Sebastian begins to disassociate out of fear. His mind drifts away with highway hypnosis as a defense mechanism. He figures the less he overhears, the less he’ll overthink, and the better off he’ll be.

…

Just how bad is this day going to get?

There’s no way they’ll make it through security.

They’re not very good at being quiet. Or subtle.

And they’re going to kill him at some point.

But if they shoot him now, Oasis security will know,

and they’ll disintegrate this tadpole in an instant.

Either way, he's dead. But if they don’t play this perfectly, they’re dead, too.

Does Sebastian actually have leverage here?

…

June lowers her gun.

"What are you doing?" Dusty raises an eyebrow.

June shrugs. "Yours is loaded, isn’t it?"

"Keep your gun on him, June!" Dusty says with increasing frustration.

"What’s the point? I’m exhausted!" June raises her voice in concert.

Dusty lowers hers to assuage the rising tension. "We’re all exhausted, June—"

"He’s not going anywhere! And stop repeating my name like I’m crazy!" June leans towards Dusty with a snap and sharpens her tone in an ironically unhinged fashion.

Sebastian looks in the rear-view mirror and sees Delphine driving her tadpole behind his. She’s his only hope. If he can somehow convey a signal to her without these two catching on, he might have a chance of escaping. While June and Dusty bicker between one another, Sebastian sneakily activates the tadpole's hazard lights.

…

Delphine drives forward. Her eyes are on the road, but her mind is wavering. She is absolutely hung over from her long night of drinking. She just needs to focus on keeping her vehicle inside the lines. Suddenly, both tail lights on Sebastian's vehicle begin to flash in bright orange blinks. She sees this and is initially made alert, waiting for him to pull over first. But as he continues to drive at full speed, she assumes that he must have turned on his hazards by mistake. With both the sudden speeding from earlier and now this, Delphine comes to a conclusion.

"Man, he's a bad driver." She says out loud.

…

Once the argument begins to die down, Sebastian quickly shuts off the hazard lights, hoping dearly that his distress signal was understood. Dusty glares at June quietly. She holds herself back to avoid escalating the situation and instead shifts her attention to Sebastian.

"Lune. Do you know which fuel station is closest to the gate? We want to be in and out of there as quickly as possible." She explains halfheartedly.

He nods, exasperated from the heated exchange occurring beyond his field of vision. In truth, he has no idea which fuel station is closest to the gate—the only vehicle he owns is an electric scooter. He's deathly afraid of what's going to happen once these pirates have no more use for him.

"Good." She says with a sigh.

"You don't sound very confident about this brilliant plan of yours." June eyes Dusty suspiciously.

"It was our only option. And I never said it was brilliant." Dusty says.

She looks June in the eye. The tension returns briefly before June shrugs, then looks over at Sebastian.

"Where was this thing headed originally?" She asks.

"Um. A uh, restaurant called the Mare." He answers.

"Oooo! The Mah-ray? Sounds fancy!" June giggles.

Sebastian nods silently.

"What's in the fridge?" Dusty asks.

"It's a shipment of food. Meats mostly, I think." He explains.

"What kind?" June asks.

"Well uh, let's see…" Sebastian taps the dashboard terminal to pull up the manifest.

"There's no need to—" Dusty starts.

June glares at her, so Dusty quiets down.

"It’s a um, large shipment of protein for next week’s menu. So, cuts of herculean bovine, skyray wagyu, and cubes of rare giga-crustacean meats." Sebastian reads off the list.

"Oh! That all sounds delicious! It's been so long since we've had any decent food aboard the ship…" June laments.

Dusty grumbles to herself.

"So, what do you do in the restaurant? Are you like a waiter or something?" June asks.

"I’m a cook."

"He’s a chef! Chef Sebastian!" June smiles as she learns more.

"How do you know his name?" Dusty asks.

"He uh… introduced himself outside. When we first met…" June’s voice trails off. She becomes very nervous for some imperceptible reason.

"Hm. Maybe don't use it." Dusty mumbles.

"What the hell is your problem?" June's voice rises.

"It just makes this harder. You know that."

"All I know is that we're on our way to certain death. I just want to get to know the guy who's driving us there." June shrugs.

Dusty shakes her head and looks out the window. The desert's ever present haze of dust fades away as they approach the purified air of the city. Oasis' massive wall looms in the distance. The glints of hundreds of ships fill the skies above it. She watches them circle around the Lunar colony like vultures above a corpse. She watches them circle and circle. Around and around. Then she begins to wonder if they'll ever land. After a couple minutes of watching, one ship finally descends. Shortly after, another ship booms through the atmosphere as it makes its entry. It then enters orbit above Oasis, taking its place in the queue. Dusty's eyes widen as she has a sudden realization.

"Are they scanning the ships?!" She asks with an uncharacteristic exasperation.

Both June and Sebastian look surprised at her excitement.

"I think so." Sebastian answers.

"That means they're scanning everything that enters the gate." Dusty's shoulders slump over.

"...I think so." He shrinks defensively.

She reaches into her pocket, pulls out a pack of cigarettes, then quickly lights one.

"What? What's wrong?" June asks.

Dusty exhales a stream of smoke. "We're fucked."