was unnecessary. They were traveling between star systems, covering such an expansive area of open space that she could have left the pilot’s controls unattended for over a week and still not feared running into something. Still, it was time away from people, and she was coming to cherish her quiet time more and more.
As Keryn walked past the common room and entered the narrow hallway, a pair of doors split off to either side. To her right, Keryn looked into the medical bay. Sterilized instruments and state of the art treatment supplies lined the mirrored metallic shelves around the room. The room’s soft light left Keryn feeling relaxed as, she was sure, was the desired effect of the quiet room. The single bed in the center, however, was not unoccupied. Smiling gently to herself, Keryn stepped out of the doorway and let the door slide silently shut behind her. Of all of the crew, there were only two teammates who she swore would never tire of one another’s company. McLaughlin and Cerise, the Pilgrim and Avalon husband and wife, had grown withdrawn during the trip, choosing to spend the majority of their time searching out the private corners of the ship; at least searching out the minimal privacy that could exist with five other teammates on board.
Turning toward the left door which would lead to the crew quarters, Keryn smiled to herself. She had never been opposed to interspecies mating, but the sight of it had never been common place on her home world. Now, being exposed to it in such great quantities, she couldn’t help but try to suppress a childish glee at accidentally interrupting them time and time again.
The door opened to the crew quarters, exposing the brightly lit room. A series of bunk beds were stacked along the walls, with a number of wall lockers strewn intermittently between them. Most of the beds were unmade, a reflection on the relaxed attitude her team had toward their former military expectations. Within the Infantry or Fleet, beds were always made before first formation, often with folded creases along the edges so sharp that they appeared ironed in place. Keryn, however, treated her team differently. After dismissing their ranks in lieu of first names and the approval of civilian clothes, she also allowed everyone a level of home front comfort. Even on their lengthy, draining mission, it had helped to bolster the morale of her team.
Sitting on their individual bunks, Penchant and Adam had dismantled their rifles in order to clean the smaller internal components. Across Adam’s bed, dozens of small mechanisms were spread, each lying in a meticulously ordered series. Keryn had no doubt that, should he be required, Adam would be able to reassemble his weapon blindfolded. Adam noticed her at the doorway as he paused, rag in hand.
“Are we close?” Adam asked with a hopeful smile.
Keryn nodded. “A few more hours and we’ll be in the system. Thirty minutes after that we’ll be burning through Pteraxis’ atmosphere.”
Without looking down, Adam’s hands began picking up and reconnecting the pieces of his rifle. “Not that I haven’t enjoyed your company, but I’m ready to get off this ship.”
“You don’t have to convince me of that,” Keryn said with a laugh. Though there was a palpable nervousness in the air, she was amazed at their ability to seem so relaxed. None of the team seemed concerned that they were so close to their objective, which set Keryn’s mind quite a bit at ease.
Adam locked the last two parts of his rifle into place and pulled the bolt to the rear. He let it slide forward with a click before setting the completed weapon down on his bed. “I could use a break, if you have some time.”
“I could give you another flying lesson,” Keryn offered.
“Please do,” Penchant muttered from his bunk. “Adam has been complaining incessantly for the past few hours.”
Adam turned slowly and stared at the Lithid. “You know, I can never really tell when you’re joking.”
Penchant shrugged. “Neither can I.”
“Come on,” Keryn said, laughing again. “The cockpit awaits.”
Adam stood and walked toward the doorway. “Somehow, you make that sound dirty.”
For his humor, Keryn caught Adam in a surprisingly quick punch to his stomach. He coughed and doubled over, but continued following her into the hallway. Rombard and Keeling barely acknowledged the pair as they walked past and entered the cramped cockpit. Stepping to the side, Keryn let Adam slide past her and take his place in the pilot’s seat. Comparatively, Adam seemed greatly out of his element as the pilot. His muscular shoulders spilled over the sides of the chair and his thick fingers seemed nearly too large for the delicate controls. Still, his hands worked both quickly and efficiently as he ran through a series of checks. Adam had been learning quickly during their trip, spending an hour or more every day in the cockpit learning to fly. Though Keryn wasn’t eager to lose Adam as an infantryman, she couldn’t deny that Adam would make a good pilot if he was ever required. When he was satisfied that everything was working, Adam reached over to deactivate the autopilot.
“Are you going to let me fire a few rounds today?” he asked as he took manual control of the
“I haven’t yet,” she replied. “Why ruin a good thing now.”
Though the normal
“So where to?” Adam asked, obviously dejected over her rejection.
Keryn leaned forward, her lips hovering only a few inches away from his ear. She pointed out the front of the cockpit window toward a bright red star which glowed brighter than those around it. “That’s Pteraxis’ star. Just keep us on that heading. If you want, you can stay in the pilot’s seat all the way until we reach the system’s borders.”
“What else can we expect in the system? How many planets? Is there an asteroid belt?”
Keryn smiled at her eternal warrior. Reaching out, she pushed a series of buttons on the console. The screen in front of Adam shifted to show a representation of the star system ahead. The red sun glowed in the center of the picture, hanging bloated and swollen. Around it, only two planets rotated in their slightly erratic orbit.
“The system looks sickly,” Adam remarked. “I’m surprised it’s only got two planets.”
“You really don’t read the mission briefs, do you?” Keryn asked, surprised. She slid over and sat down in the co-pilot’s chair. “The sun is dying. Even swollen, it’s not putting off much more heat than the sun of Arcendor. The problem is that as the sun began to swell, it swallowed the closer planets. Apparently Pteraxis used to be a rather lush planet. But as it became the closest planet to the sun through attrition, the temperature on the planet heated up leaving a desert world. Give it a few more centuries and the planet won’t be inhabitable, if it’s even still there at all.”
“Oh boy,” Adam said flatly. “You really know how to sell a vacation spot, don’t you?”
“This isn’t a vacation for you?” Keryn teased. “You seem like the type that always carries a rifle when he goes on a trip.”
“Funny you should say that,” Adam replied, laughing at distant memories. “I usually do carry a weapon, but it always ends bad for me. I remember this one time Yen and I took a trip to Dunbar to meet an informant…”
Adam let the sentence die as he saw Keryn’s expression drop at the mention of Yen’s name.
“I’m sorry, Keryn. I didn’t mean…”
“Don’t worry about it,” Keryn interrupted.
Adam looked out the window, ensuring they were still on course. “Do you still miss him?”
Keryn shrugged. “A little bit. I haven’t really thought a lot about him recently.”
“That’s a little surprising. You two were damn near inseparable when we were on Farimas. They way you two were heading, I wouldn’t have felt off base if I had put money on the two of you having a surprise wedding just before we stepped through the airlock.”
“A wedding?” Keryn asked, surprised. “Me?”
“You two seemed pretty happy together,” Adam explained.
“We were,” Keryn said softly, her eyes slipping out of focus. Less than a second later, she shook her head and went back to running a diagnostic on the
