“Hey, Apollyon,” I prompted as they led me back to the lifts.

  “You may address me as brother,” they growled back.

  “So you’re a dude under there?” I asked. “That was going to be my question.”

  “I am the armor. The flesh beneath is of no consequence.” It turned to face me with its eerily featureless helmet, then stepped backwards into the lift.

  “Touchy...” I mumbled, then cautiously entered after them. My voice echoed off the walls as I shouted down to it. “I need a communicator. Did Sister tell you where to bring me, or...?”

  “I have my orders,” Apollyon responded coldly. It wobbled as it pulled itself from the shaft with the aid of a handle by the fifth floor opening.

  I was beginning to get a sense for the layout of the ship; though much of it remained a mystery, I recognized that I was being led towards the bridge. “I’m looking for Nova,” I protested. “Is she on the bridge?”

  The paladin shrugged its powerful shoulders, then moments later came to a stop beside the reinforced doors. “Go on,” it urged.

  Unsure of what else to do, I hesitantly pressed the call button on the door’s console.

  “What is it?” Harlyle’s voice came back sharply.

  “Uh... Apollyon told me you have a communicator for me?” I offered.

  “Oh did he now?” the captain replied thoughtfully. There was a brief silence before the reinforced doors opened, and I was treated to the sight of our fearless captain in his pressed suit, his weathered face actually smiling for once. “Let’s go have a quick talk with your supervisor about it, shall we?” he said gleefully.

  “I’m sure you’re busy,” I began, but he interrupted me.

  “Nonsense! I always have time to keep the peons in line.” I didn’t have much choice but to follow him as he swiftly strode through the ship. Walking with the captain was like walking with Apollyon; nobody dared to look up at us. The only difference to me was that Harlyle could kill me if he wanted to.

  I thought about what he had said about peons, and whether that applied to Nova as well. Did he really see all of us as expendable? I felt a pit in my stomach.

  It was a relief when he finally stopped before a reinforced set of doors at the end of a hall. “I’m sorry for whatever I might have done wrong, sir,” I said, wracking my mind to figure out what I could have done to draw his ire so soon. “I swear I’m doing my best.”

  “Oh I know you are, kid. You did the right thing by coming to me.” The captain pressed his hand to the scanner, and the door slid open with a mechanical “welcome captain!”

  As I followed him into the room I was immediately taken aback by its scale. Within the hangar-sized space, three spires rose from the floor, each humming with energy and surrounded by levitating rings which rapidly spun, generating a gentle breeze. From the tops of the spires extended a mess of clear pipes transporting brightly glowing plasma to the extremities of the ship. I was staring at the ship’s core reactor.

  “Beaulier!” The captain shouted.

  Red-suited personnel looked up from their various tasks around the room, and Nova herself emerged from behind one of the spires, a wrench in one hand and a streak of grease across her brow. “Captain!” she said with a big, fake smile. “What a... surprise to see you here!”

  “Don’t play dumb with me, Beaulier,” Harlyle snapped as she crossed the room to stand before him, his voice booming so that it echoed off the ceiling. “Do you have this little bastard running around without a communicator?”

  Nova looked at me disappointedly. “I was going to get him one tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow isn’t good enough!” the captain protested. “I’m afraid this breach of policy is going to cost you, Beaulier.”

  She sighed wearily. “How much, sir?”

  Harlyle tapped his wrinkled chin thoughtfully. “On second thought, I’m far too busy to fine you over this. Too busy to review your transfer request this quarter too. Guess I’ll have to deny it again.”

  “Wait, captain please!” Nova begged, stepping forward and grabbing for his hand as he started to walk away.

  All he had to do was raise a greying eyebrow, and he was released to walk away. Before he left me alone with my angry crewmates, he shot me a nasty, perfect-toothed grin over his shoulder. The door shut with finality.

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  My face and neck felt hot with shame. I had expected the captain to come down on me the moment I heard his voice, but I didn’t think he would go after my coworkers for something I’d done wrong. “Nova, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

  “Didn’t mean to what?” she interrupted. “Do you even know what you did?”

  I shook my head mournfully.

  “Where the fuck is Tau? I specifically told him to watch you so some stupid shit like this wouldn’t happen!” Her cheeks turned rosy with fury as she chastised me. “And what are you all looking at?” she demanded of her subordinates. “Get the fuck back to work!”

  “Tau left me alone,” I admitted. “I think it was my-”

  “I’m going to tan his fluffy fucking hide,” Nova growled. She produced a stress ball from her pocket, and began squeezing it repeatedly. Her left eye twitched. “Listen, Rook,” she said in an icy calm tone. “I may not have explained everything to you yet, but you need to know that snitches don’t do well on long hauls like this.”

  My heart raced; I wanted nothing more than to shrink away until I was invisible. “I didn’t mean to tell on you, I promise,” I said lamely.

  “Maybe not, but you did, and now Harlyle has more leverage over me.” Every line of her face was deepened with pain and barely repressed wrath. “I’m gonna let you off with a... warning,” she said with great difficulty. “The next time you come to Harlyle instead of me about something like this, you will find out exactly what happens to snitches.”

  “They get stitches?” I guessed, trying to lighten the mood even just a small amount.

  She chuckled humorlessly. “We fill socks with metal powder and beat the traitor until he gets the message,” she clarified. “There are no stitches. In fact, it doesn’t even leave bruises. I don’t know how easily bastards bruise though, so you might get unlucky.”

  I felt as if I’d been punched in the gut. I expected that sort of language from Harlyle, and maybe even Tau, but from Nova? I whimpered softly, fighting back tears.

  Nova’s demeanor softened, but not all the way. “Look, I’m sorry about the slur. I don’t have anything against your people, I’m just really looking forward to that transfer, okay?” She sighed wearily, and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms. “Let’s go get you a communicator before Harlyle decides to dock our wages anyway.”

  “I’m really, really sorry Nova,” I said meekly.

  “Hush. What’s done is done. Just don’t do it again, hear me kid?” Her anger had passed, and in its place was a weariness that I couldn’t help but feel responsible for.

  “So,” I said awkwardly as I was once more led through the halls. I did my best to shove down the pain, and focus on the present. “Where are we going now?”

  “Commissary,” she replied simply.

  I had to jog to keep up with her long, purposeful strides. “What does that mean?”

  She glanced back at me, her face lined with worry. Clearly, she was still thinking about what Harlyle said. “It’s where you can go to buy things.”

  “Like what?” I pressed.

  “Like...” she hesitated. “You’ll just see when we get there, okay? Are you always this full of questions?”

  I nodded solemnly.

  Her sullen demeanor cracked slightly, a small smile shining through. “I used to be curious like you, you know. Before I turned into a boring old lady.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  Nova rolled her eyes. “You’re not supposed to agree with a lady when she calls herself old, you know.”

  I shrugged. “Memory loss is a bitch, I guess.”

  “Memory loss my left nut,” she grumbled, though her smile was growing. “I’m gonna have to keep an eye on you, Rook. Fine, I’ll answer your many questions.”

  “Yes!” I cheered, pumping my fist victoriously. “What can this communicator do?”

  She hummed thoughtfully. “Everything, really. There’s an app for finances, navigation, communication, you name it.”

  “Sounds useful,” I remarked. “I still get super lost wandering around this ship. A map would be nice.”

  “Tau never did give you that tour, did he?” Nova shook her head. “What’s the issue between you kids anyway?”

  I chewed my lower lip uncomfortably. I was pretty sure he hated the way I looked, spoke, and acted, but telling her that wouldn’t be productive. “I think we got off on the wrong foot is all,” I admitted. “I’ll make an effort to do better.”

  “I know it isn’t all on you. It must be hard trying to make friends when you barely know who you are.” Nova turned sharply around a corner, then stopped before a door helpfully labelled ‘Commissary’. “Here we are,” she announced.

  The commissary room was packed full of colorful vending machines, each stuffed with an assortment of proudly branded products, from food to toiletries to vacuum-packed clothing items.

  Nova approached a kiosk in the middle of the room, and tapped a prompt on its touch screen. “Insert your arm here,” she instructed, indicating a hole in the machine.

  I cautiously approached the device. “Is this gonna hurt?”

  “Don’t be a scaredy-cat,” Nova said dismissively, before perking up and asking “Wait, shit, is that racist?”

  I pinched my fingers as if to say ‘a bit’, then dutifully inserted my good arm. I decided not to bring up the fact that calling me a bastard was a lot racist.

  “So, about this hurting...” Nova said.

  The machine clamped down gently but firmly just below my elbow, and I felt a sharp pain as dual needles jabbed into the meat of my forearm. It hurt, but after the previous day’s exploits I was accustomed to the discomfort. The screen displayed a loading bar beneath text that read ‘acquiring DNA’. I glanced anxiously at my supervisor, who gave me a confident thumbs up in response.

  Soon enough, I felt something wrap around my wrist tightly, and the clamp disengaged. I pulled my arm out to find a device like all the others had strapped to my wrist. “What was up with the whole ‘acquiring DNA’ thing?” I demanded.

  “It has probes that continuously check biometric data for the health of you and the crew, you know, to prevent outbreaks and manage nutrient levels and all that. Whole thing gets managed by the ship’s caretaker AI,” she explained.

  “Wait, this ship has an AI?” I looked at her with wide-eyed excitement. “How can I talk to it?”

  Nova chuckled lightly. “Here kid, let me show you how this thing works.”