It was something that Lita knew would never change. She was always going to be waiting on Ray. He took more care when it came to his appearance than half the women Lieutenant Lita Joshi knew. He was the kind of guy that had to make certain that he looked exactly right when he made his entrance. She agreed that he always looked good, so she did not complain. She waited at the entrance of the Pilot locker rooms in the Pilot’s lounge, her thumbs tucked in her belt.

Lita nibbled her lip which usually meant she had something on her mind. She felt bad that Marcus had lost his cool. She and Marcus had been very close, trusting each other with their lives. In the past, Marcus would have shrugged the test off or told them they were being childish, but this time Marcus was insecure, upset and really not the Marcus she knew. He had changed. Lita’s brother, Jammer, who worked with Marcus in the robotics lab, had already told her that Marcus was different, but now she saw it for herself.

After Marcus’ accident Lita had been reassigned to Ray as his wing-man. Flying with Marcus had been great, but she had to admit that flying with Ray was a lot more fun. She still felt bad though because she admired Marcus and now she felt guilty for feeling pity for the man, which she was sure he did not want.

Lita turned her gaze around the pilot’s lounge. The other seven pilots were civilian, wearing their Nova pilot purple and grey jumpsuits. One was standing at the bar chatting with the bartender. There were also two playing cards at a table near the center of the room. The bald one was tense, glaring at his hand; he was obviously losing and not liking that at all. A dark-haired female pilot on the couch to her left was writing something on her data pad, seeming lost in thought.

Nova pilots were older than the Hydra pilots with whom she flew. Most of these men and women were ex-military, she knew the look. Lita thought about her own career.  She didn’t think she would ever leave it, like Marcus, no matter if she got injured or how old she got. She had every intention of making her service in the Hydra-corps a career, like Blue-Ray. She smiled to herself again—at least as long as Ray was around, anyway.

Just as Lita wondered if she would need to organize a search party to go looking for Ray, the locker room door slid open. She raised her eyebrows at him.

“Looking this good takes time,” he joked.

His magnetic blue eyes stood out to her more than anything else. That’s how he got his call sign, Blue-Ray. He’d told her once that there was another cadet in his first year at the academy named Ray O’Toole, and one of the instructors wasn’t too creative when it came to differentiating his cadets. Ray Soliski had blue eyes and the other Ray didn’t, so Ray Soliski became ‘Blue-Ray’. It didn’t take long until everyone called him that, and so the name stuck.

Lita liked that she knew more about Ray than anyone else. There were many women on the base, but she was the one with whom Blue-Ray spent the most time. They were together a few hours every day. That made her happy. She knew that she was only his wing-man, but one day, maybe that would change and she would be more than that. She didn’t push it—they were soldiers, after all. She didn’t dare expect or demand anything more.

And Ray looked great, as usual. His uniform perfectly fit his masculine body, his face was clean shaven and his short blonde hair was just the roguish side of unkempt. There was more to him, though, than his magnetism. Some people on Hydra considered Ray arrogant, but those who worked with him called it confidence. Plus, his sense of humor made him a lot of fun to be around, wing leader or not. Despite what his persona seemed to exude, Lita knew him better than anyone else did. To her, Ray was a natural-born leader, and she would follow him anywhere.

He flashed Lita his trademark lopsided grin.

“Miss me?” he added.

Lita smirked back, couldn’t help herself. “No, just thought you might have gotten lost in there,” she returned teasingly.

Blue-Ray just kept smiling at her. She could feel it starting to make her blush, but then he turned his gaze away from her out into the lounge. Suddenly, the doors leading to the tunnel bay flew open and hit a misplaced chair. The bang was loud enough to get everyone’s attention.

“What?” Lita asked, surprised as she turned to look.

In marched an irate Marcus ‘Hawk’ Hawkins, headed straight for them. He looked like he’d come right from his Hopper, scowl on his face and hands curled into fists. His glare wasn’t turned her way though, it was focused right on Ray.

No, it had not been a good idea to go through with that test. She turned her glance to Ray, who was still smiling, waving to Marcus as he approached, who ignored her completely. She’d been his wing-man before the accident. She felt even more guilty not arguing harder against Blue-Ray using Hawkins as he had. Hawkins was a good man. She had never seen him this upset before and figured at least some of the anger she could see on his face was justified.

“That was some stunt you pulled out there!” Marcus accused, stepping right up into Ray’s personal space.

Ray kept smiling though, in contrast to Hawkins’ stormy reproach. Lita narrowed her gaze. How would Ray handle this?

“Just following orders,” Ray said mildly with a shrug. “Besides, you’re now part of history. The test proved that we can stall enemy engines just long enough to—” his enthusiasm was cut short.

“You should have given me advance warning!” Marcus didn’t care.

Despite Hawkins’ aggressive pose, Lita could tell that Ray had everything under control. Ray knew Marcus almost as well as she did. Hawkins was not a violent man.

Marcus had more to say, but just as he opened his mouth, he paused and glanced around the room. He realized that all eyes were fixed on them and decided to lower his volume and tone. Yet, even at a more conversational level, it was clear Marcus wasn’t any less aggravated.

“What you did was reckless. You put lives at risk, not just my own!” he insisted through gritted teeth.

Ray had been told he was reckless all his life, so it was no surprise to Lita that he simply ignored the comment. Instead of arguing, he reached out and nudged Marcus’ shoulder, buddy-like.

“Hey, remember how we’d race those space bikes around this asteroid whenever we had a chance?” Ray reminisced. “Why don’t we take a couple out there right now? Maybe with your bionic arm you’ll beat me for once.”

Marcus flinched, but only slightly. He wasn’t about to give up that easily. He was nothing if not focused.

“Don’t try to change the subject,” he snapped with a quick glance at her, perhaps wanted to know whose side she was really on. He continued, “What if I didn’t get power back in time? What if it was some inexperienced kid flying that hopper instead of me? Did you stop and think about that?”

Lita was about to break in when Ray held up a hand in a placating gesture. “Hey. Relax. No problem. We had a Plan B. But, honest, the next time I remotely cut your ship’s engines I’ll warn you first, okay?”

Marcus rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest. He was still defensive, but calmer. Lita figured that Marcus must have realized that it was no use making Blue-Ray admit responsibility, unless an accident had actually happened. In Ray’s mind, they all knew it would be, ‘no harm, no foul’.

“Hey, I like you, Hawk, always have,” Ray continued, in his buddy tone now, but with an edge of seriousness to it. “But you’re wasting your talent escorting cargo freighters and sitting behind a desk playing with drones. You’re wasting your talents, man!”

Marcus continued to frown at Ray, but his glare had softened. He was calming himself and just wanted the conversation to end. Blue-Ray leaned over and placed a hand on Marcus’ shoulder. Lita’s lips pursed as she watched him look deep into Marcus’ dark brown eyes.

“You ruled out there, Hawk—second best pilot I know,” he said with a smile. “And nothing’s changed as far as I can see.”

Almost knowing what he would say, Hawkins responded dryly, “I’m touched by your concern, but I’m doing just fine. My drones just might save your life one day.”

Ray pulled his arm back, shrugged and then started to turn away. “Maybe so, but we both know I’m right.”

Lita stayed by Marcus. He was still watching Ray as he walked away.

“What are you doing here, anyway?” he called to him. “You could have tested that back on Hydra.”

Ray didn’t bother turning around. He was already at the card table, where the bald, mustached pilot had gone back to arguing with the other player.

“Classified,” he replied, without stopping or turning around. Then back to his comical self he glanced back over his shoulder adding, “I’d tell you, but then I’d have to… well, you know.”

The confrontation over, Marcus turned his attention back to Lita. He looked a little embarrassed about his outburst. His skin was a lighter shade of brown than it had been back on Hydra—the result of living under artificial lighting for months, Lita suspected. She stepped up to her old wing leader and gave him a quick hug.

“Nice to see you again, Lita,” he said once they’d broken apart, his voice back to normal and a slight smile on his lips. Nevertheless, he couldn’t hide the flinch that came from her hand touching his artificial arm. He was hiding it well, but he clearly wasn’t completely used to the prosthetic, even after two years. Or maybe it was because it was her who was touching it.

“You too, Hawk,” she answered. She nodded towards Ray. “Sorry about Ray. You know him. He’s always kidding around. He’s not a bad guy.”

She knew Marcus. He wasn’t going to admit it out loud, not with witnesses in the room, though they had already lost interest. He nodded his head in agreement, very slightly, but enough.

Lita felt her heart lighten, feeling for a moment like they might get back to the camaraderie they’d once shared. Jammer might say he was different, but he was still Marcus.

“We miss having you around,” she tried reminding him that he still had plenty of friends on Hydra. He nodded slightly again, then turned and headed for the locker room.

“Things are what they are,” he told her, rejecting her unspoken offer. “Look after yourself Lita.”

She hesitated a moment before heading to rejoin Ray, and watched as the locker room door slid closed. She turned back to see him describing to his new card-playing buddies what the altercation had been all about.

They got a kick out of Blue-Ray’s imitation of Hawk’s reaction to losing power. Lita knew what the Colonel wanted, but Marcus had to work with these guys. Maybe Ray went too far making fun of the interim Station Commander. As soon as she reached the card table, Blue-Ray took the lead. They both left the lounge and headed toward the station cafeteria.

“It was too soon,” she told him. As good as Ray was, he wasn’t perfect, and she didn’t think Marcus deserved being put in that situation, “His first day back out there.”

“What can I say, Lita? Hand wanted to see how he would react. We would have done it sooner or later, anyway,” Ray replied in defense of his actions.

He then stopped walking and stopped Lita who was a half step behind. He then looked directly into her eyes. He didn’t want to lose the approval of his biggest supporter. “I’d say he passed the test, wouldn’t you?”

Lita offered a glare back, but felt herself agreeing, not as mad as she led on. He smirked and she smirked back. They both started walking again, this time with Lita a step ahead of Blue-Ray.

“Well, he didn’t crash,” she said looking back at him.

***

Hawkins didn’t feel great any more. He sat contemplating for a little while on a bench in the pilot’s locker room. Maybe working in a lab away from people really was a cop out, a place to hide.

And he could control what happened there. Jammer and he were good friends, and they had always worked well together.

He thought about the confrontation just then, and considered that maybe he had over-reacted.

He rubbed a hand over his buzz-cut hair as he considered the man, once his subordinate, now his replacement. Everything always seemed to work out for Ray Soliski. His parents were still alive and almost as famous as the system’s Governor Victor Belter himself, and he had a kid brother back home who wanted to be just like him.

Maybe it was envy, then. Still, leaving the Hydra-corps had been the right decision. He didn’t regret it, but he had to get used to the repercussions of that choice. Marcus had come to the realization that he was no longer the man he used to be—he just had to figure out if that was a good or bad thing. Maybe that was what really bothered him; it wasn’t actually about Ray.

He let out a deep breath. How he felt about Ray Soliski was just another thing about coming back that he was going to have to deal with, but that was for another day. He stood back up and headed over to his locker.

When he was almost finished changing out of his flight suit, Chen and Powers strode into the room in the middle of a conversation about an alien spaceship. He realized that they were the two pilots who must have been sent to investigate the unidentified craft near Tibna. Their conversation stopped as soon as they saw that someone was there.

“Commander,” they said in unison as they headed toward their lockers the next row over. They both threw Hawkins a casual salute, even though they were civilians working for Novacorps now. Years of military training were hard to erase. Marcus finished changing and walked over to their row of lockers, curious about the unknown craft.

“What did you find out there?” he asked.

“It was a cargo ship or shuttle of some sort, just drifting out there,” Powers glanced over at him and shrugged while he replied.

“Not any design either of us recognized. And there weren’t any life signs that we could pick up.”

Marcus nodded even though his curiosity was hardly sated. “Where is it now?” he wanted to know. “Any word on what’s going to happen to it?”

Powers shook his head.

“A tow barge showed up right after we did and told us they had orders to take it to our Nova lab complex on Hydra. The Colonel even sent a couple Hydra fighters to escort it, so we just came back,” Chen answered with a wry grin.

That certainly sounded like Hand’s style. The Colonel was not about to allow the security of the system to be in the hands of civilians. At least he was taking it to the Lab complex on Hydra.

“Thank you, lieutenants,” Marcus said and headed back out into the lounge.

Marcus felt uneasy. He wasn’t used to being out of the loop. Even though he’d been one of the first to discover that ship floating by Tibna, he had to get used to the fact that, as a civilian now, he would have limited access to information. He had chosen to be an outsider as far as the military was concerned, and, for now, he was going to have to be satisfied with only the few bits of information the Novacorps pilots provided.