Lokaia was in the girls’ bunk, sitting in fetal position on her bed. She was trying to calm her racing heart, and keep from crying. Radu had just told her about his Spung girlfriend, Elmira. Well, Loki, you’ve done it again, Lokaia thought. Lokaia had the worst luck with guys. Back on Miseth, despite her looks and the fact that she was heiress to the Elvian throne, not a single male was interested in her. Not that she really wanted them to be. Elvian males weren’t that great. And now that she had finally found a boy that she could truly care about, Lokaia had found that he was taken. And not by another of his species; Radu was dating a girl from the race that had enslaved his people for generations. So, what does that say about you, Loki? Lokaia asked herself. What does it say about you when the guy you like would rather date a lizard than you? So, she was sitting on her bed trying not to cry using a technique Mayana had taught her to calm down. Unfortunately, the technique wasn’t working. Lokaia gave up on being dignified and threw herself onto the bed, sobbing.

“Where’s Lokaia?” Rosie asked. “She was supposed to meet me here for minbar chess.” She coughed dryly.

Suzee and Bova shrugged. “Haven’t seen her,” Harlan said.

“Radu?” Rosie’s eyes were pleading for information on her friend.

“I was talking to her before, but she said that she needed to go and went to the girls’ bunks.”

Suzee narrowed her eyes. “What were you talking about?”

Radu wouldn’t meet her eyes. “I… she asked about Elmira.”

“Radu!” The rest of the crew shouted at him, their combined screams hurting his ears. “Well, what was I supposed to say?” he demanded.

Rosie looked at her best friend, shocked. She cleared her throat. “I can’t believe you would tell her about Elmira, Radu.”

The Andromedan bristled. “I didn’t tell her anything. She came up and asked me on her own. I don’t even know how she knew about Elmira!”

Suzee’s eyes widened and she cleared her throat. When everyone turned to look at her she said, “Um… I might know.”

“How?”

“I may have… at some point… you know, um…” Suzee made a face. “Told her.”

"What?!”

“Well, it was when we were stuck in the storage room for all that time. I was telling her about how I flirt with you boys and I think I said something like, ‘Even after Radu met Elmira,’ or something like it. I was just babbling, though, I didn’t know that she was actually listening to me.” But Suzee looked unmistakably guilty.

Radu sighed and flopped backwards onto the couch, covering his face with his hands. He was in way over his curly, blond head.

“Okay, everyone. Get ready for simulation. Get to your posts.”

The entire crew was congregated around the command room. Goddard was teaching the kids how to react under pressure at their stations. When he saw everyone in his or her spots, he was about to begin the simulation when he heard a soft voice say, “Um… Commander?”

He turned to see Lokaia standing uncertainly at his side. “What do I do?”

Goddard surveyed the room, noticing that all positions had been filled. “Uh, well, I’m not sure. Even if there was an open position I don’t even know if the Christa would accept you. But, why don’t you go ahead and try as a back-up at helm with Harlan for now? If the ship responds to you then we’ll be that more lucky.”

Lokaia nodded and stood by Harlan, who began showing her the controls. She hung on his every word, studying them. After he had gone over the basics, it was time to test how the Christa felt about the new space case. She put her small hands onto the crystals.

“Mr. Radu,” Goddard said. “Tell Miss Lokaia where to go.”

Radu nodded and gave Lokaia a code, which she seemed to understand. She punched a few buttons on the console and began moving the crystals. That’s right, they moved. A shocked crew watched an even more surprised Lokaia as she brought them into hyperspace and to the destination Radu had told her.

“Excellent,” Ms Davenport told them. She turned to the Goddard. “Do you think she could operate all the positions? We could have a back-up for all of them in case of… emergencies.”

Lokaia paled at Ms Davenport’s hesitation, but Goddard looked excited. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea.” He turned back to Lokaia and directed her to each position. The kids, in turn, taught her the basics of their stations. She caught on quickly, delighting Goddard and Davenport. After she had finished at communications with Suzee, Davenport took Lokaia to their classroom to get into more specifics on each station.

Harlan shook his head. “How come Lokaia can work all the positions and each of us are only allowed to do one?”

“Because, Band, we have too many people on board. Miss Lokaia doesn’t have an official post, so she has to learn all of them to be able to work them in case of an emergency. Unless you’d rather to be the back-up and let Lokaia be at permanent helm?”

“Nope,” Harlan said quickly, turning back to the view screen as Goddard turned on the simulator.

“This sucks!”

Harlan threw his compupad down, practically hopping with rage. “I can not believe that Davenport is making us give her step-by-step instructions on how to work each of our stations! I mean, I think we’ve proved ourselves enough after almost 3 years on this stupid ship!” He was pacing around the room now, throwing his hands up. His arm hit Radu on the back, catching the Andromedan by surprise. Radu’s arm slipped and he hit a button on his compupad. Lokaia heard Radu’s heart come to a dead stop for a full 5 seconds. “Aswysoon!” Radu said loudly in Andromedan, which was basically screaming for him. “I just deleted my whole report!”

Rosie ran over to comfort him (offering him her new stuffed animal; a cat), while Bova watched looking remorseful. Suzee was trying not to laugh and Harlan was looking incredibly guilty. The Earther began backing up, afraid that Radu might rip him to shreds. Fortunately he was saved. Lokaia had been staring at Radu since his outburst and suddenly spoke up.

“I can’t believe you said that.”

Radu turned to her. “But I did delete it. It’s all gone!”

Lokaia shook her head, still staring at Radu in shock. “Not that. You swore.”

“Nuh-uh,” Harlan said. “I would know.”

Lokaia ignored him. “What I can’t figure out is how you learned Elvian.”

Radu looked at her confused. “I didn’t. That was Andromedan.”

“You mean you did swear?” Rosie demanded, her pink face giving Radu a look of disappointment. Radu blushed and wouldn’t look at her, which was okay because she was coughing again, practically squeezing the life out of her stuffed cat.

Lokaia looked at Radu from the corner of her eye. She muttered something the rest of them couldn’t understand but Radu looked shocked. He answered in what appeared to be the same language. Lokaia’s confused face became ecstatic and the two engaged in a rapid-fire conversation that left everyone else completely and utterly confused. And suddenly, Radu said the wrong thing. Lokaia’s face dropped. She picked up her compupad muttering, “I gotta go,” and practically ran out of the room.

“What-“ Rosie began. She was interrupted by a dry cough. “What-“ she tried again, followed by another cough. “What-“ she went into a coughing fit, and had to be held up by Radu. “Rosie?” he asked concerned. “Rosie, what’s the matter?” She tried to answer him, but couldn’t stop coughing. After about a minute, Rosie passed out from lack of air. “Lokaia!” Radu shouted (actually shouted). The Elvian raced back into the room, and immediately knelt by Rosie. She checked the Mercurian for a pulse. “Radu, take her up to the med lab,” she snapped. “Harlan, call Goddard and Davenport; Suzee, go down to the storage room and grab me 300 cc’s of mutolophane, but make sure it’s the kind that can be heated; Bova, come with me and Radu.”

Everyone did what they were told without question. I mean, come on; it was Rosie.

“What’s wrong with her, Lokaia?” Lokaia shook her head, and looked up at Goddard. She sighed and rubbed her face with her hands. “I’m sorry, Commander, I just don’t know.” She scanned Rosie’s vital lists and sighed again. “Ironically, I think Rosie would know what’s wrong with her in a second.” Rosie was laying on the cot in the med lab, still unconscious, her pink complexion noticeably lighter. Bova and Radu were sitting on either side of her, with Harlan and Suzee standing by the door. Lokaia was hunched over a chair by the vitals machines, with Goddard and Davenport looking over her shoulder.

“Lokaia?” Goddard asked. “Could you maybe try a spell on her?”

The Elvian wrinkled her nose. “A healing spell? I don’t know…”

“Try.” Bova had looked up with pleading eyes. Radu turned around, too. “Please, Loki?”

Lokaia bit her lip and sighed, looking worried. She stood by Rosie’s cot, rolled up her sleeves and raised her arms. She closed her eyes and concentrated. A small glass appeared in her hands, filled with something. “Lokaia, that’s a shot glass,” Goddard informed her with a raised eyebrow.

The crew stared at her a moment before she slapped her forehead with the heel of her hand and groaned. “Mix frozie.”

“What?”

“I wanted to ‘fix Rosie,’” Lokaia said, exasperated. “And I got a ‘mixed frozie.’”

“What’s a frozie?” Suzee asked.

“Alcoholic Elvian drink,” Lokaia answered. “I was going to try and ‘cure Rosie’ but then I probably would’ve gotten a ‘pure frozie.’” She was still looking at Rosie when she glanced down at the shot glass. Without notice, she grabbed it and threw it back, much to the surprise of everyone else. She coughed and looked around at them. Her eyes focused on Rosie again and all she could do was shrug and slump back into her chair. Suddenly Lokaia sat up. “Thelma!” she called.

The android popped up behind Goddard. “Yes, Lokaia?”

“Aah!” Goddard and Davenport screamed, but Lokaia stayed calm. “Thelma, if I told you the symptoms of Rosie’s illness would you be able to tell me what it is and how to cure it?”

“I might.”

The Elvian took Thelma aside and began to give her details. Bova watched them talk for a minute and then turned his attention back on Rosie. In the past 3 years he had spent more and more time with the optimistic Mercurian, which was weird enough for a Uranusian without mentioning the fact that he liked her, too. Rosie had become one of the most important people in his life and he hated to see her like this. Bova hadn’t even opened his mouth since Rosie had passed out because he was afraid of what he would say; he was aware of how much of a downer he was, and he couldn’t bear to hear all his worst fears spoken out loud. So, he contented himself with simply staring into her pale face, praying that she got well soon.

Lokaia was disappointed. “Is that all you can tell me, Thelma?”

“I am sorry, Lokaia. But I do not know what illness it is.”

Lokaia sighed and nodded, dismissing her. She rubbed her face again and slumped into her chair, pulling it by one of the filing cabinets. She pulled out the bottom one and grabbed a file. Plopping it down on her lap, she opened it and pulled out a piece of paper, scanning it front and back. When she was done, she pulled out the next paper, and the next and the next. She stopped and looked up, noticing all of them staring at her. She sighed. “Look, you guys, I don’t know what’s wrong, but I’m going to look. Thelma said that it’s probably just a Mercurian disease so that narrows it down, but not enough. I have to go through all of these files,” she gestured towards the six filing cabinets in the room. “I’m not going to ask any of you to stay here, but I really just want to keep looking. Is that okay?”

“Of course it is, Lokaia,” Ms. Davenport said kindly. “Perhaps Suzee could come by every evening and help you look so you have time to do your homework.” Suzee nodded and Lokaia smiled gratefully. “Well, come on, everyone. Let’s go have dinner.”

As everyone filed out, Lokaia turned to Davenport and Goddard. “I’m not very hungry. I think I’ll just stay here and keep looking.” The two adults nodded. Davenport turned back around. “Lokaia? Why don’t you just do Rosie’s report for her and that can be yours and her grade?”

The Elvian smiled gratefully. “Thank you.” Davenport nodded and pushed the rest of the kids out of the room. Bova stayed behind. “I-I think I’ll stay in here, too.”

“And skip dinner?” Goddard asked amazed.

Bova stood straighter. “Yeah.” Goddard looked like he was about to say more, but Davenport touched his arm and he backed down. “I’ll have Thelma bring you both back something,” she said.

The two were silent for a little bit. “Hey,” Bova said suddenly. “Davenport didn’t shorten my report. How come she did it for you?”

Lokaia blushed. “Um, well, because I’m the back-up, I had to do a separate report for each station.”

Bova stared. “But it was supposed to be four pages long. That’s four pages per station, and there are 5 stations. That’s 20 pages!”

“Well, that’s probably why she shortened it for me, then,” Lokaia said with a shrug. More silence. Lokaia sighed, and pulled out the next paper, scanning it for information, while Bova stayed by Rosie’s side.

Radu walked through the hallways with the huge package under his arm. It wasn’t heavy but it he had to carry it in an uncomfortable position. He made his way to the med lab, listening to make sure Lokaia and Bova were still there. He stepped through the door to find the two of them asleep; Bova with his arms under his head on Rosie’s cot, and Lokaia with her arms splayed out over the desk she was at with her head lying on a book titled Common Mercurian Diseases which was on top of a book titled Uncommon Mercurian Diseases. As he came closer, Lokaia started, jerking to a sitting position and sending her red hair flying. She turned to Radu, her face completely hidden by her hair. “Radu?”

He smiled. “Yeah,” he said quietly in Andromedan/Elvian.

She dipped her head and threw it back, her hair sailing to the back of her head where it belonged. Radu saw the dark circles under her eyes as she smiled back at him. “Was I asleep?” she asked in the same language.

At his nod, she sighed and rubbed her face. “Brought homework,” Radu said, gesturing to his package. Lokaia’s eyes widened. “Long class?”

The Andromedan grinned at her. “No, this is the homework,” he said, pulling out a small disk for her compupad. “The rest of this, Thelma made for Bova and your dinner.”

“I’m not hungry,” Lokaia said with a wave of her hand.

Radu nodded. “Didn’t think you would, but Davenport said you needed to eat, so I brought you this.” He tossed her an apple. “The rest is for Bova’s dinner.” The last word was said in the Universal language and much louder. Bova immediately sat up. “Food?”

Lokaia laughed and Radu set the box down before Bova. The Uranusian threw the top off and began stuffing food into his mouth as if he hadn’t eaten in days. Radu whispered that comment to Lokaia, and (amazingly) she confirmed it. Bova, like Lokaia, had not left the room since Rosie had been there.

Radu eyed the little Mercurian. “How’s she doing?” he asked in their language.

Lokaia followed his gaze. “Besides being in a coma?” The Elvian sighed, seeming much smaller and tired. “Her vitals are fine. Bova said she got a little wired earlier, but she’s okay now.” She smiled. “Bova brought her some of her stuffed toys, too.” She glanced at Radu. “She’s in good hands, Radu. And I don’t mean mine.” Her gaze traveled to Bova.

Radu sighed and nodded, watching Bova down a 3-foot sandwich and milk. He stopped in mid-bite of a new sandwich and eyed the Elvian and Andromedan. “Are you guys talking about me?”

“Nuh-uh,” Lokaia said in Universal (not that there was a word for ‘nuh-uh’ in her own language). She smiled at Radu and picked up her compupad and the disk Radu had brought her. She popped it in and began her homework. Radu pulled up a chair across from Bova on the other side of Rosie. “How’s it going, Bova?”

Bova finished his third sandwich and looked into Rosie’s pale pink face. “She’s better I think. Her vitals got a little high earlier but it didn’t last very long.” There was silence for a few minutes and Radu couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. Finally he pinpointed it. “Is that all?”

Bova glanced up confused. “Huh?”

“You haven’t said anything pessimistic since I came in.”

“Sorry.” The Uranusian focused back on Rosie. Radu smiled. As much as it didn’t seem like it, Bova and Rosie were in fact a good match. She relied on Bova just as much as she relied on Radu, her best friend. But Rosie’s relationships with the two boys were two very, very different things. Not that Radu was interested in Rosie that way. He was very content being her best friend, and as Harlan had once told him, the point of a best friend was to tear the limbs off of whoever hurt your best friend. After all Rosie had done for him, the least Radu could do was tear Bova’s arms off. He chuckled a little at that thought, making Lokaia look at him strangely.

Lokaia, now, was a different story. Radu knew that if he ever met the Elvian’s best friend, he would have to get his own limbs ripped off. He sighed and changed his mind’s subject to the one thing in life he understand… mostly: Elmira.

In what seemed like a few seconds (but was actually 20 minutes) Radu heard a small thump. He turned around to see Lokaia slumped over, facedown on her desk again with her compupad lying on the floor. He turned around to smile at Bova until he noticed that Bova was lying with his head to the side, his hand lying lightly on top of Rosie’s. Radu put her new stuffed animal next to her head, and pulled two blankets and a pillow out of the box of food. He put one blanket over Bova, and one over Lokaia, after placing the pillow carefully under her head, and turning it to the side so she wouldn’t suffocate. As he turned to leave, he heard her mumble in their language, “Thanks, alome(*ah-lo-may*).”

Radu turned back around, not recognizing the word. He shrugged and walked out the door, already gone by the time Rosie’s vitals began flashing brightly.

“Radu,” Elmira said forcefully. “You need to wake up.”

“Why?” As far as he could tell, Radu was awake, but that’s how he always felt during one of Elmira’s visits. Besides, Elmira looked pretty insistent on his getting up.

“Please, Radu,” Elmira begged. “Please get up.”

“Why?” He didn’t know why he was being so stubborn, besides just being tired. “What time is it?”

Elmira began to get irritated. “Oh, for God’s sake, Radu, it’s about 0600 and you have to get up in an hour anyway and Thelma’s on her way in to wake you up because something’s wrong with Rosie and Lokaia needs to know if you saw anything.”

“What?!”

Radu sat up in the dark room, breathing heavily. He heard Harlan’s steady breathing, and Bova, of course, was in the med lab. Radu leapt out of bed and grabbed his robe. “Harlan?” He shook the Earther’s shoulder and Harlan muttered, “10 more minutes, Mom.” Radu was about to shake him again when Thelma came in.

“Good morning, Radu. Lokaia wants everyone down to the med-“

“The med lab, I know,” Radu interrupted. “I was just trying to wake up Harlan.”

Thelma nodded. “Yes, it is hard to wake Harlan up. But I have found an effective way to do it.” She walked over to Harlan and pinched his nose. In another few seconds, Harlan snorted, waving his arms around trying to breathe. He sat up gasping. Radu smiled. “Tell him where to go, Thelma. I’ll meet him there.” He threw on his robe and began walking down towards the med lab, listening to Harlan lecture Thelma on how important breathing is to humans.

Radu heard the alarms long before he actually reached the med lab. He raced in to find Bova hovering over Rosie worriedly, and Lokaia was working on the vitals machines. Both looked frazzled, tired, and close to passing out. Lokaia noticed Radu and raced over to him. “Radu, did you do anything or give anything to Rosie last night?”

When Radu shook his head, Lokaia grabbed her head in her hands and went back to the vitals. She scanned them looking for anything and then turned back to Rosie’s bed. She gazed at Rosie for a second and sighed. “I want another frozie.”

Suzee and Harlan came in followed by Commander Goddard and Ms. Davenport. While Lokaia questioned them, Radu went to sit across from Bova. “How’s she doing?”

Bova looked up, a dark look in his eyes, which were also rimmed with tears. “’How is she doing? How is she doing?’ She’s unconscious, her temperature is 27 degrees below normal, she’s so pale she’s almost white, and she’s been in here so long I’m starting to miss her ‘happy Mercurian work songs!’ That’s how she’s doing!” he shouted. He waved his arms around, knocking Rosie’s stuffed cat off the bed.

Almost immediately the alarms stopped. Lokaia whirled around from talking to Harlan and rushed to Rosie’s side. “What did you guys do?”

Bova was staring open-mouthed. “I-I don’t know. I was just… I don’t know.”

Lokaia was looking at Rosie’s vitals, which were know rocketing to normal. She turned back to Rosie and pointed by her head. “Where’s her cat?”

“It got knocked off,” Radu said. He picked it up and handed it to Lokaia. When it passed by Rosie’s head, the alarms began again. The crew stared. Lokaia, still holding the cat, stepped closer to Rosie; the alarms went off. She stepped back; Rosie’s vitals went towards normal. She did that a few more times and suddenly smacked her forehead with the heel of her hand. “Of course!”

She raced over to her desk where her compupad was and began typing madly. “Oh, Smorf, duh! Suzee, grab the demopluse from the cabinet and empty about 600 ccs of that into Rosie.”

After Suzee did that the alarms subsided, and Lokaia put Rosie’s cat on the desk. She opened a drawer and pulled out a small knife and cut a long incision through one side of the toy. She pulled out some of the stuffing and put it into a small machine. After she pushed a few buttons on the console, the machine whirred and printed out a small piece of paper. “Yes!” Lokaia looked overjoyed at the paper and called, “Thelma!”

“Yes, Lokaia?” Thelma popped up behind Goddard and Davenport, making them jump.

“Does Rosie have any allergies?”

“Yes.”

The crew waited. Lokaia sighed and rolled her eyes. “What are they, Thelma?”

“She has one; caphyllener.”

Lokaia grinned hugely. “Caphyllener is commonly used in blankets, pillows, and,” she picked up the not-so-stuffed cat, “stuffed animals.”

Bova’s jaw dropped. “You mean this whole thing was just Mercurian allergies?”

At Lokaia’s nod, he turned back to Rosie, whose color was much brighter. In fact, the room was already getting warm.

“I’m just glad you’re better, Rosie,” Bova told her.

“Me, too,” Radu said and Lokaia, Harlan and Suzee nodded

The little Mercurian smiled brightly, looking better than ever. “I’m sorry if I scared you guys.”

Suzee smiled. “You more than scared us, Rosie. I heard Bova say that he missed your ‘happy Mercurian work songs.’”

Rosie turned to Bova shocked, while Bova simply shrugged and cleared his throat. “Um, Rosie? Can I talk to you?”

The two of them walked out the door (and carefully out of hearing range of even Radu and Lokaia), leaving the rest of them to wonder what they were talking about. Radu turned to Lokaia.

“Hey, Loki?”

“Hmm?” she responded without looking up.

"Well, you know how our languages are so alike?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Well, it’s sort of to be expected that they aren’t exactly alike, right?” At Lokaia’s nod, he went on, a little uncertainly. “So, if we took an Andromedan words like, um, chailan, borahmu, and, uh, alomai, are there words like that in Elvian?”

Lokaia looked up, considering. “Well, chailan and borahmu are both Elvian words, but not alomai. But we do have a word like that.”

“What?” Radu asked, looking anxious.

“Alome. It means love or my love. It’s sort of a term of endearment.” She smiled at him, but Radu looked even more uncomfortable than anything and her smile faltered. “Is everything all right?”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, everything’s fine. I just, um, you know, I… yeah.” The Andromedan got up and uncertainly left the room, leaving Lokaia, Suzee, and Harlan staring after him. Lokaia shook her head. “The longer I’m with you guys, the more confused I get.” Then she got out of her chair and left the room, going down a different hallway than Radu.

There was silence in the game room for a while. Harlan turned to Suzee. “Is it just me, or does everyone seem to be pairing up around here?”

Suzee grinned. “You miss Cat, don’t you?”

Harlan nodded, depressed. “More than anything.”

“What did you want to talk about, Bova?”

Bova wouldn’t meet Rosie’s eyes, staring at his shoes. “Well, Rosie, I, um… well, I wanted to give you something.”

Rosie grinned brightly (what other way would she grin?). “Oh, Bova, you didn’t have to get me anything!”

“I-I know,” he said, still looking at the ground. “But, I wanted to.” He glanced up at her. “You have to close your eyes.”

“Oh, I love surprises.” Rosie closed her eyes hardly able to contain her excitement. She waited for a few seconds and then felt something. It was something soft and on her face. Actually on her lips. Actually Bova was kissing her!

The kiss lasted for about a minute. When they separated, Rosie was so surprised she couldn’t say anything. “How-“

Then Bova peeled something off his lips. At her confusion, he explained. “Thelma helped me make them so I wouldn’t burn my lips.” He went back to staring at his shoes. “I-I wanted to do that for a while, but I didn’t know if you did and then you were sick and I thought something might happen and I…” he trailed off, looking into her eyes for the first time since they kissed.

Rosie could only stare. Her first kiss! And it was by someone she really, truly cared about. She grinned from ear to ear and hugged Bova close. “Oh, Bova, that was the best gift I’ve ever gotten!” Bova grinned back, perfectly happy to stay in Rosie’s extremely warm embrace for the rest of his life. He had changed so much from when he had first come to the Starcademy. He would be a perfect failure back home on Uranus. His grin became broader and he hugged Rosie back.