There is something to be said about having no body. It is a lot easier to get where I want to be when I don't have to worry about silly things like maneuvering around walls and finding doors and all that.

Of course, it still has nothing on being in control of my ship and being everywhere at once.

"Nicholas," I say, "do you copy."

"Alicia Ivy," he mutters under his breath, giving me the impression that wherever he is, it would be dangerous for him to speak any louder. "How do you have a comms? I thought you were temporarily intangible."

"I'm using the emergency line of mental communication I established in your head months ago while you were sleeping."

He mutters something under his breath before thinking something much louder. "That's an invasion of privacy."

I sense him activating his memories, searching them to see what he might have been thinking or dreaming that I might have hacked.

For a moment, I almost consider telling him the truth- that my captain had me establish that connection from the first day he was on our crew.

But then we both remember that there are more important issues at hand to deal with.

"Where are you?" I ask telepathically as I continue moving through walls, scanning the rooms I pass through for a heat signal that matches my missing crew mate.

"Alicia Ivy, I'm fine. Go back to the others."

"Fine, if you won't tell me willingly, I will just intercept your vision and see for myself..."

"I'm in a second floor utility closet."

I float upward. "Why are you in a closet? Again?"

"Well, let me tell you, it's not nearly as enjoyable as my last visit to a closet."

"I see," I say, just to make him fear again that I'm hacking his vision.

He clears my throat. "By the way, you're not going to tell anyone about any of my dreams... right?"

I have already used his dreams about Killa as ammunition in Orion and my arguments concerning their need of a relationship, but again, there are more important issues at hand.

Besides, he doesn't have to worry about me sharing the nightmares of his past. I would never mingle my crew's dark shadows when they have so much of their own to deal with personally.

"What are these particular circumstances?" I ask, now moving through the second floor rooms. "Don't think I didn't notice you left that out."

"Can't you just read my thoughts and know?"

I artificially sigh in his head. "Okay, but I was hoping to spare you that discomfort-"

"I may or may not be tied up in the closet."

"And there is a mobster guarding it outside?"

"Three, actually. Do you really think only one would be able to keep me here?"

If he could see it, I would roll my virtual eyes. "And the others are back on their search for Orion?"

"But they're not going to find him, right?"

"Of course not." Unless the find that a bunch of nurses dragging a hospital bed around the city is suspicious enough to take a closer look at. "We're going to meet them now."

"Yes. Once I get myself out of this mix-up with no extra help-"

He's interrupted by the sound of crashing.

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