Ivan

The first time Ivan noticed Elias, the wardroom was pretending not to listen. A junior officer had botched jump coordinates on the board; Elias recalculated the harmonic on a napkin and told the man his math would get them gutted. Ivan was at the mess table with coffee that tasted like engine soap. He said, without looking up, "You always that helpful?" Elias said, "Only when they're wrong." Ivan decided he liked him.

That was months before the rim turned serious — scout duty on a lone destroyer, gate chatter thinning, mail slow, boredom honest. Pirates had been on their tail long enough that everyone knew and no one said it aloud. When they hit, the fight did not last long. It lasted long enough. Forty percent of the crew did not make port. Officers gone, pilots gone, drives cold. Ivan was lower rank and the only stick left that could land them. Elias stayed in the wound of the ship with patches and profanity. For three weeks they learned the dead by name and made the hull move anyway.

Promotions. Medals. Forcibly retired early with honors — discharge dressed up as gratitude. Elias brought Ivan to Proxima Libre anyway, through Madame Aldith's loan and a junkyard hull with a botany dome bolted on like an afterthought. Ivan learned every quirk of the stick while Elias lived inside the wiring. The dome went brown. They flew the Orion Corridor anyway.

Talyra came aboard at a dock where the argument about dead plants carried two berths over. Ivan watched from the hatch while she climbed into the glass, shut off a pump Elias had defended all week, and left without asking permission. Green by morning. Ivan gave her the co-seat after she proved she could fly calm when he could not sleep. He trusts Jarvis's pre-flight checklists more than he trusts half the ports they land in.

The three of them have been crew for about a year when Khesret pins them — thin credits, fat port fees, repairs that talk back after every burn. Dermidine Industries offered one month playtesting a new theme park in exchange for clearing the dock, fixing the hull, and filling the tanks. Ivan signed. He flies most legs, keeps the long gun ready where magic throttles and Null is an advantage, and does not pretend the exit interview sounds fun.