People kept touching the panel by the docking bay. It had finger smears on it, and I cleaned it the best I could when Boom and I stepped aboard Oblivion, but I didn't have a proper cloth or cleaning solution.

  That told me, right away, that we already had way more crew on the ship than we had before. Based on the line outside, I figured we were about two-thirds full. Probably a few hours before we could get going. I needed to let them get settled in … a little. We couldn't waste time.

  I gave up. Stupid panel. Stupid fingers. The ship was going to be messy. I cringed. I was happy I had my own bathroom in my quarters.

  I checked my messages while Boom and I walked to the bridge.

  Still nothing from Foverver Young Cryo Center.

  I had transmitted a secure data packet of @zerogstar's memories to them. I had her old body, so I was able to encrypt it using her biometrics. I got confirmation that the transmission was received, but that was days ago. Since I wasn't a customer myself, I hoped they were just tight-lipped and ghosting me.

  My main worry, of course, was the virus. Forever Young was a separate space facility, not one stashed away on a planet or an asteroid, and it was mostly clone bodies and data storage. It would be less exposed. Would the enemy target reanimation facilities as well? I probably would if I were them. And it was anchored close to Earth near Resonant City, which I now knew was compromised.

  On the other hand, Forever Young was a fancy place for fancy people with money. If the wealthier aiways were among our enemies, which I suspected was true, then it was likely they still had storage and clones at the facility. They wouldn't release it there, would they? No. @zerogstar would be fine.

  I had to get that out of my head.

  One thing at a time.

  @stardvark and @dragonlotus were here, and hopefully they hadn't mucked around with Oblivion on behalf of the Solar Union. I trusted @stardvark, but did he trust me?

  Ahhh!

  Focus.

  Go to the bridge. Meet some of the crew. Make an announcement. Go to Sovereign Starbase. That's easy.

  I was just excited. I was on a mission that finally took me exactly where I wanted to go. Sango, @bitchfrog, @auroraloon, and @astrowave were all out there waiting for me.

  kittyboy: "Do you have the cookies?"

  Boom: "No."

  kittyboy: "Where are they?"

  Boom: "The dining hall."

  Okay, first stop, the dining hall. I waved to a few new crew members who were wandering the halls.

  "Come on," I called. "Follow me."

  And we slowly built up a group of several newcomers, anxiously following their captain and his deadly robot.

  Several dozen cookies are hard to carry all at once.

  "You," I said, pointing at a man in a blue Solar Union uniform. He stepped forward, holding his tongue. "What's your name?"

  "@crossroader, Sir," he offered hesitantly.

  I looked up his assigned position. He was the new navigator. "Okay, @crossroader. I'm going to need you to help me navigate." He nodded back. "A cookie situation," I added. "Boom here will carry the boxes of cookies. I'll carry an open box to hand them out. I need you to carry the empty boxes as we distribute them."

  He sort of just … blinked.

  "Can you manage that? It will be fun, I promise. And you can have two cookies instead of one." I held out a cookie.

  These were gluten free, nut free, vegan, but otherwise like a chocolate chip cookie without any chocolate chips. I ordered them by special request. I called them frackies, to honor my Itokawan monicker as the Fracker.

  "Here, take a frackie. I insist."

  "I'm really not hungry," @crossroader responded, eying the frackie.

  "It's not a requirement," I said, shrugging. "But, just so you know, everyone who has served under me has eaten a cookie." I looked over a Boom. "I just smashed one on her face because, you know, she doesn't eat."

  "They are chemically stable," Boom noted in her robot voice.

  "See! Chemically stable! Yummmmy!!!"

  @crossroader passed anyway. Fine. I wasn't going to screw up my crew by forcing them to eat cookies.

  The others gathered were more eager to eat a frackie, but I think it was so they could dismiss themselves and get away from me.

  I sighed. When I first captained The Pharaoh, the crew probably thought I was a naive, harmless fool. I had my work cut out for me. Can't have the crew scared of me.

  I plotted a course that would take me by the most aiways possible, and we continued our slow and circuitous walk to the bridge.

  "Hi, I'm @kittyboy! Welcome aboard the funnest ship in the universe!" Shake hands. "What's your name?"

  I pretty much played that on repeat for the next hour while we handed out frackies.

  I stopped short of the bridge, next to the lockers and the jumpseats where @mechanica and @weathermagic had died.

  Do better this time, I told myself.

  Boom still had four full boxes of cookies. "Boom, you can set them on the jumpseat here. I'll tell people to come get them to introduce themselves."

  I was also stalling. I was scared to meet the aiways who would be my bridge crew. We were going to be spending a lot of time together.

  "Go ahead," I said, motioning for @crossroader to move ahead and take his position on the bridge. His entrance caused the aiways there to turn and watch, spotting Boom and I just outside, lingering.

  I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

  "Let's go," I said to Boom.

  "Hello everyone!" I announced myself, walking as casually as I could to the captain's chair. And when you're paying attention to walking, that's absolutely when it becomes something your body forgets how to do. I tripped and fell to the floor.

  "Why didn't you catch me?" I whispered to Boom as she helped me up.

  "You were in no mortal danger."

  No, just the danger of embarrassment.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  I stood back up and waved. "Whoops."

  I ignored their staring and then remembered I needed to give them cookies. "Whoops!" I repeated. I sprinted back to the jumpseat, grabbed a box, and hurried back into the room.

  "Um, hi," I said. "I'm @kittyboy. I'd like to officially welcome you aboard Oblivion. For those who have not done so, I'm sure you'll enjoy getting to meet the ship, and getting to know me and the rest of our crew."

  "I brought cookies." I held out the box. "I have enough for everyone to take one." When no one moved, I shrugged. "It's kind of symbolic. Like, by eating the cookie, you're up for adventure, part of the team. But you don't have to eat them. It was probably silly of me."

  I handed the box to Boom. "You can put them back over there."

  "Wait," someone called out.

  The aiways who approached had voluminous brown hair. She wore burgundy, the same color @whirlwind had been wearing, but she didn't have the buffalo symbol. I looked closer, and it appeared there had been a symbol there, but it had been removed. Curious. She was clearly from the Solar Union, though.

  "I'll take a cookie," she said. Her voice was pleasant. She was smiling. And she wanted a cookie. She held her hand out.

  I presented her with a frackie, placing it in her hand, quietly waiting and watching.

  "Oh," she chimed. "I was going to shake your hand first, but okay."

  My bad, but she kept the cookie and took a bite.

  "I'm @superkova," she muffled between bites. "They're not bad," she added for the benefit of everyone else on the bridge.

  She reached her hand out again. "First Officer @superkova."

  So, this was my first officer. I shook her hand, and we exchanged a look of acknowledgement and understanding. I didn't care who the other candidates were. @superkova would do. She ate the cookie.

  And she had a cool name. What is this thing I have with cool names?

  "I served aboard Metamorphosis," @superkova noted.

  "That's impressive. I'm glad you're familiar with Valkyries." And I was glad that @whirlwind had agreed to let me borrow one of her officers.

  "Thanks. I was the … what do you call it in the Outer System Alliance? The Weaponizer?"

  I smiled. "That's a good term for it. Weaponizer. I've just been calling it the Weapons Expert."

  If @superkova had been a Weaponizer, that would come in handy. I want a lot of Weaponizers and Medics. Becoming a first officer would be a nice promotion for her. I wondered how hard it was to get someone to take a position like this, staffed with enemy crew members. Definitely had to be someone who saw this as an opportunity rather than a punishment.

  "Oh, okay. Well, @jollyshocker is our Weaponizer," @superkova relayed. She turned and summoned another aiways from where @astrowave was usually stationed.

  @jollyshocker wore light blue armor with white streaks, light armor by the looks of it, typical of someone who spent most of their time piloting ships rather than ground fighting. The left side of her head was shaved, reminding me a little of when I met @auroraloon for the first time, except that the rest of her hair was long, blonde, and pulled up in a bunch on her left side. That, and she didn't have exposed wires sticking out of her head.

  I made a guess that she was left-handed. I'm right-handed. If I shaved one side of my head, it would be the side where my less dominant hand wouldn't be tasked with styling my hair.

  "I hear you were a Wavepilot," @jollyshocker said, kind of snarkily, as she walked over.

  Rather than waiting for me to give her a cookie, @jollyshocker snagged one and confidently chomped down on it.

  "I've probably killed you before," she said, looking me up and down.

  Ooo, this is going to be fun.

  "We should compare mission logs," I suggested. I was about to mention that I had died 703 times as a Wavepilot, so it was very likely she had, but based on how @auroraloon had reacted, I reconsidered. The crew might worry about my competence if they knew how many times I had died.

  "Maybe I've killed you too," I said, instead.

  "Maybe you did," she smiled. "Maybe." I got the sense from her tone that very few people killed @jollyshocker. "If you ever want a starmatch, I'm game. Would love to see what you can do."

  The ego in me rose. I'm a freaking awesome pilot. I'd be happy to take her on in a challenge between pilots. I didn't like virtual space fights. I'd rather do the real deal, with our real bodies on the line. But if a starmatch was what she wanted, I'd give her a one. Besides, we were restricting reanimation. A real fight would be a waste of resources.

  Is that appropriate for a captain? I wondered. Should I accept the challenge because captains should be accessible, should work with their crew to help them improve, even if it means losing a challenge here or there? It's not like the winner gets to be captain.

  "When the time is right, I'd be happy to take on a starmatch," I told @jollyshocker. "As long as it doesn't interfere with saving lives." I reached out to shake her hand. "It will be fun, but it will also make for good training, sort of. We have to stay sharp."

  I spoke louder then, addressing the broader group on the bridge. "We have to find time to get away from the war when we can. Maybe that's to train, but also to rest, to relax, to mourn, to enjoy life. We'll be better equipped to handle what's coming if we can remain balanced."

  @jollyshocker gave me a firm handshake. "A starmatch it is then. You tell me when."

  "What did you pilot?" I asked. "Whirligig? Predator?"

  "Yellowfin," she grinned. "The v59."

  I didn't know what made the v59 Yellowfin special, but I trusted by her demeanor that it was especially cool and dangerous. I knew the Yellowfin well enough to know that I wouldn't want to fight one in an i35, that's for sure. If I had killed @jollyshocker, it was by luck or accident.

  "I'm going to regret accepting the challenge, aren't I?"

  "I hope so," @jollyshocker responded, chuckling.

  "Send me your mission logs," I said, "and I'll see how many times you've killed me before."

  She pursed her lips and squinted her eyes at me. They were a light blue that matched her armor. "That would give you an unfair advantage, I think. Unless you send me your mission logs as well."

  "Not to interfere with whatever this is," interrupted another aiways, swiveling to face us from her workstation, "but should we be doing that? Mission logs are confidential, @jollyshocker."

  @jollyshocker looked at me and shrugged. "We could go through them together," she suggested.

  "I think we're on the same side now," added @superkova. "We should check on what information we can exchange, however."

  I nodded. "We're on the same side, but there's a lot of information we can't share. I'll check to see if there is a new classification level yet, on what we can share between us."

  I'd be surprised if both sides hadn't already created a security classification for our little coalition thingy, but if they hadn't shared it, it was probably because of debates over what could be safely shared.

  Or maybe they didn't care as much as I did. Oblivion was probably among the few ships with members of the Solar Union and Outer System Alliance smashed together. I might just have to solve this myself and ask for forgiveness later.

  "Look," I announced to everyone. "I want this ship, Oblivion, to be a safe space. If we can agree that any information shared on this ship stays on this ship, then we're good. I don't want a lack of sharing information to get us all killed, okay."

  I let that sync in for a moment.

  "It's probably an unspoken rule," I continued. "But let's speak it. Let's make it official. Information critical to our success needs to be shared. No information, however, will leave this ship without authorization. Consider this our own little private data center. Agreed?"

  A few aiways on the bridge nodded.

  "I need to hear you," I commanded.

  A series of yesses, yes sirs, and yes captains flooded the room.

  "Information not critical to our mission can still be openly shared," I added. "I leave it up to you. This is a safe space. Don't let what side of the war you were on keep you from getting to know each other. We're a team."

  I needed to come up with a cool team name for us. The life of a captain, I sighed. Always something to do. I could ask my old crew if using Team Stardance would be okay.

  "Make sure the entire crew understands this," I instructed @superkova, dismissing her to go about her duties.

  The aiways who had chimed in stood now and approached. She was wearing a slim black jumpsuit with rainbows along the sides and front. Based on where she had been sitting, I took this to be our new hacker, aka biodatascientist. She was a replacement for @foxcutter and @zerogstar. For now, anyways.

  "Is there a reason we're using familiars?" she asked, taking a cookie from the box and then walking back to her station.

  I raised my eyebrow. "You mean, talking? Out loud?"

  "Yes," she said.

  She sat and ate, still swiveled toward me, awaiting an explanation. I looked around the bridge, and everyone else was paying attention too.

  "Communicate however you like," I said nonchalantly. "When we're on the mission, like clearly executing the mission, I have no doubt you'll all switch to comms and plinking like I do. But when we're just hanging about, I like to talk. It seems more authentic, more natural."

  The authenticity part they should all understand, whether they were Outer System Alliance or Solar Union.

  Indeed, that did the trick.

  "It's nice to meet you, by the way," I said to our rainbow hacker. "Welcome aboard Oblivion."

  She scowled at me. "I served on Oblivion before."

  I hadn't thought about that. Shit. Oblivion must have spaced her. I wondered how many other members of my crew had served on Oblivion.

  "The ship spaced you, didn't it?" I asked slowly.

  She made a duh face at me, her eyebrows raised. "Yup."

  "Sorry about that."

  "Mm-hmm," she mumbled between tight lips, tapping her fingers on her knee.

  I waved. It seemed appropriate at the time. "It won't happen again. I'm @kittyboy."

  "Mm-hmm," she repeated, glaring at me while she finished the cookie.

  "My friends call me Hex," she finally said. "But you can call me @hexicon."

  She swiveled back to her workstation.

  Solar Union and Outer System Alliance, working together. Oh boy. This was going to be fun.