Wandering Steps Across a Starry Sky

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Wandering Steps Across a Starry Sky

By Shiva Winters

Copyright 2012 Shiva Winters

Smashwords Edition

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This book is licensed for personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with other people, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it please return to Smashwords to purchase your own copy. This book may not be copied, reproduced, or distributed without the express written permission of the Author. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the Author, and the dedication of the Smashwords staff.

~*~ A Warning to Readers ~*~

This book contains material that may not be suitable to younger readers or certain individuals. This book contains several adult themes, including foul language and depictions of a sexual nature. If you are below a certain age, are easily offended, or simply not a fan of such things than this book may not be for you. And this book is certainly not intended for younger readers. Thank you.

Chapter One: Wandering Steps Lead to a Twist

The Pyrius was certainly not the newest ship, she was no longer the fastest ship, she wasn't the biggest or the prettiest, but she was most certainly home for him and his small crew. There were a great many ships out there between the stars that were bigger, more glamorous, better protected, richer, but there were only a few that were faster. Nobuian corporation had been the first to bring a new class of deep space vehicles into being, and for nearly a hundred years they had been the best. Before they had mastered the tenets of faster than light travel, few ships made the endless eternal journey's between the far flung skies of distant worlds through the slim light between the stars. Most had been the massive and ludicrously expensive colony ships, fired out from the world that had given birth to humanity to crawl their way through the darkness carrying a cargo of humans locked in a dreamless sleep. For three centuries, this had been the only means of travel between far distant places and yet billions had still left their familiar homes for the chance at a different kind of life on a different and virtually unknown kind of world. There was perhaps no way for him to count how many of those vessels his great great grandparents and great grandparents had helped to build while trying to save up enough to buy passage on one of those vessels to give their children a chance at something 'better'. But it was certainly enough that a few decades after the 'revelation of hyperspace travel' had been revealed that his grandparents had just enough to buy a ship of their own as soon as one was available, one that wasn't already promised to the government or some corporation.

That was how his family had become one of the first and one of the oldest of the so called 'deep space clans', those families who had become the 'gypsies of the stars', seemingly destined to never set foot on a planet for longer than a few months at a time. For more than a century and a half his grandparents had wandered among the stars, some of the first to find and contact the descendants of those first colonists. They were some of the first to see the worlds where humanities' far flung vessels had come to the ends of their travels, and some of the first to lay the roots of the new interstellar community that began to form. Their travels carried them to many places and with many purposes as they raised scores of children inside their tiny ship and the home it had come to be. Some of those children followed their parents into space, some went on to start families on those far flung worlds, and some seemed lost to time and the dark of space. There had been vast profits to be made in those first days of a pioneering new frontier of interstellar commerce, and because of their ancestor's hard work, his grandparents had been able to provide their children with the means to follow their own dreams. By the time Timel had been a young man nearly ready to set his own course in life, separate from the life his parents had lead, there were hundreds of aunts, uncles, siblings, and cousins spread across the stars all claiming some inheritance to his grandparent's legacy. It was through them and that network of contacts and business associates that he was able to obtain his own ship and set his own course. One of the last vessels built by the Nobuian corporation before the shifting tides of distant economies had broken up that corporate empire, and that ship was easily one of the best of that legacy.

While their were ships that were bigger, more modern, better equipped, but it wasn't until the most recent decades that other ships began to appear that were as fast or faster. The Pyrius's speed was the key to her profitability, etching out a place in the marketplace for Timel and her small crew as they darted back and forth through the sky. Times had, of course, changed since his grandparents time when they had been some of the first who could move between the far flung colonies established during the previous age. But even though there had been days in his past when he had wished there had been more profitable uses of his time, he had in all honesty never aspired to great wealth and had never truly wanted more than his parents and grandparents. As long as there was enough food to fill his belly, enough profit to keep his ship flying, and a good enough reason to keep flying, what else could he really want? This had always been his view of things and while some might claim those goals were uninspired or aimed at a level just above mediocrity, Timel had never felt that way. He had always considered himself a realist and his goals almost certainly insured his continued happiness with the state of his life.

The other key to the Pyrius's profitability was discretion, his family name carried a lot of weight in a lot of circles, but his name carried even more weight in other far less known circles. There was any number of souls willing to pay a hefty sum for someone they could trust to keep their business out of the hand's and ear's of others. While it meant at times skirting the far side of the law, such jobs were a very good way to keep them in the black and provide the money for the upgrades that kept the Pyrius abreast with more modern vessels. And therefore profitable when faced with the ever changing market place and any number of upstarts trying to make a name for themselves within that business. Though that strategy at times took them into situation with an inherent level of danger not present with 'honest work', it was no more dangerous than being a lone ship caught in the middle regions of space, far from the patrolled routes and military bases most ships relied on for protection.

Captain.. A soft sweet voice whispered from behind him, interrupting his wandering thoughts. He turned to find Amelia lingering at the door to the bridge and he was once again struck by some of the less than subtle changes wrought in the most recent time frame of his quiet life. .. dinner's ready. She murmured with a pleased and pleasing smile.

Be right there. He murmured out of instinct and to cover his suddenly distracted thoughts, she smiled and slipped away with a waggle of her hips that was growing increasingly hard to ignore. While the Pyrius could easily support a crew of twenty without burdening her resources, Timel had never found much need for much beyond three crew members, himself, his expert pilot and navigator, and his engineer and all around handyman. The fact that that there had been four of them for fast approaching a decade had been of little concern all things considered, at least until recently. Amelia was the newest member of the crew and the person he had never expected to add to his small family.

It wasn't hard to remember that day since it had been one of the few that had taken him completely by surprise during the passing years. Solosian was one of those colony worlds that should perhaps never been started in the past age, a small world orbiting a weak brown dwarf star somewhere in the middle of the far flung borders of the Colonial Alliance. Its' soil was poor, its' position wasn't strategic, it had been not been blessed with a wealth of minerals, and its' original colonists had neither been all that smart or all that innovative. One of the many worlds colonized by religious sects seeking a 'Second Eden', it was a world at a constant struggle for survival. If the Pyrius hadn't needed to stop for repairs on some of their aging systems, it was perhaps the last world where Timel would have set down for any length of time. One night more out of a sense of desperate boredom than any great need, he had left the ship for one of the very few after hours establishments 'looking for work' of which he did not expect to find on such a backwater of a world. He had been returning to the ship after a long night of wasted effort and his pocket deprived of no few coins, passing through a cold miserable rainstorm. When he had found a small, wet, foul-smelling, bundle of rags curled up into the shadows of the Pyrius's entry walkway, one of the few place where the rain did not quite reach. What he had discovered turned out to be a girl of not more than 6 or 7 years old, homeless, abandoned, and caught outside in that foul weather by that cruel little world. For as much as some might call him a heartless profit-minded brigand for one reason or another, not even Timel could simply leave that girl to freeze to death on the doorstep of his ship.

Though he had never intended to do any more than take her inside, give her a chance to get clean and warm, and to give her a meal or two, those intentions were discarded not long after that. Her parents had died in one of the recent plagues to sweep the population of that world and through a people who did not believe in the 'evil' of modern medical technology, claiming it was the 'devil's influence on mankind'. And Amelia had been abandoned to a cold world nearly overrun by the lost children of the disease stricken planet, the colonial government wouldn't even accept her into one of it's few orphanages without 'proper documentation of the purity of her family line'. That back-ass-wards attitude more than anything had prompted the three of them to lift away from that doomed little world with the child still aboard. After that they had fully intended to go to the nearest civilized planet and give the girl a much better chance at a happy life, but by the time they reached that next world her bright cheerful addition to their sometimes sullen days had an effect. That next world was 'too religious', the world after that one was 'not progressive enough', that world 'too lawless'. Excuse after excuse was given for not leaving Amelia behind until finally some months later none of them even brought up the child services of the worlds that lay ahead of them.

For the decade that followed Amelia had spent her days, weeks, and months with them growing and learning and little by little taking up tasks to add into the smooth running of their ship. She helped on the bridge, in the engine room, the kitchen, the hydroponics bays, and at some point had become that indispensable presence they had never known they needed or wanted. She had smoothed away the dull-drums, taken up some of the burdens, and brought many reasons to smile into their day to day lives. It wasn't until recently that Timel had thought to question the status quot of her presence on his ship, but it had nothing to do with her work ethic and everything to do with her presence. Though he could by no means claim to be inexperienced in the delights of the fairer sex, there had never been a compelling reason for him to ever extend a few nights of fun into anything more permanent. While that girl was charming, this one was smart, that one was beautiful, or this one was adventurous, no single woman had ever possessed the right set of qualities in the right proportions to truly capture his undivided interest. But in the more recent days that had passed his nights had grown a touch more lonely, and he had become increasingly aware how very close to fitting that ethereal mold Amelia was becoming. It certainly did not help that she had slid into those brackets that fitted around 'consenting age' on most of the worlds in the colonial alliance, and had long since began to show those tempting feminine curves mostly absent from their lives. The three of them had all caught each other taking extra long looks at those deeply appealing lines, but none of them had yet ventured into that territory where they might cross the line between being Amelia's 'family' and something considerably more than family.

Despite the troubling direction of his thoughts he was greeted into that central cabin with the same warm and worn greetings as always, and he settled at the worn and welcome seat at the large wooden table that had served all of them for decades. The meal Amelia had prepared, as she most often did, was just arriving at the table as he settled in his familiar seat, and was greeted by his long time friends and co-workers. Valin was seated to his left, only too ready to reiterate his most recent complaint with the 'old wreck' that had faithfully served the four of them for so long. As soon as whatever part 'was on it's last leg' was replaced Valin would inevitably report something else had taken a recent decline. At one point very long ago, he might have panicked over Valin's bitter complaints and worry about some vital part failing at the worse possible time. However after twenty years in the older man's company he was only too aware that his ship's engineer was simply not happy if something wasn't vaguely wrong somewhere. Arkin on the other hand was perpetually cheerful as if only to balance out Valin's never-ending status as a curmudgeon. He, as always, sat two seats down on Timel's right along the length of the worn wooden table, the seat closest to him on the right was as always reserved for Amelia. Arkin was a half dozen years Timel's junior and like Valin and Timel both, he came from a family that rarely saw a reason to settle anywhere for very long. If one were to believe his stories in their entirety, Arkin had been an expert pilot from the tender age of six, and that there weren't many places in the colonies he hadn't already been and hadn't already had at least one adventure while he was there. The stories he had to tell ranged from plausible to ludicrous and there seemed to be an endless supply of them, seemingly never repeated for all that there was a constant stream of them. Whether or not they were merely the fictions created during many hours left idle simply watching hyperspace stream by or not, at very least they were a diversion from the everyday kind of norm.

Together the four of them had become an odd kind of family, but one they all depended on when faced with a universe where nothing was certain. Amelia for all the days of her youth were filled with tragedy had never voiced a word of complaint or whisper of any desire for anything else than what she had found that rainy night on the Pyrius's doorstep. Nor had Arkin or Valin, for all the tales of adventure or bitter complaints either might voice, neither seemed discontented with any of the mostly quiet years they had spent together. For himself even on those rare days when a cold bed and the sense of something missing chafed, he was content with his home and his ship. Though the four of them had at times wandered off into tales of fantasy and mystery as they talked about leaving behind the borders of what was known to venture off towards the great unknown of stars and planets not yet seen by humans, there had never been a serious discussion of such plans. Neither overly wealthy nor merely scrapping by, there had always been enough money for things they needed and some of the things they wanted, and typically enough work to fill their days. There was even a growing stash of credits that might one day let them retire or simply wander off the edges of the map.

Captain, I think it would be best if we stopped for about a day. Valin suggested as they settled back in their seats with contented bellies and half full glasses of a rather good brandy. Timel was deeply surprised by the suggestion since it wasn't at all like his engineer to have reason to make such a suggestion. Arkin detected some hyperspace drag slowing us down this morning. Valin told him nodding across the table to his counterpart, while Arkin nodded to Timel's questioning look. I've checked over everything and the only thing it could be is one of the aft shield arrays wiggling out of alignment. Only way to fix it is to stop and go outside to knock it back into place, but if we don't well we might get some bleed through that will scorch holes in cargo holds 5 and 6. This was indeed unwelcome news since some of their cargo was currently contained in those very same holds.

How long? He asked of them.

Well I checked, and the Signa 6 system is about 2 hours off our current course, we turn now and we'll be there by morning. Arkin informed him quickly.

And it would take me about half a day to get everything back to proper. Valin agreed.

Right, well, we are three days ahead of schedule, we can waste a bit of time before the recipient gets a little antsy. Arkin, make the turn, Valin let me know if you need an extra pair of hands come morning. Timel agreed after a bit of thought. Having decided that they could stretch their current supplies for a week or two longer they had skipped over a few less than reputable ports to gain a few days lead on their current job. But if they wasted more than two days their bellies might be rumbling and their recipient might be ready for a little violence at the other end of their trip.

I think not, Captain you might be, but I'd rather have the youngling out there helping me, at least she knows one end of the wrench from the other old man. Valin teased as he shifted up from his seat to give a tired stretch of his limbs while Arkin chuckled and carried his glass off towards the bridge. As the two men departed, Timel finished his own glass and took it and the remaining dishes around the counter to help Amelia finish washing the dishes.

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It was a rare day when she was the last one to wake up, much less not be the one to prepare breakfast for all of them, but Amelia doubted that whomever had relieved her of that duty would assault her with resentment and recriminations. Feeling just a little off for having forgotten to make sure her alarm had woken her up in time to ready the first meal of the day, her portion of the left-overs had been carefully put away and covered sometime before she arrived in the kitchen. After a quick rotation in the microwave she carried her tray forward through central corridor but found only Arkin on the bridge. Despite Valin's disparaging remarks about the Captain's ability to aid in the maintenance of the ship, Amelia knew that he was by no means inept where his vessel was concerned. And almost as if to prove those words to be true, both of them had suited up sometime before and were already outside working on realigning the hyperspace shield array while Arkin monitored both of them and provided them with feedback from the test data streaming across his screen. He looked up only long enough to smile at Amelia's arrival while she set her tray in an open spot near the secondary consoles and sat herself in the available seat to listen to the banter coming across the open com-line.

You'd better be keepin' an eye out, Arkin last thing we'd need is pirates to fly in while the shield array is switched off. Valin growled at one point.

Oh, I'm watching old man.. Arkin quipped back, chuckling at the scathing reprimand. .. watching a whole lot of nothing swirling around us. This whole system is nothing but rock and dust, nothing for pirates to live on, and too far away from the normal trade routes.

Oh, aye, as if pirates don't have a good reason to sneak off the beaten path. It was hard not to smile at Valin's angry cynicism and Arkin's calm optimism as the two of them played off each other like eclipsing binary stars.

And if you are so worried about what's behind you Valin, maybe you should focus on what's in front of you so we can be done with this. The Captain chuckled back at them, as always calm and focused.

While Amelia rarely felt the need for introspection when there were things to do most days, on that odd sort of day it was hard not to marvel at the course her life had taken. After her parents had died, taking the light of her world with them, she had thought the god who she had been raised up to believe in would find a way to take care of her. And that all those 'good people' accounted for among her parent's friends, neighbors, and family would have helped one scared and lonely child. Only to have them one by one push her aside, turn their backs, or tell her that she was 'in god's hands now'. No one had cared that she had no one and nothing, not the church, the doctor who had just watched her parents die, not the land-owner who quickly reclaimed her families' home, not the congregation who once claimed love and friendship, not even the government who was supposed to watch over the people. For months she had wandered the streets of the towns and cities, desperately seeking a warm bed and a meal not taken from a trash can, only to find an even colder world with each passing day. By the time she had reached the biggest city on that world she had almost completely given hope, only to have still more doors slammed in her face and the people on the streets step around her. She had ended up lingering at the fringes of the space port, that place where so many of the people who had abandoned her had warned her never to go since it was filled with thieves and brigands. In all truth and after having most of her life to see things differently, she knew that she had gone there to die, to silently ask for the worst thing to happen since her heart couldn't take any more pain. The irony that she had gone there to end her life only to find the kindness she had expected but not found, was not lost on her.

The Pyrius had become her home, her crew had become her family, and in that place she had found all the love, happiness and understanding she might have wanted, almost. There was one aspect of her life where something had felt lacking, companionship. While she knew from the interstellar network that most of the young women her age were concerned about love, relationships, and eventually marriage, home, and the children such things lead towards, for Amelia this wasn't the case. She of course had thoughts, day-dreams, and fantasies about such things, but those events were not often rooted into the reality, as she could never think of leaving the Pyrius. She had grown up there, the beloved child of three fathers who had lavished her with attention and given her everything she might have wanted. Even as a very young girl her parents had tried to teach her that marriage came first, sex followed, love came third, and children were all important. Perhaps because those same teachings were the rules of the community who had been so cruel to cast out a child, or simply because her body had different priorities than her heart, mind, and spirit, but lately there had been days when all she could think about was sex. For all that Captain and Valin seemed to regard her still as an innocent young girl, Arkin knew differently. By the time she had turned fifteen there hadn't been much she hadn't already learned through her late night searches of the network, and her body had been screaming for satisfaction she couldn't fully achieve by herself. Even though Arkin had always had a 'fatherly' regard for her, he was still at heart an outrageous flirt and overflowing with compliments, many of which had gained him reprimands from the Captain and Valin. He wasn't that much older than her, so when those growing needs had become too much, it was to him she had gone one night, begging for him to make love to her. But even though the temptation had been present in his eyes, he had turned her down, claiming this or that. However as soon as they arrived at a major port, he slipped her away one night and taken her to the red light district and a reputable house of ill-repute, there he helped her to select someone for her first time.

You are getting that look in your eyes again, little girl. Arkin teased, even as she felt herself blushing at that reminder, her brain screamed in horror as she snapped around towards the com-unit controls. Much to her relief he had turned off the transmitter before speaking.

It's just.. She half whispered to him.

I know. He agreed not needing the reminder of how long it had been since any of them had gotten the chance to 'relax'. The past four months had been ones where they were constantly in motion, never setting down on a planet for longer than it took to deliver their cargo, take on a new one, before they were lifting free once more. Ever since her first time, which had proven all too pleasing at the hands of an experienced partner who made the pain worth it, the times that followed that long night her body had begun to crave it. Arkin who had faced beatings or worse for helping her the way he had, remained the only one she could talk about it with, and he had made sure that she knew where to go on whatever world they had visited to ease that inner turmoil.

It doesn't help.. the way the Captain and Valin have been looking at me.. She whispered to him softly. Those two, of course, remained ignorant of the fact that she was no longer 'innocent', but neither had they been aware that all those long animalistic looks she had been given had not gone unnoticed. She had even caught Arkin taking a few long unsubtle looks at her, and she was fairly certain that he was merely better at hiding them then the others so there were probably more looks she had simply failed to catch. Arkin almost said something to her, but the still active com-line belched something to him and he held up a finger to forestall any further discussion as he checked his screens and gave a response before turning off the microphone once more.

Kiddo, maybe keeping you locked up in this tin can with just the three of us wasn't the best thing for you.. She opened her mouth to object, only to be shushed back into silence as he smiled at her. .. at least where some things are concerned. Most especially that it has deprived you of some of the interactions most young people your age take for granted. You might be itchin' something fierce right now, but I know for a fact you aren't the only one. You've got good reason to know I'm no innocent flower, but you've not seen the Captain or Valin sneaking in or out of the houses as I have, and they both talk to me about things they wouldn't want you to hear. Feeling just a little like she was on the verge of being let in on one of the great secrets of the universe she was deeply disappointed that Arkin's words were again interrupted. What I am ultimately trying to say is you just don't know how attractive you actually are. And even we who know you the best, can't help but notice a smoking hottie when she walks among us. These words honestly and completely took Amelia by surprise, she had of course spent enough time in the mirror to objectively decide she was by no means ugly, but she certainly thought herself to be by no means comparable to the great beauties of the age she had seen and heard about on the net.

Come on. Suddenly convinced that he was simply trying to give her self esteem a boost.

I'm serious Amelia, dead serious, you just can't see it past all the psychological crap that gets in the way.. but had we not known you most of your life, there isn't one of us who wouldn't kill for chance to get to know you. If I took you to any bar in the colonies, there wouldn't be a guy there who wouldn't climb over three other girls if you gave him the right look. He told her with the most sober expression she could remember him ever using. She was left with little choice but to stew on those words as he again needed to focus on the ongoing activity taking place outside. I shouldn't be telling you this.. but.. there hasn't been a week in the past 2 and a half years when I haven't regretted turning you down that night you came to my quarters. She felt herself blushing again at those words even as her inner frustration again made itself loud and clear. But.. no matter how hard we might try, back then or now.. there is nothing we could do to keep ourselves from acting differently towards each other. Because you share something like that with someone and it changes things no matter how much you try to hide it. And those two would be sure to notice and that is whole set of problems for me that none of us want. As much as I regret it, as much as I might want it, you are and they are still my family and I'd never want to betray them or you like that. But I'll make sure the Captain knows we all need some downtime come next port, okay?

Okay. It was hard not to agree to that with a smile. As much as her body might scream for something more, they both knew that he was completely right about his choice of words, he was her family and that was the only argument she needed. Feeling better about her inner frustration and relieved that she could perhaps just enjoy knowing that the looks she had been given might not last far into the future. Whispering her thanks to Arkin she took her dishes back to the kitchen to clean up there before she moved further back into the ship and entered that room that had always brought her the most comfort. Between modern air scrubbers, atmosphere generators, and protein/bio-chemical synthesizers, most ships had perhaps done away with hydroponics bays since machines could keep the air clean or assemble virtually any food molecule by molecule. Those things had eliminated the two main reasons to dedicate a large chunk of space and resources to growing plants and fresh vegetables when that space could easily be used to carry more cargo. But the Captain had often proclaimed himself a proud member of the 'old school' and wouldn't hear of getting rid of the hydroponics bay even during those few years when profits had been hard to come by. And Amelia had to admit she would have been sad to see that lush verdant space filled with green and scent of growing things disappear. Since not long after she had brought aboard, that place and the plants inside had been her responsibility and it had always been her most rewarding duty. Even Arkin who claimed to have 10 black fingers where plants were concerned, had to admit that fruits and vegetables grown fresh tasted better than anything put out by a machine. Valin grudgingly admitted that the hydroponics bay did all the work of machines at half the cost in terms of power, and that the air on the Pyrius smelled just a little bit sweeter than on other ships. For her it always felt like a minor miracle that it took so little to gain so much, a few chemicals in that tank, a few adjustment to another, trim away a little here and there, and they gained fresh air, food, and cleaner water as a result. The most difficult task was pollinating the fresh blossoms of each plant as they cycled through their seasonless life cycle. Some days it felt like that was all she managed to do, but once it was done it wasn't long before she began to see new vegetables starting to grow.

She was stalling just a little bit when she wandered back onto the bridge about an hour and a half after she had slipped away, and it was perhaps only too easy to admit to that since the next task on the to-do lists was laundry, and one of her least favorite jobs on the ship. But then again the last time Valin had been forced to do it he managed to turn a whole load of laundry pink, Arkin tended to shrink or shred at least two items when he was appointed to the task, and while the Captain did neither he was the Captain and therefore above such tasks. So she stalled, letting herself be deluded into thinking she was merely checking up on the ongoing repairs. She was a bit surprised when she reached the bridge and did not find 'business' as usual, rather she found Arkin in a full scale war with controls as he changed dozens of settings all over the place. It was several long minutes before he even noticed she was there.

Hey! Do me a favor?

Always. She agreed with a smile.

"They found the problem, fixed it, and are climbing back inside as we speak. Sit up here for me and watch for any