“We should find out where they all come from,” Mina said. She was speaking Japanese. 

“We know,” Sana replied. “Broadly speaking.”

They were in their room, all on the one bed. It wasn’t quite big enough, but Sana’s head was on Mina’s stomach, while Momo’s was on hers. Mina’s legs rested along the wall, while Sana and Momo’s stuck out on different ends. It wasn’t the most comfortable setup, but Sana needed the closeness. Momo too. Mina wouldn’t admit it, but she did too—or at least enjoyed it. 

“I mean really know,” Mina said. Sana felt her sigh. “Why are they in a crew like this? How do three people change a system? How do six people meet and decide to be on a ship together to smuggle, create, and sell goods?”

“And,” Momo hummed, “why do two of them hide their hands?”

“I don’t think we should ask them all of that,” Sana said. “They won’t tell us all that either.” A small silence fell. She filled it. “Just like neither of you will tell them your life stories, right?”

“They don’t have to know who we are,” Mina shot back. “They’ll be paid for this work. Very well at that. No information should be freely given in addition.” 

“But we do have to know who we’re dealing with,” Momo added. 

Sana sat up, squinting at the both of them. “You rehearsed this.” Then she realised it. She groaned, falling back and intentionally digging her head into Mina’s abdomen. A huff was the response. “You want me to ask the questions.” 

“Nayeon doesn’t trust me,” Mina replied. 

“And I can ask a few questions,” Momo said. “But they’ll shut down soon enough.” 

Definitely rehearsed, Sana thought.

“You’re the passenger of interest. Even if they lie, which I’m sure they will, they’ll still tell you the most.” Mina gave her a look. “And at least one captain trusts you.” 

Sana shook her head. “She doesn’t trust me.” 

It earned her a raised brow from Momo. “Are you sure?”

“Why are you,” she trailed off. Then she flicked Momo’s forehead and swatted at Mina’s side. “That is not what happened.” Leave it to them to think a lovely evening was something else. 

“Then where, pray tell, were you last night?” Momo waggled her eyebrows. 

Sana’s face burned. “In the workshop. She let me start working on something.”

“So I wasn’t wrong,” Mina said. “She does trust you.” 

Sana glared at them both. “Did you two really think I’d go there?” 

“I wouldn’t blame you,” Momo grinned, “she is attractive.”

She swatted at both of them. 

“I didn’t say anything!” Mina protested. Then she laughed softly. “But it’d be okay if—”

“We’re not talking about it. That’s an order.” Sana giggled. “And I thought you’d have more respect for me.” 

“We do!” Momo beamed. “Which is why stress relief would have been—” She was cut off by Sana tossing a pillow at her. “I hope this violence is just a phase.” She wagged a finger at her. “Wouldn’t want you ruling like that.” 

_____

Dahyun was working on another news/system model. This one would be Earth.

She was making a rough approximation of Saturn’s rings when the doors opened. The person's steps were delicate. Definitely one of the Earthers.

Guess it won't be a surprise, she thought, looking down at the other planets she'd made. 

After the model was done, she'd have to ask Jeongyeon to tap into the news of the system. They had the means for it and the Earthers had the most advanced broadcasting systems, ideal to ensure that all would be informed, all could be reached. 

“Hi,” Dahyun said. 

“How are you feeling?” 

She fought a smile then. Sana was slowly becoming an even more interesting figure.

“Great!” When she glanced up, she saw the princess sitting down at the workbench. That meant she was also invested in whatever she was making. That made her less of a figure and more human.  

Sana looked taken aback. “You’re in a good mood.” 

“Got out on the right side of the bed, I guess.” Dahyun frowned. “Not sure if I said that right, but let’s act like I did.” 

The princess smiled. “Alright.” A pause. “And you’re sure I can be in here? The others made it seem like this was very out of character for you.” 

Dahyun set down Saturn’s rings. She turned around. It wasn’t a full turn, because her leg was propped up and she wasn’t at peak flexibility. “If I didn’t want you in here, you wouldn’t know the code." 

A nod. “And,” she started, “you’re not doing this because you feel obligated?”

Dahyun made her voice sound posh. “You mean to get your favour?” she asked. “Considering we’re gonna be paid awesomely for our work, that’s already in your favour. Unless your standards are something different, I’d say we have our good deed quota in check.”

Sana was looking at her weirdly. Had Dahyun said something wrong? Probably. 

“So you have free rein in what you say to me now?” Sana's brow rose. “My weapons will be criticised the entire way?”

Dahyun smiled. “I hate on the line for the people who don’t need a valid defence.” She shrugged. “I haven't seen much of your other stuff, just that of your predecessor. Real complex. Preferred lots of parts, small ones too.” She remembered how fascinating they had been when she first discovered them.

The surprise in her eyes grew. “Those were from my grandfather.” 

So she’d also forged the weapons of a previous emperor. In addition to the future empress. Great. 

“Those were some of his first weapons,” Sana said. “He had to stop that line after too many complaints came in.”

“Because repairs were a nightmare?” 

She smiled. “Yes.”

“I’ll give your fancy line one thing,” Dahyun turned back to her bench, “they’re easy to maintain.” 

“Is that the only thing?” Sana asked. There were footsteps and then she was in front of Dahyun. She didn’t look like she was offended. “I understand they’re too light and could use the versatility,” she said. “But are there any other flaws?”

Dahyun had to really look at her then. Was this some verbal trap that she was about to walk right into? Or was Sana genuinely curious about what was wrong with a branch of her weapons? They’d be here for a while. What Dahyun said next had the potential to make this a really awkward ride. 

“They’re brittle and don’t carry enough force to compensate for it,” Dahyun said. She waited for the words to land. She waited for the outrage. None came. 

Sana just nodded. “What else?” She leant forward so that she was leaning on the workbench with her elbows. There was a big enough distance that Dahyun didn’t have to worry about any of the rings getting snapped. Still, she was close enough that Dahyun could really see the bags and shadows around her eyes. 

“If your buyers are using them on an open planet or massive station, the range is too short.” Dahyun grimaced. “That being said, you don’t have any of this on that other one, the T something.” 

A smile. “TTS.”

“Yep, that one. Goes against the brittle stuff and the force.”

Sana’s brow rose. “But?”

“It’s not great for close-range?” 

Another nod. “That’s where it’s specifically for larger areas. Nothing close contact” 

“And you never make it adjustable?” Dahyun asked. She had once made a lens that could switch on command. It was damn expensive to make, but she was definitely going to use that design more when they had the money. 

The next look Sana got on her face was almost embarrassed. She shook her head. 

“So people have one close range and one long range?” Dahyun asked. 

Sana nodded again. “That’s where the money aspect comes in.” Her cheeks were tinged with pink. 

“Greedy,” Dahyun winked. “But that’s why we make the ammo more expensive. An empty gun’s worth nothing, so we still get the money.”

“And how do you produce it all? In here?” Sana looked around, disbelief making its appearance.

Dahyun didn't even feel offended. “We do have external production means, Your Highness.” 

Her lip twitched at the title. “But you still make the deliveries?” 

“Most of them.” Dahyun shrugged. “There’s one group I trust to do them for us.” 

“One?” 

She nodded. “Gotta be selective here. Just about anyone could screw you over and no protective business-type law can stop that.” 

It was a consequence of a solar system being that big. Most crimes went far under the radar. The only thing that kept someone in check was a promise of signals. For that reason, Dahyun preferred direct deliveries. She handed the goods over and they gave her the signals immediately. Ammo could be brought by the RV crew, because they got a good cut and still left enough for Dahyun to make a profit. It was trust, but she'd never tell them how to make their bullets. 

Briefly, very briefly, she wondered if the Minatozaki empire would end up screwing them over. Their reputation wasn’t exactly squeaky clean.

Sana had gone silent. Was she thinking the same about them? Dahyun wanted to tell her that they weren't exactly in a position to even be able to cross her. Not only would they risk the wrath of an empire, but it wasn't worth it. All they needed was the money. If they could get that and go, they’d be fine. More than fine. 

“Don’t think much about my gripes,” Dahyun said. “The brittle part’s relevant if you hit someone in the face with the gun. It’s not great when you see the dent or watch it fall apart afterwards. Besides,” she grinned, “I bet your customers'd never stoop to such barbaric forms of conflict.” 

Sana laughed then. “If they’re buying that rifle, no.” 

“So that's that,” Dahyun shrugged, “I guess I get why you use a cheaper material.” When Sana’s eyes widened, she chuckled. “Busted.” 

The princess bit down on her lip then. “You can choose what you get it made out of.” 

“Is there a catalogue?” 

“Yes.” 

Dahyun wondered how that might be. A customisable gun that could be put together in a completely external factory. It was a luxury that sounded more than absurd to her. 

“Well,” Dahyun put the rings on the model of Saturn with a click, “to consider us even, you can get my gun to see if I actually have any credibility for guns.” She nodded at the door. “Should be in my room just next door.” 

Sana straightened. Dahyun was struck by how close she’d been. Maybe a bit belated, but her cheeks started warming up.

“Is there a passcode on it?” 

“That was just for Jihyo,” Dahyun replied. “But I’m not sure if the rooms still have facial recognition on them.” She got ready to stand. It took a few seconds. “I’ll get it.” She took her crutches and headed for the door. 

Sana walked with her. “So are the rest of the rooms just for the rest of you?” she asked. 

“Pretty much,” she pointed to the door to the right of the workshop, “that’s storage for just about everything else that doesn’t need to be delivered or hidden.” 

Dahyun got to opening the door to her room. Fleetingly, she wondered if it was clean or not. When the door slid open, she saw that it wasn’t. 

“Good I went to get it,” Dahyun chuckled. “You probably wouldn’t have found it.” She went to her desk. It was mostly just a place to put her second monitor and other keepsakes. She found her gun underneath two blueprints. Using that kind of paper was archaic these days, but she preferred how straightforward it was. She liked seeing things on paper, even if she had to dig up old software to print them. That had been an ordeal of trading information, a heap of signals, and a good month of working the rest out with Chaeyoung. 

When she turned around, Dahyun purposefully held it by the muzzle. Even if Sana probably wouldn’t have jumped to conclusions, aiming any kind of gun at her wouldn’t be a good idea in and of itself. 

The princess was looking at her desk, her brow furrowed. Out of curiosity, Dahyun followed her gaze to see what had caught her attention. Sana was looking at a plan for a prosthetic leg. 

She might as well give a tiny explanation. She wouldn’t say the whole thing, but at least a little something. 

“Tzuyu’s helping me to get that done,” Dahyun said. “Coruscant actually had some great tech on that front.” She brushed past her and to the door. “You can call it forging if you want, but if we get this right, we’ll probably sell the plan to one of the med-stations.”

“You wouldn’t want to do it yourself?” Sana followed her out. 

“Manufactures like that are too expensive and precise for what we do,” Dahyun shrugged, “branching into engines was a huge hassle already. I’m not gonna go through that again.” 

“And who would you give the plans to?”

“Selena 5 or 9. They’d give us a good price, maybe even a cut if it took off. Unless they gotta bring somebody else in for the brain-computer interface, then we’re out of that.” Or if they were just simple bastards and didn't even offer the cut. Dahyun wouldn't exactly be able to stop them. 

They were back in the workshop. 

“So you’d risk not getting a proper profit?"

Dahyun sat down again. “Worst case scenario, we get screwed out of what it’s worth. Best case, we actually get something for it.” 

“And you’d be alright with that?” 

“A plan’s pretty worthless if you can’t make anything out of it,” Dahyun said. “Anyway,” she nodded at the gun in Sana’s hands, “that’s durable, actually shoots, but it’s ugly as hell. Take it apart and tell me what you think.” 

Her eyebrows had risen and had parted into a small ‘o’. “Really?”

Dahyun smiled. “Trust me, it’s all good. You’d have to try real hard to break it completely.” 

_____

Nayeon heard the doors slide open. 

“You better not be here to make a comment on my flying.” She glanced over her shoulder. “You're not who I was expecting, but what I said still stands.” 

“I’m not here to make a comment,” Mina said.

“Already gonna make the changes?” Nayeon wouldn’t say it, but she was pretty interested in what those changes would actually look like in the code. Jeongyeon probably would too. “Didn’t Jeong want to watch what you’re doing?” 

“She said she didn’t have to. She’d see the changes anyway.” A pause. “You don’t think I should be unsupervised.” 

“Nope.” Nayeon veered away from a drifting asteroid. “But I’m not about to delay our arrival just so I can supervise. So go ahead I guess.” If Jeongyeon was okay with it and so was Dahyun, then she’d probably just have to it up. Plus, if this girl was something important in her system, Nayeon might be better off if she didn’t piss her off. 

There was silence, just the faint sounds of movement as Mina did her work and Nayeon did hers. She almost wished she could listen to music as she flew, if only to fill the silence. 

“When do we arrive at the delivery point?” Mina’s voice was soft, lacking a lot of the usual distrust. Maybe because it would be dumb if Nayeon tried lying about their route. Still, if she was honest with herself, she was tempted to lie. If only to see if she’d pick up on it. 

Nayeon decided to tell the truth. “Half an hour probably.” She veered away from another obstacle. This was an engine. If Dahyun saw that, she’d tell them to stop. Nayeon was glad she was the one in command. Jihyo was too soft on that front. At least this was a crappy engine piece. Probably someone trying to make a run for it after stealing from one of the stations. “We coulda reached it in less, but there’s too much debris for the better engines. Plus we don’t have the best pilot on right now.” 

“You’re a bad pilot?” This girl was a real optimist.

“I said I’m not the best,” Nayeon replied. “But we aren’t in any more danger if I’m flying it.” She really hoped she hadn’t jinxed them. 

The response was a soft hum. 

Nayeon was really curious about what exactly Mina was doing right now. She almost put the ship on autopilot, but that setting, especially on this ship, only worked in open space. 

No, she just had to settle for watching out for debris and hope Mina wasn’t messing everything up. 

“You plan on digging up our personals?” It was definitely a possibility. She wouldn’t find much, but Nayeon wasn’t putting it past her. She wouldn’t blame her either. 

“Tried to,” Mina replied. 

Nayeon whipped her head around to look at her. The girl’s expression was almost a smile. 

She looked back. “I guess that wasn’t a joke?” 

“No.” At least she was honest.

“You do know that’s an infringement of privacy. At least it is out here.” Another piece of ship came their way. It could’ve been a week old or a few hours. The sight made her nervous. “Or maybe it’s a little different on Earth.”

“Don’t act as though I hacked you. All I’d like to know is where you come from. You know from where we are.” Mina's voice made the words sound like an accusation. It really rubbed her the wrong way.

“We know you come from a specific system,” Nayeon said. Maybe a bit too harshly. “And even that leaves different stations, planets, areas on that planet, all the way to those nice little planetary stations.” 

“By that you mean cities?” 

Nayeon didn’t know if she was being condescending or not. She didn’t like that. 

“Yep.” 

Now there was a body. It had been exposed to vacuum. Nayeon fought the revulsion that rose up. She also couldn’t tell if they were here for long or less time. Salvage and other inquiry teams only went around once every few months, if even that. 

The doors opened again. “You’re seeing this, right?” It was Momo. “There’s been an accident.” So she was looking out the windows. Not as great as being in the cockpit, but she'd clearly seen enough.

“Or skirmish.” When Nayeon glanced at her, she saw it was exactly the wrong thing to say. “Or maybe an accident.” She tried to shrug and put this girl at some type of ease. 

It wasn’t as if they were in the safest of places. A raid of some kind was pretty frequent. At a research station even more so. Depending on how it looked at the delivery site, they’d either skip the delivery entirely or not. She hadn’t seen anything on the big comms to suggest a distress signal. 

“Mina,” Nayeon said. “Can you tap the transmission of Luna 4?” Might as well see what the girl was capable of. 

“Yes,” a few more sounds of her tapping away, “if you have the—never mind.” There was a hint of apprehension in her voice. She’d found the means they had for hacking. 

Nayeon sent Dahyun a message. 

bunny: Moon attack? 

She didn’t have to wait long. 

Dubu: Nothing public. Omw 

She felt a pang of guilt at getting Dahyun worried. The girl was probably taking a much needed break to work. But they had to be sure. Raids were definitely not impossible, but they had to know if the people were still there, if they were dead, or if they'd been ‘extracted’. 

Nayeon could feel the tension in her chest. She sent Jihyo a message, one that was attached to an alarm. She felt even guiltier, but she couldn't do this. Not today. Not alone.

“There was a message of help sent to Luna 2 and 7, but either nothing came back or it never reached them,” Mina said.

“Any money sent their way?” 

“You have the means to see that?” Her tone was sharp with suspicion. 

Nayeon fought the urge to roll her eyes. “Yes,” she said. “We’re smugglers and hackers with no bounds. Just check the damn station.” 

A brief silence. 

“They’ve been receiving signals. In small portions of three hundred.” 

Nayeon would’ve really like to have those ‘small portions’. “From?”

Her voice had grown quieter. “The Earth system.” 

The doors opened then. Nayeon didn’t look back. Another body was in their way. This one had lost a leg. She evaded it, nearly hitting another piece of ship as she did so. It was the cockpit. 

"Guard ship?" Dahyun came up beside her. Then she swore. “That’s a Luna 2 team. Maybe help sent over.” That was worse. 

“How can you tell?” Momo asked.

“I designed it. Might look cheap, but it shouldn’t have been this torn up.” Dahyun's jaw was clenched. “Not by anything from this system at least.” 

“Whoever’s there has been getting money from Earth,” Mina said. “It might be ransom money.” 

“Or it’s payment to whoever’s there right now,” Nayeon said. “Claim the station and get your reward.” 

There was no response. Didn't want to admit a shady Earth team might be involved?

“Did they tell you what the enzymes were for?” Mina asked. 

“No,” Dahyun said. Her eyes met Nayeon’s. “Tracker and launch?” 

“Unless we help whoever’s there,” Nayeon replied. 

“But if that’s the case,” her co-captain sat in the other chair, “then they’d know were coming.”

“Ladies,” Nayeon called, “go put on your helmets. We don’t need anyone knowing we’re an even more interesting ship.”

Their footsteps were quick. There were two hisses. 

“This is happening a little too close to our exit point,” Nayeon said. “What if their kidnappers were actually from Earth? What if this operation spans the three systems?”

“But why take Luna 4?” Dahyun asked. “You’re just asking for a whole lot of trouble with T10.” The station that headed all Luna stations. It had direct contact to Kepler itself. 

“Beats me,” Nayeon said. “I woke Jihyo. Is Chaeyoung awake or not?" They'd let Tzuyu sleep.

"Awake. I told her to stay with the enzymes." 

"We’ll wait with Jeong," Nayeon said. "Mina tapped into comms and their account.”

“What?” Her brow rose. “Some guard.” 

“Exactly.” Maybe it was good that Nayeon had let her do the improvements. If she'd finished them, maybe they'd just be dismissed. Or they'd be shot at immediately. One of the too. 

Both captains were silent as the main part of the ship floated below them. She felt Dahyun tense beside her. 

“Looks like a full rescue team went in.” 

“I hate to say it,” Nayeon sighed, “but we have to take footage of it. Or else no one’ll believe it. If they want to cover their tracks.” 

Dahyun the camera for both the front and rear. Her hands were stiff, but not shaking. “We get in over our heads?” She wasn't talking about the ship. Not completely at least. 

“Might’ve.” They flew over the last of the crew. “And you saw no word to or from T10?” 

“I'll check,” Dahyun got up, “change course. We’re not playing the hero.” 

“With you on that.” For a brief moment, she thought of what might happen if she said they should go. Maybe Dahyun would agree. Tzuyu would be all for it, but even she would acknowledge the risk. 

Nayeon fought the urge to close her eyes. Until Jihyo was here, she couldn’t take her eyes off the darkness of space. If anything was coming their way, she and Dahyun were the only ones to know that. The weight of that made her stiffen. She wasn't ready for this. 

“There’s nothing. They either couldn’t or wouldn’t,” Dahyun said. “There’s one ship out. On the far end.” 

Nayeon glanced down at the other radar. How Jihyo kept an eye on all this and still kept them on course, she didn’t know. “I see them.” She forced her eyes to be on the vacuum. She maneuvered past another engine. Had two ships been destroyed?

“Are we gonna leave the delivery?” 

She considered it. It would announce they were there and not just passing through. But if they saw them and wanted those enzymes, they’d come after them. 

Flashes of the destroyed ship came to mind. The dead crew. She forced herself to continue. Another body in the way. 

“Wide message to all Luna stations," Nayeon said. If they had the right tech, that wouldn’t work to throw them off. “We saw a dead ship. Dropped the goods near there. We don’t put a tracker on it, but a light.” If they wanted the enzymes, that’d buy them time. And if the other stations knew something was wrong and the enzymes were important, they'd come. 

“I’ll tell Chaeng to launch it in that direction," Dahyun said. 

“No steering." 

The software would be another breadcrumb to follow.

“I know.” 

Finally, the door opened. 

“Girls told me about the ship,” Jihyo said. Then her hand went to Nayeon’s shoulder. “I’m good. We’re good.” 

Nayeon released the controls. Her fingers ached from gripping too tightly. She flexed her hand, and shook out both her arms. “I didn’t crash.” She took a shaky breath. She almost felt nauseous. 

Jihyo smiled, but her eyes were fixed on space. She’d slept a few hours. She was good. They were good. 

“Are we ready to pick up the speed?” their pilot asked. 

“Not yet,” Dahyun replied. . 

Nayeon focused on the radar now. There weren’t any explicit security crafts. All gone. The one ship up was making its rounds. If it lacked the range to spot them earlier, it would soon. 

“Stop staring,” Jihyo said. “You’re making me nervous.” 

“Okay.” Nayeon went over to Dahyun. Her skin felt clammy. She was still wearing that damn glove. She tore it off and freed herself of the top part of her gear. It didn’t matter if someone saw her in a t-shirt. 

“They don’t know who hit them,” Dahyun said. “And I’m not gonna even try to get into any of their ships.” Her brow furrowed. “The money started flowing around the time they should’ve escaped.”

“Lockdown?” Nayeon suggested. 

Then the message came. 

Tiger: Got it.

“Go,” Dahyun said.

The ship lurched. Nayeon could feel Jihyo going for an extended curve. Depending on how tired they were, Jeongyeon and Tzuyu might have been waking up. She hoped both were still asleep. They needed it.

Nayeon wondered which route Jihyo was taking. It was a risk to pass the guard stations without registering properly. 

She brushed the thought off. They’d get there when they got there. 

"," Dahyun hissed. “We got a request to stop.” She typed in another message. 

Nayeon read it. It was for Chaeyoung. 

Dubu: Ready.

Translation: things could get ugly. Chaeyoung would be coming here. 

“I’ll make sure the shields are working.” Dahyun started going to the door. “Keep me on the comms.”

“We need the others.” At least three had to be in the cockpit. While one was enough, with Dahyun how she was, they needed more by the engines. Nayeon followed, but reached it first. 

They left the cockpit. 

Dahyun turned to her first. She took her hand off one crutch, catching it with the other. She gripped Nayeon's arm and gave it a tight squeeze. "We're good." 

The three passengers were at the window, each with a helmet. Good. 

“What’s happening?” Sana asked. 

Dahyun brushed past them. 

“Mina in the cockpit,” Nayeon said. “You two with Dahyun,” she pointed to the others, “they’re following us.” 

_____

Author's Note

I know I said this wasn't going to have cliffhangers and that it would be lighthearted. However, our planet is a mess, so whole planetary systems get even messier (or perhaps I’m just telling myself that). 

Either way, I intend to have a balance. We start with Misamo half teasing, half discussing how things should go on this ship. Then we have Saida bonding further, this time over the weapons business itself. And finally, there’s a small bit of tension between Mina and Nayeon. Right before the ruined Luna 2 ship(s) comes around. 

There will certainly be more lighthearted moments (many at that), I can promise you that, but we’re also gonna face times like these where questions arise about the ‘darker’ corners of space, the past, and the whole reason why this situation exists in the first place. Relationship development (both light and serious) is a given!

To conclude, any thoughts on what’s happening with Luna 4? Or is your attention turned more towards our crew?

See you in the next chapter!