Between cooking breakfast and dinner, and his other daily tasks while on “light duty,” it was almost impossible for Lus to get a good chance to talk with Yrqw.

It’d been a full day and a half since he met with Xwvl, and he was keenly aware that he only had one day left to get Yrqw on board with the whole “date” thing before he lost all hope of keeping Avil around.

“I have a little time before I have to start dinner. This is the perfect chance to drop by Systems Control and chat with him,” he said to himself and Avil as he stood in his quarters reordering his uniform after his brief afternoon nap. The addition of the breakfast shift was ruining his sleep schedule, but luckily he didn’t have that much to do outside of the kitchen so it was easy to sneak some extra sleep in during the day.

He bent down and scratched behind Avil’s ears. “I promise, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you around.”

The cat purred in response, his twin tails flicking back and forth in unison.

“I’ll see you tonight.” Standing, Lus exited his room and started towards the lower deck where Yrqw hopefully waited. As [Luck] would have it, he ran into his target even sooner, and Yrqw was alone walking towards the quarters when Lus met him.

“Yrqw,” he called out, smiling broadly as he fell in line with him. “How are you? I haven’t seen you in ages.”

The old Kremel cracked a grin. “Hi, Lus. You’ve been so caught up in missions and injuries, you’re never around anymore.”

Lusac shrugged. “I would happily be back in the tubes, but you know how Fusi is about even the most minor injury.”

“Yeah. She took you off duty for that sprained shoulder too a while back. I think that this is more of your problem, Lusac.” Yrqw patted his back. “Say, what’s for dinner tonight? I’d almost allow them to take you from my team to cook full time if you keep up with the kinds of dishes you put out last night.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying them. The whole [Chef] class really helps.” Lus smiled, happy that his talents were being properly recognized now.

“Oh yeah. I heard you got a system. I can’t believe you didn’t mention it right off. Do you know how nice it is to have two people with a system on board? Between that and this mega job, the Argo is bound to get a bump in recognition. We might even be able to move into a better territory after this,” Yrqw said.

Typically, Runner ships took over all the jobs in a specific section of one sector. The more internal and external recognition a ship got, the better the territory they were allowed to run. The Argo was smack dab in the middle of renown, but Yrqw was right that their fame after this might push them to one of the higher paying territories.

“Say, I was having a discussion with Dasht the other day about the beauty standards for each species. Obviously I’m pretty familiar with what makes Humans attractive, and Dasht explained the basics of ‘pretty’ for Nemarians for me, but I was wondering if you could tell me what Kremel look for in that sense?” Lusac changed the topic suddenly, but he was worried that if he didn’t start down this path soon, Yrqw would get carried away talking about the ins and outs of territory snatching, and that was not helpful in Lus’s goal.

“Huh. An interesting question. I can’t say I speak for the whole species, but I suppose I could tell you what I like in females.” Yrqw rubbed his chin with one green hand, though as far as Lus knew, Kremel didn’t grow any kind of facial hair. “I would say tall, at least my height or more, and bald preferable. Hair is for the males, and I don’t like the new trend in women growing it out too. Obviously a wide figure, but that’s a standard desire for all Kremel. In general, a female like that would catch my attention, assuming she’s age appropriate.”

Lus thought back to Xwvl. She had hair, but it was buzzed quite short so that was probably close enough. As for the rest, well Lus thought all Kremel were tall and wide, so he couldn’t say for sure if she checked out against Yrqw’s test.

“Oh, so someone like Xwvl?” he said, pretending he’d only just thought of the name. “She keeps her hair buzzed so it’s like she’s bald, and she’s super tall.”

“Xwvl?” Yrqw echoed. He blinked a couple of times. “Huh, I guess I never noticed. She may not be bald, but she does keep her hair at a respectable shortness. I would say she fits the bill.”

“You should totally ask her out or something.” Lusac tried to keep his voice light and joking. He felt silly, like a teenage girl or something, with this kind of discussion, but he reminded himself over and over again what was at stake.

Yrqw laughed, and Lus offered his own weak chuckle.

“I’ll give you a lesson I learned years ago when I was part of the army, Lusac. Don’t date within the ranks. It never ends well.” He slapped Lus’s back roughly, still laughing. “Ask her out. You make it sound like we’re in middle school again.”

“I’m serious, Yrqw. What have you got to lose? Xwvl is fun and attractive by your own admission. Surely you don’t want to spend the rest of your life lonely? You’re getting old, pal. I want to see you happy.”

The Kremel laughed even harder. “I had no idea you were so concerned about my dating life, but let me assure you, I make sure to satisfy my needs.”

Lusac’s face became one of horror. “Not like that! I’m not talking about… Ugh. Why would you bring that up?” This was definitely not going as he planned, and he was starting to wonder if this was worth it after all. Now he had an image of Yrqw in his brain that he was going to have spend days trying to forget.

Yrqw shook his head, his grin wide enough to split his face in half. “Humans and Nemarians are so shy about such a basic thing. I’ve never understood it.”

“Nevermind about that. I’m talking about just a simple date. You know, dinner or something.” Lus attempted to regain control of the conversation before Yrqw could get on his soapbox about how the other species need to lighten up.

“What’s it to you? You’ve never once talked about dating before in all the years I’ve known you. Why now?” Yrqw slowed his walk and looked at Lus with questioning eyes.

“Oh, well, uh, I just…”

“Is this about Becky?” Yrqw raised his eyebrows.

“Becky?”

“If you’re looking for permission to ask her out, you can just ask, Lusac. No need to do all this hoop jumping. There are no rules about two crewmembers dating as long as neither is a direct supervisor of the other. You’re fine to ask Becky out. In fact, I think you two would make a good couple.”

Heat rushed to Lus’s face. How could Yrqw think this had anything to do with his friendship–and just friendship–with Becky?

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“Thanks. Um, yeah. I appreciate that. But I wasn’t really asking about that. We’re just friends.”

Yrqw rubbed Lusac’s head, ruffling his head. “No need to be so shy about it. You can take her to dinner during our next resupply. I know a great restaurant on the planet. I’ll give you the details later, but right now I’ve got a meeting I’m running late for. Good chatting with you, Lus.”

“Yeah. Good talk,” Lus said as the Kremel rushed off.

He pounded a fist against his forehead. How had that gone so poorly? And how was he supposed to fix it within the next day? Now Yrqw thought he was chasing Becky, and those were rumors he did not want to fly around the ship.

With a sigh, Lusac checked his watch. He still had a little bit of time before he needed to start dinner, but it wasn’t enough he could make a full system [Recipe] first, so that left him with few options.

As if answering his calls, an announcement went out across the ship. “Lusac Arten, please seek the nearest communicator and call medical.”

“What now Fusi?” he murmured as he went to the end of the hall to where a comm unit waited. He pressed the button and dialed the doctor’s office.

“Lusac,” she said. “Wsr is awake and wants to see you. You should drop by before dinner, and I’ll give you a check up too.”

“Sounds good, Doc. On my way.” Not like he had any other choice. Still, seeing Wsr might help cheer him up. She’d been unconscious most of the time since he first got her out of the mine.

When he arrived at the medical bay, he found several others had beaten him to visiting hours. Cewi-Bano and Zer-Dasht both stood by the bed where Wsr was fully awake and sitting up, a grin on her face as she spoke to them and her arm in a sling.

“Lus,” she cried out when she noticed him. “My hero finally comes to visit.”

He smiled as he approached them. “How are you feeling Wsr? You sure took a long nap.”

She laughed as she ran free her hand through her short black hair. “I was just catching up on all the hours I’ve been missing since I joined the blasted Runners.” She motioned him closer. “Come and tell me what happened after we left the room behind. Dasht tried to spoil it for me, but I told him I wanted the tale from you.”

Lusac appreciated the omission of anything to do with Yonnex-Quniwel, but he dreaded the idea of having to recount everything again, especially with Quniwel’s unconscious form nearby.

But Wsr’s smile won him over. He huddled in close with Cewi and Dasht and relegated the story starting from getting her out of the mine. He only briefly touched on going back to retrieve Quniwel and kept most of the focus on his heroics while in the temple and getting the artifact.

Wsr nodded thoughtfully at the end. “You mean to tell me that we could have avoided most of our problems if we’d just thought to dive into that lake?”

“Pond,” Dasht quickly corrected her.

She rolled her eyes as Lus chuckled.

“It’s not like we could have known about that secret entrance, but yeah, I guess we should have thought to check it out. Especially Dasht. I mean, you breathe under water for Suns’ sakes,” Lus pointed out.

“Yeah, Zer-Dasht. What were you thinking, not checking out the pond first thing? You’re always complaining about the lack of underwater facilities onboard ships,” Cewi added.

“Forgive me for not diving into every strange body of water I see,” Dasht replied with his own smirk. “We can bring you along next time to do that for us, Cewi.”

“I’m just glad we’ll never run into the Shaquine again. You couldn’t pay me a million cryptin to step foot on that moon ever again.” Wsr put her one free hand behind her head. “It’s good to be back on the Argo. I wasn’t sure I’d see it again until Lus found me.”

“I’m just glad we both had the same idea for a hiding spot.”

The conversation was approaching too close to having to discuss Quniwel, so it died there. Wsr started to ask about the happenings on the ship while she was out, but Doctor Fusi came to pull Lus away for his own check up. In the private exam room, she once again pulled off the bandages and gently prodded around the wound, and this time it hurt a whole lot more.

“Ow, careful,” Lusac growled.

“I’m being as soft as I can,” she promised. When she returned to taking notes at the computer, she wore a lighter face. “It looks like it’s starting to heal finally. Those antibiotics are doing the trick. It’s a slow process, however, so you’ll be doing light duty for at least three days or more.”

“Come on, Doc. Maintenance work can’t be that bad for it,” Lus argued, eager to get rid of the breakfast shift. As nice as the extra [XP] was, he was ready to get to sleep in again.

“A few more days,” she reiterated.

“Fine,” he agreed.

Tremt-Fusi rewrapped the injury and then sent him on his way. Dasht was nowhere to be seen when he left the exam room, and Wsr was busy chatting with Cewi-Bano, so Lus didn’t feel like interrupting. He started towards the kitchen, figuring it was about time to start on dinner when he bumped into someone he’d been hoping to avoid for at least a little longer after his chat with Yrqw.

“Hiya Lus,” Becky greeted him with her usual bright smile. “I was just coming to find you. Yrqw mentioned there was something you wanted to talk to me about.”

Lus ran his hands over his face, partly out of frustration and partly out of embarrassment. “No. It’s nothing. Yrqw misunderstood.”

Becky nodded, a knowing look on her face. “Yrqw actually said he thought you were going to chicken out and told me that you supposedly wanted to ask me on a date.”

Red heated Lusac’s face for the second time in only an hour. “It’s not like that, Becky. I was trying to get Yrqw to ask Xwvl out, and he somehow spun it to be that I wanted to ask you out and that’s why I was talking to him about dating at all, and it’s just one big mess.”

She laughed, the bottom half of her dark curls now dyed a neon green. “I figured Yrqw was pranking me or something, but this is even better. How did you land yourself into this trouble, Lus?”

He shook his head, laughing as well, though mostly from relief. “You know me. Anyway, I’m sorry he got involved. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“No worries. Though can I ask why you’re trying to get Yrqw to ask Xwvl out?”

Lusac trusted Becky. “Alright. I’ll give you the full story, but you can’t tell a soul.”

She made the motion of locking her lips, and Lus then told her about Cewi discovering Avil and going to meet with Xwvl only to be given what now seemed like an impossible task.

She was smiling again by the end of it, clearly amused by the predicament he found himself in.

“You know, the misunderstanding with Yrqw actually works in your favor,” she said.

“How so?”

“He wants you to ask me out. Tell him that you’re nervous to go on a date with me, and you want to make it a double. That then explains why you wanted him to ask Xwvl out and also makes it a lot more likely that he’ll do it just to help you out.”

“And you’d fake being my date for the night?” Lusac confirmed.

“Sure. I happen to like Avil too, so I’ll sacrifice this one time for you,” she promised.

“Great. Maybe I’ll track Yrqw down now and get him on board,” Lus said.

“Wait, you’ve got to at least ask me properly,” Becky protested. “I’ll do it, but I expect you to be a gentleman about it.”

He nodded, hoping the blush on his face wasn’t too prominent. “Becky, would you like to have dinner with me next time we resupply?”

“I’d love to. I never say no to free food,” she replied with a wink. He waved as he departed to then go find Yrqw. He managed to intercept the Kremel on his way out of Systems Control and pull him aside for a private conversation.

“Yrqw, about earlier,” Lus started.

“So Becky found you?” he smiled.

“Yeah, but I’m super nervous about the date. The reason I was wondering if you’d ask Xwvl out is to see if you two would come with and make it a double date. It would really help me out,” Lus pleaded.

Yrqw nodded slowly. “I can do that. But maybe I’ll ask someone you know better to make it less awkward.”

“No,” Lus said hurriedly, startling the Kremel. “I just mean, I already know Xwvl quite well. Our paths have crossed some while I’ve been on light duty. I feel very comfortable around her, you know?”

The Kremel smiled and put a meaty hand on his shoulder. “Very well, Lus. Let’s plan to meet at the restaurant tomorrow at 7 pm. I’ll stop by Xwvl’s office now.”

“Thank you, Yrqw. I really appreciate it.”

“Anything for young love,” Yrqw vowed as he stepped away.

Lusac smiled back, one step closer to completing his quest and saving Avil.