One of Raan’s daily rituals was a walk about the ship. It hadn’t taken long on the Resolute, but the Manticore was twice the size. At least she wasn’t the size of an Odyssey. He had no idea what he’d do with a ship that size. They were practically cities in space. 

Today’s walkabout was half getting to know the crew and half finding just the right corridor and window to commune with the Manticore herself. The sweet spot. On the Resolute it had been one on the port side, not far from the Pit. Here on the Manticore, it was on the starboard side, near one of the upper entrances to engineering. 

He leaned one large shoulder against the bulkhead, his hand wrapped around a large mug as he watched the stars streaming by. A frown creased his brow, thoughts chasing themselves over each other.

For years he’d been content with where he’d been. The captain of the Resolute, kicking ass and taking names when he was told to, and letting people assume he was the big, dumb bulldog he appeared to be. 

He’d been happy. Content.

Bullshit… he’d been hiding. He knew that. But as long as no one else had realised that, he could forget it. Push the dissatisfaction deep down inside and ignore the fuck out of it. 

His eyes focused on his reflection in the mirror and his scowl deepened. He didn’t look in the mirror often. Only to shave, which was rare… it was the reason he wore a beard most of the time. He didn’t like his reflection because he didn’t see himself. 

He saw a killer. Twice over. 

He saw Raal, his twin brother. 

The brother who had murdered thousands upon thousands in a senseless war. The brother who had decided to burn their world down when he couldn’t rule it. The brother he’d had to kill to stop it.

“No one blames you, you know.” Dayne said, joining him. How the hell he could manage to sneak up on him so easily, Raan had long ago given up on working out.

“Blames me?” he asked, lifting a brow. Sometimes Dayne spoke in riddles. A side effect of being blown up so many times during the war. 

“For killing him…” Dayne motioned to Raan’s reflection. 

He didn’t ask how the big engineer knew he saw Raal. Sometimes the other big, dumb-looking grunt on the ship was more perceptive than he let people realise. 

“He was asking for it, pure and simple. If you hadn’t put him down, I would’ve had to do it,” 

Dayne leaned on the opposite bulkhead, his own mug in his hand as he looked out at the same stars. “And given he was the son of the premier, I’d have been hauled off and court martialed quicker than a wink. But I would have,” he said, his expression suddenly fierce. “To stop you beating yourself the fuck up over it for all these years.”

Raan snorted into his mug, taking a swallow. Dayne was blunt as a thrown brick. 

“It was my responsibility,” he replied, his voice low. “He was my responsibility, as much as Vix was yours.”

At the mention of his sister, Dayne grunted, his expression tight. They were twins, like he and Raal had been… but Vix had been more of a victim than any of them and Dayne had nearly lost her thanks to Raal. Even now, Vix couldn’t bear to be in the same room as him. 

“Yeah… Vix is only a danger if you piss her off in her engineering bay,” he replied. “She hasn’t tried to wipe out half a planet.”

“Yet.” Raan’s lips quirked as he took another swallow from his mug. “If she’s anything like you, I wouldn’t want to take my chances before she’d had her coffee in the morning.”

Dayne laughed, the sound a loud bark in the corridor. “Yeah.. true. Even I tread lightly in a morning when I’m home.”

Raan just nodded and didn’t make a comment to that. He hadn’t been back to their home planet for a very long time. 

Then he frowned and looked at Dayne’s mug. There was a speck of colour on the rim. 

“Is that a fucking sprinkle?” he asked, then blinked and looked at his own drink. He’d gotten so used to not getting what he ordered on the Resolute, that he’d completely missed the fact that it was happening on the Manticore as well. 

“Yup.” Dayne lifted a massive shoulder in a lopsided shrug. “Same glitch it appears. They’re not the same models as on the Resolute, but some of the same components. I’m going to get one of the junior engineers on it, see if we can’t isolate the problem once and for all.”

Raan nodded and pushed off the wall. “Keep me updated,” he ordered. “Because I’ve been dreaming of black coffee.”

“Hey!” Dayne lifted his hands. “What you do in the privacy of your own quarters is totally up to you.” Then he grinned. “But dude, that’s a really crappy fantasy. I was expecting way more nekkidness.”

Raan shook his head as the pair turned to walk down the corridor. “Sometimes I wonder what puppies I kicked in a past life to end up with you.”