"Nnnnot the way you mean it. Uh, what setting are you on right now?"

While he talks, Kolya's hands go through the motions of replacing the panel with the confidence of long practice. 

"...Means." A sigh crackles through the speaker. "How much am I going to hate this?" 

"Maybe a little," Kolya admits.

"We have a new course; Aurora is sending you the coordinates." 

There's a pause as the information goes through. 

"Do I want to know why we're going to a moon orbiting New Constantinople?"

"Mercy mission!" Kolya replies, tightening the last screw.

"We're rescuing a damsel in distress. Very noble cause. Of course, there'll probably be resistance..." 

Honey supposes that is one way to look at it.

Honestly, he's not sure whether he's sad for the goons Cole will presumably having milling about wherever this Rose is being kept, or angry at them. He's not sure he's either.

Martin sighs again. "Kolya, you know I can't condone..." He trails off.

There's a click. 

"Does Kit know about this yet?" he asks in a much brighter tone. "Or should I brace myself for interference?" 

Kolya starts grinning when he hears the click. 

"I expect I can talk him round," he says lightly. "Most dangerous place in several hundred systems, is Varangar, after New Constantinople itself. Would be a shame not to go, really." 

"If you say so. Alright, the coordinates are set. I leave convincing our first mate in your capable hands. Oh—and would you collect Mac on your way up? I'm sure Aurora can tell you where he's hidden himself this time. Apparently Honey spooked him a few hours ago." 

"Got it." 

There's a blip as Aurora cuts the connection. 

Kolya raises an eyebrow at Honey. "So what did you do to Mac?" 

"I attempted to say hello." Honey is somewhat distracted from the question by how suddenly Martin seemed to change tone. A little worrying. He'll try and ask him about it some other time.

Aurora helpfully brings up a map showing Mac's current location.

"You said hello and he ran away to hide in the air ducts," Kolya says as he starts moving in that direction. 

"I said hello and he shot me, then ran away to...hide in the air ducts." Honey figures out part-way through saying that who the person in the air duct was.

"...right. That makes more sense. Oh—" He stops walking. "You should ask Ashes to find you a weapon or few, if you're coming on this excursion." 

Aurora can, again, provide a helpful map. 

Honey will take the directions to Ashes, pondering what sort of weapon he should request. Despite his time in both armies, he's honestly never gotten very good with a gun. His parents taught him how to use a bow and arrow, which he's still decent at, but he's not sure if or why they'd have any bows or arrows lying around.

They definitely have bows and arrows lying around. Ashes has so much stuff. 

"You want a high draw weight, yeah? Give me a few minutes, I'll dig something out." 

Huh. Ashes sure does have a collection. While they're looking for an appropriate bow, Honey asks. "Where'd you get all this stuff?"

"Oh, all over. You pick up a few things from every planet and it soon adds up—aha!" 

Ashes emerges triumphant with a recurve bow and a quiver of arrows that don't look like they've been used in a long time. "You'll need a new string, this one's half-rotten, but the bow itself oughtta be fine." 

Honey nods along before taking the bow and quiver of arrows. "Any idea where I can get the string? I can...uh...make my own, but I consider that a bit of a last resort."

"Wait here, I'll find one—"

Ashes dives back into the hoard. It doesn't take them long to find a bowstring, which they help Honey fit to the bow. 

"Wanna take a few test shots?" 

"Sure. Just tell me where to shoot." Honey tests the feel of the bow and string with his hands a bit, and experimentally enters and exits his shooting stance, just to get back into the swing of things.

As promised, the draw weight is high enough that it actually takes effort to draw, even with Honey's strength. 

Ashes kicks a few things out of the way and uncovers a target against a side wall of the storage bay. "Have at it." 

Honey nods, gets into a reasonable spot away from the target, then looses a few arrows in quick succession. His form is pretty good, and he fires quite fast. The three arrows bury themselves deep in the target with a staccato tuck tuck tuck. He's not perfectly accurate, no bullseyes this time, but they're still respectably close to the center.

"Oh, wow," Ashes says, laughing. "Not bad!" 

They try to pull one of the arrows out of the target.

"...uh. You wanna get these?" 

"Uh, right." He hops over to the target and does his best to gingerly pull the arrows out without breaking them to pieces or tearing up the target in the process. He may be somewhat successful?