Aiden navigated the long outdated forums of interstellarfonies.net, having a good laugh. It was the unofficial hub for Interstellar Forces deniers, where old geezers with way too much time on their hands really knew how to craft a story. Little did they know, Aiden did a little crafting of his own, building upon their wildest conspiracies.

“What’cha doin’?” His roommate Leon stood by the freshly-stocked refrigerator, chomping on a cheese stick.

“Convincing old geezers that the moon isn’t real.” Aiden gave an honest answer.

“W-Why?”

Image: Aiden smirking [https://file.toyhou.se/images/9258360_hT63joaJnrAYiz4.png]

He smirked at him. “Because I can.”

The horrified expression on Leon’s face was worth more than a thousand words.

“Aidennn,” he whined, “it’s bad enough that they don’t believe in the IF, why do you want to rob them of the majesty of space?”

“Kid, they don’t believe in the majesty of space. These people believe in a government plot to siphon their tax dollars by building a dome city in a desert somewhere and pretending it’s on the Moon.”

“You’re on IF.Net, aren’t you?” Leon took another bite of his cheese stick.

“Yep.”

He shook his head, then seemed to notice something. “Hey… Isn’t that Jun’s tablet?”

“Yeah, he let me borrow it.”

Leon didn’t seem to believe that answer, but Aiden didn’t care. He could ask Jun himself if he wanted to know so badly. In fact, they almost bumped into each other as Leon left the kitchen.

“Aiden’s using your tablet for evil.” were his parting words. Snitch.

Jun watched him leave, then gave Aiden a tired look. “Do I even wanna know?”

Aiden raised his eyebrows. “Do you?”

“Whatever, as long as you’re not messing around on any of my accounts.” The older ranger took a seat beside him.

Aiden folded his friend’s tablet back into a phone and slid it across the table. “Here, you can have it back.”

Jun swiped it up. “Thank you.”

“How’s your friend doing? Still spooked?”

“Nah, she bounced back pretty quickly.”

He was glad to hear she was doing alright. She may’ve been a little weirdo, but she was the little weirdo who saved his life today.

“I’ve been thinking about what she said.” began the blond, pinching his beard. “About how we’re older than everybody else. Number one, that’s nuts. You know that’s nuts, right? There are four people younger than her, and two of them are our captains.”

“It’s a… really interesting situation to find ourselves in, yeah.” Jun tried to hide how obviously freaked out he was. He failed.

“Number two, I’ve been thinkin’,” he drummed his fists on the table. “Who’s to stop you from being fully… yourself?”

“What do you mean?”

Aiden would be more direct, but outing Jun in front of whoever might be watching the cameras wasn’t his intention.

He covered his mouth. “The ‘them’ thing.”

“Ohhhh!” Jun reacted like the airhead he liked pretending to be. “What’s stopping me from telling the others about that? I’m The First Woman in the IF, there are a lot of eyes on me. I don’t know these people yet; one of them might leak it out to the public.”

“JK, you know like half the ship! Me, Roxie, and didn’t you say you and her know that other red-headed girl?”

“Not that well, but I can’t see her starting anything.” responded the dark-haired ranger. “I don’t really sense your roommate doing anything like that either, but like I said, I don’t really know him well enough yet to really tell...”

“What about the other two?”

“Can’t really get a read on them.” Jun closed his eyes, or at least the one Aiden could see. “We rarely see one of them and the younger one… might be okay…? It’s hard to tell.”

Aiden leaned toward Jun. “The way I see it, besides you, me and Roxie are the only ones who really have any experience in the IF, and we’re already on your side, more or less. The others are gonna need our help at some point.”

“And you’re saying…? Hold our experience over their heads?” Jun made it sound like such a bad thing.

“Yeah! If they have a problem with you being who you are, let them see how far they can get without you!” It made perfect sense to Aiden. “If they’re smart, they won’t get on your bad side.”

Jun ran a hand through his bangs. “They might be young, but they’re not helpless!”

Aiden snickered. “Please. You shoulda seen your face when Rox told you we were the only ones over 20. Blondie barely knows how this ship works!”

“I’m sure their dad taught them everything they needed to know. Galhardo’s an okay guy as far as the chief commanders go; I talked to him a couple times back in the day. Really thorough, gave me some good advice.” Jun reminisced. “So I don’t think this is a case of thoughtless nepotism.”

“Oh, so it’s thoughtful nepotism. What a relief.” Aiden wanted to show Jun how ridiculous he just sounded. “Didn’t know you had a favorite overlord.”

“It’s not like… whatever.” The dark-haired ranger rested his head in his hand.

“You know what? You might be onto something.” Aiden leaned back. “Maybe it is thoughtful nepotism. Because they’re puppets!”

“What??”

“Why else would he pick his sons to do this? He wanted two guys who’d follow his every word. One to stay up in his room and listen and the other to keep us from noticing anything.”

Jun covered his face. “...Have you been hanging out on IF denier forums again? You’re starting to sound like them.”

“That’s beside the point.”

The older ranger groaned. “You’re so gonna get yourself fired, bro.”

Aiden ignored his warning. “Anyway, why else do you think we didn’t see our captain for a whole week?”

“I dunno!” Jun shrugged. “Maybe he got space sick! Or maybe he’s just nervous. And I mean, if I’m not mistaken, this is his first time in the IF and he’s got a whole ship and crew to look after. I’d be a little freaked out in his shoes, plus, he struck me as the quiet type. Besides...” He looked away. “I know for a fact that your theory is wrong.”

“You do?” This piqued Aiden’s interest. “How so?”

“I have my reasons.”

He waited for a second. “Sooo, you gonna tell me what they are?”

A smug look crossed Jun’s face.

“No.”

The blond sighed. “You’ve been hangin’ out with me too much.”

“Now you know how it feels!” The older ranger was entirely too pleased with himself. “But… I would tell you if I felt like I could.”

Aiden believed that much. Jun wasn’t the type to bluff. However, this did leave the two at a standstill, which was annoying.

“Why do you even care, anyway?” Jun moved on, more annoyingly.

“About what?”

“About people calling me the wrong thing. Back when I first told you about it, you thought I was being ridiculous.”

“I did.” Aiden admitted. “But now I think everything is ridiculous, so you might as well.”

“Huh? I don’t follow.”

“You said it yourself.” He remembered Jun’s words. “People rely on us to care way more about gender than it really matters, for what? So they can charge more for life insurance? Pink razors?”

“I should’ve figured that would be the thing that stuck with you.”

“But were you lying?” Aiden got a head shake in response. “And that’s just the little stuff! Don’t even get me started on how many dudes are told they should be proud to die in a war because it’ll make them a ‘real man.’ Or that women will explode if they go to space, so all they should focus on is being good enough servants for their man. What is this?”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“You’re asking me?” Jun shrugged. “Bro, I’m just as confused as you are. I didn’t think you’d be this passionate about it though.”

“Because so many people fell for it! They think it’s fair. That it makes sense. I’m mad I didn’t notice until you told me. I always thought it was kinda goofy how far dudes were willing to go to prove their masculinity or whatever, but I had no idea it went this deep.” Aiden shrugged in disbelief. “But it was right in front of me the whole time.”

“Hey, don’t feel bad for not realizing it sooner. If it makes you feel better,” like Jun needed to make him feel better, “I think it’s easier for people to realize it when people don’t ‘act like’ the gender they’re seen as. Like, you’d be considered a manly man.”

“I don’t even care about that.” Aiden knew what he was trying to get at, but he wanted to set the record straight that he never cared to live up to that kind of thing.

“You don’t, but other people do. No one’s gonna point out that you’re weird for a guy, or try to make you feel insecure about it. Even if they did, it wouldn’t work as well because you already fit the bill so well. Not to mention that you’re not the type to care about stuff like that.”

“What about you?”

“Well, I was never like, insecure about it or anything, but people sure make it a habit to point out how not-feminine I am.” Jun leaned back in his chair.

Aiden remembered the kind of stuff people would say behind Jun’s back. Honestly, guys criticizing him for being too masculine was the least annoying of it.

“That wasn’t too bad on its own, but I did realize that a lot of the things I wanted to do were mostly done by guys. It’d make it harder for me to prove that I’m capable, plus I’d be a target. Same for you if you wanted to be a nurse or elementary school teacher.”

“Would you trust me if I was a nurse or a teacher?” Aiden raised an eyebrow.

“No, but that’s because I know you, not because you’re a guy.”

“At least you didn’t become a pig.” He took the reasonable conclusion from this. “You woulda been a capable one though. Except for your pacifism and your whole moral code thing.”

“The pacifism was after I left training.” Jun lowered his voice. “Also maybe cool it with the cop hate around the authority figure who could be listening to us, like, right now?”

Aiden ignored him and shook his head. “Man, I’ve just been noticing this stuff more and more.”

“Welcome to the club, I guess.”

“We’re treated like different species or somethin’ just because one of us has a—”

Another blond burst into the kitchen. The lieutenant captain hustled over to the oven.

“Hi guys, did the oven go off yet?” he asked.

“There’s something in the oven?” asked Jun.

“Did I forget to put something in the oven? Shoot!” Emil panickedly paced around before opening up the freezer. “Oh good! I did remember to stock the fridge!”

The curly blond tossed a box into the air and caught it before pulling out a pan from one of the cupboards.

He turned to Jun and Aiden. “Are you guys okay with pizza rolls for dinner?”

“It’s food to me.” Aiden didn’t care.

“...Yeah, that sounds great!” Jun humored him. The eldest ranger had the same look on his face that Aiden saw in parents whose children made them gifts out of trash: Encouragement mixed with pity.

“Cool, cool!” The young lieutenant dumped a bunch of pizza rolls on a pan and shoved it into the oven.

“Did you preheat the oven yet?” asked the non-blond.

Emil snatched the pan out of the oven and pressed a few buttons Aiden was unfamiliar with. He didn’t cook much.

“Let me know when the timer beeps!” Emil paced around some more. “I should be somewhere close by. Actually!” He sat down across from Aiden. “I think I’ll chill out here for a little bit.” Even sitting down, he still kept moving his leg. “I can’t think of anything else I need to do. I checked the storage room, stocked the fridge, checked the generator room--still not entirely sure how it works or what I’m checking for, but I checked it!--then I did extra training with Rookie before the real jet armor training for the day--by the way Aiden, you did amazing--”

Aiden knew this.

“And then…” Emil slowed down. “Oh right! L--The captain told me to check the gym. Something happen in there? There were a bunch of signs that were like ‘Do not use this!” and “Cursed!” and then there was a weight on the floor?”

“Oh yeah, that fell off the machine today.” Jun explained.

“Nearly hit me in the head.” The bearded ranger patted the back of his head.

“What??” Emil’s eyes grew in horror. “I’m so sorry! I’ll get that fixed right away! Are you alright?”

“I’m still alive, so…”

“Thank goodness.” He wiped his brow as if he were the one who almost died. “Just yesterday, I got so excited that I finally got to talk to you! Can’t have ya dying!” He winked. “I can’t believe you remember me...”

“Barely.”

“Still! Whenever dad would take us on different ships, I’d always look for you outside. I know it probably sounds kinda dorky, but seeing you do jet tricks was the highlight of my day.”

Aiden laughed. Emil was right, he sounded like a huge dork, but an endearing one. Still, Aiden had to remind himself that this kid was his boss. He still didn’t trust him.

“And I can’t forget about you either, Jun Kim, First Lady of the IF!”

Jun tried to laugh. “That makes me sound like I married the admiral.”

“Noo, you’re far more important than that,” Emil hesitated, “not to diss the admiral’s wife or anything! But I’m really glad you came along.” His eyes seemed sincere. “Back in the Academy--”

Ugh. Of course he graduated from the Interstellar Forces Preparatory Academy. Private school students made Aiden want to gag. The ones he usually came across were stuck up, stingy, and/or incredibly patronizing.

“--I always thought it was kinda cruel that girls could go there even though they weren’t allowed in the IF. One of my friends really wanted to enlist, but she couldn’t.”

“Aww man.” Jun sympathized with his story.

Emil continued. “The IFPA hyped up being in the IF like it was the best and only thing you should be doing with your life. I already felt like that was overkill, but my friend told me it kinda made her and the other girls feel like they were worth less than the rest of us.”

Overkill? Sure, Aiden agreed wholeheartedly with that, but he didn’t expect a son of one of the chief commanders to feel that way.

“Me and my friend were both so excited when the news came out that women could enlist! So, thanks. You’re really cool~” The bleached blond pointed and winked at Jun.

“No problem!” Jun returned it. “And you’re really cool for caring. Did your friend ever enlist?”

“I dunno. We kinda fell out.” Emil stretched out one of his curls. “She had a crush on me, but I didn’t feel the same way.”

“Ohhhh, I know how that is.”

“Me too.” Aiden remembered a girl who used to follow him around during his teenage years. It was annoying.

“She got mad at me and we never really spoke after that. I miss her, though. Hope she finds someone for her.” The lieutenant realized something. “Did I remember to tell you guys about the no dating rule on this ship?”

“We ain’t breakin’ it.” Aiden gave him a mild scowl. Not a death glare, but enough to let him know how tired he was of that accusation between him and Jun.

“Oh! No, no, no, no, I didn’t think you guys were--No!” Emil waved his hands in denial. “I just meant to tell everyone last week. It’s not like a hard and fast rule, but we’re discouraged from dating each other within the Celestion units. At least until the mission is over. I kinda understand why. Could you imagine a breakup on a tiny ship like this? Awkwaaard.”

“Ye--” The oven beeped, cutting Jun off.

“There’s the oven!” The rookie lieutenant sprang up from his seat and popped the pizza rolls into the oven. “Those should be ready in about 20 minutes.” He sat back down. “But yeah, that rule shouldn’t be much of a problem for me. I can’t see myself in a relationship anytime soon, especially not now. Don’t get me wrong, getting to know you guys is cool, but I’m smart enough to know a lieutenant dating subordinates doesn’t look too good.”

“That’s good to keep in mind.” The oldest ranger applauded him. Aiden agreed with that.

Emil drummed on the table. “It’s rare that I come across a rule in the IF that I completely understand. I know some keep us safe, but a lotta them feel too strict. That might just be me, though.”

“Really…?” Aiden lifted his head up.

“Yeah.” The other blond stared down at the table. “It probably didn’t help that Dad enforced some of them at home, plus some of his own, and I wasn’t always the best at following them.” He looked up. “It’s like I’ve been in the IF my whole life!”

He laughed, but Aiden could tell that he wasn’t entirely fond of his upbringing. In a way, it reminded Aiden a little of himself. He knew what it was like, growing up in a strict household, though Emil didn’t seem quite as much of a deliberate troublemaker.

“Hey, people make mistakes.” Jun tried to cheer the kid up.

“Tell that to my big bro.” Emil shook his head, smiling. “There’s no one more ready to be in the IF, not even Rookie!” How ironic that he nicknamed Leon Rookie when he himself and the captain are also rookies. “My dad and brother are like clones. Sometimes I think Lo--the captain might be a liiittle bit stricter. It’s annoying sometimes, but you can tell it’s ‘cause he loves the IF so much. He knows everything about it! He even memorized the handbook! Isn’t that cool?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty cool!” Jun smiled.

Cool? Sinking your life into the IF’s rules was the saddest and most pathetic thing Aiden could think of. However, this did give him two important pieces of information. One, if Chief Commander Galhardo knew his sons well, he’d know that Emil wouldn’t follow orders just for the sake of following orders. If Aiden’s theory was true, Emil probably got left out of the loop. The captain, however, seemed like the perfect candidate for a puppet leader. Since they were on the subject of him, Aiden had few questions.

“How come we never see your brother around? What’s he doing up there in his room?”

Emil squinted his eyes. “I… don’t know, actually. He said he had some important things to do, but he never told me what.”

He was absolutely getting left out of the loop. Aiden almost felt bad for him. Almost. Jun did say he had some reason to believe that the Galhardos weren’t picked so that their dad could control things from behind the scenes, but until Aiden found what that reason was, he was sticking to his theory.

A few minutes later, Emil had a concerned look on his face.

“Did I set the timer on the oven…?”

Jun looked behind Aiden. “Nope.”

“Do you remember when I put the pizza rolls in?” Emil grew frantic.

The dark-haired ranger tilted his head. “I think it was, like, 6:45ish? It’s 7:07 right now.”

Emil scrambled over to the kitchen drawers to find an oven mitt. He took the pizza rolls out of the oven.

“Phew, they’re safe!” He placed them on the counter. “If my brother were here, he’d probably tell me this isn’t a ‘proper dinner.’ But he’s not here right now, and this is about all I can cook, so,” he held out his arms, “bon appetit~!”

Emil grabbed a plate and put some pizza rolls on it, mildly burning himself in the process.

“I’m gonna take these up to the captain, and by the time I come back they should actually be edible. ” With a wink, he left the room.

Jun was the first to speak afterwards. “He’s trying his best. I don’t think he’s a part of any sinister plans.”

“Me neither.”

“Oh, you changed your mind! That’s chill.” He bobbed his head, staring into space. “...You know what’s kinda sad?”

“What?”

“I was able to guess your plan, the one about using our experience as a bargaining chip, because… I was kinda thinking the same thing.” Jun’s face grew serious. “I’m not sure if I can go another year as The First Woman in the IF. There’s not gonna be many chances where it’ll just be you and me or me and Rox. Less chances to be who I am."

“Yeah…” Aiden hadn’t thought of that, actually.

“I can’t see myself being like ‘If you don’t accept me, I’m not gonna help you anymore,’ but I feel like this is as good an opportunity as any to come out with it.” Jun shrugged. “I’m gonna let the others know dinner’s ready.”

“‘K.”

Aiden watched his friend go. To be honest, he didn’t quite understand Jun’s gender, but he knew they weren’t happy as a woman. He already watched them sacrifice so much pretending to be a man. Were they supposed to go through that again for the rest of their life? There was already enough injustice in this world. Someone like Jun didn’t need to experience any more than they had to, at least Aiden thought so. They deserved better. They were the one person Aiden trusted…

So he thought. Today… things felt different. Aiden might not understand Roxie at all, but she seemed too weird to do any real harm. Then there was Emil. On one hand, he was a rich kid fresh out of private school who got into a position of authority from extreme privilege, everything Aiden hated. On the other hand, Aiden got glimpses of a kind boy who actually cared to question how things worked and who benefited or suffered as a result. Maybe there was hope for him, but only time would tell what kind of person Emil truly was. Aiden hated being made to look like a fool.

For the time being, two things were true. There were fresh pizza rolls, and no one else was in the room. He knew he could trust that his stomach was hungry.