Luca squinted at the clock on the wall, 5 am. The room was dark. Emily's breathing stayed slow and even, and for three full seconds he considered pretending he hadn't heard it. Then Chris pounded against the door again, using his fist this ti. The next door got the sa treatnt. Then the next. Luca heard Zoe's muffled voice through two walls, and while he couldn't make out the words, the tone suggested Chris should start running.
"Why is he doing this to us? Doesn't he understand jetlag?" Luca said to the ceiling.
Emily shifted beside him. She kissed his shoulder and rolled to her feet in one smooth motion.
"Co on," she said, grabbing for her duffel bag. "It'll be good for you."
"Nothing is good for at five in the morning."
"Fresh air. Lake views. Quality ti with your crew."
"I hate every word you just said."
She was already pulling on running shoes.
---
Luca stepped out mid-yawn from the elevator. Ryan was behind him, working out a shoulder. Danny's hair plastered against his head.
The Hyeon Logistics crew was already in the lobby, every one of them wide awake. Izumi stood at the center in pink running shorts and a hoodie, looking like five in the morning was her idea. The Radiant Blades were already in motion around her, stretching, bouncing on their heels.
Emily took one look at them and grinned at Zoe.
"I like them," Zoe said.
Chris was rushing out of the hotel lobby. "Everyone here. Move. Keep up."
Erik walked through them just as they slid open.
He was in running gear, his hair damp at the temples, Sabine half a step behind. Both of them flushed from outside. They were already back, at five-ten in the morning.
Erik looked at the assembled group with mild interest. "Good morning."
"Morning," Luca said.
Chris looked at Erik once, then looked away. His jaw set.
---
The lakefront path ran north along Lac Léman in the pre-dawn dark; the lake was flat and grey, and the Alps were ahead.
Chris set a brisk pace without discussion. Izumi kept up without looking like she was trying, the Radiant Blades settling in behind her. Ryan pushed to the front with sothing to prove.
Luca ran. That was the full summary. His legs registered their objection around the first hundred ters, and the cold got into his chest, yet it didn't get better for a while.
Emily was beside him. She looked great. Then she wasn't beside him anymore, a few steps ahead without trying.
Luca watched her go and thought about Ellie Caldwell. The wheelchair. How much was clearly happening behind those blue-green eyes, and how little of the world was built to keep up with it. The System did impossible things. He wondered if it had opinions about this particular kind of impossible.
Then his lungs reminded him he was running.
Behind him, Danny was bringing up the rear. Luca could hear it without looking back. Zoe fell in next to him, and her voice carried forward for a second, and then it didn't because nobody had the air for talking.
The path curved toward the Jet d'Eau, the fountain dark and still at this hour, and looped back along bare trees and flat grey water. A woman walking a dog watched them pass.
At the turnaround, Chris waited while the group closed the gap. He gave them ten seconds.
That's when Luca saw them.
Six people on a low wall along the marina path, cooling down from their own run. He recognized two faces from the opening ceremony, from the younger section that had started the loudest round of applause before the old guard caught up.
One of them was already looking back. Tall, red-haired, jacket unzipped despite the cold. He hopped down from the wall when he saw Luca.
"Captain Rossi." He extended his hand. "Lars Brandt. Windward Collective." His accent was German, but he claid to be Dutch. He introduced the rest without preamble: Freya, Anika, Samuel, Karin, Jonas.
Chris looked at Luca while he wheezed and braced against the wall.
"We had an appointnt this afternoon," Lars said. "Looks like everyone ca to the lake instead."
"We could do it here," Luca said.
"Sure, that works."
They'd hit Level 60 a year and a half ago. Six of them, and between them they covered exobiology, bioengineering, exoplanetary ecology, dical ecology, systems ecology, and propulsion engineering.
"You watched the Q&A yesterday," Luca said.
"We did," Lars said, without pretending otherwise.
Luca didn't ntion the next mission. They knew what he wasn't saying, and neither of them pushed it.
"We want to be on it," Lars said, which saved them both the trouble. "Whatever cos next. Wherever you're going."
"You don't know where we're going."
"No." Lars looked at him directly. "That's the point. We've been developing our professional paths. Good papers, real science. And we're running out of things that feel new."
Freya said, without looking up from her boots, "He ans we're bored."
"I an we've got an itch," Lars said, "and our paths… well, they weren't ant for earth."
They didn't look bored. They looked like people who'd been waiting for a specific train.
"It's not all that, though," Luca said. "People die out there."
Lars absorbed that. "We know about loss. We had a teammate, Peter. Two years ago. We went into a portal and he didn't co out."
No one filled the silence.
"We made mistakes," Lars said. "It hurt. It made us better." He t Luca's eyes. "I'm not saying we're fireproof. I'm saying we don't quit, and we learn fast."
Freya looked up. "And we want to be sowhere nothing has touched yet."
Jonas, who hadn't spoken, asked one question about FTL transit drive specifications, frad as a hypothetical. Ryan and Chris took turns answering more and more questions.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
They were sharp and hungry. Luca liked them imdiately.
Lars glanced at the group. "There's sothing tonight. Younger crowd, club near Plainpalais." He looked at Luca. "If you want to co."
Zoe was already nodding. Izumi said sothing to Kazuha that Luca didn't catch, but the answer ca back fast and enthusiastic.
Luca grinned. "Sure."
The second half was easier. His legs stopped fighting him sowhere in the second mile, and the Alps were catching the first light, the peaks going from grey to pink. By the ti the hotel ca into view the early wake-up almost made sense.
They ca in together. Danny had made it. Izumi and the Radiant Blades were already stretching.
"Good run," Chris said.
---
The second day split them. Chris and Ryan found a material sciences panel. Joey disappeared into an exobiology seminar. Luca sat in Row fourteen through Danny's nine-to-eleven slot and tried to make himself useful. The academics who'd co in with opinions mostly left without them.
It had been a full day, as every conference can be. Eight am to six pm, and nobody had much to say on the way back. The exhaustion from doing nothing settled on Luca, as he looked forward to the evenings festivities.
——-
Zoe knocked on his door, holding two shirts on hangers with the expression of soone who'd done a full inventory and reached a verdict.
"This is the closest I have to anything that works, and I don't actually know what works."
Emily looked at the open suitcase on the bed. Her hoodies, jeans, shirts. Running gear. The olive UER dress uniform hanging on the closet door. She had nothing that said European nightclub. She wasn't entirely sure what European nightclub said.
"Sa," Emily said.
Izumi arrived thirty seconds later with all her girls.
"Jeans, hoodies, workout clothes." Izumi held her hands apart. "Nothing in between."
Izumi put her face in her hands. "This is a disaster."
Zoe dropped onto the bed. "It's a crisis. It's an actual crisis."
Luca agreed, he hadn't invited a full committee in his room.
Danny appeared in the doorway. He looked at the four of them. He looked at the hangers, the open suitcases, the general atmosphere of catastrophe.
"Can't we just wear jeans?" he asked Zoe.
"Get out," Zoe said.
"I'm just—"
"Out."
They made do. Ryan wore what Ryan always wore. Joey didn't change. Danny stood in his room staring at his suitcase until Zoe walked in, picked his shirt and walked out.
Emily caught Luca's eye in the mirror as she finished. "Tomorrow," she said. "While the boys are at the panels, Zoe and I are going shopping."
"Can't. We have a Board of Directors eting."
Emily stopped. "What?"
"Karen's pulling all the directors together." He t her eyes in the mirror. "I forgot to tell you. You're coming with."
She looked at him. "Luca."
"I know. Sorry."
She turned and started on the collar of his shirt. "I cannot believe you forgot to tell that." Her hands smoothed the fabric. "Karen's organizing it? And every director will be in the room?" She pulled on his collar and gave him a final tug. "You look good."
"And you look gorgeous."
Emily glanced at herself in the mirror, adjusting the hem of her shirt. "You think so?"
"I do." He kissed her. "And I promise, we'll go shopping after. Get you so cute outfits."
—-–
The club was called Velvet, or maybe Vertex. Luca wouldn't rember after the fact. It sat on a side street near the Plainpalais district, and the bass could be felt from the sidewalk. A line of people stretched along the building, mostly young, dressed like the conference didn't exist and never had. Leather mostly, vinyl in places, tight pants, and very short skirts.
Inside, the club was… crowded would the best way to describe, heat, sweat and lights that reverberated sound. Neon strips lined the walls in shifting colors, the dance floor was packed, and the music hit his chest before it hit his ears, a deep electronic pulse that vibrated through the floor and into his bones.
They claid a standing table near the edge of the dance floor. Zoe didn't wait. She grabbed Danny's wrist and pulled him into the crowd.
Ryan went to get drinks. Chris had been at the table for about a second before he found Yuna and that was that. Joey leaned against the wall, drink already in hand, watching the proceedings with wise-looking amusent until Izumi and Xinran dragged the old man into the pit.
Ryan anwhile had found Lars and Karin by the bar and stayed there abandoning Luca to Emily's charms.
Emily, seeing her chance, pulled Luca onto the floor. He went, and the beat found him the way it always did, settling into his hips and shoulders before his brain caught up. The floor was packed shoulder-to-shoulder, the kind of crowd that pushed back if you pushed it, and he pulled her in anyway. There was no room to do anything ambitious. They didn't need it. Her hips matched his and she pressed close because the floor gave her no reason not to, and the neon caught her hair, and she laughed against his chest when soone bumped them and neither of them moved an inch.
When they drifted back to the table, much later, Ellie had arrived.
She'd navigated through the crowd with Matt on one side and Alina on the other. She wore a green top that matched her eyes and had her auburn hair loose.
"You made it," Luca said.
"Against my better judgnt." She watched the dance floor for a second, then looked back at him. "I'm not much of a dancer, obviously."
Matt said sothing to Alina. The music pulled them both toward the floor, and they went without quite looking at Ellie first.
Luca glanced at Emily. "I'll be right back," he said, and grinned.
She read his face and shook her head, already smiling. "Luca."
Luca set down his drink without thinking about it, bent down, slid one arm behind her back and the other under her knees, and lifted her out of the wheelchair.
"Luca." Her eyes went wide. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like?"
He carried her onto the dance floor. She was light, but holding soone steady while moving to a beat was way harder than he'd expected. The bass thumped through his feet. People parted around them. Ellie had grabbed onto his shoulder with one hand and was covering her face with the other, laughing into her palm.
"This is mortifying," she said through her fingers.
"You're welco."
He shifted her weight and tried to find the beat. Ellie peeked through her fingers, saw his expression, and laughed harder.
"Stop, put down," she said, still laughing. "Actually, don't."
He didn't. He adjusted his grip and tried to find the beat, and she let him, and she was still smiling but there was sothing else in it now, quieter, like she'd surprised herself.
A hand landed on his shoulder. "Need a hand, Captain?"
Chris stood behind him.
"All yours," Luca said, and Chris reached in and lifted Ellie from his arms without any visible effort. Luca's burning arms felt personally insulted.
Ellie looked up at Chris. He was a foot taller than her, broad, and the weight didn't register on his face at all. He hadn't stopped grinning, but his eyes stayed on her.
"Alright?" Chris asked her.
"Alright," she said. And her shoulders dropped.
Chris turned with her, and the crowd pressed in the way it always did, indifferent, and he held it back with his shoulders and his size without appearing to try. He spun her once, slow, and she grabbed his shoulder. She leaned into him.
Luca watched for a few seconds. Then he walked back to the table, picked up his drink, and stood next to Joey.
Joey was watching too, his eyes tracking Chris and Ellie on the floor.
"Huh," Joey said.
"Yeah," Luca said.
Luca found Emily and pulled her in. The beat was relentless, all bass and electronic pulse, and she turned her back to his chest and settled against him. His hands found her hips, and they moved together with the ease of two people who'd stopped thinking about the chanics a long ti ago. She reached back and looped her arm around his neck, and he kissed the side of her throat. She turned her head, lips brushing his ear.
"Show-off," she said, loud enough to cut through the music.
He grinned against her skin.
---
Around one in the morning, Luca noticed Ellie's hands tightening on the armrests between songs, her posture shifting in small adjustnts she tried to hide.
Ellie waved him off. "Five more minutes."
Ten minutes later, she wheeled toward the table and found Luca. "We're going to head out," she said. "Early morning tomorrow."
"I'm glad you ca."
"So am I. Your crew is..." She searched for the word. "Great. In the best way."
"That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said about us."
She laughed. Matt and Alina gathered their things. Chris appeared at the edge of the group, jacket in hand.
"I'll walk you out," he said.
Chris walked beside Ellie's wheelchair toward the exit, one hand resting on the back of it as they navigated through the crowd. Matt and Alina followed. The four of them disappeared through the doors.
Chris ca back ten minutes later. He picked up his drink, stood at the table, and watched the last of the crowd thin.
Luca was still looking at the door.
Joey appeared at his shoulder. Not loud about it, just there.
"Mars," Joey said.
Luca glanced at him.
"Their delve. Eighteen months ago." Joey took a drink. "Six went in and only three ca out. Ellie caught a structural collapse. Matt and Alina pulled her out." He paused. "The others didn't make it."
Luca turned that over.
"Matt and Alina want to move on," Joey continued, setting his glass down. "Ellie knows it. She just doesn't say it."
"And Ellie?"
Joey looked at him. "She's the only one of the three who'd go back."
He thought about her laugh when he'd carried her onto the floor, and the way she'd said actually, don't.
"Just thought you should know," Joey said.
They left the club at four in the morning. Geneva's streets were cold and empty and the crew barely noticed, too loud for the hour, stumbling in a loose pack that took up the whole sidewalk. Zoe was explaining sothing to Danny with enormous conviction and kept grabbing his arm for emphasis. Ryan was laughing at sothing Chris had said. Joey walked with his hands in his pockets, not laughing, but smiling in the specific way that ant he was enjoying everyone else's chaos.
Emily pressed herself against Luca's side, her arm looped through his, her feet not entirely cooperative. He wasn't much steadier. The cold hit the back of his throat with every breath and it felt clean and good and he was aware in the way you only get after a long night that he was happy.
She started laughing for no apparent reason.
"What?" he asked.
She shook her head, still laughing, and pressed her face into his chest. He held her up. Barely.
"What?" Luca said again.
She lifted her head. Her eyes were bright. "What ti are we leaving for the board eting?"
Luca smiled.
"In an hour."
She stared at him. Then she started laughing again, and he caught her, and sowhere behind them Zoe demanded to know what was funny, and Emily couldn't get the words out, and Luca was still smiling because honestly, it kind of was.
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