Red tossed their qComm to the other side of the bed and sighed. The story they had been reading about a spaceship captain and his heroic exploits time-skipped the month-long travel time to moments before the battle. They had caught up to the current chapter with only a day of reading.

For the most part, the only people who still cared about sci-fi were the people who weren't out there living it. Red used it to pretend that their life wasn't utterly boring, but it was hard to re-create the excitement of that first spaceflight when it had become such a normal part of life for them. They were a tiny baby the first time they went into space, and the allure of the final frontier quickly wore off, forcing Red to realize that there was nothing out there but rocks and radiation.

And nobody talked about how utterly boring it was!

Red had two weeks to kill before their arrival at the Sag A* temple. While the Furious Monkey housed a couple entertainment lounges and game centers, the crew preferred to gamble, and Red did not have any money to gamble with. Moreover, Red was a couple years younger than the average age of people aboard the Furious Monkey and just didn't click with most of them.

Red was glad that they weren't stuck on some five-person hauler instead. If a ship like that hadn't splurged on an upgraded entertainment array, the only options during FTL were locally-stored content. So, as a guest, your choices were up to the whims of the crew.

Instead, Red had thousands of options that were equally boring. So they just flipped through the channels.

Sports.

Sports.

Low-grav sports.

Virtual sports.

Sports.

Sports.

Romance.

Recruitment ad.

Sports.

Sports.

Sports.

Sports.

Documentary about exotic animal grooming.

They stopped to watch that one for a bit. It followed several owners of Acruxian spine-moles which had been bred to require careful spine-grooming. They held competitions in the Acrux system annually to see who has the best mole, and the show followed the most recent competition winners, one of which was actually a human.

Red watched it until the end. They didn't expect the stories of random pet owners to be so interesting, but they were immediately sucked in. The human-owned spine-mole, named Roog, had been groomed to have a single line of spikes down his back. The way Roog's owner meticulously plucked hundreds of them weekly in order to keep him looking fresh showed her true dedication to the art of spine-mole breeding.

Red considered picking it up as a hobby once they retired from wandering. They had never taken care of another creature before, but it seemed like fun.

They lost themselves in a series of fantasies about owning a variety of pets as they drifted off to sleep.

Thirteen days left until the Furious Monkey arrived at Sag A*.

Red ate their first meal with Captain Dobbs and then decided to visit the game center. There was a line out the door, but Red was in the mood to wait. At least waiting in line felt more important than sitting in their quarters and staring at the wall or watching a screen. Every single time the line moved, Red got a rush of excitement and tried to externalize it. They had yet to meet most of the people aboard and didn't feel comfortable striking up a conversation with the people next to them in line, but hoped that a friendly exterior would make them approachable.

After an hour, Red finally got into the game center. They were set up at one of the VR stations and booted up a historical game about surviving the apocalypse on Earth. They had only visited Earth a couple times in their life, so didn't really get the game. They supposed that each of the locations in the game were important to Terrans, or were at least otherwise relevant to life on earth, but they didn't really care about the story. Instead of paying attention during the conversations, they skipped as much dialogue as they could and focused their attention on killing mutants.

Ten hours later, Red realized they were starving, so they finally logged off and went to grab something to eat. They discovered a text from Carlyle and chatted with her for a bit during dinner. Exhausted, Red called it a night and returned to their room to watch something and go to sleep.

Twelve days left until the Furious Monkey arrived at Sag A*.

After lunch, Red decided to spend their afternoon training in the gym. They sparred with Captain Dobbs five rounds in a row, getting their ass completely handed to them every time. Near the end of the sixth round, Captain Dobbs got called away for important business and they had to cut the battle short. Red challenged him to a rematch.

Red went back to their quarters and turned the same channel from the night before on. They fell asleep to it and found themselves awake in the middle of their usual sleep cycle.

Eleven days until the Furious Monkey arrived at Sag A*.

With no end of their boredom in sight, Red finally accepted that they had to try a little gambling. They wondered if anyone would spot them money for their buy-in. They stood at the edge of the entertainment lounge and tried to decide what table to play at. They still hadn't gotten any chips. A bar had been set up along the far wall of the lounge, though the bartender was a robot.

A person approached Red who looked about their age and introduced themselves. "I'm Aarbin, nice to meet you, Red."

"Pleasure."

"You look kind of like a fish outta water in here," Aarbin observed.

"You said it, I have no clue what I'm doing. I came here cuz I needed something to do," Red explained.

"Well, come play with my friends and I. I promise we won't clean you out too bad."

"Uh, I don't really know how to play. Also... I don't have any money."

Aarbin laughed. They took a handful of chips out of their pocket and handed them to Red. "Buy-in's on me! Let' s go."

The game was short-deck poker and Red lost the first hand horribly. They were handed the button on the second hand. When it came back to them, they dealt accordingly and pushed their small advantage. Suddenly the hand was between them and Aarbin. Red nervously checked their cards again.

They raised.

The turn and river came out and Red had nothing to show for it save three kings and a jack kicker. Trying not to reveal their pain too much, they played on.

Aarbin took the pot with a full house.

On the next hand, Red got pocket aces. They knew that the hand was strong, so went hard in the first round. When the flop came out, they had three of a kind and felt set to win the hand.

Another player at the table pushed the bet up three times and then the turn came out. Ace, ten, jack, queen. Red felt lucky, despite not having anything new. All they needed was one card.

The river was a queen. There it was!

Red went all-in. They felt the win right in front of them. Everyone folded except the player who had bet before.

Red lost to a royal flush. Frustrated, they thanked the table for the game and went back to their room. They told Carlyle about their failure and went to bed.

Ten days left.

Red didn't want to do anything in particular, so just spent their time in their room. They were going stir crazy and weren't sure how to handle it. During the battle with Opoz, they had to stay alert in case anything happened, so weren't bored at all despite having nothing else do to. This time, with no enemies to confront, they couldn't help but feel on the urge of a meltdown.

Worse still, they hated the design of the Furious Monkey. One of the joys of returning to Silkway was that they could get off the wretched vessel. Now, they were stationed on it for the foreseeable future.

What a pain.

Nine days left.

Red went back to the game center and found nobody in line. They spent all day playing video games again. When they went to bed, their wrists hurt.

Eight days left.

They brought food to the game center and ate it in line. After a two-hour wait, they sat down at the console and returned to their save file. Red reached the end of the game but lost to the final boss.

Then retried and lost.

Again.

And again.

And again.

And on the tenth death they lost it, screaming and tearing their headset off. "Fuck this!" they yelled, storming out.

Everyone in the game center looked at them. They made everyone extremely uncomfortable.

Dejected, Red returned to their quarters.

Gaming was terrible for their mental health. They needed to take a serious break, so they decided to dedicate the next three days to meditation and fortitude training.

Four days left.

Captain Dobbs knocked on Red's door, introducing himself through it before entering. "Get up!" he said.

Red shot out of bed, still in pajamas. "What is it, sir?"

"We've got a score to settle," he answered, chuckling as he stared at their cat-print socks.

Red changed into fighting attire and met Captain Dobbs in the ring of the gym. Their retreat had honed their focus and care. Blows that Dobbs would have landed in the previous bout now made contact with air. A crowd had gathered around the ring and some audience members even began to take bets on who would win.

The first round ended with both fighters still in good condition. With only a few blows landed on each of them, it was obvious to the crowd that the fight wasn't going to be a one-sided beat-down as some of them had originally thought.

Red was much smaller than Captain Dobbs, but what they lacked in outright power they made up for in dexterity. Their jabs hit Dobbs' ribs like lightning at the beginning of the second round. He almost lost his balance, but caught himself and protected his weak point as he did so.

Dobbs hit Red in the face with a right hook and they went down. The count started.

One! Two! Three! Four!

Red managed to get back up. They brushed off the blood trickling from their nose and got back into position. Dobbs went for the same move again and Red easily dodged, blocking his retaliatory strike as well. He took a step back and forced Red to come to him, but before he realized it he was on the floor.

Red had connected with a kick to his shin, throwing him off balance and collapsing him underneath his own weight.

One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight!

Dobbs got back to his feet slowly, not bothering to be anxious about the countdown. Back in position, he let Red punch him in the chest a few times and then wound up a heavy strike with his left arm. Red tried to out-pace his assault, but managed only to line themselves up with his fist. They spun around from the force of the blow but didn't fall.

Dobbs hesitated.

Red found the opening and unleashed a flurry of blows against his arm and shoulder. It was enough to ruin his positioning and his stance. Red went in for the kill.

A single blow to the chest.

Dobbs fell over.

One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! T-!

He was up again. Dobbs shook his head and wiped the sweat off of his brow.

The second round was over.

Everyone in the audience guessed that round three would be the end. The fighters were too tired and too uncomfortable and there wasn't much to keep them going. Red looked exhausted, and Dobbs had fallen twice already.

All it took was one good punch to win.

Red used the last of their strength taking the initiative in the third round. Dobbs' extra reach allowed him to fend Red's attack off. He countered with an uppercut that sent Red reeling back and falling to the floor.

One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten!

Some of the audience booed, others clapped, credits changed hands.

Red walked themselves back to their room and went back to meditating.

Three days left.

Red felt like shit after the fight. The first sparring match hadn't been nearly as taxing. They were bruised to shit. However, despite losing, they felt good. They felt humbled.

They knew what they had to work on.

But they felt terrible, so they put it off, promising themselves to work on it later.

Instead of practicing their physical fighting, they talked to Carlyle and watched sports (the only thing that was on).

Two days left.

Red felt better so they went to the gym. They focused on improving their basic forms and trying to find the best fighting style that suited them. What they had learned during their training had been enough to get by, but they had a feeling it wouldn't cut it if war broke out with the Acrux.

Between cardio, strength training, and martial arts practice, Red was out of energy in a few hours. They much preferred battling in the mindscape, but after the situation with Opoz, they understood that they really did have to be prepared for anything.

Sore as hell, they slept like a pup.

One day left.

Captain Dobbs called the crew to the meeting hall and shared what information he had about the developing tensions between the Acrux and the Merchant's Guild. The guild expected the Jhikae Order to be on their side should any conflict arise, as the Acrux were known to use magic in battle. However, Captain Dobbs had made it clear to the president of the guild that they were merely present as observers and nothing more. It was not up to the Order to settle petty disputes.

As such, all personnel were warned away from treason against the Order or trying to embark upon any kind of quest of diplomacy. Red figured that once the Furious Monkey arrived at Central Station, they would receive their own orders.

After the meeting, everyone was dismissed except Red. "I'm gonna need your help throughout this process. Did Master Gris inform you of the situation?"

"Not in full, Captain. What exactly's going on?"

"They're holding a series of meetings to try to solve this dispute before it gets out of hand. Our job is to ensure that nothing bad happens. The Acrux still tell stories about the Jhikae wanderers that slaughtered their gods, so it was determined that having you in the room would move things along."

"So my job is to stand there and look tough? Easy enough," Red laughed.

Dobbs couldn't help but give in and smile as well. "Yeah, basically. Hopefully war doesn't break out. If it does, we'll be right in the thick of it! We need to be ready for anything."

"I'll do my best, Captain!"

"Good, dismissed. We arrive early tomorrow."

Red grabbed a meal and went back to their quarters to catch as much sleep as they could. They had a feeling they would need it.