Working in the ship was unpleasantly like being baked in the bad way, but eventually a loud klaxon sounded and Jackie came down to Jason.

“Shift’s over,” she said, jerking her thumb towards the door she had come in by. “I’ll take you to the mess.”

“Do we have to clean that up too?” said Jason innocently. To her surprise, Jackie snorted a quick laugh. Immediately after, though, she was dead serious once again. She led Jason out of the ship.

“You finish the soldering?” she said. Jason nodded, holding up her hands. A large red mark betrayed the spot where she had carelessly let her hand rest against a deceptively hot outcropping from one of the processor cores. Jackie laughed and held up her own hand. One exactly like it marked her own hand, just between the thumb and first finger.

“We’re all the same here,” she said. “Just some of us are the same in different ways.”

Chapter Three