When I awoke, I checked our status to see that we were partway through the Arkon system. I was a little disappointed that we wouldn’t be stopping, but we had a full hold and a mission. After a workout and shower, I made my way to the mess.

  Isa waved me over after I grabbed some food, so I sat down with her and some of the others.

  “Congrats on becoming interstellar!”

  “Thanks. Now I just need to wait until I actually set foot somewhere other than Eryth.”

  Everyone chuckled. “Yeah, welcome to being a spacer. Long boring stretches intermixed with rare bouts of excitement. Still, there’s nothing like it.”

  I nodded, already starting to understand. Yes, there was a lot of repetitiveness, but the thrill of being in the void and the comradery that came from relying on the people around you to keep everyone alive, those were unlike anything I had experienced before.

  “Gonna do anything to celebrate popping your galactic cherry?”

  I rolled my eyes at the crude analogy. “Nope, just another day.”

  “Oh, come on! Okay, so I had this idea for a new device—”

  Everyone else at the table groaned. Ani, the gnome, was the first to speak up. “Please, Isa, no more using unsuspecting victims as test subjects for your weird devices.”

  “Wait, but this one isn’t weird! Er, well, it won’t be weird when I figure out how to make it work.”

  “Isa. No.”

  “Fine,” she said, slumping back in her chair.

  I looked at the various people at the table. “Does she do this often?”

  More groans. “Yes.” “All the time.” “Practically daily.”

  “Her devices are notorious. They never work right the first time. Or the second. Or often the third, for that matter. And most of them are… let’s say of questionable utility.”

  “Hey! I stand by the fact that the jumping alarm clock had great potential!”

  Ani gave me a look like, “See what we’re dealing with?” I chuckled.

  “Isa,” I asked. “Why would you want a jumping alarm clock?”

  “Okay, so, you know how some people like, can’t get out of bed in the morning no matter what? They just go back to sleep each time?”

  “I guess, but don’t those sort of issues tend to go away after you reach Tier 2?”

  She waved me off. “Eh, usually. Some people are weird. Anyway, the idea is that the alarm clock would go off, then jump around so you had to chase it down to turn it off, ensuring that you are properly awake and out of bed before it shuts down.”

  I just blinked. “That’s… a thing.”

  Isa pointed at me and looked to Ani. “See? Dax gets it. Hmm, maybe if I used force projectors to get more oomph… oh and I could put them on every side so that it wouldn’t have to land on the correct side…”

  Ani slapped her forehead. “Look what you’ve done now! I thought that silly project was done, and now she’s off in her own world, probably planning on getting ahold of military grade force projector components to launch an alarm clock across the room. Something basically no one needs!”

  I stared, bewildered at the entire scene, until I finally cracked up laughing at the absurdity. At that point I finally understood why Jara had called Isa “a hoot” when we first met.

  “Huh?” Isa said, breaking out of her trance. “Did someone make a joke?”

  Of course, her comment got everyone laughing.

  “Hmph,” she grumbled, crossing her arms. “Fine, leave me out of it.” Her reaction was clearly exaggerated, not actually caring about missing the joke.

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  I checked the time. “About time for second shift.”

  Everyone nodded and got up, the laughs dying down as we all got ready for work.

  The shift passed much as the previous ones had, and after my shift, I grabbed some food and chatted with others.

  “Hey, Dax,” asked Isa. “Want to play some Strife?” Strife was typically a gambling game played with four people.

  I almost agreed, but then I remembered the warning I got about playing cards with her, causing me to notice the predatory look she had on her face, very different from her normal… effervescent expressions.

  “You know, I think I’ll sit out this one,” I answered tentatively.

  “Oh, come on,” she said, her innocent act overdone. “It’ll be fun! We can even play a few warm-up rounds first.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “You tryin’a hustle me?” I said in a bad imitation of a rough type, causing everyone to laugh.

  She opened her eyes wide, as if she had never even thought about it. “Of course not! I just want to play a game with my new friend!”

  By this point, it seemed like it was pretty clear to everyone this had devolved into a bit, but I was enjoying it, so I kept going.

  “You have a new friend? Who?”

  She gasped. “Why, you, my dear Dax! We’re practically besties already!”

  I gave her a side-eye. She just stared back at me, a challenge in her gaze.

  “Fine, you’re on. But I’m not betting money. What else you got?”

  She thought for a few seconds. “The winner gets to pick a nickname for the loser for a week. Off-duty, of course.”

  I considered it. There was a very good chance I’d lose, but it was only for a week, and I was feeling competitive. “Fine. I’m in. Who else is playing?”

  We got two more volunteers, though they weren’t part of the bet, and we sat down to play.

  Yeah, I lost. Badly. Isa was totally a shark. She decided that my new nickname for the week was “Pet,” though she also made it clear that no one else was allowed to call me that.

  Sure enough, for the next week, as we left Arkon and traveled to the colony system Evon and beyond, she called me “Pet” whenever she could. It was a strange choice, but I kind of understood it. She made sure not to use it in a derogatory manner, more like I was a slightly-annoying but endearing creature who needed a lot of support.

  I made sure not to bet against her any more, though we played plenty of other games. There wasn’t much else to do on the ship besides play games, watch vids, read, and work out. Or, if you were Isa, design and build absurd devices.

  One night after work, while we were traveling between Arkon and Evon, Isa waved me over.

  “Pet, good to see you.”

  “Isa, you see me every night. It’s a small ship.”

  “Yes, but I need your expertise tonight.”

  “Oh? What, do you have a physics question?”

  “Huh? No, of course not. We’re having a debate. Who’s hotter—Alanthil Ergonia or Myrith Delcator?”

  “Uh, who?”

  She rolled her eyes before pulling out her tablet and showing me two pictures of who I assumed were elven actors. “This is Alanthil Ergonia, and this is Myrith Delcator. Who do you think is hotter?”

  I shrugged. “I’m gay—they’re just men to me.”

  “Ugh, you’re no help.” She turned back to Ani. “Seriously, though. How can you think Myrith Delcator is hotter than Alanthil Ergonia?”

  I tuned out their conversation and started eating. A few minutes later, Isa reached across the table and poked me.

  “Huh?”

  “I’m trying to talk to you, Pet.”

  “Oh. You don’t have another pair of celebrities you’re comparing, do you?”

  “Of course not. We’ve moved on. Now we’re talking about clothes.”

  I listened, not saying anything.

  “Okay, so we’re comparing outfits worn to the Arkon Film Awards a few weeks ago. Which of these is best, do you think?”

  She showed me three pictures of sidhe women. The first two were wearing different styles of dresses, while the last had a loose-draped silk top over a short, asymmetrical skirt above a pair of boots that seemed to cross fashion with combat.

  “Third one,” I said confidently.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Boots,” I replied simply in between bites of food.

  She stared at the picture for a moment. “Yeah, those boots are pretty kickass.”

  I nodded. “Great boots. I want a pair.”

  She laughed. “I don’t think they’d go with our uniforms, but maybe on shore leave.”

  I shrugged. “Still want ‘em.”

  She eyed me. “I bet you could pull them off, yeah.”

  I stood up and adopted my best “I could kick your ass but I don’t need to” pose, causing Isa to smirk.

  “Yeah, you could pull them off.”

  I gave a firm nod before sitting back down and finishing my meal.

  The next day, Isa plopped down in the seat next to me at breakfast. “I have a great idea.”

  “Oh, no,” I groaned.

  “Quiet, Pet. You haven’t even heard it yet.”

  “I don’t need to hear it to know I’m going to regret this. What is your new, brilliant idea?”

  “A vibrating bed alarm clock.”

  “That sounds more like a sex thing than anything.”

  “Ugh, why do you have to ruin everything?” She could barely hold her forced pout as she glared at me, a smirk creeping onto her face.

  “Seriously, what’s your obsession with alarm clocks? Do you have a hard time waking up or something?”

  “Me? Nah, but those people exist! Someone needs to care about them!”

  I squinted at her. “Nah, what’s your real motivation?”

  “Honestly, I just find it fun,” she replied with a shrug.

  I pretended to think for a few seconds. “Yeah, that tracks.”

  “What are your hobbies?”

  “Uh, I don’t really have any…”

  She gave me a stern look. “Pet. Dax. You need hobbies, or the void will drive you mad.”

  I looked away.

  “Dax, I’m serious. Find something you can do on a ship and work on it. I don’t care what it is—learn to knit, write a book, design sex toys thinly veiled as something else. It doesn’t matter, so long as it matters to you.”

  I chuckled a bit at that last part, but nodded anyway. She was probably right.

  “I’ll think about it, okay?”

  She studied me for a few seconds, probably to decide if I was being serious or not.

  “Okay, Pet. I’ll trust you on that. Keep it in mind.”