~1:30~

"What was she like?" Jimin asks, standing next to his superior.

"Very... interesting."

Jimin can't resist raising a brow. "Interesting, sir?"

He hums. "The first thing she says to me is: 'I know, I've looked better'."

"I see what you mean." Namjoon begins to stroll away, Jimin hot on his tail. "How long is she going to be locked up?"

The Executive shrugs him off. "I'd say two days to be safe. I already set up some food and water in there so we don't have to open the door."

Jimin doesn't know why he's so paranoid about their new guest. He hasn't even seen her yet - Namjoon required them to stay in the cockpit to ensure a safe passageway for her to the medbay. Jung Hoseok was very unnerved about the whole situation, and Jimin can't blame him. Going back for a survivor of a craft deemed unsafe is very... risky. Jimin has never thought about the decisions that a captain would have to make, but now since they're on their own, it's hard not to ponder.

"If you wish to speak with her, there's an intercom down there. I'm going to be completely honest, I need to rest. We all do, but if you can't sleep, I doubt she can either." Namjoon gives him a pat on the shoulder. "Goodnight, rookie."

"Night, Captain."

The new Captain stiffens. "Captain," he says, swirling the word around on the tip of his tongue.

"You are the new Captain," Jimin replies.

He frowns. "Yeah, yeah I guess I am."

Without another word, he leaves. Jimin stands in the corridor, watching his superior saunter away until he's completely out of sight. After a few seconds of hesitation, Jimin decides traverse the hallway in the opposite direction. His hands clutch into fists then straight again over and over as he navigates the ship. He doesn't understand why he's so anxious to speak to the girl. Maybe because he isn't a captain, or maybe because he hasn't talked to anyone who wasn't apart of the Hep crew since he last saw his family.

He gulps as the red medbay door comes closer. It's a large mass of metal with a tiny rectangular slab of glass near the top. Luckily, Jimin is just tall enough to peek through it, so he'll be able to see her. He doesn't know who the L/N family is, but Captain Kim made them out to be a big deal. Perhaps he should treat her as such.

Jimin slows his pace when he reaches the entrance. He lets out a soft breath, his finger stiffly floating right in front of the intercom. He could easily press it, introduce himself, and see what she's like. Alternatively, he could retreat to his quarters and sleep off a long day. Realistically, he could talk to her when she's out of quarantine. That would probably be easier.

His mind moves rapidly, but ultimately, he decides to peek through the glass. His pupils fall on her. He's glad he didn't do anything. She seems so peaceful. She's curled up on the bed, sheets over her figure with her h/c hair already messy. Jimin has to admit she's very attractive. He can also tell she's been sleeping for some time. So, instead of being some creep who watches girls sleep, he smiles and turns away, preparing to do the same thing.

~11:36, the next day~

The medbay is cramped.

You barely have enough room to do your daily routine. Twenty squats, jumping jacks, push ups, and sit ups. Have to stay in shape if you're going to be on the run in space. Before even considering leaving, you stayed in shape to be prepared for the unknown. You never know when you'll need to run a mile to save your life. Or even when you'll have to be stronger than someone to save yourself and others. Or at least, that's how you always looked at it. Those thoughts gave you an excuse to do something to pass the time.

Regardless, you've been up for an hour, doing your daily stretching before the whole workout part. The crew was kind enough to put a lot of food and water inside already, so you at least can eat and drink whenever you want.

You never saw yourself as someone to be claustrophobic, but this cell of a medbay is making you anxious. It might be because you have to stay inside for two days. Truthfully, being trapped inside is only terrifying since you really have nothing to distract you. The corpses from yesterday haunt you every time you close your eyes. Every noise on this ship translates in your brain to a scream of horror from some poor man getting killed.

Your battered body quivers, sitting down and glancing at the red door. One single rectangular slab of glass is there for you to peep out of. You're assuming some crew members will come by to question you. One thing's for sure - you don't trust this crew. You have no reason to. You understand them locking you up, but what if they're in on whatever happened to the Blackwell? There was an explosion: you felt an explosion. Plus, Namjoon said they were coming back. Were they in the area before? You already told them everything, but they've said nothing. Very suspicious to you.

You're about to let your thoughts overtake you when the intercom buzzes, making you flinch. "Good morning Miss L/N, I hope you rested well," Namjoon says.

"I did, and in advance I'll tell you this: I'll answer any question you have as long as you answer mine."

There's a pause, and in that moment, you want nothing more than to see living faces again. Even though you don't trust them, you need something to drown out the images plaguing your mind. "Of course, that's only fair. I think we're both wary of each other. I don't blame you."

"Let's start simple. How many of you are there?" you ask, leaning forward. You can't see anyone behind the glass, and you can't tell if it's a perception issue, if you're short, or if they're hiding.

"I'm Captain Kim, we have Gold Intelligence Officer Kang Seulgi, Bronze Agent Jung Hoseok, Silver Pilot Byun Baekhyun, and, well, he can introduce himself."

A male clears his throat, and a beat later, his tone fills the air. "My name is Silver Engineer Park Jimin."

You let out a snicker, hoping you don't come off as rude, but come on. Metals? What is this, the periodic table? "What's with the metals?"

"Metals?" Namjoon asks.

"Bronze, silver, gold. I don't get it."

They take a little too long to answer, causing your brows to knit together. "It's our ranking system," the Engineer finally replies.

You're about to speak again, then, the comm system goes off. "Captain, I could use some help in the cockpit when you get a minute," a male voice you don't recognize says.

"That's our pilot, better see what he needs. Sorry for the interruption Miss L/N," the Captain says.

"It's no problem. And Y/N is fine, thank you."

It goes quiet for a whole minute. You're not surprised. As a pilot, you know the cockpit takes priority. God what you'd do to see the controls on this transport vessel. You're curious to see how fast it goes, how well it handles itself. This ship may be smaller than the Blackwell, but it still has a certain charm to it.

"You've never been to Earth, have you?" the Engineer asks.

You jump. How can you not? It's not like you were expecting him to stay. "Ganymede. Never left. Turns out being the daughter of a world famous pilot doesn't really mean anything."

He chuckles, your brain fuzzing up from the noise. "You're not missing much." Your heart pumps at the thought of Earth's crystal skies. Ganymede pops up in your head. Your home, your everything. But you would leave it all behind in a flash for one day on Earth. One day with something new. One day where looking up wouldn't terrify you.

"What does the sky look like?" you ask, your tone begging to crack, but you don't let it.

"Well, it's been two years since I last saw home, but during the day the Sun would shine bright at us, and at night the stars would come out."

Your eyes shut, and the shades come to your imagination. A milky clump of cyan, a burning ball of fire lighting your irises with glory. That's what the pictures told you, anyway. Is that true? "What color was it?"

There's a pause. "Blue." A soft smile graces your parched lips. His answer confirms your previous thoughts, your mind continuing to imagine what it'd be like to watch the sky.

"I've only read about Earth in stories, and even then I'm not sure if they're true. Everything on Ganymede is artificial. The grass, the domes, the trees... everything."

For a few seconds, neither of you speak. You're about to think he left when he clears his throat. "You know, when I was a kid, my brother and I would go outside on a day where no clouds were around and lie on our backs in the grass, just staring up at the sky and admiring how blue it was."

You jolt despite your mind telling you not to. "Clouds? I've only read small paragraphs about those!"

Laughter erupts from the comm. "They're fun to make shapes out of. My brother would always end up finding a turtle-shaped cloud. I'm not sure why, but he always did," he says.

You grin, almost feeling him smile back. "It sounds like you had a good childhood."

His chuckle reverberates across the walls of the room, warmth spewing out in the pit of your stomach as he answers. "Something like that."

You purse your lips, leaning closer. "What did you say your name was?"

"Silver Engineer Pa-"

You almost laugh, shaking your hand twice to cut him off (if he can even see it). "Enough with those metals. Come on Engineer, give me something to work with."

He pauses. "Jimin. Park Jimin."

You light up, the warmth inside you refusing to depart. "Jimin, thank you for sharing that story."

~11:38~

Jimin is about to open his mouth to reply when Namjoon comes back, giving Jimin a glance before locking his eyes on the intercom. "Sorry about that, we just charted our course for Mars. Now, where were we?"

Jimin nods, motioning to the door. "She was asking us some questions." It sucks he has to pretend nothing happened. The truth is, his heart is in his mind, reverberating across the walls of his skull. Why did he like the way she said his name? And why did he open up about his brother? All good questions. But for now, he has to focus.

"So, you guys are stationed on Earth?" Y/N asks.

Captain Kim sighs, but it comes across as more of a grunt. "It's a long story. Our crew comes from Earth though. All of us."

"Well, seeing as I'm quarantined in here for however long, I have a lot of time for that long story."

Jimin peeps over at Namjoon, who has a neutral expression. "You mentioned something earlier, about hearing an explosion?" Namjoon asks.

"Well, not hear. I felt the entire ship shake like crazy. A rattle like that can only mean two things: either a ship ramming into us, or an explosion."

Namjoon strokes his chin. He opens his mouth over and over, but he shuts it each time. It takes him a full ten seconds to formulate a proper response, and Jimin's mind spins in each beat that passes. "Is there anything else you can tell us that you haven't told us yet?"

Jimin feels terrible for the girl. She's as lost and confused as the crew. She was locked up, a stowaway, running away from her past life. He has no idea what she's been through, or what she's seen, but he almost admires her for having the courage to run away. Especially since she's a L/N. In a way, he left his problems behind two years ago when he took his engineering job. He hasn't faced his problems since. Leaving his family and never visiting: that seems like a horrible thing to do, but he had his reasons. He left Earth to become better and get away from them. He isn't about to stop now.

"Not that I can think of, no. Did you have anything to do with that explosion?"

"I know it may seem like I'm lying when I say this, but no, we didn't. We watched it happen, but we didn't cause it. We saw another ship blow up a large carrier class."

"A carrier class? Shit, those things are impossible to blow up."

He frowns, his shoulders slumping. "I know. I don't know who it was or where they went, we didn't get a good look. As soon as we saw it, we booked out of there."

Jimin offers his leader a glance. He can sense the pain radiating inside his Captain's heart. Everyone is still mourning the death of the Hep. So many innocent people had to die, and for what? A carrier to be blown up? The Hep had nothing of value, this was a clear act of war. Which side started it however, is unknown.

"You were apart of the carrier class, weren't you?" Y/N asks. Both Jimin and Namjoon go silent. After a few beats, she speaks again. "I'm so sorry." Namjoon sniffles, then regains his composure.

"There's nothing we can do about it now. We have to move on."

"Who could have done this? We have a ship from Ganymede out in the open, so it couldn't have been from them. They have no motivation to start a war anyway," Jimin says.

"What about the carrier?" Y/n asks.

"The Hep was a Mars ship. Captain Kwon manufactured it there with his old company before they cut him off, so he made it into a transport ship to make his profits back," Captain Kim says, peering over at Jimin.

"That doesn't really narrow it down. That still leaves the entire Belt, Earth, Europa, Callisto, Triton, and the numerous civilizations near Venus," she says.

Jimin stands taller than before. "Let's look at this logically. You said yourself, Y/N's father fought to protect Mars from Earth. The Hep is a Mars ship, what if this is Earth bringing back the feud?"

"That's a good point. I didn't listen to my father much, but a few weeks ago he mentioned Earth becoming particularly upset with the rest of the solar system. They think they're better than the rest and want to prove that."

"Truthfully, the only colonies with enough firepower to kill a carrier are Earth, Triton, and Mars. Maybe the Belt, but that's a big maybe," the Captain says.

Jimin rubs his hand against his temple. "I don't think we're going to figure this out anytime soon."

His superior doesn't disagree. "Probably not. I hate to leave you like this Y/N, but I'm afraid I need to speak to my entire crew about our plan."

"That's alright, do what you have to do. I'll be here." Not being able to see her face when she talks disappoints Jimin. He's always hated not seeing someone when they converse. Most of his life revolved around comms and voice calls, never anything in-person. He wishes he could change that. He wants to appreciate people more: faces more.

"Goodbye, Jimin," she says, which catches him off guard.

"Goodbye, Y/N."

Namjoon shoots him a perplexed expression before shutting off the intercom. He chooses not to question what just happened and motions for Jimin to follow him. "We have a lot of planning to do." Jimin dips his head, although his mind is elsewhere. His mind is on the Hep, Captain Kwon, the Blackwell...

And even Y/N.