Unbeknownst to them, Nelson and María were locked in a tender embrace, kissing each other while suspended in zero-g. Her crucifix necklace gently floated between their bodies. In that moment, nothing else and no one else mattered.

The two women stood up and followed his gaze up the Jeffries tube. "What's up there?" he asked.

"Just the sweet spot," the lieutenant replied.

"Huh. It stopped."

"Wonder who's up there," said Annie.

"Probably Travis."

"Klara, that's how long it's gonna take me just to walk there and back. I need to actually find the component."

"Sssh." Duncan Walsh, standing next to them, motioned for them to be quiet. "You hear that?"

"What?" asked Klara.

"Music. Someone's playing music in here."

Several junctions away, Lt. Klara Hess stood over Annie Naiman as she examined an S/COMS relay.

"Right, there's the problem. Surge came through here, probably in the last attack."

"How soon can you fix it?"

"I'll need to go through cargo bay 1. Probably an hour."

"You got 30 minutes."

The two began dancing in zero-g. They bounced off each other. Nelson and María held out their right arms and spun around together. Kicking off, she spun like the ballerina she used to be. Nelson ran up the sides and flipped.

🎶 You're takin' me out of the ordinary... 🎵

"Guess nobody's perfect."

🎶 You're takin' me out of the ordinary
I want you layin' me down 'til we're dead and buried
On the edge of your knife, stayin' drunk on your vine
The angels up in the clouds are jealous, knowin' we found 🎵

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a music-pod.

🎵 They say, "The holy water's watered down
And this town's lost its faith 🎶

He held out his hand, and she accepted, kicking off into zero-g.

"You Catholic too?"

"Lapsed."

youtu.be/vYmgIMszYnw?...

"I couldn't save my Papa."

"But you tried. How many can do that? You saw our mission fail. We can make sure it doesn't happen."

"I'm still a freak."

Nelson kicked off until he was at head-level while upside down across from María.

"You're extraordinary."

"Sure. You can see the future. How many people have that?"

"My grandmother told me we're not supposed to know the future. That's something only God can know."

"And yet, for better or worse, God gave you this gift."

"Gift?"

"You see things before they happen and can avoid them."

"You never pushed your engine friends away."

"That's different. Since I met them, I thought it went away. We look out for each other."

Nelson nodded. "They have your back."

"Yeah."

"Well, for what it's worth, I think this is pretty cool."

"You do?"

"Like I said, that's some nightmare."

She buried her head again. "I'm a freak."

Nelson leaned close. "What?"

"I'M A FREAK!! I can't control when this happens. I've never had a boyfriend or girlfriend, because when it happens, I always see disaster. I push people away."

"The Captain was injured in an anomaly, and he had to be relieved. Earth was destroyed. We found a new world, but then the Xindi found that too. We all died."

"That's some nightmare."

"That's just it. It wasn't. I felt like I was there, for years, seeing everything."

"You saw the future?"

"I begged him not to go to work, but he did, and he never came home. Since then...every now and then, I get these visions, bad things happening. Sometimes they happen, sometimes not. But...it's always so...vivid."

"Tell me about this vision you just had."

"My grandma used to say that bad news never stays down. It always comes out."

María sat silently. "I saw our mission end in failure."

"What do you mean?"

"When I was young, my dad was killed in a landslide. That morning, I had a dream where I saw him die."

"You come up here a lot?"

María nodded. "It's the best place to clear your head."

He looked around, trying to figure out what to say. "Everyone was talking in the mess hall. They're worried about you. How about you tell me what happened?"

"I'm not in the mood."

She nodded.

Placing his hands on the sides of the hatch, Kemper pushed up until he was in zero-gravity. With skilled precision, he oriented himself until his feet gently touched down next to her.

"Two tours in the Janus Wars. We learned quick how to move in zero-g." He sat down.