"LAUNCH PREPARATIONS IN PROGRESS — PLEASE CLEAR THE BAY."

Nova hauled boxes of tools off to the side at the direction of the senior engineers shouting over the rumble of the droid bay. Hers sat in the middle of Thuni's and the initial scout droid. It was a race to see her dream realised, to go back home with the knowledge and training she learned on an important mission on a famous research space station.

To make history.

In the control room, Admiral Mythrai spoke to the controllers as some of the senior scientists came down to view the launch for themselves. Nova gave a box to one of the engineers when Thuni called her over to the terminals. One more check on the control room, she shuffled closer. "What is it? Anything missing?" she asked, falling into the flow of her work, born for it. Her heart fell into the pit of her stomach. "Has something gone wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong." Thuni pursed his lips. "Ulin's doing a double check on the cores. They worked on yours already, but they took longer than I thought they would. He just mentioned something he wanted to add an augmented buffer given to him by Teimea."

"Neo?" Nova questioned.

Thuni shrugged. "Something to do with the anomaly scanner." He folded his arms, as if protecting himself from the mere idea of Neo Teimea and his chattering tendencies. "I suppose it's better to be given now instead of later when the droids are out doing their initial collection routes."

Nova relaxed and sat at the terminal. I didn't know Neo would go out of his way to do that for me... "Anything I have to do right now before launch?"

Thuni motioned at the control room. "We'll be receiving sequenced codes on the terminals," he explained. "What we have to do is send a command to our droids. Everything else should be automated by the programmers." He rolled his broad shoulders when Ulin dropped themself out of the other droid, wiping their brow before rushing off the hissing pad and rejoining them. "We're just here to make sure nothing goes wrong during the sequence and that nothing goes wrong with the droids, but once they're out in space, it's out of our hands."

Nova squirmed when the terminal with her droid's information lit up. Tension choked her throat at the real thing instead of a training sim in college, she rolled closer to it when Thuni left for his. Ulin handed her an infopod with a nod and a smile of encouragement before rushing up the steps to reach the control room.

Codes fell in sequence along the screen as she dug her fingers into her knees, readying her input code when it gave her a prompt. Power levels are good and stable. Nova inserted a check for an AI response, which it gave without hesitation. Good. AI is connected to the space station. Nova swiped through the number of tabs and files. Everything is consistent with my last check. Air stuck in her cheeks, she switched to the launch sequence when it beeped red light at her. User confirmed, she tapped the sequence back to the droid as the other engineers listened for the call.

"LAUNCHING SEQUENCE INITIATED."

Moment of truth, Nova. This is what you're here for. Just this moment. This will show what you're really made of.

Nova clicked the button, and the screen rolled the code through graphs and power levels. She turned to the control station, where Ulin gave her and Thuni a nod and thumbs up.

"Clear the launch pads!" the senior engineer bellowed above the mechanical groans.

Nova launched herself out of her chair and took several steps out of the way when the pads raised off the ground. It turned with the screaming alert to point the droids to the outside. Mist left the ports of the scout droid, the first to launch. It sped out of the shields without any hesitation. Her stomach boiled with the hiss of Thuni's droid when it rose into the air and followed the scout.

Hers remained.

Nova kept her attention on the terminal, ready to rush forward and fix her mistakes. It ran through one last string of code from the control room, and then the pad hissed. Her droid came to life and lifted off the ground. Higher. Higher. It flew out of the bay and then disappeared toward the nebula with the other two droids.

"And... that's all it wrote." Thuni swung his arm out when the alarms died down with the departure of the droids out of view of the southern bay.

"Horizol!" the senior engineer called. "Control will send out the alert of the successful launch. I want you here to see the last pieces of work for the after launch."

"Anything I need to do?" Nova questioned when the senior engineer disappeared into one of the workrooms.

"You can kick back and wait until they come back after their routine directive," Thuni replied. "If they bring something substantial from the nebula it'll be moved from here to central command." He swiped a cloth off one of the boxes to brush it through his fingers, wiping off grime from maintenance. "So the anomalous scientists and powers that be can decide if the information is of use to them before we send them out again." He stopped, then shrugged. "That's how it should go, at least, but with the delayed launch, I'm not holding my breath for standard protocol anymore. Especially dealing with anomalies."

Nova brushed the tips of her fingers when Ulin left the control room and headed to Thuni. Her terminal remained responsive with the distance between herself and her pride and joy. How it should go... but he's right, anomalies never make things clear cut. Which is why maybe Neo can shed some light on why this doesn't feel... right. Nova shuffled up to them, to inject herself in their conversation, though the very idea weighed on the top of her head. "I wanted to talk to you two about something.

"Hm?" Thuni mused.

"Well." Nova swallowed anxious thoughts. "Neo was wondering if — after the launch was over he wanted to get us together to talk. Get to know each other better out of the context of work. We never had time — and he even wanted to invite Izerva." I know Izerva's post is between central and eastern, which means Neo gets to talk to them the most.

Thuni sucked in his cheeks. "I would, but you heard the senior engineer. One of us has to keep an eye on things until I'm given the all clear that they safely reached the nebula without issues."

"I think Neo just wants to make a better impression," she pressed.

"Sadly, the terminals cannot come with me," Thuni repeated. "I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other during the mission briefings."

Nova frowned. "Do you have something against Neo?"

"No!" Thuni waved his hands. "I'm just used to working with Ulin and other engineers. I've never worked with an anomalous scientist before." He shrank into his shoulders, greatly diminished by his broad frame. "Of course, there is a first time for everything — but no, I have nothing against Teimea. I just... like being able to talk and have things make sense in my head. And I don't do well with the chatty types."

And yet, Thuni could snap Neo like a twig. Nova folded her arms. "I know he can be a bit much," it was a new song — Neo got along with everyone at the college. He spoke, people listened. Popular and genuine. "He wouldn't hurt a fly, Thuni. I know how he came across last time. Trust me, I have my own story behind that."

"Duly noted," Thuni said with his hands raised in front of him. "I will next time." He shuffled to the workshop without another word.

"I have to ask again whether Thuni has an irrational fear of anomalous scientists in particular, or is it just Neo?" Nova asked Ulin, who snickered behind their hand.

"You know, I've known him for so long and I'm not sure," Ulin admitted. "Back at the college he avoided the school labs like they had the plague. I'll say it's the former for now." Their smile brightened their blue eyes. "I think I mentioned to you he's not... good with meeting new people unless there is common ground to work with — like mechanical engineering." Ulin hesitated, then asked, "Which reminds me, did he tell you about the adjustment I made on your droid core?"

"He said Neo gave you a buffer, yeah."

"I was surprised when he came down with the specs I talked about," Ulin remarked. "He impressed to me the importance of getting it into your droid core with the scanner before launch."

"Oh, he must've been serious about it if he used that wording." Nova giggled. "Thanks for the help, then. I hope Neo didn't give a bad impression."

"Oh, nah. Thuni will get used to it," Ulin said. "Neo and I talked about some stuff, and he started reminding me of my little sister."

"What do you mean?"

"We got talking about back home," Ulin clarified. "My little sister used to be a bit of a nightmare to keep track of and follow, also was a bit of a chatterbox about things that caught her interest... to the point she'd forget everything else around her, but she got bored easily. I know she struggles with it and I know it's frustrating for her," they explained. "I used to help her with her schoolwork, keep her on track, try and find easier ways for her. She's an intelligent kid, but with her grades... I just worry about her sometimes when I'm not around. People aren't exactly understanding of her and what she deals with, I'll just say that." Ulin folded their arms. "Neo and I just talked about that for a little bit when Thuni left."

"What did Neo say?"

Ulin considered her. "He described his experience and what helped him, though, in his words 'my brain might not be the same as her brain, what works for me might not work for her'."

"That is one way to word that, Neo," Nova mumbled under her breath, then asked. "You got what he was trying to say?"

"Of course, I got his point." Ulin nodded at the empty hangar. "You should get back to eastern command since your job here is done. Tell Neo that I'm grateful for his advice and when I get home I'll see if it helps my sister."

Huh... Nova left Ulin behind to return to eastern command, following the path of the tram station. It fell into suspenseful quiet and waited for what came next. I mean... I hope they find something. Neo has been waiting for his chance longer than I have. Sometimes I wonder if his confidence is a shield...

Nova returned to their room to sort through the last of her packed things and placed the finishing touches on her work terminal. Neo's had several tabs open with no sense of organisation. Nova slipped into his seat to click on a tab, which turned into several subfolders with more tabs inside them. When the door slid open to reveal Neo, she said, "Launch went well."

"I heard!" he said. "We watched at the communications tower in central command. By the way, did you talk to Thuni and Ulin about what I mentioned to you earlier?"

"Yes, but Thuni gave me a rain-check."

Neo sighed and dramatically leaned against the wall. "It is as I feared... he hates me."

"Even better," Nova said. "I think he's intimidated by you."

Neo frowned. "Intimidated."

"Yep."

"By me."

"Yeah."

Neo studied the floor and his lips parted in confusion. "He does realise that he could kick me and I'm pretty sure all my bones would shatter?" he asked. "What does he find intimidating? Did he tell you?" He trailed off. "Did I talk too loudly? I know my volume control isn't... great. As people like to point out to me when I think I'm just having a conversation but as it turns out they think I'm yelling at them—"

"Okay." Nova held his forearms. "Neo, it was just a guess."

"So... he could hate me."

"Neo, I reacted the same way when I first met you," Nova said when he curled his lips. "I promise up and down I didn't hate you back then and I don't hate you now. He said he'll meet up next time if you want." Nova let him go when he relaxed. "Some people just aren't as chatty as you are. Sometimes it's a little hard to keep up with you when someone first gets to know you."

Neo frowned. "Yeah, I am pretty chatty," he said. "I know. It makes me wonder what goes through your head. I'm scared that if I don't talk I'll forget I exist. I need to... you know." He waved his hands then pressed them both against each other to rub them. "I trail off a lot."

"I'm pretty sure the universe would end if you stopped talking," Nova teased, but noticed the shift in his expression. "Neo?"

"Well, I guess you're right," he said, breaking the silence between them. "It wouldn't be the first time I got through something like that. We became closer, after all. I'm sure I can get Thuni to see that I'm not intimidating. How hard can that be? If I scare him, he can just—" Neo used his hands to copy the breaking of a toothpick.

"I don't think he's going to go that far." Nova chuckled and let him go. "You do that, Neo."

Let's see what we can find in that nebula... if anything.