It was a long, silent walk back to my house. Kaela stared at her feet the whole time, even when Laura opened the door for us. I explained everything to her while Kaela sat at the kitchen table. Manning stood by the oven. Apparently, he was baking a cake for Kaela, and he was waiting for it to be done. It’d been a while since I’d had birthday cake, so I was excited. It was just weird that I was more excited about Kaela’s cake than she was.

Laura and I sat on the living room couch. Kaela fiddled with her phone in the kitchen. Her frown was hard to look at. She set her phone down as a song blared from it: an uplifting tune about birthdays. It didn’t fit the somber mood of the room.

“So, is she going to be okay?” Laura motioned to Kaela’s lowered head.

“Do you suddenly care?” I asked.

“Of course not.” Laura’s eye twitched, a sign that she was lying. “It’s just that I’m the only one allowed to be sad in this house. You need to fix her. I don’t care how.”

“I’d love to, but this is a weird situation. She’s fighting with Dylan and Surge. Isn’t this what we wanted?”

Laura tilted her head back and forth, as if weighing her thoughts. “Well, we are trying to steal the stupid generator back. Maybe she’ll help us now.”

“Or maybe…she and I need to go on Surge’s mission after all.”

“What?!” Laura covered her mouth once she realized she’d shouted. Manning glanced over, but Kaela didn’t move. Laura cleared her throat and leaned in closer. “Are you insane? Aren’t the AI after you? Why would you want to go to one of their bases? Especially with Kaela and Dylan?”

“Because…maybe they’ll let me into the forge if I do this.” I fidgeted with my fingers as my cheeks heated up. “The head of the forge won’t let me join now, but if I get Surge to convince her? She won’t be able to refuse.”

Laura shot me a look of disgust. “You want to go through all this potentially traumatizing trouble so you can tinker with the enemy? We’ll be gone in two weeks. What’s the point of getting a fancy job if you’re gonna drop it soon?”

I shrugged. “I know it’s dumb, but what else am I going to do? Sit around for all that time? I could build something that’ll help us out later. Come on.”

Laura scoffed and stood up. “Do what you want then. You won’t need my opinion with Kaela around.”

She walked off before I could say anything. She didn’t even look my way as she stomped up the stairs. What was going on here? I felt like I was putting distance between me and Laura by helping Kaela. We’d talk once this was all over. Everything would be fine. I headed over to Kaela’s table and sat opposite her. She didn’t even look up at me.

“Hey,” I said, “what are you thinking about?”

She sighed. “About how all my friends are jerks. I’ve always known, but this is different. I was supposed to be the one who balanced everyone out. I guess I can’t anymore. Now I’m one of you guys. Yay.”

“Yeah…maybe not. Kaela, even if they’re jerks, Dylan and Surge are your family. Surge told me to make sure you have a happy birthday, and I think I saw something in the back of Dylan’s cruiser. It might have been a present.”

Kaela scoffed, which was the closest she’d come to a smile in the last thirty minutes. “I doubt Dylan even knows what a present is. Surge is too obsessed with Frost to care about birthdays. Some family they are. Why should I help them if they’re the jerks? Why should we do their stupid mission?”

I thought about my own situation with Beth. After what she had done, I should have hated her. I would’ve, but she was related to me. Kaela wasn’t related to the other two, but they’d been together for so long that it didn’t matter. There are all kinds of families. I wouldn’t let Kaela lose hers, even if they were the enemy.

I wondered how much easier my life would be if I didn’t try to help everyone.

“You guys are just going through one big argument. Those two have a lot to apologize for, but you shouldn’t let it get to you. Show them that you’re willing to move on, and see if they’ll do the same. If not, then just take a ship and get out of here. You shouldn’t stay anywhere that you’re not respected.”

Kaela blinked and raised her head. “You really think we should do this? I know helping us must feel weird, considering—”

“This isn’t about Frost versus Surge right now.” I gazed into the table’s wooden surface. I traced the wood’s dark swirls with my eyes. “I don’t like seeing families fall apart. That’s it.”

Kaela grinned as she sat up. It was genuine too. I could see the renewed sense of purpose on her face.

Manning set down a massive cake in front of us. White frosting dripped down the sides. Seventeen candles jutted out of it. “Happy Birthday Kaela” was spelled out in blue frosting.

“The cake is done,” Manning said as he spread his arms. “As soon as we find a lighter, we can—where did Ms. Genki run off to?”

Kaela and I made eye contact over the cake. We wouldn’t be eating this, would we? I was already experiencing the downsides of our decision.

“Sorry Manning, but we need to go do something real fast.” I stood up at the same time as Kaela. Our chairs scraped the floor in unison. “Save this cake for later, okay?”

Manning smiled as if he knew what we were thinking. “Of course. It’ll give me time to find a lighter. Best of luck on your errand!”

“Thanks. We’re going to need it.”

Kaela hopped into her cruiser with the energy of a toddler. I wished I shared her excitement for the mission. The forge would be a great reward, but it wasn’t really worth going to an AI base. An “abandoned” one. I couldn’t imagine the AI leaving a big base full of secrets unattended. Something was weird about this…

We drove for a while before a huge metal facility reared its head. I frantically tapped my foot as Kaela parked beside it. Stepping out of the cruiser made the facility seem even bigger. Now I saw why they called it the hangar. The building was huge because it was packed with ships. Exploration and lite. No battle ships, but they weren’t my style anyway.

People scrambled around the massive beasts like ants. They hustled from ship to ship, gripping metal boxes that clanked with each step. They must have been from the forge. All the people running around reminded me of the First Ship’s parking bay. It was about the same size too.

“Shouldn’t you be drooling right now?” Kaela teased as she adjusted the metal staff on her back. Her Gamechanger. “Don’t you love all things technological, including ships?”

I scanned the hangar again. “You’re right, but something’s definitely off. I look at all these ships, and I just feel sad. I used to have my own ship, but we left it behind on New Earth. Along with my cruiser. Now it feels like part of me is stuck on the other side of the galaxy.”

Kaela frowned. “Dang. You know, Mars is technically just a planet away. Maybe we can go back for it later?”

I doubted it. If the universe wanted me to have something, it wouldn’t keep taking everything from me.

The hangar got louder as we walked further inside. The clanking of metal echoed all around, and it was music to my ears. The stench of oil and hard work were great too. Hopefully, my forge job would provide the same benefits. Now I was getting excited.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Kaela froze. I followed her gaze and stopped too. Dylan was right in front of us. He was fiddling with his phone and leaning on a lite ship. He looked up at us, and his eyes widened. Kaela shrunk under his gaze. The tension between them was suffocating.

“Hey, Dylan.” I waved at the guy who had almost killed me on two separate occasions. “We decided to come…Is that cool?”

His eyes darted between the two of us before he cleared his throat. “Better late than useless I suppose. I was just about to leave too. I think Mikaela had a point about the mission being easier with one person.”

“Feel free to leave then you—” Kaela flinched as I placed a hand on her arm. I shook my head, warning her to stay calm. This was about ending an argument, not shouting. Kaela deflated and adopted a more neutral expression. “Dylan, I know you don’t hate me. We share a childhood, dude. You used to be a really cool friend, and I just want things to go back to how they were.”

Dylan’s face looked normal as he processed that. He shrugged as he pulled out a key and pressed a button on it. A huge panel on the lite ship slid aside, revealing itself to be a door.

“Just get in,” Dylan said as he followed his own command.

“That was easier than I expected,” Kaela murmured as she followed Dylan. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as I’d imagined.

The inside of the lite ship smelled like a pile of molten garbage had taken refuge in it. I covered my nose, but it didn’t stop me from hacking. There weren’t dirty clothes or pieces of trash anywhere, so why did it smell so bad?

“Oh yeah, I keep forgetting you’re new.” Kaela gestured at my attempt to save my nostrils. “Stealing ships isn’t easy, so sometimes they’re in pretty bad condition. We tried our best to salvage this one, but the smell of wet fungus never went away. Sorry.”

Dylan held his key up to a black spot on the lite ship’s dashboard. The monitor glowed to life as the ship rumbled. Being a passenger instead of the captain was odd, but it wasn’t like I wanted to pilot any ship besides the Eachtra. I was fine with just staring out the window.

“Get used to the scent and fast,” Dylan said, “because I can’t deal with your whining on top of Mikaela’s presence.”

Dang it.

Kaela glared at him. “You know, if you weren’t such a maniac, you would have stood with me while Surge was losing his mind. If you don’t think there was anything wrong with what he did, then you’re not loyal, you’re just stupid.”

Kaela remained standing, figuratively and literally. Just when I’d started thinking we were making progress. I guess Dylan was more to blame, but she should have expected him to be like this.

“Don’t forget that New Earth is home to the racists behind the brutality in Red City.” He swiveled his seat toward her. “How could I possibly feel sympathy for anything that happens to them?”

“Because not everyone in Red City was guilty. What, are we going to burn down the First Division for Frost’s crimes next? Where’s the line, Dylan?”

“There are no lines in war. All we need to focus on is victory. What’s wrong with doing whatever it takes to free the galaxy?”

“You’ve been what’s wrong with us for years!”

“And you’ve been a pathetic, bloated failure for just as long!”

“ENOUGH!” I jumped to my feet, and combined with my shout it was enough to capture their attention. For the first time, I wanted all eyes on me. “I’m here to keep you from killing each other, but I didn’t realize you’d need me this badly. How have you two worked together for so long?”

Kaela finally took a seat and leaned back. “It helped that he wasn’t always an irritating mosquito. When we were orphans—”

“Not another word.” Dylan turned back toward the dashboard. “I refuse to let my enemy know how I spent my childhood. We’re leaving right this second.”

How would we get out of here? How did any ship get out of here? We were surrounded by ships on all sides. Then we rumbled as the ship began to move…upwards.

The ships outside were shrinking, I could only assume that ours was hovering straight up. Of course. Ships didn’t need room when they could just hover. Once high enough, we quit ascending and soared out of the hangar. Green tinted the cockpit as we flew toward the sky. That thing. I couldn’t help but feel nervous because it felt like we were flying into poison. Green stretched all around us, encompassing us in its toxic cloud. I wasn’t physically suffocating, but the anxiety I got from being in the middle of it was probably just as bad.

“Kaela, how are any of you still alive?” I asked. Her face screwed up in confusion, a clear sign that I had her attention. “I just mean the Earth isn’t meant to be habitable. What did you guys do to change that? What kind of rebel magic did you use? Any cool spells I should know?”

She snickered. “You’re the only guy here who can shoot lightning—apparently, and you’re asking us about magic? All Surge did was fix up a prototype atmosphere tower. It’s nothing special.”

On New Earth, my hand had been sliced open, my spleen had been ruptured, and I had been chucked from a cruiser, tossed by an explosion, and beat up numerous times by numerous things. I didn’t recall any of that affecting my hearing, but I couldn’t have heard Kaela properly.

“You guys solved a problem that caused our entire species to relocate…with an atmosphere tower?” I ran numbers in my head to see if she was telling the truth. I couldn’t. I’d never worked on an atmosphere tower. I had no actual idea what they were capable of. “Why didn’t you get this information to the First Division? Tell Frost, even if you hate her? You could have changed everything.”

“Well—”

BEEP!

The monitor flashed red. We had officially left Earth behind. I glanced out my window and saw darkness broken up by thousands of white specks. I’d heard people describe space as depressing, but I couldn’t get enough of it. Everything I’d done so far, I’d done so I could have cool adventures across the galaxy. The kind my younger self would have been jealous of. Now I was past that. I’d been plunged into something bigger and more complex than adventuring for fun.

“This is your mandatory warning that I am about to warp,” Dylan said. “Make sure you’re prepared, or don’t. Who honestly cares?”

“Mandatory?” I said. “Are y—are you legally obligated to warn people before you warp?”

“Of course,” Kaela said as if everyone knew that. “What kind of nutcase warps before their crew is ready?

I gulped. “Please warp now.”

Sound and light fled the surroundings. The ship stretched across the galaxy, stretching me along with it. I couldn’t make sense of the formless noise I saw. Despite all that, I felt more present this time. I’d been to another dimension, so this was nothing in comparison. Was that a good or bad sign?

My environment snapped back into place. I covered my ears as the sound came crashing back. The light didn’t blind me this time. When I glanced at the window, I flinched. White and brown swirls shrouded the entire window. The entire windshield too. Dylan must have accidentally warped us inside the biggest marble ever.

“Home sweet—oh god.” Kaela clutched her stomach and dropped to her knees. She wasn’t used to warping? I may have felt like I was vibrating, but that wasn’t so bad. Kaela jumped up, but kept her mouth covered. “I’m good. I’m good, guys. As I was saying—home sweet home.”

Dylan scoffed as he rubbed his temples. “There’s nothing sweet about this place. I’m descending. Prepare your foolish selves.”

This was Jupiter? I’d heard people call it massive and gigantic and say that Earth would fit into it a whole bunch of times. None of that prepared me to deal with how big it actually was. I couldn’t see anything but the planet as we descended toward it.

I watched gaseous trails of white, brown, and red swirl by. As time marched on, the scenery didn’t. Jupiter refused to give me something else to look at.

“Quit your tapping, it’s grating!” Dylan snapped.

I was confused until I realized that I’d been tapping my foot against the floor. It only became fidgeting once you forgot you were doing it.

“Lay off him, this is taking forever. Even longer than I remember.” Kaela’s expression failed for a moment, but a massive smile saved it. “Ready to get bombarded with Jupiter trivia? Since Jupiter is mostly gas, it’s a bit debatable where its surface starts and ends. I don’t think it’d even exist without all its atmosphere tower—oh, there’s one.”

Kaela pointed at a tiny tower floating by us. It wasn’t actually small, but, compared to Jupiter, everything was. The steel tower secreted neon waves of energy that wove down into the gas. The air above the tower distorted before my eyes. I assumed that was the effect of the planet’s artificial gravity. It didn’t explain the energy weaves though.

“What’s that weird energy?” I pointed to the neon threads. There were things about the planets that I’d researched but also things that I wanted to find out for myself. No point in exploring if you already knew everything.

“Science,” Kaela said simply. “Remember that thing I said about this place being mostly gas? ‘If that were true then how could we stand on it?’ you’d ask. Then I’d say it was ’cause towers like this guy were shooting down specialized energy that condensed the gas. There’s like a thousand towers in total. Maybe more; Jupiter is kind of big.”

“Kind of?”

“Both of you, shut up!” Dylan pointed to the windshield. Something was poking through the gas below. A handful of squares. As more gas drifted away, the “handful” multiplied. The squares must have been buildings because they looked like Red City did from above. “We’re landing. Assemble your helmets and keep them on. Don’t take them off for a second.”

“He’s slightly exaggerating,” Kaela said as pieces of her helmet flew up and fit together. “There’s oxygen thanks to the towers, but the gravity’s a bit harsh, it’s ridiculously windy, and it’s really hot and cold at the same time. I have no idea how babies survive here.”

To the far left of the windshield, something else got my attention. Something in the distance. It was reddish orange, swirling, and huge. If something seemed huge on Jupiter, it had to be a problem.

“Kaela, what the Earth is that?” I pointed to it.

She followed my finger and gasped. “Welp, haven’t seen that in about a decade. We call it the Scarlet Storm, but off-planet history books just call it the ‘Great Red Spot.’ Even though they’re wrong. It’s not much of a spot when you live next to it. Anyway, it’s wider than the entire Earth.”

“It’s wha—is Jupiter real or are we all just hallucinating?”

I gazed at the Scarlet Storm in amazement. If there was one thing all this was teaching me, it was that you couldn’t pay me to live on Jupiter.