A/N: Did you miss me? I missed you.

They had seven days to find Kwon Jiyong and get him to the quietly-famous El Dorado wormhole.

Seven days to charge to the complete other side of the solar system, all the while trying to avoid Heechul, the Cosmos government and other freelancers with similar ideas. Seven days to connect all the dots and get to the bottom of what exactly the hell was going on in the galaxy.

Seven days to throw a Hail Mary and save the universe.

The captains left the morning after their video conference with Seunghyun, barely twenty-four hours since they’d been left with no choice but to kidnap the Termite girls. Taeyeon had been quick to switch sides, almost like she’d been hoping she’d been given an opportunity to do so, and her co-pilot wasn’t far behind. But the Termite’s engineer and technical analyst – Amber and Krystal respectively – weren’t so eager to forgive and forget. Amber seemed too polite to actually voice her displeasure but Krystal wasn’t so subtle. She stomped around the ship, huffing and puffing and cursing under her breath until Yuri got fed up and suggested she search for hotel accommodations somewhere else on Geum Haneul.

Because they were taking the Termite to Gachug, Taeyeon didn’t need to pack and because the Pandora had been destroyed and, along with it, most of her belongings, Elly didn’t either. Hyuna threw a few changes of clothes and some weapons into a duffle bag and called it a day but Solji carefully packed a single suitcase with everything she thought she’d need while Hyerin sat on the bed and watched her, silent.

A weird cloud hung over the ship.

The girls were riled up, anxious, eager to get started. Never in their wildest dreams had any of them ever expected to get tangled up in something this big. Berm preservation? Government conspiracies? Military contractors? Treason? They’d gotten involved with the Cosmos’ manhunt for different reasons – Elly and Taeyeon wanted the money, Solji wanted the glory, Hyuna wanted revenge – but they’d never seen any of this coming.

How could they?

It seemed like almost every other member of their new super-crew was excited. Yuri and Sunny were chomping at the bit, ready to tear through line after line of secret code. Moonbyul and Solar were excited to work together (though Hyerin had a creeping suspicion that that had little to do with anything actually related to the Unity’s engine), Sooyoung was excited about being able to dive headfirst into wormhole research, Hwasa was excited to be in charge while the captains were away (no one was really sure where she’d gotten that idea but, as she seemed like somewhat of a natural leader, they just went with it) and Wheein was just excited to be included.

The captains weren’t excited. Elly was nervous, nervous about suddenly being involved in a plot to save the universe and nervous about spending a week with Kim Hyuna. How could she save the galaxy when she couldn’t even save herself? How could she face off against the Cosmos, against some of the most dangerous thugs in the entire universe when she couldn’t even face the girl who’d broken her heart?

Taeyeon was apprehensive, second-guessing her instincts that had somehow led her to make a deal with a supervillain. If she couldn’t trust her own instincts, what did she have? There’d been a time not too long ago when Taeyeon used gut-feelings like a compass, letting the voice inside her head steer her life and her ship. Without them, who was she?

Solji was scared, scared that she’d bit off more than she can chew, scared that she’d taken an unnecessary risk and put herself in unnecessary danger, scared that this was an even bigger deal than they all thought. Above all, she was scared she wouldn’t make it home to Hyerin, scared that she’d get herself shot or blown up and wouldn’t live to have another Code Pink fight with the love of her life.

Hyuna was angry. The Cosmos had destroyed her life once and now they were doing it all over again. Wasn’t killing her parents and sentencing her to four years in a Daedosi group home enough? Now they had to drag Elly into it? How many lives were they willing to destroy? How many people would Kim Heechul let die to further his career and elevate the art of war?

And then there was Hyerin. While a war threatened to break in space, bubbling quietly below the surface like water about to boil, an even fiercer battle raged inside the doctor. Her anxiety was tangible, knotting up her stomach and fogging up her head. She’d barely slept since this whole thing started, unable to wrap her head around the idea of Solji getting caught up in the Cosmos’ web. Simply put, she was terrified, completely and utterly terrified of what could happen to her wife, what could happen to her family, what could happen to the Cosmos System. She didn’t know how to rectify it, certain that all the Xanax and SmartDummy simulations in the world couldn’t still her shaking hands or slow her racing heart.

This might have been bigger than them, might have been about the good of the universe, but Solji was her universe, damn it, and there was nothing anyone could tell her – not the captains, not the Cosmos, not Seunghyun, not Kim Heechul – that would ever convince her that this was a good idea.

But it all came down to one important fact – Solji was the captain. These decisions were huge, world-shattering and life-changing, but Solji needed to make them as a captain, not as Hyerin’s wife. And Hyerin? She needed to accept her role as the ship’s doctor, not as Mrs. Heo Solji. On any other ship, the doctor’s two-cents on tactical decisions would be worth about as much as Berm . But this was different. Solji was the captain, but Solji was Hyerin’s entire world. Shouldn’t that have counted for something?

It was a very thin line that Hyerin wasn’t sure how to walk anymore. She wanted to support Solji, wanted to tell her that everything was going to be fine, that she would be back in two weeks and they would be together again, safe and sound. She’d done just that in the observation deck, holding her wife and telling her exactly what she needed to hear. But the truth was that Hyerin didn’t want to let her go. The truth was she wanted to beg Solji to stay, beg her to cut all ties with the other ships and take some time off until things cooled down.

The truth was she didn’t want Solji to board the Termite and go to Gachug.

But Hyerin wasn’t allowed to tell her that and so, instead, she held her, made promises she couldn’t possibly keep and her hair until she fell asleep. Solji didn’t need the truth. Solji’s mind had already been made up and once that happened, there was no going back. Solji didn’t need Hyerin to beg her to stay – she needed Hyerin to tell her to go.

So that was what Hyerin did.

The next morning, while Solji packed, Hyerin sat on the bed and watched her, too afraid to open for fear of what would come out. Solji made stupid jokes to break the silence and lighten the mood and Hyerin laughed because that was what Solji needed.

When her bag was packed and there was no longer any way to stall the inevitable, Solji looked back at Hyerin with tears in her eyes.

It was like a switch had been flipped.

Whatever fear and apprehension Hyerin thought she felt, Solji felt it a thousand times more. She felt every worry of every person onboard her ship, felt every ounce of fear felt by every threatened Berm, felt the entire weight of the universe on her shoulders.

In that moment, Hyerin couldn’t remember how to feel uncertain. All she knew how to feel was love for Solji, and all she knew how to do was support her. She got up from where she sat on the bed and moved towards Solji with surprising grace. Though shorter than her wife, Hyerin took Solji into her arms with a familiar ease, letting Solji bury her face in her neck.

Better she cry now, before she needed to board the Termite, and get it all out. Better for Hyerin to be the only one to see her like this. Better for Hyerin to be there for her while she still could. Better for Solji to start the most important journey of her career with a clean slate of emotion.

Better for them to say their goodbyes in private.

“You’re going to do so great,” Hyerin whispered, feeling Solji’s tears against her skin. “My wife is going to save the universe. How lucky am I? You don’t even know how much I’m going to brag about you. My parents will never hear the end of it.”

Solji laughed through sobs and clung more tightly to Hyerin.

“Unless I up,” she said, “and destroy the universe instead.”

Hyerin shrugged as best she could without jostling her.

“Still impressive,” she said. “I’d still brag about that.”

They stayed like for another few minutes. Eventually, Solji stopped crying. Hyerin whispered a few more words of encouragement and hope, words that would stay between them, and a quick, comforting peck on the lips became a long kiss goodbye that they both had to fight to end.

In one hand, Hyerin carried Solji’s suitcase. In the other, she linked her fingers with Solji’s. They walked off the Unity together, hand-in-hand, and joined the other girls at the hangar where the Termite was waiting.

The air was electric. Hwasa, Amber and Krystal seemed downright enthusiastic on Taeyeon’s behalf. Though Krystal was still brooding, there was something proud and energetic about her as she hugged her captain goodbye. Amber was cracking jokes, slapping Taeyeon on the back with each punchline, and Hwasa was laughing like this was just another Sunday morning search-and-rescue mission.

Elly looked even paler than usual as she stood near the ship, hands stuffed into the pockets of her jacket. Her eyes were down, narrowed slightly like she was really focusing, like she was counting the number of pebbles on the blacktop. Sunny and Moonbyul were beside her, the former appearing calm and collected while the latter radiated nervous energy. But, as was Moonbyul’s nature, she was talking a mile a minute, trying to make Elly laugh and trying to make everyone forget that with this journey came real and serious danger.

Hyoyeon and Hyuna were together, neither looking particularly bothered or impressed. As always, Hyuna was dressed in leather and adorned with spikes. Her dark eyes and bright lipstick always did wonders to make her look untouchable and that day was no different.

Only Sooyoung had come from the Unity. Solji hadn’t wanted her to, hadn’t wanted to bother the crew with dramatic goodbyes, but Solji insisted.

“What?” she said when Solji entered the hangar and looked her up and down disapprovingly. “I’m not supposed to come wish my captain luck?”

Solji smiled and hugged her and told her not to crash the ship while she was gone. Sooyoung laughed and told her to off and kissed the top of her.

“It’s about time to go,” Taeyeon said, checking her watch. “The faster we leave, the faster we get back.”

“Seconded,” said Hyuna and then she turned to Hyoyeon and said, “Behave while I’m gone, unnie. If this doesn’t work out, I may not have the money to bail you out.”

Hyoyeon snorted. Rather than hug, they shook hands – an idiosyncrasy that Elly remembered well – and then Hyuna turned and boarded the Termite without another world. She didn’t seem to care, or even notice, that Moonbyul was shooting daggers, trying to make her head explode through sheer force of will, but she shook it off, hugging Elly and telling her to be safe.

“Make good choices,” Sunny said, giving Elly a tight squeeze. “Don’t talk to strangers. Wear your seatbelt!”

“Don’t die, Captain,” Sooyoung said, hitting Solji’s arm. And then, more seriously, she said, “I always knew you were destined for greatness. I knew that the first day I met you.”

When Taeyeon and Elly had boarded, and when Sooyoung went to stand with the remaining Pandora girls, Solji squeezed Hyerin’s hands.

“I’ll make you proud,” she said.

Hyerin smiled and said, “Already there, kid.”

They hugged, they kissed and then, before she lost her nerve, Solji took a deep breath, picked up her suitcase and boarded the Termite.

It was another few minutes before the ship pulled away and disappeared out of the hangar. Without realizing it, Hyerin had gone to stand beside Moonbyul, watching as her wife vanished up into space.

Never had a golden sky seemed so ominous.

“This is going to ,” Moonbyul said when Sunny, Sooyoung and Hyoyeon had all started their walk back to the Unity. She glanced at Hyerin then looked back to where the Termite had gone. “This is really, really going to .”

Hyerin nodded slowly.

“I think I’m going to throw up,” she said.

Moonbyul looked at her again, considering taking a step away from her to avoid being vomited on, but when she concluded that Hyerin’s words came from a place of anxiety rather than actual digestive distress, she put her hand on the doctor’s arm. Reaching into her pocket, Moonbyul felt the money she still had left over from her dice game on Cheoeum. Enough for a few burgers, she figured.

“Come on, Doc,” she said, wrapping her arm around Hyerin’s shoulders. “I’ll buy you some lunch.”

It was a long first day in the air.

The Termite was even smaller than Elly had been picturing and the sheer proximity to Hyuna was draining her energy and her will to save the universe. The other three captains seemed to be in full-fledged work mode, chattering informatively about flying conditions and landing gear and escape pods and Berm preservation tactics.

The Termite lacked an independent cockpit, meaning that while Taeyeon and Hyuna took the first flight shift, Solji and Elly weren’t very far away. From the connected kitchenette, and even from the closed-off common room, it was easy to hear their conversations.

Hyuna was confident in every word she spoke, in every move she made. She was in an unfamiliar ship, helping lead a next-to-impossible mission into deep, uncharted space, and she breathed easily like it was something she’d done a thousand times before.

How’d she do it?

Elly didn’t understand. It was hard enough to be in this situation professionally – to be piloting a strange ship under the pressure of such insanely high stakes – but personally? Had Elly really meant that little to her? Had it really been that easy to cheat on her, to move on from her, to forget her completely? Even before they’d been thrown back into each other’s worlds, even before they’d reunited on Geum Haneul, Elly hadn’t been over Hyuna. Not even close.

Sure, it wasn’t as bad as it had been. She didn’t wake up crying anymore. She didn’t fall apart when certain songs came on the radio. She didn’t find herself drunkenly swiping through Hyuna’s social media accounts. She’d even tried getting herself back in the game, going to bars and talking to pretty girls and trying to act like her heart had miraculously grown back into one piece and was ready to be used again.

Nothing seemed to work. Time lessened the sting, turning raw flesh into scar tissue, but Elly hadn’t ever gotten over Hyuna. No amount of drunken one-night stands could repair the damage Hyuna had done and even before Jiyong and the great, tangled space race, Elly hadn’t moved past her.

And now? Being with her again? It was like someone had torn open each and every stitch that time had so painstakingly spent the last two years filling in. She felt like she’d been ripped in half, all her blood and guts and darkest feelings visible to the world, every nerve ending exposed to the elements. She wasn’t fine. Not one bit. So how was Hyuna?

Elly didn’t know what hurt more – being back with Hyuna after all that had happened between them, or knowing that Hyuna’s stoicism and composure came from a place of genuine emotional stability.

Hyuna was fine because Hyuna didn’t care.

And that was a lot for Elly to swallow.

Because of that, she didn’t sleep.

Somewhere in the middle of that first shift, Elly wandered back to the dorm, curious about the sleeping situation. Pandora-living, evidently, had spoiled her. Sure, they had dents and dings and no escape pod but at least they’d had separate bedrooms. The Termite’s barracks, meanwhile, consisted of one room with two bunk beds.

That immediately gave Elly chills.

There were too many possibilities – too many bad possibilities. What if her off-shift lined up with Hyuna’s? What if she fell asleep and woke up to Hyuna in the bunk next to her, or the bunk above her? What if they found themselves four-feet apart, both unable to sleep, but with nowhere else on this micro-ship to go?

None of it seemed worth the risk, so Elly stayed up.

She was up for three straight shifts – a total of almost thirty hours – before Taeyeon intervened.

The two were in the cockpit, watching sparkly blackness fly by the windshield. This was the last shift before Gachug. Soon enough, they’d be retrieving the second half of the tracker (the original half, the one that Seunghyun had had in his possession, had been delivered to them via something called a Lightspeed Courier), activating it and following it to Jiyong. For now, though, they were flying and Elly was on her third packet of LifeForce in as many hours.

Taeyeon was eyeballing her, trying to size the captain up and figure out what she was about. To be fair, these people were all still strangers to Taeyeon, but she felt that she at least had some sort of base feeling about Solji and Hyuna.

Elly, meanwhile, was a mystery. The bags under her eyes and the slouch of her shoulders, however, were not.

“Have you slept since we left Geum Haneul?” Taeyeon asked. Since this was her ship, on her shifts, she acted as the pilot. In this instance, and for the first time in a long time, Elly was a co-pilot.

“I’m fine,” Elly said, her voice listless.

“That wasn’t what I asked,” Taeyeon countered. Something on one of the panels had beeped, so Taeyeon looked down to see what caused it. It was Krystal’s software, the one that warned about impending meteorites and potential wreckage, but as their route would take them around this particular obstacle, Taeyeon swiped it away. “I know you’re nervous about the stuff with Jiyong but–”

“I’m not nervous about Jiyong,” Elly said, irritated. Her elbow was rested on the panel before her, her head held up by the palm of her left hand. Her right hand was stirring her drink, trying to get the notoriously sour grape LifeForce to dissolve faster. “Well, I mean, I am a little bit but that’s not why I’m not sleeping.”

Taeyeon raised an eyebrow, sparing a glance out the windshield to make sure she wasn’t about to steer them into a dwarf planet before focusing her attention on Elly.

She gestured to the panels and said, “Well, we’ve got another few hours of this. Might as well get it off your chest.”

Elly didn’t bother playing it cool or changing the subject. They would be spending at least the next two weeks together. Better Taeyeon know the truth now than spend the next few days playing catch-up and getting distracted from what was really important.

“Hyuna and I,” Elly began, poking the bottom of her glass with her spoon, “used to date. Well, more than that, really. We were together for a while. She was my girlfriend. This was way back before any of this Jiyong stuff started. We sort of had no choice but to work together when the tech girls figured out was happening. But before last week, I hadn’t seen her in two years.” Elly tried to smile, tried to play it off like it wasn’t a big deal and she was still okay, but Taeyeon saw right through it.

“Huh,” she said after taking a moment to process that and apply it to what she’d already observed over the last day and a half. “So I guess our meager sleeping accommodations aren’t a dream come true for you, then.”

Elly shook her head.

“Not so much, no. I just can’t bring myself to lay down and fall asleep knowing that she might be there, too. I can’t go take a nap if I know I might wake up to the smell of her perfume. I just…” She shuddered at the thought of it, recoiling into herself when she remembered the last time they’d slept so close. “I think I’d rather just stay awake and risk dying of sleep-deprivation.”

“I’m not worried about you dying,” Taeyeon said. “I’m worried about you crashing my ship.” Elly blinked and Taeyeon backtracked. “Sorry. Hwasa says I lack certain social graces. What I meant to say is that you won’t die if you’re tired but you will be a danger to this mission and I can’t have that. Captain to captain, that just can’t happen. The good news is I think I’ve got a solution.”

Elly perked up a little.

“You have those energy-replacement pills from Daedosi?” she asked excitedly. “I thought those were still illegal in the air.”

Taeyeon sighed and said, “No. I don’t have any energy-replacers but what I do have is somewhere else for you to sleep.” Elly seemed baffled by this, sitting up straighter and leaning in slightly.

“Do you have a hidden compartment somewhere?” she asked. “I don’t need much room. I could probably sleep standing up like a horse.”

Taeyeon shook her head.

“Our engineer, Amber, she also needs her privacy. Plus she works a lot of late nights and doesn’t like to bother us when we’re sleeping. In the back of the engine room, there’s a mattress. It’s not a five-star hotel but it’s a warm bed, away from everyone else. Amber likes to think of it as her little slice of paradise but I don’t think she’d mind me sharing it with you.” Taeyeon paused for a moment and considered Amber’s strange relationship with Krystal. “Frankly, she has her own share of girlfriend drama. I think she’d be honored to help you out.”

“You mean it?” Elly asked, reminding Taeyeon suddenly of a puppy with its tail wagging.

“Yeah,” she said. “The rest of this shift is easy-peasy. I can do it alone. We’re going to be on Gachug soon and I’d rather you be well-rested and ready to go. You go take a nap. I’ll get us to the tracker.”

Elly hesitated for a moment, considering whether or not Taeyeon would appreciate being taken into a tight bear hug. Eventually, she decided on bowing, expressing her gratitude the way she used to back in flight school.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, picking up her glass and heading to the kitchenette to dump it out.

“Thank me by getting some rest,” Taeyeon said. “We’re going to need you later.” Elly nodded and took off in a light jog towards the common room, prompting Taeyeon to remind her where she was going. “When you get out of the common room, take a left. The engine room is kind of hard to miss.”

Without turning around, Elly gave her a thumbs-up and disappeared out the door. Taeyeon shook her head, smiling a little in spite of herself.

“Kids these days,” she said under her breath, returning her attention to the panels and screens that would eventually take them right to Gachug. “So dramatic.” 

Gachug was a farming planet. It was the Cosmos System’s chief exporter of dairy, meat and vegetables. It was a lot like Cheoeum, another planet seemingly set aside to grow crops and raise cattle, but the difference was that Gachug didn’t have anything worth mining. Its soil and atmosphere seemed perfectly tailored for farm life but did little to yield precious minerals that could be dug out of the dirt.

Taeyeon sat in the cockpit and researched the planet as she waited for the other three captains to wake up. Once she’d sent Elly to bed, it was another three hours of mindless flying until she got close enough to Gachug to signal the Termite’s landing. Unlike Cheoeum, Gachug actually did have a centrally-located landing port, however small and rudimentary. Taeyeon called in, told the port authority worker who answered that they were coming down to shop for fruits and vegetables, and brought the Termite into the port as smoothly as she could.

“Good thing you said that,” Solji said, appearing behind Taeyeon a few seconds after she’d disconnected the call. She was dressed for the day, but there still seemed to be sleep clouding her eyes. “I actually was hoping to stock up on a few things. This place is one big farmer’s market. It seems irresponsible to leave without some tomatoes and corn.”

“I’d prefer a nice, juicy steak,” said Hyuna, joining them in the cockpit. She, too, was dressed for the next shift but she looked refreshed and ready-for-action, no fatigue lingering anywhere on her face. Maneuvering around Solji, she took the seat opposite of Taeyeon, looking out the windshield so she could glance around the hangar. Only they weren’t in the hangar. They were outside somewhere, parked in the grass. “This isn’t the landing port,” she said, breaking her own personal rule about stating the obvious.

“We need to get the other half of the tracker,” Taeyeon reminded them, pointing to the lockbox key that was sitting on the dashboard. “The landing port was a few hundred miles from where we needed to be, and I didn’t feel like spending a few hours in the rover.”

“How’d you get port authority to let you roam free?” Solji asked. “That usually requires all kinds of permits.”

Taeyeon grinned and twirled a lock of hair flirtatiously around one finger.

“You’d be surprised what blonde hair and a little charm will get you,” she teased. “I flirted, told the guy that I was going back to visit my family’s farm for the first time since graduating flight school and that I wanted to show my parents my ship.” She shrugged and glanced up towards the blue sky. “It wasn’t very hard at all.”

Impressed, Hyuna said, “Nice work. So, are we going or what?”

“We just need Elly,” Taeyeon said and then, remembering what the younger captain had told her while they were in the air, she added, “I think she’s in the engine room. Can you get her, Solji?” Taeyeon wasn’t interested in getting caught up in any ex-girlfriend drama but, at the very least, she figured she could keep Elly’s new hiding spot a secret. It was better for everyone on-board if Elly and Hyuna could keep things peaceful, and a hideout pretty much guaranteed some degree of peace.

Sensing that Taeyeon was up to something, Solji narrowed her eyes. Still, she conceded.

“Sure,” she said, nodding once. “I’ll get her.”

Once she’d closed the door to the common room, Hyuna nodded her chin at the panel.

“So,” she said. “What’s the plan?”

It was decided that Elly would be the one to retrieve the key from the lockbox.

It was tucked safely away in a bank named after a historic space explorer and a crude security scan turned up no real threats. It was a very simple, run-of-the-mill savings bank whose main demographic was farmers, and a quick vote decided that Elly would make the best runner. Hyuna was out because she looked too intimidating. Taeyeon was out because nobody thought she could keep a straight face for that long, and Solji was out because she legitimately wanted to shop for meats and vegetables while Elly went and got the tracker.

Elly didn’t mind. Now that she wasn’t running entirely on fumes, she felt better. She still couldn’t look Hyuna in the eye but she didn’t feel quite as hopeless as she had before.

It didn’t seem like a very hard mission anyway.

The ship was parked about a mile from town. Solji took the rover so that she could purchase as much fresh food as possible, and the other three walked, keeping their distance from each other as to not draw much attention to themselves. They’d changed before they left the ship, ditching style in favor of functionality and convinciblity. Hyuna’s iconic leather jacket and characteristic bright red lipstick would make her stick out like a sore thumb. Dressing in plain clothes and muted colors meant that they’d look the part and nobody would give them a second thought.

While Solji headed to the market and Elly took off for the bank, Hyuna and Taeyeon looked for ways to keep themselves busy. Neither of them were particularly social – people usually found Taeyeon awkward and virtually everyone who’d ever met her considered Hyuna to be cold – so making small-talk with passing farmers was out of the question. There was nothing inside any of the rural general stores that interested either of them. They’d only gone into town to act as backup in case anything weird went on while Elly was in the bank but standing there in the middle what could only be described as a Gachug village, Hyuna couldn’t think of what kind of trouble would ever find this place.

Maybe that was why Seunghyun had sent the second part of the tracker here.

Ultimately, Hyuna sat on a bench outside of a ramshackle motel and pretended to play on her phone while Taeyeon stood near the stables and looked at horses.

Solji, meanwhile, was having the time of her life at the farmer’s market. On the Unity, Yoona was something on a godsend. She could make an incredible meal out of whatever was in the pantry. Unfortunately, and perhaps the only major downside Solji could think of when it came to life in the air, ninety-percent of what they consumed was preserved. Whether it was dried, premade or just plain frozen, life in space didn’t really lend itself to fresh food.

But now, Solji was at an authentic farmer’s market on a planet known for its produce and dairy and she was filling her shopping cart like the world was ending. Carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, snow peas, pork, beef, fresh cheese, homemade pasta – she wanted it all. She was tempted to take a picture and send it to Hyerin, teasing her wife about the spoils of being the captain, but decided against it. She couldn’t remember what time it was on Geum Haneul and she didn’t want to wake her with something silly. But the next time Hyerin called, she’d have to hear all about Solji’s fried rice with fresh pork and beautiful, bright green broccoli.

Solji laughed to herself as she dug around her bag for her cash-card. It had only been a day-and-a-half but she missed her wife. It was a little embarrassing. Back in flight school, back when she’d been a humble playgirl with plans to seduce every attractive female student and professor in the academy, she made fun of people like that, people who were so attached to their significant other that they couldn’t even go two days without them.

But she’d been young and stupid then, completely ignorant to things like true love and real, live devotion.

Now she was older, wiser.

Now she had Hyerin.

As she waited to pay, Solji saw something familiar mixed in with the other impulse-buys. Right there between the chocolate almonds and glow-in-the-dark cigarette lighters was a bag of Hyerin’s favorite sour candy. They were somewhat hard to come by and the last time she and Yoona had gone shopping, Solji couldn’t find any. But there they were.

She threw three bags into the cart, smiling. Maybe she’d send Hyerin some pictures after all.

Inside the bank, things were running smoothly.

Elly had a pretty face and a very easy charm about her. She spoke confidently to the man at the counter, her tone completely breezy as she showed him the key and explained that she needed to access her safety deposit box. Amicably, he led her back to the boxes and gave her some privacy. Once she found box #401, it was smooth sailing. She opened the box, put the tracker into her purse and locked it back up. For good measure, she counted to a hundred before coming back out.

She thanked the man for his time and wished him a happy local holiday before disappearing out the front door, scanning the surrounding area for her cohorts. She saw Hyuna first (that figured) and when she caught her eyes, Elly nodded, signaling that it was safe to head back to the ship. Hyuna didn’t respond outright, pretending instead to take a phone call as she walked back the way they’d come.

She managed to get Taeyeon’s attention in the process, coming up behind her as she walked back up the trail.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” said Hyuna, holding her phone away from to protect the integrity of her fake call. “Did you drop this?”

“I don’t think so,” said Taeyeon.

“Oh, well,” she said. “Sorry to bother you.” Pulling the phone back up to and continuing her phony phone correspondence, she said, “Okay. I’ll leave in five minutes, then.” She walked away, certain that Taeyeon had gotten the hint, but still risking a glance over her shoulder to make sure the blonde had understood.

And she had.

By the time Hyuna got back to the ship, Solji was already there, unpacking groceries and trying to re-load the rover.

“I don’t understand this ship,” she grumbled, fumbling with the hatch. “Things are so manual.”

Hyuna snorted. “ it up, princess. And get all your criticisms out now.” She nodded her chin towards the path where Taeyeon was approaching. “Never trash-talk a ship in front of its captain.”

“Where’s Elly?” Taeyeon asked when she’d caught up to the ship. “Did she get the tracker?”

Hyuna nodded slowly and said, “She’ll be joining us shortly. Did you have fun watching horses?”

“I did,” said Taeyeon. “I named them – Crunchy, Logan, Meerkat and Sue.”

Hyuna laughed again.

“If you ever have kids,” she said, “please let your husband name them.”

Just about everything had been squared away by the time Elly returned to the ship. Taeyeon and Hyuna had gotten the rover back in its hatch and Solji was standing near the door of the ship, rifling through one of her bags.

“I know I bought okra,” Solji muttered to herself, trying to see the bottom of the bag without ripping it. “Where is it? Where did I put the okra?” She wandered back towards the path, looking at the ground as though she’d somehow dropped a bunch of vegetables without realizing it.

“You bought okra?” Elly asked once she was in earshot, stopping a hundred feet from the ship to see what Solji was doing.

“I thought I did!” Solji threw her head back and sighed dramatically before realizing that there were greater forces at play. Then she straightened up and looked Elly over. “Did you get the tracker?”

Grinning, Elly reached into her back and produced the second half of the tracker. It looked a bit like an old fashioned remote control with colorful buttons against black plastic. The other half, the one they had on-board, had the screen. At the top of this half were prongs and springs that would connect to the existing piece. Once they were together, they’d lead them to Jiyong.

“It’s kind of weird looking,” Elly said, holding it up to the sun so that she could examine it. “And if you ask me, the whole thing with cutting the tracker in half and hiding both pieces is a little–”

The rest of her sentence was cut off by a whoosh and the loud crackle of static. Pain like nothing she’d ever experienced cracked through Elly’s left thigh and she couldn’t hear herself screaming over the continued popping of electricity.

But Hyuna heard it.

Hyuna and Taeyeon, still near the hatch, looked up in time to see Elly drop to the ground, the tracker and her purse falling to the dirt as she flailed and grabbed blindly at her leg.

Hyuna took off running without thinking.

“Get the ship started!” she screamed to Taeyeon, not bothering to look back at her. “Get ready to get us out of here!”

She’d heard the all-too-familiar sound of electricity permeating flesh. She could see it in the way Elly’s leg had stopped moving.

Shock-darts.

Someone was advancing on them. They were under fire.

Her first instinct was panic. It had been a while since she’d felt that, but that was what it was. She could taste it, sharp and metallic on the back of her tongue. Her heart drummed against her chest, her vision spotty. Elly was hurt and they were all in danger.

But, like it had been all those years ago, panic couldn’t prevail. It faded quickly and turned into something steely and much more efficient – adrenaline. It made her run that much harder.

In the shock of what had happened, Solji had dropped her bag, and strawberries and peas littered the ground alongside Elly’s body.

“What happened?” Solji asked frantically, trying to flip Elly’s body so that she could see the damage. “What’s wrong?”

But Elly couldn’t answer. She’d stopped screaming, the agony was gripping her leg making it too hard to speak. The pain was sharp and hot, radiating through her legs and traveling up her back. At the same time, she felt like she was losing feeling around where she’d been hit, a cold numbness chilling her to her core.

Hyuna was beside her within a few seconds.

“You’re okay,” she assured her, squeezing her hand without giving any thought to what it meant. “You’re going to be fine.” She looked up at Solji who stared back at her with shock and fear swimming in her eyes. “Hold her leg still.” Solji did as she was told, stabilizing Elly’s leg with one hand on her shin and one on her ankle.

Hyuna went to work. She was no stranger to shock-darts and she knew how to remove them safely. There were twin levers on the side that you needed to squeeze, and then, once the metal prongs were retracted, it could be pulled free. And that was exactly what Hyuna did.

“This is going to sting for a second,” Hyuna said, already feeling remorse. She didn’t want to hurt Elly – g she’d never wanted to hurt Elly – but this was the only way to make it stop. It had to get worse before it could get better. She squeezed the levers, pulled out the dart, tried to ignore the way Elly screamed in anguish, and threw it as far from them as she could.

This had all occurred in the span of twenty seconds and now that Elly was beginning to heal (whether it felt like it or not), Hyuna needed to address the threat. She looked around, checking the horizon all around them, but she didn’t see anyone. She followed the angle of Elly’s wound to where the shot should have come from, but no one was there.

They needed to get off Gachug before whoever it was came back to finish the job.

Pushing away the scattered dirt and vegetables, Hyuna recovered the tracker and forced it into Solji’s arms.

“Take this back to the ship,” Hyuna said. “Run as fast as you can, Solji.”

“What about her?” Solji asked miserably, pointing to Elly.

Hyuna swallowed hard. Seeing Elly like this was downright killing her. She was trying to force it down, trying so hard to mute her heart so that her brain could run the show. But she still loved Elly, and nobody wanted to see the woman they loved laying in the dirt, crying and convulsing at the hands of some with a dart-gun.

“I’ve got her,” she said sternly, fighting back tears of her own. “Just go. Now.”

Solji did as she was told, holding the tracker to her chest as she ran hard for the ship, flinching slightly like she wasn’t totally sure if she’d be the next to endure a dart.

It was up to Hyuna to get Elly to safety and so she didn’t falter, not even for a second. She grabbed Elly by the wrists and pulled her so that she was sitting upright and once she was, Hyuna shifted Elly’s body onto her back.

Hyuna was petite but she was deceptively strong, something that had kept her alive once upon a time. (She hadn’t always looked as intimidating as she did now.) Elly wrapped her arms around Hyuna’s neck, something that Hyuna knew was strictly a fight-or-flight reflex, and, as such, she tried not to dwell on it. She took off running, holding tightly to Elly’s hips and legs as she did.

The ship wasn’t far but Hyuna could still feel her heart in . The fact that she couldn’t see her enemy terrified her. As she ran, she considered the possibilities. Best case scenario was that whoever had shot Elly was just a run-of-the-mill bandit. Worst case scenario, though, was that someone else knew about the tracker and they were trying to get it back.

And that would be very, very bad.

Hyuna ran faster.

Even if the culprits were still lingering somewhere out of sight, she knew they’d be okay. As bad as it may have sounded, Elly was actually protecting Hyuna. Draped over her back like that, she was something of a human shield. That, of course, hadn’t been Hyuna’s plan – this had just been the most logical and most efficient way to get Elly back to the ship – but it was a strategic fact. Since Hyuna was the only one who could currently get Elly back onto the Termite in one piece, it was kind of crucial that she didn’t get shot.

Whether it was because Elly protected her or because their attackers had run off or even just by sheer good luck, they made it through the door and up the ramp without anything else going wrong. Hyuna carried Elly through the kitchen, the common room and straight back to the dorms without missing a single step, completely ignoring questions and concerned shouted from the other captains.

“Go, go, go!” was all Hyuna had said as she ran through. “Get us in the air!”

Elly was still whimpering as Hyuna set her down gently on one of the bottom bunks.

“Is she going to be okay?” Solji asked. Hyuna hadn’t even realized that Solji had followed her.

“She’ll be fine,” Hyuna muttered. She was kneeling beside Elly’s bunk, suddenly glad that Elly had been wearing loose-fitting sweatpants. It made treatment a whole lot easier than if she’d been wearing her usual skinny jeans. Rolling up Elly’s left pant leg as tenderly as she could, Hyuna whispered soothing affirmations. She’d never had a great bedside manner but in this case, she was trying her hardest to be compassionate and warm.

Solji gasped out loud when she saw Elly’s thigh. The wound itself – small and round – was bleeding, but not severely. It would stop on its own. The skin around it was red and irritated, such was the nature of the dart, and the flesh immediately around that was ghost white. (People tended to refer to this stage of the healing process as “the bullseye.”) But Elly would be okay. She’d need painkillers and probably something to sedate her (she’d never had a particularly high tolerance for pain) but she would be okay.

Unfortunately, in the immediate aftermath of a shock-dart, there just wasn’t a whole lot you could do.

As much as it pained Hyuna to admit, Elly was just going to have to tough it out until the initial pain passed. Someone would probably need to hold her hand (and that was probably going to have to be Solji) and talk her through it, but she would survive.

Shock-darts weren’t lethal. That was the entire point. Shock-darts, when used correctly, subdued a person without killing them or causing any major long-term damage. They were really something to behold in certain context.

“She doesn’t look like she’s okay,” Solji insisted, speaking quickly. She gestured down at Elly as though Hyuna somehow couldn’t see her. “Look at her! She can’t stop shaking.”

“I can see her,” Hyuna said through gritted teeth. Elly’s eyes were squeezed shut, her hands clenched into tight fists. She was still whimpering and whining, but it was quieter now. She was having a hard time laying still, her body reacting to the pain as though it was being jolted all over again, but that was a textbook first-reaction to shock-dart. “I assure you, Solji, she will be fine.” She looked back to Elly, hoping her tone sounded sincere. “You hear me, El? You’re going to be fine. Just hang in there. I know it hurts.”

“You’re not a doctor,” Solji persisted. “How could you possibly know if she’s okay? We should stop at a hospital somewhere. She can’t be okay like this. it. I’m going to tell Taeyeon to take us to the closest med-station.”

Hyuna swore loudly in Korean and then shifted so that she was down on one knee. Roughly, she pulled up her right pant leg and while Solji was too startled to gasp, she was just surprised enough to recoil and take a step back.

Hyuna’s skin was stained with scars, lines of red and brown that seemed to extend like tree branches and splinter off into individual sticks and twigs. It looked as though she’d been struck by lightning, the sheer force of the electricity had branding her, claiming her as its own.

Of course, that was only half-true.

“I know a thing or two about shock-darts, Solji,” Hyuna said quietly. Her tone was deadly serious and the softness with which she spoke took Solji’s breath away. “I know that she will be okay. One dart to the thigh will not kill her. In a day or two, it will be like it never happened. In the meantime, I want you to sit here and hold her hand and tell her stories to distract her from the pain. I’m going to find some painkillers, make her something to eat and get her a change of clothes. You just get her through the next hour or two. Okay? You understand? You with me?”

Nodding, and feeling like she’d suddenly shrunken in size, Solji said, “Yes. I understand.”

“Thank you,” Hyuna said. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she fixed her pants and stood up, navigating around a clearly-uncomfortable Solji to get to the door. Solji was quick to take her spot, sitting on the edge of Elly’s bed and taking her hand with a much more natural softness than Hyuna had.

Hyuna shook her head, finding it hard to look directly at them. Still, wanting to lighten the mood just a little bit, she said, “It was kind of stupid bringing four captains along, huh?”

“What do you mean?” Solji asked.

“What did we need four captains for? What we really need is a doctor. We probably should’ve brought your wife along.” Humorlessly, she laughed, and then shrugged. “Hindsight’s twenty-twenty, huh?”

Shaking her head, and without another word, Hyuna pushed through the door and headed for the kitchen, trying not to think too much about how long it had been since the last time she’d made dinner for Ahn Elly.