04 Dark Space

by Jasper T. Scott

  “Hoi, are you trying to get away from me out here?”

  Ethan started at the sound of Alara’s voice. He slowly turned to face her. She stood a dozen feet away with her hands planted on her hips, her violet eyes narrowed, and her dark hair glowing gold in the light of the setting sun. He forced a smile and shook his head. “No, Kiddie. You’re not that scary,” he said with a wink, and then turned back to watch the sunset.

  Alara replied with a snort of laughter, and Ethan heard the grass rustling against her black leggings as she came to stand beside him. “You know . . .” she began. “You’re going to have to stop calling me that when we have kids.”

  “Hmmm?” Ethan turned to her with a dumb look. “Oh—the nickname. Well I’m sure I’ll get at least a few more years’ use out of it,” he said, slipping an arm around her shoulders.

  “A few years? You want to wait that long to have kids?”

  “Well . . . yes. Just because we’ve got our own ship now doesn’t mean we’re rich.” Hoff had given them that ship—perhaps because he felt guilty for stealing Ethan’s wife, or perhaps because Destra felt guilty, and she’d convinced Hoff to do it. Whatever the reason, Ethan didn’t care. A seraphim-class corvette was nothing to sneeze at. It was exactly what he and Alara needed to start their life together. Of course Alara’s father thought it was exactly what they needed to sell in order to start their life together.

  “You don’t need to be rich to have kids, Ethan, and the last time I checked a corvette like ours is worth a small fortune, so technically, we are rich.”

  “It’s an asset, Alara. We can’t eat it. We have to use it to make some profit before it’ll be of any use, but don’t worry, we will, and in a year or two we’ll have enough saved up that we’ll be able to buy that house we talked about, or maybe a habitat on a station if you prefer. Once we have that, then we can think about starting a family.”

  “That’s one option. . . . Another option might be for you to consider my father’s offer.”

  “What, sell the ship and go work for him in the agri corps as a freighter pilot? I’ll just be a glorified babysitter for an AI. Those freighters are almost entirely automated. Not the most exciting job in the world. And where does that leave you? Stuck on some planet raising our kids all by yourself, waiting patiently for me to return once or twice a week and spend some time with you?”

  “It’s not ideal, I agree, but maybe after a few years you could transfer to a desk job. I’m sure my father could help you with that. Then you would be home every night.”

  Ethan snorted. “A desk job. That sounds even better than babysitting an AI.”

  “It would pay the bills, and the money from our ship would give us enough to buy a mansion, let alone a house.”

  Ethan rounded on Alara. “Please tell me you didn’t come out here just to convince me that your father’s right. What happened to you? I thought we were on the same page, Kiddie. We’ve always dreamed of having our own ship, of freelancing together and making our living between the stars. That’s been our dream for as long as we’ve known each other, and now suddenly you want to change it.”

  It was Alara’s turn to sigh. “Look, just don’t close your mind to the idea, okay? There’s nothing wrong with settling down.”

  “No, there’s nothing wrong with settling down, Kiddie, but there is something wrong with settling.”

  Alara recoiled from him as if he had slapped her. “Are you sure you’re still talking about our ship?” she asked quietly.

  Ethan frowned and shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

  Alara crossed her arms over her chest. “Maybe you’re having second thoughts. Maybe you’ve got cold feet and you’re just too much of a frekking coward to say it to my face.”

  “I’m not talking about you, Alara! And I’m not having second thoughts. I love you, Kiddie, but you can’t expect me to give up my dreams just because now we’re getting married.”

  “Just because.” Alara smiled bitterly. “I thought I was one of your dreams, Ethan. Isn’t that why you proposed to me?”

  “You are! Frek it—Alara, listen to me . . .” Ethan took a quick step toward her and grabbed her by her shoulders before she could storm away. The smoldering look in her violet eyes warned him to choose his words carefully. “You are my dream. Marrying you is a dream come true. People don’t get to live twice, but here I am, living my life over with you. All I’m asking for is a chance to prove to you that my way could be better. I know it seems riskier than your father’s idea, but trust me. I can make this work. The corvette we have is ten times the ship our old rust bucket was. We don’t owe any debts on her, and now we can command a much better fee for our services.”

  Alara frowned and let out a deep sigh. “I do trust you, Ethan, but security is not as overrated as you seem to think it is.” Alara uncrossed her arms and he took the opportunity to give her a hug. She pulled away all of a second later and looked him in the eye. “Just don’t say no without talking to me first, okay? We’re a team, remember?”

  “I know.”

  “We’re at my parents house, my father is trying to help us, and rather than being polite and saying you’ll think about it, you just refused and got all defensive. You didn’t even give me a chance to say what I thought about it.”

  “I felt ambushed, but I’m sorry. Next time we’ll talk about it and decide what to do together.”

  “So does that mean you’ll think about it?”

  Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute—I already have thought about it, and now we have talked about it. Look—there’s one thing you’re forgetting in all of this. You’re right—security isn’t overrated—but being tied down to a home on a planet like Forliss might not be as secure as you think. Ten years ago all the people with so-called security died because they didn’t have the freedom we have right now. Right now, if the Sythians come back, we’ll be among the lucky few who can escape—but only if we keep our ship.”

  Alara crossed her arms again. “And where do you think we’ll run to after this? Dark Space is humanity’s last hope.”

  “It might be humanity’s last hope, but it isn’t ours. We are just you and me, and as long as we’re alive and together we can always find somewhere else to live. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but at least we can run away if it does.”

  “Seems like you already have everything all figured out,” Alara said, turning back to look at the sunset.

  “Alara . . . you have to admit what I’m saying makes sense.”

  “Hoi, Ethan, you’re complaining that I’m asking you to give up on your dream, but have you ever thought to ask me about mine?”

  “Well, I thought I already knew what it was, but I guess I was wrong . . .”

  “You do know, but it’s not the one you’re thinking of. Do you remember what I told you aboard the Valiant before we left? About the dream I had?”

  Ethan’s brow furrowed. “You dreamed of a cabin on a lake, of two kids running around it and their father chasing them. You said the father was me.”

  “Exactly. I didn’t dream of you chasing our kids around on a starship, Ethan. I dreamed of a home and a family, on a planet—a real life. You seemed to want that, too. You asked me to marry you already knowing what my dreams were. Now you’re asking what happened to me? I’ll tell you what happened: you led me to believe you were ready to settle down—to start a life with me—and now you don’t seem so sure.”

  “Alara . . .” Ethan reached for her hand, but she jerked it away and turned to leave. Once she was a few paces away, she stopped and turned back to him.

  “I’m going to leave you here to think, Ethan. Maybe you’ll find the answers you came out here for. Just promise me you’ll let me know what they are before we’re standing at the altar tomorrow.” With that, she turned and walked away once more.

  “Alara!” he called after her, but a sudden gust of wind drowned him out. He shivered in the growing cold, and reached a hand up to run it thr
ough his salt and pepper hair as he watched his fiancée pick her way back along the trail to her parents’ house. The Vastras were a wealthy family, one of a very few such families in the entire sector. Their home was a mansion, with thick, black marble columns and an imposing façade of transpiranium and white duranium siding. The home had its own hangar, a greenhouse, and even a pool with a retractable skylight. There were more rooms in that mansion than Ethan had seen in most hotels.

  This was what Alara had come from. He should have known she wouldn’t be happy with a spacer’s life. Maybe she was right. Maybe he was getting cold feet. What if he couldn’t make her happy? What if they wanted different things and couldn’t build a life together without one of them being forced to give up on their dreams? Would she do that for him, or would he be forced to do it for her?

  Something told him if she were willing to do that for him, then she wouldn’t have left him all alone out here to think. Ethan sighed and his brow furrowed in thought.

  Would he be able to give up on his dreams for her, or would he just end up resenting her for it? Was there a compromise where he could have his freedom and she could have her security, or would they just fall apart trying to find that middle ground?

  Suddenly Ethan realized that Alara had already tried to find that middle ground. She’d had her father offer him a steady job piloting freighters for the agri corps. That gave him his freedom and her the stability she wanted. Frek, Ethan thought. She’s busy compromising and I’m being just as stubborn as ever.

  The problem was, compromise or no compromise, he finally had his own ship—he was so close to everything he’d ever wanted! He wasn’t ready to give up on his dreams of being an independent trader just yet. That was the ultimate freedom. Alara could have her home on Forliss, and he would have his ship. She could have the security she wanted. In fact, he would even do one better by giving her the added security of knowing that if they had to flee Dark Space in a hurry, then they still could. It was the best of everything. It gave them both what they wanted.

  She just has to be patient, Ethan thought. We don’t have to start a family right away. What’s her rush? She’s twenty-three, not forty! The same wasn’t true for Ethan. He was already 46, and without longevity treatments which he’d probably never be able to afford, he wouldn’t make more than 100. His life was already half over, and if he couldn’t make his dreams come true now that he had everything going for him, then chances were he never would.

  Ethan nodded to himself and turned back to watch the dying rays of the Alissan sun. Alara just needed his reassurance that he really was sure about marrying her tomorrow, and that he could make both their dreams come true. All he needed from her was a little bit of time and some faith in the man she’d agreed to marry.

  Just be patient, Alara. You’ll get that cabin on a lake and the family you’ve been dreaming about.

  * * *

  Atton Ortane waited in the concourse between the Valiant’s port and starboard venture-class hangar bays. All of his gear and personal effects were stuffed into an 80 pound grav bag and slung across his shoulders. Thankfully the bag’s grav field generator made it weigh little more than 10 pounds. Atton stepped up to the bank of viewports which lay between him and the port hangar bay. He spent a moment looking up at the skyscraper-sized Intrepid, feeling suddenly very small. It didn’t help remembering that the 280-meter-long Intrepid was actually berthed inside of the five-kilometer-long Valiant where he now stood. Sometimes it was hard to remember he was living on board a starship, rather than some immense space station.

  Atton watched the milling crowds inside the hangar bay. Most of the Intrepid’s 128 crew members were already aboard, so the crowds were ground crew. Here and there a mechanized load lifter could be seen carrying plastiform crates of supplies and munitions up the five-story high boarding ramps of the warship. Giant fuel hoses snaked out from the aft section of the ship. Her standard gold dymium fuel was being pumped and replaced with the much rarer and more potent red dymium which would enable the Intrepid to fly nearly 10 times faster through superluminal space. They would be able to travel the almost 1,000 light years to the admiral’s Enclave in just over a week. Due to the extreme distances involved when travelling across the galaxy, red dymium fuel was necessary for any fleet operations outside of Dark Space. However, due to the scarcity of red dymium, ships within the sector were restricted to the use of the less potent gold variant. That restriction had almost spelled the end for the Imperium a few months ago when local crime lord, Alec “Big Brainy” Brondi had captured the Valiant and forced the surviving crew to flee aboard another venture-class cruiser, the Defiant. That cruiser had been fueled with nothing but gold dymium, and under-fueled at that. Under those circumstances they had barely managed to fly 30 light years away from Dark Space to get help from Admiral Hoff’s fleet. Atton sighed. At least this time they wouldn’t have to worry about fuel problems.

  “Atty!”

  Atton turned with a smile to see his little sister, Atta, running toward him. Walking at a more measured pace behind her were her parents, Admiral Hoff Heston and Atton’s own mother, Destra Ortane. Atta collided with Atton’s legs and he staggered back a step. She locked her arms around his waist for a breath-stealing hug. He smiled and tousled his sister’s dark hair. She looked up at him with Hoff’s gray eyes and their mother’s button nose.

  “Take me with you!”

  “I’m sorry, Atta, I can’t, but I won’t be gone long.”

  “Promise?” She squeezed him harder, and he gasped, pretending to suffer.

  “Okay, okay, I promise!”

  “Good!” She let go of his waist, and he tousled her hair once more. Atta was his half sister. Not long ago he’d hated her for replacing him. He hadn’t seen his mother for ten years and then suddenly he’d found her married to the admiral with a daughter whose name sounded suspiciously like his.

  “Atton!” Destra said as she drew near. “What is this Hoff tells me about you going on a secret mission in Sythian Space?”

  Atton smiled. “It’s classified, Mom.”

  “I don’t care.” She shot her husband a dark look. “I told Hoff no more secrets, and I meant it.”

  Atton’s gaze slipped sideways to find the admiral. “What did you tell her . . . ?”

  “She doesn’t know the details.”

  “I know enough,” Destra said. “You can’t go, Atton. What if you don’t come back?”

  “He’ll come back,” Hoff replied.

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Hoi, guys, I thought you were coming to say goodbye, not convince me to stay.”

  “He’ll be fine, Destra,” the admiral reassured. “With that Sythian Fleet here watching our every move, he’ll be safer than us.”

  “Maybe we should all go, then,” Destra said.

  “Are you suggesting we abandon everyone here and save ourselves?”

  Destra frowned. “I suppose not.” She took another step toward her son and stopped within arms’ reach of him. She just stood there, her blue eyes staring into his green until he was forced to notice the sadness lurking in her gaze. “I’m going to miss you,” she said.

  “I’ll miss you, too, Mom, but I’ll be back in a few weeks.”

  His mother pulled him into a hug and whispered, “You be careful out there.”

  “I will.”

  “And don’t hesitate to call for help. Promise me, Atton.”

  “I promise.”

  “Good. If you don’t come back I’m going to go get you myself.”

  “He won’t be in any danger, Des,” Hoff said. “I give you my word, if I thought they would harm him I wouldn’t send him.”

  Destra pulled out of the hug to turn to her husband. “I know, because if something happened to him I’d never let you forget it.”

  Hoff chuckled. “Like you haven’t let me forget that I made him a squadron commander?”

  “Because it was an incredibly stupid thing to do.”

/>   “That was my choice, Mom. My choice to accept this rank, and my choice to accept this mission. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I wasn’t going to sit by and watch everyone else fight the Sythians. Why should I let them have all the fun?” he added with a wink and a smile, hoping to lighten the mood.

  Destra blinked a tear onto her cheek and shook her head. “You really are your father’s son. Adventure and excitement were all he cared about until he lost everything that really mattered. Make sure you don’t make the same mistakes, Atton.”

  “I won’t. Besides, the admiral is right; I’ll be safer out there than I will be in Dark Space. That’s why I have to go. We need to get reinforcements or else no one is going to be safe.”

  Destra held his gaze for a long moment, as if hoping he’d change his mind. When he didn’t so much as blink, she sighed. “Okay.”

  “Well! Now that that’s out of the way . . .” Admiral Heston stepped up to Atton and held out his hand for shaking. Atton accepted the handshake, but the admiral pulled him close. Under the guise of giving him a hug, he whispered in Atton’s ear, “Whatever you do, don’t tell the Avilonians I sent you.” Then he withdrew with a smile and said, “Good luck, son. Hopefully by the time I see you again, you’ll have a whole fleet with you.”

  Atton replied with a quizzical frown. “Hopefully more than one . . .” His eyes flicked to his mother, but if she had noticed Hoff’s whispered warning, there was no sign of it on her face.

  “You’d better get aboard,” the admiral went on. “They’re launching in half an hour.”

  “Right.” Atton felt an insistent tug on his sleeve, and he looked down to see Atta smiling up at him with her doll-like face.