Roger stared out the window, watching the shuttle's floodlights play over the debris field. So far, very few of the pieces of wreckage surrounding them appeared to have originated on Earth, and many of those were like the galleon -- seagoing vessels from long ago. Their search had turned up nothing that wasn't in pieces or riddled with holes from impacts with other debris, micrometeorites, or even dust.

"How long have we got?" he said to T-Bone, keeping his voice low.

"Under an hour."

Roger winced and flicked a quick glance at Kamala. She was still beside him, gazing out the same window. Her lower-left hand still had a firm grip on his right, and he wasn't about to pull away from her. Not now.

I'm such an idiot. He'd suspected since the beginning that she had feelings for him, but he hadn't taken it seriously until recently. It had just seemed too weird. And he'd egged her on every now and then, flashing that brilliant smile that always made her blush, chuckling on the inside whenever she became flustered around him.

Then, after an explosion breached the space station's hull, she had risked her life to save him and had almost died. And after recovering from that, she'd stayed by his side. Even then, one of their friends had to practically beat it into his head that she was in love with him. And now...

Okay, so, she's a twenty-foot snake with four arms and three digits on each hand. Big deal. She's one of the sweetest people I've ever met. I should've been more open-minded. Not that it wouldn't still be weird -- it absolutely would -- but …

He leaned closer to her and whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Huh?" She glanced at him and made a visible effort to shift her mental gears. "Uh, sorry, I was just looking at all the stuff out there and got kinda lost in thought." She turned back to the window and grinned. "This is fascinating!" The smile faded quickly. "I wish we had time to investigate. And, y'know, not die sometime in the next hour or two."

"Yeah. Me, too." He couldn't help smiling. Even now, waiting for their lives to end, the sight of what might be alien starships outside kept drawing her attention. It was one of the things about her that, he now realized, he'd always found kind of endearing -- she was a bit of a nerd, and was easily distracted by new gadgets.

And, another one on the plus side -- she has four breasts. As one of his friends had said a while back, you can't go wrong with that.

He almost chuckled. I'm still trying to talk myself into it. Oy. He cleared his throat and plowed ahead. "Anyway, a moment ago I just said I was sorry. For, you know, stringing you along. If I'd known it'd end like this…"

She gave his hand a squeeze. "There was no way anybody could know this would happen."

"Still, I should've …"

She pressed a talon to his mouth and shook her head. "Don't worry about it. At least now I know I've landed you."

He laughed softly and put his arms around her. "I just wish I'd said it sooner."

"Well, I'm sure everyone on these shuttles has their share of regrets. I've got a few of my own." She winked at him. "Like not getting you into my bed a long time ago."

T-Bone cut in before Roger could say anything. "Is your plumbing actually compatible?"

Kamala turned slowly and raised a brow ridge at him.

He shrugged. "Just wondering."

"Yeah, I have the right parts. One of 'em is even placed properly, though the other is under it instead of being, y'know, in the rear." She chuckled, then aimed a wistful look at Roger. "If we were in a more private location, I'd let you take a look for yourself."

"You two are making all the blood rush from my head." T-Bone cleared his throat and nodded at a line of text on one of his console screens. "You might be interested in this, by the way. I just got a message from the other shuttle. Seems they've found something promising."

Kamala's eyes widened and she turned to face him but kept her arms around Roger. "Oh! What is it?"

T-Bone rotated the shuttle until its sister ship appeared at the edge of the front viewport. A few seconds later, a huge, dark object moved into view. A ship, long and kind of blocky, with four sections that might be centrifuges to provide gravity for a crew, and the hull bristled in spots with antennae and other devices.

"Huh." Kamala stared wide-eyed at the ship. "That looks kinda similar to the Sagan and the Enterprise, but a lot bigger. And more advanced, I think."

"I wonder." Roger furrowed his brow. "We've seen ships from the past, so maybe this one's from the future? Or maybe we've been shot into the future, somehow?"

"Either possibility is just goddamn intriguing!" Kamala grinned, but it faded a few seconds later. "But if it's the latter, that'd pretty much flush our chances of getting back home right down the toilet."

Roger winced again. Oh, hell …

"These shuttles are just taxis," T-Bone said. "All they did was take people back and forth between the habitat station and the jumpgate construction site, so we've got no scanners or anything like that. No way to tell what condition that ship is in, whether any of its crew are still alive, whether it's got an atmosphere onboard, and all that stuff." He shrugged. "But the hull looks mostly intact, so this is probably the only shot we're gonna have before we run out of air."

Kamala smiled. "Well, I'd already applied for a position on the Enterprise's engineering crew once they finished building it because I just wanted to see what's out here. So I can't think of a better way to go out than exploring an unknown derelict ship." She winked at Roger and gave his ass a playful swat. "Other than, y'know …"

He grinned. "Sounds good to me. If we stay here, we're dead for sure."

"Okay, then." T-Bone typed a message and sent it to the other shuttle. "Let's go take a look."