'And then what happened?' said Nina.

She was sitting on an improvised couch in the room she used as an office. The room itself was in fact a cell of an old prison ship. Nina would be the first to admit that there was nothing particularly cosy about a prison ship, but she appreciated the strong walls and, with a little work, she had built for herself a workspace that was now as effective as keeping people out as it had once been at keeping people in.

Knowledge was power in every civilisation so Nina guarded her knowledge as a ship broker jealously. Of course, new ships arriving in the scrap heap they called home contained their own power. Parts, fuel, machinery and computers were just some of the valuables that could be stripped, reconditioned and sold on to make life on the Juggernaut just a little more bearable. For a price, obviously.

Malachi, about to answer her question, sat at her desk, turning this way and that in her chair. His eyes were not quite focused on the room around him. As he told his version of their tale his mind was back in the Valkyrie, and back in the dead fleet.

'Then Tila and her mother found us. There was shooting, a lot of shooting, and then we were out into open space. I don't remember how, exactly. There was so much going on.'

Nina leaned forward, intent on his words. It fascinated her for several reasons. One part of her shrank from the sheer danger of the story Malachi was telling. Another part of her longed to be part of the chase. A third part was jealous of his escape from the Juggernaut and his adventure .(In Nina's mind this was Malachi's adventure, not Tila's.)

The fourth part was exhausted by the telling, and glad that her favourite engineer had come home safely.

'And then what?' she said.

'We escaped and jumped to Selah, and from there to Jenova. We met Conway's aide again.'

'Mr Yoshihiro?'

Malachi nodded. He was glad the dangerous part of the story was over. Reliving it had turned out to be a more stressful experience than he expected. He could feel his heart beating faster when he talked about their time on the Solar Forge, and fighting off Typhon.

'He wanted to hear everything again.'

'Again?'

'Grace had already given him a report. She had been working for Conway the whole time. Her mission changed course when we turned up on Parador. No one expected that. When Conway realised where we were going he sent her after us.'

'And all this time she didn't know Tila was alive?'

'Neither of them knew about the other. There was so much carnage and confusion after that colony mission they got lost in the details. It's sad. You would think something like that couldn't happen these days but humans can still make mistakes.'

'I'm glad she has her mother back. I hope they can spend more time together.'

'You just mean you hope she spends less time here.'

'I'm denying nothing, Malachi.' Nina paused, waiting for the right words that would not seem accusatory. 'She knows what you did, doesn't she? You and Ellie. You both risked your life for her.'

'She knows. She did the same for us too, remember? We all learned some painful lessons.'

'What did Tila learn?'

'That she needs friends, and that Ellie is more capable than Tila thinks.'

'The airlock?'

'She saved us all. She surprised us all too.'

'Is Ellie going to be okay? She's a sweet little thing. What she did could haunt her.'

'She and Tila both have that in common now. It's brought them closer. They have each other to talk to.'

Nina leaned closer again, feet on the floor, elbows on knees, chin resting on hands.

'And what about you, Malachi. What have you learned?'

'Me?'

'You.'

'That I should leave the fighting to Tila?'

'Be serious.'

Malachi tensed his hands, scratching his nails against the synthetic leather armrests, and relaxed them.

'I made mistakes.'

'No, I mean, would you do anything differently?'

'I'd know more.'

'Well sure, if you had to do it all again you'd have the experience you didn't have before.'

No, I mean I want to know more. Everything we faced, the things that went wrong, the bad decisions we made, it was because we didn't know enough.'

'You can't be expected to know everything that's going to happen, Mal. No one can prepare for that. Not everything has a manual. Sometimes you have to learn by doing, not by studying.'

'Either way, I need to know more than I do now.'

'What do you mean? Why do you sound so worried? It's over.'

'Is it? We took three ships from Jayce and we only have two left.'

'Maybe you can go back and find the third one day,' said Nina.

'You're joking. I'm never going back there.'

'Good,' she said, more seriously.

'And then there's the cabal? They're still out there somewhere.'

'Maybe Mal, but they're not here. That's the important thing. We're not part of the commonwealth so they're not our problem. Let Conway and system security deal with them.'

'They might be system security too.'

'Well we don't have any security in our little corner of space, so we still don't have to worry about them, okay? Enjoy the safety of our dangerous star system. Just you, me, and whatever is inside the Juggernaut.

Malachi nodded. 'You make a lot of sense.'

'I really do. You should listen to me more often.'

'Now you sound like Tila.'

'Ugh. You take that back, Mr Chambers. I'm nothing like her.'

'You're prettier.'

'That's better.'

Silence.

'So...?'

'What?'

'Aren't you forgetting something, Malachi?'

'Am I?'

'You told me that whole story and you missed the most important part.'

'I did?'

'My present. I told you to bring me something no one else has.'

'Oh!'

'Is that all you have to say?'

Mal stared blankly at her.

'I knew you'd forget!'

'Um. I could, um.'

Nina relented. 'It's okay. I know exactly what you can do for me.'

She leaned closer, facing him, and stretched one arm across his body. Her fingers fumbled out of sight until she found what she was looking for.

'Perfect,' she purred, and picked up Malachi's datapad.

'That's perfect?'

'Mal, come on. You have a prototype military interceptor class starship sitting in your workshop, running code I've never seen. I'd do anything to get my hands on her firmware.'

'Funnily enough, I was thinking—'

'Yes, I know you were.' Nina found the files she was looking for and pulled up a software schematic of the Valkyrie's interrelated systems. Her heart sang and her mind pulsed with the possibilities. She pushed the datapad onto Malachi's chest.

'You need to get to work.'

'What work?'

'Extracting the code from the ship and getting me a copy. You know, the sooner you get started...' she left the hint of a promise dangling in front of him.

'What?'

'The sooner you'll be finished.'

Nina stood up, took one last, longing look at list of code repository names, and sighed. Then she kissed Malachi on the cheek and left.

Malachi picked the datapad off his chest and looked at the schematic overview. The background of his mind was already working on the problem. The foreground of his mind was working on the other problem.

'I thought Tila was hard work,' he said to himself.