Destiny's Blood

Chapter 14

Josmere sighed in relief as she watched Destiny vanish into the tunnel, only a glittering distortion marking its existence. The stars danced in coats of blue beyond the length of the tunnel, distorted as the wave of tachyon particles stretched before them to create the fastest, most efficient and most dangerous route in the charted universe.

Once in a while, the shimmering length would tremble, and wild, bright colours would travel along it, spread in shapes all intermingling together, as though for one second a portion of the universe was a rainbow viewed through broken glass. That meant a ship was passing, so quickly that a blink of an eye would mean missing its initial splendour, to be left with its scintillating brilliance.

Some races believed that wielding the power of the tachyons was too dangerous, and humanity had paid the price with seizures that had claimed quite a few lives before shutters became obligatory.

But then again, few races aside from humans ever felt the need to leave their homes. Josmere remembered the history of her own people, passed down from aunt to sprout through the generations.

“Time to go.” Josmere ignited the shuttle. They had remained without power, waiting for Destiny to move out of range. It had been a bumpy ride when its engines pushed them forward but, thankfully, the safety belts were high quality. Unfortunately, Layela looked about as green as a Berganda now.

The shuttle’s view changed from the tunnel to regular space, and Josmere waited for the onboard computer to boot and give them an exact location. It wasn’t a new computer system, that was evident, but its star maps should be fairly up-to-date.

“Oh,” Josmere exclaimed as the maps showed their position.

Layela grunted questioningly, her forearm covering her eyes as she leaned back against the seat.

Serves her right for flashing me with that light! Josmere wisely kept the thought to herself.

“We’re still in Solarian space, although another hour in that tunnel and we would have been in free territory. But…” Josmere paused as she confirmed the nearest colony.

“We’re about equal distance between the Thalos and Griman systems.” She chanced a look at Layela, who still looked just as green, and wondered for the thousandth time what exactly had happened to Layela when she had been missing. Three days held prisoner, until Yoma found her and brought her home; the only time Yoma had ever lost control and killed.

Six months to heal her broken body, and apparently many more years to heal the damage that had been done to her soul. It had been on Thalos IV that Josmere had first met the twins. And when Layela had healed enough, Josmere had chosen to follow them and leave her family’s home.

Two years ago. A lifetime ago. Thalos would be easier. They already knew its cities and temperaments, but…

“I’ll head for Griman,” Josmere whispered as she punched in the command. Layela didn’t reply, still fighting the nausea.

The shuttle’s engines groaned after a minute, and red text flashed across the screen. Josmere frowned.

That can’t be right…A second later, the engines shut down, and Josmere groaned and leaned back against the seat.

“Don’t tell me,” Layela managed to say. “We’re out of fuel?”

“Battery and sun-power, actually,” Josmere replied, looking at the vastness of space before them. “Low battery, and too far from a star. That drunk must have been on his way to refill her when he decided to fill himself instead.”

Layela groaned.

“We’ve got enough oxygen, thankfully, but we’re going to lose the rest of our power at any…” On cue, the lights cut off, and the soft hum of computers ceased. All that sounded was the emergency beacon, activated automatically.