Her dad didn’t know she’d grabbed this one yet.
Dasos was up here instead of hanging out inside the Hearth Hall, and Captain Druvvin was in his corner reading as well. Zoey waved to her brother and bowed to the captain before finding a seat.
“I see that you have been making good progress with your reading ability, Miss Thalassas,” said Captain Druvvin.
“Thank you, sir,” she said.
She opened the book, excited for once to get started. It was a series of tales and songs written by traveling musicians during the Ranemao Wars of Ginserei history. It opened with the final poem written by one of the musicians in the final days of the seventh war, when his beloved people met a terror like never before.
The second war had begun by the time the door opened again. This time it was her dad who walked in with a book in his hand. He stopped halfway across the room when he could see the book that Zoey had in her hands. Keft’aerak looked at the book he’d brought in, a smaller and simpler one by comparison, and then again at the one in his daughter’s hands.
“Well, OK then,” he said. “I guess I need to find you some higher-level books to read.”
Zoey giggled as the other men in the room chuckled. She said, “May I make a request for more history books?”
“You may. I have no idea how much more I’ll find available on this ship, though. What are we going to do with you when we get home, I wonder?”
“We’ll think of something, I’m sure.”
“Alright, I’ll go see what else is available for you to read. Oh right, and Dasos? Your mother has requested your presence tomorrow morning for their martial arts exercises. Apparently Bonny broke one of the training dummies.”
There was an audible groan coming from Captain Druvvin.
“OK,” said Dasos, “I’ll be there.”
[ 21]
As the days passed, Zoey remained occupied with learning bits about Hoshi-Lacartan history, becoming familiar with reading the letters used by its society, and practicing the basics of martial arts. Her dad found two more books for her to read, of which she read most of one before the final day of the trip. It disappointed Zoey to have missed out on the other book, but had found the converse to be true of her martial arts studies the day before that.
“Congratulations,” Bon’sinne said when two full days remained until they got home, “you have reached the first level on your first two styles.”
“Neat,” Zoey said. “Does this mean I get a new belt?”
“A new belt? That’s an interesting idea. This must be an Earth thing.”
“I guess. What do the other known worlds do to show advancement?”
“I’ve heard that the humans of Lutoume signify progress for students by adding colored bands to either sleeve. Ginserei and Aelfs generally skip out on such show, and test ourselves, or each other, when time calls for it. The Metouka, in general, don’t do martial arts.”
“The who?”
“You haven’t met them yet. It’s uncommon for them to leave their home, but a few are scattered about. They tend not to show advancement, in general, other than to live another day.”
“Damn, no different colored belts then.”
Dasos said, “I’m almost curious to see this belt thing.”
During the last few days of the journey Zoey and Commander Consilius made love a second time, if it could be called love at all, but it stopped after that. The more that Zoi’ne read her books and exercised, the more she gained control over her urges and feelings. Closer to the end of her time aboard the ship, Commander Consilius met Zoey in the Hearth Hall where she was having lunch.
“Good afternoon, Zoey. How are you this afternoon? We haven’t done anything in the last couple days.” he said.
She said, “No, I don’t suppose we have. And I’m fine.”
“How would you like to get together sometime before you go? Maybe I’ll treat you to some dinner in my quarters.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to make something more serious between us. Ask me again tomorrow and we’ll see.”
Zoi’ne paid a visit to the Medical Bay after that. She asked if there was anything wrong with her since she felt less inclined to have sex than she previously had been. They asked about how frequently she was having it, how many partners, and the type of birth control they had given her, before running a pair of tests.
Their conclusion was that Zoey was still healthy. In fact, her body chemistry was more balanced, and her mind was a fair deal stronger, than two weeks prior when she had first awaken aboard the Marslou. She was still able to feel arousal, but it wasn’t happening like it had in recent days.
She went on to share this with Tong-Chang that night when she visited Zoey’s room. It was more like she blurted it out, since she was excited to see her friend come to visit her in her room. Tong-Chang had been busy, everyone left in the crew had been since the Hulda’fi attack, but it seemed like she never wanted to visit.
“Who was the lucky man?” Tong-Chang asked. “Was it Commander Consilius?”
“Oh, will you stop?” Zoey said.
“Are you going to make me?”
Zoey tackled her friend onto the bed. The Ginserei screamed when it happened, but it wasn’t a terrified shriek so much as it was an alarm. Tong-Chang laughed and seized Zoey’s sides. Zoey huffed in amusement and leaned in closer, her eyes locked on her friend’s.
“You confuse me so much,” Zoey said.
“Do I really, though?” Tong-Chang said.
“You’re beautiful, and I want to love you without question. I want to be a serious part of your life as long as you’ll have me. You want time, I get that, but I don’t feel the same around anyone else. Not anymore.”
“Then tonight? Let’s love. Tomorrow, love some more, and do more when it comes, every day we can. I’m ready for us.”
“Really? Just like that?”
“What? I had time to think about it, and now I’m certain that thinking about it is the second most aggravating thing I’ve done, next to letting myself get in bed with the admiral and his wife. Now that I lie here, with you, all of that aggravation has been replaced with something else; something better.”
“What’s that?”
“A little something like this.” Tong-Chang flipped Zoey over and kissed her.
They kissed and caressed in one another’s arms. Zoey had felt good with Benedict, but with Tong-Chang she couldn’t be any more right. After that, Tong-Chang spent the remaining nights of the journey home with Zoey in her room where the bed could hold the two of them.
The final morning came an hour earlier than Zoey had been expecting. Her eyes remained heavy as she sat up and saw her girlfriend putting on her undershirt. The extra tug that Tong-Chang gave her shirt to fit it over her bosom made Zoey smile.
“Good morning,” Zoey said.
“Hey,” Tong-Chang said, “I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“I don’t think so. What time is it?”
“It’s five hundred hours. The ensigns are expected in the bridge in full uniform.” She slipped on her jacket.
“How come?”
“It’s our final grade for the class credit. The captain writes out reports alongside the heads of our respective departments. Stars beyond, I’m nervous. What if my time spent with the Fjorfolias comes to full light, and I’m stripped of what little rank I have, ending my time with the academy program?”
Zoey climbed out of bed and grabbed the pants hanging off the end of the mattress. Her underwear was on the floor, and her shirt was closer to the door. She proceeded to get dressed as Tong-Chang walked over to give her a peck on the lips.
“You don’t have to get up,” Tonny said.
“Nonsense. Let me see you over there. I’m sure your report will be glowing.”
“Glowing? I’m going to guess that’s a good thing.”
As they headed out the door, and Zoey grabbed her shirt to put it on, she gently scratc
hed behind Tong-Chang’s ear. The Ginserei gasped, but her hands didn’t quite reach her mouth. Her face read as one of surprise and pleasure, blending further into the latter, for the few seconds that Zoey massaged her head.
They took a while to walk to the bridge. Zoey and Tong-Chang entered through the central door. Zoey stood back as the Ginserei stood closer to the front of the room. Captain Druvvin turned to the doors for a brief moment to smile and nod at Zoey, and then back to the front of the ship with a view that peered into the stars.
It took a minute longer for the three remaining ensigns to line up next to one another. The commander called for a salute. Everyone in the room saluted towards the captain, who in turn saluted to the three ensigns. He stepped forward with three folders, his saluting hand falling upon them.
“It takes merit to stand where we do,” Captain Druvvin said. “I said this once before, six months ago, when these young faces before us joined our company. Elysium University is a pride of our alliance and a prestigious place for education; its academy program a great honor for anyone wishing to be part of the alliance. The true test is to be on the field. Aboard the golden standard of the fleet, this holds true above all.
“We have lost comrades, and they will never be forgotten, the parts they played in our lives. Every one of you who stands here today has served our crew as an equal, still learning and always ready to be better than the day you joined us. As you depart from our company I hope you take this with you into the completion of your diplomas and the start of your careers.”
He handed them each a folder. Each folder varied in how thick they were, and it appeared as though Tong-Chang’s was the biggest among them. Her eyes flashed wide. She stayed herself. Zoey tried to guess what was running through her mind.
Captain Druvvin reached for his seat and grabbed another folder, which was thinner than all of the others. The captain turned toward the back of the bridge and said, “Normally that would be all. However, this past month has been anything but normal. Once in a great while there comes a moment of great honor when someone makes an impression. Miss Thalassas, I am glad you could come.”
The captain lifted his free hand and beckoned to Zoi’ne approach him where he stood. Her heart suddenly beat so much faster as eyes around the room fell on her. She swallowed and moved down and forward until she stood within arm’s length of the captain.
He said, “In a time of crisis, you came to our aid against the rebels. You show potential that you have only begun to tap into, such as your initiative to learn about our writing and history. Our time together was short, but I am honored to bestow upon you this official recommendation to follow in the steps of these ensigns and, perhaps one day, work for our alliance.”
Zoey saw the captain handing her the folder. She grasped one corner of it, nodded to the captain, and said, “Thank you, sir.”
The crew present around the bridge clapped. It died down when Captain Druvvin raised his hand.
He said, “The four of you are dismissed. We will be due to reach Elysium IX in eight hours. Thank you for your service to our ship and its crew.”
* * *
Zoey and Tong-Chang ate light, sharing a bowl of fruit, before returning to Zoey’s guest quarters to snuggle for a couple hours or less. They had decided to eat breakfast proper with the rest of the Thalassas family that morning before everyone had to finish packing their things.
Of course, for Zoey, packing all of her things meant the box she still hadn’t looked through and three of her four outfits. Those remained folded and laid out on top of the desk in her room that she’d otherwise never used.
“Only three?” Tong-Chang asked as they cuddled upon the bed.
“Well, it’s not like I’m walking off this ship in the nude,” Zoey said. “And don’t go saying that Il’lyse would have.”
Giggling, Tong-Chang said, “I wasn’t going to, love.”
Zoey drifted unconscious for some of the time. The alarm in her window’s clock pulled her back into reality like a rabid beast dragging her senses across a jagged bunch of rocks. How was this more tiring than when she had woken up at five in the morning? She grabbed her folded clothes and put them in the box beneath the hoody before she grabbed the container and left the room one last time. She carried it to the suite where the scent of breakfast stormed her nose.
“Hi, guys,” she said. “It smells good in here.”
“Thank you, Zoi’ne,” Keft’aerak said from the kitchen area.
“Tonny is on the way. She had to go and grab the last few things from the cadet quarters and put it all back together in my room.”
“Your room?” Bon’sinne said. “So is she the one you’ve been spending your nights with?”
“Umm, yes?”
“That’s fine. You kids just be careful not to do anything too dangerous or irresponsible.”
“Strangely accepting of you. Thank you?”
“I’m not going to judge who you fall in love with for your first time.”
“I actually had relationships on Earth, not that I’m going to talk about them much at all. Oh, right, I accompanied Tonny to her thing this morning, on the bridge, and the captain gave me something.”
She set down the box finally and dug the folder out of the side of it. Zoey handed it to her mom, who took it with cautious curiosity. Bon’sinne opened the folder and read the document inside of it. Her eyes and mouth competed for how wide they could go for a moment before they lost the race instantly to her arms.
Zoey couldn’t have been more glad to have all of the the air squeezed out of her so suddenly.
“That man has gone mental,” Bon’sinne said, “but this is wonderful news. I have no idea how easily we’ll afford putting a third child through university, but this is good.”
Dasos said, “Way to go, sis.”
The door opened then, and Tong-Chang asked, “What smells so delicious?”
Breakfast was plentiful for five people, even if Zoey and Tong-Chang hadn’t had their fruit earlier. They had muffins and eggs with a side of diced potatoes. Everyone had a tale to tell around the table as they all listened and laughed. Keft’aerak basically won the conversation with a story about how he’d boarded a warship after he disabled the weapons and grabbed the most elaborate, frilly captain’s hat he could find; and how it took him an hour to convince the crew that he was the law authority rather than a rival pirate gang that was their better.
Yet more time passed. Belongings were packed. The room was tidied up, and Keft’aerak helped Zoey secure the top of her box of belongings so that nothing would float out of it. The family remained together as they trailed behind one another toward the dockside of the ship.
“We’ll be taking a shuttle down,” Bon’sinne said. “Most of the people leaving are taking the Matter Transference. I hope that’s OK for you.”
Zoey said, “No offense to anyone, but I think I’ll be avoiding any transmat for a while, considering how this whole thing began.”
“I suppose that’s fair.”
“I never did see the file on how I was found.”
“Maybe later, if you’re up for it. Tonny, dear, are you coming down with us, or are you teleporting down?”
Tong-Chang said, “I would appreciate the lift, thank you.” She waited for everyone’s attention to be turned away to whisper in Zoey’s ear. “Baby reasons.”
When the time came, voices filled the intercom again as crew members on the bridge called out their systems. They shifted velocity and direction, established something that they called an “orbital matrix,” and connected successfully to a craft in Dock Number Two.
The Thalassas family moved onto the shuttle from the ship’s exit and strapped into their seats. After the better part of two weeks that she could remember, this was the first time that Zoey had ever been on a space shuttle. It seemed like it should have been quite the downgrade, yet it wasn’t. It was like comparing a bowl of ice cream to playing in the snow for a couple hours.
She sat there in reduced gravity for a while as the pilots of the shuttle awaited their signal. Once the shuttle had detached, she felt even more weightless. Zoey was suddenly glad that her things were not flying around inside the shuttle, as the box remained secured at the top thanks to her dad’s foresight. The other luggage that was bound alongside the box was as safeguarded against the lack of gravity during the majority of the flight, and again from the forces that Zoey felt within seconds of the notification that they were entering the atmosphere.
Zoey expected it to get hot inside the shuttle as plumes of flame jetted past outside. It didn’t, however. The descent into the alien planet’s atmosphere took about thirty seconds before the shuttle decelerated, and then a few more minutes before it touched down on the ground.
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