NOVEL NEXT Chapter 11 - Nightmares
"Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real."
– Cormac McCarthy
The shuttle was a freakin' fireworks show again, swallowing everything in its path. Dad's voice, lost in static, warning him about something he couldn't quite catch. Emily was there, reaching across a widening chasm. He saw the terror in her green eyes as the Genesis Platform went up behind her. Then Matteo's face, calling his name from nowhere.
Luca jolted awake, chest pounding. His pajamas were glued to him with cold sweat. A nightmare. Standard issue lately. It left him totally scrambled in the cramped cabin. His heart hammered against his ribs and for a sec, he couldn't tell dream from reality. Yesterday's chaos still buzzed in his ears.
He glanced at the porthole. The endless black with those tiny, distant stars, but something about the light seemed… off. Fumbling, he squinted at his watch. Seven AM. Maybe five hours of sleep, yet it felt like he'd spent them running from his dreams.
He'd had nightmares before, sure. After those first portal dives with his team: Zoe, Em, Ryan, and Danny, those were rookie mistakes, dumb risks. This felt different, way too real.
By the time he walked into the mess hall, most of the crew was already up. Energy levels were high, even though everyone looked like they'd slept about as well as he had. The smell of coffee and toast hung thick in the air, and Joey was manning the cooking station, looking suspiciously perky. What was he on?
"Morning, Captain," Emily said, glancing up from her tablet. Some system diagnostics thing, probably. Her blonde hair was pulled back tight, and she was wearing a fresh uniform that made her look way more together than Luca felt. "Sleep well?"
"Better than expected," he said, which wasn't entirely true, grabbing the coffee she held out. Dark and strong, just what he needed. He slid into the seat next to her, and she bumped his shoulder. "How's everyone else holding up?"
Ryan caught his eye and gave him this massive, shit-eating grin. "Hey, Rossi! Forget something?"
Luca blinked, brain still lagging. "What?"
Ryan slapped the table, grin widening. "You're twenty, man! Twenty! Birthday in deep space! Survived an intergalactic sabotage attempt, the ship almost burning down on us. Not bad for a start of a decade."
Before Luca could reply, Emily joined in, her voice gentler but with that dangerous sparkle he knew well.
"We remembered," Emily said, shooting Ryan a look. "Though someone ruined my surprise." She slid a piece of toast toward him, adorned with a ridiculous jam smiley face. "Sorry, my actual present's stuck back on Genesis. Consider this a placeholder. I owe you."
"Hey, my gift's stuck back there too," Ryan protested. "And I'm not letting Em anywhere near it."
Zoe, never one to be left out, raised her coffee in a salute. "Don't worry, Luca, I brought something better." She tossed a small bottle of painkillers onto his tray. "You're gonna want those after Joey's done poking at your bruises."
A smile tugged at Luca's lips. Maybe it was the caffeine kicking in, maybe just the fact that someone remembered, but for a second, the constant ache eased up. "Thanks, guys. Could be worse ways to turn twenty than breakfast with you idiots."
Chris clapped him on the shoulder on his way past, almost spilling his coffee. "Just remember, Captain, no slacking off now that you're old."
"Med bay's first stop after breakfast," Joey announced, like he was the warden and they were all inmates. "Wanna check everyone over. Make sure yesterday didn't leave any lasting damage."
"Come on, Danny," Luca said, draining his coffee and standing. "Let's get this medical clearance done."
The medical bay was located on the same deck as the hangar. The walls were lined with diagnostic equipment, medical pods, and storage units filled with medical supplies. Everything was clean and new, with that antiseptic smell that made you think of hospitals.
Joey was already there when they arrived, having somehow beaten them despite finishing breakfast after they did. He'd changed into medical scrubs that made him look older and more professional, though his red ponytail and freckled face still gave him a youthful appearance that was oddly reassuring.
"Alright," he said, gesturing toward two examination tables with a warm smile. "Let's see what kind of damage yesterday left behind."
Luca hoisted himself onto the nearest table, wincing as the movement pulled at his ribs. Joey noticed immediately, his expression shifting to professional concern as he moved closer.
"Need to check those ribs," Joey said, snapping on gloves. "Shirt off."
Luca unzipped his bodysuit and pulled off his t-shirt.
Joey's hands were gentle but thorough as he examined his torso, pressing carefully along his ribcage and checking for signs of serious injury. Luca sucked in a sharp breath when he hit a particularly tender spot, and he made a note on his tablet.
"Bruised but not broken," he announced after a few minutes. "You're going to be sore for another few days, but nothing that won't heal on its own."
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There was something reassuring about Joey's competence, the way he moved, and the genuine care. Back in Sandworth, he'd known him as Danny's older brother, the kid who looked out for all of them during the crisis. He'd founded the Sandworth Hunters Adventuring company before they changed the name to the Interstellar Frontier Company under Karen. He was their leader, the one who kept them together when everything else was falling apart before his father went absolutely insane and started executing people in the town's common.
Seeing him now, as their medical officer taking care of his team, Luca felt a deep gratitude that he'd chosen to come with them.
"You know," Luca said as he cleaned a particularly nasty cut on his knuckle, "I'm really glad you and Chris decided to join us." Their own delving squad had dissolved a year back when they reached level 60. Joey and Chris had then joined the IFC medical team, rotating between outposts, station to station, saving lives. They'd crossed paths more than once.
Joey glanced up and smiled, warm and easy. That same look Luca remembered from high school, back when they all thought he had the answers. "Wouldn't miss it for the world," he said. "Besides, someone needs to keep you idiots from getting yourselves killed."
He moved on to Danny. The kid's ribs had taken less of a beating than his, but he had his own collection of scrapes and bruises from the maintenance tunnels.
Chris wandered in just as Joey was finishing with Danny: shirtless, in gym shorts and glistening like he was starring in a workout commercial. He had a towel around his neck, sporting a confident grin on his face.
"Everything still attached?" he asked, nudging Danny with his foot.
Danny groaned. "Yes, Chris."
Joey didn't even look up. "Put a shirt on before you get electrocuted somewhere."
Chris laughed, then shot Luca a look. "You're welcome, by the way. I set up all the equipment in the gym. Even sanitized."
"Truly heroic," Luca deadpanned. "I'll nominate you for the Medal of Cleanliness."
He flexed just enough to make it look effortless. "All part of the service."
"Aren't there other, more critical systems to work on?" Luca asked. "Like calibrating the fusion reactor or something?"
Chris didn't miss a beat. "Fusion generator's fine. Ryan's babysitting it."
Luca raised an eyebrow. "So naturally, you decided to prioritize dumbbells."
"They're not dumb," he said, mock-offended. "They're crucial to ship morale. Physical health is directly linked to cognitive performance. Look it up."
Joey snorted. "He means he gets cranky if he doesn't lift."
Beneath the dumb banter, Chris was Joey's shadow. Quarterback, the guy everyone liked, and somehow one of the most decent people Luca knew, if a bit full of himself. When Joey said they were coming, Luca never doubted Chris would be right there.
Chris's professional path was Tactical Systems Specialist, whatever that meant. It was an engineering-adjacent role, useful and conveniently vague enough to let him tinker with their engines or weapons while squeezing in lifts between diagnostics.
"Thanks," Luca said, pulling his shirt back on. "For patching us up."
He shrugged, but Luca could see the satisfaction in his eyes. "This is what we signed up for," he said. "Adventure, right? Can't have adventure without a little danger."
The door hissed open, and Luca stepped into the astrophysics lab. Disaster zone, more like.
Cardboard boxes were torn open, cables, diagnostic tablets, mounts, sealed plastic trays… all strewn across the counters. Two crates sat in the corner, labeled SURVEY ARRAY COMPONENTS. Blocky stencil, as if anyone was going to mistake them for flowerpots.
Danny was hunched over a bank of workstations, checking each connection against a schematic. One foot on a crate, elbows on his knee, tapping the touchscreen with slow, deliberate moves. Ryan stood behind him, wrestling a cable through an overhead panel, occasionally grabbing another tool from the pile by his boots.
They didn't hear him at first. The quiet whirr of ventilation, the click of Ryan's ratchet, the low hum of a monitor.
"You guys online yet?" Luca asked, keeping his voice steady. Captain voice. He still wasn't entirely used to it.
Danny glanced up. "Wi-Fi just came on ten minutes ago. We can finally pull the external sensor protocols off the server." He handed Luca one of the ship's tablets. "You might as well help. Pull up the calibration baseline for the outer array." Shit. That wasn't the plan.
Luca took the tablet. Cold, dusty, like everything else that had been in storage since launch. He wiped it against his thigh, powered it on. Watching it light up felt… heavier than it should. Like this was the first damn thing that actually worked on first try.
Ryan dropped from the ceiling panel, wiping his hands. "Tied in the last mount point for the rear-facing sensors. If nothing shorts, we're in business."
Luca nodded, forcing himself not to hover. This was Danny's lab. His space. But the importance of it all pressed on him like a weight. This wasn't just a room. This was the mission. Mapping stars, scanning planets, finding safe landing zones. If this lab didn't function, they might as well turn the ship around.
"I'll stay out of your way," Luca said. "Just tell me where I can help."
Danny looked at him a second longer than necessary, then pointed to the crates. "Open the bottom one. That should be the spectrometer array. We need to get it set up before the diagnostics finish running."
Luca knelt, cut the seal, and flipped the lid back. Foam padding, clamps, bundled wiring. Real equipment. Real science. He felt the weight of everything they'd sacrificed to get here. Burned shuttles, the damaged hull, the attack on Genesis. It all led to this: two kids in a cold lab, trying to make sense of the freakin' stars.
"We're going to need all of this," Luca said.
Danny didn't look up. "Yeah," he said. "We know."
As Luca held the spectrometer mount steady, he found himself watching Danny work.
Joey's little brother, now their Science Officer. Twenty years old and running circles around half the IFC's research staff. He didn't just know the theory, he could actually make sense of the instruments, read the waveforms, turn raw sensor data into something useful.
He moved fast, but never rushed. All quiet, focused.
Ryan, on the other hand, operated like the ship was an extension of his body. Grease on his arms, sleeves rolled up, half his tools scattered across the deck. He cursed under his breath when something didn't line up, then fixed it like it had never been a problem.
Those two had always balanced each other. Danny, the calm one. Ryan, the impulsive fixer. Luca'd known them since kindergarten, maybe earlier.
Luca wasn't sure when Zoe and Emily had joined their circle. Depends who you asked. Ryan swore it was that fifth-grade Christmas dance. Danny insisted it was the Halloween party at the O'Malley farm. Me? I just remembered them being there one day, and then every day after.
Now they were out here with Alpha Centauri in their sights, The Triumph of Darron under their boots, and somehow, this lab was coming together.
Eventually, Luca found himself just standing there, tablet idle in his hand, watching Danny secure the spectrometer mount. He didn't need him hovering.
"Alright," Luca said, stepping back. "I'll go check on the comms system. Let me know when the first data's flowing."
Danny gave a short nod. "Will do."
Ryan tossed him a small salute, grease-smudged fingers and all. "Thanks for the extra hands, Captain."
Luca took a deep breath, letting himself feel a sliver of hope. The ship was starting to feel like home instead of a shelter.
They were explorers, adventurers, en route to a new star system.
The comms console chirped, ripping him from his thoughts with the familiar tone of an incoming transmission.
Priority channel.
The Genesis Platform was calling.