“Technically, it might be. Head Case uses technology called Sigiltech to manipulate quantum effects, like scaling.”

  “So…magic," I said bluntly.

  Matt shrugged. “It seems like magic, but so does AI the first time you encounter it.”

  “I don’t think ChatGPT is going to shrink me to half size,” Alyssa said.

  “Look, I’m not an engineer like Meg or Leo, but I can tell you that Sigiltech channels chaos energy from the Void, which we just passed through, into specific sigil patterns. The design of those patterns create the specific effect. Sort of like computer programming."

  I stared, thoughts whirling. Sigils. Quantum manipulation. Chaos energy. Wait a second…

  "Are you saying this ship can change size? Is that how you hid it from us in the cornfield?” Awe overwhelmed my lingering unease.

  Matt grinned and nodded. “You’re no dummy, Noah. I was waiting for you to put two and two together.”

  “The scores on the inside of the hull. Those are sigil patterns, aren’t they?”

  He nodded again, still smirking a little.

  “And the rift… The ship did that through Ben somehow?”

  “No, Ben did that himself. He can channel chaos energy without sigils.”

  "Holy crap!" Tyler exclaimed. "That's insane! How is that even possible?" He looked at me. “You were right. He’s freaking Gandalf.”

  "It's all pretty unbelievable. But in the four years since we bought Head Case, we’ve never had a problem with any of the sigils.” Matt regarded her reassuringly. “We've got it under control."

  “After I almost fell to my death,” Alyssa retorted.

  “We’ll have it all straightened out in no time, I promise. Until then, we just need to exercise a little patience. Deck Three contains our general living spaces. Recreation, bedrooms, head, galley, and assembler. Let’s go to the kitchen. We can grab refreshments and talk. Maybe finalize that rental agreement, too."

  He headed down the corridor while the three of us stared at each other.

  "Is anyone else majorly freaking out right now?" Alyssa whispered. "Giant spiders, blue squirrels, magic space-warping ships? And now, honey, the ship shrunk us kids. This is more than I signed up for!”

  "Are you kidding me?" Tyler retorted. "This is epic! Matt just admitted they're playing with forces beyond physics. I wonder what else he hasn't told us yet?"

  I silently agreed with Tyler's unspoken fascination. My wheels spun faster than Levi's fifty exaFLOPS. If Sigiltech could resize objects and open rifts through a void in spacetime, what else could it do? The possibilities staggered me.

  "You can't actually be enjoying this, Noah!" Alyssa argued when I shared my thoughts. "This ship is dangerous! First we’re attacked and nearly killed. Then we go through some crazy portal and I feel like I’m going to lose my mind. Then I try to do something as simple as stepping off an elevator, and I almost fall into a pit. And we’ve only been here for half an hour.”

  "True," Tyler jumped in before I could respond. "But we also have no reason to think any of that stuff will happen again. Whoever attacked us probably thinks we're space junk by now. And like Matt said, they can fix the problem with the elevator.”

  "You don't know that for sure," Allie insisted stubbornly.

  "No," I disagreed, with a slow shake of my head. "We don't know anything for certain yet, but I believe Matt and Ben are good guys running into some bad luck. That's enough for me to want to keep following this yellow brick road.”

  Ally threw her hands up helplessly. "You two are insane."

  Further argument was forestalled by Matt's return, once he realized we hadn’t followed him. “Are you guys coming?”

  “Yeah,” I said for the group, hurrying to catch up to him. Tyler stayed with me, while Alyssa hesitated for a moment before throwing her hands up and trailing along behind us. Reaching the end of the corridor brought us to what had to be the lounge Matt had referenced multiple times. A pair of beat-up sofas sat in an L formation near the center, a shaggy orange ottoman between them. One end table looked to be made from stone. The other, made from some kind of yellow composite, hovered in midair, holding my attention for more than a few seconds. At the front of the lounge, a huge cathode television on a massive articulating mount hung just above another long, wide viewport. To our right sat a piano, a guitar stand with a pair of guitars, a drum set, and behind it, a bar and foosball table. There was also a loaded bookshelf, and as I turned full circle in the room, I noticed stairs leading up to a second floor.

  Suddenly, scaling to half-size made sense in the most ridiculous way I could conceive.

  "So this is our main lounge area,” Matt said. “The sofas recline and have built-in massagers. Alyssa, you strike me as someone who enjoys books." He indicated the shelves inset along the exterior bulkheads. "We've got some great paperbacks, and the slabs all have access to our data store, which has its own extensive media library.”

  He turned to point up the stairs. “Berthing is up there. We have five bedrooms in total. I’m sure you won’t be here that long, so we’ll keep that private space.” He smiled. “Now you understand why the sigils scale us down. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have anywhere to sleep or relax. This isn’t a military ship, so R and R is important.”

  “You have an awful lot of guns for not a military ship,” Alyssa pointed out.

  “And we need them,” Matt replied. “Space is too big to rely on anyone else for protection. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, things run smoothly and there are no complications. It’s that point one percent that will get you killed if you aren’t prepared for it.”

  “What kind of threats do you encounter?” I asked. “Besides unidentified ships slinging missiles at you just outside of Earth’s orbit.”

  “We made enemies of some pretty powerful warlords when we first reached the Spiral. They haven’t stopped plotting to destroy us, despite a consistent lack of success.”

  “I want to know more about that,” Tyler said.

  “Yeah, me too,” Ally agreed.

  Matt smiled. “You walked right past the galley. Let’s grab some food and drinks and make everything legal.”

  CHAPTER 18

  Matt’s dodge around Tyler’s question about his and Ben’s exploits didn’t get me any closer to understanding their way of thinking. Considering the capabilities they had at their disposal, I couldn’t imagine why anyone would be dumb enough to keep a target lock on them.

  I let it go for now as we backtracked to the first door on the left just before the lounge. A galley kitchen occupied most of the space. White counters gleamed under recessed lighting, and a simple metal table and four chairs occupied the center of the compartment. The cabinets contained plates, cups, and cutlery, but there was no sign of a fridge or any other food, or anything to cook it in for that matter. The only thing that even vaguely resembled an appliance was a simple brushed steel door that interrupted the backsplash and occupied half the area behind the counter.

  “Talk about sparse,” Tyler commented as we entered. Matt motioned to the chairs, and we each took a seat. “I don’t see a fridge. Where’s the promised grub at?”

  “How can you be hungry? We pigged out on Miyaki’s four hours ago.”

  “You pigged out. I didn’t bring any for me, remember?”

  “To be honest, I hadn’t noticed.”

  “You definitely had some other things on your mind.”

  “I’ll worry about all of that once I’m back on Earth. Until then, I’m going to shoot for denial. I want to enjoy this.”

  “Alyssa, what’s your favorite food?” Matt asked, moving to the galley counter.

  “I’m not sure I should say,” she replied. “I don’t want to give Tyler any more ammo to Google me with.”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” Tyler said. “I use DuckDuckGo.” He shot her his signature impish grin.

  “Spaghetti and meatballs,” Alyssa admitted. “With a spicy marinara.”

  “That’s a great choice. I love meatballs.” Matt’s smile set Ally’s cheeks afire once more. He turned away from her, retrieving a plate from the cupboard and lifting the metal door. The plate easily fit into the space behind it. He put a cup in it as well before closing the door again. “What about beverage?”

  “Root beer?” she said.

  He nodded. “Hey Asshole, give me a plate of spaghetti and meatballs in a spicy marinara, with a root beer.”

  “Spaghetti and meatballs?” a voice with a heavy Brooklyn accent replied. “Mama mia, that’s a tasty meal. Comin’ right up, ya filthy animal!”

  Tyler and I laughed. Alyssa looked stunned. “I thought the AI’s name was Levi?”

  “Oh, it is. Asshole isn’t really an AI. His responses are dynamic but mostly canned. Ben programmed the system to think it works at a Manhattan deli. Don’t ask me why.”

  “Order up, Sweetcakes.”

  Matt opened the steel door. The smell of perfectly made spaghetti and meatballs immediately wafted to my nose. I breathed in deeply. “Is this Sigiltech too?”

  “No, just regular tech. A molecular assembler.”

  “There’s nothing regular about that,” Tyler said.

  “Not on Earth,” Matt agreed. “It uses raw materials to produce meals from a molecular recipe database.”

  “That’s amazing,” Alyssa said as Matt put the spaghetti in front of her, along with the root beer and cutlery.

  "No way! It's like a super microwave,” Tyler said.

  "Better. It’s perfectly cooked every time. And, if you want to add something to the database, you don’t need to do the chemical breakdown yourself. Just give it a sample, and it can figure out how to assemble it."

  “How does it work?” I asked.

  Matt laughed. “Beyond providing it with raw resources, I have no idea. I just tell it what I want to eat.”

  I watched Ally take a bite. She smiled and nodded, signaling it wasn’t only edible, but tasty.

  “Noah, what’s your flavor of the day?” Matt asked.

  “Rice balls,” Tyler answered for me.

  “Asshole, can you make rice balls?” Matt asked.

  “Nope,” it answered simply.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I’m not hungry. I ate a few hours ago.”

  “How about a drink?”

  I considered and then nodded. “Asshole, can you do a cold brew?”

  “Absofreakinlutely. You want one or what?”

  I paused, Matt’s earlier words resonating in my mind. “When you say raw materials, what does that include?” I asked.

  “Pretty much anything that would otherwise go in the trash,” Matt replied.

  Alyssa lowered her forkful of spaghetti. “I’m eating garbage?”

  “Technically,” he answered. “And also anything that would go down the toilet or the shower drain.”

  “You’re kidding.” Her fork clattered on the table, and she pushed herself away from her food. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “It’s all perfectly safe. The assembler breaks it down to base molecules, like you’d find on the periodic table, and reassembles your order from there. It’s like how the wheat that’s grown to be made into spaghetti is fertilized with manure. You eat that, right?”

  Alyssa thought about it before pulling her chair back up to the table. “When you put it that way,” she said, picking up her fork and shoving another bite into her mouth.

  “Believe me, I had the same reaction when I first learned how it worked. T-bone, what’s your pleasure?”

  “Asshole,” Tyler said. “How about a burger, medium rare, two patties. Pickles, ketchup, mustard, and potato chips. Oh, and peanut butter. Plus fries, nice and crispy. And a beer.”

  Matt laughed. “I have a feeling you and Ben will get along just fine. He’s also a burger connoisseur.”

  “A beer?” Ally said. “You’re only seventeen.”

  “No alcohol laws in space, am I right?” Tyler asked.

  “You are correct,” Matt answered.

  “Yo, Mattie. Can you get me a plate and a mug?” Asshole asked. Matt stuck the dishes in the assembler and closed the door. Less than thirty seconds later, Tyler had the best-looking burger I’d ever seen. It was almost enough to make me hungry despite my full stomach.

  “I’ll be right back,” Matt said. “I’m just going to grab the rental agreement.” He hurried out of the galley, leaving us alone again.

  “I wonder if there’s any way we can bring Asshole back to Earth with us,” Tyler commented before biting into his burger, groaning as he tasted it.

  “I can only guess how much energy it uses to break things into molecules and put them back together,” I replied.

  “What do you guys think of Matt?” Alyssa asked.

  “Like, is he into you? I don’t think so,” Tyler answered. “You’re not his type.”

  “How do you know what his type is?”

  “Look at him. He’s like a young Chris Hemsworth, except American.”

  “Maybe he cares about more than looks. Not every man is as shallow as you.”

  “I think this is the last thing we should be talking about right now,” I said before they could start arguing. “We aren’t going to be on board long enough for you to date him, whether he likes you or not. Unless…”

  “Unless what?” Tyler asked. “I don’t like the look on your face.”

  I opened my mouth to answer, the wheels of logic picking up speed as everything I’d observed since we boarded Head Case coalesced in my subconscious. My brain had worked out the math while I’d been marveling over the technology, but the final answer had yet to make its way to my lips. Matt came back before it could, leaving all three of us hanging.

  "Here’s our standard rental agreement,” he said, dropping a too-thick stack of legal papers in the center of the table. “I know it's pretty much a formality at this point, since you can’t disembark if you wanted to, but once you sign on the dotted line this whole deal will be official.”

  "Is that supposed to make us feel better?" Alyssa griped.

  “No, but it’ll make me and Ben feel better,” he replied.

  I leafed curiously through the document. A lot of terminology sounded almost boilerplate, something any business might use. Arbitration. Assumption of risk. Yada yada yada. Of course, no other business on Earth talked about itineraries to Mars and Venus, or claimed they weren’t responsible should we get sucked into a black hole.

  “I think we need to change this part,” I said, pointing to a line right at the beginning. It stated the tour would be three hours long. We’d already burned one of them and were still drifting in the middle of nowhere, waiting for Ben to feel better.

  “Yeah. You’re probably right,” Matt agreed. “Let me cross that part out. We’ll just change it to indefinite, okay?”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Alyssa said.

  “It’s just a formality. We’ll get you home as soon as we can.”

  “Okay.”

  He crossed it out, handwriting in the change. I read the rest of the document. Other than clearing the employees of Head Space Star Tours of liability for pretty much anything and promising us we would visit Mars and Venus, there really wasn’t much to the contract despite Matt’s earlier claims.

  I didn’t care. I signed it without reservation before sliding it toward Tyler.

  “Try not to get any ketchup on it,” Matt warned as T-Bone plated the remaining half of his burger to scribble his name beneath mine. He passed it over to Alyssa.

  “So, if I don’t sign this, you’ll throw me off the ship?”

  “Not really,” Matt replied. “But I’ll probably have to lock you in a closet or something. I’d rather not have to do that.”

  “Come on, All-red,” I said. “Don’t gum up the works.”

  She looked at me. “I’ll sign after you tell us what you were going to say before Matt came back.”

  Matt turned his attention my way, curious. Then all eyes were on me.

  “Unless…” Ally reminded me when I hesitated.

  “Well, Ben used sigils to open the rift and get us here, wherever here is. Then he collapsed and had to go to sickbay. The elevator also uses sigils and drained the batteries after a single resize. To me, that suggests however Sigiltech works, it’s not operating very efficiently right now. Plus, the hyperdrive is damaged. Which means⁠—”

  “We might be stuck out here for a while,” Tyler finished. He glanced at Alyssa. “I hope your roommate remembers to feed your cat.”

  “Worse,” I said, stomach clenching, heart pounding. “Depending on where in the universe we are, we might be stuck out here permanently.”

  CHAPTER 19

  A tense silence fell over the galley. Even Matt’s face paled. He’d yet to consider the ramifications of our frantic escape from certain destruction.

  Alyssa dropped the pen. “I’m not signing this. What the hell does it matter, anyway?”

  “It’s only a theory,” I said. “Maybe when Ben comes back, he’ll be able to tell us I’m totally wrong and that he can get us back to Earth easy-peasy.”

  “I’m done waiting for Ben to make an appearance,” she complained, her patience worn thin. “Can we just go to sickbay and talk to him? He doesn’t need to use much energy to move his lips. And we need answers. Now.”

  Matt bit his lower lip before nodding. “Yeah. We might as well head down there. The transit did a number on him, but I’ll see if I can wake him up. I kind of want to know what he thinks about all this, too.”

  “My mom’s gonna kill me,” Tyler said. The second half of his burger rested forgotten on his plate, his appetite gone. The same went for what remained of Alyssa’s spaghetti.

  Matt pushed his chair back and stood, hesitating there. He picked up the pen and held it out to Alyssa. “I’m sorry, but unless you want to be locked in the spare bedroom, you need to sign the contract.”

  “You have to be kidding.”

  “Until you sign, we’re liable for anything that might happen to you. That’s not a risk we can afford to take.”