Destiny Among the Stars - Scifi - LitRPG - Adventure

"To see something marvellous with your own eyes - that's wonderful enough. But when two of you see it, two of you together, holding hands, holding each other close, knowing that you'll both have that memory for the rest of your lives, but that each of you will only ever hold an incomplete half of it, and that it won't ever really exist as a whole until you're together, talking or thinking about that moment ... that's worth more than one plus one."

- Alastair Reynolds, House of Suns

The hum of the bridge had changed. It wasn't just lights flickering or crates scattered like forgotten luggage anymore. The chairs were bolted down. The consoles were lit. The Triumph of Darron's brain was finally awake. About damn time.

Zoe sat reclined at her station, one foot up on the base of the console as she typed on her keyboard in short, annoyed bursts. Her hair was messily tied back, a few black strands falling over her cheek as she muttered to herself.

"I swear," she said, "if this AI doesn't boot properly in the next ten minutes, I'm throwing it out the goddamn airlock."

"Which one?" Emily asked without looking up, her voice smooth and practiced as she flipped through a diagnostics panel. "The AI core or the entire nav console?"

"Both," Zoe said. "One's useless without the other."

Luca stepped onto the bridge just in time to hear that last part.

"Planning a mutiny already?" he asked, letting the door hiss shut behind him.

Zoe turned and grinned. "Captain on deck," she said, mock-formal. "We were just deciding which system to sacrifice to the stars."

Emily finally looked up at him, their eyes locking for a second longer than necessary. Goddamn, her eyes were something. Her hair had come loose from her ponytail, a single golden strand curled behind one ear. She brushed it back absently. The gesture did things to him, stupid things. "We're mid-diagnostics. Trying to calibrate life support, heat regulation, and internal pressure at the same time. Which is very fun, by the way. You should try it."

Zoe choked as her chair swung forward. "No, please. We got this."

Luca smiled faintly. "And here I thought the bridge crew had it easy."

Emily's lips quirked, just a little. "We did. Before you got here."

She was kidding. Mostly.

He walked toward his chair, the captain's chair, and resisted the urge to comment on how surreal it still felt seeing it all come together. The bridge looked like something from a movie now, not the mess of exposed cabling and jury-rigged mounts it had been just a day ago. He deserved this. They all did.

Emily sat to his right, where the XO station was located. She wasn't just his second-in-command, she was his right hand. She knew every system, every protocol, every disaster they were likely to face, and she handled it like she was born to command.

Always had. Always would.

But of course, she was dating Pierre now.

Fucking Pierre.

Some French genius from Les Aventuriers, the smug little bastard with the perfect cheekbones, perfect posture, and an accent that made the girls giggle. He was always dressed like he was heading to a fashion shoot instead of a delving mission. Bet he even slept in designer pajamas.

Not that he cared.

Luca glanced at Emily out of the corner of his eye as she keyed in a series of commands, her expression calm and focused. She was... everything. Smart. Steady. Impossible to shake. He'd seen her drag a wounded man twice her size out of a collapsing portal without blinking. One of those portals that required multiple teams to clear for mediocre rewards.

And he'd wanted to ask her out. He had. A dozen times. But every time he got close, there was someone else. Pierre. Mason. That communications officer from the Europa Base. It was like she had a sixth sense for when he might make a move. Always one boyfriend ahead of him. Maybe he just wasn't good enough for her. He wasn't good enough to make the move.

They were best friends. Nothing more. Right? And she had a boyfriend now, she was off limits.

"Hey, Luca," Zoe said, pulling him back into the moment. "You wanna try initializing the AI core from the command override? I've already done two hard reboots, and it's still lagging."

"Sure." He moved to her side and pulled up the system overlay. "What's the hang-up?"

"It loads fine but won't respond to commands."

He keyed in the override, and the console lit up. Simple enough, sometimes the fix was easier than the diagnosis.

"AI Core initialized," the ship's voice chimed in.

Zoe exhaled hard, slumping back in her chair. "Finally. That only took four years off my life."

Good. One less crisis to deal with. Luca stepped back, satisfied.

Emily was watching them both, though her expression didn't give away much. "You make a good team," she said casually.

The comment caught him off guard, was there something in her tone? He glanced at her, but her face gave nothing away.

"Don't let it go to his head," Zoe replied, already tapping away.

The comms panel beeped, cutting through the moment.

"Genesis Platform, priority channel," Emily read aloud. "Not your dad."

Luca leaned forward. "Let's see it."

The screen flickered to life, revealing a young woman in the Genesis coverall uniform, headset clipped to one ear, a cascade of dark curls pulled into a bun behind her head. Her tag read: Isabel Torin, Systems Calibration Division.

"Triumph of Darron, this is Genesis Control. We have a scheduled window for the calibration of your fusion drive and reactor load distribution. Please confirm you're ready to proceed."

Emily responded smoothly. "Genesis Control, we are online and ready. Confirming AI initialization, command integrity, and bridge authority protocols."

"Copy that," Isabel said. "Beginning remote handshake now."

Zoe was moving between sensor readouts. "I hate handshakes," she muttered. "Half the time it just means something's about to crash."

Emily leaned slightly toward him. "You wanna stay, or should we call you when something explodes?"

Luca leaned back in the captain's chair, the leather still stiff and new under his shoulders. The view out the viewport showed stars, still and bright, Alpha Centauri just a glimmer in the distance.

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"Nah," he said, folding his hands behind his head. "This is the part where I pretend I'm supervising while you two do all the real work." This was nice, everyone had a role to play and nobody was killing each other.

Emily shook her head, but with a small grin. "Classic leadership."

Zoe raised a hand without looking. "Delegating like a champ."

The comm crackled again. Isabel's voice returned, slightly distorted. "Bridge crew, we're going to need Engineering to validate the load-sync patterns before we push the primary array. Can you patch them in?"

Emily was already reaching for her headset. "Copy that. Stand by."

She turned to him. "You want to call them, or should I?"

"I'll do it," he said, tapping the comm panel built into his chair. May as well be helpful. "Engineering, come in. Ryan, Chris, you guys awake down there?"

A loud clank echoed, followed by Ryan's voice, breathless. "Yup. You rang?"

Chris came on next, far too chipper and annoyingly cheerful. "If you're calling to compliment the fuel line reroute I just finished, the answer is yes, we're very awake."

A forced cough sounded in the background. "He means the one I installed?" Ryan added.

Luca rolled his eyes. "Genesis is ready for calibration. They need you to handle reactor sync. We're patching them through."

Ryan groaned audibly. "We're kinda busy."

"Tell them yourself," he said. "Patching you in now."

Emily hit a few keys. "You're live, bridge out." She tapped once more, cutting the connection from their side.

The screen went dark. The comms panel quieted.

"Let them deal with it," she said, brushing imaginary dust off her console. "We've got our own mess to manage."

Zoe exhaled and turned her chair toward me. "So. Captain. What's next?"

He didn't answer right away. Just sat there, the ship quiet around them, systems humming, monitors glowing. Emily was already diving back into her diagnostics, and Zoe was back to mapping out the route to the Oort Cloud passage. Two competent officers, life was good.

"Alright," he said, pushing up from his chair. "You two have the bridge systems well in hand. Engineering is tied up with reactor sync. There's still a mountain of work to do if we want this to feel less like a construction site and more like a flagship." He flashed them a grin. "Duty calls."

Emily looked up, a small smile playing on her lips. "Trying to make yourself useful, Captain?"

"If anyone needs me, I'll be gluing panels to the wall or something." He said, standing up and leaving the girls alone.

The real work that needed to be done was less glamorous but more essential: securing the ship's infrastructure so they wouldn't have exposed wiring and loose pipes, reminding them that they were flying in an unfinished vessel. Sometimes, it was a leader's job to do the dirty work.

The command deck corridor was a perfect example of the problem. Beautiful new deck plating covered the floor, but the walls were a maze of exposed conduits, power cables, and coolant lines that should have been hidden behind proper paneling. It looked industrial and unfinished, like the inside of a construction site instead of the corridors of an advanced interstellar starship.

He started at the forward end of the corridor, working his way aft. The impact wrench felt good in his hands as he secured bracket after bracket. The panels themselves were lightweight composites, designed to provide both structural support and aesthetic appeal while allowing access to critical systems through hidden maintenance hatches. He was a quick learner and always up for a challenge.

He found himself up on a stool, on tippy toes, holding a panel with one hand and the impact wrench with the other, hoping not to drop either while he balanced upward.

"Looking good, Captain," Zoe said as they approached. Her eyes, however, weren't on the panel he was wrestling with but seemed to be fixed a little lower, a smirk playing on her lips. "Really starting to look like a real ship now. And, uh, other things are looking... quite defined." The uniform was giving him a tactical wedgie, but of course Zoe was focused on the view.

Luca gritted his teeth, knowing exactly what she was implying. "Eyes up, Woods. Some of us are performing vital structural enhancements."

Emily stifled a giggle, though her own gaze flickered down with an unreadable expression before quickly darting back to his face, a faint blush on her cheeks. "He's right, Zoe. Such dedication. Such... reach."

Before Luca could retort, Emily, in a swift, almost imperceptible movement as she passed, reached out and gave his ribs a quick, surprising tickle.

"Hey!" he yelped, startled, his concentration broken. The bolt he was trying to align slipped from his fingers, clattering onto the newly installed deck plating below with an annoyingly loud ping. He wobbled on the stool, nearly toppling over.

Zoe burst out laughing. "Smooth, Captain. Very smooth. Dropping your hardware already?"

Emily just smiled, that innocent, way-too-charming smile of hers. "Just making sure you're still alert, Luca. All that focused effort, you might get a cramp." She even had the audacity to wink.

Luca sighed, trying to sound more annoyed than he felt, and made sure to bend his knees to retrieve the bolt, keeping them both in front of him. It was impossible to trust these two. "Hilarious. Both of you. Don't you have an AI to traumatize or some life support to, you know, support?"

"Just admiring the captain's... handiwork," Emily said, her eyes sparkling. She then, with a perfectly straight face, leaned in as if inspecting the panel he'd just fumbled. "Hmm, yes. Very secure. Top-notch bolting, Luca." She lightly patted his hip as she straightened up, the touch lingering just a fraction of a second too long, sending a familiar jolt through him.

"We'll leave you to your... structural integrity," Zoe said, pulling Emily along. "Don't strain anything important."

Luca watched them go, shaking his head, a reluctant smile tugging at his lips. Despite the wedgie and the dropped bolt, he felt a warmth spread through his chest. They liked him.

"Enjoy your fun, Berrow, Payback's a bitch."

"Ooh! I'm scared," she replied as they giggled their way out of sight.

The ship transformed around him as the hours passed. Everyone moved through the corridors with their own projects, and he could hear the sounds of progress from every direction.

He was now deep in the Habitation Deck, the whirring of the impact wrench was a steady sound in the otherwise quiet section. He was extra careful here, keeping a wary eye out for any stray hands after the earlier... incident with Emily and Zoe in the command deck. Getting tickled into dropping equipment while perched on a stool was not an experience he was keen to repeat.

As evening approached, Luca secured the final panel. The difference was remarkable. Gone were the exposed pipes and tangled wires that had made the ship feel like an industrial accident. In their place were clean, finished surfaces that looked professional and permanent, and a stripped bolt or ten. The lighting seemed warmer, the acoustics better, and the whole space felt more like the bridge of an advanced starship.

The hiss of the lift door opening down the hall made him pause. Grunting sounds followed, then Ryan's voice, strained, "Little more to your left, Danny! My left! No, your other other left!"

"I'm trying, Ryan! This thing weighs a metric ton, and it's not exactly aerodynamic!" Danny's equally strained voice retorted.

Luca leaned out from the cabin doorway he was working on just in time to see the source of the commotion. Ryan and Danny were wrestling one of the large, plush lounge leather couches down the relatively narrow Habitation corridor. They were both red-faced and sweating through their bodysuits.

And a few paces behind them, tablet in hand, looking remarkably composed and not at all like she was breaking a sweat, was Emily, in her clean white uniform.

"Angle it, boys, angle it!" she called out, her voice echoing slightly. "Ryan, lift your end higher! Danny, pivot on your back foot! We're going to take out that light fixture if you're not careful! Honestly, it's like you've never moved a ridiculously oversized piece of luxury furniture through a confined starship corridor before."

Ryan shot a murderous glare over his shoulder, which Emily completely ignored. "Easy for you to say, slave driver! You're not the one about to throw out your back for the sake of a comfy movie night!"

"It's for crew morale, Ryan," Emily said sweetly, though her eyes were sharp as she tracked their progress. "And my morale will be significantly improved when this couch is in the lounge and not scraping against my freshly installed wall panels. Careful with that corner, Danny! Sharp turn, sharp turn!"

Danny let out a pained groan as they attempted the turn from the lift into the main corridor. The couch tilted precariously.

Luca leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, enjoying the show. "Having fun, boys?"

Ryan, catching sight of him, managed a strained grin. "Oh, ha ha, Captain. Feel free to jump in any time. My arms are about to secede from the union."

"That's what you get for skipping arm day!" came Chris's voice from down in the Gym. Had he been hiding there all afternoon?

Emily shot him a look that was equal parts exasperation and amusement. "Someone has to do this. If it was up to you boys, this couch would still be down in storage." She then turned back to the struggling duo. "Alright, almost there! Gentle now, gentle! And… down! Perfect."

With a final, collective heave and a sigh of relief that was audible from where he stood, Ryan and Danny managed to maneuver the couch through the lounge doorway and presumably set it down. He could hear them panting.

Emily walked over to him, a triumphant little smile on her face. "See? Teamwork. And a little bit of expert supervision."

"Expert supervision or just enjoying the power trip?" he teased.

"Why can't it be both?" she countered, then gestured back towards the cabins. "How's the paneling coming along? Still managing to keep all your bolts in place this time?"

Luca felt a flush creep up his neck at the reminder. "Very funny. And yes, progress is being made. Almost done."

"Good," Emily said, her smile softening. "It'll be nice to have a space that feels… settled." She glanced towards the lounge, where muffled thumps suggested Ryan and Danny might be collapsing onto their hard-won prize. "Maybe we can even find those movie files later."

Her eyes met his, and for a moment, the teasing was gone, replaced by that familiar, deeper connection. The thought of a quiet evening, maybe even sharing that new couch, was a surprisingly comforting one. It felt like a real moment.

"Maybe we can," he said, feeling a genuine smile spread across his face for what felt like the first time in hours.

The ship was coming together.

They were coming together.

But she had a boyfriend now...

Didn't she?