There was pressure, then there was nothing. Lunai felt her body weightlessly drifting through the cold embrace of space. A faint red light pulsed through her eyelids, an indication that her suit activated its emergency space-survival mode. She held her eyes shut for a moment longer, trying to put off dealing with whatever damage had been done to her and Argalax.

  “Lunai.”

  A gentle yet stern voice spoke to her. The wooden coffin was still heavy on her back. The warmth of someone’s arms wrapped around her. She was certainly still alive; still carrying her previously missing friend.

  “Entropi, is that you?”

  “Are your eyelids glued shut or something?”

  They fluttered open in an instinctive response to an annoyed authority figure’s voice. Entropi was clinging to her right side with the both of them encased in a box of black energy. She let go of Lunai once her roots started showing signs of life again.

  Entropi pulled them through space as one of the GSA ships approached them. She opened the airlock and guided Lunai inside, the intern’s mind still racing from narrowly avoiding being crushed into mulch. They walked through to the cockpit, Pammy sitting at the controls as if nothing had happened.

  Lunai finally drew her roots back into herself, letting the wooden coffin on her back slide to the ground. A faint groan from Argalax came through the lid, but the sight outside of the ship’s window stole Lunai’s focus. Nula’s base was a crumpled mess of sheet metal and concrete. The GSA’s ships were hovering around it. Dozens of bodies floated in the wasteland, mostly made up of Nula’s own crew.

  “She sacrificed her people just to kill us?”

  Entropi chuckled from behind. “To kill you, maybe. She’s smart enough to know that an imploding base isn’t enough to kill me. I flew straight through the wall in your direction and took you with me.”

  Lunai felt her knees buckling inward and stumbled forward into the window. Her palms pressed against the glass and her forehead lowered to touch it. An overwhelming surge of warmth flowed through her veins, depriving her brain of precious oxygen.

  “K-Kelang? Did you…him?” she said through her trembling breath. “Where is he?”

  Entropi was silent. It was the worst sound Lunai could hear at that moment. Her attending let her stand in the discomfort of not knowing, but Pammy turned away and leaned down to her wrist, talking in a whispered voice.

  “Blue-fin, what is your status?”

  No one said anything for five seconds. Why was no one saying anything? Someone in the GSA’s armada had to have seen him. There was no way he was gone. No way he had just disappeared into the metal graveyard in front of her.

  Her breath hitched as a buzz came through her earpiece. “We’ve got him here on our ship. His earpiece broke when he jumped out of the ring.”

  Lunai finally stopped shaking; she slowly slid down from the window and found herself curling into her chair. Her body went limp and she became nothing more than a passive observer in the cockpit. The disturbing sound of wood cracking in half made her perk up a bit, turning her head to see that Entropi had sliced the coffin’s lid clean off.

  “You must be the missing intern.”

  Lunai only saw the front of Argalax’s face poking out of the coffin. He raised his hands out to Entropi, showing her the bindings on his wrist. They were white and looked like they were made of a thin twin-like material. Entropi sliced through them with ease, using just one small flick of energy to eviscerate the material.

  “Thank you.”

  The words surrounded Lunai like a sweet melody. Her friend and closest colleague was safe, that mattered worlds more than any rematch that may have been waiting for her. She spun her chair around to face him, still too dizzy to stand on her roots.

  “Lunai. I’m so, truly sorry.”

  She wanted to stand up and hug him, but walking was out of the question. Still a little delirious, she instead flexed her wrist in a casual show of forgiveness. She knew Argalax wasn’t one for causal displays, but he was in no position to complain about it.

  “We’re all okay. That’s all that matters. We’ll find another way to get to Nula and Placebo.”

  “Well, I do have one thing that may be helpful in that regard.” Argalax moved his hand to his stomach and pressed it inside his metal flesh. It emerged holding a glass box with a chip suspended in its center.

  “I didn’t make it long in the base without being noticed, but I managed to grab this before I was apprehended. I hid it within my body; they had no idea where it went.”

  Entropi snatched the box out of his hand. “At least we got something out of this trip.”

  “Entropi!” Pammy spat. “I think the intern’s life was well worth a day of travel.”

  The attending ignored her pilot and retreated to the captain’s quarters. She may have put a lot more trust in Lunai’s skills than any other teacher she had before, but there were many reasons why she was not the ideal mentor. Bliss was aloof. That word was not strong enough to describe what Entropi was.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “She’s like that; don’t take it personally.” Lunai patted the seat next to her. “Come sit down. I have a lot to tell you.”

  He obeyed without hesitation. Lunai couldn’t parse what he was thinking just looking at his mouthless face, but the way his feet so gently touched the floor told her he was feeling small. He was rescued by a rescuer who also needed to be rescued. Their savior was the GSA’s top hero. Lunai felt small as well.

  “Lunai, let me explain why-“

  “No.” She put her hand up. “I know enough. You don’t have to tell me anything about your past. I’m just glad you’re not dead.”

  His posture deflated as he exhaled. “You are too gracious. I’m surprised you joined the GSA and didn’t stay to lead your planet.”

  She looked away for a second, feeling a pinch of guilt. “They need a hero right now. Not another priest.”

  “I see.” His fingers tapped awkwardly on his thighs. “So, what are you doing with Entropi? Is Bliss ok?”

  “He’s fine, but he almost wasn’t. Nula injected him with reality glue; Sir Jelly saved both of us.” She saw his eye drop towards the floor, knowing the man already felt guilty enough. “You being there wouldn’t have changed much. Bliss still would’ve been injected.”

  “Were you hurt?”

  “Yes, but I also learned something new; something that will help me throughout my career.”

  He chuckled softly. “I’m glad to have helped you, but if Bliss is alright, why is he not here right now?”

  “Bliss is…grounded. You’re not the only one who ran off that night.”

  Lunai turned her head to the side and noticed Pammy staring at them with her elbow resting comfortably on the control panel. It didn’t surprise Lunai that the woman was a gossip. Anyone who tolerated Entropi on a regular basis likely had some incentive to do it.

  “Don’t mind me. Keep talking.”

  If you’re only interested because I’m talking about Bliss, I am going to tattle to Entropi!

  “As I was saying…Bliss went to confront Placebo by himself. It didn’t go well, so now Placebo has been kidnapped and we’re looking for him.”

  “Is Placebo the guy Entropi doesn’t want Misery dating?” Pammy asked. “The drug-dealer?”

  “Wha-Misery?”

  “Oh, sorry. You never worked with him when he was under Entropi’s wing. That’s what all her subordinates call him. He’s a fucking nightmare to work with, miserable bastard.”

  Lunai furrowed her brows and frowned, clearly offended on her senior’s behalf. She held that face towards Pammy for a good ten seconds before turning around to face Argalax again.

  “We were hoping we’d find Placebo and Nula here. She must’ve found out that we captured some of her agents and set a trap for us.” She then leaned in and started talking in a hushed tone, clearly trying to exclude Pammy from the next part of the conversation. “And she’s right, Entropi does not want Bliss to reconcile with Placebo. I heard her say that the guy is a loser and a user.”

  “Lunai.” Argalax’s eye focused on her, peering into Lunai’s soul. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What reconciliation? Why would Bliss date a supervillain drug-dealer?”

  Lunai crossed her arms and lowered an eyebrow. Was her partner in internship living on the same planet as her? Did he spend the last month working under the same mess of a man that she was? The proper question was why wouldn’t their senior date a supervillain drug-dealer.

  “He’s Bliss. That’s why.”

  “They dated in high school,” Pammy shouted to them. “Loshket stood Bliss up at the prom. Totally disappeared after that until he made a name for himself as Placebo.”

  “Wait, so that story I heard wasn’t a rumor?” Lunai was now leaning back towards Pammy, fully succumbing to the innate desire to engage in workplace gossip.

  “Nope. The poor kid already had a mountain of trust issues before that. He was catatonic for a week after that.”

  That’s not an exaggeration, is it…That’s genuinely heartbreaking. I can’t believe I’m acting like it’s a soap opera on TV.

  Lunai was about to redirect the conversation herself when Entropi’s screaming voice cut in and did it for her.

  “GODDAMMIT!”

  Argalax gasped and traced a line on his forehead and chin. Lunai recognized the gesture as a somatic prayer followers of the Old God performed on occasion. Entropi’s lack of respect for the ancient deity of the galaxy wasn’t that surprising to Lunai, but including the “old” aspect of his title was an instinct for most in the galaxy, even people who didn’t follow the man.

  She’s human, but unlike Bliss, I’m not sure if she was born off Earth or not. Being from Earth would explain the casual heresy.

  Entropi came stomping back into the room, glass box in hand. She fell to her knees in front of Pammy. Her eyes were glued to the floor when she addressed her.

  “I can’t get it working. Tell Crux we’ll meet him at the Rebirth System.”

  Pammy patted her on the head, earning a slap on the hand from the woman. “Entropi, your kid’s gonna be fine. I doubt Placebo would give anything to Nula, at least not until he’s been through a lot of torture.”

  “That’s supposed to be comforting? Placebo sent Nula the sample in the first place. He’d sell Mtsi out in a heartbeat to save his own ass.”

  “Not a heartbeat,” Pammy said, almost mockingly. “It’d take like, a whole EKG at least.”

  Entropi didn’t look amused. “I’m putting you on desk duty for three months.”

  “Ok, let’s not go that far. I’ll call Dr. Crux and get us back in…an EKG at most.”

  Lunai put her hands to her mouth and stifled a laugh. Entropi was shaking in place, her hands hovering towards Pammy’s throat. The pilot noticed the apparent danger emanating from her pissed off captain but continued laughing all the same. She pressed a few buttons on her control panel and a miniature, holographic projection of Dr. Crux appeared in front of them.

  Pammy’s voice switched from playful to serious when she talked to him. “Dr. Crux, the infiltration team is requesting permission to dock at planet Ammini in the Rebirth System.”

  “Granted.” The mini-Crux turned his head to see Lunai and Argalax sitting next to Pammy. “I see you found the primary target. Were there any casualties?”

  “All ships reported to me after departure. There are some injuries, but even the fish-intern came out alive.”

  “Excellent. And our secondary target?”

  “That’s a no-go. Nula must’ve suspected something was up when those guys we arrested didn’t return. The base was evacuated and set to implode.”

  Dr. Crux moved to peek behind Pammy. “Is that Entropi on the floor there?”

  “She needs your expertise. We recovered a chip that could have useful information, but she can’t figure out how to extract the data.”

  “Then it must be a tough one. I’ll meet you at the docking site and take a look at it immediately.”

  Pammy set the ship’s course to take them home and dismissed Dr. Crux’s holographic form. Entropi was already on her way back to the captain’s quarters. Lunai turned to Argalax, her smile finally calm after all that had happened.

  “Now that we have some time, let me tell you about the void siren cluster we went through!”

  Lunai regaled him with stories of everything he missed since leaving. She even showed him the video of Cromble that Bliss sent her, and his message about keeping Kelang away from Placebo. Her team was almost whole again. Lunai resolved to take them all out for dinner when Placebo was located and Bliss was cleared to return to the field.

  Maybe I’ll invite Entropi too, especially if she wants to pay for it! She and Bliss deserve some time to talk after this mess.