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]

Twenty One – Unexpected Guests

Plateau, Piazzi II, Piazzi System

The overwhelming feeling of dread set in quickly. Andromeda felt her heartbeat quicken intensely at the sight of the Temple and in that moment she wanted nothing more than to be as far away from it as humanly possible.

“NO!” she screamed. “No no no no no no!” She didn’t linger any longer at the rim of the mesa, and she spun on her heels and fast-walked back the way they came.

“Annie – wait!” called Andreja. She too turned away and scrambled to catch up with Andromeda. “Wait!”

She came up behind Andromeda and grabbed her shoulders to spin her around until they were face to face. The distress on Andromeda’s face and the tears coursing down her cheeks jolted Andreja into action. Seeing her lover in this manner pulled deeply at her loyalty, and offering comfort was the only thing that mattered to Andreja in that moment.

“Please, Annie. I am here. Just relax for me, yes? Please…”

“NO! That’s bullshit, Dre! I can’t – we can’t – no! I’m not staying here! I can’t do this again! I’m still [censored] up from the last one we found!” Her arms flailed about wildly in a bid to escape Andreja’s grip. “Let me go! LET ME GO!”

And then, all her resistance faltered as Andromeda fell to one knee, clutching desperately at her chest. Her heartbeat continued to increase rapidly and her chest began to constrict until she cried out in pain and slumped forward, rolling onto her side where her breath came in short, laborious bursts.

Andreja took her hands in her own and laid next to her, staring calmly into Andromeda’s fearful eyes.

“I am with you, Andromeda,” she promised. “You must breathe deeply, and it will pass. I know it will. You are strong beyond measure and you will overcome this, my dear. Just breathe. In and out. In… and out.”

Andreja’s eyes were captivating. Like a serene island nestled among a torrent of waves, they called gently to Andromeda who focused instead on their every detail. The little flecks of green so gaudy and bold standing out from the warm chestnut brown that had captivated Andromeda when they first met. They offered peace amid a moment of chaos and all she had to do was reach out.

And breathe…

In… out. Andromeda took a deep breath. Then she exhaled. In… out. In… out.

The pain began to subside. Her heart rate settled while she focused on her breathing. And Andreja’s eyes.

In… and out. In… and out.

“Yes,” encouraged Andreja. “Just like that.”

Andromeda continued breathing while she let her gaze focused solely on Andreja’s inviting eyes. All of the guarded caution that once radiated from them had been stripped away to leave a vulnerability none had ever seen until now. Until this moment, when all that concerned Andreja was the well-being of the charming woman who within a matter of weeks had torn away all the barriers she spent years erecting.

“In… and out.” Andreja placed a hand on Andromeda’s chest and checked her vitals, the data flashing across Andreja’s HUD.

“If you want to cop a feel, just go for it,” breathed Andromeda. “You never have to ask.”

“There is my girl,” smiled Andreja. “Keep breathing deeply, yes? And forget all about that damnable thing. We do not have to go anywhere near it, Annie.”

“Promise?”

“I promise. We will return to the ship and -”

A burst of static cut across their comms channel followed by a familiar voice.

“Hello? Is someone out there? Reply on this frequency if you can hear me. Our ship sensors detected an EMS transmission from a spacesuit’s onboard diagnostic. Please respond if you are in need of aid!”

Andromeda stared incredulously at Andreja. “Is that -”

“Sarah Morgan? Of that, I am sure.”

Before either of them could wrap there heads around that, Andreja called up the surface map from the Verity’s orbital scans and tried to get a fix on the signal’s origin. But that was Sarah doing out here? And was she alone? Those thoughts and a multitude of others raced through Andromeda’s mind until three short beeps sounded and her own HUD map zoomed in with a marker placed over a position seven kilometers due east.

Right at the Temple.

“They are exactly where we cannot go, Annie.”

Andromeda sighed knowingly. “The Temple?” At a quick nod from Andreja, she pulled herself up to a sitting position. “The hell is she doing out here? Do you think… No. They better not have…” She opened the channel: “Sarah, why the [censored] are you here? Did Vlad know what the [censored] was on this planet when he gave us the survey job?”

“Dro? Is that you? Is Andreja with you?”

“I am. Please answer the question, Sarah.”

“If he did, he certainly didn’t make me aware of it,” replied Sarah. “Far as I know, this was just the second anomalous reading The Eye picked up. Are you two okay? What caused the EMS alert?”

“Um. I uh…” Andromeda swallowed hard in embarrassment but was bailed out by Andreja.

“Just a malfunction,” said Andreja. “We both are perfectly well.”

There was a brief silence where Andromeda half expected to see smoke rising in the distance from Sarah’s mind furiously working out where she could go from here. Constellation’s leader no doubt wanted their help exploring the Temple and parsing its secrets – especially after all she’d heard about it last time – but she likely knew that it was still a sore subject for her one-time protege and that the only way Andromeda and Andreja would help is if it was of their own accord. Completely willingly. And Andromeda was unsure whether she could help even if she wanted to. She was only a moment or two removed from having a crippling panic attack over the Temple’s mere existence in proximity to her.

“I stand by what I said before, Annie,” said Andreja. “We do not have to go anywhere near it.”

No sooner than the words had left her mouth did Sarah come in over the mic again.

“Dro, can you switch to a different frequency? I’d like to speak to you in private.”

“Not a chance, Sarah,” said Andromeda. “Whatever you have to say to me you can say to Andreja, too.”

“Fine, then. Look, I know what happened to you was… unexpected.”

“Unexpec -” Andromeda began hotly.

“Just let me finish,” said Sarah. She waited a beat and continued when no protestation came. “I know it was overwhelming and I can’t pretend to understand how the experience made you feel. That having been said… I’m here with Barrett to investigate this structure. And you’re here with Andreja. The odds of that happening are incomprehensible without outside intervention – be it Vladimir or something else – and I, er, we, would be grateful if you could help us out. But only if you are comfortable in doing so, Andromeda. If you aren’t, then feel free to hop on your ship and blast out of here. I would never order you to come anywhere near this place. Not after the way it affected you last time. The choice is yours. And Andreja’s, of course.”

Had she not been wearing a helmet and spacesuit to keep prevent dying of asphyxiation or having intense solar radiation boil her skin off, Andromeda would have groaned and placed her head in her hands. But the large piece of equipment protecting her head left her with the groan as her only option to express her mounting frustration.

“Goddammit.” Andromeda tapped the side of her helmet and Andreja switched to their original channel with her. “Where does she get off being so compassionate and reasonable? Especially after the way she acted back home? How in the HELL does she manage to waltz down to this stupid planet and make a rousing speech that stirs something in me I didn’t know was there? UGH!”

“She had a lot of time to reflect on how your final conversation went, Annie. Perhaps Sarah is trying to meet you halfway, and make amends.”

Deep down, Andromeda knew that. Her hesitancy stemmed more from the fact that until a moment ago, her singular goal in life was to get as far away from Piazzi II as humanly possible. And now she was torn between reaching for that goal, or turning to face her fears, and the root of a deep-seated anxiety head on with her friends. And Barrett.

“[censored],” muttered Andromeda. “[censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored]. I better not regret this. I think you people are having a bad influence on me.”

“I disagree,” said Andreja. “We are simply showing you how brightly your spark burns, Andromeda. You still remain the only one to not see that.”

“Whatever.” With a rush of static, Andromeda switched back to the other channel where Sarah anxiously awaited a response. “Get your ass over here before I change my mind.”

I’ll send Barrett in the REV-8,” gushed Sarah. “And I’d like to have a moment alone with you, Dro. There are some things that, well…”

“I know, Sarah.”

She dropped the channel and returned to the local comm line she shared with Andreja.

“C’mon, we can wait for Barrett at the edge of the mesa.”

They returned to the soaring rim of the rocky uplift and sat with their feet dangling over the edge. Andromeda whiled away the time tossing rocks out over what may as well have been an abyss while trying her best to ignore the elephant in the room that was the Temple. A small cloud of dust in the distance that grew steadily closer marked Barrett’s progress towards them in some sort of ground vehicle Andromeda hadn’t seen before.

Andreja regarded her silently, trying to gauge how her companion truly felt about the situation she was walking into with her head held high. She felt fiercely proud of Andromeda for confronting her fears, but she also recognized that Andromeda was not above putting on a brave face and holding in her true emotions until they burst.

“Annie?”

“Hm?”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Absolutely not, Dre. Ten minutes ago I thought I was having a heart attack over that damn thing. I just… I dunno.” She flung another rock out, this time aiming right for the Temple, and watched it fall several kilometers short while she collected her thoughts. “I can’t keep running from my problems,” she finally sighed. “First Neon, now this. I don’t wanna live in fear, constantly looking over my shoulder. Constellation took me in after Vectera and everyone of you have tried to give me the tools I need to stand tall and I resisted every step of the way. And I know it’s killing Sarah that I walked away after what happened. ‘Biggest scientific mystery’ in the galaxy as she put it, and I told her to stuff it. Truth is, Dre, I hate not knowing what happened to me. But the anxiety from it makes me hate myself even more, so instead of dealing with it rationally, I ended up breaking down at even the possibility of going through that all over again.”

There was a lot for Andreja to process after that lengthy bit of self-reflection and they were short on time. She settled for squeezing Andromeda’s hand tightly and leaning against her.

“If it will make you feel any better, I think what you are doing is very brave, Annie. And I am immensely proud of you.”

Even in the face of the continued unknown, Andromeda still felt butterflies in her stomach when Andreja said things like that. She wished their spacesuits weren’t in the way of Andreja’s lips, and settled instead for hugging her tightly.

“I couldn’t do this without you, Andreja. Any of this.” They remained in each other’s embrace for several seconds until Andromeda pointed down at the nearly arrived Barrett. “How do we scale down?”

“We don’t,” grinned Andreja. “Tell me, Andromeda Renault… have you ever heard of base jumping?”

“Oh no. I know that look. I’m not going to like this, am I?”

Andreja led her back several meters and thoroughly checked and rechecked every setting on their boostpacks multiple times for over five minutes. She was still checking them when Barrett’s voice crackled to life over the comms asking if they were ready. Andromeda had a feeling she wasn’t, and depending on what exactly ‘base jumping’ was, that she probably never would be.

“Follow my lead, and you will be perfectly safe, Annie.” Without another word, Andreja took her hand and led Andromeda to the very edge of the mesa. “We jump on three.”

Andromeda turned white as a sheet. “Holy… this is [censored] insane. Why does this [censored] keep happening to me?”

“Relax, Annie,” soothed Andreja. “You are perfectly safe with me. Are you ready?” Andromeda shook her head no, but mumbled out a resigned yes. “Take a deep breath,” continued Andreja. “One… two… THREE!”

Hand-in-hand, they leapt from the mesa. Andreja whooped with a thrilled joy at the feeling of falling uninhibited towards the rapidly approaching ground.

Andromeda screamed her head off the entire way down.