“I might have just hallucinated it,” Odessa told the rest of the crew after she’d spent several minutes sticking the snake down other tunnels. “But I could have sworn I saw something move.”

  Jade was back inside looking down at the calculations Odessa had done for the door pressure. Every now and again, she’d look at the airlock with a confused expression.

  “Well, it’s definitely not gremlins,” Dash replied with a frown from where he was helping Carmen put the manuals away. “We’d see tooth marks on the wiring then.”

  Odessa grabbed several nearby floating manuals and shoved them roughly into a drawer.

  “Make sure those are in order” Carmen told her.

  Odessa groaned and then pulled them back out and ordered them correctly.

  “I should have been able to open that door,” Jade said, still looking down at the calculations with a frown.

  Dash turned to look at her. He gave a shrug. “So you can’t lift what you thought you could.”

  “No. No. I know what 10 tons feels like and Odessa’s right, that shouldn’t have even been close to 10 tons,” Jade insisted.

  “Are you sure you were using your magic?” Athena asked. She was over by the main panel. Dash had instructed her to watch the numbers.

  “Yeah, of course.” Jade looked puzzled

  “No I mean, are you sure it was actually working?” Athena pressed.

  “We know magic works in space because of the shelf,” Dash pointed out as he stowed away the last manual.

  “But a vacuum’s different isn’t it?” Athena asked as if she wasn’t quite sure.

  Dash and Jade met each other’s eyes. Then Jade grinned and turned back to face the airlock. She reached back down for the space suit she’d just removed

  “Now hang on a minute,” Dash started.

  “We need to test it,” Jade insisted.

  “What if you get stuck out there again?”

  “Then Odessa can go down there and scare the gremlin away again.”

  “It’s not a gremlin,” Dash insisted. “If it was, we’d be in big trouble. Regardless I think we should do a proper search of the ship, just to be sure.”

  “I agree,” Carmen said.

  “I couldn’t find anything,” Odessa said.

  “We might have better luck with all of us looking,” Dash replied.

  “If magic doesn’t work in a vacuum, that might alter what we want to do with the payloads,” Athena pointed out.

  Jade nodded and pointed at Athena. “Exactly.”

  “You just want to go into space again. At least let’s search the ship first,” Dash insisted.

  “Doing both at the same time is more efficient,” Jade pointed out.

  “We’re not going to get anything done if we just spend all our time arguing about it,” Odessa argued.

  “We could draw straws again,” Carmen said in that same tone she’d used earlier when she’d said the problem wasn’t a chemical one.

  Once again, it made Dash turn and stare at her. After a moment of thoughtful silence he said with a chuckle, “You’re pretty funny when you want to be.”

  It took just as long for Odessa to realise Carmen was joking but once she did she gave brief a laugh too. She was about to tell them they were still wasting time when the comms suddenly came alive.

  “Unicorn this is Cave Sloth? Unicorn, I repeat this is Cave Sloth, Are you there?” Indi asked.

  Dash reached for the VOX button. “Cave Sloth, this is Red One. We’re reading you just fine.”

  Jade returned to putting on her spacesuit.

  “We are not Red One,” Odessa said, placing her hands on her hips.

  “Did you find a new ship?” asked Indi in a playful tone.

  “No, I’m just declaring a mutiny.” Dash turned to grin at Odessa. His grin faded into a frown when he saw that Jade was putting her spacesuit back on but he didn’t comment. Instead he said, “Indi, we’ve had some issues with the depressurisation of the air lock. We’ve managed to sort them but we’re not entirely sure what went wrong.”

  “Pirates were democratic,” Odessa pointed out.

  “Right, I see it in the logs. You had a vent blockage?” Indi asked.

  “That’s what it says on our end too,” Dash reported. Then he turned to Odessa. “Pirates still had a Captain and they weren’t as democratic as you think. Modern pirates are even worse.”

  Jade slid her arm into the EVA suit and then paused. “Wait, who actually is our Captain?”

  Odessa nibbled at one fingernail.“Technically that would be the Chief Engineer. But he walked out on us.”

  From the other side of the not-very-large room Carmen smiled sweetly. “Just a reminder, that I did note in my report that we should update the chain of command before leaving earth.”

  “Oh, right.” Odessa hadn’t quite gotten around to reading through the page Carmen had left on her desk.

  Cat’s voice punctuated the radio static. “She also nominated herself.”

  “Cat, I’m running the comms. Also you’re supposed to identify yourself with a callsign,” Indi said

  “They know who’s talking. Tell them to stop fluffing about then. We’ve only got a short window before we drop out again.”

  “I am the most sensible,” insisted Carmen.

  “Organising the manuals alphabetically isn’t sensible,” Dash replied.

  “What’s wrong with it?” asked Carmen.

  “It’s inefficient,” he explained. “It’s like putting chilli next to cinnamon in your spice rack. But you’d never use them in the same dish.”

  “I use chilli and cinnamon in the same thing all the time,” Indi told him over the comms.

  Dash narrowed his eyes at the control panel.

  “It’s true, she does,” Odessa agreed, even though she did actually prefer Dash’s way of organising things, if one had to organise them at all. Indi’s hot chocolates were legendary though. The rest of her cooking depended on how one felt about experimental food. When it came to Indi, there were no rules in the kitchen about what could go with what.

  Odessa thought about volunteering to be in charge but the truth was she knew that was a terrible idea. The power would go to her head. After some more thinking Odessa said, “I think Athena should be in charge. She’s basically our tie break anyway.”

  “How do you figure?” Jade asked

  “Well, with four engineers the only time we’re going to be stuck on what to do is if it’s two against two.”

  Dash studied Athena and then gave a nod. “Agreed.”

  Athena looked at him in surprise but she didn’t argue.

  “Any objections?” Dash asked as he looked around the rest of the room.

  There were none.

  Carmen shook her head. “I still don’t see what’s wrong with an alphabetical system.”

  “Because things should be placed in similar groups based on purpose,” Dash argued. “It makes it quicker to find things.”

  “Like not putting your butt plugs next to your toothbrush,” Athena explained in a serious tone.

  Everyone in the spaceship turned to stare at her but Athena just smiled and shrugged.

  “I suppose that’s one way of putting it,” Dash said finally.

  “Not everyone agrees on purpose though,” Carmen argued.

  Dash gave her a suspicious look but it seemed Carmen meant it.

  Cat beat him to the reply though. “Got one of those vibrating toothbrushes do you?”

  Jade snorted.

  Carmen’s eyes widened and her normally dark cheeks took on a bright green hue that matched her eyes.

  “I didn’t realise chikari could blush,” said Odessa before she’d thought about if she should be commenting on such things at all.

  Carmen went an even brighter green and then she ducked her face away and pretended to tidy away things that didn’t need tidying.

  Dash stared at her a moment and then shook himself as if waking from a dream. He turned back to the control panel with a frown. “Okay, Indi, you’re not seeing any other cause for the depressurisation issue are you?”

  Behind his back Jade finished putting on the spacesuit. Then she leaned in close to Odessa and in a whisper asked, “Can you check me over?”

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

  Odessa grinned and helped Jade get ready for her secret mission to test if magic worked in a vacuum.

  Athena hovered over the front of the controls, and close to Dash’s eyeline, likely intentionally and obviously enjoying the low gravity now that she no longer felt ill.

  Dash continued talking with Indi, running through other possibilities, but by the time they were done they didn’t have much. Eventually they ran out of time. Dash signed off.

  Odessa was starting to doubt her own memory of what she’d seen in the vents. “It was probably just some dust that got blown out,” she said.

  Dash turned around. “We should still search the ship.”

  Odessa nodded. It was worth doing. That was what Indi had agreed too.

  Then Dash saw Jade stepping into the airlock. “All of us,” he emphasised.

  Jade shook her head. “It’s worth knowing how magic works up here. Before we get further away from earth. I don’t even need to go out. I’m just going to try open the external door a crack with the airlock pressurised. If that doesn’t work then we know magic works but the door was too heavy. If it does work then once the atmosphere vents I should lose my power and the door will reseal itself with me on the inside.”

  “That could be dangerous,” Dash protested, but he didn’t look quite as against it as he had earlier. “What if you get your fingers slammed in the door or the force of it pushes you right against the other wall?”

  “I’ll be ready for it,” Jade replied. She eyed the rest of the crew. “Shall we take a vote?”

  “I vote we do it,” said Odessa.

  Dash looked to Carmen.

  “It’s too much risk,” she replied. “What’s it really going to change?”

  Dash looked to Athena. “I guess you’re tie break.”

  “Already? Gosh,” Athena replied.

  For a moment Odessa worried she was going to agree with Dash. She kept hovering near him and eyeing him up when he wasn’t looking. It was obvious she liked him and she’d always been a bit of a flirt. Jade didn’t seem bothered by it at all.

  But Athena had also always had an independent sort of a mind. She was kind but she wasn’t a people-pleaser. She always gave it to people straight if she saw it was good for them. Looking at Carmen with a gentle smile, Athena replied, “It might change how we want to handle the payloads and it’s always possible we have to go out there again.”

  Jade declared that a win by stepping into the airlock and closing the door.

  Dash groaned and moved closer where he could keep an eye on what was happening.

  “If we want to make good use of time, we should probably make a start on sweeping the ship. I can keep and eye on her,” Odessa said.

  Dash shook his head. “It won’t take her long to test this.” He stood right in front of the airlock window, and peered in with a frown.

  Odessa and Athena drew in on either side of him, all wanting to see what was happening in real time.

  Eventually Carmen came a little closer too, close enough that she could watch the screen at least. “I’ve got the first aid kit ready,” she said. “Just in case.”

  Odessa was so close to Dash that she felt him tense as he took a deep breath in.

  “Okay, here goes nothing.” Jade took hold of the inner door handle, planted both feet up near the ceiling. She twisted the handle and then she pulled.

  She managed to pull the door part-way open and hold it for about five seconds before it slammed shut again.

  “Whoa!” Jade gave a whoop of laughter over the comms. “What’s the pressure now?”

  “Pretty close to a vacuum,” replied Carmen.

  Odessa checked the screen and confirmed for herself what Carmen said. “So what? Magic doesn’t work in a vacuum?”

  “Guess not,” said Athena.

  Dash gave a sigh of relief then he reached for the controls. “I’m gonna repressurise the airlock now, alright Jade?”

  “Alrighty,” Jade replied. There was the obvious sound of a grin in her tone.

  Odessa was familiar with that feeling. The relieved exhilaration of having survived something unknown and awesome. And they’d learned something. Something no one else had ever learnt. They were the first. Going once again where no man had gone before. Odessa felt as thrilled as Jade sounded. And soon, they would venture even further into the dark.

  Jade was still grinning when she reentered the cabin.

  Odessa helped her remove the EVA suit.

  “Hey, Athena,” Dash said suddenly out of the blue. “I wonder if you wouldn’t mind telling us what your power is? Only if you’re okay with it of course.”

  Jade gave Dash a wide-eyed look. Odessa wasn’t sure what exactly Jade was trying to communicate to him. Sure, asking about powers generally wasn’t considered polite if you’d just met someone, but now they were all cramped into a tiny little tin can flying thousands of kilometres above the earth with nothing to breathe outside. Technically, they probably should have gone over power sets before they left, but Odessa had already known Athena’s and the crew change had been last minute so she’d kinda forgotten about updating the others.

  “Oh sure. I’m not coy.” Athena gave Dash playful grin.

  Weirdly, Jade seemed to relax at the sight of that and her gaze ran its way down Athena and then back up again. All the while a soft smile tugged at her lips.

  Odessa almost felt as if she were the one intruding on something private and Jade's reactions confused her.

  “I’m a splitter,” Athena answered.

  “A splitter?” Dash’s eyebrows shot up.

  Athena’s power was rare enough that even most witches often hadn’t heard of it. And for reasons Odessa didn’t understand, unlike other rare powers, such necromancy or the ability to see the future, splitters just weren’t as sought after by aristocrats. Odessa thought it was a pretty cool power though.

  “She can clone herself and then reabsorb her clones and learn what they learnt,” Odessa explained. She had been too excited to wait for Athena to answer. If humans could have had powers, Odessa would have loved one like Athena’s.

  Dash raised his eyebrows. “Maybe that would help us with searching the ship for Odessa’s dust bunny.”

  Athena tilted her head to one side. “If you don’t mind using up more oxygen,”

  “Oh.”

  “Speaking of oxygen-” Carmen started to say before she was interrupted.

  “It’d be the CO2 that would be more of an issue.” Jade tapped her watch. “But err.. we don’t have a lot of time before trans-lunar injection so we might want to get started on that search.”

  Dash nodded. “Right, everybody fan out, look in any nooks and crannies where a gremlin or similar sized creature might hide. We want to be back here at least five minutes before TLI. Me, Athena, and Jade will take lower deck. Odessa, you and Carmen take the upper.”

  Odessa eyed the upper deck as the others dropped down through the hatch. There really weren’t that many places a gremlin could get into. Carmen was checking all the drawers. Odessa eyed the vents. They were hard to access but if something had gotten in they did run all over the ship. Not easy to inspect either. She sighed. She was going to need that snake cam again.

  They searched the ship from top to bottom but they came up empty. Not a single gremlin could be found. Dash also checked the wiring and found no sign of anymore tampering.

  Eventually they regathered on deck as they came online with base comms again.

  Indi’s voice filtered in over the comms. “Hey Red One or Unicorn or whatever you guys are called now, how are we doing on TLI prep.”

  “Wer’re just about to start.” Dash made a circular motion with his fingers to indicate that that the others should get the procedures underway.

  They all jumped to it, except for Carmen who stayed still, frowning. Everyone was too busy to notice at first.

  “We shouldn’t hit as many gees on this burn,” Jade called across the cabin. “But you’ll still want your g-suits on.”

  “I thought these weren’t g-suits,” Athena asked as she checked everything was secure around the cabin.

  “Technically they’re launch suits,” Odessa called back. “They’re not quite what jet pilots use. Man, what I wouldn’t give to fly a jet!”

  Between, filling Indi in on what they had discovered regarding the magic and what they hadn’t discovered regarding any gremlins, Dash turned to Odessa and gave a snort. “I would not want to see you behind the controls of a jet.”

  Carmen held up a finger. “Um...”

  “What! Why not?” Odessa asked.

  “You are way to distractable,” he replied. But as he spoke his gaze roamed in Athena’s direction briefly as she twisted herself around upside down and stowed the music player away.

  Despite not training for this mission as long as the rest of them, Athena somehow seemed the most at home in microgravity. Odessa was so used to the floor being the floor but Athena had no issue standing sideways as if that was just the way everything went and she did look good doing it.

  Dash didn’t stare too long though, only a moment or so and then he was back looking at the controls with a serious expression on his face.

  Seconds later Odessa caught him giving the same look to Jade though.

  Odessa rolled her eyes and then she called out life support numbers while Jade and Dash alternated with other checks. The CO2 was looking good now.

  Athena didn’t have much to do so she was the first to return to her seat. She’d just started to reach for her straps when she noticed Carmen. “Are you alright, hon?”

  Odessa glanced their way and saw Carmen start to answer Athena but she was so focused on what she was already doing that her mouth moved before she could register what the others were doing.

  “Oxygen usage rate is reading a little high,” Odessa reported.

  Dash frowned and looked up from the main panel. Then at Carmen who understood the expected oxygen usage the best. “Carmen?” he asked.

  Carmen sighed. “That’s what I was trying to tell you before. Rate is up a little. It’s not outside of the limits but it is on the high side.”

  “So we’ve just been moving about and exerting ourselves a bit more than expected?” Jade had finished her checks and was now strapping herself in.

  “Maybe,” Carmen replied with a nod.

  Athena slid into her own seat , doing up the restraints as she half-eyed Carmen.

  Dash reached the pilot’s seat as he asked. “Is it an issue?”

  “As long as it doesn’t increase it’ll be fine. We’ve got plenty to spare,” Carmen said.

  “Good,” Dash replied as he started to strap himself in.

  “Um, there’s one more thing,” Carmen said quickly. “We haven’t switched on the UV.”

  Dash let go of his harness, shoving it accidentally so it floated into the seat. “Ah, crap!” He put a hand to his forehead.

  Checking the UV had been on their list of tasks to do before trans-lunar injection but they’d all gotten so distracted by the other issues that they hadn’t gotten around to it.

  Odessa didn’t think it was that big of an issue though. She shrugged. “So, we can turn it on during moon trajectory.”

  “What if it doesn’t work?” Dash asked.

  Odessa pushed herself forward to where she could see the telemetry data. “We don’t have time to check it now. We need to hit burn in less than two minutes.”

  “But it’s my life support,” Carmen insisted wide-eyed.

  But Odessa knew it wasn’t that dire. Worst case, a chikari without a steady UV source would just go into hibernation. Which did mean there was a risk they’d be down a crew member but she doubted anything was going to go wrong that they couldn’t fix. Everything had been tested on the ground and the UV system was pretty much fully enclosed, not like the airlock vents or the CO2 sensor which had other parts and wiring all over the ship.

  “We can do another loop around earth,” Dash suggested.

  Odessa eyed the numbers on the control panel. They were running out of time and neither Dash or Carmen were making any moved to get in their seats. If they kept arguing about it they’d miss their shot.

  Odessa slid herself into the pilot’s chair. “We don’t have enough fuel,” she argued.

  “We have enough for a second loop,” Dash argued. “It was one of the contingencies.”

  “Yeah but almost none left for any course corrections if we burn that,” Odessa argued. “And the window will be tighter. We need to go now.” She buckled herself up.

  “What are you doing?” Dash asked.

  She turned to look at him directly, ignoring the panicked look Carmen was giving them both. “I’m getting ready for TLI. We’re going whether you’re seated or not so you better buckle up.”

  “Indi?” Dash asked for confirmation over the comms. The growl in his voice made it clear that he wasn’t happy.

  “UV passed all its checks on earth,” Indi answered speaking quickly and matter-of-factly, “So it should be good to go. And Odessa’s right, fuel usage is higher than expected so margins are tight if you do another loop. This could be your one shot. But of course it’s up to you guys if you want to take the risk.”

  Dash looked conflicted.

  “I say we go,” said Jade. She and Athena were both fully harnessed in.

  “We can’t go without making sure the UV’s working,” Carmen insisted.

  Athena was biting her lip and looking from one person to another. “I don’t know. Dess, I think we should do another loop.”

  Odessa looked at the control panel and then back at them angrily. They were going to jeopardise the mission for nothing. She thought about doing another loop, about what it would feel like to miss that window. To have to go back to earth. After years of work, just for the sake of one redundant test. To have to face Chaser. She wasn’t ready for that.

  She started flicking switches.

  “This isn’t a democracy,” she told them. “30 seconds until burn so get in your seats.”

  “Odessa!”

  “It tested fine on earth,” she replied as she watched the numbers. They had to get this part right or they would miss the moon.

  She heard Dash give a resigned sigh.

  “She can’t do this,” Carmen insisted in a panic.

  “We’ll turn it on once we’re in flight,” Dash reassured her.

  “You don’t understand,” Carmen’s voice had grown shrill.

  “The chance of something going wrong is slim,” he said.

  “Given everything that’s already gone wrong I’m not so convinced.”

  “Given everything that’s already gone wrong we’re due for something to go right.” Dash was trying to be reassuring.

  But it wasn’t working.

  “That’s not how probability works and you know it! You’re too smart to be that stupid!”

  Odessa was barely listening to them. She had taken over as captain and was now in full swing of TLI preparations. There was no stopping her. There was no going back. There was only forward. Only the unknown. A lump caught in her throat as she tried to forget all the things she hadn’t wanted to forget but also did want to forget but not in the way she had forgotten... arrgh, everything on earth was such a mess. She turned her attention forward, a blank slate, no mess, only promise.

  “TLI in ten seconds,” she said, and started the countdown.

  She didn’t hear Dash and Carmen strap in, but it didn’t matter because no way were they stupid enough to just stand around in the open.

  “5... 4... 3... 2... 1”

  Odessa pressed the button to initiate TLI burn.