The morning strolled by at the same pace they explored the station. There was no hurry for the day to end. Soon it would be over and when tomorrow came three new journeys would begin, each one of them separated from the others.

Jayce paid for everything, of course. Ellie assumed this would be one more thing which would endear him to her. Tila couldn't fault Jayce for his generosity, she reasoned. But what Ellie considered a generous and selfless act, Tila viewed as the antics of someone showing off their wealth.

Later, they sat on benches facing the stars and eating ice-cream from wafer cones. The transparent skin of the dome was behind fencing and an architectured landscape designed to force distance between the dome panels and the people inside.

Nina and Malachi swapped cones with every bite, exchanging a fruit sorbet in one cone for creamy white coconut in another. Ellie jealously guarded her strawberry cone. Tila picked chocolate. There were a dozen more flavours to choose from, most of which were more familiar to Ellie than to Tila and Malachi, as she had recently spent more time planetside than either of them.

Jayce, of course, had already finished his. He tried dropping hints for Ellie to share what she had left, but Ellie, often so eager to please, had drawn a hard line under sharing strawberry ice-cream with anybody. Ever.

Nina and Malachi sat the other side of Ellie, so asking them for a bite felt awkward. Tila, sat on the end of the bench on Jayce's right , but asking her to share with him was clearly out of the question.

With nothing else to eat, and while the others were quiet, Jayce started the conversation.

"Hey, Malachi. Are you really going to work on a warship?"

Malachi nodded as he wiped stray sorbet from the corner of his mouth. Nina helpfully took both cones while he did this. She did not give them back.

"A decommissioned warship. It's pretty old but we get to learn all the systems. Some of the tech hasn't changed much. Things get faster and smaller but the principles are the same."

Nina nudged him carefully with an elbow. "Tell him about the jump system," she said, while negotiating two cones.

"What about it?" said Jayce.

"It's analogue. Can you believe that?"

"What's analogue?" said Ellie between bites. Her eyes stayed laser-focussed on her cone.

"It doesn't use computers," said Malachi.

"The ship doesn't use computers? How is that possible?"

"Only the jump system. They used an analogue system to calculate jump coordinates because they couldn't get the same accuracy from a digital calculation."

"But...how?"

Malachi shrugged. "I don't know yet. Something about lasers and circles."

"Spheres," said Nina. "Lasers and spheres. Three dimension calculations on multiple planes of reference. I've been reading up on the code."

"So they do use computers," said Tila.

"But analogue measurements," said Malachi. He noticed the cones were almost gone. "Hey!"

"You already know what systems you've been assigned, then?" said Tila.

Nina reluctantly handed Malachi the sorbet cone, then swapped it at the last second for the coconut. "No we don't. They split us into teams when we get there, and each team has a different assignment. The idea is we work independently on our own parts of the ship and collaborate with the other teams to incorporate all the fixes."

"By the time we finish the class the ship should be eighty per cent operational," said Malachi. He wrestled the remains of the coconut cone from Nina's hands. Nina fought back.

"What about the last twenty per cent?" said Jayce.

"Those are the parts we don't get to fix," said Malachi. He held Nina at arms length without effort and finished the ice cream. "It's an old warship so you know, weapons, jump engines. The classified parts."

"The dangerous parts you mean," said Tila.

"The fun parts," said Nina.

"Why are you worried about that? You're going on a mission with how many warships?" said Malachi.

"It's a rescue mission," said Tila.

"Right, but with how many warships?" said Nina.

"I don't know. I'll find out more tomorrow. But not a lot more. It's sort of a secret mission."

"It's not that secret," said Jayce. He pointed at the stars. "I can see three of the ships from here."

"A lot of the details are secret. That's all I know," said Tila. "And the mission might include warships but they all work properly. Nothing is going to break or have to be repaired before we can use it."

Jayce looked at Ellie, who had very recently discovered a new skill that involved making a single ice cream cone last forever.

"As long as you don't do anything dangerous," he said to her.

"What?" said Ellie. "I wasn't listening."

"Jayce was being sweet, Ellie," said Nina. "He wants you to be safe in flight school."

"Ha!" said Ellie. "I'll be so far in front no one will get close enough to be a danger."

"Hmmm," said Tila.

"You don't believe me?" said Ellie.

"I believe you. You'll do anything to stay ahead or to win. You'll take too many risks."

"You can't win without taking risks, Tila." She gave the shrinking cone a defiant lick.

"But you take risks when you don't have to," said Tila.

Nina pulled Malachi's ear closer to her mouth. "Uh oh, here they go again," she murmured.

"So do you," said Ellie.

"I know what I'm doing."

"So do I! I'm a better pilot than you. I know more about ships."

"Mal knows about ships. You only know how to fly them."

"Oh no, leave me out of this," said Malachi. "Just once."

"Only?!"

"You know what I meant, Ellie."

The bickering continued while Nina took Malachi's hand and slowly walked away from them. She beckoned Jayce to them when he noticed them leaving, so he stood up and left too. Neither Ellie or Tila noticed as he moved between them.

"How long is this going to last?" Jayce asked Malachi.

Malachi shrugged. "Who knows? Let them get it out of their system."

"But what are they arguing about? I don't understand."

The volume had increased since Jayce stood up, and there was now pointing to accompany the raised voices.

Malachi tried to explain. "It's complicated," he said after a moment.

"I thought they were over this," said Nina.

"Look, as long as Tila thinks she can look after Ellie, and as long as Ellie thinks she can manage without Tila, they're going to fight."

"Because they are each convinced they're right," added Nina.

Jayce, who had been listening closely to the argument, and had also been spending a lot of time with Ellie shook his head. "That's not it," he said.

"It's not?" said Malachi.

"No, they don't get angry with each other because they each believe they are right. They argue because they are afraid they might be."

"Huh," said Malachi. "I never thought of it like that."

Jayce tapped his own forehead. "Not just a hat rack," he said.

"Five more minutes and they will have forgotten what they started fighting about and it will be about you anyway," Nina said to Jayce.

They left Tila and Ellie alone. Eventually the fire would die down and they would be friends again but it wasn't something they needed to see.

A few minutes later, Tila and Ellie ran out of words and Ellie sat heavily on the bench arms folded.

Tila muttered something inaudible.

"What did you say?" said Ellie.

"I said he's still an idiot. I don't care how much he learns about merry time law or whatever."

"Maritime law."

"Still—"

"I know, but he's my idiot."

"So you think he's an idiot too?"

"I think you're an idiot. Stop bullying him!"

Tila didn't say anything back. Not right away. She waited. This confused Ellie who was expecting only more snark. But she stood ready to defend her position and Jayce, idiot or not.

Tila took a step back, opening a space for peace.

"Ellie, look, whatever my opinion is, it doesn't matter. Your opinion matters."

Ellie looked at her friend warily. Backing down was not something Tila was known for.

"My opinion about Jayce?"

"About anything. Even Jayce. I have a low opinion of him, but I have the highest opinion of you. If that's really what you want then I have to accept that."

"I know! That's what I've been trying to tell you for months."

"Shush, I haven't finished yet! I just want you to know - need you to know - that just because he is there for you it doesn't mean I'm not, okay? I'm letting you go because you're old enough to make your own decisions. To choose the people you like. But I'm not letting go of you really. I'm not your sister. I'm not your mother. But I saved you. I raised you. I don't care who you're with or how fast you go, I'm never letting you go."

Ellie looked into Tila's eyes. The light reflected there shimmered. Tila blinked quickly and the shimmering stopped.

Ellie hugged her friend and squeezed as tightly as she could.

"I'm not letting go either. I don't care how far apart we are."

Tila rested her cheek on the top of Ellie's head and hugged her back.

"But just so we're totally clear, he's still an idiot. My opinion hasn't changed."

"Oh Tila, I know. I know he is."