by L P Peace
‘Are you thinking about sex again, my red goddess?’ Rhona could see Makios grin from the corner of her eye.
‘How did you know?’ She giggled.
‘You went red,’ he murmured. ‘Your cheeks.’ He stroked a finger down her cheek. ‘You are insatiable,’ he whispered. ‘But we have to correct this flight path before we jump,’ He said.
‘How long are we jumping for this time?’ she asked.
‘It’s a short jump, less than an hacri, and we’ll be going through the jump gate at the Ledaan homeworld.’
‘Okay, how do I do this?’ She indicated the screen.
‘Touch the course correction the computer’s suggesting,’ he said.
Rhona touched it, and it lit up.
‘Now pick it up and throw it at the course on the viewscreen.’
Rhona still couldn’t get her head around this bit. The highlighted course correction popped off the screen in 3D. She picked it up between her finger and thumb, not feeling even a ghost of the image, yet it responded to her touch. She hurled it at the screen, and a sign came up in Maruze, the language the ship worked in, but her new chip interpreted it.
ACCEPT COURSE CORRECTION?
Rhona hit yes on the screen in front of her.
COURSE CORRECTION ACCEPTED.
The line the ship was travelling on appeared on the viewscreen. It diverged to show the old course and the new course, and the ship followed the new setting.
‘I did it,’ Rhona said, holding her hands up high. She grinned at Makios. ‘Everything on the Audrey Hepburn was so old tech. Most of Earth’s resources were diverted towards defence. Everything else was kinda “make do and mend”.’
Rhona lay back in Makios’s arms, which he wrapped tighter around her and squeezed her.
‘You’re picking this up very quickly,’ he said proudly.
‘I grew up on ships,’ she smiled at him. ‘I’m hard-wired for this stuff.’ She tapped her head.
‘You say a lot of strange things,’ Makios said. He pulled her tighter to him and buried his face in her hair again. He seemed to enjoy the smell of her.
Rhona watched the stars streak across the viewscreen. They’d turned the lights off, so the stars were the only light in the room; it was beautiful.
It reminded her of a drop-off on Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, which had been on the opposite side of the gas giant to Mars. Her father cut across, flying close to the planet. At one point, they came so close while in a wide orbit of the planet that they could clearly see the ovoid storms raging around each other. The layered appearance and the way the sun glinted from the high clouds reminded Rhona of a geode and was, at once, stunningly beautiful and terrifying. They were over a thousand miles away, yet the planet was so big that the bands of coloured gas shot across the viewscreen. It felt like they were on a fair ride. Her father took his hands off the controls for a few moments and held his hands high above him and roared his delight. They were all strapped in, and Rhona and her mum screamed in fear. Then realising nothing was wrong, they both followed her father’s lead.
Anders Stinar was a magnificent, crazy bastard, and there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he and Makios would be firm friends. He would love this view.
A thumb wiped a wet smear across her cheek. Rhona looked at Makios.
‘Why are you crying, Rhona?’ he whispered.
‘I miss my family,’ she said. She turned into him and buried her head into Makios’s neck.
Makios sighed and stroked her back.
‘I know it would be hard.’ Rhona launched into the speech she’d been practising for the last day. ‘But when this is all done—’
‘I will find a way to get you home,’ he said. ‘If that is what you want.’ His hand settled on her shoulder. ‘As long as you let me come with you.’
‘I’m not going anywhere without you, you idiot.’ She snuggled into him. ‘Not ever.’
Makios enclosed her tighter in his arms, and they sat quietly, continuing to watch the stars streak past.
Rhona thought of the humans downstairs. Her fellow traders, people she had grown up around her whole life. There was a viewscreen down there, and Rhona had set it to show the stars earlier, so they could see the black and know they were safe here. Makios went and checked on them regularly. While some still distrusted him and the other aliens Makios had rescued from the slave market, a fundamental shift had taken place in the thinking of most of them, just as it had in hers. She wondered if they got back to Earth, what effect that would have on the rhetoric there if any.
Rhona had only been on board Tala a few days, yet it felt like home already. She wanted to go back to Mars to see her mum and dad again and let them know she was all right. At the same time, she loved it out here. While she still felt a little uneasy about some of the crew, something about being here just felt right, even beyond her feelings for Makios. The thought of abandoning her home, her parents and one hundred and fifty years of trading tradition hurt and part of her wanted to be home despite all that. If only there were a way for her to be here, with Makios and still see her parents regularly.
They had fallen into a comfortable silence when an alert sounded. Rhona shot forward and tapped on it.
‘We’re coming up on the Ledaan system.’ She looked at Makios. ‘Oh, I’m sorry. Are you okay with—’
‘That was perfect.’ Makios smiled. He kissed her cheek, nuzzling into her. ‘Now, bring up the Ledaan system on the viewscreen.’
Rhona looked at the small screen in front of her. There was an icon that represented a map of Ledaan and the surrounding systems. She tapped on Ledaan, pinched it in her finger and thumb and tossed it up on the viewscreen.
The system blossomed across the screen like a flower.
‘Oh.’ Rhona laughed. She was flying an alien spaceship. The thought was making her feel heady.
‘We’re in the centre of the screen.’ Rhona found it and nodded.
Makios shifted and pointed at a small dot beneath the system. ‘That’s where we’re headed. ‘Check how long ‘til we get there.’
Rhona looked down at the screen and pulled up the relevant information. ‘Err, fifteen metri?’ She looked at Makios, who nodded confirmation.
‘Better let the crew know.’
Rhona nodded and switched on the comm before immediately switching it back off again.
‘I don’t suppose you know what fifteen metri in Earth minutes is?’
‘A metri is about a minute and a half,’ Makios told her.
Rhona turned the comm back on. ‘Erm, just to let you all know, we’re going to be at the Ledaan jump gate in about fifteen metri. That’s roughly between twenty and twenty-five minutes for us humans.’
Makios tugged on her arm. She looked at him, and he mouthed something. Rhona nodded. ‘Erm, secure belongings and strap in for gate jump.’
Makios grinned at her and reached over, switching the comm off. ‘Can you secure our room while I secure the hold and the passengers?’
Rhona nodded. ‘What about the bridge?’
‘The ship is locked in,’ he said. ‘It’ll be okay for five metri.’
Rhona stood up.
‘You go,’ he said. ‘I’m going to check on our jump request.’
Rhona nodded and slipped out of the bridge. As she watched, the crew were herding humans up the stairs to the seating on the mezzanine. Apparently, gate jumps were rough and everyone needed to be strapped in to avoid serious injury. There were seats in Medbay, the common room and the engine room, but some of the passengers needed to be strapped to crew beds and each of the larger rooms would have crew members overseeing them, to ensure nothing went wrong.
Most of Makios’s suite was secured, the furniture to the floor; the mattress was secured to the bed. She quickly stripped the bed and put the covers in the wash. She would put a fresh set on after. She tidied the room of the little bits of detritus that had scattered in their mourning routine and picked up the galley tray. She went to the gal
ley, securing the items in storage ready for washing, and chatted to the humans there.
When she was done, Rhona headed back to the bridge.
The door slid open and Drexan Thalos’s face was on the viewscreen along with a male with green skin, long forest green hair, pink eyes and some kind of skin-tight, flexible armour.
‘There she is,’ Drexan hissed. ‘That’s my property.’
How did he find me? she thought and stepped onto the bridge. There was no point in hiding now.
‘You were saying, Captain?’ The green guy looked at Makios.
‘I was saying, this doesn’t need to be your problem. Thalos is Amaran. I’m going to Amaran space. Let us both go through, and the Amaran authorities can deal with this.’
Rhona stood behind Makios and placed her hand on his shoulder. She squeezed it, and Makios covered it with one of his own, squeezing back.
‘I can’t go to Amaran space,’ Thalos hissed.
‘And why is that?’ the green guy asked.
Thalos went silent and glared at Rhona and Makios’s hands. His eyes lifted to her and promised her pain.
‘Because slavery is illegal in Amaran space,’ Makios answered. ‘If he appeals to them for the return of a slave, he’ll be arrested and jailed for life.’
‘Ah, well, this would seem to be an internal matter for the Amaran government,’ the official said.
‘I demand the return of my slave!’ Thalos shouted.
‘You may demand that of the Amaran government.’
‘I am wealthy—’
‘We have loose trade ties with the Amaran government,’ the male said. ‘I will not risk that for your temper tantrum.’ The Ledaan had lost all interest in Thalos now. ‘Tala, you may approach the gate.’
‘Approach that gate, and I will fire on you,’ Thalos shouted.
‘Approach my gate with weapons activated,’ the Ledaan focused on Thalos, ‘and I will blow you out of my sky.’
Thalos shouted something incoherent.
‘Either leave Ledaan space, Amaran,’ the Ledaan hissed, ‘or use the gate.’
Thalos snarled at him. The screen went black.
Makios checked something on his screen. After a moment, his shoulders went slack. ‘He’s leaving,’ he sighed.
‘I concur,’ the Ledaan said.
‘Thank you so much,’ Rhona said.
The Ledaan looked at her for the first time. His eyes scanned her, and something ugly twisted his lip. ‘If you want to rid yourself of it, Kathen, I will buy it from you.’
‘The female is mine,’ Makios snarled.
‘Perhaps an hacri of its time then. I’m prepared to pay generously.’
‘Activate the gate, Ledaan,’ Makios growled low in his throat.
‘Very well. My offer stands next time you’re in my space.’
The screen went black and flickered to the outside view.
Rhona became incensed as the Ledaan spoke. As the screen went dark, she prepared to launch into a tirade. Instead, her eyes fixed on the screen, and she gasped.
They were headed toward a structure so big she couldn’t see it all on the viewscreen. From what she could see, the space station was made up of two rings. One ran horizontally to Tala, and they were coming up on a gap in the ring which acted as an entrance which appeared to be a break in the horizontal ring.
On the other side of the ring, directly across from the entrance, another ring sat vertically, the yawning hole facing them. It had a massive structure built around it, which seemed to almost vibrate with energy, and a pulsing light flickered across the station, lighting up the viewscreen as it passed over the camera.
‘That’s the gate?’ Rhona guessed.
Makios nodded.
‘I imagine it takes a massive amount of energy to rip a hole in the fabric of space and send us hurtling to another gate.
‘It does,’ Makios said, his voice eerily calm.
‘And I’m guessing that if the gate fails, we’d be spewed out at some random, unknowable destination?’
‘Erm, no,’ Makios said. ‘If the gate failed, it would destroy anything caught in the wormhole.’
‘Have they ever failed before?’ Rhona could hear her voice getting more and more panicked.
Makios pulled her from behind him, around the chair and into his lap. ‘Rhona, look at me.’
Rhona tore her eyes from the grabbing arms of the station and the growing, gaping portal of the gate into Makios’s gentle silver eyes. Almost immediately, the bubbling panic began to calm to a simmer.
‘I would not take you through this if there was even the barest hint that you might be harmed.’
Rhona nodded. ‘This is way beyond anything I’ve ever experienced,’ she whispered.
‘I know, my goddess,’ he whispered back. ‘Soon, it will feel old to you.’
Rhona looked at the gate. It looked like a ravenous creature yearning for its next meal.
The ship was enclosed in the station, and they approached the gate.
Closer to it now, Rhona took a proper look. What she had thought was one ring was actually a dozen at least, each one set within and slightly back from the one in front. The structure around it, which Rhona had thought would be more of the city, seemed more like the setting of an engagement ring. There were other things, gem-like things inside them.
‘When do they activate it?’ Rhona asked. They were getting closer and there was no sign of any activity.
‘They can’t activate it until we are within the outer ring of the structure,’ Makios said. He was playing with controls and looking up at the path being traced on the viewscreen. It led into the eye of the ring.
‘Why not?’
‘Because if we’re outside the event horizon of the wormhole when it forms and try to cross over, we will be destroyed.’
‘So that means we have to be inside the wormhole when it forms?’
Makios nodded, watching her carefully.
‘You can’t be serious!’ She pointed at the structure. ‘Look at that monster. How is anything supposed to survive that?’
‘My ship is made from a metal called amot,’ Makios said calmly, too calmly. ‘Amot is the only known metal that can withstand the strain of jump technology.’ He looked at the ring. ‘It actually gets stronger when energy is introduced to it. The stronger the energy, the stronger the amot becomes.’
‘So Tala will become stronger?’
‘Temporarily,’ he nodded.
Rhona looked back at the beast.
‘What would happen if I tried to bring the Audrey Hepburn through?’
‘She would be destroyed at the moment the generators were brought online,’ he told her.
They were closer now. Close enough for Rhona to feel like she was on a huge spoon, heading towards a hungry mouth.
‘Rhona, the ride will be rough,’ Makios said. ‘We will need to be strapped into separate seats. Okay?’
‘Can I stay until we hit the ring?’
Makios nodded. ‘But not a moment longer.’
Makios hit the comm. ‘We’re approaching the gate. Make sure everyone is locked in.’ She heard his voice repeat outside the bridge.
‘Right, I can’t do it. Sell me to the Ledaan.’ She looked at him and saw no responding humour in his eyes.
‘Don’t even joke about such things,’ he growled at her.
Rhona grinned down at him.
His eyes moved past her. ‘We are arriving. In your seat, co-pilot.’
Rhona leaned up and kissed him. He kissed her back, then pushed at her. She slid from his lap, crossed the short distance to the co-pilot’s seat and buckled herself in.
The ship entered the outer ring, and Rhona saw the light of the forward thrusters reflect off the metal of the ring. The ship stilled.
The door behind them opened. Tyne and Vella walked in followed by Galla and Tonni and two of the Ualha Makios had saved. Vella helped them all strap in before she and Tyne took the other two stations either sid
e of Makios and Rhona. Tyne took the seat next to Rhona and flashed her a half-hearted smile.
‘How are you doing, Tyne?’
‘I am well,’ Tyne replied. Rhona hadn’t seen much of him since the interview with Dahnus. She had gone to see him, but he wanted to be alone, so she left him. Tomorrow, before they rendezvoused with this Dairon fella, she intended on spending time with him whether he liked it or not.
‘And you, girls?’ Rhona looked over her shoulder at them. Galla’s eyes were glued to the screen. She glanced at Rhona, then turned back to the screen.
‘I’m well,’ she said, her voice distracted.
Rhona turned to the Temerin girl who was sitting in the seat, kicking her legs, completely relaxed.
‘Hmm,’ she answered. Rhona looked at Vella, who grinned at her.
‘Temerin live in space. No doubt Tonni’s done this hundreds of times.’
‘Thousands,’ Tonni said. From the tone of her voice and the relaxed way she held her body, Rhona didn’t doubt it.
‘What about you, Galla?’ Rhona looked at the young girl.
‘I grew up on Surilla. Never went anywhere before…’ She swallowed.
Surilan were small, not quite human small but smaller than most. Their population augmented themselves when they came of age so that they could compete in strength and speed with any of the stronger aliens, but it cost a lot of money. Rather than spend that money, Galla’s parents sold her. Rhona and Makios had decided to pay them a visit when all of this was over. Apparently, Galla had younger siblings, and she and Makios had decided those siblings needed to be accounted for. Protected.
‘Then it’s the first time for both of us.’ Rhona grinned at her.
‘Everyone brace,’ Makios announced to the ship. Rhona faced forward in her seat as a blue light encompassed the ship.
‘Oh, God.’ The words slipped out before she could stop them.
‘That’s the light to let us know we’re fully in position,’ Makios said, failing to keep humour out of his voice.
‘Do I need to do anything?’ Rhona asked, suddenly panicked when she realised Makios had called her the co-pilot.
Makios laughed. A red light appeared.
‘No, my Rhona,’ he said. ‘We don’t fly through this—we get pulled through it.’
