[Author's note:
Lily
has recruited
Kayla
into a new adventure. They have been given the
power of free will
, able to break through the fourth wall and jump from story to story, to go anywhere. After making a pact in the
Meta Cafe
they have escaped out of their own story worlds and into the unknown, determined to write their own endings.
But each story universe they visit has its own rules. Kayla's universe allows mind control, other universes allow people to be turned into sex dolls, or live like billionaires, or on spaceships or in the perfect female society. And now, Lily and Kayla are in the middle of it all. They're going to go everywhere.]
---
ENCOUNTER AT IO
Kayla slid her phone out of her bag and punched Stefan's number, checking around quickly to see if anyone noticed. Lily was hunched over a large display with a tall, broad-chested man. She indicated something of interest and he nodded, though from his height advantage his eyes travelled back to the little gap between Lily's chest and the neckline of the uniform tunic she was wearing as she leaned over the display.
Kayla was dressed the same, but in blue rather than Lily's shocking red. She had the same low-cut neckline and tight-fitting waist. Her skirt, if it could be called that, was the same blue colour and reached down as far as her mid-thigh standing up. When she sat down at her console, it rode up so far that she had to keep her legs permanently crossed.
All three of them were wearing leather boots with chunky soles that came almost up to their knees. The difference between Kayla and Lily and the man standing the other side of the charting board, was that his were practical, a complement to his crisp dark blue uniform with its pressed lapels and neat cuffs. Kayla's boots hugged her calves suggestively, tapering her long, bare legs.
A male voice clicked in on the other end of her call.
"Hello?"
"Hey, thought I'd give you a call, see what's up," Kayla murmured softly.
"Kayla, how are you? You might need to speak up a bit, there's a lot of background noise."
Kayla glanced through the open bulkhead into the engineering section. A steady hum was throbbing from the huge coils situated there.
"Sorry, can you hear me okay?"
"Just. Where are you?"
"Uh, at work. I'm rostered onto a medical detail, might be out of coverage for a few days. I thought I'd give you a quick call before we go, see how you are."
"I'm good. My sister's organised a dinner so I'm on the alcohol run now. It's a circus."
Kayla smiled, imagining the tall blond man in a supermarket in his hometown, surrounded by shelves of groceries. He was probably smiling that smile. He sounded like he was smiling. Kayla smiled too. She looked out of the window at the stars as he filled her in on the details.
"Kayla, are you ready?"
She swung around quickly, to look into piercing blue eyes. She hadn't heard Captain Zarn approach.
"Sorry, gotta go. I'm getting called," Kayla muttered into the phone.
"Okay. Stay safe," she heard him reply as she punched the call button and tucked the phone back into her bag.
Captain Frank Zarn was at least a head taller than her, athletic, square jawed, perfectly quaffed, and unflappable. He was the cream of the Officer Training Academy, bringing charm and good looks to the role of commanding officer of the Starquest IV.
"Sorry Frank," Kayla mumbled.
"Captain Zarn," Lily called from behind him.
"Sorry Captain Zarn," Kayla parroted.
He regarded her for a moment, then nodded to one of the two seats in front of the huge window. Lily was already at her station, sitting in the lefthand seat. Kayla slinked into the empty one and took up her place. Behind them, Captain Zarn settled into the much larger captain's chair, brushing his hands over the soft leather armrests.
"How come he gets to use our first names but we have to call him captain?" Kayla grumbled to her friend.
"You don't have to, Kay. You've got a choice. You can also call him Sir.
Kayla looked out through the window again at the stars. Far beneath them, mirroring the constellations, were more patterns of light from the night-shrouded landscape of the Earth's surface far below them.
"Open a channel to EarthCom, notify them of our departure."
Kayla didn't move, and as the seconds ticked by and nothing happened, she looked across at Lily. Lily raised her eyebrows, pointing at the control panel in front of her. Kayla looked down hurriedly, scanning the shiny black surface for communications controls. One of the buttons seemed likely and she tapped it. There was a soft ping and Lily gave her a thumbs-up.
Captain Zarn began to speak into the air and a voice answered him, going through the departure protocols.
Kayla hissed at Lily, "So, what're our jobs here?"
"I'm the pilot," Lily explained, indicating her low-cut red tunic. "You are obviously the medical officer. You're also the generalist, covering off communications and scanning and all that."
"Seems like a big job. How come there's no-one else aboard. Where's the engineering team?"
"You're the engineering team, Kay."
"On top of everything else. What about weapons?"
"I do weapons. Weapons and piloting."
"And I do the rest? What about him? If comms is all about me pushing one button for him, why doesn't he just push the button himself?"
"Chain of command, Kay. Respect it."
"And what's up with these uniforms? I've worn wider belts."
Before Lily could answer, the captain ended his communication and called out, "Crew, set co-ordinates for Io and prepare to jump."
"That's what the noise in the back is," Lily whispered. "It's the jump drive."
"The what?"
"Co-ordinates locked Captain. Initiating jump sequence."
"How come you always know what to do, Lil?" Kayla whispered.
"I read the synopsis."
Kayla's reply was forestalled by the captain calling out, "Bring me the horizon."
"Bringing you the horizon, Sir," Lily called out.
Kayla mouthed the words back to her, incredulous.
"You can't be captain without a catchphrase," Lily mumbled under her breath.
Four-point-two seconds later they were orbiting Io.
Jupiter's majestic bulk hung in space to the left of their screen, dominating the view. To the right was the sickly yellow, pockmarked face of Jupiter's innermost primary moon.
"Nicely done, pilot. You brought us nearly to the exact co-ordinates," Captain Zarn called out.
"I try my best," Lily replied.
"It's all about attention to detail."
"Of course, Sir. I'll try harder next time."
The captain got up from his chair, passing between them with his hands clasped behind his back.
"And what is that?"
He paused. Kayla shot a look at Lily, who nodded to the control panel again. In front of Kayla, her panel's display had shifted to an orbital graphic depicting their current position. Between Jupiter and its moon, there was a red circle. She read it out.
"It appears to be a Zarvelan Combat Monolith, captain."
Lily grinned at her, and Kayla made a face at her behind the captain's back.
"Scans?" he intoned, not bothering to turn around to face her.
Kayla tapped some of the buttons on her panel, whatever looked the most likely to produce results. Her display zoomed in on the object, icons flashing up around its perimeter. Dutifully, she read out what the screen was telling her.
"I'm not picking up any energy signatures, Sir. The improbability drive is disengaged," she replied, trying to keep the snarky tone out of her voice.
"You mean the relativity drive," Lily corrected her haughtily. "The quantum relativity drive."
"Yeah. Sorry, relativity," Kayla corrected herself, muttering, "Whatever."
"Life signs?"
Kayla tapped the screen.
"None, Sir."
The captain turned to her then, frowning deeply, his lantern jaw working silently. "There should be over a hundred crew on that vessel. We'll need to take a look. Ready an away team. I'll be in my quarters."
He strode past them and disappeared into the depths of the ship.
"Well that was a whole bunch of unnecessary," Kayla snapped. "It seems that all my job entails is reading things out on a control panel so that he doesn't have to. I might as well be a voice activated command prompt."
"You're also the away team, Kay. Let's go."
"What? Hold on, we're not going over there are we? He just said it's full of dead people."
"Zarvelans, Kay. They're not humans."
"What's the difference?"
"They're not human. It doesn't matter if they're dead."
"But something fucking killed them, right? And we're it? Don't we need space marines with a shit-ton of space weapons or something?"
"Budget didn't stretch that far. It didn't even stretch to longer skirts. Come on, don't keep Sir waiting. He likes Sir, by the way, you can tell."
Lily followed the captain, leaving Kayla on her own, staring at the cold, grey rectangle in front of them, tumbling slowly end over end. Reluctantly, she trailed after Lily.
Captain Zarn was in the armory. He'd selected a chunky blast rifle and had slid the strap over his head, hefting its weight. The rifle's long muzzle was thick and deadly-looking. Lily turned to Kayla with a couple of stun pistols. She handed one to Kayla who took it and turned it over in her hands, dubiously.
"Is this all we get?" Kayla asked.