Chapter 71: New Rules

Elena said it softly and perfectly, with quiet unshakable respect, and then she said the rest.

"I am deeply sorry, Leo... For what I said about Maya, and for what I did to you."

Leo’s breath caught in his throat.

His sister’s name, spoken with such humble reverence by the proudest person on the ship, hit him like a dull shockwave against his sternum.

For one second he saw a skinny seventeen-year-old in one of his grey hoodies with the sleeves rolled three times, grinning at him from the kitchen doorway, and then it was only Elena again, standing in front of him without a trace of mockery anywhere on her face.

He let out a slow breath and looked down at his own calloused hands.

"I wasn’t blameless either," he said quietly, lifting his eyes to the six of them. "I should’ve handled things better on the bridge. When you pushed, I got defensive, and instead of explaining the threat calmly I snapped and walled myself off. I know you were desperate for a way out of the dark... and I made you feel like you were stuck with someone who didn’t care about what you’d lost so I’m sorry for that."

All six of them froze and stared at him in disbelief.

"No, Leo, please," Camila cried, stepping closer with her hands held out. "Don’t say that! You were right! You were right about everything!"

"Please forgive us, Captain," Aoi pleaded softly, her head dipping low. "We don’t ask to be spared the consequences... but please, forgive us."

"Leo, please," Harper muttered, her voice breaking.

Seeing all of them pleading with him, Aoi and Elena most of all, caught him so completely off guard that a sudden red tint bloomed across his cheekbones.

He cleared his throat roughly and rubbed the back of his neck again, flustered by the weight of it.

"Alright, hey, stop that," he muttered, his voice cracking a little before he pulled himself back together. "Cut it out... Look at me."

The girls lifted their heads and waited.

His expression settled, the blush fading into a calm steady seriousness that left no room for argument.

"Listen to me carefully," he said, his tone level, with no anger in it at all. "I’m not angry with you. I’m not going to hold what happened over your heads, and I’m not going to punish you with silence or spite but forgiving you and trusting you again aren’t the same thing."

The words landed with an undeniable weight.

"Trust takes time," he went on, his dark brown eyes moving across each of their faces. "It’s built on what we do out here when the pressure hits, and apologies after the dust settles don’t build it... You’re going to have to earn it back, through how we run this ship, how we fight and how we handle the next crisis. That’s just the reality of deep space."

None of them protested. They nodded together, accepting the line he’d drawn without a moment’s hesitation.

"Which brings me to my rule," he said, and his voice dropped into a firm unyielding register that cut through the medbay air like iron. "From this second on, nobody brings anyone onto this ship, opens a door to a stranger or answers an outside transmission without my direct order... You can disagree with me as loudly as you want, to my face, right there on the bridge, and I’ll always hear you out but when I make the final call, it’s final... and nobody walks away while I’m still talking."

The silence that followed was absolute.

Harper flinched at the last part, and she nodded the hardest of all of them, her chin dipping with fierce stubborn resolve.

"Understood, Cap," she said firmly.

"Understood, Captain," Elena echoed, and Camila, Jin-Ah and Chloe said it right after her.

Leo looked at the woman standing in the middle of the line.

"That goes for you too, Aoi," he said softly.

Aoi blinked, and her breath hitched at the sound of her own first name coming from him without a title in front of it.

"No more ’Sensei,’" he added with a warm smile. "We left Earth behind, and we survived Ren... Out here we’re crew, and you’re my officer. It’s only right now."

Aoi held his gaze for a long moment as a quiet relief washed across her face, and she gave him a small formal nod.

"Understood... Leo."

His name felt strange on her tongue without anything in front of it, and good.

He let out a breath, the heavy tension sliding off his shoulders, and looked around the room with a dry teasing grin.

"Good. Now that that’s settled... if anyone here would rather take their chances outside, the airlock’s always open. I’d be happy to kick you out into the drift myself."

A chorus of startled gasps and half-amused scoffs broke out among the girls, but before any of them could fire back...

CHIME!

The overhead speaker crackled to life.

[This unit agrees... This unit has a list of candidates prepared for the airlock, Master Captain, sorted by priority.]

A collective groan rippled through the crew, Camila covering her mouth while Harper shook her head with a rueful grin.

"Easy," Leo chuckled, looking up at the ceiling grille with real affection. "They’re staying... Turn the house back on."

CLICK!

A huge synchronized surge of power rolled through the Wanderer-7.

All along the bulkheads, the dull grey status lights snapped back to brilliant green!

The air handlers hummed to life with a fresh circulating breeze, the water pumps purred under the deck plates and the door servos unlocked one after another down the whole length of the transit spine in a string of sharp rhythmic clicks.

POP!

A holographic access panel bloomed in the middle of the medbay.

[WANDERER-7: INTERNAL SECURITY ARCHITECTURE]

[Command Authority: Leo Kaine (Master Captain / Tier-1 Override)]

[Crew Access Level: Primary Airlocks: RESTRICTED (Master Captain’s Order)]

[External Docking Umbilicals: RESTRICTED (Master Captain’s Order)]

[Long-Range Communications: RESTRICTED (Master Captain’s Order)]

[Internal Facilities: FULL ACCESS]

Leo glanced at the red restrictions beside the external systems, and then he looked at the girls.

Nobody argued, and nobody asked for the keys back... They looked at the panel and accepted the red lines as a fair and necessary fence.

"Looks good to me," Leo said, turning back toward the ceiling. "By the way... calling you ’AI’ all the time is getting a little old... How about Astra? It sounds sharp. Sounds like a real ship’s intelligence."

The speaker hesitated for half a second before it answered with its usual dry bite.

[This unit declines to be named after a generic chatbot. "Vela" is acceptable... All automated systems are now restored.]

Harper let out an obnoxious snort and slapped her thighs.

"Vela it is! Even the computer has high-maintenance naming standards."

Leo laughed, a bright real laugh that broke out of his chest, and he took a clean flight jacket off the diagnostic rail, slipped his arms into the sleeves and zipped it up to his collar.

"Alright, Vela," he said, rolling his shoulders and heading for the door. "Let’s see what the bridge looks like... I’ve got a ship to check on."

He’d taken two strides toward the corridor when the girls exchanged a quick synchronized glance.

"Wait, Leo, hold on!" Camila called, practically bounding past his left shoulder.

Harper darted around his right and grabbed his forearm just long enough to steer him into the middle of the corridor.

"Don’t rush up there yet, Cap! Take your time walking!"

"Go straight to the command throne, Captain," Jin-Ah said with a rare little conspiratorial smirk, pacing briskly ahead of him with Elena and Aoi right on her heels.

"Sit down in your chair and don’t touch the consoles until we tell you," Elena added in a playful tone as the five of them hurried up the companionway ahead of him, leaving Chloe walking quietly at his side with a small knowing grin. "...We’ve prepared something for you."

...

The smell hit Leo the moment he cleared the top of the companionway, drifting along the upper deck in a thick fragrant wave that felt almost miraculous after a week of breathing mineral vapor.

It smelled like roasted potatoes, charred peppers, simmering tomatoes and hot oil.

He stepped onto the command deck.

The dried blood, the fragments of bone and the scorch marks from his rupture were completely gone, scrubbed away until the Graventhal gleamed under the white overhead strips, and even the cracked canopy looked immaculate with its two resin patches polished flat and clear against the stars.

On the raised dais sat the command throne, and across the two flight consoles flanking it was an improvised dining table... two polished aluminum maintenance trays lined with clean paper towels and piled high with a steaming colorful spread that looked like it had been hauled straight out of a farmer’s market.

There were thick potato wedges roasted to a crisp golden crust, grilled bean patties packed with charred peppers, steaming bowls of hot tomato broth thick with greens, and a tall metal pitcher of chilled water floating with fresh crushed mint.

The six of them had gathered around the dais, nervous and bright, watching him with darting expectant eyes.

Camila stood by the edge of the console still wearing her denim gardening apron over her clean jumpsuit, her bronze hands faintly stained with soil and a wide fluttering smile lighting up her hazel eyes.

Harper leaned against the astrogation table with her thumbs hooked into her belt, biting her lip to keep from grinning, while Aoi, Elena and Jin-Ah stood together by station two looking remarkably pleased with themselves.

Chloe had already slipped ahead and was hovering at the top step with her hands folded behind her back and her green eyes glowing with quiet satisfaction.

Leo stopped at the foot of the dais, his eyes traveling from the potatoes to the six faces staring back at him.

He climbed the three steps, turned and sat down in the throne, and Chloe immediately sank down onto the top step by his feet as if that was simply where she belonged.

The leather felt familiar against his shoulders, but the hot food sitting right where his tactical holograms usually floated made him tilt his head with a slow suspicious smirk.

"Alright," he said, resting his forearms on the console edges. "What’s the catch? Did you poison it or something?"

A chorus of bright startled laughter broke out, and Camila clapped her hands to her cheeks with an offended gasp.

"Leo, no!" She stepped forward and pushed a fork into his fingers. "We grew all of this by hand! I hand-watered every single bed all week because the drip-lines were off, and we still got three harvests! There isn’t a single drop of poison in any of it!"

"We just want you to eat, Captain," Elena said, her posture relaxing as a faint genuine smile touched her lips. "You spent an entire week in a chemical bath having your body put back together... You need food, and as repulsive as Camila’s soil-encrusted fingernails might be, I’m forced to admit those potatoes are excellent."

"Hey! My fingernails are clean, thank you very much!" Camila shot back, though she was giggling as she poured a generous cup of mint water and setting it right by his hand. "Eat, Leo. Please... Before it gets cold..."

Leo didn’t need to be asked a third time.

He picked up a roasted wedge with his fingers, blew on the steam rising off the golden skin and took a huge bite.

CRUNCH!

The crisp salted skin gave way to soft piping-hot potato full of smoky pepper and hot oil.

It was real food, hot and solid and seasoned, that had never come out of a ration pouch, and Leo closed his eyes and chewed with shameless enthusiasm, letting out a low appreciative groan that made Harper burst into loud proud laughter.

"Told you he’d inhale it," she grinned, leaning her hip against the rail. "Man’s been living on rock water for seven days... He’d eat the tray if we didn’t put a fork in his hand."

"This is incredible," Leo said around another mouthful, tearing a bean patty in half so a cloud of peppery steam rolled out. "Camila, seriously. If we ever run out of slugs, we’ll just throw your cooking at the enemy and wait for them to surrender."

Camila beamed, her cheeks flushing a happy rose.

"There’s plenty more in the galley! I made enough to fill two storage lockers!"

He took a long swallow of the cold mint water and leaned back into the leather with a contented sigh.

He was halfway through a bowl of tomato broth when Aoi stepped forward and cleared her throat with a soft slightly shy rustle of her uniform.

"Leo..." she began, her eyes flicking toward Elena and Jin-Ah before coming back to his face. "While you’re eating... the crew has a few reports to deliver. If you’re willing."

Leo stopped with the spoon a centimeter from his mouth, and his brown eyes swept across their slightly nervous faces.

"Go ahead," he said with a relaxed nod. "What did you break while I was asleep?"