It’s been three days since the fight at the command center.

  Nyx stood on top of the dome, watching as drones draped another tarp over the hole Cai made in it with the asteroid. She feels bad this hole was their fault, but not too bad because it made the fight so much easier.

  She turns to the hole the ship had escaped through, and it’s already covered, with drones welding it to the old tarp to make it airtight.

  She wants to leave.

  She looks at the sky. The Donati still hasn’t come back because the landing gear and nozzles still need to be replaced.

  Or that’s what she thinks when she sees a ball of fire appear in the sky. Nyx’s eyes immediately focus on it. It could be another ship, like the Michael’s Hammer or a trader, but she still hopes. Cai had been dropping small chunks of ice near the colony, so she expected that again.

  It’s the Donati!

  “Mya! Mya! Mya! Mya!”

  Nyx’s ears perk and her tail flicks excitedly as she sprints towards the spaceport as she watches the ship come in for a landing.

  It’s still missing two nozzles, the nose cone, and the landing gear appear welded open, but it’s still coming.

  Her wrist computer beeps, showing an incoming call.

  Nyx answers, “Mya! Cai!”

  An image of Cai’s face appears on her new visor, “Hey! Is that you running on the dome? I heard you helped out quite a bit.”

  Nyx slows to catch her breath, “Mya! I was thinkin’ you wouldn’t be comin’ for another sparkin’ day!”

  Twoey’s image appears, “Cai and Twoey miss Nyx!”

  Cai coughs, a faint blush appears on his cheeks, “Of course I’m worried. Zone too.” His eyes grew sad, “How’s he holding up? I heard about Gwen.” A pause, “And how about you too? I heard you killed two people. You holding up?”

  Nyx’s ears flatten at the memories, “We’re bein’ fine. Zone’s helpin’, but I’m bein’ bored. Dum drones are bein’ doin’ everythin’.”

  Roxy’s face appears, looking concerned, “Nyx. Cai taught me how to make cookies. Twoey learned too. Let’s talk about things while we eat them?”

  Nyx feels a pain in her heart at the mention of Roxy and Twoey making cookies with Cai. It was one of her favorite memories that showed her how kind he was and maybe special to him. Now Cai had done it with them too, so now she doesn’t feel as if he treated her like a special someone. But he’d just met her. Why would she have been special to him already?

  Roxy gets a concerned look on her face, “Something wrong?”

  Nyx shakes her head, “Nothing.”

  Cai nods at something as his attention turns to something else, “Okay… Sandel Station, we’re about to land. Thank you for the support.” His attention turns back to Nyx, “Let’s finish this in person. See you in a few minutes.”

  “Okay.”

  Roxy smiles, “I missed you, Nyx. See you in a few.”

  Twoey gives a thumbs up.

  The images of their faces disappear.

  Nyx picks up her pace again as the roar of the Donati’s engines rumbles in her ears through the helmet despite the thin atmosphere, and it slowly comes to a stop.

  By the time Nyx reaches the Donati, two arms from the space dock’s landing pad have attached to the airlock and the cargo hold.

  She takes a long look at the Donati, and sees that other than the missing dome, nozzles, and landing legs, the repairs for everything else have finished, and she can’t even tell there had been any damage at all.

  Nyx reaches the maintenance hatch leading into and out of the dome and enters.

  She practically leaps down the stairs and is soon in the main lobby.

  It’s still at Mars' atmospheric pressure, so the only ones here are in exo-suits. Including two suited medical workers pushing two soldiers in wheelchairs. The ones from the Donati who couldn’t help with the attack.

  Cai, Roxy, and Twoey are already standing outside the airlock leading to the Donati. It’s easy to tell who is who despite the tinting of their visors. Cai’s height and bulk. Roxy’s still ill fitting suit. And Twoey’s suit now has a tail that looks like Roxy’s work.

  “Mya! Cai!” She runs and tackles Cai, rubbing her helmet against his suit. She then turns and does the same to Roxy and Twoey, “I was missin’ ya too!”

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  All the jealousy she’d felt towards the women melted as she hugged them. She really missed them and started crying. She’d lost too many people, and being away felt like she’d lost more, even if she knew they’d be back.

  Roxy hugs her back, “I heard what happened. The fight. Zone’s baby and Gwen dying. I wish I could have been here.”

  Nyx stiffens, “Gwen died!?”

  There’s a moment of silence, then Cai speaks, “You didn’t hear? Apparently she’d been beaten to cause the baby to miscarry, but whoever did it, went too far and she died from her injuries.”

  Nyx isn’t sure how to respond. She’d only had a terrible impression of the woman, and she worked in that terrible lab, so didn’t have any sympathy for her. But she’d meant something to Zone, “Zone wasn’t tellin’ me.”

  She realized after their talk on the roof that Zone had been distant. She hadn’t gotten close to him like she had Roxy and Twoey, but she still considered him a friend, so she hated that she didn’t realize that Zone might have needed her help. Or maybe he needed alone time?

  Roxy pats Nyx’s helmet, “He probably needed time alone.”

  Cai pats her helmet too, “Yeah. Give him space.”

  Twoey pats her helmet, nodding.

  Nyx blushes and purrs despite herself, “Why’s everyone givin’ me dum pats!”

  Cai chuckles, “I can’t help it.”

  Roxy laughs, “You’re so adorable it’s hard to resist.”

  Twoey pokes Roxy, “Twoey?”

  Roxy pokes her back, “You’d bite me if I did.”

  Twoey takes Roxy’s hand and places it on her helmet, “Mmph!”

  Roxy laughs again, “Jealous.” She taps Twoey’s helmet, “You can’t even feel it right now.”

  Nyx laughs at the exchange, though is bristling at Roxy’s comment, then looks at Cai, “What are we bein’ doin’ now?”

  Cai turns to look at the Donati, “Well, repairing the Donati will take a while with all the damaged sensors, but we can do that while we’re in FTL. For now, I want to replace the nozzles. They’re big, so it takes a little over a day each just to fabricate them.” He leans in and whispers, “And I believe a certain someone wanted to go on a date? We can go after the dome gets pressurized.”

  Nyx blushes and feels her heart rate increase, and it’s all she can do to keep her tail from swishing, “Mya. Cai.”

  She nuzzles him.

  Roxy and Twoey are staring.

  Nyx growls, “What the spark are you two bein’ lookin’ at?”

  Roxy looks away, trying to act innocent, but because of the gold tint of her visor, she can’t really tell what expression she has.

  Twoey stares blatantly, and Nyx skips away from Cai, her tail swishing angrily.

  Cai chuckles, “You’re right, Roxy. She is too adorable to not tease.”

  Nyx’s tail floofs and her ears pull back as she spins on her feet to glare at Cai, “I’m not bein’ sparkin’ adorable!”

  Cai pats her helmet, “Just surrender. You can’t help what you are.”

  Nyx instinctively goes to bite Cai, but all she does is smack her visor against his suit, “Goddum it, Cai!”

  She jumps on him and pokes into the gaps between his spacesuit’s metal plates.

  Twoey laughs in delight and jumps on Cai too, poking him.

  Cai laughs under the assault, “Roxy! Help!”

  Roxy pokes Cai too, giggling, “Sorry, I’m on team teasing.”

  Nyx finally jumps off, laughing as she notices dockworkers staring, “That’s bein’ a warnin’!”

  Twoey climbs onto his shoulders.

  Cai turns to Nyx, “You know it’s not fair for telling the truth.” He points to Roxy, “And how come I get punished for calling you adorable, but Roxy is fine?”

  Nyx waves a finger at him, “Because Roxy is bein’ shiny!”

  “I’m not?” He hefts Nyx with one hand over his head, “Don’t forget I can pick you up with one hand.”

  Nyx has never really seen Cai use his strength before, so this surprised her. She’s a little scared, but something stirs inside of her, and it just makes her want to be with him even more, “Mya! Cai!”

  Twoey climbs up his arm, “Me too!” Then on top of Nyx.

  Nyx feels crushed under Twoey, grunting, “Twoey!”

  Twoey jumps to the ground, “Sorry!”

  Roxy is staring at Cai, fidgeting, “Wow.”

  Nyx squeezes one of Cai’s biceps, even though it’s hidden under the armor so she can’t feel it, “You been seein’ these?”

  Nyx blushes as she realizes what she’s doing.

  Roxy looks away, “Nyx! Yeah…”

  Cai puts Nyx down, “I thought Roxy would pass out the first time she saw me exercising.”

  Nyx remembers well the time she saw Cai on his exercise machine.

  Roxy points in a random direction, and her voice sounds flustered, “Um… C-Cai! The governor is waiting, remember?”

  Nyx jumps on Roxy, “Anyone is bein’ adorable, it’s bein you.”

  Nyx nuzzles Roxy.

  “Why not both of you?” Cai says, putting his hands on both of their helmets.

  Twoey pokes him.

  “Ow!” Cai turns to Twoey, “You’re an adorable menace.” He pats her head too. Then he opens a map on his wrist computer. “Okay, yeah… enough goofing off, we really should go see the governor.”

  Twoey jumps back onto Cai and onto his shoulders.

  Cai chuckles, “It’s like having a daughter again.”

  Twoey purrs, “Mya!”

  They walk through the streets.

  Nyx feels depression creeping in, seeing them so empty despite the happy reunion with the others. The first time she’d walked them, she’d felt nervous and self-conscious. But now, seeing it like this made her miss it already. How was everyone feeling, trapped inside the shelters after all this time?

  She looks at the dome and sees drones scurrying on both sides as they lay out tarp and seal it into place and to other sheets. It’ll probably be a few hours until it’s ready to hold air and even longer to pressurize it. They’d even started repairing the supports as she sees workers welding new lengths of supports together.

  Nyx looks at the other three. Twoey riding on Cai’s shoulders. Roxy walking in the back. Cai, slowing down so she’s not falling behind.

  She realizes she’s not lonely anymore. No matter how things go between Cai and herself, he and the others are her family now. Something she’d wanted since the pirates took her. A new family. Of course, she hopes she can have something between Cai and herself, but even if nothing happens, she’s happy.

  She just wished Wrench could be here too.

  Once the Donati was repaired, she got her outing with Cai, and the trials happened, they’d be going. And she couldn’t be happier.