The casino on the Fifth deck was one of the accidentally unpopular places on Hopestar. Because of the way the main media theatre was set up, Fifth deck was not circular the way other main decks were. Instead, there was a wall in the middle with the theatre on one side, busy at any time of the day. To reach the casino, you had to walk all the way around the perimeter of the ship; it was further away from the lift pods than anything else open for passengers.

Paolo liked it this way. Nobody random ever stumbled upon it, the visitors kept to their booked game tables, and the stewards knew to step in only when called. They also made sure to offer the freeform cards table in the corner to visitors only if there were no other options.

He took his usual chair, facing the wall with the rest of the space behind him. He checked the five decks in the storage box; it was clear nobody had touched them since the last time. He picked his favourite deck, the one with a scratched Ace of Stars, shuffled it for a good minute, then turned around and fingered through the cards, looking at their faces. Ace of Shuttles was always his favourite to palm, and given this being Richard’s first experience with txint, Paolo felt confident in not being found out. He practised sliding the card into his sleeve several times then tucked it in a convenient nook under the table.

A notification lit up on his forearm, visible through the thin fabric of his long sleeve. (He had his interface embedded into the skin using nanoweave, the same way implants worked. The images just appeared on his forearm, as if projected. It was not great for watching videos or reading long texts but more than enough for notifications and casual browsing. At least, he didn’t need to bother with constantly carrying an interface around.) Frowning, Paolo pulled the sleeve up and saw it was a private message from Nikolai. He pursed his lips and swiped the notification away, then put the interface in sleeping mode.

For three days now, Paolo was ignoring any attempt of the captain to talk to him. He didn’t answer the messages, he ignored invitations to the office, and he walked past him that one time when they stumbled upon each other in the corridor. He didn’t even read anything. If it was work related, Nikolai would use the dedicated board, not the private channel.

It’s not like Paolo was angry. Not really. He didn’t expect to be given captain’s access. He didn’t even want it much. Fucking made sense though. Nobody ever trusted him with anything outside of the cockpit. As if being a pilot somehow made you incapable of knowing other stuff. And there were more pilots than just him in the cockpit! That was the whole point! They would not allow him to do something that could put Hopestar in danger. And why would he want to ever do it?!

Okay, maybe he was a little bit angry.

Paolo realised he was squeezing the cards so hard, several of them bent. He huffed and tried to smooth them out with his thumb. Then he looked at the affected cards: Five of Rifles, Nine of Stars, Officer of Stars. He memorised them and shuffled the deck again. Yeah, he could see where the cards landed; this could be very useful, indeed.

He checked the time. Maybe, Richard wouldn’t show up after all. Honestly, the threat was empty and silly. Anyone would see that Paolo had no way to mess with the library. It was the ship’s property; if he tried doing something to Haasan’s precious servers, or leave extra fingerprints on his precious books, or bring in dust on the soles of his shoes or something, Nikolai would never forgive him. Haasan, the cocky bastard, had the captain wrapped around his finger. And somehow got his grip on the Third Pilot now. Whispering his lies into his ears. Indoctrinating him with “high ideas” or whatever other philosophic shit he was on. Acting as if he was somehow better than Paolo just by the sheer number of stupid pretentious books he has rea-

“Sorry, I am late, sir.”

Paolo blinked and looked up from the cards. Richard sank into the chair opposite of him and was now anxiously staring at the table and the decks. He looked no different than in his on-shift hours despite being out of the cockpit; the same braid, the same standard t-shirt, the same stupid Hopestar jacket. Even the lost expression on his face was familiar — this was how he looked during his first month on the ship.

For a tiny moment, Paolo wondered, why the fuck did he drag this child of a man all the way to the casino? He was so clearly out of his depth and clueless about anything, what fun could this even be? But then Richard looked up and met his gaze. He immediately frowned, a stubborn pout on his lips, eyebrows raised. “If all you want is to sit there and stare at me, can I go now?”

And the doubts were gone, replaced by thrilling amusement.

“Glad to see you too, Mr Richard. Sorry to say, you’ll need more patience than this if you plan to get good at txint.”

Richard sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. “I have no intention to ‘get good’ at this. I’m here to prevent you from pouring your frustration on the rest of the cockpit crew because you are ‘bored’.”

Hah, what a little bitch. Paolo felt a smirk settle on his lips. “Oh, a noble sacrifice? They don’t deserve you.”

The Third Pilot only glared in response. Paolo shuffled the cards, casually at first, then divided the deck into two piles and leafed them together. He moved through several shuffling techniques, his fingers following the familiar patterns. That definitely pulled Richard out of his pout; he watched the cards as if it was a performance. Paolo didn’t mind such attention.

Finally, he dropped the deck on the table, which made the Third Pilot jump in surprise. The card on the top of the deck was one of the bent ones. Five of Rifles, Paolo guessed in his mind. He turned the card around — yep, Five of Rifles, indeed. Oh, this would be fun.

“Txint, Mr Richard. The best measurement of luck humanity had for the past few centuries.”

“Luck is not a physical quantity, and cards are not a reliable measuring tool for anything, sir.”

“I see you are playing hard to get today. Good, I don’t mind. I like the challenge.”

Richard stared, surprised, and his cheeks reddened. Oh, he totally got the meaning. And was now trying hard to convince himself that he misunderstood. Typical straight denial. Paolo smirked, he couldn’t help it; this man wasn’t a puzzle or a riddle to be solved. His reactions were clear and offered immediately, and the challenge was in finding the right approach to get the result he wanted.

Paolo picked up the cards again and shuffled them thoroughly, then dealt five cards to Richard and five to himself, face down. He placed the deck in the middle of the table, revealed the top card (Captain of Shuttles) and placed it next to the rest.

“There’s nothing hard in txint. You have your hand, the pile and the discard. Your goal is to get a good set or a run of cards. It may be 3 or 4 cards of the same rank, like four nines. Or a sequence of cards in the same suit, like 1-2-3-4-5 of Engines. Everything else remaining in your hand gives you points, and you don’t want many. We are not playing seriously this turn, so just take a look at your cards and tell me what you have.”

Paolo revealed his cards. 3 and 7 of Stars, 1 of Engines, 9 of Shuttles, Ace of Rifles; ugh, abysmal. Richard turned each of his cards over carefully with two fingers as if scared to damage them. 4 and 5 of Engines, 4 of Stars, 7 and Officer of Shuttles; a much more interesting hand.

“Is this good or bad?” The Third Pilot asked and looked up at him.

Paolo snorted. “Unless you get a set of 8-9-Officer-Captain-Ace of the same suit, nothing is good. However, you have a good foundation for a winning hand here.”

Richard didn’t wait for an explanation and put down his index fingers on two of the cards. “Two 4s, right? They match?”

This was weirdly adorable. “They do. If you find yourself one or two more, it can be a nice set. But also, you have a 4 and a 5 of the same suit. Maybe you’ll find more of them to build a nice run. But also also, you have the Officer of Shuttles, and here, in the discard, is the Captain of Shuttles. They could be a part of the run too.” 

Richard looked like this was a real revelation to him. He looked up and raised an eyebrow. “Okay, so how do I go about getting more cards?”

Paolo tapped the deck on the table. “You can take one card, either from the pile or from the discard. Discard is good because you know what you’ll get, but also bad, because I will know what you have and can guess what you are trying to build. After you take a card, you’ll need to discard another, so you always have five cards in your hand. I’ll give you the first turn.”

The expression on Richard’s face was of serious contemplation, as if solving this problem correctly meant life or death of everyone on the ship. Finally, he took the Captain of Shuttles and put the 7 of Shuttles in its place in the discard. Paolo nodded and took the discarded 7 and replaced it with his ace; he had little chance of getting anything interesting in Rifles this game. “Now I have 7 and 9 of Shuttles. If I find an 8, I’ll be getting somewhere.”

“Why did you discard an Ace though? Isn’t it the highest rank?”

“It is. If you find yourself the Ace of Shuttles, you’ll have a nice run. But for me, I would need the matching captain and officer first, and if I don’t - the ace is 12 points at the end. And more points is bad. A random ace is a liability.” Paolo gestured for Richard to continue.

What he didn’t mention is how an ace could be used for mind games. Taking one from the discard, even if you had nothing to match it with, may seem like you are gathering the most powerful set in the game — 8-9-Officer-Captain-Ace. This way, the opponent may lose confidence in their own hand and start chasing higher ranked cards. Then, you fold early, take the 12 points, and see them have a 9 and a 10 on an Officer. 

And of course, currently, Richard wouldn’t find the Ace of Shuttles he needed, as it was safely tucked under the table. 

“So, if the card is not part of a set or a run, you take points for it, and you don’t want that?” 

“Yep, that’s the gist of it. And then there are bets, of course. But we can ignore those while you learn.”

A pout returned to Richard’s face. “Can’t say I’m a fan of betting.”

Paolo smirked. “No? But it’s such a nice way to spend the money you earn here on something.”

The Third Pilot let that slide and reached to pick a card from the pile. “Two of… Rifles?” He looked down at his cards with a frown. “... That doesn’t seem useful at all.” Then he looked up at Paolo and demanded: “What do I do?”

There was something exhilarating about this glare. Commanding, expecting, despite it being about such a stupid thing like card game rules. It sent a shiver down Paolo’s neck. “Well…” He tried to gather his thoughts. Right now he couldn’t remember any rules of any games. There was a happy exclamation from one of the other tables, which snapped him out of it. “If you don’t need it, you discard it. Face up.” 

Richard nodded and did so. And so they continued playing like this for several more minutes, mostly silent. Richard found another 4 and discarded a 5. Paolo lucked out on a 7 and then on another 7.

“That’s it, I’m folding.” He announced, triumphantly and tapped his cards. “Now we count the result.”

The look of utter betrayal on Richard’s face was incredible. “But I didn’t finish!”

“Well, that’s unfortunate, isn’t it? But I got my set first. I have four 7s and a 1. That’s one point. You have three 4s, a set, and Captain and Officer. Ten plus eleven. Twenty one points.”

Richard sat there and stared at their cards for a whole minute. Then he exhaled sharply and grabbed the pile, turned it around, and started looking through the remaining cards. Paolo’s heart jumped into his throat in surprise. 

The Third Pilot finished his examination and looked up, his eyes narrow, his glare icy. “There is no Ace of Shuttles in this deck, sir. I may not know the rules of this game but I’m not stupid.”

And, like that, something inside Paolo cracked.