ComCen, or the Command Center, was the closest thing the ship had to a bridge. Crewmates could just as easily work from the confined spaces of their quarters, but they came to ComCen to collaborate in person or just to hear the breathing of another flesh-and-blood human. A semi-circle of workstations with grav-chairs faced a holo-void in the center where a planet-side scene of the misty Allux jungle was being displayed.

In the days following his tryst with Misuni, Stigel had avoided ComCen, afraid of what rumors might be abuzz. Trevor, the micro-drone engineer, had passed them coming out of the zero-g chamber together. It took little imagination to conceive what they had been up to in there. Had he spilled the beans? Stigel remembered all too well what first-Earth workplaces had been like with their insidious backbiting and jockeying for position. Would he be subjected to a lecture on workplace ethics? Would there be disciplinary action?

"Oh, there you are," Misuni remarked cheerfully as he came through the door. "I was afraid you were avoiding me because we fucked. Glad to see you back."

Stigel froze in mortification. It was like a bad dream from Stigla's girlhood: she was giving a book report in front of a giggling class only to discover she was naked from the waist down. In this case, the class was the entire CU crew excepting Nalla; Misuni, Sanjay, Trevor, and the first and second captains, MeiWei and Arjun, were all present.

"Can it, Misuni," Arjun said. "No one cares about that shit out here."

Misuni threw Stigel a wink. Looking around, the other members either had no reaction to the scandalous news or were excellent at hiding it. As he settled into his workspace, the tension quickly drained away, and he even started to feel relaxed. He hadn't realized how much he had missed the proximity of his crewmates.

"Now that we have a quorum," Misuni announced. "Pop hypothetical. Our ship crash lands on Allux, and we have to survive in a xeno-jungle full of giant centipedes and tank-sized spiders where the predators never sleep. No imps, tacs, pulse rifles, or other modern tech. To give you a fighting chance, you get to mind-share your body with another member of the team. One of you takes the day shift, the other night. Who do you pick?"

Arjun got up and headed for the exit. "I don't have time for this hypo-shit."

"At least tell us who your pick is," Misuni said.

"I would be day. MeiWei would be night."

This surprised the group. The power struggle between Arjun and MeiWei was a constant source of friction, held in check only by the command protocols. He went on to explain, "The goal is survival, right? If there is one thing MeiWei is good at, it's saving her own ass. And if we were time-shifted, that means I would never have to deal with her. It's perfect." With that, he turned and left ComCen.

"What about you, MeiWei?" Misuni asked. "Would you put your life in Arjun's hands?"

"Depends. Is this a solo or a team effort?"

"What does it matter?"

"It makes all the difference," the second-in-command said. "If it's a solo effort, Trevor is the obvious choice. He's physically the strongest, and as the drone-swarm operator, he has firsthand knowledge of the jungle's perils. But from a team perspective, then Arjun. He's one hell of a motivator and organizer, I'll give him that. But he doesn't like to get his hands dirty, so he's not much use on his own."

"Let's restate this," Misuni said. "We need to choose the six best minds separated into two day and night groups."

"And one person gets left out," Sanjay said. "Like picking teams on the playground. Brings back a lot of not-so-fond memories." Unlike the others, Sanjay had stuck with the twiggy baseline body of his nerdy youth. "I'll save you the trouble. I'm out."

"That's too bad," Misuni said. "You were going to be my first pick for the day squad."

"But I'm just a code-head," Sanjay said. "What good are my skills in the middle of a jungle?"

"Technology is just the use of whatever resources are at hand to solve novel problems. That's exactly what we need in a dangerous, uncharted situation. Besides, the fact you were picked first would increase your effectiveness by roughly thirty-five percent."

"That makes no sense," Sanjay said. "The order of selection makes no difference to a person's suitability."

"Who's the sociologist here?" Misuni replied. "Whenever I was captain of a team—and I made sure I was captain a lot—I would never pick the strongest, smartest, or most skilled. Instead, I would pick the next best or the ones that had potential but just lacked confidence. The mere act of picking them first would give them a confidence boost and increase their motivation. They would do their damnedest not to let me down. Humans are not machines with pre-set attributes. It was the role of star player that mattered most, not who filled it. In the process, I would win their eternal loyalty."

"You do realize this is a life-or-death situation, right?" Trevor said. "If your little sociology experiment fails, we're all dead."

"It's no experiment," Misuni countered. "I've been picking playground teams my entire life. How do you think I ended up among this esteemed crowd?"

The debate was still raging when Nalla chimed Stigel from her work-bay. "If you're not too busy playing party games, I've got something interesting you might want to see."