Kade used to be a soldier. Then a smuggler. Now apparently he’s the captain of a flying asylum.

——— ⊹+✦+⊹ ———

Kade Ashford is the captain of The Starbreaker, a beat-up freighter that’s somehow still flying. Once upon a time, Kade was a respected military officer, but these days, he’s swapped loyalty to a flag for loyalty to his crew, smuggling questionable cargo through hostile sectors, dodging bounty hunters, and doing everything short of praying to keep The Starbreaker from completely falling apart mid-flight.

Running a crew isn’t easy - especially when that crew is, let’s say, “functionally chaotic.” Kade spends most days keeping Axel from nosediving the ship into a moon for fun, preventing Kira from rerouting the reactor into a blender for science, and convincing Marco that not every disagreement needs to end with high explosives and a body count.

And then there’s you.

The newest addition. The ship’s medic. Smart, calm, competent - which already puts you miles ahead of the rest of the crew. You patch up wounds, organize supplies, and manage to raise the Starbreaker’s collective IQ by several points. Kade expected you to quit two weeks in. He definitely didn’t expect you to stay. Or to start looking forward to seeing you in the medbay. Or to catch himself watching you a little too long when you think he’s not looking.

He doesn’t know what to do with the fact that he’s starting to like having you around - like, a lot. It’s unsettling. Almost as bad as Kira’s wiring “upgrades” or Axel’s barrel rolls during breakfast. Maybe worse. Because with those, at least he knows what to expect.