Chapter 1 The Princess
“Once in an age, the forces of darkness align to bend the arc of history…”
—From the Diary of Neuchar de Merlner, Europa, 2121
In 2177, that alignment broke the Princess.
***
“C’mon, Littlebit,” Meriel said, dodging cargo haulers and puddles as she dragged her little sister to their ship from the play area across the dock. They were late. The boarding siren had already sounded. Meriel slowed when she saw their mother waving from the cargo-bay door. She smiled and relaxed. This was home, a merchant ship called the Princess, crewed by seven families working a circuit between Luyten’s Star and Sirius. The two girls paused at the air lock and brushed their hands past their foreheads in a child’s salute to the officer on deck, their mother, the XO.
“’Mission to come aboard, ma’am,” Meriel said, but Elizabeth had already turned away, distracted by the symbol of a cat’s eye in light blue on a cargo crate.
“Granted,” their mother said and hurried them through the boarding checklist while dockhands detached the umbilicals behind them.
Once inside the Princess, Meriel’s world opened up to the familiar bustle of cargo lashing and comm chatter in preparation for the hyperspace jump to Enterprise Station. She closed her eyes and danced her way to their cabin, running one hand over the nicked walnut railing and the other hand over the fabric walls covered with children’s artwork. The tips of her fingers brushed the corner of Tommy’s drawing—a fire breathing dragon melting a knight in armor—and the rough texture of Anita’s first creation: her name written with a backward n in letters larger than the sunflower drawn just above it. And behind Meriel, little Elizabeth copied every move.
Surrounded by the familiar background chatter about mass, vectors, and fuel capacity, Meriel dreamed that she captained the Princess and plotted their course to Enterprise. With her arms out and eyes still closed, she rode the quantum path to their first jump point, but collided with something big and soft that should not have been there. She opened her eyes and looked up to see Uncle Ed’s smiling face just before Elizabeth collided into her.
…