ZAEN

XILTRI SECTOR WARRIORS: BOOK FIVE

AVA YORK

STARR HUNTRESS

CONTENTS

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Zaen

Sylvia

Epilogue: Sylvia

Are you a STARR HUNTRESS?

Opening Move: The Alien Games

Rogue Mate

ZAEN

How in the hell did any of them ever get anything done? All this bureaucracy is madness!

I stood outside Admiral Ausym’s office while he finished a conference, or so his assistant told me. The Vaznik in me obeyed, the officer in me saw it as a huge waste of time and a security risk to boot.

The Vaznik in me always won.

When I was finally admitted, all I wanted was to get it over with so I could return to my work. Finding Dr. Garcia and the Annulus consumed my waking hours and worst nightmares.

The fate of the galaxy literally rested on my shoulders. I couldn’t afford to fail.

“Ah, Zaen. On time as always. Has your investigation developed any new leads?”

“I’m afraid not, sir. Decoding the doctor’s journals and tracking her energy trace has our team consumed. While we’re making strides in the translation, we aren’t any closer to understanding the Annulus than before.”

“I know I don’t have to tell you how important this mission is, Zaen. Until we know what we’re dealing with, we must treat it as a threat. And an unknown foe is always the most dangerous.”

“Yes, sir.”

Ausym sighed and looked out his view port. He was just as frustrated by the mystery of the Annulus and Dr. Garcia as the rest of us.

We’d chased them all around this sector since the massacre and theft of the artifact. Each time we had them in our grasp, they’d somehow slipped through our fingers like vapor.

The Queen’s Brood smugglers had all but been extinguished after they were found responsible for the deaths of all those people. Those who hadn’t been found yet had gone to ground and weren’t likely to reappear any time soon.

So many questions remained.

Who hired the Brood to find the Annulus and what did they know about it that we don’t? What did they intend to use it for?

The Annulus was powerful enough to bring someone back from the verge of death, design and fabricate a ship from spare parts in mere minutes, and power it without needing fuel.

At our last encounter, the Annulus had become conscious, healed and took over Dr. Garcia’s body, then escaped. Our team and the Urchins had barely escaped with our lives.

Now we had to consider the additional possibilities that the Annulus was a consciousness bound to the disc, or the disc was a conductor of a power wielded by someone or something we’d not yet discovered.

In the case of the first, capturing Dr. Garcia would be the end of our investigation, and the beginning of some kind of political negotiations. The second case presented much more diabolical possibilities.

In either case, Dr. Garcia, as we knew her, no longer existed. Now that she was, for all intents and purposes, a vessel of the Annulus, there was no way to know if she was still alive, still human, or could even be saved.

“Whoever or whatever is behind this has been playing a very long game, Zaen. Dr. Garcia is, or at least was, one of the most brilliant scientists in her field. She had to have been deliberately selected and positioned.”

“We’ve looked into that as discreetly as possible for some time, sir. It’s incredibly sensitive work to access and investigate the financial workings of powerful people without revealing your suspicions.”

“Your expertise in security gives you a deeper insight than I gave you credit for, Zaen. I wondered if you’d taken that into consideration.”

“It’s impossible to secure any place without knowing the environment you’re in. We pay attention to the loudest players, but we pay attention to the ones in the shadows. Real power sets the stage, selects the players, and watches the audience, not the show.”

“Far more astute than your file lets on.”

“That was also deliberate, sir.”

I couldn’t tell if Ausym’s smile meant he was impressed or surprised. I hoped it was the former.

The admiral had a reputation for his artfulness in spy craft and political intrigue. It was rumored he’d been a major player in sabotaging several arms deals by creating infighting among the warlords, leaving the Suhlik underprepared during several major incursions in our years-long war.

Although no one ever confirmed it, it was a point of fact that wherever Ausym was engaged, turmoil and rebellion in that sector and the ones around it, had preceded his arrival. To the untrained eye, it looked like what every conflict looks like just before battle is the only remedy left.

Experts saw someone had painstakingly planted seeds of discord within the rank and file, allowing them to fester and rot. When the timing was right, they’d handed one side flamethrowers and the other side dynamite, setting the stage for mutually assured destruction.

There was never a calling card or signature tactic that could be tied to any single person or event, but the results were so consistent, the execution of chaos so flawless, just saying Ausym was coming had been enough to turn several warlords against the Suhlik.

Eventually, Ausym was removed from battle and moved into strategic command, where he quickly rose in rank and status.

“You’ve been extremely thorough in your analysis, Zaen, and used your discretion staffing this wisely. Your reports list only a small number of people on your team and your operating budget is quite modest.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“I’d remind you that you have leave for whatever other resources you need to track the doctor and the dark money, but you already know that.”

“I do, sir.”

“And you aren’t going to tell me or anyone else what those are, are you?”

“No, sir.”

“Well met. You’re dismissed, Zaen. Good hunting.”

“Thank you, sir. Honor and glory.”

“Honor and glory.”

SYLVIA

It was the same debate we always had in the lab the day after a new episode of As the Galaxy Churns aired.

“Aw, c’mon Sylvia, you can’t always look at things from a sociologist’s point of view.”

“XENO sociologist, and yes, I can.”

“But it’s fiction. Meant for entertainment.”

“Yeah, well, I’m just saying As the Galaxy Churns should consider hiring a xeno sociologist as a consultant because it’d make the character arcs much better.”

“Okay. Gimme one good example to prove it.”

“Ohmigod. Too easy. Remember that scene where the Kimicusian bartender hit on the prince?”

“Yeah. So?”

“Well, that’d never happen. The two species each give off pheromones when they’re trying to attract a mate and Kimicusian females need for their mates to be flexible, which the Nublonian males are not.”

“That can all get fixed with cologne and yoga. As long as it’s not too much cologne right after hatha yoga. Ew.”

The thought of a sweaty yogi doused in cologne was just gross enough to make me gag.

“Dawn! Gross!”

“What? It’s not my fault your sense of smell is so good you can almost taste things.”

“You did that on purpose?”

“I admit to nothing!”

“Mmm hmm… I bet. Would you take this data slate over to Dr. Treigho for me?”

“Mmm hmm. Yeah. Sure.”

I glanced up and looked in the direction Dawn was looking to find out what’d grabbed her attention.

Whatever it is must be pretty impressive.

“I swear, you have the attention span of a dog seeing a squirrel.”

“Yeah, but that’s a really attractive squirrel.”

“Who? Zaen?”

“Uhhh, yeah Zaen. Hunky, red, Vaznik dude. He-who-cannot-be-tempted, Zaen.”

“You didn’t, Dawn!”

“And so what if I did?”

“So you bombed, huh?”

“Yeah. Worth it, though.”

Dawn’s voice had gone all soft and dreamy and her eyes were just about glazed over. She was a bit of a hopeless romantic and the whole fated mates thing was right up her alley.

“You’re hopeless, you know that?”

“I know something, Sylvia. I bet I can even surprise you.”

“What?”

“I know Zaen is walking up behind you. He’s so handsome.”

“Are you serious?!”

“Yes! Now shut up and act like we’re talking.”

“But we are talking!”

“Why, yes, almost-doctor Dane, I’ll take that data slate with your ingenious findings to Dr. Treigho immediately. I’m sure he’ll be so impressed. Oh, hi, Zaen.”

“Hey, Dawn. I need your help.”

She smiled, perkily. “Anything, Zaen.”

“I remember you told me you had a friend who was a xeno social masochist who liked puzzles and riddles.”

“It’s ‘Xeno sociologist’ and I don’t just like puzzles and riddles. I love them.”

I spun around to face Zaen. He smelled like all my favorite things rolled up in chocolate silk and scented in dreamboat yumminess.

I took a long deep breath and raised my eyes to meet his.

Do. Not. Drool.

I bit my lip instead.

“Well, since you two have found each other, I’m just gonna go ahead and mosey on over to deal with and watch that pesky squirrel situation, mmkay? Yeah? Okay. Buh-bye now.”

We both just stood there staring at each other and not speaking. It’s not as if we hadn’t met before. When you live on a ship, even one as ginormous as the Honor’s Blade, it’s inevitable that you’ll meet everyone who lives there.

“So, ummm. It’s Sylvie, right?”

“Right. No. Not right.”

“Right, or not right?”

“Not right.”

“Okay, not right, I’m sure you know about the whole artifact mission, and I feel like a new perspective might help us.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. My name is not Not Right. My name is Sylvia.”

He smiled and I swear his eyes twinkled.

Dear gods, his eyes twinkle. I wonder what happens when he…

“I’m Zaen.”

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

This is so weird! Why’re we acting this way? It’s not like we don’t know each other. I mean, we don’t “know each other” know each other, but we’ve seen each other around. We’re not total strangers. We’re… argh!

“So, uh, I need help with this artifact and, you know, so I wanted to see if you could help?”

“Artifact. Got it. What kind did you say it was again?”

“I didn’t, because, well, I don’t really know. No one really knows. Not even Dr. Bill.”

“Dr. Bill doesn’t know? He knows everything.”

“He likes to say that a lot, doesn’t he?”

I laughed. Dawn shot me an ooh-la-la look.

“Yeah, he does. It’s kinda true though. He knows more than anybody I've ever met.”

“Don’t let Dr. Treigho hear you say that, or you’ll start a war no one is smart enough to end.”

He held a finger to his lips. It was like we were kids on a playground sharing stolen cookies. I giggled.

“No wars. Gotcha.”

“Right. So do you think you can help?”

“I can try to. I have to see the artifact first, though.”

“Right. Yeah. That might help.”

“Helps a lot actually.”

“Well, that’s kind of a problem. I don’t really have it.”

“How can anyone help you if you don’t have what you want to study?”

“I have descriptions, and the journal of the scientist whose body it currently possesses.”

Spell broken. My jaw dropped in disbelief. I’d heard rumors about a super-classified, top-secret journal, but had dismissed them as bored scientist gossip.

“Sylvia?”

“Come again now? You said possessed? The artifact you don’t have to study has possessed a scientist and that’s why you don’t have it?”

“Precisely! That’s exactly it! Can you help me?”

“How could I help you, though? I’m not a cryptography expert, and an artifact is a thing, not a whole society.”

“That’s exactly why your help is so perfect.”

“Perfect how, though? My expertise doesn’t apply at all.”

“It might not sound like it but, and hear me out, okay?”

“Okay.”

“If we can retrace the interactions the artifact has had, maybe we can flesh out some associations with a long lost culture. Then, we’d have a clue about why things are written the way they are and an idea of where the artifact-possessed Dr. Garcia is going.”

Now, there are millions, maybe even billions, of lost cultures we knew about, and probably just as many we don’t. It’d be like searching for a needle in a haystack, made from interplanetary species’ haystacks, without knowing if the needle was what we were even looking for.

Zaen waited for an answer. He looked so hopeful. It wasn’t the most horrible idea I’d ever heard, but it’d be ridiculously difficult.

But who could resist the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to save the entire known universe by solving ancient puzzles? Not me.

“Sounds like a long shot, but if you really think I can help, I’m in.” I held my hand out to shake on it.

“Thank you. If I’m right, then we’ve looked at this the wrong way. Your perspective will be just what we need.”

He shook my hand in agreement.

It was a totally normal handshake. Until his tattoos glowed.

ZAEN

My heart stopped.

“Zaen. Are you okay? Is that supposed to happen?”

“Well, that’s kind of a complicated answer.”

“Uncomplicate it.”

A million words formed in my brain and lost themselves before they exited my lips. I hadn’t let go of her hand. I didn’t want to either.

“Zaen? You know I know, right?”

My name on her lips soothed like a balm.

Of course she knows. It’s her job to know. That’s why I came to ask for her help in the first place.

I hadn’t thought this would happen, though. I’d never thought this would happen to me at all, not even as a remote possibility.

“I’ve only ever heard about it, Zaen. I need to know if this means what I think it means.”

“That we’re mates? Yes. That’s what this means.”

“Oh. Okay. Wow. I never thought it’d happen to me.”

“Me either.”

We stared at our hands, my glowing tattoos, and each other’s shocked expressions. Neither of us let go of the other, though.

Until the shouting started.

“Dr. Bill! Dr. Treigho! Come look! Come look!”

“Hey! Good for you both!”

“Congratulations, you two!”

“Love in a lab. That’s some chemistry right there!”

“I always thought that was some kind of urban legend!”

“Everyone should be so lucky!”

“GEEZ-US, you all! You’d swear you’d never seen a couple before. Give them some damned room to breathe already!”

“Aw, c’mon, Dawn. It’s really cool to see in person.”

“She’s your colleague, for crying out loud. Act like it! They’re people, not lab animals for you to study.”

Dawn took our still-intertwined hands and led us through the crowd, out of the lab, and into Sylvia’s office. She left us alone, locking the door behind her on the way out.

“You buncha lookie-loo vultures can just go back to your boring lives and leave them alone. Don’t you have enough sense to know this is a private matter? Their whole lives just changed forever, for crying out loud!”

Their whole lives just changed forever.

There wasn’t any better way to explain it.

I don’t know how long it was before prying eyes and ears had been chased away. I know it’d been quiet for a while before I said anything.

“Sylvia? Are you okay?”

“Yes? But also, no. I think? What about you?

“About the same.”

“You can let go of my hand, if you want to.”

“You could let go of my hand if you wanted to.”

“I don’t think I want to. Do you?”

“No. Not really.”

“Oh. Okay. That’s a good place to start then. It is, right?”

“It is right.”

She smiled now. Nervously, and maybe even a bit confused, but she didn’t appear angry about it.

That was a really good start compared to how others had reacted after being matched.

“Now what?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of anyone finding their match outside the lottery. I hadn’t even signed up for it.”

“You didn't?”

“No. Not really. Not that it wasn’t something I wanted, I just didn’t think…”

“Didn’t think what?”

“I don’t know, really. Just lots of doubts. But mostly, if I didn’t try, I wouldn’t be disappointed. I’d have control of that result.”

“That sounds so crazy to me. To have control of that result.”

It was then I understood why the reactions to being matched had been so different for Vaznik men and human women. They had no control over the result, they could only hope they wouldn’t be selected.

How terrifying must it be to be taken against your will and handed over to the care of someone who was happy it happened.

The thought of it turned my stomach, and I let go of her hand. I couldn’t do that to anyone, especially not to her.

I couldn’t change it for the other women, but I could change it for her. She hadn’t been chosen by the lottery and wasn’t under any obligation to comply with it.

“What if you did have control of that result?”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“This match wasn’t done by lottery or testing of any kind, so technically, we aren’t really matched.”

“We’re not? I thought the tattoos meant that…”

“They do, but those aren’t codified into the treaty.”

“They’re not?”

“No, they’re not. The testing ensures genetic compatibility for procreation purposes. The tattoos are more like emotional compatibility.”

“I see. So, even if we match on an emotional level, there’s no telling if it’d be safe for us to try and, umm, procreate.”

“That’s my understanding.”

“What happens if I decide not to be your mate?”

“For me? There’ll be no other.”

“That sounds horrible!”

“It may be, but many Vaznik go their whole lives without being matched.”

“Are they happy?”

“They aren’t miserable. They live their lives as fully as anyone else, I think.”

She must be at least considering the match, or she would’ve said ‘no’ right away.

Sylvia started pacing. Her face was serious, and her brow furrowed. There was a place on the carpet telling me she did it often.

“Zaen. Are you saying you’ll honor whatever choice I make?”

“I am.”

She paced some more. This time, she tapped her lips with a finger and muttered under her breath.

“If I say no, would you kick me off the mission?”

“What? No. Why would you think so?”

“I meant no offense. I just need to make sure I ask all my questions first.”

“Has that happened to you before?”

“Unfortunately, yes, and to many other women.”

“That is egregious. Dishonorable. Vile. It’s outrageous to think anyone would withhold opportunities just because they were romantically rejected. Absolutely shameful. Despicable. Unworthy.”

“We think so, too, Zaen. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, though. It just makes us more cautious.”

“Are human men expected to be as constantly prepared for these same experiences?”

“Some men do, it doesn’t make them less of a man, though. And I’ll explain that, but it requires a lot more nuance and time to explain than what we have now.”

“I look forward to the education.”

She smiled. Little golden sparkles pinged softly in the air. Her smile calmed my soul.

“What if we just worked together for now and let the pieces fall where they may? That should give us enough time to get to know each other, and if we want to move forward later, then we can make a decision about being tested then.”

“We?”

“Yes, we. You have a life of your own, and you have as much choice in this as I do.”

Brilliant, caring, and beautiful. Who’d say no to such a treasure?

“I’m in agreement with your request. Do you have any terms?”

“Terms? Like rules?”

“Yes.”

“Treat me as you would like to be treated.”

“Done.”

“Don’t devalue my work or ideas.”

“Easily done.”

“Don’t be a jealous asshat.”

Zaen’s mouth opened and closed like a fish for a moment before he answered.

“I don’t know what those coverings look like, but I shall not be one.”

Her laugh was magical.

“It means don’t be a jerk.”

“Ah, yes. I can promise that.”

“What about you? What are your terms?”

“They are the same as yours.”

“You think I could be an asshat?”

“I’m uncertain of that, but my experience with other scientists makes me, as you said, more cautious, so I must also prepare for it.”

She threw a pillow from her sitting area at me. She missed my face by a parsec.

“What was that for?”

“Practice.”

“I’m not sure if I should offer to assist or not.”

Another pillow flew through the air and softly hit my nose.

“What made you think I missed in the first place?”

I’d been bested and knew it. Getting to know this smart, saucy woman may be the end of me, but I’d be happy for the journey.

“Point taken.”

“Good. Now let’s go science this artifact.”

SYLVIA

“So now what?”

“Well, I guess we could just get on with the mission.”

We looked at each other and figured that was as good an answer as any.

Zaen kept talking about the details of the case, describing all the things they'd seen about the Annulus. There were so many fascinating details that I had a hard time keeping track.

That wasn't the only thing, though. The more he talked, the more his voice felt like velvety silk. The eargasm was horribly distracting, making it incredibly difficult to keep focused on the task at hand.

I just couldn't figure out how this happened. We’d both been to plenty of As the Galaxy Churns parties, ran into each other socially, even had a few drinks at the Bazaar, but nothing had ever happened.

Why him? Why now?

Not that it really mattered. Things were the way they were and we’d just have to deal with it as best as we could.

“And that’s where we are now. No Annulus, no Doctor Garcia, and no evidence to go on. What do you think?”

Oh my God. He’s talked this whole time! D’oh!

“Umm… To be honest, I feel like I need to really get my hands on the journals you have. Maybe you’re right, and there is some kind of xeno-sociological context I can look at. Syntax and writing are really different from culture to culture, but it’s also different in every generation of every culture.”

“I hadn’t considered that. You know, Amelia kind-of started breaking the code down. She’s a bit of a cryptography queen, but she hasn’t quite been able to decipher it completely. Even with the bits and parts we have, the translator hasn’t been able to catch up because there’s so many different character types.”

“Have you considered the possibility they're not meant to be read in two dimensions?

“What do you mean not in two dimensions?”

“Well, if the doctor is really trying to keep everything secret, and she’s developed an inter-dimensional consciousness, then maybe that’s how she’s writing. So maybe what you have is several characters stacked on top of each other so she can keep everything secret from whoever ‘Turk’ is.”

Zaen thought about it for a minute.

“We’ve only looked at it in a single dimension, using modern clues for syntax, instead of how an ancient species might actually communicate.”

I held my breath hoping the next thing out of his mouth would be good.

“Sylvia, you're brilliant! I can’t believe we didn’t think about that. We’ve been looking at this from the wrong perspective.”

I exhaled and relaxed.

“It wouldn't be unheard of. There are several ancient alien species that ‘wrote’ using blocks of stone or wood when creating records of their history or telling their lore. Some built mounds or hills that can be seen from outer space on our planet.”

Zaen stood up and paced rapidly, walking around in a little circle. He was so serious and so focused.

And so hot.

Why have I never noticed this before?

This was definitely going to take some adjusting to. It was incredibly difficult to transition the Zaen I’d hung out and had drinks with into my ‘fated mate.’

He stopped, facing the other wall. The muscles of his shoulders and his back flexed when his hands cuffed right above his muscular butt.

“All this pacing has made me hungry. Are you hungry, Sylvia?”

In all truth, I hadn’t thought about anything except the puzzles of the Annulus and Zaen for the last hour. The two had me so wound in circles that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten.

“You know, now that I think about it, I don’t remember if I even ate today.”

“Sounds like we have a lot in common. Maybe a change of scenery and some food in our bellies will help us think things through more clearly. Would you like to join me for dinner?”

“That sounds like a fantastic idea. Let’s get out of this little office and see what we can come up with.”

ZAEN

I slowly walked to the door of the office Dawn had locked behind us and cracked it open. Thankfully, there were no more prying eyes in the hallway. I silently thanked the gods because I wasn’t exactly ready to answer questions and I didn’t think Sylvia was either.

“Okay, I think it’s clear.”

“Oh, thank God. I don’t think I could deal with answering any questions on an empty stomach, especially this kind.”

I wasn’t quite sure how to interpret that since part of me was insulted and the other part of me felt exactly the same.

Wherever this lead would be an adventure, no matter how we got there. There just wasn’t time to focus on it right now.

I looked over my shoulder and saw Sylvia was just as nervous about leaving as I was.

We snuck down the hallway as quietly as rodents of a human worship house, being extremely careful not to make any noise or catch anyone's attention. When we reached the exit to the laboratory, we took one look at each other and set out on a dead run until we reached the safety of the Bazaar.

“Holy smokes, that was intense! Felt like I was about to get caught with the candy I just stole from the bodega!”

“What is a bodega and why would you steal candy?”

Sylvia was still catching her breath, but looked up at me with a mischievous smile.

“I neither deny nor admit to ever stealing candy. A bodega is a little store in a neighborhood that sells very basic items that you might need.”

“Are there no replicators on Earth?”

“Replicators are really new technology to Earth, and some people are really suspicious of them. Kinda like when there were conspiracy theories about genetically engineered crops and fluoridated water.”

“Wouldn’t genetically engineered crops be ideal to support the massive population on your planet?”

“You would think so, but there’s a whole lot of controversy about what is actually grown and giving time for things to naturally evolve as opposed to having science do leaps and bounds. Some people consider science like that unnatural and dangerous. The ecosystem is a delicate thing and when only one aspect is modified it can be disastrous for the others.”

“Earth sounds like a very confusing place.”

“It can be sometimes. Not everybody believes the same things and some people don’t always benefit from ‘progress.’”

“So this is what Terrans refer to as ‘balance.’”

“Nature, when left to its own devices, tends to do the job quite well. It’s when people interfere that things can get a little wonky.”

Was the Annulus created by a situation like this? An artifact created by a race so intelligent that it focused its own consciousness into an artifact that was able to inhabit the body of a host.

The aroma of bacon wafted into my nostrils.

“Sylvia, do you like bacon?”

She paused, smiled, and inhaled deeply. She looked like she’d just gotten a whiff of heaven.

“God, that smells delicious. I could really go for a bacon cheeseburger right now, but I don’t know if that actually exists here.”

“Have our replicators not been able to accomplish this?”

“Well that ends up kind of being like genetically-modified crops. I'm not opposed to it, but they don’t taste quite the same. There’s just something about the char of a dirty grill on a juicy burger mixed with spices and cooked over an open flame that just makes things taste better.”

I thought Earth had developed into a society that no longer needed to cook its food over open flame. It seems their technology certainly allowed for it.

“I see how that might sound a little strange. On Earth we call that ‘a cookout or a barbecue or grilling,’ depending on what part of the world you’re from. But it all ends up kind of the same. You gather a group of friends or family around the grill, take a bunch of meat and vegetables and whatever other delicious things you want, and share a large family meal.”

“We Vaznik also cook that way, but only when we find ourselves in the difficult situation of having to scavenge resources and supplies. That means sometimes not paying too much attention to the way things taste.”

Sylvia’s eyes went wide, and she held a hand up to her chest with an indrawn breath.

“Are you telling me you’ve never had a cookout?”

“Not of the sort that you seem to be talking about.”

“I’ll have to fix that.”

Her smile was so endearing. I could tell she meant what she said. Although it seemed odd to me that she’d want to cook meat over an open flame when a replicator could do it much more efficiently.

“I feel like we’re avoiding the elephant in the room.”

“The what in the room?”

“I think the adrenaline from being matched and then running out of the lab has us talking about everything except what we should be talking about.”

Sylvia was right, of course. Since I’d never actually considered being matched, I wasn’t prepared to have any kind of conversation about this.

“What would you like to know?”

“Can we find someplace we can talk about it privately? Maybe that place that smells like bacon”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea. Shall we?”

We sat in a corner booth and ordered food with plenty of extra bacon. We talked about our lives, slowly at first, but were so at ease, the stories became more personal. I shared stories of my experience and thoughts I’d never shared with anyone before.

“Your life and adventures make mine sound like a cakewalk. It’s pretty amazing how much you’ve seen and done.”

“In all truth, I think that’s because of the necessity that drives our culture. Were the history of our species different, I think we might’ve had the opportunity to experience and enjoy things like family and friendships more deeply.”

“I hadn’t thought about how blessed humans were in that aspect. You’d think being a xeno sociologist, I’d know better.”

“There are many other things that drive people of all species. You can’t expect to know what you haven’t been exposed to.”

“You’re very kind to say so.”

The food came and Sylvia proposed a game where an answer given earned you an extra piece of bacon. Refusing to answer lost you a piece of your bacon.

I’d amassed quite a pile of bacon when Sylvia hit me with the harder questions.

“All right Zaen, I need to get my hands on some of that bacon, so I’m gonna ask you what we refer to as the big three. Are you ready?”

Feeling very confident with my bacon fortune, I smiled and told her I welcomed the challenge.

“All right then, question one, what are your expectations of this relationship?”

My throat went so dry, I couldn’t speak, so I handed her a piece of bacon.

She smiled.

“Question two, what does a successful marriage look like to you?”

That… was even more complicated.

“I’m not sure. What humans call marriage doesn’t really exist in our culture.”

“Your race doesn’t marry? I thought being matched was one of the most important things a Vaznik could do.”

“Being matched is very different from being married. Marriage requires a binding contract, being matched is less… bureaucratic.”

“Are you saying matched couples remain together based on duty and obligation alone?”

“From what I’ve seen, there’s a deeper spiritual meaning to being matched, so a contract of marriage isn’t necessary for us.”

“That makes sense. Humanity’s kind of made a mess of that whole thing anyway, so I suppose our version is more the exception than the rule.”

She looked so deflated. I couldn’t bear to take the happiness from her.

“The deeper meaning behind being matched is like what humans would term ‘soulmates.’ I’ve never seen a matched couple unhappy after the initial discovery and revelatory phase.”

She perked up and smiled at me.

“That’s kind of crazy that your biology has evolved to recognize its soulmate. There are people who go their whole lives wondering if it even exists.”

There was really just no other explanation for the tattoos and the golden threads.

At least she thought it was romantic. That was a good start.

SYLVIA

Watching Zaen squirm over the first two of the three big questions was kind of entertaining. It was also really refreshing to see such an honest reaction.

I couldn’t help but wonder if romance as humans know it was anything that Vaznik understood. What would that even look like for them?

It was a rare society, indeed, where the courting rituals included biological compatibility. Most societies considered their courting processes intrinsic to the propagation of a species and perpetuating wealth and status.

It made me wonder if the courting process itself wasn’t the thing that was flawed.

Not that it’d stop me from letting my curiosity rib Zaen just a little more.

“How do you feel about becoming a father?”

Zaen almost choked on his drink.

“Are you okay?”

Zaen’s face had gone ashen. I needed to let him off the hook or this would be his last meal.

“Zaen. I’m fucking with you. You know that, right?”

He swallowed hard and took several deep breaths and slid the entire plate of bacon over to me.

“I surrender.”

I handed him the biggest piece of bacon on the plate.

“Yeah. But you don’t scare easily. Most guys run when asked those questions.”

“They run from questions?”

“Like a cheetah with its tail on fire. Maybe they need to take your Human Female 101 class? How’d you do on that, by the way?”

“On what?”

“I was just wondering how you did in class.It’s part of my profession to understand the courting rituals of other societies, and I’m curious about what you find fascinating about human females and our traditions.”

Zaen’s skin flushed and his mouth hung open a little bit, as if he wasn’t exactly sure what I was asking, or was afraid to answer.

“Are you all right, Zaen?”

“I… well… There's a great deal to learn.”

“Preach! I’m a human and even I have trouble understanding the things we women do. I was just wondering if there was anything I could do to offer you some more knowledge on anything you were curious about.”

I lowered my gaze and looked at him through my eyelashes.

I couldn’t be sure, but I thought Zaen had just about stopped breathing. Seeing the power of my femininity at work wasn’t something I’d ever really got to enjoy.

It was immensely pleasing.

It’s also damned nice to be in the company of a man who was so forthright and honest in his reactions and answers.

He was honest and safe, and dangerous, but in a good way. I would’ve pressed a little bit further, but the admiral chose to walk by our table at just that moment.

“Good evening, Zaen.”

Zaen stood to attention and saluted, nearly knocking the table over and upsetting my bacon mountain.

“Admiral. Good evening, sir.”

“And you must be Sylvia?”

The fact the admiral knew my name told me the gossip had gotten out of the lab and spread as quick as lightning.

“Good evening, admiral. Sylvia Dane, xeno-sociologist. It's a pleasure to meet you.”

“I dare say to Miss Sylvia, the pleasure is all mine.”

He was a charmer, for sure. I’d heard he also matched with a human female and I couldn’t help but wonder what that relationship looked like behind closed doors. There was some talk about her having visions that influenced the admiral from time to time, but I’d dismissed those as speculation until those visions meant that the newly matched women were assigned on the same missions as their mates.

Zaen was still standing at attention.

“I don’t mean to disturb your dinner but I do need to speak with Zaen about the next mission. It’s my understanding that he's asked you to join the team, correct?”

“Sir, yes sir. She agreed to join just a few hours ago, sir.”

The admiral seemed to have forgotten Zaen was still at attention.

I didn’t mean for it to happen, but a little giggle escaped me and I had to cover my mouth to keep the whole big laugh from coming out.

“As you were, Zaen.”

Zaen became less stiff but didn’t sit.

“There’s no interruption; we were nearly done. Zaen already surrendered his bacon.”

Admiral Ausym smiled.

“So he has. It’s a wise man who sees when surrender is the appropriate tactic to employ, or so my wife has told me.”

“Sir.”

“Well since I knew I’d have to disturb your dinner, I’ve taken the liberty of paying for it. If you two were nearly done, I can have dessert packed up and delivered to your quarters. If you’d join me on an after-dinner walk, we can use this opportune moment to discuss the mission, and its new developments.”

The admiral said that last sentence like he knew our secret. Which meant our secret wasn’t so secret after all.

I felt myself blush like a teenager who’d gotten caught necking behind the bleachers. There was no way out of it and we all knew it.

“Admiral, I think a walk would be lovely. I have so many things to ask you.”

The admiral extended his hand and helped me slide out of our booth. I felt the heat of Zaen’s gaze when the admiral’s hand touched mine. It made me giddy with butterflies.

“Splendid! There’s a lovely promenade on the agriculture deck that’s often unoccupied at this time that will suit our needs quite well.”

The admiral let go of my hand and I noticed Zaen’s shoulders relaxed. I had to fight my instinct to reach for his hand, or I’d confirm the admiral’s suspicions.

We left the restaurant and walked into the Bazaar, the admiral at my side and Zaen walking closely behind us.

ZAEN

The Bazaar was loud and crowded but the sea of people parted and hushed as the admiral walked through.

Sylvia was completely unfazed by his attention and the fact the entire crowd parted for him. I felt like what the humans call the third tire, awkward and unnecessary.

“You should both know I’m immensely pleased with the progress you’re making.”

“Admiral?”

“This is my ship and there are no secrets for me on my ship, Zaen.”

Sylvia was doing a much better job of maintaining her peace than I was. Her expression was calm and serene as if she had no idea what the admiral was talking about as he continued.

“I agree I found Zaen’s new choice both odd and fascinating. But it seems to me the various perspectives in this delicate matter have only added value and depth to our understanding of the Annulus.”

“That’s exactly what Zaen and I were talking about earlier today. We felt it was important that the discussion be held away from possibly prying eyes and loose lips while we debated the merits of our theory and partnership moving forward. For discretion’s sake, of course.”

“Of course. A decision both prudent and practical. You’re quite lucky to have found this intelligent and talented woman to add to your team, Zaen.”

Sylvia was all cool head and intelligent conversation. She knew exactly what the admiral was getting at and she matched him wit for wit.

And he ate it up.

I can be extremely diplomatic when called on, but I struggled just to manage my own facial expressions while they spoke. I was grateful I walked slightly behind them outside of the admiral’s peripheral vision.

“And what’s this new theory?”

“What has already been decoded in the doctor’s journals still leaves several undeciphered characters of similar style. This could be similar to what we call a ‘font’ or ‘typeface’ back on Earth. The characters are built to work together. I suspect this is a three-dimensional script we need to take that apart in layers to confirm they are whole words and not simple letters.”

The admiral stopped and turned to look Sylvia in the eyes.

“This is precisely why different perspectives and disciplines are so needed on this mission. We haven’t been able to understand why our translators weren’t able to decode it after having deciphered so much of what’s already in the doctor’s journals.”

“It was quite common in the ancient civilizations on Earth. In tomb carvings, the depth, length, and breadth of a character could change the meaning of a word, its contextual usage, or both.”

“Fascinating. Zaen, I knew I trusted your judgment and the fact that Miss Sylvia here has brought up another theory within her first hours of being introduced to the mission tells me I was right to do so.”

I just stood there unsure of what to say next

“Thank you, admiral. Sylvia is quite amazing, and we’re lucky to have her as part of our crew. Now that we have a theory to test, we can get started on seeing if it bears any fruit.”

“Fruit bearing is definitely what I want to see here. Miss Sylvia, I have no doubt you’re in quite capable hands and I’m sure they’ll do whatever it takes to assure both your safety and progress in this mission and partnership.”

Silvia looked up underneath her lashes and smiled at the admiral. He beamed back at her.

“Thank you, admiral. I feel exactly the same way, and I appreciate knowing you are pleased with my addition to the crew on this crucial mission. We won’t disappoint you.”

The admiral’s expression said he’d been fully and unregrettably charmed.

“I’m well pleased, indeed. I expect updates as soon as they become available. I’d be disappointed to find out secondhand.”

“Yes, sir admiral, sir.”

The admiral looked at us and chuckled.

“Goodnight to you both, and enjoy the rest of your evening. I’m most curious to see what tools and information will come from this new hypothesis.”

The admiral turned on his heel and walked off. He seemed slightly lighter in his step. Highly unusual for a man who usually walked around in seriousness and with purpose.

Sylvia and I watched him leave and didn’t speak until we were well sure he was outside of earshot.

“Do you think he knows?”

Her eyes rolled. “If he saw your expression when he took my hand at the restaurant, he does. But I bet he just wanted to see for himself if there was anything there. The admiral doesn't strike me as somebody who’s willing to give credence to the ship's grapevine without having a look for himself.”

“I’m sure the admiral has trusted sources throughout this ship in every department.”

“That may be true, but everyone in the science lab knows exactly how delicate the balance of trust is between the nerds and the Vaznik.”

“Is that so?” I frowned. “The Vaznik have a great deal of respect for science and those that practice, study, and teach it.”

“I’d bet Doctor Bill and Doctor Treigho might have something to say about that.”

“That’s different.”

Sylvia threw her head back and laughed, placing her hand on my covered chest. I felt the warmth of her fingertips through my uniform. She could’ve branded me and I wouldn’t have cared.

“You know, I find it so strange that everyone tells me what hardasses the Vaznik are and here I am with you, learning you all are a bunch of marshmallows underneath all that handsome and big muscles.”

“I don’t know what a marshmallow is yet, so I’ll beg to differ until I’m informed enough to make up my mind whether it’s true or not.”

She laughed again and this time, her thumb rubbed up and down my shirt

The sweet sensation distracted me from all logic, and if we’d stayed there forever, I’d die a happy man.

“You go ahead and ponder the meaning of a marshmallow. I have some experiments I need to check on in the lab that need updating before I leave them to whoever’s been assigned. I wanna make sure I get my name on my own work before I head out.”

Was it what the humans call sass? Had I just been sassed?

I think I like it.

Silvia turned to walk toward the lab, and for the very first time since my tattoos had glowed, I had the opportunity to see her as a woman instead of the occasional acquaintance, for the very first time.

If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought there was a little extra sway in her hips because she knew she had my attention.

It would’ve been rude for me to disappoint her.

SYLVIA

I deliberately strutted away with a little more hip when I walked away from Zaen.

There was something about him, about this newfound, undeniable chemistry that made me feel powerfully feminine.

I knew he was watching as I walked away, and if his gaze was any hotter, it would’ve burned my clothes right off.

Glorious

It was so strange to feel that way about Zaen. He was always just that hot acquaintance you never thought anything would happen with, because he was just genuinely easy to be around.

I’d put him squarely in the ‘safe’ category, never thinking that something like this would happen. But here we were and I wasn’t horribly sad about it.

The lab was mostly empty when I got back except for a few stragglers wrapping up for the evening. I was sure there’d still be at least a couple more eating at their desks or returning with snacks to finish seeing off the day's experiments and finishing up notes.

Scientists are just a little bit obsessed with their work. We all feel like it’s the most important work in the world.

My current project wasn’t completely related to my actual field, but it was a requirement for me to finish my education, and this was my only opportunity to get on a starship of this class.

I wasn’t upset about handing the project over to someone else. My new mission really was probably the most important research in the world at the moment.

Oh my God, that’s just so cool to say. I’m doing work that could totally save the universe. I’m a nerd girl, hear me roar! Rawr!

“Well, well, if it isn’t half of the magical lovebirds.” A dark-haired man, whose name I always forgot, wore an annoying smirk. “Her face is as glowy as his tattoos.”

The Kimicusian sharing the bench waggled his eyebrows. “Well, how is it?”

Someone at the next bench slapped down a tablet. “Why don't you two grow up already? I think it’s sweet they found each other without an actual test, so they can decide for themselves.”

Fuck.

I hadn’t considered my good mood and genuine smile would catch some unwanted attention. I was used to being able to walk in and out of my workplace as unknown as the next scientist.

“How is what, exactly?”

The Kimicusian looked like I was an idiot. “Being matched with an alien guy.”

“Oh. I see. That’s why you think I’m smiling.”

“Well, yeah. What else could it be?” the dark-haired woman snapped.

“Riiiiight. It couldn’t possibly be because I’ve just been added to one of the most crucial missions I’ve ever had the opportunity to work on while finishing up my internship, so now I’ll have an amazing piece to defend for my thesis, and got welcomed to the team by Admiral Ausym himself, right?”

“Well, that’s not what I meant.” Was she just curious? Maybe jealous?

My supporter from the back of the room popped up. “You did? That’s kind of awesome. Congrats.” It was someone I needed to buy cookies for at the next opportunity.

I stood in my typical power pose: head tilted, shoulders back, arms crossed. I slightly narrowed my eyes and bit the inside of my bottom lip while tapping my foot.

I’d learned a long time ago that silence made people really uncomfortable. It was always the best way to get people to try to justify their rude behavior without actually having to call them out on it.

“It's just that, you know, the whole treaty and matching thing with the stuff and the glowy tattoos and…”

“So, you think romance is more important than my life’s work? Sounds like a Freudian thing to me. You should probably talk to a qualified professional who can help you work on that.”

Lucky for this dork, Dawn appeared right at that moment.

“Sylvia! I’m so glad you’re back. We’ve been minding the experiment and we’ve got some interesting results to report. If you’ll just explain a couple of the data points, we’ll have you sign off on the transfer so you can get right back to the super awesome cool mission that the admiral himself asked you to be on.”

The scientists who’d just quizzed me were visibly relieved for the interruption, and slinked off as I walked away with Dawn.

“Thank you.”

“What for?” She flashed a smile as she glared at the others, turning back to me. “We really do have things to get done and not a lot of time to waste. Besides, if you had details, I know you’d tell me.”

She was right. I would, and while we were working, I did. It felt good to talk to somebody who understood what I was going through.

“Was it very intense?”

“Yes.”

“Was it super shocking?”

“Also yes.”

“Has it pretty much changed all your life plans?”

My mind blanked, just a bit. “I don’t know yet. Maybe?”

She sighed. “Zaen is so dreamy. I’m so happy for you.”

“Super dreamy.”

Was it weird that the guy I watched arm wrestle over the cliffhanger of As the Galaxy Churns is my fated mate?

Fuck yes, it is.

Do I want to see where this goes anyway?

Yes.

We were just about done adding all the notes and getting everything uploaded when Zaen walked in on us. I was really glad he hadn’t walked in when I’d described how it felt just to have my hand on his chest, and how I deliberately walked away, swaying my hips a little harder just so he’d watch.

“Hello, Sylvia. Hello, Dawn.”

I stood there in a haze with a goofy smile on my face.

“Hello, Zaen. Goodnight, Sylvia.”

“Dawn, no wait! We aren't done yet.”

He looked between us. “If you two aren’t done yet, I can go wait in the hallway.”

Dawn jumped in quickly, not exactly to my rescue this time. “No, no, that won't be necessary. All she has left to do is finish uploading this codex and add her signature to the logs to transfer everything over. There’s really nothing for me to do on this project tonight. That squirrel problem needs looking at anyway.”

“If you’re sure.”

“Oh, I insist. You all have a good night, now.”

“Thank you, Dawn. You, too.”

Zaen and I were alone again. This time in my lab, with no one else there, and nowhere for me to hide. It somehow felt awkward for him to see me in the place where I always felt most comfortable and in control.

That’s kind of an odd thing to say about a place where we deliberately tried to make things go wrong just to study it.

“Sylvia?”

“Hmm? Oh, I’m sorry. What was that?”

“I asked if you’d like to join me in an activity now that you’re all done?”

I can think of a few, actually.

Egads! Calm yourself woman!

“When you say activity do you mean like a date?”

It was Zaen’s turn to be shy.

“Well, if you want to call it a date, we could. Or we could call it whatever you’re most comfortable calling it because I… umm…wouldn’t want to presume what you’d want to call it, so yes.”

The usually cool and confident Zaen, stumbling over his words asking me on a date, was quite possibly the most charming thing I’d ever seen in my life. I was definitely smitten now.

It was sweet to see him nudged off center and feel just as awkward as I felt.

You’d think we were a couple of teenagers trying to sneak off to make out.

I kind of wouldn’t mind that though.

“How about we don’t call it anything except two people who like each other, going to have a good time enjoying each other's company? We don’t have to give anything a name or a title.”

“You mean like suspending out.”

Suspending out. What the hell was suspending out?

“If you mean ‘hanging out,’ I think I could hang out.”

“Would you like to hang out with me, Sylvia?”

“Zaen, I would love to hang out with you.”

I finished my work and left my lab for what might be the last time. It was kind of bittersweet but also kind of exciting.

There were even fewer people left on the main floor laboratory than when I’d arrived. I’d hoped we wouldn’t be hounded like we had the first time his tattoos had glowed.

Unfortunately, we weren't entirely alone.

“Hey, Zaen, Silvia. What’s the new couple up to tonight?”

“I have a few guesses what they could be up to. Amiright?”

Why, oh why, did they act this way?

I’d known my whole life that becoming a scientist meant I’d work in a male-dominated field, constantly surrounded by people who like science more than people. Meaning their social graces were near non-existent, and they were, more often than not, single, and with the maturity of a horny teenager.

This is ridiculous, though.

I was about to say something when Zaen spoke up

“I’m sure you assume some type of lewd or lascivious activity will occur this evening. I find it rather insulting that you’d insinuate that either of us would act in any kind of dishonorable way. Having been her esteemed coworker for so long, I’d think you’d know better. As it appears you don’t, I’d be far more concerned about improving my own personal judgment. After all, isn't that what you scientists say you do so well?”

I don’t know if they’d just relieved their high school years, but it sure looked like they were afraid they were about to get a swirly.

Which is pretty dumb considering Zaen would never hurt anybody out of pettiness. But then, they really don't know him, do they?

I was usually the first one to defend a fellow nerd, but they’d definitely crossed the line here.

And having a big hunky, muscly guy who isn’t a jerk defend your reputation and honor feels pretty good.

ZAEN

I wasn’t quite sure what we’d do while we hung out.

At first, I’d thought about dinner and drinks, but that felt unoriginal and not up to par. She was one of a kind and I meant to treat her as such.

Sylvia still tried to excuse the bad behavior of her coworkers, explaining that the social lives of the “nerd set” weren’t exactly always fully matured due to lack of social experience.

Was there any situation she didn’t handle with grace and tact?

“So what’d you have in mind?”

“There’s a touring event that was brought aboard the ship. It’s at the far end of the Bazaar in the public square.”

“What kind of touring event?”

“There are games of chance, food, rides, and various entertainments provided from across the galaxy.”

“Wait. Are you telling me there’s a carnival? Here? On the Blade?”

“I think that may be the best way to describe it.”

“I can't believe I’ve been aboard this ship for over a year and never knew there was such a thing as a touring galactic fair. I’ve been robbed!”

Sylvia was downright miffed.

“Did you attend many fairs while you were on Earth?”

“Not as many as I would’ve liked. I always seemed to be working and missed so many. I loved to go when I could.”

“Then let's go hang out at the fair and have a wonderful time.”

“Only if you promise you won’t say no to any of the rides I want to get on.”

“That’s a fair request.”

The different species who worked at the carnival all had different abilities that are integrated into the entertainment. Some fly, some can teleport, some can self replicate. Others possessed incandescent abilities and provided their own light show. For those guests with stronger stomachs, some species could turn themselves inside out or shapeshift.

Luckily, Sylvia was far more interested in the rides and food. She’d be in the middle of chewing, then point delightedly at some new ride she wanted to try.

Her enthusiasm was so infectious.

There was an anti-gravity coaster she insisted we ride at both the beginning and the end of our adventure. There was no track for the carriage to follow, and no limits how fast, or which direction it could go. The ride’s conductor read the minds of its passengers and sensed what’d thrill them the most, so the ride was never the same.

There was another ride that looked like a centrifuge. One strapped to their position standing, and the platform whirled and tilted on its axis. The rider could also use their body weight to turn themselves upside down or spin as the ride turned.

We came upon a small crowd of Vaznik warriors playing a shooting game. The goal was to shoot as many moving targets as possible in order to win a prize. The Vaznik were naturally drawn to this, but they all appeared to be struggling.

We watched a few matches and I realized the shooters they were provided had been tampered with and didn’t shoot appropriately. I told Sylvia as much.

“Of course not. That's how it's supposed to be.”

I was shocked to hear a merchant deliberately cheated his customers.

“You mean the merchants deliberately rigged the games in their favor? And it’s normal?”

“Well, of course they do. How else would they be able to generate revenue with such simple games unless they were rigged against the player? If you think about it, you might even say it’s quite ingenious to rig against the player in order to challenge their skills.”

The match we were watching ended with the Vaznik players as frustrated as they were before. The merchant smiled and asked if they wanted to play again.

“Kind sirs, kind sirs! You want to play again, yes? You win this time, I believe. You win this time.”

The two Vaznik warriors simply shook their heads and walked away.

Poor fellas. They should know it’s a sucker’s bet.

“You, sir! With a nice young lady, pretty lady. You play? You shoot and win pretty prize for pretty lady.”

I would’ve said no but Sylvia’s little gasp and the way her face lit up was too much to resist.

“You don’t have to, you know. I’d be perfectly fine if you didn’t.”

She’d be disappointed if I didn’t at least try. Heck, I’d be disappointed if I didn’t at least try.

I paid the merchant and he handed me a shooter. It was unevenly weighted, leaned towards the right, and had a slight curve in the barrel.

No wonder no Vaznik has been able to hit anything with this.

The game began and the timer counted down. It seemed like a hundred targets flew right past every shot, and I couldn’t adjust to my weapon fast enough. The shooter shot pressurized water, and the additional propulsion threw the weapon off target.

It was shameful how many targets I missed in those two minutes. It didn’t help that I was surrounded by other Vaznik who hoped I’d fare better than they had. Or maybe they hoped I did just as poorly as they had. I couldn’t really tell.

Sylvia watched happily, cheering and clapping every time I hit a target. At the end of my time, I’d only struck three targets, earning a small prize.

“Here, kind sir, for the pretty lady. Pretty lady can pick any of the small prizes on the first level, whatever she likes. Pretty prize for pretty lady. Or… if kind sir like, and want to try again, I give you double minutes for 15 credits instead of 20. If sir hit 12 more targets, kind sir win big prize for pretty lady.”

Sylvia’s face said it was okay, but her eyes hoped.

Then I heard the murmur behind me and realized a large crowd had gathered to watch me take up the challenge. Between pride and chivalry, there just wasn’t a choice.

“Okay friend, I need to hit twelve targets, correct?”

“You’re too kind! Yes, kind sir, twelve targets. Twelve targets plus three targets is fifteen, and fifteen targets wins pretty lady large prize.”

“That sounds fair. One more time then.”

“Perhaps kind sir want try different shooter? Perhaps this one? I just cleaned.”

The merchant handed me a different shooter assembly. I could tell by its weight and balance that it’d be far more accurate than the one I’d selected.

Sly old man.

“Thank you, friend. Ready when you are.”

The new shooter definitely improved my accuracy, but the targets moved faster. About halfway in, I started pinging off a target every few seconds. I was so caught up in trying to time my shots that I stopped counting hits.

Vaznik behind me cheered, while Sylvia jumped up and down, clapping her hands every time I scored a hit. It was a heady feeling to have that many people cheering for me.

When my time was up, I was so tense I felt as if I’d been in an actual shootout.

“Yes, kind sir, congratulations! You hit THIRTEEN targets, thirteen targets plus three original targets make SIXTEEN TARGETS! Sixteen targets means extra large prize for pretty lady to choose from. Come, come, pretty lady. You choose extra large prize, for you won by kind sir.”

Sylvia's eyes went wide with joy. I don’t think I’d ever seen anything so innocent and perfect and joyful in my whole life.

It didn't take her but a minute to select her prize, a giant stuffed keppra that was covered in some kind of shiny scales that changed from black to purple as you ran your hands over them. It was as wide as me and almost as tall as she was.

Sylvia positively glowed with joy even as she struggled to hold the massive stuffed animal without toppling.

“What lovely extra large prize for extra pretty lady! Much big congratulations, kind sir! I hope you have a super fun good time at our galactic carnival!”

If I hadn’t known any better, I’d swear the man winked at me.

Sylvia was so happy, she was practically floating. She actually sang a song about her kepphu in between bites of her chili dog.

This is my kepphu and I love my kepphu and his name is Rufus. He's Rufus, the kepphu, and he's the best kepphu in the world.

I felt like a fucking hero.

We were in line for our final ride on the space coaster with Rufus in tow and felt people staring at us.

“It must be Rufus they’re staring at.”

“I’m sure that’s part of it.”

“What do you mean by ‘part of’?”

“You know that merchant was just waiting for the right size crowd and the right mark, right?”

“I don’t follow.”

“He was waiting for somebody to build a large enough crowd so he could set them up to win. Then, more people would try his game. Didn’t you notice he gave you a completely different shooter?”

“I did. I just didn’t think anyone else noticed.”

“His sleight of hand was really good. You could barely tell he switched them from under his apron when he was pretending to wipe it down.”

“So you knew?”

“It’s common knowledge that you never actually win at a carnival game unless the merchant wants you to win at the carnival game.”

“So, it’s deception then?”

“Not really. It’s all in good sport.”

“So how does this explain why people are staring at Rufus?”

“The women are staring at Rufus, the men are staring at you. There were a bunch of couples in the crowd watching you play, and now every single one of those men is gonna go broke trying to earn a Rufus for their ladies.”

I don’t know how she talked the ride’s conductor to let Rufus be a third passenger in our harness, but she did, and she insisted we buy the pictures to prove it happened.

I’ll never miss a carnival again.

SYLVIA

It’d been such a long time since I had this much fun, I couldn’t even remember how long ago it was.

It was the kind of happiness I don’t think I’d ever given myself permission to feel and it was multiplied exponentially by the fact that I now had a life size giant stuffed kepphu.

As a kid, every carnival I’d ever gone to, I prayed I’d be lucky enough to win even the tiniest of prizes. Having this super extra large giant prize was just the best thing ever!

The fact that Zaen had won it for me made it even better. I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone do anything so nice for me ever before.

What a great first.

I was pretty sure Zaen had had as awesome a time as I did 'cause he was walking around with a super cheesy grin on his face. Especially after explaining to him why every single man who watched me walking around looking like a giant doofus was gonna be broke and mad at him the rest of the week.

Now that we were walking back to my quarters, I was sad that the night was over. I wanted it to go on just a little bit longer just to see where the night would take us. To see what kind of magic would happen if we just let it happen.

Then my brain kicked in and ruined it all for me by being all logical and sensible and practical.

You barely know him.

What do you think would happen, gummy dummy?

He’s not that kind of guy, though.

Again… you barely know him!

It’s not like you have the greatest track record being a good judge of character.

Yeah, but what if?

‘What if’ is for experiments and observations in a controlled environment, not your love life. Or have you forgotten the disasters that led to heartache so many times before?

ARGH!!

It was so frustrating to be at war with myself.

On one hand, it was so easy to be in Zaen’s company and just enjoy myself and be happy. On the other, was the whole weight of fated mates thing, being matched, and all the complications and expectations that’d bring with it.

No matter what happened, I wanted it to be our choice. His and mine. Not something mandated by a treaty because of something as simple as biological compatibility. That wouldn’t be fair to either of us.

“I don’t think I’ve had this much fun outside of target exercises and shooting competitions before. Although, I still find myself perplexed by how the cotton candy can be so voluminous and at the same time disappear in your mouth as if it was nothing.”

I laughed, remembering Zaen’s confusion when he discovered the beautiful thing called cotton candy. The carnival could spin multiple flavors into the same cone. It was probably twice as big as your head when you started and smaller than your palm by the time you were done.

“Yeah, carnival food is like its own food group. Wonderfully delicious and absolutely horrible for you. Next time, we’re getting you your own nachos because that just wasn’t fair.”

“In my defense, how’d you expect me to react? All the food was wonderfully delicious.”

“I mean, aren’t you Vaznik able to go without food for days at a time?”

“Just because we can doesn’t mean we should have to. And while moderation is key in all things, I think it’s a high compliment that I found the nachos absolutely irresistible Earth cuisine.”

“I told you you would. You should’ve just believed me instead of making a face when you put a jalapeno in your mouth.”

“Those were just a wonderful experiment on its own. I’d never considered that something spicy, salty, and slightly sour could be so delicious.”

“Just wait until you try loaded bacon cheese fries with sour cream.”

“If it has bacon on it, I’ll eat it. We’ll definitely order you your own order ‘cause I won’t share.”

Why does it feel so normal and easy? As if we've had these conversations a million times?

I’d always heard that chemistry was overrated and the one person you should actually be with was the person who you felt most at peace with, who you could be your unfiltered self with. If that was the case, I was about to get in some very good trouble with Zaen.

I’m so looking forward to it. I just hope he feels the same.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to carry Rufus for you? He’s rather large and you must be tired of carrying him by now.”

“Oh my God, no. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this. This is like my childhood dream come true! I have to hold on to him so I know it’s really real.”

“You look so beautiful when you’re happy.”

I felt my heart skip a beat. His must’ve done the same because, if his gasp was any indication, he hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“Thank you, Zaen. It feels good to be happy and I’m so glad it was with you. I had a blast tonight and I can’t thank you enough. I really would like to do this again. Soon.”

I angled Rufus’s head towards Zaen and made a kissing sound with my lips as if Rufus touched a horn.

“I think Rufus loves you, too.”

Shit! Where the hell did that come from?

“Well, Rufus has brought much joy into my life, and I love him, too.”

He said it out loud, but he was looking at me. I got little goosebumps and tingles all over my body.

Both of us smiled like big dorks and stayed that way while we quietly walked to my quarters.

When we got to my door, I really didn’t want to go in. I wasn’t sure if I should invite him in either. I wasn’t sure what’d happen in either case.

What my heart and body wanted were very different from what my brain wanted. I wasn’t about to fool myself into thinking I’d settle for just a kiss.

Maybe just to make sure my head wasn’t super spinny after the goosebumps and tingles, maybe we should just say goodnight outside the door.

Zaen, I really don’t remember the last time I had this much fun.”

“It was my very first carnival. I’d never attended one before as they seemed like frivolous entertainment. Thank you for accompanying me and being such a wonderful companion. I’m looking forward to attending many more.”

“They say you never really forget your first.”

Did I really just make a dirty joke right then? Good God, woman!

“Do they?”

Zaen’s eyes had a devilish twinkle in them now.

Who needs to breathe anyway?

“It was the first of many. I hope you’ll accompany me to as many of them as we can get to. I don’t think I would have enjoyed myself so much if the company hadn’t been so amazing. You truly bring out something in me that I hadn’t known was there.”

We stayed there in the hallway by my quarters just staring at each other and not really saying anything. Or maybe, there was so much to say that we just didn’t have the words?

There was definitely tension in the air. The good kind that makes you hold your breath and hope that maybe if you just wait long enough…

Thankfully Rufus came to the rescue, reminding my arms exactly how long they’d been holding him, giving me a cramp.

“Oh! Ow! I think Rufus wants to take a nap after being held so long. I think it’s time for me to say goodnight and put him down for the evening.”

Zaen looked just as disappointed to hear it as I was to have to say it.

“I could hold him for you if you wanted to wait a little longer and just…”

“And just?”

The anticipation was killing me.

Zaen cleared his throat.

“Just… um… Hold him for you while you open the door to your quarters.”

“Oh yeah, of course. Thank you. That's very kind of you to offer. Very helpful.”

I handed Rufus over and for the briefest second, his hands were over mine. I didn’t pull away and neither did he.

“Sylvia.”

“Zaen.”

We’d spoken at exactly the same moment.

“I’m so sorry to have interrupted you, Sylvia, please continue.”

“No, no. I think you spoke first. What were you about to say?”

My heart pounded so hard, I swear he heard it.

“You know what? I seem to have forgotten. It must not have been that important.”

Dammit!

Be cool, Sylvia. Think cucumber.

WRONG cucumber!

“Yeah, me, too. Isn’t that weird?”

“It is weird. But now that I’ve got Rufus, you can let go and let yourself into your quarters so you can get a good night’s rest. We have a busy day tomorrow.”

“Yes, of course. Early start tomorrow, and so much to do and not enough time to do it all, right?”

“Right. Right. Exactly.”

I opened my door and turned to take Rufus. Our fingers touched again.

I don’t want you to go! I want you to kiss me.

He let go of Rufus and turned to walk away. My heart broke.

“You know, Sylvia, since we are on the same team and I have more details about the journal than you have in the scans, perhaps we could talk about this more over breakfast in the morning? I’ll share some of the more nuanced details with you before you begin your analysis. If you don’t have any other plans.”

My heart did little flips of joy.

“Oh yes. That sounds very practical and helpful! I’d like that very much.”

“You would?”

“I would.”

Zaen perked up and I was rewarded with a smile that made my knees weak.

“Great. Goodnight then. I’ll be at this very door at, oh seven hundred hours. I know a wonderful place where we can have another bacon challenge.”

“It’s a date.”

“It's a date.”

I’m sure both of us smiled like absolute goobers. And I couldn’t care less.

I let the door to my quarters close as he walked away. I hugged Rufus tight.

“We have a date, Rufus! We have a date!”

ZAEN

I spent a long time laying awake on my bunk, staring at the ceiling. A strange tickle in my chest kept me from sleeping. It intensified every time I thought about Sylvia. I wasn’t sure when I started feeling it, but it had been omnipresent ever since I’d noticed.

Eventually, I drifted off to sleep. My duty alarm went off some scant hours later. I felt tired, and yet, full of energy. The tickle seemed like a nuclear reactor in my chest.

I’d thought about taking Sylvia to breakfast as I finished lacing my boots. Fate had other plans. The hail went off in my quarters.

Zaen, report to the bridge immediately.

That’d been the admiral’s voice. I swallowed and leaped to my feet. I rushed toward the bridge, taking a teleport pad for expediency’s sake.

In spite of my haste, I found when I arrived, Sylvia had beaten me to the bridge. We smiled at each other as I entered. It’s still hard to believe we’ve served together for this long and never actually met. Then again, this ship is huge.

“Good morning,” I said in a low tone, so as not to disturb Admiral Ausym and Captain Soanzo. The two were deep in conversation at the captain’s chair.

“Good morning, yourself.” Her voice had grown to be a familiar comfort to me in a very short time. I found myself lost in the beauty of her gaze.

“Do you know why we’ve been summoned?”

“No.” She turned toward the admiral and the captain. “But I think we’re about to find out.”

“Approaching the shuttle’s energy signature now, captain.”

Rikov’s voice seemed to be the catalyst Captain Soandzo and Ausym had waited for. The captain sat back in his chair and Ausym assumed a position at tactical behind him.

“Put it on the main viewer, helm.” Soanzo sat up a bit straighter. “Let’s get eyes on the doctor’s ship.”

Sylvia and I exchanged excited glances. So, this was it. We’d tracked down Dr. Garcia’s ship at last.

The viewscreen changed to a view of the surrounding star field. A small, dimly lit object moved across the field of stars toward a green-blue sphere.

“Magnify,” Soanzo commanded.

The image enlarged to show the shuttle which Dr. Garcia had somehow assembled using the Annulus. My mouth gaped open, because it appeared so much different than before.

“It looks like the ship has been modified since last time.” Dr. Bill’s mechanical legs made a swik, swik, swik as he approached the monitor. “Extraordinary.”

“It’s understandable,” Sylvia added. “During the away team’s last encounter with the doctor, she used the Annulus to control and manipulate objects. Something akin to psychokinesis, but with tele-mechanic capabilities as well.”

“I wonder if it has any weapons on it?”

My question hangs in the air.

“Should I put shields up, captain?” Taxan spun around in his chair at Ops.

“Not just yet. It might be interpreted as a hostile act.”

We began to gain on the shuttle as it approached the planet in the distance.

“Do you think the doctor is going toward that planet with a purpose in mind?”

Sylvia turned toward Captain Soanzo. He nodded toward Taxan.

“Scan the planet and give us a briefing on it, ops. See if there’s anything special about it or any of its moons that would draw the doctor here.”

“It might be helpful to look for the alien energy signature as well,” Sylvia added.

“Starting the scan.” Taxan’s fingers flashed over his console. His brow furrowed as he read the results. “The gas giant is typical for a single star solar system. Comprised primarily of methane, hydrogen, and liquidized iron.”

“What about the moons?”

“One of them has an atmosphere and rudimentary life forms. However, there’s an object too small to be a moon on the other side of the planet. I can’t tell you what it is more than that, but it does possess the alien energy signature.”

I gasp.

“Do you think it might be a starship?”

Soanzo stood up and stroked his chin.

“Helm, increase speed. See if you can get around the shuttle. I want the Honor’s Blade between Doctor Garcia and whatever that object is.”

“Yes, captain.” Rikov taps on the console, and his eyes narrow. “This can’t be right.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Every time I increase speed, the shuttle matches me a split second later.”

“Then we have to consider this evasive action.” Soanzo turned to Taxan. “When we get close enough, try to lock onto the shuttle with a tractor beam.”

“That could be interpreted as a hostile act,” Sylvia pointed out.

“Thank you for your input, Sylvia, but at this point the good doctor is considered a hostage of the Annulus. I won’t let it take her out of our reach.”

“I can’t get us any closer.” The frustration in Rikov’s voice felt palpable. “What kind of engines does that thing have?”

We continued our pursuit, entering the gravity well of the gas giant. The ship came so low over its surface it took up the entire viewscreen.

“Keep up with her, Helm,” Soanzo growled.

“I’m trying, captain, but her ship is much more agile than our own.”

We peeled around the circumference of the planet, and the mysterious object came into view.

“What is that?” Sylvia asked in awe.

“Magnify,” Soanzo ordered.

The image grew larger, more distinct. It looked a great deal like a glittering ring with glowing runes carved on the flat edge. As we watched, the ring glowed the same color as the Annulus had before. A nimbus of blindingly white light formed in the center, and then a strangely distorted vision of stars beyond.

The shuttle sped up, turning into a flash of light. It shot right through the ring and vanished. Runes faded into darkness as the device powered down.

“What just happened?” Soanzo demanded.

“I think that alien ring just opened a space bridge,” Sylvia said, her eyes wide as moons.

“It’s a sort of gate that takes you far across the stars,” Dr. Bill said with great importance. “Therefore, we should call it a—”

“A Starg—” I began.

“A fargate!” Dr. Bill declared.

“Seems kind of familiar,” Sylvia said, her gaze locked on the floating ring. Unless we figured out how it worked, Dr. Garcia might well be beyond our reach forever.

SYLVIA

“It’s a fargate,” Dr. Bill repeated. “Make sure you get that down. That’s its official name, and I am its discoverer.”

“Discoverer?” Taxan glared at him. “Are you serious right now? You ‘discovered’ it at the same time as everyone else on the bridge.”

“Ah, but only I truly have the intellect to comprehend what I’m seeing. Therein lies the difference, my dear, slow Taxan.”

I hide a smile behind my hand as Admiral Ausym and Captain Soanzo confer.

“Sylvia,” Captain Soanzo said, startling me. “How likely do you think your theory is? That it’s a space bridge of some sort?”

I blew air out of my lips, making my bangs dance as I considered the floating object.

“Ah, sixty percent certain?” I point at the screen. “Those symbols look mathematical to me. I think they help determine the coordinates of the opposite end of the wormhole. Assuming it opens a wormhole.”

“How do we know it doesn’t operate similar to our teleportation pads?” Ausym asked.

“The pads rely on a subspace signal, and a relay system to transmit that signal to the furthest reaches of the galaxy.” I squint at the ring hovering on the monitor. “A wormhole creates a shortcut across the folds of space/time.”

Ausym nodded.

“Of course. The folds of space/time.” He clears his throat. “How can we determine if this object will function for us as it did for the doctor? If your theory is correct.”

“Send a probe!” Dr. Bill practically shoved me out of the way to stand before the commanders of the fleet. The mollusk inside of his glass dome ‘head’ glares at me. “We should send a probe to make sure this fargate is safe for us to follow the missing doctor through.”

“One problem with the probe,” I say, trying to peer out from behind Dr. Bill’s mechanical body. He lifts his arm to put it directly in front of my face. “It might not have a way back. The wormhole generator—”

“Fargate!”

“—might only be a one way trip.”

“I assume we’ll find out if the probe doesn’t return.” Soanzo shrugged.

“And if it doesn’t?” Dr. Bill demands. “Sir, with respect, I must go through the fargate. It feels like it’s not only my duty, but my destiny.”

“We’ll have to play it by ear.” Ausym’s eyes narrow. “And as for your presence on the away mission, that’ll be up to the team leader, Zaen.”

Dr. Bill snickered.

“Oh please, of course Zaen wants me along. It’s not even worth discussing.”

“It’s not?” Zaen frowned.

“See? He agrees. It’s not worth discussing.”

Zaen rolled his eyes, when Dr. Bill put an arm over his shoulders like they’re old comrades.

“It seems to me like the wormhole generation ring—”

“Fargate!”

“—is not going to be large enough to accommodate a colony class ship.”

“The Nova or the Sunder could make it through,” Soanzo said.

“Good idea.” Ausym turned to Zaen. “You and your team should report to the Sunder.”

“I’ll go pack,” Dr. Bill said, rushing off before anyone had a chance to contradict him.

Excitement bubbled inside of me.

I’m going to go through a space bridge! Maybe. If it really is a wormhole generator, and it’s safe for us to use. Oh, the heck with it. I’m going through a wormhole. Yay! Suck on that, Mr. Shelby, my third grade science teacher who gave me a D because my paper ‘couldn’t possibly’ have been written by me and ‘must’ have been plagiarized.

Zaen walked me to my quarters, and thoughts of the wormhole cooled as I recalled our evening together. He was so handsome, striking even, in his dress uniform. I found my heart fluttered when he caught me looking and smiled.

“Are you excited for your first away mission, Sylvia?”

“You bet. Why should I let Dr. Bill have all the fun?”

“We may be on the Sunder for some time,” he said. “You should pack accordingly.”

“Right.”

We stopped at my door. He stood there, as if trying to think of something to say. I let him off the hook.

“I’ll see you soon, Zaen.”

I touched his forearm briefly, sweeping my fingertips across. He smiled, and I felt the return of the tingle. I caught glimpses of sweet honeyed golden threads out of the corners of my eyes.

The door slid shut behind me and I shivered. I hadn’t expected to have this kind of reaction to Zaen. It’d grown harder to deny that there really was something deeper at work between the two of us.

I moved around my quarters, packing up my things. I’d lived on the Honor’s Blade for so long, I’d really put down some roots. I tried to be practical with my things, but I was so distracted by my feelings for Zaen I put my third grade science fair trophy into my bags three times in a row.

I reminded myself it was only a temporary move. That helped, a little. Still, I had no idea where the wormhole would take me, or how far. What if it took years to get back to teleportation range?

I made sure to pack an extra toothbrush just in case. And underwear, lots of underwear. I turn a little red and pack a few pairs, which are anything but practical. I mean, just in case I get caught on the other side of the universe, well—I’d rather have them and not need them than the other way around.

The more I thought about the mission, the more it seemed like Zaen’s presence overwhelmed everything else. I looked forward to being around him.

Maybe things might work out this time.

Maybe it’s my turn to get the perfect guy.

ZAEN

Packing my gear didn’t take me all that long. After a while of serving in the fleet, you get used to jumping around to different ships. In fact, because of the teleportation pads, it sometimes seems like you’re on one gigantic ship instead of transporting between three different ones.

I think that’s why sometimes even the best of us get confused as to what ship we’re currently on. I’ve read some of Kavok’s commander logs and laughed at the inaccuracy of which ship he was stationed on and when.

It’d be the first time I’ve switched ships after having been matched, though. I couldn’t stop thinking about Sylvia. It seemed like her presence colored every one of my thoughts, even when she wasn’t physically, er, present.

I slipped a shoulder strap on and commanded my hover case to follow me. I wondered what it’d be like on the other side of the wormhole. Assuming we even got to see it.

My step felt lighter than air as I made my way through the ship to her quarters. The prospect of seeing her again drove away all thoughts of the wormhole and Dr. Garcia. Sylvia loomed large in my mind, overshadowing all else.

I reached her door and found my palms to be sweaty. I wiped them, doing a quick breath check into my palm. Finding that I passed the breath check, I activated the door chime.

The door slides open a moment later and Sylvia stands there, a light glaze of sweat on her brow.

“Hey, I’m almost done packing.” She turned around and tapped the keys on her suitcase and it squeezed itself shut. Then it lifted off the mattress and followed her along, buoyed by hover technology just like my case.

“Have you been on the Sunder before?”

“A few times.” Her brow furrowed. “I’m not sure I saw much of anything other than their science labs, though.”

“I find the layout of Cruisers is simpler to navigate, which seems a fair trade to me for having less space overall.”

What am I doing? I don’t want to bore her with talk about cruisers. How banal can I possibly get? I need to say something interesting, maybe something sciency to impress her.

“Hey, did you know I did a science experiment of my own, once?”

“You did?”

“Yes, I tried…I tried…” My mind went blank, and I floundered for something to say. “Ah, I tried to hypothesize how many grenades I could fit into my mouth. For a stealth mission.”

“I see.” She laughed, and I felt some relief, but was she laughing with me or at me? It was hard to imagine the sunny Sylvia laughing at anyone’s expense, let alone my own, but I still felt nervous around her at that point.

“How many did you discover you could fit?”

“Five, but then I realized that I had to adjust the parameters of my experiment.”

Yeah, parameters! Listen to me sounding like a real scientist.

“Oh? How?”

“I figured the real question was how many grenades could I fit into my mouth and have no one notice?”

Sylvia snorted with laughter and bumped her shoulder into mine as we strode along the corridor.

“Zaen, you’re a real trip.”

I assumed that meant something positive, rather than insinuating I was especially clumsy.

We reached the teleportation pad and stepped on it together. A flash of light, and we stood in the Sunder’s cargo bay. A fresh faced Vaznik right out of training greeted us and escorted us to our quarters.

“Well, isn’t this convenient.” Sylvia pointed her finger at two cabin doors. “We’re right next to each other.”

My pulse quickened. The idea of being so close to her, even when she was sleeping, had me very excited for some reason.

We took a few minutes to unpack. Mostly I just stowed my suitcase and then took in the cabin’s environs. I’d been granted an officer’s quarters, which had its own lavatory and shower.

Very fancy, but I felt I hadn’t earned the right. Then again, the upgrade in quarters wasn’t for my benefit. I knew Admiral Ausym thought of it as doing a favor for my match. I flushed at the thought of why my quarters needed to be as nice as hers. Because she might be spending the night there.

I thought back to our initial meeting, when she’d asked me how I’d performed in my human women instructional classes. Sylvia liked putting me off my guard, even making me uncomfortable, and yet, I couldn’t be upset with her for it. Far from it. In fact, I’d come to enjoy the verbal sparring and her razor keen wit.

I heard her door open, and I stepped out into the hallway.

“All done?” I asked.

“Yeah, mostly.” She put her hand on her hip and cocked an eyebrow. The stance emphasized her curves, bringing new sweat to my forehead.

“So, what do we do now?”

“Most likely,” I answered “we’ll be summoned to the bridge when the probe—”

Attention Zaen, report to the bridge.

I laughed and gave her a shrug.

“It looks like it’s time.”

We made great haste to the bridge, and found Captain Thadood and his crew staring at the view screen with great interest.

“Sir,” I say, offering the traditional Vaznik salute. “What’s the situation?”

Thadood points at the viewscreen.

“The probe has just returned. Apparently two way travel is possible.”

“Then that means we’re going through it?” Sylvia’s excitement was palpable. She appeared positively giddy.

“Yes,” Thadood said with supreme confidence, and more than a little excitement himself. “As soon as we’ve recovered the data and determined it’s safe.”

“The probe made it back through,” I pointed out.

“An unmanned probe is one matter. A starship full of personnel is another.” Thadood clapped me on the shoulder. “Have faith, Zaen. You’ll get your chance.”

I nod firmly. I can’t believe we’re about to go through a space gate.

Even more, I can’t believe I’m getting along with my match so very well.

SYLVIA

Zaen and I found ourselves hovering over the shoulder of Plagus, the bridge crew member tasked with deciphering the sensor data from the probe we’d sent through the wormhole.

We weren’t the only ones. Captain Thadood and several other bridge crew stood behind him as well. Everyone waited to see what was on the other side of the wormhole.

Of course, as eager as we were, all of us were willing to be quite patient with Plagus. After all, deciphering telemetry from a probe isn’t always easy, and he did so with a probe which had been who knew where in the universe.

I should say that most of us were patient. Dr. Bill, as usual, had his own take on the happenings on the bridge.

“Well?” He crossed his metal arms over his ‘chest’. The mollusk inside his domed head did the same. “What does the data say about the other side of the fargate?”

Plagus turned a confused frown his way.

“The what? What did you call the wormhole?”

“Just go with it,” I said with a sigh. “It’s easier that way. And give him a chance. Dr. Bill.”

“I could perform this task much more quickly,” Dr. Bill huffed.

“Oh, you could, could you?” Plagus swiveled around in his seat and glared at the Galfian. “Why don’t you sit down and do it, then?”

“As you were, Plagus,” Thadood said. “We all know Dr. Bildeploop was sent here by the gods as a test of our mutual patience, so don’t let them find you wanting.”

Dr. Bill’s mollusk body drew itself up into full indignation mode. He harrumphed as Plagus went back to work.

“All right, it looks like vacuum conditions on the other side,” Plagus said at last. “So we can assume the opening at the other end is also in outer space rather than in an atmosphere. Or underwater.”

“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Captain Thadood asked.

“The probe suffered no damage to its systems by going through the wormhole. We know that inorganic matter can pass through safely.”

“What about organic matter?” I asked, because that seemed pretty important to me.

“I—I don’t know…wait a second. Let me check with the bridge crew over on the Honor’s Blade. It’s their probe, maybe they took this into account.”

He conferred with the other crew while I stared out at the viewscreen at the floating ring. It seemed just surreal, an obviously man made object, and yet, somehow it looked like a part of the natural world. It was composed of some sort of blue-green metal reflecting the stars back in a blurry abstract. The alpha numeric characters looked similar to what we’d seen before, possibly part of the same language.

I wondered what lay on the other side. So far, we only knew it opened up into a place without an atmosphere.

“Good news.” Plagus spun around in his chair to face Captain Thadood. “Amelia on the Honor’s Blade helped program the probe, and she insisted a houseplant be sent through along with the probe.”

“And how’d the plant fare?” Captain Thadood asked.

“Well, it remains rather tight-lipped and won’t say a thing,” Plagus said. He waited for a long moment while nobody laughed. I shifted uncomfortably and someone coughed.

“That was supposed to be a joke, sir,” Plagus said in a low voice.

“Attempted humor. Sounds like a major infraction to me.” Captain Thadood slapped him on the back. “I sentence you to extra kitchen patrol duty. In the meantime, what’s going on with the plant?”

“It would appear that the wormhole—”

“Fargate!”

Plagus sucked in a great breath of air and let it out as a sigh.

“Fine. It appears the fargate is safe for organic matter to transit through.”

Dr. Bill beamed as if he’d actually accomplished something by forcing Plagus to use his term for the wormhole. We all ignored him and listened to what Plagus had to say instead.

“There’s some kind of interference on the other side of the wormhole that’s mucking up our sensors.” He frowned as his fingers tapped the console keys. “I can’t seem to find any reason for the distortion, however. I do know that it doesn’t appear to have affected other systems.”

“We’ll have to remain within visual distance of the wormhole, then—” Captain Thadood began.

“Fargate!” Dr. Bill said.

Captain Thadood just turned and stared at Dr. Bill. That’s it. Not a grimace, not a scowl or a sneer or anything. Just a blank, inscrutable stare. Dr. Bill took a surreptitious step back behind the others gathered around the sensor console station.

Thadood cleared his throat.

“We’ll remain within visual distance of the wormhole…” He gave Dr. Bill a stare for good measure, but the Galfian remained silent. Wisely, I might add. “So we don’t become stranded on the other side.”

“Once we know what we’re dealing with on the other side,” I say, drawing his attention to me, “we should be able to create a buoy or transponder satellite to keep us from getting lost.”

“Excellent. I’m glad to have your scientific expertise, Sylvia.”

Dr. Bill fumed, but he did so in silence.

Captain Thadood stood with his hand stroking his chin for a long while, staring at the artifact.

“Do we know how to power up the device?” Captain Thadood asked at last. “So we can go through?”

“I think so, sir.” I showed him the preliminary analysis I’d prepared earlier. “If you’ll see here, tachyon emissions from Doctor Garcia’s shuttlecraft increased a hundredfold prior to activation of the fargate.”

Dr. Bill perked up. I’d felt bad for him so I threw him a bone.

“All right, I'm willing to give it a shot.” He turned to his operations officer. “Use our front deflector dish to generate tachyon pulses in the precise pattern Sylvia’s research dictates.”

I felt a flush of pride—and also, fear—that my calculations were being given so much weight. I really, really hoped I was right.

The Ops crewman tapped in a sequence on the keyboard of his console.

“Tachyon pulse pattern has begun, captain.”

“I wonder how we can tell if it’s working—”

The writing on the circle lit up blue-green and I felt a surge of excitement. My calculations were correct. Also, I wanted to faint with relief.

The lensing effect reappeared in the center of the circle.

“All right, we’re going in. Yellow alert.”

At Captain Thadood’s command, the lights on the ship dimmed slightly and a persistent yellow flash emanated from key panels. Not enough to be distracting, but too much to ignore.

“Take us in, helm.”

I wanted to throw up. I wanted to hoot in triumph. I wanted it all over, and I never wanted it to end. I felt Zaen standing close by me. I drew strength from his presence and tried to hold it together.

Then, I felt the touch of his hand on my skin. He slipped his fingers between mine, interweaving them. I looked down at our joined hands, and then smiled at him.

It was just the right thing to do at just the right time. I felt like with Zaen at my side, I was ready for anything.

Even a trip through a mysterious space bridge—excuse me, I meant fargate.

ZAEN

“Bring us in slow, Helm. One tenth thrust.”

Captain Thadood’s voice sounded steady, but I served under him long enough to recognize the signs of stress. His hand was clenched on top of his thigh as he sat in his captain’s chair. The skin around his eyes seemed tighter, and a big vein throbbed right beneath the base of his horns.

I felt Sylvia squeeze my hand tightly. I squeezed back to reassure her. I’m not sure which of us reassured the other at that point. I was a more experienced space traveler, but I had never embarked on that kind of journey.

“Has there even been a record of a successful transit through a stable wormhole before?” Plagus asks Sylvia in a low tone, so Captain Thadood didn’t hear him.

“Not that I know of.” She smiled at him. “Isn't it great? We get to be the pioneers.”

“Great. Pioneers.” Plagus went back to working at his console. “Safe occupation, that.”

The space ring loomed ever larger. I stared at the star pattern and then it hit me why it seemed so familiar, yet so different.

“I think the lensing effect in the middle is creating a virtual mirror.”

Sylvie gasped and leaned forward, staring at the viewscreen.

“I think you’re right, Zaen. Those are some keen observational skills you’ve got cracking there.”

I couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride at her praise. I hadn’t felt so good upon being commended, even by the admiral himself.

“We’ll hit the event horizon of the wormhole—”

“Fargate!”

“—in a few seconds, captain.”

The ship lurched beneath my feet, and I stumbled, nearly falling over.

“What was that?” Captain Thadood demanded.

“It was a tractor beam locking onto us,” the helmsman shouted. His fingers flashed over his console.

“See if you can get us free,” Thadood said. “Ops, reroute all power from nonessential systems to sub light drive.”

The ship vibrated under my feet. Lights flickered on and off, and a shower of sparks erupted from a nearby panel. Sylvia shrieked as a spark landed on her white lab coat and set it ablaze, and I quickly patted it out before it did more than smolder.

“Thanks. What’s going on with the ship?”

“The tractor beam is strong enough to give our engines a firm contest,” I said, not happy about any of it. “The resulting strain on the ship is causing minor damage on every deck.”

Sylvia thought about it for a moment, racing over to Captain Thadood’s chair.

“Captain, please, stop trying to escape the tractor beam.”

“Why should I do that?” he asked. “Locking on with a tractor beam without permission is considered a hostile act by the fleet code.”

“Yes, but in this case, I think it’s an automated function of the wormhole—”

“Fargate!”

“—Fargate. I think the tractor beam is needed to precisely control the rate at which we pass through the wormhole entrance. At least, that’s my theory.”

“And you want me to risk my ship based on your theory?”

A shower of sparks rained down on another crewman, who quickly jumped back from his suddenly on fire station. Suppression systems kicked in while I rushed up to join her.

“Captain, the ship is being torn apart anyway. We can’t escape the pull.”

Captain Thadood looked at her again, as if assessing her worth. Then he grimaced, turning toward his helmsman.

“Helm, shut off the sub light engines completely. Full stop.”

“Sir?”

“You heard me.”

Captain Thadood settled back into his chair and spoke to us both quietly.

“I sure hope you’re right, Sylvia.”

“Me, too.”

The shaking stopped, and the Sunder cruised smoothly through the aperture. As soon as the bow was enveloped, the viewing monitor went dark.

“What just happened?”

“Interference from the device, sir.” Plagus’ hand danced over the keys of his console. “I’m trying to clear it up.”

The viewscreen came back to life, and what we saw was…strange. It looked as if we were staring down a long, undulating tunnel, its sides pocked with patterns of colored light.

“Fifty percent of our ship has entered the wormhole,” the helmsman said. I guessed Dr. Bill was too nervous to correct him. “Sixty percent. Seventy.”

“What happens when we’re one hundred percent inside the wormhole?”

I looked over at Zaen and smiled weakly.

“I have no idea.”

“Ninety percent,” the helmsman intoned. “Ninety five. Ninety nine…one hundred—”

I didn’t feel any sensation of movement, and yet, the tunnel walls shot past us at a blur. I nearly toppled over because the visual effect proved so disconcerting and contradicted the rest of my senses.

“How fast are we moving?” Captain Thadood asked, breaking the eerie silence which had come over the bridge.

“According to this, we’re only moving at about double max subluminal speed.” The helmsman shook his head and grimaced. “But I don’t know if I can trust these sensor readings.”

“I’m trying to scan the wormhole.” Plagus slammed his fist into his console and scowled. “Damn it. It’s like trying to figure the speed and weight of a subatomic particle at the same time. Damn near impossible.”

“I’m not so concerned with what the wormhole is made of, exactly.” Captain Thadood’s eyes narrowed to slits. “I’m worried about what might be waiting for us on the other side. Tactical, the second we’re out of the wormhole, I want shields up and a target lock on anything with an engine drive signature, is that clear? But don’t fire until I give the order.”

“Understood, Captain.”

We continued through the wormhole tunnel in silence for a time. All of us were lost in our own thoughts. What was waiting on the other side? What’d happen if we were to veer off course inside the wormhole? Why had Dr. Garcia chosen to take a wormhole across the galaxy in the first place?

These questions and more teemed inside my skull. I was glad to have Zaen at my side. It made me feel as if maybe everything would be all right, and I’m not sure why. I guessed any universe that could put the two of us together couldn’t be all bad.

“Um, I think we’re at the end of the line,” Plagus said, pointing at the viewscreen. I cringed as a patch of wavering light appeared at the vanishing point of the tunnel. It grew larger, and larger, until it was upon us in a heartbeat.

The next moment the tunnel vanished, and we floated inside of a dim red-gold glow. The sound of hissing, almost like falling rain, reached my ears.

“Where are we?” I asked in awe.

“I think we’re inside of a nebula.” Plagus’ fingers typed in different command macros and sensory data piled up on his monitor. “Yes, definitely. That’s probably why we weren’t able to get any decent readings from the probe. Too much interference from the ionized gasses.”

“Can you pick up the shuttle’s trail?”

Plagus punched keys, and then his face split in a grin.

“Yes. Yes, I can.”

“Then take us after them, Helm.” Captain Thadood stared stoically at the screen. “Steady as she goes.”

SYLVIA

Racing around the galaxy was exciting, but the long stretches of travel had their own levels of downtime. Once ship maintenance and mission preparation was done, there was somehow always a surplus of time.

It was important to grab the recreation wherever you found it - even in the middle of periods of chaos.

As such, there was no better place to be on any of the three ships in our fleet than the weekly watch party for As the Galaxy Churns. That week, it was to be hosted by Admiral Ausym’s wife in the galley of the Honor’s Blade. Autumn Ausym’s weeks to host were always delightful because the chef pulled out all the stops.

Being as they featured the admiral’s wife, the short list to get into the actual watch party was super exclusive. It took me weeks of playing squash in the recreation area with Mrs. Ausym’s yoga instructor to finally get my own invite.

So when I plus-one invited Zaen, his eyes bulged out of his head and he let out an excited whoop. I couldn’t decide if he was happier about spending time with me or getting to go to the watch party, however.

As a xeno sociologist, I knew all about the different ritualistic behaviors sapient beings engage in during courtship. I also knew I was far from being above such things myself. Still, I drove myself to near insanity trying to pick out an outfit for the watch party.

I rejected a seafoam green strapless number as too fancy, a trouser and blouse combo as too low class for the admiral’s wife, and a mesh bodysuit as probably too daring. I wind up with a knee length tiered charcoal dress with a subtle floral pattern embossed with shiny thread. Not too ostentatious, but when the light caught it just right, the pattern had a subtle shimmer.

I put my hair up partially because it looked good with the dress, but also to get it out of my way for the feasting that’d commence. Like I said, the food is one of the main reasons it’s so exclusive.

I fussed over my cosmetic shades so long I almost ran out of time. The more I fussed, the more I fretted about time, and the more obvious it became that Zaen had gotten under my skin.

“This is ludicrous,” I said to my own reflection. “Just be yourself. If it’s going to work or not work, it might as well work or not work for the right reason.”

I almost wiped the lipstick off, then changed my mind. Zaen’s not the only one at the party and the admiral’s wife has certain standards.

The chime sounded at my door. I rushed over on my black pumps and answered it, trying to affect an air of unaffected insouciance. Like I said, I’m not above the ancient rituals at all.

“Hey,” I said as the door receded and Zaen loomed in the entrance. Seven feet of red-skinned, horned perfection. Twisted steel and sex appeal, as the gym rats used to say. His gaze flickered up and down my body, his lips stretching in a smile.

“Hello, Sylvia. You look amazing.”

“Thanks.” I felt my cheeks flush a bit as I gestured him inside. “Come on in. I’m pretty much ready, I just need to get my purse.”

He nodded, eyes moving around as he took in my quarters. He spotted my Mandarin puzzle box and reached out to brush his fingers over the glossy, painted surface.

“It’s a puzzle box from ancient Earth.”

“It’s interesting,” he said, turning it over in his hands. He pulled at one of the sections and the blocks shifted about. “Was it fabricated using a matter structurer?”

“No, it was handcrafted using ancient techniques. I like puzzles, especially three dimensional ones. It kind of jibes with how my mind works.”

“Oh?” He handed me the puzzle box, his brows climbing high on his face. “What do you mean?”

“Well, like this puzzle box. I don’t just see the top, I sort of ‘see’ what’s moving underneath inside of my head.” I shift the pieces about until the box opens up its secret compartment. His eyes widened.

“That was amazing.”

“Not really. It’s a rather simple box. My point is, I see things in my head like that all of the time. Social structures, too, not just tangible things with moving parts.”

“That’s fascinating.” He offered me his arm, gesturing toward the door. “Tell me more, please.”

We walked to the teleportation pad, finding ourselves zapped to the flagship’s uppermost decks. The party made itself obvious from the hum of conversation from all the way down the hallway, long before it came into sight.

The doors were open wide, the galley filled with people from all three ships. I spotted Dr. Bill, Raxor, Kavok, Petra and the rest already milling about. The big holoprojector had yet to show anything but the generic green floating globes.

“Now see.” I point across the room. “There’s a lot going on here. What do you see?”

“Um, well, I see our friends, and the admiral’s wife, and, um, food.”

I laughed, gesturing toward a young Tsander by the crab cakes.

“See that guy over there? He’s forlornly staring over at the Kimicusian ambassador, hoping some great cataclysm will happen forcing them to interact with each other. And over there, the Mwawkwill tech officer trying not to fall asleep listening to Dr. Bill? He knows his career advancement is on the line or he’d have wandered off a long time ago.”

“How do you do all of that?” Zaen asks in astonishment.

“It’s all about reading people, and knowing the patterns they tend to fall into. Xeno sociology just expands on what we already know, using it to extrapolate how new species we’ve yet to encounter might behave.”

He chuckled, but his eyes grew wary.

“So, are you using your sociologist powers on me right now?”

I rolled my eyes and scoffed.

“Oh please. First off, there’s no such thing as ‘sociologist powers.’ Let’s just nip that in the bud right now. And besides, you don’t need special training to know what’s on your mind, Zaen.”

His eyes widened, and he dropped his gaze to the floor.

“I didn’t mean to stare…I just, the floral pattern catches the eye, and, is it hot in here or is it just me?”

He tugged at the collar of his black fleet dress uniform. I put a hand on my hip and cocked my eyebrow.

“I mean, you keep looking over at the buffet table because you were hungry…what did you think I mean?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head, still not able to meet my gaze. “What you said. The buffet thing.”

I gave him a look as he moved toward the bar.

“Just let me grab us a couple of drinks, okay?”

I let him off the hook when he got back. I drank a sparkling ginger ale concoction while we watched the episode of Churns. I nibbled on the food, but Zaen kept me distracted most of the night. His theories on where the soap opera’s many story threads were headed I found to be inaccurate, but hilarious nonetheless.

When we reached my quarters at the end of the evening, we lingered outside for a long while, talking softly. I stifled a yawn for the third time when he politely suggested we call it an evening.

“I don’t want to exhaust you,” he said. “The crew says I can be really exhausting.”

I laughed, and turned toward my door.

“Thanks for coming with me tonight. I had a great time.”

“Me, too.”

He leaned over and pushed the panel for me, opening the door. His face was inches from mine. I smiled. He smiled. Then he leaned in all of a sudden and kissed me. The first touch of his lips on my own proved tentative. I melted into him, and our little peck good night turned into something steamy enough soap opera all on its own.

“Good night, Zaen,” I whispered, my forehead on his chest, before I stepped inside my quarters and closed the door.

ZAEN

I felt like I had lightning in my veins after I left Sylvia’s quarters after our date. The time had flown past more quickly than I’d imagined. I straight up wondered if perhaps we’d passed through some sort of chronal anomaly, with how little time seemed to have passed.

I returned to my own quarters next door, but I couldn’t sleep. I just lay in bed staring at the ceiling, replaying the kiss over and over again in my mind. My tattoos glowed from just the memory of it. If there were one word I’d characterize the entire experience of kissing Sylvia, it’d be perfection.

I’m not sure how long I stayed awake, looking up at the bulkhead. I’m sure it was quite a while. My eyes grew tired and heavy, but closing them didn’t do me much good. My mind still raced with the greatest kiss in the history of romance, as far as I was concerned.

I awakened with the alarm I’d set, rolling out of bed onto the floor into a push up position. I banged out the first hundred push ups of the day while still thinking about the kiss. Sylvia had been the last thing I thought about when I went to sleep, and the first thing I thought about upon awakening.

I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to function like this. Going about my duties while this massive change roiled inside of me would prove daunting. I only hoped I was up to the challenge.

When I reported for duty on the bridge, I found myself the center of the conversation, whether I liked it or not.

“So, Zaen, I heard you were playing kissy face with Sylvia down below decks last night,” Rikov said, his eyes glinting with mischief.

“How would you know, unless you watched the security footage like a creep?” I countered.

“Oh, come on, everyone saw you two at the party.” Rikov glanced around the bridge for support and found that he had enough to continue. “I mean, I think Petra said it best when she said the two of you were ‘eye humping’ each other all night.”

“Eye humping?” I tried to puzzle out how the ocular organs could be made to burrow into hills like humps and failed. “Do you even know what that means?”

“I, well…” Rikov clears his throat. “It’s a human phrase, but you guys were definitely doing stuff with your eyes last night.”

“Yes, we were using them to see, like everyone else. I think perhaps you’re making all of this up, and Petra never said a word about this ‘eye humping’ nonsense. The truth is I adore Sylvia, and I’d like to think she’s at least a little bit fond of me.”

“So you two were kissing, then?” Vrako asks.

“Yes, we kissed, but it’s hardly any of your business.”

“I told you he’d kiss her,” Vrako said. “Pay up.”

Rikov sighed and turned his gaze away.

“I’ll settle up after our duty cycle is over. You know how the captain hates us gambling on the bridge.”

“The gambling part is over. The paying up part is right now.”

I ignored them and tried to focus on my duties. That proved easier said than done. Some of my other crewmates, like Taxan, were a bit more tactful in their lines of inquiry, but they kept me busy all the same.

“I’m not really sure how to gauge, objectively, how much she likes me, Taxan.” I shrugged my shoulders as I input a series of sensor beacon coordinates onto my console. “That’s not really how it works.”

“Has she told you how she feels?”

“No. She did tell me she enjoyed my company before we kissed, however.”

“That’s something, see? So when she said she enjoyed your company, what’d you say her sincerity level was, on a scale of one to seventy-four?”

“What level is her sincerity…wait, why such a weird scale? Seventy-four? What criteria are we…” I shook my head and sighed. “I think she was pretty sincere, Taxan. I don’t think she’d be the type to say things she didn’t mean.”

“So, like a seventy-two on my scale?”

“No, like a ‘I’m not participating in your scale because it’s intrinsically stupid’ type of sincerity.”

“Humph. I’ll just put it down as seventy-three and a half. Near total certainty.” He shook his head and thrust up his stiff lower lip. “I thought as much.”

“Why’re you pretending to know anything?” I growled.

Things didn’t get any better when our duty shift ended and we headed to the mess hall. They continued to ply me with questions I didn’t really have an answer to.

“I don’t know how long it’ll take for us to be a true mated couple,” I said in exasperation. “Why do you all think there’s a timeline for this sort of thing? And why’re you asking me instead of Raxor, or Drayk, or one of the others who’ve already formalized their mated bond?”

“Because you’re the one who’s here to answer our questions,” Taxan said with a shrug. “So you’re thinking of anytime between three weeks to six months? That’s typical for most earthlings, at least according to the Holo Soap Digest.”

“I’m not sure the HSD is a serious academic journal,” I said. “And perhaps if you all bent your minds toward locating Dr. Garcia more than trying to goad me along the path to full matehood with my genetic match, we would’ve already found her, yes?”

The doors to the commissary slid open and of all people, Sylvia walked in. Her eyes lit up when she saw me. Sylvia worked her way across the crowded galley until she reached our table.

“Hello, Sylvia,” I said, trying to split the difference between being happy to see her and annoyed that my companions have plied me with so many intrusive questions.

“Hey, big guy.” Her eyes flash around the table. “Hello, all.”

“Hi, Sylvia,” Rikov said. “So did the two of you ki—”

I stomped on his foot under the table and he clamped down on a yelp rather than finishing his sentence.

“You look really eager about something,” I said, cocking an eyebrow at her.

“Well, I was going over the missing doctor’s notes, and I think I may have found something significant.”

“How significant?”

She pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose, favoring me with a look born of both excitement and a little fear.

“If I’m right, it could change everything we know about the Annulus, maybe even the galaxy.”

“That’s pretty significant,” Taxan said.

SYLVIA

I led Zaen to the science lab, barely able to contain my excitement. He came along willingly, but he was a bit puzzled.

“Now are you going to tell me why we had to come to the lab for this?”

“Well, we didn’t have to come to the lab. It’s just a lot more fun this way, not to mention I teach better with visual aids.”

I went to the replication device and programmed it for the type of matter I wanted. I soon had a sheet of red-hued paper in the printout area.

Using a pair of tongs, I lifted the paper in the air and turned on the Vaznik equivalent of a Bunsen burner.

“So, where is this red paper right now?”

He tilted his horned head to the side.

“Um, is this a trick question?”

“Just humor me for a moment.”

“Okay,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s in your hand there, between a pair of tweezers if you want to get technical.”

“Fantastic.” I lowered the paper over the flickering flame. The paper exploded into a brief but neat flare, leaving only smoke and a few black floating curls drifting toward the floor. Zaen flinched, but quickly regained his composure. I put my hands on the counter and looked him dead in the eyes.

“Okay, where is the paper now?”

“It’s gone,” he said with a laugh. “You burned it up.”

“Conventionally speaking, I agree with you. For all intents and purposes, the paper is gone.” I gestured at the air. “I mean, we could argue that it still exists as the heat it produced when consumed, the atoms of it which were dispersed through the air are still around, and so forth, but we no longer have that sheet of paper in a form recognizable to us.”

I gesture to the replication center.

“On the other hand, I could print up another sheet of magnesium paper. It’d be identical to the first except the programmable matter used would be from a slightly different source. Still, the pattern would be the same, yes? If I held the two pieces of paper up in front of you, you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart, not even with a microscope.”

“I’m following you so far.” He scratched his chin and nodded.

“Right. So what if instead of a piece of magnesium paper, I instruct the replication center to make a more complicated object. Say a simple computer that has a mere six million gigs of memory, and with specific memories at that. If I broke it, and made another, would it be the same?”

“No.”

“But it looks the same, functions the same, even has the same memories. If I put them next to each other—”

“I get your point,” he said with a laugh. His red skinned face is more handsome by far when he smiles, and he’s already pretty handsome. “For our purposes, they’re the same.”

“It’s not that far off from reality.” I gestured between the two of us. “Our cells are in a continuous cycle of division and death. We have none of the same particles we did when we were born. Yet, we’re the same person. If you think about it, what I think of as myself, as Sylvia, is just a pattern. A collection of matter, energy, and memories. This explains why the alien language is so damn hard to get a handle on.”

“It does?”

“Yes, it does. Their concept of object permanence is different from our own. To them the past and the future, even life and death are just different points on an ever-shifting continuum. Their thinking isn’t linear, and neither is their language. You can’t just go in and read left to right like in, say, English, or up to down like in the Kimicusian script. You need a point of contextual reference to even come close to comprehending it.”

“Do you think Dr. Garcia figured this out?”

“Sort of, via the brute force route. I don’t think she made the connection consciously, but on a subconscious level? Yes. I just wish this helped explain what the Annulus is meant to do, and what purpose it wants her to serve.”

He shrugged.

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s a complicated bit of machinery, maybe even so complex as to be a kind of magic. Still, it doesn’t have legs, or an antigravity pod or any other form of ambulation.”

“I thought about that possibility, and you may be right. Only, I feel like there might be something else going on here. A kind of symbiosis maybe.”

“Symbiosis? Like pollinating arthropods and flowering plants?”

“Precisely. A way to help both species. Or I could be dead wrong, and the Annulus is just using her like you said.”

He gestured at the compad on the counter.

“Now that you understand how the alien language works, can you make any headway on a translation?”

“I’ve been running a program, but the fact is I still don’t have much context. I need a starting point to understand not just what the message says, but how it’s meant to be read.”

He shook his horned head and sighed.

“You’re so brilliant. I never would’ve thought of this in a million years.”

“Oh, stop it. I’m standing on the shoulders of those who came before us. If it weren’t for all the work Amelia and the others did, I’d never have been able to figure out this much.” I laughed with a touch of bitterness to it. “Besides, I can’t accept any accolades so long as I haven’t actually figured out what the message says.”

“If the aliens who made the Annulus believed that nothing is ever really lost, is there some way that it could be, I don’t know, a kind of doomsday device?”

I cocked an eyebrow at him.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, think about it. You burned the paper, and then proceeded to tell me in a lot of ways the paper wasn’t really gone…what if they feel the same way, only about everything?” He swallows, and his gaze fills with barely contained anxiety. “What if they think it’s okay to burn it all, everything, everything all around them because the information of how to recreate it still remains?”

I gave him a long look and then sighed.

“Like I didn’t have enough to worry about.”

“I’m sorry. I’m trained to think like a soldier, and soldiers are all about identifying threats and stopping them before they cause harm.”

“No, don’t apologize. It’s a worthwhile theory to explore. I just have trouble believing that a species so advanced to come up with a quantum language would be so cavalier about killing.”

“The Suhlik are highly advanced, in some ways with better technology than other species. And yet, they are savage and, in my opinion, evil.”

I nodded, then looked down at the charred tweezers. I hoped we wouldn’t suffer the same fate as the paper before it was all said and done.

ZAEN

I rushed through the doors to the bridge the moment they opened, Sylvia a step behind. I found a flurry of activity, nearly every console and holo display covered in warning messages.

“What’s going on?” I asked Captain Datgouy. He turned his grim gaze my way.

“We’re still twenty-four hours out from our projected intercept, but we picked up a massive surge of alien energy signatures. When we came to investigate, this is what we found.”

He tapped the keys on his console and a holo display of the star system came into view. Dozens of longish, roughly crystalline-shaped artifacts rotate around a center spheroid. I leaned in closer, focusing on the symbols marked on the side.

“Sylvia, can you make out any of those symbols?”

Her eyes narrowed as she squinted at the image. “That one that looks kind of like a crab with a sunburst over it. I think it means sanctuary, but it also means danger. I don’t have enough context to tell which one it is, though.”

“Context would be nice,” Datgouy snorted. “Or answers. Shortly after we arrived, they began an intensive N-ray scan of our systems. When I put up shields, sensors detected a buildup of energy which might be a kind of weapon system or defense grid. Right now, we’re trying to figure out if they have hostile intentions or not.”

“Are there any life signs?”

“None. It’d appear to be tens of thousands of years old, at least. Stellar cartography thinks it used to be in orbit around one of the moons of the sixth gas giant in this system, but for some reason it took up a position out here, near what the humans refer to as an Oort cloud.”

I glanced over at Sylvia.

“Your opinion?”

“I wish I could offer one. I mean, it could be a sensor array of some kind, or a modular satellite capable of several different functions. I still don’t know enough about our mysterious species X to give you much to go on.”

“Sir!” The operations officer spins in his chair to face backward. “The scan has just ceased, and the energy buildup is increasing by the moment.”

“I think my caution just overrode my curiosity.” Datgouy looked over at his helmsman. “Take us out of here, Helm. Put us back on the intercept course—”

“Captain! Something just came out of one of the tertiary satellites, moving at missile speeds.”

I barely got to see a flash of red before impact. The floor shook under our feet, and half the consoles on the bridge went dark.

“What did they hit us with? And how did it get through shields?”

“It wasn’t an explosive. It’s some kind of alien tech, adhered magnetically to the hull.” The operations officer ran from one console to the next. “Ship systems aren’t responding.”

“Red alert!” Datgouy snapped. “Switch to analog protocols until our systems are clear.”

“Sir, another torpedo launch has been detected.”

Three more red streaks flashed into our hull. Most of the consoles went completely dark, leaving the bridge bathed in shadows.

“Sir, whatever these things are, they’re being controlled from an alien satellite. If we disrupt the connection, we should get ship systems back.”

“Great idea,” Datgouy growled. “Only our weapons systems are offline, too.”

“Sir, if I may.” I stepped up in front of him. “The Sunder has a complement of a dozen starfighters. I could lead a squadron out there to disable the satellite.”

“If we destroy the satellite, then we won’t be able to study it,” Sylvia said. “On the other hand, I don’t think we have much choice.”

“Prepare the starfighters,” Datgouy shouted into the comms. I grabbed Sylvia’s hand for a moment and squeezed it.

“Be careful,” she said. “I’m going to try and do what I can to help out here.”

“I will. I…want to see you again, Sylvia. Soon.”

“Now is not the best time to ask me on a date, but if it gives you motivation…”

She kissed me, suddenly, impulsively. I touched my lips as we parted, vowing to return to her as soon as possible.

I led the charge down to the hangar bay. We grabbed our flight suits and shrugged into them while the flight crew prepared for manual launch.

“With the ship systems down, we’ll have to crank the hangar bay doors open manually,” the flight deck lieutenant said. “So don’t go hitting your afterburners until after the way is clear.”

“Got you. You heard him, boys. Don’t turn yourself into a grease stain on the hangar bay doors getting overzealous.”

I climbed into the crescent shaped Vaznik starfighter. The hull featured a series of dimples, spots for maneuvering thrusters. It could move in almost any direction, but the main thruster array was in the rear for flat out speed.

In an atmosphere, it lost a ton of maneuverability, and a lot of power had to go into the antigrav drive. The stubby wings just weren’t aerodynamic. But in outer space our fighters were a force to be reckoned with.

I just hoped that we’d have sufficient firepower to stop the automated defenses of the alien satellite.

Part of me wondered if the good Dr. Garcia, under the influence of the Annulus, hadn’t sprang this as a kind of trap for us. Or maybe it was our curiosity that trapped us. Whatever the case. I only knew I had to do my best to save the Sunder.

I touched the glass of my helmet’s faceplate. I still felt her kiss on my lips, warm and tingly. My hand grasped the control stick as the hangar bay doors slowly cranked open. The moment we were clear, we went out in standard star formation.

I came around the Sunder’s sleek hull, hugging tight to its profile to use it as a kind of mask. I had no idea what other surprises the unmanned satellite might have in store.

“Phase cannons only on the first pass. Let’s try not to blow it to smithereens, just in case.”

I wasn’t just worried about scientific research. I was worried there might be some kind of self-destruct on board that’d wipe out our starfighters and maybe even the Sunder.

My targeting computer got a lock on one of the oblong satellites. I pressed the trigger stud and twin pulses of blue light throbbed out into the darkness of space. They raked along the hull of the satellite, knocking it into a wild spin away from the center mass.

I couldn’t tell if it’d been damaged or just knocked off course. I didn’t have time to ponder when more of the red ‘sticky’ torpedoes launched from the central sphere.

“Evasive maneuvers!” I cried over comms. “Don’t let them touch you.”

It’d be harder—and potentially deadlier—than I thought I’d be.

SYLVIA

“The fighters are engaging the satellites, captain.”

I watched from a place near the captain’s chair, my eyes glued to the holo display. I knew which one was Zaen’s fighter by the gold star marked on its digital representation. They seemed to have some success at least disrupting the satellites.

“But now the alien artifact is targeting them as well.” Datgouy made a fist and pounded his armrest. “Damn it all, we need our ship systems back up.”

“Repair crews are on their way to manually disengage the artifacts, but with teleporters down, it’s a long walk.”

“What about our emergency bridge teleportation pad?” Datgouy gestured at the rectangular platform off to the side. “It has an independent closed loop circuit.”

“Yes, but it still draws power from the main ship. There’s not enough power to send a Vaznik in an environmental suit.”

I got one of my crazy, awful ideas. I didn’t like the idea at all, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a really good one.

“Excuse me, could the teleportation pad send a smaller mass being in an environmental suit instead of a Vaznik?”

Datgouy’s eyes widened.

“Like a human, perhaps?” He turned to his operations officer, who nodded.

“It should work, captain.”

“I’ll get those…let’s call them lamprey torpedoes, shall we? I’ll get them off one way or the other.”

I went to the metal locker holding the emergency environmental suits. Thankfully, one of them was sized for human-type species. I pulled it on, grimacing as the pressure crushed it down onto my body. Uncomfortable, but preferable to being explosively depressurized in outer space.

“I’m not sure about this,” Datgouy muttered. “If anything happens to a human DNA match on my watch, the admiral will skin me alive.”

“If the artifact takes over or compromises the Sunder, then I’ll be just as dead.”

Datgouy sighed, then nodded. I stepped onto the teleport pad while a Vaznik handed me a hovering tool pod slaved to my environmental suit.

“Good luck.”

There was a flash of light, and suddenly I was standing on the underside of the Sunder’s hull. The magnetic boots automatically engaged. With no gravity, it felt as if I were on a floor, not the underside of a ship.

For a moment, the view took my breath away. The cycling cluster of satellites stood out jarringly for all its alienness. The flashing, speeding shapes of the starfighters ripped about like electrons around an atom. Smaller red beams gave pursuit, a dizzying display of constant kinetic motion that made my head swim.

Zaen’s fighter twisted its crescent shape between two oblong satellites, causing the torpedo chasing it to impact one of them instead. He immediately fired his weapons again, scoring a long melted line along the central most sphere.

I tore my eyes away from the display. I had a job to do. Not far from my location, I spotted the strange torpedo. It looked sort of like the top half of a seashell, with colored lights coming on and off in a syncopated rhythm. When I drew near, I realized it was smaller than a football.

“I have eyes on the device,” I said over comms. “Awful small to be causing so much trouble.”

“Can you disable it?”

“I don’t know.” I crouched down beside it, the lights reflecting off my faceplate. “I don’t see anything that remotely resembles an access port. I’m not sure how to break the circuit.”

“I thought you were a scientist?”

“I heard that, Rikov,” I said with a bit of acid in my tone. “And I’m not that kind of scientist.”

“Sylvia, let me tell you something!” I’d recognize Dr. Treigho’s voice anywhere. “The lights are a structural weakness. Use your gauntlet to shatter the plating and stick an insulated coil spanner into the hole!”

“All right.” I cracked with my gauntlet several times until the plating cracked. Carefully I picked it out, watching as it tumbled into the cosmos. Then I opened the tool pod and extracted the coil spanner.

“Here goes nothing.”

I jammed it into place and the lights sped up.

“It didn’t do anything,” I said with a sigh. I tried grabbing the device and tried to remove it physically, but the magnetic field was too intense. “I can’t get it off, either.”

“Try using the photon emitter on your gauntlet,” Datgouy said. “We’re running out of time. If we hadn’t switched to analog protocols, those things would’ve already taken over the ship.”

“All right. Here goes nothing.”

I pointed my wrist at the device, then squeezed the trigger stud inside my gauntlet. A beam of pure white light lanced out and struck the device. The lights went crazy, different colors, speeds, and levels of brightness. Then it went dark, detaching instantly as the magnetic field was canceled.

“That did the trick.”

“Excellent work, Sylvia. You’re not far from the next device, can you take care of it as well?”’

“I’m on my way.”

I clunked my way across the lower hull, allowing myself to be distracted by the space battle for a moment. One of the devices managed to catch a star fighter, causing it to go dark. A moment later, Zaen sped past, burning the device off with a precision laser blast.

The guy truly was magnificent. I’d seen some ace piloting in my time serving on board a Vaznik ship, and he’s one of the best I’ve ever seen.

I tore my eyes from the spectacular scene and focused them on the little device before me. I took aim and fired. This time the lights sped up even faster. I don’t know if it was because the device had sunk home into a different part of the Sunder, or if I did something wrong.

What I do know is it exploded. I yelped, throwing my arms up as chunks of debris hit my suit. I frantically searched for a hole in my environmental seals, and was grateful to find none.

However, it’d done some damage. My magnetic boots were no longer functioning. I drifted away from the hull.

If you serve on a Vaznik ship, you get some training time in a zero gravity environment. Just the way it is, and it’s a good idea. However, that was six months ago and it lasted all of twenty minutes. I gave in to panic, pinwheeling my arms and legs futilely before I remembered to use my maneuvering jets.

“Okay, two down, two to go.” I pulled myself along the hull, searching for the next satellite.

“Sylvia, it looks like your suit took some damage. Are you all right?”

“I’m fine for now. Just be ready to teleport me back to the bridge the second you have the power to spare.”

I fought down waves of terror. There isn’t a person who travels in space who doesn’t have a nightmare about being ‘spaced.’ The fact is, there’s no guarantee that they can find me if I drift too far away.

I found the final device and kept my distance when I turned the laser on it. No explosion the third time.

After disabling the last device, the ship’s systems came back on one by one. Suddenly, the dark hulk I floated next to lit up like a Christmas tree.

The world vanished in a gold flash, and then I was standing on the bridge. By the time they helped me out of the suit, Zaen had returned.

“You were amazing,” I said as he came to my side.

“So were you, from what I understand. What you did was very brave, Sylvia.”

I was happy to be alive, and really hopped up on adrenaline. So I guess I can be forgiven for grabbing his face and kissing him in front of the entire bridge crew.

So worth it.

ZAEN

When I returned to the Sunder after our dogfighting with the satellite array, I was shocked to find Sylvia was gone.

Worse, I found out why she was gone. Namely, on an untethered spacewalk so she could dislodge the strange ‘lamprey torpedoes’ the array stuck to the Sunder’s hull.

I almost collapsed in relief when she returned. Then, she kissed me on the bridge, something I knew I’d never hear the end of. Not that I was complaining.

“Captain,” Rikov said. “This is getting embarrassing.”

“Shut your mouth, Rikov,” Datgouy growled. “Or I’ll move the very stars themselves to make sure YOU get a match next.”

“You can’t do that…” Rikov swallowed hard. “He can’t do that, can he?”

Datgouy gave him a long look as if to say ‘yes I can do it, and yes I will if you mess with me.’ I sheepishly disengaged from Sylvia and turned to the captain.

“Captain, are there any more signs from the satellite array that it’s active?”

“No. Our scans seem to indicate it’s in an inert state at the moment. However, we’ll know more once the scans are complete.”

“Hey, the scanner suite on a starfighter is pretty top notch. What if I took a few loops around the array, this time without things shooting at me?” I glanced over at the captain. “I mean, it couldn’t hurt, right?”

“I have no objection.”

“I do,” Sylvia said. “You just got back and now you’re leaving again.”

Captain Datgouy got a shine in his eye.

“Zaen, why don’t you take her with you? Hostilities seem quite unlikely at this point.”

I turned to Sylvia, grinning ear to ear.

“Well? Would you like to come on a little reconnaissance flight with me?”

“It has to be more fun than crawling along the lower hull.” She laughed, eyes growing distant for a moment. “Actually, that was kind of fun, too, now that you mention it.”

We left the bridge and headed down to the hangar bay. I supposed it was a good thing I hadn’t doffed my flight suit as of yet.

“Say, how did you guys stop the array, anyway?”

“Oh, our combined fire eventually caused a short circuit in its self defense systems. Just in the nick of time, too, there were dozens of those red torpedoes flying around.”

Sylvia cocked an eyebrow, slowing her stride a bit.

“You’re assuming those were self defense systems. We don’t know that for sure.”

“They forcibly attached themselves to our hull, and then tried to take over the ship's systems.”

“Yes, they did that. I have to wonder what the purpose was, though? Was it really hostile?”

“What’re you getting at?” I was a bit puzzled, but I knew Sylvia didn’t speak idly. When she talked, I tried to listen because she was brilliant.

“I remember reading the mission report about when the away team met with the Rie. The initial communication attempt by the Rie was perceived as an attack, was it not? Yet, it was quite normal for their species to begin a conversation in such a manner.”

“Yeah, the spore cloud in the face thing. I’d forgotten all about that.” I nodded. “You might be right, Sylvia. Maybe the satellite array wasn’t trying to attack us at all.”

“I don’t know that it wasn’t for sure, either. It very well could’ve been a weapon, but I can’t help but feel that this species that made the Annulus, they don’t believe in weaponry.”

“Don’t believe in weaponry?”

“Not the way we do. Remember what I said about object permanence? They might not consider destroying something on our terms to be ‘victory’ at all.”

“Then what would they consider victory?”

“Something just as bad maybe, like assimilation.” She suppressed a shudder. “I remember reading a sci-fi story once about an alien race that tried to subjugate and integrate any and all life forms they came across. Those aliens thought they were the good guys, too.”

“Doesn’t everyone assume they are the heroes in their own story?”

We continued on, moving lower in the ship toward the hangar bay. I moved to the side to allow a fleet footed ensign to rush past.

“I mean, there’re likely Suhlik who think they’re the ones being oppressed because we keep breaking up their slave trade rings. From their point of view, we’re prohibiting them from engaging in their culture.”

We reached the hangar bay. I waved at the flight deck chief.

“No need to put mine away yet. I’m going back out.”

“Did the captain okay this?” He frowned, looking between me and Sylvia. “They’re sophisticated flying machines, not something to be taken out for a joyride.”

I gave him a look.

“Yeah, it was the captain’s idea to bring her along. We’re going to scan the array, it’s not like it’s actually a joyride.”

The flight chief harrumphed but he began the preparations for launch. I helped Sylvia into a flight suit, which is a good deal more comfortable than a full environmental suit…though that’s still a relative term.

The starfighter features a second seat for a navigator and weapons system officer, but it often remains empty except on long flights. I helped her seat herself and then secured her crash webbing before sitting down in the pilot’s seat.

“Everything is so stripped down,” she said, looking over the controls. “Just the basics.”

“They wanted more room to cram in extra weapons and power batteries. Besides, it has all the bells and whistles it needs.”

The hangar bay doors opened, and I hit the launch switch. We rocketed out of the hangar bay like a bolt of lightning. Inertial dampeners can only do so much and she squealed with delight at the sudden acceleration.

“Oh my god!” she yelped as I put us into a loop around the Sunder’s hull. “You big nut!”

“Are you scared?”

“No, I’m having a blast. I was kind of envious watching you fly around while I was stuck playing barnacle scraper in outer space.”

“Barnacle scraper?”

“A crustacean which adhered itself to the hulls of old Earth sea ships.”

We swept around the floating array, her eyes as big as the stars themselves. I found myself enjoying the flight a lot more than I normally would’ve, had I been alone. Seeing things through Sylvia’s eyes made it all a brand new, richer experience.

I orbited the array quite a few times, more than twenty or thirty, scanning the whole way. I’m not sure I picked up much more than the drones did, but Sylvia had the time of her life.

We came to a halt in the hangar bay, and she turned her gorgeous eyes my way.

“Thank you. That’s something I’ll never forget.”

Me, too, Sylvia. Me, too.

SYLVIA

We returned to the bridge to find out what, if anything, our scans in the starfighter had turned up. It was a bit strange walking after being on the starfighter. It felt as if my body moved much too slowly. I was used to the rapid acceleration and nimbleness of a starfighter.

Maybe I’ll come back in the next life as a starship.

“You seem keyed up,” Zaen said as we approached the bridge’s open doors.

“I am keyed up. I’ve flown in lots of different ships, both in an atmosphere and in outer space, but that was my first time on a starfighter. I’ve never felt anything so responsive.”

“Those aren’t even the top-of-the-line fighters any longer. They’re slowly being decommissioned as the new ones come out.”

“Well, you’ll have to take me for a spin in one of the new ones when they come out, won’t you?”

We reached the bridge and found that despite the crisis being over, there was still a flurry of activity. Dr. Bill’s mechanical body stood right in the way of the main holo monitor, one hand scratching his ‘chin’. He did things like that a lot to ‘blend in’ with the bigger sapient species. I guess life wasn’t easy as a golf ball sized mollusk piloting a human sized suit.

Then again, life wasn’t easy when Bill was in one of his moods. And he usually was.

“Did our scans turn up anything useful?” I asked him as I came to stand by his side.

“Hmm?” He looked my way, the little mollusk inside of the fish globe marred with a bored expression. “Oh, what’re you even doing here? There’s no culture here to decipher, just technology. My wheelhouse, as it were.”

I used to take things like that from Dr. Bill really badly. Then I realized he talks to everyone like that, including his supposed best friend, Dr. Treigho.

“Shows what you know,” Zaen countered, glaring at the doctor. “Sylvia, here, is the first one to figure out a major component of our mysterious alien species’ culture.”

“Yes, yes, I read her report. They don’t view death as we do. I fail to see how that helps us.”

He used a hand held device to turn over the holographic image of one of the ‘lamprey torpedoes’ so he could read the alien glyphs. Sylvia smiled and pointed at the holo image.

“Well, I don’t think you read all of my report, or you’d know that the symbol you’re trying so hard to decipher is a simple article. It’s like staring at the complete works of Shakespeare and spotting ‘the’ out of everything else.”

“I’m no xeno linguist,” he snapped, turning off the holo. “Perhaps I will do better work in my lab, where there are much less distractions.”

His mechanical legs went swik, swik, swik as he huffed himself off the bridge. I don’t think anyone was sad to see him go. I took over his position and turned the holo back on.

“This is just the torpedoes…I got a really good look at those already. As in, one of them blew up in my face.” I cycled through the scanned images, not seeing much interest. I flashed through a dozen different renderings before I spotted something that caught my eye.

I cycled back a few pics, zooming in on one of the oblong obelisks orbiting the main sphere of the array. I manipulated the object using the holo projector, twisting and turning it, zooming in further and further until I spotted what’d caught my attention.

“What’re you looking at?” Zaen asked, curious as to why I was staring so intently at such an apparently uninteresting picture.

“That.”

I put my finger inside the holo display, distorting it a bit and turning my fingers glowy.

He leaned forward and stared hard, but shook his head.

“I don’t see it.”

“Just a second. Watch this.”

I tapped on the comp pad, changing the holographic projector’s input to verbal.

“Computer, rotate image forty three degrees…not quite enough. Forty five degrees…fifty. Okay, increase magnification.”

It zoomed in on a rounded section of the satellite’s hull. I turned toward Zaen and grinned.

“Do you see it now?”

“I…” His brow furrowed in confusion, and he shook his horned head. “Sorry, it just looks like part of the satellite to me. Is that an exhaust port or something?”

“All right, let’s try this.” I created a holographic stylus, using it to highlight the portion of the hull in question. “Computer, disassemble all components on this image save for the highlighted one.”

A dissonant beep sounded.

Insufficient data to create an accurate model.

“It doesn’t need to be accurate,” I groaned. “Computer, extrapolate as best possible given the available data.”

The resulting model will only have a 69% chance of being accurate.

“That’s fine,” I said through gritted teeth. “Just execute the command.”

The satellite turned into a grid work as the computer analyzed its components and composition. Then, bit by bit—or perhaps I should say byte by byte—it took the image apart. As the bits flew away, revealing more and more of the component I’d highlighted, Zaen’s mouth flew open. His sudden gasp let me know he saw it, too.

“That…” he said, pointing at a disc shaped object with runic writing and glowing lights, “that looks just like the Annulus, only bigger.”

“Not just like the Annulus—the symbols are different, for one thing—but very close. Closer than any other bit of alien tech we’ve seen so far, including in the good doctor’s notes.”

Captain Datgouy, who’d listened intently, rose from his seat and walked up to regard the holo image more closely.

“I think it’s prudent that we bring this onto the ship and study it in person.”

“Oh my god, I’d love to be on the team that studies it.”

“Consider your request granted,” Captain Datgouy said, flashing me a wink. “Of course, we’ll have to tractor beam it into the cargo bay, then have a radiation team decontaminate it, and then—”

“Captain,” I said, wincing a bit. “Sorry to interrupt, but the Annulus is what slowly took over Dr. Garcia’s mind. If this thing is anything at all like it, we should proceed with extreme caution. I don’t think anyone should touch it with bare skin until we figure out how it works.”

“I’ll pass your guidelines along to the initial scan team.” Datgouy nodded firmly. “Good thinking, Sylvia.”

Zaen pursed his lips as he considered the glowing holographic image of the Annulus-type construct.

“What do you think this one does? Do you think it’s just as dangerous as the Annulus?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “It could be even more dangerous. But the real danger is engaging in too much speculation beforehand. The last thing I want is confirmation bias when I’m trying to puzzle this thing out.”

I stared at the holo image intensely.

You’ll surrender your secrets to me…or at least, I hope you will, and soon enough to save Dr. Garcia.

ZAEN

I gently pushed the control stick to the left, moving the starfighter a few feet closer to the oblong satellite. The chromatic pieces reflected a distorted, pinched image of the ship back at us.

“Careful, Zaen.” Sylvia’s voice sounded tinny inside of the starfighter cockpit. “The satellite might be inert, but there could be some power still contained inside the circuits.”

I nodded, my eyes not leaving the satellite.

“I’ve never done a salvage operation quite like this one.”

We were using a starfighter rather than a recovery shuttle and team for one simple reason—the torpedoes. The shuttle was too slow and clumsy to avoid them, but should the array activate again, Sylvia and I would be able to escape. At least, that was the theory.

I admit to some trepidation having her out there with me in a potentially dangerous spot. On the other hand, she could obviously take care of herself, and she had a much steadier hand at the salvage arm controls than I did.

Simple experience. As a soldier, I rarely worked on salvage operations, while Sylvia earned her way through college by working on a junk collector ship.

“Okay, can you get me just a little bit closer?” she asked.

I considered blowing on the control stick, but the system wasn’t quite that sensitive. I nudged it ever so slightly, and the starboard flange came within a hair’s breadth of touching the satellite.

“I think that’s as close as I can get.”

“Okay, that’s perfect.” Her eyes narrowed with concentration. Sweat beaded at her brow as she worked the tricky controls for the salvage armature.

A long, cylindrical beam extruded from the bottom of the starfighter’s hull. The flight deck lieutenant had swapped out our torpedo launcher for the armature, so I hoped there wouldn’t be any fights. Not only were we down an entire weapons system, but the bulky armature also made it difficult to fly the starfighter.

The white cylinder’s end opened up into three rugged claws. They adhered magnetically to the satellite to hold it in place. Two smaller arms extended, one glowing white hot with an arc welder at the end.

“Here’s the tricky part,” Sylvia breathed. “Cutting out the Annulus type artifact without damaging it, or seeing off any type of explosion on the satellite drone itself.”

I shared her trepidation. We couldn’t have shields up and activate the armature at the same time. Still, I wanted to be encouraging.

“You can do it, Sylvia. How do you humans say it? Oh, I remember. You’ve been got by this!”

She let go of the controls and let out a snorting laugh. Sylvia cast her eyes skyward and groaned.

“Oh my god…not only did you mess it up, you made it sound terrible. It’s ‘you got this,’ my dear, Zaen.”

“Hey, I’m a security specialist, not a linguist. Stew me.”

“It’s ‘sue me,’ and shut your adorable, annoying mouth. I’m trying to concentrate.”

I considered her words for a moment and then let a grin spread over my features.

“So, I have an adorable mouth, huh?”

“I also said it was annoying in the same breath.”

She grinned, taking the sting out of her words as she manipulated the armature. Working in space has its own issues to deal with. Since there’s no atmosphere, and no wind, the cloud of debris raised by the act of cutting through metal tends to linger. It soon grows hard for her to see what she’s doing.

“Darn it. I wish I could just wave my freaking arm and make it blow away,” she griped.

“Maybe I can help.”

I tapped keys on my console, setting up a micro thruster sequence. One of the maneuvering jets on the starboard side let out just a tiny puff of air, while another fired on the port side at the same time. We didn’t move, but the cloud of debris moved out of the way readily enough.

“Nice moves,” she said.

“I’m really good with a stick in my hands,” I said. Then I had to laugh. “That didn’t come out the way that I wanted it to.”

She chuckled, but we soon lapsed into silence. Sylvia blinked sweat out of her eyes, a look of supreme concentration etched indelibly on her features. She cut away a metal panel of the satellite, using the second smaller arm to grasp it with a claw. She moved the piece out of the way, releasing it to float into the salvage net.

We intended to waste nothing. Even a seemingly minor piece of the satellite might give us some clue as to how to save the good doctor from the Annulus’ grasp. Besides, it’s kind of a mean thing to do, leaving debris in space. You never know who might run into it at the wrong moment and rupture their hull.

With surgical precision, Sylvia carved up the satellite while I watched. As every new piece lifted away from the whole, I got a better and better look at the proto-Annulus. The symbols were different, now that I got a closer look. It also had a slightly different tinge to the metal, slightly olive green.

“I wonder why this one is a different color.” I timed my musing to coincide with Sylvia’s momentary break, as she moved the scrap metal into the cargo net.

“Who knows? It could be a side effect of long term deep space exposure, or maybe some kind of coating. We’ll know a lot more when we get it into the lab. I know Dr. Bill is going crazy with anticipation.”

“He’s not the only one. I’ve…that is, we’ve chased this mystery all over the quadrant. I’m eager to see the end of it.”

“Me, too. Not to mention poor Dr. Garcia.” She went back to her cutting, revealing the rest of the Annulus-type device. “Okay, now I have to uncouple it. You might want to polarize the hull in case there’s an electrical discharge.”

“Good idea.” I punched in the command, and the HUD flashed a message that I’d been successful in polarizing the hull. Sylvia used the small claw hand to grip the Annulus-type device, and then eased back on the stick. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the device sprang loose. The vibrations traveled through the armature into the ship’s cockpit, making it less eerily silent than the previous motions had been.

We hauled the device back to the Sunder. Once we got inside the hangar bay, we remained in the cockpit while a team in full environmental gear retrieved the Annulus. They put it inside of a Faraday cage and rolled it away. Only then did Sylvia and I expose ourselves to the hangar bay air.

“That was intense,” she said, stretching, a big smile on her face. “But we did it.”

“You did it, you mean. I was just the chauffeur.” I arched my brows at her. “Hey, would you like to go for a walk? Stretch our legs after all that time floating in a tin can?”

“That sounds lovely.”

It sounded lovely, but it was anything but. The Sunder is a cruiser, smaller than the Honor’s Blade and without its many amenities. Worse, Captain Datgouy had the crew on high alert. Even those not on direct duty assignments rushed about on drills and other duties to keep the cruiser ship shape, unless they were on a rest cycle.

The chaotic, jumbled feeling proved oppressive. I was beginning to regret my decision when Sylvia looked at me and abruptly asked—

“Hey, you want to just hang out in my quarters for a bit?”

I smiled, and nodded emphatically. Would I ever.

SYLVIA

THIS IS THE LONGEST WALK EVER.

The need to be with Zaen was too much to fight. It took all my strength not to try and melt into him right then and there.

I just needed to be alone with him. Feel safe with him. Know that he was safe.

That I hadn’t almost lost him.

I’ll never know if it was post-adrenaline, regret, fear, or passion. Maybe all of that. Maybe more than that.

Whatever it was, it shook me to my core and would not leave me.

“Sylvia, what has gotten into you? I can barely keep up.”

Almost there.

I didn’t say anything. Just reached for his hand and walked as fast as I could without running over anyone.

I smacked the door sensor and walked through with just enough room to squeeze through, pulling Zaen in my wake, making him smack his shoulder on the way in.

“Ouch! Sylvia. What the hell?”

I was out of breath, but we were safe. Alone and safe.

Then the shaking started.

“Sylvia, what’s gotten into you?”

I almost lost you. I didn’t even know I wanted this, and I almost lost you.

My mind screamed with fear and relief and regret.

Zaen closed the gap in a breath, pulling me to him and holding me close. That’s when the dam broke and the tears poured out.

“Sylvia, my sweet, strong, Sylvia. Whatever it is, we can fix it and it’ll be okay.”

Zaen rocked me gently. One hand rubbed the back of my head and the other my back. Neither let me pull away.

In between sobs and hiccups, I let myself be with him. I inhaled his scent and a wall came down. I let my body relax into his and another wall tumbled. I turned my cheek into his hand and relished his thumb on my lips and surrendered.

I’d never felt safe. Never felt like I belonged. I’d never let myself think about letting down my guard.

And I’d almost cheated myself out of the very thing I’d told myself didn’t exist, and so, couldn’t happen to me.

I didn’t have words to explain or the will to fight it anymore.

And he just … held me.

I let go. I let it all go. I gave into the knowing of it, the feeling of peace and understanding and deep, abiding connection.

My tears had me seeing sparkles, weaving delicate, golden threads around us and I felt joy and the overwhelming sense that I was home.

I wiped my eyes and looked into his. His expression, a combination of confusion, concern and patience.

“Sylvia, I.”

“Shhhh, no words. Just be… with me.”

I slid my mouth to his and kissed him.

Zaen kissed me back so gently, it stole my breath.

I opened my mouth and the tip of his tongue caressed the inner rim of my lips before his mouth sealed over mine. He held my face in his hands, thumbs stroking my jawline, finding the sensitive spot between my jaw and my ear.

Zaen

I don’t know if I sighed his name out loud or if it was just in my head.

He traced the line from my lips to my neck with his lips and breath.

I tilted my head for more and he let his mouth trace my neck to my collarbone.

“Sylvia.”

I wound my hands behind his head.

“Zaen… Don’t stop…. I can’t… I need.”

His ragged breath sounded like a feral animal.

“Sylvia. I need to know… before I … do you really want this?”

His voice was trembling. Was he afraid or just holding back?

Both. We’re both.

“I want this. I want you, Zaen. I want all of this.”

I felt the last veil of control leave him, and I basked in the thrall of his surrender. Of our mutual abandonment.

What’d been calm and gentle turned into a storm of desire and urgency.

We kissed deeper, harder. Our hands feverishly stripped the other and ourselves at the same time.

We were consumed with unrelenting, powerful need that clawed our sensibilities, shattered all reason, and laid to waste all but the basest of desire.

We were naked on my bed. His skin against me. The weight of his body pressing mine into the mattress and crushing me in the most satisfying of ways.

I wrapped my legs around his waist, trying to pull him into me. Into the heat that threatened to annihilate me.

He wouldn’t be moved.

He ravaged my neck. Trailed his mouth to my breasts, tasting and suckling each nipple, nipping at the undersides.

I moaned and was rewarded with his hand cupping the juncture of my thighs.

I writhed in response.

His fingers stroked open my folds and his thumb circled my clit.

I bucked like a madwoman, but he held me still and kissed me, inhaling my screams.

His hand moved deliberately, slowly, in tempo. The pressure of his palm contradicting the gentle assault of his fingers and the lazy circles of his thumb.

Steady. Pressure. Circles. Stroke.

My body pressing out little gushes of nectar over his hand.

Steady. Pressure. Circles. Stroke.

I don’t think I was breathing anymore.

Steady. Pressure. Circles. Stroke. Tease. Slip.

Steady. Pressure. Circles. Stroke. Tease. Slip. Deeper.

Steady. Pressure. Circles. Stroke. Tease. Slip. Deeper. Faster.

Lick.

Steady. Pressure. Circles. Stroke. Thrust. Lick. Suck.

Circles. Lick. Suck.

Lick. Circles. Thrust. Deeper.

Deeper.

Circles.

Lick. Circles. Lick. Circles.

Thrust. Thrust. Suck. Circles.

Lick! Circles! Lick! Lick! Lick!

Ciiiiiiiii rrrrccclllle!

My body splintered into oblivion leaving my naked soul ablaze.

No sound, no touch. Just light and … release.

And Zaen.

ZAEN

ARM. HURTS. MUST. WAKE. UP.

I tried to move my arm, but it was pinned under something. Whatever it was cut off my circulation. It felt like a million icy razors under my skin.

I pulled my arm a bit harder and heard a soft murmur. Then something soft and good-smelling settled against my body.

The combination of peace and wholeness added to an instant hard-on wasn’t what I expected.

“Just a few more minutes, Zaen? Please?”

Last night’s activities hit me like a Wantanian battle tank.

It wasn’t a figment of my imagination after all.

The biggest shit-eating grin spread on my face.

My arm could wait while I relived last night’s sensuous memories.

Flashes of sensation and thrill. The sound of her little moans when I carried her over the edge over and over again.

The raw, fierce hunger.

She threw a leg over my hip and pulled her body closer to me. I went from rock-hard to steel rod.

“Sylvia.”

“Mmmmmm hrremmmmm. ‘Snot five minutes yet.”

“Sylvia. It’s time to wake up, beautiful.”

“I don’t wanna.”

Her resistance warmed my heart. I wondered if it’s what every morning would look like.

I inhaled deeply and opened my eyes.

Her head was the weight holding down my arm. I tried to slide backwards and pull it out without waking her up, but it was no use.

My arm didn’t obey and she wouldn’t move.

If you can’t beat them, join them.

I pulled her closer to me and leaned in to nibble on her neck, on that place just below her ear. The satisfaction I got from the sound she made was too much to deny.

“Mmmmm. Zaen.”

“I can do this for five more minutes if you like.”

“What time is it?”

“The time is oh seven hundred forty two and fifty three seconds,” the cabin’s computer responded.

Sylva shot up.

“What the hell? How’d that happen?”

Now that my circulation was back my arm was on fire.

Sylvia was out of bed, dashing around the tiny room, gathering things and muttering to herself. All I could do was sit up and try to rub out the pain.

“Zaen. Why’re you just sitting there? We’re both going to be late. Here, eat this.”

She tossed me something from the replicator. My barely-alive arm missed it and it landed on the floor. We both stared at the food. Her, in confusion. Me, with anger.

“I blame the food. Totally the food’s fault.”

I didn’t know how to answer that. I glared at the damn thing, trying to massage life into my arm.

“Would you look at that?” Sylvia’s voice had gone all soft and wondery, tinged with fear.

“I’m looking at it. I, too, blame the food.”

Sylvia turned my chin to look at what she saw on the holoscreen. We’d arrived and the ship broadcasted the visuals of our destination.

“Zaen?”

“Yes?”

“Do you see what I see?”

“If you see that everything in this sector is decayed and rotting, yes I do.”

“Maybe we should go find our team. Now.”

“I think you’re right.”

“I still blame the burrito.”

“Me, too.”

We found our team on the landing bay looking out the shuttle bay doors. They all wore the same haunted expression.

“I guess we all agree this is creepy as fuck.”

The holoscreen was accurate, but seeing it in person was chilling.

The entire sector was, for lack of a better word, decayed. The local star barely emitted light or heat, and the various masses surrounding it sat inert and gray. The cosmic dust had settled in odd formations resembling cobwebs.

“I’ve never seen radioactive decay like this.”

“Right? It’s so…uniform. But, that’s impossible. No two elements have the same half-life.”

Dr. Garcia brought us here to die.

The thought raced through me unchecked, filling me with dread.

Sylvia reached for my hand and I took it in mine.

You’ll fail, Annulus. I just found my mate and I’ll be damned if I allow you to steal that from us.

“Did you see that?” Sylvia squinted into the distance.

“See what?”

“Dr. Bill, how long have we been scanning?”

“Since we dropped out of light speed, of course. We haven’t picked up on any significant radioactivity, infrared, or communication signals.”

“This isn’t my wheelhouse, but I’m pretty sure there should be, right?”

Dr. Bill looked like he was about to say something his suit might regret.

“There it is again.”

Dr. Bill was about to lose his composure. I couldn’t tell if he was angry at Sylvia testing his patience, or at himself for not seeing what she did.

“There is what again?”

“There’s a pattern.”

“Well, of course there’s a pattern. Weight, velocity and trajectory would create a pattern. It’s not a new development.”

“Dr. Bill, have you ever seen Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind? It’s an old time movie from Earth.”

“Listen, young lady, I’ve half a mind to… Wait! Do you think it’s the ?”

“I think there might be. Can we even do that?”

Dr. Bill frantically typed into his data slate, Sylvia watching over his shoulder. The rest of us waited for the punchline.

“By golly, I think she’s got it. Well done, Sylvia.”

“Thank you, Dr. Bill.”

I don’t know what shocked everyone more, that Dr. Bill had complimented someone, or that Sylvia had figured out something that no one else did. Everyone held their breath, not sure what to do.

Dr. Bill projected their discovery for the team to see.

“Significant, in scientific terms, for those present who don’t grasp the nuance, measures the quantity of a condition and its duration. The two factors then allow us to calculate and posit the probabilities of things surrounding the occurrence.”

Dr. Bill ‘smiled’ at Sylvia.

“Sylvia isn’t a scientist, per se, and wasn’t looking for information in the same way. She was looking for patterns.”

Dr. Bill flung a projection from the data slate into the air.

“And she found one.”

Every few seconds, a tiny speck in the holo would light up. After about twenty flares, it repeated, just a few degrees over from the original point of light.

“So, there’s a pattern. You had said there should be one. How does this change anything?”

Dr. Bill had eagerly waited for someone to volunteer for dummy duty.

“I said patterns are created by velocity and trajectory. These lights aren’t moving in any direction. As a matter of fact, we’ve been the only thing moving in this sector."

"That’s also impossible, isn’t it?”

“Not if the pattern was set deliberately.”

“Are you saying?”

“Zaen, the sector we’re currently exploring, looks this way by design. Someone or something, positioned every fleck of matter in its specific place for a specific purpose.”

There’s no possible way. Nothing in the known universe could do that.

“Are you two sure? How can that even be?”

“We know the Annulus is biomechanical. Why wouldn’t its home be, too?”

It’s biomechanical.

It knows we’re here.

“Computer. Open channel to the bridge!”

“Channel to bridge, open.”

“Captain. We have to stop the ship! If we touch anything, we may trigger an attack.”

“Officer, did you just give me an order?”

“Sir, you can court martial me later. Just do it!”

SYLVIA

My mind raced into crazy town.

We were in the midst of a galaxy that shouldn’t exist the way it did. It was a living, breathing circuit of some kind.

Dr. Bill’s current working theory was that it was some type of cyborg-ish organism that’d lost control of its ability to either regulate or self-contain the energy it produced and needed. In a last-ditch attempt to preserve itself, it’d gone into semi-stasis mode, allowing just enough fusion to occur at specific points in a deliberate sequence to keep it alive?

Alive? Is that even the word?

Is ‘it’ an ‘it’ or a ‘they’?

I knew enough about physics and natural sciences to know whatever it/they was/were, it was something we’d never encountered before.

We knew it/they had to be intelligent. The precise configuration of the nuclear stasis made that plain.

Was it sentient? Powerful? Ancient?

Every answer led to more questions.

I turned on the holoprojector in my office and ran the nuclear sequence over and over. I watched them in infrared, ultraviolet, thermal, radio and microwave. The sequence never changed and the amount of energy expelled was always identical.

The amount of data and time necessary to accomplish that was baffling. It’d take every known computer on every known ship years just to calculate, and then a few more years to create the tools needed to position each bit of matter.

After hours of looking at the data, I needed a snack. This morning’s burrito just wasn’t going to be enough.

The lab on this ship was a lot more spartan than the Blade. Just a few replicators that could dole out the basic nerd food groups: caffeine, sugar and food that could be eaten with one hand.

I’d debated my choices and unintentionally listened to a couple fellas enjoying their break. As loud as they were, it couldn’t be avoided.

“The Gantt-Cudorp models don’t display the relationship in the right way. I think a Venn-Quemble diagram. That’s a better visual representation. Easier to see how lots of things overlap each other and so that none are mutually exclusive.”

“You know what’s mutually exclusive? Your brain and your analysis of how to present data to the board. They don’t care about the discovery, only the convergences and how we can leverage that.”

“That last part I can agree on. You’d think we’d get a share of the profits after all the work we’ve done piecing it together.”

“Or at least a raise.”

“Or better, food.”

“Hey lady. Don’t hope for anything good. It all tastes the same.”

I turned to look at the one who spoke to me.

“Are you talking to me?”

“Yeah. What other lady do you see here?”

His buddy snickered and my blood ran hot.

“Look, don’t get all pissy at me because you’re hangry or some shit. I’m just trying to help you manage your expectations, okay?” He picked up his drink and headed out. His friend turned to head out behind him.

“I know Buc is an ass, but he means well. Just bang the top right corner of the replicator a couple times while it’s processing. It’ll help it ground properly to the core so your food doesn’t look like one of our petri dishes.”

“Thanks.”

And Buc can suck it.

I picked a random food item, entered my selection and banged the replicator like I’d been told. The machine made a sparking sound and then finally connected and spat out my food.

That’s when it hit me. We were always looking at this from the wrong perspective.

This was no different.

How the fuck did we miss that? Again?

We had the most brilliant set of minds and talent working on this problem and we kept making the same mistake.

I have to tell Zaen!

ZAEN

The quiet hum of the engines kept me company as I worked on my official mission report. Those things were just the worst. For example, here is how I would’ve summarized the operation myself.

Me and Sylvia went out in a modified starfighter and salvaged an alien artifact which we don’t seem to understand in the slightest.

Simple, and to the point. But that’s not the way it works. The Vaznik fleet is nothing if not a paradigm of bureaucratic efficiency. Since my name is on the report, you’d think that’d be enough. No, every single time I referred to myself in the report, I had to give my full name, rank, and serial number.

Sylvia is a civilian contractor, so she has her own designation and serial number. But wait, she’s also my DNA match. So now it gets really complicated, and I have to designate her as that as well.

Plus, since we were on a deep space salvage operation, I had to list our proper designations. Since she was a civilian, it meant I had to refer to her as a ‘space flight participant/professional/inquirer.’ What that means is anyone’s guess. I certainly have no idea.

Factor in that I also had to reference and cross reference my previous combat engagement report with the salvage operation report, and all previous mission reports pertaining to Dr. Garcia, and it was an all-day job.

It took longer to make the report on the operation than it did to actually do the operation. Under the circumstances, it should perhaps come as no surprise that I was beyond grateful when Sylvia showed up at my door.

“Hey,” she said, her eyes looking tired but also wired with energy. Her whole body shook. Judging by the manic smile on her face, it wasn’t something bad.

“Hey yourself.” I felt warmth blossom throughout my body, just to have her near, to hear her voice again. “I’m surprised to find you're still awake at this late hour.”

“I’ve been too excited to even think about sleep, with the work we’re doing on the artifact.”

She practically bounced from one foot to the other. I smiled at her enthusiasm, sharing it myself.

“And judging from your boisterous attitude, you’ve discovered something important.”

Sylvia’s answering chuckle was one part mirth, one part pride.

“Oh, you could say that. The reason we haven’t been able to get a bead on it so far is that we’ve been assuming it’s some kind of computer, or database, or component to a greater whole. It turns out that it’s none of those things.”

“Then what is it?” I leaned forward a bit, eager to hear the next part. Then an awful thought chilled me to the bone, one that wiped the smile from my face as surely as the wind wipes footprints from the sand.

“It’s…it’s not a weapon, is it?”

She put her hands on her hips and gave me a glare.

“What? Why are you giving me the sting eye, Sylvia?”

“Okay, first of all, it’s ‘stink eye,’ not sting eye.” She laughed softly, and stepped more fully into my quarters. “Second of all, do you think I’d be this excited about a weapon?”

“No, of course not.” I laughed. “I should’ve known better than to ask.”

“Yes, you should have.”

She plopped herself down on my bunk, bouncing with excitement. Sylvia stared at me with a big, silly grin on her face. But she didn’t say anything.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” she said with a laugh. “Okay, okay, I’ll let you off the hook. First of all, though, do you remember our conversation the other day about the alien language?”

“Yes, I do.” I always remembered what she said. I loved everything that tumbled out of Sylvia’s mouth, especially when she was this enthusiastic.

“You remember what I said about the way that the alien species views object permanence?”

I nodded, scratching the base of my horn.

“I think so, yes. They don’t see life as a state of being, but rather as a pattern, right?”

“Yes, exactly.” She smacked her fist into her hand. “That’s why we’ve been having so much trouble identifying what this giant Annulus does. It’s a different animal entirely. Inside, we found a ton of information.”

She extracted a compad from her lab coat pocket and turned on the holo display. A sequence of floating chemical compounds cycled past as she scrolled through the different pictures she had saved.

I’m no scientist, but I recognized a few of the symbols, as well as the general helix pattern.

“Is this…is this a DNA sequence?”

“Cute and smart,” she said, winking at me. “You got it right on the first try.”

“What kind of DNA is it?” My mouth went slack. “Is it the unknown species?”

“That’s our theory. The DNA sequence was only a small part of it, believe it or not. There were other things recorded as well, things we’re still trying to fully translate and understand.”

“What kinds of things?”

Her eyes shone with an intense, almost feverish light.

“The kinds of things that let you turn a programmable matter engine into a Lazarus Pit.”

“La La Pit?” I frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Sorry. Lazarus is a legend from Earth, about a man who was brought back to life by a magical well. Don’t you get it? This device, this giant Annulus we dragged out of that satellite, it’s the unknown alien species’ version of a stasis pod.”

“Stasis pod? There's an alien inside of it? A living creature?”

“Yes and no. There’s all the information and the knowledge you need to recreate one. I think it’s been in stasis, so to speak, for over fifteen thousand years before Dr. Garcia found the Annulus.”

I run a hand down my face. As I said, I’m no scientist, and it all sounded quite overwhelming. And surreal.

“Wait, this sounds a lot like you’re building a clone. From what I know of cloning, the resulting life form has none of the memories of its genetic donor.”

“It’s not a clone, exactly. And the memories are also stored, in digital form, waiting to be downloaded into the alien’s brain…once we create it, of course.”

I stroked my fingers over my mouth, struggling to wrap my head around it all.

“Wait, so if the Annulus is a similar device, then…does that mean we’ve been chasing a sentient being all along?”

“I think it does,” Sylvia said with a grim nod. “We assumed the device had hijacked Dr. Garcia’s brain and body somehow, but we thought it was purely technological. If there’s another living consciousness inside of her now, that’d explain some of her more erratic behavior and nonsensical statements in her notes.”

“This is incredible, Sylvia. This changes everything.”

“I know. That’s why I came to tell you.”

It seemed too strange to believe. A living being contained entirely as a sequence of coding. I supposed from the alien’s point of view, however, their pattern was preserved, therefore they lived still.

It only made my resolve to find the good doctor all the stronger.

SYLVIA

Zaen finished his reports at last, turning to me with a smile that set my heart fluttering.

“Want to go and get something to eat—”

No sooner had the last word left his mouth than the ship’s hail system screeched to life.

Zaen, Sylvia, report to the bridge.

“I guess we’ll have to wait on dinner,” he said with a sigh.

I was too excited to think about eating. If we were being called to the bridge, then it most likely meant we’d found the shuttle.

When we reached the bridge, Datgouy barely glanced in our direction before he gestured at the main viewing port.

“We’ve found the good doctor’s shuttle.”

I peered through the faux glass, my mouth gaping in astonishment at what I saw.

“Is that a planet?”

“It is, indeed, the fourth planet of this solar system to be exact. But that’s not where the shuttle is.”

He brought up the main holoprojector in the center of the bridge. An image of the Sunder and the planet in small scale appeared. Datgouy used his control console to focus the image on the planet. It loomed larger in hologram form.

It appeared as a green and blue marble, typical of worlds with a heavy mix of water and land. Swirling clouds covered much of the sea in the northern hemisphere, obscuring a landmass.

“Why are the continents all split up like that? Like a bunch of islands with miniature seas in between?”

I stare at the scene and think back to my college classes. I’d had to take an outer space studies elective, and I’d gone with Celestial Impact Events 101.

“Oh my goodness,” I say, my hand going in front of my mouth. “I think I know what happened here. Those patterns suggest this planet was subject to a massive asteroid bombardment. All those seas were formed by impact craters.”

“If that’s true, then it must’ve happened a very long time ago,” Datgouy said. He turned to his operations officer. “Give me an estimate on when that may have happened.”

“Yes, captain.” His fingers tapped on the keyboard at his console. A few moments later, the computer spat out a floating holo display of data. “Looks like more than fifteen thousand years.”

“Almost the same age as the Annulus, and the stasis pod we discovered,” I murmur. “That can’t be a coincidence.”

I turned to Captain Datgouy, my brow furrowed with puzzlement.

“Excuse me, captain, but did you say Dr. Garcia’s shuttle isn’t on the planet?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Then where is it?”

He changed the holo display once again, zooming in on what I first took to be a small moon.

“Is that a space station?” I gape.

“It must be,” Zaen murmurs. “But it’s gigantic.”

The space station resembles two squat but wide multi terraced pyramids with their bottoms glued together. In a basin carved into both resides a smoothly rounded dome.

“The image is incomplete because the station is on the far side of the planet and we can’t get a good sensor lock,” Datgouy said. “However, we surmise that the dome in the center holds a green deck, possibly a source of life support and water filtration.”

“I don’t know of any known space station design that looks like that, do you?”

Zaen shook his horned head.

“No. We’ll know more when we reach visual range.”

“Captain.” The ops officer spins around in his chair, his mouth wide open with astonishment. “You’re not going to believe this.”

Captain Datgouy growled at him, eyes narrowing to mere slits.

“Why don’t you tell me, and I’ll judge for myself if I’m going to believe it or not?”

“Sorry, sir.” He spins back in his chair as if to confirm his findings. “I’m picking up signs of highly advanced metropolises on each of the continents below.”

“You mean…there are cities down there?” I stepped forward, frowning at the holo image of the planet. “Why didn’t you tell me there were intelligent life forms down there?”

“Because there aren’t any,” the ops officers said defensively. “The most advanced species down there is a form of land dwelling squid, and they haven’t even mastered tool use yet.”

“Then who built the cities?” I murmured.

“They must’ve survived the cataclysm,” Zaen offered.

“No, there’s no possible way. Some species might have survived and went on to evolve with time, but no structure would’ve been left standing on land. The shockwaves would’ve reduced them to rubble.”

“Then what’re you saying?” Datgouy frowned anxiously. “That someone came along and put up shiny new cities, then just left them empty?”

“I know it doesn’t make any sense. But that's all I can come up with.”

We get close enough to the planet to make out details through the viewing port. It was a lovely planet, actually. It felt very inviting, as if just waiting for people to tread upon its surface for the first time.

“We’re coming around to where the station is in geosynchronous orbit, sir.”

The space station took my breath away. The size of a small moon, its mass had created its own gravity field strong enough to attract a ring of material, like Saturn in the Sol system. It looked dark and foreboding, a wicked monolith waiting to gobble us up.

“Captain, I’m getting an energy build up from inside the station,” the operations officer said.

“Red alert,” Captain Datgouy snapped. “Shields up, and weapons systems hot.”

The bridge took on a greater sense of urgency. I looked on nervously, hoping they wouldn’t fire on the station. There was so much there just waiting to be discovered. Not to mention, they might hit the doctor by accident.

“I’m not reading any weapons systems,” the tactical officer said with a puzzled frown.

“Then what’s it powering up?”

“It looks like it’s opening up a hatch on the lower portion.”

I spotted it, then. A growing line of light on the lower tier of the second pyramid. Red lights moved out into the vastness of space.

“Are those fighters?” Zaen asked in alarm.

“I’m not reading any weapons systems…very rudimentary thrusters…” The ops officer shook his head. “I don’t think they’re dangerous.”

The red lights turned out to be floating metal orbs, each topped with a translucent cap through which the illumination emanated. They formed up in a wide double row, extending almost a mile away from the station.

“You know,” I said, mostly to myself. “That kind of looks like a runway.”

“A runway?” Datgouy frowned. “I think the automated systems were activated when the station detected a ship.”

His eyes narrowed and he stood up from his chair, staring out the view port.

“Keep the shields up for now. For all we know, it’s a trap.”

I felt an iron ball fall into the pit of my stomach. A trap? If it was a trap, it was a darn good one. I couldn’t see how anyone could dupe an entire station into doing their bidding.

But then again, Dr. Garcia wasn’t exactly human anymore.

Which was a chilling thought in and of itself.

ZAEN

“Captain,” the ops officer said. “The spaceport is large enough to accommodate the Sunder. Do you want to proceed inside?”

“It seems like they’re really rolling out the red floor tile for us,” Captain Datgouy said, grinning at Sylvia as if they’d shared a private joke. I saw amusement dance behind Sylvia’s lovely eyes, but she kept it hidden well from her face.

“I think you mean to say red carpet, captain,” Sylvia said with great respect. Only because I’ve come to know her so well, I could tell she tried hard not to laugh.

“Oh, carpet. Right, still something you walk on,” Captain Datgouy huffed, a little bit miffed she’d called him out on his misuse of the earth phrase. “At any rate, it looks inviting…a little too inviting.”

“It was easy to activate the space port,” Zaen said, nodding. “A little too easy.”

The time is now 2200 hours, the ship’s computer intoned, the usual time for a duty roster exchange.

“Yeah,” Rikov said, his lips parted in a grin. “A little too twenty too hundred hours, wouldn’t you say?”

I rolled my eyes, having picked up the gesture from Sylvia.

“You didn’t have to say that, you know,” I grumbled.

Captain Datgouy turned to me.

“While I don’t want to risk the entire ship inside of that space station, I do think it’s crucial we know what’s going on inside of there. Not to mention, we might be able to find and…assist Dr. Garcia.”

I understood his reservations. Both about risking the entire cruiser and about Dr. Garcia. Yes, we’d help her if we could. But the unspoken mission parameter made it clear that if she were a threat, she’d have to be dealt with as a threat.

I vowed then and there, it’d be my absolute last option. I’d exhaust every conceivable way to save the good doctor from the clutches of the Annulus.

“Sir, I can take a shuttle and investigate.”

He nodded as if that was what he had in mind all along.

“All right. Due to the admiral’s wife’s visions, Sylvia will escort you. Pick the rest of your team and depart as soon as possible. The sooner we know what’s going on inside of there, the sooner we can stand down from red alert.”

“Yes, captain.”

Sylvia and I headed off the bridge and toward the hangar bay. She practically brimmed with excitement, and I felt much the same. We were so close now. Dr. Garcia’s trail ended at that space station.

It felt like the end of a long quest. Only we had no idea what awaited us. It could be the inside of the station belied its seeming benign nature.

On the way to the hangar bay, I summoned the members of my team. Rikov, Taxan, Jakar, and Vrako.

When we reached the hangar bay, Taxan and Vrako were already present, donning their encounter suits. Vrako turned to me and grinned.

“I’m ready for some action, sir.”

He brandished his pulse rifle, and I cocked an eyebrow.

“Most likely you won’t need that. From all appearances, the station is devoid of human life.”

I didn’t mention we were unable to scan for Dr. Garcia given the strange interference given off by the Annulus.

“So you’re saying don’t bring it?”

I gaped in horror.

“I’m not suggesting any such thing! Of course, we’ll bring weapons, we’re Vaznik warriors.”

The relief on Vrako’s face proved profound.

I turned to help Sylvia don her encounter suit, only to find she was already snapping the last fastenings into place all on her own. She pushed a button and then grimaced as air hissed out from various apertures, pressurizing her suit and clamping it down tight onto her body.

I forgot she served on a vessel, and therefore, had mandatory training on those sorts of matters.

Soon the rest of the team arrived. We geared up and boarded one of the cigar shaped shuttles. I wanted the ion cannon just in case.

The hangar bay doors slid open and Jakar piloted us out into space. There was a crackle of electricity as we passed through the atmospheric shielding. His fingers danced over the controls as the shuttle traveled in a lazy arc, heading for the station.

“Look, Jakar,” Rikov said. “They’ve made it extra easy for you to land.”

Jakar gripped the stick all the more tightly, seemingly bereft of his usual levity.

“That’s what’s got me worried. I hope those little drones with the lights on them don’t suddenly turn into magnetic mines or something.”

Rikov looked anxiously out the porthole, and he grew quiet. As we drew nearer the space station, its sheer immensity impressed upon me. The pyramids, upper and lower from our point of view, each had about seven terraces. The largest terrace was over a mile wide in and of itself.

The crack of light in the side resolved itself into an open space hangar bay. An aperture with interlocking doors slung open beckoned. The lights led a path right up inside of it.

“Everyone strap in,” I commanded. “Just in case we have to take evasive maneuvers.”

“There’s no sign of any weapons,” Rikov said with a frown.

“Yes, but this is alien tech,” Sylvia said. The overhead lights reflected off her clear faceplate. “The scanners are set up to look for weapons systems the way the galaxy at large thinks of them. What if the people who built this have a completely different idea of what makes a weapon?”

Rikov nodded, and strapped himself in extra tight. The shuttle slipped in under the ‘shelf’ of the middling sized terrace, blocking the light of the sun and putting us into shadow. The lights on the encounter suits and the console were our only source of light until we drifted directly under the wide open bay doors.

“All right. Taking us up into the belly of the beast.”

Jakar punched keys on the console, and the shuttle drifted upward until we were in a well lit open space dock. Long ‘piers’ of dark burnished metal thrust out into the vast emptiness of the cargo. I tried to picture what it might look like with a lot of ships, and reasoned it could hold hundreds, maybe even close to a thousand ships the size of the Sunder.

“Who made this place?” Jakar said, as if echoing my own thoughts.

“I think I know who,” Sylvia muttered under her breath. I nodded in response, my jaw set hard. The same race which had created the Annulus and the stasis pod.

“Zaen,” Jakar said, tapping on the console. “It looks like the piers are hollow inside, and have an atmosphere, gravity…we won’t even need the suits on the station.”

“Let’s keep them on, all the same. But if the air turns out to be safe, we can keep our cowls open to preserve on board air supply.”

I turned to Sylvia, who unbuckled her crash webbing with an eagerness. She sprang to her feet, nimble and energetic as a yearling.

“Are you ready to set foot where no one has for fifteen thousand years?” I ask.

“Are you kidding?” Sylvia grinned ear to ear. “I was born ready for this.”

I laughed; her good mood was infectious. She was born ready for it?

Far be it from me to argue.

SYLVIA

My heart thundered inside of me, pushing my blood through my ears with a steady, heavy tattoo. I was glad for the encounter suit because nobody could tell how much I was sweating right then.

I’ve never done anything quite this crazy before.

Even with all of our combined efforts, and all of the time I’d spent studying them, we still didn’t understand much about the alien culture.

For all we knew, they were fond of sadistic practical jokes, and the atmosphere and warm welcome was all to lure us into a false sense of security until it was too late to escape.

I should’ve felt safe, surrounded by all those hulking alien warriors. Zaen took point. He turned around in front of the closed hatch door.

“All right, this is primarily a recon and potentially a rescue mission. It’s not a mission where we expect to engage enemy forces or hostiles. Keep your safeties on and think very hard before you shoot.”

He turned halfway around, then his brow furrowed. Zaen spun back to face us, his jaw set hard.

“One more thing. Trust nothing. Even if this technology isn’t overtly hostile, it’s still something we don’t understand. Don’t assume you know what something does before you start messing with it. Clear?”

“Yes, sir,” the Vaznik barked back loudly. I flinched.

“All right. We’re splitting into teams to cover more ground quickly. Rikov and Taxan, you’re team one. Jakar and Vrako, you’re team two. Sylvia and I will be team three. Everybody check in on comms at twenty minute intervals.”

He waited a moment, I assumed to see if anyone had any questions, then nodded firmly.

“All right. It’s go time.”

He opened the exit panel and we stepped into the shuttle’s vacuum sealed gangplank. It felt weird walking through a tunnel of flexible polymers, knowing that was all there was between me and the dangers of open space.

“How do we get this door open—” Zaen started to ask. A round door wound itself open, similar to the way the muscles of the iris move when the eye focuses.

“I guess that answers that.”

My voice sounded flat in the air. Everyone was worried. It’d all been very easy, very welcoming so far.

That only made us all the more suspicious.

We entered a hallway the color of dark burnished copper. The floor was jet black, a runner separating floor from wall about knee height. The ceiling arched overhead, almost to a point. Periodically, a star shaped crystal dangled from the ceiling, providing an illumination which, while bright, didn’t seem to add any color to anything.

The scene had a lushness to it, the colors popping more intensely than normal. I led the way until we reached the end of the dock.

We were faced with a triumvirate of paths. The station terrace we were in stretched to the left and to the right roughly a quarter mile. A spiral staircase with strangely flat steps and no safety railing extended upward, seemingly carved from one great cylinder of metal. About fifty feet up it disappeared into a hole in the ceiling. Presumably, to connect with another level.

“What do you make of that?”

Zaen pointed at a series of small holes about waist height running along the hallway. They were interspersed about every twenty feet or so and appeared to have no overt function.

“I don't know,” I said, shrugging. “Maybe a ventilation system of some sort?”

“Maybe.” His eyes narrowed. “But if those holes are for ventilation, then what’re those grates for?”

He pointed up at the ceiling, and I spotted what he referred to. A line of dark green ran along the apex of the ceiling, spaced carefully to not interfere with the cables holding the illuminating globes aloft.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. He turned to Rikov. “Send a class one probe down the hole and see what we come up with.”

“Yes, sir.”

Rikov took off his backpack and set it on the deck plating. He unleashed the drone, a winged contraption not much larger than my hand. Small enough to fit through the melon sized holes, to be sure.

The probe hummed to life, levitating into the air. It disappeared into the hole, and Rikov watched the telemetry it sent back on a console strapped to his wrist.

“Looks like it’s smooth and uniform. No signs of anything like sewage…wait, something’s coming!”

A sound of wrenching metal echoed from inside of the hole causing us all to leap backward. Guns came out and powered up. The Vaznik fanned out to present more targets to whatever hostile was about to come out of the hole.

“Don’t be the first to attack,” Zaen snapped. “I mean it. Exercise extreme trigger discipline. For all we know, this is a first contact situation.”

The shattered remains of the probe scraped out of the hole, pushed from within by a spheroid which neatly fit inside of the aperture. It rose into the air, followed by the barrels of five rifles.

“What is it?”

“It looks like one of the drones that made the lighted runway for us, only a little smaller,” I said.

The sphere extruded a small cylinder from its center mass. A puff of white steam hissed out, and the drone floated away on a mechanically precise spiral pattern.

“What’s it doing?” Zaen asked.

“I think it’s cleaning the wall,” I said cautiously. “In fact, that’s exactly what it’s doing.”

“Hey,” Rikov snapped. “Dumb drone! I’m talking to you!”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Taxan snapped. “You have to speak its language. Like, Droid, enter maintenance mode.”

Taxan waited, but the drone didn’t seem to hear him.

“Why won’t it answer?” He wondered aloud.

“Most likely, it’s not designed to interface with living beings. It's just programmed to do its job.”

“It avoided me earlier.”

“That’s true, but it’s probably programmed to move around any obstacle to its function. I think it’s not anything more than what we think of as virtual intelligence. Not really sentient, just smart enough to do its job independently and that’s it.”

We split up and go our different ways. Zaen and I head up the staircase, moving carefully so we don’t plunge off the side.

“You know,” I said when we’re halfway to the top. “I don’t think this is a staircase. I think it’s a gear of some sort.”

“If it’s a gear, what does it turn against?”

I pointed upward.

“Probably something up inside of there. I think maybe we shouldn’t go up there after all.”

We headed back down, noting an apparatus on the base of the ‘staircase’ appearing to be designed to rotate it.

“Looks like your instincts were sound.” He nodded with appreciation. “I guess we’ll go left.”

We explored the vast hallways, finding the station branched off into one of the space ports on each of its four sides. None of them appeared to be occupied.

Then, we came upon something familiar at last. One of the alien teleportation pads.

“Oh, man,” I sighed. “Why do I get the feeling Dr. Garcia went through this thing?”

Zaen’s eyes narrowed.

“Do you think you can make it work?”

“I don’t know. Not my area of expertise.” I checked around the housing, and nodded. “You know, I think it’d be pretty easy to uncouple this and bring it to the Sunder.”

Zaen grinned and got on his comms.

“Away team, converge on my location. Looks like we’ve got some engineering to do.”

ZAEN

Dr. Bill, Dr. Treigho, and Sylvia swarmed all over the alien teleportation pad. I’m no science tech, so much of their techno-babble was lost on me.

I do know they puzzled out its function bit by bit. Treigho’s massive back shone with sweat as he fussed with the quantum circuit, hiding most of the platform itself. Dr. Bill and Sylvia stood off to the side, studying a holographic display of the teleportation pad in a disassembled state.

“No, no, no,” Dr. Bill said, his mollusk spinning around inside of the glass dome atop his mechanical suit. “There’s no way a sane sapient being would use a fractal extrapolation matrix as a form of computer language. It’s entirely too complicated.”

“From our point of view.” Sylvia shook her head, brow furrowed with thought. I picked up traces of frustration in her tone. I thought she had the patience of a rock to deal with Dr. Bill at all.

“Let me tell you something, Dr. Bill,” Dr. Treigho shouted at top volume, as was typical for his species. “You need to listen to Sylvia. She’s on the right track. I’m elbow deep in the guts of this thing and her observations have been spot on so far. So take a chill pill before I have to give you a galaxy class attitude adjustment.”

“Remind me why you don’t compete in the All Fleet games again?” Dr. Bill mumbled in an attempt to regain some of his lost dignity.

“Because the second I signed up, all of the other wrestlers would quit because they knew they’d never beat me.”

I clapped a hand over my mouth in a futile effort to stifle a laugh. Dr. Bill glared at me, his mechanical body crossing its arms over its ‘chest’ and tapping its foot.

“Don’t encourage him. It’s bad enough that I have to work under these conditions. My lab on the Honor’s Blade has far superior equipment and would be the ideal environment for the dissection of this ridiculously convoluted teleportation device.”

They went back to their work after that, and soon Treigho stood up to reveal the now fully operational teleportation pad. It appeared as a raised metal disc, several inches in height, with a row of blue lights around the base. The lights moved in a syncopation all of their own.

“Looks great,” I said, studying the device. “Um, so how does it work? I mean, where’s the control pad?”

“There’s no control pad,” Sylvia said. “That’s the beauty of it. This teleportation device is unique in that it relies on the user’s own thoughts and force of will to direct it, with accuracy so good, it might as well be infallible.”

“I see, I see.” I swallowed hard, my stomach down in my feet. “You see, I’m kind of getting hung up on this whole ‘might as well be’ part of the infallible thing.”

She cocked her head to the side, eyes widening.

“What about it?”

“It seems to me, and I’m no scientist mind you, but it seems to me that ‘might as well be’ infallible isn’t the same thing as infallible.”

“Well, I didn’t want to go into the math, but there’s a greater chance of a black hole opening up right underneath our feet right now than there is of this device malfunctioning in a catastrophic way.”

I grimaced. She put more caveats on the device as time went on.

“Now, wait, a malfunction is a malfunction,” I said, trying to stave off panic. “What’s a catastrophic malfunction?”

“Well, in this case, a malfunction would be, say, the machine failing to operate at all, doing nothing but acting as the world’s largest paperweight.” She gestured to the device. “Now a catastrophic malfunction might result in an explosion. Or an implosion. Or materializing the subject inside of a solid object, resulting in a gruesome if mercifully swift death? Or, perhaps, in extreme cases, rendering the subject's molecules into an unstable, strange matter state resulting in total discorporation during transit…”

Her voice trailed off, and she laughed.

“Why, Zaen, are you afraid of using this teleportation pad?”

“Yes, quite frankly.” I stared at the pad with mounting trepidation.

“Why? I’ve told you, there’s almost no chance it could fail catastrophically. You’re literally in more danger walking down the corridor a hundred times over than you are by using this.”

“Yes, but…those are…that is…”

I’d no way of expressing the nameless dread of the teleportation pad.

“Let me tell you something, Zaen,” Dr. Treigho said, jabbing his finger toward me aggressively. “You fear this pad because it represents a loss of control of your destiny. But the fact of the matter is, your destiny is already out of your control. You rely on the life support systems of this ship to keep you alive. You also, therefore, by proxy, rely on the engineers and officers who oversee the life support systems. This is no different except it’s much safer.”

I had no argument for that. I considered the pad and then looked at Sylvia.

She seemed mildly upset with me, and I couldn’t fathom why. I searched her soulful gaze until I found the answer. She felt offended that I hadn’t trusted her. I hadn’t trusted her assessment of how safe the teleportation pad really was.

“Very well,” I said with the utmost confidence I could muster. I turned to Sylvia and nodded. “You’ve convinced me of the safety of this device. I trust you, Sylvia.”

That did it. The ice melted from her gaze, a smile tugged at the corners of her cheeks. I realized then, when it came to romance, just being romantic wasn’t enough. I had to give her my trust. I had to have Sylvia’s back in moments like these.

It was complicated, but I was getting the hang of being in a relationship with a human woman.

I got on my comms and summoned the team.

“Gear up and meet me in the science lab in ten minutes.”

I got a barrage of answers from the other members of the team. Sylvia turned to me and spoke.

“Dr. Garcia’s last coordinates lead to a spot about a quarter mile outside the largest megalopolis on the northern continent.”

“Why a quarter mile away?”

“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “It could be some kind of interference from the cities themselves, or her true goal may lie that far from the city limits. In any event, our satellite scans show nothing of import in the area, but you know how unreliable our sensors have been dealing with the alien tech.”

I nodded.

“I understand. I’ll just look at it as extra PT for the week.” I flexed my arm, and she laughed. Her laugh was music to my ears. I really did feel better about the teleportation pad now.

The rest of the team gathered in the lab, including Rikov who brought along an extra set of gear for me. Taxan handed Sylvia her gear, and we suited up while Treigho made last minute adjustments to the device.

“All right, listen up, men.” I gestured to the teleportation pad. “This device is calibrated by your own thoughts. You need to visualize the place on the planet’s surface where you want to go as you step onto the pad.”

I nodded to Dr. Bill, who turned on a holo projector. For a moment, the walls of the lab disappeared, as did the ceiling. It looked as if we stood on the surface of the mysterious planet, right down to the individually colored grains of sand beneath our feet.

“Dr. Bill has graciously created this holographic mockup of the planet’s surface. Use it to visualize your destination.”

We lined up in front of the pad. I saw the unease on the men’s faces, but I figured the best thing was to just shove them onto the pad one by one, before they had a chance to overthink it too much and let the fear take hold.

Then, it was my turn. I grasped Sylvia’s hand and smiled.

“I’ll see you on the other side.”

She smiled back, squeezing my hand. Reluctantly, I let go of her fingers. At that moment, the mission didn’t matter to me. Sylvia was my everything.

Then, with even greater reluctance, I turned away from her, steeled myself, and stepped onto the pad.

SYLVIA

I stepped onto the teleportation pad, struggling to keep a mental image of the surface firmly in place. My foot touched the dais and the lights increased in brightness. I knew that was normal—or whatever laughingly passed for normal when concerning the arcane alien tech.

I hit the center of the dais, and a familiar, yet unique flash of light enveloped me. I felt a tickling in my brain, the only thing to divorce the experience with the one I had using the Mahdfel teleportation pad.

Then I was standing on the gritty red sands of the unnamed planet. I turned about, my mouth wide open as I marveled at the scenery. Jagged mountains thrust up into the air, surrounded by great plains of rounded boulders dotting rippling hills.

I saw the Vaznik warriors already fanning out into a spread pattern with military precision. The crunch of their boots in the soil echoed off the low, rounded hills.

“I’ve been to hundreds of planets,” Zaen murmured, his head on a swivel as he looked all about him. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this unusual topography before.”

“It’s because of the asteroid strikes. The land would’ve been subject to massive upheaval. Those mountains to the south?”

I pointed that way. Zaen’s eyes narrowed as he peered at the rugged, oddly flat looking mountain ranges framing the road to the megalopolis. They stretched upward like pillars holding aloft the blue green sky.

“Yes, what of them?”

“They would’ve formed near the impact event. These lower hills indicate we’re a good distance from the impact sight.”

“Fascinating.” He peered down the dark gray line of the road heading toward the megalopolis. “Form up, troops. Standard bounding overwatch. Rikov, take point and get a drone in the air. I don’t want a verminous arthropod to so much as twitch without me knowing about it.”

“Yes, sir.” Rikov sent the bird-like drone into the air, and we headed toward the road. At a distance, I first thought it to be constructed of stone or some similar substance. I was shocked to see the road had a series of lines running through it, which upon closer inspection, turned out to be the interlocking flanges of a series of metal plates set into the ground.

“It’s not a road at all,” Vrako said, peering into the shiny metal surface. His own reflection peered back at him.

“Yes, it is,” I said with conviction. “Just not one that we’re familiar with.”

I peered down the highway, which must’ve been more than thirty paces across. It stretches on as far as the eye can see, mounting the tops of high hills until it disappears into the dark gray blot of the distant megalopolis. It’s only a quarter mile out, but it seems so much further.

“All right, let’s move out.” Zaen was the first to step on the road. The metal rang oddly under his boots. Tracers of blue light shot out from his boot prints, following the lines in the interlocking plates.

He froze in place, but there were no other apparent effects. Zaen took a step, and another. The blue lights continued, but proved harmless.

“All right, I don’t know what you’re doing,” I said, “but I think we should move parallel to the road.”

“Agreed.” Zaen stepped off the road. I was glad he didn’t argue. “Let’s go, team. And keep your eyes peeled for any kind of danger.”

“Zaen,” Rikov called out. “There’s a large carnivore of some sort moving roughly parallel to our position.”

“How large is large?” I asked, my belly bottoming out.

“It stands roughly fourteen and a half feet tall at the shoulder.”

He produced a holo image taken by his flying drone. I saw something akin to an earth alligator, but with longer legs and a spiky exoskeleton. It padded along with a determined look in its bright blue eyes.

“I don’t like the looks of that.”

“Me, either.” Zaen frowned. “I’d rather not harm the indigenous life forms here if we don’t have to. Suggestions?”

He glanced around at all of us, but everyone drew a blank. Finally, I spoke up.

“Maybe fire off some shots into the air? Most large predators tend to shy away from things that make a lot of noise.”

“Right,” Zaen said, nodding. “Because only apex predators are comfortable making a ton of noise.”

“Sounds like a job for my belt fed automatic shotgun, sir,” Taxan said, hefting the giant weapon.

“Excellent idea.” Zaen looked around and found a jagged boulder a hundred paces away. “Obliterate that.”

“With pleasure.”

He took aim and fired. I plugged my ears at the last moment as a cacophonic series of miniature thundercrackers echoed out over the rolling foothills.

The boulder just turned to dust in a matter of a second and a half. I gaped in horror. What if that’d hit a living target? Suddenly, I wasn’t worried about the dinosaur. I was worried what’d happen to it if the trigger happy Vaznik had their way with it.

“That did the trick, sir.” Rikov showed us the holo image. “The creature is running in the opposite direction.”

“Nice work, team.” Zaen looked at me and nodded, respect glowing in his eyes. “Good idea about making a lot of noise.”

“Well, it’s a plan that plays to Vaznik strengths.”

We shared a laugh, and then the team got going. We marched over the crest of a steep hill and got our first clear look at the megalopolis.

My jaw dropped open. I’d been all over the galaxy with the fleet, and I’ve never seen any settlement that large before. Not even the city state of Hong Kong back on Earth, which sprawled out into reclaimed land from the sea, could compare.

The edge of the city stretched out in front of us in a dark bronze line, at least twenty miles in each direction. I tried to estimate the size of the city in totality and my head spun.

Pyramids seemed to be their favored construction technique. I spotted small shapes moving around the city, and believed them to look familiar.

“Hey, are those the same kind of spheroid drones we saw on the space station?” I asked, pointing at the city.

“I think so.” Zaen nodded. “Looks like they’re maintaining the city.”

“Not just maintaining. They’re adding to it.” Rikov came over, showing us his drone’s holo display telemetry. “There are bigger bots in there, doing construction work.”

“But not a solitary life sign,” I frowned. “It doesn’t make sense. I’ve seen highly automated cities before, but there’s always someone living there.”

“There's only one way we’re going to get the answers we’re after.” Zaen hefted his rifle and narrowed his gaze at the city in the distance. “And that means we have to reach that city.”

I caught his gaze, my lips a thin, tight line.

“Zaen, promise me when we do find the doctor, you’ll let me handle it my way.”

“What?” He frowned, horns dipping as he adopted a defensive posture. “She could very well be dangerous, Sylvia.”

“I know. But it’s one of those times you need to trust me. I trust you with my life. Can you do the same?”

He opened his mouth to speak, and I feared what might come out of it.

ZAEN

The metropolis loomed ahead of us. Unfortunately, I saw that we’d have to step onto the road in order to pass through the massive city gates.

A fifty foot high crenelated wall protected the megalopolis, at least on our side. I wondered if the walls were meant to keep out the super predators like the one we scared off. It’d make sense, because otherwise the walls just get in the way of commerce.

Any civilization advanced enough for aircraft essentially renders walls more of an inconvenience than a true defense initiative. Most advanced societies therefore use them to keep out wildlife or to guard smaller structures rather than their cities at large.

“Look sharp,” I snapped as we set foot on the strange metal road. “And keep an eye on those bots. Just because the ones we saw before weren’t aggressive doesn’t mean we can expect the same thing here.”

I really didn’t think we were in any danger from the bots. Still, I didn’t want to end up on the wrong end of a killer bot’s death ray. Or, on the menu of one of those dinosaur things.

We moved through the gates without incident. I noted the thickness of the walls, and the fact that they weren’t solid—they’d some sort of bunkers built into them, maybe even an entire tunnel system.

Once we passed through the walls, the strange city spread out before us. Many of the buildings seemed curiously sterile, like they were built with no real purpose in mind. It felt as if the city were here, but none of the accouterments that went along with it were present. Most noticeably, people.

The bots ignored us as the others did. Some of the big construction droids made our team a bit nervous. Especially when a big one trundled right down the street toward us.

“Zaen?” Taxan asked, a bit nervously. He brought his automatic shotgun to bear, but I put my hand on the barrel.

“Easy, we don’t know if it’s even worried about us.”

To be fair, the bot made me nervous as well. It was three stories tall, nearly as wide as the street. We took up position on the sidewalks, but it was obviously going to pass uncomfortably close by.

It had treads like a tank, four of them to be exact, and what looked like a pair of manipulator arms attached to a sensor array. Almost like a robotic centaur, I supposed, with the array as the head and the armature as the torso.

I spied a space between two buildings roughly ten feet wide and a hundred feet deep.

“Come on. Let’s just give it plenty of space to rumble on by.”

“What if it doesn’t rumble on by? What if it tries to attack?” Rikov asked.

“Then we deal with it,” I snapped. “Stop freaking out. Honestly, Sylvia is braver than the lot of you, and she’s not even a trained soldier.”

That shut them up for a moment, at least. The treads clacking across the metal road grew louder. The concoction bot thundered past, apparently not even aware of our presence.

We moved back onto the street and continued on.

“Where do you think we might find the doctor?” I asked Sylvia.

“Well…” Her brow furrowed with thought. “From what I could tell of the Annulus from the notes of those who studied it before me, its internal power source is ample, but finite. I would think that finding some way to replenish it would be high on my agenda.”

I nodded and turned to Rikov.

“Send your drone up and out with instructions to focus on the power grid. Try to find a place that looks likely to serve the doctor’s purposes.”

“You got it.” Rikov took a few moments to program his drone, then he sent it humming into the air. The disc shaped drone became a small dot in the aquamarine sky, vanishing from sight.

“In the meantime,” I said, gesturing toward a pyramid which stretched up higher than the rest. “Let’s make for that structure. If nothing else, it’ll be a good vantage to get the lay of the land from.”

We moved toward the pyramid while we waited for Rikov’s drone to do its recon. The pyramid loomed closer, until we stared up at its immenseness in awe.

“It must be more than five hundred feet high,” Sylvia murmured.

“Let’s hope there’s an elevator,” I said. “All right, focus on finding an entrance.”

The Vaznik fanned out, taking a set of shallow steps to the building proper. Rikov approached with his drone in hand.

“I think you have good instincts, Zaen. The drone concluded this structure is the most likely to fulfill the doctor’s needs.”

“Good work, Rikov.”

“Hey,” Taxan called out. “This building’s wide open on the first floor. You can just walk between these support pillars and you’re inside.”

We stepped into a wide, flat metal lot with a gridwork pattern painted upon it. I couldn’t decide what it reminded me of, yet it looked so familiar.

“It’s a parking lot,” Sylvia blurted. We all nodded in agreement.

“So it is. But with no vehicles.” I gestured at an interlocking set of green doors. “I’d say that might be our elevator, or at least provide ingress to the building.”

We stepped up to the doors. I waited while Sylvia used her compad to figure out how to open them. After a moment, there was a hiss of air, and the doors slid slowly back, revealing a ten foot by ten foot translucent cube.

“I guess we go inside.”

I stepped in first, and the others got on with me. As soon as the last of us set foot on board, the doors slid shut and we moved upward.

“Where are we going?” I ask. “Sylvia, did you tell it to do this?”

“No,” she said, her eyes wide. “I didn’t.”

The cube passes through a metal shaft, with more of the interlocking metal plates. A moment later, the cube came to a halt with a sudden lurch that had us stumbling. The doors slid open and we looked out upon a vast, domed chamber.

Dr. Garcia stood in the center, floating about ten feet in the air. The Annulus now hung over her head like a strange halo, spinning slowly and lighting up with glowing runes.

“There she is!” Rikov trotted toward her, his gun held in his hands but not aimed at her. The doctor’s eyes never moved, nor did she turn her head. Yet, she must’ve noticed because a large metal cube ripped from the floor and flew toward Rikov.

He threw himself to the side as the heavy cube hit. It tumbled along with a rumbling sound, smashing through the far wall.

“She tried to squish Rikov!” Vrako hefted his rifle and took aim.

“No!” Sylvia cried. “Zaen, please! Once you start shooting, it’s already too late.”

“Stand down,” I snapped. “That’s an order.”

“But she tried to—”

“Only because Rikov made what she—or the device controlling her—interpreted as an aggressive move.”

I turn to Sylvia.

“It’s your play, my l—Sylvia,” I say.

She cocked an eyebrow, turning her attention to the compad in her hand.

“Hang on,” she said. “And whatever happens, don’t destroy the Annulus unless you think there’s no other option to save yourselves.”

Sylvia pushed a sequence of commands into her compad. A second later, the Annulus stopped spinning. Dr. Garcia floated gently to the ground, and then the Annulus streaked through the air. My men pointed their guns at it, but I shouted at them.

“Hold! Do not fire.”

The Annulus came to a stop over Sylvia’s head, then the runes began to glow once more. Sylvia’s eyes glowed the same hue, and I felt my heart sink into the pit of my stomach.

“Sylvia,” I gasped. “What has become of you?”

SYLVIA

My whole body feels cold, but my skin is buzzing. How is my skin buzzing?

I ran my hand over my arm, trying to warm myself. My skin didn’t feel like skin anymore. It felt like it was covered in tiny, smooth pieces of metal.

What the hell?

I raised my hand and turned it over. There was something clear and solid overlaying my skin. If I turned my hand just right, I could see where it distorted light.

“Zaen, do you see this?”

Nothing.

“Zaen?”

Still nothing.

I prayed as I turned in the direction where I’d last seen Zaen. He wasn’t there. No one was there.

Where the hell am I?

There was light and energy everywhere. Morphing and moving from place to place. I felt the sounds the lights made when they glided past.

Not a whoosh, more like a song. Like when a car playing a song drives past you and you can still hear the music as it fades away.

There was an innate sense of harmony and peace here. My soul felt a lightness and joy I’d never known.

More light swoops passed me. In the distance, I saw a point of light in the darkness getting brighter.

I started walking to the place they were gathering and, in the space of a thought, found myself there amongst them. I was still myself, but there was no physical boundary between myself and the other swooshes.

Holy shit! I’m a freaking ghost!

I felt panic for a second. Then the swooshes changed in intensity and temperature and I was instantly soothed.

Okay. Maybe I’m not a ghost after all.

Now that my mind was back to settled, I observed my surroundings. The swooshes seemed excited about something. I felt their anticipation. Something they’d been waiting for was about to happen.

But what?

More and more swooshes gathered, and the light had gotten too bright for my eyes. I covered them with my hand, but that didn’t help.

I closed them and was in a completely different world. I wasn’t in empty space anymore. I was in some kind of interstellar hanging garden.

The swooshes glowed here. Like their bodies gave off energy that caused them to radiate light instead of reflect it.

I glided through the crowd, looking at all the hanging fauna and flowers. Feeling the peaceful vibrations and tones the swooshes made.

I floated up to one bunch of flowers to smell them. When I closed my eyes and inhaled, I heard what sounded like fragments of words.

I opened my eyes and looked around. The swooshes didn’t have mouths, or ears.

Nah. That’s not possible. You’re imagining things, Sylvia.

I leaned in to smell another bunch of flowers and inhaled deeply.

“They are beautiful are they not?”

I nearly jumped and swooshed to the ceiling.

“How? What?!”

But no sound came out of my mouth. Instead my body got .. staticy?

Little by little, I calmed down and floated back to the ground. The flowers I’d just smelled had bloomed. They were even more fragrant than before.

“If you’d just listen with your mind and not your ears, it’ll be much easier for us both, Sylvia.”

I’d love to say I spun around, but it felt more like I turned through myself to face the sound behind me.

“You learn so quickly when you stop trying.” A chuckle hung in the air.

Talk with your mind. Talk with your mind. What does that even mean?

“That’s it. Much better. Just sit into your oneness and speak from there.”

Do you mean speak from my thoughts? Like telepathy?

“Not quite.”

Not quite. Well shit.

Cackle.

“You try too hard to define things and miss the point. Empty your mind. Think of nothing and just be.”

Something warm pulled my focus inward. I pressed my hand to my heart and was pulled deeper inward.

“There you are. I’ve waited a long time to meet you.”

The hazy form became more solid now. I began to distinguish features.

“That’s it. Now you begin to see, at last.”

The being was fully formed now. Tall, lean, wearing shimmering robes. Its large eyes were kind pools of gray.

“You are real.” I reached out to touch him, but my hand passed through him.

“Your senses aren’t any use here. This dimension is beyond that. It is the space where all things are created.”

“All things are created? How is that possible?”

“Your mind is so full of questions. It’s fascinating.”

“Fascinating to not know?”

“Fascinating to be curious. Not everyone’s curiosity has the same bend as yours, you know.”

Ecrofeth. His name is Ecrofeth.

“Interesting. I haven’t heard that name in millennia.”

“How is that even possible?”

“Are you sure you want to know? Not every mind can withstand infinity. There’re no walls here and no end to the knowing.”

I was scared, terrified even, but I had to know. I took a big gulp and stepped toward Ecrofeth.

“I think I’m here because I’m supposed to know. I don’t know how I know that. I just know.”

“Just because your journey has brought you here doesn’t mean you don’t have agency to decide. We must all decide.” An expression akin to sadness crossed his face.

“This seems to be a theme for me. In my waking life, I’m where I should be, and still must choose. Has not stopped me yet.”

Ecrofeth smiled.

“I didn’t think it would, but it’s important to know.” He placed his hand on my shoulder and our minds connected.

The gardens were surrounded by a world of light and energy. Ecrofeth and others walked about, tending to the various streaks and tendrils.

Every now and then, a dark tendril was pulled, almost like a weed, and the beings would roll it into a ball and eat it. In other places, they poured seeds from their hands into the empty spaces and dispersed them with their breath.

“We are the Naidraug. Our race is tasked with the balance of all things in existence, seen and unseen.”

“We exist in the convergence where all dimensions meet. There’s no time, no sound, no evil, and no pain here.”

“How is this possible?”

“Because opposites are just illusions. Two sides of the same coin are, in fact, still part and whole of the one. So it’s with all things. Where you see nothing, there’s still something.”

“Energy.”

“Yes. It can’t be destroyed, but it can be directed and reformed. Such is our duty to maintain balance and movement.”

The Naidraug gathered. So many of them. They swayed and chanted.

A ritual?

“You may call it such. For us, it’s the transition from this existence to the next.”

“But I thought you can’t die?”

“Nothing really dies, Sylvia. We just transform. For the Naidraug, the transition leads to an existence of wonder, for we don’t take the knowledge we possess here. There’s no way to find us, and there’s no way to know if we’ll return.”

“Is knowing such a burden, then?”

“Life as you know it is much richer because of its contrasts, we aren’t any different, and maintaining balance is a difficult task.”

“I don’t understand. What does this have to do with me?”

“Think about the galaxy you just entered. The one that was decaying.”

I focused on the image with my mind’s eye, trying to recall as many details as I could.

“Good, very good. Now watch.”

Ecrofeth's hand moved to my head. Parts of the dead and decaying galaxy began to move and condense. The mechanical structures faded and more energy was released. What remained was a clear orb that bent light and space around it.

It can’t be the same place!

“Ah, but it is. And we need your help to restart it.”

Another vision. This time, the Naidraug were humming around another figure. The figure disappeared, leaving only a small glowing ring.

The Annulus!

The figures took turns handling the Annulus until it melded with a Naidraug. The figure accepted it like a gift and showered light on all present.

Then the vision went dark.

“Ecrofeth! What happened? Why’d the light fade?”

“We don’t know. The elder disappeared shortly after that, and we raced to save all we could. What you see now is the result of our last bit of ability to maintain balance in its simplest form.”

“The Annulus is the key?”

“Of sorts. It transmutes and perpetuates and conducts energy across dimensions. It’s the only thing that can.”

I know what I have to do.

In an instant, my mind was yanked back. I was with the Naidraug in the gardens, then in the crowd of swooshes, then back to the place where the metal coated my skin.

I was suffocating!

I fought upwards, willing myself to breathe.

Help me Ecrofeth!

Air finally entered my body and I sat up like a shot.

“I know what to do!”

ZAEN

SHE’S ALIVE!

My entire world had gone dark when she passed out. If it wouldn’t’ve killed her, I would’ve torn the Annulus out of her body.

“Sylvia!”

I wanted to hold her, but the Annulus still had her covered in what felt like mech slime. It had burned my arms when I caught her body before she hit the ground.

“Zaen. I know what to do. I understand.”

She was crying. Giant tears and sobs racked her little body.

It was infuriating to be unable to comfort her. I couldn’t even wipe her tears. I yearned to hold her close and tell her it’d be all right.

“Sylvia. Are you okay? Tell me what you want, what you need.”

“I need you, Zaen. I need you.”

She flung herself into my arms and bawled.

When I realized I wasn’t going to be charred to death, I pulled her tight.

“I thought you were dead. It took you and it wouldn’t let me touch you.”

“It didn’t know you. I didn't know if you would hurt me.”

The insult was too much.

“I’d never hurt you.”

“I know, Zaen. And it knows. It understands the bond and knows you’re not a threat.”

She took my chin in her hand and looked in my eyes.

“The bond is what saved me. What brought me back. When I finally knew, I had to get back to you.”

“When you knew what?”

“That my balance is with you.”

I don’t think I’ll ever understand what she meant by that, but it felt good to hear.

I hugged her tighter.

“Zaen. You’re squashing me.”

“Oh. Sorry. I just…”

“I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”

She had that twinkle in her eye that I loved. I kissed her forehead and she wrinkled her nose at me.

“You know, if I had the time to bonk you on the head for that, I would.”

“No bonking. More telling, please. But I’ll keep holding you so you don’t burn me again.”

She gasped. “What do you mean ‘burned you again’?”

I told her what had happened when the Annulus took over her body. She was in shock when I was done.

Then she told me what she’d seen while the Annulus had possessed her.

She told me about the metal skin, the light swooshes, Ecrofeth and the Naidraug. How they came to be, and what the Annulus was to them. How its host had been taken and hidden from their world, and had tried to get back for eons.

The magnitude of what the Annulus meant to our existence was incredible.

Of course it’d only be the end of all known life. No big deal.

She retold the story to the team and they had even more questions. Sylvia gave her thoughts on each the best she could, but as time passed her memory started to fade.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. It’s just… The more I think about it, the further I am from being in the memory.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The more I analyze it, the more the connection is severed. It’s a thought-feeling connection, not an intellectual one. Now I understand why Dr. Garcia didn’t fight it.”

“You do?”

“Oh yes. There’s a lot of peace in knowing. Not just comfort, but a lack of pain and a multitude of possibilities. If we hadn’t discovered the bond, I’m not sure I’d be able to resist going back. It’s a truly beautiful, if terrifying place, Zaen. We have to take it back to its home, its people.”

I don’t know which thought terrified me more. The thought that the Annulus was so powerful, its powers transformed and moved energy across dimensions, or that Sylvia might succumb to the Annulus’s possession.

Both. Definitely both.

“How do we destroy it? There’s got to be a way.”

“What?! No. We can’t do that.”

“Sylvia, it’s too powerful to exist here. Someone will try to weaponize it.”

“Zaen, that’s why we have to give it back. It doesn’t belong here. It belongs to them, in their dimension. They’ll die without it. And I think the Annulus will die without them, too.”

“Then how’d it end up here? Why’d it hide for so long?”

The expression on her face was heartbreaking.

“Turk. The turk took the elder and hid him. When the elder died, the Annulus needed a new host, but none on the ship were worthy. It tried, but none of the ones on board could hold it. When they all died, the ship crashed and it had nowhere to go until Dr. Garcia’s team found it. It’s tried to get home ever since.”

“And Dr. Garcia was worthy?”

“Dr. Garcia was worthy and curious. She wanted to communicate with the Annulus, to understand it. She just didn’t know how until it took her.”

“What happens if we give it back? What if Ecrofeth lied to you?”

The look on her face would’ve felled a battalion.

The Annulus must’ve also heard me, because I’d swear her eyes burned like fire.

It passed after a few, terrifying seconds.

“Ecrofeth wouldn’t lie. None of the Naidraug lie. It isn’t their purpose.”

She was so certain about it. I wanted to be, but my military training had taught me to be cautious when alien beings arrived bearing gifts of ancient knowledge. There’d always been a catch that eventually got turned into a weapon.

If what she said about the crash was true, that no one onboard had been a worthy host, then the Annulus would’ve killed her and Dr. Garcia by now. It had chosen not to.

“Zaen. We have to do this. Please help me.”

In that last sentence, I swear I’d heard two voices speaking to me. One from Sylvia’s mouth and the other in my soul.

“Okay, Sylvia. How do we do this?”

SYLVIA

I felt the Annulus stir as I explained to Zaen and the team what needed to be done.

Captain Soandzo and the admiral had both been conferenced in to hear and participate in the planning.

The execution had to be perfect.

Dr. Bill was busy calculating energy outputs and giving engineers orders about when and where to reroute it from. Every now and then, he looked like he wanted to study me.

I couldn’t blame him for that. I wanted to study me.

I felt the Annulus’s presence in my mind.

During some of the more complex explanations, where I didn’t have the vocabulary to explain something, it reached out and touched the teams’ minds, providing detailed images and formulas.

The looks on their faces the first time their minds were touched was almost comical. If Dr. Bill had had a jaw to drop, it would’ve been two starships away.

After a few more brushes, Dr. Bill finally lost his composure.

“If the Annulus can share what it needs, why’s it leaving it up to you to explain it. Couldn’t it just take over the ship and crew and do whatever it wants without our help?”

I thought about that for a second.

“I think it knows we’d see it as a threat and would react to that in a way that ended with mutually assured destruction. This way, we’ll maintain our autonomy and get to see the results of the calculations before deciding it’s okay.”

“Well, that is an intelligent and relevant foresight. I suppose I can’t blame it for understanding not everyone is intelligent enough to appreciate the elegance of its efforts.”

Zaen turned so Dr. Bill wouldn’t see him laughing. We needed Dr. Bill and his team to help us, and hurting their pride wouldn’t get us there.

Hours later, we were finally done with the calculations Dr. Bill had done, and the ship was ready to do her part.

Dr. Bill ran the calculations one last time, before collapsing back into a chair.

“This may be my greatest masterpiece of programming ever.”

Both the captain and the admiral had beamed down to the landing bay to witness what came next.

“Admiral. This is your fleet. We stand at the ready.”

“Captain Soandzo, I have every faith in your judgment and team. Execute at your will.”

“Roger that. Dr. Bill, let’s get started. The Naidraug are waiting. Let’s send the Annulus home.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

The whole team looked shocked. Dr. Bill had never saluted an officer before.

“Engineering team alpha. Start your power draw on my mark. Three. Two. One. Mark.”

The lights flickered and dimmed.

“Engineering team gamma. Redirect shields to tractor beam generators on my mark. Three. Two. One. Mark!”

The engine bay shields began to turn opaque.

“Engineering team delta, reverse polarity of tractor beam generators on my mark. Three. Two. One. Mark!”

The ship lurched and shifted forward.

“Steady. Steady.” Dr. Bill adjusted our position so we didn’t travel forward just yet.

“Engineering team omega. Target star position whiskey on my mark. Three. Two. One. Mark!”

The ship’s tractor beam latched on to its first target, pulling us forward. Then the next position, and the next, so that we weaved ourselves through the galaxy without disturbing its stasis net.

The Annulus trembled with excitement as we neared the center star.

“Omega! Full stop! Hold Position!”

“Foxtrot, get that blast cannon pulsing at coordinates eleven-point three north, one forty-two point two east.”

The star heated and began to resonate.

The Annulus, hearing its call, exited the bay doors and called back.

The hotter the star got, the faster the call and higher the notes.

The star shot massive energy bursts across the system as its core resurrected and began to churn and spin.

The spinning created a gravity field that pulled other objects into its orbit.

The new objects spun and condensed as they fell into the star's grasp.

With every few rotations, new masses churned or spun or gave off massive waves of energy, tossing the ship about like a paper boat in a squall.

“Zaen, get us out of here! Now!”

The tractor beam let go and the ship lurched, sending us to the ground.

“Go! Go! Go! We have no time! No time!”

The ship’s engines roared to life and hurled us to a safe distance outside the star system.

When we reached the rendezvous point, we turned to look back at the Naidraug system.

The entire star system was ablaze with light, explosions and energy.

The shockwaves kicked the ship about, but the shields were holding.

“Do you see that?”

The Annulus was expanding, encircling the entire star system. It looked like it was squeezing it into a singularity.

Oh no! No!

I heard Ecrofeth then.

“Don’t see, just feel.”

I closed my eyes, clutched my hands to my chest and inhaled.

The final blast should’ve knocked us out. Should’ve killed us, even.

The Annulus had timed its rotation to deflect the blast from our position.

The entire ship cheered!

We had survived! We’d saved the Naidraug and survived!

I turned to Zaen.

“We did it! We saved them! We did it!”

“You did it. You. I love you, Sylvia.”

I decided then, I didn’t need to see, just feel. And kissed him right there on the landing bay.

ZAEN

Sylvia stared up at the Annulus. Actually, all of us stared at it. Sylvia had set it into a rapid spin, turning the glowing runes on the side into a series of thin blue lines. I wondered how much faster it’d spin before it’d heat from friction against the air molecules.

I trusted Sylvia. If she said the Naidraug weren’t going to use it as a weapon, I believed her. Part of me was envious she’d had such a profound experience, and part of me was glad I’d been spared the sheer terror.

Sylvia seemed to have been changed by the experience. I wasn’t sure in what ways as of yet, but she seemed to stand a little taller than she had before. Her gaze had sharpened exponentially, and I was reminded of a hawk.

“It won’t be long now.”

The Annulus crackled with energy. I turned to Sylvia with some concern.

“Is it safe to be this close?”

She gave me a look.

“Oh, come on, would I have let us stand this close if it weren’t safe? Most of that lightshow is actually happening in an adjacent dimension.”

The Annulus rose in the air, shedding flecks of light off itself. The flecks of light drifted down like little sparkling stars, in many different shades. White, black, purple, green, yellow, and some strange colors I’d never seen before.

The sparks drifted down around us, somehow managing to avoid touching any of my men or Sylvia. I stared as the sparks finally ceased their fall, hovering about waist height above the strange metal road.

I almost jumped as the city came to life all around us. Streetlights flashed into brilliant luminescence. The pyramid shaped buildings glowed with inner light. And the road we all stood upon lit up along the interlocking plates with the familiar blue light from before.

What happened next only took about ten seconds. Yet, when I recalled it later, it seemed like a lot longer than that. It seemed like an eternity at the time. The glowing stars seemed to feed off the road’s energy. The lines grew fainter under our feet, and thicker and brighter under the floating energy stars.

Sylvia slipped her hand into mine. I turned to her and saw her eyes filled with wonder. Tears glistened on her cheeks as she watched. Tears of joy.

“What’s happening?” I whispered.

“When I was mind linked to Ecrofeth, I got the feeling that he, and many of the other Naidraug, wish to resume a corporeal existence. Now that their planet has healed, and the machines they left behind in the planet core have rebuilt their cities for them, they’re going to repopulate.”

“Repopulate?”

“Just watch.”

I gazed at one of the stars. To my shock, a fine white line extended vertically through the star. It thickened and curved, forming a great bloom at the top like the petals of an opening flower. It took me a moment to realize I was seeing the Naidraug nervous system being laid out piece by piece.

Tissue layered itself over the nervous system. A skeleton, with bones of orange, and then thick grayish skin like an Earth elephant overlaid that. Dark gray eyes with no pupils somehow managed to convey a sense of warmth and curiosity stared back at me.

I was staring at a twelve-foot tall, fully formed Naidraug. And he was naked. Very naked.

Their clothing took another moment to materialize, during which time I became all too familiar with their anatomy. Let me just say that copulation between their species must be extraordinarily…complex.

“Isn’t it wonderful?”

I turned about, surprised to find a new presence at my side. Dr. Garcia. She gazed at the now corporeal beings around her in a kind of happy daze.

“Dr. Garcia, I presume?” I said.

She turned my way and nodded.

“Yes, so nice to formally meet you, Zaen. I’m sorry about before. It’s hard to perceive our reality while your mind is spread out among multiple dimensions.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Sylvia said with a laugh. “Nice to meet you, Doctor. I’m—”

“Sylvia. Yes, I know all of you.” She pointed at each of the Vaznik in turn. “You’re Jakar, supposedly the best pilot in the fleet.”

“Supposedly?” Jakar said but nobody paid him any attention. I’d actually forgotten he was even on our mission until right then.

“And you’re Rikov,” she said, “And you must be Taxan. And Vrako. I’m so glad to meet you all.”

“And I’m glad to meet you as well.”

I turn at the sound of the melodious voice and stare up at the spindly limbed gray form of one of the Naidraug. Sylvia and Dr. Garcia both smiled at his approach.

“Zaen,” Sylvia said, gesturing toward the towering being, “allow me to introduce you to Ecrofeth. Ecrofeth, this is Zaen.”

“A pleasure.” The gray eyed being bowed its head toward me. “I thank you for your assistance in resurrecting my race. At least, those of us who wished to live a corporeal existence again.”

“So, you guys all turned yourselves into pure energy to escape the asteroid bombardment?” I asked.

“Indeed. We knew that one day we might wish to return to the world of flesh and blood, so we sowed the seeds for our resurrection among the stars. Thank you for dealing with those Queen’s Brood mercenaries for me, by the way. They were most…bothersome.”

“That’s like him cursing, by the way,” Sylvia whispered in my ear.

It turned out Dr. Garcia had no intention of leaving. She elected to remain with the Naidraug for a while longer, to study them and their ways.

To our surprise, however, Ecrofeth requested to come along with us on the Sunder.

“It’s been more than fifteen thousand years since my kind has been part of the galactic society at large. I think there’ll be much to learn, and your fleet is the ideal place to learn it.”

“I’ll have to clear it with the captain, and he’ll have to clear it with the admiral, but I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.”

The Naidraug threw a grand celebration, and the entire crew were invited. It was a strange sort of party, but the Naidraug were warm and eager to learn more about just about everyone and everything.

I pulled Sylvia away during the festivities, into our own shadowed corner.

“Sylvia, you were amazing today.”

“You weren’t so bad yourself, big guy.”

I grinned and took her in my arms. She melted into my arms. I kissed her deep, then stroked my hand down her cheek as I gazed into her impossibly lovely gaze.

“Sylvia…I love you.”

Her eyes filled with a sweet inner light.

“I love you, too, Zaen. What we have going, it works, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” I said, kissing her once more. “It does work very well, indeed.”

SYLVIA

“Would you like another platter?”

I looked up into the big gray eyes of a Naidraug waiter, their lips stretched in a friendly smile as they offered up a tray of steaming stuffed native mushrooms. The red and white tops and dark golden brown cheese looked tempting, but my stomach already felt filled to capacity.

“Oh no, thank you. I couldn’t eat another bite.”

“Your pardon. I forget your species only has one stomach, unlike the Vaznik and ourselves.”

I laughed as Zaen chowed down on the native cuisine. He hunched over his meal, big body hulked into what I liked to call his business eating position. As in eating was his business, and business was good.

“No, they only eat like they have an extra stomach.”

The tall, slender being smiled and moved on. There were plenty of takers out there, most of them Naidraug. It seemed that after fifteen thousand years existing as multidimensional energy beings, they were ready to celebrate being physical once again.

Zaen looked up, still chewing.

“Huh?”

“Never mind. Go back to your feast.”

After the Naidraug had been brought back to this plane of existence, the Honor’s Blade and the Nova had joined the Sunder in orbit. The party, which was considered to be a diplomatic function by the fleet, now included all three captains and Admiral Ausym himself.

I ran my eyes over the courtyard of the great pyramid, filled to capacity with a wide variety of species. The merchants were out in full swing, all of them hoping to score a trade deal with the Naidraug. I saw Bok’Choi looking at wool from a native creature similar to an earth yak.

Other merchants checked the various forms of produce available. The Naidraug ate only plants, but they cultivated a staggering variety of them. It’d probably be many years before the galaxy at large fully understood the effects of the native produce on so many different physiologies.

Zaen patted his face with a napkin and stood up. He offered me his hand, and I took it, sharing a smile.

I wasn’t sure where we'd go next. The sector of the galaxy was safe, for the time being. The fleet would deploy us where we were needed, and that’d be that.

This time would be different, though. This time, I wouldn’t go off alone. I had Zaen with me now. There were a lot of good qualities that made me like him, but what made me love him so much was how he let me be myself. He was okay with my wild, long winded diatribes about societal nuance.

“I hate to say it, but we have to put in an appearance at the admiral’s table.”

“Why do you hate to say it?” I cocked an eyebrow. “You did a good job, of course the command staff want to see you and congratulate you in person.”

“I don’t like all the pomp and circumstance,” Zaen said. “I’d rather just start my new job.”

“Well, too bad. Because the command staff clearly thrive on pomp and circumstance.” I punched him in the arm. “Sorry about your damn luck.”

He laughed heartily, his eyes lighting up as he soaked in my presence. Zaen grabbed me about the waist and swept me off my feet, spinning me into a little twirl before setting me down safely again.

“I have the best luck in the galaxy, because you love me.”

“Careful with that mouth of yours. Don’t write checks with your alligator mouth that your mosquito ass can’t cash.”

I winked at him as he tried to puzzle out that unique Earth saying. We moved across the courtyard to what I thought of as the VIP section. Admiral Ausym and Ecrofeth sat together, along with some Naidraug I didn’t know the names of. The command staff and the natives alike turned toward us and smiled as we approached.

“Ah, here they are. Our people of the hour.” Admiral Ausym stood up from his chair, and pretty much everyone else took that as their cue to stand up as well. “How are you feeling, Sylvia?”

“I’m feeling great, sir. We rescued the doctor, and helped a long lost people return to the galaxy. I’m going to write so many papers and theses on this, sir.”

“Good, good.” His eyes sparkled. “And how’re you and Zaen doing?”

I felt a bit of color come to my cheeks.

“Oh, I think I might keep him around for a while,” I said, smiling at Zaen. “He makes me laugh.”

Zaen laughed, and it proved to be infectious. I basked in the glow of being the jokester for once. Usually, I had to be the straight laced one.

“And you, Zaen,” Ecrofeth said. “When I was linked with Sylvia, I sensed she felt the mission never would’ve been successful without your efforts, and your faith in her.”

Zaen puffed his chest up and stood proudly.

“Thank you, Ecrofeth. The truth is, I feel the same way about Sylvia. We never would’ve made it this far without her constant efforts.” Zaen turned toward me and his eyes softened. “I can’t believe this amazing person was right under my nose for so long and I never noticed her.”

“That’s sweet, but it’s a big ship,” I said with a wink.

“Nonetheless, I believe both of you deserve commendation,” Admiral Ausym said. “Sylvia, I’m promoting you to Civilian Science Division, Senior Class. You can expect a substantial bump in your pay.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said, almost embarrassed. “If it weren’t for the efforts of the teams who came before, though, I never would’ve gotten this far.”

“You’ve earned this, Sylvia. And my gratitude.”

“And my own,” Ecrofeth added.

Ausym turned to face Zaen, who stiffened his posture a bit.

“And you as well, Zaen. I know you signed on to the fleet as security, but I always knew you had command potential. Thank you for proving me right. Your interim command promotion is no longer provisional. I’m granting you the full rank.”

“Thank you, sir.” Zaen beamed a smile.

“Now,” Ausym said, his eyes getting that look in them again. “I think it’s high time the two of you leave, as it were. You have permission to teleport anywhere in the galaxy that there’s a receiving pad.”

Sort of like a honeymoon, he meant. I looked over at Zaen and smiled. It hit me then that it was all real, it was all happening.

What Zaen and I had was real, and now we could finally embrace it. I couldn’t wait to get him all to myself.

And judging from the look he gave me, neither could he.

ZAEN

Sylvia and I stood in front of the teleportation pad on the Honor’s Blade, our modest amount of luggage floating in the air behind us.

Plagus was on duty that day in that teleportation bay. He looked up, saw us, and laughed.

“Zaen, what in the world are you wearing?”

“They’re called swim trunks. We’re teleporting to Favrow V, directly to the beach resort.”

“Well, far be it from me to judge.” Plagus punched in the coordinates and nodded. “All right, you two are all set.”

I looked over at Sylvia, lovely in her two-piece swimsuit. She tugged her sunglasses down and favored me with a smoldering gaze.

“So, are we going to do this or what?”

I held my hand out and she took it. Then we stepped onto the pad, followed by our luggage.

“All right, hold onto your—”

A flash of golden light, and then we stood with our toes stuck in the sand. I squinted in the bright light of a yellow sun as the nearby ocean gently crawled toward us. A soft sea breeze wafted over the beach, stirring Sylvia’s hair.

“It looks just like the info net page said it would.” I looked about in satisfaction. We had a terraformed cove all to ourselves, a bungalow, and a hovercraft for emergency use, as well as some sports water equipment. All paid for by the fleet.

“So, there’s the jet skis,” I said, gesturing out to the waves. “There’s the liquor cabinet inside, there’s a swim up tavern just around the bend, what do you want to do first?”

I turned toward Sylvia, and found her staring at me with sultry eyes, the tip of her finger between her teeth. She turned her hips toward me and sort of worked them back and forth.

The breeze stirred enough to carry her scent to me. A smile spread over my face.

“Oh. So that’s what you want to do first.”

“Are you complaining?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips and giving me a playful glare.

“Here’s a hint.”

I took her by the waist and drew her into my body. Sylvia’s mouth opened in a surprised gasp, then a grin spread over her red lips. The softness of her body pressed into my own felt amazing. I couldn’t resist tasting her lips. She tasted exquisite.

My hand slid down her spine, over the supple slope of her bottom. I cupped her cheek in my hand fingers digging into the pliant flesh. She moaned into my mouth, one leg coming off the sand to hook around the back of my calf. Sylvia ground herself into me as I pulled and pried her cheeks apart.

She shivered when I ran my finger through the groove of her ass. The bottoms she wore had convenient ties on the sides. I found it simple to give a tug and remove them. I wondered if that’d been the point more than swimming.

Her hand slid underneath the waistband of my shorts. Sylvia grasped my swollen cock, letting me know in no uncertain terms what she wanted. I found myself growing impatient. I had to feel myself inside of her.

“Sylvia,” I gasped between molten kisses and heavy petting. “I love you so much, my darling.”

“I love you, too,” she moaned. “Oh god, I love the way you touch me.”

“Oh yeah?” I kissed her hard and deep, sucking her lower lip before pulling back and releasing it. My fingertips wormed their way between her wet, swollen pussy lips. She sighed as I stroked through her pink softness, working my way up to her clitoris.

“Yeah,” she said in a high-pitched sigh. “Oh yeah…it feels so good.”

“I like making you feel good, my sweet.”

“Oh Zaen…I want you inside of me.”

“I am inside of you,” I whispered in her ear before nibbling the lobe.

“No, I want your cock…”

I grabbed her ass with both hands and lifted her feet from the sand. She moaned into my mouth as I carried her over to a bench set up to watch the sea. I set her down, pushing her up against the back.

Then I grabbed her waist and spun her around to face away from me. She cried out in desperation, thrusting her ass into my crotch and rubbing like mad.

I shook as I slid my swim trunks down. I needed to be inside of her so badly, I could taste it. The smell of her sweet honey, dripping wet and ready for me, drove me wild.

She spread her thighs apart, presenting her swollen mons to me. I grasped my throbbing shaft, groaning with my need.

I pushed the swollen head of my cock between her silken folds. I gasped as I felt myself stretching her. Her sexy back glistened with sweat as I slapped my hands on her hips and gripped them tightly.

She pressed herself into me, encouraging me to thrust. I would’ve hated to disappoint her. I pulled myself out until only the tip remained nestled in her love tunnel. Then I pulled myself forward, fingers digging in and muscles flexing in my thighs and back. I glided smooth and strong and slow. Each time I achieved full penetration, her cries rose an octave, until her soft exultations rivaled the ocean waves for supremacy.

“Oh, Sylvia,” I groaned, eyes watering as I held myself back from my release. I loved being sheathed in her exquisite warmth. I kept up the thrusting, determined to make her shatter before I did.

“Oh, Zaen,” she cried. “Don’t stop, please.”

“I’ll never stop making you feel good,” I gasped through gritted teeth. I drove myself into her, our bodies moving in concert. The air filled with the smell of her sweet summer sweat, mingling with my own and the smell of the ocean spray.

Her hands gripped the edge of the bench with white knuckle intensity as I increased speed. Her cheeks danced as I slapped my thighs into her fine bottom. At last, she opened her mouth and let out a tremendous, wild scream. Her body thrashed around against me, and I let myself come at last.

Somehow, I gathered her into my arms and sat down on the bench without dropping either of us. She snuggled up in my lap and put her arms around my neck, kissing me softly.

“I love you so much, Sylvia,” I whispered into her ear.

“I’ll never get tired of hearing you say that,” she replied softly.

“And I’ll never grow tired of saying it.”

SYLVIA

I don’t know how long Zaen and I sat together on that bench, me in his lap cuddled up like a happy kitten. I do know it was an amazing time that I’ll treasure forever.

My mind still reeled from the explosive orgasm I’d just had. My whole body trembled with pulses of golden light fit to rival the sun. I didn’t mind the heat. I wanted to press myself against Zaen.

“Sylvia, I’m so glad we were matched. I didn’t know what I’d been missing my whole life until you walked into it.”

“You’re so sweet.” I kissed him on the cheek, nuzzling his neck. I loved the way he smelled. His red skin shone in the sun, a bit darker where it bunched and rolled at the base of his horns. My fingers traced lines along his chiseled chest, exploring every line of definition.

“You’re the one who’s sweet,” he said softly, kissing the top of my head.

“Oh no, you’re the sweet one. I can prove it.”

I felt recovered then, and hungry for more of my alien mate. I kissed the skin on his chest, working my way around his nipple with my lips. He gasped, tensing up beneath me. I felt his cock twitch, then harden.

I took my time, kissing my way down his chest. I slid off his lap and between his splayed legs, my lips never leaving his body. I kissed down to the hard knots of muscle in his abdomen.

My tongue explored their peaks and valleys. He laughed gently as I tickled him. I grinned up at him, feeling the muscles in his legs flex against my body. His member had grown thick and hard as I kissed his chest and belly.

I turned my attention to his cock at last, rearing up so that it would spring up. I grasped his shaft, a bead of moisture glistening on the top. I looked him in the eyes as I ran my tongue from the middle of his shaft up to his throbbing red crown.

He moaned as I engulfed his head with my mouth. I ran my tongue on the underside, and he stiffened against me. Poor baby, he was so excited, I barely got to pump my head up and down more than a dozen times before he released his spirit inside of me.

I pulled off him, wiping my chin and staring up as he shuddered in ecstasy. He gave a sudden grunt and carried me onto the sand. I was already kneeling, so it wasn’t very far to fall, but he pinned me down in a heartbeat, my legs sprawling to either side of him.

He buried his face in my breasts. I cried out as he licked and suckled my nipples. My fingers sought out his horns, stroking along the length of them. I heard his sudden intake of breath, and he redoubled his efforts.

I gasped as he kissed his way down my stomach. Soon, I stared down at my lap and saw a pair of horns bobbing about.

He explored my pussy with his mouth, sucking first my outer lips, running his tongue through the pink trench between them.

Zaen looked up at me, his face glistening with my juices.

“You taste so good, Sylvia.”

I moaned as his nimble tongue traced circles around my clitoral mound. Just the feeling of his hot breath across my clit had it throbbing. I knew if he’d only lick or suck it just a little bit, I’d come super hard.

I tried to guide him, my fingers stroking his horns and getting his motor running faster. He slowly gave me what I wanted, first flicking his tongue over my clit like. I cried out, my body shivering, and he did it again.

Then he licked a thorough, hard circle around it one last time before enveloping it in his mouth. My hands tightened their grip on his horns as he suckled my clit to the point I screamed. I thrashed about on the sand underneath him, my toes curling so hard my calves cramped.

As I lay there panting, he reared up on his knees. He smiled down at me, a look of pure unadulterated affection on his face.

“Sylvia, I love you so much, I could just die.”

I laughed, my eyes fluttering open. I loved the feel of the fresh air on my skin, the heat from his body, and most of all the way he looked at me.

“You’re not getting off that easy.” I stared down at his thick member. It was engorged and ready to go again, pointed up toward my face. His balls rested between my thoroughly licked and sucked mound.

“Is this what you want?” he purred. Zaen grasped his shaft, pushing the head of his cock between my tight walls. I cried out as he stretched and filled me, hooking my legs around the small of his back.

Zaen plowed into me with a powerful thrust. I was past the warmup stage now. My body was ready for the full course meal. My fingernails raked down his back as his cock went in and out, in and out.

I got sand in my hair, and I didn’t even care. Nothing mattered except how good it felt for my mate to make love to me. His eyes squeezed shut as he thrust into me with primal, passionate abandon. I loved being the one he sated his desires upon. It made me feel special.

My arms flew up over my head as I felt a thunderous orgasm approaching. Golden sparks flashed through my body every time he thrust, the epicenter in my pussy. I couldn’t hope to stop it, and I didn’t want to.

The stars aligned and my body exploded with pleasure. Pulse after pulse of delight throbbed through my entire being. I felt as if my being floated upon a golden cloud of pure hedonistic ecstasy.

He collapsed on top of me, kissing me, whispering sweet things in my ear. I gathered him in close with all four of my limbs, and I hugged my mate tight. I hugged him tight for all the nights I’d spent without him, and for all the nights we’d spend together.

“I’m never going to leave you,” he whispered. “My love.”

I sighed, and nestled into his embrace. I didn’t know how the rest of the honeymoon would go, but based on this first day, it’d be nothing short of spectacular.

EPILOGUE: SYLVIA

Time flies when you’re having fun.

After our honeymoon, I wound up moving in with Zaen. It made sense for a lot of reasons. His officer’s quarters were considerably larger than both of our own put together would’ve been.

Our new promotions meant new duties, and an adjustment period. Those months just flew by. I loved my work, and so did Zaen.

The fleet moved on to a new sector of space, as yet fully uncharted. We came across several artifacts of a hitherto-unheard of space faring race, and I was on the team tasked with deciphering them.

I even shared notes with Dr. Garcia, who was something of an expert on alien languages herself at that point.

After work was the time I especially enjoyed, though, because that was the time I got to spend with Zaen.

Sometimes we went out to listen to live music on the promenade, or a watch party for As the Galaxy Churns. Mostly, though, we just stayed at home and snuggled…and by snuggled, I mean we went at it like a couple of Earth rabbits.

Once we got settled into our new routine, things calmed down a bit. At least, on the work front. Not the sex part. That only continued to increase in frequency.

We’d taken to meeting each other for lunch in our quarters. I have to say, we did technically eat, but it wasn’t a sit down affair. It was a lay down affair in our bedroom. I know I got some strange looks coming back to the lab with my hair in disarray and wearing my shirt backwards. I told them I’d stripped down for a lunchtime yoga session, but none of them bought it.

The scientific community reacted well to my publications, but my lack of a doctorate made some of them cast aspersions on my findings and conclusions. One professor even straight up said it’ll be interesting to see what happens when a seasoned xeno sociologist peruses this culture.

It made my blood boil, but my time spent with the fleet counted toward my doctorate accreditation. I figured I’d eventually have the last laugh. And as they say, whoever laughs last, laughs loudest.

Or maybe it’s thinks slowest. I always get that one mixed up.

One day, I was laying on my side, my head on top of Zaen’s chest. His arm encircled my shoulders, fingers draped down and brushing my breast.

I wriggled around a little bit, enough to see the time. I realized I only had ten minutes till I had to be back on duty.

“I love you.” I kissed him on the chest and tried to rise. “I’ve got to get ready.”

“No,” he said, half asleep. “Stay.”

“I can’t be late, I’m in charge.” I pried his finger off of me and slithered out of bed. “Honestly, you’re insatiable. Just because you have the afternoon off doesn’t mean some of us don’t have to work.”

I stuck my tongue out at him. His brows raised as if he were intrigued.

“Really? That’s most interesting. Is your outthrust tongue a threat or a promise?”

I laughed at his mastery of Earth snark and climbed back into bed for another kiss. He took my breath away with the tender yet passionate way he kissed me. Unfortunately, he tried to take advantage of the situation and feel me up.

I slapped his hands away and got back to my feet. He pouted up at me while I got dressed.

“Oh, don’t be that way. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“What am I supposed to do until then?”

“Hmm. You could pick up the quarters—”

“That won’t take very long, though.”

“True.” I finished buttoning my blouse, then stepped into my knee length skirt. I topped it with a lab coat and headed for the door. “So I guess I’ll leave you with something to think about.”

“Oh?” he asked, his eyes glittering. “Is it something related to the bedroom?”

“Yes, it is, as a matter of fact,” I said. “Only not in the way you think. Remember that physical I had the other day?”

He nodded.

“Yes, what of it?”

“We’re having a baby.”

With that, I stepped through the door, a big shit-eating grin on my face. I heard him exclaim as the door slid shut.

“What--?”

I laughed evilly, and headed off to the lab.

Life was perfect.

* * *

Want more Vaznik warriors?

Get Rekker, where it all began!

https://readerlinks.com/l/2543118

Rekker wasn't expecting to be matched.

On the eve of being sent to retrieve a mysterious artifact, he's sent something just as enigmatic.

A human woman, lush and curved.

His mate.

Even worse, she wants nothing to do with him.

His blood burns for her, but the need to make her happy overrides everything.

He'll find a way to set her free, even if it means he'll be alone. Forever.

But when danger comes from an unexpected source, they're thrown together. And when his mate turns to him, he'll protect her.

Keep her.

Claim her.

Lila Kanes never wanted any thing but a quiet life on her family farm. She certainly didn't want to be claimed by a massive alien mate.

Thrown into the stars, she'll do whatever it takes to find a way home.

Back to Earth.

Back to her family.

She couldn't possibly want to stay with the hot, horned alien with the amazing body, who made her feel like the most precious thing in the universe, could she?

Right?

Rekker is the first book of the Warriors of Vaznik, a stand alone series in the Warlord Brides universe. There's no cheating, and a guaranteed HEA for each couple!

Get it now! https://readerlinks.com/l/2543118

* * *

Looking for a new kind of Warlord Bride?

Don’t miss Rejected by the Kagethi Lord!

Rejected. Trapped on an alien world. I should hate him.

So why don't I?

Nina

Cinderella, I'm not.

I've been matched to a Kagathi Lord, but he wants nothing to do with me.

Reo is grumpy.

Rude.

Sometimes a downright jerk.

But there are flashes of kindness in his eyes.

And when we touch nothing else matters.

Reo

My mate. My heart.

My blood burns to claim Nina, keep her.

But more than the Suhlik threaten the peace here. If the forces ranged against the peace ever learn how much Nina means to me, she'll be in danger.

And I will do anything, everything, to keep her safe.

Even from myself.

Get it now! https://readerlinks.com/l/2550086

* * *

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter and facebook group, where I send out teaser chapters and general silliness.

And finally, if you loved the book, please don’t forget to leave a review. Readers love to hear from other readers, so your opinion matters!

XOXO,

AVA

ARE YOU A STARR HUNTRESS?

Do you love to read sci-fi romance about strong, independent women and the sexy alien males who love them?

Starr Huntress is a coalition of the brightest Starrs in romance banding together to explore uncharted territories.

If you like your men horny- maybe literally- and you're equal opportunity skin color- because who doesn't love a guy with blue or green skin?- then join us as we dive into swashbuckling space adventure, timeless romance, and lush alien landscapes.

Click here to sign up for the newsletter for giveaways, promotions and new release announcements!

Or find us at:

- Starrhuntress.com

- Facebook

- Twitter @StarrHuntress

* * *

Want to know whenever I release a new book? Join my mailing list at avayorkbooks.com/stay-in-touch

OPENING MOVE: THE ALIEN GAMES

This surly, arrogant giant blue gladiator says he needs me to survive. Say what?

I've been ripped away from Earth to play a lethal alien game.

If we win, we get our freedom.

But my sister won't make it out alive.

My alien partner is a savage wall of muscle. But with every dangerous obstacle in our path, I'm beginning to see a different side of him hidden behind the violence.

He's brave. Unexpectedly sweet. And soon its not just the effort of winning the game that has me hot and bothered...

Read this hot alien abduction romance and let the games begin!

Welcome to the Alien Games! Each book features a HEA for the couple, but please note -- there's an overarching storyline that carries through all five books!

Click here to get it now!

ROGUE MATE

Science fiction romance is the destination of the Rogue Star…. Hop on board!

Our rescuers are a group of pirates. Or smugglers. They're not exactly answering questions, either.

More importantly, they're giant, golden skinned aliens...

And their rogue of a captain seems very interested in the little human commander.

Me.

Rogue Mate is the first in the Rogue Star science fiction alien romance series. Click now to start the adventure!

Copyright © 2022 by Ava York

All rights reserved. These books or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.