I caught Chira’s brief longing glance before she dropped her eyes to the dishes in her hands and remained silent. Varro’s mouth was set into a firm line as he looked anywhere except at Kee.

I sighed quietly. I swear, sometimes my job was half therapist, half mediator, and half de facto ship parent, with a few other halves left over for captaining, negotiating, and bounty hunting.

“Why don’t we all start over with the first episode in thirty minutes?” I suggested. “I could use the refresher, and Eli and Chira can get caught up, too, if they want to join.”

When Chira’s surprised look bloomed into a smile, I knew I’d made the right call. “Thank you,” she said. “I would like that.”

I drained the last drops of the delicious wine from my glass. “Until then, I’ll be on the bridge if anyone needs me.” I gave Eli and Varro a warning glance. “Stay out of trouble.”

Eli tossed me a jaunty salute. “Aye aye, Captain.” He was not deterred in the slightest when I glared at him.

Varro settled for a stiff nod.

I left them to it. I couldn’t constantly watch them, so they were going to have to figure out how to tolerate each other.

The bridge was dim and silent. Stars dotted the display as Starlight’s Shadow slid through the emptiness of space. After three years, the background hum of the engines was easy to ignore, a heartbeat that was noticeable only when something was wrong.

I dropped into my seat with a deep sigh. It had been a long time since the ship had carried more than Eli, Kee, and me, and the thought was bittersweet. I’d never expected to haul our former enemies around the universe.

Life was funny sometimes.

After checking that everything was truly okay with the ship, I leaned back and put my feet up on my terminal. It wasn’t the most dignified way to sit, but it was comfortable.

While there was always some traffic on wormhole routes, this wasn’t a highly popular—or profitable—one. There were no habitable planets and only a handful of remote mining stations in this sector. The ships in front of us at the wormhole had taken other routes, so the only other ship in sensor range was Lotkez, and they weren’t likely to hail me. I could sit however I liked.

The next wormhole traversal wasn’t until the day after tomorrow, in the early hours after midnight. Then, two days after that, we’d traverse the final wormhole before Bastion and arrive at the station in the early hours of the fifth day.