Another day of jet training came to an end, leaving Jun with the same question they’ve had for the past three days: Where did Leon’s brother go?

They wished they asked that before he left the observation deck.

Not ideal, but not the end of the world. Everyone else stayed back for now, aside from Mia. Jun could ask one of them.

“Yo, Kelly. Did you catch where your guy went?” His name escaped Jun.

“Don’t ask me.” Aiden shrugged. “I dunno where he skitters off to.” With that, he walked off.

“Darn.” They snapped their fingers. Luckily, they caught a glimpse of Leon over their shoulder. “Leon, I haven’t seen your little bro in a while. Where’d he go?”

“Yes! His absence is most peculiar!” Roxie piped up before he could answer. “Do you know how his handsies are doing?”

“Hm?” Leon didn’t seem to know what she was talking about. He also seemed… off. Ever since he found his phone, he had way less energy than usual, even now on his birthday.

“He burned himself.”

“What??” That got him to be more alert.

“Only first degree.” Emil walked backward toward the door. “They should clear up on their own, right Doc?”

“Yes, but I’d like to keep an eye on it.” Roxie whined. “And that still doesn’t explain his whereabouts!”

Jun noticed Captain Galhardo lingering a little ways behind Emil. Normally by now, he’d be up the stairs and in his room, but he seemed interested in the conversation.

“Yeah, I haven’t seen him in, like, days…” Jun realized something. “Not since you found your phone, actually.”

Leon winced. Something must’ve happened that day.

Before he could answer, Roxie nudged him. “I think this calls for another manhunt~! Our last quest for glory came to an unusual end.” She looked over at the captain, who looked away.

“Ah, I don’t know.” Leon answered. “Ángie could be anywhere at this point. When he doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be.”

“That just makes for extra challenge! Besides, it’s not safe! What if he turned into a ghost?” Roxie’s voice trembled. Jun guessed it was for dramatic effect.

“Rookie,” Emil turned toward Leon, “you said Angelo does this kinda thing a lot, right?”

“Yeah. If hide-and-seek was a sport, he’d go pro.”

“This might just be normal for him.” He addressed Roxie and Jun. “Prolly nothing to worry about.”

“I agree with Ranger Allen.” The captain finally spoke, stepping toward his brother with a swish of his cape. “His disappearance has been troubling. Everyone, keep an eye out for Ranger Summers, and report to me or the lieutenant when you find him. Pass this on to the others.” His cape flared out as he headed for his room. “I will monitor the cameras for him.”

“But Captain, I’m right–Ah, right.” Leon caught on. “He’s a ranger, too…”

“Where could he beeee…?” Roxie wondered, pitiful.

Jun looked around the empty room. “Well, he’s not in here.” They lightly elbowed her. “And there’s only so many places on the ship. We’ll find him.”

“Hey, Roxie!” Emil leaned forward. “I was planning on keepin’ an eye out for Angelo. Maybe Rookie can’t be your rival but–”

“You’re on!” Roxie took off running for the door with her arms behind her.

“Well, that’s that.” Emil shrugged. “Ciao~!” He winked and strolled away.

“I guess it’s just us now.” Jun walked alongside Leon. Even though his brother was missing in action, they might be able to get some info out of him.

“Yeah.” Leon stayed quiet for a moment. It was weird to see him so somber. Jun almost picked up the conversation again, but he spoke up. “Jun, do you have any siblings? You always seemed like a big sibling type to me.”

“Nope. Rox is the closest I got. And Aiden. I kinda wondered what it’d be like to have one.” They thought for a moment. “I dunno, it feels like it’d be strange to go a couple years as an only child and then, like, suddenly have another kid around.”

“I was excited to find out I’d have a little brother.” He smiled a little. “At least that’s what my mom told me. I don’t remember it all that well.”

Wow. That went smoother than Jun thought. They didn’t bring up how weird it was for Leon to say that.

They already knew he and Angelo weren’t twins. For Leon to have been excited by the news, he had to have at least a few years on Angelo, just as expected. Though Leon might not have been trying to hide it. Jun did remember him implying his brother would only stay a little while.

“How long did you say he was staying again?” Jun held open the door for the meeting room.

Leon visibly panicked. “Uhhhh, it looks like he’ll be with us for the whole trip.” A smile covered it up about as well as cheap air freshener on fish. “If nothing comes up, at least. So that’ll be interesting…”

“Oh, cool.” Jun smiled too, even though they felt bad for the poor kid. There’s no way he planned this. Finding out his brother’s stay was permanent had to be a huge bummer. No wonder he was all gloomy.

Inside the meeting room, Leon opened the panel to go downstairs. There was no one downstairs. This might be a good time.

“Hey Leon, how’s it going?”

“It’s going.” He stepped down first. “I know it’s my birthday and everything, but I’ll admit it’s been a little ehhh.”

“Yeah, you looked a little down lately.”

“I did?” Leon slowed his pace. “I guess I haven’t come out of my room much. But I probably shouldn’t be like this on my birthday, hm?”

“I mean. It’s your birthday, you can cry if you want to.”

He laughed. “Thanks. Weirdly enough, that makes me feel a lot better.”

Jun could imagine. Sometimes it’s best to be able to feel bad without anyone trying to stop it or worrying about being seen as weak. They weren’t a crier, though, so they didn’t really need that advice.

“But Emil really did cheer me up with that party!” Leon sounded more like his usual self. “Gosh, I’m still–I don’t know how he does it. He’s so–there’s a word for it–but he’s so good at paying attention to the little things about people. Like my favorite foods or how much I like his guitar-playing.”

“No yeah, he’s really attentive.”

“That’s the word! Attentive. He’s so attentive…”

Leon wasn’t exactly the most subtle about things he liked. He didn’t lie, though. Emil paid a lot of attention to everyone. Doing chores around the ship so his brother wouldn’t have to face people, going above and beyond to make sure Jun’s coming out went smoothly, Leon’s birthday party, it went far beyond just winking and encouraging. Jun would’ve never thought to snap a picture of that rainbow so Mia could have a memento of visiting Earth. Being thoughtful came second-nature to him.

Showmen like Emil lived to please, but sometimes Jun wondered if he’d die if he didn’t. That day at the lake gave them some insight.

“I know they’re just worried, but sometimes it makes me feel–”

“–like I’m not good enough,” was what Jun would’ve guessed based on the rest of the conversation about his dad and brother. Too bad Mia almost died before he finished. They could only hope Emil took as good care of himself as he did others, but he didn’t have to be the only one looking out for someone else.

Leon stood at the bottom of the stairs, near the panel to the loading dock. He took a deep breath.

“Are you thinking of checking the loading dock? I don’t remember seeing anywhere he could hide down there.”

“I was thinking he might be in the incinerator room…” Dread filled his voice.

“Would he normally be in a place like that?”

“I don’t know anymore.”

Yikes. Jun couldn’t imagine wearing their heart on their sleeve like that. “Well, I hope you find him.”

“Thanks.” Leon opened the panel.

“Hey, before you go…” Jun stopped him. “If something’s ever, like, on your mind and you wanna talk it out…” They pointed at themself.

He smiled back at them, genuinely touched. “Thank you, Jun. I’ll keep that in mind.”

They parted ways. Jun decided to enter the kitchen and take a seat at the table. Chilling out seemed like the best thing they could do for now. So they sat. They sat there for minutes on end with nothing to do except, well, nothing.

Aiden dragged himself into the kitchen first.

“What up?”

Instead of answering Jun, he started toward the refrigerator, but headed in the other direction once he noticed the open boxes of space food. He grabbed a bag of pretzels out of one. Two, actually. One, he held up toward Jun.

“No, thanks.” They did a double take. “Wait, aren’t we supposed to save those for when the gravity’s off?”

Aiden did not respond, instead putting the extra bag back and meandered over to the table.

“By the way, the captain told us to tell everyone else to look for–”

“I know.” He shoved some pretzels into his mouth, looking down at them. “Blondie came poking around in our room.”

Jun blinked. “You’re also blond.”

“You know who I mean.” Aiden looked around. “Why aren’t you lookin’ for him?”

“I am.”

“...You’re just sitting there.”

“Yeah.” They didn’t deny it. Sure, they could go into more detail and say that from a strategic standpoint, hiding in the kitchen or the bathroom would be Angelo’s best bet, and either way, he’d have to commute between both. Not saying that was funnier.

Leon returned from the furnace.

“Any luck?” asked Jun.

“Yeah, I didn’t find him in the incinerator room.” A slight smile crossed his face. “I dunno where else he could be, though.” He reached the door. “There’s something else I gotta take care of first, and then I’ll keep looking.”

Someone almost bumped into him on the way out.

“Hm?” He stepped out of the way. “Oh, sorry Emil. You go first. Good luck winning against Roxie.”

“Thank you~” Emil stepped into the kitchen while Leon left.

“I take it you haven’t found him either?” asked Jun.

“Not yet. I think I’m gonna search the gym next. Maybe hit the weights while I’m there.” Emil wound up an arm. “Pushing that box earlier took a lot more outta me than it should’ve.” Unknowingly, he thumbed back toward empty space. The box he sat on was no longer in its place.

“Did you push it back?” Jun had a feeling they already knew the answer.

Emil shared their confusion upon seeing the missing box. “No. Huh, maybe someone else did.”

“Not me.” Aiden chomped on a pretzel.

Emil almost started to leave, but instead pivoted around, taking an interest in the pretzels. “May I ask where you got those from?”

“That box.”

The lieutenant sighed, crouching down near one of the other boxes. “Aidennn, we’re only supposed to touch the space food when we’re in zero gravity. That’s why I had this box closed.”

“I didn’t open it.” denied Aiden.

“I’m gonna have to recount everything.” Emil shook his head, flipping through the stuffed container. He stopped. “Wait, actually…” His frown turned upside down as he jumped to his feet. “Aiden, can I talk to you for a sec?”

Aiden sluggishly followed the beckoning of his finger and leaned down for Emil to whisper something to him.

In the meantime, Jun focused on the mystery of who moved the other box, mentally flipping through the possible suspects. They believed Aiden; he wouldn’t lie about something this inconsequential unless a prank was involved. Leon passed right through the kitchen, not stopping for the boxes. The captain hadn’t come downstairs since Jun woke up. That left Mia, Roxie, and Angelo.

Emil finally backed away from Aiden. “...And let this be a lesson to you that the Interstellar Forces will not tolerate such flippant disregard for the rules!” How uncharacteristically commanding of him. This might’ve been the first time Jun saw him frown. “You have a pretty big task ahead of you, so now’d be a perfect time to start.”

“Yes, sir.” Aiden agreed without the slightest bit of annoyance. Something’s up.

“Jun, you’re not busy are you? ‘Cause I’m gonna need ya to keep an eye on that one.” Emil gave them a wink and a smile. He let Aiden off the hook somehow, didn’t he?

“I’m searching for Angelo right now, but I can multitask.”

“Great! Anyway, see ya.” As if that didn’t just happen, he breezily left for the gym.

Aiden sat down on one of the nearby boxes and grabbed the pencil attached to the inventory sheet, while Jun finally stood up and leaned on the wall beside him.

“So, like, what’s the punishment?” Jun asked.

“I gotta mark off what’s missing from this box.” Aiden raised the sheet and pencil.

While Jun could care less about solving the mystery of how Emil bent the rules this time, they figured it out almost right away. Packets of food filled the open box to the brim. There couldn’t have been much for Aiden to count.

“Ohhh, bummer, dude.” They offered the flattest of sympathy. Part of them wondered if Emil had it in him to put his foot down, but they weren’t too concerned about that. In fact, this arrangement worked out for them. “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you about something.”

Aiden grunted in acknowledgement.

Through the door to their left, Jun saw Mia in the hallway. It’d be really tacky if someone caught them gossiping about Angelo. Plus, the captain might be listening. They searched for the most graceful way to bring this up.

“You like a good conspiracy, right?” They began. “Remember Matt from the Virgo? The dude who was at the lunch table with us. Kinda looks like Leon?” That was a stretch, aside from them both being plain-looking white guys with brown hair.

Aiden searched in his head. “...Barely.”

“Cool. His little,” brother would be too obvious, “cousin joined the IF recently. He sent me a pic.”

Jun took off their right glove to reveal their tablet in wristband form. They expanded it, scrolling through until they found the picture they wanted to show Aiden.

“That’s him.” They pointed at ‘Matt’s cousin,’ in actuality Angelo from a selfie Leon took in the infirmary, courtesy of Roxie.

“That’s–!” Aiden’s eyes went wide, then chilled out. “So that’s him, huh?” Good. He caught on. “What’s this conspiracy about?”

Jun collapsed their tablet. “I dunno if, like, my eyes are playing tricks on me, but don’t you think he looks young for the IF?”

Aiden mulled over it for a second. “Oh yeah, that’s definitely a–”

As he stopped dead in his tracks, Jun swore they detected a slight change in his expression.

“I was gonna say that’s definitely a kid, but there’s really no way to tell.” He changed his tune. “You could say the same about Rookie. Come back with a better conspiracy next time.”

“C’mon, you saw the picture. That kid looks way young!”

“What’s it to you?” Aiden went back to counting pouches of space food. What came up that made him rather be working?

Whatever it was, pressing on the picture wouldn’t get Jun anywhere. They decided to steer this conversation into the hypothetical. “I dunno, it just got me thinking. Like, I can’t know for sure about Matt’s cuz, but in theory, what if a kid did somehow sneak into the IF? What would you do?”

“Mind my business.” He stared at a pack of peas as if it were the most intriguing thing in the world, then counted the rest. “What about you?”

“I’d tell someone.” Jun told him matter-of-factly. “It’s not safe for a kid to be here.”

Aiden set a pouch of juice on the floor. “It wasn’t safe for you to sneak into the IF, but you did anyway.”

“That’s totally not the same. I was an adult at the time.”

He stared up at them. “Yeah, but you knew good and well what coulda happened if someone ratted you out at the wrong time.”

“Only after I was too far gone.” Jun looked away in embarrassment. “But it’s not, like, inherently dangerous for me to be here. The IF was just different at the time.” They shrugged. “It’s all cool now.”

“I wouldn’t say ‘all cool.’”

“Mostly cool.”

“Ehhh.”

“Cooler?”

“Sure.” Aiden lined up a bunch of packets on the ground. “The IF’s better off for you forcing them to lift that ban. I’m just sayin’ you woulda got hassled a lot more back then for having–”

“This situation going on.” Jun vaguely gestured to their body.

“–than some 17-year-old wandering in now.” Aiden erased some of his marks from the inventory sheet and wrote new ones. “Yeah, I wouldn’t wanna see a 10-year-old here, but I don’t get the rules around teenagers. You can die in a war at 18 but can’t drink until 21.” He nodded toward the gym. “Blondie was 17 two weeks before we boarded. Did a coupla weeks really change him?”

Jun did not know how to respond to that without throwing Emil under the bus.

It must’ve shown on their face. “Or do you think he’s still not capable?”

“We have child labor laws for a reason, dude.” They sidestepped the question. “People would love to hire younger teens for this kinda thing if they could get away with it. Like, think about it. More employees with more energy who are less likely to catch on if they get taken advantage of. That’s a shady boss’s dream!”

“I’m listening.”

“If you lowered, say, enlistment to 17, there’d be people arguing that a 16-year-old could do the same work, then 15, 14, 13–You get where I’m going. It’d be like the steam age again.”

“The what?” Aiden set down some freeze-dried chicken.

“You never learned about that in school? Back in the day, they had kids running around factories getting their fingers sliced off and stuff.” Jun explained, to Aiden’s surprise. “All for extra labor.

“I was homeschooled. And I left at like 14-15.”

“Right!” They slapped their forehead. “Wait, you ran away that young?” That roughly matched what Angelo’s age might be. Gears began to turn in their head. “What was that like for you? If I remember correctly, you grew up way sheltered before that, right?”

“Hey, don’t think I had it easy as a kid. Was I terrible? Probably. You get called demonic enough times and see if you don’t start acting the part.”

“Oh no, sorry.” Jun held their hands up. “I just meant that you were kept away from the rest of the world.”

“Yeah, that’s true. And even with how much I hated it there,” his face grew grim, “I wasn’t ready to be on my own.”

“O-Oh…” Now it was Jun’s turn to be surprised. They didn’t expect him to admit something like that so easily.

“Those first coupla years were rough.” His mouth formed a thin line. “I had to learn quick. If I were any softer, I’d… A brat like me really shouldn’ta survived.” He chuckled the kind of chuckle reserved for narrowly missing a bullet.

“Welp. You did.”

“And now it’s everyone else’s problem.” He closed his eyes, content.

“Heh.” Jun sombered up. “Not everyone can survive in a sink or swim situation like that, though. Even the IF can be deadly without the proper training, mindset, all that kind of stuff. And you know how spotty the training can be. Remember what happened with Leon the first time he went jet training?”

Joy spread across Aiden’s face as he no doubt reminisced about Leon spinning uncontrollably through space. “Good times.”

“Yeah yeah, well that almost turned into a tragedy.” Jun reminded him. “I doubt he got the same anti-grav training we did.”

“What are you talkin’ about? None of the Earth bases got good anti-grav training.”

“But you and me were near the spaceport in SoCal, so we at least got some hands-on training with the simulators. Not as much as on a space base, but some. Smaller bases on Earth don’t have that.”

“They don’t?”

“Roxie’s didn’t. They just kind of talked her group through it. Leon’s from a town I never heard of, so I imagine he had a similar experience.”

“Yeesh, that’s rough.” Aiden cringed.

Jun prepared to drive their point home. “Now imagine if Leon were any less mature, or paired with someone less capable than Mia. He might’ve died. That’s why I’m worried about–

The hallway door opened. Disappointment washed over Jun as they saw not Angelo, but Mia. She froze up as they and Aiden stared at her.

“Hey.” Jun broke the ice.

“Did I, uh, interrupt?” She looked warily between the two of them, clutching her water bottle.

Aiden absentmindedly tossed another bag of pretzels. “Nothin’ important.”

“Actually,” Jun pushed themself off the wall, “I’m trying to prove that child labor is bad. You got any, like, teens in your life?”

Mia inched toward the sink. “A few.”

“How old are they?”

“14–no, 15 now.”

“That’s perfect.” Jun sat at the table while she filled up her water bottle. “How safe do you think they’d be in the IF?”

“It’s hard enough to keep them alive on a normal basis…” The weariness in her voice made Jun wonder if these teens were related to her, but that wasn’t important right now.

“Sounds like a handful. Anyway, here’s the dilemma. We’ve got a friend on another ship whose little cuz just joined the IF. He showed me a pic of him, and I’m like 99% sure that kid’s 15 or something. If I were on that ship, I’d prolly alert someone about it. What would you do?”

“Um… I don’t know.” She stopped the sink. “That seems like your friend’s problem.”

“Really?” Jun tried to hide their shock as well as ignore Aiden shrugging smugly behind them. “Would you be worried at all, or…?”

“Yes, but the friend would know already, wouldn’t he? He might try to pass them off as twins–I mean the same age, or something like that.” What a weird slip of the tongue. Did she suspect the Summers too? “If I was close enough to the friend, I might try to talk to him about it.”

“Ohhh, that makes sense. That’s something I’d try to do.” Jun already planned to talk to Leon. It was just a matter of getting him out of his room long enough. “That really helped, thanks.”

“You’re welcome?” Hesitation hung on her words.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna tell him, ‘Hey, my friend Mia Wattson from the Celestion-5 told me to do this.’”

That got her to smile a little, but she suppressed it just as quickly. “I should be going.”

And she did.

Aiden spoke up. “Now that you wasted everyone’s time with that goofy ‘conspiracy’, why don’t I waste yours with a ‘mystery’?

“What’s up?” Jun walked back over to Aiden.

He handed them the inventory sheet, a list of food items with eight squares under each. As expected, only three or four were crossed out.

“That covers everything in the box.” Aiden explained. “So tell me, Officer Kim, what’s all this stuff on the floor?”

Crouching down, Jun compared the list to the array of packets on the ground. They wondered at first if Aiden may’ve miscounted or if Emil somehow tricked him into carrying out an actual punishment. Strangely, the more they inspected, the more discrepancies piled up. Three too many packets of tuna salad, two extra packets of peas, two extra packets of cranberry juice, a curry packet that wasn’t even listed for this box.

“Huh?” Jun’s eyes searched for answers, as if they’d be written on the same sheet of paper that had given them so many questions. They only found new ones. “The pretzels are all accounted for? But you just ate one!” They snatched the empty pretzel bag poking out from under the box Aiden sat on. “Also dude, so not cool of you to litter.”

“I didn’t.” Aiden held up another empty pretzel bag.

“Then… what is this?” Jun looked at their own.

“I don’t know. You’re the detective!”

Jun inspected the bag like key evidence. “Aww man, I wish I still had that fingerprinting kit I bought in college. This has to be related to the list being messed up. But how?” Glancing between the bag and the open box, they remembered something. “Aiden.”

“Yeah?”

“We never finished off the last box. There were, like, a buncha leftovers ‘cause we didn’t have an eighth person to eat them yet.” Their brows furrowed. “But the only way this makes sense is if the culprit emptied that box and put the contents into this one. Why would someone do this, though?”

“I dunno. You seem happy about it, though.”

It’s true, they couldn’t contain it. Aside from staking out the kitchen, they had no real clue on where Angelo hid. Figuring out this box mystery might at least establish something about his behavior. They finally had a lead!

Jun stood up, surveying the group of cardboard boxes shoved into the corner of the kitchen, each bearing the same logo, an apple with a ring around it like Saturn. One of them had to be empty. Unfortunately, all of them being identical and in roughly the same condition made it hard to tell.

But not impossible. The answer finally jumped out at them after sitting under their nose the whole time, or technically, under Aiden’s butt.

“That’s the empty box.” Jun pointed. “You’re sitting… on it?”

“Is that really import…?” Aiden trailed off, the same question in his eyes as the one that hit Jun in the head like a brick.

“Hey, Kelly?”

“Yeah?”

“If that box is, like, empty, how come you’re able to sit on it?””

Aiden shared their confusion until suddenly his eyes went wide. His eyes fell toward the box, and he started cursing under his breath.

“What’s wrong?”

Answering their own question, Jun’s eyes glued to the pretzel bag under their foot. Gusts of air pushed it up and down rhythmically. Like breathing. It came from a hole in the corner of the ‘empty’ box.

Boxes didn’t breathe.

“Get up, I need to check that right now.”

Aiden rose from the box, maintaining eye contact the entire time. Instead of standing all the way, he scooted one of the other boxes under him, propping his feet on the one he originally sat on.

“Aiden, I’m not joking.”

“Me either.”

Jun stood firm, while Aiden sat, stubborn. As the former gauged whether or not they could tackle Aiden down long enough to lift the box, their eyes fell to the pretzel bag again. It rose and fell. Whatever–or whoever–was inside could still breathe. From the looks of it, the source of breathing was pressed right against the hole. Good sign.

They backed away calmly, keeping eyes on Aiden the entire time. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you,” the pretzel bag went into the garbage can, “but I’m not leaving until I search that box.” Finally, they took their seat back at the table. “That kid doesn’t belong here.”

“There’s worse places for him than the IF.” Aiden spoke. “I would know.”

“That doesn’t make it safe.”

“That doesn’t make prison safe, either.” So that’s what bugged him.

“How do you know that’s where he’ll end up?”

“They were planning to throw you in a cell for less.”

Jun wished they could grab their copy of the Interstellar Forces Handbook, but if they left for a second, they risked Aiden shooing their target off to a new hiding location.

“Better not fall asleep again.” He smirked as if he read their mind. Annoying.

“Hope you don’t hafta use the bathroom anytime soon.”

“If that time comes, I guess I’ll find out how leak-proof these jumpsuits really are.”

Jun grimaced. They knew better than to doubt him. A glance at the ceiling reminded them of one other option they had: Alerting the captain. The catch was that it’d surely jeopardize Aiden’s continued service. While stubborn–and gross–he didn’t act out of malice, nor did he threaten any lives, and Jun didn’t hate him enough to get him kicked out.

There’s worse places for him than the IF.