Since their arrival in the God’s View, four days had passed for the crew of the Saviour.

Nate had been distant with them, only speaking to Shiina occasionally and spending his time inside his room, working on the equations of his mentor. There were eight apartments in total on the floor below the main bridge, two suites, and six other chambers of medium size. Nate had taken one of the suites, Tess and Oliver had taken the second. Shiina, like her mother and uncle, had claimed one of the single bedrooms closest to the one occupied by their captain and second mate. A such, Nate was alone on the other side of the floor.

With the exception of a scheduled short zero-gravity event in the morning, to turn the ship around and start the deceleration process, nothing of note had happened.

Shiina had fought with her mom, her uncle was now helping Oliver and her mother to understand how the ship worked and Tess, in quite the uncharacteristic manner, had stayed discreet, mainly helping with house chores. The captain had tried to talk with Nate a few times, but he did not trust the Saviour’s figure of authority.

Despite her failed attempts, the captain did not seem worried. The crew’s anxiety though, unlike their captain’s, was rising the more the day passed and the closer they were coming to Earth.

That day, Shiina stayed with Tess Foncet in the greenhouse after their lunch. Nate had remained in his room and hadn’t joined them for their meal.

“I am sorry captain; I cannot seem to persuade him. I really thought it would go well after our first conversation, but since we asked him the rights to the ship…”

Tess sipped her hot chocolate with no apparent reaction.

“What shall we do?”

The captain stared with piercing eyes at the young woman.

“There is not much to do. I am still convinced that you will manage to change his mind.”

The young woman grimaced against this sudden avowal of faith. “I do not see why. One moment you will not say anything to me and the other you let everything fall on my shoulders?”

The captain nodded. “You are not trustworthy when it is about making the hard choices, Shiina. You always follow your heart first.”

“I am perfectly able to…!”

Tess raised a hand to interrupt her. “I was not judging you, far from it. But as long as you are not aware of that fact, I will not be able to trust you about those kinds of decisions.” Before Shiina could react, the captain continued. “On the other hand, when facing situations like this one, I cannot see anyone other than you capable to help the boy. You believed him since the start, and he understood that well. He talks to you. And you were right.”

Shiina gave her a surprised look. “What does that mean?”

“Oliver showed me their preliminary results before we ate. I wanted to show them to you, that is why I asked you to stay with me here.”

Tess Foncet put her wrist tablet on the pick-nick table. Shiina picked it up and looked at the numbers on the screen.

“I knew it…” She said out loud.

Tess nodded. “It is true. He slightly overestimated the performances of his ship, but the big picture remains: He was correct.”

“That’s almost antimatter levels of energy production…”

“I’ll take your word for it, but Sam and Honey have another theory, that they’ll only be able to verify once we re-establish communications with Earth. And I won’t reconnect us until this ship has changed identities.”

“I…I’ll try my best…” Shiina said.

“No. I do not want you to go to him and try to convince him because it is what I asked you to do. I want you, Shiina, to do what you believe is right.”

The young woman opened her mouth. Then closed it again.

She was thinking.

“I…I'm going to do something stupid, then.”

Tess smiled.

“Perfect.”

Shiina walked towards the pool. She found Honey there, on his break and opening up a control valve to look what was inside, a large smile on his face;

“Uncle?”

“Mhh?”

“Can I borrow something from you?”

She knocked on the door.

“Nate? It’s me.”

“Come on in.”

The door opened automatically in front of her, after making a computer-created sound of a lock unlocking.

The young man was wearing blue-light filtering glasses, and his eyes only left his screen a few instants to examine her before going back to it.

“Did you eat?” She asked.

“I think. Yes.”

She grimaced, before sitting on the corner of his desk close to him.

“I would like you to give the ship’s access to Tess.”

He sighed, turned his chair around and looked at her, turning off his screen at the same time.

“No.”

“Listen. We can’t stop at the station without a valid ID. You won’t even be able to get us off…”

“You have spacesuits, don’t you? Someone will pick you up if any of you send a distress signal.”

“What about you then? There are no extra suits on this ship.”

“Not a problem.”

“No. I will not just let you sacrifice yourself. Our solution is better. My crew saw what your engine could do. They believe you. Tess will not betray us.”

“What about the others?”

“They won’t either. We are a family.”

“I have seen that. But a family always has disagreements…”

“Don’t you want to know what happened to yours? With access to the ship, we will be able to update the computers and re-establish an internet connection. You could search for your sister and mother today already!”

The young man went into deep thoughts. Then he closed his eyes, as if deeply in pain.

“No. What I want cannot be more important than the safety of all humanity.”

Shiina looked at the ground. She too closed her eyes, before re-opening them with newfound determination.

She unholstered Honey’s gun.

Nate jumped back. His expression was full of anger, disbelief at the young woman’s betrayal, but what his face showed most were disappointment and surrender.

Shiina had expected such a reaction, but it hurt her nonetheless, her heart clenching hard in her chest.

She did not aim the gun at him, instead, she showed its side to him.

“This is a Glock-19, generation ten. It is light because made of plastic composite. It is trustworthy and precise, never jams. This is the slide lock, also known as the safety lock, it is currently preventing any misfire. Here I am switching it to off. Now it is back on.” She was accompanying her explanations with the according action.

He was looking at her in confusion.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m teaching you how to use it. The button here is used to eject the magazine. There are nineteen bullets inside, with one extra in the chamber. To shoot, you unlock the safety, you aim with both hands holding the gun, and push the trigger softly. You see that my finger is not on the trigger right now, that’s because I do not want to shoot. Never put your finger on it, except when you are ready to shoot. I’m putting the safety back on. Here.” She held out the gun to him.

He took it by reflex but left it laying on its side in both his hands.

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“Try it.” She insisted.

He did none of that.

“Why?” He asked instead.

Shiina talked with no hesitation in her voice. “It is the only weapon we have. With it, you are technically in charge if you want. Honey could most likely find a way to easily disarm you, but if you take me or my mother hostage, he won’t dare do anything. You will need to kill Tess. She would never accept being made a prisoner. Once she's dead Oliver will be useless. My mom is not a threat.”

Little by little, Nate understood.

Shiina continued. “For me…I don’t know how I would react if you shot Tess. You would probably have to kill me too. Aim for the torso, there will be fewer chances for you to miss.”

Nate looked at the weapon for a second.

“Please, Nate. Let me help you. Give Tess the rights. If one of us betrays you, you will be able to use this to force us into changing the ship’s trajectory.”

Nate did not say anything back. His eyes were staring at the instrument of death.

Minutes passed. Shiina stayed silent.

He gave the weapon back to her. “I do not want this in my possession.” He said.

Shiina took the Glock back. She felt hopeless. She had really thought this would have made him change his mind.

“Sorry. You’ll be the one having to use it.” Nate announced.

She raised her head.

He was grimacing. He had taken a decision, and it was clear he had no idea if it was the right one or not.

He left the room.

Shiina did the same, following him close.

“Nate? Where are you going?”

“Main bridge.”

She walked behind him, climbing the steps towards the control room.

Tess was already inside. The captain was looking at the central pillar, sitting on the railway between the zero-g seats and the luxury space underneath.

Nate hesitated.

“You…?”

Tess turned around to face them, and her face grew with shock when she saw the gun in Shiina’s right hand.

“Chi? Did you threaten our host?”

Nate’s shoulders relaxed. “No. She gave it to me. I refused.” He corrected her.

“You gave him the…Okay, next time you’re telling me you’re going to do something stupid, I will be more careful.” Tess sighed.

“I will give you the ship.” Nate announced.

Shiina and Tess gasped.

The captain was the first to recover. “Thank you.”

Nate moved towards the forwards' seat as he shook his head left and right. “I am not doing this for you. I am confident you have not yet understood well enough. Even for me, it took the death of my friend in front of my eyes to make me realize it fully. Her though. Her I decided to trust.” He was looking at Shiina, then he sat down on the zero-g seat.

Shiina put the gun back in its holster.

A minute passed.

“It is done. ID and password are back to default setting. Admin and admin, all lower case, you can register with it then change anything you want about the ship.” Nate closed his eyes for an instant. He then stood back up without a word, passed Tess and Shiina, and left the room.

Shiina could not look away from him until he did.

“Chi.”

The young woman turned to face her captain.

Who didn’t say anything, but smiled.

18 hours later.

“Chi we have a problem.” Honey was knocking on the young woman’s door.

Shiina woke up from her sleep in a daze. She scratched the top of her head, put a sweater over her t-shirt and panties, then unlocked the door of her room.

“What?”

“Nate tried to use the airlock.”

“Huh?”

“Tess changed the door permissions everywhere on the ship. We found him stuck inside a few minutes ago.”

“Why would he want to go outside?”

“Chi. He wasn’t wearing a suit.”

Shiina did not understand immediately. That was absurd. If he wasn't wearing a suit, then it would have been suicide.

Oh.

Now fully awake, Shiina followed Honey in the reception area. Nate was sitting on one of the seats at the reception, a blanket over his shoulders, while Sam was checking his pulse.

She looked up as she heard her daughter arrive.

“Ah, Chi. It is good you’re here.”

“How is he?”

“Good. Slight hypothermia, the airlock is just next to the exothermic exterior radiators, and there is no heating inside. I think he was stuck inside for a few hours at least. He doesn’t want to talk to us.”

Nate kept his eyes low; he did not react even though they were talking about him.

Shiina crouched down in front of him.

“Nate?”

He did not look at her.

“Tess is…?”

“She is aware. She just left to tell Oliver; he was updating the greenhouse system.”

He was shivering a bit, and just like her mother had said, he didn’t seem hurt anywhere.

“Can you leave us?” Shiina asked her mother and her uncle.

“Are you sure? He could be…disturbed.” Her mother pointed out in a total lack of tact.

“Mom!” Shiina responded angrily.

“Come sis. Let the young ones talk. They never want to hear what their seniors have to say anyway. She has done her military service; she has nothing to worry about.” Honey took his sister by the shoulders and took her to the upper floors.

Shiina looked at the young man. After a long moment, she broke the silence.

“Hey.”

“…”

“What happened?”

He closed his eyes, ashamed.

“I…I should not have. I did not even check if Tess had removed my automatic trajectory. In case I died.”

“Okay. I agree it really was not the greatest of ideas. Personally, it would have made me very sad.”

“We don’t know each other.”

She did not agree with him: “We’ve been talking for almost a week. Maybe that’s not enough to know each other well, but it is enough for me to respect you. Why did you do this, Nate?”

He did not answer. His face was contorted with grief. He held out his phone to her. The archaic smartphone was out of batteries.

“What am I supposed to understand?”

“I…I used it to connect to the internet uplink.”

Shiina thought about it.

“Oh no. Is your family...?”

He shook his head.

“I am so sorry Nate. Really.”

Pain struck his face. “I don’t want your kindness! You are not my friend. I do not have friends anymore! I do not have a family anymore! I do not exist anymore! I…I have nothing.” He stood up, and before she could react, he left towards his room.

“Nate…” She tried too late. “Shit…”

“Shiina.” Tess emerged from the lower floor.

“Captain I am sorry I…”

“I heard everything.”

“Thank you, you saved his life with the doors…I would never have expected him to...”

“Me neither. I simply updated some parts of the ship’s security system with the ones we had on the Saviour.”

“Oh.”

“I can’t imagine what he’s feeling.”

“Captain. We need to help him.”

“Yes, even though I’m unsure we can. I will ask everybody to group up. We will discuss this. Nate has done a lot for us, gave us his trust, and asked nothing in exchange. It is time we gave some of that back to him.”

One hour later.

“Nate?” Shiina knocked on the opaque glass door.

“Leave.”

“No. Open up or I’ll use the captain’s authority to enter anyway.”

A few seconds passed, and the door unlocked in front of her.

The young man was sitting in an alcove in the wall, a little glass window in the middle of it, specific to the suites in the ship. She didn’t have any openings in her own room. Not that it mattered, right now, the only thing you could see was dark.

“I do not want your kindness, I told you.” He said menacingly.

She did not take his threat into account and sat down in the alcove in front of him.

Anger crossed his face.

“Tess spoke with the rest of the crew about what we will be doing with you. We can’t keep the ship, call him the Saviour, and just leave you on Earth to rot. If you had something there…we would have spared you of our problems. Changing the identity of a ship and lying to headquarters is a court-martial to Tess and Oliver if they get caught and prison for us.”

“I do not care. I just want you to leave. Do you think being nice will make me feel good? Your pity is like boiling hot iron in my stomach.”

Shiina did not falter. “No. If you want me to leave, you will have to use force.”

He hesitated. “You do not know me. I haven’t always been the nice old geeky physicist stuck inside an office. I had to work hard to get where I am today. I could very well decide to use my fists.”

“Do it then.”

He examined her. She wasn’t doubting him, he could see that in her eyes. She wasn’t underestimating him.

“Or I could…I could just decide to rape you.”

“It would not be rape. But Honey will almost certainly kill you afterwards. So if you want to try and kill yourself again this is a good way. Somewhat painful though.” She smiled at him.

He coughed, then started laughing. Tears fell from his eyes.

“No. If I did that my mother would…I wasn’t raised up like that. I’m sorry, I should not have said that.”

“I’ll keep it to myself. Honey won’t get to you, I promise.”

He stuttered, blushing slightly. “You…what do you mean by…you’re mocking me.”

“A bit.”

For the first time, Nate’s smile felt real, it quickly became nostalgic again.

“That was my sister’s favourite pasttime.”

Shiina put a comforting hand on his knee.

“Nate, tell me. What happened?”

“She was found dead of an overdose by the police after a raid on a drug cartel in London. She was twenty-six.”

Shiina couldn’t stop the horrified cry from escaping her lips. “Oh my God.”

“She…She never knew our father. I took his place, in a way. We had a ten-year difference, she and I. Every time I left for work then came back a few months later, I found her with people of our neighbourhood that weren’t…That no one should be hanging around. I suppose that when I never came back again…”

“No. That’s not your fault.”

“Who cares about who’s at fault? My little sis is dead. At least mom died naturally. She left last year in her sleep. I had to pass as a distant cousin to our bank to be told that. I could not tell them I was her son.”

Shiina could not understand. In his place, she was not sure she would have been able to stand up ever again. She had no words, nothing she could do that felt right.

She closed her eyes.

“Nate.” The only thing she could do was tell him what the others and she had decided. And only hope it would be enough. But how could it be enough?

“I…” She couldn’t say it. She started crying. “Sorry I shouldn’t be…It’s not fair to you…”

“I already imagined the worst last week. I was expecting the worst I…can I ask you something. I will sound ridiculous but…”

“Anything you want.”

“I’d like a hug.”

She took him in her arms on the spot.

The moment lasted for a time, before finally, he pushed her away.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

There was a long silence.

“Nate, I…Tess and our crew, we would like to camouflage your ship with ours, the Saviour. After a few modifications, discreet ones, through Oliver’s contacts, notably adding a fake engine with reserve fuel and hiding the accelerator a bit, we could actually use it as the Saviour too.”

“Oh. Are you certain that Oliver’s contacts are trustworthy?”

“Oh no, they are not. But they do not ask questions. And more than that, they are not physicists or engineers. They won’t understand or even care about what they’re looking at. Oliver trusts their silence.”

“Ok. So while waiting for a better solution, you’ll continue your previous job but using the God’s View instead, like nothing ever happened?”

“Exactly.”

“What was your job, exactly?”

“Oh, did I never tell you? We are a rescue service for distressed ships. 911 of space, in short. And because our paychecks are coming from an insurance company and not the United Nations, we’re paid almost as much as the price of an ambulance in America!”

“Ah. Saviour. Makes sense.”

“It does, doesn’t it?”

“So?”

“Well. To operate this ship, we do have a serious issue. We do not have anyone knowing it by heart or capable of using the engine safely. It bothers our captain quite a lot to potentially create a supernova.”

He blinked.

“Oh.”

“I…We won’t ever be able to replace your family, Nate. I can’t fathom what I would be feeling if I was in your shoes. But…if you have nowhere else to go…We need you. No, we want you to be part of the crew.”

“…Won’t that be problematic? Society-wise, I am a dead man. My identity…there are so many things.”

“Well, you would be surprised to know that you are not the first person being recruited in this manner. Tess saved Oliver, and to repay his debt to her, he became one of her subordinates. I arrived much later, then mom. It’s highly unusual, but Oliver has some…out of the book ways to change things according to our desires. Making you a new identity and a fake astronaut diploma? For him, that’s easy compared to the changes on the ship.”

“And he agrees with all this.”

“Tess didn’t make the final decision. It was an everyone on board or we find another solution kind of decision. Everyone wants you here. And before you ask, my mom agreed without hesitating.”

“Oh. Really?”

“Really. She…I will explain it to you some other time. I apologize for her behaviour before.”

“No. She was very…kind.”

“Really? Good. So, shall we do this?”

“What?”

“Do you agree? Will you become one of our crewmembers?”

He looked at her, a bit speechless.

Then he sighed.

“If you need me…yes. I’ll agree. Shiina.”

“Mh.”

“Thank you.”

She gave him a large smile. “Nice to meet you, newbie! Let me officially introduce you to your other colleagues.”