Excerpt

PILOT

CHAPTER ONE

Shanell opened the hatch of the Zodie and dropped her backpack in her small cabin. The starship smelled like home, although it was way too small to become a permanent residence, but it served her just fine.

She headed for the narrow cockpit and took off her pilot jacket before sitting on the single chair that slid under the dashboard. It felt almost like a flying car, except it could take her to the stars. Her manicured hands started the pre-flight procedures as she waited for permission to take off from Vilas Lok's main spaceport.

The Zodie was an Onyx Shielded Tamete shaped like a flying car but bigger and able to travel through space with an FTL drive. The OST-310 had average sensors, fuel supply and passenger space, below average weapons and cargo space but it was one of the fastest ships available, with shields above average.

Made for a crew of one to three people, it allowed her the freedom of interstellar travel, carrying passengers. She had applied for a transport license as soon as she had bought it and she'd been taxiing people around the Milky Way since.

The Zodie was too small to live onboard and she often wondered how two or three people handled it. Maybe they only transported cargo and used the passenger space to rest and took turns at the narrow cockpit.

She had bought the starship used from a retiring pilot on her home planet, Sylvania, as soon as she had finished the Academy three years earlier. Her mother had contributed as a gift for completing her studies and she was now a proud starship owner.

One of her sisters had teased her saying she'd become an interstellar taxi driver, since on the planets self-driving cars and public means of transportation took people around, but nobody trusted an AI to pilot an interstellar starship.

She had shrugged off the comment. Better being an independent pilot than working for a fleet like Man Mannick, like her childhood friend Melodie – also a pilot – did. In three years she hadn't become rich, but she could get by.

She earned enough to keep traveling and had met dozens of people from different planets, mostly Humanoids, that had enriched her views of the Star Nations. She avoided Reptilian passengers because she thought they were a really stinking race, but Felines and Carians were fine.

She knew how to navigate the main interstellar routes among the Star Nations and how to approach the various planets. She had even improved the navigational computer that was known to have errors.

She had stopped on Vilas Lok to refuel on her way to pick up her former roommate Aya who was traveling on the Galactic Showboat. Might be her first non-paid trip, but she was so relieved to have recovered the Zodie after a theft, that she'd been very happy to leave Serenaide on another assignment.

She wondered how Aya had managed to get invited to the exclusive cruise ship, but then remembered that her family name alone opened many doors. Aya might be the last surviving member of the House of Shermac, a great-granddaughter of the last Sire emperor. Even though most of the Sire were gone, they had governed the galaxy for so long most Humanoids were still in awe of them.

Shanell herself had been awed when she had found out who her Academy roommate was. But Aya was so unassuming and so humble, Shanell had quickly forgotten where she came from. Until Marc'harid had been destroyed.

Then Aya had started wearing eye-liner and dressed only in combat boots, pants and tank tops. Not that Shanell had ever seen any skirt on Aya while at the Academy. But any trace of femininity seemed to have vanished from her and she put all her energy into physical training.

Shanell had switched sparring partner after the catastrophe. Aya had become so vicious in her training sessions, she usually sparred with their teachers, lest she hurt another student. Before they were mismatched, since Aya was petite and willowy while Shanell was tall and slim, but afterward it became impossible to match Aya's speed and strength – except for teachers.

Aya was still her roommate, though. Shanell had watched the Sire brood and refuse to have even the most innocent fun in the Sylvanian clubs. And then their time at the Academy was over and they had their lives in front of them. Aya didn't seem to know what she wanted yet.

Shanell had taken her roommate to meet a Sire elder, then found out Aya had ended up on Ulba'wis to continue her training. As if she still needed to learn anything! Aya was the best fighter of the Academy – the galaxy, much like she herself was the best pilot – she should join the Galaxy Police, like her cousin.

Except Aya, much like Shanell, didn't like uniforms.

Unlike most of her peers, Shanell had started coloring her hair very early to differentiate herself from her sisters and cousins. A true daughter of Sylvania, she'd been born from sperm made from her mother's bone marrow, a sort of clone of Katarina like her sisters.

Hence in her teens she'd started with non-permanent colors. Blue, purple, even rainbow the year it became fashionable – when she was fifteen. Then she'd joined the Academy and had left her dark natural color alone except for permanent highlights, currently of mahogany red.

As she prepared to take off, Shanell wondered what Aya was up to. If she was having fun on the Galactic Showboat and what kind of entertainment the wealthy of the galaxy had access to. She couldn't even imagine – but then, she was just an average Sylvanian in spite of her corsets and hair dyes.

The cargo space was full of fuel and food for a long trip. She finished running her checks and nodded to herself. She was ready to take off. Again she checked the itinerary of the Galactic Showboat and where she could meet the megaship. She punched in the course and relaxed a little as the auto-pilot took her through space and time across the stars under her careful supervision.