Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Nyxis knew he was going to die.

It was only a question of how, at this point. He could feel the warmth seeping out of the wound in his stomach, barely contained by his trembling hand, smell the acrid smoke pouring through the vents of the workers quarters. Would he choke to death on smoke? Would he bleed out first? He was sitting on the floor next to his cot, so the smoke would probably need to fill the entire room before it killed him.
Or maybe an asteroid would finally hit their mining ship at just the right angle, ripping open the hull and depositing them all into space. Asteroid fields were a dangerous place to be at the best of times, but now the ship was only drifting aimlessly, so it was only a matter of time before one got a little too close.

He leaned his head back against the wall, looking up at the writhing black smoke.
Hm. Maybe dying was actually the best option he could look forward to. It was either that, or be 'rescued' by the company. Then work as a slave in some irradiated wasteland for a couple years, before dying anyway, just with even less dignity. Not that he'd earned any.
He scoffed at the thought, which turned into a coughing fit, splattering yet more green blood over his lips.
The future really was looking bright. Everything was coming up Nyxis.

“Yeah I hope you’re happy.” Gris growled at him from across the narrow walkway, his four dark eyes narrowed. The bulky man was sitting on his cot, wrapping a bandage around a smaller wound in his leg.
Nothing was funny about this situation, of course, but Nyxis couldn’t help but smile grimly. Gris had a penchant for maliciously misinterpreting everything Nyxis said. He was his staunchest opponent, challenging Nyxis’ words at every turn. Of course he wouldn’t stop now, just because they were all about to die.

“I knew it would end this way,” Gris continued with a scowl, “but you wouldn’t listen. Oh no. Not the wise Nyxis. You know best, of course.”

Nyxis clenched his jaw. Insults always cut deeper when they were true. He didn’t want to reward Gris with a reply. He probably didn’t have the strength for one anyway. 
He looked around the room, his absurd bout of gallows humor fading away. It was a sorry sight. The two dozen sparse bunk beds, the 48 injured workers who had been able to ‘save’ themselves in this room when the fire started. Some of them had the same look Nyxis wore himself. A mix of despair and acceptance. Some had their jaws clenched, sending Nyxis angry looks, rightfully accusing him of causing this mess.

That, he could take. That, he could understand.

The worst were those that looked at him with hope, expecting some sort of solution, some sort of idea from him. He’d led them so far, always with an answer to every question. Surely he would lead them out of this? 

That, Nyxis couldn’t take.

He closed his eyes and let his head rest against the wall behind him again. So this was how it ended in the real world. In the stories, the heroes always won, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
Was he a hero? Apparently not, or he wouldn’t be in this situation. Heroes actually achieved something.
All he had managed to do was get a lot of people killed. For the right reason? Maybe. But he found that didn’t make it better in the slightest.
Dying ‘for the cause’ sounded heroic, and it was easy to accept the notion, when death was far away. Now, he just wanted to live.

He wasn’t sure if it was the blood loss or the smoke inhalation, but the world seemed to swim out of focus around him, the sounds dampening. He thought he heard multiple explosions, loud clangs, but it didn’t matter anymore. He didn’t care what would kill him. He just hoped it wouldn’t be painful.

A sudden, metallic clanging shook the room, like something had collided with the ship. Nyxis opened his eyes, blinking against the smoke. An asteroid hitting the outer hull? But it sounded so metallic…
Then the far wall lit up with sparks, plasma cutters ripping through the outer hull, neatly cutting a square doorway into the room, which was kicked down by a boot. Bright flashlights shone through the smoke, blinding him as armed figures rushed into the room, their shapes barely visible. Nyxis’ heart sank. So the company’s enforcers had found them after all.

He would have preferred the smoke.

************** 8 HOURS EARLIER ****************

“Commander!” Aster’s gruff voice made Jack stop in the corridor, waiting for the chief medical officer to catch up.

“Something the matter?” he asked, adjusting his uniform idly.

“It’s just about these cadet assignments.” Aster said as he caught up, frowning slightly at his padd.
The corner of Jack’s lips lifted slightly, already expecting what Aster would complain about.

“Ah, yes, I’m actually on my way to them.” he said, nodding for Aster to walk with him. 

“I assume you’re excited to teach them everything you know?” Jack added as they continued down the corridor, keeping his tone positive, as if that was the obvious thing Aster wanted to tell him.

“Are you kidding?”Aster huffed, and Jack raised an eyebrow, briefly smiling up at the much taller man. “Sir.” Aster added.

“I was just wondering if there’s some mistake. There’s plenty of doctors and nurses who can lead the cadets around and show them the ropes. That’s how it’s usually done. But you assigned them directly to me.”

Jack nodded “I know. But these cadets are a pretty bright bunch. They’re only here because they have exceptional grades, and they volunteered for a dangerous mission. I feel like it’s only fair that they get the best education possible.” he explained as they rounded the last corner. The lecture hall was just up ahead.

“But I’m not a teacher.” Aster said, frustrated. “How is that the best education? I have no interest in teaching a bunch of kids.”

“They’re at least 19 years old.” Jack countered.

“Ya. Like I said. Kids.” Aster shrugged. Jack chuckled quietly as the doors to the lecture hall hissed open, and they both stepped inside, pausing just behind the doorway.
He lowered his voice, so that the twenty cadets—which were already lined up and standing at attention at the front of the room—wouldn’t hear.

“Aster, you’re one of the best medical doctors in the entire Federation.” Jack said quietly, patting him on the arm. He wasn’t sure if Aster was the type he could flatter into doing something, but his decision was already made. He could at least make the medicine go down a little easier. Ha. Medicine. 

“You’re an icon. Do you know how much of an honor it is to have served under you? These cadets have a bright career in front of them, and I’d like to give them the opportunity to start it with something grand.”

Aster narrowed his eyes slightly, working his jaw. He likely spotted the attempt at flattery, but Jack had a feeling it had worked regardless.

“Fine. But only two days a week.” Aster grumbled, pointing at Jack, not quite tapping him on the chest.
Jack gave him a toothy smile.

“That’s all I ask.”

******************

Cadet Jamie Bennett was sweating. He subtly wiped his hands on his uniform pants, trying to get them dry.
He and the other cadets were all standing at attention in front of the lecture hall, because Commander Frost had just walked in, followed by Lieutenant Commander Bunnymund.
They hadn’t even acknowledged the cadets yet, and were quietly talking near the back entrance.

The lecture hall was just a medium sized room, with about fifty seats, arranged in a half circle around a small stage with a large screen. They had spent most of the last two months in this room, finishing up their studies for the last year of Starfleet academy, so it felt very familiar for Jamie.

But now the First Officer himself had walked in, and was about to talk to them. As a cadet, he’d usually only catch glimpses of high ranking officers like that, maybe giving a speech at the academy, or walking in the other end of a hangar bay. To be in the same room as the legendary Commander Frost…

He’d read stories of him and the original Enterprise 1701. Their adventures, however exaggerated, had inspired him to join Starfleet in the first place. And then he’d heard that Frost had traveled through time, appearing in the here and now, and working on the new Enterprise. It was like a mythical figure had awoken, calling out for Jamie to get on the Enterprise himself, by any means necessary. Which he may have taken a little too far. 

He glanced to his right, looking at the 19 other cadets standing in a straight line, almost all of them taller than him. He cursed himself for landing at the end of the line up. Would that call more attention to him?
Would Frost notice how much younger he looked? Then again, maybe standing in the middle would have made that  fact even more obvious.
Jamie swallowed thickly. The thought of Commander Frost paying that much attention to him at all was daunting. He’d probably find out immediately.

The conversation between the two officers was wrapping up, apparently, with Lt.Commander Bunnymund shaking his head slightly and walking out of the room again. Commander Frost descended the steps, and Jamie looked straight forward, clenching his jaw. Don’t look him in the eyes, don’t get his attention. He’ll find out.

“At ease.” Frost said, and the cadets relaxed slightly, shifting from attention to a comfortable parade rest.
Jamie had to pry his individual muscles apart to get that far. He felt taught like a bow. The Commander didn’t seem to notice from where he stood in front of the group.

“I’m sure you’re all eager to get out of here, so I’ll try and keep it short. But a speech is expected at this point, so I guess you’ll just have to deal with me rambling for a bit.” Frost said with a slight smile, his smooth, deep voice sounding surprisingly friendly. Jamie had always imagined it to be more commanding. Though maybe that depended on the setting. 

Frost continued, his tone switching to something a little more official. 

“All of you have performed admirably in your exams. You have studied, and worked hard to come this far. And you have volunteered to join the Enterprise for a long and dangerous mission. So I don’t doubt your ambitions.” Frost continued, walking down the line of cadets, looking at each of them briefly. Jamie’s heart was hammering so far up his throat that he was almost choking on it. Frost was getting closer and closer with each step.

“But.” he paused briefly “For all the training and simulations you have already passed, I promise you, the real world will challenge you beyond anything you’ve seen so far. Pay attention, because I want you all to take this seriously.

This is not a game. We’re out here on the frontier. We don’t yet know what challenges await us. We have no support from Starfleet, and no easy way back to Federation space. The training wheels are off.
We will all have to pull our weight, and the dangers are real, so never underestimate the challenges in front of us." He smiled again, "but I will always bet on us to meet these challenges head on. The Enterprise is a fine, powerful ship, and there are many capable officers and crewmembers on board who are ready to help you and teach you. So if there's one thing you take away from this, remember: Never be afraid to ask for help, alright?"

Frost had reached the end of the line as he spoke, briefly looking at Jamie before turning around.
Had Jamie imagined it, or was that look longer than that the other cadets had gotten? Had the Commander’s brows furrowed briefly? Frost was now making his way back the other direction, so it didn’t seem like he’d noticed. But could he be sure? Jamie swallowed again, feeling like the noise was so loud everyone was bound to notice.

“You will be split into groups of five.” Frost explained, pulling out a padd, probably to look at all of their names.

“Each team will be assigned a department, and you will report to the respective department head, who will teach you everything you need to know. Each team will rotate through all departments, so at the end of this mission, you will have earned your commission, and you can decide which department you would like to join. You will find your team assignments on your padds.” Frost said, walking back to his starting position, folding his hands behind his back and taking in their entire group. 

His serious expression from earlier softened, and he gave them a smile

“Now, with the official part out of the way, I’ll add a small bit of personal advice. Don’t forget to have fun.” he said. 

Jamie would have been amazed to hear a high ranking officer address them so casually, but right now, he was concentrating on keeping his heart from exploding. He was fine, right? Frost hadn’t said anything. He could walk out of here and everything would be fine.

“You’ve done a lot of dry studying. But now you get to experience what life on a starship is really like.
So go out there and enjoy this for what it is. An adventure.” Frost straightened up slightly. “Dismissed.”

“Aye, Sir.” the cadets said in unison, though Jamie’s voice cracked slightly.
His breathing was shallow as he fished the padd from his pocket with trembling fingers, glad for a reason to look down and not at Commander Frost. He checked his new assignment status. 

Engineering.

That wasn’t his first choice, but Jamie was just glad not to have been found out, so he damn well wouldn’t complain.

The Cadets slowly filed out of the room, and Jamie had to fight not to push his way through the crowd. 

Move! he thought, anxiety still prickling at the back of his neck.
He just had to get out of here and everything would be fine. Almost everyone had already gotten through the door, and Jamie was right behind them. Just get out. Just get out. Just get out.

“Cadet Bennett! A moment, if you please.” Frost’s voice sounded behind him, and Jamie almost died then and there, his throat constricting, eyes widening as he turned around abruptly, and way too stiffly, his entire body rigid.

Commander Frost had sat down at the teacher's desk, seeming quite relaxed as he gave Jamie a measuring look.

Jamie had never been this anxious in his entire life, feeling like he was walking towards the gallows as he walked down the stairs again, coming to stand in front of the desk at attention, feeling like a statue.

“Sir?” he asked, hating how nervous it sounded. He kept his eyes straight, not looking at the Commander, every muscle in his body clenched tight. He’d break his own bones at this rate.

“At ease, cadet.” Frost said, and Jamie changed his stance accordingly, but didn’t relax in the slightest. He’d been found out. His life was over. Frost knew. He’d toss him out an airlock for sure.
The last of the other cadets left the room, the door shutting behind her, and they were left in silence.
Jamie could hear his own breathing, the rushing of blood in his ears, as the silence dragged on for what felt like hours. 

“Did you really think no one would notice?” Frost asked quietly, and Jamie couldn’t bear to look him in the eyes, instead staring at his shoes. His shoulders sagged and he let out a long, shuddering breath. It was over. Everything came crashing down around him, years of his life thrown away for nothing.

“I’m so sorry Sir, I-I didn’t…I don’t know what I was thinking.” he stammered, wringing his hands behind his back. He was in free-fall, not knowing what would happen next, all his plans going up in smoke.

There was another extended silence.

“Look at me, cadet.” Frost said, and Jamie cautiously raised his head, as if bracing for pain. But Commander Frost just gave him a long, measuring look, his blue eyes as cold as his name suggested.

Jamie swallowed thickly “I-I only changed my age by three years, Sir, I just…I needed to get onto the Enterprise.”

The Commander raised one eyebrow by a fraction, but kept his silence, hands folded on the desk in front of him. 

“And I didn’t- I would never- I just made a wrong statement, when they asked, after the original birth records got lost. I didn’t manipulate any data or…or broke into anything. Please Sir, I didn’t mean any harm, I just…really wanted to be here.” Jamie’s hands were sweaty, his knuckles white where he squeezed them, not sure if his excuses would help him, or just make everything worse. Why wasn’t the commander saying anything? Did he hate him? Judge him? Was he disgusted by Jamie’s actions? Thinking about all the people that might be responsible?

"And my...my mother had nothing to do with it! She didn't know that I changed the year, so she's not to blame, I swear! It was my doing, Sir!”

Commander Frost stayed quiet for another moment, his thumbs tapping against each other.
Jamie felt so trapped under his measuring gaze, sweat prickling at the back of his neck. This room had become so familiar, and now he’d never see it again. He’d be disgraced, sent back to Earth, banned from the academy for sure.

“Your timing is quite inconvenient.” Frost finally said, sounding somewhere between disappointed and resigned. “I’ll have to inform the academy of this, of course. And how they will act on this deception will be determined in a hearing, as soon as we get you back to Earth.”

Jamie’s heart sank as he listened, all his fears confirmed. 

He didn’t know how he'd found out, but Jamie could kick himself for ever believing he’d get this past the legendary Commander Frost. 

“And since we’re currently in the Gamma Quadrant, with the Crimson Veil between us and Federation space, we’re stuck with you for now.” Frost worked his jaw for a moment, probably considering what he should do with Jamie. Confine him to his quarters? Make him clean the transducer coils every day for the rest of their expedition?

“Please Sir, I…” Jamie took a step forward, clasping his hands in front of him. “I’m so sorry for doing this, but please, if you could give me another chance, I…I can be a good officer, my test scores are really good too! Please, maybe I can make up for my mistake somehow, or-”

“Do you even know what you did?” Commander Frost cut him off sharply, standing up, both of his hands on the table as he glared at Jamie, who choked on his rambling plea. He quickly stepped back again, nervously scratching at his nail beds.

“I…faked my records, but-”

“You lied!” Frost cut him off again, towering over him. Jamie swallowed thickly, looking up at Frost. His expression wasn’t angry, it was just full of disappointment, which hurt even more.

“Everyone makes mistakes, that is just a part of life.” Frost said, evenly. “This problem here isn’t a clerical error, or your academic performance, or your ability to do your eventual duties.” He paused briefly, and Jamie wondered if he should say something, or if he was supposed to keep his mouth shut.

“S-Sir?”

“You lied, and by doing so, disrespected the uniform.” Jack said, frowning down at him.
“When you wear this badge,” he gestured to the Starfleet sigil on his chest, “you proclaim to be part of something much bigger than yourself. 

People see that symbol on your chest, and they expect a man of honor and integrity. Someone who will uphold the values of the Federation first, no matter the cost.” he paused again, shaking his head slightly.

“They don’t expect a liar. If a fellow member of Starfleet tells me something, I expect it to be the truth. And I will always hold true to that assumption. Because if we can’t even trust each other, why should anyone else?”

Jamie looked at him, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly for a moment. He’d never felt so ashamed of himself, never felt lower than just now. To see the disappointment in the eyes of his childhood hero, to hear the disdain for Jamie’s actions, was devastating. Getting tossed out of an airlock honestly seemed like the better option just then. 

Worst of all, Frost was entirely correct.
Jamie had told himself so many excuses for what he’d done, but he’d never considered it on this basic level. All he had thought about was reaching his goal as quickly as possible, with no regard for his methods.

And he wanted to be a Starfleet officer?

His shoulders sank, a lump forming in his throat as he took another step back, feeling physically ill.
He felt tears forming in the corner of his eyes, and he quickly blinked them away. The worst thing he could imagine had already happened, but he wouldn’t cry in front of Commander Frost. 

“I-I’m so sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking..” he mumbled, eyes still glued to the floor.

Frost didn’t say anything.

Jamie swallowed around the lump in his throat, briefly wiping a stray tear from his cheek, hoping that Frost hadn’t seen it.

“I just…I wanted to join Starfleet so badly. To see what’s out there, to see if all those stories were really true.” he said, his voice cracking slightly. It sounded so ridiculous now, so childish. He was 16, and here he was crying over his naive dreams, which were now ruined.

“I didn’t even consider what it would mean, I was so stupid-” he cut himself off, the only way to stop a sob from escaping.

A hand landed on his shoulder, and Jamie startled slightly, not even realizing that Frost had quietly walked around the desk. Now his hand was on Jamie’s shoulder, squeezing comfortingly. And despite it all, he leaned into that small comfort.

“It’s alright kid,” Frost said quietly, “I believe you.” he sighed.
“And I think you’ve learned your lesson here, didn’t you?”

Jamie let out a shuddering breath, quickly nodding “Y-yes Sir.” was all he managed to say.

“Then I don’t see a reason to discard such a bright young man just yet.” Frost said, squeezing Jamie’s shoulder briefly, before stepping away and walking around the desk, sitting down again.
Jamie blinked in confusion as he looked up, shoulders still hunched slightly.

“What?” he asked, not daring to believe what he’d just heard. Surely Frost didn’t mean…

“I’ll give you another chance, cadet, though you’re on thin ice.” the Commander said with a small smile. He raised his white eyebrows, “Unless you want to leave Starfleet.”

“Wh- No! I mean, really? Do you mean it, sir?”

Frost gave him a deadpan look, though the smile was still there.

“Didn’t we just talk about this?”

Jamie’s mind was still reeling from all the stress. First he’d lost everything, now he had another chance? He had a future after all? His heart was hammering in his chest, skin prickling with relief and euphoria as a huge weight fell from his shoulders. Commander Frost was a Starfleet officer. He meant what he’d said.

“Yes, sorry, I mean, thank you sir!” Jamie still couldn’t quite believe it, and he shook his head slightly, brushing the unruly brown hair from his eyes with one hand. He’d gotten another chance. Frost knew what Jamie had done, and got a second chance despite it all. He’d carried that lie with him for so long, and now it was lifted off his chest, and it didn’t mean his life was over. 

He wouldn’t waste this chance. He couldn’t.

He quickly straightened up, lifting his chin, gathering his thoughts.

“Thank you sir. Truly. I promise you will not regret this.”

Commander Frost nodded, intelligent blue eyes studying Jamie for another moment.
“I’ll hold you to that. Now. Do you not have someplace to be?”

“Sir?” asked, faltering for a moment. Was he to face some sort of punishment after all?

“You’re assigned to engineering, are you not? Dismissed, cadet.” Frost said, his expression patient and warm, not at all the stern, disappointed look he’d given him earlier.

Jamie blushed slightly, feeling rather slow.

“Oh. Yes sir. Thank you sir.” he said hurriedly, before turning and walking up the steps. His heart was still soaring, and it took a lot of restraint not to skip up the stairs.

“And cadet!” Frost’s voice came from behind just before Jamie reached the door. He turned with some apprehension.

“Sir?”

“You’ve got to work on your poker face.” 

******************

Jack watched the door close behind the cadet and huffed out a laugh. He leaned back in his chair, placing one foot on the edge of the desk. Aster had been more right than he even knew. This really was a kid, and a precocious one at that. It was honestly impressive that he managed to get this far, and perform at this level, at just 16 years of age. Though he had yet to learn that one didn’t just blab out everything one ever did wrong, purely because someone made a vague accusation. 

Jack hadn’t had any proof of Bennett’s deception, he only had a feeling about it.
Jamie Bennett certainly looked much younger than his classmates, and Jack could almost feel the anxiety radiating off of the boy earlier. All it took to get him to confess was to give him an opening. Let him believe Jack already knew everything there was to know. People loved to fill a silence when given the chance.

It was an old and simple trick, but then again, the kid was only 16.

Jack took no pleasure in being hard on him, and he couldn’t help but feel bad for bringing him to tears.
But it had been necessary. That had been the real test. He could tell from the beginning that Bennett felt terrible and anxious about the whole thing. Jack just had to push him a little further, to fully let him understand why his actions had been wrong. If Bennett had continued justifying himself, if he’d pleaded for Jack to keep the whole thing to himself, then Jack really would have had to inform the academy and ruin his career. 

Funny how things came back around sometimes. The speech he’d given Bennett was something Jack had to understand himself, years ago. North had been so intimidating that day, ripping into Jack with his words.
But it had put Jack on the right path. And now he hoped he’d been able to do the same for this young cadet.

Even if it had created quite the hassle for Jack. He sighed and stood up, making his way to the bridge.  He’d need Hiccup’s help to pull this off, since he didn’t have any connections to the academy anymore. They’d need to change Bennett’s citizenship records, his academy registration, convince the board to keep him on despite it all, and if possible do all of it without making too big of a fuss. He didn’t want everyone to know about this, since it would be a stain on Bennett’s career. His fellow cadets might notice, but that was unavoidable.
He just hoped the kid was worth it.

*******************

Jamie stepped into the engineering department, his heart still soaring. He looked around the large room with a new found sense of wonder, as if he’d been granted a second chance at life. And, in a way, he had been. After years of living with that secret, always wondering when, not if, he would be found out, he could finally breathe easy. 

Instead of imagining a thousand ways it would all come crashing down on him, cringing every time someone asked for him, or about him, every time an officer or teacher talked to him, he could just go about his day with his head held high.

Maybe he imagined it, but engineering looked a whole lot brighter and more colorful than the last time he’d been in here. The expansive room was bustling with activity as always, the large blue warp core towards the back looming over everything like a watchful eye. 

Jamie walked towards it with a spring in his step. Who could say, if he'd been alone, he might even have twirled briefly. He smiled to himself as he crossed the main room, looking for the other cadets of his group. They shouldn't be too difficult to find, since their grey jumpsuits stood out among the sea of dark blue Starfleet uniforms. 
He'd been so caught up with the weight of his own troubles, he hadn't even checked who had been assigned to engineering with him. Not that he was worried.

With only twenty cadets going on this mission, it had been rather easy to get along, isolated as they were. It was much easier to stay with the rest of the group in their free time, than to try and mingle with the much older and more experienced crew of the Enterprise.
Jamie had quickly learned all the cadet's names, and made some friends while he was at it. It came naturally, he felt, since they all had so much in common, being here. The biggest hurdle had been their competitiveness. Being the best from class meant that every one of them was an overachiever, constantly trying to stand out. Not that Jamie wasn't competitive himself, but it could get exhausting, when every conversation, every activity had to be a challenge. Still, while he had some preferences, he really didn't care too much who was on his team. Well, except-

"You're late." a frigid voice announced, and Jamie stifled a sigh as he turned towards it, finding the other four cadets standing off to the side. T'Zora, one of two vulcans in their group—and Jamie's mortal enemy—raised a condescending eyebrow as she looked down at him. Of course she had to be taller than him too.

"Did you need some reassurance? Someone to hold your hand, perhaps?" she said neutrally, as if it was a genuine question. That was always her way. Her species was known to have abandoned all emotion in the pursuit of pure logic eons ago, and T'Zora too made a point of always appearing perfectly calm and neutral, only acting logically.

But Jamie knew that she had it out for him. The others were competitive, yes, but T'Zora always found some flaw she could point out, something she could mock. It had been like this for years, ever since they shared the same class in their first year at the academy.
She came from an important Vulcan family, and she’d apparently grown up being treated like a princess. Something she had expected to continue when she joined Starfleet academy. 

As a founding species, Vulcans were very important and influential in the Federation, and T’Zora’s father was the Vulcan ambassador to Earth, making him even more so. Still, that didn’t excuse the casual disdain T’Zora showed her fellow students. Always looking down her nose at everyone, like she was above it all.
Her tendency to point out every little mistake, and something about the rude way she did it, just rubbed Jamie the wrong way. They had lived in the same dorm at the academy, and not long after they’d first met, he had snapped at her.

Looking back, that had been a mistake.

‘Could you PLEASE shut up for once? You’re not better than everyone else!’ he’d said after a particularly annoying comment, signing his own fate. 

Ever since then, she’d made an effort to point out every mistake Jamie made, and she was good at finding them too. She had a talent for getting under his skin, somehow.

The fact that he was so annoyed by her taunts was irksome in itself. And now he was fortunate enough to be on the same team as her for a full year.

"I was held up by Commander Frost." he said through his teeth as he stepped closer to the group, narrowing his eyes briefly at T'Zora, before nodding to the others. He was a little disappointed to find that his closer friends had apparently been assigned to other departments, but this rather diverse group of cadets would do just fine. So Jamie was the only human, then T'Zora and Sototh, both vulcan, one female bajoran named Yeca, and one male bolian named Monto Grexx, both of which Jamie had hung out with before.

"How come? Was he wondering how you made it into this program, with test scores like yours?" she asked, tilting her head ever so slightly.

Jamie huffed and rolled his eyes briefly. She loved pointing out her ever so slightly better scores.
"No, actually, he wanted to congratulate me on my patience." he said with a toothy smile.

"Your patience?" T'Zora asked, and Jamie's smile grew a little wider.

"Yeah, for putting up with you all of this time, of course." he said, and Monto snorted behind T'Zora, making her glare at him briefly. The blue skinned bolian looked a little sheepish at her glare, but as soon as T'Zora turned her back, he shot Jamie a little smile.

"He did not say that." she said imperiously, "Typical human behavior, making up absurd lies for a childish 'joke'"
Jamie shrugged, splaying his hand on his chest in mock offense.

"I would never lie about something like that. We were laughing about you the whole time." he added, feeling a little bad about pulling Commander Frost into this. He had no interest in bickering with T'Zora, but it somehow always ended up like this. Maybe he should try not to let her engage him. Then again, he couldn't just let her be annoying.

T'Zora folded her hands behind her back, straightening up
"I assume you didn't even talk to Commander Frost, you just needed a moment to have a mental breakdown somewhere, and took too long to dry your tears?" she said, and Jamie swore he saw the corner of her mouth twitch up. Vulcans definitely still had emotions, they just suppressed them. She probably would have openly sneered at him if she was human.
He hated that her mockery had a kernel of truth, too. He actually had cried, even if it was for different reasons.
And it seemed she always picked up on it.

Jamie fumed, despite his best efforts.
“Well you assume wrong, as per usual.” he snapped, his cheeks feeling warm. How did she always make it look like she won every argument? He always ended up looking childish, even though she'd been the one to start it.
Just when he opened his mouth to reply, he was interrupted by a loud, very Scottish voice. 

“Ah, I see our newest recruits are already here! Welcome to engineering!” Lieutenant Commander Gobber said from halfway across the room, drawing the attention of half the department.
The cadets quickly formed a line and came to attention.

“Reporting for duty, Sir!” they said in unison, and Jamie just hoped that the commander hadn’t overheard their squabble. His knowing look made him fear otherwise.

“Ah, no need to be so formal with me, at ease you lot.” Gobber replied genially, waving at them with his robotic hand. The cadets relaxed, but still stood in a rigid line.
“We’re all engineers here, so as long as you know how to fix things, you’ll be just fine. Now, follow me, I'll give you a tour” he said and gestured for them to follow.

Jamie put the annoyance at T’Zora’s presence out of his mind. Or tried to, at least. He was here to learn, and he was lucky at that. He wouldn’t waste his second—and last—chance at becoming a Starfleet officer. 

The Lieutenant Commander led them through the department, introducing them to some of the crew, and explaining the main systems and their functions, just to give them an overview.
He looked over his shoulder as he walked, his bushy and unkempt mustache barely hiding a mischievous grin.

"I hear yer a bright lot, eh?" he said, coming to stand next to a console, quickly pressing a sequence of buttons Jamie had no hope of following from where he stood.

"Best of our class, Sir." Sototh said evenly, merely stating a fact.

"Well I'm glad to hear that!" Gobber said, tapping one last button on the console before stepping away. Immediately, flashing lights flared up all around them, joined by a warning klaxon ringing through the room.
"Cause the antimatter reactant injector has gotten out of alignment!" he said, smacking his forehead and looking to the warpcore in overacted distress. "If you don't fix this, the warpcore is gonna explode!" he added, and Jamie had to congratulate him on his theatrical flair.
While this was clearly a drill, the impatient klaxon and the flashing lights certainly sold the idea of an imminent warpcore breach. Even if the unbothered crew around them dashed the illusion somewhat.

The cadets shuffled forward, all trying to get a good look at the consoles in front of them. Jamie frantically studied the readouts and hundreds of inputs, buttons, diagrams and dials on the smooth surface of the console.
He could do this. He'd studied this.

"We need to readjust the rear shock attenuation struts by five degrees!" he said, a grin spreading on his face as he figured out the solution. He reached for the appropriate slider, when T'Zora grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

"That would be useless, the problem is clearly the uneven flow from the antimatter gas flow separators." she said evenly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She was also entirely wrong.
Jamie blushed, glaring up at her. She attempted to reach over him to make her adjustment, but this time he stopped her instead.

"The gas flow separators have triple redundancy, they couldn't possibly cause this. Any good engineer would know that." he said, giving her a toothy grin.
"If the antimatter reactant injector is out of alignment, we have to move it back to its original position, that'll even out the lower constriction segments." he said confidently, pushing T'Zora to the side with his shoulder as he stepped up to the console again.

"Beginner's mistake." T'Zora said haughtily, holding firmly against Jamie, not letting him reach the right console, "if the injector was out of alignment by a full five degrees, the core would have already breached."

"Uh..guys.." Grexx chimed in, but Jamie barely heard him. The other cadets looked a little unsure, watching their argument with apprehension.

"Well it is out of alignment," Jamie snapped, gesturing to the console "you would know that if you actually looked at the damn readout instead of just assuming you know everything!"

T'Zora just raised an eyebrow at his outburst, her expression infuriatingly condescending "It is illogical to assume that-"

"Aaaand we're all dead!" Gobber chimed in with a cheerful tone, leaning over the console from the other side. He was grinning widely, shaking his head in amusement. He pressed another few buttons, and the alarm quieted, the lights returning to normal.

"Too busy arguing to actually save the ship. Tale as old as time." he said.

Jamie blushed heavily, feeling called out. But this wasn't his fault, it was only T'Zora's stubbornness that had caused this.
"But Sir, I was right about the alignment, that was the solution, wasn't it?" he asked, sending a brief glare at T'Zora.

"Funnily enough, you were actually both right. But I guess that's difficult to see when you're trying to one-up one another." Gobber replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Take that as your first lesson of engineering. Running this ship is a science, so you need to listen to each other, and actually think about your theories and prove, or disprove them. Don't dismiss something because you want to be right."

Jamie was speechless, feeling the heat in his cheeks at the admonishment. He'd been so sure he was right, he hadn't even considered that T'Zora might have a point as well.

"Sorry, Sir." he mumbled, stepping back from the console, fidgeting with the zipper on his jumpsuit.
He glanced over at T'Zora, who looked surprisingly contrite, though she quickly schooled her expression, only nodding to Gobber in acceptance.
The other cadets looked sheepish as well, having not stepped in.

"Dats alright, lad, no need to fret. I just wanted to see how you lot would handle yourself. You're here to learn, after all." He pushed himself off the console and gestured for them to follow him as he walked to the elevator next to the warpcore.
"Come along now, you've lots to learn." he said cheerily, and Jamie felt a little relieved, despite his embarrassing behavior. At least the Lieutenant Commander didn't seem too disappointed in them.

********************

Jack stepped into the Captain’s ready room, just off the bridge.
Hiccup was at his desk, but barely paid Jack any mind as he walked in, since he was currently immersed in some complicated looking contraption on his desk. He was wearing funky looking goggles, which Jack assumed were for magnification, as he used tiny pliers to maneuver an even tinier brass screw into place.

Jack had to stifle a laugh, the expression on Hiccup’s face ridiculously adorable. He was concentrating hard, apparently, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth, bushy eyebrows furrowed over his goggles, a smudge of oil on his freckled cheek. For a brief moment, Jack had the wildly inappropriate impulse to cradle Hiccup’s chin and wipe said smudge off with his thumb, but instead he just plopped himself into the seat in front of Hiccup’s desk. 

“What’cha working on?” he said, stretching out his legs, just as Hiccup tightened the screw.
He’d grown a lot more comfortable around Hiccup in the last few weeks, ever since Hiccup had taken him on that flight. It hadn’t been easy at first, sharing his memories, opening up like that, but now he felt like he really could be himself around Hiccup.
He wasn’t sure why it always seemed so much easier to open up to Hiccup than to anyone else. Maybe it was just his disarming smile, or his genuine interest. Talking to him had been easy from day one, but now there was an even better understanding between them.

Jack smiled to himself. It also meant that their easy banter was somewhat unbearable to anyone around them listening in. Jack frequently had to remind himself to keep his composure and a sense of decorum when they were out in public.

“Huh?” Hiccup finally looked up, a satisfied grin on his cute face as he pushed the goggles up into his hair, leaving slightly red pressure marks around his eyes. 

Jack couldn’t help but snort this time.
Hiccup narrowed his eyes, but the smile stayed put.

“What?” he asked, and Jack raised his hands defensively.

“Nothing. You have a little something..” he gestured to his own cheek.

“Oh.” Hiccup grabbed an equally oil stained rag to wipe his cheek, barely making it better. Jack could tell the man had trained under Gobber at some point.

“And I asked what you were doing.” Jack added, nodding to the strange contraption on Hiccup’s desk. It was made from brass and steel, it seemed, some of it painted black. There were a dozen little knobs and levers and screws, a flywheel and gears, pipes connecting all of it into a complicated looking mechanism.

“It’s a steam engine!” Hiccup said, that excited grin back on his face as he looked at the machine.

“I’m sure Gobber will be excited, we can finally retire the ol’ Matter-Antimatter reaction chamber.” Jack said, giving Hiccup an impressed nod.

“Jackass.” Hiccup said with a grin, already back to working on the engine. He was actually using a tiny shovel to fill a tiny firing chamber, then fiddled with a tiny lighter to get it to burn. 

“Just Jack is fine.” Jack replied smoothly, leaning one elbow on Hiccup’s desk. He watched as the engine started puffing out small wisps of steam. He couldn’t help but be a little impressed, not that he’d ever say as much. Hiccup could probably get anything to work, with enough time and the right tools. 

“Mmhm. Maybe ‘Ass’ is the better abbreviation” Hiccup shook his head slightly before resting his chin on the table, watching the engine closely from ground level. 

“Did you have a reason to come here, or did you just need a place to be ignorant in peace?” he asked, and Jack gave him an impish grin, before sobering a little.

“I did, actually.” he pulled out his padd. “Do you happen to have any contacts at Starfleet academy?”

Hiccup kept watching his steam engine, but pursed his lips in thought “Sure. One of my classmates is working as an instructor these days. Why do you ask?”

“One of our cadets faked his age so he could join this expedition.” Jack said, and Hiccup finally sat up and tilted his head.

“Oh? That’s pretty serious. And we can’t even send them home right now.” he said, and Jack nodded.

“I don’t intend to, actually. I think we should give him a second chance. I was wondering if you could use your contact to make that happen, once we get back to the alpha quadrant.”

Hiccup raised an eyebrow “Just like that? It’s a pretty big breach of trust.”

Jack nodded “Yeah, I know. I’ve had a long talk with him, and I believe he understands his mistake. I’d like to give him a second chance. I’ve already assigned him to Gobber.”

Hiccup blew out a breath as he leaned back, scratching his head.
“It’s not going to be easy to get that sorted. I mean there’s age restrictions for a reason. How old is he?”

“Sixteen.” Jack said with a grimace, and Hiccup winced slightly. It was rather young.

“But he’s pretty bright for his age. He has to be, to even get this far. His performance doesn’t fall behind his older classmates.” Jack said, gesturing to the padd with Bennett's information displayed. 

Hiccup shrugged slightly, but nodded “It’s not just the performance, it’s also about not exposing him to things kids his age shouldn’t have to see. I mean sixteen…that’s still a child.” he said, finally picking up the padd to look at the file.

“I’ll keep an eye on him. But I think we’d lose a promising young officer if we just throw him out of Starfleet.” Jack paused briefly, his attention wandering back to the puffing little machine on Hiccup’s desk as he thought. Was he doing the right thing? Bennet was so young, and yet…Jack thought he could see something of himself in the kid. Had he not also been a bright-eyed young cadet once?

Hiccup pursed his lips as he skimmed through the file, fingers tapping against the back of the padd. Then he glanced at Jack briefly, before pushing the padd over the table again.

“Well, it’s up to you,” he gave him a crooked grin “just don’t turn my ship into a daycare.” he added, and Jack huffed out a laugh.

“Can’t promise that yet. You underestimate the tactical value of toddlers. They can reach the smallest spaces.” he said, pleased that Hiccup trusted him, and that he was laughing at his stupid joke.

Hiccup was still smiling as he focused on the steam engine again, watching it work for a moment.
“To be fair, I was probably working in engineering at that age too. Or even younger.” Hiccup quietly admitted, and Jack raised an eyebrow.

“Child labor? In Starfleet?” he said with feigned outrage.

“As if.” Hiccup chuckled softly “It wasn’t really work, I was just always underfoot. Even if I wouldn’t have admitted it back then. Gobber was just way too soft on me, I suppose. Or he didn’t want to deny the Captain’s son.”

It was rare to hear Hiccup talk about his past, so Jack sat up a little with interest. He didn’t want to push Hiccup either, knowing from their first flight session that a lot of Hiccup’s memories were rather painful.

“You grew up on a ship?” Jack gently prodded when Hiccup didn’t elaborate.

Hiccup briefly looked at him, green eyes studying Jack, maybe considering if he should say more.
Apparently Jack passed the test.

“Kind of. I grew up on Bjørnøya back on Earth, but my mother…left when I was twelve. So I stayed with my dad from then on. And since he was a Starfleet captain, that meant living on ships most of the time. 

My dad didn’t…” he paused, working his jaw slightly, his finger tracing the edges of the flawlessly working steam engine “...have a lot of time for an unruly child. So he was glad whenever I spent my time in engineering, entertaining myself. And Gobber was patient enough to start teaching me things whenever he had time.”

Hiccup stayed quiet for an extended moment, but Jack could tell he was thinking about something, so he didn’t say anything.

Hiccup looked up then, giving him a crooked smile “So I guess it’s kind of hypocritical for me to deny Bennett this chance at sixteen, when I was already dismantling tricorders at age twelve.”

Jack raised his eyebrows, returning the smile. “That sounds so cute. Little Hiccup playing with Gobber’s tools. I’ll have to ask him about that.”

Hiccup narrowed his eyes at him playfully, and pointed a finger at Jack “Don’t.”

Jack lifted his hands in surrender “Alright, alright!” he paused, tapping his finger against his chin “I’m just wondering if there’s any pictures..”

“Let me know if you find any, so I can get rid of them.” Hiccup huffed, and Jack just grinned mischievously.

Tooth’s voice chimed over the speakers, interrupting them “Captain to the Bridge.” she said, and Hiccup and Jack both got up immediately to get to their stations.

**********

“Report.” Hiccup said as he stepped onto the bridge, seconds later. 

“I intercepted a distress call from a ship not far from here.” Tooth explained, her hands still moving over her station.

“Intercepted? Was it hidden somehow?” Hiccup asked, and Tooth nodded.

“It was very brief and only sent on one frequency. Then it immediately stopped transmitting. Like it was supposed to only be picked up by one specific recipient. But the message is a distress call, even if it’s somewhat jumbled. There’s a lot of interference.” She frowned slightly, holding a hand to her headset, listening more closely.

“Engines disabled, fire…” she paused “...revolt?” she looked to Hiccup, who raised an eyebrow.

“Well it can’t hurt to check it out. Maybe they weren’t able to transmit for longer..” he said.
“Lay in a course, warp eight.”

Toothless warbled his assent as he moved his controls, turning the ship in the right direction. 

“Do we know where the distress call was directed? Or if someone has responded?” Hiccup asked, and Tooth shook her head.

“No. There’s no indication that anyone responded so far.”

While the circumstances of the distress call were puzzling, their response didn’t require much thought.
Starfleet ships were duty bound to respond to distress calls and render aid, if possible.
And there was a general code of conduct out here in space.

It was easy to forget on a powerful ship like this, but space was dangerous, even more so than the already dangerous seas back on earth. Underestimating the perils of the oceans had cost many a seafairer their life, and space was no different. The moment you felt too safe behind all this protective technology, was the moment something could go terribly wrong. There was a certain camaraderie in that knowledge, and ships generally helped each other, even when they were from factions that didn’t usually get along. 

Hiccup briefly considered if that still applied when the distress call was seemingly supposed to be hidden. But it wasn’t like they had any proof of that. There could be any number of reasons for the strange signal.

At warp 8, they were traveling a thousand times faster than light, which meant they could cover the distance in less than an hour. Since every minute counted in an emergency, the ship in distress was extremely lucky for the Enterprise to be so close by, considering the vastness of space. Hiccup let Aster know to prepare the medbay to receive any wounded passengers the other ship might have.

They dropped out of warp roughly forty minutes after Tooth picked up the call, and they were met with quite the incredible vista. They were close to a massive planet, or, the beginnings of one. It was a gigantic, glowing form, seemingly made entirely from magma. It wasn’t an orb, but a slowly swirling mass, bulging at its equator as it slowly spun. 

“Is that planet…liquid?” Hiccup asked, glancing at Fishlegs, who was staring at the screen with wide eyes. 

“It must’ve been hit by an incredible force!” he gasped, looking down at his console. “What we’re seeing here is probably the result of two planets colliding, tearing each other up in the process. And now their liquid cores are converging into a new, larger planet. That’s…” his hands flew over his console as he studied the sensor data “That’s incredible.”

“Certainly not something one sees everyday.” Astrid admitted, blinking at the bright view before them with an awed expression.

The forming mass of magma was also ringed by a huge and dense asteroid field, probably formed by what was left of the two planet’s crusts.

“Do we have a visual on the ship?” Hiccup asked, setting aside his reverie, and Tooth shook her head.

“I’m having trouble locating the exact position. It’s somewhere in that asteroid field, but there’s massive gravitational interference messing with our sensors.”

“Transporters won’t work either then.” Astrid added, voicing what Hiccup had already feared. Simply beaming everyone from the ailing ship to their medbay would have been too easy, he supposed. 

“I can only establish a rough location, anything past that would be a guess.” Fishlegs said, frowning as he worked his station.

“How dense is that asteroid field?” Hiccup asked as they approached it, watching swirling rocks with sizes anywhere between a fist and a large house move in front of them. This field was moving quite quickly too, orbiting around the swirling mass of magma, which dipped everything into an ominous red glow.

“I would advise against taking the Enterprise in there, Sir.” Fishlegs said, “With that much mass moving so quickly, it would overwhelm our shields in seconds.”

“What do you reckon, bud?” Hiccup asked. If Toothless could avoid the larger asteroids, it might just be enough to make it work.

Toothless made a skeptical sound and shook his head, glancing back at Hiccup from the helm station. 

That was about as definite a ‘No.’ as Hiccup would ever get. He knew the dragon was prideful of his abilities, as all dragons were, he’d assured him. So Toothless wouldn’t be caught dead admitting he couldn’t pilot them through something. But if Toothless sounded anything less than enthusiastic, it wasn’t a challenge, it was a death sentence. 

Hiccup looked to Jack “Care to take the Laika for a spin?” he asked quietly.

Jack grinned “Sure.”
Hiccup nodded and raised his voice

“Commander Frost will lead an away team on the Laika. Hofferson, Toothless, you’re with him. Take Gobber and Bunnymund too. Find that ship and render any aid you can, drag it out of there if possible.” 

Jack and the others got up, quickly moving to the turbo lifts, Astrid and Fishlegs’ stations quickly filled by other duty officers.
Hiccup watched them leave with the usual apprehension sending out an away team brought. Was it the last time he’d see them? If so, it would be his fault.
He’d gotten better at suppressing that kind of thinking, but it never fully went away. He found comfort in the fact that they all knew what they were doing. You were hard pressed to find a more capable group of people than his bridge crew.

***************

The USS Laika was an Aquarius-Class escort vessel, embedded within the aft section of the Enterprise.
While the Enterprise had numerous shuttlecraft in its internal hangars, none would be big and powerful enough to meaningfully move an ailing ship with a tractor beam, nor transport a large number of wounded passengers.

Having an entire, smaller ship attached to the Enterprise had paid off many times in the past, whenever they had more than one objective to fulfill and they needed to be in two places at once, or in situations like this, when the sheer size of the Enterprise stood in the way of their goals.

Jack swiped his hand over the backrest of the Laika’s captain’s seat, watching as the crew quickly started the ship’s systems, consoles lighting up all over the much smaller bridge as everything was initialized.
Toothless settled in front of him at the helm, Astrid towards the side, on the ops station.
The start-up sequence didn’t take that long, but they had to wait for Gobber, Aster and their respective teams to board the ship.

The Laika was tiny compared to the Enterprise, but that didn’t mean it was small. It still spanned just over a hundred meters in length and seventy in width, with ten decks.
Jack sat down in the captain’s chair, watching as the ship came alive around him. It was easy to forget the scale of starships, especially when you only saw them out in space. Humans were generally unable to guess the size of something without any frame of reference. The number of meters gave a good estimation, but it never quite captured the feeling for the size. And how did you even come close to understanding that?

He thought of the age-old ship Titanic, that Jack only knew from the history books about the 20th century. That was a ship people considered gigantic—or, well, literally titanic—at the time.
And right now, Jack was taking command of a ‘small’ escort vessel that was almost half the size of the Titanic. He frowned slightly. Maybe the Titanic wasn’t a great comparison. It wasn’t like he wanted them to meet the same fate. Especially since they were about to fly into a field of rocks, some probably made of ice too.

“All systems ready Sir, the crew has boarded, airlocks are closed.” Astrid said, and Jack blinked himself from his thoughts.

“Right. Take us out.” he replied, and Astrid confirmed the order.

The large viewscreen flickered to life in front of him, and a metallic rumbling shook the ship as the docking clamps detached from the Enterprise. 

Jack watched as the Laika slowly moved backwards, the viewscreen first showing only the rear wall of the Enterprise, then the U shaped port the Laika usually rested in. At last, they gained enough distance to see the entire rear of the Enterprise, towering above them.

This was their home, the only Federation ship in this entire quadrant, and this was the first time they were able to see it from the outside. Jack took in the view for another moment, before focusing on the mission again. One had to appreciate the little things sometimes. But that sentiment didn’t make their mission less urgent. He just waited for Astrid’s go-ahead.

“Separation successful, nacelles extended and locked in. We’re ready, Sir.” she said, and Jack nodded.

“Toothless, take us to the source of the distress signal, as fast as possible.” he said, and Toothless warbled something that Jack interpreted as enthusiastic consent.

“Within reason.” Jack quickly amended with a smile, “As fast as possible while safe.”
Toothless shot him a glance that seemed disappointed, but nodded nevertheless.
His claws moved over the controls, and the Laika quickly came about, the Enterprise leaving the viewscreen, replaced by the asteroid field. They were already accelerating, speeding towards the fast-moving collection of rocks.

Once again, scale was relative, and Jack couldn’t help the uneasy feeling as they got closer.
From a distance, the asteroid field had looked so dense it almost seemed smooth, like the flow of sand from a broken hourglass. Up close, it revealed itself as a messy jumble of rocks, hundreds of meters deep,  all moving quite quickly, spinning and crashing into each other.
Rocks wasn’t a good way to describe the massive chunks of ice and rock either. Some were as big as the Laika, and would obliterate them if Toothless didn’t evade them.

Jack had put his trust in the dragon before, and he wasn’t disappointed now, as Toothless almost made it seem easy. He steered the ship right into the asteroid field, swooping around the biggest chunks, turning the ship this way and that, diving below some, above others.
Jack still gripped his armrest a little more tightly when Toothless steered them right between two massive asteroids, both on a collision course. His jaw tensed, as if bracing himself for the inevitable impact that would smash them between the two rocks like a bug, but Toothless turned the ship sideways, making it out just in time.

Jack let out a small breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, and shared a glance with Astrid, who swallowed thickly, pointedly looking back at her panel. It wasn’t like Jack didn’t appreciate a hint of danger and a fun ride, it was just more difficult to enjoy when he wasn’t in direct control. 

It took them almost two hours of acrobatics and near misses, but eventually they rounded another asteroid, revealing a large, clunky looking ship in front of them, just a couple dozen kilometers away.
It didn’t seem to have any visible damage, at least not from their point of view. Still, it drifted at a strange angle, not aligned with the movements of the asteroids.

“Hail it, let them know we’re here to help.” Jack said, and Astrid nodded, pressing a couple buttons.
Nothing happened.

Jack glanced at Astrid, who shrugged slightly, frowning at her station “No reply so far.”

“Get us a little closer, keep hailing them.” Jack said, leaning forward in his chair, studying the dark looking vessel more closely. It was a very bulky ship, looking more like an elongated, floating oil rig, with no interest in optics.
And he supposed there was no need for a mining ship to have pleasing visuals. 

It was mostly just a rectangle, covered in piping and metal protrusions, cranes and possibly smaller vessels attached to the hull. It had a huge opening at the front, which led to two massive metal cylinders, covered in spikes. Probably so that the ship just had to steer into larger asteroids, crushing them between the spinning cylinders before they could be mined inside the ship.

Still, it gave the ship an almost animalistic quality, like it had a gaping maw, with gritted teeth ready to crush them. 

“I’m getting a signal now, but it’s faint.” Astrid said, and a metallic, inhuman voice sounded over the intercom, every other word garbled from interference and static.

“Do not approach. Property of FXG…mining claim…..salvage….open fire…disengage…” Jack frowned, trying to decipher what it meant. They weren’t supposed to get closer, that much was clear.
He looked to Astrid “Transmit this on all frequencies.” she nodded.

Jack stood up and folded his hands behind his back. The bridge of the Laika was a lot smaller than that of the Enterprise, but it still gave him enough room to pace about a little.

“This is Commander Jack Frost of the USS Laika, representing the United Federation of Planets. We are here to answer your distress call. We only intend to render any necessary aid. We mean no harm.” he said, sharing another look with Astrid after a moment, who only shrugged and shook her head.

“Sir, I’m reading multiple life signs on that vessel, but I’m not sure that message came from any of them. Readings indicate that it’s a computer generated voice.” Astrid said, tapping away at her station, and a diagram of the mining ship appeared on the viewscreen. It marked one section side of the ship, where many small red shapes blurred together into one lump.
“It looks like all the living passengers are in a single room, which doesn’t look like the bridge. At least if I’m interpreting that ship’s layout correctly.” Astrid said.

“It did sound robotic.” Jack said, nodding. “They’re all in a single room? How many are there?” 

“About fifty. It’s difficult to get an exact reading, since they’re all lumped together.” she replied. “I’m also reading a fire onboard, with multiple smoke detectors giving off a signal.”

Jack tilted his head. That looked less like a crew, and more like a huddled mass of people. And a computer voice told them to stay away despite the fire? What was going on here?

“Maybe they can’t communicate properly…” he mused. “Can we beam them out?”

Astrid grimaced slightly, checking more readouts. “The interference is still too strong. We barely got their com-signal.”

Jack nodded. He knew when it came to beaming people, it wasn’t so much impossible for them to beam them over, it was just too risky. If it had just been cargo, they could have tried, but when it came to people, there was literally zero margin for error. When the transportation method included taking an object apart on an atomic level, sending that information over, and rematerializing said object, you needed a perfect connection. A single misplaced or damaged molecule could be extremely harmful to most species.

“Maybe we can send a shuttle-” just as he said it, their entire ship rocked, making him stumble slightly.
Warning lights flashed all over the bridge, and Jack quickly sat down.

“The mining ship just opened fire. Shields at 94%.” Astrid said, just as another blast shook the Laika. "88%" Astrid corrected.

"Evasive maneuvers, divert power to shields." Jack said, his mind racing. They were supposed to help this ship, but now it was firing at them. And he hadn’t even been able to establish contact.
Toothless jumped to the task, doing an admirable job dodging the other ship’s shots, and the asteroids, all while keeping the ship in firing range.
Blue, crackling streaks of light fired in their direction, each only missing by a hair's breadth as Toothless maneuvered in a wide circle around the mining ship, spinning and diving randomly.
It bought them some time, but Jack had to think fast.

"What the hell are they doing?" he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
Astrid answered anyway, frowning at her readouts.

"First they tell us to back off, now they're firing at us. Whatever their problems are, they don't seem to want our help with them."

Jack bit his lip. But who was even firing at them?
"You said it was a computer generated voice? Maybe it's just an automatic response, one the people on there don't even know about." he ventured, and Astrid shrugged, looking a little conflicted.
"It's possible Sir, but that is technically not within our mandate to decide. We offered our help, they declined.
The Federation guidelines would be to leave them to it."

Jack nodded, looking at the hostile ship, still firing, still refusing to talk. The guidelines did have a point. Starfleet wasn't supposed to intervene in other people's affairs, even if they thought they knew better. Retreating and leaving the mining ship to its own devices was the easier choice, and they had every right to do so. They had made their offer, and the rejection was currently trying to rip through their shields. Still. It didn't sit right with him.

"There are fifty lifeforms in a single room, with a fire approaching. That doesn't look like they have control over their ship." He worked his jaw for a moment. "Return fire, disable their weapons."

“Aye Sir.” Lieutenant Vasquez at the tactical station said, and within moments, yellow beams blazed from the Laika’s bow to the mining ship, raking over its shields. It took multiple hits, the Laika's phaser emitters adjusting automatically to Toothless' wild maneuvers, hitting the same spot with each shot.

The seventh sustained phaser beam lit up the asteroids around them, and the mining ship’s shields flickered out, a brief explosion flashing across the viewscreen.

“Target shields are down, weapons have been disabled.” Vasquez reported, “We destroyed one turret, the others seem to have been overloaded.” 

Jack winced as he watched a series of small explosions flash on the screen, small plumes of fire erupting on different sections of the mining ship, which started to spin lengthwise, as multiple explosions on one side accelerated it.

“What was that?” he asked, and Astrid was already typing away on her station.

“It seems the overload in their weapons has cascaded through other systems, I’m reading power failures on multiple decks. Structural integrity seems to be holding, but its thrusters seem unable to stabilize that spin. If anyone is even still in control of the ship.” 

Jack swallowed a curse. Just disabling a ship's weapons was easier said than done. While phasers were about as precise as ship weapons could be, there was always a large amount of risk involved with firing at another ship.
Vasquez had targeted the weapons only, and still they'd caused untold damage.
Now the ship was in significantly worse shape than when they'd started their 'rescue' operation. 
Should he have retreated instead? Left them to die? There was no easy solution here, and the choice was made already.

They had to save these people and fast. If they died now, it wouldn’t just be failure to render assistance, it would be directly Jack’s fault.

“Move us in closer, maybe we can establish a transporter lock.” Jack said, and Toothless complied, expertly maneuvering the Laika closer to the mining ship, which loomed large on the viewscreen, spinning quite fast now.

“Still no luck.” Astrid said. “The gravimetric distortion from the planet formation is causing too much interference, for both transporters and the tractor beam.”

Jack grimaced. “Is their artificial gravity still holding?” he asked, because if it wasn’t, any living being on a ship spinning like this would be killed from the G-forces, with the ship acting like a centrifuge.

“Yes, so far.” Astrid said. So at least they had a little more time to come up with a solution. But if transporters didn’t work, and they couldn’t tow the ship out…What else was there?

“Suggestions?” he asked, hoping that six minds would come up with more solutions than he could on his own.
The bridge was quiet for an extended moment, and Jack got the sinking feeling that they were staring at a disaster with no way to stop it. A disaster he caused.

Then Toothless looked back at him with a strange glint in his green eyes and warbled something.
Jack gave him a helpless look, and Toothless huffed. He probably realized that no one on the bridge understood his language.

“Match the spin. Dock the ship.” the dragon growled, and Jack realized it was the first time he’d heard Toothless speak human words. His voice was a deep growl, and his words were slow and deliberate, like he’d made an effort to phrase his suggestion with the least words possible.

Jack gaped at him, then at the spinning mining ship, then back to Toothless.

“You…want to match the spin of that thing and dock the Laika to a mining ship that’s in the process of exploding? In an asteroid field?” he asked, just to be sure that Toothless wanted to get them all killed.

Toothless gave him an ironically very toothy grin and warbled a reply that sounded something like ‘sure, no big deal’. Maybe Jack was beginning to understand him, even if what he said was ridiculous. Docking with other ships that weren’t specifically built for it was always risky, even in perfect conditions.

It meant moving within less than ten meters of a massive, moving object. Something one generally avoided, since the smallest error in maneuvering would spell disaster. The Laika had an armored hull, unlike most ships, and even then it was risky. And that was in open space, with both ships relatively stationary. Attempting this on a clunky mining vessel that was spinning that fast was absurd.

Or was it?
They were out of options, and if Toothless thought he could do it…
Hiccup trusted the dragon implicitly, and Jack trusted his judgement, but still.

He glanced to Astrid “Does the Laika have emergency gangways?” 
She raised her eyebrows, looking between Jack and Toothless with disbelief. Jack thought he saw her come to the same conclusion he had. Their only options were retreat, or something crazy. Jack knew which one he preferred, and Astrid did too.

She shrugged slightly “We could deploy them from the bottom airlock. But Toothless would need to hold the ship perfectly steady, they don’t have that much give.”
The emergency gangways were essentially just large, structurally reinforced tritanium tubes that could be clamped from one airlock to another, if no other option was available. They weren’t used often, because it was quite literally the worst way to connect two ships. But it might just do the trick.

Toothless warbled confidently, and Jack gave Astrid a slightly pained grin. “Get it ready. Have a security team and Aster stand by at the bottom air lock.”

“Aye Sir.” Astrid replied, already moving towards the turbo lift.

Toothless punched the Laika into motion, sidling up close to the spinning factory ship, aligning with its axis.

“Get us right over the room with the crewmembers. We’ll need to cut through the hull anyway, might as well save us some time.” Jack said, and Toothless nodded.
The Laika started accelerating sideways with its maneuvering thrusters, and Jack couldn’t help but feel impressed at the seeming ease with which Toothless moved their ship in a barrel-roll like maneuver, orbiting around the spinning factory ship at increasing speeds.

It made Jack’s head spin as well, watching the asteroid field on the viewscreen swirl in front of him faster and faster. He honestly had no idea how Toothless even kept track of their position. Not that he would admit it, but he felt a little nauseated just looking at the screen.
Then slowly but surely, the factory ship below them seemed to stop spinning, the rotation moving ever slower, until it seemed to stop.
It was still spinning, of course, they were just spinning with it, proven by the world turning in a blur above them.

Toothless wasn’t one to show a lot of emotions in his humanoid form. But if Jack looked closely, he thought he could see a certain tension in the dragon’s broad shoulders. As much as he’d proclaimed it to be easy, keeping the Laika steady in a flight path like this took every bit of piloting skill Toothless had.

Jack's jaw was hanging open slightly, barely able to believe Toothless had pulled this off this quickly.
“Incredible work Toothless.” he breathed, and the dragon barely acknowledged it with a swish of his tail.
“I’ll go down and help with the evacuation, keep us steady as long as you can.” he added, and Toothless nodded briefly. 

Jack left the bridge in the capable hands of Lieutenant Vasquez, and hurried down to the lowest deck, where Astrid and over a dozen crewmembers from various departments were already suiting up in the hangar bay. The gangways were supposed to seal tightly to the hull of the other ship, but it was still prudent to wear full environmental suits in a high risk maneuver like this. Plus, if there was a fire on board the other ship, it wouldn’t hurt to have heat- and smoke resistant suits.
Astrid was checking the seal of Yeoman Wong’s helmet, before she spotted Jack. 

“Coming with us Sir?” she asked, and Jack nodded, already picking up one of the envo-suits from the rack. 

He looked around the small hangar bay as he sealed the thick material of the suit, fitting the different pieces together.
The Laika only had two small shuttles, which were now moved as far to the side of the hangar bay, making room for the crew they were endeavoring to save. Aster was already setting up an emergency triage station with his team, since the small medbay on the Laika couldn’t hope to house fifty people at once.
He and some of his team were wearing the full envo-suits as well, as they were coming over with the initial team, to determine how to move any severely injured people.

Astrid stepped over to check Jack’s helmet as well, and he checked hers, even though she’d probably already gotten it checked. Stuff like this was just drilled into you too often not to do it.

Jack tapped his badge “Alright, Toothless, final approach, put us right over the room with the crew. We’re ready to deploy the gangway.” he said, joining Astrid at the large, circular door embedded in the floor of the room. It was the only exit of the ship that didn’t have an airlock, since it was located in the hangar bay.
Well technically the entire room was an airlock, since it was built to be exposed to space occasionally.
The blast shields were closed right now, but usually one of the walls was open to space, with just a simple force field keeping in the air.
Since one couldn’t always rely on available power, safety regulations demanded that, during a red alert, the room was treated as if it could be vented at any time.

Jack looked through the window in the door, watching as the outer hull of the mining vessel came even closer, red light emanating from the nearby forming planet flickering in and out as both ships spun around the same axis.
Toothless expertly steered the Laika over an empty spot of the mining ship’s hull.

“Locked in.” his deep voice growled over the com, and Jack gave the signal to Astrid, who slammed her hand on a large button next to the door.

Four tritanium columns exploded outwards from the Laika, one on each ‘corner’ of the round door.
They slammed into the mining ship’s hull, magnetically locking in place. Even Toothless couldn’t hold a ship perfectly steady for any extended amount of time, so they had to lock themselves to the other ship.
Not that the tritanium columns would hold if the Laika actually pulled away in any meaningful way, but Toothless could do that much.
The gangway deployed next, launching from the Laika’s bottom hull, a grey tunnel unfolded, staying in between the four columns, until it slammed into the mining ship’s hull. A brief flash of light, and the tunnel had welded itself to the hull, creating an airtight seal.

The light on the inner door switched from red to green, indicating that the gangway was filled with atmosphere.

“GO!” Astrid yelled over the intercom, slamming another button at the same time.
The doors hissed open,and Astrid took point, stepping into the short tunnel. It was a mind bending feat in and of itself. The gangway was only four meters long, but it had its own artificial gravity, emitted from the panels built into the floor.
Since the gangway’s entrance was in the hangarbay’s floor—a room with gravity perpendicular to the gangway—it meant Astrid had to let herself drop into the gangway, then take a step.

It looked like a gravity defying stunt as she stepped forward, as if to fall into a hole in the floor, then pitched smoothly, only to stand safely on both feet, now perpendicular to Jack.
Jack blinked, wrapping his mind around that strange vision.
It was like looking down a well, and Astrid was casually standing on the side wall. Only she wasn’t standing, she was already hurrying deeper into the gangway, running to the mining ship’s outer hull.

Jack had to shake himself briefly, as he had to perform the same feat. He stepped forward and ignored the lurching in his stomach as gravity tilted by ninety degrees mid-fall.
He followed Astrid, who was already using a plasma cutter to slice a large portal into the mining ship, the metal melting away, still glowing red hot on both sides of the cut.
Six other crewmembers followed behind Jack, stacking up in a kneeling position, waiting for Astrid to finish cutting. They were all armed with pistol shaped level two phasers, since they didn’t know what to expect on the other side of the wall. This ship had fired at them, after all.
This was supposed to be a rescue mission, and yet it felt like they were pirates, boarding an enemy vessel to take it over.

“Ready?” Astrid said over the com, and Jack nodded. She had left a tiny sliver of metal uncut, which  was now holding a slab of the outer hull in place like a door.
“Go.” Jack said, and Astrid kicked down the slab, creating a ramp into the dark room beyond. Black smoke immediately rushed towards them, making it difficult to see. Jack switched on the flashlight on his phaser, and they rushed into the room, trying to discern if there were any threats.

What they saw was anything but a threat. They had cut their way into some sort of dormitory, which was cramped with some of the most desperate looking people Jack had ever seen. It was difficult to discern in the low light and smoke, but every last one of the aliens caught in his light flinched. They all looked at least somewhat emaciated, bruised and even bloodied. They were of varied species, none of which Jack had ever seen before. Which made sense, since they were new in the gamma quadrant. 

Assured that none of these people posed a threat, they holstered their phasers and activated their helmet lights instead. The team worked without needing special orders, since it was obvious what needed to happen. They needed to get these people off the ailing ship, and fast. The room was choked with black smoke, only slightly aided by the ventilation door they had cut in the wall. The smoke only cleared slowly, the Laika’s ventilation system efficiently clearing it from the shuttlebay. They started leading out those that could still walk, aiding them with arms slung around shoulders, half carrying some of them into the gangway and off the mining ship. They were deposited in the makeshift triage center Aster had set up, and the crewmembers returned to help with the rest. Some were too weak, or too badly injured to walk, and had to be carried out with stretchers, which took even more time, despite the Laika’s crew’s remarkable efficiency. 

“Sir!” Yeoman Wong tapped Jack’s shoulder, his voice clear over the intercom. He gestured to a male passenger towards the back of the room, who was lying on the floor next to a bunk bed, slumped against the outer wall. One hand was clutching an obvious, bloody wound in his stomach, the other was slung around one of the bedposts.

“He refuses to leave the ship, Sir, I’m not sure we can force him in this state..” Wong said, obviously unsure how to proceed.
“I’ll talk to him.” Jack nodded, and quickly made his way over, keeling next to the alien, who stared up at him with slightly glassy eyes, seeming in a state between agony and delirium. He was tall and slender, his skin a greenish hue with mottled blue markings reaching all the way up the two horn-like protrusions on his head. Jack could see a lucid glint in his large, entirely black eyes though. This man was not refusing without reason.

“My name is Jack Frost, First Officer of the starship Enterprise.” Jack said, his suit projecting his voice.
“We picked up your distress call. We’re only here to help.” he said, and the alien stared at Jack like he was a ghost pulling him into the afterlife.
He looked Jack up and down in a mix of confusion and apprehension, his gaze locking on the unfamiliar badge on Jack’s chest. His arm around the bedpost tightened.

“Please let us help you. We need to get you out of here. You will not be harmed.” Jack said, deliberately slow and steady, hoping to calm the man down.

“I can’t!” the man croaked, the short phrase sending him into a coughing fit. Unsurprising, considering the  acrid smoke in the air.
“Leave me!” he choked out, a thin trickle of blood running down from the corner of his mouth. Jack didn’t have much time. They could probably stun the man, or force his arm away from the bed, but that would risk injuring him even more. And Jack wasn’t sure how much more he would be able to take. So he had to convince him somehow.

“Why can’t you leave? The others are being rescued as we speak, we will leave no one behind.” Jack explained, gesturing behind him at the slowly emptying room.

Why couldn’t he leave?

Nyxis stared up at the strange alien, his pale face almost luminous in the dark room, lit up by bright lights inside his helmet. With Nyxis' vision swimming slightly, he wasn't sure if he was even looking at a real person.  This was no company enforcer, and he couldn’t be from the Emperor’s Legion. They’d all be already dead if he were.
He’d never seen the golden symbol on the man’s suit before, a swooping arrow shape. He didn’t think it was from one of the companies, but he couldn’t be sure. The man had said that he only wanted to help, but obviously that couldn’t be true. No one just helped. They were interested in the scrap this ship represented, or they wanted to steal the remaining workforce.

He coughed again, his thoughts racing, his head spinning. Why couldn’t he leave? It was such a clear truth to him, that he couldn’t articulate it. They had fought so hard for control of the ship. They had lost so many lives in that pursuit. So many of his friends were dead because of his foolish dream. If he gave up now, if he just left the ship to burn up and be salvaged, it would have been all for nothing. Without it, they had nowhere to go.

“This ship is all I have left.” he eventually said, his voice weaker than he would have liked.
The man in the space suit looked at him for a long moment, and Nyxis was surprised to find pity and concern in those large blue eyes. Not something you expected to see in a scrapper or slaver.
He also looked a little guilty, glancing around the room as if he’d been the cause of the damage.

A gloved hand landed on Nyxis's shoulder, squeezing slightly. He had to blink away the dizziness for a moment, trying to focus on the illuminated face in front of him.

“Let us get you out of here, and I’ll save your ship. You have my word.” the man said, his smooth voice oddly reassuring. Who gave their word nowadays? Few things were so worthless as a man’s promise, especially without a written contract. But somehow, in that moment, Nyxis believed him.
Maybe it was the serious set to his blue eyes, maybe it was his fading consciousness, but Nyxis nodded, finally letting go from the bed.

“Please..” was all he managed to croak out before the darkness swallowed him whole.

******************

"Captain, there is a vessel approaching at high warp. It will enter this System in 4.2 minutes." Sandy said in his usual, neutral tone, and Hiccup raised an eyebrow.

"That close? Why didn't we pick it up earlier?"

"Its approach was masked by the gravimetric distortion of the planet, Sir. We only have limited long range sensors available."

"I see." Hiccup leaned back and folded his hands in his lap, thumbs tapping against each other. They still hadn't heard back from the Laika, and now the situation was getting more complicated.

"Do we have a read on what type of ship it is?"

"Difficult to tell through the distortion. I am not able to get a clear reading."

"Best guess?" Hiccup asked with a slight smile. Sandy always chose his statements with extreme care, making sure everything he said was accurate. Which was generally fine, but sometimes a rough estimate was all Hiccup needed.

"It appears to be a medium sized power signature, traveling at warp seven, Sir. But with the distortion, it is impossible to rule out a sensor failure, so the reading has a 34.45% chance of being incorrect."

"Acknowledged. Let me know when they're in visual range." Hiccup replied, looking out at the swirling red of the forming planet and the surrounding asteroid field. The Laika had been gone for over two hours, and the distortion made it impossible to communicate with them. It had seemed like the obvious choice to send her in to respond to the distress call, but Hiccup couldn't help the churning worry in his gut. Two hours. How deep inside were they? Would they be safe? How safe could one possibly be inside an asteroid field?
It wasn't that he doubted their abilities, but he somehow always felt like something would go wrong if he wasn't there to stop it. The thought of something happening to them....

He shook his head. Worrying like this was useless. Jack could handle himself, and what could possibly go wrong with Toothless and Astrid there? It made more sense to try and focus on the problem at hand.
After all, this was the first ship they would encounter on this side of the crimson veil! And a first contact with a new civilization was always an exciting prospect. They had no idea what kind of people lived in this part of the gamma quadrant, and it was Hiccup's job to make a good first impression, above all.

"Unidentified ship dropping out of warp now, Sir." Sandy said, hands moving over his console as he scanned the vessel properly. "Entering visual range."

"On screen." Hiccup said, standing up to get a closer look. The ship that appeared on the main view screen was quite large, according to the displayed scale next to it, at least three hundred meters long, and one hundred wide. Most notably, it had a large hangar deck opening on the side and front.

"Sir, the medium sized energy reading was misleading. It appears to be a carrier ship, with few armaments of its own." Sandy said, and Hiccup nodded as he studied the ship's design. It was always fascinating to see how other cultures built their ships, how similar most spaceships looked, despite their wildly different origins. This one had a squat and utilitarian appearance, its hull littered with hatches and pipes, and what looked like folded in cranes. It certainly wasn't very aerodynamic, but then again, space ships didn't need to be.
Still, most space fairing species seemed to incorporate somewhat aerodynamic shapes into their ship design. Maybe it was because, despite their huge differences, all humanoid species evolved inside the atmosphere of a planet. And the designers of space ships were inspired by whatever had flown inside that atmosphere before, making a somewhat sleek form aesthetically pleasing.

"Hail them." he said, and Tooth acknowledged the order.

Hiccup felt a certain apprehension, but also excitement as he waited for the connection to be established.
They’d been in the gamma quadrant for less than four weeks, but so far they hadn’t encountered any civilized worlds, or other ships, for that matter. The corridor they’d found in the crimson veil had led them to a rather empty section of space. At least, empty of civilization. They did find a couple of M-Class planets, and the exobiology labs had taken some samples and catalogued hundreds of new species.
The science labs, Fishlegs included, had been very excited, since everything they encountered was new, not yet known to the Federation database. 

But the most interesting thing to Hiccup had always been finding new cultures, new people. He liked exploring new fauna and flora on an exotic planet as much as the next guy—especially when it came to looking for clues of dragons—but there was something special about finding other civilizations out here. To see how their societies were structured, if it mirrored any known cultures, or if there were entirely new things about them. How did the unique peculiarities of a species shape their social systems and customs, for example?

Making first contact with a space-faring species was always exciting, even in a case like this, where the circumstances were less than ideal. He assumed the alien vessel was the original recipient of the distress call, and here to rescue their ship.
At least Hiccup had some good news for them.

“They’ve accepted our hail. Putting it on screen.” Tooth announced, and the main viewscreen switched from the field of stars and asteroids, to a view of the other ship’s bridge.
It looked a lot darker and smaller than the Enterprise’s bridge, all sharp angles and industrial efficiency. The surfaces seemed to be entirely metal, with pipes and wires running along the ceiling in an orderly fashion.
In the middle of it, leaning against a railing, stood a female looking alien with a slender figure, who was currently giving Hiccup a suspicious look. She had large, and entirely black eyes, with slightly shimmering scales covering her head. It gave her a reptilian look, though her head shape was closer to that of a human than to a dragon or a Jem'Hadar. She was wearing an entirely black, form fitting suit, with red markings or decorations on her chest and arms.

"On behalf of the United Federation of Planets, allow me to introduce myself." Hiccup said, trying for a friendly smile "I am Captain Hiccup Haddock of the Starship Enterprise. Who do I have the honor of addressing?"
It was a little formal, but that usually didn't hurt, especially not for First Contact.

The alien tilted her head, still eyeing him suspiciously.
"I am Dhinael, official Overseer of this sector for the Frontier Extraction Group. I hereby inform you that FXG has a valid claim on this system, as we deployed a mining ship to the asteroid field last week. You have no right to interfere in our operations-"

"Woah, hey now," Hiccup said with a small laugh, holding up his hands in a placating gesture "we're not here to stake any claims, or intrude on your territory. We're just peaceful explorers. And we picked up a distress call from this asteroid belt, so we came to lend our assistance."

The Overseer raised a scaly eyebrow, still seeming rather suspicious of them.
"That will not be necessary. The Ore-Extraction 38 is property of FXG and therefore my responsibility. You can leave the system, I will initiate the rescue."

"I assumed as much," Hiccup nodded, "but we already sent a ship into the asteroid belt to respond to the distress call and lend aid to your mining ship."

Her eyes widened slightly at that "You what?"

"We've already dispatched help, they should be well into the rescue at this point. You're welcome to take over once they emerge from the field." Hiccup explained, tilting his head. Why was that so shocking? Overseer Dhinael seemed genuinely put off by the news for a moment, looking around her bridge, presumably checking with her officers.
But when she looked back to Hiccup, she was actually smiling rather broadly.

"Well that is wonderful news. Your helpful interference is most welcome. I will dispatch our rescue vessels as well, to assist your ship, if necessary. If you'll excuse me." she said, her smile not wavering, before turning away from the screen.

"But-" Hiccup started to say, but the viewscreen had already switched back to the usual outside view.
"They severed the connection, Sir." Tooth announced, sounding surprised as well.
Hiccup couldn't help but be a little disappointed. He'd hoped to find out more about this sector, and who these people were. But he supposed that could wait until later. The rescue operation did have priority.

"Sir, I am detecting three smaller ships, launching from the Overseer's carrier. They're headed for the asteroid belt."

Hiccup nodded, his brow furrowed slightly. "That was fast. I wonder how often they have to deploy for this kind of rescue." he mumbled, more to himself. Something about this didn't feel quite right, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He just hoped things were fairing better on the Laika.

****************

Jack flinched as a shower of sparks rained down on his face, glad for the helmet of the envo-suit.
“Fuck.” he muttered to himself, squinting at the jumble of micro-connectors and wires in front of him. He wasn’t afraid to admit that electronics and engineering just wasn’t one of his strong suits, but he’d at least expected to be able to rewire the damn door to open.

He was still in the mining ship’s dark and smoky dormitory, kneeling next to the hallway exit. He’d ripped open the wall panel next to the door, his helmet light providing the only illumination. If he wanted to save this ship, he’d need to get access to its systems. Especially fire suppression, since all that smoke had to be coming from somewhere. And then he had to get to the bridge to take control, assess the damage, stop the spinning, and maneuver the ship out of the asteroid field without crashing it. He was totally not in trouble. This was going to be a breeze.

He just had to get past this damn door first. It couldn’t be that hard, could it? He tilted his head, his gloved fingers tugging at a cable, as if that would be the solution. Damn. Hiccup would probably be past this door in a heartbeat, considering he did stuff like this in his spare time. Maybe Jack should start doing that too, he mused. But then again, there was nothing quite as boring as a circuit diagram.

He sighed in defeat and glanced over his shoulder. It was difficult to see the other end of the room, where they had cut their entrance into the outer hull, but he saw the group of engineers assembling in front of the opening, carrying large cases of gear. Good, finally someone with the expertise he needed.

He had ordered Astrid to take the Laika with all the wounded passengers back to the Enterprise, since there was no way for the Laika to handle this many patients, even with Aster’s skills at triage.
Astrid had not been pleased when he revealed to her that he would stay behind with the engineering team, to try and fix the ship. 

You promised him what?!  she had yelled, and Jack was glad that she only punched the wall next to her, and not his face. His rank probably the only thing saving him from her wrath.
She hadn’t understood then, and she probably still thought he was a lunatic, but he could live with that. Maybe he could explain it later.

He’d made that alien a promise, and he intended to keep it. Astrid hadn’t seen the sheer desperation in the man’s eyes, the hopeful glint at Jack’s promise. This ship was all they had, and Jack was partially responsible for its current state. He ordered the Laika to open fire. Maybe that had saved these people, maybe there could have been another solution. But either way, he had made the choice, and now this mining ship was on fire, spinning out of control, deeper and deeper into a dense asteroid belt, without functioning shields. He had to fix it.

He refocused his efforts on the door panel, hoping to at least get this done before the engineers got closer. He didn’t want to become the laughing stock of the entire engineering department. Jack knew how they loved to gossip and he could almost hear them laughing as they told this story.
Commander Frost couldn’t rewire a door if his life depended on it.

No. That wouldn’t do. This really should do the trick…
Another shower of sparks washed over him, and Jack closed his eyes in exasperation, his helmet bonking against the wall softly. So much for saving face.

“Cadet Bennett reporting for duty, Sir! Need any help with that?” he heard over the intercom, and he shot to his feet. Cadet?

Jack stared down at the young man he’d met earlier that day, and it took all his self control to keep his mouth from falling open.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, a little more accusatory than he intended.

Bennett flinched slightly, his posture stiffening “Sir, I was just doing as I was ordered, Sir. Lt.Commander Gobber said to give you a hand. Sir.” he said, looking straight ahead, not meeting his eyes.

Jack didn’t want to believe it, but the proof was standing right in front of him. And it most certainly wasn’t his fault. Bennett was clearly nervous, indicated by his overuse of the honorific. Cadets tended to be overly respectful and focused on rank in general. It was one of those things that was taught at the academy, and only later mellowed by experience.

“At ease, cadet.” Jack said, and his gloved hand clacked against his helmet as he tried to rub his eyes.
“How are you with doors?” he asked, gesturing to the slightly smoldering wall panel.

“Top of my class in electrical work, Sir!” he said immediately, the pride clear in his voice, some of the nervousness fading.

“Well good. Try and get this door open. I’ll be back.” Jack said, stepping around the young man to go look for Gobber.

The chief engineer was currently checking storage boxes, probably to make sure they had all their gear.
Jack switched to a private channel.
“What the hell are the cadets doing here?” he said, his hand landing on Gobber’s shoulder to get his attention.
The man seemed rather nonplussed by Jack’s outrage.

“Well they’re here to learn, of course! You assigned them to me, no?”
Jack gaped at him for a moment, shaking his head
“But who takes cadets out on dangerous missions like this on the first day?! They’re supposed to learn how the department functions and such! From the safety of the damn ship!” he said, barely reigning in his annoyance.

“I believe in learning on the job.” Gobber said with a jovial smile, patting Jack on the shoulder.
“One mission like this, and they’ll have all the experience they need.”
“Or maybe they die on their first mission because they lack said experience.” Jack said.

“Didn’t think you were planning on getting us killed, Sir.” Gobber replied good-naturedly.
“Now. Let's get this flaming hunk of debris back into ship-shape, why don’t we?” he added.

He walked past Jack, who could only give him an exasperated glare. It wasn’t like he could send them back now. The cadets were here, the Laika was gone, and they would have to make the best of it.
And Gobber did have a point. It wasn’t like Jack was planning on getting himself killed either. They would get this ship back together. Or at least hold out long enough for the Laika to pick them back up.

******************

“Captain, the Laika is hailing us.” Tooth said, and Hiccup nodded for her to put it on the main screen. He was surprised to see Astrid in the Laika’s command chair, not Jack.
Her annoyed expression already told him he wouldn't like the answer to that mystery.
It had been four hours without communications at this point, and Hiccup had tried not to chew off his lip with worry, by distracting himself with writing a report on the situation. It had not been going well. He'd been writing and deleting the same paragraph for the last thirty minutes.

"Report." he said, putting his padd aside and leaning forward in his chair.

Astrid nodded briefly, then started to talk at a brisk, but professional pace.
“Yes sir. We were able to locate the vessel that sent out the distress call. It’s apparently a mining ship. It wasn’t heavily damaged by the time we showed up, but apparently adrift and unresponsive. We could detect fifty lifesigns on board, all in a single room. But as soon as we got into visual range, it opened fire.”

Hiccup raised his brows, but didn’t interrupt her.

“Since it seemed to be more of an automated response, we decided to return fire, and managed to disable the mining ship’s weapons. The ship did sustain considerable damage in the process though. It is currently spinning out of control and on fire. But it did give us an opportunity to rescue all of the people on board. We transferred them to the Laika, but we’ll need to transport them over, since most of them are wounded, some of them severely.”

“Understood.” Hiccup said, then glanced at Lieutenant Gav'rin, who was manning the operations station in Astrid's absence “Tell medbay to prepare to receive fifty wounded people, and send a security team down there too. And have the transporter room stand by, start beaming over the patients as soon as the Laika is in range.”

“Aye, sir.” Gav'rin replied, and Hiccup turned back to Astrid, nodding for her to continue. There was one important piece of the puzzle missing.

Astrid sighed briefly. “Commander Frost decided to stay behind with Lt.Cmdr. Gobber and an engineering team, to try and save the damaged mining vessel. He ordered me to come back and aid them as soon as possible.”

Hiccup blinked slowly, somehow hoping he’d heard wrong

“The ship that’s spinning deeper into an asteroid field and currently on fire?” he asked, and Astrid gave him an exasperated nod.

“That’s right.”

“That seems like a very risky move.”

“It is.”

“Any reason why he’d do that? Is there anything particularly valuable about that ship?”

“He said he promised one of the wounded passengers, because the ship is important to them.”
Astrid said, carefully keeping her tone neutral. Hiccup could tell she hadn’t liked the decision, but she would never openly depute it in a setting like this. And neither would he.

“I see. Well, there’s nothing to it. Unload the wounded and Aster’s team ASAP, then head straight back in and assist Commander Frost in any way.” he said, and Astrid nodded “Aye, Sir.”
Hiccup had only worked with Jack for a couple weeks now, but he had to trust that his first officer knew what he was doing. If he’d decided that the mining ship needed to be saved, Hiccup wouldn’t question it. Especially since he hadn’t been on the scene. Still, he'd hoped to get everyone back to safety already, and he hated the additional risk. What could possibly be so important about a broken down mining ship?

"The Overseer is hailing us, Sir." Tooth announced, and Hiccup blinked, getting back to the situation at hand.
Dhinael looked a little stressed, but eager to hear news of her ship. She was leaning forward against the railing, her grip tight on the metal bar.

"Overseer, I'm happy to inform you that we managed to rescue fifty people off your mining ship. Your ship was heavily damaged, but I have a team working on restoring, and saving it." Hiccup explained, unsure how enthusiastic he should sound about it, since he didn't know how many people were supposed to be on the mining ship to begin with. Was fifty survivors a tragedy, or a miracle? Either way, lives saved were always a cause for celebration.
Dhinael, though, looked mostly shocked.

"There were survivors?" she said, her grip tightening.

"Yes, they are being transferred to our medical facilities as we speak." Hiccup nodded with a smile.

Dhinael returned the smile, finally releasing the railing to clap her hands excitedly "Well that is just wonderful news. You don't have to treat them, just transport them over to my ship. We have the appropriate medical facilities, and we can get them back home."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all, they're already being treated-" Hiccup started, but the Overseer cut him off

"No, really Captain, they would be best served over here, I'm afraid I must insist." she said, her smile still in place, though it didn't quite reach her large black eyes.

Hiccup tilted his head slightly, holding his own smile in place. Something was off. He couldn't presume to read her emotions just from her expressions, she was an alien, after all, but something about her haste made him suspicious. He needed more time to think this through, at the very least. This was going to be a walk on the tightrope.

"Of course." he said, bowing slightly. "We will transport the wounded to your ship..." he could immediately see the relief in Dhinael's expression.
"..but-" he continued and her brow furrowed again "I'm afraid I'm bound by our own rules. We are obligated to treat the injured we rescued, before we're allowed to move them. I will notify you as soon as we're ready to send them over."

Dhinael's smile seemed rather forced just then, but she nodded in understanding. "Of course. I do urge you to work quickly though. I'm sure these workers are anxious to go home."
Hiccup gave her a gracious smile and nodded, then had Tooth cut the connection.

He didn't like this one bit.

There were a lot of moving pieces now, and multiple decisions to be made. His biggest problem was the lack of information. Here he was, dealing with someone presumably high ranking, but he didn't even know who they were working for, or what the local laws were like. What was this 'FXG' the Overseer had mentioned, and what had happened to this mining ship? Why had it fired on the Laika, and why had the Overseer been so surprised to hear of survivors? Hiccup needed answers.

He wasn’t sure what to make of this situation yet. He didn’t want to start some sort of conflict with the first alien life they’d encountered, especially since they had no information about the political landscape of this region of space.
But at the same time, he had a bad feeling about just sending over the wounded workers.
Maybe those were the key to understanding this whole thing.

"Tooth, you have the conn. I’m going to medbay to check on our guests.”

********************

“How’s it looking?” Jack asked, leaning against the wall with one hand, peering down at Gobber, who was currently lying on the floor, half buried in torn out cables and microchips he had ripped from a wall panel.
Jack couldn’t even see his head, as it was somewhere in the maintenance hatch.

“Like shite, Sir.” Gobber griped over the intercom, grunting as his suit was lit up with a shower of sparks.

“I see.” Jack said, looking down the corridor. The engineers were spreading out quickly, trying to work on everything at once. So far, they had at least gotten the fire suppression systems online, as that had been their most immediate problem. Still, the environmental scrubbers had a tough time cleaning all the air in the ship, so it was still somewhat smoky. At least they had some emergency lighting back, and no active fire. One had to appreciate the little things.

“Some of the systems are physically fine, but we’re completely locked out.” Gobber continued as he slowly dragged himself from the maintenance hatch and got to his feet, gratefully accepting Jack’s hand.
“I had to hotwire the fire suppression system into the gravity panels, just to get that to work. Any higher functions are software locked.”

Jack furrowed his brows. “So what is controlling the ship? The passengers certainly didn’t seem in control. Some sort of AI?”
“Aye, seems like it.” Gobber nodded. “And in addition to that problem, the circuitry controlling the weapons is completely welded together, the shield generators are fried, and the thrusters and propulsion are dead.”

Jack clapped him on the shoulder with a slight smirk
“Right. Well that’s why you’re here. I trust you can get this thing running again?”

Gobber glared at him, his glove bonking against the glass of his helmet as he tried to wipe the sweat from his brow.
“Give me a month and I’ll have her in ship-shape.” 

“You have an hour.” Jack replied with a shrug.
“Aye, I’ll make it work.” Gobber grumbled, staring at the jumble of wires at his feet.

“Start with the thrusters, then the shields. Everything else can wait. We need to stop this spin, and get some protection against the asteroids, and fast." Jack said, wincing slightly as the ship let out a long metallic groan, its hull straining under the immense forces of the spin. He just hoped the artificial gravity would hold, otherwise they'd be dead in seconds.

"And send the cadets up the bridge, I need their help there."
“Aye, they’re not much use down here yet, I reckon. Especially since they spend half their time fighting over who's the most precocious.” Gobber nodded, already working on the next problem, prying open a warped wall panel with a hyperspanner.
"So I've heard." Jack sighed. "Maybe giving positions like this to the most ambitious isn't the wisest choice by the academy."

Jack had only grudgingly accepted that the cadets were on board this ailing vessel in the first place.
He wanted them someplace where he could keep an eye on them, at least. It was irrational to think they’d be safer just because he was close by, but he couldn’t help but feel that way. It wasn’t like Gobber wouldn’t keep them safe, but Jack felt personally responsible for them. Especially Cadet Bennett, who was only here because Jack had decided not to pull him out of the program. A sixteen year old to be on such a dangerous mission didn’t sit well with him, but there was no changing it now. They might as well make the best of it.

"Did you take Hiccup on away missions as well, when he was this young?" Jack asked, unable to help himself.
Gobber snorted "Not like I could ever stop him. He snuck onto a shuttle once just because he wanted to see some anomaly he'd read about."

Jack smiled. That did sound like Hiccup. But this really wasn't the time to exchange stories about the past.
"Fair enough." he said, already turning to walk down the corridor, climbing over a metal beam that was blocking half of it. "I'll be on the bridge if you need me."

******************

Hiccup usually found comfort in the hustle and bustle of a starship. Maybe it had something to do with growing up in engineering, but the background noise of dozens of professionals going about their business was something he missed the second he was alone.

When it came to medbay, it was a different story. Hiccup lingered in the door for a moment, watching dozens of nurses and doctors rush around, treating their recently arrived passengers. At first glance it seemed chaotic and loud, pained screams and medical personnel talking over each other. But once Hiccup took a moment to watch, he started seeing the order to the chaos. These were medical professionals, they weren’t talking over each other, they were just doing five things at once, so it seemed overwhelming to an outsider like him.
Aster was a meticulous guy, and his department was able to deal with circumstances like this, even when fifty wounded arriving all at once were putting that to a test.

Hiccup stepped inside, careful not to get into anyone’s way as he looked for Aster. The tall man wasn’t hard to find, looking exasperated as per usual. He was reading off a pad, assigning teams to different patients.

“What can you tell me so far?” Hiccup asked, and Aster shrugged slightly, looking around the room.
“It’s not as bad as it could have been, that’s for sure. Glad we got them out of there when we did. We were able to stabilize the worst of them on the way here, so all of them will make it, at least.”

Hiccup looked around as well, already feeling a little relieved. Aster wasn’t one to mince words, so if he was optimistic, they really would be fine. All of the beds in the main room were occupied by what looked like a very diverse group of aliens. Hiccup spotted at least six different species, none of which he’d ever seen before. An explorer at heart, he couldn’t wait to ask them all sorts of questions and find out more about their biology, but he had to put a lid on that impulse for now. He had immediate problems to figure out first. The Overseer wanted these people transferred, and Hiccup had to know more about…well just about everything, before he felt comfortable making any decisions.

Aster continued, looking at his padd again “We have a lot of bruises and lacerations, some broken bones and internal bleeding, some burns and smoke inhalation. Nothing too critical at this point, but these guys have been through quite a fight, it seems like. Lots of scraped knuckles too.”

Hiccup raised an eyebrow “Have they said anything about that? There was something about a ‘revolt’ in the distress message.”

“I didn’t ask ‘em.” Aster smirked slightly “I’m a doctor, not a diplomat. You figure it out.” he gestured towards a set of beds at the back of the room “That one over there is their leader, I think. At least that’s what some of them have said. I already finished treating him.”

“Right. Well thank you for your insight.” Hiccup said with a smile, starting towards the indicated bed.
“Hiccup.” Aster said, and Hiccup hesitated.
“Something else you should know. These people are close to malnourished, and some of them are running high fevers from older wounds. It seems to me like they’ve been in a pretty bad situation for a while now.”

“I see.” Hiccup furrowed his eyebrows “Thank you. I’ll look into it.”

And now that Aster had mentioned it, it became obvious that these people didn't just suffer through an accident.
Hiccup looked around, noting just how tired and emaciated most of them looked. It stirred an old memory, one he didn't like to revisit. Years ago, Starfleet had liberated a brutal Cardassian prison camp, and the prisoners had looked a lot like this. Too exhausted and starved to even realize they'd been saved. What the hell had happened on that mining ship?

He eventually made his way over to the indicated bed, which was occupied by a slender alien. His skin had an olive green tint, with blue mottling reaching from his large and entirely black eyes up his two thick horns. Or maybe they were some sort of antennae protruding from the top of his forehead, tapered to almost meet in the middle above his head, adding to his slender build.
It was fascinating to see how convergent evolution had worked its magic across the universe. Most dominant species they encountered were humanoid—which, to be fair, was a very self centered and outdated term for a bipedal species—with two arms, two legs, two eyes and opposable thumbs, just like the alien before him. It seemed to just be a very convenient shape for an advanced species to take. He noted that this alien had pronounced digitigrade legs. That, combined with his dark green skin gave him a dinosaur-esque quality. Hiccup had to once again shove his scientific interest aside as he stepped up to the bed. Nothing was quite as insulting and objectifying as being studied like a sample.

“Greetings. My name is Hiccup Haddock, I’m the captain of this ship,” he gestured vaguely to the ceiling “I’ve heard you’re the leader of these people?” he said, folding his hands behind his back. He tried to keep his gestures to a minimum when interacting with unknown aliens. In a situation where any movement could mean an offense, or something rude, it was best to minimize that risk.

The alien looked surprised and opened his mouth to reply, when a mirthless laugh sounded from the bed right next to him.

“Ha! Yeah he’s a great leader alright, if you want to get everyone in your crew killed, that is.” another alien huffed, crossing his arms over his broad chest.
This one looked a lot older than the first, judging by his more wrinkled and scarred face. He was of a different species, with a yellowish skin and notably, four eyes.

“You have to excuse Gris, Captain. He’s a little brash.” the first alien said, looking at the other—Gris—with annoyance. “Even if he has a point.” he added quietly.

Hiccup took a small step back, keeping both aliens in view, looking between them questioningly.

The first alien’s shoulders sagged slightly and he looked down for a moment, fiddling with the torn open shirt he was wearing. Hiccup hadn’t noticed the tear before, but the long gash in the shirt revealed a strip of olive skin that still looked a little raw, showing a thin line of a deeper green. The alien must’ve had a pretty significant wound to leave such a scar even after Aster’s treatment. 

“My name is Nyxis. I’m not really a leader, I’m just…” he shrugged, looking around the room with a pained expression “I’m…responsible for what happened. The others shouldn’t be punished for what I did.” he said, looking up at Hiccup with determination.

"Damn right we shouldn't," Gris snarled, shaking his head "we've suffered enough for your brilliant ideas."

Hiccup held up his hands in a placating gesture "Hold on, I'm not looking to punish anyone. We just came across your distress call and wanted to help out-"

"Ah, scavengers." Gris interrupted, folding his arms and rolling his four eyes. "You happy now, Nyxis? We got a new employer already lined up."

Nyxis' shoulders sagged slightly, but he gave Gris a defiant expression anyways
"Well it beats dying, doesn't it?" he turned to Hiccup, a resigned look in the set of his eyes "Lets hear it. As citizens of the Empire, we're entitled to know how much you're charging for the 'rescue', and how much you'll be paying per hour going forward."

"Huh??" Hiccup blurted out, blinking at him owlishly for a second before he caught himself and settled back into a more professional stance.
"I mean, sorry, but I don't think I follow? Why would I be paying you..per hour..and why would we charge you for rescuing you? Who would do that?"

Nyxis looked at him, equally confused "Who wouldn't do that?" he said, as if Hiccup had just said the most insane thing he'd heard all day.

"What kind of game is this?" Gris added, glaring at Hiccup "We're not slaves, we're entitled to payment, even if you hold our debt!"

Hiccup looked between the two aliens in bewilderment, their angry expressions equally confused. This wasn't going well so far. He replayed the conversation in his head and realized his mistake.
He raised his hands again and ducked his head slightly, giving both of them a disarming smile.

"Alright, I think we've had a misunderstanding here." he said, and Gris opened his mouth to reply, but Hiccup quickly continued
"That's on me, I didn't properly introduce myself. You're on the USS Enterprise, a starship from the United Federation of Planets. We're not from around here, we arrived a month ago from the other side of the Crimson Veil." he explained in a calm tone. Realizing that place names wouldn't mean much to them, he added "The uh..gigantic deadly nebula about twenty light years away?" he gestured to the sidewall of the room, as if they'd know which direction that indicated.

"We're not scavengers, or looking for slave labor, or scrap or whatever. We're just peaceful explorers, who came across your distress signal and wanted to help out. You're not being punished, or charged anything, you don't owe me a debt. As soon as you're healed up, you're free to go wherever you please."

Both aliens gaped at him, and for a moment Hiccup wondered if his universal translator had malfunctioned, because their expressions were even more disbelieving than before.

"You're joking." Nyxis said, at the same time as Gris said "You're lying."

"I'm afraid it's neither." Hiccup shrugged, giving them a moment to process the information.

Gris scoffed, his arms still crossed "I don't know what you're planning, but that's the most absurd story I've ever heard. No one crosses the nebula, I've heard it melts a ship's hull right off."
"We found a way." Hiccup replied, not wanting to go into too much detail.
"Bullshit." Gris spat "And I've never heard of someone rescuing a ship for free. What would be the point? What's your angle here?"

Hiccup sighed, briefly glancing at Nyxis, who looked intrigued, if still suspicious as he watched the exchange.
"I told you, we're explorers, we're not interested in any payment. Hell, we don't even use money in the Federation."
Hiccup immediately realized that the last statement had just made his story even more unbelievable. Gris laughed out loud, then gave Nyxis a can-you-believe-this-guy-? look, shaking his head. Nyxis looked even more skeptical.

Hiccup chided himself internally. First Contact usually came easier to him, but then he usually didn't talk to two tired and angry miners. These two had been through hell, and were probably mostly running on fear at this point.
They had expected to be put into debt for the rescue, and expected to have to work off said debt. If that was their best case scenario, he couldn't blame them for their suspicion.

Nyxis tilted his head "You're really from outside of the Empire? You're not from one of the Big Six?" he asked, and Hiccup thought he could hear a hint of hope in his voice, as if he wanted to believe him, but couldn't quite bring himself to.

"I'm afraid I don't even know what the 'Big Six' are." Hiccup said with a slightly pained smile. Gods, he was longing for a full Starfleet Intelligence briefing like never before. He wanted to know everything about the society and culture here, about the factions and laws, borders and coalitions, economy and religions. He had a thousand questions, and he didn't even know where to start. Even if these two men weren't high level diplomats or scholars, they still had so much knowledge, just by living here. Hiccup tried his best not to show how eager he was to learn.
"Are they...your government?" he asked, as casually as he could.

Nyxis tilted his head from side to side in a noncommittal gesture, as if that was a difficult question to answer.
"Well-" he started, but Gris cut him off "I can't believe you're buying into this nonsense! Have you ever heard of a 'Federation'? And they're from outside the Empire, and they don't use money, and they just save people for free!" he laughed again, then gestured to Hiccup "What are you going to tell us next, that you were sent by the Ancient Wardens of the universe to save our souls? Or are we in the Great Beyond already?" he asked, shaking his head with a grim smile.

“Well right now, you’re just in our medbay. But I'll see what I can do about the great beyond.” Hiccup said sardonically before he could stop himself. Great diplomacy, that. Probably mocking their religion too.
He sighed, and quickly moved on.
"Sorry, I know it must be hard to believe, but it's the only truth I have to give. Don't you think I would have made up something more believable if I wanted to trick you?" he said with a slightly crooked smile.

"I don't buy it." Gris huffed, though Hiccup thought he sounded a little less vehement about it.
"Well he must be from outside the Empire, if he doesn't even know about the Big Six." Nyxis said, gesturing at Hiccup.
"Or he's just lying." Gris said, shrugging "Don't believe everything you hear."

Nyxis gave Hiccup a questioning look “Are you lying?”
“No.”
“That’s what I thought.” Nyxis nodded. “See?” he turned to Gris, who rolled all four of his eyes.

Hiccup suppressed a smile. These two had a strange relationship. It seemed like every word one of them said was aggravating to the other, but they still played off of each other in a way.

"So the Big Six aren't your government?" Hiccup said, trying to bring things back on track.

Nyxis shrugged "Well technically not, but they act like one, at least in their sectors..."

“What are you saying!” Gris said, appalled. “The Emperor’s government controls all sectors, the companies have to follow the laws just as much as we do.”

“Oh please.” Nyxis scoffed “They only pay lip service to the Emperor. You know damn well that they can do whatever they want in their core sectors. For all intents and purposes, they are the government out here.”

"They still have to follow the Emperor's laws." Gris said, and this time Nyxis rolled his eyes.
"Oh yeah? And what are you going to do if they don't? Go ask the Emperor for help? You have a private line?"
"I could launch an appeal with the enforcers-" Gris started, but Nyxis just snorted "The company enforcers? I wonder who they'll side with."

Hiccup felt like he was watching a tennis match, looking from one man to the other and back, trying to follow the conversation. He quickly interjected before Gris could reply
"So the 'Big Six' are companies?" he asked, and Nyxis looked up at him like he'd just asked if water was wet.

"Oh. Right, you wouldn't know." he said, furrowing his brows in thought. Hiccup knew from experience how difficult it could be to explain something when the other had no foundational knowledge on the topic, and no frame of reference. Hiccup leaned against the bed slightly

"Well I've heard of empires and companies before. We've even had such things back on Earth in the past." Nyxis raised a questioning eyebrow "Oh, Earth is the name of the planet I'm from." Hiccup added.

Nyxis took a moment to gather his thoughts.
"Right. Well...the Empire is divided into six sectors, each tightly controlled by one of the big six companies. But we're out in the frontier right now, I think. That's where all the companies fight with each other over new resources, expanding the empire in the process. And they offer pretty good benefits for the people willing to work out here, that's why most of us signed on." he said, gesturing to the rest of the room.

"And with how things were back at the colony, I didn't really have better opportunities waiting for me." he paused briefly, looking into the middle distance. "I just wanted to get out of there, see the stars.."

When he didn't continue, Hiccup cleared his throat, and Nyxis shook himself briefly, looking a little sheepish.

"Anyway, I signed on for a five year contract, which has to be completed for the big payout at the end.
Guess I should have read the fine print more closely. But like I said, it wasn’t like I had a whole lot of options at the time.” he gave Hiccup a slightly chagrined look, like he was embarrassed to admit his own failure.

“Turns out the whole system is rigged. Yes it’s technically a five year contract, and yes you get paid at the end, but the company can charge you for damn near everything in the meantime. For housing, for beds, for water, food and medicine. And they can charge whatever they want, of course.”

Hiccup blew out a breath through pursed lips “Let me guess, by the time your contract is up, you’re actually in debt.”
Nyxis nodded “Yeah. And here comes the best part: If you have outstanding debt with the company, your contract is automatically extended, until it’s paid off.”

Hiccup shook his head slightly “How long have you been working for them?”
Nyxis shrugged, his expression a mix of hopelessness and resentment “I’m not sure anymore. I stopped counting the days long ago. Probably around eight years.”

"It's not rigged. You just didn't fill your quotas half the time, no wonder you stay in debt." Gris huffed before Hiccup could say anything.
Hiccup cut in before they could launch into another argument.
"So what happened to leave you stranded in that asteroid field?" he asked quickly.

Nyxis winced slightly at the question.
"I...like I said, it's my fault. I just couldn't stand it anymore. I told you how the company charges you for everything, but that's not all. They also penalize you for falling behind on your work. If you don't process a certain amount of ore per day, you might lose your 'privileges', like food or water. Or even medicine."

"That's just the only way Paragon can keep workers in line" Gris added, "If it wasn't for that, no one would get any work done!" he raised his finger, like he was giving a lecture "And they still get the minimum allotment of food and payment, even without work. That's the unfair part, if you ask me!"

Nyxis just rolled his eyes "Well no one asked you. You're always on the company's side."

Hiccup interjected again as Gris opened his mouth to reply, trying to keep them on track.
"What's this Paragon, you mentioned?"

Nyxis shot Gris a brief glare, but then focused back on Hiccup.

"That's the AI that controls every aspect of the ship, even the workers. I suppose it's cheaper than hiring a proper crew. And Gris is right in that regard, the AI controls the workers by withholding vital supplies. And through the company enforcers on board." He looked over the room of wounded workers and sighed quietly.
"But withholding food, water and medicine is a downward spiral. A hungry worker can't work as hard, and a sick one even less. We tried sharing our food, but that can only get you so far. I tried to explain this to Paragon, but it didn't even acknowledge me. It just kept getting worse." He took a deep breath then, looking frustrated.

"So that's when I started wondering. Why are we doing all the work, while being treated like slaves? FXG makes hundreds of thousands of Chronus with each load our ship refines, and we barely get the scraps. It's not fair, right? And without our work, the ship would just be a hunk of useless metal. The AI might be able to steer it to an asteroid belt, but we still have to process all the ore! So I started talking to the others, about how we should get at least some of the profits our own labor generates, and how our labor is the biggest leverage we have!"

Hiccup raised his eyebrows, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly as he listened to Nyxis talk. The more he spoke, the more animated he got. He had seemed so meek and exhausted the entire time, but as he explained how he'd organized a strike among the workers, he showed genuine passion. Hiccup could imagine why the other workers had decided to join in, Nyxis just had a certain charisma to him.

"So I made Paragon an ultimatum. Double the rations for everyone, and increase our pay by five percent, or we would all refuse to work another day." Nyxis shook his head, his expression full of frustrated anger "It wasn't like I asked for much!" he said, his voice cracking slightly as he drew up his legs, resting his head against his folded arms on his knees.

Hiccup settled against the foot of the bed, giving him a moment.
"I take it Paragon didn't take that well?" he asked quietly, already dreading the answer.

Nyxis shook his head, not looking up at Hiccup.
"You could say that. It didn't even negotiate, or acknowledge us at all. Like we weren't important enough to even consider talking to us. Then it sent the enforcers to beat us into submission." Nyxis looked up with a mirthless, grim smile.
"But the enforcers were used to us giving in at the first threat of violence. There weren't actually enough of them to fight all of us head on, even with all their equipment. It wasn't easy, but we eventually overcame them, and took control of the ship." he paused, and Hiccup remembered the bruises and injuries Aster had talked about.

"That must've been quite the fight." he said, and Nyxis nodded.

"It was. We were so excited when they finally surrendered. We thought we'd won." he said, deflating a little.
"It was foolish. As soon as Paragon realized what had happened, it went completely insane. I had underestimated its power. I had assumed it would budge, once we showed we were serious about our strike. But instead, it..." he swallowed heavily, looking around the room again "..it vented the entire lower floor of the workers quarters. Just...just like that. Just to make a point." His expression was haunted as he recounted the event, seeing frozen, floating bodies through the windows, his friends and coworkers, killed for daring to fight for better conditions.

Hiccup didn't know what to say. Some simple platitude of sympathy didn't seem like something that would help.
He looked over to Gris, who wasn't unaffected by Nyxis' retelling either. If he'd worked on the ship even longer than Nyxis, how many of the dead workers had he known personally? Still, Gris' expression twisted into a frown, directed at Nyxis.

"None of this would have happened if you hadn't pushed Paragon like you did! Why did you even try to negotiate with a damn AI?" Nyxis flinched slightly at the accusation, and Hiccup could tell it cut deep. Gris turned to Hiccup
"After this genius pushed the AI to go rogue, it completely shut down. That's what left us stranded and on the brink of death. Everything would have been fine if he hadn't acted out!" he shot Nyxis another sneer "But you'll probably blame FXG for that too, hm? Their fault that you got so many people killed. As long as you don't have to accept responsibility. So what if things were hard? If everything was easy, we wouldn't get paid to do the work. You had no right to involve all of us in your fight!"

Nyxis balled his hands into fists "I'm sorry, alright?!" he yelled, tears glistening in the corners of his large black eyes.
"I didn't mean for this to happen! All I wanted was for us to be treated fairly, you're just too stubborn to see that!
The company is not going to reward you for your damn loyalty, you know? You're nothing to them! Just like all of us!"
"EIGHT MONTHS!" Gris bellowed, and Nyxis threw up his hands in exasperation.
"Here we go again." Nyxis said, dropping his head against the bed rest.
Gris scowled, pointing a finger at the younger man "I only had eight months left in my contract! Eight months, and I would have been done with my debt, and out of there for good! But nooo! The Great Liberator Nyxis had to come along and ruin everything!"

"Hey now-" Hiccup raised his hands placatingly, but they ignored him entirely.

"Are you really that stupid?!" Nyxis snapped back, just as loud "You worked there way longer than any of us, and you still don't get it? They would have found a reason to prolong your contract! They always do! How can you still fall for their bullshit!"

"HEY!" Aster’s annoyed voice boomed from right behind Hiccup, startling him slightly.
"If you two are well enough to have a shouting match, I strongly suggest you do it elsewhere." Aster said, his tall frame towering over them. "You're discharged."
That, in combination with Aster’s stormy expression, managed to shut the two aliens up, at least.

Hiccup gave him a sheepish, but grateful smile.

“My chief medical officer has a point.” he gestured for Nyxis and Gris to follow.
“Let's take this to the conference room, I have some more questions, but there doesn’t need to be a fight in medbay.”

Nyxis gave him a slightly chagrined nod, Gris shrugged. Good enough for now. Hiccup realized that he hadn’t even asked about the Overseer yet, and that he still didn’t have a good idea what to do with her.
But he was eager to learn anything he could about this ‘Empire’. It seemed to be a powerful force on this side of the Veil, so it was high time he got to know it better.

They followed him out into the corridor, thankfully pausing their argument for the time being. Hiccup let out a little sigh as he led them to the turbo lift. He had gotten some answers, but somehow that had only made everything even more complicated.
His thoughts drifted to Jack again, trying and failing to keep his worries in check. Hopefully things were better on the mining ship.

********************

Things were bad.

Jack massaged his temple, closing his eyes for a moment as he leaned against the console in front of him. It wasn’t just the stress or the difficulty of this mission that got to him, but the incessant squabbling of the cadets behind him.
He had been working on a console mounted into the wall on the back of the rather sparse bridge, while the five cadets from the engineering division were scattered over the barely lit bridge, trying to get everything online.
It was a difficult job alright, trying to figure out how the software of this ship worked, with the layout and configuration of its computer systems so alien. All the while, the main screen showed the asteroid field they were still drifting through. The image was spinning so fast it made Jack dizzy if he looked at it for too long. He was just thankful that the artificial gravity of this ship still worked, so they didn’t have to experience the spinning motion physically. 

It was about the only thing that worked, though. Gobber and his team down in the engine room were desperately trying to get the basic functions of the ship back online, while Jack and the cadets had to try and wrestle control of said systems from the AI.
He supposed they were lucky that there was a bridge like this at all, considering the lack of a biological crew. It was probably owed to the fact that this ship had a biological crew at some point, which was only replaced with the AI later. Thankfully, that had left some overrides in place, which now allowed them to slowly lock out the AIs control. They had hooked up their padds to the ship’s systems, translating the interfaces for them, and now they just had to figure out how everything worked. 

“Sir, I’ve managed to get the communications console running, but it seems like there simply is no intra-ship communications system in place.” Cadet Xapra said from her post on the side of the small bridge. The young Bajoran looked stressed and slightly sweaty, which Jack could sympathize with. The air on the bridge was stuffy and too hot, since the environmental controls still didn’t work properly. They had decided to take off their environmental suits anyway, since they made moving around and controlling touch pads just that little bit more annoying. 

“That’s alright, we’ll make it work with our communicators.” Jack replied distractedly, fingers flying over the controls again. There was still this last holdover from the AI, which refused to yield control, and he had to get past it somehow.

"It is highly unlikely that this ship has no internal communications," Sototh, the male vulcan chimed up, "are you certain you checked every sub-system, Cadet Xapra?" he said it in his usual neutral tone, but Jack was sure he could hear a hint of condescension in there.

"I have." Xapra huffed as she crawled under her console, reconnecting the wires she had to pull free.
"Since I am top of my class in programming, it would be only logical for me to check the system as well. You have been known to miss details." Sototh said, stepping closer.
This had been a constant thread over the last half hour. Each of them trying to show up one another, proving to Jack that they were the most capable. Any time a task was completed, someone would chime up and proudly proclaim that they had solved it, while another would nitpick it in some way.

"Then how come we're still locked out of the thruster controls, resident genius Sototh? Wasn't it your job to get us access?" Monto Grexx sniped from the other side of the bridge.
Sototh turned to him, lifting his chin. "I already had access, but was locked out again when you triggered a partial lockdown."
"Sounds like someone still doesn't have access! How does it feel to be the slowest of them all?" Xapra said with a smirk, still partially hidden under the console.

Jack rolled his eyes and held back an audible sigh. They were so involved in their squabbles, that they seemed to have forgotten that Jack was even there, out of view as he was in the shadowy back of the bridge. On one hand, he was glad that they felt comfortable enough to talk to each other casually in his presence. He didn’t like it when every conversation stopped and turned purely professional just because he walked in.
Then again, listening to this wearisome squabbling was getting annoying.

He usually made a point of not interfering in interpersonal matters unless someone asked him to. Especially when it came to young cadets like these. They still had to figure themselves and each other out. This was their first real experience, and it showed. Micromanaging things like this wouldn't help them in the long run.

“Guys, could you keep it to yourself?” Bennett said from underneath the sensor panel, which he was rewiring. Apparently that station had been completely disconnected at some point.

“Agreed.” the cool, vulcan voice of Cadet T’Zora chimed in from the right, “your inane quarrel might cause Bennett to cry, and I would prefer not to see that.”

"No!" Bennett replied indignantly, quickly followed by "I was only looking out for you, T'Zora. I know your royal highness needs absolute silence to get any work done."
"I hold no royal title. It is illogical to refer to me as such." T'Zora said, raising an eyebrow.
"It is illogical to refer to me as such" Jamie repeated in a funny voice, and Jack heard Grexx snort, though the cadet quickly clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Why are you repeating my words, that is highly inefficient." T'Zora said, and Jamie shrugged.
"If I want to achieve maximum annoyance, the only choice is to repeat whatever you say, since that's always the most annoying."

T'Zora's face barely moved, but her posture got even tighter. "'Only Choice' is an oxymoron." she said with a slight huff.
"You're an oxymoron." Bennett mumbled, and Jack had to stifle a laugh.

This was, unfortunately, pretty funny. Maybe it was just the stressful environment, or maybe his sense of humor was broken beyond repair, but the sheer childishness of it all got to him. Still, this was getting out of hand. He doubted anyone, including himself, had gotten any work done in the last couple minutes, and they really couldn't afford that.

So he turned around to them, stepping more into the dingy orange of the flashing warning lights.
"Cadets!" he said loudly, immediately getting their attention. "I'm glad to see you're putting your diplomacy lessons into practice, but I'm pretty sure I gave you all more pressing work to do, right?"

At least they had the good sense to look abashed about their behavior. Well, aside from the Vulcans, of course.
He heard a chorus of 'Sorry, Sir' and 'We'll get right to it, Sir', and he nodded for them to do so.
Jack knew he couldn't leave it at that, but it was enough for the moment. This group had issues that needed to be addressed, but that could wait till after the mission. Right now, he just needed them to focus.

They worked in a somewhat tense silence for another twenty minutes, one that almost seemed loud on its own. Jack found that he hated it almost more than the bickering. That was why he’d taken so long to intervene in the first place.
He sometimes felt like he wasn’t much of a traditional officer. He’d only ever taken promotions because they allowed him more personal freedom, and more freedom to do things as he saw fit. If anything, he had a tense relationship with authority in general. But a sedentary lifestyle on earth had never appealed to him.

He wanted adventure, he wanted to explore the stars. And Starfleet was the best way to do it, bar none.
That unfortunately did mean he had to work within a rather rigid command structure.

It wasn’t like he couldn’t see the necessity of it when it came to space ships. With a crew anywhere from dozens, like on the Laika, to thousands of people like on the Enterprise, things would be pure chaos without a command structure. When push came to shove, even a moment of indecision or doubt in the chain of command could spell disaster. Every person on the crew needed to work together like clockwork, and that was only possible if the intention of the captain could be efficiently communicated and executed. From the bridge, all the way down to the photon torpedo launchers.

Jack liked a challenge, and he liked to challenge authority whenever the opportunity arose. Ironically, that had made him rise through the ranks even faster. Starfleet liked people who took initiative, who could think outside the box. At least to a degree. And Jack liked making his own decisions.
Now, as a commander, the only person in his day to day life that could override his decisions was Hiccup, since the admiralty was far away. And so far they had agreed on most decisions, and even if not, Hiccup had never made it feel like he didn’t value Jack’s input, so he felt comfortable with serving under him. 

He certainly had no aspirations to become captain himself. First officer was just right, with plenty of freedom to make his own decisions, but also a lot less direct interaction with the admiralty, and less responsibility than the captain. He didn’t envy Hiccup in that regard.

But as much freedom as his position offered him, Jack didn’t love ordering people around, or disciplining them, for that matter. He didn’t think of himself as very serious or disciplined either, so who was he to demand it of others? Reprimanding the cadets, or scolding Jamie Bennett earlier, those were things he knew how to do, and he knew were necessary sometimes, but that didn’t mean he liked them any better for it. He would have preferred to just be friends with everyone, or a cool older brother to these cadets, but it just wasn't that easy.
He was responsible for everyone on this ship, and in a life or death situation, he'd need them to follow orders.

He could have the sort of casual and friendly relationship he wanted with the senior officers, but these cadets had to fully accept the chain of command and have it ingrained into their daily lives first. Only once that basic understanding was established, could one be more relaxed about it.

Jack hit another snag with the programming of the malfunctioning console, and he furrowed his brow. This wasn’t necessarily difficult, just time consuming. Something they really didn’t have much of. They needed to get this ship working, and fast. Still, his mind drifted as he worked.

He still couldn’t quite figure Hiccup out. In many ways, Hiccup seemed to be so similar to him. Someone who didn’t relish in being in command of others, but just couldn’t stand following orders, so he naturally ended up at the top. But then again, Hiccup just had a certain leadership quality that Jack had never really seen in himself. Hiccup was the sort of person that would never ask to lead anyone, but end up with the task on his shoulders anyway. His intensity and his convictions just had a draw to it that Jack couldn’t quite explain. From the day he’d met the man, he’d felt drawn to him somehow, not just because they had chemistry. He smiled slightly, remembering Hiccup and his cute goggles, fussing over that steam engine. There was just something so endlessly fascinating about him.

Just then, Jack finally managed to bypass the AI, getting around the last lock-out. The lights on the bridge flickered to life, and the console’s interface changed colors, indicating full access.
Still got it. he grinned to himself, nodding as he made some quick inputs.
They still weren’t off the ice though.

He stepped to the middle of the bridge, which didn’t have a captain’s chair for some reason, just a balustrade for him to stand behind. Apparently the original designers of this ship didn’t put much thought into crew comforts.

“Alright, everyone to their stations. Let’s get this ship under control.” he said, gripping the balustrade.
The viewscreen in front of him still showed the spinning asteroid field, the nauseatingly fast flickering of light and dark reminding him of the urgency of the situation.
Still, a large ship like this wasn’t easy to control, and he only had cadets to fill the bridge, as all the engineers and Gobber were still busy keeping the ship from tearing itself apart. He tapped his badge.

“Frost to Gobber. We’ve gained access to the controls, what can you give me?”
He had to wait for a couple seconds, before Gobber's voice replied, sounding out of breath

“Gobber here, we’ve restored the primary power couplings. Took us a little, we had to reinforce the structural integrity fields first. You don’t want to know how close we got to ripping in half.” he said, and Jack grimaced.

“I appreciate you sparing me. What about thrusters and impulse engines? We need to get this spin under control.”

“Aye, thrusters are operational, as long as you don’t tax ‘em too much. They’re holding on by a thread.” Gobber paused briefly “literally, they’re all routed through the only EPS conduit that wasn’t burnt to bits. As for impulse, I can give you 20% at best, and I’d rather you didn’t use it at all, if we can get around it.”

“Understood.” Jack nodded. “We still don’t have intraship communications, and the consoles on the bridge  aren’t directly linked. So I’ll assign one of the cadets to play telephone between here and the engine room.”

“Aye Sir. Gobber out.” 

Jack straightened a little, looking at the young cadets filling every station on the bridge. Now for the hard part.
“Alright, since this ship is three bolts and a good wish away from falling apart, we’ll have to do pretty much everything manually. How many of you have bridge crew experience?” he asked, and all of them immediately raised their hands.
“Outside of a simulation?”
All but Grexx lowered their hands. Something Grexx looked inordinately pleased about.
“On a non-federation ship, with no automation?” he added, and Grexx’ smile fell as he lowered his hand.

Jack nodded grimly.
“Right. I’m not going to mince words. This is going to be difficult. But I trust that we can do this, if we work together.” he emphasized the last word, giving them a meaningful look. This was not the time to bicker.
“I know you’re all desperate to prove yourselves, but this isn’t a test, or a simulation. This is real life. It’s impossible to control a ship this size by yourself, so we’ll only succeed if we work as a unit, alright?” He looked at each of them in turn, and they nodded, albeit somewhat reluctantly as they shared glances between each other as well, some of that animosity still present.

“If you want to succeed in Starfleet, you need to stop being so individualistic.” Jack added with a huff.

”This isn't a zero-sum game. Any one of you being good at something doesn’t have to come at the expense of someone else. Lift each other up, instead of trying to pull ahead on your own.”
He knew these were just words, that they would have to learn these things through experience, but maybe, just maybe, he could plant the right ideas in their heads early on. 

“Now. You all have your stations. Cadet Xapra, you’ll be our communication link with engineering. Pass along everything to the engine room, and vice versa.” The cadets nodded, settling in.
Jack took a slow breath. He’d actually never done this himself, at least not under such circumstances. Something he obviously wouldn’t let them know.
Starfleet ships were highly automated, at least the basic functions and security fail-safes. If you made a mistake on the bridge of a starfleet ship—commanding the ship to do something that would harm the crew or the ship itself—the ship's computer would at the very least inform you of the likely harm, and require a confirmation.

They couldn’t rely on that here. With the jerry-rigged direct access to the ships systems, they could very much blow up the ship with one wrong push of a button.

Jack blew out a slow breath, organizing all the steps that were necessary to get the ship under control. He would have to act as a sort of conductor, and he couldn't miss a single beat.
Was he the right person for this task? Or would he lead them all to their deaths? He realized that this was his first full command since he'd been on the old Enterprise 1701, and he still didn't remember if its demise had something to do with him.
He quickly shut out that line of thought. It had no place in this moment, on this bridge. He gripped the railing tighter.

“Initialize port and starboard thrusters. Standby impulse power.” he said, watching cadets Grexx and Sototh handle their stations on the left and right side of the bridge.

He turned to Xapra, who was standing ready with her open com-link to the engine room.
“Engine room, increase deuterium injection rate, configure driver coils for impulse speed. EPS taps at level three.”
She repeated what he said into her com badge, listened for the reply, then said “Deflector field initialized.”
and Jack nodded.

“Helm, slow down this spin, but gently. Starboard thrusters to one quarter power.”
“Aye Sir, one quarter.” Monto Grexx replied from the helm, and a shudder ran through the ship, the spinning field of asteroids in front of them slowing down. Jack watched over Grexx's shoulder, noting how slowly the ship responded to his inputs.

“Engine room, helm controls are sluggish. Re-align the navigational gyros.”
Xapra relayed his words, then relayed Gobber’s reply “navigational gyros re-aligned.”

“Helm, starboard thrusters to fifty percent, ease us into a stable flight. Engine room, stand by impulse power.” Jack tensed up when a metallic groan shuddered through the ship, like it was being torn apart. He could feel heavy vibrations of the ship through the railing he was gripping tightly, trying to watch all the consoles at once. His heart was hammering in his chest, even as he kept his cool outwardly. 

He was used to working with an experienced bridge crew, comprised of senior officers. People who were so good at their jobs, you didn’t have to direct, or micro manage them in any way. He only needed to tell Toothless to get them somewhere at a certain time, and the dragon would handle the rest himself.
Now, he had to keep everything in mind at once, trying not to forget anything.

In front of him, the red-and black swirl of asteroids finally slowed to a stop, as their ship stopped spinning. Jack blew out a relieved breath, when the now clear view revealed an even bigger problem, namely a massive rock the size of a building on a direct collision course with them, leaving only seconds to react.

“Helm, forward port thrusters to maximum, aft starboard thrusters to maximum!” Jack yelled, his eyes never leaving the screen “Tactical, divert power to the deflector dish, push that rock to the left.”

The cadets worked frantically, and Jack watched with bated breath as their clunky mining ship tried its hand at a quick maneuver, while the massive rock filled up more and more of the screen, still hurtling closer. After everything they’d done this thing was still going to hit them. Jack gripped the railing tighter, wincing in anticipation. But then he started seeing open space on the right edge of the screen, as the asteroid slowly, every so fucking slowly, moved to the left while they turned to the right.

“All hands, brace for impact.” he yelled, and Xapra relayed it to the engine room.
A massive shudder went through the ship, almost bringing Jack to his knees had he not gripped the railing so tightly. Sparks and smoke exploded from a side panel on the ceiling as the ear shattering noise continued for multiple seconds. Then it stopped, and the viewscreen cleared. The asteroid had hit them, but only scraped and tumbled over the edge of their hull. No doubt causing untold damage, but at least they were still alive.

“Helm, reverse thrusters until equalized, Engineering, give me 10% impulse engines.” Jack said, a little breathless.
“Aye Sir.” Grexx said, already having started the maneuver. Jack smiled slightly. He was already learning to anticipate what he had to do.
The ship steadied again, moving quickly out of the dense pocket of asteroids they had drifted into, and Jack finally allowed himself to loosen his white knuckled grip on the railing.

“Good job everyone.” he smiled, looking at each of the cadets in turn, who looked surprised to be still alive, but also, justifiably, proud of themselves. 

********************

Hiccup had chosen a conference room on the starboard side of the ship, which gave them a good view of the asteroid belt and the red planet behind it. The bridge would inform him of the Laika's return long before it would be visible from here, of course. Still, he couldn't help but stare out of the large window front, hoping for their ship to emerge. He had a feeling that they were still alive, or at least, he told himself he would know if they weren't. It wasn't rational, but he didn't have much else to cling to.

He glanced at Nyxis and Gris as they settled on opposite sides of the conference table. Hiccup had enough to worry about in the here and now. It was useless to ponder how Jack was doing, especially since he couldn't do anything to help him.

"Alright." Hiccup said, walking towards the table as well and sitting down at its head, in between the two disgruntled miners.
"I know you two are tired, and I can scarcely imagine going through all you described earlier." he said in a gentle tone, looking first to Nyxis, then to Gris.
"But I still have some questions that need to be answered." He gave them a moment to voice any objections, but Nyxis only nodded tiredly, looking defeated. Gris shrugged again, his gaze drifting to the window.

"Before I spoke to you earlier, we were contacted by an 'Overseer Dhinael'. Apparently they work for FXG, and responded to your ship's distress call. We were just here earlier-"

"The Overseer is here?" Gris said, at the same time as Nyxis said "There was a distress call?"
Both were suddenly a lot more alert, sitting forward, looking at Hiccup with wide eyes.

Hiccup blinked in surprise "Uh, yes. To both questions." he said, looking to Nyxis. "Why, is that relevant?"

Nyxis seemed lost in thought for a moment, staring at the table, pinching his lip with two fingers. Then he looked out the window, staring at the swirling asteroid field. His shoulders sank.

"I guess not. The ship is gone anyway." he said, dropping back against his chair.

"I doubt that." Hiccup said, his smile only slightly forced. Jack was alright, and he would save that ship.
"We left a team on that mining ship, they're currently repairing it. I expect them to be back in a couple hours. With your ship."

Nyxis' black eyes went wide at that, his mouth falling open.
"W-what? Why would they do that? I thought you didn't want to salvage it?" he asked in complete disbelief.

"My first officer apparently promised someone from your crew that he would save the ship. And he intends to keep his word." Hiccup said with a slight smirk. Maybe he really had to have a talk with Jack about taking unnecessary risks.

Nyxis gaped at him for a moment longer, then his face lit up
"That was real?!" he exclaimed, slapping his hand to his forehead.

"Huh?" Hiccup asked eloquently. Had he missed something?

Nyxis seemed leaned back in his chair again, shaking his head slightly.
"I was losing a lot of blood, so my memory is kind of shoddy, but just before I passed out, there was this beautiful angel with white hair, appearing to me in a cone of bright light. He promised to save the ship...I was sure I had imagined that?" he said, glancing at Hiccup in disbelief.

Hiccup had to hold in a snort at the description.
"Yeah that was him alright." he said, trying to hide his smile "I guess that wasn't a dream."
Nyxis was staring into the middle distance like he was trying to figure something out.

"So what about the Overseer?" Gris chimed in before Hiccup could inquire further "What did she say?" He sounded somewhere between anxious and hopeful.

"Well, she asked for all of you to be transferred to her ship, so she could take you home." Hiccup said carefully, still not sure why he hadn't just gone along with that suggestion. It sounded reasonable, but he still had a bad feeling about it. "I just wanted to get your people fixed up first, and get your permission, then you can all beam over, if you like." he finished, tilting his head slightly.

"Well that's great!" Gris said, smiling for the first time since Hiccup had met the man. "Maybe we can still make this right and get home, so I can complete my contract."

Nyxis blinked in surprise, dragged out of his thoughts "You don't seriously want to go over there, right? There's no way she's going to just overlook what happened." he said, and Gris furrowed his brow.
"Why not? That's our only chance to make this right! There's still rules, even if you don't respect them!"

"She's probably just here to clean up this mess, and that doesn't include us getting a raise! She'll probably want to throw us into some labor camp so we never make trouble again!" Nyxis replied, waving his hand animatedly.

Hiccup once again interfered before their argument got too heated.
"Gentlemen, please. Instead of speculating about her motives, why not ask her yourself? Maybe we can figure out an actual solution that way." he said, gesturing for them both to settle down. He tapped his badge "Tooth, hail the Overseer's ship again, put it through to conference room 12B."

They waited for a couple of moments of tense silence, as Gris glared at Nyxis, who barely paid attention. The younger man seemed to be lost in thought again, looking out the window at the swirling asteroid field.
When the Overseer's image appeared on the screen opposite Hiccup, she was all smiles.

"Captain! So glad to hear from you. Are you ready to transport my people over?" she said, and Hiccup smiled back politely, giving her a noncommittal shrug.

"I am, though I think there are still some questions left unanswered." he gestured to Gris, who straightened up, nodding to the Overseer.
"Yes ma'am, we were just wondering how we can move forward and complete our contracts." he said, more politely than Hiccup had ever heard him. He seemed downright nervous to address the Overseer.
"What happened on that ship wasn't our fault, you see?" he added, looking apprehensive. "It must've been a technical malfunction, Paragon just suddenly went completely insane! It got a bunch of people killed, and then shut down, stranding us in the asteroid field." he explained, and Hiccup caught himself from looking surprised, his eyebrow only twitching briefly. Gris seemed to be someone who was rather fond of following rules, but he'd left out the workers' involvement in the disaster entirely, even as he'd been all too happy to loudly blame Nyxis earlier. Hiccup didn't know if Gris suddenly felt bad for telling on his coworker, or if he was just afraid to get blamed alongside them.

Overseer Dhinael looked sympathetic, nodding along as Gris explained.
"Oh dear, that's horrible. I don't know how that could have happened, Paragon is supposed to be 100% reliable, otherwise I'd never have entrusted the safety of the ship to it." she said, shaking her head in disappointment.
"I'm so sorry you had to go through all that strife. Of course you'll be able to complete your contracts on another ship, and there's going to be a generous extra payment to compensate you for your troubles." She splayed a reptilian hand on her chest "Not that mere money could ever make up for what you went through."

Gris' smile widened, tension lifting from his shoulders. "Thank you, ma'am, I'm glad to hear that we can work this..unfortunate situation out."

Nyxis huffed "You can't be serious." he said, shaking his head at Gris, before turning his glare to the Overseer "What is your actual plan here? You don't expect us to believe that you'll just let us continue with business as usual? Your AI just killed a hundred workers, and left a ship stranded in an asteroid field! Let me guess, you just plan to get rid of us somehow, so that this won't fall back on you."

Dhinael's polite—if somewhat patronizing—smile didn't waver, though she looked a little hurt by the accusation.
"I know you just went through a lot, so I understand your anger. But I can assure you, FXG is not in the business of 'getting rid' of its employees. What happened is an unfortunate accident. Losing so many people, and a valuable ship, was never supposed to happen. My only goal is to make this right, it's all above board. That's why I asked for you to be transported over to my ship, as there really isn't another alternative." she said, and Gris nodded, shooting Nyxis a glare that almost screamed 'shut up'.

"That's what you'd like us to think!" Nyxis said with a snarl. "But that's where you're mistaken! I know that Paragon sent out a distress signal."

Dhinael's smile faltered slightly "Of course, that's why we're here, after all. What about it?" she asked, and Nyxis' smile turned triumphant.

"I also happen to know that any ship that transmits a distress call in the frontier is legally open for salvage claims. It's Empire Law. Since we were the first citizens at the scene after your precious AI transmitted the distress call, I claim salvage rights of the Ore-Extraction-38."

The Overseer's expression had frozen as Nyxis explained, and for a moment, Hiccup almost wondered if the connection had cut out. Then she laughed, though it sounded forced.
"Ha! That is absurd. You are workers of FXG, you can not claim the ship you've been assigned to work on." she shrugged "Plus, your point is moot anyways, since the ship has been destroyed."

Gris butted in before Nyxis could reply "I agree, Overseer, and I assure you, I have no part in this mutiny! Most of us workers, including me, just want to move on."

Nyxis shook his head, smirking "The ship hasn't been destroyed! Captain Haddock's crew is saving it as we speak. So my claim is valid. FXG relinquished its ownership of the vessel the moment Paragon sent the distress call while in the frontier. And I claim it!"

"There is no such law, this is ridiculous." Dhinael said with a slight laugh, as if the whole notion was absurd.

"Well why don't we briefly check your legal code, just to make sure." Hiccup spoke up, giving her a friendly smile, like he was just a neutral party, trying to keep things civil "Like you said, all above board, right?"

The Overseer looked from Gris to Nyxis, then back to Hiccup, her smile firmly back in place.
"Of course. We will transmit a copy to you. In the meantime, any of the workers that see reason-" she gestured at Gris "are invited to come over to my ship. Like I said, you will be compensated and eventually transferred to another mining ship. As for you-" she gestured to Nyxis "I am sorry that you feel like I'm the enemy here. I truly only want to help you out of a difficult situation. My ship will stay in the area for another couple of hours. When you see reason and accept that there is no ship to salvage, you are still invited to transport over." she paused briefly, lips pursed in thought "Though of course I will have to deduct this unnecessary idle time from your compensation package."

Hiccup furrowed his brow slightly. "Any workers that want to transport over are free to do so, of course." he said "but what makes you so sure the Ore-Extraction-38 was destroyed?"

The Overseer just gave him a sympathetic smile, like she was humoring his hopes for a safe return of the ship.
"Well asteroid belts are a dangerous place, are they not?" she said, a little too smugly for Hiccup's liking.
"I will send the legal code alongside with transport coordinates. Pleasure doing business." she added, before gesturing to someone off screen, who cut the connection.

Hiccup frowned at the now empty screen. She seemed so damn sure that the ship had been destroyed, but how could she be? They hadn't had any contact with the Laika since they dove back into the asteroid belt, and she couldn't have heard back from the support ships she sent either, right? They wouldn't get through faster than the Laika. This wasn't adding up. Had those even been support ships, or had she sent ships to make sure the Ore-Extraction-38 was destroyed? He bit his lip in frustration.
The truth barely mattered, since he couldn't do anything to help Jack and the others at this point. Anything he sent after them would come too late anyway, so they'd have to make do with what they had.

Gris slapped his hand onto the table, dragging Hiccup from his thoughts.

"What the hell was that?!" the burly man snapped, all four eyes glaring at Nyxis. "We're lucky she offered such generous terms, and you toss it back in her face? What is this nonsense of 'claiming' the ship?"

Nyxis raised his hands "It's just something I've heard about, years ago, and it might be our only chance to get out of this whole mess." he said calmly. "Don't tell me you actually plan on going over to her ship? There's no way she's just going to give you a bonus and pretend like nothing happened! That's way too good to be true, even for your standards!"

"Yeah, yeah. When it comes from the companies it can't possibly be good or fair! You're just biased against them!"
Gris snarled, and Nyxis actually barked out a laugh.

"Of course I am!" he said with a disbelieving smile "All they do is exploit us! That's the only reliable thing about them! Anything they do is in the pursuit of maximizing profit, so even the occasional 'good deeds' you love to point to are just happenstance. And the Overseer is clearly just trying to cover up her own mess." he shook his head.
"Please Gris, don't fall for this shit." he said imploringly.

"And what would you have me do instead, huh?" Gris said, looking at Nyxis like he couldn't fathom what he was seeing. "Hold out hope that the damn ship still exists? And that FXG is just going to hand it over? Keep dreaming." he spat the last words, shaking his head.

Nyxis groaned.
"You're impossible." he said, rolling his eyes and sinking back against his chair.

Hiccup stood up then, drawing their attention to him.
"Alright. I don't think either of you will convince the other of anything right now. So, let's talk about what'll happen next. I won't interfere in anyone's choice. That is not our way.
Gris, if you want to take the Overseer up on her offer, you're free to do so. As is anyone else who wants to join you." He furrowed his brow again, then looked to Nyxis.

"Despite the Overseer's misplaced confidence, I'm sure my team will manage to rescue your mining ship. And we'll have a look at the legal code she sent, to confirm your claim on it. You and any of your coworkers are welcome to stay on the Enterprise until that is cleared up." he paused, working his jaw "If the mining ship was destroyed after all..." he took a breath "we can...drop you off somewhere else. You don't have to go with the Overseer if you don't want to."

"Thank you, Captain." Nyxis nodded and gave him a grateful smile.
Gris nodded as well, even if it seemed a little reluctant. "Thank you for saving us. Still for free, right?" he added, and Hiccup huffed, a smile curling the corner of his mouth.

"Still for free. And I suggest you both go and talk to your coworkers. Let them decide who wants to stay and who wants to go." he glanced out the window again, before turning back to them.

Things progressed quickly then, as Hiccup couldn't really stall the process anymore. He was more than suspicious of the Overseer, but it was entirely possible that his own bias was getting in the way. He knew so little about this quadrant, or FXG, or the Empire. Who was he to tell these workers how to choose? Even if he thought Nyxis was probably right in his assessment of the Overseer, he wouldn't stop Gris from making his choice.

He instructed Sandy to go over the legal code and check Nyxis' claim, then he led Gris and Nyxis back to medbay, where they both spoke to the other workers. Nyxis tried to convince them to stay and wait, while Gris told them of the Overseer's offer.
Aster didn't like the idea of any of them leaving so soon, as many of the workers were still recovering. But it wasn't like they would keep them against their will either.

In the end, Nyxis managed to convince about half of his coworkers to stay and hold out hope for a return of their mining ship. The other half decided to go with Gris to the Overseer's ship. Hiccup couldn't blame them, if he was honest with himself. With this many unknowns, and exhausted as they were, it was understandable that they'd choose the safer option. He had a feeling that most of the others were only staying because they could still go back on that choice later, since the Overseer had promised to stick around for a while yet. Sandy did find the corresponding law in the legal code, confirming Nyxis' claim of the ship, but they couldn't be sure if there would even be a ship left for them to claim.

The workers that wanted to transport over were led to the transporter room, where Nyxis and Hiccup watched as they were beamed over to the Overseer's ship in batches, Gris waiting with them to transport over last.
Nyxis looked uneasy the whole time, like he was watching them get beamed straight to their doom, but he had tried to convince them, and they hadn't listened.

Gris stepped onto the platform himself with the remaining seven workers. Before Hiccup could give the order to energize, Nyxis grabbed his arm, tugging him aside slightly.

"Captain, I'm sorry, I should have asked sooner, but do you have a communication device?" he whispered, glancing over to Gris, who looked somewhat impatient.
Hiccup blinked, then looked between the two men.
"Just in case." Nyxis said at Hiccup's raised eyebrow.

"I see..." Hiccup said hesitantly, unclipping the badge from his uniform and handing it to Nyxis. Maybe there could have been a more elegant solution, given more time, but the badges were the standard Starfleet communicators, and Hiccup could just fabricate a new one for himself.

Nyxis gave him a grateful smile, then stepped over to Gris, shaking his hand goodbye, while also handing him the badge. They quietly exchanged some words that Hiccup didn't catch, and Gris' expression morphed from confused, to annoyed, to amused over the course of a couple seconds. He nodded to Hiccup as Nyxis stepped back from the platform, and golden light enveloped them as they were transported to the Overseer's ship.

****************

Jamie wiped the sweat from his brow, trying to focus on the screen in front of him. He was sitting at the science station, in the sweltering heat of the mining ship's dingy bridge. Environmental controls were still down, as was proper lighting. The bridge was barely lit, only the sickly yellow warning lights flashing on and off lent some illumination.

He squinted, rapidly blinking his burning eyes. He'd been staring at this screen for half an hour now, as Commander Frost tried to maneuver the ship to a safer position. Jamie had been assigned the science station, which didn't amount to much, on a mining ship. It was his job to keep an eye on all the sensor data the ship picked up, namely, Asteroids around them. The screen in front of him showed a layered, concentric sphere, filled with a confusing jumble of colors and wavering lines and shapes. It represented everything the sensors picked up around them, with their ship right in the center of the sphere.

Jamie had directed Grexx at the helm to a less dense portion of the asteroid field, where they were planning to wait for the Laika to get back. So Jamie's job was mostly just to make sure no big asteroids were headed their way.
The huge, dense mass of the asteroids made them comparatively easy to spot, but it was still a jumbled mess of data that was hard to parse. And it was increasingly difficult to concentrate, tense as he was. If he didn't spot something in time, they could all be killed, so he didn't dare relax for even a moment.

And then there was that...weird anomaly. A strange, wavering void, not far away from the ship, hovering in place. He'd spotted it a couple minutes ago, and at first, he'd thought nothing of it. Probably just a sensor glitch. This ship was falling apart, after all.
Still, he couldn't help but wonder if he should have brought it to Frost's attention. In the few bridge training simulations, they had been instructed to report anything and everything to the commanding officer, and let them determine if it was important or not. But surely this tiny anomaly wasn't important enough to bother Frost with?

He glanced over to the Commander, who was currently talking to Grexx, checking something at the helm console.
Would he be annoyed if Jamie bothered him with something unimportant? Or, even worse, would he be angry if he found out Jamie hadn't reported this when he'd first spotted it?

Jamie bit his lip. He was on thin ice already, and he couldn't afford mistakes. He surreptitiously glanced to T'Zora, who seemed busy at the Operations station. She would never let him live it down if he embarrassed himself on this mission.... And yet, he really should follow protocol and report the anomaly, right?
He looked at his screen again. It was still there, still hovering close by. What was that thing? And what if was important after all?

He clenched his teeth, steeling himself as he looked to Commander Frost.

"Uh, Sir...?" he said, hating how unsure his voice sounded. "I'm getting a strange reading, I'm..." he swallowed thickly "I'm not sure what to make of it."

Frost looked up with a raised brow, but gave Jamie an encouraging smile as he walked over. So he wasn't mad. Yet.
He stepped up behind him, one hand resting on the headrest of Jamie's chair as he bent down to look at the sensor screen as well. Jamie pointed at the wavering spot

"It's this thing Sir, I've never seen anything like it." he said, his throat feeling dry as he waited for Frost's verdict, which only took about five seconds. Jamie heard the man's sharp inhale, then Frost looked over his shoulder to Xapra.

"Engineering, we need shields ASAP." he said with urgency, though his voice was calm as ever.
Xapra quickly relayed the orders, listened to her com-link quietly for a moment, then reported

"Shields generators are spinning up, Sir, but they're slow to charge, it'll take a few minutes."

"Acknowledged." Frost said, sounding less than enthused about it. His kind smile was still in place when he turned back to Jamie though.

"Good job with the sensors, cadet. That was a difficult thing to spot." he said, patting Jamie's shoulder.
“I wouldn't recommend using this main channel for the sensor array though. With all the data available being displayed at the same time, it ends up a confusing mess." he gestured to the controls next to the screen.
"It’s better to switch through the different channels and check each one individually, until you’re more experienced.”

Jamie's cheeks felt a little warm, feeling both guilty about the praise—since he clearly should have told Frost about the anomaly earlier—as well as embarrassed for not using the sensor's properly.
"Yes, Sir, thank you." he said quietly, his brows furrowing as he looked up at the Commander "but, um..sir, what did I spot, exactly?"

Frost gave him a grim smile, leaning slightly against the tall headrest of Jamie's chair.
"Maybe nothing. Hopefully nothing. Maybe a cloaked ship. The latter would explain those readings." he gestured at Jamie's screen "Those blue lines indicate a faint electromagnetic power signature, but the void suggests that there's nothing there to produce said signature." he looked over to Sototh at the tactical station

"Give me a visual on heading two-seven-four, mark zero-four-two.” he said, indicating a direction to the top left of their ship. The view screen flickered briefly, before showing a different angle of the asteroid field.
They all looked up, narrowing their eyes. Was there a slight distortion there? It was difficult to see against the busy backdrop of particles and space, but....had there been a ripple, or was Jamie imagining things?

"Keep in mind-" Frost continued, "that a fully cloaked ship will not show up on sensors at all, as that’s kind of the point. A low quality cloaking device might leak some energy though, and might not entirely conceal the ship’s signature.”

Jamie nodded along, trying not to miss anything. Somehow the casual way Frost spoke made him feel more at ease. If the Commander was just giving an impromptu lesson in bridge management, their situation couldn't be so bad, could it?

Frost looked to Sototh again. "Do we have any weapons online yet?"
The vulcan shook his head briefly, his face impassive as usual. "No Sir, phaser turrets still show as offline, and we do not have anything else.”

Frost grimaced briefly, biting his lip. "Well maybe we won't need them. It could just be-" just then, a portion of the space shown on the viewscreen rippled noticeably, as if a cloth with a picture of said space printed on it was pulled away.
It revealed a martial looking ship with a black hull, turrets and weapons mounted openly on its sides. It was of the same, blocky design as the mining ship, but its small size and cross-section suggested a combat focused role. It looked just about big enough to house one pilot.

The ship immediately opened fire, red phaser blasts zooming towards the mining ship, crossing the short distance in no time at all. Jack braced himself as their ship shuddered heavily, sparks flying from a bursting conduit towards the front of the bridge, a warning klaxon blaring to life.
The enemy ship had snuck up on them, and they were not wasting any time. 

“Damage report!” Frost yelled, looking to T’Zora.

“Hull breaches on deck four and five, automatic force fields failing, atmosphere venting, Sir.” she replied in her usual, stoic tone.
Frost whipped around to Xapra "Any casualties?" he asked, his voice adapting that professional tone that didn't waste any time, but still sounded calm and collected.
Xapra listened to her com-link for a moment, then shook her head.

"No Sir, those decks were empty. We got lucky. Shields are coming online now, Sir, though only at 30%." she added, right before another volley of red phaser blasts struck the ship.

Jamie held on tightly to his console as the bridge shook, the ship emitting a metallic groan.
"Shields down to 26%, Sir." T'Zora reported, and for the first time, Jamie was jealous of her eternal stoicism.
Looking at her, one could thing they were just in a particularly boring simulation, and not in a life and death situation. Jamie, meanwhile, felt his heart hammer against his chest. They were in a defenseless mining ship, with buckling shields and no allies in sight. Their ship was heavily damaged already, and the shields would only last for a couple more shots.

"Sir?" Jamie looked up to Commander Frost, hating how frail his voice sounded just then "W-what should we do?"
At least Jamie wasn't the only one who looked scared. Grexx and Xapra both turned to Frost at Jamie's question, looking just as lost.

Commander Frost stayed quiet for a moment, looking around, considering his options. And then...then he smiled?

"We're gonna have a little fun." he said, gripping the railing as the bridge shook with another impact. "Ever been in a snowball fight?" he asked in a casual tone, and Jamie blinked in confusion. For a moment, he thought Frost had lost his mind, but then the Commander jumped into action.

“Ops, we have a mining phaser, right? They had to have been splitting these rocks somehow.”
“Um..yes Sir, but it only goes out straight from the ship’s nose, it’s impossible to aim it at something as small as that ship.” Grexx said with an apologetic look.

“I don’t intend to hit it.” Frost replied, still with a crooked grin.
“Helm, initiate a collision course, full power to thrusters, switch to impulse as soon as we’re lined up.
Tactical, power up that mining phaser. Ops, use the tractor beam to-” the bridge shook again, and Frost winced slightly at T’Zora’s “20%”. 

“-to grab one of the smaller asteroids behind us. Draw it in close and keep it under our bow.”
The cadets acknowledged their orders and got to work, their ship quickly turning towards the attacking vessel, which thankfully stayed put. Jamie didn't have anything to do, so he watched Frost in awe, the man seeming perfectly at ease as he directed them. He almost felt silly for worrying so much. Of course Commander Frost would know what to do, surely he'd been in scarier situations than this.

"They don't expect an old mining ship to attack," Frost explained, leaning against the railing "and they might just be cocky enough to make this work. If we time it right."

They accelerated painfully slowly, and the bridge shook again and again, the smaller ship firing casually as they got closer and closer, flying directly towards it. Jamie could only guess how fast and maneuverable a small attack vessel like that was, but the pilot seemed confident that they could leisurely evade them when they got closer. Why do fancy maneuvers, when they just had to quickly destroy an ailing mining ship?

“10%, Sir.” T’Zora announced, and Jamie swallowed thickly. They could take maybe five more hits, and they still had to cover quite a bit of distance.

“Mining phaser fully charged and ready to fire, Sir.” Grexx said, before hesitantly adding “But again, I don’t think we can hit that tiny ship, even when the nose is aimed right at it, Sir.”

Frost nodded “I know. It’s not supposed to hit them, it’s just supposed to make them evade in the right direction. Helm, change our pitch by another two degrees, we need to fire right over their head.” he said, narrowing his eyes as they drew closer to the enemy ship.

“T’Zora, is the asteroid ready?”

“Aye, sir. Dragging one right behind and slightly below us as ordered.” the vulcan said, as if this was a completely normal situation, though Jamie thought he could see a slight tension around her eyes as well.
The bridge shook again, even harder than before. Apparently the other ship’s pilot was getting impatient.
“Sir, shields are down, we’re defenseless.” T’Zora said, and Frost nodded.

“Right. Now or never. Helm, on my mark, pull up as hard as you can, even if it burns out the thrusters. Ops, fire the phaser and release the asteroid at the same time.” Frost gripped the railing tightly, and Jamie braced himself as well, his sweaty hands slipping on the console's metallic frame. They only had one shot at this. If the enemy ship dodged, they would be an easy target.
And yet, Frost seemed confident they would be able to do it.

"Now!" he commanded, and the others flew into action. A huge, crackling beam of energy and matter shot straight ahead from their bow, missing the other ship entirely. But it was meant to crack open gigantic asteroids, so Jamie couldn’t blame the other pilot for still dodging in the opposite direction. It was so bright, he could almost feel the heat energy emanating from it.
The pilot dodged as Frost had predicted, diving beneath them, surely expecting to casually come up behind them again, only to be met with a fast moving, and entirely uncaring asteroid.

Their cameras tracked the smaller ship, and Jamie let out a relieved breath as he watched it smash directly into the massive rock, blasting apart in a brief flicker of light. Thankfully, there was no big explosion, because that might have ripped a hole in their belly, as close as the collision had occurred.

"Yeah!" Grexx cheered, and Jamie felt a huge weight drop from his shoulders. He looked up to Frost with a grin. The commander didn't make a big show of it, but he wore a rather satisfied smile as well.

Amidst the other's cheers, Jamie checked his console again, just to make sure the anomaly was gone. He flipped through the channels just like Frost had told him, relieved to see that they were once again just surrounded by asteroids. Those seemed almost harmless in comparison. He looked up to join in the celebration, when he spotted something in his periphery, briefly flickering on the screen.
He looked down again, narrowing his eyes. Surely that couldn't have been....

"What is it?" Commander Frost said quietly, leaning over him again, startling Jamie slightly. He didn't think the man had been paying any attention to him, with the others talking so loudly. They were clearly still relieved, chattering amongst themselves, talking about the insane maneuver they had just pulled off. Xapra had gone over to Grexx, patting him on both shoulders for his expert piloting.
And yet, Frost was interested in what Jamie had to say. He blushed slightly, since it was probably nothing.

"Uh..I'm not sure, Sir...for a moment, I thought there was another one of those signatures, but then it disappeared again. Let me..” he flipped through the different channels, brows furrowed.
"There!" he said, so glad to have found another anomaly, that for a moment, he forgot what that meant.
Frost drew in a sharp breath.
"Oh.." Jamie said, dread rising in his chest. Two more anomalies were closing in, looking just like the first one.
"Do you think...?" he said, looking up at Frost. For a brief moment, Jamie thought he could see a deep sadness in the man's blue eyes, suddenly looking older than before. Then Frost quickly smiled again, though it was rather grim this time.

"Yes." he said quietly. He took in the room.

“We have two more cloaked ships incoming. Battlestations, everyone.” Frost said loudly, and the others froze for a moment, staring at him with wide eyes. They all knew that there was nothing they could do about the incoming vessels. The fact that they had survived the encounter with the first one had been incredibly lucky. Still, Frost seemed determined, leaning against the railing again. The other cadets took heart at that, quickly going back to their stations. Frost probably had another plan ready for a situation just like this.

But Jamie thought he had seen a brief glimpse under the confident mask Frost was wearing. He'd watched him earlier, and there was a tension in his shoulders now, one that he hadn't had during the first attack. That smile didn't quite reach his eyes. Or was Jamie just imagining it? He wanted to dismiss this feeling of dread, this tangible fear of dying as he watched the anomalies draw closer and closer. What would Frost do this time? How could he possibly save them now?

****************

Jack gripped the railing in front of him tightly, if only to stop his hands from trembling. Two more cloaked ships approaching, looking to destroy them. And they'd surely seen what they'd done to the first ship. They wouldn't fall for the same trick. They wouldn't hesitate to destroy them.

In the stories of adventure and heroism, someone always came up with a surprising solution to the seemingly insurmountable challenge. But he'd already done that. The gamble with the asteroid had paid off with the first attacking ship, but what was he supposed to do now? This just wasn't fair.

Jack looked at the young cadets manning his pitiful bridge. They only had minutes left to live. And yet...they still looked to him with hope in their eyes, waiting for another miracle.
But Jack was all out of tricks. He'd played all his cards.

"Enemy ships decloaking, Sir." Sototh said calmly, and Jack nodded.
"Helm, adjust course to 142 Mark 270." he said tonelessly, and Grexx acknowledged the order.
"Xapra, tell Engineering to evacuate the lower decks."

Jack was having trouble breathing. He felt the air whistling through his constricted throat, his heard hammering against his chest. Only his years of training and experience kept him on his feet. The commanding officer has to stay calm. The commanding officer knows what to do. Only there was nothing left for him to do.
The course change was as much a distraction as anything else. Something for the cadets to do. It would expose the bow of their ship to the enemy fighters, hopefully giving them another few moments of life. They didn't have any shields, and a ship without shields was just an explosion waiting to happen.
With their new heading, he was placing the bulk of the ship between the bridge and the incoming fighters.

"All hands. Brace for impact." he said, managing to keep his voice steady, even in the face of death.

"They're firing." Bennett said, and Jack was proud to see that the kid was still doing his job, even though he must've been aware of their impending doom.

The bridge shook violently, knocking Jack down to one knee. The console next to T'Zora exploded in a flash of sparks and black smoke, throwing the young vulcan halfway across the bridge, slamming into Bennett's console. She was still conscious, but didn't get up. The cadets screamed, just as another blast shook the room, rupturing another conduit in the ceiling.

Jack could hear their panic increasing, their hopes failing. And still they looked to him, like he could do something about it. He'd seen that look before. They thought of him as this almost mythical figure, this hero that would be able to save them. If only they knew. This wasn't the first crew he'd lost.
He still didn't remember what had happened a 140 years ago. Why his ship had been lost with all hands.
The images of North grabbing him by the shirt and shoving him into the escape pod flashed before his eyes again.
North said something. Jack could see his mouth move, but he couldn't hear. Jack tried to reach for him, pull him into the pod, but North shook his head, his expression one of resignation as he pushed Jack back again, then slammed his large hand on the release button. Jack screamed as the airlock slammed shut, the emergency hatch blowing in a haze of sparks. He saw the Enterprise 1701 for a brief moment, trailing smoke and debris, and then his pod decelerated violently, and everything turned black, the memory turning to nothing but overwhelming guilt clawing at his insides.

"T'Zora!" Bennett shouted, and Jack blinked himself out of the memory, just as the bridge shook again, fire erupting from a ventilation fan, a metal beam ripping from the ceiling and only missing Grexx by an inch as it slammed into the helm console, the cadet jumping away at the last moment.

Never let fear take over. Give them something to do. Give them hope.

Jack straightened up, a grim smile cemented back into place. So what if there was nothing left for him to do?
What was that old Kirk aphorism? 'I don't believe in no-win scenarios'.

"Bennett, Xapra, take care of T'Zora. There's a medkit in the equipment case." he ordered, pointing to the case as he walked to the front of the bridge. He helped Grexx to his feet, then gestured for him to take over the science station, just as the bridge shook again. He heard a deep metallic groaning, then a sharp crack. He could see a fracture rippling through the metal floor. This ship didn't have a lot of time left.
"Sototh, reroute helm controls to your station, full impulse."

The cadets took heart at his confident tone and orders, though deep down, they probably knew that he was just buying them time. If that. Anything was better than just sitting and waiting to die.
Jack held on to the bent chair from the helm station, staring grimly at the two ships still displayed on the main screen. They had paused their barrage, probably charging up for the killing blow. This was it. He'd lead another crew to their doom. This had been his idea, and they'd all pay for it.

“Cadets, you did an admirable job.” he said, raising his chin as he stared down their incoming doom.
“It’s been an honor serving with you.”
They looked at him, and he saw the dread in their eyes, the fear, but also a hint of pride. If that was all he could leave them with, it would have to do.

The enemy ships fired, red bolts of light and matter racing towards them, when Jack heard another gasp to his right. Grexx had looked down from the viewscreen, maybe in an attempt to see the solution on his console, when he actually spotted it.
“Sir! There’s another large signature, uncloaked! That could be the-”

“Laika.” Jack exclaimed with a breathless laugh as the familiar Starfleet ship dropped out of warp right in front of them, its grey hull almost filling out the entire viewscreen. His eyes widened at the sight, barely able to keep track of the insane maneuver Toothless just pulled. He must’ve warp-jumped a minuscule distance within the asteroid belt, avoiding a collision by a hair's breadth by risking their own lives. The Laika’s shields flared up briefly, effortlessly catching the enemy phaser blasts. Jack could only stare in disbelief, a wide grin on his face.

“USS Laika to Commander Frost.” Astrid’s voice crackled over Jack’s com-badge, still heavily distorted, even at this distance. “Looks like you made some friends while we were gone.”

“Yeah, thanks for crashing the party.” Jack laughed, a weight dropping from his shoulders “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”

They weren’t quite safe yet, but with the Laika here, the chances easily turned in their favor. It was a small ship, compared to the Enterprise, but it packed a punch. and it was still an order of magnitude larger than the small attack vessels.

“My pleasure.” Astrid’s voice returned, and Jack watched as the Laika quickly turned around, facing the attackers, shielding the mining ship behind her.
“Let me take care of these unwanted guests.” Astrid added, and a barrage of sustained golden phaser beams emitted from the Laika’s nose, easily tracking and hitting the two small ships, despite their last minute attempts to evade.

“There.” Astrid said. “Now can we please get out of this damn asteroid belt, or are there any more ships you’d like to save?” 

*********************

"Will you at least tell me what's taking so long?" Gris said, throwing up his arms in frustration.

"Step away from the gate." the enforcer said in a bored tone, for what must've been the tenth time.
Gris has been arguing with him, well, more like arguing at him for the last couple minutes, but he'd gotten nowhere.

They were still in the large hangar bay of the Overseer's ship, right where they had been transported to.
Gris huffed in frustration as he stepped away from the large gate leading to the rest of the ship, secured by an invisible forcefield. He looked around at the other workers, shaking his head.

They still were a sorry sight. Their wounds had been treated on the Enterprise, so none of them were in any immediate danger, but after weeks of malnutrition, fevers and exhaustion, they deserved better than this.

The enforcers guarding the gate had instructed them to stay where they were, and hadn't been very forthcoming with information beyond that. Gris had assumed the Overseer herself would come and greet them, so that they could talk about their contracts and compensation going forward, or to at least question them about their ordeal.
But so far, they'd just waited for almost two hours. He crossed his arms, warming his hands in his pits. The huge room was damn cold, and without any comforts. He was almost surprised that he couldn't see his own breath.
It was just an empty airlock, really just a large metal box with gigantic blast doors leading to open space on one side, and the gate with the enforcers on the other.

It was meant as a staging ground for small ships to prepare before launch, not to accommodate people.

His coworkers were huddled up against he walls or lying on the cold metal floor, looking weak and exhausted.
Gris thought back to the strange, alien ship that had rescued them and treated their wounds. For free no less.
He'd been apprehensive about it the whole time, not trusting their generosity. Nothing had ever been 'for free' in his life, and he knew that there was always a cost tied to even the simplest act of kindness. He could barely believe that they had been allowed to leave without paying anything.

But now that he was here, freezing his ass off, he started to miss the other ship. He'd almost gotten whiplash from how gentle and accommodating the aliens had been in their treatment. Like they were actually important guests, or premium passengers who deserved nothing but the best care. It certainly didn't feel like that here.

He huffed again and turned to the enforcer "Can we at least get some blankets? It's freezing in here!" he said, stepping up to the forcefield again.

"Shut up already. You won't need 'em anyway." the guard said, rolling his eyes, barely visible through his darkened visor.
"What's that supposed to mean, 'won't need em'?" Gris said, furrowing his brow.

The guard's posture briefly tensed, like he'd been caught out. Then he shrugged, looking bored again.
"Step away from the gate. I won't say it again." he said, before turning away from Gris.

"Hey! Don't you fucking turn away from me! What did you mean by that!" Gris yelled, but the enforcer ignored him entirely, knowing damn well that Gris couldn't get to him through the forcefield.

Gris was fuming, but there was nothing he could do about it. He stalked off, muttering to himself. What had the man meant? They wouldn't need blankets? Because they would be let out of the airlock soon? But if that was the case, why had he looked like he'd been caught saying something he wasn't supposed to? If they were about to be released to proper quarters, why didn't he just say so? Why were they still in an airlock? What was the Overseer planning here? Gris was starting to get a bad feeling about this whole deal. Had that been too easy? He'd been so eager to get back to the familiar system, that he'd barely thought about it. The Overseer hadn't even haggled, she'd just been 'eager to help'.

Damn. He hoped Nyxis wasn't right about her after all. Did she just want to get rid of them? Was that why they were in this room, ready to be vented into space?

He looked around again, taking in the twenty people he'd convinced to come here. He slipped a hand in his pocket, feeling the smooth metal of the communicator Nyxis had handed him. he pulled it out, seeing his reflection in the golden metal of the arrow shaped symbol.

Here, just in case. Nyxis had said.
I know you don't think much of me, but please believe me when I say that I only wanted what's best for all of us.
Despite it all, I hope it works out for you.

Gris smirked slightly as he remembered the other man's last words to him. Nyxis was such a sentimental fool, and yet Gris couldn't help but be somewhat fond of him. Sure, they were always fighting, because Nyxis was reckless and wrong about pretty much everything. But he had to respect the man for sticking to his convictions. Still, calling Nyxis for help was unthinkable. Admitting he'd been right all along? Laughable.

But as the minutes went by, Gris found himself wondering, looking at the others, and their quiet suffering.
If this really had been a bad idea, if Nyxis really had been right....they were all doomed because Gris convinced them to come here.

Damn. Their safety was his responsibility, wasn't it? Could he really put his personal pride over that?

***************

“I don’t really know why you’re even asking me, it’s not like I’m some sort of scholar.” Nyxis said, drumming his fingers on his crossed arms, looking out the window of Hiccup’s ready room. Hiccup had been staring at the same view of the asteroid field for a while now, from behind his desk. His pose was relaxed, but he couldn’t stop his hands from fiddling with a screwdriver.

It might very well have been the longest two hours of Hiccup’s life, waiting for news of the Laika and the mining ship. He had considered sending a couple shuttles or a runabout after them, but by the time they would arrive, the situation would be resolved one way or another, so it wasn’t exactly sensible to expose even more of his crew to danger. Still, just waiting here was agonizing.
So he had tried to distract himself by talking to Nyxis, learning more about his situation, the Empire, and the company he used to work for. At least this way, he could get a better picture of the situation in the Gamma quadrant.

He’d already learned that the Torien Empire was enormous. It sprawled over thousands of star systems and worlds, and was the most powerful entity on this side of the Crimson Veil, at least for a couple hundred light years. If anything, the Federation could be glad the Nebula presented an obstacle between the Empire and the Federation, since the Empire seemed to be very keen on expansion by any means.

“You don’t need to be a scholar to be more knowledgeable about this stuff than me. We’re new here, remember? We know next to nothing about the Empire, or any other factions for that matter.” Hiccup replied, and Nyxis shrugged.

“Well what else do you want to know? I do want to help you out, Information is pretty much the only thing I have to pay you back, after all you’ve done for us.”

“You don’t owe us anything.” Hiccup repeated for the umpteenth time that day. “But yes, I would appreciate anything you can tell us, so we don’t fly as blind anymore.” he thought for a moment, twirling the screwdriver and glancing past Nyxis, hoping to spot the Laika emerging from the asteroid field.

“So who’s really in charge in this Torien Empire? You said the big corporations run the show, but also that there’s an..Emperor?”

Nyxis shrugged again “Well I don’t know how exactly it works. I just know the corporations mostly do what they want, as long as it’s within the law.”

“And the law is written by the Emperor? Or a ruling council? Are there different branches of government?”
Hiccup bit his lip, stopping himself from asking too many questions. There was just so much to learn here.

Nyxis gave him an apologetic look “I really don’t know, Captain. I grew up on a mining colony on Relgon IV, which is owned and operated by FXG. For as long as I can remember, they’ve been the ones ruling everyone’s lives. It's not like we get taught any of that stuff, since it doesn't really affect us in the day to day. I only went to a vocational school to learn how to do my work, and some basics.” he scratched at his fingers “I…I’ve heard stories though, of the Empire’s Legion.”

“Empire’s Legion?” Hiccup asked, taking his feet off the desk and leaning forward.
Nyxis held up his hands briefly, again with that apologetic grimace “I don’t really know much about them, just that you don’t want them to know about you. People say that…that few lived to tell the tale of encountering the Legion.”

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. And he was in the process of potentially becoming an enemy of this Empire. That was a lot sooner than he would have liked. As long as the mining ship was safe, he wouldn’t have to break any of their laws, so there was still hope.
“So they’re worse than these…company enforcers you've talked about?"

Nyxis snorted, “Whole other league, as far as I know. The company enforcers are the private armies the companies use to enforce their claims and resources. The Legion is the extension of the Emperor. From what I’ve heard, they extend the borders of the Empire, and enforce the Emperor's will where the companies fail to do so.
Like I said, few people have ever seen them in person. They say you’re lucky if you’ve seen them and survived.” 

“I see.” Hiccup said, biting his lip in thought. He had so many questions about the societal and political structure of this Empire they had stumbled upon. About its history and its factions, how everything worked and how it had gotten there. But he could tell Nyxis didn’t have the information he was looking for.
From what he’d learned so far, education wasn’t a priority for the people in the Empire’s outer rim, working the factories and mines. At least Nyxis had given him a solid base-layer of information, one Hiccup could use to extrapolate the rest, until they could confirm it.
The Empire was a highly capitalistic endeavor, with ‘The big six’ companies pretty much running the entire show, while being constantly at each other’s throats. Hiccup could guess that the government, or the Emperor, was actively encouraging a little infighting. That was a common enough tactic with dictators. As long as everyone was fighting each other, they wouldn’t think to combine forces against their benefactor.
That Legion sounded like a formidable force as well. One Hiccup didn’t want to encounter if he could help it. It was frustrating to get so many glimpses of knowledge, yet still be in the dark.

“Captain?” Nyxis said, and Hiccup blinked, realizing that Nyxis had said it twice already.
“Huh? Uh, sorry, did you ask something?”
“I was just wondering, you said you’re from a far away place, but…” he furrowed his brow “you said you’re not working for any company? What are you doing here then?”

Funnily enough, that was actually a good point. Unanswered questions about alien cultures were kind of Hiccup’s job.
“We’re explorers,” he said with a smile. “We look for new worlds and people, to expand our understanding of the universe.” he paused and nodded to Nyxis “and sometimes to make new friends.”

Nyxis blinked at him “Ah, so you’re looking for new resources? That makes more sense.”
Hiccup was already shaking his head “No you misunderstand, we’re not looking to enrich ourselves. We’re essentially just doing this for the sake of it.” He realized how absurd this all must sound to someone like Nyxis, who had grown up in such a cutthroat economy, where everything was linked to a monetary value.

“Where I come from, everyone has all their material need met, you see? We don’t need to expand our territory or find new resources. But we’re still explorers by nature. We see the infinite expanse of space, and we see possibilities and adventure. We go out to expand out horizons, to broaden our understanding of the universe.” the corner of his lip twitched upward. “It might sound a little romantic and frivolous, now that I'm saying it out loud.”

Nyxis’ brow was furrowed as he tried to wrap his head around Hiccup’s words. Then he looked out of the window again, at the asteroid field, but also at the sea of stars surrounding it.

“No..” he said thoughtfully “I think I get it, even if it sounds too good to be true. Back on Relgon IV, when I came out of the mines with the other kids, I used to look up at the stars, and imagine going somewhere else.” he huffed out a mirthless laugh. “When I signed up for the mining gig on that ship, I kind of imagined it as an adventure. To go out and travel, instead of being stuck in one place. 

And what an adventure it was.” he trailed off, shaking his head.

They were quiet for a moment, Hiccup looking thoughtfully at Nyxis' forlorn, almost pained expression.

"It wasn't your fault, you know?" he eventually said, and Nyxis startled slightly, having been lost in thought.
"Huh?"
"What happened on that ship wasn't your fault." Hiccup said with conviction.

"Of course it was." Nyxis said, furrowing his brow "Without me, none of it would have happened!"

Hiccup shook his head. "You just stood up for what you thought was right, and you advocated for your fellow workers. That was a brave thing to do. Don't blame yourself for the things that happened afterwards. That's on the AI, and the company."

"Still, I was the one responsible." he grimaced, looking outside again "If I hadn't said anything, they'd all still be alive."

"If you hadn't said anything, if no one is ever brave enough to stand up, things will never change." Hiccup said quietly. "They chose to stand up with you, to fight for their own freedom. They knew they were taking a risk. And no one could have foreseen that the AI would react that way, so don't blame yourself, blame the company. They're responsible for allowing this whole situation to happen in the first place."

Nyxis looked skeptical, not ready to accept it. And that was alright. Hiccup knew it wasn't easy to let go of guilt, and he didn't expect Nyxis to do so over the course of an afternoon.

They were interrupted by a Tooth's voice over the ship's intercom.
"Captain, there's an incoming transmission from the Overseer's ship." she said, sounding surprised "But it's not from the bridge, it's from a Starfleet communicator?"

"Gris!" Nyxis' face lit up in surprise "Please, Captain, if he's calling, we need to answer!"

Hiccup nodded, "Put it through to my ready room." he said, and Tooth acknowledged.

"Hello? Does this thing work?" they heard Gris' voice, uncharacteristically quiet.
"Yes, it works, Nyxis here, and Captain Haddock." Nyxis said, taking charge. Hiccup smiled in bemusement at the breach of protocol, but didn't interrupt. Giving Gris the communicator had been Nyxis' idea, after all.

"I'm..." Gris said, pausing for a moment. Hiccup could almost see the man grinding his teeth. This wasn't easy for him.
"I think you may have been right." he eventually said, like each word was causing him physical pain.
"About the Overseer. We're still stuck in an airlock, and I'm getting a real bad vibe about this whole thing. I don't think she's actually here to help us." he explained quickly, like he was trying to get it over with.

For a moment, Nyxis looked like he was about to make a quip about being right, and having known all along, but then thought better of it. His expression sobered.

"Damn. I was hoping to be wrong about that, to be honest. What do you think she's up to? Did she say anything?"
Nyxis asked, looking out the window. The Overseer's ship wasn't visible from here, but Hiccup understood the urge to look for it anyway.

"She hasn't even talked to us. I get the feeling that she's just waiting for the rest of you to beam over. And if it wasn't such an insane thing to suggest..." he lowered his voice "what if she's planning to vent us into space, once you get here? You said she wants to get rid of us..."

Nyxis looked to Hiccup, his face going slack.
"She wouldn't..." he said, clearly not confident in that assertion. "Captain, we need to do something! We need to get them off that ship!" he said, his hand going to his forehead.

Hiccup nodded, his mind racing. Why would the Overseer plan to kill the workers she'd been sent to protect? Was she truly that reckless about making this entire situation disappear? But there was still the ship, it wasn't like she could...

"Fuck." Hiccup said, already getting up. "That's why she was so confident that the mining ship would be destroyed." he added, talking more to himself as he hurried to the bridge.
He cursed himself for being so gullible, for not trusting his gut. The Overseer had been outwardly friendly, but the 'support ships' she'd sent into the asteroid field must've been instructed to destroy the mining ship.
She'd planned to get rid of all the workers from the beginning!

Deep down, Hiccup knew there was still nothing he could do about it, otherwise he'd done it already. But knowing that Jack and the others were in immediate danger demanded he took some sort of action. He'd blast the whole asteroid field apart with quantum torpedos if he had to, or send in shuttles, or...

"Captain, I am picking up a signal from the asteroid belt." Sandy said neutrally, sliding his fingers over his console "It is the Laika, dragging what appears to be a heavily damaged mining ship."

"On screen." Hiccup said with baited breath, pausing in his way to his chair.

The viewscreen showed the Laika apparently undamaged, dragging the Ore-Extraction-38 out of the asteroid belt with a tractor beam. The mining ship didn't look good, it's hull torn open in multiple places, but overall stable, at least. A huge weight dropped from Hiccup’s chest, though he was still a little apprehensive. Were there casualties?

“Ore-Extraction-38 is hailing us, Sir.” Tooth said, sounding relieved as well.
“On screen.” Hiccup replied with a cautious smile that grew wider when Jack appeared on the viewscreen, looking a little disheveled and sweaty, but very much alive. The warm smile on Jack’s face already told Hiccup everything he needed to know, really.

“Heya Captain, did you miss us?” Jack said, leaning against a dented railing. 

Hiccup shook his head slowly, though he couldn’t stop himself from grinning. He shrugged, then gestured to Jack “Maybe a little. I assume your little joy ride went well?”
Jack huffed out a dramatic laugh “ Hah! I suppose you could say that. We’re all accounted for, and I’m bringing back one more ship than I left with. That’s a success in my book,” he sobered a little, looking off screen "even if we did get banged up a little."

“Good to hear. And good thinking too. Turns out we really need that ship.” Hiccup said, nodding to Nyxis, who had followed him to the bridge. He was staring at Jack, his mouth gaping open. He probably hadn’t expected to see that ‘angel’ of his in real life.

“Thank you!” Nyxis said, taking a step forward “I-I didn’t think it would actually happen, I-” his mouth opened and closed, unable to find the words “Just- thank you.” he finally said, and Jack gave him a tired smile.
"All in a day's work." he said with a nod.

Hiccup noted just how tired Jack looked. It wasn't immediately obvious to anyone watching, but Hiccup knew what it looked like to hold yourself together just for the sake of appearance. And the fact that Jack was usually so energetic certainly made the difference more obvious. Hiccup had to move things along, so that the crew on the mining ship could get a break.

"Alright, Lieutenant Zh'ishollal, bring us about and place the Enterprise next to that mining ship." he said, and the young andorian at the helm acknowledged.
"Sandy, extend our shields as soon as we're in range. I don't want any more surprises." he added, thinking of what he'd just learned from Gris. If the Overseer wanted to get rid of the Ore-Extraction-38, she would have to get past the Enterprise first.

"Jack, have the Laika dock, but I'd like you to beam over ASAP, we need to talk about what happened in there."
"Aye Sir." Jack said, still with that tired smile, before cutting the connection.

"Captain," Tooth spoke up, "the Overseer ship is hailing us."

"Was only a matter of time." Hiccup said grimly "put them on hold for now, tell 'em we need a moment."
He would have to negotiate with her, but he needed confirmation on all the pieces before he did so. He was done being lied to.

Jack stepped onto the bridge a minute later, and Hiccup let out a relieved breath at the sight. He'd been tense ever since they'd left, but now he had tangible proof that they were safe.

"Good to have you back." he said quietly, nudging Jack's shoulder with his fist as his first officer walked up to their chairs. Jack clutched his shoulder dramatically, as if Hiccup had full on punched him, and collapsed onto his chair.
"Ouch. Was that for staying out too long?" he grinned up at Hiccup, then added, just as quietly "glad to be back."

Hiccup rolled his eyes, but couldn't help a smile.

Jack spent the next couple minutes bringing Hiccup up to speed with what happened in the asteroid field. And Hiccup told him everything they knew about the Overseer. Sandy brought up the record of the 'rescue ships' she had sent, and Jack identified them as the ones that had attacked them, Hiccup's expression turning more grim with every word he heard.

Overseer Dhinael had sent these ships right after their first conversation, so it had been her plan to destroy the mining ship and anyone on it the whole time. She'd only acted friendly to trick the workers to come over to her ship, likely to get rid of them as well. And now she was hailing them, probably to try and salvage her lies.

The worst part was, that he couldn't even be outwardly hostile towards her, despite everything he now knew.

"She's still a representative of the Torien Empire, and we can't afford to have our first interaction be a hostile one." Hiccup said, glowering at the viewscreen, which currently displayed Dhinael's ship.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want you to start a war over me, though I'm flattered that you considered it." Jack said, giving him a crooked smile, showing off his gleaming white teeth.

Hiccup let out a snort despite himself, "You're so right, I should be thanking her for trying to take you off my hands." he deadpanned, and Jack laughed, before adopting a playfully hurt expression.

Hiccup shook his head, still smiling. How was Jack always able to lift his spirits, even in difficult situations like this?
He schooled his expression into a more serious one.
"Tooth, put her on the main screen." he said, and it only took seconds for Dhinael to appear in front of them.
Notably not on her bridge like before, but in a smaller, dimly lit room. Maybe her quarters? Did she not want anyone to hear this conversation?

"Captain!" she said with a big smile that seemed a little brittle "I see you managed to save the ship after all, I shouldn't have doubted you!"

Hiccup didn't even acknowledge her remark.
"Cut the shit, we know you sent ships to destroy the Ore-Extraction-38. You almost got my crew killed in the process. What exactly was your plan here?" he said, lip twitching into a snarl.

Dhinael's smile wavered, and Hiccup could see her desperation leak through.
"I see you're not one to be easily tricked, Captain." she said, her posture deflating.
"I..." she hesitated, obviously unsure how to proceed, "Please believe me when I say that I regret what happened here. I was forced to make some decisions I wouldn't usually make." she said, rubbing her forehead. She looked tired all of a sudden, her mask falling away.
"Look, I'll be honest, I just can't lose the ship like that. A mining accident is one thing, but the AI going rogue and the workers claiming the ship for themselves? That's just...." she shook her head "that'll ruin me! I'm responsible for that AI, my superiors are just waiting for a single mistake. I have a family too, you know! I can't doom them all to a life in poverty."
She focused on Nyxis, who was standing next to Hiccup.

"Please, I know I haven't been exactly honest so far, but won't you reconsider coming back in? I'll personally clear your debt, and get you a nice place to live! I'm sure we can work something out. I just can't let you have that ship!"

Nyxis scoffed, shaking his head "I knew you couldn't be trusted from the start. And we just spoke to Gris. You're still holding all of the workers in an airlock. Let me guess, as soon as you have all of us, you were planning to kill us, and claim we all died in a mining accident." he spat, and Dhinael gritted her teeth, looking more desperate than ever.

"O-Of course not, don't be ridiculous. Your coworkers will get proper accommodation, we just haven't cleared-"

"Alright, that's enough. I'm tired of your ploys." Hiccup cut in, holding up a hand to stop her from rambling on.
"'Way I see it, you only have two options here. Either you take off now, get rid of Gris and the workers in your cargo hold, and claim it was an accident. If that happens, Nyxis and I will make sure everything that happened here makes it back to your bosses at FXG straightaway."
Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth to reply, but Hiccup quickly continued.

"Your other option is to release the workers on your ship, and transport them back to the Enterprise. You accept Nyxis' rightful claim of the Ore-Extraction-38, and you leave. You can claim the ship was destroyed with all hands in a mining accident for all I care. We'll change the transponder and both the ship and the workers won't ever cross paths with you again." he gave her a mirthless smile "That should be the cleanest solution to everyone involved, no?"

Dhinael stared at him for a moment, and Hiccup could almost see her thoughts racing, weighing all her options, trying to find better ones. Then she smiled again, though it didn't reach her eyes.

"I can respect someone who knows how to haggle." she said, shrugging as if it hadn't mattered all that much after all.
"Fine, I'll transport the workers back to your ship. But I expect the Ore-Extraction-38 to leave this sector for good. It's barely more than scrap metal at this point anyway."

Hiccup nodded. "That won't be a problem." he said, while his smirk said 'Kiss my ass'.

They cut the connection, and for a moment, the bridge was rather quiet. Then Nyxis let out a laugh, smacking his hand against his forehead.

"That's...I can't believe that worked. You actually did it." he said, looking from Hiccup to Jack and back again.
"You saved us, and the ship, and got away with it...I think I owe you a thank you party." he added, a disbelieving smile on his face.

Jack nodded, giving him a tired smile as he pushed himself to stand up "I'll take you up on that. But I need a break first. And I still need to check up on the cadet that was wounded." he stretched, then looked to Hiccup "You got things covered here?"

Hiccup nodded, smiling up at him "Go ahead. She should be in the medbay by now."

************************

Jamie felt terrible. He kept rubbing at his fingers, trying to get the green blood stains from his skin, without much success. It wasn't a lot of blood, just a few droplets that he'd wiped from T'Zora's brow when he'd applied first aid back on the mining ship, but still, it was on his hands. Rather fittingly, as this was all his fault.
Had he called out the anomalies sooner, like he was supposed to, they could have gotten the shields up sooner. And maybe that would have been enough to keep the ship safe just a bit longer, preventing her from getting injured.

She's goin' to be alright, kid. Just a little banged up.
Lt.Cmdr. Bunnymund had reassured him a dozen times, but Jamie couldn't help worrying. He was sitting at T'Zora's bedside, waiting for her to wake up, checking the bio-monitor every other second. What if she didn't wake up? What if he'd caused her irreparable harm, just because he'd been too worried about his own reputation? About appearing incapable? Well he'd certainly proven to be just that.

Just when Jamie looked around again, deciding to ask the nearest doctor for an update, he noticed T'Zora stir slightly. He sat forward in his chair, gripping the padded railing of the bed.
"T'Zora?" he asked, waiting with baited breath, a lump forming in his throat.

She blinked her eyes open, looking around in confusion for a moment, before she focused on him.
"Bennett?" she croaked, raising one eyebrow. She really was alright. She was awake and conscious, and she recognized him. Jamie had been unable to believe it, but now he had proof. Despite it all, he felt a crushing weight lift off his chest.

"You're awake!" he said with a grin, feeling the emotional burden of these last hours rush through him. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes, maybe of joy, maybe of relief, or maybe of loss at what he still had to do.

"I am aware of that." she croaked, then looked up at him "You're crying again?" she added weakly, no bite in her remark. And Jamie laughed despite himself, wiping tears from his cheek with the palm of his hand. Of course that would be the first thing she'd say. As long as she was annoying, she wasn't dead.

"Yes I am." he said with a sniff, smiling through his tears "That's not a bad thing, that's just a human thing." he said, for the first time in his life refusing to feel ashamed for his emotional nature. "I'm just relieved is all."
He took a breath, steeling himself for what he had prepared to say.
"I...I wanted to say I'm sorry. It's my fault that you got hurt. I could have called out those anomalies sooner, but I was worried you'd all think me incompetent. So..so I didn't do my job properly, and you suffered the consequences. I guess you were right," he said, looking down at his clenched hands "I'm just not made for this kind of work."

T'Zora was quiet for an extended moment, and eventually Jamie looked up, ready to receive her judgement. She looked at him impassively as usual, but her eyes were focused on him alone, considering.

"You are wrong." she said matter-of-factly, and Jamie just blinked at her, taken off guard.
"Huh? But you've been saying that for years. That I'm too weak for this, too emotional." he said, furrowing his brow. He really couldn't figure her out.

T'Zora nodded "I have misjudged you, Jamie Bennet. And it is possible that I have treated you unfairly as a result of it."
"But-" Jamie started, but she held up a hand.
"Please." she said quietly. "I have something to say, and I ask that you let me say it."

Jamie was entirely lost now, almost amused by her formal way of speaking. It was usually just aggravating. But right now, in this hospital bed, she seemed unusually vulnerable, even if she still didn't display any emotions.
He nodded at her to go ahead.

"I have misjudged you, Jamie Bennett. And it appears that I have treated you unfairly as a result of it."
Jamie opened his mouth, but she held up her hand again, silencing him.
"Do you know who my father is? The standing of my family?" she asked, and Jamie blinked in surprise.
"Uh..yeah, your father is the Vulcan ambassador to Earth, right?" He'd teased her about her almost royal background often enough to know that much. She nodded.

"With a high profile family like that, there are certain expectations placed upon me. From the moment I decided to join Starfleet Academy, it was only logical that my upbringing and training would make me the best of my year."

"But you are the best of our year?" Jamie said, tilting his head.

"I am." she nodded "But my father, as well as me, expected that to be a given. I expected to be so superior that it would be effortless. I quickly found that it very much was not. Despite my rigorous training, my devotion to pure logic, and forgoing any social life in favor of my studies, I was barely able to outshine you academically." she furrowed her brows, looking back to Jamie intently.
"And there you were, making it look so easy, so effortless. You are an emotional and temperamental human, quick to anger, easily discouraged. And yet." she took a breath "And yet, you made friends—something that eluded me—while still getting close to my scores. Even besting me in some rare cases.
This may have caused me to find ways to diminish your achievements. I am...sorry."

Jamie couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. All these years, he'd just assumed she hated him, or felt superior to him and wanted him to drop out. To hear that she was, in a way, just as insecure as him...

"I'm..." he said, shaking his head slowly, "I didn't know you felt that way."

T'Zora quickly shook her head. "I didn't feel anything." she said, and Jamie couldn't help but bark out a laugh. Vulcans.
"Of course not." he said, smiling. This whole day was just one surreal reveal after another. "Well you should have told me sooner! We could have been friends!" he said, his sudden enthusiasm almost making him forget what he still had to do.

This time, it was T'Zora's turn to blink in confusion, but before she could reply, Commander Frost stepped up to the bed.
"I'm glad to see you're awake. Lt.Cmdr. Bunnymund already informed me that you'll make a full recovery." Frost said with a warm smile.
"I just wanted to let you know that you performed admirably on the Laika. We couldn't have done it without you." he continued, looking to both of them, though Jamie knew he only meant T'Zora.

She looked up at Frost. "Thank you, Sir."

Frost nodded "Well, I'll leave you two to recover. You've earned a rest." he said with a tired sigh, then turned towards the exit, walking off.
Jamie swallowed thickly. If he didn’t talk to Frost now, he would likely never work up the courage to do it later, and his window of opportunity was closing, as Frost was already heading for the door. 

Jamie cleared his throat “Uh, Commander?”
Frost was in the middle of a yawn as he turned around, blinking at Jamie.
“Yes?”
Jame felt the weight of his attention on him, suddenly feeling silly for even bothering him with this. But then again, it needed to be addressed before something even worse went wrong because of him. 

He stood up and walked around T'Zora's bed.

“I-uh, I was wondering if you had a minute to spare, there is something I have to tell you.” he said, glancing at T'Zora, who looked between the two of them with a raised eyebrow.

Frost followed his gaze, then gave him a curious look, despite the exhaustion clear in his posture.
“Sure. Let’s head to my office.” he said, waving Jamie along as he stepped out of the room.

Jamie followed the Commander into the hallway, his dread at the conversation increasing with every step. He felt ridiculous, asking so much attention from the first officer himself,  but he wasn’t sure if Lt.Cmdr. Gobber was the right person to talk to either.
Frost had given him a chance earlier that day, and Jamie had ruined it, so he felt like he had to address it with him.
They made their way to the turbolift, which deposited them on deck two, where the officer’s quarters and separated offices were. Jamie had never been this far up in the ship before, so he felt a little out of place. Everyone walking around here was at least a Lieutenant, since no one else really had a reason to be on this deck in the first place.
Jamie kept his gaze down as he followed Frost, fighting the irrational fear that someone would point him out and demand he leave, since he had no place on this ship, let alone this deck. It was absurd, since he was literally walking with Commander Frost, who had personally asked him to come along.

The Commander reached a door, which hissed open for him, and he gestured for Jamie to step inside. The tired look on Frost’s face made Jamie feel even more guilty. 

Frost settled into the chair behind his desk, gesturing for Jamie to take the chair in front of it. Once Jamie had awkwardly settled down on the edge of it, his back straight, Frost said
"So, you said you had something to tell me?"

Jamie swallowed thickly, his heart in his throat. He looked down.
“Yes Sir. I was just…I wanted to apologize, for disappointing you, and to tell you that I’m resigning my spot on the cadet program.” he said quickly, forcing the words out before he had a chance to overthink it.
When Frost didn’t say anything for an extended moment, Jamie hesitantly looked up at him, expecting to see some sort of disappointed, but approving expression. Instead, Frost just looked confused.

“Why would you do that?” he asked quietly, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his desk.
Jamie could tell he wanted to say more, but he quickly jumped into the brief silence, wanting to get this over with.
“I’m not made for this, Sir, I realize that now, and I’m sorry I didn’t do so earlier. Y-you gave me a chance despite it all, and I only wasted your time. You said I was on thin ice, and then I went and screwed up anyway.”

Frost blinked at him, his white brows furrowed in confusion, or maybe anger?

“Cadet Bennett…” he sighed, carding a hand through his hair as he sat back, looking at the ceiling.
He stayed quiet for a moment, then gave him a tired look “Can I call you Jamie?” he asked, and Jamie blinked at him owlishly.

“Uh, y-yes, of course, Sir.”

“It’s Jack, then, at least in private.” Frost said, and stood up with a slight grunt, walking to the replicator in the sidewall of the room.
“Would you like something to drink? I’m parched after all that adventure.”

Jamie followed him with his eyes, his mouth hanging open slightly. Had Commander Frost just offered to be on a first name basis? And he was just casually offering him a drink, like Jamie was just a normal guest in his office?

“Uh..no Sir, that’s-I’m.. I’m fine, thank you.” he stammered, still sitting ramrod straight on the edge of his seat.

Frost raised an eyebrow and smiled at him. “You sure? And it’s Jack.” he turned to the replicator “Cold lemon soda, half a liter in a bottle.” The replicator hummed briefly, and the ordered bottle manifested itself in a glitter of golden light. Frost took it out, opened the cap with a carbonated hiss, and took a long swig.
Jamie swallowed dryly. Damn it all, but he was thirsty as well. But he had already declined, and it wasn’t polite to say it now. 

Frost lowered the bottle and let out a satisfied sigh.
“Ahh, that hits the spot.” He glanced at Jamie with a bemused smile.
“Another one.” he said to the replicator, which promptly created a second bottle. Frost grabbed it and set it on his desk, right next to Jamie. 

“Will you please relax? You’re giving me a backache just from looking at you.” Frost said as he sat back down and took another sip.

Jamie hesitantly sat back just a little, his shoulders slumping slightly, even though his body was still strung up like a bow. 

Frost sighed quietly and shook his head with a slight smile.
“Ok. So when exactly do you think you screwed up?” 

When hadn’t he screwed up?

"Well, I should have told you about the anomaly much sooner, I was just afraid I was getting it wrong. If only I hadn't been so stupid, we would have had the shields up by the time it fired. And..and T'Zora wouldn't have been hurt..." he trailed off when Frost shook his head.

"Would you ever hesitate to call out something like that again? After witnessing the consequences firsthand?" Frost asked, and Jamie furrowed his brow.
"Of course not!"

Frost nodded "Then I'd much rather have you on my bridge, than any other rookie, who's never made a mistake in their lives." he said seriously.
"But-" Jamie started, but Frost only sighed, looking apologetic of all things.

“It’s my fault, I think. When I told you you were on thin ice, I meant that strictly related to falsifying records and lying to Starfleet.” he leaned forward again, piercing blue eyes looking intently at Jamie.
“You’re allowed to make mistakes, Jamie. In fact, that’s what you’re here for. You’re a cadet. You’re supposed to make mistakes and learn from them. That’s all experience is. You handled yourself very well on that bridge, in a very tense and unexpected situation, no less. I’m impressed.” he paused briefly. “And I’m sorry if I made you feel like I wasn’t.”

Jame gaped at him, not quite able to believe what he was hearing. Was the commander just trying to make him feel better about it? About resigning?

“But..I froze…I…” Jamie looked down and shook his head, feeling a lump in his throat.
“Everyone was so professional, and you..you always know exactly what to do, and I was just…” he met Frost’s gaze again “-I’m just not officer material, I couldn’t handle it.” he said, recalling the words he had prepared earlier. 

Frost shook his head again, brows furrowed “You’re being too hard on yourself.” he smiled “No one really knows what they’re doing. We’re all just making it up as we go. Some of us just have a lot more practice at it. That makes it look like we know what to do. Like I said, I was forced to put you and the others in a very stressful and dangerous situation. Usually, no one with that little experience would ever be part of the bridge crew. So the fact that you all handled it so well is a testament to your training and talent. 

Give it a couple more years, and you’ll be a great officer.” he said, and Jamie blinked at him again, the praise warming his cheeks slightly.

“But…I was so afraid the whole time. I could barely concentrate on my station..” Jamie admitted, the shame of those moments still eating at him.

“I was afraid too.” Frost said, and Jamie looked at him, aghast at the mere idea of Commander Frost being afraid of anything. Frost barked out a laugh when he saw the expression, and Jamie blushed even more, feeling a little silly. 

Frost calmed down, then gave him a warm smile 

“We’re human, Jamie. Being afraid is part of our life. Not a pleasant part, but an important one nonetheless. I’d be more worried if you hadn’t been afraid on that bridge. Especially when those other fighters showed up. That was scary stuff.” he said, quirking up his eyebrows.

“You know what makes a good officer?” he asked, and Jamie shrugged slightly, realizing it was a rhetorical question. 

“No, Sir.”

“It’s Jack.” Frost-no, Jack winked at him mischievously. Jamie could hardly believe it.

“A good officer acknowledges their emotions—like fear and anger—and then works from there. The initial emotion is just something natural that we all feel. It’s what you make of it that matters. I was afraid. I felt fear. Fear of losing the ship, of losing all of you, of being responsible for all that loss.” he said seriously, his voice a little darker.
“I just refused to let that fear take control of me. I knew what I was afraid of, and I couldn’t let it happen. So I had a good reason to fight on, even when things looked bleak.” 

Jamie nodded, his brows furrowed slightly as he listened. Maybe he really had been too hard on himself? 

His failures had seemed so obvious to him earlier, like everyone was surely aware of how much he had fucked up, how afraid and paralyzed he’d been. But Frost spoke of those moments as if they’d all been afraid, and as if Jamie had done a good job of it, despite it all. And shouldn’t he trust Frost’s judgement over his own? He was the commander, after all. If he was satisfied with Jamie’s performance, who was he to disagree?

He swallowed dryly, and glanced at the unopened bottle of soda right next to him on the desk. Condensation dripped off the side of it, looking ridiculously cool and refreshing. He shot Frost a somewhat sheepish, questioning look, and the commander nodded emphatically.
Jamie opened the bottle and took a long drink, the cool, sugary liquid feeling incredible after this very long and exhausting day. He immediately felt better, like half his anxiety had just stemmed from a lack of sugar and water, which made the whole thing even more embarrassing.

“I’m sorry for wasting your time, Sir. I just thought…” he shrugged, feeling the heat in his cheeks. He really had just asked for a private audience with Commander Frost, just to bother him with his inner turmoil. Frost had given him that second chance, expecting him to perform, and here he was, giving up at the first obstacle.

“Are you feeling better now?” Frost asked, and Jamie nodded, blinking at the question.
“Then it wasn’t a waste of time.” Frost said, and smiled again. He finished his bottle, then stretched out his legs with a sigh.
“My door is always open, alright? If you have something you want to talk about, I’m here. That’s kind of my job too. Just..don’t tell the others, or I’ll never get out of here.” he added the last bit with a smirk.

**********************

The following days passed quickly, as the entire engineering department of the Enterprise descended on the ailing Ore-Extraction-38. The damage was quite extensive, not only caused by the recent crisis, but also by years of neglected maintenance.
So much so that everyone involved had to listen to Hiccup and Gobber rant about the lack of foresight FXG obviously had, when Nyxis gave them a tour of the ship.

Still, with the undivided attention of this many engineers and the resources of the Enterprise at hand, the repairs went along rather quickly. Hiccup also approved a couple of refits, since the ship wouldn’t be used to essentially imprison hundreds of workers. They redesigned the living spaces and facilities, making the ship all around more of a general purpose vessel, while leaving the ore refinement facilities intact.
Since upgrading the weapons would be a violation of Federation directives—Starfleet was not supposed to go around arming different factions of foreign nations—they only repaired what was there originally, which was a surprising amount. For a mining vessel, it was rather well armed and shielded.

After a week of repairs for the ship and recuperation for the workers, Hiccup and Nyxis found themselves in the conference room on deck two, using the large windows to watch the ongoing repairs.

The Ore-Extraction-38 was hovering right next to the Enterprise, a dozen maintenance bots buzzing around it, while crewmembers in environmental suits walked around on its hull, working in shifts.

“So, have you thought of a name yet?” Hiccup asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Nyxis.

“Huh? What name?” he replied, dumbfounded.

“For your ship.”

“My ship?!” Nyxis gaped at him, and Hiccup only nodded towards the Ore-Extraction-38, a smile tugging at his lips.

“Well yeah, you don’t want to captain a ship that’s called ‘Ore-Extraction-38’, right? Such a mouthful, and hardly inspiring.” Hiccup explained, as if he hadn’t just told Nyxis for the first time that he would be taking command.

“Well, I mean, sure, but hold on, what do you mean ‘captain’ that ship, I’m no captain!” Nyxis said, and Hiccup smiled more broadly.

“You are as of today. I took the liberty to conduct a quick survey of your crew, and they all agreed. You’re their leader.” He paused briefly as he sat down on the edge of the conference table, still looking outside.

“It was unanimous, with very little convincing on my part.”

Nyxis was still shaking his head, confusion furrowing his brow.

“I…they only say that, but I’m not a leader! I mean, I was just the one to step forward to voice our intentions to Paragon that one time, that’s it!”

Hiccup nodded “Exactly. That’s all a leader is. Someone to take charge when it is needed.”

“But I don’t even know how to lead! Let alone captain a ship!” Nyxis’ eyes were wide as he looked out at the ship, pacing back and forth.

Hiccup took pity on him. This wasn’t the time for teasing encouragement.
“Nyxis, you’re the one who stepped up when the situation was most dire for your people. They remember that, and they trust you to continue stepping up. You’ve earned their confidence.”

“But I don’t-” Nyxis helplessly raised his hands, then let them fall to his sides “-I don’t know what to do with it. So far I’ve just been improvising, we were just incredibly lucky that it worked out. They really shouldn’t trust me with much of anything.” he gestured to Hiccup “If you guys hadn’t shown up, we would all be dead by now! That’s where I would have led them!” he slumped into one of the chairs.

Hiccup walked over, sitting down in the chair next to him.

“You started this, Nyxis, and for a good reason. You led them to this point, and they trust you to lead them from here on out. You have a responsibility to them. I know you’re all new to this, and you’re heading out into uncharted territory.

And I know it’s scary to lead people into the unknown, trust me.” he squeezed Nyxis’ shoulder “but someone has to take the lead, and I can’t think of anyone more qualified than you.”

Nyxis looked up at him, distraught. “But I know nothing about being a captain, I don’t even know where we’re supposed to go.”

“You don’t need to know how to do everything, that’s what your crew is for. You have capable people crewing that ship, and you can work it out from there. You said something about continuing mining and selling the ore at a free port? Why not try that first, then see where it takes you. It’s going to be a dialogue with your crew as well.
I’m not going to lie, it’ll be difficult to find your way.” he paused briefly, looking out at the stars again.

“But it’ll also be exciting.” he said quietly, smiling at Nyxis. “There's an entire universe out there, just waiting for you to explore it. It’s up to you and your people to either find a place to stay, or stay mobile.”

Nyxis stared out at the mining ship for a long moment, hands folded in his lap.
After a solid minute, when Hiccup had just wondered if he should say more, Nyxis said

“Horizon.” 

“Hm?” Hiccup tilted his head.
“Our ship.” Nyxis looked up at him again “It’s called Horizon.” he said, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

***************

Another week passed before the Horizon was fully restored, which gave her newly minted crew some time to learn the ins and outs of running the ship. It also gave plenty of time for the two crews to get to know each other, since they were working so closely together. The former miners were a pretty affable lot, thankful for their rescue and eager to make their own way. They were also rather rough around the edges, but they got along with the Enterprise crew well enough, maybe because that presented such a novelty.
Maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise then, that Captain Nyxis, on behalf of his crew, asked Hiccup if they could throw a farewell-party, celebrating the launch of the newly titled Horizon.

Hiccup wasn’t much for parties himself, but since any celebration tended to be good for crew morale, he could hardly say no.
So, after two weeks of staying in place, a large gathering of both crews found itself in the Enterprise’s mess hall, its giant windows granting a perfect view of the nearby Horizon.

Since the windows were in the bow of the Enterprise, Hiccup had specifically ordered the ship to point at the Horizon, to make said view possible. That was his contribution to the party decoration.

Tooth had taken care of the rest. Her sense for interior design certainly showed, as the large room was decked out with festive, colorful drapes and ribbons, making it a lot more homey and warm than it usually was. The copious amounts of synthehol—synthetic alcohol, which allowed you to quickly sober up—certainly played a part in that too.

“....to make a long story short, I wish you all the best for your future endeavors. May the stars be kind to you.” Hiccup said, raising his glass of mead, “To new Horizons!” he loudly finished his brief speech, the crowd cheering around him.
Nyxis had said a few words of thanks earlier, and everyone was in the mood to celebrate, so Hiccup kept it purposefully short. Drinks were raised all around, and the Horizon crew in particular were great at coming up with new reasons to toast. 

Hiccup smiled as he made his way through the crowd, patting a couple shoulders and shaking a couple hands, eager to get out of the spotlight. With his official duties dealt with, he could finally drift to the edge of the room, where he felt a lot more comfortable.
He leaned against the railing in front of the large windows, looking outside at the gorgeous view.
The Horizon wasn’t necessarily a pretty ship, but against a backdrop like this, anything looked stunning.

The newly forming planet emitted a deep red light, intermingling with the light of the closest star, the troublesome asteroid field giving the whole picture a dynamic quality.
Hiccup swirled the glass of mead slightly, tuning out the noise of the party. He really wasn’t one for big gatherings, but his job demanded that he attended more than his fair share.
It tended to be too loud and too crowded for him, with everyone engaging him in smalltalk. It could be fun, for a while, but it was incredibly draining. At least he had an excuse to head out early, since he knew most of the crew wouldn’t feel truly comfortable letting loose with the Captain present. He sighed quietly, content with what they had achieved, glad the hardest part was over.

“Getting drunk all by your lonesome?” Jack’s smooth voice startled him slightly, but he tried not to let it show. Instead, he just glanced at his first officer, who leaned against the railing as well, right next to him.
“What’chu gonna do about it?” he asked with a smirk, and Jack grinned back, lifting a tall glass filled with a colorful, swirling liquid, topped with half a fruit salad, complete with a little umbrella.

“I feel duty bound to at least get drunk with you.” Jack said, before taking a sip of his ridiculous cocktail through a curly straw. Hiccup gave him an amused smile.
“Guess I can live with that,” he nodded to the drink “are you gonna tell me what that is?”

Jack smirked, obviously waiting for the question.
“It’s a ‘Frosty’s Delight’, a special delicacy, invented by some uncredited genius.” he said, sucking another sip from the straw.
Hiccup snorted “Ah, naturally. I hesitate to even guess who could come up with something like that.” He narrowed his eyes at the strange consistency of the drink. It had multiple color layers, and a swirling mass at the center “..is that..?”
“Cardassian Blue Kanar? Yes I believe it is.” Jack smirked around the straw, and Hiccup couldn’t help but laugh at his antics. He shook his head and glanced outside again, smiling as he took another sip of his mead.

“Hey don’t knock it till you try it.” Jack said, knocking his shoulder against Hiccup’s.
“I think I have enough ‘Frosty delight’ as it is.” he replied with a deadpan glance at Jack, who burst out laughing.
“You wound me! Here I am, bringing the party straight to you, and this is how you repay me?”
“I didn’t say I minded.” Hiccup said with a smile, and Jack grinned at him over the tiny umbrella, letting the conversation fall into a brief, comfortable silence. 

Hiccup wasn’t sure why, but being around Jack always managed to lift his spirits. The man just had a knack for making him laugh. Hiccup shifted slightly as he took another sip of mead, only then realizing how close Jack was standing, when his shoulder rubbed against Jack’s. They were both leaning on the railing, looking out at the stars, but Hiccup could feel the warmth radiating off of Jack’s body right next to him. That little brush of his shoulder left a slight tingling sensation, which he quickly ascribed to the synthehol. 

He cleared his throat “I don’t want to monopolize your time though, I’m sure you’re needed as the ‘life of the party’ over there.” Hiccup said, nodding to the center of the room. Music and raucous laughter drifted over to them, and Jack only shrugged slightly.
“Meh, I think that party has plenty of life as is. Best to stay out of the way.” he said, not meeting Hiccup’s eyes. 

Hiccup looked at him then, noting the slight tension in his shoulders.

“You know I would have assumed you’d be more into parties. You’re not usually one to say no to some fun, or company.” he said, tilting his head.
Jack didn’t reply for a moment, only poking around in his drink with the straw.

“I used to be.” he said, shooting Hiccup a brief smile. “I was infamous for the parties I threw on the 1701.” he paused again, and Hiccup waited, giving him time to say more if he felt like it.
“I guess…” Jack let out a sigh “I guess that changed after the whole escape pod incident. Though I don’t know why. Ever since then I’ve been kinda…” he shrugged, and sighed quietly, looking outside, though his eyes didn’t seem to be focused on anything. 

“Disconnected?” Hiccup supplied after a moment, and Jack’s surprised blue eyes found his.
“Yeah, that’s...” he furrowed his brow, looking at his drink again, mulling it over himself.
“I suppose that’s what it is,” he said quietly. 

Hiccup opened his mouth to say more, when another loud wave of laughter and cheers rippled through the room, catching his attention briefly. He raised an eyebrow when he spotted Astrid in the middle of the room, apparently arm wrestling a member of the mining crew twice her size. And somehow winning, by the looks of it.

He glanced over at Jack, who looked just as amused at the sight. The slightly wistful expression he’d worn moments ago was gone, his usual smile restored. Jack had such a cheerful nature, it was rare to see this more somber side of him. It wasn’t like Hiccup liked seeing him like that, he much preferred Jack’s genuine smile, and he couldn’t get enough of his warm laughter. But he couldn’t help but feel thankful anytime Jack dropped his guard around him a little, letting him know how he was doing. It made him feel just a little closer to him. 

“I should probably get out of here, before that escalates.” Hiccup said with a smirk, nodding to Astrid, who had handily beaten her opponent. The prize of which was apparently chugging on a bottle of..something.

Jack smiled “Yeah, plausible deniability and all that.” he said, turning around to lean against the railing with his lower back.

Hiccup did want to leave the party, but now that Jack was here, it suddenly felt like much less of a foregone conclusion. It continued to surprise him just how easy it was to talk to him. Unlike most other conversations and social interactions, with Jack, it wasn’t draining at all.

“Would you like to come with me?” Hiccup blurted out, surprising himself as much as he did Jack.
“Huh?” Jack said eloquently, blinking at him, the straw halfway to his mouth.
Hiccup felt a little silly, like he was stealing Jack away from the dance late at night. Obviously it wasn’t anything like that, he just didn’t want their conversation to end. Still, he felt himself blush at the strange offer.

“Uh, I just meant, if you wanted to get out of here, we could, you know…” he swallowed thickly as Jack gave him a curious look “...go somewhere else. Together, I mean.” Hiccup said, wondering why he suddenly felt so nervous about it. He was just offering to hang out with a colleague, there was nothing strange about this, right?

Jack opened his mouth to reply, to possibly deny the offer, so Hiccup interrupted him “Have you seen the  observation deck yet?” he quickly said, and Jack’s lips quirked up in a smile.
“Just briefly, during warp.” he said, and Hiccup pushed himself off the railing, standing up straighter.

“Well you’ve got to check it out when we’re at sub-light!” he nodded towards the exit doors, his heart beating a little faster for some reason.

“I’d like that.” Jack said with a warm smile, pushing off the railing himself.

Hiccup led them along the edge of the room, not wanting to disturb the party with their departure, and eager to avoid further small talk. He found he wore an excited smile, his heart still racing as they made their way to the turbo lift. Maybe he was just glad that everything had turned out so well, and that he was able to leave the party, and maybe some of it was due to Jack walking by his side, and the prospect of spending more time with him. Hiccup glanced over at him as the turbo lift accelerated them to the very top of the ship. Jack seemed entirely relaxed, maybe even a little glad to leave the party himself. 

They stepped out of the lift and onto the observation deck. Truthfully, it wasn’t that large of a room. But then again, ‘room’ didn’t really do it justice, since it didn’t have walls or a ceiling.

The observation deck was a dome constructed entirely out of transparent aluminium, set at the highest point of the ship, just behind the bridge.

It made it seem like they were walking right onto the outer hull of the Enterprise, with open space all around them. The view was, as promised, spectacular.

Jack looked around in awe, his mouth gaping open. The endless field of stars all around them was so crystal clear, one could see all the way to the center of the milky way. Its spiral arms were easily distinguished against the darkness of outer space. The distant sun of this system illuminated the black and grey hull of the Enterprise, sloping down in every direction, like they were standing on top of a smooth grey hill out in the middle of space.

Hiccup’s eyes remained on Jack, a warm smile on his lips. It was almost like he could experience the awe of seeing this view for the first time vicariously. Jack’s eyes were wide as he looked around, his white hair looking like it was glowing in the bright sunlight, his expression full of childlike wonder.

“This is..” Jack said, his mouth moving wordlessly as he spun around again, taking it all in.
“Beautiful.” Hiccup agreed quietly, though he wasn’t sure what he was referring to just then.

He shook himself and looked away, eyes widening slightly. What? Did he think of Jack as beautiful?
He swallowed thickly. 

There wasn’t anything wrong with acknowledging a colleague’s appearance, right?
Sure, Jack was handsome, but that was just an objective fact. If anything, it would be weird not to acknowledge that much. But why was he even thinking about it?

Hiccup had a sinking feeling, but he refused to acknowledge it just yet. He’d just wanted to spend some time with a valued colleague, nothing more.
He cleared his throat
“I don’t always find the time to get up here, since there’s always something to do when we’re not at warp. But it’s one of my favorite sights.” he said, pointedly not looking at Jack, instead enjoying the gorgeous view himself.

They were quiet for a few moments. After the noise of the party, they were both desperate for some  tranquility, and the observation deck was the perfect spot for it.

“Isn’t it kind of crazy, that we can travel for tens of thousands of lightyears, yet we’re still in the same galaxy?” Jack said quietly, looking out at the bright cluster of stars denoting the center of the milky way.
“No matter the quadrant, the system, the planet. We’re all looking at the same supermassive black hole right in the middle.” 

Hiccup nodded, looking up as well “It is, isn’t it. I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same. We can travel a thousand times the speed of light now, so the galaxy is a lot smaller than it used to be a couple hundred years ago. And yet, travel to another galaxy is completely out of the question. To think there’s billions of galaxies out there, with even more planets ....” he trailed off.

“I’ve never been this far away from Earth either.” Jack said quietly. “Never wanted to be out too long, you know?”
“Because of your family?” Hiccup asked, folding his hands behind his back.
“Yeah.” Jack said with a wistful smile, still looking at the stars. “That was always the worst part, saying goodbye to Emily, and then not seeing her for months at a time.” he huffed out a small laugh “She always insisted that it was fine, and that I needed to go so I could tell her all about my adventures later.” he paused for a moment.
“But I think it was hard for her too, even if she’d never admit it.” 

Hiccup stepped up next to Jack, looking at the same gorgeous view in front of them.
“That’s why they started to allow families on Starfleet ships. So that the crazy people who actually want to travel to the edge of known space wouldn’t be all alone.” he said with a smirk, and he saw Jack smile at him out of the corner of his eye.

“She would have loved that, but my mom would have never allowed it.” he said with a chuckle. “It was bad enough that I decided to join. You know how moms are." 

"I.." Hiccup opened his mouth to reply, then thought better of it "..yeah, always worrying too much, eh?"
He quickly pivoted away from that particular topic.

"Was there any particular reason you joined Starfleet?" he asked, looking over to Jack, who gave him a curious look, but didn't pry.

"I don't know." he said eventually, looking out at the field of stars again. "Might be a bit cliche, but that town was just too small for me." he said with a brief smirk at Hiccup. "I needed...a challenge, and adventure. New boundaries to push. There's only so much excitement one can have in the woods behind your house."

Hiccup smiled back at him "Yeah I get that. I mean it never really occurred to me to do anything else, to be honest. The idea of just living in one place somewhere almost seems...quaint, at this point."

His eyes swept back over the stars, and he gestured to the Horizon, barely visible from their point of view, disappearing under the bow of the Enterprise.

"Sure got your challenge with this one, eh?" he said, nudging Jack's shoulder with his own.
"Did I even tell you how impressed I was with that rescue?" he added, and Jack huffed out a laugh.

"It may have come up once or twice during your speech." he said, and Hiccup thought he could detect a hint of a blush on his pale cheeks.

"Well good, because I was." Hiccup said with a smile "Shouldn't have worried as much during those hours you were gone. You really aged me by a decade, doing risky things like that."

Hiccup had expected a snarky reply to that one, so he was surprised to find Jack looking out at the stars somberly, like he was lost in thought.

"Jack?" he asked after a moment, and Jack startled slightly, playing it off with a weak smile.

"Yeah I..sorry about that." he mumbled.

Hiccup tilted his head slightly, taking in the way Jack hunched his shoulders, crossing his arms like he was suddenly feeling cold as he looked out at the mining ship.

"Something wrong?" Hiccup asked hesitantly, not wanting to push him. Jack was always quick to hide how he felt, diverting the attention away from himself if anyone noticed, especially if there were multiple people in the room.
This time, he stayed quiet, only letting out a long breath.

"It was so close this time." he said eventually, still not looking at Hiccup. "You...you were right to worry. There was a moment, on that bridge..."  he swallowed thickly, "..I almost lost her. I was so sure I was going to die, and take them all with me."

Hiccup wasn't sure what to say at first, his face full of sympathy.
"That's...not an easy thing to deal with." he said quietly. He hesitated for a moment, then reached up to give Jack's shoulder a brief squeeze. "But you did pull through. You got them all home safe."

Jack shook his head.
"But it..." he huffed in frustration, hugging himself, "..it rattled me. For a moment there, I was back on the 1701, and..." he shook his head, then looked up at Hiccup.
"You know how I don't remember what happened to the old Enterprise, right?" he said with a frown.

"Yeah..?" Hiccup said, letting his hand drop from Jack's shoulder, unsure if the contact was appreciated.

"And it's true." Jack said, staring out at the stars with a pained expression. "All I have are a couple of images, with no clear idea of what happened. But..." he grimaced and tensed even more, before glancing at Hiccup with an almost pleading expression. "I've never told anyone about this, but the one thing I remember clear as day, the one thing I can't forget, is this feeling of guilt." he said, and he looked so vulnerable that Hiccup had the urge to take him into his arms. Instead he just listened, his expression full of sympathy.

"And..and I can't help but wonder, what if I had something to do with the loss of the 1701? What if it was my fault?"
Jack's knuckles were white where he gripped his arms, his shoulders still hunched.

Hiccup took a slow breath, then gripped Jack's shoulder again, squeezing slightly as he turned Jack towards him, his right hand coming to rest on Jack's other shoulder.

"I know it wasn't." he said with conviction, and Jack looked up in surprise.
"How could you possibly know?" he said quietly, shaking his head.

"Because I've come to know you, Jack Frost. You're one of the most brave, dedicated people I've ever met." Hiccup said seriously, staring straight into Jack's blue eyes.
"You take chances, but you're not reckless. You would never risk placing your crew, or your friends in danger, unless it was absolutely necessary." he squeezed Jack's shoulders, willing him to believe what he was saying.
"Of course I don't know what exactly happened on that ship, but I know you did everything in your power to prevent it." he clenched his jaw briefly "Sometimes, the disaster still happens despite our best efforts. But that doesn't mean it's your fault."

Jack stared up at him with wide eyes, and Hiccup held his gaze. Then he felt Jack's shoulder relax against his hands, as his first officer let out a long breath, blinking as he lowered his gaze.
Hiccup wanted to pull him into a hug, to hold him tightly, but he stopped himself, instead just giving Jack's shoulders another squeeze before stepping back slightly.

"I know." he sighed, shaking his head. "Intellectually, I do know that. But I just can't shake that feeling, whenever I think back to those last moments." he paused and glanced to Hiccup's hands, still on his shoulders.

Then he reached up, placing one hand on Hiccups and squeezing slightly.

"But thank you." he said, looking up again with a warm smile "I think I needed to hear that."

Hiccup wanted to pull him into a hug, to hold him tightly, card his hand through his white hair. But he stopped himself, instead just giving Jack's shoulders another squeeze before stepping back slightly. He clasped his hands behind his back, feeling one tingle slightly where Jack had touched it. His cheeks were suddenly feeling rather warm, and it wasn't from the synthehol. It wasn't from the synthehol. Oh. Oh-oh.

"A-anytime" Hiccup said, taking another step back, his thoughts racing. Why was even the briefest, most casual contact with Jack so electrifying? Where did these desires come from? Why was his heart racing just standing here, looking at Jack's smile? Damn it all. Did he have a crush on him? Was that something that even happened to someone his age? The last silly little crush he could remember having, had been in school, as a teenager.

And yet...there was no denying it, really. Damn. And on his first officer, no less. It was so inappropriate and unprofessional for him to think of Jack like this, to even consider it. Especially now, when Jack had opened himself up so much, talking about his insecurity. He needed reassurance from a friend, or a colleague, not for Hiccup to freak out over his absurd feelings.

Hiccup shook his head, trying to clear it.

"Something wrong?" Jack asked, tilting his head and stepping a little closer, closing the distance Hiccup had carefully placed between them. Gods, he really had to think of something else.

"Huh? Oh..no, it's just...uh.." he stammered, looking outside again as he took a half step back.

"I was just wondering about...Nyxis!" he said as his gaze caught the Horizon. He congratulated himself on a successful pivot, quickly moving on "..and if he's ready to be a captain, ya know? I'm placing a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders." he said, biting his lip. He really was concerned about that, but it wasn't like they had a lot of other options. Those workers needed to go their own way, and someone had to lead them.

"I'm sure they'll be fine." Jack said with a shrug "Nyxis is a natural leader. Just like you." he added, and Hiccup could hear the smile in his voice. He wasn't sure if he was strong enough to look at Jack's face without blushing just then, but he couldn't help it.

"What do you mean?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

Jack gave him a lopsided smile, before shrugging and looking outside again.
"I'm not sure how to explain it. You just have a certain natural gravity about you. It seems to pull people in, makes them want to follow you. And I think I see glimpses of that in Nyxis too. He doesn't know it yet, but I think he'll make a great captain." he explained, and Hiccup let out a considering hum.

"I never really asked to be in charge of anyone." Hiccup said quietly "It just sort of always turned out that way. I guess Nyxis and I have that in common." he huffed and looked to Jack.
"I mean you know how it is sometimes. When you're not in charge, and your superior does something stupid or inefficient, and you call them out, or do it your own way...."

"And your actions save the day, but then you get written up for insubordination..." Jack nodded, continuing Hiccup's sentence,

"...but at the next opportunity you get promoted, because someone higher up read the report."  Hiccup finished, and they both chuckled. It wasn't that common of an occurrence, but Hiccup had correctly guessed that Jack had had a similar path up the ladder.

"And then suddenly you're responsible for hundreds of people and everyone looks to you for decisions, or advice, and expects you to have a solution to every problem." Hiccup continued, a little more somber. "Like I'm suddenly this all-knowing being, just because I got the fourth stripe." he said, gesturing to the four golden bands on his shoulder pad.
It was refreshing to talk about this, something he didn't get to do often. The old saying that it was lonely at the top did still apply. Being captain of an exploratory ship meant that he didn't meet people of his rank or higher often, sometimes not for years at a time.
Even the first officer usually couldn't quite relate to the feeling, but he felt comfortable around Jack. And now his newly discovered feelings were bound to get in the way.

"Well..." Jack said, turning to Hiccup with a smile, "you do usually find a solution. And if not, I still have your back." he said, patting Hiccup's back, the brief touch making Hiccup's skin tingle again. "And what force in the universe could possibly stand in the way of that?" he joked, and Hiccup could almost feel the universe shudder at the obvious jinx. Not that he believed in that sort of superstition.

"You just had to say that, huh." he said with a smirk, looking out at the stars, almost expecting five Borg cubes to drop out of warp and start firing at them, just to spite Jack.

Jack laughed, his hand on Hiccup's shoulder now, carrying some of his weight.
"Oh please, don't tell me you're superstitious." he said, giving Hiccup a wide grin, like he'd just unlocked a whole new sphere of potential for playful mockery.

"No!" Hiccup huffed indignantly, "But there's no need to tempt fate." he said, though he couldn't quite hide his smile. Jack was just ridiculous.
"My ancestors were vikings, you can be glad I'm not sacrificing animals for Thor or something." Hiccup added, crossing his arms.

"Sure, sure." Jack said, still with that wide smile, "Sorry for incurring Odin's wrath then. I'll replicate some wood and knock on it later."
Hiccup narrowed his eyes at him, and Jack burst out laughing again.

"I sometimes get the feeling like you're not taking me seriously." Hiccup said, unsuccessfully fighting a smile as he pouted.

"I do! I do!" Jack laughed, and Hiccup thought it was the most wonderful sound in the world. The gods wrath didn't seem such a high price to pay to lift Jack's mood.

"I know you're just concerned for our safety." Jack continued, putting on a more serious expression, though he was still smiling broadly. "I promise not to tempt fate again." he added, holding up a hand like he was taking an oath.

"See that you don't." Hiccup huffed, lifting his chin in mock offense, making Jack laugh again.

They went back and forth for a while longer, and Hiccup slowly tried to accept his fate. He definitely was developing feelings for Jack, and there was nothing he could do about it. Aside from the fact that Jack didn't feel the same way, it was just highly inappropriate for Hiccup to feel that way about a subordinate officer. It was unfair towards Jack as well. Hiccup had to put those silly feelings aside if he wanted to be a good friend to Jack.

They eventually made their way down to the officers quarters, walking down the corridors in comfortable silence for a moment. Their quarters were opposite each other, so they stopped at the same time, their respective doors hissing open on both sides of the hallway.

"Have a good night then." Hiccup said, one hand on the door frame "And no more asking the universe for a challenge." he added with a crooked smile.

"We'll see." Jack replied with a smirk, waggling his eyebrows. He glanced at the open door to his quarters, his shoulders tensing slightly. He hesitated long enough for Hiccup to consider asking him if something was wrong, but then Jack stepped inside, turning to Hiccup with a casual wave

"Good night to you too Capn’. See you tomorrow." he said with a warm smile, before letting the door slide shut.

Hiccup swallowed thickly, still looking at the grey surface of the closed door, savoring the image of Jack's smile.
Eventually, he turned and stepped into his own quarters, but didn't turn on the lights. He let his back drop against the door frame, and sighed, carding a hand through his hair.

His life just got a lot more complicated.