Her mind felt groggy. She checked her watch for the time. Her shift would start in less than twenty minutes. Her body ached from a poor night’s sleep. Her head had been restless all night, running through options and scenarios, tiring herself out to no end, but somehow leaving her incapable of falling asleep. Even now, scenarios ran through her head. Her mind working overtime to find ways to get Voss to reason with her, nothing came to her though. No clever ideas or tricksy ruses. Her mind, usually her most powerful weapon, failed her now she needed it most. Having exhausted all her options, she settled on the only option that remained to her. She'd have to just ask him nicely and hope he'd agree.

Her hands trembled as she put her cleaned suit back on. She feared the prospect of having to face Voss again after what had transpired the night before, but she knew there was no other way. She couldn’t hide in here forever. She had to confront him sooner or later and she knew that sooner would be better. The longer she'd wait, the more awkward this would become. Besides, this time she’d be prepared. She searched through her suitcase and found the large combat knife she had hidden in there. She looked at it for a moment as if to muster her courage. It had a beautifully custom ornamented leather sheath. It had been her stepfather’s knife. Her mother had given it to her when she graduated from the academy. Holding it reminded her of the knife's backstory. Her stepfather, lieutenant Vanmire, had gotten it as a gift from the captain back when they had graduated from the academy together. Holding the knife gave her a mixed set of emotions that she chose to ignore for now. There were more pressing matters at hand. The captain would have to wait.

She stepped out of her bedroom with the knife tucked securely in the back of her suit. She looked around her carefully as she walked, as if she expected him to have set some kind of trap for her. A silly notion she knew, but she couldn’t help herself. Last night’s events had left her paranoid and unsure about what to expect.

She walked into the living quarters and spotted him sitting behind the central computer as usual. She took a deep breath. He hadn’t noticed her presence yet, allowing her to muster some courage before approaching him. This was it. All or nothing. If she couldn’t convince him now, she’d be stuck doing his bidding until she could find a moment to escape from him. If she ever got a chance to escape him that was. He had proven himself to be as shrewd as any officer she’d ever been in a clinch with, and it was unlikely he'd ever let her go easily.

As she walked closer towards him, each step felt heavy, carrying the weight of all her fears and doubts with it. With each step, a voice inside her head cried out to either flee or lunge at him with the knife. She knew both options were out of the question though. As much as she hated to admit it, she needed him to keep this ship going. She had no experience maintaining engines. Without Voss, she’d be stuck in the void at the first minor engine problem. Her only comfort was that despite everything, he needed her too. They were at least a hundred light years away from the nearest civilization and she highly doubted he’d ever be able to pilot the ship towards it without her help.

She reached to where he was sitting and still it appeared like he hadn’t noticed her. He was completely engrossed with the computer. She noticed he wasn’t using the translator anymore. He was now typing fluently using the language and symbols that were alien to her. He had somehow mastered the foreign language in a matter of weeks. A feat that impressed her despite the nerves racing through her body.

She scraped her voice. ‘I’ve thought about what you said and I’d like to continue the mission as planned.’

He calmly lifted up his head to face hers and lifted an eyebrow. The frown on his face accentuated the poorly healed scar on his right temple. He looked at her sceptically.

‘Why?’

She had expected him to pry into her motives and had prepared her answer. ‘Because if those reports are real, we have to know and warn those at home. It could turn into a massacre if we don’t.

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She could tell by the way he looked at her that he wasn’t buying what she just said. She hesitated before replying. Was he going to lash out at her in anger again? She felt the leather of the knife’s sheath stuck between her suit and the flesh of her back. It gave her the confidence to continue. This time she’d be ready if he lashed out.

She decided that her best bet would be to avoid an outburst altogether, so she elaborated her motives instead. ‘Listen, Voss. I know what you’re thinking, and yes my motives to ask you to continue the mission are also partially selfish. What I said is true though. If there’s a chance we can prevent a galactic war and the destruction of Fosfat, we should at least try.’

‘Why should we care about Fosfat, or the wider galaxy for that matter?’ he asked coldly ‘It’s not like there’s anyone down there you care about. I say we let Saltpetersburg burn. Its citizenry deserves it.’

‘That’s not true!’ her voice betrayed a hint of indignation. ‘There are people I care about back home. Besides, don’t you have anyone you care about? Are their lives worth your freedom? Are you really ready to sacrifice millions of lives for selfish reasons?’

Voss looked at her with glee. ‘I wouldn’t happen to know that special person you care about, would I?’ he asked her with a teasing smile.

‘It’s not just one person, there are several.’ She tried to lie to him, but it was obvious he didn’t believe her. ‘Damn him’ she thought to herself. ‘He’s got a nasty way of pushing just the right buttons to pry information out of you.’.

He didn’t say anything and she didn’t elaborate any further, but her face turned red, causing him to laugh.

‘Fine then.’ he said with a jolly voice. She felt like he was enjoying the moment just a little too much.

‘Fine, what?’

‘Fine, we’ll continue the mission just like you asked.’

She was taken aback by how easily swayed he was. ‘Just like that?’

‘Just like that.’ he replied as he shifted his focus back on the ship’s central computer.

She stood there flabbergasted. She hadn’t expected him to agree with her plea to continue the mission, especially not that easily or without him putting in some demands in return, but this was the first win she had in a long time, so she decided it’d be best not to press her luck lest he'd change his mind.

‘Alright then, let’s do this. Your shift’s up soon. Go get your rest. I’ll prepare everything for our final Lewen jump tomorrow.

Voss got up and rubbed his hands together. ‘My pleasure, Ala.’. She made sure to keep her front turned towards him as he passed. She didn’t want him to spot the knife she was hiding. If he found out she was prepared to kill him if needed, it could cause him to change his mind and break the fragile peace that now existed between them. He laughed at her though.

‘Did you really think I hadn’t spotted that knife you’re hiding on your back yet?’

His words startled her. ‘Wait, you knew?’

‘Of course. If there’s one thing you learn in the slums, it’s how to spot who’s armed and who isn’t.’

His blasé reaction to her hidden knife confused her. ‘So you knew... and you aren’t upset about it?’

He winked at her. ‘I’d be more upset if you hadn’t brandished a knife. Would have meant you either didn’t take me seriously, or that you're plain stupid.’. He walked into the kitchen, opened a cabinet and stared intently into it as if he was hoping to discover a new flavor of meal that had somehow eluded them thus far. His mission was obviously unsuccessful as he pulled out the same chicken flavored meal she had eaten last night.

She pulled the sheathed knife from her back, happy to be relieved from the awkward lump of steel sticking to her skin. She headed for the cockpit. There was a long day ahead of her and many calculations that she had to double check to ensure they didn’t get lost or fly straight into some sun or planet at a thousand times the speed of light. There was no room for error when navigating the depths of space. One mistake and you could be lost forever, unable to ever find an inhabited planet ever again.

Right before she entered the cockpit, Voss spoke: ‘Oh by the way, there’s something I want to test out tomorrow when we exit our Lewen jump. The ship’s central computer says there’s an invisibility function and I want to try it out.’

She turned around and looked at him incredulously. ‘What? Invisibility? Are you joking?’

‘Nope’ he replied. ‘That’s what the computer says. Sounds like it’s worth giving it a try, huh?’

An invisibility function. She had never heard of such technology existing before. Her first instinct was to dismiss it completely, but then again, this ship had already proven itself to possess remarkable technology to which Fosfat had no previous access. Could it be true? Did this ship have the ability to turn invisible? It was a prospect that both excited and scared her. Most importantly though, it made her wonder: ‘Did they stand a chance to survive this mission after all?’