Nate was alone in the ship’s bridge. Sitting on the central zero-g chair, he was looking silently at the live feed coming from Shiina’s helmet.

She, as well as the rest of the crew, was busy with the transfer of captain Johansson to the MOS. Nate was staying back, having to be discreet as the thirty or so astronauts operating the orbital station didn’t know of his presence in the Saviour, second of its name. In the eyes of society, he did not exist yet. The rescued captain had promised that he would not speak of the young man. His reassurances didn’t relieve Nat’s worry, but Oliver had assured him that the captain would reveal nothing. The researcher wasn’t certain that trusting a depressive individual having attacked Shiina was a great idea, but he kept his doubts for himself. He had talked with captain Johansson, and the man had seemed lucid and trustworthy, but their exchange had been brief. The captain had not been allowed to go to the bridge or the greenhouse, to prevent him from seeing Nate’s improbable engine. The young researcher had also followed the orders of his own captain, to avoid the man as much as possible so that Johansson stayed in the dark about Nate.

The other crewmembers knew their guest much better than he did, so if they told the young man that Johansson wouldn’t reveal anything, he would believe them.

Still, he was on edge. Shiina was with Tess, Sam, and Johansson on the MOS. Their medic was explaining to her counterpart on the station what she had done with the wounded man, while Tess was reporting the events that had occurred.

In the meantime, Honey and Oliver were transferring the three containers they had gotten on the cargo ship to the MOS.

Unbearable minutes passed, but after a short farewell, the women of the crew left the Swedish captain with the MOS’s crew, and came back to the Saviour.

It was only when the airlock’s doors closed, with nothing going awry, that Nate felt relief.

“We’re back in. Everything all right with the others?” Tess’s voice sounded through the screen.

Nate gave a quick look at another video feed. Oliver and Honey were using multiple drones to push the last container towards the orbital station.

He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the smiles he saw through their helmets didn’t feel like an omen of bad news.

“Everything seems okay.” He answered his captain.

“Good, I’ll come back up to relieve you.”

Another voice sounded in the room.

“Want to play a game, Nate?” Shiina asked.

He hesitated for a moment.

“No, not now. I’ve got a lead to follow-up about the engine.”

“Oh, understood.” Despite her efforts, Nate could hear the disappointment in the young woman’s words.

He waited for Tess to say something, but nothing came out from the speakers.

“What’s your lead?”

Nate jumped in surprise; he hadn’t heard the captain enter the room. She was flying straight towards him, and he got up to let her have his seat.

“I…I will talk about it if it’s feasible.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Even if it’s unpractical, I asked to share all ideas, however ridiculous they may sound, Nate. If you share we could find a side you did not think about.”

“No.”

Tess looked a bit shocked.

“No? What do you mean, no? You don’t want to share…”

“No, you won’t help me find another side. It’s outside the rest of the crew's expertise. As the idea in itself is…problematic…I’ll tell you, and only you, when I’ll be sure it’s…when I’ll be sure of it.”

“Nate, we have excluded all plans needing to sacrifice any human lives, you remember that, yeah?” She insisted.

“I am not forgetting, not about that.”

“So, what’s the issue here?”

Nate did not answer.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Tess looked at him, unhappy, but he did not budge.

“Fine.” She sighed. “You will talk to me about it?”

“Yes. I just need some time to think and research.”

The captain tried once more to get him to talk anyway.

“In terms of idea, is it worse or better than Shiina giving you our only gun?”

The young man smirked. “Considering that Shiina’s plan worked, I would argue it’s a bad comparison to make.”

“You understood me.” She said impatiently.

The scientist stayed silent for a short moment, he was thinking.

“Much, much worse.” He admitted finally.

The captain groaned.

“Sorry captain.”

Tess Foncet turned her attention back to her screens. “It better be justified; I need to know you will listen to my orders if you want to be part of this crew.”

The sentence was harsh, and Nate flinched. “I understand. My apologies.”

“You can go. And right now I’m talking to you as the captain of this vessel Nate, personally, I believe you have good reasons, but my subjective side cannot excuse any shortcomings in my duties.”

“Perfectly understood. I won’t misunderstand, and you are right. See you tonight?”

“Yes. Who’s turn is it to cook?”

“Mine, I believe.”

The captain grimaced. “Focus on your plan, I’ll take your place in the kitchen.”

“There is no need to…”

“That was an order.”

Nate grumbled: “What’s the big deal with using micro-waves…” before pushing himself out of the room with a kick on the chair.

The young man was turning around on his seat. Minutes to get the results of your search queries on the net was a slow and painful torture, and his electronic tablet was charging next to his bed so he couldn’t even play a game of chess in the meantime. But as he could only play against the computer, maybe it was for the better.

He had finally caught up with History the day before, and he was looking for other ways to occupy the long times of nothing that were the main thing of space travel. He had read most of his downloaded e-books, he didn’t have enough time in between searches to watch a movie or series… He sighed, realizing he was probably going to accept Olivers proposal to bring an indoor bicycle in his room, just to pass the time. At least he would have something to do, even though it was exercising. He could use the workout; after the week in zero-g, he felt sluggish already. Or maybe that was in his head, he wasn’t sure. They obviously didn’t use his engine fully when transporting the Swedish captain, and the lack of gravity was definitely not a thing the young man liked.

Maybe he would send a message to Shiina, to ask her to join him…

“No.” He reprimanded himself out loud.

His dark thoughts were interrupted by a ‘ding’ sound, announcing that his search was done.

Instantly, his attention was grabbed by the scientific article that had popped on his screen.

He could barely believe it.

Just as he and professor Gestalter had predicted, research with Hadron Colliders had extended to small research teams. The cost of the scientific tool was a scratch of its price fifty years ago.

Nate grimaced, as he realized that his plan was maybe not as impossible as he had initially thought.

Tess listened to the young man attentively.

When he was finished, she did not respond for a while.

“I see.” She finally said.

Nate hesitated before asking the question.

“Shall I start?”

“How long would it take?”

“If I get some help money-wise and taking into account finding a hangar and a builder-robot…A year, maybe slightly less. To transport it would obviously depend if we’re the ones carrying the collider or not.”

“You understand what you’re asking me, are you?”

“I am.”

“Both of us will be…” Tess looked at him, her gaze cold and calculating. “And there are no other alternatives.”

“Maybe there is a better way, but can we afford to wait to find it? After our first mission…I’ve witnessed firsthand how close we came to being discovered. How close it still puts us to being discovered. We were lucky this time, but for how long? Two years seem optimistic to me.”

The captain thought about it for a minute, then turned on her electronic tablet around her wrist.

“Start the construction. Will this be enough?”

Nate looked at the notification on his own screen.

“Barely, but it shouldn’t go over that. Everything will be done automatically once I gather all the necessary components.”

“Good.”

“I am sorry, Tess.”

The captain shook her head left and right. “Don’t be. But there is no need to involve the others. Just the two of us, let it be clear.”

“I know. If I had been able to avoid involving you as well I…”

“No. It is better this way.”

A beeping alarm echoed inside the room. Tess’s room was the perfect mirror image to Nat’s, but he had never heard this sound in his own before. It wasn’t an alarm noise he recognized, and seeing Tess’s reaction, it didn’t seem like he needed to be worried.

“You can leave.” Tess said before turning towards her wrist-tablet. “Oliver?”

“We’ve received a distress signal.”

Nate, almost out of the room already, stopped on his tracks.

The captain gave him a look. “Nate is with me. Is there need of confidentiality?”

“Ah? No, not at all. Station L1 sent an SOS.”

“L1? The research station on the sun-earth Lagrange point?” Tess questioned.

“The one and the same.”

“Is it on our way?”

“Yes, we only need to correct our trajectory a few degrees, and we’ll arrive there in two hours.”

“How much time would Earth need if we don’t answer their call?”

“I’m calculating right now…”

Nate didn’t say anything, but encoded the numbers on his tablet.

“Twelve hours.” Oliver announced.

Nate didn’t agree. “Nine. They send military starships for problems with things like research stations, right?”

Oliver stopped for a moment. “That’s true, my bad…Yeah, it would take them nine hours in that case. Tess, we don’t have a choice we have to go, it’s an emergency evacuation order.”

“Shit!” She swore. “How many scientists…?”

“Twenty.”

“Twenty people who would enter our ship!? That's…Shit!” Tess Foncet put her hands over her face.

Nate looked at her in silence.

When she met his gaze, her expression had become inscrutable.

“Nate, go help Oliver with the trajectory. I’ll brief the crew. Is there anything else you can tell me?” She asked her husband.

“Two thirds of the station are lost, they don’t say if there were victims or not.”

“Lost?”

“Hull breach. Causes are unknown.”

Nate heard Tess’s final answer just before the doors of the room closed behind him.

“Understood.”