Emily peeled off the medical scrubs and tossed them into the recycler, the familiar routine of changing clothes feeling strange without Luca's voice drifting through the cabin walls. Their quarters were side by side on Deck Four, and she'd grown used to hearing him moving around, the occasional curse when he stubbed his toe, the sound of him talking to himself while reviewing mission reports.

Now there was only silence.

She sat on the edge of her bed in her underwear, staring at the wall that separated her cabin from his. Through that barrier, his space felt empty in a way that made her chest tight. No shuffling footsteps, no muttered complaints about paperwork, no terrible jokes that somehow always made her smile.

Her fingers found the small bracelet around her wrist, something Luca had fashioned from twine during their weeks on New Dawn. She'd rolled her eyes then, but now she turned it around and around, the rough edges catching her skin.

Twenty minutes, Joey had said. Standard decontamination and healing. But something felt wrong, like the silence itself was trying to tell her something she didn't want to hear.

Emily pressed her palm against the wall, imagining she could feel his presence on the other side. But there was nothing.

Someone had to keep the crew moving, though. That meant her.

She pulled on her white bodysuit with mechanical precision, each movement an act of will. Somewhere in those cargo bays were samples and equipment that needed attention before they could move on.

But first, she had to pretend everything was fine.

Emily found them exactly where she expected: sprawled across the lounge like refugees from a battlefield. Danny was face-down on the couch, still in his scrubs. Ryan had claimed the recliner, eyes closed but not quite asleep. Chris sat at the table, halfheartedly poking at a protein bar while Zoe lounged in the corner chair, already changed into her bodysuit but looking like she might dissolve if asked to move.

"Comfortable?" Emily asked from the doorway.

Danny's muffled voice came from the couch cushions. "Please tell me you're here to say we can sleep for twelve hours."

"Try again."

"We've got work to do." Emily stepped into the room, gripping the back of a chair to steady herself. "The Percival's cargo bay is packed with weeks of samples and equipment. Everything needs to be catalogued and stored before we can plot course to our next destination."

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?" Chris asked, though he was already straightening in his chair.

Emily felt something almost crack in her chest. I need him, she thought desperately. I need him to be the one saying this. But instead she said, "The biological samples can't wait. Some of them are already showing signs of degradation."

"When does Luca get out of the pod?" Zoe asked.

Emily's grip tightened on the chair back. For a moment, she couldn't find her voice. "Joey said standard processing. Should be tonight."

He'll be fine, she told herself. But what if he wasn't?

"He'll be fine," she said aloud, as much for herself as for them. "But while he's recovering, we're going to make sure everything's ready."

She divided up the work, with Danny on the biological samples, Chris and Ryan on equipment and schematics, Zoe on navigation once everything was organized. The familiarity of command felt hollow without Luca's presence to anchor it.

Emily found Joey in the medical bay, updating charts on his tablet. The healing pod hummed quietly, Luca's vitals displayed on the monitor in steady green lines. She pressed her palm against the warm glass, studying his peaceful face.

"How's he doing?"

Joey glanced up. "Good. Really good. The cellular repair is ahead of schedule."

"When will he be ready to come out?" Emily's fingers traced along the glass edge, following the curve of his shoulder.

Joey's hesitation made her look up sharply. "The bone fusion takes time to integrate properly. The nano-scaffolds are reporting some… inconsistencies. I want to make sure he's at 100% before we risk moving him."

"How long, Joey?"

"Maybe... forty-eight hours. Possibly longer."

Emily stared at him, her hand still pressed against the pod. "Forty-eight hours? For broken ribs?"

"The bone fusion takes time to integrate properly. I want to make sure he's completely healed."

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Something in Joey's tone made her study his face more carefully. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Just being cautious."

Emily looked back at the pod, where Luca lay in healing light. She wanted to whisper I need you to wake up, but Joey was watching.

"Keep me updated, please."

The next day blurred into a routine that felt wrong without Luca's presence. Emily found herself walking into rooms full of people working, but feeling completely alone because the one person who always shared the weight was gone.

In Engineering, Ryan kept muttering about physics that didn't make sense while running maintenance on their TL9 armor. Chris buried himself in cataloging schematics that didn't fit together and would take experts years to understand.

"Making progress?" Emily asked, checking her watch for the dozenth time that hour.

"Getting there," Chris replied without looking up from his holographic displays. "Still missing most of the puzzle pieces, but everything's being documented for Earth."

In Lab Two, Danny was completely absorbed in his work, treating the biological samples like a dissertation project. Emily watched him from the doorway, quiet envy twisting in her chest. Danny had Zoe. Ryan and Chris had their toys and each other's company.

And she... she only had Luca.

"How's the cataloging?" she asked.

"Halfway through the flora samples," Danny replied, barely glancing up. "This is going to revolutionize xenobiology."

Emily nodded and left him to it, her hand unconsciously pressing against the wall as she passed Luca's empty cabin.

That night, the crew gathered in the lounge for dinner and their usual movie night. Joey had prepared one of his better meals, but the empty chair at their table felt like a gaping wound.

Emily sat alone on the couch, hugging a pillow against her chest. Usually, this would be Luca's spot, his arm around her shoulders while he made sarcastic comments about the movie's physics. She'd gotten used to the warmth of him beside her, the steady rhythm of his breathing, the way he'd absently play with her hair during quiet scenes.

Now there was just empty space and the faint smell of his cologne still clinging to the cushions.

Danny and Zoe had claimed the corner, her head on his shoulder as she dozed through the opening credits of Interstellar. Ryan and Chris were engaged in their usual pool tournament, the soft crack of balls mixing with Hans Zimmer's haunting score.

Emily pulled the pillow closer, breathing in the last traces of Luca's presence. Her fingers found the bracelet again, turning it around and around until the rough edges left marks on her skin.

On screen, Cooper was leaving his daughter behind, promising to come back. The ache in Emily's chest deepened as she watched Murph beg her father not to go, not knowing if she'd ever see him again. The parallels hit too close to home.

"I love you forever," Cooper whispered to his daughter through the video message, and Emily's throat tightened.

"You okay?" Joey asked quietly, settling beside her.

"Just tired." She tightened her grip on the pillow as the movie showed years passing, time stretching between the characters like an unbridgeable gulf. "How much longer?"

Joey was quiet for a moment, and something in his expression made her stomach drop.

"Emily..." he began carefully.

"How much longer, Joey?"

He sighed. "Another day or two. Maybe a bit longer."

Emily felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. "For broken ribs?"

"It's not just broken ribs." Joey's voice was barely above a whisper. "He had micro-fractures throughout his entire ribcage. If he'd taken another serious hit down there..."

Emily closed her eyes. The stubborn idiot, walking around with serious injuries just to keep them all safe.

"He's going to be fine," Joey added quickly. "Better than fine, the synthetic reinforcement will make him stronger than before."

On screen, Cooper was aging while his daughter grew up without him, time itself becoming the enemy. Emily watched Danny's fingers trace patterns on Zoe's arm, watched Chris line up an impossible shot while Ryan bitched and moaned.

But the space beside her felt empty, incomplete.

Her knuckles were white where she gripped the pillow. "I can't lose him," she whispered, the words swallowed by the movie's score, so quiet she wasn't sure Joey heard.

Two more days. She could handle two more days.

But what if something went wrong?

Emily was in the cargo bay, supervising the final stages of sample storage, when Zoe's voice crackled over the comm.

"Emily, I need you on the bridge. Now."

Something in her tone made Emily drop what she was doing and head for the lift. She found Zoe at the navigation station, staring at her displays with an expression caught between excitement and terror.

"What is it?"

"Our route to Alpha Centauri A." Zoe manipulated the holographic star chart, zooming out to show the entire system. "I've been running detailed scans for the past two days, mapping gravitational anomalies and radiation patterns."

Emily moved closer to the display. "And?"

Zoe highlighted dozens of energy signatures scattered throughout the space between stars. They pulsed with familiar blue-white light, hanging in the void like beacons.

"Portals," Emily whispered.

"Forty-three that we can detect from here. Maybe more." Zoe's voice was tight. "Emily, in Sol system, we only found portals on planets, asteroids, moons. But these... these are just floating in space."

Emily stared at the display, her mind racing. Space-borne portals were unthinkable. Portals needed anchor points, stable mass to maintain their dimensional stability. At least, that's what Earth's limited research had suggested.

"Are you sure they're portals?"

"Same energy signatures as the ones we found on New Dawn. But Emily..." Zoe's hands trembled slightly as she manipulated the display, zooming in on one of the larger portal clusters. "There's something else."

The display shifted, showing detailed scans of the space around one of the portals. Emily's breath caught as she saw what Zoe had discovered.

Ships. Arranged in silent formations.

She could make out intricate sensor arrays through their telescope, massive engine blocks, and hull sections that could only be weapon emplacements.

"Jesus Christ," Emily breathed. "Are those… warships?" The word felt foreign.

"They're not broadcasting any identification signals we can recognize," Zoe said, her voice tight with awe and terror. "But their energy signatures… Emily, the power output from a single one of those cruisers could run Earth's entire planetary grid for a year."

Emily's mind raced back to the schematics of their own ship, the Triumph of Darron. The largest vessel humanity had ever constructed, a marvel of science and exploration. And completely, utterly unarmed. Earth hadn't yet built a single dedicated starship for war.

"Are they moving?"

"They're holding formation around their respective portals. Like they're guarding them." Zoe highlighted patrol patterns around several portal clusters. "But Emily, if we get too close..."

"They might respond."

Emily stared out at the stars, where system fleets waited in the darkness. Below in the infirmary, Luca lay unconscious, trusting her to keep their mission on track.

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