“This sucks,” I said, poking at a piece of spinach.

Leda laughed, genuinely, from her stomach. It’s entirely possible that Pen and I were looking at her like she’d grown two heads. She ran over to the bathroom and brought out my hairbrush. “What’s that one called, Cress?” She asked. “You know, the one from the tape you used to have?”

“Space Hero,” I said. “By Vic Tyler.”

“Right! Right!” She said as she pointed the hairbrush at me. After a second with no response, she pointed it back at herself and began singing, loud and off key. “Do you wanna be a hero in the sky? Do you wanna be a hero in the sky? High adventure higher pay, join the space marines today! Yeah, you’re gonna be a hero in the sky!”

I hopped to my feet and snatched the hairbrush turned microphone out of her hands. “Do you wanna wear a macho uniform? Do you wanna wear a macho uniform? Oliver Sherman BVD’s, pants that bag around the knees. Yeah, we’ll put you in a macho uniform!” I staggered around the room like the big shot guys showing off how stompy their boots were until Leda practically hip checked me for the mic back.

“Do you wanna rise as early as the birds? Do you wanna rise as early as the birds?” She jumped into the bed next to Penelope and bashed her with her shoulder. “On that you’ll have no choice, when you hear the sergeant’s voice. Yeah, you’ll always rise as early as the birds!”

Penelope rolled her eyes at us, but she smiled too, which is how I know she loves us.

For my next verse, I didn’t even wait for the hairbrush-mic. “Do you wanna eat exotic space cuisine?” I grabbed my plate and sat on the other side of Pen. “Do you want eat exotic space cruise? Powdered eggs and wafer bars, nameless stew and burger char. Yeah, you’ll always eat exotic space cuisine.”

Penelope wrinkled her nose and pushed my plate away. “I’d rather have a wafer bar than whatever that shit is.”

Leda dissolved into a fit of giggles before she was able to pick up her next verse. “Do you want to own the latest weaponry?”

“You know we don’t own shit,” I said.

“Do you wanna own the latest weaponry?!” Leda sang louder. “Guns that jam and spray like hell, with their stocks made by Mattel. Yeah, you’ll always own the greatest weaponry.”

“If either of you mess with my guns, I’ll kill us all with my bare hands,” Pen said, smiling and shaking her head.

“Oh but get this!” I jumped up and flexed my biceps and triceps like a steroid pumped greenie. “Do you wanna take a body building course?”

“Not impressive,” Penelope smirked and flexed her own muscles that she actually worked hard for.

“Do you wanna take a body building course?” I turned my back to them and cocked my hip. “Our basic training tends to put muscles on both ends. Yeah, we’ll put you through a body building course!”

Leda hit me with a vicious wolf whistle and advanced towards me like a dog. “Do you wanna kiss some gorgeous foreign dame? Do you wanna kiss some gorgeous foreign dames? On a hundred worlds or more, there’s still just one kind of whore.” She kissed me on the mouth. “Yeah, that’s what you’ll see off gorgeous foreign dames.”

Without missing a beat, Pen decided to pick up a verse. Faster than either of us could have prepared for, she grabbed the back of Leda’s shirt and spun her towards the bed. “Do you wanna test the latest weapons made? Do you wanna test the latest weapons made? On every other pass, one’ll get you into ass,” she kicked Leda’s butt so she collapsed onto the bed again. “Yeah, that’s how you’ll test the latest weapons made.”

By this point, we were all laughing more than singing, even Pen. I considered tackling her into the bed as well, but decided to mock Leda instead.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Do you wanna further medical research? Do you wanna further medical research? Between modern weaponry and the new kinds of VD, you will surely further medical research!”

“Would you be young and handsome all you life?” Penelope sang, patting Leda on the back. “Would you be young and handsome all your life?”

“Obviously.” Leda rolled her eyes.

“Well, the odds are good that you will be dead by twenty-two. So, you will be young and handsome all your life!”

“And yet somehow we keep living,” I yelled before picking up the final verse. “Hero is a four letter word! Hero is a four letter word! Just another word for ‘Fool’ and you’ll learn well in our school. Hero is a four letter word. Hero is a four letter word.”

I finally let myself collapse on the bed, making sure to smother Leda in as many fluffy pillows and blankets as possible. In my haste, I also knocked Penelope on her back which only kickstarted more giggles and ugly, gasping laughter. If anyone else had seen us, they would have thought we had just heard the greatest comedic minds of our generation.

Once we caught our breaths, Pen propped herself up on her elbow and looked Leda dead in the eyes. “Do you know what else is a four letter word?” She asked.

“Fuck? Shit? Dick?” She answered, wiping tears from her eyes.

“Leda.” Penelope retorted. I started laughing again and she turned to me. “And Cress is close enough, too.”

“Pen. Pen. Pen…Penelope…” I whispered under my breath. “You could be part of the club too if you let me call you Pene.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Please,” I begged. “Then we can all be matching.”

“That’s not even what matching means,” Pen said.

“But—”

“You know it’s meant to be like this,” Leda said. “She’s the only one on this gods forsaken space station who has any sense.”

“Also not true,” she said.

Leda and I gave each other a meaningful look. “It’s true,” we said in unison.

“Well, if I have to be the voice or reason, I think we should all get to bed.” She began untangling Leda from the blankets and retrieving the extra pillows from my bedroom. It was a suite with three separate rooms, yet without discussing, we all knew we were going to sleep in the same bed.

“We haven’t even eaten yet,” Leda said, poking at the food again.

“We’ll just have Cress steal us something from the continental breakfast tomorrow morning,” Penelope said from the other room.

“Does it always have to be me?” I asked in mock annoyance.

“You’re better at it than we are,” Leda said.

“Gee, I can’t possibly imagine why that might be so,” I said, real annoyance once again coming into my chest. There was an awkward silence. “But yeah, I’ll do it. I’ll just complain the entire time I am.”

“I can live with that,” Leda said.

Penelope walked back into the main room with an armful of towels. “Do either of you want to take a shower tonight?” She asked.

“We’re here for another two nights, at least, right?” I asked. “I’ll just take one tomorrow.”

“Some here,” Leda said. “I’m tired.”

“Okay,” Penelope placed the towels over the back of the chair. She tucked her pad under her arm and climbed into bed.

I had climbed over Leda so I would be in the middle. I didn’t even know why I did it. Laying there didn’t even help me sleep, it just made me more annoyed at everyone else and the awful accommodations we found ourselves with.

Leda kicked in her sleep and Penelope barely slept at all. I must have laid there for three hours watching her scroll through ship logs on her data pad.

Of course, I didn’t need to ask her what she was looking for. Every single ship that came into or left the OEHS had record of what was being shipped around and, more importantly, who was aboard the ship.

Penelope was looking for her sibling. I didn’t need to ask her. Every night it was the same. They were nowhere to be found. There hadn’t been been a starship with that child on it since I had joined Starpoint, at least. Who knew how long it had been since before that? Still, Penelope looked every single night.

I used to ask her questions, and she used to give me answers. One day, her sibling would show up on the record again. One day, they’d eventually reunite. One day, they’d make it to somewhere Olympios Rex couldn’t separate them again.

Three years had passed and ‘one day’ still hadn’t come. It seemed pointless to continue asking the same questions over and over again. Even though I was awake, and Penelope knew I was awake, we lay there in silence, listening to Leda snoring softly.

That night, I considered, just for a few minutes, asking more questions. What was your sibling like the last time saw them? Did they look like you? Act like you? What was their name?

I didn’t ask, so I don’t know why I even considered it. I can’t tell if I just wanted to feel close to Pen and share in something that constantly made her so upset, or if I was secretly jealous of this mystery sibling and wanted to know how I stacked up.

It was something I knew as easy as breathing: Once Pen found this sibling of hers, she would leave Leda and me in an instant. I’m not sure how she’d manage with Olympios Rex watching us, but she’d do anything to make sure she got her happy ending.

That wasn’t an easy thought to fall asleep to.