I head to the bar nearest the ship - so stumbling back to my quarters won’t be too hard. The lights are dim. The room is full of various Corps personnel from the various ships docked at Port Lang. As I stand at the entrance looking for a seat, I catch Lance standing, high above the other patrons, waving me over. Working my way through the crowd of people, I reach the spot to see him sitting with Shauna. He pats the seat next to him and puts his hand up to catch the bartender’s eye.

“Alright, Clark, tell us! Who’s our new Captain?” He stares me down with a look of excitement like a gossipy mom waiting to hear her best friend’s newest dirt. Before I can answer, the bartender reaches us to save me from delivering the news for at least a few more seconds.

“Scotch… And a lot of it.” I return my dead-eyed gaze to Lance. When he sees my eyes, void of any life, his face morphs to one of confusion. “I’m the new Captain.” Lance and Shauna’s eyes go wide and Shauna chokes on a sip of her drink, barely keeping it from spraying across the bartop.

As Shauna recovered from her near death experience, Lance took the opportunity to talk first. “Wait, you’re joking, right?! You’re not our Captain.” He continues to stare into my lost soul and starts shaking his head. “Haha! No fucking way! You’re our Captain?! Who made that dumbass decision?” His head is now thrown back in a hysterical laughter. “Oh my God!”

“Thank you for the support, Lance.” The bartender returns with my drink and, in an instant, it’s gone. “Why couldn’t they have picked literally anyone else?” Setting the glass down, I look to the bartender. He seems to understand my mood and immediately goes to grab me another.

Shauna, having only barely recovered, joins the conversation. “What about *cough cough* Brenda?” My face puckers at the mention of her name. OK, maybe not literally anyone…

Lance has calmed down now but still has a wide smile on his face. “I wish we could’ve gotten someone like Stan Eldon. Make the ship fun like a Starliner! Let’s get Venus hookers onboard, man, get to live the folks still on Earth. Then we could get Kiki on board too!” He looks to Shauna with a simple smile.

Her response is broken by her persistent cough. “You know you *cough* don’t have *cough cough* a chance with her.” Her cough finally starts to calm itself.

“God, I have no clue what you see in her. She seemed like a massive tight ass to me. And Stan Eldon?” My mind flies back to his visit to the Academy. They brought him in to encourage us, give us pride in the Corps. Their mistake, he was nothing but the opposite. Another scotch is placed in front of me and it’s gone just as fast. “He came to speak to the leadership track at the Academy once. He’s nothing but a washed up drunk. I’m nothing like him.”

“Yeah, you’re not washed up yet.” Shauna nonchalantly sips on her drink after twisting the knife already in my stomach. I’ll just patch the wound with more scotch… Even though that’s just proving her right. Eh, fuck her. I wave to the bartender who just nods in sympathy.

Lance loses his smile and looks at the bottles on the back wall, lost in a sad thought. “Man, what a shame… And after what happened to his husband too. That guy deserves better.”

“No he doesn’t, fuck him.” Another empty glass in front of me.