We were walking through a market, dressed casually. Jara had on a simple blouse with slacks—a typical look for her—Ani was dressed in a floral cardigan over a white shirt with a navy skirt, and Isa was wearing a flowy dress. As for me, I wore a long tunic in a dark green with burgundy leggings and tall brown boots. I had to say, we were looking good.

  Apparently, too good. We were walking through an “alley” of sorts between stalls when three sidhe men stepped out to block the way forward.

  “Excuse us,” Jara said politely.

  “No, I don’t think we will,” one of the men responded, a creepy grin on his face.

  I glanced behind me, only to realize that there were three more men waiting there—another sidhe, a demon, and an elf.

  “Shit,” I whispered. “There’s three more behind us.”

  The others thankfully didn’t turn around, keeping their eyes on the first group.

  “What do you want, then?” asked Jara.

  “Well, we were originally just looking to take your money, but I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t you four come with us—I’m sure we can find a good use for you.”

  Yeah… that wasn’t going to happen. As military, we were allowed to carry our weapons on the station, though we weren’t allowed to fire them except in a life-or-death situation, which this was not.

  I whispered a plan just loud enough for the others to hear.

  Jara continued speaking for us. “And if we don’t?”

  “Oh, you will, one way or another, pulling out a stunner—a mana handgun that only worked to stun, not kill. They were significantly easier to acquire than something like the ones we carried that had kill modes. Even with the weapon, though, we were still disallowed from using ours, but that was okay.

  We all raised our hands, and Jara replied, “Okay, sheesh, we’ll come.”

  “Good choice. Now, take it nice and easy and don’t make a fuss or we might have to take drastic action, you see?”

  The six approached us, most of them with an awkward swagger, at least in my opinion. When they surrounded us, everyone glanced at me, and I gave a slight nod, causing them to spring into action.

  Since only the one man had drawn a weapon so far, I had told Jara to target him first. Fortunately, these men were not particularly skilled combatants. Jara quickly wrested the gun away from him while I knocked the demon down, the largest man in the group. Isa and Ani were not quite as skilled as the two of us, but they still dove in. Ani took out the knee of one of the sidhes at the same time as Isa stomped on the instep of the elf before kneeing him in the groin.

  That was enough to distract the group long enough for us to slip out of their circle. Unfortunately, one the the sidhes that weren’t injured pulled his own gun and fired at us.

  …He had terrible aim, and one of his shots flew past us, hitting one of the civilians outside the alley. No one had reacted to what was going on before that, since people here knew to keep their heads down, but that changed things.

  When an elven woman collapsed, twitching slightly, people started to panic. Being the only officer present, I knew I had to make the call.

  “Weapons ready, sailors,” I stated, spinning around and drawing my hidden gun.

  With the four of us pointing weapons at the six in front of us, three of whom were still recovering, they froze.

  “Down on the ground by order of the Imperial Navy!” I commanded. Thankfully, they listened, and I ordered Jara to disarm them. I had Ani call in a report to station security, and soon enough, security arrived to take custody of the kidnappers.

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  “Who’s in charge here?” asked the sergeant in charge of the group handling things.

  “That would be me, sergeant. Senior Ensign Dax Juniper of the ISS Bluejay.”

  He gave me an intense, searching look before responding. “Can you explain what happened here?”

  “We were walking through this pathway here when the six men you have in custody surrounded us. The brunet sidhe with the black coat pulled a handgun on us, threatening us and telling us to go with them. We played along long enough for them to get close, then under my direction, my crew and I turned on those men, temporarily incapacitating them long enough to break away.

  “When a second man pulled a gun and fired at us, he missed, hitting a bystander. At that point, I authorized my crew to draw weapons. I then told the men to stand down, which they did, and we called security.”

  The elven man nodded as he took down what I told him. “Well, we’ll need to follow-up with you before you leave, but for now, you’re free to return to your ship. I’d recommend staying there until you leave, but it’s not a requirement.”

  “Thank you, sergeant. I’ll let my crew members know.”

  He gave me a nod and turned away, allowing me to walk over to the others who were waiting.

  “It’s been suggested we return to the ship and stay there until we depart.”

  “Really?” asked Ani, mild annoyance seeping into her tone.

  I nodded. “We don’t have to, but it’d probably be a good idea. We only have one more full day here anyway.”

  “Fine,” Ani said with a sigh.

  We made our way back to the ship with minimal conversation. I was focused on getting us back safely, and judging by her expression, so was Jara. Ani just looked frustrated, while Isa appeared pensive.

  When we arrived, I led our group to the XO’s office, since the captain wasn’t around at the time. She invited us in quickly after I knocked, and the four of us stood at attention.

  “At ease, everyone. I have a brief report from station security, but I’d like to hear what happened in your own words.”

  I described the event, with the others chiming in with their own details and impressions. When we were done, the XO seemed thoughtful.

  “It’s concerning that a group like that felt comfortable enough to act practically in the open like that. We’re fortunate that they chose to target you four, since you could clearly handle yourselves. I agree that your use of weapons was justified, so no worries there. I’ll need each of you to write up a statement for our records, and I think the sergeant was right—you should stay on the ship until we leave. It’s likely that they weren’t acting alone, and we don’t want to risk reprisal. Understood?”

  ““Aye, ma’am,”” we all responded.

  “Good. You’re all dismissed. Be sure to get me those reports as soon as possible.”

  We headed off to our individual rooms after that to prepare our formal statements. Once I was done, I decided to head into the lounge to see if anyone else was around.

  Isa was inside, sitting alone and just staring off into nothing. Sitting down next to her, I nudged her with my shoulder.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  She turned toward me and paused for a few seconds before responding. “That was my first real fight.”

  I slowly nodded, beginning to understand. “Well, you handled yourself well.”

  “Dax, I’m an engineer, for fuck’s sake. I know we’re military and it’s part of the job, but it’s not something that normally comes up! Plus, we weren’t even on duty! We were supposed to be safe!”

  She was starting to panic by the end, so relying on my instincts, I reached over to pull her into a hug.

  “Shh, it’s going to be okay,” I said quietly, rubbing her back as she lightly shook.

  A few minutes passed like that before she pulled back, wiping her eyes. “Thanks, Pet.”

  For once, I was glad to hear the nickname, taking it as a sign she was feeling a bit better.

  “Anytime, dork.”

  The next day was boring since we were stuck in the ship without most of the crew. I spent awhile getting used to my new art supplies, took a few hours to work on my studies, and meditated longer than normal.

  After that, the rest of the crew returned to the ship, along with our three new crew members, one of whom would be my new supervisor on the bridge. My new supervisor and the senior bridge officer for the second shift was a felid man, Senior Lieutenant Goro Tomoro. He was tall for a felid, with reddish fur.

  We also got Senior Sailor Dobogodi Tagatoli, a male gnome who would work the same job as Ani, just during third shift, as well as a male sidhe marine named Tital Yevari.

  I also learned that Jara got promoted from Junior Private to Senior Private. We all made sure to congratulate her for that.

  With a full crew and hold again, we were ready to set off for systems unknown. The captain chose to make an announcement shortly after we undocked and started heading toward the first major current we’d be scouting.

  “Crew, both old and new, I am pleased to have each of you here. On behalf of the entire empire, thank you for your willingness to take a risk to travel into the deep black. For those of you who have been here awhile, you’ve experienced the uncertainty that comes from not knowing the way home, yet you still chose to come. I commend you for that. For the rest of you, you may not have had that experience, but you’re aware of what we’re risking, and that takes bravery.

  “Be strong, sailors. We are the Imperial Navy, and it is our solemn duty to travel the void, shielding the rest of the empire from its dangers. Don’t think that our mission is any different in that regard—we do this to enable others to conquer the void, turn it into a tool rather than just a danger.

  “I am proud to stand among all of you, taking this huge step forward for our empire and its people, and I urge you to recognize the greatness we all embody. May the aether carry us safely home.”