Page 69 of Too Many Beds

Vastpink Fever

Jem Zero

Despite being eager to return to his own star system, when Captain Lucas Collingwood receives an incoming distress signal from a nearby mining ship, all he does is sigh and change course. His two person space cruiser won’t help if the operators need a ride, but there might be some way he can assist, and helping people is Lucas’s bread and butter.

Real butter. Which he misses dearly, since fat doesn’t dehydrate well, and their only dressing-adjacent substance up here is a frozen jelly made from a vegetable thatkind oftastes like butter.

Gross.

Andi, his beloved, long-suffering engineer, doesn’t argue or bitch when he informs them of the interruption; they only heave a deep sigh of their own. That’s why Lucas loves them.

The mining ship’s bay is open and waiting, and Lucas steers inside to execute a graceful landing on the strip. Beautiful. He’s feeling good about this already.

Andi deboards first. They’re rather protective, which is fair. More than once Lucas has been a touch too trusting around strangers, resulting in some interesting life-threatening situations. Thank the stars for well-prepared besties.

A stunning Black man is the first person Lucas sees when Andi gives him the all-clear. He extends his forearm in greeting, and Lucas, who doesn’t usually care about height differences, has to fight a blush when he offers his own to cross the other captain’s.

“Greetings, and thank you for responding to our signal. I’m Ranger, overseeing theHephaestusmining operation,” he says.

His voice is low and melodic. Lucas’s face flushes despite his wishes for it to not. “Nice to meet you,” he responds, pulling away quickly. “I’m Captain Lucas Collingwood. And this is my engineer, Andi.” Face stoic, they greet him in the same fashion.

Ranger smiles warmly, full lips spread until dimples form in his dark, rosy cheeks. “Welcome aboard. Come, meet the rest of my crew.”

After over an Earth year in space with no social connection other than coworkers and his deeply asexual best friend, Lucas has found himself becoming rather randy. He would never proposition a subordinate or professional acquaintance, which means he’s gone quite some time without male companionship.

That’s why he very nearly crumbles during the introductions.

First, Ranger slaps the shoulder of a broad-shouldered man, who smiles patiently when Ranger gives him a friendly shake. “This is Poe, my second in command. And this—” Ranger reaches to ruffle the hair of a man on Poe’s other side “—is Oliver, Poe’s twin.”

Lucas blinks. The twins share a tan complexion and are wearing identical clothing; their dark hair has been cut in the same style, except Oliver’s hair has a slight wave to it. Oliver is slimmer than Poe’s muscled frame and a centimeter or two taller, but fraternal twins do have differences like that. What has Lucas tripped up is that despite their remarkable similarities Poe and Oliver seem to be of different ancestry. While humanity has spread throughout multiple galaxies, the genetic traits from their origin planet, Earth, are still present. Poe’s eyes have an epicanthic fold that Oliver lacks and Oliver’s nose protrudes farther outward than Poe’s, with a slight bump on the bridge. It’s the only major difference, but still perplexing for twins.

Lucas opens his mouth to greet them politely regardless, but is interrupted by Poe’s laughter.“Not by blood, Captain Collingwood. We just discovered our many similarities as children and never let go.” Poe shares a smile with his “twin,” and Oliver responds with the exact same expression. Their body language is identical, movements smooth as they alternate crossing forearms with both Lucas and Andi.

Next Ranger indicates a taller, greying man. He introduces himself as Tim, theHephaestus’ engineer, and Andi’s eyes flicker with interest. They step forward, clasping arms with the stranger, then appear to employ some super-secret engineer handshake during which Tim somehow communicates the issue with the ship in less than five syllables. Lucas doesn’t try to understand—he hears the words ‘satnav offline’ then tunes them out. For all his skills operating a ship from the other side of a control panel, Lucas would be floating helplessly in space if something went wrong with his cruiser without Andi there to diagnose the internal problem.

Within seconds the engineers have disappeared, leaving a very flushed Lucas alone in the bay with Ranger and thetwins. Without Andi to steer him, he’s found himself adrift and unexpectedly useless.

“Um, is this everyone?” he asks, having thought there’d be more people on a mining ship. Not that he’d know.

Ranger casts a glance around, then nudges Poe. “The fuck is Creek?”

Oliver sighs, but says nothing as Poe touches his thumb to a scanner on his wristlet, popping up a miniature projection of theHephaestus. A rapid series of gestures later and a flashing red blip appears on the layout. “Hydroponics, sir,” Poe says, cutting the holo.

Intrigued, Lucas asks, “Your gardener?”

“Only a fraction of Creek’s power,” Ranger says. Oliver rolls his eyes, but Ranger knuckles him in the side. “Creek is our mad hygienist. Anything that requires being clean and healthy up here, Creek’s on it. Unfortunately, he also tends to mute his communicator because he finds it distracting.”

“Even though that’s what it’sthere for,” Oliver mutters, making Poe snicker.

Lucas smiles. The team seems an expressive bunch, which works far better for him than any of the more stoic communities he’s run into during his galactic travels. Andi has to take the wheel on those missions, as it were. Frankly, Lucas doesn’t understand why anyone would go to space without a wide-eyed passion for exploration and openness to absorb everything the vast galaxies have to teach—and that is much, indeed.

“Could I meet Creek?” There’s nothing like meeting someone with like-minded passion, and it’s not as if Lucas has anything else to do.

“He gets tetchy about invasions of his personal space,” warns Oliver, at the same time as Ranger says, “Of course!”

“I’ll escort you,” says Poe, politely ignoring his twin, whose attention is wrenched away from Lucas when he sidestepsRanger’s attempt to put him in a headlock. Poe places a hand on Lucas’s shoulder, steering him toward the airlock. “Don’t mind them. O’ and Creek don’t get along so well. Or, Creek doesn’t care what O’ thinks of him, and I know better than anyone that Oliver doesn’t like being ignored. Personally, I think he has a crush. O’ and I aren’t the kind of twins who share everything, though.”

O’ and Poe, Lucas mouths to himself, before smiling in amused delight and trotting to keep up with Poe. They’re the same height, but Poe’s stride is longer and more confident. He’s charitable about it though, extending an arm to hold the sliding doors open for Lucas when he joins him in the airlock.

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