Kade ordered that everyone take the rest of the night cycle to actually sleep. I couldn't even remember the last time I slept. How many hours ago did all of this chaos begin? Or was it days? Groaning, I rolled over on my bed and eyed the expanse of stars outside my window. Fuck this. I'd been laying awake for the last two hours. I couldn't do it anymore, I had to occupy my mind with something other than my father and Kam.

When I made it to the common room, I found it wasn't empty like it should've been at two in the morning Earth time. Axon sat at the table with a box of cookies in front of him. He didn't even glance up when I walked in, just pushed the cookies towards me.

I took three as I sat down. "Where'd these come from?" I hadn't seen real cookies like these in months. They cost too much - protein bars were much cheaper and packed way more nutritional value. Cookies were a luxury.

"Kade got them with our food supply on Antares. He had it delivered while we were...uh...occupied at Zed's."

Huh. Well, wasn't that interesting. Kade had filled out supplies of food and I doubted anyone had even noticed. Except for Axon, obviously. Taking a bite, my body visibly melted at the taste. Stars, these things were good. I had forgotten what real - er, somewhat real - food tasted like.

Axon smiled, "Yeah, I know."

I shook my head and pushed the container away from me. "Put those away or we'll eat them all. Kade and Lenna would be upset and besides, we'd probably get sick from them." None of us had eaten that much sugar in years.

While Axon closed and put away the cookies, I eyed the patched up cut on his forehead. My gut clenched at the images flashing through my head of what he must have gone through. "You okay? After...everything?"

He was silent as he put the snack away and sat back down. After a moment he shrugged one shoulder weakly, "I'm fine." He touched his forehead gingerly, where a couple small butterfly clasps cover the cut. "It looks worse than it is. Besides, pretty sure the officer who clocked me got in big trouble for it. That Lieutenant guy, from the holo-message, was not happy."

My head, that had been resting in one of my hands, shot up. "What? What do you mean?"

Axon, oblivious to my urgency, picked at a chip in the table. "Yeah, it was really weird. After they got me to the station, he was waiting in the holding area for us and as soon as he saw the blood on my forehead he flipped." He shrugged, "Something about how none of us were supposed to be harmed or something."

So he had been telling the truth. But why would me father care about the condition of a crew of smugglers? We were missing pieces of information and I was getting real sick of it.

The door to the common room slid open. Kade took a step in, brows pulled tight on his forehead. "I just got a tip from Zed. A new shipment of Maji are being taken to the station."

We had no plan; had no idea what we were going to do once we dropped out of hyperspace to intercept the transport. All I knew was that it was a unanimous decision to go after it. We were not going to let them hurt anymore Maji, not on our watch.

I found the transport on our extended range scanners, after I got the ship's ID numbers from the GPF database. The ship would be stopping just outside of Pike airspace to refuel for the final hyperjump to the Outer Rim where the station sat. Our only chance of stopping it would be to get it while it refueled. If we missed this chance...it would be too late.

"Ready TJ?" Kade sat at the controls, waiting for the Phoenix to drop out of hyperspace.

I glanced at my screen, where it showed that the transport had already made it's drop and was heading for the refueling station. The moment we dropped out, I would have just seconds to mask the Phoenix's signature and get us off the incoming radar. "Ready."

Hitting the comm system on the ship, Kade connected to Lenna down in the engine room. She was rerouting power to our hyperspace coils so we could make a quicker-than-normal escape. Or at least that was the plan. "Lenna, you ready down there?"

Her voice crackled into existence, "All set, Captain."

Nodding, Kade turned his head just enough to see Axon in the copilot seat. "You need to be quick with the magnet coils, we'll only have once chance to connect to that ship."

"I know, I got it. I can do this."

Kade held Axon's gaze for a moment before the ship signaled it's drop out of hyperspace. The tension in the bridge went up a few notches. "Alright, in five...four...three...two...one..."

The ship jolted, falling out of the hyperspace lane and into the space around Pike. As a rule, we never went near Pike. The whole planet was a prison and one you sure as hell never wanted to get sent to. People didn't leave after they got sent there. And there, above the planet was a rickety-looking fuel station. The transport was already hooked up.

My fingers flew across the keys, cloaking the ship as best I could. If we got spotted now - unlikely, but still possible - no cloaking system would matter. Hopefully though, if anyone happened to look out of a window on the transport, all they'd see was another star amongst many.

"Alright, this is it. Everyone get ready!"

I held my breath as we got closer and closer to the ship. It always unnerved me how big they were. One flick of the captain's control on that huge thing and we'd be space dust. I looked behind me, at Kade's face so full of concentration I was afraid he was giving himself a heart attack. I didn't mind flying, I'd even piloted my own ship once or twice, but I was much more confident on a screen than steering a ship. This was definitely one of those times where I was perfectly happy to be sitting where I was.

"Axon, get ready..."

With nimble fingers, Kade steered the ship right into the side of the transport. When a foot or less separated the two vessels, Axon activated the mag-coils. A thud and then we were connected to the GPF transport. Now the trick would be getting on board.

I hated wearing vacuum helmets. First, they didn't fit my long hair so I had to braid it and scrunch it up behind my neck, which was uncomfortable. Second, they made me feel incredibly claustrophobic. Not being able to see all around me without turning half my body was not a comfortable feeling. Thankfully, Kade took point on this little spacewalk. I stayed close behind him as he and I made our way from the Phoenix to one of the outer doors on the transport. The only things keeping us from floating away into the stars were the mag-boots on our feet. Thankfully, Lenna was good at what she did.

The comm system crackled before Kade's voice came through. "You okay back there?"

I glanced at my feet, magnets holding me to the side of a giant transport ship, then out at the expanse of space on every other side of me. "Sure. I'm just great."

A soft chuckle came through, which did not make me feel any better. Although I did have to fight a small smile from growing on my lips. "We're almost there. Anyone showing up on your blueprint?"

Looking at my wrist holo, the blueprint of the ship - with the added feature of heat signatures - floated a few centimeters above my arm. Focusing it on the area of the ship we were about to enter, I shook my head. "No one around this corridor. But they're close."

A few more steps and we were looking at the door to the ship. Kade stepped aside just enough for me to get in front of him. "Alright, miss hacker-extraordinaire, do your stuff."

I rolled my eyes as I walked passed him but I also didn't dislike the sentiment. He was kind of right, after all. Holding my wrist - and my holo computer - close to the door's locking mainframe, I played around with the code for a moment before the door hissed open. "Was that quick enough for you?"

He chuckled, bumping my shoulder lightly as he went through the door first. "I don't know, I think you could've shaved a few seconds off that."

Once I was inside the first door, I shut it using my holo-screen and waited until I heard the distinct sound of air being flooded and exchanged in the small room between doors. When a small green light lit up in the inside of my helmet, I took it off as quick as I could. Shaking my hair out, I smirked at Kade as he took his own helmet off. "Very funny, Captain."

He winked at me. Winked. Before he glanced at the blueprint himself and opened the door into the ship proper.

Steeling myself, I took a deep breath before following him. And then sent a prayer out that Lenna would be done messing with the hyper-coils by the time we got back out.