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It had been an absolute clusterfuck of a first exploratory mission, if you asked Nanette.
They’d transported down onto a planet overrun by a previously unidentified species that they immediately identified as wanting to eat them alive, and they had just barely made it back to ship without any bite marks and with all their limbs intact.
And it had been awesome.
Nanette had never been the type to daydream about worlds unknown, fantastical creatures, alien species and all that jazz. While generally scientific in nature, her interests and passions were always more earthbound. The code she could see, written by her own two hands: it could create worlds, yes, but not like this.
She stepped closer to the ship’s window, peering out at the endless array of stars.
No, nothing like this.
“Hmm… Khabari 3?”
“Looks a little barren, don’t you think?”
“An utter bore, agreed. How about TKC-47?”
Nanette peered over Shania’s shoulder at the shipboard computer screen's display, which showed a 3D visualization of the planet’s surface, with an inset box floating beside it containing quick facts and figures about the planet. On TKC-47, apparently, the native population spoke a language called ‘TT13a.’
“Think we could understand the language?”
“Oh, it’s no problem at all, actually,” Shania noted, tapping a few buttons on the screen. “The ship has a translator feature. As long as we remain within a certain distance, we can understand them and they can understand us.”
Nanette let out an incredulous little chuckle. “So fucking cool,” she muttered under her breath. “Let’s do it. Nate, set a course for— TK-whatever-the-fuck.”
“Aye aye, Ca— I mean, Nanette.”
“There ya go,” she said approvingly, and settled back into her captain’s chair to watch the stars stream by.
“You know what you need?” James asked from across the bridge.
“What’s that?” she asked.
He winked, making a big show of flashing finger-guns at her. “A catchphrase.”
“Ooh, James is right!” Shania spun around in her seat. “All the best captains have them.”
“I’m not technically the captain though,” Nanette protested. “We talked about this. I think this ship should be more like… a democracy, I guess. We can all kind of agree on what we want to do next, and then work together to make it happen.”
“Yeah, yeah, nice in theory, but sometimes somebody’s gotta make the important calls,” James said. “That’s why I made such a killer CEO.”
She laughed. “Okay, settle down, killer.”
“I’m serious!” He held up both hands as if to reinforce his point. “There were times I had to make really tough judgment calls, make the hard decisions, and I couldn’t rely on anybody else to help me do it. Certainly not that chump partner of mine.”
Nanette shuddered involuntarily. “Obviously not him.”
“Here, it seems like we’ve all come to an agreement that you’re that person for us,” James continued. He shrugged, holding up one hand to examine his fingernails. “For better or for worse. Best of luck, and all that. Hope you don’t crumble under the pressure.”
“Ignore him,” Shania said. “He’s just on a residual power trip. I think you’re gonna do great.”
“Thanks, Shania.” Nanette pressed one hand against her heart, feeling touched by her encouragement.
“Yeah, but he’s also absolutely right. You need a catchphrase if you’re not going to totally flame out as captain.”
“Ugh, fine.” Nanette cleared her throat and sat up a little straighter in her chair. “How about… let’s roll.”
Shania and Nate met each other’s eyes across the bridge, both wrinkling their nose. James just laughed.
“Pass,” he said. “Next?”
“Okay…” She drew out the last syllable as she wracked her brain for other ideas. She had never been the poetic type. She’d gotten low Bs in her English classes at best. Her sister had been the one to write for the school litmag, who'd stayed up late at night writing lyrics for her band. She'd had her words; Nanette had had her code. So what would Jacqueline come up with, if she was here with Nanette?
“Together, let’s enter into the vast infinity of forever,” she said slowly, feeling a bit proud of how much it felt like something her sister might suggest.
“Please. What is that, like ten words? They call it a catchphrase because it’s catchy, you know,” James says, his tone laced with snark. “You might as well recite a Shakespearean soliloquy every time we want to go somewhere.”
Nanette turned to Shania hopefully, but she just made a sympathetic face and shook her head. “Sorry, babe. He’s not wrong.”
With a sigh, Nanette slumped down in her chair, lacing both hands over her stomach and gazing thoughtfully out the window into the wide expanse of space. It really was beautiful out there. Breathtakingly so, the inky dark punctuated with glittering pinpoints of light.
She was suddenly struck with a memory of the bedroom she’d shared with her sister back when they were kids, before her dad had gotten promoted and they'd moved to a bigger house where each of the siblings could have their own room. Her sister had begged their parents to let her stick glow-and-the-dark plastic stars to the ceiling, and Nanette still remembered the night her parents had finally relented.
Jacqueline had been so excited to turn out the light that she’d volunteered the both of them to go to bed early, even though it wasn’t even a school night. After their parents had tucked them in and shuffled out of the room, they flipped off the lights behind them at last. All Nanette remembered was the feeling of lying in her little-kid twin bed with the covers pulled up to her chin underneath a galaxy of glowing stars, she and Jacqueline both stunned into silence in sheer awe of the sight above him.
This iteration of Nanette would never see her big sister again.
Sniffling and sitting up straighter, Nanette cleared her throat. “Bring me the stars,” she murmured, still staring out into the abyss.
The bridge was silent for a moment, long enough that she wasn’t sure if they’d heard her, until James shrugged.
“I don’t hate it.”
“A bit poetic, really, isn't it?” Shania added, and Nate nodded.
“Wait, really?” She looked around at them, uncertain. “We’re going with that?”
“Well, we reserve the right to change it if somebody thinks of something better, obviously,” said James. “But yeah. For now, that’ll do.”
“Alright, so… our course is set for TKC-47,” said Nate. “Shouldn’t be too much longer.”
A smile crept onto Nanette’s face as the rest of them settled into their places around the bridge, and she went back to watching the shifting, shimmering landscape outside the ship with the requisite amount of awe.
Jacqueline would have loved it here.
Now, Nanette thought maybe she was going to, too.