“These rations taste like cardboard if it was flavorless and had the texture of drywall.” Tiana mumbled as she stared at a block of gray-brown something inside of a shiny silver wrapper. “You’re sure that we don’t have any more pasta? Or engine lubricant?”

Kelly wore an awkward smile as she stared at the contents of her own packet. “The engine lubricant would probably taste better! Only it wouldn’t do as good of a job at keeping us alive.”

The two sat at a small table shaped like a blocky crescent moon, big enough that there was room for another two to dine with them. Through the window bulkheads, the view remained the same that it had for days.

Distant, unfamiliar stars.

A lack of nearly any and all motion.

Kelly’s hair was still messy, but it no longer hid one of her beautiful brown eyes. Tiana’s antennae hung in a permanent slump when not drawn towards some new curiosity.

“I’m sorry we ended up—”

“—I still don’t accept your apology.” Tiana held up a green hand. “You showed me the bill of sale for those engines. Real Ferren engines, or at least sold by real Ferren merchants. You had no reason to believe we’d end up like this... I’m just not looking forward to the last week of our food running out.”

“Me neither…” Kelly forced herself to smile. Then she took a bite of the tasteless block of food-like-product, and nearly vomited it onto the table. “Ugh! I’m not looking forward to the last week of having food! Maybe we should try soaking it in water like the worst kind of cereal?”

Tiana wrinkled up her nose. “I’m not sure that I like the sound of that anymore than—”

Beep! Beep! Beep!

“What’s that…?” Tiana’s antennae stood up as a nearby console began to throw out a very alerting sound. Kelly dropped her ration square to the table where it promptly cracked in half. “Are we saved from eating this solid misery by the ship finally running out of power? Suffocating would probably be—”

“—This is The Nightcutter!” Kelly’s voice was frantic enough that Tiana couldn’t even be upset that she was interrupted. “Our engines overloaded and knocked us out of Ultraspace, wrecking most of our systems that could have helped us get out of this mess! Any help would be appreciated!”

Red eyes widened.

Green lips slowly parted into a wide, open-mouthed smile.

Moments later the view of the motionless stars was replaced by a view of a woman with teal hair worn in long ringlets. Her skin was ghostly white, and the professional clothing she wore did nothing to hide the impressiveness of her curves. Around her, the view of her ship was opulent—gold in elaborate designs etched into beautiful polished marble and adorned with jewels. Holographic decorations in brilliant turquoise and cyan hues.

“Icosians… I’ve heard of them, but never actually seen any…” Tiana’s voice was barely above a whisper, but the woman on the wall still glanced towards her with a curious look in her yellow eyes.

“This is The Profit Motive, and I’m Jelendaressia Riestrarpordal. We happened to be moving through the sector when my communications officer told me about your distress signal.” Her voice was smooth and businesslike without any hesitation or uncertainty. Her smile looked concerningly plastic, but hardly cruel or scheming. “Your ship is registered in… Eterna space! You’re very far from home.”

Kelly stepped over to block view of Tiana from the screen. It was a kind thought, even if Tiana merely leaned around her friend. “Are we in Icosian space? We weren’t trying to—”

“Xaron Industries space.” Jelendaressia interrupted in the same no-nonsense tone that sounded almost like an advertisement come to life. “Xaron Industries space welcomes anyone and everyone! You said you needed help? Your ship is small enough that we can take you into our docking bay and welcome you aboard The Profit Motive.”

“We’d love to!” Tiana responded before Kelly could. “Our ship is still functioning, but there’s something very distressing about being perfectly safe inside of a ship that can’t drive with dwindling resources!”

Kelly turned to face Tiana, her face twisting faintly before she looked back to Jelendaressia.

The immensely pale woman motioned to someone out of view, and then offered Kelly and Tiana an even more plastic smile. “Then it’s decided. Please don’t be alarmed by the size of The Profit Motive. As an executive yacht, you’ll find it far more impressive than any ship from Eterna or Irakkon. We’ll speak soon, but on behalf of Xaron Industries, I would like to welcome you back from the void of despair and into the open arms of profit and possibility.”

Before Kelly could respond, the view of the Icosian woman cut out, again replaced with a view of the stars.

“I wasn’t going to turn them down, but Ti…?” Kelly frowned, shifting uncomfortably as she glanced back to her friend. “The Icosians are bad news. That was big talk about Xaron Industries space, and profit and possibility, but there’s a reason you don’t see many Icosians on Eterna.”

“Yeah, I know.” Tiana rolled her eyes. “Because they’re capitalists and Eterna left that behind when Earth got chomped. Keep an open mind! Didn’t people with green skin used to be shorthand for evil invading aliens in your culture before a Human ever met a Gral? We never had any sayings about tall pink-brown-and-black people.” Green lips stretched into a much wider smile before Tiana pulled herself up to her feet. “Try to have an open mind!”

Kelly parted her lips to say something, but those words were swallowed up as The Profit Motive pulled ahead of The Nightcutter.

While still small nestled in the depths of space, the Icosian ship was massive, looking at a glance larger than the planet they’d been orbiting before everything went so wrong. Unlike the orange-and-blue craft, The Profit Motive was metallic white, almost seeming to glow from just how well-polished its every surface it was. Gold filigree added extra detail, making the massive shining metal craft look almost serpentine, and large enough to swallow up a planet.

When at last a large compartment opened at the back of the ship, and teal light shined forth, both women wordlessly gawked as the much larger vessel swallowed them up.

“Open mind?” Kelly smirked playfully.

“Open mind doesn’t mean I can’t be in awe of how terrifyingly huge this ship is… and what did she call it—an executive yacht? Does that mean that this is a company ship, a private ship, or…”

Kelly shrugged. “I don’t know a lot about Xaron Industries, but I know enough that nobody gets to call a ship like this…?” She motioned around them, and out at where instead of stars there was now marble, gold, and jewels in colors and shapes that neither woman had names for or had ever seen in their lives. “This… theirs without being very important. It might be open space, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be very careful. I’ve heard some pretty awful things.”

“Open mind!” Tiana looked at the rations again, and twisted up her face. “I bet they have food. Showing us a warm welcome should definitely include food that doesn’t have such little taste or texture that it somehow feels like it’s destroying your concept of taste, right?”

They laughed again, but there was an uncertainty in the air that didn’t quite go away.

Any awkwardness in the air didn’t stop Kelly from interfacing with the nearby panel again. “The environment outside the ship looks safe, so I’ll open us up, and we can go meet… what was her name? Jalen?”

“Jelendaressia.” Tiana helpfully chimed in. “I think so, anyway. It’s a charming name. I didn’t know Icosians wore their hair in curls. Do you think I could pull off something like that if I grew my hair out a little?”

Kelly quirked a brow for a moment, but then laughed with a bit more of a smile. “I think you could pull off any look that you want to if you put in the effort. Just don’t try to go for their whole terrifyingly-pale trick, huh? I’d get worried if you suddenly stopped being green after we avoided eating those terrible rations.”

The two friends snickered together as they made their way off of the ship.