Starchildren Options

[Kane]

Two stories at once is a lot for me, so these updates may not be as frequent. I also did not plan on this but a certain young woman in my head refused to be quiet.

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Prologue (May 7th, 2330)
Ebbside, Neon City, Volii Alpha


Andromeda awoke with a start. Somebody was pounding frantically on the door to her sleep crate and had ruined a perfectly deep slumber after a long day of work and even longer night of partying to celebrate her birthday. There was no way in hell it was daylight already which meant she probably left her slate at Euphorika. Again.

The bleary-eyed young woman fumbled in the dark for her glasses while the pounding on her door continued. If whomever it was out there kept it up much longer, she felt like her head would start pounding, too. Having finally fished her glasses off of the cold floor Andromeda slid them on and then clicked her bedside lamp to life. Most of her clothes were strewn about the floor of her metal box, which also explained why she was now so cold.

Two minutes or so later, she was half-dressed, and her nearly decrepit Solstice was clutched tightly in her left hand. Please don’t fizzle out on me now old girl, she thought. Looking down at the worn laser pistol in her hand, she sighed and silently chided herself for never spending any credits on a decent gun. The little pistol had been thrown out for good reason, yet Andromeda had fished out of the garbage anyway and fixed it up in the most half-assed way possible. Each time she squeezed the trigger was just another gamble on whether or not the damned thing would even fire.

This time she prayed to gods she didn’t give a [censored] about that it wouldn’t let her down. And then she finally opened the door.

Andre burst into her sleep crate and slammed the door shut behind him.

“It’s about goddamn time you answered! What the hell took you so long, Dro?”

Andromeda blinked in surprise at the urgency in his voice. She’d known Andre for over six months now, and the man was usually as cool as a cucumber. Even when he drunkenly tried to flirt with her. Andre had taken a courier job for HopeTech on Valo and was reassigned here to Neon City, much to his initial dismay, but they had grown close in the time since. The man was of average height with dark skin and kind brown eyes that sometimes hid behind a mop of unkempt blue hair.

“Slow down, Andre,” she said. “What’s the big deal?”

“No time to slow down. The ‘big deal’ is that your [censored], Dro. Absolutely [censored].”

“Wha -”

“Gather up what you care about the most and stuff it in your bag. Security thugs are closing in already �" I set up a prox alert for when they get within twenty meters.” Andre saw her bag sitting on the floor near the door, grabbed it, and handed it to Andromeda. “Pack! Now!”

“Andre, I am not going to move another goddamn muscle until you tell me what the [censored] is going on!”

“[censored]. Fine. Start packing and I’ll explain while you go.” He waited until a few things had been shoved unceremoniously in her bag before continuing: “Those Ryujin files you hacked yesterday for your anonymous buyer? They were tagged for Bayu’s personal records. Dunno how he tracked you down so quick but if you wanna live to see your twenty-sixth birthday then we need to get you the hell out of this city.”

Her blood froze. Benjamin Bayu. The Administrator of Neon City and possibly the most corrupt man in the settled systems. His fingers crept into every business venture on the planet and the security force was at his beck and call. No one did business in Neon without giving him a cut, and his ruthlessness against would-be competitors was legendary. Everyone who lived in Neon lived comfortably by skirting his brutality.

If she was on his radar at long last, then she had definitely taken the wrong job, pile of credits notwithstanding. Being a Cyber Runner in Neon always ran the risk that Andromeda would one day cross paths with that monster, but she had always been careful about her choice of contracts in the hope of avoiding Bayu. Her luck had finally run out and yet she still was uncertain about leaving the only home she ever knew.

“I can’t just up and leave!” stammered Andromeda, freezing midway through emptying the contents of her wall safe. “My whole life is here! It’s all I’ve ever known!”

“Doesn’t matter. Bayu will have you killed just to make an example - “ Andre ceased talking abruptly at the sound of rapid beeping emanating from his slate. His face took on an unhealthy pallor and he nervously ran his hand through his hair. “Time to go. They got there sooner than I expected.” Andre pulled another slate out of his jacket pocket and gave it to Andromeda. “Here, take this and give it to Doc Manning at the clinic. He’ll give you a short makeover to fool security at the spaceport.”

“Andre, I...” Andromeda was at a loss for words. The sudden shock of what was happening and the thought of fleeing her life �" Neon, Andre, the friends and people she’d grown up around �" was too much. Hot tears fell down her pale cheeks and splashed on the floor of her crate. She raised a hand to brush them away, and then shoulder her bag. “This isn’t over,” she finally said with a firmer resolve than what she felt inside. “Bayu isn’t chasing me out of my [censored] home forever. I’ll come back for all of you, I promise.” Andromeda stood on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on Andre’s cheek. “I promise.”

“We’ll do what we can to clear your name. You need to go. Now. They’ll be here any second. I can keep them occupied for a few minutes but they’ll tell me to get lost before long. Go!”

Andromeda pulled her hood up to hide her vibrant fuchsia hair and fled into the night without another word. The garbled chatter of Neon Security radios echoed up from the alleyway to her right, so she moved silently away from them and ducked into a dark alcove that was still within view of her crate. It was hard to much of anything, but she recognized the dim form of Andre now standing back outside of her door and soon heard him pounding on it once again.

“Yo! Open up, Jen!” Andre’s voice rang out. “Open up!”

Flashlights illuminated and three security goons stood at the ready, their guns trained on her friend. Andre’s hands flew skyward while the nearest guard began to pat him down.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” demanded another guard.

“Damn, take it easy, bud,” said Andre. “My friend lives here and she’s gonna be late for her shift at Generdyne again. Just trying to get her ass on the move!”

“Jen, huh? Yeah, sure pal.” The guard shoved him aside and addressed one of his partners. “What do you got, Reg?”

“Andre Mitarn, known associate of one Andromeda Renault. Courier for HopeTech.”

“Did ya hear that you lying piece of [censored]?” laughed the first guard. “Jen my ass. Where’s the girl?”

“If I knew where Jen was I wouldn’t be here, officer.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever, punk. Reg, you know the drill �" get him out of here.”

Andre lowered his hands to leave while Andromeda released a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. Her friend turned to walk away but Andre only made it a few paces before two sharp cracks rang out through Ebbside. He fell to the ground in a pool of blood while Andromeda watched in silent horror. She shoved her hand in her mouth in a desperate bid to stop herself from crying out.

“Dump that sack of [censored] over the side. The chasmbass will get rid of the evidence for us.”

Two of the security goons forced open the door to her sleep crate and disappeared inside while the third dragged off Andre’s lifeless body and heaved it over the railing and into the churning waters far below. Andromeda slipped away unseen and headed silently for the Neon Core, wiping away the tears as she went. The nearest door to Bayu Plaza wasn’t far, and within five minutes she had stepped through it and darkened her glasses against the garish light that gave Neon City its name.

Every type of store and service imaginable spanned the length of the Core, brilliant neon signs and lights shining down upon everyone who walked the expansive length from Ryujin Tower to the Trade Tower. Even late at night (or early in the morning, as it was now), the walkways were teeming with citizens, tourists, guards, scumbags, and dregs.

Andromeda’s destination was Reliant Medical and thankfully it was only a short distance away. Doc Manning seemed to never sleep and with her life crumbling around her, Andromeda was grateful to see him sitting at his counter.

“Ah, there you are, Dro! Andre warned me you were coming �" c’mon around back and we’ll get you fixed up.” He paused at the signs of grief that had stricken her normally carefree face. “What’s happened? Wait… where is Andre?”

It took everything Andromeda had to not scream in frustration and anger. She settled for kicking helplessly at the front of his counter which only resulted in a stab of pan shooting through her foot. “They [censored] killed him, Joe! Bayu’s security goons iced him without a second thought and threw him over the rails of Ebbside!”

“Bastards,” sighed the Doc. “I keep hoping this city will change some day but I don’t think I’ll ever live to see it. Despite younguns like you fighting back, Bayu’s grip never seems to relent. All the more reason to get you out of here, I guess.” Doc Manning waved her towards the back again and dismounted from his stool. “Go on, I just have to lock up real quick.”

The back room had a small biological modification chair that the doc had somehow procured from one of the Enhance! stores that were peppered throughout the local galaxy. It must have cost a small fortune, but she once again found herself thanking gods she didn’t care about for its existence in the back of the clinic. Doc Manning followed her in a few seconds later and instructed her to take a seat in the chair.

“Okay, so Andre...” Joe trailed off and made a gesture that Andromeda had never seen before. His hand moved across his face in the shape of a ‘T’.

“What was that for?” she asked him.

“The cross? It’s from an old-Earth religion that most have forgotten about. I’ll explain some other time. Anyway… so Andre most have been tipped off pretty early and with a good bit of info. Bayu has your name, financial history, work records, and physiological profile; but not your DNA records. We lucked out there. A few cosmetic changes will get you past the spaceport sniffers.”

“Joe, I can’t pay for any of this,” said Andromeda. “All my accounts are probably seized and I have less than two-hundred credits in my bag.”

“You don’t owe me anything, Dro. You’ve already done so much for the hard working people of this city that your friends are lining up behind me to get you safely out of this place.”

Andromeda sniffled and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue from the box Doc Manning held up to her. She knew it would be a long time until she saw those friends again, and the thought of that hurt more than anything else. Then she laid back in the chair and closed her eyes while the doctor powered up the alteration arms. She knew it would take thirty seconds to a minute for the machine to fully boot, so Andromeda pressed her friend on what would happen next.

“I have another slate from Andre,” he said. “It will transfer enough credits to get you on an outbound freighter, and provide a new identity. But the tricky part will be getting you to the port with perfect timing. We need to have you at the gates just as the ship’s thrusters begin to burn, so that the guards will hopefully rush you through without looking to closely at your records.”

There was lot that could go wrong with that. However, she trusted her friends implicitly and so she closed her eyes again and let the doctor go to work. The procedure was relatively painless, but she did flinch from the occasional needle or sharp prod. Some calibrations to the machine were in order when she returned. If I can return, she thought. Benjamin Bayu had a long memory, and she doubted he would forget about her anytime soon.

Ten minutes elapsed before Doc Manning leaned back on his stool and powered down the alteration arms. He grabbed a mirror from a side table and handed it to Andromeda. The same brown eyes stared back at her, but Joe had completely changed her hairstyle and its color: the long ponytail she had entered the clinic with was gone, and only a small knot was tied up in the back. Instead of fuchsia, her locks were now dyed an incredible opalescent prism of stunning colors, and the strands on the right side of her face fell down past her cheeks while being tucked back tightly on the left side.

She noticed the bare skin of her neck and left cheek and inhaled sharply. “Did you get rid of my tattoos?! Those were really personal to me, Doc!”
“Relax, I just covered them up with some foundation. Keep your hood up a the spaceport or the rain will wash it away and give up the goose. They’ll stick out like a sore thumb. Oh, and leave your piercings here. Those are easily replaceable.”

Andromeda frowned but did as advised. She popped the studs out of her ears and nose, removed the loop from her septum, and slid the barbell out from her nose bridge. Doc Manning collected them all in a small steel pan and then dropped them into a medical waste bin. Andromeda slid out of the modification chair and gave him a hug.

“Thanks for everything, Doc. I’ll be back to repay you some day.”

“I already told you your credit is good, Dro. Just promise me you’ll be careful out there.”

“I’ll try. But you should know better than most that the trouble usually finds me first.”

“That I do!” laughed Doc Manning. “Damn, almost forgot �" lose the glasses, too. I have some lenses for you instead.”

She removed her glasses and chucked them in the bin with her piercings. The good doctor handed her a set of icy blue colored contact lenses and after a couple minutes of struggling, she managed to pop them in to obscure her natural eye color. Another hug for the Doc Manning. Then he tapped a slate to hers and ushered Andromeda out the back door of Reliant Medical. Syndal, her best friend from university and one-time lover waited somberly in the trash ridden alley running behind the shops.

“Time to go, doll,” said her diminutive cohort. “Ship leaves in six minutes.” Syndal was tiny even compared to the slight 1.6 meters Andromeda rose to. The top of her head just barely made it to Andromeda’s nose. She put a hand on the back of Andromeda’s head and pulled her down to a reasonable level, kissing her very briefly on the lips. “For luck,” she explained to Andromeda’s quizzical stare. “Don’t think we’re ever getting back together or anything.”

“Fair enough,” said Andromeda. “Are we taking the main elevator down?”

“Have to. It’s all you have time for. “Let’s go, and try to keep up. Security is swarming the Core for you.”

Andromeda nodded and followed along in Syndal’s speedy wake. It was easy to unobtrusively hang a few steps back and still keep tabs on the impressive length of platinum hair falling past her friend’s hips. It swayed to and fro in the constant gentle breeze flowing through Neon City. The draft was one of many effects of living on massive platform built high above the roiling seas of a water world. A world that Andromeda had never left. Or had ever planned to leave. Those idle thoughts helped keep her features neutral when they stepped back onto the main thoroughfare and snaked their way towards the spaceport elevator.

Neon Security had fallen for the gambit. None of them paid her any mind, despite having her former appearance projected on the inside of their helmet visors. Syndal led her right past squad after squad of the corrupt officers until they reached their destination.

“You’re on your own from here,” said Syndal. “Take the lift down to the port and make a show of rushing, but don’t outright sprint. Play the part of the late departee who is trying to make their flight. The guards down there are a different detachment than the Core goons and generally skew towards being less of an asshole than the ones chasing you up here.”

“Okay, I’ll try. Never was much of an actor but I can do this. I have to do this.”

Syndal slapped her on the ass. “Quit stalling. You’ve got less than two minutes.”

“Right. Bye, Syn. And thank you.”

The elevator doors opened and Andromeda rode the lift down to the docking port. Two guards flanked the it at the bottom but the alterations Doc Manning made to her appearance seemed to have fooled their scanners. She showed them her slate and they told her to get moving else she miss the freighter. Settling for a speedy trot, Andromeda sighed gratefully and flitted down the long catwalk spanning over the ocean below, squeezing her hood tightly to her face. The warm, wind-driven rain splattered against her while she half ran to the ship waiting for its final passenger.

It was an ancient Deimos model that took up most of the landing pad. Bright lights illuminated faded letters above the ramp: The Gryphon. A crew member ushered Andromeda inside with little patience and directed her to a jump seat in the main cabin. Unsure of how the seat worked, her fingers trembled while she tried to strap herself in.

“First time in space, dearie?” A middle-aged woman next to her smiled gently at Andromeda.

“Yeah. I’m scared shitless if I’m being honest.”

“There’s nothing to it.” The kind woman reached over and showed her which buckles went where, and pointed out the safety pouch under the cushion. “Mouth guards in there if you’re worried about biting your tongue off. Once we take off, just keep your mouth closed and you won’t need them.”

Andromeda thanked her, and the woman went back to humming an off-tune key. Voices rang out over the loudspeaker and warning signs began to light up all around them. The entire ship rattled and shook, and the message on the flight console on the wall across from her changed from ‘docked’ to ‘achieving thrust’. Seconds later the engines roared into life and the sudden g’s from massive acceleration pressed Andromeda back into her seat. Unable to move so much as a finger, she closed her eyes and whimpered slightly as the ship gained altitude.

And then the pressure was gone. She opened her eyes and the porthole in the ceiling above revealed the deep black of space, dotted with innumerable points of light blinking back at her from incomprehensible distances. For the second time in as many minutes, her breath had been taken away for very different reasons.

She had done it. She had escaped Neon City and the closing grasp of Benjaim Bayu.

The tears came again anyway. Her life as she knew it was over and she had no idea where things went from here. She didn’t even know where this ship was bound. She was alone among the stars. And then the engines powered down while the grav drive engaged, folded space around the ship, and leapt from the Volii System in a blazing show of cosmic light and energy, carrying Andromeda far way from danger with a dumbfounded expression on her face..

This post has been edited by Kane: Jun 20 2025, 12:59 PM

[Kane]

The empath trait plays a helpful role ingame with dialogue choices, too. I often choose them when presented.

Andromed not missing a beat was a game changer for Andreja, as we will soon see!

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Eighteen – Sunset Over Eridani II

The Verity of Fate

“You are not a ‘weirdo’, Annie,” said Andreja. “Actually, there are times when you say strange things, but that is only because I am unfamiliar with most forms of slang, or the colloquialisms of the people living in the Settled Systems. That however does not mean you should demean yourself so.”

“Hey, I’m just telling it like it is. How many others do you are walking around with inhuman DNA and blasting energy out of their fingertips?”

Her attitude towards what happened had seemingly changed overnight and it began to worry Andreja. This apparent nonchalance came out of left field and it was a huge departure from the angst ridden version of Andromeda that she lived with for the better part of two weeks. Andreja wasn’t sure she cared for it.

“I feel as though you should be taking this more seriously,” she said.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Annie -”

“Let it go, Andreja. I need to deal with this my own way or I’m going to break down again.” She took a bite from her burger and then set it down with a sigh.

“I have ruined the mood, have I not? And we were having such a nice time talking. I am sorry, Andromeda.”

“No, it’s fine,” Andromeda muttered. “I know you’re just trying to help, and that means more to me than you probably realize.” Her thoughts strayed to the buggy scanner, and her warm bed. “I’m gonna go tuck in for the night. Turns out traversing an icy moon saps your energy pretty quickly. Let’s stay parked here for a while and we can get underway tomorrow, yeah?”

“Very well,” said Andreja. “I will be in the workshop if you need me. My weapon needs cleaned.”

Andromeda nodded and had a foot out of the door before she doubled back and grabbed the broached wine bottle still sitting on the table. She disregarded her friends rueful head shake but swore she saw a smile touching Andreja’s lips while she too left the table. The Verity wasn’t that big, which meant trying to hunch over a small table in her small quarters made for an awkward time attempting to repair a customized handscanner. The noise of Andreja servicing and testing her strange rifle across the ship didn’t help matters either.

She’d been at it for nearly an hour, scratching her head more than once while trying to trace out the problem with limited tools. Finally, she touched the lead of her multi-meter to a wire terminal nestled under the main circuit board and was rewarded with an intermittent beeping sound. There was a short in that wire. Andromeda flipped the meter dial to measure resistance, and the ohms displayed were indeed lower than the adjacent terminal. She danced a little jig in her chair, plucked out the culprit, and soldered a new connection in place. Moments later the scanner lay on her table, reassembled and ready for testing.

A flick of her finger over the power button and the device booted instantly with a bright and crisp readout on the screen. No more glitchy UI, and no more static crackling out of the speakers.

“Hah!” exclaimed Andromeda. “Mine now, you bastard.”

She set it down and rubbed at her eyes as the exhaustion kicked up a notch. Her bed called, but she had one last thing to do. Grabbing the etching pen out of her toolbox, she drew a picture of her own next to the odd creature Andreja had scratched in: the Plushie Starpal she slept with as a kid, and had left in the safe of her sleep crate. Its happy little smile set between four eyes on a diamond-shaped body with six tentacles wiggling out of its sides looked adorable next to whatever the horned beast Andreja had drawn was.

“Perfect.”

* * *

Tropical Forest, Eridani II, Eridani System

The planetary scan information populated the terminal screen and Andromeda scrolled through it with grin that grew more pronounced the more she read. No suits were needed on this world: a perfectly breathable atmosphere, pleasant weather, safe water, and a staggering diversity of life. She looked out the window of the cockpit at the tropical trees swaying in the breeze. They had landed near the coast of a vast ocean, right on the terminus between forest and sandy beach.

“Pinch me, Dre. It’s too good to be true. Has to be.”

“Dre? Since when is that a thing?”

“Dunno, just feels right. Especially since you refuse to call me ‘Dro’, like everyone else does.”

“I am not sure about that nickname, Annie. Although I do understand your reasoning. Let me think on it?”

Andromeda shrugged. “Still probably gonna call you that anyway.” She gestured towards the planet beyond. “Shall we?”

“Of course. Allow me to check the power levels on my scanner first. It will need to be fully charged, as I will be the only one scanning.”

At this teasing jab, Andromeda remembered her own repaired scanner and went to grab it from the table next to her bunk. She also decided to remove her sweater and undersuit in favor of a tank top and pants to help acclimate to the sub-tropical weathers of the biome they needed to scan first. Dressed and ready to go, she sat back down in the cockpit and powered up her own device with a sly glance at Andreja.

“Where did you get a functioning scanner?” asked Andreja.

Andromeda held it up so her companion could see the back of it. “It’s yours, Dre. I fixed it and put my own mark on it. I know you asked me to throw it away, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. This was a part of your past – a past which you just shared something important about – and now it’s a part of me. Like my own personal slice of Andreja, ya know?”

Andreja rolled her eyes with a grin. “You still continue to surprise me, Annie. It is hard for me to express how that makes me feel. I suppose I would say it is very… hmm...”

“Romantic?” Andromeda offered hopefully.

“How did that phrase you used when we first met go?” she smiled coyly. “Mum is the word?”

“Oh, shut up,” laughed Andromeda. She punched Andreja’s shoulder playfully and then stood back up. “C’mon, we’ve got a planet to explore. Beautiful one at that.”

Geared up and ready to go, they descended the landing bay ramp and breathed in the salty air of the sea. Then the wind briefly changed direction and bathed them in a heady floral fragrance from the wide range of plant life tucked in among the palms of the forest at their backs. The system’s namesake star burned brightly overhead indicating it to be nearly noon already.

“Let us head into the trees and being scanning,” said Andreja. “We can sight see later.”

“Can’t we go lay on the beach first?”

“We can do that later, Annie. I promise.”

“Ugh. Fine. Let’s go scan some [censored].” Andromeda pointed her scanner at the wood line and whistled. “Damn, that is a lot of diversity. Should we divide and conquer? I’ll take the fauna, you take the flora?”

“That is fine with me,” said Andreja. “Any particular reason you chose the critters?”

“Mhm. Apparently my empath skills let me connect with them. Back when I was in New Atlantis, I took a walk outside the city and one of the wild animals came right up to me and sat down like we were best friends. Whatever is roaming this planet probably won’t be hostile to me.”

“Fascinating!” exclaimed Andreja. “I admit, I am envious of you for that ability. I have always had an affinity for the innocent wildlife. They often times are so… cute.”

“Knew you were a big softy. Seriously though, let’s get a move on. My ass wants to be parked on that beach by sundown.”

They fanned out and made their way beneath the canopy of trees, cataloging as much data as possible with their portable scanning devices. Every flower, every shrub, every spore Andreja found was documented in detail for Constellation’s ever expanding database while Andromeda did just the same with Eridani II’s vast array of fauna.

Spiny grubs with rock hard chitin shells scurried underfoot like oversized trilobites. Gravity defying creatures akin to jellyfish floated up and down in the air despite not having any obvious method of flight. And large predatory leafstrider’s darted through the undergrowth, the strange plates adorning their skulls resembling the broad leaves of a deciduous tree. There seemed to be no shortage of plant or animal life, and the two of them walked many kilometers while they scanned, lost in the beauty of the tropical forest. And lost in sparkling conversation.

The sun began to set when Andromeda groaned in overly-dramatic dismay.

“Goddamn it! We’ll never make it back in time!”

“I assumed this would happen,” said Andreja. “This is not my first planetary survey. I have a tent and enough rations for the night in my backpack.”

“… How big is the tent?”

A pregnant pause; and then: “Big enough.”

“You’re being cagey, Dre.”

“Fine,” she sighed. “It is a tent for one. We will be very snug if we are to sleep comfortably.”

Andromeda looked away and pointed her scanner at a huge beetle to keep Andreja from witnessing the satisfied grin plastered over her face. The level of intimacy they would share overnight had her heartbeat all aflutter. She couldn’t have dreamed up a more ideal scenario, and she wondered if Andreja had planned it all along. No reason she couldn’t have told Andromeda to pack her own tent.

“I can just make out a large stone arch through the trees, about a half a kilometer northeast,” said Andreja. “We can make camp there, and if it is sturdy enough, we can scale the arch to enjoy the view. I owe you a sunset, and I intend to deliver it.”

That statement made Andromeda do a double-take, and she instinctively honed in on Andreja with her empathic powers. Her smile grew even wider at what she found: Andreja had butterflies of her own dancing about her stomach, though she was much more practiced at disguising her emotions than Andromeda could ever hope to be. It seemed like a very special night was on the horizon.

I [censored] knew she liked me.

“Come on, Annie,” said Andreja, breaking her train of thought. “We must hurry so that we have time to set everything up.”

“Right behind you!”

Andreja led the way forward occasionally drawing a razor sharp tanto from her belt to clear the odd tree branch or prickly vine tendril from their path. The sun continued to drop at worrying pace while the two of them plodded slowly along, stepping over fallen branches, stones, and the occasional giant bug. True to her word, the fauna typically left them alone after staring in their direction and sensing a kindred soul in Andromeda. Roughly half a kilometer later, just as Andreja predicted, they ceased marching beneath a worn stone arch that rose slightly above the treeline at its peak. One side of the natural formation looked wide enough for them to scale, and the apex had plenty of room for them to sit side-by-side on.

“Here we are,” said Andreja. “Please clear away the dead leaves and twigs so that we may build a fire, Annie. I will find a suitable spot for the tent.”

“Light a fire? Can’t we just use a heat lamp?”

“Camping ought to be done the same way our ancestors taught us. Once we are set up, I will hunt for our supper.”

“Um. What?” Andromeda stared hard at her. “Absolutely [censored] not, Dre. We have plenty of rations – there is no reason for you to harm one of these beasts. Set the tent up and I’ll warm us up something to eat after I build the fire. End of discussion.”

There was a curious expression on Andreja’s face at being shut down in such a bold manner that suggested it wasn’t an experience she often dealt with. If ever. Andromeda started to feel she may have been too contentious on the matter until she saw a flash of approval in Andreja’s eyes. And the subtle bite of her bottom lip.

“Very well, Ms. Renault. I will have the tent erected in short order.”

“Good,” winked Andromeda. “Glad we got that sorted.”

Andreja began unpacking the aforementioned tent while Andromeda stooped over and started picking up the forest loam strewn about the slightly sandy soil. There was a lot of it, and a few minutes into constructing quite the pile of debris at the edge of their campsite, she realized it would take her some time before enough had been cleared away to safely light a fire. Her nostrils flared in annoyance, and then she had a minor revelation. Shuffling around until her back faced Andreja, she raised her hand, focused on a less powerful expulsion of force, and blasted the ground free of the remaining unwanted fuel sources.

“Hah. That worked a treat.”

“Nobody likes a show off,” said Andreja.

“Work smart, not hard.”

Less than ten minutes later a fire crackled merrily amid a ring of stones, and a small tent that confused Andromeda stood just off to the side.

“Yeah, I don’t see how we both are fitting in that thing” she observed. “Unless it’s a magic tent that’s bigger on the inside.”

“It will be snug, but something tells me you will not mind.”

“Guilty as charged,” blushed Andromeda. “Are you hungry? We can, I dunno, skewer this synthameat on a twig or something.”

“We can eat later. The sun will soon be setting and we still have to climb atop the arch.”

She took the lead again and began to deftly scale the wind-blasted stone with a grace born of an expert climber. Andreja stopped only one or two times to seek out the next place to grab with her hands, or to find purchase with her foot. Andromeda watched open-mouthed from the ground knowing full well that if she even remotely attempted such a feat she would fall flat on her back. She thought of her boost pack hanging next to their spacesuits on the Verity and wished she’d have worn it anyway. And before she knew it; Andreja had reached the top and waved her on.

“No [censored] way can I do that, Dre! Where’d you learn to climb like that!?”

“We always had something to climb when I was a child,” shrugged Andreja. “Give me a moment,” she added. Unhooking a length of sturdy rope from her belt, she tied a loop around a large outcropping of the archway and let the rest fall to the ground. “Can you manage that?”

Andromeda grabbed the swinging rope and held it in her hand.

“Um. Hell if I know. Guess I have to try.”

And try she did: more successfully than she expected, too. It took Andromeda less than three minutes to shimmy up the rope, hand over hand, until she met Andreja’s who helped pull her up with a grunt.

“You are heavier than you look,” she panted.

“Gee, thanks,” said Andromeda. “Just what every girl wants to hear.”

“Er, sorry. I did not mean to imply that -”

“I’m just teasing you, Andreja.” She took a moment to gaze around in wonder. They stood just above the treeline with an unimpeded view in every direction. Even the massive engines of their ship were slightly discernible in the far distance. Taking a seat with her feet dangling over the edge, Andromeda patted the spot next to her. “Sit with me. Looks like the sun is about to set.”

Andreja gladly obliged, and joined her friend in basking under the vivid orange glow blazing through the clear blue skies of Eridani II. Lower and lower the sun descended towards the western horizon casting a brilliant and indescribable beauty over the swaying treetops of the tropical forest. They sat in relative silence, enjoying the view in each other’s company while nightfall encroached from behind. In the onset of gloom, Andromeda’s hand once again found Andreja’s, though for a wholly different reason.

“I am glad you are here with me, Annie.” Andreja’s head tiled to the side and her eyes twinkled.

Andromeda did not pass up the invitation. “There is nowhere else in the universe I’d rather be.”

She leaned in close with her heartbeat thumping so loudly in her chest she thought for sure Andreja would hear it through her shirt. Their lips met, and reality melted away for the time being.