I've been thinking that if I were to write a story about a spaceship crew, I'd just take the characters I know the best and figure out a way for them to be there.

Sam would be a scientist working on a secret project with the military, and Ashley would be a solider that saves his life by taking him to a distant planet knowing they have no way to get back. After that, Sam reveals that he's an alien. I think it'd be fun for him to be aromantic, partly because you so rarely see a story with strong platonic relationships between a boy and a girl.

They would end up in a city on Iroshar where one of the bug people hires them to be the away team on a spaceship going all sorts of places and looking for stuff to buy/sell and people to make friends with. Their boss would be like a CEO of a small company who worries about how her employees are doing.

Pyrite would already be working there. She's the same as ever.