"H-How'd you sleep?" I asked Lily. She laid awake on the infirmary bed where we had left her, Doc absent from the room while he tended to Collins.

"Like a rock. Until I wasn't," Lily mumbled. At least she didn't seem to be in a terrible mood. Maybe Doc was right and it wouldn't have that much of a long-term impact on her. "When I woke up, I thought I was all sweaty, and I thought I was going to feel that awful... thing again. But it was gone."

That was a relief. I felt a bit of tension leave my body, the potential guilt slipping away. "Yeah... W-When you just came down from it, y-you... you called it..."

Lily stared up at me with a quizzical expression. She didn't remember. Rational now that she was, she didn't recall that she had compared it to my childhood madness. She certainly remembered the significance of that word to me, but in that horrible moment, she had most likely just grasped for whatever word she could associate with what she felt.

It was just a coincidence. It had to be.

"Mm?" She tilted her head, waiting for me to continue. "Called what?"

I shook my head, dismissing the idea. I hadn't had an implant as a child, so how could the same pain she felt yesterday have been wrought on me when I was younger? "No. Never...m-mind. You were just a-acting delusional." I gave her a sad smile. "I'm just gl...ad you're back with u-us."

She looked a little disoriented by my turn, but shrugged it off after a moment. "Whatever I said, I'm sorry if it spooked you. I think I wasn't myself..."

"Yeah, I kn-know." I took in a deep breath and felt relieved to move past it. "So, how are you fee...ling now?"

"Well-rested," she rolled her shoulders slightly and sat herself up in the bed. "I'm fine, Doc's overreacting to keep me in bed like this. I just feel a little fuzzy from the sedatives. That and... well, I can still feel you. Like, all of you. Or at least that hazy outline of all of you, through your filters. The-the 'shunts' I guess."

Oh. I hadn't severed that connection to her implant. She was still wired into Theseus, muted as its presence must have been for her in that state. She'd spent all night as an observational part of the ship. I hoped that wouldn't cause problems. "Do you w-want me to close that?"

She shook her head. "No... it doesn't bother me. Not like last night. It... It does make me a little nervous. Like that... painful feeling is just on the other side of the shunts. But I trust your coding, and it's something I'm going to have to get used to."

I didn't have the heart to tell her I had no idea what I was actually doing with that 'code'. I just nodded and changed the subject. "So... w-we're doing this sl-slow now. Doc's o-orders. And mine. I-I don't ever want to s-see you like that a...gain."

She dry swallowed and then nodded quickly. "Yeah. I get it. I can't acclimate to that all at once. That's not even a question of pushing myself..."

An idea popped into my head in that moment. A possible rationalization for her negative reaction to the digital world in general. "I w-wonder if it's the same rea...son you can't use sim...simulations."

"Huh... maybe," she let out a small, longing sigh. Maybe it was a little insensitive of me to bring that up. Returning to that simulated, normal life had been such a powerful focus in her life for so long that even now that she had accepted this reality, it was still something that lingered at the back of her thoughts. That toxic longing for a reprieve from our harrowing existence would probably never completely let her go. Thankfully, after a dissociative moment, she took in a deep breath. "No need to think about that. Whatever the reason, I'm sure we'll figure it out. I gotta get used to it, and I'll be better off in the end."

I smiled down at her and pulled her chair close to the bed. "I hope y-you can." I took her hand and held it tight. "I'll g-get you to feel wh-whole again. For now, let's get bre...breakf-fast."

She smiled back at me and let out a chuckle, the levity from the other day returning to her eyes. "You mean so you can get there in time to borderline fuck your girlfriend while she's cooking?"

I stammered more than usual, "Sh-She's... I mean I'm n-not going t-to... no! What? Hah! I-It's not that gra...phic, come on!" She always caught me off guard when she did decide to banter.

—

Getting Lily into her chair and down to the mess hall took a little longer than I'd hoped for, especially flustered as I was when she laughed at my reaction to her 'joke'. But I did manage to get there before Ray was done cooking. It was a wonderful meaty, fatty smell coming from the mess hall already, though. She was making a point to make something especially nice for our last day on Io, since we'd necessarily start having to ration our food more carefully starting the next day. After all, we didn't want to be forced into a position where we'd need to crack open more of the emergency rations I'd never acclimated to on our journey here.

Lily took her usual place at the table while I took my usual place under Ray's arm, welcomed into her embrace to help watch a pot of some kind of gravy, thick and rich with flavor while she worked on the facsimile of sausages they sold at the local market.

Not long after I'd taken up my cozy position, holding on lovingly to Ray's sternum, however, came an unexpected cry from behind us.

"WHOA!" Shouted a voice that took me a moment to put together. I turned to see Morgan Collins standing at the stairway entrance to the mess hall, standing unsteadily on a pair of crutches with an exasperated Doc behind her. She was staring at Ray, apparently frozen in... shock? Fear? Arousal? No, I was definitely projecting that last one. Everyone else had turned to stare at her as well, the entire room suddenly stopping their idle morning chatter to at the surprise of the target of our ongoing con standing in a much more intimate region of the ship than we were used to seeing her. I could immediately sense a shift in the atmosphere as everyone mentally clambered to get into character, mild as our ruse was.

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But her reaction and demeanor were not one at the shock of seeing something she shouldn't have. She was transfixed on Ray and I. It dawned on me in that moment that as far as I knew, no one had gone out of their way to explain to her that there was a mammon on board.

She seemed to compose herself after a moment of awkward staring. "Ah-... S-Sorry! I just... I've heard about mammons before, I just... I haven't been that far inward much and I've never seen... one. That's what this is, right? You're a mammon? I definitely didn't... I thought you were bound to Earth...?" She stammered constantly as she spoke, but I wasn't sure if she was afraid of some kind of retribution for her outburst, that she might have offended Ray somehow, or if she was just primally afraid of my giant girlfriend.

Doc cleared his throat. "So, uhh... good news, Miss Collins is capable of moving well enough to join us for breakfast." The trepidation in his voice sent the clear message to the rest of us: This was entirely unplanned and had gotten out of Doc's control somehow. My guess that Collins had become insistent would be verified later. He'd been unable to come up with a good reason that she COULDN'T join us for breakfast.

Aisling picked up on it immediately, and replied to her question with focused calm, "Common misconception, actually. Mammons only have a medical dependency that's easy to come by on Earth. We have a healthy supply." Her collected demeanor helped the rest of us pull ourselves together.

Ray let out a hearty laugh that initially made Collins flinch, but she visibly relaxed when she realized how relaxed the atmosphere was becoming again. "I'm a little out of my element, I guess. But I go where Theseus goes." She put her claws down over my shoulder and pulled me in close to her, where I gladly latched onto her side with a blush on my face.

Collins made an aborted exclamation, her mouth hanging open for a moment as she tried to parse what she was looking at. "Well, that's a lot to think about..." she mumbled under her breath after what felt like an eternity of silence. She renewed her balance on the crutches and turned her attention mostly to Aisling, stealing glances back toward Ray every few seconds. "I'm familiar with running an eccentric crew, but I can't say I would have imagined this."

Joel snorted. "What? Never seen a mammon galley cook sleeping with the ship before?" He asked sarcastically as he sipped from his coffee cup, sending another blush across my face.

Collins was lost for words, trying to gather up something to say before settling on, "I mean, I'm not going to say they can't."

"No, you're not." Aisling smirked, turning to Mouse. "Wanna grab an extra seat for the lady?"

Mouse shrugged his shoulders and silently stood up from his chair, walking out into the cargo bay to look for something to sit on.

Collins stared after him as he left next. "And a kid, too? Is he even a teenager?" She asked as she moved closer to the table.

"B-Better not let him h-hear you call him tha-that," I warned her as Ray and I turned to make sure the meal wasn't ruined by the brief interruption. I, however, was transfixed by this fiasco, and was watching the whole interaction from my sensor array.

"Yes, Mouse has quite the temper," Shaw spoke up. "Steer clear of his age and his arms, you'll be fine. Actually, don't talk to him at all if it's not about engineering, a conversationalist he is not, but damned if he doesn't know mechanics."

Collins was clearly struggling to internalize the blatant strangeness of our crew. I had to wonder if other pirate crews were as... eclectic as we were, and judging by her reaction, my guess had to be that no, we were most certainly an outlier.

"To answer your question," Aisling reassured her, "Yes, he is a teenager. He's just a bit stunted. I'm sure someone of your background can appreciate that we come from difficult places."

Mouse came in a moment later, a small but hefty metal crate balanced atop his shoulder with ease. He gracefully settled it down into a space next to Aisling. "No spare chairs. Here," he patted the crate twice before climbing back into his own seat.

Collins hobbled over to the offered box, looking down at the makeshift stool. She nudged the edge of it with her crutch to check its weight and opened her eyes wide in surprise at its mass. With a little assistance from Doc, she settled down onto it, clearly relieved to be off her feet as she set the crutches down on the floor next to her.

Then she stared at Mouse. Of course she was looking at his arms. Between what Shaw had just warned her about and the impossible feat of strength that the waifish boy in front of her had just demonstrated, how could she not be hopelessly curious?

Mouse took notice after a moment, though, glaring at her with a terse "What?"

"Oh, uh, n-nothing," she stammered. Mouse wasn't even angry at her. She wasn't aware that this hostile, short attitude was actually fairly casual for Mouse. I might have even said that Mouse was in a pretty good mood that morning. He was making preparations for flight tomorrow, after all.

Mouse just gave a dismissive grunt and leaned over on his arm to try and look over at the stove to see how we were progressing. She continued staring after he looked away, but eventually shook her head, figuring it was best not to test his legendarily short fuse.

"Alright, since we're all in one place for now, introductions." Aisling casually gestured to herself. "You've already formally met Doc, Meryll, Lily, and I. This big guy's Joel, our weapons specialist. He's not technically a member of our crew, just a current... work associate, but the sleazebag sizing you up right now is Shaw."

Shaw turned to Aisling with an undignified gesture toward himself, "Excuse me! I am no sl-"

Aisling didn't stop for Shaw's sake. "Mouse right here is our engineer and when necessary, demolitionist."

"Yep," was all Mouse had to add to that.

"Ray is, as you can see, our cook, but also a fine combat specialist of her own. Stay on her good side and she's a softy, though."

"Very s-soft. I can v-vouch for that," I smirked as Joel choked on his coffee again. I was starting to have fun forcing him to do spit-takes. Lily laughed openly, and though Aisling kept her cool, I could see her trying to keep a straight face.

"Anyway..." Aisling drew attention back to herself. "This is my crew. And associates."

Collins glanced around at us. "This... this is it, then? Just the eight of you? No redundant crew? No communications specialist? No... quartermaster or specialist engineers?"

Aisling shrugged. "Between Mouse, Meryll, and I, we can keep the equipment running and manage comms. I also mostly handle logistics, negotiation, tactics, and... wrangling Meryll."

"Hah!" Shaw cried out. "Aside from that becoming Ray's job recently, that's rich. She's going to do whatever the hell she wants, she's made that perfectly clear."

"H-Hey!" I exclaimed, turning myself to glare him down as best I could. The gesture was more poignant if I used my human body rather than just pointing my sensors at him. "I can be...beha-have myself! I'm t-trying my best!"

"You've kept your impulsiveness under control pretty well this week, I'll give you that." Aisling nodded at me. "Just keep it up? If nothing else, but to prove Shaw wrong?"

I smiled at her, glad to receive some praise before I snuggled back up against Ray again.

Collins gave a small snort, still looking nervous, but seeming much more at ease than earlier. "A captain wears many hats... Still, this is quite a skeleton crew, even for such a small vessel."

"We get by," Ray finally chimed in again as she let me go and reached over the stove to turn off the heat. "For now, it's time to have our fill."

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