"My plan makes perfect sense."

"Perhaps from your point of view. From mine, you appear to have lost your mind. You want to induce the formation of a solar flare in the corona of the star to cover your escape. Have you any idea of the complexity of what you are asking?"

"Well, I figured the ship could probably manage most of the calculations right?"

"No."

"No?"

"No, the ship doesn't have the necessary formulas to execute this type of action. Most ships don't just go around casually artificially inducing stellar phenomena. I will have to calculate the mathematical formula for the size, shape, and power of the graviton field from scratch and then run simulations to ensure I didn't make a mistake."

"Okay, but you can do it though. How long will it take, you think? I mean it can't be that hard can it?"

"Hours, Captain. Contrary to your belief, reading a few bootleg papers off the library of some tramp freighter doesn't make you an expert in something. I'm going to have to do some research before I can even begin writing the formula." Well, I've completely slagged this up, haven't I?

"Alright, I'll keep an eye on the beacon breaker and just wait, I guess."

"That would be appreciated." The channel closed leaving me in awkward silence.

I think I might have slagged this up. She'd been opening up to me, and I might have just undone a lot of the progress I'd made with my stupid idea. I hadn't listened to any of her objections or even given her a chance to voice them. I'd just ignored whatever concerns she might have had and did whatever I wanted. All because I was so damned insecure.

We'd spent a lot of time together while we'd monitored the beacon the past few days. The ship library was conspicuously missing any recent historical information about the SUNS and had held mostly entertainment, cultural, and scientific materials, but she'd been happy all the same to discuss them with me, and we'd spent hours talking about anything from food to classic art.

We'd made a habit of preparing meals together too. I'd checked, and the food synthesizers were actually capable of producing whole ready-to-eat meals on demand, but making meals with Hailey was special to me. She'd gone through all that effort to make me feel welcome the first time I woke up, even if it was motivated out of fear that I'd leave her behind.

But now, I'd charged headlong into this whole affair, determined to prove myself because I was feeling useless. Instead, I'd made a mess of it all and ended up relying on her to fix things again. Some captain I was turning out to be.

I spent the next couple of hours floating uselessly in the beacon while Hailey works on saving my incompetent ass. I occupied my time by browsing the contents of the beacon. There wasn't much else of interest, mostly just business documents and personal mail. Finally, with my stomach protesting its emptiness and my guilt further dampening my mood, Hailey contacted me.

"Alright, I've run the math and simulations, and once I enter real space after the solar flare erupts, you'll only have about thirty seconds to get on board. That means you need to be at the hatch waiting for my signal to go." At her words, I immediately turned and navigated my suit back through the maze of cables and coolant hoses toward the entrance.

"Right, I'm on my way now. What else?"

"You'll be boarding via the main entry ramp instead of the airlock you left from. We won't have the time for any second attempts, so we have to make sure we get this right on the first try, and having as big a target to aim for increases your odds of success." I wasn't even going to try and argue with her over my EVA skills or the fact that the NIL would be doing most of the work, I'd already fragged this entire job beyond recognition.

"No arguments from me there, boarding ramp it is. I'm in position." I came to a stop in front of the maintenance hatch.

"Good, initiating graviton burst." I waited in silence, with my breathing in my ears as the only sound as the minutes ticked by.

"It's started, the radiation is jamming sensors, and the patrol is preparing for transit to a safe orbit to wait out the solar flare. Start cycling the hatch, I'm dropping in." I slammed the controls for the hatch with my palm and it swung open.

In front of me, I watched as the William B. Cody shimmered into existence like a guardian angel as it transitioned from Subspace, casting a shadow over me and the beacon she'd dropped in so close. I set the throttle to maximum as I beelined for the ramp now opening on the bottom of the ship.

A timer helpfully provided by the NIL counted down as I made my way across the gap. These EVA suits weren't built for speed, quite the opposite actually. They were deliberately limited in the velocity they could reach to protect the wearer from splattering themselves if they hit something. I felt like I was crawling across the void between the beacon and the ship.

Maybe it was my imagination but I felt warmer, but looking at my NIL HUD told me the suit temperature was normal. While the orbit of the beacon was close in astronomical terms, we were still far enough away that you could hide the star from sight merely by putting your hand in front of it. Hailey had interposed the ship between me and the star, giving me that little bit of extra protection. After what felt like an eternity, I was finally floating into the ship's entryway. The seconds counted down into single digits as I rammed into the inner bulkhead.

"Closing entryway blast door. Initiating Subspace crash dive. All hands brace." I felt the floor beneath me vibrate, and I applied full power to my glove and boot magnets locking me in place just in time for it to feel like the floor just fell out from underneath me.

This was not the seamless transition from when we started this job. The ship shook and shivered, there was a low moaning noise as the frame of the ship flexed. Normally the singularities for creating a passage to or from Subspace were made at a relatively safe distance and allowed to stabilize before you entered the rift. A crash dive did the exact opposite of that. The singularities were created practically right on top of the ship and there was no waiting for them to stabilize and dissipate the excess gravitons before the ship literally 'dropped' into subspace.

"Crash dive complete. all systems normal. Standing down from crash stations." Hailey's voice echoed from both my helmet and the intercom speakers as atmosphere was vented back into the room.

I began removing the EVA suit as quickly as I could. I owed Hailey an apology, and I wasn't doing it in this damned suit where you could hardly even see my face. The helmet was simple enough, as were the gloves. The chest piece and back unit took more work with all the fasteners. I was fighting with the boots when I heard the bulkhead doors in the ceiling open, and the cargo lift carrying Hailey descended.

I stopped fighting with my half-removed boots and hobbled over to the lift. I came to a stop at the edge of the lift and stood there awkwardly in my half-disassembled suit. Hailey hadn't moved, standing in the center of the lift, with her arms wrapped around herself. She refused to look at me, staring at the floor.

"I'm sorry, I should have listened to you Hailey. I didn't have a void damned clue what I was doing. You were right, I'm not an expert on well, anything. I wanted to prove that I wasn't dead weight and that I was capable of- of contributing something. Instead, I did the exact opposite and made you rescue me again." Hailey was looking at me wide-eyed now, revealing her tear-stained face and causing another sledgehammer of guilt to hit me.

"Will you forgive me, Hailey? I promise I'll do better in the future. It's ok if you're mad at me. Hell, I'm mad at me for being so stupid. You can hit me if it makes you-oof." My plea for forgiveness was cut off as a blonde projectile impacted my chest sending me stumbling back.

"I'm not m-mad. I was scared because if I messed up, you were going to d-die. I thought maybe if I'd tried harder to make you listen, I could have convinced you to use a different plan that wasn't so dangerous." My arms wrapped around her as I stroked her hair.

"Hey, it's alright. You did amazing, just like you always do, okay? I should have listened to what you had to say in the first place. I'm not really good at this whole captain thing. How about I make you a deal. I'll try to be better about listening to what you have to say, and you'll try to be more confident so that I can't just ignore you, ok?" I felt Hailey's head move up and down against my chest as she nodded.

"Alright, then I'm going to finish getting out of this suit so I can take a shower. Then later, how about we make something to eat and take it up to the rec room to watch a movie." My only response was another head nod.

Giving her a squeeze and prying her arms out from around me, I picked up the other parts of the suit and made for the suit lockers to finish removing it. It was the work of several more minutes to finish and then make my way to my quarters.

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I couldn't screw up like this again. If something happened to me, I'm not sure what Hailey would do. Terrifying as it was, she relied on me now. I couldn't just go around doing what I wanted with no thought for others' feelings anymore. If I wasn't careful, I could do some serious damage to Hailey emotionally. She was alone, with everyone she knew being long dead. It was no wonder she'd latched on to me as hard as she had. Entering my bathroom, I began to strip as I mentally turned the shower on, still lost in thought.

Stepping under the stream of hot water, I considered my next move. We weren't in any particular hurry so I'm thinking we'll take our time traveling back to my home hab station. I need to spend more time with Hailey, and there's a lot I need to learn about being a captain too. It's hard to believe, but it's only been around five days since Hailey pulled me out of that chasm. So much has happened it feels more like months.

Turning the shower off, I dressed in another fresh uniform and made my way to the cafeteria. Hailey was apparently busy performing maintenance given her location in the workshops. Unsurprising given what I made her put the ship through rescuing me. That gives me the chance to return the favor and cook something for her this time.

I search through the colossal recipe archive, completely lost. I don't even know what a tenth of these dishes even are, and what do you even make for someone who's having a bad day? Well, that helps a bit. Apparently, I thought that last bit hard enough the NIL caught it and has now narrowed the food down to a category called 'comfort food.' Well, that reduced my options a bit, now how about something a complete novice like me can make.

That looks simple enough to make as long as I cheat a little bit with the ingredients. Macaroni and cheese casserole with buns stuffed with a meat filling called 'sloppy joes.' Right, no idea who Joe is or why they're sloppy but the images of the food look good. I'll have the food synthesizers make the pasta and pastry for me and I think I can do the rest, probably. Almost forgot the dessert, this 'peach crisp' looks good. They recommend serving it with 'ice cream' whatever that is. Apparently, it's a traditional naval food though, so there's always a ready supply of it on hand.

Alright, time to get to work. I'm not sure how long I have until Hailey is done with her maintenance work so I need to try and work fast. Macaroni and cheese first, it takes longer to bake. After that, I'll see about the buns and dessert.

Well, that didn't go too badly, but I had to cheat on the sauce, trying to make it myself all I ended up with was a lumpy mess. The whole thing's in the oven now while I work on the filling for the buns. It's all been pretty simple, and because the ingredients are all synthesized they come already prepared so there's no peeling or chopping to do. The hardest part is getting the dough to stay closed after I fill it.

Alright, the buns are in another oven now. The dessert is even simpler, this 'peach crisp' you just mix the filling and the topping before baking it. That's something that I don't think even I could screw up. This is actually pretty easy, I think I could cook for Hailey more often, she deserves to be treated once in a while for putting up with me I think. I have to make sure to include Hailey most of the time though, she seemed really happy to make food with me, and I don't want to take that away from her.

Lost in my cooking, I didn't realize that Hailey had finished her maintenance work until I felt the air shift in the room as the door opened. Looking up, Hailey was spattered with lubricant and smeared with grease. She had an adorably confused expression on her face at seeing me in the kitchen cooking.

"Hey Hailey, I thought I'd surprise you and cook you something. You worked really hard today and I think you deserve a reward. Well, that and it's sort of an extra apology, so..." My words petered out as I struggled to put express my feelings.

"You... made it for me?" Hailey looked lost, like the entire idea of someone doing something nice for her was an alien concept.

"Yea, today was really hard on you and I wanted to give something back to you. I, um, I hope you'll like it. It's not quite done yet so if you want to go clean up first that should give it enough time to finish baking." I shuffled nervously as she stared at me.

"I- thank you, Rama." She shook her head a couple times and I saw some fluid going flying, probably some grease from her clothes, I'll go wipe it up after she leaves.

"I'll go clean up then, I'll be back in a little while." Turning, Hailey hurried from the cafeteria.

Well, that gave me time to finish my preparations. I pulled several of those floating food trays Hailey had used from storage and started loading them. The first one I used to carry all the cutlery and plates. Two others I used had built-in hot plates to keep the food warm. I reserved the first one for the macaroni and the rolls, and the crisp was going on the second. A fourth and final tray held a large insulated cylinder for the 'ice cream'. I felt like I was forgetting something. Oh, right need something to drink of course. Hm, the recipe lists some recommendations. This 'Sangria' looks nice, slightly alcoholic with lots of different fruit in it. I think I'll give it a taste. Oh yea, that's nice, dangerous too, can't even tell there's alcohol in it. So I need a bottle of that and some glasses on the last tray and everything is ready. Now I'm just waiting on the food to finish baking.

Hailey's back down in the maintenance section, she must have forgotten something. Although come to think of it I've never seen her quarters. She better not be using the workshops as her living quarters. Whoever listed her as cargo needs fragged. She's a person, not a piece of freight. I'll have to make sure that she has proper living quarters before we turn in for the day.

Looks like she's coming back, and right on time too. The food's done. Ah frag, looks like some of the rolls didn't stay sealed and burst open. Well, I'm sure they still taste good anyway. That reminds me, better grab some wipes while I'm at it, this could get messy. Now, just to load the trays up. Rolls go in the bowl and the casserole dishes go right over the warming plates, everything's ready.

Hailey reentered the cafeteria wearing her white dress instead of her bodysuit. I saw her eyes widen when she saw the four trays loaded down with food and tableware. I wasn't sure how I was going to move all this to the recreation room. My NIL once again helpfully came to my rescue, as an option that read 'docking' on the readout for the trays began to blink. Activating it, I watched in wonder as the four trays stacked themselves vertically taking into account the height of their cargo, and locked themselves in place with my NIL alerting me that a 'graviton anchor' was activated. So these food trays could become a food cart as well, this ship really was too amazing. I felt like I was never going to stop being surprised by it.

"We're all set, Hailey. Ready for some relaxation and delicious food?" Hailey had overcome her momentary surprise at the amount of food I had prepared and I received an eager nod in reply.

"Alright then, to the recroom!" I declared.

It was a short trip, and soon we were setting up in the cinema room. The trays helpfully converted to 'table mode' providing us with a buffet from which to load our plates. I had, however, forgotten to bring extra trays for us to eat on. So we had to hold our food in our laps as we ate lounging on the couch the ship replaced all the seats with. It was a bit messy but I didn't mind. Poor Hailey ended up with the Sloppy Joe roll filling smeared all over her dress when one of them broke apart when she tried to take a bite of it.

Even so, the food was all amazing. We stuffed ourselves while a movie played in the background. I admit we didn't pay too much attention to the movie, some action and romance story with some sort of super spy that liked to repeat his name a lot. We were more concerned with stuffing our faces and afterward were simply too blissed out and drowsy from all the food we ate to pay attention. Hailey ended up sprawling across my lap as I absently stroked her hair.

As the movie wound down and the credits began to roll I checked my NIL's chronometer in the corner of my vision. It wasn't that late but we were both exhausted, physically and emotionally. I think something like today was probably always going to happen, I could only thank the stars that it hadn't been worse. If one other thing had gone wrong it would have all ended in disaster. I'd been taking things far too lightly. This ship made me feel invincible and I had fallen for that illusion. It had almost cost me everything.

Hailey shifted and mumbled something indecipherable, and I nudged her slightly. "C'mon Hailey, time for bed I think."

"Mmf, don' wanna. Comfy." I suppressed a laugh at her slurred drowsy speech, so unlike her usual articulate self.

"Well tell me where your rooms' at and I'll take you there." Another indecipherable noise was my answer, but my NIL lit up with a path leading back to the maintenance bays and workshops. That was kind of what I was afraid of.

I opened the list of empty cabins with my NIL and selected an officer's cabin to assign to Hailey. I received a big red denied sign for my trouble. I scowled, it was going to be like that again huh? I focused on the same feeling I'd had last time when I transferred Hailey to the crew manifest, bringing up that sensation of freezing heat. Denied. What the frag was going on here. My NIL helpfully provided the answer. 'The specified accommodations do not meet the habitation requirements of Cmdr. Hailey.' What the frag does that mean? Slaggit I'm too tired for this slag, she's sleeping in my quarters then if the system wants to be a piece of scrap. I'm not letting her sleep in a machine shop.

It was a simple matter to slip my arms under her back and knees and pick her up. She was such a slim thing I barely felt like I'd picked anything up at all. Making my way back to my quarters Hailey hardly moved, only pressing closer to me as if trying to absorb more of my body heat. The ship gave no protest as I entered my quarters with Hailey. I quietly made my way through my rooms making sure not to bump into the desk or doorways.

Gently setting her down on my bed, messy clothes and all, I turned to go to my office. The chair there was reclinable and would work for tonight. Tomorrow I could see about getting another bed set up for me. I could sacrifice my bed for one night, I'd slept on far worse. My plans were stopped in their tracks by the iron grip Hailey had on my jacket.

"Don' leave me 'lone, Rama."

"It's not really appropriate for me to share a bed with you Hailey."

"Why?"

"Why, well um, you're supposed to be my subordinate for starters. I don't think a captain is supposed to be sharing a bed with a member of his crew."

"I'll care about regulations when you can find an admiralty board to enforce them." I almost choked on my tongue as the straight-laced by-the-book Hailey turned into a complete rebel when she was sleepy. Was it the exhaustion or maybe the Sangria? I hadn't really felt it affect me much other than helping me to relax. Apparently, Hailey wasn't very good when it came to alcohol then.

"You're also a- um, you're very pretty, Hailey. It doesn't feel appropriate for me to share a bed with you."

"Good." I had about half a second to parse that statement before I felt a sharp yank on my jacket and I was thrown onto the bed. Before I could even catch my bearings I felt a pair of legs and arms wrap around me as Hailey latched on.

"Hailey, can I at least take off my coat. It's very uncomfortable." Well, I'm not getting out of this I can tell already with the way she's latched on like a baby Kab.

"Mmf." I received another non-verbal reply, but her arms loosened enough for me to slide my jacket off and toss it on the floor.

Her arms immediately tightened up again as she used my chest as a pillow. Hesitantly, I wrapped my arms around her and felt her relax into me as her hold on me softened as her head tucked in under mine. I'd actually intended to stay up a little later, there'd been something about the Itzli drive signatures I'd seen in the beacon logs that had bugged me earlier that I wanted to look into. But I guess that could wait... until... tomorrow...