The massive circular anchor enclosed a piece of space that didn’t match the surroundings. It bulged out, darker than the space outside the anchor’s circumference. The anchor’s green glow visually assured me that we were on the correct approach. Wormholes appeared spherical, but going through one at the wrong angle wouldn’t do anything at all.
The anchors stabilized the wormholes and made micro-adjustments to ensure ships would be put on the correct course to traverse the path to the other side. They also controlled traffic flow. No one knew what would happen if two ships collided in a wormhole’s interior—or if it was even possible—but ships had collided at the entry and exit points, with devastating results.
I confirmed our course and the anchor put us in the holding pattern. Only two ships were ahead of us. A few minutes later, Lotkez entered the pattern directly behind Starlight. Torran’s ship wasn’t going to let us get too far out of sight, which I supposed was for the best if they were our ticket to Valovia.
Luna stalked into the room, her tail bristling. I’d left the door open for her. I didn’t know how she knew we were close to a wormhole, but she always did—and she didn’t like it. She jumped into my lap and burrowed against my stomach.
I ran a soothing hand down her back and whispered nonsense to her. Truth be told, I appreciated her company. Usually Eli and Kee would be on the bridge with me when we traversed a wormhole. It wasn’t dangerous, per se, but it carried more risk than open space.
The first ship ahead of us had just disappeared from Starlight’s sensors when I heard the intentional scuff of a boot on the deck. I turned to find Torran standing in the doorway. His face was set in harsh lines of tension.
I frowned at him. “What’s wrong?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he asked, “May I enter?”
I waved him in and pointed at the empty comm terminal. “You are welcome to use that station for the duration of our contract. The terminal is set to read-only and access is logged.”
Torran nodded and settled into the chair. He glanced at the screen, but he didn’t relax.
“How is Havil?” The medic hadn’t been back in his room when I’d checked on the rest of the crew.
“He’s recovered. He has returned to his bunk until dinner.” His tone did not invite further conversation.
Luna raised her head and chirruped at him. When he didn’t respond, she stood and stretched. She sent me a lingering wave of affection, then left my lap—unheard of, this close to a wormhole—and jumped onto the comm terminal.
When Torran tried to gently move her out of the way so he could use the terminal screen, she nipped his fingers with a low hiss. He glared at her and she glared right back, then she flopped over so even more of her body covered the screen.
That drew a rusty chuckle from him. “Acha torva,” he murmured. He sat back in his chair and she crawled into his lap.
I stealthily pulled up a Valovan dictionary and guessed at the spelling. You win. I smiled. Luna often won, even when you didn’t know you were in a battle. Earlier he’d called me udwist. The spelling was trickier, but he’d either called me stubborn or wizard. I kind of hoped it was the latter, but I figured it was the former.
If he was going to keep speaking Valovan, then I needed to look into a real-time translation module for my comm implant. It wouldn’t be a bad idea before we landed on Valovia anyway. I added it to my list of supplies to acquire on Bastion.
The second ship in front of us in the pattern disappeared into the wormhole. Three minutes later, the anchor gave Starlight the all-clear to approach. I double-checked the course settings and then locked in my approval. The autopilot would take us through. A traversal technically could be manually piloted, but this was one case where the autopilot was an improvement. A tiny misalignment could be the difference between success and failure.
The ship automatically sounded the wormhole warning. Usually traversals were relatively smooth, but occasionally they got rocky. In case the Valoffs didn’t understand the alarm, I hit the intercom. “Two minutes to wormhole traversal. Secure yourselves.”
Over our group comm, Kee, Anja, and Eli let me know that they were secure. Kee also assured me that she was keeping an eye on everything from her quarters.
I let out a deep breath. They might not be here with me, but they were still with me. I took my own advice and shrugged into the harness attached to my chair. The odds of needing it were incredibly small, but it didn’t hurt anything. Torran did the same, then he placed a protective hand on Luna, cradling her close.
I absolutely refused to find it endearing.
The wormhole loomed large on the main screen. The closer we got, the more distorted the view, as if space was compressed in concentric rings, tighter and tighter. I focused on the terminal in front of me. All systems were running well within spec.
Starlight’s engines ramped to full, and a minute later, we pierced the plane of the anchor.
The ship picked up a vibration that had nothing to do with the engines, and time seemed to stretch thin and compress at the same time. The light from the stars spun out into strands that danced around the ship. It was beautiful and nauseating.
Torran clutched Luna closer.
The ship juddered one last time and then we were through. A new set of stars greeted our exit from the wormhole. Starlight remained at full power as we moved out of the danger zone. Ships usually came out at the same point every time, but sometimes one went astray, and I didn’t relish a literal run-in with Lotkez.
I took slow steady breaths and let my heart rate settle. One down, two to go. Then we’d be on Bastion, and I’d get to see Lexi for the first time in nearly a year.
We were well out of the danger zone when Lotkez appeared on the sensors behind us. “Your ship made it through,” I told Torran.
He rolled his shoulders and some of the tension drained out of him. “Thank you.”
Luna jumped to the ground and gave me a plaintive look. I knew that look, even if she wasn’t sending me pictures of empty food bowls. I pointed at her. “No more food until dinner. We agreed, remember?”
She told me exactly what she thought of our agreement with a flick of her tail as she stalked from the room.
I laughed and sent her a wave of affection.
Torran shifted in his seat but showed no signs of leaving the bridge. That was fine, I needed to work on the duty roster, and I could do that as easily here as in my office.
And if my gaze drifted Torran’s way more often than it should, no one would blame me for keeping my enemy in sight.
Right?
I fed Luna, then pulled the lasagna from the oven and let it rest while I fixed a big salad to go with it. Greens grew quickly and could be stacked fairly close together on vertical shelves, so we often had salad with our meals.
Anja and Torran sat at the bar in cool silence. Anja had finally emerged from the bowels of the ship with a frighteningly long list of necessary repairs. Luckily, most of it was either low priority or easy, but there were a few things that needed to be addressed as soon as possible.