Illiya - Taylor Neeran Chronicles #1

Chapter 2 - Outward Bound

A.D. 3485

Weeks earlier

"Watch where you're drifting," said the captain as she pushed Taylor's feet away from her chair.

"Sorry, Susan." Taylor spun in a slow midair cartwheel, then grabbed a ceiling hand grip to arrest her movement. She stretched out her left arm and pushed her body 'downward' until her feet floated half a metre above the floor. A waist-length ponytail drifted behind her in a rippling waterfall, forming chestnut-brown pools around her shoulders in the slight air currents. She brushed a strand of hair away from her face. "Is that better?"

"Yes, thanks. Most of the controls are locked down, but you still need to be careful."

"Sorry."

"It's okay. I've been meaning to ask you - how do you feel about coming along on this survey? You've been pretty quiet, but you must be happy about getting those extra credits."

"I don't want to sound ungrateful, but it feels like you're bribing me to spend time with you."

Susan rubbed her forehead and looked at Taylor. "I negotiated those extra credits with the dean of the applied sciences department on Ganymede. He agreed that you would gain a lot from direct field experience, and he thought it was a great opportunity for you. He's prepared to let you complete your degree a whole semester early based on this trip, as long as you write a paper on it. Just one paper! How many students in your class will get the opportunity to explore a new planet for the first time?"

"Not many. You must have made quite an impression on the dean, being the great space explorer you are."

"Don't be cheeky. We had a good conversation, but those credits weren't meant as a bribe, nor are they a gift. You'll earn them through hands-on experience. It will be hard work."

"I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty."

"That's good. I'm sure you'll enjoy the experience, and we can spend a lot of time together during the survey."

"You know you can't suddenly make up for lost years."

"I know, but at least we can try to get to know each other better. You've grown up so fast."

"It might look that way from your perspective, but that's because you weren't around much. I got used to you not being there for me."

"That hurts."

"So does being abandoned." Taylor rubbed at the red spot on the bridge of her nose and dragged several strands of hair over her face.

Susan sighed and studied Taylor's profile in silence. A wayward breeze lifted the hair away from Taylor's olive-skinned face, revealing a small mole on her left cheek.

Tall and slim like her mother, Taylor's face had traces of her father's angular features, which made Susan's breath catch in her throat. She blinked her pale blue eyes and took a deep breath. "Taylor, we've been in transit for four days now and we've hardly talked."

"Four days is nothing. We can go for months without talking."

"It's a lot of time when we're together. You weren't like this when I was visiting you back on Earth."

"That was different. We've got two whole months. That's plenty of time."

"I thought you wanted to come on this trip."

"I-" Taylor frowned. "I did. I do."

"Well, Taylor Alice Neeran, you don't seem certain about that. It's too late to turn around, but you could always go into cryo until we got back to Ganymede if you've changed your mind about this trip. We don't need an unwilling passenger on this survey, and technically we aren't supposed to have passengers at all, but I pulled a few strings."