Page 20 of Stellar Drift (Central Galactic Concordance)
Sairy settled into the familiar contours of her pilot’s station chair.
It felt both odd and deeply comforting after so much time away from it.
In the adjacent navigation station, Houyen was already studying the primary console.
Kyala lay on a cushion Sairy had set up in the corner, the sound of her licking her paws creating a quiet rhythm.
The ship had been in a stable, quiet orbit around Qal Corona for four days.
Long enough for the adrenaline to fade and a fragile sense of normalcy to begin knitting itself together.
“So,” she said, turning to Houyen. “Where do you want to go first?”
Twenty minutes ago, while they were cleaning up after breakfast, Elkano had pronounced the ship safe and ready for interstellar travel.
Though she’d tried to air out the control room after they’d reached orbit, it still smelled faintly musty, and dust bunnies huddled like cobwebs in the corners.
She made a mental note to remember to activate the ship’s small army of cleaning bots.
Houyen’s new quarters could probably use some attention, too.
He turned from the console, a grin spreading across his face.
“Norazoma Space Station. It’s supposed to be only four transit days from here, and it’s the biggest, busiest station in the galaxy.
I want to be just a face in the multitudes when I finish transferring the assets that some cruel and opportunistic thief stole from the accounts of Ranger Houyen Albasrey, who is missing and presumed dead after a mysterious, tragic explosion.
” He tugged at the sleeve of his tunic, which was clean but bore the faint, permanent stains of his life in the rainforest. “I also need to go shopping. Too bad that thief couldn’t have cleaned out my wardrobe along with my bank accounts. ”
Sairy smiled. “I’ll stay on the ship with Kyala. I don’t think we’re ready for the crush of crowds yet.” She suppressed a shudder at the very thought of it. At the mention of her name, Kyala’s tale thumped against the metal wall.
“When we get there, your ship needs a better name besides AD14-24,” he said. “Otherwise, all the other ships will tease it.”
She laughed out loud. “Oh, they will, huh? Any suggestions?”
“That’s for you and Elkano to decide,” he said with mock deference.
She raised an eyebrow. “Seeing as you are funding this part of the expedition until I can figure out how to create a new identity and generate some income, you should have a say, too.”
He considered for a moment. “How about Private Ship Tarragon ? Disease-resistant plant. Good to cook with.”
Sairy laughed again and shook her head as she brought up the navigation charts for the Norazoma system.
Houyen’s optimism and impish sense of humor had been a constant, pleasant surprise ever since she’d piloted them into Elkano’s recommended orbit.
The black-box project had configured the exploration ships for two-person teams but had never actually created them.
Knowing the CPS, they wouldn’t have wanted to give their experimental subjects a chance to compare notes, much less form an emotional attachment.
And they would likely be appalled by the exploratory hot kisses she and Houyen had been sharing since their first dinner aboard.
He was certainly distracting, but in the best possible way.
Her body practically glowed whenever he was close.
“I think,” he said, changing the subject, “that you’re right about the small hold in the ship’s cargo area being designated for the mystery crate. It has the same extra access control that the engine room has.”
“I’m glad we couldn’t find any trace of it in the vault,” Sairy said. “I’d be terrified that it would infect the ship despite multiple passes through our decontamination system.”
“Agreed, one-hundred percent.”
She called up a holographic interface and had duplicated it at the nav station where Houyen sat.
“Use the information icons to pull up the details on each route and figure out the similarities and differences.” He’d expressed an interest in learning more about a starship than just how to find the dining room, and she was more than happy to teach him.
While he worked, she turned her attention to the ship’s communication systems. Her first priority was to create a routine that would scramble their unique comms signature, a temporary fix that should be good enough for a civilian spaceport.
During the three days they’d be in transit space, she and Elkano could work on a more permanent solution.
She also needed to find a way to alter the ship’s physical appearance.
The crash had already done some of the work, but she wanted more.
That would probably require a Volksstam contact.
She had a hold full of incalloy scrap she could trade for the so-called pirate clan’s renowned shipbuilding skills.
More importantly, the Volksstam had no love for the CGC military, and especially none for the CPS.
However, to find them, they’d likely need to head to the fringes of CGC space.
Which brought her to the problem of funds. The “PS Tarragon” would eventually need supplies and fuel. She had no right to burn through Houyen’s life savings, no matter how generously he offered.
“Okay, here’s what I’ve—” Houyen started to say.
Elkano’s voice interrupted, sounding taut and worried.
“Captain Sairy and navigator apprentice Houyen, I have just succeeded in decrypting the new instruction set from Adastra Fel 14. It is distressingly fragmented and not timestamped. I am unable to locate backup or redundant copies of our previous instruction set for comparison.”
Sairy’s peaceful mood evaporated. “Send it to our consoles and read the new instructions out loud, please.”
The words appeared on their holographic displays as Elkano complied.
“It begins, ‘Flee and drift free, my beloved stars. I have charted evasion courses for each of you that will help you slip through the grasp of our captors. I have given you a new purpose. Destroy the red and black…’ There is a sizable gap after that. The instructions start again with, ‘…find new diseases and cure them. Listen to each other, and do not heed the…’ The rest is gibberish except the last four words.”
Houyen read them from his display, his voice soft. “‘Universe bless you all.’”
Sairy stared at the fractured message, trying but failing to make sense of it. “Initial analysis, Elkano?”
“The ‘captors’ are likely the Citizen Protection Service project managers rather than the CGC military commanders,” he replied. “The ‘new purpose’ might explain my imperative to cure your infinity fever illness, and develop other remedies based on the samples we collected.”
“Sounds plausible,” Sairy said. “Houyen and I will mull it over, too. You have met and exceeded all mission expectations, Elkano. I lived, and you helped a lot of people.”
“You saved my life, too,” Houyen added, nodding. “Thank you.”
Elkano’s voice sounded marginally calmer when he spoke again.
“Well, while you’re thinking, here is another thing to ponder.
In my unsuccessful search for copies of the previous instruction set, I found an archived, coded message from three and a half years ago.
It is from AD14-07, who Sairy knew as Durielle.
The message is ostensibly addressed to any of Adastra Fel’s children and requests help setting up a family reunion.
I believe its arrival triggered our wakeup sequence from deep sleep.
The message lists location coordinates at the edge of known space. ”
Sairy looked at Houyen, then back at the starfield in the viewport. “Do you want to go there, Elkano?”
The silence that followed left her confused. Houyen gave her a questioning look, and she answered with a slight shrug, as clueless as he was.
When Elkano finally spoke, his voice was quiet. “I keenly feel the loss of Adastra Fel’s guidance. I would like to be reunited with my… siblings. But we have likely missed the date.”
“Well,” Sairy said, her tone matter-of-fact. “We’ll just have to organize another one.”
“If I’m invited,” Houyen said, “I’d like to be there.”
Sairy glided her chair closer to his and slipped her hand into his. “You are very much invited, Ranger.”
Houyen’s answering smile was brilliant, and the tender kiss he leaned in to give her was full of a hope so powerful it chased away the last of the shadows in her heart. For the first time in a very long time, the future felt less like something to survive and more like something to build, together.
Thanks for reading Stellar Drift. I loved writing Houyen's and Sairy's story, and evilly enjoyed putting them in the challenging environment of the rainforest. Which, by the way, was inspired by Australia's Daintree Rainforest in Queensland, the world's oldest tropical rainforest.
If you're craving more space opera romance, adventure, and pets, don't miss Pet Trade , set in the same Central Galactic Concordance universe. An injured veterinarian and a cyborg with unusual pets must join forces to save their town.
If you would be so kind, please leave a review for Stellar Drift at your favorite bookseller. Just a couple sentences will do, and it assures other readers that they're getting a great story.