Stepping into the bridge, I saw the captain and XO chatting off to the side, while Lieutenant Rokloth was chatting with the first shift senior officer, Lieutenant Droth. I didn’t see the second shift pilot yet, so I approached my commanding officer and waited.

  While I was waiting, the replacement pilot entered. He was a goblin and an enlisted—Senior Specialist Tiroteo Anabadas. Seeing he had arrived, Rokloth gestured to her counterpart and took over before looking at me and gesturing with her head towards the junior officer for the first shift. I nodded and stepped over to the other male goblin, Ensign Delvaston.

  “Everything good?” I asked.

  “Aye, no issues. Ready to take over?”

  “Aye.” With that confirmation he hopped out of the seat, and I slid in. A quick adjustment for our height differences and I was reasonably comfortable. I glanced at the screen, making sure there were no alerts or any obvious issues, then turned to Rokloth and nodded. I also noticed that the pilots had switched as well.

  “Ma’am,” she said, looking at the XO. “Second shift is in control.”

  “Thank you, lieutenant.” She turned toward the captain. “Captain, may I have command?”

  “Aye, command is yours.” With that, she turned and walked into her office while the other first-shift workers left the bridge.

  “Orders, ma’am?” I asked the lieutenant.

  “Keep an eye on sensors, I’ll handle navigation and watch over the other duties.”

  “Aye, ma’am.”

  “Anabadas, watch for the upcoming whirl,” she instructed.

  “Aye, ma’am, I see it.”

  I knew that navigating aether currents inside a star system was often a bit more complex than once you entered a major current, though I wasn’t sure to what degree since I had never left the system.

  Things continued like that for a few hours, occasionally broken up by Rokloth quizzing me or demonstrating something for me. We took turns during the shift to grab a short break to eat or use the bathroom.

  “Juniper,” Rokloth said at one point, getting my attention.

  “Aye, ma’am?”

  “What differentiates a major aether current from a minor one?”

  “At the simplest level, major currents connect star systems while minor currents operate within a star system.”

  “A basic textbook definition. Go deeper.”

  “One of the main factors that affects starships is their effects on normal matter. Both types of currents allow for moving faster than the use propulsion would suggest possible, but minor currents only support subcausal speeds while major currents allow for travel at rates much faster than the speed of causality. Modern physics still cannot explain this phenomenon. Though there are various hypotheses that attempt to rationalize it with our modern understanding of physics, none has proven sufficient.”

  “What does this mean for our ship?”

  “Whereas light takes multiple cycles to travel between nearby star systems, by utilizing the proper major aether currents, we can make the trip in mere days. As well, the existence of minor currents within a star system both complicates intrasystem travel and makes it faster.”

  “And the limitations of such benefits?”

  “Aether currents are monodirectional and not always paired, meaning that to travel from Eryth to Arkon, for example, is much faster than to travel from Arkon to Eryth, requiring passing through the Evon system first. This difference can become significant, requiring weeks of travel one direction which only requires days the other.”

  “Satisfactory. What is the estimated travel time from Eryth to Arkon?”

  I started to answer before realizing the trick. “For which ship class, ma’am?”

  “Good catch. For a scout vessel like us.”

  “Approximately fifty hours.”

  “And for a cruiser?”

  “Seventy-five to eighty hours.”

  “Correct. Now check on the sensors.”

  “Aye ma’am.”

  More quizzes came throughout the shift, until around 2200, when the sensor data started to change.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Ma’am?” I asked, unsure what I was seeing.

  “Ah, yes. We’re approaching the transition to the major current. Sensor data gets wonky there, and the academy doesn’t represent it very well in their simulations. It’s fine.”

  “How do we know how to navigate it, then?”

  “With experience and practice, you can still identify the signal amidst the noise. I’ll describe what I’m seeing as I handle the navigation.”

  From there, she helped me to understand the weird data I was seeing. I didn’t quite get it, but I could see how one could learn to feel their way through eventually. She also kept in constant communication with the pilot, even moreso than usual. After around an hour, the data started to settle.

  “Congratulations, ensign. You’ve officially left your home system.”

  I sat back, absorbing the reality before me. I was no longer at home. In fact, I was a long, long way from what had been my home for most of my life. In one sense, I no longer had a home, but in another, the stars themselves were my home.

  Focusing back on my job, I pushed my existential contemplations to the back of my mind to examine later. The rest of the shift passed quietly, the three of us only speaking to communicate important information about our jobs. I imagined the major event in my life brought things to mind for the other two—the XO having left the bridge off and on during the shift.

  When the shift ended, I headed to the mess to grab some food along with Anabadas and Rokloth. We met a few other people there, including Isa and Ani. Chatting about nonsense helped relax me after the shift, and after food, I spent some time playing cards before heading to bed, thankful for my private room that let me shift in peace.

  When I awoke, I saw I had a message on my tablet from the ship’s medic asking me to stop by sometime during first shift. I decided to hit the gym first, then showered, ate breakfast, and made my way to the infirmary.

  Knocking on the door, I waited until I was invited in. Inside was a human man wearing a navy-issued lab coat.

  “You must be Ensign Juniper,” he said. “Thank you for making time to come see me.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  “I just wanted to go over your medical history and do a basic scan. I know you’ve been poked and prodded plenty since joining the academy, but it’s standard procedure. Now, I see that you have had all your necessary inoculations and treatments, is that correct?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good, just want to make sure that the records match what you know. And no known health issues, right?”

  “Correct, sir.”

  “Excellent. Now, if you’ll come with me into the other room, I’ll have you lay down on one of the beds so I can perform the scan. We’ll be using a manatech device for this so that the results can be stored in your file.”

  I agreed, nervous as always that he would somehow realize I was a shapeshifted dragon. I knew it was silly, but I could never shake the worry.

  Thankfully, the scan passed quickly, and he didn’t notice anything abnormal.

  “Everything looks good, ensign. Thank you again for your time. You are free to go.”

  “Thank you, sir,” I said before leaving, glad to be away from that environment. The man himself seemed capable and kind, it was just the risk that gnawed at my mind while in those rooms.

  Soon, it was time for my second ever shift. Things were mostly the same as the previous day, but it was interesting to see how we were able to pass the slower ships moving through the region. Of course, the current was extremely large compared to the size of a ship, but our sensors were plenty capable. It was strange, though, how we seemed to be moving much more slowly than one would expect—traveling fifty percent or more faster at the speeds necessary to travel between star systems in days would result in a massive absolute difference in speed, but it was closer to an aerial fighter passing a commercial airship.

  Another strange thing about traveling the aether was that acceleration past a certain point didn’t actually seem to accelerate you. Rather, it seemed to somehow be converted directly into velocity, meaning the stronger your engines pushed, the faster you went, rather than it resulting in a greater continuous increase in velocity. This was one of the reasons that we often called traveling the stars “sailing”—it was much more similar to traditional watercraft than what planetary physics suggested should happen.

  During dinner after my shift, I sat down next to Isa.

  “Your second official day go well?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Though Lieutenant Rokloth here has really been grilling me.”

  Rokloth laughed. “That’s my job, kid. Also, feel free to call me Ess while off-duty. I know it’s a bit weird to call your commanding officer by her first name, but scout ships are a different beast. Going off into the unknown… we really need to trust each other.”

  I nodded, still lacking the personal experience to truly understand, though I was sure it would come in time. “Alright, Ess. I’m Dax.”

  She bowed her head slightly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dax.”

  I chuckled and returned to my food.

  “Okay, enough of this silliness,” Isa said. “I’ve got something to show you all.”

  “Why, Isa, that is wholly inappropriate!” I joked, getting a laugh from everyone at the table, including the person in question, who softly smacked the back of my head.

  “Get your head out of the gutter. It’s a new toy I’ve been working on.”

  “Hey now, what you do in the privacy of your cabin is none of my business.”

  This time she just rolled her eyes. “Har-dee-har, you’re so funny.”

  “I try,” I said, enjoying my time with these crewmates.

  Once we had all finished, Isa led us to the engineering workroom.

  “Tada!” she said, gesturing to a strange box with what appeared to be slots on top and an opening in the front.

  “Uh, what is it?” someone asked.

  She huffed. “It’s a card shuffler!” She pulled a deck of cards out of… somewhere… and split it in half, one half in each of the top slots. She then pulled a small lever, and the cards shot into the central opening. Two seconds in, the cards got stuck, and the machine whined before a piece popped out.

  She released the lever and scratched the back of her head. “Okay, so it’s not perfect. But isn’t it cool!”

  “Totally!” I said, a little bit forced. She just gave me a disappointed look that I was pretty sure was exaggerated.

  Thankfully, Tiroteo chimed in. “I bet it’d be great when you’re drunk and can barely hold the cards!”

  Everyone laughed, and Isa perked up. “Or for old people, or kids!”

  I nodded. “Probably less useful on a military ship than elsewhere, though.”

  She shrugged. “Still.”

  “Still,” I agreed.

  From there, we separated. I headed up to the bridge, knowing we’d be entering the Arkon system soon and wanting to be there to officially become an interstellar traveler.

  Sure enough, the lieutenant on duty let me sit at a station and watch, and once the sensor data stabilized, she congratulated me. Feeling unreasonably proud of myself, I headed to bed, a smile on my face.