There was a firm silence between the two for a short while longer. Jess stared back at Light, motionless, though it was hard to say if she was actually studying him, or just matching his intensity. Regardless, after a few moments, her attitude flipped and she gave a shrug. “Good enough for me. At least there will be more space this way...sort of. Get the ship prepped. I’ll load a box with my things and I’ll be ready.”

---

It did not take long for Jess to get her belongings aboard, and for Senjen to get her set up in the crew quarters. She was already quite familiar with their ship, though she had never made it a secret that she was not particularly fond of it, or most Tindrel designs. She knew how they worked, and how to work on them, but their cave-like interiors could make them feel smaller and more claustrophobic than they actually were. Humans, and especially Tekeri, could feel uncomfortable in them for long journeys. Jess might have preferred her own ship, though she was honest in trusting Light’s judgment.

Fortunately, this was not going to be an especially long trip, all things considered. It would be about two days and a few hours that they would spend in transit to their destination, and Jess was not planning on them spending more than a day searching for their salvage, one way or another, so they would probably be back in between five or six days. It was a short enough journey that she and Light would not need to worry too much about muscular atrophy, as long as they kept up with exercise, so they would not need to spend anything on treatments.

Among the belongings Jess had brought on board was an adapter to help her fit more snugly into the unused co-pilot seat in the cockpit, so she could actually strap herself in properly for takeoff. It was designed for a Tindrel, but as Senjen did not help with flying, and a QV did not even care if there was a seat, they had never bothered to modify it. Once secured, Jess connected to the ship’s computer and made a request to access the astrogation system. “Here, let me upload the coordinates. There shouldn’t be anything too special about the trip, but given the destination, you’re definitely going to need to take direct control once we get close.”

Light was splayed out in the middle of the command deck, tentacles stretching to click buttons, plug cables into ports and adjust control consoles when Jess entered.

“Tower this is callsign FGC-Five-Two requesting permission to launch.” He turned to her. “What? Oh yeah, knock yourself out.” He turned his attention back to his preparation work.

“FGC-Five-Two you are clear, good hunting.” Came the response.

“Alright, lets get this show on the road.” Light purred, firing the engines. The familiar roar reverberated through the cave interior, accompanied by vibrations that dislodged items from their flimsy mounts in the cockpit.

Light deftly lifted them up and out into traffic, punching it for orbit. Once they were in the jump lanes, he checked Jess’ co-ordinates before dialling in a hyperspace jump.

“Lets see what riches we can find, eh?” He giggled, slapping Jess’s shoulder.

As far as interstellar travel was concerned, the trip was a short one, which felt merciful for Senjen. This part of their jobs was always his least favorite. Day in and day out, trapped in a ship with nothing changing. The destinations were usually much more interesting. He loaded up his storage drives with enough shows, books, and games to keep himself occupied, but he still preferred actually doing things. He had gone through this countless times with Light, but this time they at least also had Jess with them to mix up their dynamic. She had been in space before, as she was not from Korit, but she still did not leave the planet very often. Certainly not nearly as much as Senjen or Light. The feeling of weightlessness had not even grown mundane for her yet, which Senjen made sure to tease her about when he caught her jumping around the cargo bay.

It had been about a day and a half, Korit time, since they had departed the planet. Senjen pulled himself along the ceiling as he entered into the crew quarters to find Light and Jess, oriented upside-down relative to them. He did not catch whatever it was Light was doing when he entered, but Jess had secured herself against a wall and was using a long elastic band for resistance to help her exercise her legs. Her generally disheveled appearance made it look like she had just woken up, but the fact that she had looked the same all day made him think she was just not bothering with her appearance for now.

“How are you adjusting to space life, Jess? Everything you hoped for?” Senjen asked.

With a grunt, Jess paused and took a quick break to catch her breath. “I think...putting in all this effort into working out just to lose less muscle is bullshit. I’d at least like to get somethin’ out of it. Next time, I’m just buyin’ a few injections, whether I ‘need’ it or not.”

Senjen shrugged as he floated by. “It’s your money. Me, if I want more muscles, I could just install them. What’s it like anyway? I mean, your whole ‘exercise’ thing works because you end up tearing them so they grow back stronger, right? Isn’t that painful?”

“I long since gave up the idea of having muscles. My suit practically keeps me from falling to pieces.” Light warbled wistfully. “When I have to exercise, my suit just vibrates like crazy on the inside. Gets everything activated, and then I can feel exactly how old I am!” He turned it on again to demonstrate. The suit spasmed in all directions with a faint hum.

“It's particularly uncomfortable in this model. Reminds me of when that aid-stealing gangbanger tried to shake me down in that tavern on Gwurulch while you were off doing Abyss knows what.” He pointed to Senjen. “Her suit malfunctioned and it looked like she was dancing! Hilarious!” He enacted what might be the Human equivalent of bending double with laughter and slapping his ‘knees’. He then reached out and lightly felt for Jess’ face to see if she was laughing or not.

Jess hummed a moment. “Vibrating suit? Really? That’s a...way to do it. I guess.” Light would find that she gave a light chuckle at some part of what he said, though mostly she was just in the middle of catching her breath from her workout, and now was spinning slightly from the bit of torque his tentacle put on her, until she caught herself on the wall.

In quite a strong contrast to Jess, Senjen maneuvered around with ease. He had come floating in quickly and halted himself fluidly by grabbing the ceiling with his feet. “Well it’s not my fault you can’t help but to get yourself into trouble anytime I leave you alone for five minutes.”

Senjen pushed himself lightly off of one wall until he floated up directly above Light and Jess. He stopped himself inverted above them, then gave the top of Light’s body a few light slaps. “Or maybe it is? Maybe I coddle you too much? I half expected you to have a few fires I would have to put out when I left you alone with that saleswoman yesterday. What was her name? Symphony? You seemed pretty eager to meet with her, if I remember.”

Light tutted. “And to think I hired you as my bodyguard. Sheesh!” He then blushed when Senjen mentioned Symphony. “That was a professional fact-finding mission! If we’re going to level up our operation I'm going to need a new suit eventually. Did you know that the Myrmidon gel can cushion your vitals, with me still inside? You’d be wearing me like a jacket and backpack - neat right?...Besides, she’s nice! And she knows people who might have tasks for us, so there.”

“Hey, bodyguard I might be, but I can’t always be around. If I really want to keep you safe, then the best way to do that is going to be to make sure you can protect yourself too.” Senjen said. He moved from the ceiling back down to the floor, reorienting himself to match the others. “I might be able to give you some shooting lessons, of course, but I don’t think even I can protect you in every way? I mean, what could I ever do to save you from heartbreak?”

With a chuckle, Senjen started to stare down Light particularly closely. “Could it be that Light here is out seeking a mate? Now that you’ve conquered your disease, is that the next goal on your horizon?”

“The whole point of the Bangstick is to not require terrific accuracy, I think.” Light chortled, before going quiet and blushing more.

“No, I…I’m much too old to be mating. I’ll leave that to the youngsters, like Jess. I’d just like to be able to retire in peace.”

While Jess was rolling her eyes and starting another set of leg extensions, Senjen let out an exaggerated scoff. “Oh, I see how it is. You’ll wish her luck, but all your years of wisdom tell you I shouldn’t bother finding anyone.”

“Really...did you just watch a movie ‘bout a robot finding love...and decide to copy it?” Jess remarked between reps.

Senjen tilted his head. “Are you trying to offend me?”

“Yes.”

“Fair enough. Anyways, I’ll have you know Utaysi partner up just like many other species. We’re not machines asking existential questions about what love is, or something.” Senjen said.

“No, you just ask stupid questions...tryin’ to prod into an old man’s personal life.”

Senjen raised up his hands. “Alright, alright, I get it.” He said, though as they were talking, another thought had crept into his mind that had been bothering him. “But um, Light...I know we don’t talk about it much...really, but how old...are you, exactly? How much...time do you have left?”

Light sighed, spun a floating piece of rock debris round in the air. “I am…old. Not the oldest; medical science made sure of that centuries ago. But older than our bodies ever evolved to be. I am long past siring children, and in any normal shoal would either be the Thoughtweaver, a venerated elder or worst - outcast for no longer having anything to contribute.”

As he stared off into space, Light subtly tried to tuck the piece of rubble into Jess’ suit, as if it would help him think.

“As for how long I have left, who knows! Work keeps my mind active even if my body is jelly without this suit. I hope to see a good few years yet…How old are you both?”

Jess stopped again, taking a few, long breaths after Light tried planting a bit of rubble into her pocket, which she just managed to notice during her exercise. “Well, let’s see. On my homeworld, I think I’m nineteen this year, though most Humans where I’m from give their age in Earth equivalent years, which puts me at twenty-eight.”

While Jess did not seem to be bothered, Senjen had to take a moment to process Light’s answer. Once it dawned on him, his eyes widened and his head raised up. He reached out and grabbed Light in both hands, sounding almost panicked as he spoke. “Wait, what? A few years? What do you mean? I thought the treatment was going to save you! A few years is nothing! I...I mean, come on, there has to be something that can change it! Some way to age...slower, maybe? Some way to fix it? You have to have more time than that, you just have to!” He shook his head and muttered. “It’s Prowler all over again...”

Light’s eyes widened in confusion at Senjen’s distress. QV verged on time blind sometimes, but he suspected something may have gotten lost in translation as often they did between species. He patted the Utaysi’s head and made a soft shushing sound.

“It’s alright! I mean i’ll be here for a long time yet. I feel well, we eat good food and if we get rich I can try the ointments and unguents that are supposed to be magic for my kind’s longevity. You can’t get rid of me that easy, slick.”

There was a harsh beep from the cockpit. Light clucked. “Wiring is on the fritz again.”

Senjen gave a close look over Light to try and see if he was lying. He may not have been a Tekeri, but QV were rather terrible liars in general. “It’s already unfair that organics aren’t immortal. I had this cute little alien pet once. Mischievous little thing, but she seemed happy. I was able to take good care of her, give her good medical care, but it was only like seventeen years before she died of old age. Just gone in the blink of an eye. You’ve got to tell me you have more than that, or that there’s something we can do…”

When they heard the beep from the cockpit, Jess cut short her workout and was quick to interrupt Senjen. “Look, let’s just keep our eyes on the prize right in front of us. Focus on getting through the next few days. Screw up too bad on this job, and we could all be gone in the blink of an eye. Come on, I’ll help you patch up that wiring for good this time.”

---

The ship came to a relative stop when it exited its FTL envelope at the edge of the target system. To the naked eye, the star at its center was not even a visible point of light. Pulsars, and other neutron stars, were tiny on an astronomical scale, being only about the diameter of a city, and they did not emit much visible light. Or at least, this one did not, as it was not an optical pulsar. Looking into other wavelengths, however, would reveal the two beams of electromagnetic radiation being emitted from its magnetic poles. They were what gave the pulsar its name, as the magnetic poles were not aligned with its rotational axis, so the beams moved with the star’s rotation in a very regular, predictable pattern. The beams of this pulsar had a heavy presence of x-rays and gamma rays, so it would be particularly dangerous to be caught in them. They did need to get much closer if they wanted to trace the likely path of the ship they were looking for, which would require a few microjumps in FTL while avoiding the paths of the more hazardous radiation.

Though he didn’t say anything, Light was dubious he’d last as long as seventeen years. That’d make him only a half-decade younger than any other QV he’d met. Yet his survival instinct was stronger than ever; he’d give it a damn good try. With enough money, it was certainly not impossible…

Light gently guided his ship out of light speed before scanning the system as best its systems could manage. The cobbled-together QV sensory adaptors painted a picture of the pulsar and other points of interest.

“Ok, that is pretty, i’ll admit.” he murmured before spurring them towards the path they were to follow.

It might have been disconcerting for anyone else in the cockpit to watch Light absently hum a tune while threading a path where the slightest misstep would’ve meant a painful death. But it was clear he was fully in control, deftly spinning up micro jumps in concert with the pulsar’s rotation while regularly scanning for clues as to their prize.

“Maybe we should get a pet with the money. What do we think? Do they sell pets that can tidy up around here?” He asked. This was a joke; Light had no concept of what ‘tidy’ would entail.

Jess was certainly not a bad pilot herself. Above average, by any definition, but that just meant she had a better appreciation for what it took to make it look as easy as Light did. She probably could have handled getting a ship into position close to the star herself, but there was a world where she could have made a mistake. With Light, she had a feeling that would never have happened even on his worst day.

Now that the ship was out of FTL and heading steady, Jess unstrapped herself from her seat so she could move around the cockpit. Already, she floated around behind Light so she could get a better look at the sensor readouts. The mechanics of FTL meant that inertia was not too much of a problem while traveling in it, but when moving at sublight speeds, a ship’s crew had to be ready to handle acceleration. When moving at anything other than a steady motion, loose objects had to be contained, and any crew members could not be far from somewhere they could be strapped down if the pilot was planning any maneuvers.

“Okay, we’re looking for any trace of the ship. If it was damaged here, then there’s plenty it could have left behind. Debris, radiation trails, whatever we can find. Also need to keep watch for any other scavengers in the system. I know they frequent this place for the same reason we are, but hopefully the fact that we know our target’s exact flight path means we’ll still get to it first. The star’s radiation beams are pretty and impressive, but also very predictable. I doubt even our freighter’s pilot would have been stupid enough to plot their course through them. No, it probably wandered close enough to get clipped by some other emission, or maybe it’s magnetic field. Neutron stars can put out a lot of energy.” Jess said.

Once he was sure the ship’s course was true and safe, Light turned his attention to the mammoth task of finding a dead ship in the vastness of space.

They’d had the good sense to ‘sniff’ the system ahead of them while travelling FTL. Light started by pulling up the dump of data and cross referencing it with what they were recording now. Eventually he made an intrigued noise, visualising a zoomed in vector around the pulsar through time on the cockpit’s holo. The accuracy of the data was questionable, but clearly enough he had isolated a sudden and massive burst of radiation at around the time their target would have been passing through.

“That’d be enough to put them in a bad way.” Light mused, looking at Jess and Senjen for validation.

“If my shield took that, I’d be looking to set down immediately.”

After a few hours of plugging and unplugging cables from interface ports, typing on various relief-keyboards and setting dials and gauges all over the place. Light shrieked.

“I’ve found something.” Spinning it up on the holo, it showed some kind of radiation trail deviating from the predicted path towards a barren rock. Light frantically navigated his astrogation systems.

“Its tidally locked…If it were me, i’d set down on the far side.” He gunned the engines and plotted a course to a position where they could ping the dark side.

Jess blinked in near-disbelief as she looked over what Light had uncovered. “Yeah, that’s...traces of tritium, deuterium, a bit of helium. That’s a reactor leak, alright.” She had helped him pour through the sensor data, but even she had to admit it had been mostly him. Even though they had the flight path of their target to narrow their search, it had still been a lot of empty space for them to cover. Jess clearly had not expected results nearly this quickly. “Damn, Light, just snatch the needle right out of that haystack, why don’t ya?”

Jess leaned back from the console she was at and just looked out of the window into the void. Without any spectrum filters to show light outside the visible spectrum, the neutron star was hardly even visible at this distance. With no significant sources of light to drown them out, their view of the stars was spectacular. “I think you’re right, and I think we’ve got the story of what happened here. The freighter pilot’s course brought them just a bit too close to the pulsar at just the wrong time. Something hit the star, asteroid maybe. And with a neutron star, an impact on that superdense degenerate matter causes some violent backlash. They pass through a huge burst of high-energy radiation that pulls them out of FTL and overloads some of their systems. Uncontrolled deceleration from FTL can be accompanied by unpredictable spacetime warping that can cause internal and external hull damage, so...probably more than a few, really. At minimum, they get a reactor leak. Might have even been operating purely on backup power, with the amounts I’m seeing here. They headed for that planet, which might suggest their radiation shielding was compromised. I think you’re right; they probably headed for the far side of the planet to shield them from the cosmic rays.”

There was a moment of pause from Jess, accompanied by a look of concern. “Honestly, I expected the freighter to be dead in space. That’s usually what happens when you’re ripped out of a warp bubble. They got lucky to be able to go anywhere after that. Or maybe unlucky depending on your perspective. It would make their deaths take longer. Their only sanctuary here is still a dead rock in space, I...doubt they could have survived this long.”

There was worry in Jess’ voice, but one could not say if she was afraid that the freighter crew might have had long, painful deaths, or if she was actually worried they may be alive.

A technicolour kaleidoscope swept across Light’s skin as Jess pieced it all together. He bobbed and nodded furiously, actively listening to every sentence.

“Mhmm, yep, my thoughts exactly!” Light chirped, floating surreptitiously closer towards Jess until he was clasping her shoulders and lightly shaking her.

“There’s only one way to find out. Let's go see!” Light appeared oblivious to the worry in Jess’ voice. He flung himself at the controls and began the intensive process of scanning the planet’s surface.

It ended up only taking an hour or so. Light focused their sensory array on the ship to look for any signs of life. “Get ready, Senjen, this could be a rescue mission.” He asked simply.

Senjen gave a quick look at what their sensors were telling them about the environment below. “Let’s see...temperature on the dark side is not too far above absolute zero, but no atmosphere, so the vacuum will be a fine insulator for you. Initial scans show the planet’s crust is rich in heavy elements and metals. Very dense, overall. It’s gravitational pull is a little under twice that of Korit, so be ready to deal with that. Radiation on the daylight side is intense, as expected, but the planet shields the far side pretty well. Your suits should be more than enough for the background radiation, and it’s not nearly enough to fry my electronics.” He spun his body around to face Jess. “You do have a suit, right?”

“Obviously. I was expecting this job to be EVA salvage; I packed it with my things.” Jess moved past Senjen, then braced herself against the nearest wall before shoving Senjen out of the way. Since he was unsupported, she was actually able to push his relatively massive body away. On his part, he simply accepted his new, slowly spinning trajectory. “Damn, don’t like that gravity, though. Those crates ain’t exactly lightweight. Would’ve been easy to push ‘em through space, but now they’re going to be twice as heavy.”

“Then I guess it’s good you brought a friend with more muscle than a Tindrel and unlimited stamina.” Senjen answered. He made a motion as if flexing, despite the fact that his plating was rigid.

This time, Jess did not mirror his levity. “Maybe, depending on the state of the ship. Could still be hard to get it out if it’s a wreck. Though if it’s too much of a wreck, then the cargo probably wouldn’t even be intact to begin with.”

“Well, let’s not think like that. Like Light said, it might even end up as a rescue mission. If not...do we even need the crates? Could we just unpack them and move over the cargo like that?” He asked.

Jess paused a moment, staring at the console. “Eh, could work. Our cargo hold has enough radiation shielding for the components. And it’s not like we’ll be sticking around long after we have them. I guess we’ll just see what it looks like on the ground.”

---

Heading down to the planet’s surface, they could see that the freighter had at least been in a position to choose a sensible landing site. They had set down in a wide, flat, open field that was more dusty than rocky. That said, it still looked to have been a hard landing. There was some debris from the ship scattered in a short line behind it where it had slid across the ground, but it was mostly intact.

“Okay, not...the worst.” Jess remarked. “Ship doesn’t look like it’s powered, though. No distress signal, nothing.”

Now that they were under the rather substantial pull of gravity, Senjen kept himself on the floor. He could still climb even under these circumstances, but his falling body would be about twice as dangerous now if he made a mistake. “We probably wouldn’t be able to detect it if they were rationing power to a safe room. Not from here, anyway. If we’re going in to investigate, we should probably be careful not to crack them open to the vacuum.”

It was up to Light where to land and what other precautions to take. The area around the crash site was all open and flat, while the nearest surface feature was a crater about half a kilometer away. Although they had not detected any yet, they did need to be cautious about other potential scavengers or pirates in the system.

After considering it carefully for a minute, Light brought them in gently to land in the crater nearby. It would provide a bit of protection and make the ship a little harder to spot.

“What? Time to put that infinite stamina to the test! I can bring it closer if we really need to.” He explained when he caught Senjen looking.

Once post-flight checks were complete and the ship was patiently ticking over ready for a getaway at any moment, Light set up a regular automated scan of the field around them and a dome of open space above. Any intrusion should ping his implant immediately.

He then gathered up his gear from the collection of lockers dotted around the ship. A pry bar, laser cutter, large scissors, that type of thing. Heading to the cargo hold, Light pulled his trusty BangStick out last before getting ready to open the doors to the vacuum.