The fight barely lasted ten minutes.

  Luca watched the So?adores work. They moved like a unit, each member following Camila's directions without hesitation. Rosa never missed, picking off Sangradores from positions Luca could barely see. Sofia's knives found targets wherever the line threatened to break. Miguel had taken control of the energy turrets and was putting them through their paces.

  Luca and his crew picked off stragglers, but they weren't needed. By the time the last Sangrador fell, the Triumph crew had barely broken a sweat while the So?adores were already assessing damage and planning repairs.

  "Third time this week," Camila said, wiping dark blood off her machetes. "Third time."

  The cleanup took an hour. Not any loot to speak of, the level difference was too high, but there was some damage, the So?adores patching what they could.

  "Come on," Camila said, gesturing toward the main structure. "If you're going to understand what we're doing here, you need to see it properly."

  The tour started at the dish.

  Up close, it was massive. A bowl of metal and wire stretching across the sinkhole. Luca could see where they'd been working: mismatched panels alongside jury-rigged supports, the telltale shimmer of System alloys standing out against the duller original aluminum.

  "We've replaced about sixty percent of the panels," Camila said, walking along a catwalk that circled the structure. "Fabricated most of them myself. System class is Fabrication Specialist, so I can work with pretty much any material now." She ran her hand along a railing they'd clearly installed themselves. "When the original dish collapsed and the cables snapped, the receiver platform crashed down. The whole thing was declared unsalvageable." She shrugged. "We disagreed."

  Luca noticed Emily had pulled out her tablet. She was taking notes.

  "How long have you been working on this?" Emily asked.

  "Three years. Since we hit Level 40 and the Rio Grande Adventuring Company assigned us to regional defense." She said it like a joke that had stopped being funny a long time ago. "We're responsible for portal patrol in this sector. The gobierno won't give us tower coverage, but they're happy to make us clean up the messes."

  "Rio Grande Adventuring Company?" Luca asked.

  "Under the Regional Tower of San Juan." Diego had joined them. "We're about four hundred now, all registered and legitimate. Doesn't mean anything when it comes to funding."

  They moved along the catwalk toward a junction box where cables thick as Luca's arm fed into the dish's support structure. Diego crouched beside it, checking connections.

  "Diego's our Integrated Systems Engineer," Camila said. "Handles all the power systems here."

  Luca could have sworn Ryan had stopped tinkering around just watching Diego work.

  They moved into the operations center. The building was filled with half-finished equipment and cables snaking across floors, consoles sitting dark and waiting for power that might never come. On one wall, someone had pinned up star charts and astronomical data. On another, a poster read "Per Aspera Ad Astra" in faded letters.

  Through hardship to the stars.

  Luca watched his crew scatter. Danny made a beeline for a console where Alejandro was running diagnostics. Data Scientist, according to Emily's muttered notes as she typed. Danny was asking rapid-fire questions, which Alejandro answered with growing enthusiasm.

  Rosa had pulled Emily toward a bank of equipment near the window. "Array Instrumentation Engineer," Rosa said, tapping her chest. "Communications, navigation, sensors. This targeting system I've been developing? It could track objects in orbit with the right calibration."

  Ryan and Miguel had found each other near a server rack and were already deep in debate. "Automation and AI Specialist," Miguel was saying, gesturing at the dark servers. "I could get these running if we had the processing cores. The whole facility could be automated."

  "You've got the bones of something real here," Ryan said, and Luca could hear the respect in his voice.

  Isabel was explaining something to Joey near a geological survey map pinned to the wall. Applied Geologist, if Luca remembered right. She was pointing at fault lines and soil composition charts, the kind of data that told you whether your building would still be standing after the next earthquake.

  But it was Sofia who finally said what Luca had been waiting to hear.

  "You want to know why we do this?" She was standing by the star charts, her small frame somehow filling the space. An Environmental Systems Engineer, Camila had mentioned earlier. The one who kept their environmental systems running. "It's not about the telescope. Not really."

  Luca waited.

  "We're from the barrios," she said. "Loíza. La Perla. Places where nobody expected us to be anything." Her jaw tightened. "The System gave us credits and levels. A real chance. But it's not enough to just survive. We want to build something. Something that matters."

  "The telescope matters," Camila said quietly. She'd moved to stand beside Sofia, the two of them framed by the star charts behind them. "But what matters more is what it represents. Puerto Rico contributing to something bigger than ourselves. Proving that we can do more than be a tourist destination and run training sectors for mainlanders."

  "We want to give younger kids something to dream about," Rosa added. "Show them that people from the hood can reach for the stars. Literally." She gestured at the equipment around them. "Every credit we've earned, we've poured into this place. Millions. All our savings. Because if we can get this operational, if we can actually contribute to humanity's understanding of what's out there..."

  "We become something," Miguel finished. "We become Puerto Rico's connection to the universe."

  Luca looked at the poster on the wall. Through hardship to the stars.

  "What would it take?" he asked. "To get this fully operational?"

  Camila and Alejandro exchanged a look. "If we had proper funding? Maybe six months. The dish is almost done. It's the receivers and processing systems that need work."

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  "And without funding?"

  "We've been at this for three years." She shrugged. "Maybe never."

  Danny had been quiet the whole time, which was weird for him. Now he spoke up. "But... if you leave..." He looked around at the equipment, the star charts, the years of work represented in every cable and console. "Who protects the radar?"

  The question hung in the air.

  Camila's expression shifted. Something complicated moved behind her eyes.

  "There will always be other teams," she said slowly. "The Rio Grande Company has other members. They could take over regional defense."

  "But?" Emily prompted.

  "But the radar is barely surviving now." Alejandro's voice was heavy. "We've poured everything into this place. And every month, something else breaks. Every month, another portal. Every month, we patch what we can and hope it holds."

  "The gobierno will never fund us," Sofia said. "We've accepted that. But we keep fighting because..." She trailed off, looking at her teammates.

  "Because we don't know what else to do," Diego finished quietly. "This dream is all we have."

  Luca thought about the Triumph. The vastness of space. Everything they'd seen and done out there. What it meant to dream of something bigger.

  "What if there was another way?" he said carefully.

  Seven pairs of eyes turned to him.

  "The Triumph is heading back to Alpha Centauri. We're building something out there. A future." He met Camila's gaze. "We need people. Good people. People who know how to fight and build. People who dream big."

  "You're offering us positions?" Rosa asked, her voice skeptical.

  "I'm not offering anything. Not yet." Luca held up a hand. "What I'm saying is... there's a path. A way to see the stars you've been staring at through this dish. A way to actually stand on a world outside the solar system and contribute to something bigger than any of us."

  "And Puerto Rico?" Camila asked quietly. "What about our people here? The kids in the barrios who need something to dream about?"

  Luca smiled. "Imagine what it would mean to them. Puerto Ricans who didn't just reach for the stars, but who actually got there. Hometown heroes who walked on alien soil and came back with stories that would inspire generations."

  The So?adores looked at each other.

  "We can't just abandon the radar," Alejandro said, but there was less conviction in his voice than before.

  "The radar is dying," Danny said gently. He'd moved to stand among them, his scientific curiosity replaced by something more human. "The structural reports are right there. You're fighting entropy with duct tape and hope. Another year, maybe two, and..." He didn't finish the sentence.

  "He's right," Diego admitted. "We know he's right. We've known for a while. We just..."

  "Didn't want to accept it," Camila finished.

  She turned to look at the star charts on the wall. The constellations they'd memorized. The galaxies they'd dreamed of reaching.

  Camila turned back to Luca, and there was something new in her eyes. "You're not promising us anything."

  "No."

  "But you're showing us a door."

  "I'm showing you a door," Luca agreed. "That may open. It's up to you walk through it when it's time."

  Camila looked at her team. Rosa. Sofia. Isabel. Alejandro. Diego. Miguel. The people she'd fought beside for three years. The family she'd built from strangers.

  "We need to talk," she said. Then, after a pause: "But not here. Not surrounded by all this."

  She looked at her team, and something passed between them.

  "There's a spot in the barrio," Camila said. "Our place. Cheap drinks, good music. The kind of place where you can think."

  Miguel grinned. "Now you're talking."

  The ride down the mountain was slower than the ride up. No urgency, no screaming toward danger. Just fourteen people winding through jungle roads as the heat bore down.

  The barrio came alive as night fell. Music spilled from open doorways where kids played in the streets, and old men sat on porches watching the world go by with cold beers in hand. This was their neighborhood, their turf.

  The club was not what Luca would have picked. Rough around the edges, dimly lit, tucked between a bodega and a mechanic's shop. But as they stepped inside, the rich, spicy smell of food and the thumping bass of reggaeton made him feel right at home. People dancing close, laughing loud, living like tomorrow wasn't guaranteed.

  They commandeered a corner, and before Luca knew what was happening, drinks were appearing and food was covering the table. Empanadas and tostones, plates of chicharrones piled high. Ryan dove in like he hadn't eaten in days.

  Somewhere around the third round of drinks, Emily grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the dance floor. Luca didn't resist. The rum had loosened something in him, and the bass was doing the rest.

  They found a spot in the crowd and Emily turned, pressing her back against his chest. The reggaeton beat was slow, grinding, and she moved with it like she'd been doing this her whole life. Luca's hands found her hips. His shirt was already sticking to his back, the club's heat thick enough to taste, and when she looked over her shoulder at him with that smile, he forgot how to breathe.

  This was different. They'd danced before, sure, but not like this. Not as whatever they were now. Her body fit against his like it belonged there, and when she reached back to hook her arm around his neck, pulling him closer, Luca stopped thinking about the So?adores and the telescope and the future. There was just Emily, and the music, and the sweat running down his spine.

  At some point, Luca looked up and took stock of the chaos. Chris was getting dance lessons from Sofia, the tiny woman trying to guide his massive frame through steps that didn't fit his body. She kept laughing every time he messed up, and he kept trying anyway, which was so Chris it hurt. Then he just picked her up like she weighed nothing, and she wrapped her legs around him and kissed him, and that was the end of the dance lessons. Luca looked away. Good for him.

  Danny and Rosa had claimed a corner booth where they were drawing diagrams on napkins and gesturing wildly about something scientific. Diego had joined them at some point, and the three of them had clearly forgotten they were at a club. Ryan had found a poker game in the back, and from his face, Miguel was cleaning him out.

  Luca pulled Emily closer and let the music take them. The two crews had stopped being two crews somewhere between the third drink and the fifth song, and now they were just people. Young people, getting drunk and dancing and forgetting about portals and telescopes and the weight of dreams too big to carry alone.

  The night blurred. At some point, Luca ended up at a table with Camila and a bottle of rum that seemed to refill itself. Emily was tucked against his side, half-asleep.

  "Your crew is something else," Camila said.

  "They're good people."

  "I can tell." She took a drink, eyes distant. "That's what we have too. We started as strangers, but after three years..." She shrugged. "They're my family now."

  "I get that."

  "I know you do." She looked at him with the kind of assessment that made him feel seen. "That's why tonight works. Your people and mine. We're the same kind of crazy."

  They clinked glasses. The rum burned going down, but it was the good kind of burn.

  "You ever think about what comes next?" Camila asked. "After the telescope? After all this?"

  "All the time."

  She smiled, something genuine breaking through the tough-girl armor. "Maybe there's hope for you yet, Captain."

  The club kicked them out around four in the morning. Luca stumbled into the humid pre-dawn air and the heat hit him like a wall, somehow still oppressive even at this hour. His shirt was soaked through and clinging to his back, and he could feel the rum sloshing in his stomach as he tried to find his balance.

  Fourteen young people spilled onto the street, laughing about nothing and everything. Danny was leaning against a wall, looking green, and Joey had already stationed himself nearby with a bottle of water. Smart man. Ryan was trying to sing something in Spanish that definitely wasn't a real song, and Chris had Sofia on his shoulders, both of them giggling at something.

  Luca had one arm around Emily and the other around Camila, all three leaning on each other. The barrio stretched around them, narrow streets and painted concrete, the mountains dark silhouettes against a sky just starting to lighten.

  "So," Camila said, her head bumping against his shoulder. "Los So?adores. The Dreamers."

  "Good name."

  "We thought so." She was quiet for a moment, watching the sky lighten. "We've done the runs, you know? Took shuttles to Mars, Titan. Europa. Waited three weeks for a slot at the Olympus Mons portals. Cleared it, got our XP, flew home. But that's not the same as actually going somewhere, you know?"

  She took a swig of water that Joey handed her.

  Luca thought about the Triumph. The months of travel. Watching stars drift past the observation deck while the void stretched endlessly around them.

  "Yeah," he said. "It's different."

  "The real stars," Camila said quietly. "Not looking through a portal or a telescope. Actually being out there, in the black, going somewhere no human has been." She shrugged, like it was nothing. "Stupid dream, probably."

  The sun crept higher, and somewhere, a rooster crowed.

  Enjoy the weekend everyone!