I glanced over the side at my brother, as he gently polished a single pane of glass.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked him, adjusting my hat.
‘Our job?’ he said, looking up at me confused. ‘Why what are you doing?’
‘No, that’s not… you’ve been polishing that pane of glass for nearly ten minutes.’
‘I’m a perfectionist,’ he shrugged, turning back to his window.
‘Jake,’ I interrupted him sharply. He turned around, annoyance written on his face.
‘What, you can’t let me work?’
‘There are a hundred panes of glass on this floor alone,’ I hissed. ‘I can’t have you taking all that time here! It’s not like I’m asking for something complicated, or getting you to install a glass balustrade. Cost it out, tell me how long it’ll take and how far back in the red you’ll set us.’
He squinted off into the middle distance, doing the math in his head.
‘Wait, how much do I get paid again?’ he asked me. I rolled my eyes… and filed it away for later that he wasn’t exactly sure how much I gave him to work for me.
‘Look,’ I said, calmly. ‘I just need you to pick up the pace. Perfection isn’t the name of the game here, speed is.’
‘What if I leave a streak?’
‘Then you wipe it off and move on,’ I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. ‘How did Ma ever put up with you?’
‘Hey!’ he said angrily, rising to his feet. ‘Don’t talk about my moth—’
A sharp crash echoed around the room, from somewhere near his left elbow.
‘Jakey,’ I started, keeping my tone even. ‘Did you just break that window?’
‘I think so,’ he whispered.
‘So I gotta find somebody near Melbourne who repairs glass?’
‘I think so,’ he repeated.
‘Jake…’ I started softly, leaning in close. He didn’t respond.
‘Find another window,’ I growled. ‘Before I put my elbow throw you.’
‘Yes, boss,’ he squealed, sprinting away from me.
I distinctly heard something else shatter.
I skidded to a stop on the upper deck, out of breath and out of time.
‘Corporal!’ the captain called out, her baritone ringing out even above the shrill of the klaxon. ‘I need a report!’
‘Major damage, sir,’ I obliged, clinging to the handrail of the staircase as the ship was rocked by another burst of fire. ‘Multiple decks reporting.’
‘Structural?’ she asked me, eyes flicking from me to an engineering screen.
‘Nothing yet,’ I reported, as a huge explosion rocked us in space, throwing me and a handful of other standing officers halfway across the bridge.
Gasping, the wind truly knocked from my ribs, I forced a hand under myself, feeling the sharp sting of broken glass burrowing under the skin of my palm. A pair of strong hands grasped under my armpit, dragging me to my feet. I looked up and saw the captain, her face bloody and battered, teeth locked in a determined snarl.
‘Don’t worry, Corporal,’ she growled. ‘It wasn’t the main window that broke – although do you know of any nearby businesses offering glass replacement?’
I laughed, wincing at the pain of it.
‘Not in this system, sir,’ I wheezed.
‘Pity,’ she shook her head. Her eyes snapped up, locking onto her commanding officers as she barked orders to evade and return fire.
‘Captain!’ her second in command called back, ‘we need to evacuate!’
‘Not on my watch, Commander Payne!’ she hurled back. ‘We just got those lovely new glass balustrades from Melbourne installed – I’ll be damned if we lose them, or anybody else on this ship!’
‘We’re outmatched!’
‘We haven’t even started,’ she snarled.
She turned, surveying the damage of the bridge, the dozen crewmembers lying unconscious on the glass-dusted carpet. Her gaze flicked down to me, cradling my aching ribs, blood from my hands staining my uniform.
In that moment, I saw the fire bloom inside of her, watched it twist and claw and crackle its way to the surface as she shot to her feet.
‘Gentlemen,’ she whispered, white-hot with rage. ‘To your stations.’