Jak Phoenix

  ***

  “Who would have thought that a hot tub on a space ship was a good idea?” asked Cyan. She had eventually made her way to the cockpit where Jak and Baxter had returned to adjust their course as they neared their destination. She sounded relaxed and happier.

  She had dressed in a new pair of clean clothes with a long sleeve black jacket, and stood behind them with a towel draped around her neck, with her partially wet hair flowing down her back and shoulders.

  “Did you evaporate all the water before you came up here?” asked Jak, attempting to put on the appearance of disinterest.

  “Yep. That’s working fine now too.”

  “That’s great,” said Jak.

  After ten minutes of awkward silence between the three of them, punctuated only by the beeps and ticks of the cockpit’s instrumentation, Jak decided he needed to buckle down. She was throwing a monkey-wrench into his concentration and the synergy between himself and Baxter. She was getting in the way and making a joke of things, urging him to participate and make it even worse.

  For such a serious situation, she was being awfully casual as compared to her attitude earlier. Before she had decided to hold guns on them and now she was swimming and frolicking naked in the ship, distracting Baxter.

  There was, of course, the possibility that she was just trying to loosen up in order to get to know them better. And, she was dirty after fixing the engine, so the bathing was not likely for any ill purpose. But still, he and Baxter needed to remain a somewhat focused team if they were going to get anywhere on this mission. He’d need to be the adult here.

  “So, I figured after we help your friend, we can go over a few practice scenarios and get a plan organized for the attack on Murdock,” said Cyan.

  Damn.

  “Sounds good,” replied Baxter.

  Jak grunted a response. What a great idea, captain.