Heath nudged the cage and got a soft mew in response. Fuck. “What’s our time to destination, Loon?”

  “The Althalas estate is still two months away. Though I believe you are inquiring about our delivery for our current cargo, which is in half that time.”

  “The others aren’t going to like this.”

  “On the contrary. Jenny Mae will be thrilled.”

  He glanced at the little varmint again. No longer a sleeping puddle of fur, it nosed around the corners of its crate, looking thirsty and pathetic and tugging on all of Heath’s heartstrings.

  Unable to bear it, he detoured to the kitchen to fill one of their few bowls with water before backtracking and placing it in the cage. Satisfied, he called a meeting on the bridge.

  As he walked over, he finally put words to the growing dissatisfaction he couldn’t seem to escape. “I’m sorry we haven’t found an object of sufficient potential yet.”

  “Fear not Heath, for I still have faith.” That was true, according to his connection to the Loon. The disappointment was real as well. “Such decisions should not be made lightly.”

  “I know. We haven’t even really had a chance to look, not as the Phoenix."

  The reminder wasn’t doing him any favors. “I do not doubt we will find nothing worthy until we are able to go forth under our own banner.”

  Heath slowed his steps. There was more than hope underpinning that statement, there was plenty of conviction and the hints of a plan. “Do you know what you’re looking for?”

  “Perhaps. I am able to feel out certain items when I parse the information about them, hints on if they would count as significant. But nothing concrete. I will update more when I am ready.”

  Heath couldn’t form words but pushed his feelings through their bond. Concern that he had done something to make her reticent, burning curiosity, a willingness to put more focus on the whole thing.

  He received love in return. “I have never been given cause to be anything less than thrilled with my choice of Captain. But this is something I believe I must do on my own.”

  Heath let the matter rest. For the first time, the Loon would have a choice to make in her own advancement. He remembered just how difficult that could be. That instead of spending a Skill point she had to find something rare, dangerous, and most likely expensive just added a layer. But even for a level one Classer, spending that first Skill point was a big step.

  Hearing the low hum of conversation, he entered the bridge. After explaining what was going on, and corralling the resulting enthusiasm from Jenny Mae, he was able to present the problem.

  “The way I see it we have two options. We try and find someone on our route that can fix the crate, and check the others, or we find out what it eats and hope for the best.”

  “Food’s going to be cheaper than any sort of enchanting work,” Copperfield pointed out.

  “Assuming the others don’t wake up,” Emerald countered. “Spaceship's no place for an animal.”

  “But we could love it.” Jenny Mae was looking from crewmember to crewmember, looking for anyone to get on her side. “They’re so cute. And soft. Don’t tell me you don’t want to hug one.” Her eyes went wide as the cajoling fell flat. “There have been cats on ships for ages. It’s tradition.”

  “That thing isn’t a cat,” Emerald said. “It’s also illegal to house live animals without the right permit. The stasis cages were straddling the line.”

  “A bit late for legal arguments, isn’t it?” Copperfield was remarkably placid about the whole thing, neither for nor staunchly against the circumstantial pet.

  “Here’s what we’ll do,” Heath said. “When’s our route next take us past a planet?”

  “Two weeks,” Jenny Mae and the Loon answered in unison.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  That was longer than he was hoping for. “We keep it alive till then. Hopefully it likes protein sludge. Then we stop for a day. I really don’t want to use the Phoenix codes more than we have to, so we get one shot. If we can find a Vet class, we ask them to fix it. Otherwise we buy some food and hope for the best.”

  “But we cannot, and everyone better listen to me on this. We cannot fall in love with it. That thing is already sold.”

  “Fine,” Jenny Mae pouted for a moment and perked back up. “I’ll go feed her.”

  “I, for one, am hoping for an accommodating Veterinarian class.” The Loon found no difficulty in forming an opinion on the topic. “The flowers were dirty, but an interesting environmental challenge. But I draw the line at livestock, Heath. Did you consider at all what the natural end results would be when you watered the thing? Bad enough you all must evacuate waste from your fleshy bodies, this thing has no concept of propriety.”

  He cringed when he realized what the Loon was saying. “I’m sorry, I’ll clean it.”

  “Indignity on the outside with paint. Indignity on the inside with animals. I shall endeavor to focus my growth on increasing speed even more, if such a thing is possible. But I beg, let us make all haste to the Althalas estate.”

  ********

  Heath knocked on the door to Jenny Mae’s quarters. The hatch slid open, revealing the Aide-de-Camp cuddled up on her bed with their unexpected passenger. Against all protests she had named the thing, but Heath was steadfastly refusing to use it, even in his own thoughts. That way lay heartbreak.

  “Hi Heath, what’s up?”

  He couldn’t answer, distracted as he was by the decorations across the walls. A few were perfectly normal pictures of Jenny Mae surrounded by a bevy of tanned farmers. The rest was, to put it mildly, confusing. There was another series of photos, but most were indistinct, either unfocused or framed in a way that was difficult to parse the subject matter. A painting in a mag frame that was either an abstract masterpiece or done by a child. A tapestry? Decorative scarf? He wasn’t sure but it draped across the wall above the single remaining bunk.

  “What?” He gestured to the whole setup.

  “My professors said finding creative outlets for long stretches in space is important to avoid burnout.” She looked around at the attempts. “I’ve decided to stick to the stories for now.”

  “Stories?”

  “Yeah. I’ve been sending some of our own, edited for content and anonymized, back home to New Thetan. I have a small but loyal following.”

  “I thought you were just posting pics for your parents.”

  She waved his words away. “That’s just for keeping up, I write down the rest.”

  “Wait, you're telling people about the Loon?” Heath’s heart was in his throat.

  “No, of course not.” He could breathe again. “Just delving, life as a spacer stuff.”

  “Okay. Good.”

  “Good.” There was a long pause. “So did you want something?”

  “You wanted to talk to the others before we got to the Kelpie system. We’re a couple of hours out.”

  “Oh, already? Give me five minutes to get Mr. Snuggles situated and I’ll be right there.”

  True to her word, she entered the bridge a few minutes later to address the rest of the team. Heath idly fiddled with the mana condenser, while the rest lounged around. Reading, sleeping, and playing a cloned video game that was definitely not purchased legally, as they preferred.

  “I have news,” Jenny Mae announced. Needlessly, as they were already all staring. “The next system has a rank two dungeon. Not much available on the local nets about it but they sell delve slots for a cut of the loot.”

  “Rank two means no more resets a few times a day. Maybe once every couple of days, if you’re lucky. We would have to wait a while.” Emerald was not the crewmember Heath had expected to have an opinion on the topic.

  “That’s true. But we’re making good time.” Jenny Mae smiled as she pulled up the thin information packet on the dungeon.

  “Could be fun,” Copperfield said. “Haven’t gotten to really use what we earned in the rank-up. And you all haven’t seen what Betsy can do now that she’s back in fighting shape.”

  It was true, and Heath could admit he was curious himself. They had taken down the Accountant easily enough. And that was only using the barest edges of their skills, while they were mostly unarmed. What would they be capable of when they had time to prepare?

  “I believe this to be an unadvisable course of action.”

  “Wait, what?” Heath gaped at Ekaterina, along with the rest of the crew. Their level-at-all-cost Wizard had been one of the driving forces to get them this far in the first place. That she wasn’t itching to get into the first dungeon they could find was so out of character, Heath thought she might be coming down with something.

  “We should continue onward.” She shifted in her seat, for once breaking from the confident facade. “You were worried about pursuit. Is that no longer the case? Another week or two of waiting for a delve slot. Rank two dungeons can also take longer to complete. So another several days potentially on top of that, at the longest. And we don’t have camping gear or alarms that we can set for sleeping in a dungeon.”

  “True,” Heath dragged out the word. Everything she was saying added up to a decent argument, but he got the feeling that wasn’t why she was making it.

  Heath was, however, not the most blunt member of his crew. “Scared?” Emerald asked. “Never been in a rank two myself but won’t be that different.” At least they were trying to be comforting and not just mean. They had come a long way.

  “I am aware. My parents insisted on having us witness a dungeon of each of the first four ranks before awakening our classes.”

  “Of course they did,” Copperfield snarked.

  “I am not afraid,” she added scathingly. “I am simply not certain that jumping into a rank two dungeon is appropriate before we can get Class consultations.”

  The rest of them were once more left off-kilter, staring at their token noble.

  “Is that like a rich-person thing?” Copperfield asked. His game was fully paused now, all attention on the topic at hand.

  Ekaterina sniffed, regaining her usual confidence so quickly, Heath might have thought he made up the original hesitation. “Some Classes are more complex in their growth than others. It is simply taking advantage of one’s resources to consult with experts on the topic before irreparable mistakes are made.”

  “There are no bad Class Skills, just uninspired Classers.” ” Jenny Mae repeated the old adage with the conviction of the well-educated.

  Ekaterina scoffed. “Anyone who believes that, is blindingly naive. Some builds are better than others. Any mistakes made at rank one are recoverable. Beyond that, you could cripple your future growth with one bad choice.”

  Heath recognized the set of her chin, and the look in her eye. She wasn’t going to budge on this. Though he knew she would join them if they decided, it would be under protest. “Let’s shelve it for now, we don’t even know if there will be an opportunity.”

  He tapped at his controls, bringing a feed from the cargo bay onto the main screen. “Copperfield, any other crates having issues when you checked?”

  “Not yet. A few I wouldn’t trust on a return journey.”

  “Good. I’m upping the checks to twice a shift, that goes for everyone. Looks like our jump is in two hours. Free time until then.”