Chapter 9 - Unpacking

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science.”

—Albert Einstein

Every muscle in his body had gone rigid. The sound came again, closer. He clutched the tracking device until the plastic bit back. Behind him, Ryan was a statue. Danny's shallow breaths echoed in the confined space.

Was it a stowaway, the saboteur, something worse? Either option made his stomach drop.

Then Chris's voice drifted down the tunnel, casual and entirely unaware that he'd just aged Luca by ten years. "Joey, you see that bolt I dropped? It rolled this way somewhere."

He exhaled. His knees felt unreliable.

"Jesus Christ," Ryan muttered from behind him, his words coming out uneven. "I thought we were about to get murdered by space pirates or some shit."

Chris and Joey crawled out of a parallel maintenance tunnel twenty feet away, covered in dust and looking like they'd lost a fight with the ventilation system. Chris held up a small bolt between his thumb and forefinger, grinning like he hadn't just shaved a decade off Luca's life.

"Sorry," he said, not sounding particularly sorry. "Dropped this little bastard while we were checking the backup power systems. It bounced all over the place in there."

Luca was going to kill him later, once his hands stopped shaking.

Joey wiped his forehead, leaving a streak of grease across his freckled skin. "Find the tracker?"

Luca held up the tracking device, its red light still blinking steadily. "Yeah. We found our little spy."

By the time they reached the bridge, the crew was already gathered. Emily's eyes went straight to his hand. Behind her, Zoe had her arms crossed.

"That's it?" she asked, moving closer to get a better look.

"That's it," Luca confirmed, setting the tracker down on the main table. Under the bright bridge lighting it looked like nothing. Just a black box. Which made it worse.

"Definitely not transmitting anymore," Danny announced after a few minutes. "Whatever signal it was putting out, it's gone dark."

Ryan was carefully examining the wire connections. "Professional work," he muttered. "Whoever installed this knew what they were doing. Clean connections, proper shielding. Not amateur hour bullshit."

---

With the immediate danger out of the way, Luca focused on the System interface for the Triumph Initiative.

[Triumph Initiative - Adventuring Company]

Company Overview
Level: 1
Designation: Survey and Exploration
Membership: 7 / 100
Contribution Points: 12,780 / 600,000
Credits: 0
Tax Rate: 0%
Affiliation: Interstellar Frontier Company (IFC)

Assets:
Triumph of Darron - Exploration Vessel, Helios Class Mk-I
Percival - Orbit-to-Surface Dropship, Heavy Transport Class
Peregrine - Light Combat Vehicle, Reconnaissance Class
[Expand for complete list...]

Officers:
Company Leader: Luca Rossi - Level 60 - Starship Commander
Mission Control: Emily Berrow - Level 60 - Operations Executive
Science Officer: Danny Donahue - Level 60 - United Theorist
Medical Officer: Joey Donahue - Level 60 - Clinical Strategist
Quartermaster: Ryan Mitchell - Level 60 - Integrated Engineer
Exploration Officer: Zoe Woods - Level 60 - Spatial Analyst
Field Operations Officer: Chris Valtz - Level 60 - Tactical Systems Engineer

Objectives:

* Recruit 20 members to establish permanent headquarters - [Pending]
* Complete missions to advance Company Level - [In Progress]
* Define contribution objectives - [Pending]

Contracts & Charters:

Alpha Centauri Survey Expedition Charter - [In Progress]

Luca lingered for a second on that last objective. Define contribution objectives.

He turned to Emily. She was already looking at him as if she knew what he was about to ask.

“Hey,” Luca said, a little quieter. “Think you could start assigning formal objectives? Even basic stuff. Setup. Diagnostics. Whatever helps rack up contribution points. We’ll need them when we get back.” They would be coming back.

Her expression softened into that small smile. “Already ahead of you, Captain.”

Luca moved to the center of the bridge, feeling every eye on him.

"Alright," Luca said. "We're clear, we're moving, and we're alone out here."

"For now," Ryan muttered, still eyeing the tracker.

"For now," Luca agreed. "Look, I'm not gonna lie to you guys. We've got a ship that's barely holding together, someone tried to sabotage us, and we're flying into the unknown with no backup."

"Inspiring speech, Captain," Zoe said dryly.

Luca shot her a look. "I'm not done." He took a breath. "But Dad builds things to last. The reactor's solid, the generator's holding, life support is operational. The main systems are good."

"The shields are shit though," Chris pointed out.

"Yeah, the shields are shit," Luca admitted. "But we're accelerating faster than anything else built in Sol. Even if someone was chasing us, they can't catch up. Not at this speed."

Danny looked up from his tablet. "Interception probability drops to near zero once we hit the Oort Cloud passage."

"Exactly. Three weeks, and we're home free." Luca felt some of his confidence returning. "So here's what we do. We make this bucket of bolts livable. Ryan, Chris—"

"Engineering diagnostics," Ryan interrupted. "Already on it."

"I'll take primary systems," Chris added. "You can have the fun stuff like waste recycling."

"Gee, thanks." Ryan grinned despite everything.

Luca pointed at Zoe. "Navigation. I need to know exactly where we are and where we're going."

"Give me an hour with Em, we'll have projections up," Zoe replied.

"Joey, get the medical bay set up. Full physicals on everyone by tomorrow." He surprised himself with how steady that came out. "Danny, get that science lab operational, but focus on FTL calibration first."

"And me?" Emily asked, already pulling up interfaces on her console.

"Navigation projections with Zoe, then keep building out those objectives." He looked over at her. "You already know what needs doing."

A soft ping lit up in his interface.

[Objective Complete: Team Briefing Delivered - Contribution Points +500]

Well, at least someone was listening.

Emily smiled that one smile of hers. "Sounds like a plan, Captain."

He'd been talking for thirty seconds and she'd already gone into the interface and managed all the complicated menus. Luca pulled up his interface and moved to his Adventuring Company menu.

[System Notifications: Objectives Assigned by Mission Control]

[Objective Assigned: Habitation Deck Setup]
Task: Fully furnish all personnel quarters.
Contribution Reward: 250 CP

[Objective Assigned: Team Briefing Delivered]
Task: Establish team directives, assign primary roles, and set immediate operational goals.
Contribution Reward: 500 CP

[Objective Assigned: Internal Systems Calibration]

[Objective Assigned: Chore Rotations]

[Objective Assigned: Maintain Morale (Ongoing)]

And so on and so forth, all objectives having to do with getting their ship up and running.

Which made Emily’s last one all the more obvious.

[Objective Assigned: Don't Fuck It Up]
Task: Interpretive.
Contribution Reward: 0 CP
Note: “Wanted to see if you were still paying attention.”

"Real funny, Em," Luca said. Two could play at this game. Maybe he should set up some objectives for her later on.

---

Luca closed the interface. Twelve thousand contribution points out of six hundred thousand. At this rate they'd hit Company Level 2 sometime around the heat death of the universe. But Emily had the objectives rolling, and if anyone could squeeze points out of setting up furniture, it was her.

He headed below.

The habitation deck was a disaster zone. Crates sat wherever they'd been dropped, assembly instructions scattered between them like the deck had been through a blizzard of cardboard. He took a breath and got nothing but clean recycled air. The soot was finally gone.

Luca stopped in front of one of the cabins, running his hands through his sooty hair and trying to shake off the adrenaline from the tracker hunt. He could still feel the maintenance tunnels in his shoulders. But they'd found it. The little black device was now sitting in Danny's lab, powered down and waiting for analysis.

The door opened with a hiss, revealing a space that was barely more than a metal box. Eight feet by ten feet of bare bulkheads and exposed ceiling conduits, with a porthole that showed nothing but the dark. Crates labeled "FURNITURE - CABIN 7" were stacked against one wall in a way that suggested someone had thought very hard about geometry and very little about unpacking.

"Luca?" Emily's voice came from the doorway.

He looked up to find her leaning against the frame, still in her uniform but with her blonde hair pulled back in a loose ponytail.

"Hey," Luca said, setting down the bed frame. "Thought I'd try to make this place livable."

She stepped into the cabin. The exposed conduits stopped mattering. "Need help?"

"Always," Luca grinned. Probably too fast. "Unless you've got somewhere more important to be."

"Nowhere more important than here," she said. She grabbed another crate and started working at the sealing tape. "Besides, someone needs to make sure you don't bolt the desk to the ceiling."

"Deal," Luca said. He was not going to bolt the desk to the ceiling. Probably.

They worked without talking. She unpacked the furniture while he matched pieces to the assembly instructions, which were clearly written by someone who hated people. The bed frame was first, a metal rectangle that bolted into reinforced points on the deck. Emily held one end while Luca worked the drill, and every time her fingers brushed his he forgot which bolt went where.

“So,” she said as they moved on to the desk assembly, “what’s your theory about who planted that tracker?”

Luca paused, sorting through bolts and brackets. “It had to be someone with access during construction. Someone who knew exactly where to hide it.” He looked at her. “Orion Horizons was offering a billion credits for our FTL drive. Titan Dynamics would sabotage their own mothers if it meant breaking the IFC.”

“Could even be a rogue UER faction, or one of those nationalist breakaway groups,” Emily said, aligning the desk leg. “Any of them might want the drive to fail, let the IFC collapse, and force us back under UER control.”

He threaded a bolt through the desktop. Every answer made sense. That was the problem. Too many people wanted them dead for too many reasons, and he couldn’t narrow it down to one.

Emily nodded as he tightened the last connection.

“But you know what I think?” Luca said, pausing for effect. “I think it was that French corp, les Aventuriers. With their accents and perfect uniforms.”

Emily gave him a look. The one that said she knew exactly what he was doing. "You know that's bullshit."

"Do I?" Luca kept threading the bolt, not quite meeting her eyes.

"Yes." She picked up another bracket, her voice light but pointed. "Pierre's company doesn't have the resources for something like this. You're just being petty."

Caught, because four years on the same team meant she could read him too easily. "Maybe a little."

"Definitely a little." Emily's tone softened, but she didn't push further.

"I hope everyone back home is okay," she said after a while. "It's been so long since we heard anything."

"Yeah." His hands kept working. Part of him wanted her to push. The rest of him was glad she didn't.

He reached out anyway, his hand settling on her shoulder.

She leaned into it just barely, and his pulse did something stupid.

"Your hands are a mess," she said quietly, looking at his knuckles.

"They get the job done."

"They do." Her eyes met his before looking away.

He'd been telling himself "not yet" for four years. The words had stopped meaning anything a long time ago.

"You know what I forgot to pack?" Luca said, changing the subject to something lighter.

"What?"

"My board games." He laughed, but it came out more bitter than amused. "Five hundred million credits in advanced technology, and I forgot the most important thing."

Emily's smile went sharp at the edges, the one she got when she was two steps ahead of him. "We'll figure something out," she said. "Ryan knows a dozen shady card games. And Chris..."

She paused, pretending to think. "Chris can take his shirt off and serve drinks. That's a roleplaying game all by itself."

Luca grinned at that. "God, he's so annoying."

They both laughed, and then she nudged him with her elbow. "Who says we need old games anyway? We can make new ones. Yours, mine, whatever we want." For a moment, the tracker didn't exist. It was just them and a terrible assembly manual.

He unpacked the last box, pulling out the only personal items he’d managed to bring aboard. Emily had insisted they pack their stuff and leave it on the ship. He had procrastinated and barely had a single box. Mostly books and clothes. And Risk, because how could he not have grabbed Risk. Finally, he pulled a framed photograph.

Emily watched as he unwrapped it. Mom and Dad standing together. Matteo and Alessio with matching grins. Him in the back, trying to look taller than he was. The photo had been taken six years ago, before everything went sideways.

"She would have loved this," Emily said. "Your mom. She would have been so proud."

Luca placed the frame on the desk and adjusted it until the faces caught the light from the porthole. His throat did that thing where it locked up, and he had to swallow twice before anything useful came out. "Yeah," he managed. "She would've."

The photo was six years old, which meant he'd been fourteen when it was taken. Normal fourteen. The kind where the biggest thing on your radar was if he'd bombed the midterm exam. Two years after that photo, the System arrived and turned the whole question into something else entirely. Not what do you want to be but are you going to survive long enough to find out. He and Emily and the rest of them had been sprinting ever since. No parties. No figuring out how to talk to someone you liked without it being a tactical problem. No practice runs at any of it.

He was twenty years old and had no idea how to do any of the normal stuff.

Emily moved closer, her shoulder against his. They looked at the photograph for a while, and Luca didn't trust himself to say anything else, so he didn't.

"We should probably get some food," she said. "Everyone's going to be starving."

"Yeah." He cleared his throat. "Hey, Em. Thanks for helping with this."

She bumped his shoulder on the way to the door. "Anytime, Captain."