It was obvious to Dash that Odessa was intent on completing TLI whether they were strapped in or not. But Carmen just would not strap in.

  So Dash didn’t either.

  He did grab a hold of the chair though.

  “I’m not moving until we check the UV is working!” Carmen said.

  But Odessa didn’t look back. He doubted she could even hear them. When Odessa was focused on something it didn’t matter if you were yelling right at her, the words would just flow around her. He recognised the state. Jade was much the same.

  “We’ll check it once we’re moving. Worst case we turn around and abandon the mission,” Dash said.

  “You don’t just turn a space ship around,” Carmen growled. “That would still cost us a couple days. Without the UV I would be forced to go into hibernation. That’s a potential death sentence.”

  Dash frowned. Her words didn’t make sense to him. Chikari always went into hibernation during the winter months. Sure, it wasn’t winter for quite some time but surely they could just rewake her once they got back to earth?

  Behind him he could hear Odessa counting down.

  There wasn’t time to be buckled in.

  Not far away Jade was looking at them in confusion. ‘Sit down,’ she mouthed.

  Athena was giving them a worried look.

  Carmen was still trying to talk sense into Odessa, the latter of whom was oblivious to it all.

  Then came the distinctive click of a button.

  Odessa had hit burn.

  Carmen wasn’t strapped in.

  In the fraction of a second that it took for the electronics to send the signal to the engines, Dash had thrown himself around Carmen. He grabbed onto the other side of the chair and hooked his feet around the edges so that when the burn hit, Carmen crashed into him rather than the back wall.

  They probably would’ve been fine if they had hit the back wall. This burn was nothing like the launch burns. It was gentle in comparison. But it was still enough to injure something if they landed wrong. And Dash didn’t want anyone getting injured on this adventure, least of all because it would mean that Odessa and Stella would figure out that he’d lied on his application to join the mission.

  “Oof!” Carmen winced as she crashed into him.

  For a few seconds she struggled against the gees to move herself into a more comfortable position. Eventually she settled for just clinging onto him.

  Dash would have helped her out but the gees were enough that he didn’t really want to let go of the seat with either hand.

  For the two minutes it took for the engines to burn through the specified amount of fuel, Dash stayed hanging on to the chair with Carmen pressed hard against him. When the acceleration finally cut out, and they jolted forward in the other direction, he braced himself against the chair using his knees and elbows so he wouldn’t squish her comparatively slender frame.

  Carmen gave another yelp as she hit the back of the chair.

  “Are you alright?” Dash asked, worried he’d somehow crushed her.

  Carmen nodded breathed out a loud sigh. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  Dash ran his eyes up and down her just to be sure. The nearly skin tight suit she was wearing did her body a lot of justice. Dash was glad his pants were somewhat looser in comparison. Looking at Carmen wasn’t helping in that department though so he turned his attention elsewhere.

  “Are you guys alright?” Athena asked a moment later as she unstrapped herself and floated free of her seat with the gentlest kick off the floor.

  The very graceful Athena wasn’t the sort of distraction he had intended to find but he nodded and replied, “Yeah,” as casually as he could.

  “That was nuts!” cried Jade who had glanced back at least once during the burn to see how they were doing. “I can’t believe you just did that.” She sounded like she wanted to try it herself. Typical Jade, she had more balls than he did some days. He liked that about her but he’d enjoy it more if she didn’t constantly worry him so much.

  The look on Odessa’s face when she got out of the pilot seat and saw where they were was priceless. Her violet almost pink eyes, unnatural for her human ancestry, were wide and her mouth dropped open. Odessa was always easy to read. She reacted before she thought. Sometimes that was good. Today, not so much. She hadn’t considered that they would remain standing. Hadn’t thought to ask why Carmen was so upset. To be fair, there hadn’t been a lot of time, but it didn’t matter. It was the golden rule. If even one person says bail then you bail, even if you didn’t understand the reason.

  Dash gave her a harsh look, one that would let her know he wasn’t happy. He saw her wince a little in response. She knew what she had done.

  He could have rebuked her verbally too, chewed her out, but a fight in the middle of a mission like this could have huge ramifications. This would need to be discussed but it was better to give everyone a few moments to calm down first.

  “Alright,” he said to Carmen in a controlled tone. “Let’s go get that UV system running.”

  But Carmen was not so eager to just let things lie. She turned on Odessa.

  “You might have killed me!” she said.

  Dash watched as Odessa’s features went from apologetic to angry and defensive.

  This was not going to go anywhere good.

  Dash held up his hands. “Okay, hold on.”

  Odessa scoffed. “That’s an exaggeration. Worst case you might of sprained a wrist or something. And then Dash could heal it. But that only would have happened because you were out of your seat.”

  “You pushed the button to burn,” Dash couldn’t help but point out.

  “I counted down,” Odessa shot back. “I gave plenty of warning. We would have missed our shot otherwise.”

  Before Dash could reply, Carmen interjected, “I don’t mean from the gees! I mean if the UV doesn’t work.”

  The confusion on Odessa’s face was palpable.

  Dash was confused too. Sure, having Carmen go into forced hibernation wouldn’t be great for the mission, but to say it might kill her... There was something they were missing here.

  “Wait, what do you mean?” Dash asked.

  “Worst case you go into hibernation,” Odessa added before Carmen could reply. “And that’s like worst case, if, and big if, it doesn’t work.”

  Dash glanced at Athena and Jade to see if they understood anymore than he did. Jade looked as confused as he felt. Athena was harder to read. She was giving all her attention to Carmen with a curious and open look on her face. She kind of reminded Dash of a therapist and if the room hadn’t been so serious the thought might have made him laugh out loud.

  “Unicorn, this is base. What’s going on up there?” Indi’s voice carried over the comms.

  Dash had forgotten VOX was still switched on and they could hear everything. They were supposed to be able to of course, especially during a burn, but Indi had been unusually quiet.

  “Nothing much,” Odessa replied quickly. “We’re about to turn on the UV system. How’s things on ground?”

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  “Good. Good,” Indi said back.

  Dash frowned. He might not have noticed it if they hadn’t spoken one after the other but Indi’s voice had the same tone Odessa’s did. It was extra peppy, like she was brushing over something that definitely wasn’t fine. “Everything alright?” Dash asked. “Who’s there with you?”

  “Just Cat and couple of the engineers. Yeah everything’s fine,” Indi replied, with that still slightly too high pitched shrill at the end of the word fine.

  He noticed Odessa’s shoulder slump slightly in relief when Indi said ‘just Cat’ and he got the impression she was glad that Amanda hadn’t been listening to what she’d just done. To say her obsession with the red-headed woman was obvious would have been an understatement.

  “Where’s Amanda?” he asked.

  Odessa’s wide eyes slid warily his way, obviously wondering what he was up to and if he was going to tell on her.

  But Dash just wanted to know what was happening at base that Indi wasn’t telling him.

  “We had some visitors from the council that Coal pulled her in to help with,” Indi replied.

  Athena jumped in then. “Coal and Stella couldn’t deal with it?”

  Cat was the one who replied, “Apparently she’s the local face of the program now. Something about having rapport with the people.”

  Dash could practically hear her rolling her eyes.

  “But nah, everything’s fine here,” she added.

  Dash might have believed her if it weren’t for a slightly too casual edge to her tone too. It was less obvious with Cat though and he couldn’t be sure he wasn’t just imagining things given nerves were running high at moment.

  From what Dash knew of Amanda, she hated politics, but she was very good at such things in a genuine take no nonsense kind of a way, and she really was a good representative of the local people. She wouldn’t ignore their concerns even if they were opposing the mission. It probably helped that she was basically the resident dragon tamer. In contrast, as the local mechanic with access to a race track, Cat had probably done more to increase cars and exacerbate the dragon issues than any other person in Little Rock. He also doubted she could do tactful.

  He might have pushed for more info about what was happening on the ground but he could see the worried look on Carmen’s face beside him and he was all too aware they were ignoring her concerns right now, which wasn’t fair. They also couldn’t do much about whatever was happening on the ground.

  “Alright,” Dash replied. “Listen, we’re gonna sign off and go get this UV working.” He looked at Carmen while he said it and he hoped it was reassuring.

  “Alright,” Indi replied. “Check back in 15 minutes. Your trajectory’s looking good for now and no readings out of the ordinary.”

  They signed off.

  Dash turned back to Carmen. “What do you mean?” he repeated. He sent a warning glance in Odessa’s direction in case she tried to interrupt again, but she didn’t.

  Nearby Athena was looking worriedly in the general direction of the control panel, likely in response to the comms with base.

  In a calmer voice than earlier, Carmen replied, “Involuntary hibernation has a 20% death rate.”

  “What?” Odessa couldn’t help blurting out. The girl had a mouth on her that moved faster than her mind. It was obvious from her tone that she hadn’t known that about chikari hibernation though.

  Dash hadn’t either. “Are you sure?” he confirmed.

  Carmen just looked at him. “Am I sure?”

  Dash realised quickly what he’d just done. He’d asked a chikari if she was sure about something that related to chikari. Sure, there was a chance she was wrong but it was much less likely than him just not knowing something and it wasn’t worth debating it because it didn’t change the immediate situation. He nodded. “Okay, let’s go get that UV working, then we’ll deal with this.” He waved in Odessa’s general direction.

  Odessa shrunk behind the pilot’s seat a little.

  They went down to the lower deck. Athena followed.

  Meanwhile Jade hummed an indecipherable tune as she got started on routine system checks.

  “This won’t take long,” Dash said as he pulled out the UV lights from where they’d been folded into a sort of locker space just around the corner from the sleeping cove. The UV was right by the work bench and a computer screen that relayed all of the information on the main deck to this deck. They’d built it this way so Carmen could get her dose of UV while still doing other things and without letting too much light into the sleeping area. A full-blooded chikari couldn’t go more than 48 hours maximum without some form of sunlight or they would enter forced hibernation. Each day Carmen required a minimum of at least six hours of direct UV to keep her energy levels up.

  He locked them into place then he hit the button on the side of the control box. There was a screen that could be pulled out to protect the rest of them but he didn’t bother with that for now. He figured he’d return to the top deck once things were working.

  The cooling fans got to work first with a whir that added to the buzz and hum of all the other electronics. Chikari did not tolerate high temperatures so with the UV this close, a bit of cooling was needed.

  Carmen jerked her head in the direction of the sleeping area as if she’d heard something.

  “What?” Dash asked, as the system ran through a few startup checks.

  Carmen looked puzzled. “I thought I heard something again. Like a thump and then a skitter.”

  Dash frowned at the wall. “Coming from the sleeping quarters?”

  Carmen nodded.

  Dash went to take a look. He eyed the upright sleeping bags and nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt something touching his shoulder.

  But it was just Athena come to take a look as well.

  “Sorry,” she giggled.

  “Did we check the sleeping bags when we searched the ship before?” Dash asked. He couldn’t remember if anyone had looked inside the sleeping bags.

  “UV’s working,” reported Carmen before Athena could answer him.

  They returned to the work area where the UV was now up and running and Carmen was looking much happier.

  “Good,” Dash acknowledged with a smile and a nod. “I’m sorry about before.” He met her vibrant green eyes directly, trying to show he meant it.

  Carmen blushed slightly and then her gaze slid toward the upper deck. “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “Let me talk to Odessa first,” he said.

  Carmen gave a singular nod.

  Athena slipped her hand onto Carmen’s shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. “I didn’t realise chikari hibernation could be so risky,” she said in a light a curious tone. One that hit a delicate balance just enough that Carmen wouldn’t feel like she had to answer if she didn’t want to.

  Dash studied Athena. She had already proven herself very flexible, both physically and mentally, and now it seemed she was good with people too. She had been a good choice for their fifth crew member.

  Carmen smiled slightly. She really did look a lot happier now the UV was on. “It’s not always. It depends on the circumstances. If it’s a gradual drop in UV light then it’s not an issue. We get a lot of cloudy days as we approach winter and obviously short summer nights are fine, but sudden extended darkness can be quite stressful, even moreso if we aren’t physically prepared for it, like at the start of spring, which it is right now. There’s a high energy cost to going into hibernation and to coming out of it, and it affects hormones and things. It’s a delicate balance. I did put all this in my reports you know.”

  Dash gave her an apologetic look. “It shouldn’t have mattered. I mean it does help understanding the why, but we had a checklist we had to follow before TLI and we didn’t get through it. Just making it to space and getting back is no small feat. Odessa knows that.”

  “There was a report?” Athena asked.

  “Before you joined. Many for different things over the months. We’d have covered it when the checklist was put together.” Dash told her. “I did read them...” Carmen’s reports had been detailed though, very detailed, and then each team had had their own weekly reports as well. He’d ended up skimming a lot to focus on actually building things, like the UV system. They’d obviously noted it as important at one point since it had made the parking orbit checklist.

  “Maybe I wasn’t detailed enough,” Carmen muttered to herself.

  “No, that definitely wasn’t the problem,” Dash replied. “No one on ground remembered either. Come to think of it, they seemed kind of distracted.”

  Athena nodded rapidly as if he’d just confirmed something she had noticed too but hadn’t been certain of. “Something else is going on down there. Did you hear the tone in their voices? Also, Indi is never quiet for that long. I don’t think anyone was actually listening for a period there.”

  Carmen looked confused. She shook her head. “They said they had visitors from the council. It was probably just that.”

  Dash wasn’t convinced. They’d expected something like that. He got the intense impression that there was something else base wasn’t telling them. Athena obviously thought so too. He couldn’t blame Carmen for not picking up on it, she’d understandably had other things on her mind at the time.

  Jade was unlikely to have noticed either. One usually had to be very direct with her. But maybe Odessa had? He needed to talk to Odessa first anyway.

  He turned to Carmen. “Not that it is an excuse but for future note you really can’t trust Odessa to read anything that’s written down. You need to make sure she hears it and acknowledges it, at least three times. It does help when we know the whys of things, especially when it’s something life threatening.” He sighed. He’d never met a more chaotic person in his life than Odessa but she did have some hard rules that she played by and he respected that.

  The crazy thing was, on at least two of the outdoor trips they’d done as preparation, the roles had been reversed and Dash had been the one saying to go just a little further while Odessa had made a call to turn around, once was even at the request of Carmen, and once due to the weather. Even though Dash had been pretty sure things would have been fine she’d firmly reminded him of the bailout rule. So what was different now? Dash had a feeling that it was more than just the length or scope of the project. It was like she was determined to get to the moon or die trying.

  He’d read about her, before he’d signed up. About an incident in the desert, a climbing trip gone wrong. He didn’t know about the friends she’d been searching for in the Viskala Jungle but he knew she’d lost friends in the desert due to the actions of some local drug smugglers, and he knew she’d lost a partner on another trip up a winter peak too, an accident where an ice anchor failed. She’d lost enough people that she shouldn’t be so careless, he thought. But then what did he know of loss? He tried to look forward now, to see what was the right path, but everything was just a blur. Only the immediate present was clear.

  “I’m going to go upstairs and talk to Odessa. You two good down here?” he asked.

  Athena gave him a smile that made him want to stay. “We’re good,” she said.

  Carmen smiled too and it was just as stunning.

  “Watch you don’t get too much UV,” he pointed back at Athena as he headed for the hatch.

  He met Jade coming down and for a moment they were almost sharing the same space.

  “I’m going to try out the shitter,” she said with the grin of an engineer about to test something new.

  “Uh huh,” he replied with a chuckle.

  That was Jade, always very blunt. Her candidness did little to dull his love for her while her enthusiasm only made him want to turn around and follow her down. The impulse wasn’t helped when she gave his butt a gentle squeeze on the way past.

  “Gods help me,” he mumbled to himself.

  But the only answer was a creaking in the ship walls.