ROGUE HAVEN

ROGUE STAR: BOOK SIX

ELIN WYN

AVA YORK

CONTENTS

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda: Epilogue

Letter from Elin & Ava

Rogue’s Tale: Sneak Peek

Xyla

Gallus

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About the Author

QAL

Things had been good…boring, maybe a little frustrating, but good.

It had been a few days since we left Katzul, as we aimlessly traveled through a part of space that wasn’t generally patrolled by anyone. I’d pored over every text I had, pulled every random bit of navigational knowledge out of the corners of my mind, trying to solve the puzzle of those five odd symbols.

Glyphs. They had a meaning, but it stayed hidden.

Still, working on the puzzle was a nice distraction while we waited for Captain Dejar and Aavat to decide on our next move.

Then anything remotely related to boring changed three minutes ago.

Three minutes ago, the forward sensors went crazy and proximity alarms began blaring.

“What’s going on?” Captain Dejar blurted.

I held up my left hand, a single finger extended as I waited for the sensor readings to clarify. “Meteor storm. Brace yourselves!” I yelled back.

Lightning quick reflexes, superior flying ability, and an analytical mind that could predict where each meteor was going to be…I had at least two of those.

“What in the nine rings of Thron is going on?!” Itair yelled as he ran onto the bridge.

“Not now!” Aavat yelled.

“This isn’t what I bargained for!” Itair moaned. “You were supposed to keep me safe!”

“If you don’t stop making a fuss, we’ll all be dead and you can make your bargain with our ghosts!” Dejar yelled back.

I allowed myself a brief smile before going back to my controls.

Now, if the Rogue Star had been a much smaller ship with a much smaller crew, I would have been able to fly her through the meteor storm with ease. While she wasn’t a large ship, she wasn’t a personal shuttle either.

We weren’t going to make it out unscathed.

Ignoring Dejar and Aavat as they yelled out instructions to everyone else, I used instinct and the ship’s sensors to twist, pull, turn, dive, and dodge my way through. The first meteor to hit us was small, bounced us around a little…the next one sent the ship careening sideways into the path of another.

I hit the orbiting thrusters to push us straight up, then the portside thrusters to shove us to the right. I finished off my brilliant maneuver by plowing straight through a smaller meteor in order to avoid the two ship-killers next to it.

When all was said and done, we had been hit a few dozen times, mostly by small ones that hadn’t done much damage. The three larger ones, however, those had hurt us, badly. Nearly catastrophically.

Dejar and Aavat were yelling out for damage reports, calling out orders, and demanding to know how we could have been caught in that without warning.

“You can’t predict or monitor meteor showers, sirs, not when a vast majority of the sensors are searching for that umbba dark ship.” I shrugged and grinned. “At least The Terror didn’t find us, right?”

Dejar didn’t like the grin. I knew he thought I counted most of this as a joke, but I didn’t. It was just how I coped with things.

We had survived, that was something worth smiling about.

As reports started flying in, I turned back to my console and tried to figure out what I could do. My instrument panels were strangely sluggish, they weren’t responding to my touch the way they should.

Kout.

That meant that we had been damaged much more than I had hoped. I half-turned an ear towards the reports coming in.

Orrin’s voice, with Maris yelling in the background, was currently the one of focus. “Engines are struggling, Captain. One of the meteors made direct contact in bay two, crumpled the side and broke apart several of the drive shafts. Fuel reserves are fine, but we’re limping until we can get some repair work done. We’re lucky we don’t have a leak, yet.”

“Kout,” Dejar swore. “Alright, do the best you can, Orrin. Lynna, report.”

Lynna’s voice came back over the comm, shaken, but powerful. “I don’t have a complete report, but there are nearly a dozen people in here right now. I’m positive we’ll have more soon.”

“Understood,” Dejar flicked off the comm and looked at me. “Tell me something.”

I knew I shouldn’t have turned around. I took a deep breath. “My own control panel is compromised as well. I don’t believe Orrin has had an opportunity to see the full extent of the engine damage, sir. We’ve lost over forty percent of our maneuverability, nearly thirty percent of our thrust capabilities, and if our sensors are right, about half of our outer sensors are destroyed.”

Before he could respond, Orrin came back on the comm. “Sir?”

“What is it, Orrin?” Dejar answered.

“Damage to the engines is much worse than I originally anticipated. My team is telling me that we’re going to lose everything in a matter of hours if we don’t get these lines fixed.”

“What do you mean ‘everything’?” Aavat asked.

Orrin’s voice sounded hollow, almost resigned. “Everything, sir. Engines, life support, all of it. We might be able to get enough of a repair done to keep life support and marginal propulsion, but we wouldn’t be able to outrun a Katzulian slug, sir.”

“Do what you can,” Dejar ordered, then looked at me, again. “Is there anything we can do?”

I thought about it for a brief second, then turned back to my console. I brought up my pride and joy, a highly intricate, expansive star-map that was more complete than any other I’d seen. Even Captain Dejar’s personal map.

Also, I could project my map holographically in deeper detail than he could his own. Not that I ever mentioned it or anything.

It was one of the little things I’d learned he didn’t appreciate.

As I projected the map in the middle of the bridge, I stood and studied it. “Well?” Aavat’s voice entered my brain like an ice pick. I motioned for him to have a moment of patience as I interacted with the view, considering possibilities.

“Okay,” I started. I had come to like that Terran word, ‘okay.’ It was a simple way of beginning a sentence, ending one, or however you wanted to use it. You could ask about someone’s well-being. You could answer a question. You could even use it to describe something that was neither good, nor bad. I loved the word.

“We’re roughly in this area here,” I pointed to a portion of the map that glowed. The glow showed our position. I knew exactly where we were but didn’t want to sound presumptuous or anything. “Orrin?”

“He’s busy,” Maris snapped at me over the comm. She was a delight to have on the ship, she really was. Funny, assertive, and more than willing to tell you exactly what she thought, even if you hadn’t asked her to. “What do you want?”

“How much power do we have? Exactly?”

With a loud huff, followed by several agonizing seconds of silence, Maris finally came back. “Why?”

“I think I may have found a place for us to go, but I’m not sure if we have enough juice to get there. Do you think we have enough left in the engines for a few short bursts of power to push us where we need to go?”

“How many bursts?” she asked me.

I did a quick calculation in my head, simply to verify the calculations I had already done before this conversation had started. “At least five…and I’ll need enough left for the retro-rockets in order to land us in one piece.”

“You want to land in atmo?”

“Affirmative,” I answered.

“Then you’ve got enough for three small bursts. I can’t promise any more than that.”

“I’ll make it work. Thank you, Maris.” I turned to Dejar and Aavat. I pointed to a bright blue spot on my holo-map. “There’s a small planet here…more of a moon, really, but it’s inhabited.”

“By who?” Aavat asked.

“It’s a, um…” I stumbled for the right words, then simply just answered the question. “It’s a small haven for pirates and outlaws. They might not be terribly happy to see us, but it’s the only chance we have of getting somewhere that might be able to help us, and not drop us into the lap of the Dominion.”

“How do you know about this place?” Aavat asked.

I shrugged. “I haven’t always been your pilot, sir.” I didn’t bother to hide my semi-sheepish grin.

“Do it. If you think you can get us there safely, then do it. We don’t have much choice,” Dejar said.

I nodded and turned back to my console. I tapped in the coordinates of the moon, dropped the map, and ever so slowly directed us towards it. The first burst of energy from the engines turned us, the second got us heading there. I would have to save the final burst to slow us down as we entered the atmosphere.

Reports kept coming in. Luckily, the worst of the injuries was a broken ankle from one of the men, the rest were bumps, bruises, a few concussions, and a swollen eye.

Valtic’s voice came on, but I wasn’t paying much attention anymore. I was doing my best to keep an eye on the sensors to make sure nothing else was headed our way, not that we could have done much about it.

So, it wasn’t a surprise to me that I jumped, startled, when Dejar put his hand on my shoulder. “Good flying back there.”

Okay, that was different. He never complimented me quietly, with a hand on my shoulder, or a look of honest-to-my-ancestors pride on his face.

I questioned it. “Sir?”

“The meteor shower…good flying,” he repeated with a pat on my shoulder. “You got us through the worst of it with ease. You somehow managed to minimize the damage that could have happened to the ship. It was good work.”

Well, I hadn’t expected that, or the swell of pride in my chest, either. “Thank you, sir. Just wish I had done better.”

“Well, hopefully we won’t have the need to try it again.”

“Good point,” I nodded as he returned to his chair. I jutted out my lips a bit as I tried to figure out what had just happened.

Within an hour, we were approaching the moon. I sent out a shortwave broadcast towards the moon, letting them know we were approaching, heavily damaged, and unable to turn away. Just in case they decided to be hostile.

Not that we could do much about it in our state.

Just before we hit atmo, I used the last burst to slow us down, then fired up the retro-rockets. We were still coming in a lot faster than I wanted. “BRACE!” I yelled out as the ground flew up to meet us. We touched down on the surface of the planet, on what looked to be a beach close to the water, as gently as a boulder crashing through a house.

My head hurt.

MANDA

My head ached like it never had before. When I opened my eyes, I briefly saw things in triplicate.

After a few blinks, it faded to double, then finally single, but still blurred around the edges of my field of vision.

That couldn’t be good.

The automated voice of the Rogue Star’s AI called for an immediate evacuation. All around me, figures dashed and stumbled in the direction of the exit doors.

Pressing my hand against my temple, as if that would stop the unbearable pounding in my head, I staggered to my feet. I fell toward the exit door, banging my shoulder hard on a metal doorway. I tripped over my own feet more times than I took actual steps.

When I spilled out of the Rogue Star, I wasn’t prepared for the ground beneath my feet to be anything other than flat and solid. Instead, it was uneven and shifted with each step. The light was so bright, I couldn’t see anything at first. My knees gave out under me. I landed on a soft, grainy material I recognized as sand.

In no hurry to move or see, I let my body go lax against the sandy ground. My eyes would adjust eventually. My head would stop pounding eventually. For now, I was content to just have stable ground beneath me.

“Are you okay?” A breathy female voice asked near me.

I cracked one eye open only to find the question wasn’t directed at me. Commander Kalyn stumbled across the sand to touch Lynna on the arm. Lynna coughed up a mouthful of sand.

“I’m fine,” she rasped. “Did you see Shenna? I thought I saw her run back in.”

“Shit,” Kalyn gasped. “She must’ve gone back in for her animals.”

“Of course she did.” Lynna laughed, or it might’ve been a cough.

“Wait, I see her over there,” Kalyn lifted her head to look somewhere past me. “She’s got her pets, too.”

“What about Maris?” Lynna asked.

“I’m here!” Maris’s voice came from somewhere I couldn’t see. “Has anyone seen Aryn?”

“She’s over there!” Lynna replied. The roll call continued on. Through everyone else’s shouts, I heard that all of the Persephone women and the Rogue Star crewmembers were accounted for. With a sigh of relief, I closed my eyes again and focused on the warm sensation of the sand against my cheek.

“Where’s Manda?” Kalyn asked suddenly. I cracked one eye open. I’d been lying ten feet from her, in her field of vision, this entire time.

“I’m here.” My voice sounded rough and scratchy.

“Oh,” Kalyn gasped. “I didn’t even see you there. Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

At least her concern sounded genuine.

“I’m fine,” I replied. The pounding behind my eyes had finally subsided. With a groan, I pushed myself up onto my knees. My eyes adjusted to the light. I turned my head away from the bright white glare of the sun to find a wall of thick, vibrantly green jungle rising up from the sand about thirty yards away.

Flocks of brightly colored birds with tail feathers long enough to touch the tops of the trees filled the sky. The jungle was so thick, I couldn’t see past the first couple rows of trees, but I could still see thousands of vibrant flowers and fruits bursting from between thick, waxy leaves.

The gentle sound of lapping water caught my attention. I looked over my shoulder and gasped when I found a sparkling lavender sea gently kissing the shoreline.

After weeks of recycled air, I was grateful for the fresh air. The gentle breeze was sweet, almost fruity. I wandered closer to the water and took in deep, greedy breaths. I’d never seen a place so beautiful in all my life. I’d never even dreamed a place like this existed. For a brief moment, I thought about never leaving.

The crew would move on eventually.

I imagined what I would say when I told them to leave me here. When I tried to imagine how everyone would react, I couldn’t think of anything. I doubted that they would stop me.

“Captain, someone’s coming,” Aavat called from farther up the beach. I turned to look and for the first time, I saw the state of the Rogue Star.

I’d never actually gotten a good look at the spaceship I’d been living on for weeks.

Spaceship. It still boggled my mind, but this was life now. Normal, somehow.

I’d seen it from afar on Dominion Outpost Nine, but taking in the sights wasn’t my priority as we all ran from Dominion officials. All I’d focused on then was that boarding ramp, and the sound of shots behind us.

Now I could see… and winced.

The first half of the ship was sleek and untouched. The second half bore the signs of impact. A plume of thick black smoke rose from what I assumed was the engine.

I wasn’t an expert mechanic or engineer, not like Maris and Orrin, but from the look of the Rogue Star, I’d guess it would take a few days to make repairs. Assuming we could find the necessary materials to even work on it.

Looking at the lush landscape, that didn’t seem likely. Unless those trees were of some magical kind of plant, I was pretty sure you couldn’t use wood to patch a hull.

“We mean no harm,” Captain Dejar called to the group of individuals coming out of the forest. The being at the front of the group was over seven feet tall, with a beard of wriggling tentacles. I counted six eyes in total. He had a peg-leg. My mind went to the old Terran tales of pirates with peg-legs, eyepatches, and colorful parrots, and I found myself smiling.

“What brings you to our fortress?” the leader asked, his voice like a wet hiss. As he drew nearer, my hand went to my face.

Shit.

I wasn’t wearing a disguise.

None of the human women were. If the residents of this island knew we were an illegal species, we could be in trouble. However, the tentacle-bearded leader didn’t react to our appearance. I took that as a good sign.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Aavat asked. Captain Dejar gave him a swift tap on the arm. Qal, the navigator, dashed forward.

“We seek shelter. We’re wanted by the Dominion,” he said quickly.

“Have they tracked your location?” the leader asked, raking Qal with a dark look.

“No,” Valtic spoke up. “Our sensors are sophisticated. We would’ve known.”

I thought about how the possibly-Dominion ship, The Terror, had a tendency to sneak up on us but I certainly wasn’t going to bring it up.

“We don’t wish to make this our permanent home,” Captain Dejar interjected. “We simply ask for a place where we can make our repairs and leave.”

“We aren’t known for our hospitality,” the leader replied.

“Can you make an exception for us? We’re enemies of the law, just as you are,” Aavat said.

“Prove it,” the leader snarled.

Captain Dejar reached into his pocket for his portable console. He pulled up the warrant for the arrest of the entire Rogue Star crew. But not the warrant for the human women. Hopefully these people weren’t on the regular comm channels. If they were hiding out, maybe they hadn’t seen all the news. Maybe.

“Please, allow us the use of your land until our ship is fit to fly,” Kalyn pleaded softly. Her voice must’ve struck a chord with the leader, for all six of his eyes softened.

“This is not our land,” he corrected. “We merely reside here. I give you my word that my clan will give you no trouble. However, I cannot ask them to share their hard-earned resources with strangers.”

“Of course,” Kalyn smiled. “We’ll make do on our own. Thank you.”

“I am not the only one in a position of authority,” the leader continued. “Any promises I make are not made on behalf of the others. You will need to come and present your case.”

“Understood,” Captain Dejar nodded.

“I will give you some time to gather yourselves,” the leader said.

“Thank you,” Captain Dejar replied. The leader and his equally rugged followers disappeared back into the trees.

“What the kopa is this place?” Aavat muttered as soon as the welcoming committee was out of earshot.

“Like I said, it’s a safe haven for outlaws and fugitives,” Qal replied. “What were you expecting, a welcome home party?”

“We should consider ourselves lucky they didn’t kill us on sight and loot our ship,” Kovor said.

“They were strangely diplomatic for outlaws, weren’t they?” Kalyn wondered out loud. From my understanding of outlaw colonies, they were usually enemies of the law but strictly held themselves to an agreed-upon set of rules. I thought about saying as much, but decided against it.

“Lucky for us,” Captain Dejar laughed dryly.

“We should clear the Rogue Star for re-boarding as soon as possible,” Valtic said. “If they aren’t going to allow us the use of their resources, we’re going to have to rely on our own food stores and shelter.”

“And I need to check our inventory. I think we have enough staribite to make repairs. Now that the engines are shut down, I may as well do an overhaul.”

“Get working on that,” Captain Dejar nodded. Valtic gestured to Orrin and together they walked toward the Rogue Star.

“Maris, Aryn,” Kalyn called. “Search the shoreline for any bits of wreckage we could use for repairs. If it’s metal, we’re going to need it.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Aryn nodded.

“Lynna, check everyone for injuries. Even if they say they aren’t hurt, I still want them checked out,” Kalyn continued. Lynna nodded and headed toward the crewmembers who were more obviously injured.

Kalyn continued to delegate tasks until everyone had a job.

Everyone but me.

“What should I do?” I asked.

“Oh!” Her eyes lit up like they did whenever she saw me, as if she needed a moment to re-recognize me. “Can you be an extra set of hands to anyone who needs it?”

“Of course,” I replied.

Kalyn gave me a grateful smile before joining Captain Dejar.

I looked around the beach. No one appeared to be struggling with their tasks. I realized Kalyn didn’t send anyone to get the lay of the area.

I could do that.

On the off chance that the Rogue Star was deemed unsafe for re-boarding, I figured we should know our options.

Plus, I really wanted to see more of this stunning place.

Whistling softly to myself, I headed into the tree line.

QAL

“Sir, don’t those look familiar?”

We’d been working on the ship in teams, making sure each area was habitable and stable, letting the fans work at half power to clear out the smoke.

Aavat and I stood on the beach after our last round inside, pulling in lungfuls of fresh air.

Halfway between the waterline and the trees stood a stone pillar. And carved down the side of the pillar were those kouting glyphs.

Not the same ones. I’d traced the lines of those five over and over until I had them memorized.

But these were related somehow.

A language, that we only had five words in? An alphabet?

Aavat stared at the symbols, face thoughtful. “Keep your eyes open. There may be more. If it’s a code…”

“Then any bit of context will help us crack it,” I finished.

Before we found anything else, the same being came limping down the beach, squirming beard oddly fascinating.

“It’s time,” he barked. “Come make your case.”

Our little group of five consisted of Dejar, Aavat, and Kovor because they were the leaders, Valtic because they wanted someone big, massive, and ready to fight in case things went wrong, and Dejar recruited me to come along because I was the idiot that landed us here.

Truthfully, I think it was more because Aavat wanted me to keep looking for more glyphs.

But Dejar liked his answer better.

Our guide led us along a thin path. The trees were exotic, tropical, and several of them were filled with blooms of every color. Birds, some with two or three sets of wings, flew overhead, while small creatures with tails jumped back and forth from tree to tree.

I was entranced. The sheer serene beauty of the place was comforting, stress draining out of me with every step.

Of all the places that I had ever been in my short life, this had to be the most beautiful setting I had ever seen. The only thing that kept it from being absolutely perfect was the temperature…it was a bit warmer than I preferred, although not by much.

I could get used to being here.

Very quickly.

As we rounded a corner and topped a tiny hill, our guide stepped to the side. With a flourish of his arm, he showed us our meeting place. At the bottom of the hill was a large wooden platform with a huge table in the center. Surrounding the platform were numerous items - almost like relics in a museum—vases, statues, and several other things placed on pedestals or standing on their own.

Seated at the table were six men and women of various races…or species—I never understood that argument, if you could reproduce with something, it was a different race, if you couldn’t, it was a different species…what was so hard about that—I shook my head to get my mind back on track.

“Hey,” I said more to myself than anyone else. I looked at our guide, sudden recognition exploding in my mind. “You’re a Jonsdayvian. I knew that I recognized your race from somewhere.”

“That I am, young friend,” he acknowledged with a nod and a kind eye. “Our kinds used to be allies many generations ago, then we drew apart as the cosmos grew.” He motioned for me to follow the others. “If you would care to join your mates, we can all move on with our chosen tasks.”

I hurried down the hill, barely recognizing that there were stairs cut into it, and joined my shipmates at the table. There were three women of various races and three men of other races seated at the table, each of them patently ignoring us as we stood there. We stood there, waiting, until our guide made it to the table.

“Ahem,” he cleared his throat as he took his own seat at the end of the line of leaders. “I believe that it is time.”

“As you wish,” one of the women said, her voice sounding like that of a bird. Her bright red skin with gray eyes, gray hair, and gray hands were nicely complimented by the white sarong she wore and the white flower in her hair. She turned to us, her hands steepled in front of her face. “Which of you is the captain of the Rogue Star?”

For a split second, I was curious as to how she knew the name of our ship, but then I remembered that I had put out the distress call to let them know we were landing. I had used the ship’s name during that call.

Dejar stepped forward. “I am. My name is Dejar Lemec. We are…”

“Why does the Dominion want you?”

“We… well,” I sighed. For the captain of a more-often-than-not smuggling crew, Dejar had never really mastered the art of lying.

Kalyn stepped forward, her hand in Dejar’s. “They’re chasing us, actually. The women like me. The Rogue Star has been hiding us from the Dominion. We think,” her face paled, “we think they’re involved with testing women from different species, but we don’t know why or what for.” Her chin raised. “I just know I don’t want to be caught.”

The group around the table exchanged glances but didn’t look particularly surprised at the idea.

One of the males spoke up. “If they’re chasing you, they’ll find you soon enough.”

“We’ll get off your world as soon as we can,” Dejar promised.” We don’t want to lead them to you. We know it’s not your fight.”

“We have plenty of our own.” The male that had just spoken looked like a Pronarian, except that his skin was purple instead of green. Otherwise, he matched every description of a Pronarian I had ever known. He sat at the end of the line.

“What do you want from us?” his neighbor asked. Another male, I presumed, with a large bulbous head, a single eye, and two mouths. I had no idea what race he was.

Next to him was the red-skinned woman, then came another woman with similar gray hands, eyes, and hair, except her skin was bright green…like engine coolant green.

“Nothing but safe harbor while we make our repairs,” Kalyn answered.

“Zukir has already told you, we won’t, can’t assist you.”

Dejar looked at Aavat. “Orrin and Maris’s teams have already run our preliminary estimates. We’ll be able to make most of our repairs out of our own resources.”

The last male, other than Zukir, looked to be part Shein, and part something with scales, although the scales didn’t seem to stay out at all times. His skin tone matched mine, a deep bronze in color, and his dark, deep, and fully formed black beard had me slightly jealous.

Next to him was an extremely muscular and fairly attractive female with similar complexion to the human women—perhaps that was why no one looked at our women with hostility or confusion. Her blue hair stretched down below her shoulders, and with a quick bend to simulate a stretch, I saw that her hair nearly touched the platform.

The top that she wore hung from her surprisingly muscular shoulders from four skinny straps. “How did you know of this haven?” the attractive one asked.

No one answered for what seemed to be a long time, then I realized that my crewmates were looking at me.

“Oh,” I said as I stepped forward. “I...uh, my apologies. My name is Qal. I am the primary navigator and pilot of the Rogue Star. I knew of this place due to some of my previous travels. One of my old captains used to talk of this place. He didn’t do it justice.”

I smiled at the leader, who turned away from me as though I didn’t exist. If my ego had feelings, it would have been devastated.

“Name this captain,” the red-skinned woman said.

I searched my brain for a few moments before his name came back to me. “He was known as Bolrull. He was a…” I stopped talking as the red one held up her hand.

“We know of this Bolrull. Please step away from the platform as we deliberate.”

We all stepped off the platform, walked a dozen or so feet away, and waited patiently. The others waited patiently. I watched the beauty with the blue hair, cream-colored skin, and the fabulous muscles.

She was lovely, but for some reason, my usual interest wasn’t sparked.

After a long ten minutes, we were called back.

Blue-hair spoke, and my attraction for her dimmed. Her voice was deep, deeper than Orrin’s, and had a slight phlegm-like echo to it. “We have spoken. We have decided. You will be allowed to rest, repair, refuel, and restock your wares, as long as your coin is good.”

“It is,” Kovor shot back.

“Very well. However,” she held up a hand and kept explaining, “do not expect assistance or materials that are necessary to our life in this haven. If it can be spared, it will be sold, not given freely. Is that understood?”

We all nodded in unison.

“Good,” Zukir said as he stood. “Then this meeting is concluded. I will show you back to your ship.”

“Wait,” I said, stepping forward. “Forgive my impertinence, but I noticed that you have a lot of relics surrounding the platform. I recognize several of them, and I must say, they’re really nice and it must have been an impressive feat acquiring them.”

I had hoped that by complimenting their taste and collection, it would let them warm up to us a bit. Each of them, except for Zukir, looked at me as though my speaking was a waste of everything. None of them answered me.

“Let’s go, Qal,” Dejar whispered from behind me.

“Just a second.” I stepped up to the table, pulling out a small holo-disc. Activating it sent the five glyphs cycling in the air. “We need some help translating these. I noticed that there are several similar glyphs around the beach where we are.”

When I had first turned the holo-disc on, I noticed that several of them had flashes of recognition on their faces.

They knew what the glyphs were. I was hopeful.

Then my hopes were dashed like fine crystal destroyed by heavy cannon fire.

“We know nothing of these glyphs. Now, if you please, return to your ship and complete the necessary repairs.”

All but Zukir left the table and headed away.

“Come, it is time for you to leave this place,” Zukir said, indicating that we should follow him.

As we did, I got close to Dejar. “Sir, they’re lying,” I whispered quietly.

“Hmm,” was his only response.

We were led back to the beach in silence. “Please organize a list of materials and supplies required for your repairs. I will send an envoy before the evening sun.” With that, he turned and walked away.

“Tell me later,” Dejar said as I opened my mouth to speak.

Fine…I would wait.

For now.

MANDA

I was used to being alone.

Here, in this beautiful place, there was far too much to wonder at to ever be lonely.

I had splintered off from the group well over an hour ago. After wandering up and down the beach, still within view of the crash site, for twenty minutes, I’d decided to dip into the jungle. At first, I stuck close to the tree line, keeping the white sand in my line of sight between the mossy trunks.

I could still hear the voices of the Rogue Star crewmembers. Far away voices, the sounds of other people’s conversations, were a familiar backdrop.

I was the middle child between two sisters. My mother worked two full-time jobs to take care of us. My younger sister, Marci, demanded much of my mother’s attention. She frequently fell ill and required almost weekly trips to the neighborhood physician. My older sister, Madla, worked alongside my mother. They spent the majority of their days together. Between working with Madla and taking Marci to the doctor, my mother rarely had time for me.

I never once held it against her. If my mother didn’t do everything she could, I wouldn’t have had the clothes on my back, the food in my belly, or a little sister in good health. However, I did get used to being alone at an early age.

I was a naturally quiet mover. I got a weird sense of accomplishment from entering and exiting areas unnoticed. It was almost like a game.

I guess I’d made up lots of games to keep myself occupied.

A cluster of brightly colored fruits caught my eye, high above the jungle floor. I looked around for a stone to throw. I found one that looked black at first, but when it was exposed to sunlight, it was really a shimmering dark blue.

I wondered if it was valuable. I almost didn’t throw it, but what goes up always comes down, right? I chucked it at the cluster of fruit, dislodging two pieces. One of them bore the mark of the stone’s impact. Its neon pink flesh was quickly ruined by the dirt. The other one was mostly unscathed.

I picked it up to examine it. I wasn’t a botanist or anything, but I’d read a few books on how to determine if a plant or fruit was safe to eat.

Of course, those books only applied to vegetation in the Terran System, but surely some of the principles applied in other galaxies, right?

I sniffed the fruit and detected no concerning odor. It smelled as sweet as everything else on this planet. I broke the skin of the fruit and smelled the pink insides. Nothing indicated anything unusual.

Except the neon pink fruit on a tropical alien moon. Nothing unusual at all.

“This is probably a bad idea,” I said to the fruit as I took the tiniest possible bite. It was delicious. If it didn’t kill me, this fruit would be useful should the Rogue Star not be accessible to us. I held the nibbled fruit in my hand and continued walking.

Eventually, the voices of the Rogue Star crew faded away. I wasn’t worried. I could still see the glimmer of pearly sand between the trees. All I had to do was head to the beach and turn back towards the ship.

Suddenly, an unusual sound tore my attention from the ground in front of me up to the canopy. As I tried to identify the sound that sounded almost like a human pan flute, I tripped over a thick root. I lashed out with my free hand, striking the side of a tree harder than I intended to. The disturbance sent a flock of the birds I’d seen from the beach flying.

Their tailfeathers were so long they grazed my shoulders. I wondered how they didn’t get tangled up in the branches. Without touching them, I followed the iridescent stream of tail feathers. I periodically examined my surroundings to make sure I wasn’t wandering too far away from the beach. I briefly glanced at the fruit in my hand and a horrible thought occurred to me.

“Hey, birdies,” I called up through the canopy, “if you were a hallucination brought on by me eating strange fruit, you’d tell me, right?”

I took their lack of response as a good sign.

The trees around me began to thin out. Eventually, I stepped into a large clearing filled with buildings. The buildings were made entirely from natural resources like leaves, wood, stone, and thatch, but they were so intricately erected, the use of advanced tech must’ve been utilized during construction. All different kinds of aliens milled about the buildings.

Most of them wore tattered clothes but looked to be in good health. Some wore clothing fashioned from leaves and vines. Others chose to forgo clothing entirely. I did my best not to stare.

A stocky blue alien wearing a tunic of leaves patched across worn fabric piloted a drone. I watched as he flew it up high into the trees, then it returned, with a woven-vine net laden with the same fruit I’d tested earlier.

Smarter than throwing rocks at it, less wasteful.

But I wondered, as he deftly maneuvered the drone to empty its net then return to the trees for another load, about their oddly mixed use of tech.

The fruit seemed to be a popular food item. With a sigh of relief, I brought the fruit to my mouth and took a proper bite. At least that was one mystery solved.

Drifting through the alien villagers, I attracted stares. Once again, I was reminded that I was showing my true human face. The aliens gave me long, strange looks, but none of them recognized me as a wanted species. I thought about what the tentacle-faced leader had said to Captain Dejar. His people wouldn’t attack us, but they wouldn’t share resources either.

Technically, I wasn’t looking for resources. I was simply exploring.

I walked past a large building that rivaled some of the finest homes on Mars. It had a turret, columns, and a wraparound porch. The leaders must’ve lived there. Or, perhaps, it was similar to a city hall. I wanted to peek inside and satisfy my curiosity, but I didn’t think that would be kindly received.

“Hello,” I said softly as I passed a group of aliens. They gave me strange looks as I passed by, but I smiled with my lips closed.

Some animal species in the Terran System saw barred teeth as a threat. I didn’t want to take the chance that some of these aliens shared the same view.

If I wasn’t supposed to be in the village, no one approached me to force me out. Eyes followed me everywhere, but no one interacted with me.

In the center of the village was a large, perfectly round hole with a low stone railing. The sides of the hole were so smooth and perfect, it must’ve been made by some sort of giant drill.

Over the hole hung a framework, suspending a machined pulley. Ropes made of flexible, yet resilient, vines pulled up woven baskets spilling over with water.

But by the time the water reached the top of the well, the baskets were half empty and the baskets weren’t very big to begin with.

Looking around the village, I guessed that about two hundred individuals lived within the compound based on the size of the buildings and the amount of supplies visible. Of course, I could’ve been wrong.

Either way, the system wasn’t as effective at collecting water as it could’ve been.

I wasn’t an expert in mechanical engineering by a long shot, but I’d read a few books on the subject back on Mars. Not wanting to butt in where I wasn’t wanted, I approached the purple and yellow alien that seemed to be monitoring the mechanism.

“Excuse me, can you understand me?” I asked. Weeks ago, I’d been given an earpiece that allowed me to understand the Shein males of the Rogue Star crew. I wasn’t sure how it worked. I’d never tested it off the ship.

“Yes,” the supervising alien replied as if it were obvious.

“Oh. Is this how the well always operates?” I asked.

“Of course not,” he said sharply. “But we work with what we've got.”

I guess that made sense. The people who lived here wouldn't have access to regular trading routes. Probably didn't even leave too often for fear someone could trace them back.

If all of their resources were limited to what they could find on this world and what occasional visitors were willing to trade, they'd have to be very clever.

I watched the baskets rise up.

“We needed the metal for another project,” the alien scowled. “I was sure I’d be able to get the baskets to work.” His eyes narrowed, as if he could solder the leaf baskets shut by just his stare. “But our sealant won't stick to the leaves.”

Sealant. A tickle in my head told me I'd read something, learned something useful.

“Rubber,” I exclaimed. “Do you have any rubber plants here?”

“I wouldn't know,” he frowned.

“What's the stickiest sap you have, from trees or large plants where you cut it and it oozes out and…”

He looked at me blankly.

The translators were useful, but I hated not knowing what they were actually saying. “Sap. You cut trees or plants and it oozes out and it gets everywhere and it's sticky…”

I froze, realizing that I was probably sounding like an idiot.

“We have things like that.” He snapped his fingers at a pair of passing aliens with four arms and powder blue skin and barked orders at them in a language I didn't catch, maybe a village-specific pidgin not cataloged by the earpiece I wore.

Interesting. I’d have to learn more about it.

While we were waiting, I wandered off and found and cut leaves that looked similar to the ones they had made the baskets out of.

Or at least, I tried to. Their thick stems resisted my efforts to tear them.

“Here, you don't have any claws.”

With a quick slice, the alien had pulled a handful of leaves off the giant tree.

Oh.

“Thank you.”

I lay them over the edge of the stone railing that kept people from tripping into the well.

We waited under the warm sun.

“I mean, it works,” I nodded to the well. “And it's impressive what you've been able to do with it and…”

The supervisor said nothing and I shut up.

Soon, the pair of powder blue aliens returned with three glass pots of gluey liquid.

They spoke to my new acquaintance, who related their words, back to me.

“These are the three stickiest they could find.” He looked doubtful.

“Let’s hope one of them does the trick,” I said, more brightly than I felt.

I painted the seam between each pair of leaves with the sap from a different jar and waited for it to dry.

Maybe I shouldn’t have spoken up.

It would have been better for me to watch, not say anything.

What if this didn’t work, and they thought I was an idiot. Or that we were all idiots. And didn’t have anything to trade.

One of the four-armed aliens had started to poke the test samples.

“I don’t think they’re ready, yet,” I sputtered.

“I don’t think this one is ever going to be ready,” the supervisor said.

He was right. The sap just ran more fluidly in the heat, leaving a sticky trail.

The next sample had hardened but was brittle. It might work, but would be tricky to keep the seams from breaking.

But the last… It had turned white and hardened in the sun to a thin, flexible sheet.

I picked up the pair of leaves it bound together and twisted them.

They held.

“Can we try it on one of the baskets?”

I almost forgot I was standing in the middle of an alien village as I laid the leaves in the basket and sealed every overlap with small amounts of sap. I set the basket in the sun to let the sap harden.

I returned to the well and examined the vines that pulled the mechanism. They were flexible, which was necessary, but they weren’t very thick. The added weight of the extra water might break the vines.

I chewed my bottom lip as I considered what to do.

“Try this.” I handed the dried bucket to the alien, who fastened it back onto the pulley system. We watched it disappear into the depths of the well and reappear filled with water. Some still dripped, but it wasn’t as much as before.

“Impressive,” the alien nodded. “Not perfect, but progress.”

“There might be another problem,” I added nervously. “How much weight can those vines carry?”

His fingers drummed as he thought.

“If you braided smaller vines, it would add strength, but not compromise flexibility,” I offered. “And should still fit through the pulley.”

He nodded as he considered it.

“It might work. It’s an option, at least.”

I felt pleased with myself. It was a good thing, to feel useful.

“Who are you, exactly?” the alien asked.

“I’m just a visitor,” I smiled.

QAL

There wasn’t much for me to do. Everything that I needed to work on required a working engine, and without a working engine, I had no way to check my instruments to ensure their viability. I could run tests and simulations on them, but those wouldn’t tell me anything real…not right away.

So, I left the ship to explore the haven…all in an attempt to simply have something to do, besides trying to translate the glyphs. The people here knew something. I could feel it in my core, in my bones…I just knew that they’d recognized what the glyphs were. How else could I have read recognition in their faces and eyes when I first popped on the holo-disc?

The only direction I knew was the one that Zukir had taken us on, and that simply led to the hill and the table. I decided to walk towards the back of the ship and explore the beach and surrounding forest in that direction. As I headed further into the trees, I noticed some more glyphs carved into the bark. Nearly a hundred yards into the forest, I found what looked to be two stone pillars, one of which was lying on the ground, covered in vines and fallen leaves. Each pillar was marked, as well.

There was no doubt that these people knew what the glyphs said, I just had to find a way to coerce it out of them, and it had to be done nicely.

If I somehow angered these people…I didn’t want to think about it.

We didn’t have any options right now. And even if we could retreat into the Rogue Star, we couldn’t leave. They’d starve us out eventually.

Unfortunately, they seemed immune to my natural charms.

I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath of the crisp, clean air, and decided to simply enjoy the scenery. I stood in place and simply breathed in the serenity of the environment. There was a taste to the air, something fruity and tangy. I really enjoyed it, found myself wanting to mimic it somehow so I could have it my room whenever I wanted it.

When I opened my eyes, there was a small creature of some sort, a light blue thing with a slightly big head, long skinny arms, and a tail that it was using to hold on to the branch above me, dangling in front of my eyes. It chittered at me then pulled itself up onto the branch. I looked up at it—uh, him—a smile plastered on my face.

He was adorable.

All I could think of was how much Shenna would lose her mind about getting a little one like this as a pet.

Then again, maybe she would leave it here so it wouldn’t be locked up on a metal ship. I was starting to wonder what the appeal was of being stuck on a vessel in the blackness of space when there was so much color and joy here.

“You got it good here, little thing,” I said up to it. “You’re free to go wherever you want to go, something I’ve always wanted to do.” He chittered at me again and I laughed. “Heh, you’re right. I shouldn’t complain. I’ve got good friends, and I do get to travel the universe while you’re stuck here…but, if you think about it, it’s a nice place to be stuck.”

I knew he couldn’t understand me, but the way he tilted his head and chittered back at me made it seem like he did. “Okay, little one. I should head out. Take care of yourself now, okay?” I walked away, enjoying the scenery where I was and the sounds and smells of the land.

After a little bit of walking, I came across what looked to be a small village and one of the human women talking with some of the locals.

I’d noticed her before. The shy smile, the long brown hair and pale, almost translucent skin. She stayed back in the shadows, but unlike Aryn who prided herself on sneaking about, it was almost like this lovely one never expected to be noticed.

Impossible.

And here she was, in the middle of an alien village, talking up a storm with a stranger.

An unexpected wave of irritation washed through me as I saw her smile at him.

It was a cute smile. Sweet and endearing.

I’d never seen her smile on the ship.

Anytime someone paid attention to her, she seemed to fade away.

I spent extra attention looking at her now.

She and the large yellow and purple male were examining something. It looked like a bunch of leaves?

She pulled them apart, laying them flat, and reached for a glass jar. As he handed it to her, his fingers brushed her wrist.

I growled. That was deliberate.

But she didn’t seem to notice, just showed him what to do. In moments, he’d ordered a crew of workers to emulate her actions. They were making baskets from leaves.

Which didn’t make much sense to me, but they seemed happy with her.

And that was useful.

At least there was one crewmember on the Rogue Star that the villagers trusted.

As the woman walked away, I followed her for a bit, trying to remember her name. And wanting to keep her safe in this strange jungle.

It wasn’t in the slightest because her gentle curves caught my eye, making it impossible to look away.

Not at all.

As she stopped to look at a bird, I stepped a little harder to make sure she heard me, hoping not to startle her. She turned to look at me and I waved and flashed my most charming smile.

And my mind blanked.

Scro.

I knew her name started with an ‘M,’ but that was as far as it went.

Had I never heard anyone speak to her?

I tried anyway. “Hey there, Marla. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

She rolled her eyes as she spoke back to me. “At least you got the first letter right, but my name is Manda, not Marla.” She turned away from me and started to walk.

I reached out and touched her arm lightly, breathing sharply at the smoothness of her skin.

“You ladies have such unusual names, it’s hard to keep them straight,” I said in a poor attempt to play off my mistake.

“It’s okay, I’m used to it,” she said quietly.

That flare of irritation came back, hotter, angrier this time. No one should feel like that. No one should make her feel like that.

And I just had.

“So, how did you get the locals to be so nice to you? They don’t seem to like me much.”

She shrugged. “I helped them with their water. The baskets they were using lost half of the water on the way up, so I just showed them how to make a better water basket. That was all.” The tone in her voice held a modicum of pride, but also sounded as though what she had done was nothing worth mentioning or remembering.

“That was really good. You’re pretty smart. I don’t think I would have come up with an idea like that.”

She shrugged again. “It wasn’t a big deal.” She tilted her head to the side. “What do you want?”

Well, she knew how to get right to the point. I nervously shifted my weight from foot to foot. “I was wondering if you could help me talk to them. They like you.”

“Oh, really? You want my help?” she asked, her arms crossed in front of her.

I nodded.

“I really do need your help. You’ve managed to endear yourself to several of the locals. All I’ve managed to do was make friends with a little blue creature.”

She pointed behind me. “That one?” I looked back and there was my little friend, sitting on a low branch, watching me.

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s him,” I acknowledged as I turned back towards Manda. “I need help talking to the locals, to see if they know anything about the glyphs, or symbols, that we need translated.”

“What makes you think they know?”

“They have similar markings on the trees and some stones all over the place,” I explained. “Yet, no one wants to talk to me. You’ve made friends here already.”

“They’re not exactly friends,” she argued.

I nodded. “Okay, but you have people talking to you and they were smiling. That’s better than what I did. If we can get them to help us learn how to translate the glyphs, we can figure out where we need to go to stop this whole thing with Enclave and the Dominion.”

She stared at me for so long that I nearly gave up. “Fine,” she nodded. “But I’m only doing this because we need the information, not because I’m doing you a favor, understand?”

I nodded profusely. “Thank you, thank you.”

We turned and started back to the village. Maybe with her asking the questions, we’d be a little closer to solving the mystery of the glyphs.

And maybe if we were working together, I might get a little closer to solving the mystery of my Manda.

MANDA

Well, this was certainly an interesting turn of events.

This is why I enjoyed wandering off and making discoveries for myself. If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have made friends within the alien pirate village.

Alien pirate village, I thought to myself as I walked a few paces in front of Qal. There are some words I never thought I’d string together.

But now, now it was complicated, I thought uncomfortably. Of course I knew who Qal was. He was the pilot, and funny and popular on the ship, easy with both the Shein and the human women.

And the only reason he’d even spoken to me now was he needed something.

But if it kept us out of the hands of the Enclave, I’d have to help.

I led Qal through the village until I found Drix, the purple and yellow alien who was now overseeing the production of sealed woven baskets for water-gathering.

“How’s everything going?” I asked Drix.

“Satisfactory,” he replied.

“I’ve got a question for you,” I said. “Rather, my associate has a question.”

“Associate?” Qal said. “I’d like to think we’re friends.”

“You just called me by the wrong name,” I reminded him. “That’s not something friends do.”

“Urgh” Qal threw his hands up in the air. “How long are you going to hold it against me?”

“At least until the end of the day,” I decided. “Go on. Ask your question.”

“Right.” Qal pulled out a small disc and tapped the side, holding it out for Drix to see. “Do these symbols look familiar to you?”

The five symbols we’d all stared at for far too long circled over the disc. Once I’d thought they almost looked like ancient Mayan but decided it couldn’t be.

What would the Dominion be doing using the symbols of a long dead Earth language? And, I’d reluctantly admitted before pulling myself out of that particular rabbit hole, even if they were, I didn’t have the reference materials to decipher them.

There were times that being a dabbler in anything and everything that looked interesting was a distraction. I wasn’t like Lynna or Maris, with a laser-focus and in-depth knowledge of a field. I just knew bits and pieces.

Sometimes, like with the buckets, it was useful.

Most of the time, like with the damn glyphs, it led nowhere.

Drix looked at the holograms. For the briefest of moments, something like recognition glinted in his glassy black eyes.

But he said nothing, only gave Qal a blank stare. Qal managed an awkward smile and retracted the disc.

“Perhaps you should ask,” Qal suggested. “They seem to like you.”

“I like them, too,” I said. I couldn’t resist throwing in, “they remember my name.”

Qal let out a long sigh as he passed the disc to me then retreated.

“I warned you. I’m not going to let it go for the rest of the day,” I replied. I stepped closer to Drix and held up the disc, tapping it a few times before managing to turn it on.

“We’ve been on the run from the Dominion ever since we were brought here. I don’t know what these symbols are, but my friends, the other women like me, have risked a lot to get this list,” I explained to him. “The Dominion doesn’t want us here. Doesn’t want anyone knowing that we’re here. If we figure out what this means, maybe it’ll help us. And hurt them.”

“Anything that the Dominion is against, we tend to favor,” Drix said thoughtfully. “If you go down to the last building in our compound, you’ll find the star keepers.”

“The star keepers?”

I repeated. The title sounded too fantastical to be real.

Drix simply nodded. “They’ll be able to help you.”

“Thank you.” I passed the disc back to Qal. “Let me know if you need help with anything else around here.”

“Our thanks.” Drix bowed his head. I repeated the gesture because it seemed like a polite thing to do. I turned to Qal.

“We’re going to talk to the star keepers at the far end of the village,” I told him.

“Yes, I heard.” Qal walked past me.

“It’s the other way,” I called after him.

“Of course,” he nodded. “I’m just admiring the view of this little haven.”

“Right,” I smirked.

I started off in the direction Drix told me to go. Qal quickly caught up to me.

“Why didn’t they want to talk to me?” he wondered. “That individual gave you the same information I wanted. It’s not like he didn’t want me to know. He wouldn’t have told you if he didn’t want me to know.”

“Drix likes me more than he likes you,” I grinned.

“You’re enjoying this too much,” Qal replied.

“Maybe so,” I shrugged. “Maybe if you learned his name, he would’ve talked to you.”

“I’m a courteous person!” Qal exclaimed. “I greet people when I see them. I thank people for services rendered.”

I tried to hold in my laughter but wasn’t successful.

“I might keep this up for longer than a day,” I joked. Qal looked over his shoulder and glared.

We approached the last building at the edge of the village. The wooden columns were carved with ornately designed images of spaceships, planets, and stars. An alien woman with skin the color of rich red earth sat by the doorway in silence with her eyes closed. Based on the wrinkles in her skin, I assumed she was elderly.

I kicked myself. Wrinkles could’ve been a characteristic of her species. She could’ve been younger than me for all I knew. The faster I stopped comparing everything and everyone to how it had been back in the Terran System, the better.

Qal and I walked past her in silence so we didn’t disturb her. Inside the building was a singular room. The ceiling looked like an inky galaxy speckled with stars.

“How did they do that?” I whispered more to myself than to Qal.

“Holographic projection?” Qal guessed. “I don’t see a projector anywhere, though.”

In the center of the room was a group of alien women sitting just like the alien woman outside was sitting. Silent, with closed eyes, though the number of eyes and limbs varied from individual to individual.

“Should we say something?” Qal whispered to me. At the sound of his voice, the eyes of the six meditating alien women opened and fixed on us.

“You just did,” I replied. “Hello. I’m sorry to interrupt. Drix told me you’d be able to help me.” When I mentioned Drix’s name, the suspicion drained slightly from their expressions.

“What is it you seek?” One of the alien women, with dusky purple skin and four lime-colored eyes, spoke to me.

“I’d like to know if you know anything about these symbols.” I held out my hand so Qal could pass the disc to me. I showed it to the alien women.

“They look very familiar,” one of the women said with a knowing smile.

“Come with us.” Another one of the women motioned for me to follower her. When Qal stepped forward, the women narrowed their eyes.

“Not him,” one said.

“He’s with me,” I told them. “We both need the information you can give us but he’s the one who can do something with it.”

We waited for a few long, tense moments. Eventually, my explanation seemed to satisfy them, for all the women turned and moved toward a door at the back of the building. The door opened into thick jungle parted by a thin dirt path. Qal and I followed the women, single file, through the jungle. After only a few yards, the gaping mouth of a cave came into view.

“Where are we going?” My voice came out more unsteady than I wanted it to.

“We are not the first to live on this moon,” one of the alien women explained without looking back at me. “When the oldest of us first arrived, this place was inhabited by a race far older than any we’d ever encountered. They had none of the technologies we are accustomed to. They seemed to live solely off the earth, but still traveled the stars.”

“Impressive,” I heard Qal murmur behind me.

“Indeed,” the alien woman replied. “They had their own method of navigation. They relied solely on the stars.”

“They traveled?” I asked.

“Yes,” the woman confirmed. “We aren’t sure how, but they did. Within a few decades of our people inhabiting this moon, the ancient race vanished. We lived peacefully with them. If they died out, it was not our doing. None of us think that’s what happened. We think they must’ve had a space vessel somewhere and abandoned the moon to us.”

The alien women each took a stick from a pile near the mouth of the cave. At first, I thought they were torches that were to be ignited with flames. But when we stepped into the mouth of the cave, the sticks themselves glowed with artificial white light.

We walked in silence until the cave opened up into a domed chamber. All over the walls were markings similar to the ones recorded on the holo-disc.

“These are the constellations and written language of that ancient race,” one of the alien women explained.

“What does it say?” I asked, squinting at the holo-disc in the dim light then back up to the etchings on the cave walls.

One of the alien women, the one with dusky purple skin, peered at the glyphs hovering over the holo-disc in my hands.

“I don’t believe it’s ever been translated,” she said. “Years ago, a small contingent of scholars came. We weren’t entirely thrilled to welcome them, but they had found glyphs like these scattered across the stars, had followed the clues to arrive here.”

“They stayed for a season, traded quite a bit, enough to make it worth our while,” one of the other women added.

“What did they find?” I couldn’t help but ask. “Did they, I don’t know, leave a dictionary perhaps?”

The woman laughed and shook her head. “No, they just left, said they had reports to file, but they’d be back. They never returned.”

“Maybe they ran out of funding,” I joked.

Qal looked at me.

I shrugged. “Somebody has to pay for things, right?”

I looked at the cave, looked at the five lonely symbols we had.

“Constellations or words,” I wondered.

“Those there are the constellations.” She pointed to the symbols that mostly consisted of spidery lines. The other symbols, that were comprised of thicker, straighter lines and more curves than angles, must have been writing.

“Do you know what the writing says?” I asked her.

“No,” she shook her head sadly. “The ancient race left before sharing that wisdom with my people. Over time, we’ve made some partial translations, but we can’t be certain we’ve got it right.”

I looked over my shoulder at Qal. His white hair glowed strangely in the dim light.

“Are you any good at translating?” I asked him.

“I’m fair, but this might be beyond my capabilities.” He stepped closer to me to look at the holo-disc. “What about you?”

“I used to practice translating dead human languages for fun, but that was years ago and the languages were already well documented,” I replied.

“You have an array of odd skills,” Qal observed.

“I like to learn new things when I’m bored,” I shrugged. I felt a blush rise up to my cheeks, but I didn’t know why.

“Between the two of us, I think we can figure something out,” Qal said with a confidence I certainly didn’t feel. “Stars are stars. The constellations might not be on any modern maps, but the stars that made them are. We can figure this out.”

“We may not have a choice.”

QAL

With permission from the women, Manda and I stayed in the cave a little longer. I jotted down some notes of my own on my tablet and made a recording of the glyphs that hung all round us, hoping that we’d be able to use the information when we got back to the ship.

Once I had all the information that I thought I could glean out of the cave, I bowed my head the way Drix had done to Manda back in the village. The ladies returned the gesture and led us back to the entrance to the building.

“You must take care with the information you have, and with what you soon discover,” one of the older women told Manda. Then she looked at me. “There may be forces at work that are beyond your ken.”

“I thank you,” I said in quiet reverence and a nod. The woman grabbed Manda and they touched heads, the lady whispering something to her as they did. Manda followed me out of the building, a lovely smile on her face as we walked in silence.

When we reached the outskirts of the village, I just had to ask. “What did she say to you?”

“Not going to tell you,” she teased me. “I only tell people that remember my name.”

“Oh, come on! I was really close to your real name when I first called out to you,” I argued.

With a shake of her head, she stopped walking. “And that’s why they like me better than you. You’re still trying to justify screwing up my name.” She bit her lower lip. “Do you know you’ve never actually apologized?”

She was right. I was still trying to justify my mistake, and the words that I wanted to say in my defense were more justification.

She deserved more than glib excuses.

“You’re right. You’re absolutely right.” I looked her straight in the face and tried to dial up my most sincere expression. And realized that even that was an act. Not real.

My shoulders slumped. “I made a mistake, and I should have simply owned it and learned from it. I will do my utmost to ensure that I don’t treat you that way again.”

I must have surprised her a little because her eyes widened…sort of. When she grew serious, her eyes narrowed only the slightest bit. “Yeah, I’ve heard those kinds of promises before.”

“Not from me, you haven’t,” I countered. “I don’t plan on breaking this promise. Okay?” I stood there, watching her, waiting to see how she responded.

Her lips curved in a gentle smile as she gave in. “Okay. So, what now?”

“Now?” I repeated her. “Now, we go talk to Dejar and Aavat. I need to let them know what we’ve found out so far. Then we figure out the next move from there.”

“Do we have to tell them everything?” She looked at me pleadingly. I guessed that she didn’t want to infringe too much on the local culture.

I answered back, almost sadly. “Yeah.” Then, a bright idea. “Maybe not. I’ll have to tell them about the women and the cave, but I can say that we weren’t allowed to see where we went, that we were blindfolded. That way…”

“That way no one tries to find the cave and mess it up in any way,” she finished for me.

“Exactly,” I said with a nod.

She smiled, the first real smile she had sent in my direction. The knowledge I’d done something to please her, make her happy, sent a sharp thrill through me.

We started walking back towards the ship, but took our time doing so. The surrounding landscape was just too beautiful, too exotic to go through it quickly without noticing. Who knew the next time we’d have a chance to see such wonders?

We followed a small path that flowed through the trees like a stream. The canopy above let in only a few rays of light from the late afternoon sun. It was tranquil, serene, perfect.

“Isn’t that your little friend?”

As I turned to see who Manda was talking about, something furry with at least thirty limbs landed on my face and let out a loud screech that almost sounded like laughter.

I fought with the beast, trying to grab hold of it and wrench it from my face. I tripped over something and fell hard to the ground, my left shoulder bouncing off a tree root. I heard a loud snap as I hit the ground, and with the pain in my shoulder, I was sure that I had broken a bone.

The scroing creature was still attached to me, chittering and screeching as it grabbed onto my hair, my ears, whatever it could hold on to in order to stay put. With nothing else I could do, I bit at the thing, getting a mouthful of fur for my pains.

With an even louder screech, this time in pain, the vicious monster let go of me and jumped off. I rolled away, regretting the decision because of the pain in my shoulder, and got to my feet.

It was that umbba little blue thing.

Why in the kopa had it jumped me?

“Did you actually bite him?” Manda scolded as the little thing hid behind her legs. She reached down and attempted to comfort the tiny monster.

“I had to get him off me,” I nearly yelled.

“He was just trying to play with you,” she chided me. “He didn’t even scratch you.”

“Really?” I felt my face. I would have sworn that my face had been scratched up terribly. “My face is fine?”

She nodded almost condescendingly. “The only thing wrong with you is your hair, and the fact that somewhere in your head you thought it was alright to bite this little guy.” She knelt down and reached out for him. He jumped into her arms and held on to her as though she were a mother. I felt horrible. I approached, slowly, and held out my own hand to show that I meant no harm.

He leaped into my arms, slapped me in the face, then pointed at his belly. “I know, little friend. I’m sorry,” I said, not sure if he understood me or not. He seemed to sense the sincerity in my voice and climbed onto my shoulder.

“Guess he likes you,” Manda giggled.

“I guess so.” That’s when I noticed that my shoulder didn’t hurt as much as a shattered bone should. I looked down and saw that the root I had landed on had been destroyed. I felt bad about that. The root hadn’t done anything to me. “Ready to go talk to the bosses?” I asked.

“No, but let’s do it anyway,” she responded.

We headed back towards the ship, my little friend still on my shoulder as we approached the ship. Just as I was about to step through one of the doors, he sprung from my shoulder and ran back into the trees.

I was a bit sad, but also understood, he didn’t belong on a ship. I led Manda to Dejar’s office, where we waited for a moment for him to finish meeting with Orrin.

“Come in,” Dejar ordered after Orrin left. Inside, Dejar sat at his desk, Aavat sat in his usual chair opposite the screen-wall, and one of the crew was patching up a crack in the corner close to the door. “What can I do for you, Qal?”

“Well, sir…I think we have some information regarding the glyphs that I’ve been trying to translate.”

Both men perked up at that bit of information. “What did you find out?” Dejar asked as he leaned forward in his chair.

“Well,” I grinned as I motioned for Manda to step forward. She hesitated a bit, so I gently pulled her forward to stand next to me. “Manda is the one that really found everything out.” Her body stiffened in surprise as I summarized how well she’d interacted with the locals.

“So, you think they’re constellations, but you’re not sure?” Aavat asked, in a much more toned-down manner than I had been used to when he was captain.

Shenna had been good for him.

With a slight shake of my head and a slightly overexaggerated shrug, I answered. “Not yet, but I think there is a chance that I can figure some of it out if I get an opportunity to work on it.”

Aavat nodded, then turned to Manda. “And you were the one that got all of this information and helped him start to figure this all out?”

I looked at Manda and she looked up at me, her eyes essentially asking me “Are you sure about all this?” I gave her an almost imperceptible nod, and she turned back to the captains. “Yes,” she said quietly.

“That’s…a little surprising, Manda,” Dejar said. “You’re usually much more reserved and known to keep to yourself. Thank you.”

I could see that Manda was surprised by the praise, and the acknowledgement that they had noticed her.

Dejar turned back to me. “This is good work, by both of you. Whatever it is that you need to finish translating all of this, use it. You have my permission to utilize anything you need.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said. “I’ll get started right away.” With a nod and another round of congratulations, Manda and I left the office. As she started to walk away, I gently touched her shoulder, resisting the urge to let my fingers trace down her arm.

“I was wondering if you would like to help me with the translations and figuring out where the constellations are.”

“Me? Why?” Her surprise was as evident as the sun in the sky.

“Because you’ve been a big help with all of this, and I want you to remain a part of the solution.” And I need more time with you, time to decipher you, I didn’t add.

“What do you say?”

Her eyes were soft, uncertain. Finally, almost shyly, she nodded. “Okay. I’m in.”

MANDA

“Are you sure you want my help?” I asked Qal as we left the Rogue Star.

“Of course,” he smiled, and I noticed the tiny crinkles at the corners of his eyes. He smiled a lot. And sometimes it even seemed sincere.

“Four eyes are better than two. You might catch something I miss.”

“If you really do want my help, I have one question for you,” I said.

“What’s that?” Qal tilted his head to one side.

“What’s my name?” I smirked.

“Manda!” Qal exclaimed. “Your name is Manda! I’ll say it twenty more times if you let me off the hook for that.”

“What about my last name?” I raised a brow as Qal’s face blanched. “Just kidding. I never told you my last name.”

“Funny,” Qal laughed. “Were you able to get the translation information from the locals?”

“Yes.” I held in my hand a small stack of films with transcriptions of the partial translations the women had mentioned.

It wasn’t much.

Once again, my buddy Drix had come through for me. He took me right to the archives. I was impressed enough by the fact that a moon inhabited entirely by space pirates kept archives, let alone the fact that they were so detailed.

Moon. Space pirates. Archives. Soon enough, all of it would make sense, right?

Qal and I made our way across the village, through the building of the star keepers and into the cave. Qal grabbed one of the strange stick-torch-devices. It began to glow the moment it entered the darkness.

“What do you think the torches are made of?” I wondered.

“I’m not sure,” Qal admitted. “I’ve never seen anything like them. They could be left over from that ancient race.”

“That makes sense,” I replied. “Although, if we’re being honest, nothing that’s happened to me in the last few weeks has made any sense. I really shouldn’t be so mystified by glowing sticks.”

Qal laughed and shook his head. “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” he said. “For me, most of the things that have happened lately have been within the realm of normalcy. Aside from picking up a team of human females and stumbling across a conspiracy that goes all the way up to the Dominion, things have been fairly normal.”

“If that was supposed to bring me comfort, I’m sorry to report that it didn’t,” I snorted.

“It wasn’t,” Qal clarified. “If anything, I want to illustrate how far-off your definition of normal is.”

“Pardon me for being born in another system.” I rolled my eyes. I was smiling, though Qal couldn’t see it.

“Consider yourself pardoned. I’ll notify the Dominion immediately.”

“Great. I’m sure they’ll be very receptive,” I replied.

When we reached the cave’s chamber, I took the torch from Qal’s hand. I held it up to the translation notes.

“Right. So, does anything on the walls look like anything on the films?” I asked. Qal looked at me then to the dome filled with carving and back to me.

“Doesn’t look like it,” he shrugged. I chuckled.

“Well, I guess we’re stuck here,” I played along. “It could be worse.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Qal replied. “You’re the only one the locals actually like.”

“I happily accept my new position as liaison between the Rogue Star crew and the locals,” I said with a mocking bow.

We began the daunting task of trying to make heads or tails of the hundreds, if not thousands of symbols and glyphs etched into the walls of the cavern. The partial translations we were given weren’t as helpful as I’d hoped they would be.

“These four glyphs are probably going to be the most useful.” I pointed to four symbols on the holo-disc that appeared frequently on the walls.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Qal agreed. “If these symbols here are meant to be ancient constellations,” he gestured to the spidery etchings, “then I would guess those four glyphs have something to do with orientation.”

“If you’re right, that will make our job so much easier,” I sighed.

“Not as easy as you’re hoping,” Qal replied. “The orientation glyphs might help us figure out the direction the constellation faces, but it’s not going to make locating the constellations any easier. Do you have any idea what the other glyphs mean?”

“I found one of them on the wall up there.” I angled the torch to illuminate a glyph almost directly above us. “As far as I can tell, it’s not duplicated anywhere else.”

“That’s probably a name of some sort,” Qal said thoughtfully. “Maybe the name of a planet or a system?”

“What makes you so sure?” I asked, furrowing my brow.

“Oh, I’m not sure at all,” Qal laughed. “But, if these etchings are meant to serve as a manual for an ancient navigation system, it makes sense that any solitary glyph would correspond to a location.”

“You make a good point,” I nodded. “How are we going to figure out the locations?”

“I don’t think we can,” Qal frowned. “Even if we were to figure out a loose translation, which in itself is unlikely, I doubt the names described in these glyphs match the names of locations in Dominion space.”

“Knowing the names could still be useful even if they don’t match Dominion names,” I replied.

“That’s assuming the names reflect the physical appearance of the location in question,” Qal countered. “What are the odds one of the names is something like ‘The Ice Caverns on the Planet Next to the Moon with Five Rings?’”

“Point taken,” I chuckled. “So, what’s your plan for finding these theoretical locations?”

“Honestly?” Qal asked with an expression that resembled a grimace. “I don’t have a plan. Even if we have a good idea of what the glyphs mean, we don’t have any confirmation. I’d rather leave them out of our plan entirely and work with what we know.”

“Then there’s not much else we can do in these caverns,” I shrugged. “We can agree the four repetitive glyphs are likely used for orientation, right?”

“Yes, but I’d rather not factor those in yet, either,” Qal said.

“Fair enough. All we really have now are the constellations, then,” I said. “We’re agreed that these five are constellations, right?”

“Correct. Let’s head back to the Rogue Star and start looking at maps,” Qal suggested.

With one last glance at the etchings, I followed Qal out of the cave.

“Did you find what you seek?” one of the star keepers asked us when we passed back through their building.

“Not yet,” I replied with a weak smile. “Thank you, all the same.” The star keeper bowed her head. I mimicked the gesture.

“You’re more social with the locals of the haven then you are with your own crew,” Qal observed.

“That’s not true,” I said defensively. “I always go to Kalyn’s dinners. However, I’m not on the brink of an amazing discovery, I’m not falling in love with anyone, and I’m not risking my life in some way, so I’m not usually the center of conversation at the dinner table.”

“You’re on the brink of an amazing discovery right now,” Qal countered. “You’ll have plenty to talk about at the next dinner.”

“I hadn’t thought about that.” I caught myself smiling. “Though charting constellations isn’t as interesting as sneaking aboard an illegal Dominion ship.”

“I’m not sure if I should be insulted by that or not,” Qal smirked.

I gasped, realizing what I’d said.

“I didn’t mean it like that! Your work as a navigator is why we’re all alive. Charting constellations is really important work,” I said in a rush. Qal tipped his head back and laughed.

“Nice save,” he said. “How about this? I won’t hold that over your head if you let go of the fact that I called you by the wrong name once.”

I pursed my lips as I considered his offer.

“Deal,” I nodded.

We reached the Rogue Star. I followed Qal to his office, a small room that was ninety percent window to the right of the bridge.

“Now that partial power is back, are you ready to see something amazing?” he asked with a mischievous gleam in his eye.

“Always,” I replied.

Qal walked up to the large, perfectly circular, silver metal table that took up most of the room. He flipped a switch and a massive holographic map appeared in the air over the table. It took up almost all the space in the center of the room.

On the map, I could see planets, moons, stars, and many things I didn’t recognize neatly labeled and plotted. There was a large green dot overlapping a small moon. I assumed that green dot represented the position of the Rogue Star.

“Impressive,” I smiled.

“It’s the most detailed holographic map in existence,” Qal said proudly. “Or at least the most detailed one I’ve ever come across,” he amended.

“If this map is so detailed, why isn’t it the standard?” I asked.

“Because I made this one myself,” Qal grinned.

My mouth fell open.

“You made this?” I stepped closer to the table.

“It took years,” Qal replied.

“Amazing,” I gasped. “But there are so many stars, how are we going to find the ones we need?”

“We’re going to start with what we know.” He pulled the map around us, his hands manipulating the model as if it were a tangible thing. “Here is what the sky would look like from this moon.”

With another wave, he cast a perfect half-sphere above us. “This would be the sky from the location of the cave.”

“Alright,” I breathed, “that narrows it down. But,” I shook my head, “at least on Terra, our constellations are all different based on who’s telling the stories, what legends they’re telling.”

“I could make a picture using these stars,” I randomly dotted my finger at a pattern of six, “and tell you that’s the giant skillet, used by the great goddess of breakfast.”

Qal raised one eyebrow. “If you’re hungry, you should just say something.”

I laughed and pushed my hair back behind one ear. “What I’m saying is that we won’t be able to tell what made sense to them without knowing their stories. We won’t know if we’re looking for a frying pan or a swan or a woman on a couch.”

“At least the frying pan made sense.” He sat down, and I slumped next to him. He threw an arm over my shoulders, and I rested my head on his chest.

The problem was overwhelming, and he felt so solid. Reassuring.

Maybe even something else.

I quickly pushed the thought away. “If we’ve narrowed it down to this,” I waved at the artificial sky all around us, “what do we do next?”

“We start running patterns.” He pulled the five glyphs up again and let them flicker across the sky. “One of those, if not all of them, is going to match a star pattern that we’re looking at right now.”

“But if it’s a navigational key,” I wondered, “then what?”

His arm tightened around my shoulders and he shook his head. “We’ll figure it out then.

First step, we find that first constellation.”

As Qal and I started the grueling work of finding a star-needle in a space-haystack, I realized how much fun I was having, with him to talk to. Underneath all that glib joking, there was an interesting person.

Maybe I had misjudged him.

Maybe.

QAL

“This sucks,” Manda said, letting her head fall down on her arms on the table. “We’ve been looking at this for three days straight now and haven’t found anything. Maybe we’re going about it the wrong way.”

I shared her irritation, but I wasn’t ready to give up. “We haven’t hit all of the sections yet. We’ll find it, I know we will. I mean, you’re still here, so that means there’s a chance, right?”

She cocked her head to the side. “What? You’re not making any sense.”

I snorted. “What I mean is that, since you’re still here, you haven’t given up yet. Since you haven’t given up, that means you think there’s still a chance we’ll find something. That’s a good thing, right?”

“If you’re trying to compliment me, it’s sort of working,” she smiled, and everything got just a little better.

During the course of the last three days, we had so many instances of exuberance and elation just to have them dashed when we realized that we were wrong.

Because we were exhausted, we made up for it with banter.

Manda was hilarious.

The woman knew how to make an insult funny and worth putting up with because you knew she didn’t mean it and you knew she was trying to make things entertaining.

I thought it was a shame that she never displayed that personality, that spunk, when she was around any of the others. She was smart, funny, and when she let her guard down, she was a riot. She was an amazing mixture of intelligent, sarcastic, funny, and talented. The fact that she didn’t show that to any of the others…confused me.

But in here, with the two of us knocking our heads out over this problem, she smiled.

At me.

Orrin, Maris, and the rest of engineering reported that there was still another week until we’d be ready to fly.

I leaned back, resting my head against the wall.

We might have a destination by then. But I couldn’t promise anything

“I’M GOING to have the AI shift ten more degrees into the infrared,” I announced to my captive audience, eyes closed. We’d been working late into the nights.

It was morning now, I thought, but it hardly mattered.

Not being stupid, we'd been using the AI to assist with the search, looking for any possible arrangement of stars that might match one of those five glyphs.

But setting up the programming, I'd had a terrible thought.

We didn't know enough about the ancient aliens’ visual capabilities. Did they see a wider range of the spectrum than Shein or humans did? Narrower?

The very stars they saw might be different.

So, we programmed the AI to sort through as many variations as it could, one at a time.

Even at its speed, we had no idea how long the process would take. It had already taken three days with no results.

So that we had something to do, we’d printed out sections of the night sky in two dimensions and had spent the time poring over the charts, until all I could see were tiny dots dancing before me.

I pushed away from the wall and turned to study my section one more time.

Maybe I'd missed something.

My neck hurt, my eyes hurt, and I couldn't hold my yawn back anymore.

Manda didn't make some sort of snarky comment.

Her head was lying on the table, eyes closed, and a tiny, adorable snore floated my way.

With a slight grin on my face, I moved on to section 288-mark 1. As I stared at and studied the section, my eyes kept glancing back towards Manda.

Staring at the charts wasn't helping.

Maybe I should take a break, stare at her.

That was creepy, wasn't it?

But the gentle curve of her cheek, her soft lips, the spill of her long dark hair across the chart, lured me.

I wanted, needed to run my hands through those strands, see if it felt as exquisite as it looked.

I was tired. Completely irrational.

“Come on, sweetheart,” I said as I gently pushed the hair back from over her face. “Let's get you to bed.”

And I froze as she nestled her cheek into the palm of my hand, the tiniest squeak of protest the only indication that she'd heard me.

She didn't want to move. Fine. She didn't have to move.

My mind racing, I let my eyes follow the swirl of her hair as it wound across the map, adding its own patterns, connecting lines to…

Umbba.

I leaned over her and scooted her hair off one section.

I never would've noticed it.

But there, where her hair had connected those three stars. The rest of the glyph suddenly snapped into focus.

“Manda, we found it.”

I squeezed her shoulder, and this time she woke, long lashes blinking as she caught up.

“We found it?”

I took a tiny piece of her hair and tickled her nose with it.

“You did, more exactly your hair did.”

She stuck her tongue out at me, then quickly braided the hair back while I explained what I’d seen.

“That's fantastic,” she exclaimed. “That means we know roughly what visual spectrum we should be using for the search!”

I commanded the AI to start the scanning for another symbol. It spat out another flat and we scoured it.

The day wore on and the hope that had energized us at the first discovery ebbed away.

“Nothing,” her shoulders sank. “Maybe we need more information,” she shook her head. “Maybe there’s something we missed at the star keepers’ cave?”

“Can’t hurt to check,” I acknowledged. “The AI can keep searching while we find out. Hungry?”

“Huh?”

“We should grab something to take with us. Make a picnic of it,” I suggested, suddenly feeling awkward. What the kopa was the matter with me? I was good with people. With women. Why should Manda have me all in a twist?

“Ah, you just want to make sure your little buddy doesn’t try to eat your face again while we walk, huh?” she laughed.

“Maybe. Still, not a bad idea, right?”

“No, it’s not,” she answered, and the glint of amusement in her eyes made it worthwhile. “Softie.”

MANDA

“I’m going to have to find something else to do for these people if I’m going to keep coming back to them with requests.” I was only half-joking. As much as we needed this information, I felt strange prying it from the minds of locals that obviously cared about their privacy.

“Or we could offer something else of value,” Qal offered. “What do pirates like?”

“You’re asking me? The girl from the Terran System?” I chuckled.

“Right,” Qal shook his head and laughed. “This is the first time you’ve ever heard of pirates, I’m sure.”

“Actually, at several points in human history we had pirates,” I corrected him. “Though, if historical records are anything to go by, they weren’t as peaceful as the people here. Pirate havens on the Terran System were just as dangerous as encountering pirates on the open sea, if not more dangerous.”

“Open sea?” Qal repeated.

“Terran pirates sailed ships on the ocean. They couldn’t fly or leave their planet,” I explained.

“They sound like terrible pirates,” Qal scoffed. “They must’ve easily been captured if they were limited to a single planet’s sea.”

“Everyone used to be limited to a single planet’s sea,” I laughed. “Interplanetary travel is a very recent human development. When pirates flourished on Earth, air travel wasn’t even possible.”

“How have you humans survived this long?” Qal asked.

“I genuinely have no idea,” I laughed. “We’re the luckiest species in any galaxy, as far as I’m concerned. If you took a good look into our history as a species, you’d be baffled by how we survived this long.”

“What’s your secret?” Qal asked.

“Adaptive ability,” I replied. “Humans can survive just about anything.”

“I should’ve guessed that. You and the other human women have coped pretty well with life on the Rogue Star,” Qal said.

“Are Shein known for their adaptability?” I asked.

“Somewhat,” he shrugged. “Though with the tech available within Dominion space, a species doesn’t need to be good at adapting to survive here.”

“Couldn’t utilizing the available technologies be considered a form of adaptation?” I asked. Qal looked at me. One corner of his mouth pulled up into a smile.

“I hadn’t thought of it like that. I suppose you’re right,” he agreed.

As we passed through the village, I noticed the water harvesting system sported twice as many baskets as it had before. Hardly any of them leaked now.

“Looks like the braided rope helped,” I grinned at Drix.

“Yes,” he nodded. “However, we’ve exhausted our supply of sap. If you have time, perhaps you can look at some other options.” He gestured into the forest.

“Maybe I can-” I started, but Qal cut me off.

“We have that appointment with the star keepers to get to,” he said politely, though his smile was tense. “Please excuse us.”

Drix said nothing, but gave Qal a narrowed look as he pulled me away.

“That was rude,” I whispered when we were out of earshot.

“Drix is scamming you,” Qal replied, scowling.

“He is not!” I protested.

“Are you forgetting that he’s a pirate?” Qal asked. “He’s trying to get you to do as much free labor as possible.”

“In exchange for telling the locals it’s okay to talk to me,” I reminded him.

“The locals we need to talk to are the star keepers and they already know you’re okay to talk to,” Qal reminded me. “Drix wasn’t going to give you anything that you didn’t already have in exchange for whatever you planned on doing about the sap.”

“I think you’re being cynical,” I replied.

“Maybe, but I’m also right.”

We approached the star keepers in their remarkable building. I took a moment to marvel at the lifelike projection of the night sky that took the place of the ceiling.

“What are the odds the constellations we’re looking for are right in front of us?” I whispered to Qal.

“Slim to none,” he replied.

“You’re right. That would be too easy,” I said dryly.

I waited until the star keepers were done with their meditation before speaking. As I watched them, I wondered what their role was in regards to the pirate bands. Were they navigators like Qal? Were they simply too old to take part in any actual piracy and decided to spend their days contemplating the stars? Was this the religion of the island? So many questions flew through my mind, none of which I’d ever feel comfortable asking.

“Can we help you?” the dusky purple alien asked, turning her lime-colored eyes away from the mock sky to look at Qal and me.

“We’re having difficulty finding the correct constellations,” I said. “We were hoping there was something more you could tell us.”

“I’ve told you all I know,” the elderly alien woman replied evenly.

“Is there someone who knows more than you do?” I asked, wincing at my words. The last thing I wanted to do was appear rude. I hastened to explain. “You mentioned that your people briefly lived alongside the ancient race that designed this navigation system.”

“I did.” She blinked slowly.

“Is there anyone on this moon who was alive at that time?” I pleaded. “If there’s someone in this village who can help us, it could mean so much, not just to us, but to other women.”

The alien woman turned her back on me to confer with the others in hushed tones. I looked over my shoulder at Qal, who watched the women with a blank expression. I didn’t get as much pleasure from the locals refusing to speak with him as I did before. I could tell he wasn’t used to sitting on the sidelines.

“There is one of us who may be able to help you.” The alien woman turned around to face me again. “I cannot promise he will want to talk.”

“Please, take us to him,” I pleaded.

“All right,” she nodded, though I could see the reluctance in her gestures. She motioned for us to follow her. Qal walked by my side as we left the building of the star keepers.

“What’s the name of the one we’re meeting?” I asked.

“Tallak,” the alien woman replied. “He’s the oldest one alive within the haven.”

“Fascinating,” I murmured.

The star keepers led us through the village, attracting odd stares as we walked. Drix narrowed his eyes at me when I passed him. I feared our friendship was not as solid as I’d imagined it to be.

Qal and I were led to the largest building in the village, the one I’d observed when I wandered off on my own. The front room of that building was a large open space, with doors and archways on either side. We were led through one of the archways, into a darkened room piled high with plush pillows and filled with several comfortable lounge chairs.

“Tallak,” the alien woman said. “Visitors wish to speak with you.”

I almost didn’t see Tallak first. He sat on a plush cushion the same deep blue as his skin. The pillow wasn’t supported by a wall, but rather another being.

Maybe the same species as Drix, but I couldn’t tell. Someday, when things quieted down, I wanted to make a list of all the things I didn’t know about Dominion space. All of the things I could learn.

Then, bit by bit, start diving in.

But it was a long time before that could happen.

“Let them speak.” Tallak’s voice was monotone. I didn’t see his mouth move when he spoke.

“Hello,” I said uneasily. “I’m Manda. This is my friend Qal. We’re from the crew that crashed on the shore.”

“I know nothing of this.” Tallak sounded bored.

“We crashed while on the run from corrupt Dominion officials,” Qal added quickly.

I kicked his ankle. That was a … generous... viewing of the truth.

Tallak’s three eyes brightened. “How exciting,” he sighed. “Why have you disturbed my peace?”

“We’re looking for an illegal testing facility operated by the Dominion,” I explained. “We found possible coordinates, but we can’t read them. The star keepers identified the symbols as the language of the ancient race that used to live here. We’ve been in the cave, but we are having trouble finding the path we’re meant to take.”

“You’re trying to navigate using the O’lanti system?” Tallak began to wheeze with laughter. O’lanti must’ve been the name of the ancient race. “No wonder you’re having trouble. Let me see these so-called coordinates.”

Qal took out the disc with the original list of symbols and passed it to Tallak. He examined it for a brief moment before bursting into laughter.

“Oh, you’re never going to figure this out,” he wheezed. “The O’lanti were a very secretive race. If clans were going to meet, they didn’t give the other a singular location for fear of being followed.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“It’s not like our star charts, with pairs of coordinates that intersect to make a precise section in space. They left a trail.”

“Then, where will this go?”

“I do not know.” Tallak shook his head sadly. “I never had the opportunity to follow an O’lanti trail. How did you come across this one?”

“We’re searching for records of what the Dominion is doing,” I swallowed hard, and Qal squeezed my hand. “We think they’re kidnapping women. Testing them. We keep coming across these glyphs.”

Tallak’s face fell.

“The O’lanti prided themselves on being unknown to the Dominion. It worries me that the Dominion is using O’lanti knowledge.”

“Lots of things worry me, these days” I replied.

“I wish you well on your journey,” Tallak said with a nod. “But there is nothing further I can explain about the O’lanti trail.”

When the women led us back to the star keepers’ temple, we split off, heading down toward the beach.

Tallak’s words stuck with me.

A trail. Not coordinates.

“Without the second glyph solved, how do we know what direction to even head in,” I wondered.

Qal shook out a blanket from the bag he carried and tugged me down to sit beside him. “Even worse, we don't know the first one we found is the first one in the pattern. If it’s a trail, we could be at the wrong end of it all.”

I threw myself back on the blanket and stared up at the canopy above, the thick branches moving slowly in the breeze. If you didn’t know better, the leaves would almost look like water, the tide pushing them back and forth.

I covered my eyes with one arm. “I feel awful, useless. Everyone else is working on getting the Rogue Star back up and flying, gathering supplies, making a difference.”

Even behind my eyelids, the light dimmed. I opened my eyes to see Qal stretched out beside me and leaning over me. The sun threw halos around his spiky white hair and his skin glistened, sparkled.

But for once, his expression was entirely serious. “We’re working. Just in a different way.” He smoothed a stray lock of hair back from my face. “Doesn't do us any good to have a working starship and no idea of where to go.”

“I guess,” I admitted.

His hand kept stroking down the side of my cheek, small tingles trailing in the wake of his fingers.

It was nice.

It was more than nice.

He traced the edge of the shell of my ear and I shivered despite the heat.

His eyes fixed on mine, pinning me to the blanket.

“Manda,” he whispered, then brushed his lips over mine, the touch electric as he wound his fingers into my hair.

A gentle, teasing kiss, and I gasped as his tongue ran over the seam of my lips.

He pulled back. “I was going to ask you first,” he started, “make sure, but then you were lying there and-.”

The hell with it. I reached out for him, dragging his mouth back to mine, delighting in the strange taste.

With a laugh, he grabbed my waist and rolled to his back, with me sprawled across his chest.

For a moment, sea and sky swam before me, everything changed by the switch in perspective.

I lowered myself to his waiting lips, then sat up, struck by lightning.

“That’s it!”

QAL

The paradise of her lips was ripped away, but I couldn’t even regret it, as the excitement filled her face.

“Perspective,” she insisted.

She sprung off me and I tapped the subdural translator.

Maybe it was glitching. Maybe she’d had too much sun.

Either way, Manda was running down the beach towards the Rogue Star.

I grabbed the blanket and the bag and tore off after her.

“We did have the right starting spot, it was lucky you found it, really.” She shook her head, waving her hand in irritation. “Probably not luck, you’d stared at all five of those things for so long, you’d have spotted any of them, eventually.”

“Manda, hon,” I grabbed her arms and felt the smooth skin of her throat with the back of my hand. Warm, but not hot.

“What are you doing?” She didn't push away, just looked at me like I was the one that had lost my mind.

“Checking to see if the sun has made you sick?” I offered weakly.

“No,” she rolled her eyes. “I just know where to look for the next part of the trail. Are you going to help me or not?”

We headed back to my office…well, Manda called it my office. It was really where the original navigation center was before Kovor had purchased the ship and modified it. His decision to have the nav center on the bridge, where the pilot was, was a stroke of common sense. Whoever had decided to put the nav center apart from the bridge had been thinking far too hard and, in my professional opinion, was about as intelligent as a pet rock, and not the sentient rocks from Clestin Seven.

Those things were scary. You couldn’t tell if they were inanimate rocks or live ones until they decided to bite you, and they bit with the equivalent pressure of a hydraulic press.

In the navigation room, she pulled up the holographic star chart. “If it's a trail, it has to lead to a place, right?”

I nodded slowly. “That’s the usual definition of the word, yes.”

“But you can’t just say, go to this constellation,” she spun, her hair flaring behind her, “or that. A constellation is huge.”

“No, of course not,” I answered. “You’d need to know where in the constellation to go. Which star of the group was the target.”

“Which means all the other glyphs for that constellation, even if they looked the same at first glance, might not be for the same actual star, right?”

She stared at me, waiting for me to catch up.

It snapped.

I pulled out the glyph for the first constellation we’d found, then quickly added the recording I'd made of the star cave, pulling up every single other instance of that glyph we’d found.

“There.” I pointed. “Look, there's a little bump at the intersection of those two lines that isn't on the other version of this glyph.”

Manda circled the point. “Then that's our clue! What's that star?”

With quick motions, I pivoted the star map around us, expanding it until Zeta-RN 36 hovered before us.

“So that’s our next stepping stone,” she concluded proudly.

The floor felt as if it’d lurched from under me.

“What?”

“Perspective,” she repeated.

All right, not a translator glitch then.

I stared at Zeta-RN 36, waiting for it.

Then, with a flash of clarity, I saw it.

Of course we couldn't find the next constellation. Not from where we were.

If it was a trail, and the ancient O’lanti were supposed to follow it, they would only see one constellation from one location.

Travel to the next location, and they'd find the next constellation.

“Changing the perspective changes what you see,” Manda said with a blinding smile.

I picked her up and swung her around, the blinking stars of the map swirling around us.

But she shone brighter.

“We don't know which of the glyphs the next constellation will be, but I can have the AI start the search, based on a point of view at this location,” I stabbed at the star that would be the new point of view. “Right here.”

“Even if it takes a few more days to find the next, we’re on the right trail,” she insisted.

“Let’s tell the bosses.” I popped my head out of the door. “Aavat?”

“What is it, Qal?” he asked from where he was discussing something with Shenna.

“When you have a moment, could you and the captain come in here? We’ve got something to show you.”

He nodded his assent and returned to his conversation with Shenna. I stepped back into the room and waited. When the two of them came into the room, Manda and I explained what we had discovered and heard.

“That’s a lot of speculation,” Aavat said.

Manda’s eyes flashed and I spoke up quickly.

“Possibly, but it’s the only answer that makes sense with the information we have.”

“When do you think you’ll have the entire path worked out?” Dejar finally asked.

Manda and I exchanged glances. “It could be a few more days, sir.” I answered. “It’s taken this long to just find the first step.”

“But now we only have to search for four possibilities,” Manda added. “With every step, we’ll narrow down the remaining options, so it should go faster with every version.”

“Repairs will be finished in just a few more days,” Aavat mused. “If nothing else happens to surprise Orrin.”

Manda frowned. “Maybe it's not my place to say so, but it makes sense to me that we’d stay here, until we have the entire path worked out. It’d be safer than blindly jumping across the universe.”

Dejar nodded. “It would save fuel, and time.”

“Except, while we’re grounded, we’re at risk of being caught here,” Aavat grumbled. “As our new backer has harped to me every moment he can find me.”

Itair.

I’d barely had anything to do with the Pronarian, and he still could make trouble.

And worse, he was right.

The Rogue Star, lying on the beach of the haven, was a sitting target. Back out in space, we might not know where we were going, but we’d be able to maneuver if the Dominion found us.

“That’s true,” Dejar nodded. “But you think we should wait,” he said, looking at Manda. She nodded. Dejar took a moment to ponder, then looked at Aavat. “Thoughts?”

“While the work Qal and Manda have done is intriguing, we don’t know for certain that it’s the right solution. Besides,” Aavat pushed away from the wall, “you know me, I always hated sitting in one place for too long.”

“True,” Dejar said with a slight eye roll.

I’d worked under Aavat’s command for years before the crews merged. And I still couldn’t explain how they managed not to kill each other on a daily basis.

“I agree with Aavat. This is a promising lead, but we need back in the air.” He turned to look directly at me. “Qal, as soon as we’re able to fly again safely, follow your ‘trail’ as far as you can. But get us up.”

“Yes, sir,” I said with a mock salute.

Manda and I were soon alone in my office, both of us staring at the chart.

“What now?” She slumped back in her chair. “There’s not much to do, while the AI is sorting for possibilities.”

I shrugged. “Want to explore?”

She did a double take at me and tilted her head a little as she smirked. “Really?”

“Why not?”

“I just didn’t have you pegged as the exploring kind…” she stopped, looked up in the air, then gazed back at me. “Let me correct that. You don’t look like the kind that would like to explore a moon,” putting extra emphasis on the last word.

“Why wouldn’t I be? I like to know about the places I land just as much as the journey between them,” I said.

“Okay, let’s go.”

So, we headed back out to our surroundings, the sun still barely peeking above the horizon. We hadn’t spent as much time inside as I had thought. We went about exploring the trees, marveling at the foliage and fauna we noticed as we walked. I wondered where my little blue friend had disappeared to.

“Have you ever seen such colors?” Manda said aloud as we walked. Even in the darkness of evening, the vibrant colors of the flowers and plants were easily evident. The only time I remembered seeing this many colors in one place was in a museum or gallery far, far, far away from here.

I was about to answer her when something landed on my back, then quickly crawled up to my shoulder. Light chittering noises accompanied the weight and I looked to see my little friend staring at me. “Hey,” I chuckled a bit. I reached into a pocket and pulled out a piece of fruit and offered it to him. He took it, sniffed it, licked it, then jammed the whole thing in his mouth and chewed noisily.

“Well,” Manda said softly. “Looks like your little buddy didn’t forget about you. You look happy to see him, too,” she added with a grin.

I nodded. “I hadn’t realized how much I liked this little one until I hadn’t seen him for a bit. I was actually disappointed when he didn’t come say hello earlier.”

“Wow, so, you mean to tell me you do take notice of other beings around you?” she shot at me, her smile taking the sting out of her words.

“Well,” I started. “Not all the time. I have to give myself a break from my greatness every now and again. Don’t want to become predictable and boring.”

“Uh-huh,” she hummed back at me. She reached over and scratched the little creature behind his ear, causing his leg to bounce up and down on my shoulder until he jumped from my shoulder to hers, wrapping his tiny hands around her braid.

She laughed, free and easy, whatever worries we had about the Dominion and the navigation trail falling away.

Beautiful.

She was beautiful.

The memory of her lips on mine pulled me towards her with a gravity that couldn’t be denied.

Her eyes caught mine, pupils dilating.

I leaned towards her, eager to touch her, to taste her.

SMACK.

I jerked back as a stinging slap sent fire through my cheek.

“What in the-”

Manda’s hands were over her mouth, eyes wide.

“It wasn’t me,” she managed over her giggles. “He didn’t know what you were doing. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything.”

I glared at the little beast perched on her shoulder.

“Jealous, that’s what you are,” I muttered.

It patted Manda’s hair with a definite air of proprietorship.

Scro.

Maybe I was the one who should be jealous.

MANDA

“All hands report to the dining hall,” Captain Dejar’s voice came through the speakers at a volume that seemed entirely unnecessary for the number of speakers scattered throughout the hallway.

I jolted awake, my heart pounding behind my ribs.

I scrambled out of bed. I had one foot in the corridor when I realized I wasn’t wearing anything more than a shirt to sleep it. Cheeks burning red, I ducked back into my room and shut the door.

Disaster avoided, but just barely.

I tugged on a pair of fitted pants, laced up my boots and tied my hair back to make it look like I hadn’t been asleep less than five minutes ago. I didn’t have a mirror in my room and my roommates were all on different shifts. I could only hope I looked half-decent as I left my room and made my way to the bridge. Usually, I didn’t care about my looks very much, but since the entire crew was convening on the bridge, I didn’t want to be the rattiest one there.

Thanks to my wardrobe malfunction – the malfunction being my lack of wardrobe- I was one of the last to arrive in the dining hall. Captain Dejar stood in the center of an informal semicircle flanked by Aavat and Kalyn.

“I’m pleased to announce that the Rogue Star is once again in working order. We’ll be departing shortly,” Captain Dejar announced, looking pleased with the turn of events. Content murmurs rippled through the gathered crewmembers.

I couldn’t help but frown. We’d found the next glyph, and had the AI working to find the third.

It’d only take a few more days to lay out the entire trail. Why couldn’t we wait?

“And that announcement required waking the whole ship?” Kovor grumbled. His disheveled hair indicated that he’d been fast asleep, just as I was. I silently echoed his sentiments. Kovor was the only one among us who could get away with speaking so freely to the captain.

Owning the ship definitely came with perks.

Aryn nudged him in the ribs, but I could see the laughter she was trying to keep contained.

“I only woke you,” Captain Dejar smirked. “It’s nearly midday. For a change, everyone is on a single schedule.”

Well, everyone but me. Since we’d been working on the navigation puzzle, I’d been sleeping whenever.

I must not have looked as disheveled as I felt. Or, more likely, no one had noticed I’d arrived. I’d come in quietly and hovered near the back of the group.

“How long before we leave?” I asked. Captain Dejar pivoted toward me. As always, it took half a second for the glimmer of recognition to appear in his eyes. Once it did, he smiled.

“Within the hour. Two, at the maximum.” Once he spoke, he looked as if he was going to address us as a whole again, but I spoke up before I lost my chance.

“Are we permitted to leave the ship within that hour?” I blurted.

Captain Dejar frowned for a moment while he pondered my question.

“I suppose so,” he nodded.

I couldn’t hide my grin. The locals had been so helpful to me and Qal. I wouldn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.

Captain Dejar started talking about something else, but I wasn’t listening. I doubted that he was saying anything that applied to me. All I could think about was the longer he spoke, the less time I’d have to say my goodbyes.

One of the crewmembers asked a question, sending the captain into a long, detailed answer.

I took in a breath and slowly moved around the outside of the semi-circle, towards the door that was left open. I could smell the sand from where I stood.

I crept slowly, not making a sound, but not making it obvious that I was sneaking, either. I’d almost made it to the door when a flash of white caught my eye. Qal was watching me with an amused look. I lifted my finger to my lips in a gesture to remain silent. It occurred to me that, as a Shein, he might not understand the meaning of my gesture.

To my surprise, and relief, he winked and gave a subtle nod. His movement caught the attention of one of the crewmembers. Just as they started to turn their head to see what Qal was looking at, I ducked out of the dining hall and through the ship until I was outside in the fresh air.

I didn’t know why I felt the need to leave the ship unseen.

Captain Dejar had publicly given me permission to leave.

Habit, I guess.

As I walked up the beach, I found it odd that I’d walked around a large group of people and didn’t draw any attention to myself.

Yet Qal swiveled his head a fraction of an inch and managed to draw the attention of someone else. I bet if I’d stomped out the door, loudly announcing my departure, I still wouldn’t have turned heads.

I shook my head, clearing away the thoughts that left a bitter taste in my mouth. I realized I felt jealous of Qal and his ability to capture the attention of others. I’d never been able to do anything like that. Though, I’d never wanted to. There was no reason for me to feel jealous of Qal for having something I didn’t want.

“Don’t act like a spoiled child,” I chided myself, though I still felt irritated.

I didn’t want to leave this place. I enjoyed the climate, the landscape, and the people. I was skilled enough to be an asset to the village.

My little bits of knowledge would be helpful. Here at least, I could be useful.

By the time I made it through the jungle and into the village, I was seriously debating requesting to stay. I’m sure Drix would be supportive, even if he was possibly a swindler at heart.

As I walked through the village, I still attracted stares, but they didn’t feel cold or distant like they were when I first arrived. The residents of the haven had grown used to me, as I had to them.

First, I went to the star keepers. They’d been the most helpful. When they spied me standing in the doorway, the dusky purple one smiled like she knew why I’d come.

“You are to continue your journey,” she said sagely. I nodded.

“Thank you for all your help,” I said. “Thank Tallak for me, too. I hope his wisdom will serve us well.”

“It will,” she assured me. Silence hung between us. Unsure of what else to do or say, I started to move backward through the doorway.

“You will always be welcome to visit,” the star keeper said, her lime eyes glimmering with kindness. Something in my heart went tight and I almost fell to my knees and begged her to let me stay.

I knew I couldn’t.

Not yet, at least.

I had to see this thing with the Dominion through to the end. I would never sleep right if I didn’t. Perhaps when that was settled, I could come back here. I didn’t have any real desire to return to the Terran System. Yes, my family still lived on Mars but even though I’d sent them money every month from my Persephone wages, I seldom received messages back. It wasn’t that I never wanted to see them again. Of course I did.

But after everything I’d seen in this vast universe, I wasn’t ready to go back to an ordinary life yet. I figured it was my time to live for myself. Just for a little while.

Of course, that was assuming we’d ever be allowed to return to the Terran System. For all I knew, that might never happen.

With a wobbly smile, I said a final goodbye to the star keepers.

I walked back through the villages and spotted Drix. He watched me with an even gaze as I approached.

“My ship is leaving,” I told him.

“Ah,” he said shortly.

“I know you tried to get me to do your work for free,” I added with a wry smile.

“Tried? I got you to fix the water-harvesting system,” Drix replied.

“I offered,” I corrected him. “You had no impact on my decision.”

“That’s what you think,” Drix quipped.

“Whatever you say,” I chuckled. “Anyway, you’re one wily pirate. Don’t you forget it.”

“I do not understand the word wily.” Drix tilted his head to one side.

“You don’t need to.” I gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Perhaps we’ll meet again one day and you can ruthlessly exploit my skills.”

“I’d enjoy that,” Drix chuckled.

I made my way back to the beach, nodding to every local I passed. Though I didn’t speak to very many of them, most of their faces looked familiar to me now. Even the younger residents smiled at me instead of ducking behind the legs of the nearest adult.

Hard to believe everyone here was a pirate and a wanted criminal.

Then again, so was I.

As I made my way up the beach, I felt another stiff pang of regret. The Rogue Star came into view, and with it, I saw myself returning to the same life I’d had before we landed here. I’d go back to being unnoticed and not particularly useful.

I’d be the spare part of the crew once again.

I reminded myself that it didn’t have to be that way forever. Once the issues with the Dominion were resolved, I could come back.

Be a part of something here.

The door to the Rogue Star was still open. I did my best to kick the sand off my boots before I stepped into the ship.

To my surprise, Qal was there waiting for me.

“Did you say farewell?” he asked. I nodded. “Good. I’ll tell the captain you’re back and we can begin.”

It took me a moment to grasp his meaning.

“You want me to navigate with you?” I asked. “Surely you don’t need me to get to wherever you’re going.”

“We don’t have the other glyphs solved yet,” Qal said brightly. “You’re the only one who understands the system.”

Oh.

“Of course I need you,” he added, then turned back inside while I stayed still, turning his words over in my mind.

Oh.

QAL

We were flying again. I had no idea how much I’d missed the feeling until we were back up in the air, then back in the emptiness of space.

This was my ship. Oh, Dejar and Aavat made the decisions. Kovor might own her.

But the Rogue Star was mine. No one knew as much about how she moved, what the result of every possible dodge and maneuver would be, the way she glided through the stars.

Thing was, though, the more I thought about it, the more I realized there was a reason they called it ‘the emptiness of space.’

There was a massive amount of nothing out here, and while the joy came from exploring the unknown, seeing the absolute lack of color made me miss the haven.

The lush vegetation. The sparkling water.

Even my little blue friend.

I had spent a few moments debating if I should try to bring him aboard. In the end I decided I couldn’t take him away from everything he knew to lock him up inside this giant metal shell, not when he had all of that open, clean, crisp, and enjoyable freedom back at the beach.

“Hey, you okay?”

I snapped my head up to see Manda staring at me, a crease down her forehead as she sat next to me in what she’d renamed the map room.

I shook my head to clear my mind. “Yeah, just thinking. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she said, her voice still a little hesitant. “Just wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“I am, thank you,” I responded with a nod. “Now, next up on today’s list. We need to decide where to head, that would give us maneuverability options, keep us off the radar of the Dominion, and buy us time while the AI finds the rest of the trail.”

“Sounds like a tall order,” she answered absently.

I watched her out of the corner of my eye as I flipped through possible locations. She’d been a little distant, remote, ever since we left the haven.

I could still feel her body pressed on top of mine, the feel of her lips. Waking, sleeping, it was like she’d been branded into my skin, with just that one touch.

Honestly, it was becoming an obsession.

But no matter how many openings I left, she refused to walk through, take up her part of the dance.

“You know what’s been bothering me?” she asked.

“No, what,” I tried not to sound too eager, but from her amused look, probably failed.

“The cryotubes.”

“What?” I tapped at my translation device. She couldn’t have said-

“The five cryotubes Lynna found on the bridge of The Terror,” she repeated. “And the blank navigation records.”

I stopped messing around. “Yeah, that worries me, as well. There’s no reason to do that. Not unless you don’t even want your own crew to know how to get where you’re going.” I shrugged. “In which case, you can’t get there.”

“But, what if you could?” she mused.

“No, I don’t think you can navigate, if you don’t have a navigator or log,” I insisted.

She braided and rebraided her hair, eyes distant as she thought. “But maybe we’re thinking of it wrong. Or not wrong, but backwards.”

At the moment, I was having trouble thinking of anything other than the silken fall of her hair. The AI would figure out the path.

However, that wasn’t what she wanted. And I wanted to figure out Manda.

“So, how do you think we should be thinking about it?”

“Let’s start with what we know.” She held up one finger. “We know the ship erases it’s navigation logs, right?” She shook her finger before I could say anything. “It doesn’t matter if you think it doesn’t make sense, we know that’s a fact.”

“True,” I admitted. “Weird, but true.”

“We don’t know how often it erases, but we know it does at some point.” She raised a second finger. “And we know Lynna saw those five cryotubes on the bridge.”

“We know what she thought she saw,” I argued.

“Don’t even try,” Manda’s eyes narrowed. “Lynna went through every image she or Valtic could find of cryotubes before the crash. She’s sure that’s what she saw.”

“Right then,” I held my hands up in surrender. “Five cryotubes. Which also make no sense. No logs, and navigators with no brains.”

“Then we have these.” She tapped the holo-disc, which triggered the five glyphs. “Five gylphs. Five pods. And a ship that doesn’t keep its navigation logs.”

“So what does that get us?”

“A headache,” she leaned back in her chair and smiled. Not that full, brilliant smile I’d seen once or twice, but just a hint.

I’d take it.

“I was hoping that talking it through with you would make it clear, but I guess not.”

A wave of disappointment ran through me. I’d failed her, somehow.

“Don’t give up yet, we’ll figure it out.” I pulled up the map, let it spiral around us. “If nothing else, finding a suitable hiding place while we figure out the rest of the trail seems like it should be easy in comparison.”

“True.” She studied the map. “How do you know where we are, even without a log or the AI?” She waved her hands through all the stars. “In a cluster, there’s so many stars, it’s disorienting.”

I pointed to a star that I had programmed to light up a touch brighter than most others around it. “Do you see that star?”

She nodded.

“That’s my guidance star. It helps me to know where I’m going.” I spun the map again, but quickly found it. “No matter how I turn the map, or expand it, that star is easy to find.”

“Did you just pick one at random?”

“No, of course not. It’s the brightest star close to the center of what I’ve explored and mapped. Makes it easy for me to use it as a guide point.” I shrugged. “I’ve stared at it from so many angles on these maps, I can pretty much find it from anywhere.”

“Kind of like the North Star back on Earth. Sailors used it the same way,” she said.

“Nice. I guess humans weren’t completely useless in their old days, were they?” I joked.

“Ha, ha. I’m pretty sure that if I look back at Shein history, I’ll find a time that you weren’t in space either. Your people probably had to do similar things back on your planet,” she snapped playfully.

“Eh,” I shrugged. “I never paid attention to history growing up. Wasn’t something I wanted to know.”

“Why not?”

“I was more interested in what looking forward looked like. Right now,” I said with a sly grin, “forward looks really good.”

She shook her head and looked back at the map. “History is how we learn and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes that have already been made. Like this,” she said and stood up. “What about taking this path?” She drew another pathway from where we were towards the first constellation.

It was beautiful.

She had found the best way to go…one that would keep us far away from known Dominion locations and shipping lanes, ending up in the shadow of an uninhabited moon.

It would also make for a decently short trip.

I was impressed with her find, even while I was disappointed she hadn’t responded to my line.

Again.

I told Dejar we had a path, he instructed me to plot in our course, and I did just that.

Manda headed off on her own, so I went to the rec room.

Left to my own devices, I was normally easily entertained. I had no issue playing a few games on my own versus the AI or watching some vids.

Today, however, I was bored and frustrated.

Manda occupied my mind, and I wanted to act on that. I tried to.

I had, on several occasions during our time working together, tried to express my interest in her.

None of that interest had been reciprocated since that one kiss on the beach.

Had I read the situation so incorrectly?

Lines I had used on women in the past that were highly effective did nothing for Manda. She showed no recognition or acknowledgement of my attempts.

What was I doing wrong?

“You okay?”

I looked up to see Orrin and Kovor standing over me as I sat on the couch, apparently moping. This had been the second time that my thoughts had gotten the better of me and I had been taken by surprise by someone’s words.

“Not really,” I said before I realized the words were out of my mouth.

I hadn’t meant to say that, but now that I had, I had to deal with it.

“What’s going on?” Orrin asked as they sat down in a pair of chairs opposite me.

I leaned forward, steepling my hands in front of my face. “I need some advice,” I finally said.

“What about?” Kovor asked as he leaned back and threw his feet up on the table.

“Manda.”

“Oh,” he said in a monotone voice. “What about her?”

I leaned back, stretching my arms across the back of the couch. “I…”

“Spit it out, Qal,” Orrin smiled. “I’ve never seen you this hesitant about a conquest before.”

“She’s not a conquest,” I shot back, a flash of white-hot rage flaring through me.

Orrin grinned. “That’s good to know. Are you telling her you’re interested?”

“Yes,” I answered shortly.

“How?” Kovor asked.

“Same way I’ve done with other women,” I answered. “I say something clever, a little flirty. They flirt back. We go from there. Maybe it's a human thing. Maybe they don’t understand.”

Orrin and Kovor looked at one another, shared an annoying smile as if they knew something, then looked back at me. Orrin spoke first. “Mind if I ask you a question?”

“Okay,” I nodded.

“Why Manda?” he asked. “You’ve been around the other human women and haven’t shown any interest.”

I wasn’t sure how to answer his question. “I…I don’t know. She’s different from the others. She’s not as snappy and quippy as Maris, but I think she’s funnier. She’s also pretty good at doing a lot of things. She has a lot of talents and a lot of interests, at least from what I’ve seen so far.”

“So…then why do you think she isn’t responding to your moves? Do you think she’s not smart?”

“Kout off, she’s brilliant.” I dropped my head in my hands. “I have no idea, Orrin. I really don’t. I wish I could understand what I’m doing wrong.”

Kovor looked over at Orrin. “He’s never had lady troubles before. This must be driving him crazy.”

As they shared a chuckle, I leaned forward. “You do know that I’m right here, don’t you?”

Kovor waved off my comment. “You’re not thinking this through properly.”

“What do you mean?” I demanded.

He chuckled as he stood. He walked over to a nearby cooling unit and took out three bottles of something Itair had brought on board with him when we took him on. He handed each of us one, opened his, and took a deep drink of it before responding. “You’re truly stupid, do you realize that?”

I nearly choked on my drink as he said that. “Excuse me?” I asked when I had regained my breath.

“Think about what you said just a minute ago,” he said. “You said that ‘she’s not like the others.’ You said that, right?”

I nodded.

“Okay,” Kovor said after another swig. “Well, that means that maybe she doesn’t respond to lines and moves. Maybe she responds to honesty, real feelings, and actual attempts to be involved.”

“What he’s saying,” Orrin cut in, “is that you should stop trying to treat her like any of the other girls you’ve chased and ‘conquered.’ Show a real interest in her if you really are interested. Don’t treat her like someone you just want to bed.”

I sat back, took a drink, and thought about what they’d said. They were right.

I had to treat her better.

I had to be better.

Manda was worth it.

Manda was worth anything.

MANDA

The AI had found the third constellation.

Two left to find. With every step, it should be getting easier. We’d be closer to the end of the trail, closer to answers.

But I was restless. Thoughts of those cryotubes kept circling in my head.

I headed back to the map room. Maybe a few hours of staring at yet another star field, searching for one of those two patterns, would clear my head.

Or at least make me too tired to think about anything else.

A quick glance at the screen showed me Qal on the bridge, talking with Aavat and Kovor about something. The video had no sound, so nothing interrupted my circling thoughts.

I felt useless. I certainly was useless to Qal at this point. He’d probably relieve me of my duties at any moment.

It was probably for the best. Being near him all the time had my guts all in a knot. His casual touches sent shivers through me. And that kiss…

But he’d never given me a glimpse of anything real.

He was clever and funny. It was fun and interesting working on the puzzle with him. And he was certainly good-looking.

But was there anything else there?

“Any luck?” Qal’s voice startled me. I looked back up at the monitor. Sure enough, he was no longer on the screen but in the doorway of the navigation room.

“No,” I sighed. “Not sure why I thought I’d be able to find the pattern faster than the AI. I keep getting distracted by other things. There’s so much out there to learn.”

“Like what?” Qal took a seat beside me.

Scrambling for any answer other than the truth, I stabbed at a swirl of golden light that had drawn my eye.

“I remember reading about that place years ago,” Qal said. “I’ve never seen it myself.”

“Seen what?” I asked.

“The Illmaya,” he said.

“I don’t know what that is,” I replied.

“It means Golden River in the language of the Ranti,” he explained.

“But what is it?” I asked.

“It’s a band of space dust that’s almost completely invisible except at a certain angle,” Qal explained. “At the right angle, the refraction from a nearby sun causes it to shine gold.” He smiled, almost wistfully. “I’ve heard it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”

“It sounds lovely,” I replied. “It would be amazing to see it.” Maybe this was a chance to crack that glib exterior open. “What other places would you like to see? Or have you seen them all?”

He laughed, leaning back in his chair. “You’re very inquisitive today,” Qal observed with a smile that brought a blush to my cheeks.

“I’m inquisitive always,” I replied. “In this case, if I want to learn what I want to learn, I have to go through you.”

“If you had a way of learning all of the secrets of navigation without me, would you ever speak to me?” Qal asked, one eyebrow raised in playful challenge.

I pretended to consider. “I suppose you’re interesting enough for me to converse with.”

“What an honor,” he chuckled.

“Indeed. Now answer my questions,” I demanded in jest.

Qal stood up silently and walked over to a chest of drawers. He opened them one by one. All were bursting with maps, lists of names and coordinates in both film and digital form.

“This is my collection,” he explained proudly. “Years of traveling between the stars has left me with a cartographical library.”

“Most impressive.” I stood up and moved to stand beside him. “How many years of information do you have here?”

“At least twenty,” he replied. “I started my collection when I was young. I still don’t fully understand why I felt the need to start this. It wasn’t as if I didn’t have access to all of this where I grew up. I just wanted to have it, build the most complete map, even if I was the only person who saw it.”

“I can understand the urge. I had things I wanted to collect,” I said, thinking back. “I just never had the space or money for them.”

“What did you want to collect?” Qal asked quietly.

“Paintings,” I answered. “Sculptures. Any art, really.”

“Really?” Qal’s brows shot up.

“Is that so surprising?” I asked, defensively.

Qal hesitated before he spoke.

“No, I guess since it’s never come up, I never imagined it,” Qal said. “So help me out, tell me why.”

“I liked paintings because they were like windows to places I could never go.” I gestured towards the drawers of maps. “Almost like these, really. But I think paintings are more personal than photographs. Every brush stroke tells a story. You can see what the artist was feeling when they created the painting,” I explained. “Do the Shein have painters?”

“In the past, yes,” he nodded. “But not for many, many years.” He looked away, not meeting my eyes. “It’s considered a bit primitive, really.”

“Primitive?” I sputtered.

“Paintings in Shein history were more for recording information rather than artistry,” Qal explained. “Once we had better ways to record information, painting was abandoned.”

“That’s a shame,” I frowned.

“Perhaps you can show me Terran paintings,” Qal suggested. “I’d like to know what about them draws you in.”

“Sure,” I smiled. “If it’s ever possible, that is.”

“If it’s not, then you’ll just have to paint something for me yourself,” Qal replied.

“My older sister is the artist of the family,” I replied. “I’ve tried my hand at it a few times, but I’m hopeless.”

“Have you only one sister?” Qal asked.

“No, I have two. One older and one younger,” I replied.

“Interesting.”

“Is it really?” I asked. “Lots of people have siblings.”

“Of course,” Qal assured me. “It’s become apparent to me that I know so little about you. In fact, as you’re determined to remind me, I forgot your name.”

“I haven’t given you a hard time about that in a while now.”

“My point is that I’d like to know more about you, especially if we’re going to keep working together like this,” Qal finished. “Tell me something no one else knows.”

“Hmm.”

Why? I wanted to ask. Why did he want to know more?

I thought for a long moment. There were many things no one else knew about me. I sifted through my harmless secrets for a good one to tell.

“Sometimes, I go into Shenna’s room to hold Persephone,” I confessed. “I’ve always liked cats. I had a few growing up.”

“I’m fond of that cat,” Qal replied. “Sometimes she wanders in here. I let her sit on my lap if she wants to. However, whenever she does, I find that I can’t stop sneezing for hours afterward.”

At that, I burst into laughter.

“Alright, it’s your turn.” I clenched the edge of the table. If he wanted to know more about me, maybe, just maybe, it was safe to get to know him.

Right?

“What about you? What’s your story?”

Qal was taken aback by my question for only a split second. “I’m not nearly as interesting as most of the others. My past is relatively boring, to be honest.”

“Well, I’d like to hear about it anyway,” I said quietly.

He leaned back, folded his arms on his chest, and started. “My parents were navigators, pilots. If they weren’t flying for someone else, they were traveling for themselves. We traveled so many places together. That’s part of how my map is so detailed. I started it when I was traveling with them.”

His eyes were fixed on something far away. I wished I could see it. “That had to be fun,” I said softly. “Nice to have such a special time with them.”

“I miss it every day.”

We let that sit in silence for a while, as I wondered what was left unsaid.

QAL

“What about this?” Manda pushed a section of the display towards me, her hand brushing mine.

I gritted my teeth. This was getting ridiculous.

The Rogue Star was safely proceeding along the route Manda and I had plotted. The other pilots were picking up my shift easily, so I could focus on this puzzle.

The AI was sorting through possible matches for the next glyph.

Everything was going well.

And I was losing my mind.

Working in the map room with Manda day after day, her intoxicating scent filled the air. The casual touches sent spikes of desire through me.

And I wasn't sure what to do next.

But something had to break.

“Could be a match, but not quite. I'll set up a subroutine and have the AI re-examine it.”

She stretched backwards over the chair, her chest arching, shirt pressed tightly across the lush curves of her body.

I bit back a low groan.

“What's that?” she asked innocently.

“Nothing,” I shook my head. She stood up and moved next to where I gripped the edge of the map table.

“Should we go ahead and start looking for the next set of coordinates, just in case that turns out to be a match?”

That would be the reasonable thing to do. But I wasn't feeling reasonable, not anymore.

“We could take a break,” I said, “let the AI earn its keep.”

She laughed, the sound hitting me deep in the gut.

“What exactly does it need for its keep? Energy? We could feed it extra data.” She tossed a handful of spare data chips in the air, jingling them in her hand. “Maybe it would work faster if we promised it treats.” She waggled one of the chips in the air. “We could bribe it.”

Manda turned that dazzling smile to me. “What would you like for a bribe?”

Something in me snapped.

I pushed the fall of long hair that seemed to always escape from her braid back behind her ear and let my fingers slowly trace down the curve of her jaw.

Her eyes widened, her nostrils flaring.

“Another kiss,” I grounded out hoarsely. “I'd take another kiss as a bribe.”

The pink triangle of her tongue darted out, moistening her lips, and it took every bit of self-control I had not to grab her there, chase her tongue, devour her.

“Well,” she said finally, a little breathy, “I think we could manage that.”

My head jerked up, eyes boring into hers. “Are you certain?”

She stepped towards me, nodded, and that's all it took.

I wrapped one arm low around her waist, fingers gliding over the smooth curve of her hip while the other ran through the long strands of her hair, pulling her to me.

I paused, then she tilted her face up expectantly and I bent over her, desperate for the sweetness of her lips again.

This wouldn't be a quick taste.

I intended to savor every moment of this kiss.

My hand ran up and down her spine and I gently coaxed her mouth to fall open to mine.

Her hands clutched at my shoulders for balance as I leaned forward, trailing kisses down her neck, across the newly fascinating collarbone, into the delicate notch at the top of her sternum.

Every inch of her was bewitching, addictive.

“Qal,” she moaned.

I slid my hand under her hip and lifted her to sit perched on the edge of the map table, slowly lowering her down, as I unfastened each button of her shirt. Every bit of exposed skin was to be prized, explored, licked.

At the smooth, soft skin of her belly, I paused again.

“Should I stop?”

I'd be able to if she asked me to. I could do anything she asked me to.

My fingers stroked her sides while I waited.

“No,” came her shuddering answer.

Spurred by the need in her voice, I worked back up her front, freeing her lovely breasts from the restraining device.

I tongued and nibbled at the taut, rosy pebbled nubs as her fingers wound their way through my hair.

Every touch sent sparks running from my scalp down my spine, fanning my desire, making me unbelievably harder.

I had to have more.

More of Manda.

With one hand, I clumsily undid the front of her pants and teased at the soft skin, my fingers dipping just below the waistband while I nipped at one breast.

Raising her heels to the edge of the map table, she lifted her hips just enough for me to slide her pants down, exposing her damp heat.

I slid one finger across her slick folds and she shivered, groaning at my touch.

Another delicate touch, then another, until she hissed, rolling her hips towards me.

Dipping one finger into her tight, silken heat, she writhed beneath me, a delicate flush spreading through her skin, her eyes wide.

Every response she gave only drove me to get more from her.

Falling to my knees, I brought my mouth to her, lapping at her honeyed folds until I found at the top of her slit the delicate nub that made her gasp.

She curled halfway up, fingers clenched tight in my hair as I pulled her hips closer to me, circling the sensitive nub with my tongue, piercing her tight pussy with the fingers of the other hand.

Her gasps grew frantic until, with a shuddering cry she fell apart, the projection of the stars circling all around us, their splendor nothing compare to the feeling of holding her.

My Manda.

I gathered her in my arms and waited for her breathing to slow, relishing her beauty.

“Well,” she finally managed. “That was certainly more of a break than I'd been expecting to take.”

I kissed her forehead. “I consider myself to be fully bribed.”

She laughed. “I think I should be the one-”

We were interrupted by the beep of the AI. “Constellation confirmed. Now repositioning the map. Beginning search for last constellation.”

Excitedly, she wiggled out of my arms, straightening her clothing as a new field of stars surrounded us.

“So, is this as exciting as exploring the stars as a child with your parents?” Manda asked.

“It’s different,” I replied. “But in a good way.”

“Sounds like you had fun when you first told me about the life,” Manda pressed.

I smiled. “It was. It was the most fun I could have had as a child growing up.”

As I spoke, Manda pulled a chair closer to me and refastened her shirt. I wanted to protest, but she was right. It was time to get back to work.

“We went everywhere. I don’t think I stayed off ship for longer than a few weeks, maybe a few months at a time while growing up. It’s why I don’t usually like to stay in one place for too long. There’s so much to see and do, why would I stay in one place?”

MANDA

I woke the next morning but didn’t immediately move to get up from my sleeping mat in the small room I’d claimed as my own. Not much larger than a closet, but enough for me.

I tugged my blanket up so I was completely snuggled from the chin down.

It wasn’t particularly cold on the ship, yet I couldn’t get warm.

What had I done?

Usually, I leaped up from my mat first thing so that I could meet Qal in the navigation room after popping into the dining hall for a cup of coffee and maybe a portable breakfast item. Yesterday, I almost suggested to Qal that we start having breakfast together either in the dining hall or in the navigation room. We could take turns bringing the food. I knew he liked the fruity biscuits Sars learned how to make during our stay on the Qasar Station. I wasn’t much of a breakfast person, but I thought I could get into the habit if it meant eating with him.

I didn’t plan on it, and I certainly didn’t expect it, but I had feelings for Qal. Feelings that extended beyond the bounds of ordinary friendship.

Before I even opened my eyes in the morning, I was already thinking about him. Lately, I’d caught myself wondering what his hair would feel like if I were to run my fingers through it. These feelings frightened me, but every time Qal smiled, my fear vanished.

Now I knew exactly what his hair felt like. His skin against mine.

His tongue.

Everything.

And for those few, precious moments, I had thought it would all work out. He’d shown me glimpses of his past.

Shared things that mattered to him.

But his honesty woke me up from the dream.

He never planned to stay in one place for long.

How much longer would it be before he left the Rogue Star?

Perhaps for a while, working aboard the ship had satisfied his desire to see the galaxy.

Once we confronted the Dominion, would that still be the case? There were so many variables.

Once we reached our final destination, would we find what we needed? Would I be allowed to return home?

Would the Rogue Star crew be pardoned?

Questions piled up in my mind, far too many to sort through.

I wasn’t a meticulous planner, by any means. But that didn’t mean I liked walking into the future blind.

I’d been subconsciously constructing a future with Qal in my mind. I hadn’t even realized it until he said what he said yesterday.

It felt like a tiny balloon popping in my chest.

I’d never liked the idea of the breeding facilities for human males. I knew there wasn’t a better alternative at the moment. Perhaps it was because of the nature of the breeding facilities that I formed my view about relationships. I never expected myself to be in a position where I could have one, but I always felt that if I ever entered a relationship with a male, it would be for keeps.

Through old movies, television shows, and books, I’d learned that when people were able to enter relationships at liberty, many sought out companions for fun but not for commitment.

Even though I’d never have a choice in the matter, I decided that sort of relationship just wasn’t for me.

If I was ever lucky enough to have even a chance at a relationship, I wasn’t going to take it lightly.

Several of the human women had entered relationships with Shein males. They were all happier for it. No matter what happened with the Dominion, aside from all of us being incarcerated and/or incinerated, I doubted any of them would leave their new partners.

The difference was that all of those Shein males had expressed their willingness to commit. Dejar, Aavat, Orrin, Valtic - even easy going Kovor had made it clear their mates were their priorities.

Qal’s reluctance to stay in one place for an extended time made it clear to me that commitment wasn’t one of his priorities.

I sat up in bed, not bothering to brush my hair away as it fell in my face.

This was for the best.

If I knew anything from those old romance books and movies, a dislike of commitment was a major red flag in relationships.

Whatever happened yesterday, no matter how it had felt, it had to stop.

Qal would leave, and I’d have my heart broken.

I’d survived so much already. I didn’t think I could survive that.

My mouth tasting of ashes as I walked down the hall to the map room, I reminded myself this was a good thing. If I kept my emotions out of the situation, I’d probably get a lot more work done.

More often than not, Qal and I spent our shared time talking and joking with each other. Now that we had something important to focus on, I felt my decision to keep emotions out of it was the right one.

“GOOD MORNING, BEAUTIFUL,” Qal said cheerfully when I entered.

“Morning.” I didn’t think anything sounded different in my voice. I even made sure to smile.

“Is everything all right?” he asked.

“Of course.” My grin stretched tighter.

“Did you get enough sleep?”

“Yes!” I threw my hands up in the air. “Can we talk about something besides my health and well-being?

He blinked and stepped back. “Sure, what would you like to talk about?”

Dammit. This wasn't going to work.

No, I could do this.

Focus.

“Maybe something about the people who are trying to capture us, for who knows what reason?” I grabbed for the first thing that came to mind. “Those five cryotubes. I was thinking-”

“Last night when you were sleeping so well?”

I couldn't decide if I wanted to kiss him or shake him until the grin left his face.

“No, not while I was sleeping.” I kept my voice deadpan. “We've seen one of the five glyphs on the bounty hunter’s wrist.”

Qal nodded thoughtfully. “Aryn and Kovor were pretty sure they'd seen it on some of the men at the Enclave compound on Qasar, as well.”

“What if,” I sent my mind spinning, flipping through options, searching the possibilities just like we’d been searching for those constellations.

So much easier than circling around the relationship that couldn't be a relationship.

“What if they all are branded?”

“What good would that do?”

The answer struck me. This was right. I knew it was right. “They're doing exactly what we're doing.” The logic was solid, rang true as a bell. “It would mean, if you had five of those thugs in cryotubes, and they each had one of those five brands, wouldn’t it be enough for an AI to do exactly what we're doing?”

Qal narrowed his eyes. “I’m not sure I’m following here. How would they navigate, just with their brands?”

“You wanted to know how a ship could navigate without keeping any records?” I threw my hair back, mind still working out the last details. “What if they only erase the navigation logs when they were leaving that testing facility?”

He thought about it. “It’d be a risky process.” He stopped, thought about it more. “But sure, you could program the AI to erase the logs every time it left a certain point.” The slow smile spread across his face as he saw where I was heading. “And any time the captain of The Terror needed to go to the facility, instead of having the coordinates, the AI could wake up whoever was in those cryotubes in a given order and scan their brands.”

“Sounds like a terrible thing to do,” I murmured. “But it all makes sense.”

Qal rubbed his chin. “Valtic said that Lynna had mentioned something about overhearing that the pods were used as a punishment. Maybe once you're sentenced to the cryotubes, they're not concerned about how well your brain is holding up, as long as you can stagger out and let your wrist be read for the next glyph.”

I shuddered. “That's awful. But considering we’re talking about an organization that is forcing the abduction of woman as a condition for being allowed into their so-called civilization, running some sort of tests on the abducted women, and auctioning off the survivors, I’m not sure why I’m surprised.”

“It's all speculation,” Qal reminded me. “But it makes sense. A twisted kind of sense, and you'd have to be crazy to do it, but it would work.”

“But how did they even know about the O’lanti trail navigation system?” I wondered.

We sat in silence for a minute until Qal slapped his hand on the table. “Tallak told us most of it. And you figured it out from there,” he smiled proudly at me.

I fought against the glow of warmth that smile lit in my chest.

Nothing but friends.

We couldn't be anything but friends.

“Tallak told us,” I repeated, trying to get my thoughts in order. “The researchers!” I exclaimed.

“And you wondered if they needed to go back for money.” Qal sat back contentedly. “If they applied for funding somewhere, were working through any of the universities, chances are good the research would have ended up in the hands of some lower-level Dominion official. If that official passed it up the chain,” he trailed off.

I drummed my fingers, thinking about it. “Sooner or later, someone would recognize the potential for an untraceable navigational system.”

“You realize, we finally have the tie between the Dominion and Enclave.” Qal’s jaw tightened. “There's no question now. We need to go tell Captain Dejar and Aavat.”

“Go,” I waved him away, grateful for the chance to be by myself, regain my balance.

Just friends.

“The AI should be done with the last coordinate soon. I’ll let you know as soon as it has something.”

I shouldn’t have said anything.

Final coordinates found.

“Computer, display on map.”

There it was, hovering before us.

“That can't be right.” Qal slumped back into his chair. “Kout. If that's wrong, we could be wrong with our entire theory of how this works. We’ll have to go back, retrace every step.”

“What do you mean?” I argued. “What about that place makes you think our entire process is wrong? We've tested and double checked, it makes sense.” I insisted.

“Except, that doesn't.” He shoved his finger into the glowing circle that marked our final destination.

“Why? What's so terrible about there?”

“Well, for starters, I'd say the black hole.”

QAL

The bridge was a terrible place for a meeting. It was meant to be the command center, have just what was needed to fly a ship, not have this many people crowded around.

But right now, I wanted as many people as possible to see exactly what I was seeing.

“We've got enough for two folds,” Dejar said. “Get us in as close as you can and let's see what's really there.”

“And be prepared to fold right back out,” Aavat added.

I felt the urge to roll my eyes.

It wasn't exactly like I was a novice at this.

True, most of the time I avoided trying to make folds into the area of a black hole.

Any sane pilot would do the same.

But we'd all argued the question up, down, and sideways.

It had been Kalyn who swayed the final decision. “You and Manda are both smart, and despite having a tendency for bad jokes, you’re careful,” she decided. “If this is the destination you think that trail leads to, we have to see what's there.”

“There's a black hole there,” I had sighed.

“No, your maps say there's a black hole there.” She smiled. “There's an old Terran saying. ‘The map is not the territory.’”

Stupid saying, but Dejar had agreed. “If it's a black hole, we fold back away and find someplace else quiet while you tackle that problem from another angle. Maybe try picking up another job in the meantime.”

The O’lanti navigation trail wasn't the only problem I needed a new angle on.

I thought I'd reached Manda. That our fevered time together had meant something, that we’d come to an understanding.

But she'd been distant all day. Maybe I'd really misunderstood the situation.

Maybe she didn't want a relationship.

And definitely, the moments before folding next to a black hole weren't the time for my mind to be on personal problems.

It’d be a lot easier if she wasn't standing on the bridge.

I could see her out of the corner of my eye, carefully not looking my direction.

“Let’s do it.”

With the flick of the navigation panels, I dropped us out of fold, well back from where the event horizon for the black hole should be.

We all scrutinized the monitors, hyperalert for the first alarm of gravitational anomalies.

“That was not what I was expecting,” Kovor said.

“No kidding,” I couldn’t help responding.

“What exactly are we looking at?” Dejar asked.

“Well, sir, um…it’s our black hole,” I responded.

“Really?”

“If you believe every single star map we’ve ever seen,” I started, “then, yes. That round rock with eight other rocks circling it is a black hole. However, if you want to believe your eyes, we’re staring at a planet with eight moons, a breathable atmosphere, and I don’t have a single clue as to what the kopa is going on.”

I looked back at him to see his reaction. I was pretty sure that the look on his face was mirrored on my own.

“What if anyone that came out here was destroyed or captured before they could say that the black hole wasn’t a black hole?” Dejar asked. “Keep us in stealth mode and hide us, now.”

I spun myself back around to the controls and moved us behind a small asteroid. When we were close enough to one of the moons, I took us from behind the asteroid to behind the moon.

“Suggestions?” Dejar asked the crowd on the bridge. Aavat was there, as was Manda, Kalyn, and the rest of the normal bridge crew. Itair was there, as well, although I wasn’t sure why.

He was the first to answer Dejar’s question. “I know I’m not part of your crew, Captain, but might I suggest a probe to study the planet. If this truly is a Dominion hiding place, then we don’t want them to find us.”

Dejar nodded patiently as he listened to Itair. “That isn’t a bad idea, but we don’t have any probes left. We didn’t have the necessary funds to replenish what we needed to make our own probes back at Qasar, and we were in a bit of a rush to get you off Katzul, if you remember correctly.”

Aavat, with a ‘please just don’t talk again’ glare flashed at Itair, stepped forward. “While our new benefactor’s suggestion isn’t a bad one, as the captain has said, it’s currently not possible. That means our only way of figuring this out falls to either scanning the planet, which means we need to get closer, or we just land on the damn thing and figure it out that way.”

“And I’m not a fan of the second choice,” Dejar interjected. “Any other suggestions? And, no, Qal, we can’t just turn around and leave.”

“I wasn’t going to say that, promise,” I responded. “However, I can get us closer.”

“Without being spotted?”

I thought about it for a moment. “Hopefully,” was my answer.

At Dejar’s look, I quickly explained. “Our system will keep us hidden from sensors, but if there are any ships out here and they happen to look in the right direction at the right time, or someone with a powerful electron-telescope looked the right way…”

Dejar held up his hand. “I get it. We’re not invisible, so we still need to be careful.”

I nodded.

“Okay,” he sighed. “Take us in close.”

Shifting from pre-fold to standard engines, I took over all flight controls and maneuvered us around the moon we were hiding behind. It was a dark, colorless moon with numerous craters. I sincerely doubted there was anything on it that could spot us, but the next closest moon looked to be teeming with nature.

A quick scan of that moon showed a small station on it, but it was on the far side. I shot us over to it and matched our speed with the moon’s rotation.

“Careful,” Aavat said, needlessly.

My left eye twitched a bit at his insinuation that I wasn’t careful, but I didn’t let him see it. I shot the ship over to the next moon. My sensors did a quick scan of it and found that about two-thirds of it was a big blob of mud as dozens of massive storms wreaked havoc on the surface. The parts that weren’t muddy were as dry as a desert.

“I think we’re as close as we’re going to get, for now,” I announced.

Even as Dejar ordered a scan of the planet, I was already doing it. As we sat, staying in the shadow of Mud Moon, as I had dubbed it, the sensors scanned and scanned again.

“Well?” Manda ask from next to me. I jumped, looked up at her in shock, then flashed her a smile as her mouth twitched in amusement.

“Well, nothing. Scanners aren’t showing anything,” I answered.

“How could your sensors show nothing?” Itair asked, interrupting both Dejar and Aavat.

As much as I wanted to bash Itair for being so oblivious to the obvious, it was actually a smart question. Not everyone was as knowledgeable of the technical sides of things as we were aboard the ship.

“Well,” I started. “There could be a number of things.” I held up a finger, “The atmosphere could be too thick for our sensors to penetrate from this far away.” A second finger went up. “They could have some sort of shielding that is blocking our sensors.” A third finger, “Our sensors could have mysteriously and suddenly broken in the time it took to scan the Mud Moon to when I tried to scan the planet.” I raised a fourth finger, “Finally, there might actually be nothing on the planet and the sensors are showing nothing because there is nothing to show.”

“Which do you think it is?” Manda asked me quietly.

“I’m not sure,” I answered. I looked by her to Dejar. “Should I try to get closer? The station on the last moon is most likely pointed away from us, so we should be in the clear for a few minutes at least.”

He nodded. I turned back to my console and slowly pulled the Rogue Star around the moon and down towards the planet. Just as it looked as though the sensors were reading something, Valtic’s booming voice shouted over the comm systems. “MOVE! The Terror just folded in, and they’ve got a direct line of sight to us!”

Scro. I hit the retro rockets to spin the ship around, then threw her thrusters on as hard as they’d burn.

“Can we jump out of here?” I heard someone’s voice from behind me.

“QAL!”

“Shut up,” I shouted back. I was trying to weave our way out of the planet’s gravity, all while avoiding whatever it was that The Terror was aiming at us and building up the pre-fold energy again.

Manda let out a small yelp as I jerked us hard to the left, the g-forces in space…while not as prominent up here as on a planet…still enough to force several people off balance as the inertial dampeners of the ship buckled.

The red alert came on, Dejar’s voice calling for everyone to get to their stations. Manda stayed next to me as I pulled the Rogue Star up hard. If we had been on a planet, we would have been completely vertical, and all being forced deep into our seats by gravity. As it was, Manda still stumbled slightly.

Another twenty seconds and we could fold, we could get away and escape. Seventeen seconds and I hooked us hard around one of the moons, hoping to use the moon’s light gravity pull as a little extra push. Thirteen seconds left and another energy blast just barely missed us. Nine seconds, eight, seven, six…

We were jerked to a stop, no longer moving, even though engines were at full strength. A quick look at internal monitors showed the engines beginning to overheat.

“Sir?” I asked.

“Shut them down,” Dejar barked.

I hated to follow his orders, but a dead engine was worse than whatever was happening to us now. A dead engine also meant no life-support, and that meant a very painful and scary death as we all ran out of air to breathe while we froze to death.

“What are we going to do?” Itair asked, hysterically. “Who knows what they’ll do if they capture me!”

“Calm down, Itair,” Dejar chided. “We’re not dead yet.”

Manda gripped my shoulder tightly and I reached up a hand to try to comfort her, even though my own heart was racing.

Orrin came on over the comm. “They have us in some sort of tractor bean, Captain. I’m not sure how they managed to create one that works for longer than a few seconds, but we’re done. Before we shut down the engines, they were sapping our energy. We were done as soon as they hit us.”

“Understood, Orrin. Try to figure it out in the time we have left,” Dejar answered.

Then he pushed the shipwide broadcast button. “All hands. Prepare to be boarded.”

“No!” Itair wailed, but no one paid him any heed.

I grabbed the blaster I had stashed under my seat and rose, pulling Manda behind me.

“We’ve got to get you somewhere safe.”

Her tiny fingers laced through mine. “If they’re coming on board the Rogue Star, there isn’t anywhere safe for me. Not anymore.”

No.

Not going to happen.

I glanced around the bridge. Everyone was taking positions, rushing around. Dejar argued with Kalyn, commanding her to hide. She wasn’t having it.

And none of it was my problem right now.

Manda was my only responsibility.

Because we wouldn’t have long to wait.

MANDA

Suddenly my earlier thoughts about keeping an emotional distance from Qal didn't seem to matter anymore.

Seemed stupid. Wasteful of the time we could have spent together.

I clenched his fingers, trying to keep my own hands from shaking.

He shifted, his body shielding me from whatever might be coming our way.

“What do you think is going to happen?” I whispered.

Captain Dejar and the other Shein crewmembers were sending orders through the ship for the women to hide, for the men to prepare to fight.

Fighting wasn't exactly something I had a lot of experience with.

But the idea of anything happening to the crew, no, they were more than that now, my friends. My family.

I’d learn to fight if I had to.

“I don't know,” Qal whispered back. “But we should move while we’ve got the chance.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me behind him as he dashed for the door.

“Where are we going?” I whispered, hurrying to keep up, ears straining for the sounds of the enemy boarding our home.

“The map room. It's out of the way, they might not get to it, might not find it at all. Either way, it'll buy more time.”

As soon as we reached the door, a series of sharp blasts echoed through the ship.

“They’re here,” I gasped.

“Come on.” Quickly, Qal pulled me to the back of the room. There was a gap between the screen and the fixture that contained his secondary navigation console.

“This is perfect,” he said. “In you go.”

“But what about you?”

He stroked my face and I leaned into his touch. “Manda, I won't be here. I have to go help the others fight. Stay here, stay quiet.”

I put my hand over my mouth to stifle my argument.

Of course he had to go. I didn't want to be alone in this room, hearing our new life come down around my ears.

Didn’t want Qal running into a firefight.

If anything happened to him. . .we hadn't even decided what was really going on between us, but if anything happened. . .

But what I wanted wasn’t the important thing. Not now.

“I understand,” I managed after a few shaky breaths.

He kissed my hand, the lightest brush against the tip of my fingers, then turned, ready to charge out the door.

Another shudder reverberated through the ship, knocking him from his feet. “That beam is going to tear us apart,” he muttered.

When he got to the door, it was spiderwebbed in cables. “Stay back,” he whispered urgently. Get down. Those cables are live.”

“Surrender or we blow the ship,” a gruff voice snarled from the comms. “We have the females. Cease your resistance or we begin to terminate them. We don't need them all.”

“Oh no.” I bit my lip.

Qal’s face turned to stone. “They’ve got them. I'm patching into Valtic’s security cameras. We should be able to see the entire ship. Good thing he's a paranoid bastard.”

I crept out from my hiding space.

Qal glared but I stood firm. “I need to see, too,” I insisted.

It was the scene from the shared nightmare of all of the human women.

Hooded figures in the dark uniforms that had attacked us on Outpost Nine surrounded the group of women.

Not as many of the enemy as I’d expected. But enough.

I quickly counted the gathered women, and realized I was the only one missing.

Qal pulled up another monitor and swore under his breath.

Half the crew had been captured and from the look of the wounds, they hadn’t gone down easy. But with weapons trained on the women, they wouldn't fight.

“Keep searching, make sure this is all of them,” the leader barked. “There were more when we had them before.”

“We’ve had losses, running from you bastards,” Maris yelled. “This is all of us that’s left.”

The leader stopped, casually backhanded her while Orrin roared in the background. “Search anyway.”

“Hide,” Qal hissed, but there wasn’t a way he could possibly fit in that little gap.

He eyed the door, and I knew what he was thinking.

“If you can manage to get past the cables without getting electrocuted,” I whispered hurriedly, “they’ll still kill you right away. We need to be smart about this.”

Scowling, he tucked himself under the far edge of the large table and I curled into his arms.

“We’ll get through this,” he murmured into my hair. “We’ll get them back. All of them.”

Damn straight, I promised myself. Just as soon as we survived this part.

We waited.

And waited.

“We found this,” a new voice grunted and I heard a hiss.

“Persephone!” I gasped. Those bastards had our cat!

“What is it?” someone else asked.

“Some kind of beast,” the first voice said. “It’s a fierce creature, though it’s small. It was valiantly guarding a hoard of other little creatures.”

The Terror crew must’ve found Shenna’s miniature zoo.

“Leave it,” the voice of the one in command hissed. “We’re only here for the criminal Shein and the female subjects.”

My stomach churned at the word subjects. There was a thump followed by an indignant meow. I felt a small surge of relief knowing that, if anything, Persephone was all right. She’d look after the other animals until Qal and I made this right.

“Did you check all of the rooms?” the leader asked.

“All but this one.” There was a solid thump on the wall, but no one approached the sparking cables hanging across the door to the navigation room.

I held my breath and tightened my grip on Qal.

“Cut the power and get in there,” the leader demanded.

Qal pulled me in closer. I buried my face in his chest. If we were to be discovered now, I didn’t want to see it coming. I emptied my mind of everything but Qal. The hardness of his muscles beneath his shirt, his scent, and the smoothness of his skin.

The sizzling from the cables stopped.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Someone stepped into the room.

I refused to even breathe.

“It’s clear,” The Terror crewmember grumbled. His footsteps retreated.

I let out the breath I’d been holding and Qal’s muscles relaxed, but only slightly.

We stayed in our hiding spot, listening to The Terror crewmembers shove our friends into line and escort them off the ship.

To their credit, they did not go quietly. I heard Shein and human females alike resisting every step of the way. I wished I could give them some kind of signal to let them know that Qal and I would help.

I’m sure some of them had already figured it out.

They would notice quickly if Qal wasn’t among them. I liked to think they’d notice I was missing, too.

After the retreating footsteps were out of earshot, Qal and I still didn’t move. I wasn’t sure how long we waited. It could’ve been ten minutes. It could’ve been an hour.

Odd creaks and groans ran through the ship. Qal was desperate to check the monitors again, see what was happening to his baby, but we stayed still.

It wasn’t until Persephone, the brave kitty, entered the navigation room that Qal and I felt the coast was clear.

Persephone sat in front of our hiding spot and yowled until I picked her up.

“Don’t worry,” I assured Persephone. “We’ll get everyone back.”

As soon as we figured out how.

QAL

Slowly, we crept from our hiding place.

Fury burned through me. Dejar had ordered us to find a place to hide as a precaution. I’d kept Manda safe.

Still, it galled me that I hadn't done anything to keep those bastards from The Terror from raiding our home, taking our crewmates.

“What now?” Manda whispered.

“Now we see what the hell has happened to my ship,” I growled.

Flipping through Valtic’s feeds from the cameras that Orrin and Maris had installed throughout the entire ship, one thing was clear.

We were alone.

Entirely alone.

Except, of course, for Shenna’s menagerie.

The only positive thing was there didn't appear to be any bodies, and bloodshed seemed minimal.

The men would've been on their best behavior if the women, especially their mates, had been threatened.

I glanced at Manda’s pale face.

It certainly would've worked with me.

Jaw so tight it hurt, I reviewed the tapes on high speed, watching for any clues.

“It looks like no one’s dead, or at least I don’t think anyone’s dead,” I added as I looked up at her. “They grabbed everyone else, even Itair, for whatever good it will do them.”

“Why would they take everyone alive?” she asked.

I shrugged. “The only thing I can think of is that they’re going to be looking for information, but this is a good thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“With them alive, that means that the Dominion isn’t interested in eliminating us, at least not yet. They need to know what we know, and that means that we have time.”

I kept running the vids.

And…that was unexpected.

Everyone had been marched out through the cargo doors.

And I caught a glimpse of land.

“We need to get to the bridge.” Confusion rocked me. “They've landed the Rogue Star. That's part of what we were hearing.”

“On the planet?” she gasped.

On the bridge, I went to Dejar’s station, pulled up his mini-console, and logged in.

“You know his password?” Manda asked as she sat next to me.

“Eh, I know everyone’s password,” I said nonchalantly. When I had installed a key-trace program on my own console so I could study my reaction times and get faster, I was unprepared, but happy, to find that it recorded everyone’s keystrokes throughout the entire ship.

Apparently, the AI had decided that it was a natural security upgrade and transferred it everywhere.

I rarely paid attention to what anyone else was doing, I knew they valued their privacy. But, when it came down to passwords, I copied all of them down. You never knew what would be useful.

“Does Dejar know you know his password?”

I shook my head. “No, and I don’t plan on him ever finding out.” I emphasized a few key words, hoping she caught on to my meaning.

“Uh-huh,” she mumbled. “So, what are you doing?”

As I typed, I told her. “I’m trying to see if their goons have attempted to access our systems yet, and if so, what they’ve looked at.”

“Anything?”

“Luckily, no.” I logged out, stood up, and looked around, trying to figure out our next move. “Let’s look around the ship, maybe we’ll see something.” I went over to the science station, grabbed a tablet, and connected it to the interior vids. If anyone came back to the ship, we’d see them before they saw us, I hoped.

As we searched the ship for any other survivors, and slowly realized we were all that was left—except the animals, they hadn’t touched the animals—Manda discovered something that I missed. “Some of the comm units are missing.”

“Scro.” I cursed, then switched to a whisper. “We need to be careful, the Dominion might know we’re still on here.”

Manda shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. Think it through.”

I looked at her with narrowed eyes.

She chuckled. “If they knew we were here, they would have sent someone to come get us already, don’t you think?”

“Good point.” I had to agree, she was right. If they did know we were here, they would have sent someone to get us. From what I saw on the vids, they had been extra careful with the women. If they had knowledge that there was another woman on board, they would have stormed the ship and taken Manda already.

“I think the comms are from our people. They must have had them on them and never got rid of them.” Then her eyes lit up and she did a tiny hop. “We need to get back to the bridge, now.”

“What? Why?” I stuttered as she took off. I chased after her, and normally my longer legs would have gotten me caught up to her in a hurry, but she was gone. She was already sitting in Dejar’s chair when I finally got to the bridge.

“What’s his password?”

“What are you trying to do?” I asked as I walked over.

“If I can hack into the comms, maybe we can figure out if they’re alive and where they are.” Her wide eyes shone in the light, her enthusiasm infectious.

“Okay, but Dejar’s console won’t do you any good. Come here.” I motioned her over to the comm station and logged in for her. She bumped me out of the way as she jumped on and started diving into the software.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Looking into the subroutines and the system logs to see if there is any way that I can activate a comm unit from here,” she answered as her fingers flew over the keyboard.

Words, symbols, numbers, and random things were a blur on the screen as she typed, swiped, and clicked her way through everything. I didn’t understand any of it. “How do you know how to do this?”

She gave me a single shoulder shrug as she continued to type and look. “I have a lot of down time, alone.” Her voice sounded a little sad, resigned. “I’ve managed to teach myself a lot of different things over the years of being by myself.”

I sat back and watched, making sure to keep an eye on the interior, and now exterior, vids to ensure that we were alone.

No one was coming for us, and after what seemed like an extremely long hour in which I was sure my own fingers would have either cramped up or fallen off at the pace she was maintaining, she finally stopped typing.

“I’m in,” she said, a sense of accomplishment to her voice. A rush of pride warmed me as she looked back at me with a smile. “I made it in. Now I can start checking comms.”

I grabbed her hand before she touched anything. “Will they hear us?”

“Well, yeah. Why?” she asked as I gently let go of her hand.

“What if they have the comms instead?”

Manda’s eyes went wide. “Good call. Okay, so we turn one on and listen for a bit, see what we hear. Then, we take a chance at talking to someone.”

With nothing else to go on, I nodded. She turned on a comm, nothing. Another one, nothing. Eight comms later, she held up a finger.

“Do you hear anything?” I asked.

She nodded.

I flipped a switch and the muffled sounds filled the room.

“Aryn, calm down,” Kalyn’s quiet voice sounded like a ghost. “We can’t do anything, not yet.”

Manda bit her lip but waited.

Several minutes passed. We only heard Kalyn and the soft sounds of the other women talking further away.

Nothing to indicate the guards were in the room.

But we couldn’t be sure.

I held one finger over the send button. “Should we risk it?” If we were right, if the women were alone, we had a chance to learn something, get information that might possibly help us fight back.

If we were wrong, it would be disaster.

Manda nodded, and pressed her hand on top of mine.

“Do it.”

MANDA

My heart was pounding so hard it physically hurt. I tried to clear my mind. I didn’t know how long I’d be able to talk to Kalyn before our thin line of contact broke.

“Kalyn, it’s Manda. Whisper back if you can.”

A quiet gulp. “Manda, thank goodness.”

“Are you hurt?” I forced the words out, trying to sound calm but I’m sure I didn’t manage it. Qal reached out and squeezed my shoulder. I took a steadying breath and listened for Kalyn’s response.

“No,” she whispered into her comm unit. “But some of the others are.”

“Tell me,” I said.

“I don’t know what’s happening.” Kalyn’s voice was thick, as if she’d been crying. “They haven’t done anything to me yet. But they’ve done things to some of the women. And we don’t know what happened to the men.”

“What things?” I asked again, my body going rigid with fear. My mind went to the darkest place first. A wave of nausea crashed over me.

“I don’t know,” Kalyn whispered. “Dominion officials are taking the women one by one. They’ve taken five so far. Xyla was gone for only a few minutes. She came back crying and in a lot of pain but she won’t tell us what happened.” A thread of steel worked its way through her voice. “She’s going to be difficult, even if they kill us all. They took Shenna as soon as we got here and haven’t brought her back yet. I’m worried.”

“Qal and I are going to find all of you and get you out,” I assured her. “What can you tell me about your surroundings?”

I made a motion for Qal to bring me something to write on. He slid a tablet over to me.

“It’s a big square room,” Kalyn whispered. “There are lights but they aren’t very bright. The door doesn’t have any distinguishing features from the inside. No windows. No furniture. They keep blasting cold air into the room.”

“What about when they brought you into the room? Did you see anything?” I asked.

“I was in too much of a panic. I should have kept my composure and I couldn’t. When they took Dejar and the rest of the Shein and Itair somewhere else, I couldn’t think about anything other than what’s going to happen to them.” A soft sniffle. “Some of the guys got hurt. I don’t know how badly. Lynna’s losing her mind.”

“Where did they take the guys?” Qal asked.

“I don’t know. The Shein were taken somewhere to the left of the main corridor. We were taken straight ahead.”

“Did you go straight the entire time?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Kalyn wailed. I heard a few people shush her. “Sorry,” she whispered.

“Are you on The Terror?” Qal asked.

“No,” she blurted. “I’m sorry. That should’ve been the first thing I told you. They took us off the ship. I think we’re on the main planet. Or maybe another one of the moons? It’s hard to say. I didn’t see anything. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right,” I soothed.

I’d always known Kalyn to be a level-headed commander. Yes, she was emotional and unsteady in the beginning but in her defense, her station had been blown apart and we’d been picked up by an alien ship.

Once she gained traction, she’d been an excellent commander. Now, it sounded like she was getting close to the breaking point.

I would be, too.

I couldn’t imagine what the others were going through. I thought about how Kalyn said Shenna had yet to be returned to the room. Shenna was the gentlest one out of all of us. I wondered what the Dominion was doing to her.

Her cat, Persephone, sat at my feet. Every so often she nudged my leg with her head as if she was demanding that I hurry and retrieve her caretaker. I reached down and scratched behind the cat’s ears. She let out a short meow.

Kalyn left her comm unit active. I heard the screech of metal against metal, a series of murmurs, and finally a sob. Assuming the door to the room they were being held in was open, I kept silent.

“Don’t touch me!” A woman’s voice shrieked but I couldn’t make out who it was. I thought it might be Aryn or Maris, but I couldn’t think of any Persephone woman who wouldn’t shriek and kick if they were being dragged off somewhere.

There was another metallic screech, then silence.

“They brought Shenna back,” Kalyn whispered. “She’s pale. Her arms are scraped to hell, like dozens of thin, long scratches, and she’s just shaking.”

“Shit,” I swore. “Who did the Dominion take with them this time?”

“Lynna,” Kalyn said.

“Shit,” I repeated. “Is Shenna in critical condition?”

“I don’t think so. She’s sore and scared. It looks like they hit her in the mouth.”

“Bastards,” I hissed. “Tell the others that Qal and I are working on a way to get to them.”

Kalyn took her mouth away from the comm unit and relayed my message. I heard quiet, muffled responses.

“Tell Shenna her pets are fine, too,” I added quickly. Kalyn repeated my message to Shenna. I heard a weak ‘thank-you’ from somewhere in the room. Upon hearing her caretaker’s voice, Persephone let out a wail. I reached down and patted the cat again.

“Shenna, can you tell me anything about where the Dominion took you?” I asked. “Do you know where inside the facility you are?”

“She’s shaking her head,” Kalyn replied.

“That’s okay,” I said quickly, not wanting to cause Shenna any more distress. “Tell her not to worry about it. Qal and I will think of something. Keep your comm unit nearby.”

I set the comm unit down and turned to Qal.

“Any ideas?” I asked him.

“One,” Qal nodded. “Come with me.”

He reached for my hand. I took his.

He led me through the ship to Captain Dejar’s office. Not passing another living soul, other than Persephone, was deeply unsettling. The very air felt haunted and wrong.

Qal squeezed my hand when I shivered.

“There’s a small beacon in all of the comm units,” Qal explained. “It’s really more for making sure all of the units are present on the ship, rather than tracking. There’s a chance that Kalyn is close enough to us so that I can locate her.”

“Perfect.”

I watched Qal power on Captain Dejar’s console. It was protected by a code. Qal punched in a series of numbers, but his access was denied.

“Guess your software isn’t everywhere,” I teased, but my voice sounded hollow, even to my own ears.

“Want to try your hand at it?” Qal asked. “He must’ve changed his access code. I wouldn’t know where to begin in guessing the new one.”

“I have an idea,” I said. I entered Kalyn’s name in Shein letters. There was a small chime and the console unlocked. I felt a faint smile bloom on my lips.

“Of course,” Qal chuckled. “I should’ve guessed.”

“Good thing the captain is a romantic, otherwise we’d never get off this ship,” I smiled. It felt weird to smile under the circumstances. I found the program that monitored the comm units, but after that, I wasn’t sure what to do. I let Qal take control.

“We have about a hundred comm units,” he explained. “All the ones that are powered down are in the charging drawer on the ship.” He indicated a line of numbers, likely an identification code for each comm unit. Next to most of them was a gray dot. About one third had green dots beside them. Three or four were red.

“What does the red mean?” I asked.

“It means that the comm unit’s battery is low,” Qal explained. “The green ones are powered on and holding a charge.”

He tapped on the first green one on the list. It pulled up another window containing information about the specific comm unit. A few more taps and he opened a two-dimensional grid map of the surrounding area.

“That’s disappointing after seeing your holo-map,” I said.

“Isn’t it?” A smile flickered at the corner of Qal’s mouth. “This comm unit is still on the ship. It wasn’t powered off properly.”

He continued down the list and found most of the green-lit comm units were also on the ship.

When he reached the red ones, the very first one was too far away for us to pinpoint its location.

“You don’t think that one’s Kalyn, do you?” I furrowed my brow in worry.

“Let’s keep checking.” I heard concern in his voice. In the grand scheme of space, the moons and secret planet were a stone’s throw away.

“We can at least rule out the other moons, can’t we?” I asked as Qal worked. “I didn’t see any structures on them.”

“You didn’t see any structures on the surface,” Qal corrected. “I don’t think the Dominion would be above hiding a facility within a planet.”

“Good point,” I agreed, feeling hopeless.

“I hate to say it, but that one might be her,” Qal said suddenly. “The comm unit is on the main planet, but outside the boundaries of the Rogue Star.”

“So much for secret underground moon labs.”

“Don’t exclude the possibility just yet.”

I pointed to the grid on the screen. “How detailed is this image?”

“It doesn’t know there’s a structure there. We’ll have to go on coordinates alone. I’ll get the things we’ll need.”

I nodded and pulled out my comm unit again. “Kalyn, are you there?”

“Yes,” Kalyn whispered back.

“Keep this information to yourself for right now,” I prefaced, dropping my voice to a whisper so that I wouldn’t be heard by anyone other than Kalyn. “Qal and I know where you are. We’re going to come and get you but you and the others have to act like nothing’s changed. If the Dominion suspect anything, I don’t know what they’ll do.”

“Understood,” Kalyn whispered.

“Try not to use your comm unit at all. Your battery is low. Wait for me to contact you first.”

“Understood.”

“Hang in there,” I urged her. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

“This isn’t going to be easy,” Qal announced. “Aside from the coordinate of Kalyn’s comm unit, we’re going in blind.”

QAL

“We have to get them out,” Manda said. “But how do we get in without being seen?”

“We need some sort of disguise, but I’m not sure what would work.”

“Oh, I have an idea,” Manda said, her eyes lighting. “There’s some fabric in one of the storage closets. If it’s heavy enough, I can make up some makeshift Dominion robes, that way we won’t be noticed.” Then she added, “At least from a distance.”

“Okay, which closet?”

She visibly thought about it for a moment. “Ooh, I think it’s in one of the closets close to the showers.”

“Lead the way,” I said with a flourish, sweeping my arm in front of me.

“You’re a dork,” she snorted as she passed by.

I wasn’t sure what a ‘dork’ was, but I was pretty sure she wasn’t insulting me, so I just grinned. We headed to the living area of the ship and started looking through the storage closets. I was on my third closet when Manda called out to me.

“Hey, found it.” She motioned me to come over. “You think this will work?”

I looked over her shoulder. Inside the closet was a roll of the heavy black fabric we used as the base for lightweight patches.

“Nice,” I said as I backed away. Manda stepped aside and I knelt down in the closet. I handed the fabric back to her, then grabbed fuser and followed her to the dining room. “So, do you need anything from me?”

“Yes, get me some views of those bastards that were on our ship. I need to see a front, back and side angle.”

I hurried to comply, getting the largest screens I could and projecting the images for her to study.

“Right, then just set the machine down here, then stand up with your arms out.”

With an eyebrow arched, I set the fuser down and followed orders. As she finished her measurements and got to work, I left her with a comm and headed out for my part of the plan.

First up, find The Terror.

I pulled up the tracking program we’d installed and thanked whatever luck we had that Valtic had planted all those tracers on its hull.

The kouting ghost ship was in low orbit around the planet. Not surprising. It had been coming here for something when it folded in right behind us.

Just a horribly unlucky chance we were in the way, with the very women they’d been searching for.

They’d used an umbilicus tunnel to board us while we were in space, but from the size of The Terror, it seemed likely it had a shuttle. It’d be hard for them to make planetfall. Or at least, to get out of the gravity well again.

If we had a probe, I’d have used it to get a better view of where we were heading. If that’s where Kalyn and the others were, there was a good chance the shuttle was at the same facility.

And that’s all we had to run with.

Chances.

Luck.

I ran my hands over the control panels of the ship.

“We’ve always been lucky, haven’t we, girl.” The Rogue Star would always be my girl, right with Manda.

But maybe I wouldn’t tell either of them that.

“Now we need just a little more to get us all safe and home.”

There wasn’t anything else I could do, so I headed down to the hangar bay and the Skimmer.

I was glad Orrin and Maris had modified it to be quiet.

I’d always hated hearing it start up. It didn’t have that satisfying deep rumble or that loud roar of a powerful engine, it was just loud and obnoxious. At least it had been. Now, it was quiet, with just a small rumble that let you know it was running.

It was going to be perfect to use.

I worked on prepping the Skimmer, using some of its ‘special’ compartments to hide a few weapons as a just-in-case. I made sure that I had my blaster fully loaded and tucked it behind my back. I grabbed my knives and two sheaths, wrapping one around my left ankle while the other went around my right thigh. Then I grabbed my darling, a three-foot knife that I’d had made for my thirteenth Naming Day.

I had wanted to go to the planet of Corfa. Ever since I had heard of it when I was five, I wanted to go there. They had a master bladesmith who would teach you how to make your own blade.

I wanted that more than anything.

For long months, the master helped me modify my design, taught me how to work the metal, and showed me how to make the blade strong. When he asked why I wanted a blade, as it was extremely rare for a Shein to come to him, my answer was simple…to protect the ones I loved with something I could trust when everything else had failed.

Impressed with my answer, he helped me forge my blade out of a metal so rare, most people considered it a myth. The blade would never break and never dull, and as long as I protected those around me with honor, it would never fail me.

I was a little skeptical about the mythic undertone, but I had a blade that hadn’t failed me yet. I loved the gleam of light off red and gray steel. I tied the scabbard around my waist, making sure I could draw the blade with ease, then headed back towards Manda’s room. She met me half-way, the robes in her arms.

“They’re not the best,” she said as she handed mine to me. “But they should do the job as long as we don’t have to be too close to very many of them for too long.”

“Thanks,” I said as I took it and put it on. It was nice and loose and did a great job of hiding my weapons. The down side? If I did need a weapon, I would have to pull the robes up or to the side and that would take up valuable seconds. Oh, well. If things came down to me needing my weapons, we would already be in a bad situation anyway. “Nice,” I said.

“You think so?” She examined one of the fused seams critically. “I don’t like how they look. I mean, I could have done better.”

“Hey,” I said as I put my hands on her shoulders and looked down into her eyes. “They’re good enough. We’ve done all we can. Let’s go.”

I led her to the Skimmer, helped her up into the seat, and climbed in on my side. I fired it up, pushed the button to open the bay doors, and pulled us out.

It should have been a short trip across the rocky, barren terrain.

The tracking program on my tablet indicated Kalyn’s signal wasn’t that far away.

But we didn’t have an aerial view of where we were heading. For all we knew, there were regular patrols.

Scro. There could be a regular traffic route between the facility and someplace else, and we’d never know.

So slowly, carefully, with far too much dodging quickly behind one rocky outcrop to the next, we made our way closer.

The robes did a good job making us look like Dominion, but from a distance. Anyone taking a closer look might notice that they were a bit rough.

Eventually, after an hour of slow travel, hiding behind things, and trying to stay quiet, we arrived at the location of Kalyn’s signal.

I pulled us behind another low boulder so we could observe for a moment.

The facility was comprised of four long, gray, interconnected buildings spinning out from a central point.

The whole thing was smaller than I expected. Although, if the Dominion was keeping whatever they were doing here a secret, maybe they didn’t want too many people to know about it.

Two open-air vehicles, like the Skimmer but larger, were parked around the facility, along with three heavier vehicles with enclosed cargo areas.

Maybe they were for moving supplies from the shuttle.

My eyes narrowed, considering.

They must have used those to bring the crew from the Rogue Star to this place. If we were right, they’d been used to bring all the women here as well.

We waited, and never saw a patrol. Just a single pair of guards, more interested in talking and staying in the shade than keeping alert.

“Maybe they know no one would come here, because everyone thinks it’s a black hole?” Manda wondered.

“Could be,” I answered. Cautious, we waited a little longer, until finally I brought us in close to the facility. Trying to look as though I belonged, I landed the Skimmer in a dark corner where two of the square buildings conjoined.

“What do we do now?” Manda whispered as we ducked down at the corner.

I shrugged. In front of us was a guarded entrance, the guard a little smaller than me. “We could go right through the front.”

She shook her head. “No. That’ll just be inviting trouble. Come on, maybe there’s a side door or something we can sneak through.”

As she stood up, I rose to my feet and started walking…towards the door. “Hey,” she whispered harshly from behind me, then started to follow.

The guard was turned away from me and I broke into a run.

“Qal!” Manda hissed, but I was already building momentum.

In three seconds, I barreled into the first guard and tackled him.

All my rage and frustration poured out and I knocked him out before turning to the second guard, who stood there looking at me as if I had sprouted two heads.

Swiftly, I swept his feet from under him. He crashed to the ground and I slammed his head twice against the ground.

“Well, that was one way to do it,” Manda said, running to me.

“Help me drag them to the bushes and get their robes and any access cards they may have,” I ordered.

Manda nodded and we made short work of the guards, binding them with strips made of our disguises, taking their robes and pocketing their keycards.

They had no weapons, which was odd.

With our keycards, we entered the facility.

No one was inside.

My hackles went up, searching for threats.

“This place…” Manda said, trailing off as she began to walk down the corridor.

I looked around. She was walking off by herself.

Of all the kouting things to do in an enemy facility, she had to walk off on her own?

Really? Not wanting to call attention to us by yelling after her, I increased my own pace to catch her. As I finally caught up with her around a corner, I started to ask her what she was doing.

“Shh,” she silenced me with a finger to her lips, motioned for me stay quiet and follow. Okay…now I was curious as to what was going on.

I heard talking, but we were in a building full of people, there was bound to be conversations happening. I wasn’t sure what she had heard, but I didn’t recognize anything.

But, if she’d heard something worth looking into, I had to trust her.

She had earned that from me.

I stayed quiet and let her lead the way deeper into the enemy's stronghold.

MANDA

“Where are we going?” Qal asked.

I lifted my fingers to my lips and strained to hear the voice that had caught my attention moments before. It was hard to pinpoint the exact source of the sound. Every time I thought I was getting closer, I hit a dead end.

The structure of the facility didn’t help either. The solid walls muffled most of the sound, except for when the walls shifted into a metal material. Then the echo distorted the sound, making it difficult to determine where the sound was coming from.

“We’re going to walk into a guard patrol if we aren’t careful,” Qal whispered.

I waved my hand. He was probably right, but if the sound I heard was what I thought it was, I needed to do this.

And after that scuffle with the guards outside, I trusted he’d take care of this.

Finally, the sound started to get louder again. A distinctly female voice. I couldn’t be sure, but I swore I knew that voice.

It didn’t belong to one of the Persephone women, but it was a familiar voice, all the same.

“Do you hear that?” I asked.

Qal nodded this time. I hurried down the empty corridors, turning corners blindly. Where was everyone?

The voice grew louder and louder. Just a bit of distortion to let me know it wasn’t someone here in the facility, but someone on a broadcast. Someone on a speaker or comm unit.

Someone I thought I recognized.

As the voice grew more distinct, a bubble of hope rose in my chest.

“Unacceptable!” The woman’s voice suddenly shrieked. I turned sharply to the right and found a wide corridor with two open double doors at the end.

Qal and I crept closer, sticking close to the wall.

“You do not tell me what is unacceptable,” came the calm, crisp reply. The tone sent chills down my spine. Qal and I stood on opposite sides of the open doors. He slid down to his knees so he was as low to the ground as he could get. I followed suit.

Slowly, we peered past the doorway.

The room was some kind of conference room or office. The floor was pitch black and dull, like an abyss. There was a long table, the surface of which was made from a single thin slab. A tall hooded figure stood in front of the table with his back to us. In front of the figure was a massive screen, ten feet high and fifteen feet wide.

On the screen, with a withering scowl and eyes like fire, was Adastria Askvig.

Kalyn’s mother.

Someone was looking for us after all.

A huge smile spread across my face. Qal gave me a puzzled look. Surely, he’d deduced that the woman on the screen was from my home system but I didn’t think he was aware of the power Adastria wielded.

The fact that she’d found a way to contact the Dominion was a demonstration of her reach.

Everyone in the Terran System knew Adastria Askvig, but her presence was especially felt on Mars. She all but controlled the planet and she had a huge amount of power on Earth, as well. It was safe to say that she was the most powerful woman in my home system.

She was my sister’s idol, of half the women I knew. We all wanted to be like Adastria.

Of course, it made sense.

Kalyn was here. I imagined that Adastria had lost herself to worry when she found out what happened to Persephone Station.

I don’t know how she worked out that Kalyn and the rest of us hadn’t perished. I wasn’t going to question it.

Adastria had found us.

“You have not honored your end of the bargain, and I will not accept it,” Adastria hissed.

Wait, what?

What bargain?

“The females are being tested as we speak,” the Dominion official said. “At the moment, they fail to impress.”

“The deal wasn’t contingent on whether or not the females passed your tests,” Adastria said through gritted teeth.

“Wasn’t it?” There was laughter and malice in the voice of the Dominion official. “If the females are deemed worthless, then nothing has been gained by the Dominion.”

“That isn’t the fault of the Terran System,” Adastria snapped. “We did our part. Do yours.”

“I cannot make any promises until the tests have been completed.” The official sounded bored now.

“You’ve already made promises.” Adastria’s temper was rising. Angry red spots appeared on her cheeks.

In all of my life, I’d never seen her composure slip. She was renowned for always looking immaculate, having a pleasant smile always present on her painted lips, and always speaking in a calm, gentle voice that soothed and comforted.

When Kalyn started dropping details about how horrid Adastria was as a mother, I’d had a hard time believing it.

It wasn’t that I doubted Kalyn’s word. In fact, it made sense to me that the busiest and most influential woman in the Terran System wouldn’t have time to be the world’s best mother. However, the perfect image of her that threaded through everyone’s lives was hard to shake.

It shook now.

Adastria held up a tablet containing what looked like several pages of minuscule script.

“It has been signed and sealed,” she said smugly.

“And how are you going to enforce it, I wonder?” The Dominion official’s voice was drenched in evilness.

Adastria’s face paled.

“Do you know what I’ve sacrificed for this arrangement?” she said, her voice low and far more frightening than it would’ve been if she’d shouted.

“I don’t see how that’s my concern,” the Dominion officer drawled.

Qal made a hissing noise with his teeth, grabbing my attention. I looked to him and realized with horror that I’d leaned so far forward in rapt fascination that I was halfway into the room.

I quickly slunk backward, concealing myself once more.

I held my breath and waited for Adastria to say more.

I needed to know what was on that contract. It couldn’t be good.

“My entire life’s work is on the line. Do you know how difficult it was to set up that shockwave amplifier without anyone asking questions? Do you know what it cost?” Adastria’s voice was edging on hysterical.

“Your financial means are not of interest to me,” the Dominion official replied.

“I’m not talking about the financial cost. People died so I could make this happen. Not just the women that weren’t saved by your lackeys. I had to dispose of anyone who came close to discovering what I was doing.”

“You’re blaming your lack of discretion on the Dominion?”

“Lack of discretion?” Adastria choked on her words. “The Dominion were the ones who proposed the staging of the Persephone explosion. I simply made it happen under the promise that you would fulfill your end of the bargain. I gave you the women!” She pulled in a deep breath, restored her icy mask. “You are contractually obligated to bring the Terran System into Dominion space.”

The world tilted beneath me.

I clutched the doorframe in an attempt to stop myself from falling over completely.

Adastria wasn’t going to save us.

She was the one who put us here.

“Once again, I fail to see how you’re going to enforce the contract without making your hand in this known.”

“I’ll find a way,” Adastria swore.

“Aside from the fact that none of the females offered have yet to meet our qualifications, the Terran System proposes no resources the Dominion takes interest in,” the Dominion official said.

I couldn’t listen to any more. I pulled myself up and took off down the corridor. I couldn’t listen to another word.

What were we supposed to do now? Even if the Dominion somehow allowed us to return to the Terran System, how could we, after what Adastria did?

I didn’t want to be in the same galaxy as that woman.

I briefly wondered if Kalyn had known all along, but immediately regretted the thought. Of course she didn’t. She would be devastated when she found out.

I stalked through the corridors, moving blindly. I didn’t know where I was going, but I wouldn’t feel right until I got away.

I heard Qal behind me. Or, at least I hoped it was Qal. In my distress, I’d almost forgotten that I was in an enemy testing facility.

I refused to stop moving. If I stopped, I would fall apart completely. I couldn’t do that. Not until I found the Persephone women and the rest of the Rogue Star crew.

Emotions crashed through me. I tried to sort them out, but they were all so intense, smashing into one another, causing havoc inside my mind.

The leader of my planet sold me off. Sold all of us off, even her own daughter. And for what? To join Dominion space? Is that what happened to all the other alien women we rescued from the auctions? Did their planets sell them, too?

I briefly remembered that all of the other planets were accepted into Dominion space in the end. Later, I might wonder why the Terran System wasn’t good enough, but right now I was too angry.

I was going to explode.

And I planned on taking the Dominion down with me.

QAL

What in the kopa just happened?

I chased after Manda, who seemed to no longer care that we were supposed to be hiding, and just ran. She blindly stumbled through a set of doors, and I braced for a fight.

Whatever was going on, nothing would stop me from getting to her.

But when I got there, it was dim. Silent except for the soft sound of her crying in a far corner.

I picked my way through the long rows of benches, each topped with tall cylinders, large enough to hold even Valtic.

But nothing was in them, just a pale bubbling fluid. Whatever they were, they weren’t a threat, not right now.

Ignoring the cylinders, I approached her slowly. “Hey,” I whispered gently. “Hey, I’m here. I’m here.” I got down on the floor next to her and cautiously put my arms around her, drawing her in close. She continued to sob into my chest as I held her.

I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to make her feel better and stop her from crying. I was lost. I continued to hold her close and try to comfort her as I thought about what we saw and heard.

I knew that it was a human woman on the screen, apparently one in power, and I gathered that Manda somehow knew her. Her eyes had widened in recognition when we first got there, then stiffened as we heard what was said.

To hear that you had been betrayed by one of your own kind, essentially sold off for the promise of something, that had to hurt.

Alright, think this through. Pretend you’re Manda, or at least in the same situation as her, and try to figure this all out.

So, I thought back. The woman had admitted to setting off some sort of amplifier that caused the shockwave, so it was her fault that the women of Persephone Station ended up in the situation they were in. If we hadn’t been there, they would have died.

But, how would she have known that we would be there, that we would be close enough to them to rescue them?

Then, the answer punched me in the face. She knew because we were sent there. I hadn’t messed up the coordinates, I hadn’t forgotten to account for spatial shift, I hadn’t somehow pushed the wrong button. We had been sabotaged.

To quote Maris, Son of a BITCH!

Dejar, and by extension after the merger with Aavat—we—used to work with the Dominion on occasion, running simple delivery jobs, even escort contracts. They knew him and knew the type of captain he was. He wouldn’t be the type to leave people in distress behind, especially if he somehow thought that it was his fault.

It all made sense to me now. Our lack of work was a result of Dominion interference, it had to be. We were too good to suddenly dry up, so why else would we suddenly be in dire need of work and go with a job retrieving ice and water from what the women called the Kuiper Belt? We were directed there, and the woman on the screen knew we would show up.

So, as soon as we took the job and folded, she was told we were coming. When we jumped out of the fold, she activated the shockwave that broke Persephone. Dejar, acting on instinct and his own good nature, ordered us to save the women. Then, when we folded away from Terran space, The Terror was waiting for us.

They could have destroyed us easily…but didn’t. They were supposed to push us towards Outpost Nine.

I was getting angry, overwhelming, rage-inducing, homicidally angry. I wanted these people to pay, dearly.

“Are you okay?” Manda whispered as she tried to get her sobbing under control.

I shook my head, then nodded. I wasn’t sure. “How are you?”

She visibly held down another sob and forced herself to calm down. “Not good. Do you know who that woman was?”

I shook my head.

“That’s Kalyn’s mother, Adastria Askvig. She’s in charge of the human population on Mars.”

Hearing that name was a punch in the gut.

Kalyn’s own mother was the woman that had betrayed them? Betrayed her own daughter? How could she do something like that?

“Holy kout,” I whispered.

Manda nodded into my robe.

“My sister idolizes that woman, thinks she’s a saint.” She looked up at me, her eyes red and puffy. “I used to think she was good, but…this…thi…” She started to hyperventilate as she let out a silent sob. I held her tight to my chest.

Kalyn’s mother had betrayed her own daughter, and all of these women, for the promise of being accepted into the Dominion. She had set all of us up, and we were supposed to have gone to Outpost Nine, that way they could bring the women here, bring Manda here.

What was the purpose of here?

What was supposed to happen to the women here?

My head pounded as I thought about it. We had all been betrayed, used. We had all been manipulated, but for what? What was the purpose of this facility? What was so important about it that the Dominion would purposely change the star maps everywhere and make this look like a black hole?

A palpable desire compelled me. I needed to know, then I would break, destroy, and shatter the Dominion’s world. I wanted to break every single wall in this facility with the faces of the cowards in charge. I’d start with Kalyn’s mother and show her how amazing her daughter was, how irreplaceable all of these women were, and make her confess her act of gross betrayal…then I’d bounce her head off the surface of Mars so many times that the planet cracked.

I looked down at Manda, and all of my rage took a back seat to concern. She was scared, devastated, the expression in her eyes lost. “Hey, hey,” I whispered to her soothingly. “I’m here. I’m here for you. I’ll protect you.”

“What am I supposed to do?” It sounded as if she was talking to herself even though she was looking at me. “What do I do? Where do I go?” She began quietly sobbing again. “I don’t have a home anymore. How can I trust any of the humans back home anymore? What if they’re all like her?”

I leaned my head down and lightly kissed her head. “You do have a place to call home.”

She snapped her head up to look at me, her eyes a mixture of pain, confusion, and hope. I knew right then and there that I was in love with her. The realization strengthened me, made me happy and terrified all at once. If she didn’t feel the same as me…I couldn’t think about it. Even if she didn’t share my feelings, I wouldn’t forsake her. I wouldn’t leave her.

“You have a home,” I repeated. “With me.” I took a breath. “With all of us on the Star. We’re your family. We’re your home now, and I’ll do what I can to make you feel safe at home for as long as you want.” I hadn’t intended to have my words be a declaration of my feelings, and I wasn’t sure if they were, but they had a profound effect. “Wherever I am, you have a home.”

She reached up and pulled my face down to hers. Salty tears coated her lips as they pressed against mine. I hesitated for quarter of a heartbeat before I pulled her even closer. Our lips parted, our tongues touched, and we kissed until my lips began to numb.

Her scent evoked happiness I’d never felt before. Our tongues danced together and I lost myself in the moment. Everything else melted away, until the only thing in existence was this woman pressed against my body.

I didn’t want to stop, but I knew we had to.

She must have had the same thought. We pulled back from one another at the same time. I saw my reflection in her eyes. The robes around me brought me back to reality.

“What do we do now?” I asked. When she tilted her head to the side a bit, I clarified my question. “We need to get the crew, all of them. Then we need to figure out a way to stop all of this.” I swept one arm around to indicate the facility and whatever was happening inside.

She nodded in understanding. “We need to find Kalyn. Her comm is still working, so if we can find her, hopefully the others are nearby. I’m not sure how we’re going to sneak sixty-some-odd people out, but we need to get out of here.”

“Alright.” I was elated to know that, at least in some small way, Manda shared some of my feelings. However, it wasn’t the time to think about that. We had to get the others. She was right, there was no way to sneak sixty-plus people out of the facility, so we were going to have to fight our way out.

Easy, right?

MANDA

I wasn’t going to say I felt better.

I certainly did not feel better.

But I did feel clearer. My emotions were under control.

Qal’s handsome face was in front of me rather than a sea of angry red.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“Let’s do what we came here for. Our top priority is finding our crew and leaving. We can deal with Adastria and the Dominion later. We’ve already been here too long. We’re at too much of a risk.”

“I’m sorry,” I sniffled, dabbing at the remainder of my tears. “I shouldn’t have wasted so much time. I let my emotions get the best of me.”

“It’s understandable.” Qal brushed a stray lock of hair away from my face with an assuring smile. “You’ve received a tremendous shock. I can’t imagine what must be rushing through your head.”

“Nothing good,” I joked weakly.

“Hello?” A soft, crackling whisper startled me. I realized it came from the comm unit I’d concealed in my Dominion robes. It must’ve been Kalyn.

Dread filled me once more. She would have to be told about her mother eventually. I felt wrong not telling her immediately, but right now I needed her to be calm.

If she grew upset, it would only distress the others and attract even more unwanted attention.

I’d tell her as soon as we got back to the Rogue Star.

“Kalyn,” I replied into the comm unit. “We’re in the facility.”

“I know you said not to call you, but it’s been so long. I feared something had happened,” Kalyn whispered.

She really was becoming undone. Ordinarily, Kalyn would’ve known contacting me first could’ve resulted in our capture.

What the hell were the Dominion doing to my friends?

“It’s fine,” I assured her. Once again, I heard the screech of metal on metal. Now that I’d spent some time walking around the facility, I knew Kalyn and the others couldn’t have been held in an area where the floors and walls were made of concrete.

The floor beneath me was metal. Perhaps I’d accidentally wandered into the correct wing of the facility. I felt that I was long overdue for a pinch of luck.

“They’re coming for me now,” Kalyn whimpered. “What do I do?”

“When they take you, keep the comm unit activated and shout every detail you see. I think I might be close to where you are. Scream and kick. Stall them.”

“Okay,” Kalyn whispered. There was a muffling noise. Kalyn must’ve been hiding the comm unit from sight. She grunted as they grabbed her.

I heard her struggle.

“Leave her alone,” a voice that clearly belonged to Maris snarled. A smile tugged at my lips. The other women were defending Kalyn.

Through the muffle of fabric, the sounds of struggle escalated. There was the dull blow of impact close to where the comm unit was concealed, followed by Kalyn crying out. They must’ve struck her somewhere.

I bit back my curse. The last thing I wanted to do was alert whoever was holding Kalyn to the comm unit she concealed.

“Double doors!” Kalyn screamed. “Three mounted lights! The middle one is not working! Narrow hallway!” One of the creatures that held Kalyn must’ve put a hand over her mouth. All I could hear from that point on was muffled screaming.

“This way,” Qal said quickly. He grabbed my hand and pulled me down the corridor, freeing his weapon as we ran.

“How do you know where to go? Kalyn barely said anything.”

“I remember seeing a row of three lights on the ceiling. The middle one was out,” Qal called as we ran.

“Was it by a door?”

“Not sure.”

Qal hesitated at a junction. He looked down one corridor then the other.

A grunt, followed by a woman’s scream, rang out on the right.

“Kalyn!” I shouted.

Qal and I barreled down the corridor in the direction of the noise. Kalyn was in the corridor, struggling with all her might against two hooded figures.

“Let her go!” Qal demanded. The Dominion officials froze, clearly surprised.

Qal fired once, striking one of the hooded figures in the shoulder, who staggered back, releasing Kalyn.

She wriggled free, kneeing the other captor hard in the gut before bolting towards us.

Firing over her shoulder, Qal dispatched the second one before he freed his own blaster.

Keeping his blaster trained on them, the three of us approached the slumped bodies cautiously.

“Are they dead?” Kalyn whispered.

“Not yet,” Qal answered. “Manda, get their weapons.”

Quickly I grabbed the thick, heavy batons from their belts.

“Careful,” Kaylin warned. “Those things give a nasty shock.”

Narrowing my eyes, I considered smacking the two unconscious guards, just to be sure.

Instead, Qal handed his blaster to Kalyn, and grabbed both bodies by the back of their uniforms, dragging them behind him.

“Let’s go get the others.”

Kalyn led the way back, peering around each corner. “They’re in here.” Kalyn led us to a set of sealed doors.

“How do we open them?” I looked around for a panel or a knob but there was nothing, just a small slot.

Qal frisked the guards, quickly finding the access card. As the doors slid open, I could have cried.

The Persephone women were scattered throughout the dim room. It reminded me of when we’d all woken in the cargo bay of the Rogue Star.

Battered, our lives turned upside down, but intact.

“Let’s go,” Kalyn ordered. No one hesitated. I was glad to see that everyone was well enough to move. Maris’s mouth was swollen from a blow. Shenna winced when she walked, but still moved freely.

“Is everyone here?” I didn’t have the time to do a headcount. “Is anyone still gone?”

“Lynna still hasn’t come back yet.” Aryn’s face was a mask of rage. There was a scrape on her arm, but I couldn’t tell if it was there as a result of her resistance or of whatever was done to her once she was taken from the room.

“Then we have to go get her,” I snapped. “Somebody, take care of these guys.” I pointed to the two unconscious guards Qal still held.

A wave of very angry women were happy to take them off his hands. In no time, they were bound and gagged securely in the far corner of the room.

A few of the women might have added in some extra kicks.

I didn't blame them.

“We need to get Lynna, but we also need to rescue the men,” Kalyn said.

“Do we split up?” Maris asked.

Kalyn shook her head. “No. Whatever's going on here, we’re not going to risk leaving anyone behind. We stay together.”

“It was this way,” Aryn said as we left the room.

Qal used the access card to seal the door behind us, and slowly, carefully, our crowd moved through the empty halls.

I glanced over the women and my heart swelled. Those that were injured were supported by those that hadn't been taken yet.

Even Xyla seemed to be pitching in, supporting Shenna.

Who knew that yet another abduction would be what it would take to make her a bit more of a team player?

Aryn held her hand up and we all froze. “It's around this corner,” she whispered.

Qal moved to stand in front of her.

Aryn must've been injured more severely than I realized because, with nothing more than a roll of her eyes, she let him take the lead.

“Be ready,” Qal whispered.

He pivoted around the corner, fired once, twice, then bounced back to safety.

Nothing further came.

“Good thing Valtic insists we all train at his crazy shooting range,” he muttered. “Never thought it would come in handy.”

“You can thank him yourself, as soon as we get the men out,” Kalyn said.

Easing around the corner, I saw two prone figures on either side of a set of doors.

A second set of guards down.

Before I could say anything, Xyla led a group of women to bind and gag them.

“Here,” she said, handing Kalyn the access cards that had been scavenged from the guards.

Kalyn's eyebrows rose a bit, but she just nodded. “Thanks.”

“Are you ready?” Qal stood before the seam of the closed doors while Kalyn held the access card at the slot.

Aryn, Maris, and Xyla fanned out behind him, shocking batons gripped firmly.

“Let's do it.”

QAL

If I hadn't been enraged before, the scene the doors revealed as they slid open would have knocked me into a cold fury.

A lab.

Not unlike hundreds across Dominion space, surely.

Clean, sterile, screens and monitors beeping away with information.

Seven or eight beings of all species, not clad in the black robes of the Dominion. But the transparent long jackets over gray jumpsuits that were the standard uniform of scientists everywhere.

One, its gray, wrinkled skin loosely draped around a long neck, blinked lashless black eyes. “Who are you? Why are you late bringing us the next subject?”

He tilted his head, looking a bit like the strange birds we’d seen back at the haven.

“Wait. You're not supposed to be here! Guards!”

Over his shoulder, a cluster of scientists turned towards the door, as if they had just now come to the realization something was wrong in their tidy little universe.

As they stepped away from what they'd been working on, I saw Lynna.

Bound spread-eagled to a table, head lolling to the side.

That was it.

I moved the blaster through the room, taking down each one as they frantically scrambled.

Normally, I would have checked, made sure my weapon was set to stun, not kill.

Especially when fighting obviously unarmed opponents.

But right now, I didn’t care.

They had to pay.

For whatever they had done to Lynna, whatever they had done to the half of our women that seemed shaken, scared, bruised.

What they would've done to Manda if they had gotten their filthy hands on her.

Finally, a small spot of light touched me.

“I think that's all of them,” Manda’s voice cut through the blind rage.

I shook my head, looking around the room.

Maris was already at Lynna’s side, releasing the restraints.

“Let's kill them all,” Aryn growled.

I kicked at the scientist closest to me.

Stunned. Not dead. I’d decide how I felt about that later.

Kalyn was the one to pull it together. “First things first. We need to find the rest of our crew.”

“What about using these?” Manda gestured to the bank of consoles. “You think there's anything in here with cameras, monitors, anything that would let us find them faster?”

Kalyn nodded sharply. “It has to be better than running around blindly.”

Aryn, Manda, and I each took a console. Whole sections were passworded off, but there was plenty to keep us busy as we searched for any trace of the crew.

“Got them,” Manda shouted.

“And I’ve got a schematic of this hellhole,” Aryn added.

“Can you get full visual of the path?” I asked.

She shook her head. “We have more cameras on the Rogue Star than they have in this place. They’re idiots.”

“They never expected anyone to find this place,” Lynna murmured weakly, half-awake on Maris’s shoulder. “They thought they just needed to guard their prisoners, their test subjects. Never thought anyone would come for us.”

Manda squeezed her hand. “Then they really were idiots. We don’t leave anyone behind.”

“We can use the schematic as our map.” I glanced around the room, looking for any other weapons. Nothing that looked easily repurposable. “We’ll just have to deal with any surprises along the way.”

The women all looked grim, unstoppable.

“What do we do with them?” Manda asked, gesturing to the scientists. “We’re going to run out of fabric to tear.”

Her smile was wobbly, but I’d take it.

Three of the scientists had already been moved to the exam tables, restraints holding their limp forms.

Apparently, Maris and the ladies had been busy while we were searching the computer records.

“Leave them,” Kalyn decided. “We need to keep moving.”

As much as I hated to, I had to agree.

“Let’s go.”

Finally, we saw someone else in this umbba place.

A Dominion official.

I’d only seen the back of the hooded official while he’d been speaking to the woman, Kalyn’s mother. But the build was similar.

From the front, I saw trim around the hood, the thin decorations proclaiming his rank.

High enough to have two bodyguards flanking him, large batons at their waists.

“Deal with the intruders,” the official commanded, then stepped quickly into a side room.

Apparently, he wasn’t worried about his guys winning, just didn’t want to be around for the fuss and muss.

Coward.

I fired at them, but a shimmer of air before them deflected the bolts.

Shield belts. Energy weapons wouldn’t break through.

Fine. That was why I had my knives.

The larger of the two, a stocky creature with mottled blue and brown coloration and four arms, stepped ahead of the other one, his baton crackling with internal energy.

The second wasn’t much smaller, thin, tall, his dark red leathery skin stretched tight over a bony frame, long tail whipping behind him.

Handing the blaster to one of the women behind me, I loosened my knives in their sheaths and walked forward, ready to engage.

The big one charged me, bringing his club up high and swinging it down with enough force that when I sidestepped him, he stumbled on by. I ignored him, trusting the women to defend themselves as I focused on the smaller one.

He’d be the better fighter. He stayed loose on his feet, staying away from me as he swung his small baton. As I stepped in, I brought my arms up to block his blow, taking the downward force of his swing on my forearms, forcing away the shocking pain that ran through me. I grabbed his arm, twisted him around, gripped his tail, and sliced.

The scream that came out of his mouth was very high pitched and full of intense pain. As he reached back to where his tail used to be, blood poured onto the floor. I looked down at my hands, still holding his tail as it twitched around. I turned sideways, regripped his tail, and whipped it at the back of his head. The sound of the snap, combined with the clap of it connecting with his head, echoed down the corridor and ended his screams.

He thudded down hard, his face smacking onto the metal floor with a wet slap. The second one charged down the corridor at me as I turned.

A quick throw of my knife barely slowed him down. He punched me in the face. I stumbled backwards, blocking the next punch just in time. Swooping my head to the side, I evaded his third blow and grabbed his arm, flipping him over my shoulder.

He grunted as he landed, followed by a quick series of grunts and curses as I punched and chopped at him. I bound him in a choke hold and wrapped my legs around him, squeezing the air from his lungs while my arms closed off his airways. Three swift kicks ended his struggles and he slumped, unconscious.

“We need that guy,” Manda insisted, leading the others to the room the official had hidden in. “He knows what’s going on!”

But the access card didn’t work.

I swore. “He must have locked it from the inside.”

I stared at the door for long minutes.

Manda needed answers. The women deserved to know what had happened, and why.

And they deserved to know from the scheming, kouting bastard who had worked with their own government to betray them.

But we had to get our people and get off this rock.

“Give that to me,” Kalyn took the blaster from the woman I’d handed it to and aimed it at the door.

“Careful, they’re likely shielded,” I cautioned her.

“Not what I was going for, but thanks.” Instead, she fired at the card slot, until it was a molten mess. “We can decide what to do with him later.”

Tearing down the corridors, we quickly didn’t need the schematic any more.

Thumps and shouts made it clear which set of doors the rest of the crew was locked behind.

As the doors opened with the guard’s access card, they came out swinging, ready to fight.

Zayn had been busy. Every member of the crew was battered but patched up. Even Itair had a fierce gleam in his eyes.

Valtic looked to have taken the worst of it, but he didn’t seem to notice anything but Lynna. He glared a silent question at me as he carefully swung her into his arms.

“It’s handled.”

Dejar looked at me and nodded. “Why did it take you so long?” he asked, a miniscule grin playing on his face as he held Kalyn close to him.

I smiled at him and kept my expression neutral when I looked at Kalyn. Things were not going to go well for her in a little bit when we told her about her mother.

“Well,” I said with an overexaggerated shrug. “I figured you needed some downtime, a chance to rest and relax. Did you get some rest?” I asked with a toothy smile.

“Oh, of course. First bit of sleep I’ve gotten in a while,” he responded. Then, seriously, “Do we have a way out of here?”

“In a sense,” I answered. “Manda and I came on the Skimmer, and there’s enough other vehicles outside that we can steal. Other than that, I don’t really have a plan. Just sort of making it up as we go.”

“I see. Good work.”

Kalyn’s face went from looking relieved to concerned. “Where is Manda?”

A cold chill ran down my spine as I spun about looking for her. I couldn’t see her in the throng of people. I turned back to Dejar and Kalyn, eyes wide with panic.

“We’ll find her,” Dejar said. He then raised his voice so everyone could hear. “We need to get out of here. There are transports outside. We’re taking those and getting back to the ship. Keep an eye out for Dominion and for Manda. Let’s move!”

I struggled to keep my mind right.

I had promised to keep her safe, to give her a home for as long as she wanted it, and now she was missing.

I had lost her.

I had lost the woman that made me want to stay somewhere.

She was my center, and now, somehow, she was gone.

With a nod from Dejar, I roamed ahead of the others, my knives at the ready. Three more guards ran towards me.

I spun my way through them, my knives drawing blood as I let their own momentum carry them by me and into the rest of the crew.

They’d handle them.

I had no question the crew of the Rogue Star would be happy for a chance at a little payback.

There was only room for one thing in my mind.

Where was Manda?

MANDA

I realized I’d put the others at risk.

Qal wouldn’t want to leave without me.

But if we didn’t have that official, I knew one more way to get answers.

While searching for the Shein crew on the computers in the laboratory, I’d seen folders and folders of information.

That terminal didn’t have full access, but I bet I knew where one was that did.

As I moved through the corridors as fast as I could, I hoped the others would have the good sense to make him leave, should I be apprehended.

I’d never get a chance like this again. I had to take it. For all of us.

When I finally found the room I was searching for, I crept up to the door just as Qal and I had earlier.

The screen that displayed Adastria’s traitorous face was powered off, blending in with the wall. If I tried really hard, I could possibly believe I hallucinated the whole thing. Stress and sudden space travel probably do things to a person’s brain.

Who’s to say the past few weeks hadn’t left me scrambled?

But I knew what I’d seen. What I’d heard.

I stepped into the room. The large table looked empty. The walls looked blank. But that screen had to have a power switch somewhere. Recalling the subtle design of Qal’s holo-map table, I ran my hands along the underside of the table.

It took a few moments, but my finger skidded across a series of tiny control buttons. I pushed the first one. It didn’t turn on the huge screen, but it did illuminate a sleek console hidden within the table.

Several small screens surrounded by touchpads gleamed up at me. On one of them was a line of text. It wasn’t in the Shein language, naturally, but I noticed some similarities. I wondered if languages in Dominion space were similar to languages in the Terran System. Languages in my system bloomed from a handful of root languages. If that was the case, it looked like the Shein language and whatever this was had the same root.

I was glad I’d invested in all of those translation books when I was a kid. Granted, I never imagined I’d be using what I learned in those books to crack an alien language. I was also thankful for the endless auto-tutor lessons.

A lot of the women had grudgingly taken the classes, but I had embraced them. Learning everything I could about this new world we’d found ourselves in kept me from worrying.

Well, more than some baseline of normal.

As I picked through the familiar bits of language, I wondered about the Dominion. Thus far, I’d been thinking of the Dominion as a single living entity. It was obviously the impression they were going for.

But now I started thinking about the individual beings who ran the Dominion. There had to be someone, or maybe a small group, at the very top of te organization.

Perhaps the imposing figure who’d been speaking with Adastria was the one in charge. I wished again we’d been able to get that bastard out of the room.

I pressed one of the screens, hoping to access video storage. Instead, a list of other languages popped up. Including Terran. Did Adastria give the Dominion a language codex? That didn’t sit well with me.

There’d been some knowledge of Terran even in the Rogue Star’s AI, in order to activate the subdermal translators.

Maybe she hadn’t given them the key. Maybe they’d have learned it, just from their endless watching and waiting.

Either way, I wasn’t going to figure it out now. Resolutely, I pressed the Terran Language tab. All of the script transformed to Terran. If I’d been anywhere else, I would’ve been filled with relief to see my native language in writing again.

This was just creepy.

I scanned through everything on the console. I looked for Adastria’s name or the name of any planet in the Terran System. The folder I was looking for was well-hidden, but with the language barrier removed, it was only a matter of time until I found what I was looking for.

Originally, I only wanted to find the contract drawn up between Adastria and the Dominion. It might not mean anything to the population of Dominion space, but if I could find a way to send it back to the Terran System, it would certainly shatter Adastria’s legacy.

But then I uncovered the file containing the entire conversation between Adastria and the Dominion earlier in this room.

Shit!

Frantically I pushed at buttons, trying to mute the damn thing, but another conversation started.

Adastria’s face filled the small screen of the console. She looked composed, almost regal. She looked exactly as she did whenever she addressed the population of Mars.

“I’ve sent over the contract,” she said. “Before you sign it and send it back to me, I want to go over some of the details.”

“Such as?” I recognized the voice of the Dominion officer I’d seen in this room earlier.

“What are you planning on doing with these women?” Adastria asked.

“That isn’t your concern,” the official said dismissively.

“It absolutely is,” Adastria declared. “I will not allow you to take a single citizen of the Terran System unless you disclose your intentions to me.”

“We have a testing facility hidden within the system,” the official replied. “For some years, we have been perfecting the art of genetic experimentation.”

My stomach dropped.

“To what end?” Adastria asked.

“The Dominion is an undying force in this galaxy. It is our wish to create a race that is as strong as the Dominion. For that, we need the right females. So far, those we have tested have proven to be…insufficient.”

“I see,” Adastria said slowly. It was obvious to me that she didn’t. In the Terran System, we had genetic manipulation in a way that seemed basic now that I’d seen the tech in other systems. We could influence things like gender and we could remove most genetic diseases and somewhat influence appearances. It was an expensive process and not available to everyone. I assumed genetic influencing within Dominion space was far more advanced.

“How do you go about this testing?” she asked.

“We’re looking for a predetermined list of genetic markers. They aren’t species-specific, but they are rare,” the Dominion Official explained. “We are looking for those markers in any female relinquished to our facility.”

“And if they do not give their consent?”

“They have been given to the Dominion under contract. They rightfully belong to the Dominion and the Dominion can do what they please with them,” the official answered.

“What if they don’t have the marker? I assume there’s no way for me to preemptively check them here.”

“Unlikely. You are a non-evolved system. You do not possess the technology,” the official replied smugly.

“I resent that,” Adastria glared.

“You do not meet the requirements to be considered an evolved system. I’m sure you’re very advanced compared to similar non-evolved species.”

“Quite,” Adastria sniffed. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“To protect the integrity of the Dominion, females who fail the genetic tests will be dealt with as the Dominion sees fit.”

“And if they pass?”

“They will be used to create the superior genetic being.”

“Ah.” Adastria’s brows lifted. “You mean they will be put into breeding facilities. I’m familiar with the concept.”

“I suppose they could be called that,” the official allowed.

I waited for Adastria to tell the Dominion official to go to hell, that what they were doing was wrong. But, of course, she didn’t. I knew what she would say.

“If I agree to this, will the Terran System become part of Dominion space?”

The Dominion official said nothing, but I assumed he gave some sign of affirmation, because Adastria smiled. “Good. I’ll send the agreement.”

I closed the video. I couldn’t bear to watch any more.

Adastria had known exactly what she was sending us into.

Cold rage flooded me. Adastria couldn’t get away with this. The Dominion couldn’t get away with this.

Blindly, I grabbed the handful of data chips I’d been playing with in Qal’s map room from my pocket.

One by one, I emptied them, then copied everything I could from the console.

Videos. Messages.

Not just those with Adastria, but every other world that had signed onto this devil’s contract.

Long minutes ticked by, and the urge to run, to hide, got stronger.

I couldn’t stay here forever. Someone was going to find me.

Even now, it might be too late. Everything I’d grabbed, everything I’d copied, could be wasted if I was found.

I had to go.

But...a vicious thought born of anger unspooled in my mind. There were obviously transmission stations hooked into this console. Powerful ones.

Or the Dominion bastard wouldn’t have been able to have his little chats with Adastria.

Which meant I had the power to tap into the general CommNet that every Dominion citizen had access to.

Even if I was killed, the message could still get out, still be heard.

Frantically, overwhelmingly aware of time slipping past, I found the transmission subroutines.

Grabbing a folder, I copied it into the queue, watched it spool up, and hit ‘send’.

Adastria’s voice spilled through every speaker in the facility, just as it did everywhere else in Dominion space that was hooked into their emergency broadcast network.

After everything, I was so tired. The others would have left by now. Hell, probably they wouldn’t notice I was missing until they were safe on the Rogue Star.

And that was alright. I’d done what I wanted.

I sank back into the chair as the sound of betrayal filled the room, let my eyes close in exhaustion.

I couldn’t destroy Adastria from here, but I could shatter the reputation of the Dominion.

Rock them to the core.

QAL

As Adastria’s voice spilled through the overhead comms, I knew immediately where Manda had been.

But there was another issue.

I stopped and looked back at the group, still close behind me. Several of the women were in shock to hear that voice, but Kalyn looked as if she’d been struck.

“Is…i-i-i-is…is that…” she stuttered. I couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like to her, not only to hear her mother’s voice again, but to hear her words.

I nodded, slowly.

Her hand flew to her chest as she reached out for Dejar.

He grabbed hold of her to steady her. “What’s going on?”

Her voice was shaking, and her words didn’t reach me, but I could read her lips. “It’s my mother. My mother was the one that, that…that did all of this.”

Dejar shot me a look of pure amazement.

“Sir, there’s no time. I promise I’ll explain everything I know later. I need to get to Manda.”

“Go, lead the way. We’re right behind you,” Dejar said.

Racing through the corridors, I rounded the final corner and saw the doors to the comm room open, Manda sitting slumped with her head down.

Spurred on by fear, I sprinted into the room. Her head came up and she turned, and I saw a mixture of sadness and rage on her face.

We reached for one another and held each other tightly for a brief moment before I pulled away.

“Why are you still here?”

I kissed her, hard, savagely desperate for a taste of her. “Because you’re not with me.”

“Oh.” She nodded, weariness etched in every line of her body.

I’d explain later. Convince her later.

But for now, she was with me, and safe, and that was all that mattered.

As we left the room, she froze as Kalyn and Dejar, followed by the rest of the crew, came around the corner.

On the screen behind us was Adastria, Kalyn’s mother, and any doubt that could have possibly lingered in Kalyn’s mind evaporated.

She let out a scream that reminded me of a primal beast that just realized it’d been trapped and had no way out. Kalyn broke away from Dejar’s grip and rushed into the room, yelling at her mother’s image on the screen.

She grabbed a chair and was about to throw it when Dejar caught her and stopped her. He tried talking to her, but she wasn’t hearing him. She was nearly hysterical as he tried to calm her, his arms wrapped around her holding her still.

The pain and betrayal on her face was too much for me to handle, I had to turn away from her palpable pain. There was nothing I could do. Nothing anyone could do.

Suddenly, the only sound was from the video. Dejar carried her limp body, cradling her close to him.

“Sir, we need to go,” I said quietly.

He nodded slowly, not looking at me. Aavat moved by me. “Lead the way,” he whispered as he went to stand by the captain.

With a slow nod, I turned back to the others. “There are several vehicles outside, much like the Skimmer. We steal those and get back to the Star as fast as we can. We’ll figure the rest from there.”

From the back of the group, Kovor nodded in approval. “I suspect we’ve taken care of most of the guards already. But be prepared.”

Everyone nodded in understanding, their grim faces telling me that they were prepared for everything. I led the way, Manda’s hand still in mine as she walked behind me. I stayed against the walls, peeked around corners, and did my best to keep alert to as much as I could, and none of it was needed. The halls were empty.

As we made it to the main room where the front entrance was, a single guard blocked the door. I let go of Manda’s hand and started walking towards him. As he set himself into a defensive position, I stepped to my side to force him to move, in an attempt to keep him off balance. He shifted fluidly and kept himself between us and the door.

“You’re really going to try to take on sixty of us?” I asked.

“No, just enough of you for reinforcements to arrive from the ship,” he said, voice deep and growly. I saw the glint of metallic skin under his robes.

“You’re a Shein,” I commented.

He nodded.

“Then, we both know that we’ll fight until we’re done, but so will they,” I pointed behind me. Kovor, Valtic, and Orrin had moved to the front of the group, Valtic cracking his knuckles as he stepped forward. “You also know that we don’t have the time to play fair, so…”

I jumped, whipping my right foot level with his ear. He ducked my kick, but as I landed, I swept to the side and caught him in the shin, knocking his leg out from under him. As he fell to a knee, Valtic came up from behind and delivered a vicious double-fisted clubbing to the back of the guard’s head.

His head snapped forward into my knee, and he crumpled heavily to the floor.

I nodded thanks to Valtic and we led the others outside. Dejar carefully laid Kalyn down in one of the Dominion’s larger Skimmers, and in minutes, we’d divided up, flowing into the vehicles, ready to go.

I helped Manda jump up into our Skimmer, aided two other women up while as many of the men as could fit climbed up with them, then hopped into the driver’s seat and started the Skimmer up. I put it in gear and got us racing back towards the Star.

The Dominion vehicles were quieter than ours, and faster. Several of them were already at the ship and loading into the cargo area when we arrived.

That’s when something hit me. We weren’t followed. I brought the Skimmer into the hangar bay, waiting to jump out as Dejar and Kovor parked their stolen vehicles next to us.

“Get us out of here,” Dejar ordered as he handed Kalyn to Zayn.

I spotted Orrin as I jumped down. “Hey, we need to make sure there are not trackers on these things.” I pointed to the stolen vehicles. He nodded, called out to Maris and a few of the other crew, and they got to work.

I raced through the ship to the bridge, most of the bridge crews following me. I got into my seat, fired up the engines, and started to get us up into the air.

The alarms shrieked at us from every speaker.

Kout.

I’d forgotten The Terror was already in the air, and now they were almost above us.

“Brace for fold!” I yelled through the comm.

“What?” Dejar snapped.

“There’s only one way out of this, sir.”

He didn’t hesitate. “Do it.”

Engines groaned and metal shrieked as we jumped straight into fold.

Aavat pressed his head. “I hate doing this without pre-fold. Gives me a headache every time.”

“I’ll bet they hate it more,” I answered, and for a long minute, thought my snark had gone too far.

“Good.”

I risked a quick glance back. Dejar, Aavat, and Kovor stood united, faces stony.

Without having warmed up the engines, I only risked a short fold to the edge of the system, but the shockwave reverberated through the Rogue Star when we emerged.

When we finally stabilized, I pulled up the planet on the wall-screen.

“The facility,” I said to Dejar, pointing as I magnified the scan.

“It’s gone.”

“Same as what happened to Persephone Station,” Aavat said. “Think The Terror folded out in time?”

“I doubt it. They wouldn’t have risked it that close to their facility,” Dejar answered.

We all stood silent for a while.

“Fitting,” Aavat said. “After all of this.”

I turned towards the rest of the bridge crew. “Keep an eye out. If they got a message out before they were destroyed, we’re going to have a lot of company in a few seconds.” I started a proper pre-fold routine, just to be ready. Orrin might kill me later, but at least we’d have a later.

“I’ll keep watching,” Sper said from the console next to me. “But right now, there’s nothing in the air except us.”

“Explain,” Kovor commanded.

“I’m not sure, exactly,” Sper said. “But none of the sensors are finding anything.”

Shar’s voice interrupted us from the comm station. “Message coming across the board.” He pushed a few buttons, and the main display shifted to a split view. On the top of the screen was the message, on the bottom was the view of the outside. The sky was getting darker as we rotated away from the broken planet and entered deep space.

“Well, okay,” Kovor said slowly.

I risked a quick glance at the message, then stared.

DO NOT BECOME comfortable in the thought that you have achieved anything. You were allowed to escape as a greater nuisance has grabbed our attention. While you may have succeeded in this moment, the next moment will be ours.

Enjoy your temporary respite, it won’t last long.

THE DOMINION WAS LETTING us go.

Why?

“Well, I guess the video did go out everywhere.”

I shot a look at the owner of the voice, Manda.

She looked at me and gave me a sad smile. “I sent the video of…I sent it out across all frequencies. All the videos I could find. Deals they made with all the worlds.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “If I did it right, everyone in the known universe will see it and hear it. I think the Dominion has some other issues to deal with for now. We’re not terribly important for the moment.”

Brilliant, clever, brave.

And mine.

I’d never wanted to kiss her more than I did now, but I still had to get us out of here.

At Kovor’s nod, I punched in coordinates for a long-abandoned shipping lane where I knew we would be left alone, and fired up the fold engine.

“We’re jumping again,” I announced over the ship comms. “Get set.”

Twenty seconds later, the outside universe disappeared.

MANDA

At first, I’d thought I was fine. But after one night alone in my tiny room, I realized I was pretty damn far from fine.

I couldn’t imagine what Kalyn must be going through. She had been hysterical when she recognized her mother’s voice.

I wish I could’ve warned her that I was going to broadcast Adastria’s damning deal. I didn’t know it was going to broadcast within the facility.

From what I’d heard from the other women, Kalyn refused to leave her room. Lynna had heard her crying through the door.

I think we all felt like crying.

The worst part was, if the Dominion had flat out decided to kidnap us for genetic testing, I would’ve been able to handle that better.

It was wrong. It was evil. But…I could understand it.

The fact that the leader of my world sold us out, that another woman had done this to us, that was what I couldn’t bear.

The first night after leaving the testing facility, I didn’t leave my bed, hit with the deepest wave of exhaustion I’d ever known. I slept for sixteen hours. Though I didn’t tell anyone, not even Qal, I had a long cry that lasted over an hour.

The following day, Captain Dejar called us all to the dining hall.

Kalyn wasn’t there, and the captain looked like he hadn’t slept since we’d gotten away.

He hit a button, and the lights dimmed to show a screen filled with a half-circle of standing, hooded figures.

“Greetings, beloved citizens of the Dominion,” the one in the center spoke. The cold voice slithered in my ear, sending icicles down my spine.

“It has come to our attention that a group of renegades have illegally obtained highly classified files.” A flash of teeth showed from the shadows of the deep hood. “Sensitive information has been broadcast, and we understand that without context, many of you are disturbed by what you have seen.”

Disturbed. That wasn’t exactly the right word for it.

“We are also disturbed that these renegades, these rogues,” he paused, staring straight into the camera. as if he knew we’d be watching, “have violated the security of your Dominion. The Dominion that protects you all.”

I wrapped my arms around my waist, but it felt like I’d never be warm again.

“Rest assured, anything we ever do is for the protection of everyone.”

The screen flickered to black.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say they learned that little trick from Adastria. Looking back at it, she made apology-adjacent videos often.

Thinking about it made me feel sick.

After the terrible apology broadcast, I stopped at the dining hall for a piece of bread, something easy, something small.

I saw a few of the other women in there.

They all looked as shell shocked and exhausted as I felt. We always knew our journey wasn’t going to be easy, but none of us had thought it was going to be like this.

I don’t think any of us managed to eat. I knew all I wanted to do was go back to sleep.

I must’ve been down for longer than I’d intended, because the next thing I knew, I was jolted awake by a loud banging.

Panic assaulted me.

Had The Terror survived after all?

Were they here, ready to shoot us out of the sky for my broadcast?

The bang came again.

It was a knock.

Someone was knocking on my door.

Bleary-eyed and still out of it, I stumbled to the door. I cracked my door, squinting against the bright overhead lights of the Rogue Star’s corridors.

“I’m sorry, did I wake you?” Qal said.

“Yeah, but I think I’ve slept enough,” I said, smiling. “How are you?”

“Strange,” Qal said after an uncharacteristically long pause. “I’m not sure what to feel about everything that happened at the secret planet.”

“Me, either. I can’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that we were set up.”

“I can’t believe they planned it so meticulously,” Qal marveled. “The fact that the Dominion knew Captain Dejar would choose to rescue you and the other women after Persephone Station was destroyed was quite a gamble.”

“I don’t think so,” I said, more thinking aloud than anything. “After knowing Captain Dejar for a little while, I’d believe he’d choose to rescue strangers if he had the choice. Perhaps the Dominion simply knew his nature and exploited it.”

“I suppose,” Qal nodded.

We stood in silence for a moment too long. With a stammer, I opened my door wider. “I’m sorry, do you want to come in?”

“I’d like that.” He grinned, just a bit. “Are you sure there’s room?”

I stepped aside for him to come in and flicked on the small lamp.

“Have a seat.” I motioned to the tiny room awkwardly. Qal laughed and lowered himself down to the foot of my sleeping mat. I took a seat next to him.

“Have you eaten?” he asked. “I saw you at the dining hall, but it looked more like you were just staring at the food.”

I shook my head. “I haven’t had much of an appetite.” Qal looked concerned. “Don’t worry. Shock does that to humans. My body will sort itself out in a day or so.”

“If you’re sure,” Qal said, though he didn’t look sure at all. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Have you been avoiding me?”

“Of course not!” I said quickly. “I promise, I’ve been in here asleep.”

“You haven’t come into the navigation room.” Qal lifted his shoulders in a small shrug.

“I know.” I bit my bottom lip. “It’s part of the shock thing. I haven’t wanted to leave this room at all. Kalyn is far worse off than I am, though.”

“Dejar will take care of her, I’m sure.” A smile flickered across his face. “He’ll be happy to take care of his mate as long as she needs him.”

I sagged back against the wall. “That sounds nice,” I murmured. “Really nice.”

“So, you aren’t avoiding me?” Qal asked again.

“I said I wasn’t.” I pushed the hair back from my face, finger combed it out since half the braid had come undone in my sleep.

“Good. Because there’s something I’ve been wanting to do since we got back on the ship.” Qal twisted his upper body to face me.

I shifted closer to him. My cheeks felt warm.

“What’s that?” I asked, though I already had a good idea.

Qal gently took my face in his hands and traced his finger over my lips.

“Everything I said at the facility,” he said softly as I shivered at his touch. “Do you remember?”

I nodded, breath caught in my throat by the intensity of his gaze.

“I meant every word.”

He brushed his lips over mine, a teasing butterfly kiss that made me gasp. His hands seared my skin, liquid fire, sending heat through me to pool in my belly.

But then I remembered.

This had happened before. I’d given in to my own wants and needs. And if I did this again, let things with Qal move even further… I’d be heartbroken when he left.

I put a hand on his chest, and he froze the instant I pushed him away. “Stop. We can’t.”

The shock on his face hurt me. But I had to do this, it was the only way to protect myself. After everything that had happened, after the betrayal from Adastria, I couldn’t take another loss.

“What’s wrong?” he whispered, eyes searching my face for any clue. “What are you afraid of?”

I bit my lip, swallowed back the threatening tears. “Only what you told me would happen. You don’t like to stay anywhere long. You’ll leave, and I’ll be here.” I shook my head. “I can’t do it, I can’t be just a temporary fling for you.”

He rocked back, pale under his shimmering skin, and rubbed his hands through his white hair.

“I have failed you, then.”

What?

“I thought I’d been clear, but you’re right. I assumed too much.” He lowered his head, fists clenched on his knees, took a deep breath, then looked straight at me. “These past few weeks have been beyond anything I could’ve imagined. I would’ve never thought things would turn out the way they did. But I’m glad they did. We had the chance to grow close to each other and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

I reached for his hand, wrapping my fingers over his fist. “Me, too,” I whispered, unable to keep my smile contained. Qal’s eyes widened, like he honestly didn’t expect me to feel the same.

He kissed me again, deeply and filled with passion. At first, I didn’t move, absorbing the satin of his lips against mine before deepening the kiss and urging him on. He broke away before I wanted him to.

“I’m in love with you, Manda,” he declared. “You are my home. You are my everything. I could no more leave you than walk away from my heart.”

The knot around my chest loosened and felt like it sprouted wings, especially after the days of darkness.

“I love you, too, Qal. I think I’ve loved you for a while now,” I grinned.

My knees weakened, stomach fluttery as his lips descended over mine, slowly pressing, deepening as heat and passion increased. My lips parted, our tongues dancing together as I drew in his breath, tasted the nectar of his kiss. His velvet soft caresses contrasted with the firmness of his desire, kissing me harder and faster, need and fervor increasing every moment.

He drew me flush against his body, his hardness pressing against my stomach. His need mirrored mine, our bodies melting together as I kissed him like my life depended on it. My heart and soul did, and I knew he felt the same as his hands roamed over my back, his strong fingers kneading my flesh as his hands cupped my ass.

I moaned into his mouth at the feel of his hard cocks pressed into my stomach. Even through clothes, the intense sensation sent shivers through my body. My whole body tingled at the thought of him taking me so completely.

Everything I’d felt before was swept away by this all-consuming fire.

We broke our kiss to catch our breath. “Manda.” His eyes locked with mine and time stopped. My breathing stopped.

“Qal.” My lips parted.

His mouth closed over mine again, deleting the space between us and filling it with how much we needed each other. He pushed me down onto the mat, hands capturing mine, pinning them up over my head.

His mouth trailed over my jaw, down the side of my neck, nibbling my flesh, suckling hard enough he might leave a mark. Shivers of desire morphed into trembling, raw need. He pulled back from kissing me.

I licked my lips as he swept his hands over me. Every touch seemed magnified. My shallow breathing mirrored his touches.

Challenge entered his eyes. Desire warred with focus. “I want you so much.”

“Qal, I can’t wait for how much I need you any longer.” My eyebrows knitted with focus and determination of my own.

Qal raised an eyebrow and smiled. He shifted so that he was on his knees in front of me.

I sat up to mirror his position, wasting no time. I wrapped my arms around his waist and slid my hands up his back until I reached my target.

I ran my fingers through his pale hair. It felt like silk, even better than I’d imagined. The masculine scent of him surrounded me and I practically ached from wanting him so much. It was like I couldn’t touch enough of him or do it with the speed that matched my need.

Qal pulled the rest of my hair out of its messy braid and ran his fingers through it. “I’ve wanted to do this for so long,” he whispered.

My mouth needed to touch him now as it traveled down his neck and across his collarbones. His bronze skin shone in the weak light of my lamp.

Eager to see more, I pulled at his shirt.

He took the hint and lifted it over his head. My fingers traced the broad expanse of his chest. I marveled at tattoos I hadn’t seen before. The lines that comprised them were clean and simple. They suited him.

I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his chest. My eyes fluttered closed for a moment and I inhaled the scent of him, letting it surround me.

“Amazing,” I hummed against his skin.

“Yes, you are,” he murmured. His hands cradled my face as he looked into my eyes.

I allowed him to lift my shirt over my head. Something about the sensation of my bare skin against his sent me to a new height of desire. I’d almost lost him so many times, I needed to be as close to him as possible.

Qal laid me down on my back and slowly removed the rest of my clothing. My heart pounded with anticipation and longing as I watched him undress, his perfect body a miraculous sight. In every way, he was a magnificent display of pure masculine form, from my desires into hot muscle. My heart raced, knowing I would feel him against me soon.

He lay beside me, pressed close on the thin sleeping mat, one hand lightly holding my wrists above my head while the other trailed down my body.

Kneading and pinching at my breasts, he leaned over me, capturing my moans with his mouth.

When his hand moved lower, dragging through my slick folds for only a moment before thrusting into me, I arched, screaming against him as the sharp explosions of pleasure jolted me.

A second finger joined the first, slowly, relentlessly, driving into me until waves of sensation tore me apart, and nothing existed but his touch.

Before I’d completely regained my breath, Qal rolled over me, hovering as he carefully butted the thick head of his primary cock against my slit. I gasped as the second, smaller cock danced against my clit.

The first cock nudged into me, and I felt my inner walls close around him.

Qal entered me slowly, attending to every sound and motion I made until I was comfortable with his considerable girth and length.

The feeling of him filling me so completely was like fire lighting through my whole body, pleasure singed my nerve endings as he slowly thrust into me. The slow, gentle strokes were claiming and intense.

Relentless.

It felt so right to have him inside me. My body melded to his, accepted every sizable inch and squeezed around him, urging his cocks to capture me more and more.

When he began to thrust faster, pleasure tore through me. The fullness was inescapable, intoxicating. Tendrils of desire pooled within me, every driving penetration also strumming me to a fever pitch. At first, I didn’t recognize the moans that filled the room as sounds that originated from me. I was on another plane of lust and longing.

Qal poured all the need to claim and reclaim me into every strong stroke, surging with power, his face a mask of restraint and control.

I pulled him tighter to me, our bodies a tangle of sweat and need.

Wrapping my arms around him, I dug my nails into his skin, twining my legs around his waist, gaining some focus with the raw abandon of need overtaking my body.

He slid deeper into me, stroking at a different angle we rocked to together. Stars exploded across my vision.

Every nerve in my body was finely tuned to Qal. His ragged breaths in my ear drew me closer to my peak. The sensations bubbling inside me intensified, building and building until it was clear I was drowning in wave after wave of desire.

Qal rolled his hips wildly and bucked into me, his own orgasm close. The contact between our most sensitive parts reached a new intensity, with his cocks somehow impossibly harder. I let out gasps of pleasure, urging him to go deeper and faster.

Something even more pleasurable was building inside of me and when it boiled over, my body felt like it was made of stars. I wanted to taste every moment of our desire together, his body surging through mine. I felt so close to him, it was like we were one.

Qal buried himself to the hilt, holding me tightly as his own orgasm exploded from him.

My legs tightened around his waist, holding him to me while I took in every sensation, savoring and tasting our shared lust in a breathless, exhilarated way.

I pulled him tighter, and Qal’s enormous body closed over mine, then he rolled to the side, with his back against the wall. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest. I kissed every inch of his skin within reach, took in the scent and sensation of his body around me. I couldn’t get enough of him.

I’d never have enough.

I drank in the sight of him. His eyes met mine and a gorgeous smile shone on his perfect face.

“I’m glad we got that cleared up,” Qal murmured. “My lovely Manda.”

I couldn’t resist it. “I’m glad you remembered my name.”

“I was foolish to think you’d ever let that go.” He pressed me closer to his chest. “But you were more foolish to think I’d ever let you go.”

QAL

For the first time in my life, I had no idea where to go.

Well, there were times where the crew didn’t know where to go, but I’d always had an idea of where I wanted to go, where I wanted to be. This was the first time that I, personally, didn’t know where I wanted to go.

All I knew was that I wanted to keep away from the Dominion.

Eventually, they would come after us for bringing their activities to light. Then again, maybe we would go after them, take the fight to them, so to speak.

They had done something reprehensible and disgusting, and that couldn’t stand. The idea of selling women off to be…whatever their new “owners” wanted them to be, was sickening.

To say nothing of the fact that the Dominion was trying to create the “perfect” race, the “perfect” species. Essentially, what the Dominion had said during their political backpedal was that none of us were good enough and we all needed to be changed in order to make one perfect race.

Manda had told me of a time back on Earth when someone had wanted to do something similar. Someone by the name of Hitter, Hiller…what was that name…Hilter? No, it was Hitler. Some idiot named Hitler had tried to rid the planet of anyone that believed in a certain religion, and wanted to create what he called “the Master Race”. What I had found ironic about the whole thing was that members of his own family believed in that religion and he himself didn’t match his own definition of a ‘master race’.

Was the Dominion really trying to do the same thing? Were they really trying to change everyone, or if they couldn’t change us, replace us with a so-called ‘master race’?

I looked at my own arms and hands and found nothing wrong with them. I liked who I was and where I came from. I didn’t have any ill feelings towards another species, why should I? Their right to live was just as pertinent as mine, so who was I to say they didn’t deserve to exist?

I understood that there were dozens, even hundreds of alien races and species in the universe. What gave me the right to think that my race was the only one worth surviving? If I had that mentality, I would never have associated with the women, never have become friends with them, never have grown to care for them, and certainly never would have fallen in love with one and taken her to my bed.

As I thought about Manda, I thought about what she had been through. The knowledge that her sister’s idol was the one that had betrayed them and essentially sold them off had to have hurt her. Then to see that the person responsible was her friend and Commander Kalyn’s mother, and how Kalyn had broken down when she discovered what her own mother had done, I knew Manda had to be angry and in pain still.

It had been three days since we folded away from Planet Black…I wasn’t sure if that was what we were going to call it, but since it was a black hole on maps but a planet in reality, I thought the name fit.

Kalyn had finally calmed and, at least outwardly, come to terms that her mother was a “traitorous bitch,” as I had overheard Maris and Lynna calling her.

To hear the gentle Lynna use that kind of language showed that these women would never be able to let go of what had happened.

There had been talk amongst the women, and even some of the men, of going back to the Terran System to deal with Adastria and her cronies, but that wasn’t going to happen now. It might happen eventually, but for now it was simply an idea.

An idea that grew roots like a weed.

As I stood in the map room, trying to plot out places we could hide out—as well as a place to drop off Itair, his whining was getting on my nerves—the door opened, and someone walked in.

“What are you doing?” Manda’s voice floated to my ears and I felt a tug at the corners of my mouth. She sincerely made me a happy man, and last night she’d made me happy in some very fun ways.

Without turning back to look at her, I answered, letting my voice provide the shrug my shoulders were too tired to give. “Just looking for some places to hide out. We need to make sure we are within range of supplies and materials, but not somewhere where the Dominion has influence.”

As she stepped next to me, she responded, “From what I hear, the Dominion is still losing friends. Another six worlds declared their split from the Dominion this morning.”

I nodded in approval.

The more people denounced the Dominion and condemned their actions, the less power they held, the less influence they would have. Part of me was saddened by the loss of control...the Dominion had kept a firm hand on things and had ended many wars and skirmishes that would have resulted in a lot of meaningless deaths.

If the Dominion was losing power, there would be more chaos. However, they couldn’t be allowed to continue with what they were doing. It was wrong. So, the more people that turned against the Dominion’s actions, the better.

“That’s good,” I said. “That might mean a few more places for us to duck and cover when the Dominion decides to turn their teeth towards us.”

“If they have any bite left when all of this is done.”

I looked at her. She was looking up at me with eyes filled once again with hope. Which made me feel like a bastard, but she had to be realistic. “Have your people ever survived scandals like this just enough to remain in power and do things?”

I watched her face as she thought about it. I could see the realization drown her optimism as she eventually nodded. “So, what do we do?” she asked.

“We hide. We stay out of sight until either we have enough backup to attack first, or until the Dominion is no more. We keep on our toes and make sure we’re ready to run at a moment’s notice. We survive,” I answered as I jotted down three more possible locations.

“Want some help?” she offered.

“Sure. My lips are feeling a little lonely,” I said with a mischievous grin.

“Ha. Ha. I’m sure,” she said as she stood on her tiptoes.

I leaned down and we kissed. I’d never be tired of the taste of her lips.

I had never thought of myself as the ‘one partner’ type, even though my parents had been almost nauseatingly happy with their relationship.

I had assumed I’d never find my mate, the ‘one’.

I had resigned myself to be satisfied with enjoying the ‘one right now’.

Manda had become the ‘one right now’ and I never wanted now to end.

We eventually stopped kissing and she stood next to me as we looked at my map. Her body heat radiated against me and brought back memories of how her body heat felt without the impediment of clothing. Her warm hands, her perky little breasts, her…I forced my thinking onto something else as I felt a particularly pressing sensation happening to part of my lower body.

It was difficult to not think about her firm little buttocks in my hands as I moved her against me. If only I hadn’t promised Dejar and Aavat a report on possible destinations in less than an hour.

I wanted nothing more than to take her and thank her for last night, several times.

She grabbed my arm, pulled it a bit away from my body, and hooked her hand into the small little crook she had created. She then leaned her head against me and let out a deep sigh.

“I could seriously use a vacation. You know what I mean?” she added as she looked up at me, her eyes flashing a little in the light.

“That I do,” I uttered quietly. We could all use a break. Orrin had assured me that the new Skimmers weren’t traceable, and neither was the ship.

We would certainly need to modify the Rogue Star again, and beef up her defenses and stealth systems, but that could wait a little bit.

I looked down at Manda, kissed her forehead, and smiled at her. “I can give you that.”

“Yeah?” The lilt to her voice was cute.

Perfect.

“Mm-hmm. And I know just the place.”

“Where?” she asked.

“Well, let’s just say,” as I sat down and started programming in the coordinates, “I’ll get to see my furry little blue friend again and you’ll get to make me feel bad for not being the most likeable character anymore.”

“Wow, you really are a glutton for punishment, aren’t you?” she teased me while dropping a kiss to the top of my head.

“I’m demanding a rematch. My ego can’t handle an entire village not liking me. They’re going to love me, even if I have to annoy them into it.”

“Well, damn. That won’t take long,” she said with a small slap to my shoulder.

Like I said. Perfect.

MANDA: EPILOGUE

“You don’t have to stand by the window,” Qal teased. “You’ll know when we get there.”

“I want to see the moon come into view.” I looked over my shoulder and grinned.

“You’re not going to see it from this angle,” Qal laughed gently. He stood up from his seat and moved behind me, locking his arms around my waist. I leaned my head back against his broad chest, absorbing the warmth from his bronzed skin.

“You’re quite literally trembling,” he chuckled. “You can’t be that cold.”

“No, I’m excited.”

“Humans quake when they’re excited? But also, when they are cold?”

“And for a few other reasons,” I added. “Some of us tremble when we’re scared.”

“How am I supposed to tell the difference?”

“You’ll figure it out, you’re smart enough.” I felt him preen behind me. “Barely,” I quickly muttered.

“I resent that!” he declared in mock indignation. “Careful or I’ll leave you to defend yourself against the pirates.”

“The pirates love me!” I scoffed. “The star keeper said I was welcome back whenever I wanted. She didn’t say anything about you or the rest of the crew, though.”

“Maybe we’ll have to earn our keep and become pirates for real.” He rested his chin on the top of my head. “I think you’d make an excellent pirate.”

“Only if you’re the one steering my ship,” I grinned.

“If anything, it’ll be my ship. I’ll just let you think you’re in charge to keep you happy.”

“That’s so sweet,” I gushed. “And so condescending.”

“It’s one of my many talents.”

A blip from his console drew our attention.

“I better get to the bridge,” he said. “If you want a good view of the moon as we arrive, you should go up to the observation deck.”

“I’d rather stay with you. It’s entertaining to watch you work.”

“I’m glad I can give you a show,” he winked.

We walked hand in hand to the bridge, where Aavat and Captain Dejar were already monitoring our approach.

“Is everything holding steady?” Aavat asked.

“Steadier than it was the last time we did this,” Qal joked. He got to work at the bridge console. From the monitors, I saw the moon come into view. The lavender sea sparkled, even from this distance, the land masses blobs of vibrant green.

“Do you think the pirates have spotted us?” I wondered.

“Most likely,” Captain Dejar replied. Now, when he looked at me, it didn’t take a half-moment for recognition to dawn in his gaze. He knew exactly who I was and what I could do. The whole crew did.

And to be honest, I did, too.

“Prepare for landing,” Qal spoke into the intercom mic. His voice echoed through the ship via the speakers.

“How’s Kalyn?” I asked the captain.

“She’s improving,” he replied. “Coming to terms with what her mother did.”

“That must be horrible,” I sighed sadly.

“From what I gather, this isn’t entirely out of character for Kalyn’s mother,” Captain Dejar said. “Are all humans like that? Are you females just exceptional?”

I laughed bitterly. “No one in the Terran System would’ve called us exceptional.”

“Good thing you aren’t in the Terran System anymore.” Qal looked over his shoulder to smile at me.

“I suppose you’re right,” I grinned back.

The Rogue Star rumbled as it settled itself onto the sand.

“I’m going to fetch Kalyn.” Captain Dejar looked to Aavat. “Everyone is free to disembark at their leisure. We’ve all earned some time off.”

“Yes, Captain,” Aavat grinned.

Qal opened the main cabin door and gave me a knowing smile. “Go ahead. I’ll be right behind you after I settle the ship.”

With an ear-to-ear smile, I kissed Qal on the cheek and dashed outside down the cargo ramp. Flat metal gave way to sand and sun. I ran for longer than I planned to, but I saw no reason to stop, so I kept going.

I stopped about one hundred yards away from the ship before sinking down to my knees. I rolled onto my back, stretching my arms out to either side of me. The sand felt heavenly against my skin. I turned my head to one side to admire the glittering water, then to the other to gaze at the vibrant jungle.

A movement between the trees caught my eye. I squinted against the bright light and was able to make out a lithe shape. Lime-colored eyes peered at me from behind the tree line. I looked at the faint silhouette of the star keeper with a knowing smile. The lime eyes blinked once, slowly. The star keeper faded from view and I was alone again.

But not for long.

I heard the whoops and shrieks of the others as they spilled out of the ship onto the beach, Aavat and Kovor already stripped down to their undergarments and splashing into the water.

“I bet you’re glad the water isn’t corrosive!” Orrin called after them.

Shenna tentatively dipped a toe into the water and let out a sigh of relief. “It’s safe for humans, too,” she called. “I’m pretty sure he was joking.”

“If you want to call it that,” shouted back Maris.

The Persephone women started to peel off their outer layers. I was glad to see Kalyn among them. She was smiling and looked like her normal self again.

“Where’s Manda?” Aryn called.

“She’s over there,” Qal replied. “I’d tell you what she’s doing except I have no idea.”

I sat up from my splayed position and shouted back, “I’m enjoying the beach!”

“Come do that over here!” Aryn beckoned. “You aren’t allowed to hide anymore.”

I scrambled to my feet, kicked off my boots and ran back down the beach towards my friends.

My family.

Qal had taken off his shirt. He threw his arm around me, his skin already warmed from the sun.

“You’re going into the water with or without your clothes. I’ll let you choose,” he winked. With a wry smile, I lifted my shirt over my head and wiggled out of my fitted pants until I was in my undergarments.

“I’m glad you made that choice,” Qal said. “Tastier.”

Before I could say anything back, he scooped me up in his arms and dashed into the water. He waded into his waist before losing his balance. Instead of gently releasing me so I could right myself, he launched me nearly five feet.

My mouth was open when I went under the water. Sweet, light liquid floated over my tongue. It tasted similar to the fruit I ate when we first crashed. I’d never been to an ocean in the Terran System, but I’d read they were disgustingly salty and not at all suitable for drinking. I wasn’t brave enough to swallow this water, but at least it wasn’t repulsive.

I sputtered when I came up.

“Are you always so graceful?” I laughed.

Qal shook out his white hair, hitting me with a spray of water. “Always,” he winked.

He lowered his head to kiss me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and let him lift me halfway out of the water. When we broke apart, I was shivering.

“What kind of shaking is that?” he asked.

“The cold kind.” My teeth started to chatter.

“Go back to the beach,” he grinned. “I’ll join you in a moment. I’m going to try to drown Aavat first.”

“Good luck with that,” I barked a laugh.

I made my way back to shore, where some of the other women were lying in the sun.

“Manda!” Lynna smiled brightly. “Come sit! We saved you a seat.”

“Thanks,” I grinned. I lowered myself onto the warm sand. Granules covered my wet body like a second skin. It felt nice.

“A day like this is long overdue,” Maris sighed.

“It certainly is,” Aryn agreed. “Even Xyla and her minions are in good spirits today.”

“I wish it could be like this every day,” I sighed wistfully. “I love this place.”

“What about the Terran System?” Shenna asked.

“I never loved the Terran System,” Maris replied. “This little moon isn’t my ideal habitat, but I certainly like it better than home.”

“Do you think we’ll ever go back?” Shenna asked no one in particular in a small, quiet voice. We all fell into silence.

“I say we don’t have to think about that right now,” Kalyn said brightly. “We don’t have an answer. We might never have an answer. We should put it out of our minds until we do.”

“I agree,” I declared. “I don’t want to think about the Dominion, either.”

“Damn right,” Aryn laughed. “I’d be happy to never think of those slimy bastards for the rest of my life.”

“I don’t think we’re that lucky,” Maris snorted.

“We are today,” Lynna said.

A sense of peace and belonging settled over me. I couldn’t stop smiling.

In the water, the crew splashed and play-fought. I cackled as Orrin doused Qal, Kovor, and the captain in a glittering sheet of water.

“I’m going to get Valtic.” Lynna stood up from her reclined position. “He’s been in his cave long enough. He’s going to miss all the fun.”

“I think that’s his goal,” Maris teased.

Qal waved to me from the water. The pure joy in his gesture made my heart melt.

I waved back and blew him a kiss.

When I looked at him, every bad thing that had ever happened to me in space and my home system faded away.

The Dominion didn’t exist to me anymore, not today.

All that existed was this perfect place, my perfect friends, and the perfect man I loved more than anything.

Thing were really, truly good.

And if they got boring?

Well, it seemed certain that we’d never be bored for long.

Not for as long as we stayed aboard the Rogue Star.

LETTER FROM ELIN & AVA

We've made it to the end!

Not the end of all of the Rogue Star stories, we promise, but of this story arc.

We hope you've enjoyed the ride as much as we have.

There are many, many more stories to come in this world. An evil empire to take out, and a certain terrible mother will get her due.

Eventually…

But for now, you’ll want to get started with book seven of Rogue Star: Rogue’s Tale.

Trust doesn't come easy to me. Sweet words don't mean a thing.

So why do I feel like I could lean on his broad golden shoulders, and he'll catch me?

Yeah, I know. I've got a  reputation as the b*tch of the Rogue Star.

Angry, snappish Xyla, who'd rather argue than eat.

I don't trust anyone else to look out for me.  I learned that lesson young.

But Gallus doesn't expect anything. He's just there.

Waiting. Watching.

With a gaze that makes my blood heat.

Words are weapons.

And stories can spark a rebellion.

When it's time to stop running and start fighting, maybe I've found my one true ally.

Even if it's against the rest of the crew.

Click to get Rogue’s Tale now!

Future Rogue Star books will be under Ava's name alone.  You can keep up with what she's doing at  her facebook group, or on her  newsletter page.

I'm going to be diving back into Conquered World, with Karzin, book seven, available now. Sign up for all my updates on facebook or on my newsletter!

Keep reading for a sneak of Rogue’s Tale, and thanks for traveling on the Rogue Star with us!

Sign up for all my updates on facebook or on my newsletter!

XOXO,

Elin & Ava

ROGUE’S TALE: SNEAK PEEK

“Gallus?”

It was Maris, Orrin’s mate and my pseudo-replacement as Second Engineer.

I wasn’t angry about it.

I still held the official title, so when I eventually ended up with my own ship, that would work for me.

If you had asked me a year ago where we would be as a crew and an operation, I certainly wouldn’t have said that we would be hiding out at a pirate sanctuary with a bunch of human women now part of the crew.

I most definitely would not have said that some of our own would end up falling in love with those same human women, or that the crew would have come to count the women as family.

What we ended up discovering, and blurted out to the entire galaxy, was that the Dominion was involved in some back-door negotiations with several dozen governments, promising them inclusion into the Dominion if they paid with a selection of females that were to be tested.

The Dominion was looking for specific genetic markers that could be used to essentially create the “perfect” race.

We broadcast their own conversations with the humans from their own secret hiding place, which really put a bit of a crimp in their plans, and their popularity.

Now, because of us, they weren’t the supreme, all-mighty governing body anymore.

Now, they were facing numerous public disputes, their reputation had taken a hit, there were suddenly more non-Dominion governments popping up, and some of the places that had surrendered their women in order to join the Dominion were facing serious political issues.

In the two months we’d stayed here at Sanctuary, I’d picked up on several reports of full-blown government turnovers or rebellions in some of the sectors that had paid the Dominion’s price.

And through all of it, we’d made a legitimate family with the human women, found a friend and benefactor in Itair, and gained some allies that we hadn’t had before.

So, if you were to have asked me a year ago where I thought we would be as a ship and crew, I wouldn’t have dreamed of any of this.

“What did you need, Maris?” I asked, sitting up from my lounge chair.

I was enjoying a day off, one of the few that I had actually taken here, and had found a place by the beach where the breeze was blocked just enough to let me still feel it, but not be bothered by it.

The purple ocean lapped at the beach while numerous birds squawked in the trees above.

Qal’s little blue friend chittered nearby. I must have woken her up from her nap. “Sorry, Neela,” I said to her before turning my attention back to Maris.

“Orrin was wondering if you finished running the maintenance check on the new damper discs,” she said as she took a seat on a big rock next to me. When we had first met, she was—as the women said—a bitch. She was always angry about something and doing what she could to prove to us that she was smart and competent, even if that meant disobeying orders and going behind Orrin’s back.

I liked her from the start.

Her attitude and determination shut Orrin up and stopped him from being the pretentious ass that he was before all this happened.

Now, he and I were legitimate friends, and I liked that. I nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Finished them bright and early this morning, left the report on Orrin’s tablet. Why?”

She had been smiling until my question. “Because they’re off balance again.”

“Again? Seriously? Kout,” I swore.

The umbba dampers that we had recently installed were giving me fits. When they worked, our output was phenomenal, but they liked to slip out of balance, which screwed up our engines.

I thought I had fixed it and had conducted four tests on them to make sure. They had held up. “Any idea what caused it this time?”

“I’d lay money we can put the blame at the sticky feet of one of those damn little lizards that Shenna has been ‘adopting’,” she said with air quotes.

I should have known. Aavat, one of the members of the ship’s leadership, had fallen for a young lady with a fabulous attitude, and a terrible sense of how much damage her kouting zoo was creating for all of us.

I let out a long sigh, dropped my head, and resisted the urge to hit my head on one of the lush trees.

“Okay,” I said, about as dejected as I could possibly be. “I’ll go fix it. But,” I said, staring Maris in the face and putting on my most I’m-not-putting-up-with-this-scro-anymore expression. “You’re telling her to keep her goddamn animals out of the engine compartment, or I’m eating the bastards.”

Neela chittered loudly from behind me and jumped on my shoulder, smacking me in the back of the head.

I laughed. “No, not you, Neela. You’re safe, promise,” I chuckled. That seemed to pacify the little blue…thing.

“Yeah,” Maris chuckled. “Like she’ll listen to me. You’ve used that threat before and haven’t followed through on it.”

I shrugged, stood up, and started heading towards the Star, Neela still sitting comfortably on my shoulder, her little tail wrapped around me to help her keep her balance.

“I’ll bring it up with her, though,” Maris said as she came up next to me. “She needs to understand that those pets of hers are gonna get us killed if they keep messing with the engines.”

I nodded. I was trying to resign myself to the next three hours of work that it would take to balance the kouting discs again. I was not happy.

The next three hours were stressful. So much so that I was cursing every umbba creature on board this ship except for the cat, Persephone, and Neela. At least those two stayed out of trouble. I hated that little puff-ball that Shenna had stolen from Itair. It always made me wonder why he never confronted her about it. He had to have seen it roaming around the ship.

Bringing my mind back to the task at hand, I finished setting the discs to the proper balance and started running my maintenance checks.

I was into my third check when the alarms sounded. “RED ALERT! RED ALERT! DOMINION SHIPS INBOUND!” Qal’s voice blared over the shipwide system, and if I knew Qal, he was also blaring it out over the outboard speakers, as well.

I quickly brought up video and watched in horror as six Dominion ships of various sizes tore through the atmosphere. “Holy kout!” I swore.

I rushed to the primary engineering station and quickly started the process to get the engines back online.

“Engineering!” It was Kovor’s voice, our third captain.

“Here, Captain,” I called back.

“Are those engines up yet?”

“Getting them online now. Activating shields and repositioning them above us,” I yelled back.

“Good. Make sure we’re ready to get in the air as soon as possible,” he called back and clicked off communication.

As if I would have done anything different. Maris and Orrin burst into the engine room, taking positions to help.

“The discs ready?” Orrin asked.

I nodded as the ship shook. I looked at the screen to see one of the Dominion ships firing.

Then, as quickly as the shooting started, it was answered.

Dozens of small ships launched from the surface, while a barrage of laser cannon shots exploded on and around the Dominion ship that had fired.

It broke apart and began falling to the surface in dozens of little burning fireballs of debris.

Seriously?

We’d been here two months, and I’d never had a clue about the defenses around this place.

Not a surprise, when I had the chance to think about it.

A pirate haven was likely to be fortified, but I had not anticipated the pirates here to be so prepared and heavily defended.

It was a sight to behold.

Or would have been, if I’d been able to pay attention.

Instead, I watched out of the corner of my eye as I worked with Maris and Orrin to finish getting the engines ready to launch and break atmo.

Tiny little puffs of exploding ordnance filled the sky on the screen as the Dominion ships fired in return.

We were rocked as several shots hit our shields.

“How much longer do I have?” I yelled into the comm unit.

“Twenty seconds,” Qal yelled back.

I could do it. I started counting down from fifteen, just in case. At eight, Kovor ordered us to fly and the engines fired to life as Qal started getting us into the air.

It was a harrowing escape, our lift-off slightly hampered by the sand of the beach being as loose as it was, slowing down our ascent, as the engines didn’t have a solid surface to push against.

Once in the air, however, the damper discs did their job and our engine kicked in hard. I lost my balance as the engines catapulted us forward and was forced to grab a nearby wall sconce.

Looking at Orrin and Maris, we watched the screen to see if we were being followed. As soon as we were clear of the planet’s gravitational field, the next call rang through the ship.

“Prepare for fold,” came the order from above. Scro. I hated folding. The queasiness I always felt kept me wanting to vomit for hours afterwards.

Something grabbed my leg.

Double scro.

I looked down, spotted Neela, and called her up.

“Sorry, girl. Guess you get to see the stars, after all.”

She jumped up to my chest and I held her close as the fold-engine kicked in and hurtled us away from Sanctuary and the Dominion ships.

XYLA

After everything that’s happened to us in the past few months, I could honestly say that nothing surprised me anymore.

When the Dominion fleet descended upon us, I wasn’t even shocked.

If I’d had more time to think about it, I might’ve realized how messed up that was.

A life-threatening situation should get some kind of rise out of me.

But honestly?

I was annoyed more than anything.

My reaction had to be some kind of coping mechanism. Or worse, I’d become too used to being in incredibly dangerous situations. There could be worse things.

I could’ve become too used to lounging on the beach all day.

Thankfully, I was as fit as I was the day the Persephone Station was blown to bits and I got sucked into this mess. While the rest of the crew enjoyed the sun and sand, I devoted much of my spare time to exercise.

I didn’t like to stay still.

Once, years ago, a doctor instructed me to channel all my extra anger into physical exercise.

While he was a smug bastard, and it had been tempting to punch him, his advice had always worked for me.

I’d freely admit that when I was holed up in the cargo bay with the others, unable to walk around or do anything, my temper took on a life of its own. It stayed alive and fiery until I had the entire stretch of beach to run along.

Having the beach at my disposal served me well as I sprinted down the main entry corridor of the Rogue Star.

The ship tilted hard to the right. Manda, running a few paces ahead of me, stumbled and fell with a crash.

The Rogue Star banked so hard, the left wall was where the floor ought to be. I grabbed some of the exposed piping and held fast. I sure hoped I wasn’t grabbing something important.

The last thing we needed was for a pipe to burst.

Memories of noxious gas fogging up the hallways came to mind, tightening my throat. When that horrible demon-eyed princess-chick double-crossed us, she’d tried to gas us all.

That was the last time I truly felt afraid. And I shoved that back down, burning away the fear and the worry with anger.

Always worked. No reason to stop now.

The ship pitched again, this time in the opposite direction. Manda fell from one side of the corridor to the other with a grunt.

“Grab hold of something!” I shouted to her.

“I’m trying!” she yelled back. She was holding one of her arms at an odd angle. I half-crawled, half-climbed down the corridor until I reached her.

“Find an alcove,” I instructed. “Tuck yourself somewhere safe until we smooth out.”

“I don’t think I can move. I landed hard on my arm. I think it’s sprained,” Manda whimpered.

From where I was, I could see swelling already in her wrist. First aid wasn’t my strongest suit, and even if it was, there wasn’t anything nearby that I could use. With a hint of bitterness, I recalled a time on the Persephone Station a few years back when I’d requested to be trained in medical duty. Lynna said I didn’t have a good bedside manner, as if politeness had anything to do with saving someone’s life.

I pushed the thought away to better focus on the issue at hand. But maybe, just maybe, I’d remind her that it wouldn’t hurt for all of us to have some basic training, cheerful little daisies or not.

“Hold on to me,” I instructed just as the Rogue Star leveled out. Manda and I crashed down onto the floor, which was once again in its proper place.

“I think I just sprained my other wrist,” Manda grumbled.

“I think you just bruised my rib,” I groaned. “So much for good intentions.”

“I appreciate that you tried to help me,” Manda’s eyes were wide with sincerity. “I’m surprised-” She seemed to catch herself and clamped her mouth shut.

“What’s surprising?” I asked.

“Nothing, I don’t know what I was trying to say,” she laughed awkwardly.

I knew exactly what she was going to say.

She was going to say that she was surprised I’d go out of my way to help her. I knew I didn’t have the friendliest reputation.

It’s no secret that I wasn’t a fan of Commander Kalyn or anything she’d led us into ever since Persephone Station blew.

But the fact that Manda thought I’d stoop so low as to refuse to help one of my crewmates hurt a bit.

More than a bit.

Clearly, I needed to work on my image.

But later. One of the Dominion ships hunting us fired some kind of explosive. The shockwave reverberated through the ship, making me stumble. Now was not the time to worry about my image.

The red alarm light flared to life over our heads. That last blast had done something important to the Rogue Star.

“Get somewhere where you won’t get thrown around again,” I told Manda before taking off down the corridor.

I needed answers, and there was one place closer than the bridge that might have them.

I burst into Qal’s room, where he was frantically trying to maneuver the Rogue Star.

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

“What do you think?” he shouted back. “I’m trying to dodge the blasts of an entire fleet. The ummba Dominion ships followed us through the fold.”

“The emergency alarm is blaring. Do you know where the issue is?”

Qal cast a quick glance at the detailed schematic on display to his right. From where I stood, I could see a red dot on the display, but I couldn’t tell where it was.

“The room under the bridge.”

“Crap.” I bolted out of the room.

If the engine room was the heart of the Rogue Star, then the room under the bridge was like the brain. It was likely that someone else was already headed down there, someone more qualified than me, but I didn’t know what else to do.

Some of the crew had emergency stations to report to. I was one of the many who didn’t.

In situations like these, those who didn’t have an emergency station were required to hide themselves away in the cargo bay until the danger passed.

I hated the cargo bay.

I hated not having a proper job.

I hated that the idea of me being helpful was such a surprise to others.

I passed many of my crewmates as I made my way to the room beneath the bridge. They were so frantic that no one noticed I was heading in the exact opposite direction of the cargo bay.

When I got to the room, I wasn’t alone.

A Shein male stood at the far end, bent down trying to patch one of the pipes.

The odd smell in the air told me that it was some kind of coolant leak. It wouldn’t cause the ship to burst into flames, which was good.

However, all of the circuits and machinery in this room needed to be kept cool. If they overheated, they would automatically shut down. The environmental regulators could go down. Qal’s navigations systems could go down.

“You shouldn’t be down here!” the Shein called over his shoulder when he spotted me. I recognized him, though his name escaped me at the moment.

“You need help!” I shouted back.

There were three other fractures in the coolant piping. He could only block one at a time. “Tell me what to do.”

At least he wasn’t stupid enough to turn away a set of helping hands.

“See that tub there?” he jerked his chin toward a medium-sized tub filled with something shiny and pitch black. “Take a scoop and cover the crack.”

I did as I was told without hesitation. Whatever the sticky, tarlike material was, it did the trick patching the pipes.

But it wasn’t meant to be handled by human hands.

“It burns,” I gasped. I immediately tried to wipe it off on the rest of the pipe. “Is it supposed to burn?”

“Here.” The male pushed a damp cloth into my hand. The coolness of it soothed the burning sensation enough so that I could continue the patch job. I fell into a system. Handle the black gunk until the burning was too much, wipe, and repeat.

“You don’t have to keep going if it hurts you,” the male said.

“We have to get this done,” I called back. “I’ve only got one more left to do, anyway.” I smeared the black gunk over the last crack. The male came up behind me with some kind of spray gun. Over the patched piping, he sprayed what looked like pure liquid metal until the pipe looked perfect once more.

“Don’t breathe that in,” he warned.

I lifted my hand to cover my mouth and nose.

“You could have said that before you sprayed it,” I replied. The skin on my face started to burn. I immediately covered my face with the cloth.

“You’re probably right.” He had the nerve to smile at me. “You might need a quick trip to the med bay when this is over, regardless.”

“What?” I cried.

“Apparently, the pipe sealer is mildly toxic to humans,” he shrugged.

“The one time I’m helpful, it comes back to bite me,” I rolled my eyes. Above our heads, the red emergency alarm stopped flashing.

“That’s one crisis averted,” the male said. “We should see if there’s anything else we can do.”

“We?”

“If you’re helpful a second time, it might not bite you,” he said.

“What’s one more chemical burn or lung irritant?” I shrugged and followed him out of the room.

“I’m Gallus, by the way,” he said as we walked.

“I know,” I said, even though I didn’t. We’d spoken once or twice before. I should’ve known his name.

“No, you don’t,” Gallus smirked. “I never told you my name. I appreciate that you tried to pretend that you did, though.”

“Any time,” I winced. “I’m Xyla.”

“I know.”

“But I never told you,” I fed his own line back to him.

“No, you didn’t. But that doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention.”

Not many people had the ability to put me off my stride, but it took me a moment to untangle my words.

“You’re awfully chipper considering we’re under attack,” I diverted the subject.

“Between you and me, I like the excitement,” he admitted, a kinda cute half-smile lifting a corner of his mouth.

Before I could say anything, we arrived on the bridge. Aavat was there, giving orders and monitoring the Dominion fleet on our tail.

“Anything needing attention?” Gallus asked.

“Aside from the government organization trying to kill us?” Aavat snapped.

I liked it when everyone was under pressure like this.

They showed their true colors instead of pretending to be nicer than they were.

At least Aavat wasn’t one to put on a mask in the first place. He was a rude, arrogant bastard, and didn’t try to pass himself off as anything different.

It was a refreshing change.

I could do without the constant threat of death, though.

Another explosion went off somewhere in the space around us. My arms shot out to balance myself and I accidentally latched on to Gallus’s arm. I retracted my hands as soon as I regained my balance.

I risked a glance at Gallus to see if he’d noticed, but his focus was directed on the monitors.

“Aavat, what are those?” he asked.

I followed his gaze to the live feed of the starboard side of the ship. Another fleet of ships was fast approaching. My stomach sank.

If those were more Dominion ships, we wouldn’t survive much longer.

“I don’t know,” Aavat replied. “I don’t recognize the ship model. The scanners can’t figure out what they are, either.”

We watched the fleet of mystery ships swoop closer.

Lights flared all around us as their cannons fired, and I braced myself.

But the unknown ships flitted around us, engaging the Dominion cruisers.

Nimbly, the smaller, faster ships soon divided up the Dominion fleet, driving them away until, one by one, our attackers folded away.

Eventually, the void outside was cleared.

The mystery fleet circled around us.

“This is either really good or really bad,” I muttered under my breath. Gallus gave an uneasy laugh.

“Hopefully, it’s good,” Aavat looked over his shoulder at us. “They’re requesting permission to board us.”

GALLUS

Xyla stared at the screen, watching the unidentified vessels. “Who are they?”

Aavat and Dejar were busy at the comms, talking with whoever they were.

“I wish I knew, but I’m sure that the captain is dealing with it,” I answered.

“You can be sure, but I’m not,” she waved me off. “Where are they going to board?”

Well, if that wasn’t rude, I don’t know the definition of the word.

“Most likely going to be in the primary cargo bay. I’m assuming that their captain will come over and speak with our captain.” Before I could thank her for her help again, and ask her if there was anything I might be able to help her with, she looked at me with narrowed, appraising eyes.

“I’m gonna go. You coming?”

I reached out for her, but stopped short of touching her as she glared at me. “I don’t think that would be the greatest of ideas. This is a meeting between ship leaders.”

Over her shoulder, I could see the ship coming up next to us. Within moments, the docking tubes had extended and we were connected to one another.

“I’m not going to interrupt the meeting, I just want to see who we’re dealing with,” she said as she watched our two ships connecting. “I’m going.”

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” I tried again.

She stopped, and snapped around, pointing at me. “I’m sick and tired of being held back on this ship,” she snarled. She stomped towards me and stuck that finger into my chest. “I know I can do things to help, but I never get the chance.” Her glare seemed to soften from pure anger and hatred to sheer determination. “I’m done being forgotten. I’m done being left behind. I’m doing what I want, and right now, I want to see who the hell just saved us from those Dominion bastards.”

With that, she spun around and stalked away.

I knew my job was to stop her and take her somewhere safe, just in case, but, if I had to be honest, that fire?

Sexy as all hell.

I shook my head in wonder as I started to follow her. The problem was, she wasn’t just filled with passion, she was angry, as well.

That kind of anger, if not dealt with, would lead to something not smart, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be around when that ‘not smart’ thing happened.

Then again, I wasn’t sure I that I didn’t want to be around to stop her from doing something stupid.

Maybe the fumes were mildly toxic to Shein as well. Or maybe it was just her presence that scrambled my brain.

When it came down to it, she did have a point.

I was just a little curious myself as to who’d saved us, so I followed her to the cargo bay.

She was standing in the open, in one of the doorways, watching as our new friends—at least, I hoped they were friends—made their way down the docking tunnel.

I tapped her on the shoulder. “Hi,” I whispered.

She rolled her eyes slightly. “Guess you’re interested, too, huh?” she whispered back.

I nodded, not a bit ashamed. “We should probably get out of sight, though,” I said quietly, motioning towards some nearby crates.

She huffed. “Really? Are you going to tell me that I ‘need to be safe,’ too?” It was apparent that she wasn’t happy with my suggestion.

So, I decided to try a different tactic. “No,” I said with a shake of my head. “I’m just being cautious. If this turns into a fight, we’ll already be behind cover. But if you want to be out in the open where they can see you and shoot you, be my guest.” I turned and took a few steps away. I stopped and looked back. “Then again, what if these guys are looking for you ladies and they do worse to humans than the Dominion does?” I walked behind a stack of crates and leaned myself against them, grateful that they were heavy and didn’t move when I did so.

As the door to the cargo bay opened, I could see Xyla struggling with her indecision, then, in what I assumed to be angry resignation, she blew out a large breath of air and joined me behind the crates.

Our new friends were something I had never seen before. They were slim, athletic looking people with green-black skin that looked to be absurdly smooth.

They walked with effortless grace, looking as though they simply floated across the floor. I had to look at their legs to make sure they were moving, that’s how smoothly they flowed.

Captain Dejar, Aavat, and Kovor were waiting. As our new friends approached, Dejar stepped forward and extended a hand in the universal greeting. The apparent leader, I assumed it was male, stepped forward and returned the greeting, reaching forward and grasping Dejar’s forearm as Dejar grasped his.

“Welcome aboard the Rogue Star,” Dejar said. “I thank you for your assistance against the Dominion. It is highly appreciated.”

“We are happy to have been of assistance, Captain,” the beautiful man answered, his voice almost musical. “My name is Phezn. We,” he started, waving his arm to include his small entourage, which consisted of two males and two females, both of which were difficult to keep my eyes off of. “We are the Gaed. We are not of the Dominion, nor are we friends of the Dominion.”

“Well, as you could see, neither are we,” Dejar said.

“Yes. However, you must understand, while we are not friends of the Dominion, we are also not enemies. We have a polite agreement to leave one another alone,” Phezn explained.

“I see. Then, if you don’t mind my asking, why did you come to our rescue?”

Phezn tilted his head a bit, as if he was a bit amused by the question. “As I said, we are not friends with the Dominion. You had folded to the edge of our system, then drifted in. They were in our system without permission, so we escorted them away.”

Dejar nodded.

It didn’t make sense to me, though. There had to be more reason behind it. If they weren’t friends, but also weren’t enemies, then wouldn’t the smart thing for the Gaed to do be simply turn us over in order to keep their relationship ambivalent?

“Well, I thank you again,” Dejar said. “Now, you said something about wanting to speak.”

“Correct.”

“Okay, what about?”

Phezn looked back at his people, and at their nod, he turned back to Dejar. “We wish to offer you, your crew, and your ship a safe haven in which to stay away from the Dominion.”

I was blown away, and I guessed that Xyla was, as well, as she had let out a small gasp. One of the Gaed looked in our direction, a small smile on her face, before turning her attention back to Dejar and Phezn.

“Well, I am obviously very grateful for your offer,” Dejar said as he turned to Aavat and Kovor. They looked almost as surprised as I was. “But, and I don’t mean to be rude in any manner, I must ask why you would offer this to us.”

Phezn nodded in understanding. “I understand your hesitation. After your infiltration of the Dominion facility and the subsequent broadcast of their secret actions, our leaders felt that you and your people were worth helping if you ever needed it.”

“Thank you,” Dejar said, flabbergasted. “But, won’t this put you in bad graces in your somewhat neutral relationship?”

“It is possible,” Phezn said flatly. “But it is a decision we agreed was worth the risk. Currently, the Dominion cannot risk attacking us, not with their newfound troubles from all around and within, all thanks to what you and your crew have done.”

Before Dejar could say anything, Aavat stepped forward. “This is a tremendous offer; can we speak about it among ourselves for just a moment?”

“Why would you hesitate?” Phezn asked, turning his attention away from Dejar.

Aavat shrugged. “Think about it. We thought the Dominion could be trusted and we were betrayed. We thought a few others could be trusted, and they were involved in all that, as well. I think we’ve earned the right to hesitate a few moments.”

“You make a compelling argument. Very well,” Phezn said with a graceful nod. He then turned around and went back to his group as Dejar, Aavat, and Kovor talked.

It wasn’t that long a conversation, and I could imagine it consisted mostly of the captains just trying to weigh the risks of staying versus trying to run.

Dejar turned back to Phezn, meeting him once again in the middle of the cargo bay. “We accept your gracious offer,” Dejar said, his hand extended.

Phezn accepted the extended hand with a smile. “It is an honor to begin a friendship with all of you.”

Xyla looked up at me, her eyes wide, but not in wonder.

That was more anger.

Scro.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I love old movies – To Catch a Thief, Notorious, All About Eve — and anything with Katherine Hepburn in it. Clever, elegant people doing clever, elegant things.

I’m a hopeless romantic.

And I love science fiction and the promise of space.

So it makes perfect sense to me to try to merge all of those loves into a new science fiction world, where dashing heroes and lovely ladies have adventures, get into trouble, and find their true love in the stars!

Copyright © 2019 by Elin Wyn

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.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Contents

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda

Qal

Manda: Epilogue

Letter from Elin & Ava

Rogue’s Tale: Sneak Peek

Xyla

Gallus

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About the Author

Copyright