By the end of Jeane’s three hour allotment she had changed clothes, hair, and vehicle. After a brief glimpse into her skit’s vanity mirror she was convinced that Katz and Hays wouldn’t recognize her, and reasonably convinced that Raider wouldn’t recognize her at first glance. Truth be told, she was dressed in her favorite clothes and her actual hair was showing.

Jeane flew her skit low over the shipyard trying to find the ship that was destined to be under her command for the next few months. Many great ships had bustling crews around them, and as she flew it became increasingly difficult for her to find her ship.

One ship she passed, that she thought might be hers, was too big and had no crew prepping her. Another was too small, with not enough crew around. She was about to turn on auto-pilot to consult her flexi for a lot number when a silver flash caught her attention. Yes, that was definitely a silver skit driving over the speed limit. She pulled her wheel as close to herself as she could manage and the speed kicked in shooting her forward to catch her maniacal engineer.

She caught up to Raider just as his skit took a nosedive toward the ground. Her breath caught as she both wished he would crash and wished he didn’t. He leveled off and blowing up great puffs of dirt, landed softly. She circled, slowed her speed, and lowered to the ground like any sane person would do.

“Jeane-y, is that you?” Raider called out as he killed the virral engines of his skit.

“It’s Jeane, Raider, and yeah it is.”

“I just knew that piece behind me was yours. You changed vehicles?”

“Wow, Raider, you power of observation is truly impressive.”

“I know, isn’t it? Well let’s go see this boat. You know, I designed several key components onboard.”

“No, I really didn’t know.”

“Well I designed...”

Jeane cut his off with a glare that could have killed better men. “I really don’t care.” Raider gave her a truly hurt look. “How about you show me when we get this boat out of atmo?”

Raider smiled, showing far too many highly glossed teeth. “All right. I can’t wait to get up there. I’ve never been.”

Jeane cocked an eyebrow at him. “You have to been out in space. You’ve been on two of my ships.”

“Well, I know, but I’ve never been to the fourth system before. How many sentient planets are there?”

Jeane followed Raider because he looked like he knew where he was going. “Just the one, I believe. Little sun, with a strange configuration of planets. From what I read of the system, all the other planets have three or more moons, while Saet-4-3 only has one. That’s quite atypical.”

“We only have one moon, Jeane.”

“I know, but compared to the other solar systems ours are atypical systems.” They reached the summit of a hill, and Jeane was awestruck. “Holy ship.”

“Beautiful, huh?”

The warship in question was huge. Two auxiliary thrusters and rear thrusters gleamed in the afternoon light. They reminded her of stars, like far off suns she’d never be able to reach. The crew prepping her were all rigid in their military discipline and neat steps. The docking feet like tethers keeping the great ship from her real home in the great black abandon.

Katz and Hays stopped in front of Jeane and Raider on the hill. Mouth agape, Jeane felt herself lean to the side so she could look at her ship instead of one of the moron twins.

Hays’ voice grated on her nerves as she tried to silently appreciate the humongous beauty beyond him. “I’d like you to meet Dante’s Surrender, third class warship and battle cruiser.”

“That’s a stupid name,” Raider informed him.

Jeane silently agreed. “She’s beautiful.”

“Quite,” Katz said.

“Captain Star informs me that she will be ready to take off in less than ten minutes.” The sound of feet crushing grass and scattered bits of alloy announced a new arrival. “Ahh, there he is now. I’d like to introduce you both to Captain Star. Captain Star this is Jeane Apocalypse and Ray Derson.”

Jeane sighed in pure enjoyment. Captain Star was a big bulk of unadulterated hunky-ness. His shoulders were massive, his jaw rigid, his arms and legs corded with muscle like every woman’s dream, and his eyes were like vivid pools of sexy. They were blue, with flecks of green and gold, and were both fierce and calm all at once. Captain Star was absolutely the man of her dreams.

“Ma’am,” he said holding out his hand.

She shook it and nearly melted. Such impressive strength, yet he shook softly like he knew his worth and didn’t care who thought he wasn’t worth his share in rocket fuel. “Star, it’s a pleasure to be working with you again.”

He smiled, and it seemed like she would melt. “Always a pleasure to be work... under you.”

Jeane sighed again.

Hays coughed politely and Star’s eyes drifted to Raider. “Ahh, the wonderful engineer, Ray Derson. Shall I call you Ray, or do you prefer Raider.”

When Jeane looked over, Raider was shooting daggers with his eyes at Captain Star. “My friends call me Raider.”

“All right then, Raider...”

Raider cut him off. “You can call me Ray.”

Captain Star cleared his throat, and then smiled sweetly. “I hear you had a hand in making the Surrender what she is, Ray.”

“Yeah,” Raider said, “I did.”

“My thanks, sir. She’s a magnificent beast.”

“Come,” Captain Star said, holding his arm out for Jeane to take, “let’s have a tour of the ship. If we can please our employers, we can leave a bit early. I, myself, wish to be in the air well before sunfall.”

Jeane dutifully took Star’s arm. He was the only man who could make her feel like a lady. A drooling lady, but a lady nonetheless. She couldn’t help but make googly eyes up at him, and he smiled his heart-melting smile. Silently, Raider followed behind glaring at the both of them. With Hays and Katz holding the rear of their procession.

Jeane couldn’t keep her eyes off Star as he escorted her and, for all she cared, the silent party behind her. “This is the navigation deck,” Captain Star said as he was a beautifully sculpted arm about in a dramatic wave. “And if we go this way we’ll see the observation deck.” After a brief glance at the large screen showing a starlit sky over some ocean she’d never been to, she decided that Star deserved her attention more than the screensaver. “And this is the hydroponics garden.” Breathing deeply Jeane took in the smell of rich oxygen-giving plants and the undeniable scent that was all man.

Before Jeane knew it she was lost somewhere deep in the ship, watching Katz and Hays say there farewells and watching Star run off to the deck to take the ship into space. Jeane wandered down a hall with not the vaguest clue where anything was. She knew her room was six floors up, and two decks over but that was about it and she desperately needed to go to the bathroom.

Raider ran up behind her. “Hey, Jeane, you ready?”

Prepare for light burst, the ship said. Jeane stomach lurched minutely and she saw stars before her eyes for a half a second. Burst complete. As you were.

“Wow, that was smooth.” Jeane said dazed. Most light burst left her sick for nearly an hour.

Raider wore a sheepish grin. “I reset the power settings and energy output, then revamped the inertial dampeners. Took me nearly a month to get it perfect. If you’d been another floor down, and a deck over you wouldn’t have felt a thing.”

“Good job.” Jeane usually didn’t care when Raider started talking about his work, usually he kept talking until she wanted to put a blaster to either her head or his, but his work on the light burst was magnificent.

“You look like your looking for something.”

“The head, actually. I seem to be turned around.” For emphasis Jeane turned around in a neat circle.

“Bathrooms were on the tour. There’s one in your room.”

“I’m actually looking for one a bit closer than that.” Jeane looked sheepish for a second. If only she could have paid attention on the tour, but no, all she could see were Stars. “I was a bit distracted on the tour.”

Jeane noted that Raider looked angry for a second before reclaiming his naturally smug countenance. “I’m headed toward there myself. Perhaps you’d like to take my arm.”

When Raider held out his arm, like Star had done earlier, she hit him on the offered limb. “I think not.”

Jeane followed Raider into the bathroom. Dante’s Surrender being a military ship there weren’t separate bathroom, except for personal ones. “What do you know about Katz and Hays, Ray?” Jeane called over the stall door.

“Call me Raider.”

“I thought only your friends called you Raider?”

Jeane heard Raider’s breath catch, but she dismissed it. She couldn’t dismiss the genuine hurt in his voice, “aren’t we friends, Miss Apocalypse?”

Jeane could cold-bloodedly kill people she’d never met. She could walk up and pull a weapon on someone she’d known by their first name. But she couldn’t alienate someone she could actually talk to, even if she got genuinely annoyed with that person most of the time. “Yeah, Raider, I guess we are. I swear man, don’t ever call me Miss Apocalypse again. Its just Jeane or Apocalypse. Anything else and I might have to kill you.”

Raider chuckled. “Okay, boss.”

Righting her clothes she jumped out of her stall and grabbed Raider by the throat as he casually leaned against the wall waiting for her. He smiled at her, even as she gave a joking attempt to cut off his air supply.

Their eyes met, and the smiles fell from their joking faces. His eyes! They were beautiful, perhaps better than Star’s. A shimmering dark blue with violet highlights. Genetic engineering, surely. There was a twinkle in them, there and gone. They reminded her of space- infinite and glorious. His lips parted and his tongue darted out to lick his dry lips.

Jeane shook herself, released her hold on his throat, and took a step back. “I’m just... I’m, I’ll... go to the obs deck.”

“Yeah,” he said, eyeing the door like he might take off at a run. “I got some work to do on the maintenance deck.”

“Yeah, umm, good luck,” and Jeane beat him out the door and they took off down the hall in opposite direction.