Prompt: “No, and that’s final” 

(pairing: vernon (seventeen)/seungkwan (seventeen). Genre: au, sci-fi. Rating: pg. Words: 790) 

“No. Absolutely not.” The commander, with her blue fullbody suit and heavy boots, isn’t even looking away from her intergalactic map when she speaks. In fact, Vernon’s not even sure how she heard him enter; she’s been couped up in the command center ever since their escape from the asteroid belt, trying her hardest to re-establish some kind of order and stability to the ship.  

Vernon’s been on the ship for well over a year – 14 months, one week, three days and a couple of hours to be exact (but who’s counting), and he was there when a supernova blew the hangar to bits and killed off two of the ship’s main engines. They've been running on fumes and backup generators ever since, and it’s not that it’s not working, it’s just that it’s not working well enough for them to make it back to base safely.  

“But I-” 

“Vernon, do I look like a woman who likes to argue lost causes?” That she does not. Amber looks tired, he notices. Her hair is matte against her skin, she has a weary look about her, almost as if she’d expected something to go wrong on the ship’s cruise, but not something like this. He can sort of get behind that sentiment. The Academy doesn’t exactly groom you to expect catastrophe – only how to avoid it. Vernon’s only a cadet, he’s in training to become a certified navigator; so is Seungkwan, or, he was, until he was catapulted into space along with a handful of other unfortunate souls. “Forget about them,” they’re told afterwards. “They won’t be coming back.” But Vernon knows Seungkwan, knows he’s strong and a fighter, and he’s not going to just leave him to his own demises in the middle of the unknown. Especially not when he’s sure he can save him. “So you’re just going to leave him out there?” He asks, brows furrowed. “In space with no way of communicating?” It doesn’t sound great when he puts it like that, and he knows it. The captain just resumes her work, and taps another string of commands into the interface. “He knew the risks, he signed the form before takeoff,” comes the reply, off-handedly, like she’s essentially too busy to care. Or maybe it’s because she simply doesn’t want to. But that’s not Vernon’s problem – his problem is that his best friend is out there somewhere, wanting to live. He moves to the opposite site of Amber’s station, and blocks the view of the interactive 3D map of the galaxy of Agea. “He could malfunction out there!” he protests loudly. “He could die!” 

“So could you!” Amber snaps back. “If I send you out there after him, there is a high probability neither of you’ll make it back to base. I can’t have that.” It’ll be her head on the block the minute they get back, this he knows. Mostly because Jackson pulled him to the side and told him, after he’d heard from Joshua that he is planning to jump ship. Secrets never stay secret very long when you’re in space, apparently. He sighs, almost like he’s a child trying to convince his mother. “We’ll make it back, I swear – just give me a small ship, a suit, anything, I’ll-” 

Amber shuts the computer down with more force than she needs to. “I said no, Vernon. And that’s final.” They stare at each other for a very long, very quiet while, before she sighs heavily and unplugs her devices to leave the room. On her way past him, his commander stops and places a somber hand on his shoulder. “I’m really sorry. I am. But I can’t risk losing any more of you than I already have. It’s just too dangerous out there.” And then she’s gone, leaving Vernon alone in the room with his thoughts and guilt, eating at him. On the other side of the reinforced glass windows are miles and miles of blackness, with shining stars sprinkled everywhere. It’s surprisingly light, even though he knows for a fact they’re far away from any sort of Sun. And probably far away from any sort of Seungkwan, too. He’s not ready to just abandon him, not after everything they’ve been through since they started at the Academy as nothing but big kids in an even bigger world. And now... He’s out there, and Vernon’s in here, and he has no idea how to fix things, like he usually does. It’s his thing, Seungkwan had once said, fixing things. He’d make a good engineer, if he wasn’t such a massive geek.  

I’ll find you, Seungkwan he promises silently, while he stares at a focal point somewhere far beyond the horizon. I promise I will.