"Well, I'm glad someone is having a good time." Asuka stood in the doorway and raised an eyebrow.

Marissa glanced up at Asuka, turned back to Seth, and snickered. "Sorry. It's Luana and Henry. They're the ones who're having a good time." She shook her head and stifled another laugh. "They forgot to turn their comlink off and, well, um …"

Asuka nodded and chuckled. "Ah, they started humping it out as soon as they were alone?"

Seth nodded.

"I noticed the way they were looking at each other, then when they volunteered to take a shuttle out for a look around, I put two and two together." Asuka smirked. "Actually, I've been assuming that quite a few of us might want to 'blow off some steam.' Probably just a reaction to nearly being killed."

"Yeah, the thought did cross my mind." Seth flicked a glance at Marissa.

Asuka nodded at the door. "Now that we can track those spiderpedes, feel free to go let off some of your own steam. We've finished moving the bodies into the morgue, so you won't have to worry about running into any of 'em on the way."

"Tempting." Marissa exchanged another look with Seth.

He grinned. "I'm feeling particularly 'inspired' by the show Luana and Henry put on."

"Ah, to be young again." Asuka chuckled.

"Well, actually, you are."

"Not really. I'm … over eighty. Quite a bit over, to be honest." Asuka shrugged, stuck her hands into her pockets, and leaned against the wall. "It's just the body that makes me look fourteen."

Marissa arched an eyebrow. "Now that you mention it, I've been wondering ..."

"How'd I end up in a teenage prosthetic body?"

"Yeah."

Asuka shook her head and sighed. "My previous body got mangled by a rocket, and I needed to get back into action as quickly as possible. So I had to take the first available body and have it modified for combat. Took less time to upgrade it than it would've to wait for an adult body to be shipped in. After that, I decided to stick with it until it gets damaged irreparably, because having your brain removed and installed in a new body still isn't one hundred percent safe and even when it works, there's an adjustment period to suffer through, not to mention all sorts of other issues that can pop up."

"Huh. Guess I never really thought of all the things that could go wrong."

"The procedure is becoming more routine nowadays, but at best it's kind of a pain in the ass. And now that we're here -- wherever the hell 'here' is -- we don't know how long it'll be before we find a planet with sufficiently advanced technology. So for the foreseeable future, I'm stuck in this teenage body that has tits the size of bee stings."

"Still, you're an adult. If you've been thinking about letting off a little steam, yourself, there's probably someone around here who …"

"Eh." Asuka shrugged. "Thanks to this body, if I had sex with a guy who really is a teenager, no one else would give it a second thought, but to me, it'd be too weird and creepy. My only other choice would be to find an adult who likes the idea of fucking a kid, which would definitely be creepy." She sighed again. "So the only option left for me is, um, solo flights." Then she grinned. "Which I do a lot. 'Cause, y'know, what else can I do?"

The corner of Marissa's mouth turned upward. "Well, rumor has it that you seemed to find Otto quite appealing, and he looks like he's thirteen or fourteen."

"I must admit I have a bit of a crush on him. He's kind of in the same boat. He's several decades older than he looks, so it would've been as close to normal as I could get. But he's with Shakira, and you couldn't pry those two apart with a crowbar." Asuka rubbed her hands over her face. "Besides, they could be on the far end of the universe, for all we know. Anyway, as I said, if you two need to take a break, I can keep an eye on things for a while."

Marissa slipped her arm around Seth's waist. "It wouldn't feel right without our girl, but she wouldn't want us to stop living our lives."

"As I said before, we'll find our way back to her. Somehow." He kissed her. "Until then, we still have each other."

"Ah, go on, you two." Asuka waved her hands, shooing them away from the console. "We don't know how many opportunities we'll have for some R&R, so take advantage of it while you can."

Morrison's voice suddenly cut in over the speakers. "Huh. What's that?"

"Uh, guys," Luana said, "I think we might have something, here."

"Guess we better put our clothes back on," Morrison mumbled, fading out of the microphone's range. A moment later, he said, "Hey, wait. What's -- oh, shit!"

Silence.

Asuka rushed over to the console and pushed the send button. "Henry? Luana? Can you hear me?"

Nothing.

Asuka looked up at Marissa and Seth. "Oh, hell …"