Sorry about the wait between chapters. I actually wrote two chapters, but the first one I felt didn't add to the story or characters, so I dropped it. I also took a break, but hopefully there won't be any delays for the next while.

If anyone really cares... here is the link to the chapter I axed. It's not edited, so don't expect much.

Ryan brought Anton’s drone to a stop with its thrusters and dropped off a part next to Anton. Anton didn’t notice as she had her upper body deep inside what they thought was an FTL drive on the uppermost deck. She didn’t even notice the drone had come at all.

Anton had replaced the welding tool on the drone with a simple arm so Ryan could use it to bring her parts. Once she’d fixed the sensor array at the front of the ship, Becky left to study the scans of the nearby galaxy and Mayu and Chie were busy with their own things, so changing the drone made the most sense. 

Anton also fixed the power cables to the crystal device in under an hour, only to be disappointed that it brought up nothing but an image of Luna. 

After venting her frustrations, she fixed two cores for the main reactor. This increased the number of working cores from three to five. After that she moved on to the FTL where she was now because there weren’t enough supplies to fix both.

Chie was still studying the scans of parts as they came in. She had used these scans to isolate certain compounds they could use in designing things, such as a compound that was perfect for gaskets that could prevent leaks on valves and such.

Mayu had found the med bay’s genetic sequencer and spent most of her time with that and teaching him Japanese. 

Throughout all of this, Ryan learned a lot about himself. He learned and remembered so much so quickly compared to his previous life, he’d grown both concerned and excited. For example, he could recall something after only hearing it once. Normally he’d find it awesome, but it was as if he hadn’t “learned” it, but saved elsewhere and retrieved when needed. He could tell, because the more he did something, the more he felt that feeling go away.

It was the third day since they’d gotten the scanner working when Becky called a meeting.

After everyone gathered in the mess hall, Becky started, “I have some good news, and some bad news.” She shifted her weight from foot to foot and looked at each of the other three before resuming, “The good news is that the sensors work great! It’s not Hubble good, but I can see the galaxy in amazing detail.” She shifted her weight again, “The problem is… I don’t think we have enough time to observe the galaxy and get good distance data before we run out of power.”

Anton stood up from her chair, “Then what are we gonna do?”

Becky smiled, “Parallax!” She waited to see everyone’s reactions and only got blank stares. She cleared her throat, “Normally we can only use it to find distances to objects close to Earth. We  do this by measuring how far stars move against the background stars as the Earth orbits the sun. The problem is, the farther away the object, the less it moves against the background and because we can only use the Earth’s orbit, that limits us. But! If what Anton is repairing can move us faster than light, then it should be possible to use parallax on more distant objects. If we can move far enough, we should be able to use parallax to measure distances of objects much farther away than we could on Earth. In fact, there are some halo stars and globular clusters around the galaxy that are much closer to us and therefore, easier to measure. So... I think that is our best bet.”

Chie thought for a moment, then raised her hand, “What is the distance we need to traverse for this endeavor? We have yet to test the propulsion systems on this craft, and it might not be sufficient for the time allotted.”

Becky nodded, “Yes, well. I would imagine a ship stranded between galaxies would be on the faster side?”

Anton moved her head from side to side as she thought, then shrugged, “Or it’s really really old and it’s been floating out here for a while.”

Chie nodded, “I would think that is a fair assumption. Between the scans and my observations of the ship’s hull, I would venture to guess this ship’s age is great. In fact, I believe I have a way to test it through radioactive decay. There is something peculiar about the contamination of the ship’s uranium supplies with lighter elements.”

Becky seemed interested, “That is interesting. Any idea how old?”

Chie tapped her chin and thought for a moment before turning her attention back to Chie, “Well, I would need to test the Uranium to see which isotopes remain. I also cannot remember the exact half-life of the metal, so to get a more accurate estimate it would be good to find that as well. However, if I recall correctly, the half-life of uranium is in the billions of years for the most common isotope.” She leaned forward in her chair, “So, if all the contamination are byproducts of nuclear decay, the ship could be billions of years old, but if the other elements are from contamination or other means, it could be much less.”

Ryan marvelled they could be on a ship that had floated through space for so long, “Billions? How could it be that old?”

Becky looked back to the hologram of the galaxy, “It’s possible. We don’t know how early life could have started in the Universe. This ship could very well belong to one of the first civilizations.”

Anton looked around the room, “Well, however old it is, it sure looks like something humans would make.”

Becky looked at the chairs and tables, “Yeah, I was thinking about that too. The odds of alien life developing similar characteristics to humans...”

Anton shrugged, “Well… Maybe this ship is from the future and got sent billions of years to the past?”

Chie sighed, “As much as I would be interested to find out, I doubt we will.”

Ryan thought it’d be cool either way, “I want to find out. Aliens and time travel both seem cool to me,” he focused back on the image of the galaxy, “but maybe we should make sure we don’t die first?”

Chie turned back to the hologram and nodded, “Yes. We went off on quite a tangent.”

Becky waved the hologram away and turned it off, “Right! Well, I’m done with what I had to say.”

Anton raised her hand, “I’m almost done with the FTL, or whatever it is. Give me another hour and we can try this parallax thing. If ya had just waited another hour, I’d have called a meeting instead.”

Becky turned to Anton and smiled excitedly, “That fast? I thought you just started.”

Anton put her hands on her hips and stuck her chest out in pride, “Hehe.” She relaxed, “Actually, this ship is super easy to repair. All the parts are modular and slip in and out. Most of the damage was to the wiring, too. Looks like the original crew were pushing the poor thing pretty hard.”

This didn’t surprise Ryan when he’d heard Anton mumbling about it before, “Well, they were under attack.”

Anton nodded, “Yeah, makes me want to know even more what they were fighting and how they could burn out superconducting wires...”

Chie tapped her chin, “Another mystery to unravel when we no longer have to worry about a broken ship with limited power.”

Becky crossed her arms, her left hand tapping her right arm, “We still have a couple months' worth of power, right?”

Ryan didn’t even need to check, “Yep. But that’s just running lights, limited gravity, air, and food. The fabricators and scanners use a lot of power too, so once we get engines or FTL working we should hold off on making stuff.”

Anton sighed, “Not just that, but I couldn’t finish fixing the reactor because there wasn’t enough for the FTL if I did.”

Chie nodded, “Yes, I noticed the supply of rare elements are nearly spent. Perhaps it is time to scan the parts to the recycler.”

Anton tapped the welding tool at her belt, “I’ll get to it after the FTL.”

Ryan remembered something else he wanted to add to the list of things to do, “We should also repair the hydrogen tanks.”

Chie thought for a moment, “Perhaps I will attempt to disassemble the recycler for parts myself, while Anton works on the fuel systems.”

Anton seemed slightly annoyed, “You sure you can handle it?”

Chie gave Anton a cross look, “I am not so inept with technology as you think I am. With Ryan’s assistance, I foresee no issues.”

Anton relaxed, “Yeah.”

Becky turned to Mayu, looking like she wanted a distraction, “Mayu! What about you?”

Mayu jumped a little, “Ah! Oh. I am studying. There is much to learn to use the tools in med bay.”

Ryan didn’t doubt it, he’d seen what the DNA sequencer alone could do, “We know what most of the tools are for… I think. You should see the DNA sequencer. We just barely figured out it scans, reads, and simulates DNA. Or at least, Mayu thinks we can simulate DNA once we get the hang of it.”

Mayu nodded, “I am thinking we can make a picture of a person with a DNA sample, but I am still not understanding many things.”

Becky yanked out a hair from her head and looked at it, “So you could use this and make a hologram of me with it?”

Mayu nodded, “I am thinking that, yes.”

Anton grinned, having forgotten her spat with Chie, “Cool! When we get back to Earth, can we use it to solve crimes!”

Mayu thought for a moment, “Yes.”

Becky put her hand on Anton’s shoulder, “That sounds like a wonderful plan!”

Anton jerked her shoulder away from Becky and took a step back, “Sorry, ah… Yeah, it’s a plan.”

Becky only seemed confused by Anton’s reaction for a second, then lowered her hand, “Sorry Anton. Didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

Anton rubbed where Becky had touched her, “Nah, it’s fine. Never liked people touchin’ me.”

Chie cleared her throat, “Perhaps now is a good time to break up this meeting.”

Becky turned to Chie, “Yeah.”

Anton pulled her welding tool from her belt, flipped it in the air, then caught it, “Don’t get too busy. I’m almost done fixin’ the FTL and I think we all are wantin’ to test it out right away.”

Becky considered something for a moment, then turned to follow Anton as she left the room, “Mind if I help you finish?”

Anton waved her hand dismissively, “If ya want.”

Chie followed them out, “I will put another item in the scanner then start disassembling the recycler.”

Mayu watched the others leave, then spoke in Japanese, “Mr. Ryan, can you explain to me in Japanese? There were many things I did not understand.”

Ryan had learned a lot of Japanese and switched to it, “Yes. I will do my best.”

Ryan could tell it still confused Mayu when he finished the explanation, but he still had limited vocabulary despite how fast he could learn now, “I hope I explained it right.”

Mayu sighed, “Thank you, Mr. Ryan. I think I understand it better.”

Ryan sympathized with her, “Well, I think Becky knows good.”

Mayu nodded, “Yes, I think we can leave it to Becky.” She left the mess hall and glanced to the med bay before heading to her room.

Mayu was the only one not wearing a space suit, so if she wanted to go to the others she had to stop there first.

Anton was right when she said she needed only a little more time with the repairs. By the time Mayu joined the others, all she had left to do was some final bit of wiring. 

Anton grabbed a bundle of wires floating next to her in the zero g, “Might want to find somewhere nice that’s not here. Not sure we wanna be around when this thing turns on.”

Mayu’s shoulders dropped at hearing this after just entering the room.

Becky turned to leave, “Sounds good.”

 

Becky touched Mayu’s shoulder lightly as she passed her, “Let’s go to the med bay.”

Mayu turned to follow Becky, “Yes.”

Ryan called Chie to tell her to meet back with the others in a few minutes.

Anton turned back to the FTL when the others were out of sight and went back to work.

Twenty minutes later Anton joined the others in the mess hall, “Alrighty! Ready whenever you are, Ryan.”

Everyone still wore their space suits.

Ryan looked over his diagnostic data for the FTL one more time, “Everything looks good. Any recommendations on where to go?”

Becky spoke after only a moment of thought, “Parallel to the galaxy would be best for what I need.”

Ryan used the ship’s barely functional thrusters to turn Luna, “‘k. How long?”

Becky pursed her lips and thought for a moment, “Hmm, maybe for one second the first time. That way we can see how fast Luna can go. If we turn around and wait to see how long it takes for the light coming from Luna to disappear, we can see our speed, I think.”

Anton shook her head, “If we don’t travel too far.”

Becky shrugged, “Then we try a shorter jump.”

Ryan was getting nervous. He hoped the drive didn’t explode on them, “One second, then turn and try to find where we were?”

Becky nodded, “Yep! After that we can scan the galaxy and halo stars.”

Ryan put full power to the drive, “Here we go!”

The light from the galaxies visible in the scanner ahead of them distorted and warped, before turning blue, then finally back to normal as Luna stopped a second later.

Anton yelled, “Yeah! It worked!”

Becky cheered and jumped up and down.

Chie smiled and nodded.

Mayu smiled too, but watched the others instead of joining in.

Ryan spun Luna around and found a barely visible speck, “Found Luna, guess we wait now.”

Becky looked at a hologram Ryan brought up, “Yep!”

Anton looked a little disappointed, “Aww, I was hoping we went too far to see ourselves.”

Becky patted Anton on the back, “Luna’s sensors can see pretty far, so don’t worry.”

Anton jerked away from Becky and took a few steps back, “Yeah! Alien tech!”

Becky gave Anton a concerned look but turned back to the hologram with no comment.

Chie glanced at the hologram briefly, then turned to the door, “I will return to the recycler. Let me know of any developments.”

Ryan barely beat Becky in responding, “Nope. Gotta stay here or I’m not tellin’.”

Chie shook her head, but cracked a smile, “Perhaps next time.”

Chie left the room.

Anton glanced at Becky then turned to the door, “I better get fixin’ those hydrogen tanks.”

Ryan brought up the scan from the sample of material they’d scanned from the hydrogen tanks and started printing pieces of various sizes, “Just started printing. I think we’ve got enough resources to patch everything.”

Anton rushed from the room.

Becky sighed, then turned to Mayu, “Guess it’s just us.”

Mayu smiled and moved next to Becky, “Yes.”

Ryan checked the timer he’d started as soon as the FTL turned off, “Already been over a minute.”

It was one thousand three hundred and sixty-eight seconds later when Luna finally disappeared. 

Ryan repeated the number to the whole crew.

Becky whistled, “So… One thousand three hundred and sixty-eight times the speed of light?”

Anton stopped cutting away a piece of damaged tank, “Pretty fast.”

Becky’s shoulders dropped, “It’s not fast enough. The galaxy is at least a few hundred thousand light years away. Even at this speed, it would take us a little less than one hundred years to cross the Milky Way.”

Ryan checked the fuel consumption, “At full power we could only run the FTL for a day and a half.”

Anton turned her head towards the crystal device, “Then we better hope the crystal device can help us.”

Becky turned back to the hologram, “Ryan, can you scan globular cluster 2? Even if we can’t make it, I still want to see how close it is.”

Ryan turned Luna’s working scanner towards the galaxy.

No one said anything, and Ryan could feel the disappointment throughout the ship, so he distracted himself and thought about the crystal device. Anton had fixed it, but no one had figured out how to use it or why it brought up the image of Luna.

It stayed like this for a while and Becky was the only one who spoke, but this was only to have Ryan make several more FTL jumps.

Finally, Becky asked him to help do some math to find what she called Cluster 2.

In a moment, he popped up some numbers using Becky’s equations and found the distance, speed, and direction Cluster 2 was moving, “Looks like cluster 2 is five hundred thousand, two hundred and eighteen point seven five six four eight two light years away.”

Becky slumped into a chair, “Well, now we know. It’s too far.”

Ryan brought up a hologram with Luna at its center and started zooming out, “Hey, l made a map.”

Becky turned to the map and looked at the dot where Luna was at the center, then to the dot that represented the cluster of stars. She smiled, “I wonder what we should work on next?”

Ryan added another dot, a halo star, “I think I can find a couple more halo stars and clusters using the scans we just took. I just might put you out of business. This cyborg brain of mine’s pretty good at remembering how to do things. ”

Becky laughed, “Well, I’ve got lots to teach you. Maybe after that I can retire and let you do all the work!”

Ryan added another halo star, “I don’t mind. I find this relaxing, anyway, and I never liked math.”

Becky leaned on the table and rested her chin on her hand, “I find it relaxing too. Something about solving a good problem is so soothing.”

A thought came to Ryan, and he zoomed back in on Luna, “Hey…”

Becky didn’t look away from the hologram, “Yeah?”

Ryan brought up the image he got from the crystal device, “What is the difference between these two holograms?”

Becky studied the two holograms, then shook her head, “I don’t know.”

Ryan zoomed both out until they showed the stars they’d mapped so far, “Well, one is the map I made, and the other is from the crystal device.”

Becky sat upright, “You mean?”

Ryan closed the map he’d made, “Yep. The device didn’t show anything because it didn’t have the data.”

Becky stood up, “So it is a form of propulsion!”

Ryan opened comms up to everyone, “Guys! Get to the mess hall! We got awesome news!”

Becky moved next to the hologram, “Can you select the cluster?”

Ryan did, and some data appeared, “Looks like it’s gonna need a lot of fuel, but we have enough. Might even have enough to get to the galaxy itself.”

Becky started pacing, “Do we have to wait for the others to turn it on?”

Mayu entered the mess hall, “We have news?”

Becky turned to Mayu, “Yes, I think we were right about the crystal device being another kind of FTL and we can use it now.”

Mayu looked confused for a moment, then nodded, “Ah, that is wonderful news.”

Anton came in, “You find something close?”

Becky shook her head, then turned to the hologram, “Pretty far away, actually, but the crystal device can get us there.”

Anton turned to the hologram, “Sweet! Kinda disappointed it’s not a super weapon, but can’t blow stuff up in the middle of nowhere.”

Ryan zoomed in on Cluster 2, “Becky thinks this is the best place to look for fuel. But we’ll probably only have five and a half days of power left when we get there, if what this thing is telling me is true. So we only get one chance”

Anton looked roughly in the direction he’d come from, “Fuel tanks won’t take long to patch, but the hydrogen collectors are a mess. Still need to scan and fix the collectors on the hull and patch up the plumbing to the tanks, but I think I can get it done in a day or two with some help.”

Becky nodded, “I can help.”

Mayu stepped forward, “I will help too, Ms. Anton.”

Anton looked skeptical, “Eh, no way you can mess up piping, right?”

Ryan didn’t think they’d have too many issues, “I can help them if they have problems.”

Chie entered the room and glanced around at everyone, “I suppose the smiles everyone has on their faces means we have come upon good news?”

Anton turned to Chie, “Yup! Think they’re wantin’ to go to that group of stars in the hologram using the crystal device.”

Becky nodded, “I’m hoping we can find a planet in there somewhere. Globular clusters aren’t the best place for planets, but they’ve been found there before. If not, we can try our luck finding a rogue planet.”

Chie sat at a table, “I think the risk is worthwhile.”

Anton moved next to the hologram, “Better than bein’ stuck out here.”

Mayu sat next to Chie, “I think it is good.”

Becky was about to say something then turned back to the map, “Ryan, did you account for how far the cluster has moved? This light is over five hundred thousand years old so… Forgot to tell you earlier.”

Ryan hadn’t even thought it was something he needed to do, but it made sense once Becky brought it up, “Oh! Right! I’ll do that right now.”

Ryan plugged in the velocity he and Becky had found for the cluster moved at and input the direction it was moving before simulating its motion over the five hundred plus thousand years. He did this to the other halo stars simultaneously too.

He updated the map and the position of the cluster and other stars changed, “Good thing you caught that.”

Becky let out a sigh of relief, “Me too.” She turned to the others, “Should we get this done?”

Chie nodded.

Mayu smiled, “This is exciting!”

Anton started bouncing on her feet, “Yeah! Yeah! Can’t wait to see what the crystal device does!”

Ryan went to select the cluster, “Oh, which star in the cluster? There're hundreds of thousands there.”

Becky leaned in and pointed to a star near the edge, “Globular clusters can get pretty crazy inside and send planets flying, so I think a star near the edge has a better chance of holding onto its planets. We don’t have enough data to predict the movement of the stars in the cluster so this map won’t be accurate, but the distances between stars in these clusters aren’t far so we should be able to cover the distance with the FTL..”

Anton raised an eyebrow, “What if we hit a random star?”

Becky gave Anton an understanding look, “Maybe if we went to the core, but there should be enough space near the edge, we won’t have to worry about that.”

Anton slowly nodded, “If ya say so.”

Ryan selected the star, “If anyone doesn’t have anything else to add…” He got no response, “Okay, here we go!”

Immediately a huge draw of power came from the crystal device and for the first time, Ryan had to use more than one of the reactor’s cores.

Ryan put up a display with a timer, “Looks like we got about seventeen minutes ‘til this thing charges.”

Becky sat down, “Well, I’m tired so I’m going to rest my eyes for a few minutes.” 

She laid her head on her arms.

Chie leaned back in her chair, “Ryan, will you please show me what I was researching last?”

Ryan brought up some scans from a section of hull, “There ya go.”

Anton’s face flashed a grin, “Oh! Can we send a camera outside? I want to see what happens from there.”

Chie glanced away from her research.

Becky lifted her head enough to look at Anton, “I like the idea, but… where are we getting a camera?”

Anton bobbed her head from side to side as she considered Becky’s question, “The drone? I already got some ideas for a better one, so I won’t need it much more.”

Ryan recalled what materials the drone used, “Should be fine. The drone didn’t use a lot of rare materials.”

Becky nodded and dropped her head back onto her arms, “Okay~”

Anton grinned, “Gonna miss the little guy. Wonder if anyone will ever find him out here.”

Ryan started moving the drone from where it floated in the fuel tank Anton was repairing. There was still the breach on the bottom of the ship that ran through the tank and onto the deck below, so it wouldn’t take long to get it outside.

Ryan turned on a hologram showing the drone’s camera, “You know we still might not see what happens to the ship, right? You know, since we’ll go faster than the signal.”

Anton shrugged, “Eh, worth a try.”

Mayu turned to Anton, “Maybe we leave a message with the drone?”

Anton grinned again, “Yeah! So in a billion years when someone finds it… wait, Ryan. Do we have any way to leave a message? Not like the drone has a hard drive.”

Mayu stood up, “Maybe a box? We put things inside to find.”

Becky sat upright, “That sounds fun! We can’t do a golden record, but maybe we put a sculpture inside or some drawings!”

Mayu nodded enthusiastically, “Yes, I was thinking the same!”

Chie looked over, only showing mild interest, “Then we better hurry.”

Anton ran to the door, “Ryan, I got an idea!”

Becky watched Anton leave the room. She had a look of suspicion on her face, “I don’t know if I want to know what she wants to do.”

Ryan started printing a simple lead box with a hook on the side for the drone to grasp, “I’m going to find out even if I didn’t want to. Anyway… printing a box. Better hurry and decide what you want to do. Only got a few minutes to print and we still need to get the box to the drone.”

Ryan started moving the drone to the hatch leading to the floor below.

Becky nodded and began pacing as she thought about what she wanted.

Mayu nodded to herself, “Mr. Ryan. Can you make some thin metal I can fold?”

Ryan got a last-minute idea before the printer made the lid to the box before he added Mayu’s request to the queue, “Sure thing! I just did my contribution.”

Mayu smiled and left the room, “Arigatou-gozaimasu.”

Anton entered the fabrication room and whispered, “Can you make a dick? The aliens will love it!”

Ryan would have laughed if he had lungs, “I… uh… okay…”

Ryan added a phallus to the queue.

Mayu entered the fabrication room.

Anton jumped and looked at Mayu, her face turning red, “Oh, hey Mayu.”

Mayu gave Anton a suspicious look, but turned to the fabricator just as it finished the box.

Mayu’s eyes widened in surprise when she saw the lid. In Japanese, “Wonderful!”

Anton turned to the fabricator and looked too, “Oh, cool. You put a picture of us on the lid.” She laughed, “Is that a cyborg brain in an actual jar in the back?”

The drawing Ryan made was simple, with each of the four crew mates front and center, Luna’s profile outlining them, and the brain in a jar in the upper right corner. It looked like it was etched into the metal.

Mayu picked up the lid, put it on the box, then picked up the box, “Mr. Ryan, can you make more?”

Anton leaned over to get a better look, “Ya know what. I want one too. I got some ideas to make it cooler too.”

Mayu looked at Anton, “Make it cooler?”

Anton nodded, “Yeah! Maybe add some color. Give us poses. Stuff like that.”

Mayu nodded and smiled, “That is a wonderful idea!”

Becky stopped her pacing, “Ryan, can you stop charging the FTL? I’d like more time.”

Ryan didn’t see why not, “Sure. Let me check.” He got an error, “Ah. Nope. It’s not gonna let me.”

Ryan felt he could override the error, but didn’t just in case it would cause something to blow up.

Chie looked away from her hologram, “It might not be the best idea to stop a device as powerful as this mid charge.”

Becky shrugged, “I guess.” She sighed and drooped her shoulders, “All my ideas will take too long to prepare. Maybe I’ll just… hmm… maybe a small Earth?”

Ryan queued it up, “Gonna be close. I’m stopping the drone in the hatch to the floor below us so wait there while Mayu brings the box.” He paused, “Anything you want, Chie?”

Chie shook her head, “Sentimentality or creativity was never my strong suit.” She stood up, “But, I will at least see it off.”

Becky, followed by Chie, stopped by the hatch and looked down at the waiting drone, “How much more time?”

“Eight minutes.”

Becky turned to the door to the fabrication room, “Gonna be close.”

Ryan checked on Anton and Mayu, “Mayu’s almost done with hers, and Anton’s just got done printing.”

Chie leaned against the wall.

Back in the fabrication room, Anton placed herself between the fabricator and where Mayu was folding her sheet of metal and picked up her prize. She then looked around to see if anyone was watching and slipped it into a pouch on her tool belt then started walking to the hallway, “I’ll be waiting outside.”

Mayu didn’t look up as she smoothed a crease, “Okay.”

Becky’s globe started printing. Ryan made it hollow so it wouldn’t take long, “Mayu. Can you pick up Becky’s globe and take it and the box? Everyone is waiting in the hallway.”

Mayu picked up her item. She didn’t seem satisfied with it, but said in Japanese, “It can’t be helped.”

She then put her item in the box she’d placed on the shelf she’d used to fold the metal and walked to the fabricator.

It took only seconds to print the small globe. 

Ryan hoped he didn’t make it too thin, “That’s it.”

Mayu picked up the globe, put it in the box, then rushed out to where the others waited.

Mayu held out the box so the others could see inside, “It is finished.”

Becky looked inside, “Is that a paper… uh, metal crane?”

Mayu nodded, “I made them with Aya for play.”

Becky gave Mayu a smile, “It’s wonderful!” She looked at the globe, “That’s wonderful work too, Ryan.”

Ryan knew he messed up a lot of geography, “It’s missing some stuff though.”

Becky turned the globe around in her hands, “It’s pretty good from going off of memory.”

Chie moved next to the hatch, “We better send it off.”

Ryan felt they’d be okay, “Yeah, we need to hurry.”

Anton reached for the box, “Here, I’ll hook it up.”

Mayu nodded and handed Anton the box.

Anton held the box with one hand and casually put the other into the pouch, “Hmm, maybe I should weld the lid on.”

She leaned over the drone and positioned her body the best she could so the others wouldn’t see her slip the phallus into the box. She then grabbed her welding tool off her belt.

Becky leaned forward and looked over Anton’s shoulder, “So… what’d you put in the box?”

Anton went to weld the lid but fumbled as she shied away from Becky, “Uh… nothing…”

Becky stood back up, “Ryan?”

Ryan wasn’t sure if he should tattle on Anton, “Anton, just tell her.”

Anton groaned, “It’s a dick! Okay!” She started welding.

Becky started laughing, “A dick!? Are we in middle school?”

Anton blushed, “I thought it’d be funny.”

Becky snickered, “It’s fine.”

Mayu looked like she was trying not to laugh.

Chie shook her head.

Anton only did small welds on each side, then attached the box to the drone, “Done. Gett’r out there!”

Ryan closed the hatch and moved the drone to the lower floor, “We’ll have about forty-five seconds to position the drone after it leaves the ship.”

Anton stood up and headed to the mess hall, “Gonna watch the show with a nice cup of carbonated sugar water.”

Becky followed Anton, “Vitamin C flavored?”

Anton nodded, “Yep! Only good flavor I’ve found so far. It was actually Chie's idea.”

Becky nodded to herself, “Sounds good, I think I’ll try some too.”

Mayu followed Becky, “I will try too.”

Chie looked at the hatch with a barely noticeable look of regret, then followed the others.

Thinking about not posting this on Royal Road anymore. Too many ratings trolls.