Chapter 31 - Message in a Bottle

The introduction had lasted a lifetime, or at least it felt that way. They moved on to the crew messages. One by one, each member of the crew stepped before the camera to deliver their pre-written message.

Emily adjusted her uniform one more time, tugging the fabric flat. "Do I look okay?" she asked, catching Luca's eye in the reflection of the observation deck's massive viewport.

"You always look good," he said, letting his smile do whatever it wanted. "Though I'm pretty sure Earth won't care if your collar's off."

"Some of us want to make a good impression," she shot back. "Unlike certain captains who look like they just rolled out of bed."

Luca pushed his hair back. "Hey, this is my 'effortlessly disheveled' look. Very captain-like."

She brushed an invisible speck of lint from his shoulder. Her fingers lingered half a second longer than they needed to, and his skin noticed. "This matters, Luca."

He caught her hand gently. "I know it does."

She looked up at him then, and the nervous energy behind her composure was right there, written across her face. She needed everything to be perfect, especially today.

"Try to keep it short, people," Luca mumbled. Emily's glare could have peeled paint. Fair enough. These messages, drafted by Karen's PR team back on Earth, were supposed to be deep and somber messages of hope. Sure, why not. None of them actually felt that way, but Karen's team had covered that by writing the words for them.

Danny went first. He pushed his glasses up, gave the camera an awkward wave, and launched into something about data with a quiet intensity that made you think he'd forgotten anyone else was in the room. Luca genuinely tried to pay attention, but his brain kept drifting to alien life and whether any of it was edible, right up until Emily's elbow found his ribs.

"Good job, Danny," Luca said, giving him a thumbs-up as he walked off. Danny blushed, muttered a thanks, and nearly tripped over a cable on the way back to his seat. The guy had just addressed six billion people and almost ate shit on the way offstage. Incredible.

Ryan flexed his biceps on the way to the camera. The man had no self-control where cameras were concerned.

"Alright, people, let's talk tech!" He grinned like a man who had been waiting his whole life for exactly this moment.

"Don't forget to mention the part where you almost blew us up," Joey called from the back.

Ryan just winked. "That was a minor setback. Always learning. That's the motto." He struck a ridiculous pose on the way out that made even Emily giggle. Luca hoped the editors back on Earth had good scissors, because this footage was going to need them.

Joey worked "my infirmary is well-stocked, but I'd rather not use it on idiots" into his message, along with something about alien flora and profit margins, which was classic Joey: half doctor, half businessman, all heart. Then Chris delivered the whole representing-humanity speech like he actually meant every word. Luca swore the guy could sell ice to an Eskimo. Chris had muscles and morals in equal measure, and somehow made both look effortless. It was annoying how good he was at being sincere.

Ryan and Danny were already chanting her name as Zoe walked up. "Zoe... Zoe... Zoe!" She rolled her eyes and delivered her lines about charting new territories anyway, skirt swirling as she paced. Luca had to hand it to her. She treated every audience the same way she treated turbulence: with total indifference.

Zoe sat back down and turned to Emily. "Think we'll find any hot aliens? Our pickings here on this ship aren't exactly top quality."

"One can only hope," Emily replied.

Luca decided not to take that personally. He took it personally.

Then it was Emily's turn.

She didn't look at the teleprompter when she stepped forward. She stood there for a moment, looking at the lens, like she was deciding something. Then she started without it.

"The hardest part wasn't leaving," she said. "It was realizing you'd already let go of most of it before you even got on the ship." She paused, just for a beat. "I think that's what courage actually looks like. The quiet moment before it, when you decide you're going anyway."

The room went still. Even Ryan didn't say anything.

Luca's chest did something stupid. His throat tightened and his hands went warm and he just stood there like an idiot, watching her be the best person he'd ever known. She hadn't read a single word off the screen. That was all her.

She came back to her seat. Her eyes found his, and she gave him a nod, like she'd said what she needed to say and that was enough. He wanted to tell her it was perfect. He wanted to tell her a lot of things. He settled for holding her gaze a beat too long and hoping she could read his face better than he could read hers.

Finally, it was his turn.

"Don't mess this up," he muttered under his breath.

"Just read the damn teleprompter," Ryan muttered back.

He read the damn teleprompter. Uncertainties ahead and the belief that carried them this far. He got to the part about his team, their dedication, their resilience, and something in him meant it. He finished the script. He did not strike a pose.

Chris ended the session. The red light on the camera blinked off. Luca exhaled, and the tension he hadn't realized he'd been carrying dropped out of his shoulders.

The communication probe was prepped for launch, its storage packed with early findings and the official recording, plus personal messages from each crew member. Luca leaned against the console, watching as Ryan and Zoe finalized the trajectory. He hoped they edited the hell out of this before it went live across the UER. Now, if only they could find a planet made of solid gold, they'd be set.

---

As they uploaded their data, Luca glanced toward Emily, who was reviewing her own message one last time.

She stared at the screen a little longer, her fingers hovering near the send button. He didn't ask who the message was for. He already knew there wasn't really anyone waiting to read it.

"Think this thing will beat us back to Earth?" she asked. She still hadn't looked up. That cute little furrow between her brows was doing its thing.

"If nothing goes sideways, we'll beat it by weeks," Luca said. The probe would take twenty to thirty weeks to reach Sol. They'd be home before it arrived, if everything went according to plan. The system had given humanity two ship-sized FTL drives and somehow also these tiny probes with even smaller ones crammed inside. Nobody had asked how. Luca sure as hell wasn't going to start.

Luca rested a hand on Emily's shoulder. The speech, the data, what came next. None of it mattered as much as standing here with her.

"Do you ever think about where we'll be in four years?" Luca asked quietly. Four years since the system showed up and turned them all into something different. They'd been sixteen.

Emily looked up at him with a half-smile. "I'm hoping I'll be with you, Luca," she said, almost to herself. "Wherever 'it' happens to be."

His pulse jumped, and he held still, letting the words land, because if he moved he'd probably do something dumb like kiss her right here in front of the whole crew. He hoped for that too, more than anything. He couldn't picture four years without her, being alone out here in all of this nothing without her next to him. He shoved the thought away before it could settle.

She met his eyes, and whatever she saw there made her smile.

But then she looked away, and her shoulders tightened.

"Nope," Luca said, closing the distance. "Not happening."

"What!?" Emily blinked as he scooped her up, one arm under her knees, the other around her back, a startled laugh escaping her lips. "Luca! Put me down!"

"No way," he said, already heading toward the stairs. "Mission-critical morale adjustment in progress. Captain's authority."

"You're abusing your rank," she protested, but she wasn't really fighting him. Her arm was already wrapped around his shoulder, breath warm against his neck. His face went hot.

"Good. Means it's working."

She rolled her eyes, but he caught the corner of her mouth twitching. "If you drop me, I swear!"

"Then I'll have to carry you all the way to the lounge." He grinned. "And make you eat pizza. Like a savage."

The doors slid open, and her laughter followed them all the way down the corridor as she gave a wriggle in his arms, forcing Luca to readjust his hold. She was warm against his chest, and he could feel her heartbeat through the uniform, and the corridor smelled like recycled air and nothing, but right now it smelled like the best place in the universe.