. In the grand scheme of things, it was significant, tied in with Jiyong and the ‘verse-wide manhunt and Seunghyun’s group and the Berm and the wormhole and the overall balance of the mothering universe.

Hyuna was just curious what any of it had to do with a rubber factory on Gangcheol.

She’d been walking on auto-pilot as she pondered the divine order of things and suddenly, yellow, slightly faded double doors appeared before her. She completely abandoned her train of thought and pushed through them, not even considering that there might be employees inside.

She got lucky – the locker room was empty.

From there, it was just a matter of finding the right locker, finding the key and getting the out of dodge. This all felt way, way too easy. Something was bound to go wrong and sticking around meant tempting fate.

The lockers were numbered sequentially and Hyuna came upon locker 114 in just a few seconds. Moving quietly, she lifted the handle and pulled open the door, surprised to find the locker full of personal effects. When she thought about it, she realized it was silly. Of course it was in-use. Was she expecting it to be empty, with only the key sitting in the middle of the metal cubby, waiting for her?

Frankly, she hadn’t been expecting anything.

Pushing that all aside for later, she dug around, looking inside of a ripped lunch box, a faded backpack and a plastic bag that was filled with gym clothes.

“Come on,” she mumbled, shoving her hand inside of the hooded sweatshirt hanging from the hook, “where the –?” Her hand touched something cold and metallic. The key. She grinned as she pulled it from the fleece, inspecting it carefully.

It was a key alright, shiny and completely nondescript. For good measure, she checked every other possible crook and crevice twice. She needed to be sure that this key was the key. Seunghyun wouldn’t be a happy camper if she’d brought back some poor sap’s house key and all of this would have been for naught.

But, lo and behold, it was the only key inside locker 114 and so Hyuna was pleased.

She looked down at her pantsuit. Her pocketless pantsuit.

But then she smiled again and reached for the waistband of her bright red pants, pulling it down slightly to reveal the navy blue fabric of her . Who would’ve thought a gag gift from her good friend Huang Zitao would have come in handy?

Actually, she had. Hyuna was resourceful, someone who could find use for anything. Tao had given them to her as a joke, a pair of with a small, easy-to-conceal pocket on the front. He said it was something that every “y space smuggler” should have on-hand and Hyuna had laughed and hugged him, amused and impressed by his ingenuity and sense of humor.

She was sure Tao never meant for them to be used practically but Hyuna never liked to waste a good opportunity. Grinning, Hyuna slipped the key inside the pocket, adjusting her pants just as someone came through the double doors and joined her in the locker room.

“Hello,” said a man with a scar beneath his eye. “Who are you?”

“Boo Jaekwan,” she said pleasantly, gesturing with her security bade, “with the Cosmos Department of Regulations.”

“Is it inspection time already?” he whistled, heading for locker 106. “Hey, since when do you guys check locker rooms, too?”

Hyuna bit the inside of her cheek.

“The conditions of employee locker rooms are every bit as important as the safety and upkeep of machinery, sir,” she said. “Would you say your bosses make cleanliness and safety a top priority when it comes to employee spaces?”

Flustered, the man gave a very thorough, very positive answer but Hyuna wasn’t listening. When he was done speaking, she smiled, shook his hand and thanked him before excusing herself and ducking out of the doors.

She had the key and nobody had any idea she wasn’t a Cosmos crony. It was a successful mission and now she needed to get the hell out. She walked calmly and quickly to the service entrance, repeating the same words over and over again inside of her head; this had been much too easy.

Back on the hill, though, things were not quite as simple.

“Star-ing ,” Hyoyeon mumbled under her breath when a blinking notification on-screen broke her focus.

“What?” Solji asked, looking over at the screen. “Star-ing , what?”

“We’ve got a problem,” Hyoyeon said. She scooped up her laptop and scrambled to her feet. “Look alive, ladies. We have to skedaddle.”

“Skedaddle?” Solji demanded. “Skedaddle where?”

“Back to the ship,” Hyoyeon said. “Someone is coming. Landing, I mean. Someone else is landing. We need to move before they do.” By now, the other girls were on their feet. Hyoyeon looked to Elly. “Hey, Hyojin, you remember how to drive the Juggernaut?”

Though she was damn-near offended by the use of her real name, Elly nodded.

“I remember,” she said.

“Great,” said Hyoyeon. From her pocket, she produced the keys and tossed them underhand to Elly who snatched them easily from the air. “Let’s get a ing move on.”

By the time Hyuna had exited the factory and scaled the side of the far side of the hill, the Juggernaut was nowhere to be found. But that didn’t bother her much. Her watch had a tracker that was connected to the ship, kind of the space smuggler equivalent of an old timey thing called LoJack, and with a few easy swipes, she had clear directions back to her beloved Juggernaut.

Elly had flown it just about a mile away, tucking the Juggernaut behind a rare expanse of trees that made it significantly less visible from the sky. She cut diagonally into the forest until she reached the side entrance and used her watch to unlock the door. A minute later, she was back inside the Juggernaut where she was met with three worried gazes from the women in her cockpit.

Hyuna cocked an eyebrow.

“What I miss?” she asked, not sure she really wanted the answer.

“We have a problem,” Hyoyeon said.

“What kind of problem?” Hyuna asked, getting closer.

Hyoyeon gestured to one of the monitors on the dashboard and then pressed a series of buttons on the keypad. An image appeared. Onscreen, another ship had landed in the dust of Gangcheol, only a few hundred meters from where the Juggernaut had been parked. Outside of the ship, which was half the size of the Juggernaut and grey with green trim, was a petite blonde woman in a black jacket.

Hyuna gaped at the screen.

“Is that–?”

“Kim Taeyeon and the Termite,” Hyoyeon said numbly.

Hyuna was too flustered too respond with words and instead replied with something between a grunt and a growl. She watched the woman onscreen carefully, knowing damn sure that Taeyeon and her crew were here for the same reason they were – to get the key.

The Termite had beaten them to Jeongbu, and to Taeyong, and had made getting that folder ten times harder. Somehow, Heechul had gotten them the information first.

But this time, Hyuna had gotten there first, if only just barely. She had the key, which mean Taeyeon, and, therefore Heechul, didn’t, and that was satisfying. But it wasn’t nearly enough.

They couldn’t do any of this with the Termite on their trail, nor could they constantly be playing catch-up if Taeyeon and her crew happened to get to these places first. What had happened on Jeongbu was a fluke – it wasn’t likely that there’d ever be duplicates again. If it was a matter of findingsomething (or, in the very literal sense, someone), there would only be one. And things were hard enough without them having to compete with the Termite.

And universe wouldn’t survive if Kim Heechul got his hands on the wormhole.

So that left Hyuna with two options – either she had to get Kim Taeyeon and the Termite on their side, or she had to eliminate them as a threat.

Since both of those options required swift and immediate action, Hyuna peeled off her bright red coat and turned to Hyoyeon.

“If we’re going to do this,” she said, sure that Hyoyeon had already reached the same conclusion she had, “we need to act now.”

“Way ahead of you,” she said. “I was planning to hack their system and cut their power as soon as Taeyeon made a move for the factory.”

“If we’re quick enough,” Hyuna said, “we won’t even need to do that.”

Hyoyeon nodded, already on her feet.

“Wait,” Solji said. “You lost me. What’s happening?”

Hyoyeon and Hyuna ignored her, lost in a world of their own, so Elly answered.

“They’re going to take Taeyeon,” Elly said.

“Take?” Solji demanded. “What do you mean take?”

“I need that little girl’s crew to listen to what we have to say,” Hyuna said. She was sitting on the floor, changing from her nice red shoes to the boots she used for work. “And I think taking their captain hostage is a great way to make them listen, don’t you?”

Solji’s face paled as she tried to find the words to say to voice her disgust with this plan.

“Can it, Red,” Hyoyeon said, raising a hand to silence her before she’d even fully started speaking. “You can hit us with your moral objections later. Right now, we need to hurry or we’ll lose our chance. Just a ing reminder, since it seems you’ve forgotten, Solji, but the ing universe kind of depends on this.”

“Elly,” Hyuna said, forgetting all about their past and their baggage for the sake of the job, “can you help? I don’t know how many crew members she had but on a ship that small, I’d say no more than four. It would really be a of a lot easier if we had an extra pair of hands.”

“No,” Solji said. “There’s no way she’s going to–”

“Yeah,” Elly said. “I’m in. Do you have an extra blaster?”

Hyuna nodded.

“This way,” she said, gesturing to the entrance. “But hurry.”

They disappeared out the door before Solji had a chance to object.

“Make sure no one gets on this ing ship,” Hyoyeon said, slapping Solji’s shoulder harder than she’d needed to. “Fly away if you have to.”

And then she was gone, leaving Solji in the cockpit of an unfamiliar ship on an unfamiliar planet, hoping against hope that this afternoon wouldn’t end in a hostage situation.

“Did Heechul say what this key was for?” Hwasa asked, joining Taeyeon in the dirt outside of the Termite. She grimaced slightly when the burning, chemical smell of Gangcheol hit her nose.

Taeyeon shook her head.

“Heechul and I seem to be on a very need-to-know basis with information,” she said. “Mostly, he doesn’t think I need to know anything and just expects me to wing it.”

Hwasa snorted.

“And that’s okay with you?”

Taeyeon shrugged.”

“For the money he’s offering,” said Taeyeon, “I’m willing to make myself okay with a lot.”

That was only half-true. There was a lot about Heechul that made Taeyeon nervous, a lot of what he asked for making her feel shady and uncomfortable. But they needed a new ship. If Taeyeon wanted to keep her crew and keep her job and keep her life the way it was, they needed a new ship.

She was willing to make a lot of sacrifices to keep her family together.

She was still a little unnerved, still unsure of just what she was getting herself and her crew into, but she trusted her instincts. Right now, it was okay. Right now, she was just helping someone find Jiyong. Everyone was looking for Jiyong. What made Heechul any different?

(Taeyeon knew in the back of her mind that there was something big and dark that made Heechul very, very different but she just couldn’t bring herself to think about that yet.)

“So how are we getting this key, boss?” Hwasa asked, putting her hands on her hips as she looked down the hill at the factory.

“Charm our way inside, probably,” Taeyeon said absently. “And make it up as we go along.” She looked over her shoulder at Hwasa and smiled. “Same as always.”

Hwasa smirked.

“What we do best, honestly.”

“Can you do me a favor?” Taeyeon asked. “Can you check the rover and make its they’re gassed up and ready to go?”

“You expecting trouble?” Hwasa asked and Taeyeon grinned.

“I’m just playing it safe,” she said.

Hwasa gave her a salute and disappeared around the side of the Termite. Having no extra storage space on-board, they kept the rover inside a pull-down hatch near the emergency generators.

Once Hwasa was gone, Taeyeon started thinking again.

What was it that Heechul wanted so badly with Jiyong? Why was he willing to pay twice the Cosmos bounty? Jiyong had been tried and jailed for treason, whatever the hell that was, and with a charge that vague, he’d probably made a lot of enemies. But what was it about Heechul that made Taeyeon’s skin crawl? What were his intentions and why did they throwing up all these red flags in Taeyeon’s mind?

She forced herself to think of other things, focusing instead on how she was going to get this key from a bustling factory, but she couldn’t help her mind from wandering. Feeling dizzy with the stress of her own deep analysis, Taeyeon shook her head and remembered Hwasa.

“Hwasa!” she called. “What’s taking you so long? Aigoo. Kids these days, always slacking.” She took off the way Hwasa had gone, rounding the back of the ship and angling herself towards the hatch. “Did you get lost or did you just–?” She gasped so sharply that it made her chest ache.

A tall, unfamiliar woman had her arm around Hwasa’s neck and a blaster pointed to her head. Hwasa looked angrier than anything else but Taeyeon couldn’t mistake the fear in her eyes.

“Hi,” the woman said, her tone almost bright.

Taeyeon opened to say something but she was silenced by the sound of a blaster heating up. Less than a second later, she felt it against the back of her head.

“Kim Taeyeon,” said the voice of a stranger, and a chill ran up Taeyeon’s spine. “My name is Kim Hyuna, and I’d like to have a word with you.” A third woman, this one blonde and dressed in leather, appeared with zip-ties in her hand. “We’re going to tie you up and take you back to our ship and then you’re going to tell us everything you know about a man named Kim Heechul.”

Taeyeon swallowed hard. She met Hwasa’s eyes and the two exchanged a knowing look.

Of course this was about Heechul.

No wonder she couldn’t get him out of her head.

She really did have good instincts.

“But first,” said the woman with the gun to Hwasa’s head. “How many other people are on your ship?”

Taeyeon considered lying, considered refusing to answer, but that blaster against Hwasa’s temple was awfully persuasive.

“Just two,” she said quietly.

“Very good,” said Kim Hyuna. In another half-minute, the blonde had Hwasa and Taeyeon bound and the taller woman pushed Hwasa away, obviously content that she was in no position to fight back.

Clearly, they no longer viewed Hwasa and Taeyeon as a threat.

“Elly and Hyoyeon,” said Hyuna. “Go get the other two. I’ll be out here with our new friends.” The women, Elly and Hyoyeon, nodded and headed inside the Termite, and Taeyeon felt nauseous. Hyuna, her blaster still fixed on them, noticed. “You look a little green, Taeyeon,” she said mockingly. “Not feeling too good?” Taeyeon ignored her. Hwasa was pissed, trying her ing best not to speak up and get herself shot, but Hyuna wasn’t paying her any mind. “Oh well,” she said. She gestured with her blaster while she spoke, her attention elsewhere, like taking two hostages wasn’t the most exciting part of her day. “I don’t feel all that bad for you.” There was a commotion inside and Taeyeon looked away, trying not to worry too much. Hyuna just smiled cruelly, pleased with the balance of things. “That’s what you get,” she said quietly, “for making a deal with the devil.”