Hornet's Nest

The Last Supper

The kid’s eyes were shining. “Wow…”

“I agree,” Daigo said.

“I’ve never seen so much water,” Kyle confessed.

“Only planet that has more than Earth,” Daigo told him, “and Earth has a lot.”

They had brought Kyle to the cockpit. It was cramped enough with him there that the kid had to stand over Daigo’s shoulder, hunched over to lean in on the window, but the kid had begged them to be able to see the famous resort planet. Kyle could be annoying but not so much that Daigo say no to a request like that.

System Trifecta was home to the planet with the top three vacation spots in the galaxy, according to most rankings. It was also ranked in the top ten most expensive planets in the galaxy.

The planet was named Triad because it had only three masses of land, each of which was an island nation practically designed by men from the ground up. Each of which was a top vacation spot. The islands were so far apart they could only see two of them from the ship, and those two were at almost opposite ends of the globe.

The rest was water.

More importantly, however, the moon was coming around their way. With its terrain being deeply blue, it provided for quite the relaxing moonlight down on the planet, but it made it harder to discern when in space.

“Does the moon have water?” Kyle asked.

“If you take it there, sure,” Daigo said, getting a chuckle out of Kiyin.

“You ever go to Triad?” Kyle asked.

Kiyin scoffed. “To Triad?”

Daigo shook his head not to laugh. “We can’t even afford grav-disruptors and the kid thinks we can go to Triad.”

“I think he was asking me, Daigo,” Kiyin put in, “maybe he imagined I actually had money before I ran into you. No, Kyle, I’ve never gone.”

“Which island would you go to?” Kyle asked further, apparently not having been amazed enough to just appreciate things. He was glaring at the planet yearningly. “I’d go to Summer Island. I’ve never been to a beach, I bet it’s great.”

Daigo glanced at Kiyin who met it with a hint of compassion. The two siblings had had it rough. They were, after all, originally from one of the many colonized planets populated mostly by generational wage slaves. They hadn’t really seen much before coming aboard the Hornet’s Nest. Still, these little absent-minded comments hurt the most to hear because they reminded Daigo why the kid’s excitement was even more annoying than his sister’s depression.

The sister’s demeanor actually made sense.

“Get your head straight, Kyle, and you will,” Daigo said. “We just have to pull off this mission, and I promise you we’ll go there.”

“If we survive,” Kiyin added.

Daigo smirked at her. “Like I said,” and began turning the ship around to head towards the moon. 

“That would be cool,” Kyle said, nodding excitedly. “Can it be Summer Island?”

“Of course. Now can you go and cook us something? I’d like us all to have a good meal before we leave for the moon.”

Kyle assented and left with all the usual pep in his step.

Looking at the moon, Daigo could only sigh. More deadly risks awaited him in one more job that could go wrong in so many ways. He definitely was going to have to eat an apple. That’s way too many apples in such a short amount of time…

“Don’t want to die on an empty stomach, huh?” Kiyin asked.

“You know me,” Daigo admitted, and then changed his tone. “I have a bad feeling about this one.”

“Really?” Kiyin sounded concerned. “Why go ahead with it then?”

Daigo shrugged, changing back his tone.

“What am I? Psychic?” Daigo leaned back and let go of the controls so that Kiyin would take over. “I’m not about to turn tail from this kind of pay just ‘cause my stomach’s acting up.”

Kiyin hummed and gazed ahead. Thoughtfully. “I have a bad feeling about it too.”

Daigo folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you psychic?”

Kiyin rolled her eyes in response, puffing at her bangs. Daigo shrugged and let silence settle.

Next thing he knew, he was smiling. That was happening more and more. He would sit in that cockpit next to Kiyin, a comfortable silence would settle in, and he would feel at home. He had only recently noticed that had been happening.

“Did you know Spinz reads books?” Daigo asked, out of nowhere, still smiling.

“You’re the only one who doesn’t, Daigo.”

“No, I mean, he has a physical book. As in paper.”

She threw Daigo a look of hard-fought doubt, and Daigo chuckled.

“You really need to get out more, seriously. I caught him doing it. It’s so weird to see one right in front of me.” He felt an itch on his nose so he promptly scratched it, adding, “and Hannes also doesn’t read by the way.”

“Not the greatest example, I think.”

“That’s what Sára said,” Daigo pointed out, amused.

Kiyin nodded to the side, glancing at him sagely. “Well, she is a genius. Anyway, yes he does, of course Hannes reads. Just not paper.”

“Huh…” Daigo looked up in thought. “I keep finding out stuff about these guys, even after so long.” He glanced at her, knowingly. “What about you, Kiyin? Is there anything I don’t know?”

She rolled her eyes again and shook her head, which Daigo had the impression had the purpose of hiding a forming smile, even though it wasn’t there her head stabilized.

Kiyin blew up on her bangs and changed the subject. “Who’re you taking with you?”

“Kyle and Hannes,” Daigo replied.

“Kyle?”

“Well, I have to plan for if we get boarded while on the ground. If Kyle is here with Sára, and he gets hurt, that’s it, she gives up on us,” Daigo explained.

“But if he’s with you, she’ll do her best to keep us alive. To see Kyle again.”

“And vice-versa,” Daigo agreed, “you and Spinz can take care of anything that comes into the ship, long as you have her help, and Hannes can take care of any trouble we face outside.”

Kiyin hummed with discomfort. “You trust Hannes too much.”

“I don’t trust him at all,” Daigo corrected, and in fact, he didn’t, “but his skill? Of course, I do, you know his past.”

“So what if he’s ex-military,” Kiyin said, sounding somewhere in-between concern and upset, “how’s that going to help if you’re stuck in a corridor with a dozen armed men with their sights on you?”

Daigo observed as the moon was growing larger and larger. Pretty soon, the landing satellite would come into view.

He yawned.

“Kiyin, there’re about three ASTRALs known to the underworld that are still alive, and not actually still an ASTRAL. One’s a rumor, the other’s a pirate lord or something, and the third’s a merc. That’s him, Kiyin. He’s not just ex-military.”

“I know,” she said, wiping her forehead of sweat with one of the tentacles. Daigo promptly reached out and turned a dial on the ceiling, to turn down the heat. “I’m just trying to point out… He’s strong, not invincible.”

Daigo snickered a bit, seeing her react in turn by frowning away. That was obviously something that needn't be said. “Duly noted.”

Daigo stood up, figuring the food was about to be ready. “Come with, Kiyin. Let’s have a meal as a crew.”

“I don’t -- I have to bring us to approach,” she said, with some unease.

“It’ll take like an hour to get close enough for comms,” Daigo said, gently grabbing her shoulder, over the tentacle. He felt her shiver to the touch. “Come on, Kiyin.”

She relaxed, and Daigo knew she would go. Definitely progressing.

It wasn’t long before they were all spread around the table in the mess hall, pulling meal portions from the large pot Kyle had filled with a stew -- or soup, Daigo wasn’t sure. It tasted pretty good, though. The inclusion of rice showed that Kyle understood Daigo had wished for a special meal.

“I’m guessing this isn’t poisoned…” Sára commented, of course.

“Depends on your point of view, sis,” Kyle laughed it off, “I’m happy you like it!”

“’s good stuff, kid,” Hannes protested on his behalf, “reminds me o’ the army cantina.” He gave his joke two singular laughs, but no one else really got it. It was hard to tell whether he liked it or not.

The conversation continued, not really intimate nor particularly happy, but the lack of silence was a good enough sign for Daigo to see his crew interacting and mocking each other with a clear level of synergy. Hannes teased, Spinz killed jokes in a way that made them funnier. Sára never laughed and looked sad, but they had gotten so used to it now that it was a reason for humor, and she didn’t seem to care. Girl might even enjoy it. Kiyin looked a bit out of her element. She laughed along, reacted to conversation, but never really put herself out there with her own comments or jokes.

Daigo considered how Kiyin had always been a fish out of water. Left her planet nearly a decade before she was ready to, married to a man she had never really gotten to know, who was as much of an outsider as one can be. Kiyin made a concerted effort to be nothing other than the pilot of the ship, because if the world boiled down to just her and the ship, then it wouldn’t be overwhelming. As much as Daigo didn’t blame her -- after all, she knew the ship better than anyone else, cared about it more than anyone else -- he struggled against that because he felt like it wasn’t what Kiyin really wanted. It was just what she felt like doing.

It was funny how the two could be so opposite to each other.

“Guys,” Daigo called them all, “all we need is a medic, and we’ll finally have what I consider to be a full crew.”

“Really, D? ‘ve ya seen how many guns we got? Think we could have more guns,” Hannes said.

“I’m talking core, Hannes. Full core crew with a medic, and then we can bolster our fighting ranks, sure, but the key’s always been to do jobs that don’t need fighting.”

Kyle burst into a small laughing fit. “What?”

“That be funny,” Spinz remarked pointing at Daigo with one of his ears.  

Daigo rolled his eyes, and head to make sure his gesture was understood, and exhaled. That was fair enough, their jobs were seldom smooth sailing.

“Okay, never mind the pep-talk, geez.” Daigo got up and stretched to show a relaxed and unconcerned demeanor. It was important to impress confidence on them. “This’s just another job, so let’s keep focus, follow the plan, and watch out for each other.”

“Well, not necessarily all of us,” Sára pointed out, slightly waving from her ever lying position. 

“Going over the plan one final time!” Daigo rose, pointing at Sára vigorously, shaking his finger with displeasure. “Sára will first--”

Alarms suddenly cried out, interrupting their meeting. The Hornet's Nest global array of alarms only went off like that to alert the crew that they had been targeted by someone's weapons systems.

That was a good reason to be interrupted.