Find her. Save her, find her, Save her, find her—

  Enough! What the hell happened? Where—?

  I roll to my side and look around, my mind fuzzy as hell. Feels like the worst hangover ever. The dragon's presence is gone. Everything seems "normal", except for the hard steel of the station's floor.

  “There you are!”

  Aldine jams her steel boot into my floating ribs, squashing my liver. I groan with pain. That bitch!

  “About time! Come on, fast!” She yells as she drags me, pulling on my arm.

  There’s an urgency to her voice and... is that fear? I try to scramble to my feet but faceplant as she drags me forward

  “I’m coming, I’m coming. Let me—”

  I can feel it now. Hateful vibrations, metal pounding against metal like giant hammers beating on a station-sized anvil. Clears my head right up. This I know. Those bloody knights are coming back and I’m still on the floor near the middle of the corridor! Finally managing to get my feet under me, I backtrack, pushing my erstwhile tormentor as fast as I can. Five meters to go. I can’t see the knights behind me, but I don’t need to. The shaking feels like an earthquake now. I know where they are. Way too close, and these armored assholes are fast! Fuck, fuck, fuck!

  I pop the door of the fire closet open and shove Aldine into the recess, on top of a standpipe. They are here! I squeeze in with her, her lithe body wedged against mine. Not a second too soon. There is no space, but it beats getting trampled to death. I can feel the softness of her skin, her chest pressed against mine in an embrace that could be tender if it weren’t for... it’s Aldine, for fuck’s sake! I’m going to pay for that. Less than a yard away, a column of knights scrambles past our hiding place. Neither one of us makes a sound, holding tight, petrified. We’re not in their way, but they have seen us and we are within reach. It would be all too easy for one of these fuckers to grab us both and throw us down under their feet. I’ve seen them do it for funsies.

  Not this time though. They act like they haven’t seen us. Not in the mood, I imagine. It's easy to understand why. After that battle... While the dragon fled, I doubt they see it as a victory. Not yet anyway. I barely breathe as I watch the iridium armors pass an armlength away. They keep marching forward and after a while, the vibrations subside, the sounds fading into the background till all I can hear is the beat of our pounding hearts.

  I'm still not moving. Aldine presses herself tighter into me, reclaiming my attention. What the heck has gotten into her? Fear? She almost died, we all did.

  “I thought you were dead, asshole!”

  Sounds almost like sentiment. What—I try to read her face. It’s a tinge redder than usual. Probably the light. She laughs it off.

  “Imagine! You should see your mug right now!”

  She nudges my privates with a flick of her finger and pushes me out onto the corridor. It’s crazy how a little tap in the wrong spot can drain a man. I scramble back to my knees. She’s looking down on me, her face just inches above mine.

  “Enough playing. You've got work to do.”

  “I’m off today.”

  “You wish. With all that scrap metal out there? Besides I saved your stupid life. You owe me, sweetie.”

  She yanks on my hair, smacks a kiss on my forehead and slaps me on the cheek, almost gently.

  “That’s a good boy. Now get to it. I want a full load.”

  What the hell is wrong with her today? If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was flirting with me. Aldine. Flirting. With me. As if. First, a dragon attack, and now Aldine kissing... I know it was a joke, but I can still feel the softness of her lips on my skin. What’s next? A convocation from the Time Lords? A visit from the Emperor? This day’s just getting weirder and weirder.

  The trash barge is waiting for me at the dock, ready to go. It’s an old, rusty-looking tugboat with photon sails trailing a large metal compactor and the barge proper. I’m part of the station’s environmental crew, a glorified garbage man if you will, collecting whatever trash is floating in space between the station and the jump point. You wouldn’t believe the amount of refuse that can end up in orbit around a station like ours. And after a battle like that one? Aldine’s right, we can’t let all that iridium get away. Not that they’d let us keep it, but if I could just “misplace” a chunk of iridium, in time, I could find a buyer and get myself out of this fucking place. Not likely, but a man can dream.

  “Finally! What took you so...” Vince stops mid-sentence. I follow his gaze. Aldine followed me! She’s panting. Probably had to run to catch up.

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  “What are you... Did you forget something?”

  “I’m coming with you guys today. I know you are just going to fool around, come back with half a barge and whine about space currents or some shit.”

  “You are...” Vince repeats, dumbfounded. He’s the pilot. I’m the crane & net guy. Our “crew” is at least one short, but we’ve always gotten the job done and I can’t imagine her stepping up to run the compactor. That’d be a sight!

  “Yes. I’m coming with you. You got a problem with that?”

  Vince’s the one asking, but it’s my bottom she smacks as she climbs on board.

  The tug’s cabin isn’t very large per se but it’s designed for a full crew and there’s only three of us. Aldine takes the captain’s seat. Usually, that’s mine but I don’t complain. After all, she’s the boss’ daughter, and our direct boss, administratively speaking. Instead I settle gingerly into the “first mate” seat. It hasn’t been used in years and a small puff of dust rises as I sit down and buckle up.

  “Don’t you guys ever clean this thing?”

  “It is clean. It’s a trash barge, what do you expect?”

  “Cleanliness. When we get back to dock, you’ll vacuum the whole cabin. Don’t you know dust is a fire hazard?”

  Vincent is muffling a chuckle, the traitor. Nag, nag, nag. Tuggie isn’t really dirty, far from it. She’s just old. Show me a trash collector cleaner than mine and I’ll show you one that’s never been used. I nod in agreement anyway—once we pick up a full load of iridium, she’ll be gone and everything will go back to normal. She just wants her name on the manifest when we bring that fortune back in. Who’d tell her if it’s been cleaned or not?

  “You’re Vince, right? Take us up.”

  Vince nods and starts the engines to navigate the tug out of the bay. The rumble shakes the entire cabin. Aldine’s face goes pale and her hands clamp down on the armrests as if she could squeeze the ship into submission. She doesn’t scream though.

  People don’t give credit to old tugs like this one. They think that because it looks all beaten up, it’s somehow lacking in power. In reality, well, it’s a tug, designed and built to push battleships around, under gravity! It’s got nothing but engines, making it one of the most powerful crafts in the entire station. It was never meant for comfort in the first place and without a load to pull around, it’s as nervous a ride as any speed racer. Just as fast too.

  “Easy now. For the love of God, easy!” She mutters under her breath, but I can hear her anyway.

  We shoot out to space like a rocket, clearing the station’s pseudo gravity in a blink, acceleration pinning us down into our seats. My chest weighs a ton. I haven’t done the math, but that’s probably close. I feel squashed, but the good kind of squashed—I know it doesn't make sense, but I kind of like the feeling. It took almost no time at all, but when Vince cuts down the engine to let the momentum carry us to orbit, Aldine's relief is palpable. She didn’t black out, but she’s queasy all the same.

  “Does he always pilot like that?”

  “Oh no, of course not. But since you’re here, he’s trying to smooth the ride.” I lie through my teeth, but she won’t know any better and next time, she’ll let us do our job. Women scarcely belong on a junk barge. Especially not fancy ladies like her.

  “12% thrust. It’s the best way to go, Lady Aldine. If we went any slower, we’d just waste fuel. Take some deep breaths, it will feel better soon.”

  She doesn’t reply, but she follows his advice. Smart girl.

  “So, where do we start? My scans say there’s still one battleship holding shape. Should we try to rescue them?”

  “You’re watching too much holo, Vince. Without life support, there isn’t a single man alive in any of the wrecks. The cold alone...”

  “You don’t know shit, Zéph. Cold doesn’t matter, the void is almost perfect insulation. Space is super cold, but it doesn’t leech off your body’s heat. The only loss is to radiation and it’d take days to kill you.”

  “So what? You’ll run out of oxygen long before—”

  “Well, actually, you’d die from hypercapnia—”

  He sees the blank look on my face and lets out an exaggerated sigh.

  “You’d die from CO2 poisoning first, but with some chemical scrubbers and mechanical ventilation, they could last for days. More if they have survival pods. I guarantee some of them are alive.”

  Great, now Vince is in full-on lecture mode. Pilots are engineers at heart, which is another way of saying they are a bunch of nerds. Me too, in some way, but that doesn’t mean I like the lecture.

  “Same difference. They are dead anyway or they wouldn't send us. If it wasn’t the case, don’t you think they’d be running rescue missions? The dragon’s gone, why don’t they just pick up their guys?”

  Vince pauses, thinking. Looks like I scored with that one. In the end though, Aldine is the one who replies.

  “They never save the men.”

  Vince and I both turn to face her. That can’t be right, but she looks sad. Dejected even.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s too expensive. Men are cheaper than weapons, easier to replace, and paying pensions costs money. They let the crew die with the ship. Crew fight harder when they know it’s their only chance to stay alive. Instead they send us to collect the ships afterwards and sell the metal for profit. That’s why they’re sending us...”

  A long, uncomfortable silence sets in. Vince is still trying to work things out. He doesn’t understand; he’s an optimist and he doesn’t believe in conspiracy theories. Me? I lost my innocence long ago and I get it right away. Trash barges don’t just collect space debris. We tear them apart and crush them into tiny bits. That includes wrecked battleships... and the thousands of soldiers still alive inside their hulls.

  Vince goes white as a sheet as he finally gets the idea.

  “They send us to murder their men so they can save on pensions?”