It was a case of “you should have seen the other guy” when the attack ended.

The Inter-Galactic GG-20 survived but they were battered beyond recognition. Most especially the Phase 2.0 layer.

If that had been the only damaged part, Logan would have been grateful. His crew would have been the luckiest people in the entire galaxy. But life was never that easy, was it?

Logan replayed the final moments of their enemies in his mind once again. It was like the damn scene was on a loop in his mind. He saw the initial ship, saw it practically race toward them. He saw their end, how he’d had to blast a whole crew into oblivion.

He envisioned how not up to an hour later, five more surrounded them. He remembered how fickle his mind became: for a moment there he was sure he’d finally led his poor crew to a fatal incident. The trust he had in himself evaporated.

But there was hardly any time for self-doubts, his brain had gone into overdrive a second after. Thoughts and reflex were throbbing in his head; Logan could almost feel them even now. He could not afford to wallow in the former then, so he’d ignored them. He also could not afford to get his entire ship killed.

A lot of that adrenaline rush was still coursing through his veins now and Logan figured that was why his head felt like it might burst any time soon. His mind felt as if it would unravel any minute. His eyes kept darting this way and that about the compartment, as though desperate to find the object that would calm his beating heart.

He did not find anything useful. His eyes met his crew members’ instead, and they looked worse for wear. Where Logan was only panting, they looked like they were having an asthma attack without the asthma. Or rather a panic attack, because calm could not be any farther away from them right now.

Where Logan stood ramrod straight before them, one was in a fetal position on the bare floor, whispering incoherently to herself. Blessing could be so dramatic at times.

His girlfriend always told him that his eyes worked of their own volition. Charlotte was never able to tell when he was upset or panicking, let alone when he was losing his marbles.

“Your eyes are so sneaky. I can never figure out what you’re really feeling,” she used to say.

Logan was starting to believe her now. Even as the eleven of them— Adams included —stared at him wide-eyed like they just witnessed Lucifer himself in 3D, Logan could see that they could not tell that he was shaken.

His crew looked to him for some kind of catharsis, words of encouragement, an assurance that they really were not dead yet. Something about the look on his face must have helped them to find it because the tension in the air suddenly eased; not by a lot but it reduced.

Logan did not have to guess: Dr. Donald was numb. He was obviously disoriented; it showed in the way he was processing everything. He kept pinching his arm as if he could not grasp that they actually survived. Foxxman did not really mind his theatrics. At least there was no delayed screaming this time.

Blessing was trembling on the ground. He could not blame her. Witnessing a plane crash could be a traumatic experience, even more so in an interstellar environment. If that was how she chose to deal with her anxiety, then so be it. She deserved it, if only for a moment.

Giovanni was shockingly calm. Unlike after the initial explosion, he seemed to have gathered himself quickly. The sixth time’s the charm, Logan mused.

Giovanni’s breathing was racy. Other than that, the man was a peach. Borja, on the other hand, was only breathing fast as she stared at him. “And now it’s nine.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Logan rubbed his forehead. “What now?”

“There have been nine incidents in total, Commander.”

He collapsed into the nearest seat with a pained groan and threw his neck over the backrest. Then he took a deep breath and burst into laughter.

It was not a genuine one. It was an insane, boisterous, and mirthless guffaw. His shoulder shook as the tremor of the laughter ran through his body.

They could have died just now yet Borja was counting his screwups? That was what she was concerned with? Of all things?

“Are you serious right now?”

Giovanni was apparently as sick of her as Logan was. He was the one who spoke up. Logan could not stop chuckling miserably beneath his breath.

“She is after my life, man,” he muttered to himself.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Borja replied stiffly.

“You’re also a pain in the ass but you don’t see anyone pointing that out.”

She scoffed incredulously. ”I’m the pain? Sir, he’s the one who keeps putting us at risk!”

“Give it a rest, woman. Aren’t you tired? We just got shot at, for Christ’s sake! What are you counting?” His voice was calm but grew louder with each sentence. “Had it not been for Logan, you would be way too dead to be whining about anything right now.”

She jumped to her feet like she’d finally heard what would make her snap. She was ready for a fight. “And what exactly would you know about that, Mr. Gambetti? If I may ask, what do you know about anything? Are you an analyst? An officer? Some kind of scientist?”

Giovanni only unlatched himself and looked up at her. “It’s a good thing I don’t have to be any of that to recognize a haughty witch when I see one.”

Borja bristled in shock. She flinched so hard that one would think Giovanni had raised his hands and struck her across the face instead. “You cannot speak to me that way.”

“But you can dump all your rude comments on Logan?” He sat up from his slouch. “What’s the problem? You can dish it out but you can’t take it?”

“No, man. They’re not rude if they’re true.”

”Sir. I am not one of your damn officers.”

She bristled again.

Logan wished that he were anywhere else. He fully intended to let Borja converse with herself this time around. There were only so many outbursts a man could take. He had better things to do than exchange words with a subordinate. So why was Giovanni doing that for him? Their bickering was giving him a migraine.

“Commander, we’ve got another problem.”

Logan knew it was not something to feel good about but his relieved sigh came anyway. He’d take anything over watching Borja calling him incompetent and Giovanni acting like his savior. It was such an irritating sight. Why did he like to defend him so much?

He went over to Defense Officer Elrod. “Another spacecraft is approaching from the south-west,” the man said to him.

Blessing gasped from behind. She finally got up from her pathetic crouch to peep over his shoulder. “Oh God. Another one?”

“Looks like it.”

“We’re gonna die.” She buried her head in her palms. “The shuttle is damaged! We can’t survive this, Commander. We’re gonna die!”

On second thoughts, perhaps she should have remained on the floor. “Keep your voice down!” he snapped.

Blessing glanced around the deck frantically, her eyes darting from side to side as she tried to make sense of her surroundings. Her heart seemed to be racing again, and her breaths came in short, rapid gasps.

“We’re about to die, Logan!” She yelled in a hushed tone instead. “Is that better?”

A knot tightened in her chest as she struggled to control herself. Logan was ignoring her. He was already checking the dash cams.

As Blessing looked around one more time, everything seemed to be closing in on her. She felt as though she was trapped. An overwhelming surge of helplessness weighed down her tired shoulders. They were trapped.

Her hands shook uncontrollably as she struggled to take the reins of her emotions. This was not a good time to crumble into pieces. Logan needed her.

Everyone else was still getting their composure back and she pitied them. They didn’t even know that the nightmare was not over yet.

Logan grabbed the iPad by the dash cam and began running the logistics test himself. Technically that was Oyediran’s job but she was having a mental crisis at the moment.

The analysis failed to detect the missile. Without that, there was no way to know how close it was.

Logan ran more statistics on the device as a particular notion rang in his mind. He did not want to be too quick to believe though, not with the amount of bad luck that seemed to be following them lately.

However, when Logan ran the analysis the third time, it became hard to deny. It wasn’t just wishful thinking. That was it.

“Congratulations, people. The GG-12-B has finally found us,” he said loudly to his crew. Logan breathed— really breathed —for the first time all week. “That’s our recovery ship!”