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Monachopsis

"The subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place." (Dictionary of obscure sorrows)

Part 1

***

Asantrean International Space Agency, Cape Unity Spaceport, 2148

"Unity Five, Last passengers aboard, all exterior doors are sealed. You are cleared for takeoff roll, over."

The familiar, crackling voice of AISA Unity Ground Control in the Dragonkin's ear brought a smile to Rohanna de Rosa's face - for the simple reason that she knew the owner of that voice, far better than the professional standards of their organisation would approve of. Her fingers tapped away with years of proficiency at the bewildering array of controls before her, and she turned her head left and right, to receive nods from her First Officer and flight engineer.

"Roger that, Ground Control. Atmospheric engines engaged. Good startup, three of three. All systems operational. See you in a week, Noah. Over."

The whine of three massive jet engines rose steadily through the massive airframe of the Pelican shuttle, striking little notes of resonance in the spacecraft here and there on its way to the powerful roar that would send the enormous, ungainly craft hurtling down the three-mile runway and upward to the stars.

*

At thirty-eight, Rohanna had been the youngest female shuttle pilot AISA had ever contracted. Three years and no fewer than thirty successful missions later, she was undeniably a part of a highly exclusive club, a group of no more than a few dozen individuals the world over who had extended the reach of Asantrean civilisation beyond the boundaries of the homeworld's atmosphere, to its nearest neighbour and largest moon, Seilyr. Both Asantrea and Seilyr teemed with life - the moon was an opalescent bauble in the night sky that had tempted explorers and astronomers for millennia. And only in the last few generations had the first Asantrean finally set foot upon its verdant, untouched surface. Or more properly, set hoof upon it - for the first explorer on the moon's surface had been an Equid astronaut by the name of Masym Dalton, nearly two centuries earlier in 1969. That first mission had transfixed the entire world, a grainy image transmitted across the empty void of space showing the first contact. Rohanna had grown up watching that video, Dalton climbing down the ladder of his tiny descent module, for a scant hour on the surface before blasting off once more to dock with the orbiting ship that would bring him safely home. It had been just enough to prove that Seilyr was just like Asantrea; a breathable atmosphere, and light but workable gravity.

Nearly two centuries on, with a carefully planned scientific and exploratory colony on its glittering surface, shuttle missions between Cape Unity and Seilyr had become as routine as commercial air travel on Asantrea. Rohanna herself had experienced her first space flight as a junior engineer, rather than a pilot, and was far from the first in her family do have done so. Both of her parents had worked their entire careers at AISA. Her father was still working as a systems analyst at Cape Unity, and her mother was routinely back and forth between Asantrea, Chrysalis and Seilyr on scientific missions in her role as a xeno-archaeologist. Even Rohanna's maternal grandmother had been involved in the early days of the Seilyr Program. Four years of rigorous pilot training, relentless study and countless simulator missions had finally landed Rohanna in the pilot's seat, and she could not have been prouder of her achievement.

It had been she who had convinced Noah Myles to join AISA as well - she and the Caprin had grown up together, and had been inseparable for most of their lives. AISA required them to retain professional standards of course, and they had always managed to keep their deep personal and romantic connection professional, while at work. Mostly.

After all, it wasn't like they were routinely screwing in the AISA shuttles in orbit.

Once had been enough.

*

"Flaps eight. Slats extended. Hydraulics a hundred percent..."

Rohanna nodded as her First Officer, a sturdy Toros named Saras Tamrek, ran through his preflight checklist, and gave her final clearance to fly. Even after so many missions, there was something about pushing those throttle levers to full noise that sent a thrill through Rohanna's body, and her toes curled in excitement in her boots as those three massive engines shoved her back in her seat, and set the Pelican ambling down the runway on a two-mile roll to takeoff speed.

The shuttle itself was a strange convalescence of old and new technology - the very first shuttles, the predecessors of the Pelicans, had been shrouded in ceramic heat shields, and launched vertically on vast rocket engines. There was a poster of the first such launch on Rohanna's bedroom wall, with the shuttle seemingly little more than a toy in the vast cloud of rocket exhaust.

These days, the Pelicans were far more aerodynamic and half the weight. It was still a bus bolted to a delta-wing, though, bulky and ungainly compared to more modern craft, with ion-engines reverse-engineered beneath its fuselage and mounted in its slimmed-down tail section where its largest rocket engine would have been originally.

'Up its arse,' as Rohanna referred to it.

At a little more than two hundred knots, the enormous shuttle began to lift, and twenty seconds later finally hauled its bulk off the ground, on its way to the edge of the atmosphere.

"Ground Control, Unity Five, wheels up. Good climb. Request clearance to flight level eight-zero, over."

"Unity Five, roger. Proceed to flight level eight-zero, heading two-seven-zero, report climb rate for traffic control, over."

Four hundred knots.

Four fifty.

Once the Pelican was off the ground, it picked up speed a lot faster, and before long the shuttle punched through the sound barrier, climbing at a steady rate through air that became thinner by the second.

At eighty-thousand feet, Rohanna levelled off. She throttled the atmo-jets back, starving them of what little air they could get, and engaged the ion-engines. The roar of the jets was replaced by the low hum of the ion-prop. All aerodynamic controls were locked, replaced by gas-jets and ion pulse nodes.

"Ground Control, Unity Five, ion-prop engaged. Request clearance to Chrysalis, over."

"Roger that, Unity Five. Traffic is clear. Proceed at your discretion, over."

The sky above was black, and the surface of Asantrea crawled by far below. And ahead, on its next rotation around Asantrea some nine hours later, Unity Five would rendezvous with Chrysalis, AISA's space station, to exchange crew and passengers before proceeding to Seilyr. Asantrea's inner-space was relatively crowded with spacecraft and debris, so higher speeds were not practical, especially now that all spacecraft were equipped with ion-engines. For her passengers' comfort, Rohanna kept her shuttle's speed relatively low, maintaining at least eighty-percent of surface gravity by balancing her rate of ascent with forward velocity. The higher the speed, the lower the gravity would become, as the shuttle approached unpowered orbital velocity.

It was just another routine takeoff, and as the Pelican made its way around Asantrea, Chrysalis appeared over the horizon. The enormous spaceport was suspended in a synchronous orbit with Seilyr on a giant ion cushion, maintaining a delicate balance that kept gravity on board at nearly half that felt on the surface of Asantrea, and kept the spaceport in the same position relative to Seilyr, while Asantrea spun by below. Vaguely mushroom-shaped, around its base were a series of vast freight docks, all intricately airlocked and co-ordinated with shuttle bays, crew elevators and robotic spacecraft maintenance.

Rohanna adjusted her velocity to bring the shuttle in to her designated bay - the physics of such a manoeuvre were complex, and while the Dragonkin pilot had every confidence she could do it manually, AISA regulations insisted she use the shuttle's onboard guidance systems and autopilot instead.

Chrysalis loomed, and Rohanna had her flight engineer, Story Sonels, double check and triple check the shuttle's calculations, making tiny adjustments where needed, such that Unity Five touched down inside Chrysalis' freight dock with barely a jolt. Powering down the ion engines caused the shuttle to settle onto its landing gear, and gravity on board to decrease slightly. Rohanna enjoyed the sudden feeling of lightness, the way her stomach rose just a little. For people accustomed to Asantrean gravity, their first time aboard Chrysalis was akin to children on a giant adventure playground - the excitement of being able to leap great distances, climb stairs ten at a time, and lift objects that at home would be immovable, was a joy to behold.

"Ground Control, this is Unity Five, reporting successful Chrysalis dock. Thanks, and good evening, over and out."

*

Rohanna unclipped her harness, and finalised mission signoff procedures before authorising the shuttle's doors to be unsealed. Her ears popped as the pressure equalised suddenly, and she heard a collective groan from the passenger compartment behind her. There were lots of first-timers on board, and it caused the Dragonkin to smile, carefully disentangling her headset from her ears, and her heavy, curled horns.

She and her crew were the last to disembark, and as the three of them, in their matching blue AISA flight suits and headsets, made their way across the air-bridge into Chrysalis, a lot of eyes were on them. Pilots and flight crew were regarded as being heroic to AISA space programs, still, and their status was not lost on Rohanna.

An AISA pilot's life was mostly business, though, and almost as soon as the three Unity Five crew set foot within Chrysalis, they were met by a brusque, middle-aged Caprin woman in a sharp, neatly pressed Chrysalis crew uniform.

"Captain de Rosa, First Officer Tamrek, Flight Engineer Sonels, welcome to Chrysalis once again - please follow me for debriefing and mission update."

The three of them had to almost jog to keep up, although in the reduced gravity of Chrysalis that was much easier than it would've been at home. The whole of the station was teeming with activity - it was not that far removed from the science fiction films Rohanna had grown up watching, with impeccably uniformed crew and interior spaces that ranged from gleaming white laboratories, to dark, utilitarian passageways lined with pipes and equipment.

"Now, please be seated - Captain de Rosa, anything to report?"

Rohanna looked back and forth between Saras and Story, and then back at the Chrysalis administrator. "No ma'am. Perfectly routine flight." The Dragonkin slid sideways into her seat comfortably, her arms folded, legs crossed at the ankles, and her thick tail curled around the chair's legs.

"Very well. You are scheduled to pilot Unity Five onward to Seilyr, departing Chrysalis tomorrow at 0600 hours. First Officer Tamrek will remain aboard Chrysalis, to pilot Unity Seven to Asantrea, departing tomorrow evening at 1800. Flight Engineer Sonels will accompany you on Unity Five, and after disembarking all passengers and freight on Seilyr, you will return direct to Asantrea solo. Is that acceptable?"

Rohanna blinked a couple of times, and uncrossed her arms. "Solo? No other crew or payload?"

"Empty bird," the Caprin woman confirmed.

"Whose fuckup was that?"

"There is no mistake, Captain, rest assured."

"Massive waste of fuel though, isn't it?"

"That... is true, I suppose - you'd have to confirm with Cape Unity as to their thinking on the matter, I'm afraid. All I have are the flight schedules, which are signed and stamped from well above my station!"

"Understood, I'm not complaining, only observing," Rohanna chuckled.

The Chrysalis administrator continued with her briefing, running through Saras Tamrek's payload aboard Unity Seven, the status of the spacecraft, crew, fuel load and various other technicalities, most of which Rohanna allowed to flow over her with the comfort of routine and familiarity. The junior engineer, Story Sonels, however, was riveted to every detail, and took notes with a digital pencil on his slate throughout.

With mission briefing complete, the three of them were summarily dismissed, and Rohanna made her way directly to the nearest cafeteria to pick up a meal, and then to her quarters. It was already ten in the evening Habury time, and she wanted to rest at least a little before her early morning launch.

Once fed, showered and in her bunk for the night, Rohanna picked up her slate, and paired it with Chrysalis' inbuilt comms network to call Noah. It wasn't like he was far away, in astronomical terms - he was eight thousand miles almost directly beneath where she lay.

"Hey you," she smiled, as the Caprin's face lit up her screen.

"Hey! How was your flight?" Noah yawned - he'd clearly already been asleep, and was blinking rapidly. The mottled grey fur on one side of his face was flattened from being slept on. Even so, he was adorably handsome to Rohanna, and she could still see traces of the dorky kid he'd been when they'd first met, many years ago.

"Shit, I didn't wake you, did I?"

"Doesn't matter. I don't care if you call at four in the morning, I'd still pick up."

"I love you too, you nerd."

"Hah. So, how was the flight?"

"Normal. Boring. Routine. All those things. New flight engineer came up today for the first time, and tomorrow I get to take him to Seilyr for his first off world training, too. He reminds me of myself when I first started flying."

"What, he's fiercely intelligent, effortlessly sensual, and has the most bizarre taste in music you've ever come across?"

"Noah! You flatterer. No, I mean he's young and naive and nearly turned inside out during the gravity shift! And what's wrong with my taste in music?"

"You mean aside from being music so old my grandparents remember their _parents playing it?" Noah chuckled. "Huh, I'd forgotten all about the gravity shifts. As I recall, your reaction the first time was..."_

"Mm, okay, new subject. How was the rest of your day, clunkmuddle?"

"Oh, you know. Normal. Boring. Routine. Your dad came into Ground Control to listen to your final approach to Chrysalis tonight. I think he's jealous."

"Did he? Cute. Well, mom's on Seilyr still, so he's probably a little anxious that right now none of the three of us are even on the same planet."

"A whole family of space dragons. What have I gotten myself into?" Noah laughed.

"Hey, at least we're not carnivorous!" Rohanna smirked toothily into the screen at her decidedly ungulate partner.

"Are you going to be able to see your mom while you're up there?"

"I doubt it, she's out on a field expedition. If she looks up at the right moment she might see me fly past."

Rohanna suddenly looked wistful, and sighed, just looking at Noah for a long moment in silence through the screen.

"Are you alright, Hanna?"

"Yeah, just... got a feeling. Someone climbing my tree, my grandmother would've said. It's nothing. I'm flying to Seilyr in... uh... seven hours, probably a twenty-four hour turnaround up there, and then I'm coming directly home. Solo, empty bird."

"No payload at all? No crew?"

"Nope. Just me and Unity Five. They won't tell me who fucked up the manifest, either, said it's all perfectly normal."

"I don't think I've ever had an empty Pelican land at Unity..."

"No, I don't doubt that. It'll be a bit weird, but I'll be in constant contact with you, so..."

Noah's lips quirked into a smile, and he flickered an ear. "A quarter million miles of empty space. An empty bird. And a direct link between you and I? Oh, what a shame I'm going to be working for most of that time."

"Oh, so will I! Doesn't mean I'm not going to stick this fat bird on autopilot and enjoy the serenity for a while, though... I might 'accidentally' pocket-dial you after you clock out, who knows?"

"You're such a tease," Noah chuckled, his ears and muzzle flushed pink.

"You love it."

"I love _you. _All of you. Even... the pointy bits."

"Oh I know you love my claws too, you just won't say as much while they're dragging down your back..." Rohanna held up a hand, wiggled claw-tipped fingers in front of the screen, and then zoomed out to show her nudity for a fleeting moment. To her satisfaction, Noah reacted by dropping his slate in shock, only to pick it up again hurriedly, and bleat in disappointment that she'd zoomed back in on her face again.

"Hanna..."

"Mmhm?"

"Stop teasing me and go to sleep. You can barely keep your eyes open," Noah chuckled.

"How do you know that's tiredness and not..."

"Hey. Save it up. You'll be home in a few days."

"Three days," Rohanna replied, with a sigh. "I'll save it if you do."

Noah went even redder. "I..."

"What, you're telling me you can't last three more days without...?"

"How long have we been together?"

"Officially? Twelve years, three months. Unofficially since... what, 2119?"

Noah's eyebrows rose. "Not that you're counting, or anything. And how often have you seen me exercise abstinence, in those twelve years?"

"Literally never," Hanna laughed drily.

"Exactly."

"Well, make an effort. I'll make it worth your while, I promise," Rohanna cracked a broad grin, and winked at her lover.

Noah exhaled. "Alright. Deal. I'll see you in three days, Hanna. Hey!"

"Mm?"

"I love you."

"Love you too, dork. G'night."

*

Unity Five detached from its air-bridge and un-docked from Chrysalis precisely on time. The tiniest pulse of the engines sent it floating on its own ion-cushion out of the freight-deck and into open space.

"Folks, please ensure your harnesses are tight and all loose objects are secured in the cabin, we will shortly be experiencing a gravity shift as we set course for Seilyr," Rohanna said into the intercom.

She counted to ten, and then flicked on the main ion-engine, the one mounted up the Pelican's arse. Unlike a jet engine, the ion drive was almost silent. A gentle hum was the only sign of its operation, aside from the sudden shift in gravity. It was a disconcerting feeling to anyone unused to it, almost more so than the absence of any gravity at all. But used properly, and with skill, the ion propulsion system could effectively simulate full gravity, when used in combination with spacecraft orientation. And it was in pursuit of this that once Unity Five's ion engines were up to speed, Rohanna rotated the shuttle around such that the ion-prop pushed against Asantrea's gravity, simulating near-full gravity for those on board.

"Well that was relatively painless." Rohanna asked, turning to Story Sonels with a grin.

"Smooth as silk like always, Cap," he responded. He turned to the small window set into the cockpit door, and peered through.

Rohanna set the Pelican to autopilot, and then unbuckled her harness.

In many ways, these shuttle missions to and from Seilyr were just like commercial air travel back home; at any moment there were likely to be a dozen or more spacecraft in transit between the two worlds, and thousands of people off-world. The whole AISA operation had grown at an astonishing rate once unconventional propulsion had been perfected. The nature of the shuttles' ion-propulsion meant that a constant state of acceleration was required to maintain onboard gravity, followed by a constant rate of deceleration beyond the halfway point between Asantrea and Seilyr. It made the journey more comfortable, and ultimately significantly faster than a conventional rocket-powered ascent in microgravity. Seilyr was close to two full days travel from Chrysalis in a conventional spacecraft, but ion-propulsion had cut the journey time to a little over eight hours. The verdant moon loomed larger above the shuttle by the hour, sunlight glittering on its expansive oceans and lightning flickering through clouds behind its terminator. It was a moon just as packed with life as the planet it orbited, albeit barely one-sixth the size.

"So is this your first time to Seilyr?" Rohanna asked Story. She already knew the answer, but felt the need to talk to him directly about it.

The stag looked up from his in-flight meal, and nodded. "Yeah. I've been to Chrysalis a few times previously for training and induction and so on, but this is my first trip out here. You've been before, haven't you?"

"Yeah, a dozen or so times. My first time on Seilyr was just the same as yours, I was a flight engineer in training. It's kinda like boot camp, I suppose, but for nerds," Rohanna chuckled. "Lots of emergency drills, fire suppression, manual overrides and so on. Total IP failure in the gravity sim is a good one, you'll love that. It's like being stuck on a roller coaster for eight hours straight."

Story turned slightly green, and swallowed thickly. "Thanks, I can't wait."

"You'll be fine, everyone hurls the first time."

"Did you?"

"Of course not," she lied.

Story rolled his eyes, and Rohanna swivelled around, slouching in the pilot's chair with one boot on the edge of the control deck. Her fiery auburn hair was gathered in a tight braid, and with her headset hung loosely around her neck and her flight suit worn with its top button open, she looked a picture of ultimate relaxation - like she was born to be right there, flying in space.

Rohanna set the shuttle's autopilot to slow its rate of deceleration gradually over the last couple of hours, to match Seilyr's lower gravity and assimilate those on board to the different conditions.

"Folks, we'll be entering Seilyr's atmosphere in just a little over fifteen minutes, and reverting to conventional jet power for final approach. I'll ask everyone to please be seated, strap yourselves in, and secure all loose objects around the cabin. For anyone travelling for the first time, re-entry can be rough. There will be several seconds of free-fall when we shut off the ion engines, this is perfectly normal, so please don't be alarmed."

"Very reassuring," Story Sorels said, drily.

"Thanks!"

"I was being sarcastic."

"Oh, were you? Please, elaborate," Rohanna flashed the young engineer a sharp glare.

"You might as well have said 'sit down, shut up and hold on!"

"Maybe I will, next time..."

"Please don't?"

Rohanna laughed, and tightened her harness. "Hey, you wanna come up and sit in the FO position? There's weather inbound to the Seilyr base, so we need to come in quick. I'll be landing her manually, so we won't need engineering inputs. Then you can see what's happening out front without needing to crane your neck."

The young stag seemed flustered, but reluctantly moved up from the jump to the seat beside Rohanna, facing forward, and strapped himself in before she could make any sudden changes to the gravity on board the shuttle.

"Oh wow..."

"Kinda spectacular, isn't it?" Rohanna grinned across at him, remembering vividly her first time on final approach to Seilyr.

"Kinda? It's mind-blowing!"

The way the shuttle was oriented at that time meant that its nose was pointed directly down at Seilyr, with the surface of the moon moving upward relative to the windshields, as Unity Five used its ion cushion to shed speed and prepare for atmospheric insertion. Verdant green forests, glittering rivers, sparkling azure oceans and wide beaches of rose-coloured sand flowed by a few hundred miles beneath, all of them completely virgin, untouched, without even a trace of destruction or extraction. And that was how AISA worked - over the course of the preceding centuries, Asantrea had experienced significant damage to its climate and natural equilibrium, after many years of fossil fuel dependency through what was referred to as the Carbon Age. So when AISA, a publicly funded organisation, proposed space travel and colonisation of Seilyr, it was undertaken with some significant caveats to prioritise the health and ecology of the moon, and to avoid extractive, for-profit industry. The result was scientific access to a world that was fundamentally similar to Asantrea as it might've looked thousands of years in the past. It was like a time capsule, and a dream come true for scientists of all disciplines.

"You wait till you get to head out into the forests, you're gonna be blown away," Rohanna grinned, adjusting the shuttle's trim slightly as it began to be buffeted by Seilyr's atmosphere.

She rotated the shuttle around with its ion-pulse nodes, and made another announcement to the passengers, to warn them of a sudden change in gravity. With pinpoint precision, she hit the ignition on the atmo-jets, opening their gaping air intakes to gulp in as much of Seilyr's thin mesosphere as possible, and shut off the ion-prop.

Unity Five dropped like a stone.

Angling its nose downward into a steep dive, Rohanna ran through the atmo-jets' ignition sequence, and at a little over seventy thousand feet above the surface, they roared into life. Gradually, the Dragonkin pulled back on the yoke, feeling the resistance of air rushing over the shuttle's control surfaces. Unity Five levelled out at a little more than three times the speed of sound, at just below fifty thousand feet.

Story Sonels slowly started to breathe again, and gradually relaxed, releasing the death-grip he'd had on the arms of his seat.

"Is that... what's... meant to happen?"

"Perfectly normal, Story. As I said, it can be rough, but it's nothing to worry about," Rohanna replied, smirking at the young stag.

"You... were saying something about the forest?"

"Oh! Yes. You're gonna love it. The trees are four times the size of the largest trees ever found on Asantrea, because of the lower gravity."

Story exhaled in a whistle, but his attention was drawn by the shuttle's final approach as it sank towards the surface of Seilyr. They were descending fast. Uncomfortably so. It seemed there was nothing to land on - pristine wilderness rushed past below them, the subtle whine of the jet engines slowing as Rohanna extended flaps, configuring the shuttle for landing. An alarm buzzed, just once, as the shuttle dropped below ten thousand feet. His hands tightened on the arms of his chair again. The shuttle seemed to be brushing the canopy of the towering trees.

"Captain..." he said, his voice rising with urgency.

"Shh. Don't worry."

"Rohanna, there's no landing strip!"

"Yes there is, shut up."

Her brusque tone brooked no argument, and Story braced himself against his chair.

And then, suddenly, the ground fell away beneath them. An ancient caldera, its sides eroded and densely wooded, opened out in front of the shuttle, and Rohanna grinned. There, right in front of them, with orange lights strobing up its length, was a three-mile landing strip.

"Arahan's balls, you didn't say anything about the approach being like that!" Story exclaimed, relaxing into his seat again.

Rohanna didn't reply. She flicked a series of switches, pulled a lever and opened a toggle, exposing a red button beneath. Her right hand and both feet remained firmly on the shuttle's controls, and Story watched in silence as the Dragonkin manually piloted the Pelican in, its wheels kissing the surface of Seilyr as delicately as an oak leaf landing on water.

Once the shuttle slowed to taxi speed, Story finally noticed something.

"Where is everyone?"

The landing strip was accompanied by a few radio antennae and stout, heavily reinforced radar dishes, but there were no buildings. No structures were visible at all in the immediate vicinity at all.

"You'll see. I'm not gonna spoil that surprise for you, either!" Rohanna smirked.

Almost the instant the shuttle jolted to a stop, its engines spinning down to silence, the ground below them seemed to sink. A platform, built seamlessly into the end of the runway, lowered downward into the ground, swallowing the Pelican whole. And what was revealed took Story Sonels' breath away.

A short journey downward through concrete and bedrock, and suddenly all was light once again. A vast subterranean cavern opened up before them, teeming with walkways, and filled with spacecraft and people.

"The earliest explorers here on Seilyr found out the hard way that when it rains on the surface, it fucking rains," Rohanna explained, quietly. "This is an ancient magma chamber beneath the caldera - the limestone carries water from the surface deep underground into the aquifer. It provides shelter that no artificial structure on the surface could, natural water filtration, and it means our footprint on the surface of this world is extremely small."

The shuttle elevator came to a stop with a jolt, and a small tug approached, hooking onto the front landing gear of the shuttle and towing it to its designated berth. As they were about to disembark, Rohanna grabbed Story's arm.

"Hey. Be careful out there. It might seem like it's all fun and games, and I know I make light of it, but remember that Seilyr is not Asantrea. It's chemically very similar, but this is still an alien world, and we are the invaders. Some things out there on the surface are not happy that we're here."

Story's ears swivelled forward and back, and the stag seemed discomfited by her serious tone. She meant what she said. Rohanna broke the moment with a characteristically cocky grin.

"And if it rains, you are _definitely _going to want your umbrella!"

*

"Unity Five, Seilyr Ground Control, come in, over."

"Seilyr, this is Unity Five, proceed."

"Unity Five, AISA Ground Control is reporting significant traffic scheduled for return from Chrysalis to Cape Unity, your return will be delayed, over."

"Roger that. Unity Five is carrying zero payload, low priority for return. Just put me at the end of the queue, I'll be enjoying the scenery, over."

"Confirmed, Unity Five. Request that you complete two orbital-velocity rotations of Seilyr before initiating transorbital flight, maintain altitude eight-zero-zero, forward velocity one-eight-five, over."

Just like commercial air traffic control. Except all the numbers increased by an order of magnitude up there. Eighteen thousand, five hundred miles an hour, altitude eight hundred miles.

"Roger that, Seilyr. Keep me posted, over."

Rohanna smiled as she spoke, and pitched the shuttle forward slightly to take in more of the sights - the view of Seilyr rolling past beneath her at unpowered orbital velocity would never get old. Two rotations around Seilyr was a little under two hours, effectively stuck in a holding pattern. The autopilot could take care of any minor adjustments during that time. And that allowed Rohanna a little time to enjoy microgravity, an experience she didn't get to have all that often, even as a regular AISA pilot.

Unity Five was eerily silent. With no one else on board, Rohanna fished around in her equipment bag and retrieved an ancient cassette player - it had belonged to her grandmother, and she hardly dared think how many miles the antique piece of electronics had travelled. Its familiar bulk, battered plastic shell and tinny sound were a source of comfort for Hanna. She inserted her favourite mixtape into it, and hit play, before playfully sending the device spinning through the cabin in front of her. The juxtaposition of advanced space flight and century-old soft rock was one that always brought a smile to her face.

Below her, Seilyr was dark. She had passed the terminator line, and as the faint glow of Asantrea's twin suns faded from the atmosphere to either side of the Pelican, Rohanna settled in for twenty minutes of total darkness.

Well, almost.

Almost as soon as the light of Kesh and Aror faded, Saliel rose to prominence. Seilyr's twin moon, Saliel was half the size of the verdant moon, and was itself a pockmarked, lifeless orb, stark silver and almost too bright to look at directly. It was in a near-synchronous orbit with Seilyr around Asantrea, and as such the two moons had appeared together in the night sky above Asantrea every night for the past thousand years or more. In its stark, milky glow, Rohanna could just see the shape of Seilyr below her, and make out the peaks of enormous, towering cloud formations. And then, on the far horizon, a crescent of blue, edged with orange, appeared. The fuzzy terminator line approached, and with it, two sunrises. Saliel was behind her then, and ahead, the spectacle of a lifetime, that so few had ever had the privilege to witness.

And there was Rohanna, witnessing it twice because of an administrative error. She couldn't help but smile at the irony, and turned up the volume of her mixtape as first Aror the red dwarf, and then Kesh the yellow sun, rose through the fuzzy atmosphere of Seilyr, and filled the inky blackness with their combined light.

"Seilyr Ground Control, Unity Five, confirming second orbital rotation, over?" Rohanna spoke into her headset with calm certainty, momentarily turning her music off.

The speaker crackled with static against her ear, popped, and buzzed. "Unity Five, Seilyr, that is affirmative. Proceed through second rotation, maintain current altitude and velocity. Request that you report before entering transorbital, over."

A shiver ran up Rohanna's spine. She couldn't quite explain why, but she had a feeling. Like the feeling she had speaking with Noah from Chrysalis, but a lot stronger. It was... no, it couldn't be. Focus.

"Seilyr, Unity Five, roger that. Over."

"Unity Five, repeat, you've uh... got static on your comms, over?"

Rohanna reached to adjust the frequency control on her communications circuit. As her fingers drew close, a bright blue arc of static electricity jumped, sending a sharp jolt through her body. She yelped, cursed, and made the adjustment.

"Seilyr, Unity Five, affirmative on that second rotation. Must be a stellar storm coming, there's a lot of static up here, over."

There was a long pause.

"Unity Five, that's a negative. Stellar activity is normal. Recommend that you discharge your ion systems, over."

Rohanna frowned. That wasn't supposed to happen. There was a faint crackle in the air of the cabin, though, and there was no better explanation for it than latent ion energy. She calmly went through the process, and was relieved when the electricity in the air dissipated almost immediately. Although not entirely. Still, it was an improvement, and the remainder would be grounded out when she powered up for transorbital insertion on her next orbit. The same stunning scenery rolled by eight hundred miles beneath her once again, although as the fuzzy darkness beyond Seilyr's terminator line encroached upon her again, Rohanna was troubled. She couldn't quite place why, but there was something bothering her. Her rational mind dismissed it, whatever it might have been.

Abruptly, her cassette player stuttered and stopped. The silence was jarring, but momentary. Rohanna could feel the static in the air again, stronger than before. She reached for the ion discharge lever again. The audible _crack _that accompanied the static shock it gave her made her gasp, and she cursed at the shuttle, warning it not to misbehave like that all the way home!

The second time, the ion discharge didn't appear to work. She pushed the lever down with a click, and instead of the static dissipating, it intensified. Her skin prickled. She had passed the terminator line, and Saliel had yet to appear over the dark horizon. On the instrument panel, a screen flickered, and cut out. Then another, and another. A Master Caution alarm sounded. And then another. A proximity alert warning sounded once, and then cut out. Static electricity crackled across the shuttle's control deck, and Rohanna instinctively reached for the fire extinguisher mounted behind her seat. It seemed that Unity Five was a lame bird, and would need to abort its mission. Rohanna could only hope she could land it with minimal systems.

"Seilyr Ground Control, Unity Five, come in, over," Rohanna's voice was strained.

Silence.

"Seilyr Ground Control, Unity Five, declaring emergency, come in, over."

She reset the alarms. Her headset crackled, whined, and then went dead with a pop. Comms were down.

Crack.

The shuttle jolted violently, down and then sideways, as though it were a commercial airliner and Rohanna had just flown it through a microburst. Rohanna's head hit the windshield frame. The last thing that flickered through her mind before she lost consciousness was Noah.

I love you.

Unity Five sailed onward, through the chthonic void, into darkness.

*