“Where is our host?” Oliver asked.

“He’s sleeping.” Shiina answered him as she went down the stairs to the restaurant floor. The first mate was checking the fridges under the counter.

“Seriously?”

“From his point of view, he hasn’t slept in a long time.”

“From his point of view?”

Shiina stayed silent. She believed the young man’s story. Which was everything but logical. His unbelievable tale would most likely be interpreted as a ruse of the attackers by the rest of the crew. She had confidence in her ability to spot liars, but she remembered a study that had explored exactly that belief. Most people thought that about themselves, but if they had not been trained, their chances of success were always around fifty percent. In other words, completely random.

But the grip in her stomach, the stare of complete abandon she had seen in his eyes. Then determination. He was sad but was devoid of doubts. She had never seen such a thing in a liar.

She looked around the room they were standing in. It was a restaurant, with another bar, a large desk, many tables surrounded by comfortable-looking couches, and even a lift for the food.

The room was void of any windows or way of viewing the outside, but with the many fake plants, the little waterfalls in the walls, and the mirrors opposite of each other, the room felt wide and open while still maintaining a feeling of intimacy.

“Where is our captain?”

“She’s checking if there is anyone else with us. She told me she would be going to the greenhouse afterward. Want to help me?”

Shiina watched him go through boxes of appetizers, then encode what they had on the tablet on his arm.

“Not really.”

“Shiina.”

“If you treat me like a fifteen-year-old girl, then I’ll act like a fifteen-year-old girl.”

Oliver sighed. “I’m sorry but…”

“No, you’re not sorry. If you had to advise Tess again, you would still be saying to her that it’d be better not to warn me.”

“Chi…”

“I’ll go see Honey.” And the young woman left.

“Captain?”

“Over here.” A voice answered through the vegetation.

The greenhouse was beautiful. Trees a few meters tall were covering the place with their leaves under the sound of chirping birds. The animals were obviously not really there, it was an automatic recording coming from hidden speakers above.

Shiina found the captain sitting down on some sort of pick-nick table, placed on top of a large glass circle floor in the middle of the room. She was eating a rice ball, a sushi plate in front of her.

“Hey!” Shiina went towards her, before stopping at the edge of the circle. She could see Jupiter under her feet, now clearly further away from them than it had been one hour before.

“You’re not with Honey?” Tess was not addressing Shiina with her captain voice, so the young woman relaxed. Although she still hesitated before walking on the thick glass panel separating her from the infinity of space.

“I was there a minute ago. But he’s sleeping, and mom was lecturing me and telling me I was being nonsensical. Where is the engine?” She pointed towards the void.

Tess smiled. “No idea.”

“You’re the captain, shouldn’t you, you know, worry about it?”

“I’m taking my break time.” She bit into a piece of salmon.

“Erm…” Shiina was rising an eyebrow, as such fresh products were not known to be comestible in space.

“They’re good, take one.” Tess pushed the fish plateau towards her. “They’ve been frozen before, but it’s definitely luxury food.”

Shiina accepted her superior’s offer.

“And you know, it's always better not to drink with your stomach empty.” Tess commented.

“Oh, erm…”

“Relax. You’re an adult, you’re allowed to drink. I saw the glasses on the table next to our sleeping stranger. He’s cute, isn’t he?”

Shiina’s cheeks reddened. “No! Well, he’s okay, but it was to make him comfortable not to…”

Tess laughed with joy.

The young woman looked at her captain with admiration.

“How can you be so relaxed? We lost the Saviour, we almost died, and we have no idea where we’re going, and how we’re even going there.”

The captain brushed off some crumbs from her officer garb, then picked up a grain of rice stuck on her collar, then ate it.

“Because we’re alive. And it wasn’t easy for us to get out of this one, all in one piece. I think it deserves celebration. Oliver is too busy resolving all the potential future problems, Sam is taking care of Honey, and I wasn’t going to bother you in the middle of a date. So here I am, partying on my own.”

“It wasn’t a date.”

Tess smiled at her, then her expression became serious again.

“I know. I’m teasing you. But I guess you’re right.” She turned on her mic. “Oliver? Sam? Get down in the greenhouse, we have to talk. And Shiina needs to tell us something.”

She turned off the comms.

“Erm, what am I supposed to say, exactly?”

Tess gave her a piercing look. “You have to explain why you left the boy without surveillance while I asked you to do exactly the opposite.”

“He wanted to sleep, and I really think…”

“One hour ago you were ready to blow his brains out. Now, you trust him enough to leave him alone.”

“I…”

“I’m not accusing you of anything. I trust your judgment. I would simply like to know what he told you to change your mind like that.”

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Shiina lowered her head. She had tried the subject with her mother just before, and it had not gone brilliantly. Still, she had no other choice but to talk to the others about it.

A few minutes passed, and her mother and Oliver arrived.

“Wow, cool.” Said Oliver, noticing the floor.

“I’m worried about Honey, I’d like to…” Sam began.

“It’s important. You told me he’d be okay. Will waiting for him to wake up change anything?” Tess asked.

Sam sighed, before shaking her head left and right.

Oliver sat down in front of Tess, but Sam didn’t dare step on the glass.

Seeing as she would not change her mind, Tess Foncet began.

“We’re currently heading for the Lagrange station.”

“We have less than a month of food, for water we have enough reserves if we ration but…” Oliver immediately jumped at that announcement.

“Climber.” Tess raised her hand to ask for silence.

“Sorry captain.”

“I was saying. We are currently heading to the Lagrange station. We should arrive in eight or nine days.”

“Eight or nine days!?” Shouted the three other crewmembers at the same time.

“But that means we’ll keep this acceleration the whole trip!?” Shiine shouted.

“No fusion reactor would…” Said Oliver, doubtful.

Tess pointed at his feet.

The second in command finally understood as he gazed at Jupiter. “Where the fuck is the engine!?”

“As my husband so elegantly remarked.” Tess continued. “It seems this ship has no propulsion system. Which makes, well, everything we’re currently seeing and feeling impossible. No gravity without propulsion. No speed without propulsion. No electricity, no air, to cut the story short, we are currently staying in a luxury hotel, not a Leisurer. Except of course that I went to the main bridge, notably to verify our trajectory, and that I discovered that our engine was actually at the front of the ship.”

Sam shook her head. “That’s impossible.”

Oliver agreed with her. “There is no space engine, fusion, nuclear, solar sails, functioning like this. I don’t even know the principle behind such a system. Action, reaction, you have to throw matter behind for you to go forward.”

Shiina stayed silent.

Then she felt Tess’s eyes fall onto her.

“This is why I asked our dear spacewalk specialist to explain this to us. He told you, didn’t he?”

“Shiina? Was that linked with that temporal distortion thing you asked me about? You know that is not possible. Did he tell you that? I really hope that’s not true.” Her mother was repeating to her what she had said in the med bay.

“First of all, temporal distortion is a thing, it’s actually so much a thing that we all experience it just by walking.”

“You know very well what I mean, to reach years of difference you need unimaginable speeds.”

Oliver raised both of his hands. “Hold on, hold on. So, ladies, I’d also like to understand what we’re talking about here.”

“Let Shiina explain, Sam.” Tess added.

Shiina took a large breath. “Nate explained that he had invented a new type of engine. Fifty years ago.”

Oliver blinked.

“Really? General relativity, do you even remember the physic courses you followed to get your astronaut permit, or did you get it in kindergarten in an everyone wins raffle?” Shiina barked.

“Rela…He went faster than light?”

The young woman let out the greatest cry of despair in her existence.

“Of course not, that is impossible. And even if it had been, which it can’t, he would have gone in the past then, not the future. Well, he didn’t go anywhere. Time in the rest of space moved normally while he was in slow-motion.”

Shiina lifted her eyes up. Her mother, the only one really understanding what she was saying, was showing her disapproval with a shake of the head, Tess was trying to get it, and would probably do so after a bit of time, and Oliver had already given up.

“Fine. We’ll do an accelerated relativity lesson for newbies. The faster you go in space, the slower you go in time. If you go fast, compared to someone who is static, one second you experience will be two for him. If you go even faster, maybe it will be three, or four…it goes on until you reach the speed of light.”

Oliver nodded. “By fast, I suppose you mean faster than we are because I don’t remember aging slower than my brother.”

“You are aging slower than him, but very, very little, because compared to the speed of light, we’re going very, very slowly.”

“I got it.” Oliver announced.

Shiina only half-believed him, but she looked at Tess.

“I understand the principles, don’t worry about me.”

The young woman closed her eyes for a short instant.

“I started having my doubts when Nate asked me what the year was. His reaction when he saw us in zero-g, then Jupiter… If he was acting, he was damn good.”

Tess nodded. “He wasn’t lying to us. He was confused, then horrified. He wasn’t involved with those shooting at us. While being completely lost, a gun aimed at his head, he still helped us without hesitation when seeing the wounded Honey in the reception area. That does not seem like our attackers-shooting-at-a-rescue-ship-with-no-warning, behavior to me.”

“Okay sure.” Oliver intervened. “He’s innocent. What is he doing here then, and how is it related to this time thing?”

“Carry on Shiina.”

“I asked him that. He seemed very…incredibly sad. He was avoiding my questions at first, but he finally confessed that he had invented a brand-new type of engine, very powerful in his words. American soldiers got into his construction hangar and killed his friend, the doctor erm…”

“Gestalter.” Tess remembered.

“That’s it. He didn’t want to let his engine fall into the military’s hands, as in his opinion…well to cut things short he told me it would be worse than burning up the Earth’s atmosphere.”

“Okay?”

“So he blew up his reactor.”

“Erm…” Oliver reacted again. “Isn’t that slightly contradictory?”

“Yeah well, he did not want to show me the reactor nor how it works, so maybe it makes sense, but we don’t know. If he is right though, and well, at least he convinced me, then I understand very well why he would be distrustful. I would not want to put this technology in anyone’s hands.”

Sam finally said something. “Chi, you know it is ridiculous. What happened then, he blew up his engine? But instead, flew towards Jupiter at a close-to-light speed? Then stopped on the spot? There wouldn’t even be dust left of his ship if this was true.”

“I don’t know! We don’t how the engine even works! Can any of you explain how we are currently moving? There are no solar sails, no reactor under our feet! Do you know many ships that are able to fly without those?”

“Calm down.” Tess ordered. “Shiina, I want to know more about the ship. If what you’re saying is true, this is the greatest discovery since the fusion reactor. We need to be careful. And even if it’s not true, if he believes it he could decide that the risks are too great and just send us off into the sun.”

“Oh.” Shiina exclaimed.

Tess Foncet gave out a grimace, the one she only ever expressed around her youngest crew member.

“He already did that.”

“WHAT!?” They all shouted together.

“Don’t worry, he didn’t want to kill us he was going to drop us off at the Lagrange station before that…I believe. In any case, I convinced him not to do that. I’m quite certain we can find a better solution.”

The three adults sighed simultaneously. Oliver put the palm of his hand to his face.

“Shiina…And after that, you’re surprised when we hide things…He was going to send us into the sun?”

“No, he was going to drop us off at the Lagrange station first!”

“And that is where we’re currently going.” Tess confirmed before speaking to the doctor. “Sam, what do you think?”

She bowed her head. “I don’t believe all the stories of temporality. But it is true I have no explanation about what I am currently seeing. We will not get answers now, I’m going to check on Honey in the meantime.”

“Go on. Shiina.”

“Yes captain?” The young woman looked at her mother disappear behind the trees.

“I would like to put you in charge of Nate when he’s awake. Make him trust you. We need to understand what we are dealing with, so we can prepare for eventual repercussions. Also, I would like for him to link us with headquarters. We need to re-establish a radio contact.”

Oliver coughed. “Are you certain, Tess? The mining ship’s credentials were legitimate, what if…”

“I thought about it. This is why we’ll go through public channels. Our communication will be recorded, and the whole of the UN can’t be involved in this. We’ll be safe for a while. Also, in case our host is being honest with us, do you think we can hide this ship’s signature with the Saviour’s?”

Oliver thought about it. “You mean change the ship’s credentials so it will send out the Saviour’s codes? Theoretically, yes. But I don’t have access to the ship’s system, having Honey would help but even then…it’s like the whole ship is running on an obsolete OS.”

Tess nodded. “Shiina, I’ll put you on that job as well. Convince Nate to give us access to the ship’s computer. If what he said is true, it will be to his advantage as well. We can hide this ship as the Saviour. We will be able to simply say we witnessed combat between a mining vessel claiming to part of the united nations and a Leisurer sending a distress signal, and that they crashed into each other. We will need to edit the footage we have from the Saviour’s point of view and a deep investigation will definitely bring out the truth but…”

Shiina smirked. “An investigation will take centuries: hooray for globalist administration. No one will worry about our ship for a while, neither will they investigate our engine.”

“But what if the mining vessel had already contacted…my bad, we were behind Jupiter.” Oliver corrected his mistake on his own.

Their headset turned on.

“Honey is awake.” Sam announced in their ears.

Shiina smiled. “Coming!”

Tess stood up as well, but she spoke to Oliver first when the young woman was gone. “I count on you to understand how this ship works. Also, speak with our host when he wakes up. I am confident in Shiina’s opinion, I saw the same thing she did in the main bridge. Your own, objective opinion will nonetheless be precious.”

“Got it captain.”

Their conversation over, they too walked away towards the med bay.