Just like that, they were dismissed. Before Heath knew it, they collapsed, not in their opulent guest suite, but on the bridge of the Loon. Once more, sent away like errant children, but Heath could hardly complain. Not when he was sure the actual amounts being discussed as fees would likely buy his whole home planet. Or at least the city.

  “It worked.” He glanced around at his shell-shocked crew. Even Ekaterina, used to the kind of politicking common in the Core, was looking frayed around the edges.

  “Congratulations, my dear crew!” The Loon flicked on all of the view screens to show firework and confetti effects to emphasize her exuberance. “Truly, I am overwhelmed with such devotion.”

  “Anytime,” Heath answered from where he was slumped halfway over.

  “I vote we never do anything bad again,” Copperfield said. “That guy was terrifying. More than your dad,” he said to Ekaterina.

  Their resident noble nodded slowly. “I agree. Father might kill an enemy. That man…”

  “Would dissect you like a bug if he needed to,” Emerald finished the thought. They produced a flask from somewhere, before passing it around the bridge.

  At his turn, Heath took a hearty slug and relished the burn as it made its way down his throat, anchoring him back to the moment. Emerald really did have the worst taste in booze.

  “We’re locked in now,” Copperfield said after his own toast. “What do you think the Firmament is like? As cool as the vids make it seem?”

  As if to emphasize the point, the Loon pulled up stills from the media they had downloaded. Some were unfamiliar to Heath, she had been doing her own research.

  “Those do not do the spectacle justice,” Ekaterina said.

  “You’ve been?” He was intrigued. He knew Ekaterina was reluctant, not that she had ever visited. The Knight Guard was not known for accepting tourism.

  Their wizard cleared her throat, looking uncharacteristically self-conscious. “No.” Something firmed up in her gaze, decision made. “My older brother is a member of the Knight Guard. Low-ranking, he only joined a bit over a decade ago. We went on a visit to one of the nearby systems, but I wasn’t allowed into the actual Firmament. No one is.”

  Heath had thought, after seeing the obscene wealth of her home, nothing about Ekaterina could surprise him or the rest of the crew. Nothing could really top a mountain-range castle or full-planet estate. How wrong he was.

  “You have a brother in the Knight Guard?” Copperfield beat Heath to the question. “Does he have a movie? Wait what Knight is he? No, let me guess. The Knight of the Mountain Peaks.”

  “Ooh, ooh, let me try,” Jenny Mae cheered. “The Knight of Ice.”

  Copperfield scoffed. “You can do better than that.”

  “The Knight of the Frozen Spirit, like your dad and mom together.”

  “Better,” Copperfield granted.

  “The Knight of the Arctic Bite,” Heath tried. He forced the smile to stay off his face as Ekaterina turned to face him with a flat look.

  “Knight of the Frigid Wind.”

  Ekaterina’s look of utter betrayal as even Emerald got into the game was one he hoped the Loon had saved for posterity.

  “The Knight of the Bleakest Rays of the Dawn’s Last Cold Breath.”

  There was a beat of silence after the Loon’s guess. Then the entire crew burst into laughter. Even Ekaterina grinned and chuffed at the ship’s attempt.

  “Not bad. Maybe when we’re there we can suggest Piotr change it.”

  “Wait, come on, you have to tell us now,” Jenny Mae whined.

  “Ekaterina sniffed. I’m sure you will appreciate the introductory effect more in person.”

  “Boo!” Copperfield jeered.

  Another round of laughter kicked off for a few minutes. Heath’s face started to ache with the smiling, despite the heavy day they had just had.

  “Is your brother why you didn’t want to go?” Jenny Mae asked.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  A year ago, Ekaterina would have skewered any of them that dared ask something so personal, if she had deigned to spend time around them at all. “Perhaps in part. My family has certain traditions on Class choice and specialization. When I awakened, I had several options to choose from.

  “There was an expectation that I would choose an ice or water focused Class. Even when I didn’t, everyone just assumed I would specialize later on. Piotr did. As did the rest of my siblings. Some of the comparisons were…unkind.”

  Heath kept his opinions to himself. He imagined what Ekaterina would call unkind, was something his mother would find far more appropriate words for.

  “I have eight older siblings. They are all quite impressive. Three of them have gone to the Knight Guard trials. The others only didn’t because they either chose a non-combat focus or the timing was off. I wanted to avoid the further comparison. I am my own person, with my own Class.”

  Copperfield let out a low whistle and Heath nodded. Once more he was grateful he was from the Rim, where any class was considered impressive, and a great opportunity. For all the privilege she’d had, he wasn’t sure he would have held up nearly so well under the pressure.

  Ekaterina huffed again in amusement. “I was happy my Journey went late, you know. If nothing had interrupted us, I would have stayed longer. A reasonable excuse to miss the trials.” Something flickered in her eyes. “I would not have had the time to bring an assigned delving team up to scratch.”

  Heath thought there was probably a lot more to that sentiment than the casual way she tried to pass it off. There were plenty of low-rank Classers in her House she could have teamed up with.

  “I get it,” Jenny Mae announced. Heath wasn’t sure where this was going. He most definitely didn’t understand what it was like to be an almost-literal princess. “I have a lot of siblings too. Not eight,” she clarified. “Four. But a few dozen cousins.” Heath made subtle eye contact with Copperfield who shrugged. He had no idea where people got the time for that many kids. “But they all loved the ranch.”

  “You love the ranch,” Copperfield pointed out, half joking.

  “Well yeah. But they didn’t want to leave.”

  Ekaterina sniffed. “My parents recognize the potential in all of us.”

  They all recognized the conversation was closed, even if some of that explanation felt a little lacking to his mind. Nevertheless, he let the topic drift back to the real matter at hand.

  “We’ll need better gear,” Heath brainstormed out loud. “And Jenny Mae, can you see if the Althalas libraries that we have access to have information about the Firmament? Copperfield, we should look over what we have for Betsy. Maybe if we do some hauling jobs locally we can –”

  A cough cut him off. “My parents will not send us attired as beggars. There will be opportunities to get better gear before we go.”

  “Opportunities?” Jenny Mae asked. “Like a store?”

  Ekaterina waved her hand side to side in the air. “Not quite. The clan would object if we were just given anything appropriate for rank two classers. But there will be ways to earn enough contributions to earn them.”

  “In eight months?” Copperfield looked skeptical and Heath agreed.

  “A slight correction, Crewmember Copperfield. While your industrious instinct is noted, we have less than eight months. I have taken the liberty of downloading the route to the Firmament, along with several alternates. We will need at least two months to get there, without any stops.” The Loon’s declaration put wide-eyes on all their faces.

  They would need to be outfitted well-enough for braving the shallows of the Firmament, not to mention the derision of half the Empire’s young nobles, in six months.

  Heath looked towards Ekaterina. “I don’t suppose your family will need some supplies hauled?”

  She shrugged in return. “They might, but we can earn what we need by delving too. As long as we show competence.”

  “Oh thank the nine,” Jenny Mae said. She was already typing away on her pad, likely coming up with an eighteen-part plan for their equipment needs.

  “We’ll start tomorrow,” Heath announced, heading off her inevitable exhortations. Despite the bubbling excitement on the bridge, it had already been a long day, and none of them were ready to jump into a dungeon at that moment.

  The others stood and wandered off the bridge, back to take advantage of their cloud-like beds, or in Jenny Mae’s case, to hunt down every source that existed in the estate on the Firmament and what to expect. So he was surprised to hear Emerald’s voice. They hadn’t left with the others.

  “You seem awfully excited to fly into a death trap, for a cargo Captain.”

  “I’m sure it's not that bad.” Heath hedged, ignoring the implied question. “They wouldn’t send their kids if it was.”

  “Yes they would,” Emerald looked up then, their eyes bloodshot and their expression full of a bitter kind of disgust. “People like that care about reputation and power, and precious little else. If their kids are the price, they pay it. The parents might seem nice, but you heard her. They sent five kids into one of the most dangerous places in the known universe, and they did it with a smile.”

  “We’re strong,” Heath countered. “And we know what it’s like to fight for our lives. Most nobles don’t have that.”

  “You’d be surprised.”

  Heath’s concern spiked. “Are you upset? I know I didn’t really ask everyone before agreeing.”

  Emerald slowly shook their head. Then nodded. Then shook their head again before sighing. “I don’t like that they got us dancing to their tune so easy. I’m Rim down to my bones, spacer through and through. Had plenty to get started in the Core if I wanted. Didn’t. It was the right call, didn’t want anything to do with all of this.”

  Heath relaxed slightly at the admission. It was something that had been stewing in the back of his mind over the days since he made the agreement. The others had assured him they thought it was the best decision, but none of them had ever been in charge before. This would have implications for their Class growth, their entire futures. And he had made the choice for everyone.

  “You going to answer the real question now?”

  Heath broke eye contact and fidgeted with the bit of paracord that had appeared in his hands, tying and untying knots without conscious effort. “It’s a great opportunity.”

  Emerald’s silence stretched long, but Heath held firm. Finally, the older spacer broke first. “An opportunity for a hauler?”

  There it was. Heath hadn’t even really admitted it to himself yet, and now Emerald was demanding he say it out loud. But there wasn’t any point in putting it off. “Maybe we don’t have to be just a cargo hauler.”

  “You want to try again, kid?”

  “Not a kid.” The old joke was a comfort, but it also acted as a chastisement. “Maybe I don’t want to be just a hauler.”

  There. Now the words were out there. Emerald, never one to break a silence unless they had to, let them sit, permeating the air and sinking into the ship around them.

  It was the Loon who picked them up. “You have never been just a hauler, Heath. A son and beloved nephew. A friend, an explorer, a leader, and a delver. We have experienced many new horizons in our short time together.”

  “No, you’re right,” Heath acknowledged. “But it's a big jump from that to what? A mercenary crew? I’m not sure that’s better.”

  “Don’t have to decide now kid, but you have to look inward.” Emerald radiated discomfort but they pressed on. “People think leveling is all straightforward. You’re a fighter, you fight. You’re a spacer, you work a crew. You’re a combat Classer, you kill some stuff. But it ain’t that easy. You need to decide who you want to be and work toward it.” Their expression turned wry. “Or you end up old and stalled out, waiting for some kid to come and shake everything up.”

  Heath let out a weak chuckle at the declaration. “Since when are you the wise old one?”

  “I’ve always been wise,” Emerald said with a sniff. “You just don’t always listen.”

  “I want to be fearsome,” the Loon cut into the moment, giving Heath the chance to get any potentially-embarrassing emotional reactions under control. No one was crying here, nothing to see. “When those that would challenge my crew take in my noble visage, they should tremble and run in fear. When a challenge appears, I shall be ready to conquer it. Should a kaiju reach for me, it shall break its teeth upon my hull. Should a would-be pirate manage to get aboard, they will be rebuffed and destroyed by my crew.”

  “We’ll get right on that Loon.”

  “Excellent. Sweet dreams, Heath.”