Fee’s head swam, and her heart sank. What little brightness was snuffed out in an instant.

  "Sure." She said wearily. "Sure, let's go."

  They tracked through corridors in a strained silence. Rick wanted to ease the tension with small talk, to explain why he led a double life and why almost everything she knew about him was a lie, but there was no light in her eyes; the moment had passed. Toward the main assembly room, Fee looked up at the station logo of a Wolf's head in front of two crossed axes.

  "Officially, we are Wolf Station Alpha." Rick said, "Commonly referred to as: The Galveston. There are many other stations dotted around forming a network, the main ones being Eagle and Tiger"

  Fee stalked off in the direction of the nearest exit.They stopped to let a group of cadets in grey flight suits march past in lockstep, all the while a sergeant sounded off a call and response. Rick contained his tour guide speech.

  "Assuming you'll stick around, that's what you will be doing as a Cadet: basic grunt work.” He tapped a code into a nearby console, which lit up a wire-frame hologram of the outpost.

  The exterior was bigger than Fee imagined. It resembled a city centre complex with tall skyscraper-like structures mounted on a triangular base. Rick input another set of numbers before scrolling down a list of names. "Won't take a second, I have to ..."

  "Run a diagnostic?" Fee said. Her sudden interruption caught Rick off guard. "Reverse the polarity?"

  "No." He said, with a tight smile. "Checking to see if there are any ships available."

  "Just shove me in an airlock," Fee said. "At least the suffering will be quicker." Any sense of wonder was replaced with a lingering numbness and betrayal. "Was it all a lie?"

  "White lies, for your own good."

  "What about that whole chase on the motorbike?" Fee said, giving him a hard look. "We nearly died, y'know?"

  "That was genuine fear," Rick said. "I honestly had no idea who those guys were. I still don't." He stiffened up a little. "But it did earn me a promotion, so every cloud and all that." The expression dropped to a frown. "Not important right now."

  Fee glared at him but said nothing. She was tempted to tell him how her mother was tied in with the whole pursuit, but figured it was easier to let him suffer instead.

  "How long have you been here?"

  "A few months," Rick said. "Total service time, three years."

  "We've been dating for eighteen months." Fee said. "Or was that part of your mission, too?"

  Rick stopped and stared blankly through the hologram.

  "That's the only thing I didn't have to lie about."

  "Playing dumb part, make a fool..." She shut down the rest of the sentence and closed her eyes. "I have already done this with Mum, now I have to...with my own..." She was on the verge of tears. "I thought well, at least Rick will be there for me. Ha!" The laugh felt dry, like a welt in her throat. She wiped her eyes with a sleeve. "Let's just go."

  "Fee..."

  "Don't..." She said. "No apologies, no regrets. You did your duty like a good soldier, now onto the next."

  The walk to the hangar was made in a tense, prickly silence; Fee kept her eyes down as they passed the large screens overlooking the slow rotation of the Earth. She was quietly impressed with the overall architecture of the outpost, with Cathedral-like walls ending on hidden vaulted ceilings. A large display cube hung from the centre, with each screen displaying the same rolling news. All over, she could hear the rhythmic 'clomp-clomp-clomp' of marching boots and the pneumatic whirr of some machine. Fee watched open mouthed as a soldier clad in a heavy, robotic exo-skeleton, trudged noisily out of a hallway, to the hissing chorus of pistons and pneumatic limbs.

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  "We call them Iron-backs," Rick said, activating the elevator. "G-thirty-seven armoured infantry battle-suits. They replaced the outdated Tombstones. I am hoping to get on the program, but there is a strength requirement, which means more time in the gym busting ma guns." He allowed himself a little laugh. "Y'know? How like in an RPG where you can't use special armour until you are at a certain power level? So it's stuck in your inventory for half the game?" Fee said nothing. Icy silence resumed as an awkward tension settled between them. He cleared his throat and pushed a button for the floor. "Yeah well, you must have missed that game."

  The elevator doors opened out onto the vast concourse. Upon entering, Fee's body tingled with a thousand pin-pricks. Rows upon rows of spacecraft were docked into hissing, steaming launch racks. Rockets towered like industrial chimneys, the tops half-concealed by a cloud bank of drifting white gas. Tightly packed cabling curled around the high scaffolding, twisted like the coiled tentacles of some eldritch leviathan. The hangar felt cramped despite its size Despite its size, the hangar felt cramped due to the amount of civilian transport on standby. The ships were mostly cumbersome and wrapped in copper piping around a bulky fuselage. Fee could not shake how cramped the place felt. It was a forest of metal and mist, with the lingering smell of burning plastic. Rick picked a path under random blasts of steam. He had to raise his voice above the clamour of activity.

  "Where are we?" Fee asked.

  "This is one of twenty hangars which are open twenty-four-seven. They are all accessible, apart from hangars two and eleven, which have been stricken from the record, never to be talked about."

  "Why's that?"

  "I just said it's never to be talked about," Rick said and gestured to the knot of spacecraft, still in the building phase and suspended on chains. " 'Turtles'. We haven't discovered how to build a faster drive as yet. Not a lot we can do in seven years."

  By the time they reached the staging area, they could talk normally.

  "Hey." Fee said. "If another ship appears out of nowhere, there's not a lot anyone can do."

  "True," Rick said. "But according to your Mother, we have a backup for every scenario, which is above my pay grade, as they say. I say pay; it's not like the Pizza money."

  Fee stopped and glared at him.

  "Wait a minute." She said. "You made me feel guilty for getting you the sack, but now it turns out it didn't matter. Wow."

  "Oh, that," Rick said, frowning. "Yeah, that was pretty low. In my defence, the mission was to keep an eye on you, although I was not expecting us to have a relationship. Your Mum even warned me against it. 'Do not cross any lines, or I will scatter you to the four bloody winds.' She was very insistent on that."

  "So what changed?"

  "When I became aloof to dissuade any further interaction, this made you somewhat depressed. That's when she allowed me to step outside the mission parameters."

  "Mission parameters," Fee said bitterly. "Sounds like I dated a frickin' Cyborg. So what? It was just an act?"

  "No," Rick said, looking Fee full in the eye. "I had to be cold and distant because I was under orders. That's when your Mum permitted me to date you." He shrugged. "Kinda old-fashioned, if you think about it."

  "Hmm..." Fee said and thought for a while. "She actually said: 'Bloody'?"

  "I was keeping it PG-13.”

  "And I just want my life back." Fee said.

  "I hope that includes me at some point."

  "It depends; would you've told me the truth?"

  "Well, this whole mission was classified," Rick said. "So probably not."

  "There's your answer."

  Rick nodded sadly, and they continued to walk in silence. Coming upon a nearby transport ship, he tapped a code into a four-by-four keypad. The thick door hissed open to reveal the tan leather interior.

  "You're good to go." He said.

  "One more thing," Fee said. "Why you?"

  "No one else wanted to deliver Pizzas for a year. I understand why you're upset."

  "I am not upset," Fee said, boarding the craft. "I am disappointed with murderous rage." Rick was moved to say something, but the screaming blare of base alarms shook him out of his melancholy.

  "Incoming." He murmured as combat mode snapped in. Suddenly, the world was drenched in red lighting. "Code critical."

  "What does that mean?"

  "Anything from proximity alarms to imminent attack. You have to go.”

  "Really?" Fee said.

  “Yeah, not good”

  "Perfect timing, I'd say."

  "What are you talking about?" Rick said, walking to the nearest control panel, "You need to get going before the base shuts down."

  "You don't think it's a bit of a coincidence?" Fee said, in an attempt to keep up with the pace. "I happened to be leaving, and now there's a reason to keep me here?"

  "No one is keeping you here, Fee."

  "I'm going home, Rick. Tell Mum: 'Nice try'."

  "Good," Rick said. Scrolling through updates, his voice dropped to a whisper. "Can't be."

  Genuine panic began to creep into Fee's cynicism.

  "What is it?" She said. No answer. "Tell me!"

  Rick gave her a grave look.

  "Go home."

  He charged off toward the elevators, leaving Fee alone in the scarlet glow.