Food packets. Somehow or another food packets had been decided as substitute flags. Howard eyed his own green food packet dubiously. The other team’s food packet was blue. Miranda had wanted red but the closest was brown and it was pretty heavy, so the green one was decided on. Since green was Howard’s favorite color it had also been decided that he would be the one guarding the food packet… flag.

The green team base was the cafeteria, and the blue team base was the crew cabin. Natalie had stationed herself in the control room to make sure no one tried doing anything foolish in there and get everyone killed.

James stayed with Howard while Miranda went out to scout the competition. With only teams of three strategy was going to be a bit different from regular games of capture the flag. Capture the flag was one of the few team games Howard had enjoyed in his youth since it was often played in a forest and required wits and instincts more than other games.

However, this game was in a space shuttle and it was difficult to move properly without gravity. Knowing this did not stop him from recoiling when he saw Selina crawl into the room along the wall like a spider.

“So Howie has the bodyguard, hm?” she mused, “We couldn’t catch Miranda but I don’t think you will be able to catch me either,”

“We are still taking prisoners with this few people?” James asked.

“Capture-the-flag is capture-the-flag,” Selina replied with a smile, “Besides, normal capture-the-flag would have tagged people out, not rescuable prisoners.”

“You aren’t supposed to change the rules after the game started,” James told her, “but if you are then that means I can too.”

James had set a trap in the cafeteria before-hand. Well, it was not exactly a trap but it would lock people in so they couldn’t escape. As long as Selina was in enemy territory she was taggable.

“Shoot,” Selina hissed and quickly scanned for another escape route while James approached her.

“You should give up. The door doesn’t have a time limit. I am the only one who can open it right now.”

“You are abandoning Miranda then?”

“She will be fine as long as she stays in neutral territory,” James replied. He was very close to Selina now. She wasn’t very fast in Zero-G and James had the advantage of being able to easily change directions by holding onto a strap installed in the ceiling.

Selina scowled. “You leave me no choice. Jonathan!” she called loudly.

“There is no way he can hear you,” James told her, but just as he was about to grab her, the door opened and a food packet came flying towards his head… slowly.

“What the- Isn’t this your flag?” James asked, catching the food packet in the air.

“No, it is the dummy,” Jonathan replied, pulling out five more.

“This isn’t even capture-the-flag anymore,” Howard sighed as the chaos began to surround them.

Leon and Miranda made it to the cafeteria just in time to see Jonathan and James fighting each other with food packets. Selina was off in the pantry getting more ammo, and Howard was still holding onto his original food packet and huddling in the corner.

“I wasn’t even gone that long!” Miranda complained, “What happened here?”

“Something like dodgeball?” Selina suggested.

“No, this can’t even be considered a game anymore,” Leon corrected, “This is a food fight.”

“Oh come on, we just started,” Miranda pouted, but that did not stop her from collecting several food packets of her own to use as ammo.

Natalie had the unfortunate luck of coming just then and we smacked by several food packets coming from different directions.

She slowly took in a breath then leveled everyone with a fierce glare. “Could someone explain to me what is going on in here?” she demanded, “There are food packets everywhere, you were loud enough that I wonder if the satellites might have started broadcasting your nonsense back home, and you drove Howard into a corner with no way to escape. I am going to talk to Sanders and make sure none of you get any dinner tonight until you clean this up!”

As it turned out, it was a lot harder to put something back then take it out, so Sanders, Natalie, and Howard enjoyed dinner while everyone else tried to shove the cleaning onto the one who started it, Jonathan. That was until Jonathan made more spill out than he cleaned up so he was banned from the cafeteria.

Sanders cleared his throat. “So, shall we discuss night shift rotation?” he asked.

“Shouldn’t only those who can actually use them watch the controls?” Miranda asked.

Sanders nodded. “That would be Leon, Jonathan, and myself.”

“Jonathan…” Selina muttered, “Is it all right to leave him alone with the controls at night?”

“Then he can have the first shift so those who are worried can keep an eye on him,” Sanders suggested.

No one argued with this decision and since Sanders was most likely to be watching the controls during the day he was given the last shift. Each shift was only about three hours so, but no one actually ended up staying awake until the end of Jonathan’s shift.