Sloane stood on the observation deck with his hands clasped at his back. The stars both near and far flashed by them as the Asimov navigated through the pin-pricked velvet that was space.

It was the first night of their two weeks awake. They had a lot to do, but Sloane took this time to appreciate the grandeur of where they were, and the audacity of what they were doing. No matter how many times he looked out at these stars, feeling the power of this fantastic machine around him, he never lost the awe, respect, and terror of their mission.

The garden behind him was thriving as well, supplying them with fresh oxygen and fruits and vegetables for their long journey. The solar panels creaked quietly high above him automatically adjusting to optimal positions to capture enough starlight.

"Why do I always find you here?"

Sloane smiled but didn't turn around. Every minute counted, and he would see plenty of O before they returned to the tubes in fourteen days.

Of course, it would never be enough, but he kept that longing locked away deep in his heart and mind.

"There's no view like this in the world," he answered. "You find me here because you're coming to look at it too."

She laughed and stepped up beside him. They stood in silence for several minutes, enjoying the view and being together.

"We're running diagnostics and reviewing the data from the last six months," O began her report. "Yu is excited about some weird noise she heard on the external coms and if Hank smiles any bigger over those star maps and new navigation points we charted, he might go supernova."

He laughed quietly.

"The core is holding steady," she went on. "It's far more efficient than I expected it to be. We are running at ninety-six to ninety-eight percent. This means all of our solar energy is solely focused on our solarium. The fish tanks and the gardens are thriving. We'll be eatin' good for the foreseeable future."

"Kurt threatened to write poetry about steak," Sloane warned her.

O laughed as loud and as hard as he did. Kurt couldn't rhyme his own name, so a full poem from him would be painful and fucking hysterical.

"Anyway," she sighed. "I think we should throw a party right before we go back into the tubes. I mean if we have the resources, right?" He nodded since he was thinking about a party, anyway. "It's always dark out here and some people are mentioning missing sunlight. It might brighten things up for the crew."

"I'll check with Hale. He's meeting me here for a walk-through and inventory check."

She nodded. "I'm heading back to Engineering."

"Leaving so soon?" he murmured with just a drop of challenge.

She froze mid-step and cast a flirty and defiant glare at him that made him laugh.

Damn, he missed her like this. They kept it platonic and light on the job but once in a while, the masks slipped.

"You ain't payin' me for yak-yak, Cap'n Fantastic," she sniped, but her voice was the husky throb she would get when she wanted him.

He winked, working hard to keep it light because his body reacted to that timbre of her voice the way it always did. "Then move that ass, Commander. We ain't got all day."

She wrinkled her nose at him and tossed an imaginary mane. He missed her long hair, too, but regulations demanded she keep it above the collar. She admitted to missing it as well as her long-lost long nails.

He watched her sashay across the solarium and sighed. Alone, without her there, Sloane could allow the yearning he always felt around her to fill him. He knew he couldn't do this for long. It was far too dangerous. They both had people back home in cold sleep, waiting for them. Sloane shoved the soft feelings and memories away to greet Hale when he came out of his office on the far side of the solarium.

"Captain," Hale smiled. "Well, as you can see, we're doing well in here."

Sloane followed him around the garden and orchard, checking his numbers against the Steward's. Just as they finished up his com went off and Kurt told him he was urgently needed on the bridge.

"Log that and get it into the official report for me," Sloane told Hale and hustled to the bridge.

When he stepped off the lift the sight that greeted him left him speechless.

A patch of featureless blackness was far too close to his ship and growing steadily larger before his eyes.

"The hell is that?" he muttered.

"No fucking clue," Kurt muttered back, approaching from his chair. "We had some odd readings, but the sky was clear until right before I called you. Kline says it was about the size of a minivan when it appeared on his sensors. It's doubling in size every two minutes or so and showing no sign of stopping."

"Full reverse," Sloane snapped, and the pilots immediately backed the ship off. Sloane moved forward with his Second and pulled up readings on his console.

"Engineering."

"Munro," O responded.

"What the hell is that thing out there in my sky?"

"Kline's best theory is a nascent black hole."

The fuck?

"How did we run across a baby black hole without picking it up on sensors?"

"Remember those readings I told you about?" O sighed. "Yeah, Kline finished that math about a second before that thing popped up."

"It's expanding faster," Kline chimed in. "The speed is ramping up with the size and there's some kind of secondary reading coming through. Working on it."

"The static I found on the coms is getting stronger too," Yu added. "It's coming directly from this anomaly. Boss, it's a repeating signal. I think it's a message. It looks like a deliberate attempt to communicate with us."

Silence fell as the implications of Yu's theory raced through their thoughts.

"O, launch Universal –"

"Launching Universal Greeting!" O announced as he spoke the order.

"Kurt, make sure every fucking camera and mic we have is rolling," Sloane added, sliding into his chair, eyes locked on the growing darkness before them. "Sound general quarters but for essential personnel. We are in First Contact Protocol."

Kurt was already settling into his chair and pulling up every external and internal camera they had.

"Yu, give me ship wide."

"Ship wide is yours Captain."

"Asimov crew, this is Captain Sloane speaking. If you are not designated First Contact Protocol personnel, please return to your quarters as quickly and calmly as possible. We will broadcast all interactions to your monitors. This is a monumental moment for humanity, and exactly what we came out here to do. I will not leave any of you out of it."