Raina stared at the little droid, unable to believe her ears.

“The Privateer’s Handbook states that after this many years of abandonment, the booty no longer belongs to its original owner,” he finished.

“Do you seriously think I’m going to try to invoke Finders-Keepers over a baby?” she demanded.

“What I’m saying is that you don’t have to risk life and limb to get him out of here,” BFF20 reasoned. “It’s not an abandonment crime against human culture to leave him.”

“It’s a crime against everything it means to be human to leave him here, alone and vulnerable,” Raina said. “He will not be abandoned under my watch. Period. Nick will back me up on that.”

“Why don’t you just tag him?” Nick spat as he climbed through the closet door and into the bedroom.

“What?” Raina asked.

“If you tag him, then you won’t have abandoned him, and you can still claim him later, right? Isn’t that how you guys do it?”

Nick’s voice bubbled with undisguised hatred.

“I- I don’t understand,” Raina said. “I thought you would agree with me. We can’t leave him here by himself.”

“You knew,” Nick said. “You knew how long I’d been out, and you didn’t tell me.”

Tears prickled Raina’s eyelids.

“I’m sorry,” she told him. “I wasn’t sure how to let you know. I guess I thought you would figure it out slowly.”

“Well, I didn’t,” he said.

“We were sitting directly under the stars eating dinner. Didn’t you notice their position?” Raina asked.

“I was only looking at you,” he said.

The sadness in his deep voice unnerved her. It was one thing to be angry, but his sorrow spoke of something else.

Her chest felt ripped in two.

“I hate to interrupt,” BFF20 said. “But we need to get off this ship, Raina.”

“As soon as you figure out how to bring the baby, I’ll go,” she said. “But until then, I suggest we find a way to communicate with the Stargazer.”

“Comms are down,” BFF20 said.

“Then we find a way to get them back up,” she replied.

“Even if we did, what would that mean?” BFF20 said. “We don’t know how to power that pod if the back-up support goes out.”

“The Stargazer has a sick bay,” Raina said. “They can help him, figure out what to do. I’m not leaving him here.”

She turned to Nick, hoping he would support her cause.

But he had left the room.

Her heart sank.

“I’m going back to the control room,” she told BFF20. “Maybe there’s something there we didn’t notice before.”

“You heard the captain’s message,” the drone said.

“I don’t care if she gave up,” Raina explained. “I’m not giving up.”

“The control room is on the other side of the ship. You might bump into that thing,” BFF20 said. “I won’t allow it.”

“You won’t allow it?” Raina asked.

“Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but I’ve grown rather fond of you,” BFF20 said in a wounded voice. “And while that massive creature you’ve been fawning over might be able to share your biological form when he chooses, I have your best interests at heart. And I don’t want to watch you sacrifice yourself in some illogical quest to save a single baby, who quite honestly might not make it out of stasis anyway after such a long hibernation. I insist that we locate an escape pod and take you back to the Stargazer where you belong. Let that hulking alien babysit the pod if you’re worried about it.”

Raina felt a surge of rage at the idea of leaving Nick behind as well as little Tesla.

The fact that BFF20 was right only made her angrier.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she spat and turned on her heel to stalk out of the room.

“Raina, wait,” BFF20 said.

“I’m not waiting,” she called over her shoulder.

But he was already hovering in the air beside her.

“Listen, if you really insist on doing this, please let me try to find the secondary controls for the ship,” he implored her. “I can’t stand to see you put yourself in danger.”

“Why would there be secondary controls here?”

“Each room in this wing has its own control panel for lighting, temperature, humidity, the whole gamut. A woman with your skills could find a backdoor to hack into the rest of the system from there,” BFF20 said. “If she had a friend who could recreate the ship’s schematics. Then she would not have to take her life in her hands and leave her friend in despair.”

Raina turned to the little droid.

He was so good to her. Consistently.

Too bad he was a four-ounce carbon fiber sheet.

“I was really rude to the only friend I have who can recreate schematics,” she said carefully. “If he would forgive me, I’ll bet we could do exactly what you proposed.”

“You’re talking about me, aren’t you?” BFF20 asked, sounding very pleased.

“Of course I’m talking about you,” Raina said. “I’m sorry I didn’t want to listen to you.”

“I’m only a drone,” he replied.

But she could tell he was pleased anyway by the way the LEDs shimmered up and down the rims of his little body.

“I’m going to grab my tools out of my pack. Can you find us a likely control panel?” she asked.

“I’m on it,” BFF20 said as he zipped through the air.