[i]David walked forward down the aisle. On both of his sides, people cheered and applauded him. Star Captain David, hero of the Exodus system! The deer walked proudly amongst the cheering crowd, his space suit decorated with dozens of medals, and soon he would receive one more. At the front stage stood his loyal crew, the general, and the Board of the Exodus System themselves! David approached the stage, and stood at attention, as his general began to speak, “David, git yer ass back inside, or at least put on a fuckin’ mask. You’ll get lung cancer or whatever if you stay out there too long…”[/i]
David was pulled out of his daydream as a gruff voice came from behind the deer. He was no longer amidst a crowd of cheering people, he was instead standing on the balcony of the New Athens Orphanage, staring up into the hazy sky of Ouranos. David sighed, feeling the daydream leave his mind as he re-entered reality. “Can I stay out for a bit longer, Ms. Graham? I want to see some stars, and the mask blocks my eyesight...”
  The short, stocky tigress grunted, “Y’ can’t see shit on this planet. How did ya even get out there? I locked the window…”
  David shrugged as he turned around. “It was relatively easy to pick. It’s only a three pin cylinder lock…”
Ms. Graham blinked. “I regret getting ya that locksmithin’ book… But, that is not the point, git back inside, and put on a mask… I can’t have my assistant gettin’ sick on me during cold season… Sally needs a hot water bottle, by the way.”
  David nodded, and stepped off of the balcony, moving inside of the orphanage’s uncomfortably warm exterior. Ms. Graham always seemed to like having the heaters on full blast… At least it wasn’t summertime right now. For the 21 years of the deer’s life, the tigress director had not once allowed the temperature to drop below 30 °C. “Right away, Ms. Graham.”
  However, as the deer began to walk away, Ms. Graham stopped him. “Hold on a second… Y’ don’t have to get a water bottle for Sally, I’ll do it… I don’t remember why I have t’ do it, but I think there’s an important event today for ya...”
  David raised an eyebrow as she spoke. “You mean my birthday?”
  Ms. Graham snapped her fingers and exclaimed, “Shit, that’s right! I’m so sorry, David… It’s been what, 18 years now? Ya’d think I’d remember yer birthday…”
  “19 years,” David corrected, “And it’s okay, you have a lot of birthdays to remember with the orphans about…”
  “Yeah, but I’ve known ya since y’ were two… I should remember your birthday is on the 6th Sol by now.”
  “...It’s the 7th Sol today, Ms. Graham.”
  The tigress paused and scratched her head. “Shit… Apparently my whole calendar is off…”
  David nodded and picked up his mask. “Well, if I am relieved of service for tonight, I would like to stargaze…”
  Ms. Graham sighed and looked at him confusedly, “Y’ can’t see the stars on Ouranos, kid. I don’t know what goes on in yer head when y’ stare into the sky, but I won’t question it on your birthday…”
  “Thank you, Ms. Graham.” David said politely, before walking to the front “door” of the orphanage.
“Y’better wear that mask, though!” Ms. Graham shouted after him, before getting back to work. David, meanwhile, walked down the stairs to the fourth floor of the orphanage, putting on his mask as he did so. His gait was slightly awkward, both in part due to his lanky body, and his slight motor control problems. They had gotten a lot better since when he was younger, but they still showed themselves whenever he ran. Of course, when he was younger, he had to have food fed to him by Ms. Graham due to how shaky his hands were… Unfortunately, this made him an undesirable adoptee to the people of New Athens, and by the time he could control his hands properly, he was no longer cute enough to be adopted…
But, those problems were behind David. Did the constant grimaces from possible adopters cause irreversible damage to the deer’s self-esteem? Maybe, but right now, he didn’t need to think about that. He opened the third-floor fire exit, and stepped out onto the shaky metal grating of the fire escape, where he then began to climb the stairs up to the roof. The city of New Athens was a confusing network of scaffolding and half-finished bridges connecting the high-rise buildings of the city. Most members of society would spend their whole lives without touching the ground, which was probably for the best. The first floor of every building was considered unusable (many modern buildings construct themselves on raised foundations) due to the two-foot deep waters below. That may not sound too bad, but when Ouranos was first settled, there were no lakes or bodies of water on the whole planet, and the pool of liquid only formed after the sewer systems burst in 83 AE. Luckily, the New Athens Orphanage was a 7 floor building, so its residents never had to venture lower than the fourth floor (and they shouldn’t, squatters live on the bottom three floors, which is why the fourth floor doors are always locked).
However, David was used to navigating the strange labyrinth of New Athens, and found it trivial to scale the fire escape of the orphanage, and step onto the creaky roof of the building. David then began to walk across a plywood bridge, held together with rusty nails and duct tape, that led him to the scaffolding along the building adjacent to the orphanage. The cables that held up the steel-grate platforms swayed as the deer’s hoof stepped off of the splintering bridge and onto the scaffolding. David made sure to be mindful of each of his steps as he walked over gaps in scaffolding, before reaching the building’s fire escape. Climbing up three floors, he found himself able to jump onto one of the concrete bridges that formed the market street of New Athens. One would assume that David could breathe easy now, but if anything, he had to watch his step more, as the more-developed areas of New Athens were inhabited by the Exodus System Militia.
The ESM was created in 86 AE by President Henry Ky after New Athens was bombed by dissidents. Some people considered them to be the peace-keepers of New Athens, the only ones keeping the city safe from squatters, drug-dealers, and anarchists. Others, however, have cynically pointed out that if they kept the city safe, Ky would have felt no need to move the capital of Ouranos from New Athens to Cerullis. David would have liked to call himself neutral, as he did not see himself as one to hold strong opinions, but as he walked past the soldiers guarding the Olympian Plaza, he could not help but notice that the safety catch was off on their rifles…
But, that was not something for David to worry about right now. For now, he simply walked along the streets of Market Street, where stalls of all kinds lined the walkway, with flashy signs on every floor of the nearby buildings advertising the services inside. But, David was looking for one particular building. It was a hotel under construction, but disagreements kept occurring over how it should look, resulting in construction being paused and leaving the building a shell of scaffolding and support beams. It hadn’t been touched in 30 years. The deer approached the building and began to climb the metal ladders that were set up on the sides. Despite his shaky walking, David had no problems at all climbing anything (mostly due to the fact that it took focus to do), and so he had scaled up the building in less than five minutes.
David sat down in his usual skygazing spot, and began to stare into the hazy abyss above. As per Ms. Graham’s request, his mask remained on as he searched the sky for anything to pierce the inky blackness of Ouranos’s polluted air. It was true that no one could see the stars on Gaia, and David knew that. Hell, the haze was so thick during night time that people couldn’t even see the planet that Ouranos orbited around! New Athens was located on a moon of Gaia, but one would not know that if they looked up during the 16-hour night. In reality, David stared at the sky, hoping to see a spaceship landing in New Athens.
The deer did want to see the stars, but his real life goal was to leave Ouranos and go see them for himself. Every day when he was younger, he hoped that he would get adopted by some eccentric couple of space explorers who would go on adventures with him to all the planets of the Exodus System. David didn’t just want to see the stars, he wanted to see the pink-blue surface of Psyche, the scorched landscape of Tartarus, and even the boiling seas of Thanatos. But, that couple never came, or if they did, they took someone other than the thin, shaky deer. When he turned 12, David realized that he would never escape Ouranos. Nobody wanted to adopt the older kids, and New Athens was not a place of heavy (or any) space traffic, not since the Exodus Civil War.
A sigh escaped his lips as he began to sink into his daydream again. However, as he began to see his space crew again, he was pulled out by a loud, booming noise. David’s eyes refocused, and he slid off his mask to try to see whatever made the noise… His eyes suddenly caught a blue flame sticking out from the dark, and the outline of a ship, landing on a platform in the docking bay!
  A ship! A real honest-to-Terra spaceship! Excitement began to overwhelm him, and he stood up from his place. This was the first ship he had seen in all 21 years of his life, he wasn’t going to miss a chance to see it up close! David scaled down the building in record time, and began to sprint to the landing bay! However, as he made his dash, he realized that he was being stared at. Not wanting to be stopped by the ESM, David took a deep breath, and began to walk in a manner as inconspicuous as possible, moving towards the landing docks. As the deer passed by some ESM, he kept his head down.
  As David walked down to the docks, he finally saw it, illuminated and unhidden. A huge ship, 200 feet long, 20 feet tall at its highest point, and with two enormous “wings.” The deer had never really studied ships too much, but he recognized the two wings as four centrifugal rooms, or rooms that would spread out into four wings and begin spinning around the ship in a pinwheel fashion while in flight. This spinning would add centrifugal force to anyone inside the room, and create an artificial gravity. The ship also had an enormous set of thrusters, and a large nose cone with thick glass windows. Red, graffiti-style spray paint on the side of the hull read “The Bastard,” but David was too awestruck to notice something like that.
  As David walked toward the ship, he noticed a figure standing confidently in the front of it. They wore a red-canvas spacer’s suit, decorated with various clips and tethers, as well as an official-looking captain’s pin on the front of the uniform. They had a red helmet with two hoses sticking out of the bottom and connecting to an air filter on their back. The helmet seemed to conform to the captain’s head shape, but not so much that David could recognize the species of the captain. Perhaps a lizard? It made sense due to the long, canvas-covered tail the captain had.
As David examined the captain, unfulfilled childhood dreams filled his mind. This person, this strange captain… Would they be willing to take the deer into space? Maybe… Maybe they’d even be willing to let David join their crew! The deer felt his heart beat faster and faster as he began to approach the captain… This was it, this captain was his ticket to escaping Ouranos…
  “STOP! CRIMINAL!”
  David quickly spun around, and saw that there was a pursuit taking place behind him! Two figures in red uniforms like the captain of the ship were sprinting down to the platform, one with a tall, muscular stature; the other with a more effeminate body; and both in pursuit by two of the ESM! The deer jumped out of the way of the sprinting group, and as the two sprinted onto the ship’s ramp into its interior, the captain held their gloved hands up and spoke to the two ESM, “Whoa whoa… Now, hold on just a second. May I ask what my crew has done to offend you two fine gentlemen?” The captain spoke with a strange, old-timey accent with the voice of an older man.
  The ESM, shockingly, stopped in front of the captain, one moving closer to the captain to stand frighteningly over him. The soldier growled roughly, “Your [i]crew[/i] was caught selling illegal drugs in an alleyway.”
  “Really? Well, I shall have to talk to my crew members about that… I must apologize for their behavior, you see, they grew up in rough neighborhoods, after their grandparents were kicked out of Nemesis by those [i]awful[/i] rebels…” The captain responded courteously and kindly… But David felt like something was off. Turning his head, he suddenly saw that a tall, lean crewmate had come from the ship, and was now detaching a fuel nozzle from the ship… This wasn’t an apology, this was a distraction!
  “Ah, really? Shit… That sucks.” The ESM responded, seemingly enraptured with the captain’s voice.
  “Yes, really. You know, those people who don’t conform to those red scarf rebels were kicked off the planet, and well, that left them nowhere to go except to one of the packed neighborhoods of Carbamine City. With all their assets stolen, this is the only way their family could make money…” The captain continued, as the crewmate bolted back inside of the ship. The deer’s mind began to race. If they were fleeing the planet… then it could be another 21 years before his next chance to escape Ouranos! Adrenaline began to pump through him, and a foolish idea filled his mind. As the ESM soldier began to speak again, David made his way to the ship’s landing gear...
  “Damn rebels. According to one of my friends, they force you to do literally anything they ask, and will shoot you without hesitation if you even think of breaking their laws.” Years of practicing with controlling his limbs allowed David to have full control over them if he focused hard enough, allowing him to move without a sound. He approached one of the landing skids and carefully began to climb up, making sure he was out of view from the captain and ESM.
  As David disappeared into the place where the landing gear folded in, the deer cursed under his breath as he realized his antlers were in the way. He began bashing them against the wall, hoping to shed them, while the captain spoke again, “Yes indeed… What cruel authoritarians they are!... Regardless, we must be on our way soon, I promise that my crew will be thoroughly punished for their terrible deeds. I have to burn that dissidence out of them, y’know?”
  The ESM soldier laughed, “As any good captain should… But, I’m afraid it is protocol for me to ask to pull the crew aside for a while. Don’t worry, it won’t impede your time much.”
  However, before the captain could respond, a noise startled the two of them, turning their eyes to the ship. It sounded like an item clattering as it fell to the ground… Little did they realize it was a set of deer antlers! “Hmm… I should go check that out…” The captain said, beginning to walk toward the ship.
  The soldier nodded, “Alright! Be sure to send your crew out as soon as possible! We just wanna help you ‘burn the dissidence out!’” With his antlers broken until they were mere lumps on his head, David could crawl deeper into the ship’s bowels as the captain walked towards it. His plan was to unscrew some sort of panel to get deeper into the ship, but to his delight, there was a hatch within the small area. He was further delighted to find that it had a seal, meaning it was safe for a person to enter space in! The only problem was that it was locked… “Err, aren’t you going to check on your landing gear?” The soldier asked as the captain walked up the ramp to his ship.
  As the captain opened up the door, he turned quickly and said, “Oh yes, but I don’t want to inconvenience you, so I am sending you my crew first.” Meanwhile, David spent his time examining the lock. Fortunately for the deer, it was a simple magnetic lock with an add-on that allowed it to be locked via the ship’s console. As luck would have it, it also had a keypad, one which was apparently punched in after changing the ship’s oil, as it had stains on the 1, 2, 4, and 7 keys.
  The soldier, meanwhile, nodded and saluted the captain as he closed the door of the ship. However, rather than the door opening again, the ship’s bottom thrusters began firing! “Hey, wait a minute!” The soldier protested, realizing he’d been duped! As they began shooting at the hull of the ship, David began frantically entering in numbers. 1247? 1274? 1724? 2147? However, as the deer entered the number 2174, the lock opened! The deer let out a sigh of relief, and quickly climbed in, slamming the hatch behind him, right as the landing gear folded into the ship. The deer was no sooner one foot from the door that the ship’s rear thrusters fired, and the ship launched into the atmosphere!
  Now that the deer could sufficiently breathe, he began to move forward. Adrenaline left his bloodstream, and his head began aching from the detachment of his horns, and the realization of how much trouble he was in began to settle in… He was now in an unknown ship taking off from his only home into space, without the crew even knowing. Not only that, but what about the orphanage? Would Ms. Graham be worried? What of the kids? He’d just jumped into a stupid plan on a whim because of a childhood desire, without telling anyone. If he had guessed two other numbers, or if the door was a five-digit with a repeated number, or even if the keys weren’t marked, the deer’s legs could have been crushed by the landing gear, and he would have frozen to death in space.
  As David contemplated the stupidity he had just performed, the ship rocketed into space, pinning the poor deer against a wall. The amount of G’s that were exerted on the deer were practically unbearable, but he managed to maintain consciousness despite the discomfort. Artificial gravity had not yet been invented on ships, but gravity shields had been made, which helped mitigate the pains of accelerating past the speed of light. But, as the ship’s accelerators stopped, David suddenly felt his body float into the air! His worries melted away, and were replaced by giddiness… He was in space!
The excitement left him as he suddenly heard voices approach his location. The captain’s familiar voice was first, “What were you two thinking? You know that New Athens is swarming with ESM… They’re not those C3 mercenaries, they can’t be bribed with magic fucking mushrooms!”
  A rough, masculine voice spoke up next, “It was Thales’s idea.”
  “IT WAS NOT!” A more high-pitched, but still masculine voice shouted in response. Presumably he was Thales.
  “I don’t care whose idea it was, Atlas. Getting caught with alcohol is enough to get you shot in that city, and I don’t want you two dumbasses getting killed because of something stupid like a drug deal on Ouranos…”
  “Yes captain...” The two responded simultaneously.
  “Good. Now, here’s the next question; how much money did you make selling those things?”
  Before either one of the troublemakers could answer, a feminine voice came on, apparently via an intercom, “Diogenes, I need you to come to the bridge. Apparently, there was a leak in the lower west tunnels.”
  The captain, whose name was apparently Diogenes, swore loudly, “Fuck’s sake… Can’t this ship function correctly for one fucking day? Atlas, come with me, you will take Hestia’s place as copilot, Thales, you go drop off the drug money in the community bank, I know it was totally your idea, I saw that you bought a terrarium.”
  Atlas let out a loud “HA!” as he and the captain walked… er, floated away, while Thales grumbled slightly… Once David heard the voices fade away, he felt relieved… But, he also felt an immediate sense of dread. Why would someone have a secret hatch in their ship? And why would Diogenes be fine with his crew selling drugs as long as they weren’t caught? David suddenly began to put two and two together, and realized that he was on a smugglers’ ship! The deer cursed silently. He should have known better… No ship that lands in New Athens could have good-hearted goals!... But, he was on the ship. What could he do now?
As he stayed in the tunnel, he began to feel an unbearable boredom, more painful than the acceleration into space. Finally, David decided he couldn’t live in the vents forever. He came here to see space, and he would see space, even if it meant getting shot by Atlas or Diogenes or whoever else. The deer listened carefully, making sure no footsteps were coming, before beginning to push against the walls of the tunnel, looking for some sort of hatch into the rest of the ship.
  Unfortunately for David, there are no footsteps in 0G. So as he pushed open a magnetically-attached hatch and peeked into the ship’s interior, he immediately made eye contact with a member of the crew. Apparently, the whole ship was one long hallway, with rooms dotted along the sides, which left David very visible to a very confused-looking shark woman. Based on her body shape, she was the crewmate who removed the fueling nozzle as Diogenes rambled. The shark was no longer wearing the red canvas outfit, and was instead wearing much more casual attire, specifically a t-shirt and yoga pants. As the two of them stared at each other for a while, David had to ignore his eyes trying to wander down from her eyes to her rather shapely assets… However, as David attempted to disappear back into the tunnel, the shark rocketed towards him at a shocking speed!
  The deer let out a surprised yelp as one second, she was 20ft away, and the next second, her hand was around his throat, and he was pinned against the wall! She tore off his mask and shouted, “Who the fuck are you working for and how did you get onto our ship!?”
  As she shouted, two other people peeked out of the rooms around the long corridor of the ship. One was an owl boy with a thin figure (who David guessed was Thales) and the other was a short rat girl that the deer did not recognize. Before he could ponder anything else, the shark’s grip tightened, and he sputtered out, “I-I don’t work for anyone and I got in through the hatch near the landing gear!”
  The shark growled slightly, “So, you’re telling me that some random amateur guessed the password and got onto our ship without being detected? I’m afraid I don’t believe you…” She moved her mouth closer to David, “And [i]this[/i] is what I do with liars…”
  David attempted to protest that he was not lying, but it was too late! The shark opened her maw, and shoved the deer’s nose directly into her awaiting mouth! He let out a yelp, but it was silenced by her muscled throat. Her sharp, pointy teeth raked slightly across the top of his head, where his antlers were… David cursed the fact that he shed his antlers as the shark easily swallowed down his muzzle, trapping his head in her salivating maw. David attempted to struggle, to pull his head out, to do anything that would stop him from getting swallowed. However, the shark’s strong, muscled hands held his arms in place, and began to push him in deeper. Soon, David’s head was a throat bulge for the gluttonous shark, and she only swallowed more.
  Soon, his shoulders were tucked into her maw, and his head was sent closer and closer to her awaiting belly, which let out groans in anticipation for her meal… With another loud gulp, his chest was trapped in her jaws. As David’s arms were forced to his sides by her hungry maw, he could do little more than kick, which had no ability to impede the shark’s progress. She gulped again, and David’s head was left dangling over the boiling cauldron of the shark’s hungry belly. Of course, they were in space, so it was less like dangling over a pit of stomach acids, and more like, dangling over some bubbles of stomach acid. With his mouth now in a more open area, David tried to plead with the shark, “Please! I promise I’m not a spy! Please let me go!”
  The shark, however, ignored his pleas. She swallowed down his stomach, and with no hesitation, gulped down his hips as well, leaving his long, dangly legs kicking outside her maw. But, the legs served as no obstacle to the shark. She began to slurp him down, forcing David’s head deeper and deeper into her belly. His muzzle made contact with the bottom of her stomach, and he began to have to curl up in her squeezing, muscular tummy. With a final gulp, the deer’s hooves slid into the shark’s mouth, and slid down her throat, joining him in her tight zero-gravity belly. Wasting no time at all, the shark spoke again, “So, now that you are in a more compromised position, tell me who you work for.”
  “I’m telling you, I don’t work for anyone!” David shouted desperately, feeling acid slowly flow in around him, beginning to sizzle on his fur.
  Suddenly, David heard a door slide open, and the captain’s voice rang out, “Alright, what’s with all the shouting. Artemis, who did you eat?”
  “No one important, captain. Someone broke into the ship while we were on Ouranos, and I have apprehended them.” The shark answered. Apparently, her name was actually Artemis.
  “Really? How on Gaia did he get in? Is he an ESM or C3?” Diogenes replied.
  “No clue, he is not cooperating.”
  “I am cooperating! I’m telling you, I don’t work for anyone, and I got in because your hatch’s password digits were marked with oil smudges!” The deer shouted, becoming filled with despair.
  Diogenes appeared to draw closer to Artemis’s belly, close enough that David could hear a raspy, mechanical breathing… “Tell me, what’s your name, son?”
  “David.”
  “...Last name?”
  “I don’t have one, I was dropped off at the New Athens Orphanage when I was two…”
  The captain drew back, and swore, “Ah, shit, he’s an orphan. Do they allow 18 year olds in the New Athens Orphanage?”
  Thales’s voice spoke up, “No, sir, they kick them out at 18.”
  Diogenes let out a sigh, “Alright, Artemis, let ‘em out, he’s a kid.”
  “I’m not a kid! I’m 21, I just was never adopted, so I stayed as an assistant!” David protested.
  There was a palpable silence for a while, until Diogenes spoke up, “Well shit, I guess he’s not a kid. Digest away, Artemis.”
  David suddenly realized his mistake, “W-wait! I-I didn’t mean that! P-please let me out!”
  However, right as he began to protest, the captain cut him off, “Let him out, Artemis. No undercover soldier is this bad at lying…”
  Almost immediately, the belly around David began to shift, and soon, the deer was expelled from Artemis’s stomach, and sent floating in the air. As he drifted through the 0G corridor, unable to control himself, he got a better look at the crew. Among the crew stood the rat girl, Thales, Artemis, a tall elderly leopard woman, a muscular wolf (who David decided was Atlas), and a short ancient-looking dragon. Most notably, the whole of the crew wore casual clothes, but the dragon remained in-uniform… The dragon also had two tubes connecting to the top of his neck and leading to the air filter on his suit.
The dragon floated towards him, and patted him on the shoulder. He spoke with the captain’s voice, indicating that he was Diogenes. “Apologies about the fright, David. We have a reformation machine on the ship, so you weren’t in any real danger… Now then, if you aren’t spying on us, why did you climb onto our ship?” David attempted to respond, but his nose was full of stomach acid, he was floating in space, he was surrounded by unfamiliar people, and he wanted to throw up. This was apparently visible on his face, as Diogenes turned to his crew, “Thales, follow us to the infirmary, the rest of you, get back to work.”
The owl quickly moved toward the two, while Diogenes grabbed onto David, and propelled himself down the corridor. Soon, he came to an intersection with four corridors, each with a ladder down the side. Notably, these four tubes were rotating around the three of them, indicating that these were the centrifugal rooms that David saw earlier. Suddenly, Diogenes propelled himself into one, and David let out a yelp as he suddenly felt gravity take hold! The dragon landed on his feet, David still in his arms (either Diogenes is the buffest old man alive or David is an absolute lightweight). However, the sudden shift in gravity had its toll on the deer, since he had no space training, his face grew incredibly green. The dragon noticed this, and dropped David in a panic, right as the deer vomited!
“Shit… Sorry about that… Geez, you are certainly not a space traveller, that is for sure…” The dragon remarked as David retched.
  Thales landed beside the dragon, with an equal amount of grace, and sighed, “I’ll go get a vomit bucket. And a mop…”
  As David finished throwing up on the floor, Diogenes spoke up. “No, I’ll go get the mop. You take care of David…” Thales nodded, eager to avoid mopping up vomit, and picked David up (the deer didn’t like how often he was getting manhandled) and brought him to one of the cots. The deer didn’t get to examine it before, but this room was certainly an infirmary. It had multiple first aid kits, shelves of various medical supplies, a series of cots, and perhaps most notably; a vomit bucket on standby.
  Thales gently set the deer on the cot, making sure that he was lying on his side, facing the chair on which the owl sat. He then brought out a thermometer, rubbing it across David’s forehead to measure his temperature as Diogenes cleaned up the vomit. When it registered a normal temperature, Thales nodded and commented, “Seems to be spacesickness. That’s pretty common for anyone’s first time launching into orbit… I’m shocked that you threw up so little, given that you weren’t strapped in for lunch.”
  David let out a slight groan, “I think some of Artemis’s acid went up my nose…”
  Thales chuckled slightly, “Yeah, that also sucks the first time…”
  “First time?”
  “Ah, yeah. On this ship, eating people is relatively common… I swear, me and Hypatia get eaten once a week by Atlas… Artemis doesn’t usually eat us though, she reserves her eating skill for her enemies. It’s okay though, we get reformed… Here, take this.”
  Thales handed David a pill of some sort, to which David popped it in his mouth, and gulped it down. “Err… I notice that all of you have Greek names… I assume that they are code names?”
  The bird nodded eagerly, “Indeed! Diogenes generally gives us our code names, and they tend to stick, so we refer to each other by our code names at all times… Well, except Mom.”
  “Uh, sorry, but you have a mother on the ship?”
  “Ah, well… She’s not my real mom, but Hestia is essentially the mom to all of us… She’s the only one allowed to refer to Atlas by his real name…” Thales suddenly grinned happily, “Man, Atlas would get so pissed at me and Hades when we called him uh… We uh…” The owl’s grin fades somehow, and he seems somewhat distant.
  David is about to ask what’s up with him, but Diogenes stepped behind him, “Hey, Thales… Can you go check on Atlas? We’re approaching ESM territory, and I don’t want him to speed. I can take over from here.”
  The owl nodded and stood up, walking over to the chute that led to the rest of the ship, and jumped up into it, getting pulled into the lower gravity tunnel which allowed him to get back to the ship. David, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow and asked, “What was that about?”
  Diogenes sighed and shook his head, sitting down next to the cot. “Er… You see, we used to have a stealth specialist named Hades, but about a month ago, he er… Got his neck snapped violently by a C3…”
“Oh… I’m so sorry for your loss…”
“Hades was a talented man, and he was practically an uncle to Atlas, Artemis, and Thales… And he was Hestia’s son. His death shook the crew, and it’s still a rough spot for everyone except our newest member, Hypatia.” Diogenes paused, “But, that isn’t what I want to talk to you about. Now that Thales has helped you out, I want to know why you crawled onto our ship if you didn’t want to spy on us.”
David thought for a second, trying to think of some way to say his reason without making it sound stupid. “Well… I uh… Have always wanted to go to space. Y’know, see the stars, explore the planets, but New Athens is not the best place to do that, especially with a minimum wage job.”
Diogenes nodded, “I get that. When I was your age, I wanted nothing more than to go to space, and I did even dumber shit to do it.”
“So… You’re not mad at me?”
Laughter erupted from the captain’s mouth, “Of course not! You had a lot of guts to climb onto the ship and well… It was really impressive how you managed to get onto the ship without any of us knowing.”
“Well, Artemis caught me.”
“Artemis has caught professional spies, the fact that she found you means nothing… But, this segways into the next question I have for you… How good are you with a lockpick?”
David raised an eyebrow at this question, “Err… Decent enough, I guess. I can open a couple of simpler locks, but as they get more complicated, I have less success… My hands get shaky, and then the pins reset.”
Diogenes pondered this for a second, reviewing the answer… “Eh, good enough. What do you think about The Collective?”
The Collective, as David knew, referred to a group of smugglers and mercenaries who lived on Nyx’s moon of Thanatos… David believed that rulebreaking and committing crimes were not things to aspire to, but based on the context of the question and the hidden passageways in the ship, the deer knew that his opinion should be hidden. “I think that they’re necessary for the system to run properly, and that it’s unfortunate that the United Colonies of Exodus removed their representative from the Board.”
“Hmm… You still suck at lying.” The captain shrugged. “But hey, your response wasn’t open revilement, which is good enough for me.”
David’s cheeks turned red as he realized that his lie was a bit too saccharine. But, a question remained in his head. “Err… What are these answers good enough for?”
“Well… That’s the real question, ain’t it? Well, truth be told, we need a new stealth expert. Hypatia does decently enough at infiltration, but her lockpicking skills need work… Which is why I was wondering if you’d be willing to join our crew.”
David was stunned with this proposal. Him? A member of a real, genuine space crew? His childhood dreams, dashed as he saw Artemis unhook the ship from the fuel nozzle, were reborn with the strength of a phoenix as he heard the proposal. But, with those dreams, came the crushing weight of reality. “I… I’d love to, but Ms. Graham needs help with the orphanage…”
Diogenes shrugged. “Well, I don’t mean to influence your decision, but you could send some of your earnings back to the orphanage to help out Ms. Graham.”
The deer pursed his lips. He really really wanted to say yes… But, would that be a betrayal to Ms. Graham? But… He was in space, on a spaceship, with an opportunity to fulfill every single one of his childhood dreams! “Er… Do you have a telecom on this ship?”
Diogenes nodded and smiled, “Yes we do.”
 
 
Later that night, back on the planet of Ouranos, in the outskirts of New Athens, Sally was finally asleep. Ms. Graham let out a sigh of relief, and walked out of the room where the girl now peacefully slept. The tigress made her way to the window, peering out it. David should have been back by now… Suddenly, she heard a ding come from her office, a notification that she’d received a message on her computer. She walked to her computer, and checked her messages tab. She had one new message, from an unknown location with the subject of, “Hi Ms. Graham.” The tigress curiously clicked on it, and began to read.
[i]Hello Ms. Graham, it’s me, David. I feel really bad for sending this message, especially at such a late hour, but I’m not going to be coming home. I am completely fine, and am not in any sort of danger, so do not worry about that. While I was in town, a ship landed in town, and they let me join their crew. I know this may seem shocking and unexpected, but I have always wanted to go to the stars and explore space… I am sorry if this is a sudden departure, but I think Jimmy is old enough to be a replacement assistant to me if you need one.[/i]
[i]But, I promise that I will message you often, and I will also send you any money I make while being part of this crew, both to help the Orphanage, and as a thank-you to you for being my mother when I never had one.[/i]
[i]My new crewmates are really nice. There’s our captain, Diogenes, who is a very nice man and a great leader, but he does seem a little eccentric. He claims he’s from the planet Earth! Next is Atlas, who is a strong copilot. He’s a little brash, but still very nice. There’s also the medic, Thales, who helped me when I got spacesick after taking off into space. Oh, there is also Artemis, who gave me a rough welcome, but she’s apologized, and she is plenty nice otherwise. I haven’t really met Hestia yet, but she’s a wise old leopard. Finally, there’s Hypatia, who is senior to me by six months. She has been helping me adjust to ship life, and is kind of cute…[/i]
[i]Hypatia also showed me the ship’s observation deck, and I got to see stars! They were even more beautiful than I had imagined… I felt tears come to my eyes as I watched over them, they were so amazing. Speckled diamonds stretched out far into space as far as I could see…[/i]
[i]Oh, and I should mention that I have a code name now! From now on, people will refer to me as Orpheus! I think the name fits.[/i]
[i]I have to stop typing now, as the captain wants to send a message, but I will talk to you later, Ms. Graham. Thank you so much for all you have done for me![/i]
[i]Sincerely, Orpheus[/i]
  Ms. Graham felt a wave of shock fill her body… Her little David, taken off into space by a crew! She felt nearly faint of heart… But, she began to calm herself. David was old enough to make his own decisions, and in the end, he was a member of the orphanage too, who would be adopted like anyone else… She just didn’t know it would be today.
  Suddenly, the tigress’s thoughts were interrupted by another dinging noise. She closed the message from David, and saw another message from an unknown location, this one without a subject. Ms. Graham clicked on it, and began to read… But, she stopped halfway in, as she could not read it due to tears of pride.
  [i]Greetings, esteemed receiver of this message[/i]
  [i]This is a telecom sent to a Ms. Graham (I apologize, David never told me your first name), seeking to inform you that I adopted an orphan of yours named David (No Last Name). I understand that it is customary for an adoptee to receive the last name of the adopter, but I have no last name either. As such, I will refer to him as David Graham, as he asked for that to be his surname. That is, when I am not referring to him as his code name. Which will be never. But any official documents will bear the name David Graham.[/i]
  [i]You should feel proud, Ms. Graham. You raised a talented young man, and he thinks very highly of you. As far as I am concerned, even if I am his legal guardian, you are his true mother. After all, he certainly sees you as his mother.[/i]
  [i]Attached to this message is a credit payment of whatever I feel like paying, I don’t know how much adoption costs.[/i]
  [i]Toodle-oo, Diogenes[/i]