“Princess Corla of the Cygnian System,” I yell over the blaring alarms. “We’ve got a message for the AI ALCOR but the Akeelians are firing and we’ve taken a hit. We need to get through your gate. Now.”
“Please state the message,” the code-face says.
“No!” I yell. “You let us through and we’ll give you the message.”
“That won’t be possible.”
“Then you know what?” Jimmy says, leaning his face up to the screen. “You can just fuck off, OK? We’ve got an important message from the future Cygnian Queen, motherfucker! You hear me? And if you want to survive what’s coming, let us the fuck through! Now!”
“Shut the fuck up,” I say, pushing him back into his seat with a strong grip on his shoulder. “We’re taking fire,” I yell at the screen. “They’re gonna take us out and—”
“Incoming!” Luck yells. “Incoming!”
“Last chance,” I say to the screen. But really, I’m talking to us. This is it. We either get blown to bits in a matter of seconds or the universe saves us and we get through that gate.
There’s a massive burst of light. So bright, the black-out screens activate on the windows. But this ship is truly a piece of shit. And it’s not enough. Not nearly enough to block the light from the brightness of a SEAR cannon burst.
“I can’t see!” Draden screams. “I can’t see!”
“Don’t look at the windows,” Luck yells. “Don’t look!”
And then… everything goes dark and silent.
The gravity drive fails, the alarms stop, the digital face on the screen disappears. I float upwards but my hands still have a death grip on Jimmy’s and Valor’s seats.
“I’m flying!” Serpint says, clearly excited about the lack of gravity.
“I can’t see!” Draden whines. “I dropped my weapon and I’m floating!”
“You’ll be OK,” I call back to Draden. “Just hold on to something.”
I should’ve had them buckled in. What the fuck is wrong with me? Who put me in charge? I can’t even remember to put the damn kids in their safety harnesses.
Jimmy says, “What the fuck just happened?” in a voice that’s now way too loud.
“That,” Tray says, in his new, ever-calm tone, “was the Akeelians being turned to dust by the ALCOR defense system.”
“We did it!” Luck laughs. “We did it!”
“Incoming click message from the ALCOR gate,” Tray says. “Decoding now.”
We wait in the darkness for what seems like eternity. Breathing in and out. Knowing every breath could be our last because life support took a hit.
This ship is dead. We are nothing but floating flotsam in the deep darkness of space.
“OK,” Tray says. A shudder reverberates through the hull of the ship. “Light beam locked on. We’re heading through the gate. We should reach ALCOR Station in six hours.”
“Everyone hold their breath,” Valor says. “If you think that’s a joke, it’s not. We’ve got seven people breathing air right now and it’s not gonna be enough.”
Somewhere behind me Draden or Serpint makes a big production of sucking in a deep breath and holding it.
I turn myself around, floating and feeling my way down the aisle to the airlock. “Come on, kids, it’s time to put on suits.”
The tell-tale sound of harnesses unclipping fills the ship as everyone floats up from their stations.
Because when I said kids, I meant all of us.
Because that’s what we are.
Just a bunch of boys who got mixed up with the wrong runaway princess.
CHAPTER TWO
WAYWARD STATION
The first time I saw Princess Corla she was walking down the stairs of the Cygnian shuttle ship surrounded by an entourage of her six older sisters. She was dressed in a pink and silver ceremonial gown, denoting her as seventh daughter of the King and his future wife.
My father explained that to me on the walk over to the greeting hall.
“Wait,” I said, as we walked through the door of the hall. “She has to marry her father?”
“Keep your voice down,” he hissed back. “And smile, for fuck’s sake. You’re the son of the Wayward Station governor. Act like it.”
“I am acting like it. I’m asking pertinent questions so I don’t fuck up relations with the most aggressive system of people ever to live in this galaxy.”
“Watch your mouth, Crux.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Do as I say, not as I do. As usual.”
“They are a genetically engineered species, as you well know. That question is unnecessary. Seventh generation removed. Use your brain, son.”
I gave up at that point. Just looked at my feet, mostly. Ignoring the king and his daughter bride.
But that’s the day I decided I was leaving this place. I didn’t know how and I didn’t know when, I just knew in my heart that this future my father had mapped for me was bullshit and I wasn’t gonna waste my one life doing his bidding.
Little did I know…
Right now it’s the middle of the night and I’m in the governor’s dining room getting drunk with Jimmy, whose father is the ambassador to Cygnus. Jimmy’s pretty much my best friend by default because I have a very limited social circle here on the station. He’s the only one my exact age, at least.