“If you change your mind, you can always come back,” Linn promised from thousands of lightyears away. Her voice sounded familiar but far, over the com.

“I think I’ll be okay here.” Pan sat at the controls.

She swiveled her chair and looked around the room. Screens, with their timetables and video feeds, spread over one wall. The ceiling rose high and allowed for a long, wide window to display space beyond Pan’s little station. A black travel ring camouflaged against the eternal night and blocked a few members of constellations.

“I don’t know, Eldi. All that time on your own. It’s a bit extreme. I think you’re going to get lonely.”

Pan frowned. Linn called Pan – Eldi – because she didn’t know Pan’s real name. She also assumed Pan wouldn’t do well at this new job. Pan knew Linn’s words came from a place of concern and caring, but Pan couldn’t help feeling a tinge of anger at the assumption. Pan could do it. She could handle alone better than she could handle her work as an aide. Pan failed once; she didn’t need to look forward to another.

“There are other jobs,” Linn said. “I could help you find something.”

“I’ll be alright,” Pan insisted.

“It’s only been two weeks. You don’t know how you’re going to do in that situation,” Linn said. “Just stay in touch. You’ve got my number, and the girls have you on their social feeds. Don’t be a stranger.”

Pan hated the social feeds. She only got one to appease their concerns, and she ached to delete it.

“I’ll be in touch.” Pan knew it was an empty promise. “Don't worry about me. I bought myself some friends.”

“Oh?” Linn probably raised her eyebrows at that.

Pan looked across the room. On a bench sat a ball-jointed doll, repainted in shades of grey, and a fluffy, plush feline, with a rainbow tail and horn. Pan called the doll Little Pan, and she called the feline Floof. Pan had others, but she only carried one or two around at a time.

“I have a fancy doll and a few stuffed animals,” Pan said. “The doll was expensive. I painted her to look like me.”

“Well, that’s a start, I guess. You know, Edli, you’re a good artist. You could probably make money like that.”

Pan was quick to answer, “No I couldn’t.”

A long pause followed. Pan didn’t want her art to get around the galaxy and alert the Scaldin to her location.

“I’m sorry. I’ve got to go,” Linn said. “I need to prepare the night shift.”

“That’s alright. I should go too.”

Pan looked at the timetable and saw only one ship scheduled to come in twenty-five minutes. Ships came and went, all without Pan’s input. But, this ship would need a check in. It’d experienced difficulties at the last waypoint. It would stop at Pan’s for a scan. She hoped it wouldn’t need a tow, or worse, that she’d have to call an engineer to assist. One or more of the crew would come aboard the waypoint station and ‘hang out.’

“Bye, Eldi.”

“Goodbye.” Pan hit the button to disconnect.

She sat back and waited. She’d wanted to get off the call, but now, she missed Linn. Pan realized that she’d hoped Linn’s call would carry her to the check-in. No luck.

A computer could do Pan’s job and probably should, but law required the way stations to be staffed by a living, breathing being. The stations rarely malfunctioned, but when they did, the results could be spectacular.

So, Pan waited, and she checked all the statuses. She reported problems, although she had yet to encounter one. She read. She drew. She did anything to pass the time. And, it had only been two weeks.

Pan took out a little notebook and started to doodle.

“Pan.”

Pan jumped. She looked around the control room and felt her heart beating faster. She saw the doll, Little Pan. She stared hard at it.

“Do you talk now?” She asked. “Or, maybe, I’m going crazy. What do you sound like Floof? What voice will my mind cook up for a rainbow tailed beast?”

Slowly, Pan sat back in her chair and relaxed. Two weeks, and she’d imagined her first voice. She might flee the waypoint yet.

“Pan!”

Pan stood up. The voice came from outside the control room. It sounded like it came from down the hall, towards her living quarters.

“There is no way I’m going there.” Pan hurried across the room and scooped up her doll and cat. She could scan her guests from the tugship.

Pan stood before the control room door. It was open, and all the lights outside were off. Pan liked to leave them on, but they liked to turn themselves off and conserve energy.

Pan stepped into the hall, and the lights directly above her flicked on. She looked towards her bedroom.

Someone definitely stood there, at the end of the hall.

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No, no, no, no. This place is haunted. Why did it have to be haunted?

Pan backed away. She watched the person but couldn’t see more than the hunch of their shoulders and the hang of their grey-black hair.

The thing didn’t move, and Pan started to wonder if she imagined it. Either way, she needed to leave aboard the coming ship. She shouldn’t stay and get crazier.

The figure moved.

“Walking away from me…” The figure stalked down the hall.

Pan let out a small sound of alarm. She turned and ran. The lights went out.

Pan froze. She had a long walk in the dark to reach the tugship, and she had to make it down a ladder in total darkness.

Pan shook a little. She turned around and noticed that the control room let off some light. None of the overheads worked, but the panel still showed spots of green, red, and blue. Those lights could guide Pan back to her post.

A shadow passed in front of the light. It came her way.

Thank the Mother Tree a train is coming. I just have to last twenty minutes.

“I don’t know why you’re scared of me. You’re the more recent murderer of us two.” Brynn’s voice.

Brynn’s ghost found Pan in the middle of nowhere. Worse yet – Brynn had a ghost.

Pan’s heart quickened. She didn't answer.

Something cold touched her arm. “You’re going to do what I ask of you.”

Pan didn’t sound or feel brave. “I don’t want to.”

The cold wrapped around Pan’s arm.

“Look at you, holding these toys, all alone. Do you want a hug?” Cold started to wrap Pan. Brynn’s ghost whispered, “I promise it’s just a hug.”

Pan shook. “I don’t…I don’t want it.”

“Reaper…” Brynn’s ghost sang into Pan’s ear. “The only reaper. With everyone else dead, you can go for a record. Be the best.”

“I’m…what do you want?” Pan hugged the doll and the cat, but she felt stupid for it.

“I have a job for you. I have many.” Cold hands stroked Pan’s hair. “I want you to destroy the ships I pick. I want you to help Scaldigir by hurting its enemies, and if you do well, you’ll get the right attention. We’ll see.”

“The right attention? You mean Scaldigir? Gratitude or something like that?” Pan shivered.

“Something like that.”

Pan stared into the darkness and tried to see Brynn. She could just make out the whites of Brynn’s eyes.

“I don’t want to destroy ships.” Pan took a step back and watched those eyes.

“Let me mentor you.”

“I left Scaldigir to get away from mentors.” Pan backed up and bumped the wall.

The whites of Brynn’s eyes moved and disappeared from view. Pan searched for the ghost but couldn’t find any trace.

Cold gripped her ankle and pulled. Pan fell. She dropped both doll and cat. The cold dragged Pan, towards the tugship. Pan tried to grab the floor. She found it slick.

“You want to leave. Then, leave. I’ll toss you out myself,” Brynn said.

Pan slapped her hands flat against the floor. They squeaked as she fought for purchase. Pan just couldn’t convince herself that her mentor’s ghost didn’t have a claim to her attention. It was too real. Pan suspected the ghost might toss her down the ladder. That would be a long, possibly deadly drop.

“No, Brynn. Please stop.” Pan tried to hold herself telekinetically still.

Brynn dragged her on. “Down you go. Oh, where are your toys? I’ll send them after.” Brynn pushed Pan over the edge.

Before Pan fell, a little flicker of light revealed the end of the hall. She saw the entrance to her bedroom and sighted the space. She drew a portal and fell through, back to that safe place near her bed. Pan got inside the dark bedroom, flicked on the light, and slammed the door.

Little Pan and Floof! Pan felt the urge to run to their rescue and then remembered they weren’t real.

Pan glanced at a clock. She had ten minutes to wait before the check in. She huffed.

A knock sounded on Pan’s door. “Pan? May I come in?”

Pan stared at the door. Her bedroom light started to flicker, and her door started to slide open.

“This is too much,” Pan said quietly.

She snatched up a flashlight and flicked it on.

The lights went out, and the door banged open. Pan’s flashlight still shone, and it lit Brynn – a bloody Brynn. She had wild, wide-open eyes, with pinpricks of red in the depth of the pupil. And, Brynn carried the pipe. Pan last saw that pipe covered in her mentor’s blood. It still was.

Pan’s flashlight blinked on and off.

Brynn crossed the room in that time. She hefted the pipe and grabbed Pan’s arm.

The flashlight fell from Pan’s hand. “I’m sorry…” Pan raised her arms and didn’t say much beyond that. She didn’t recognize her own voice.

“Just do the things I ask.”

“But…” Pan slowly looked at Brynn’s face and saw a slickness to the too real eyes. “If I destroy Soffigen ships, I’ll be in the wrong. I can’t…”

On the floor, Pan’s flashlight started to go out. The light sank back to its source.

Brynn leaned close. “Don’t you wish I’d just let it go?”

Pan really did, but she knew Brynn wouldn’t. If she didn’t do what Brynn asked, how much more would she be seeing her dead mentor in this capacity?

“I am sorry,” Pan said.

“I’m going to be with you, Pan. Everywhere you go. The only way to banish me is to do what I want. I’ll let you be then – for a time.” Brynn’s white eyes remained slick and wet looking, and too close.

“I’ll do it. Whatever you want. I’ll do it.”

Pan’s lights turned on. Brynn had gone. Pan hurried out of her room. She found the hall lit, and Little Pan and Floof still lay at its center. Pan ran to the control room.

A light blinked and a quiet alarm beeped.

“Calamus to Waypoint one-zero-five-three. We need a scan.”

How long had Pan hid in her room? It seemed like a minute or two, not ten.

Pan hit the scan button. “I’ve started it.”

“At the last stop, our rail lines had a weak connection and the couplings behind the third car got a good jolt. Make sure you give those an extra look.”

“Right.” Pan looked at the scan results. She read a strong connection to the rails, and all the couplings looked solid.

Her waypoint computer seemed convinced that the Calamus didn’t need to get back on track. It already was.

“I’m not seeing anything wrong.” Pan felt her heart drop. She wished they needed to come aboard.

“Can you send me the scan?”

Pan hit a button and sent it over wordlessly.

“Wow, you’re right. Looks like that jolt wasn’t as bad as it seemed, and our connection to the rails is good. Guess we’ll be on our way. Anything you need, Waypoint one-zero-five-three?”

Rescue me.

Pan looked up from her control panel. Brynn waited nearby.

Pan started. “I’m fine. Should I restart the trip for you?”

“That’s alright. We can activate the ring from here. Hang in there.” The ring outside lit up and pulled the ship forward.

Pan watched the ship disappear.

“Good girl.”

Since that day, Brynn gave Pan jobs. At some point, Pan started to like the work. She destroyed and stole empty ships. She thought of it as a kind of mischief, albeit on a greater scale than she’d performed before.

At first, Brynn brought the targets and gave Pan a detailed plan. With each job, Pan learned, and Brynn offered less and less information. Pan wondered if Brynn would ask her to choose her own target soon.

“Aren’t you just tickled to be a reaper?” Brynn asked.

“Uh…no.” Pan glanced back. She saw Brynn’s smile. It almost made Brynn seem alive, but the smile did nothing to soothe Pan’s concerns.

“They’re starting to get fed up with you. The Scaldin navy,” Brynn warned.

“So, you’ve said. Come to think of it – where’s all that gratitude you said would come my way?” Pan looked at her controls. She read the readouts, even though she had no need.

Brynn laughed.

“If the Scaldin show up, you have ideas to deal with them, right?” Pan set a hard stare on Brynn.

“I have some. They might even involve reaping.”

Pan shook her head. “I don’t do that.”

Brynn shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

Pan frowned.