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was sitting in it.
You might yet. Dena pointed at a starship dead ahead.
Lyn! What the heck are you up to, why didn t you alert me?
Dena did just fine.
Krys growled. Why is she at the Nav anyway?
file:///D|/Pub%20Folders/NCP%20Publishing/Text%20an%20HTML%20bks/AnnaleeBlysse%20StarlitDestiny%20NCP.htm[2/5/2009 4:21:20 PM]
Starlit Destiny
Wasn t it you who said that Dena was capable of learning in five minutes what took me years? It occurred to me she
could do a better job as your navigator.
As if dealing with breaking some felon out of prison isn t enough, now we re an academy for wannabe star pirates.
Krys sighed. How long do I have to put up with this?
Not for long. Dena added plenty of sarcasm to her voice. I ll be gone before you know it.
Do your thing and leave us alone, Jaret said, obviously amused again. Dena didn t really appreciate being a source
of continual entertainment.
She watched the desert world Tahn Ror shrinking on the viewscreen. She hadn t found much about Tahn Ror on the
Nav. It seemed they were a very secretive race. With good reason, if they were willing to help people like her own.
The question was, why were they helping Lyask? I am curious, she said, pausing for a moment. If you are worth so
much why haven t the Tahn Rorians turned you in yet?
Because we have made them far, far more credits than the Command is willing to pay.
Aren t there others that are willing to make them money? she asked, looking back and forth between Krys and Jaret.
Like Krys, uh, Darian said, Gaddis could gain a lot of credits by betraying you.
No others have our qualifications--
Or none so conceited, Dena suggested, in case he didn t know.
Will I have to listen to you harass me the entire way to Vertor? You re probably going to run us into a black hole. At
least you could let me die in peace, Krys said, making her wonder how he could be so flippant about that, considering
it was how he had supposedly died.
Darian, shut up, Jaret said and brought her attention back to the task at hand. None of what he told her about
mapping a course made sense. But she did everything Jaret told her to do.
Okay then, Jaret finally said. You can make the jump.
Dena had slept during her first trip through hyperspace. After Jaret assured her the second trip wouldn t be easier on
her system, she was anxious to see what all the fuss was about. This ought to be exciting.
Not really, Jaret said.
Oh, please. Krys exclaimed. She s about to cover you in those silly fruits you bought her on Tahn Ror and you
know it.
Dena looked to Jaret in question. The man smiled at her, shaking his head in a comforting gesture. Confident again,
Dena scowled. It s the manufactured foods in your galley that are foolish to eat. At least he was polite enough to find
me something edible.
You haven t even tried our food, how would you know?
You wouldn t have to ask if you d ever eaten zsuravbahrah pie. Her mouth started watering.
Dena gripped her armrests, waiting for the exhilarating moment when they made that jump into hyperspace. Instead,
for just a few seconds, they accelerated into a tunnel of intense light, before they were suddenly in black space. The
event was rather anticlimactic. We aren t traveling any faster than we were on Lyask or Tahn Ror.
I guess you could say we are taking a short cut through another dimension, Jaret said.
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Starlit Destiny
How did we get here? she asked.
Dena, the only important thing that you have to know about a stardrive is to have an extra one onboard in case the
one that you have malfunctions, Jaret said.
Do you have an extra? she asked.
We are currently in debt, Krys said, interrupting their conversation.
That means you don t, she said pointedly. What if we get stuck ... here?
Krys raised his eyebrows and turned down the corners of his lips in an expression that demonstrated he wasn t the
slightest bit concerned. Never happen.
* * * *
Dena stood, transfixed, her nose and palms pressed against a floor-to-ceiling window. Below her, about one third of
the red and gold, cloud-enshrouded planet New Saturn was brilliant against the backdrop of space, the bulk of the
planet shadowed by nightfall. But as her eyes scanned the colossal ring city of Vertor s outline, a dim trail of light
marked the city s orbit. Where the massive city disappeared behind the planet s dark edge, she could see a faint orange
ribbon of reflected light.
It s amazing. Imagine how many people must live here. It wraps around the entire planet. Vertor was a monument to
off-world architecture, to say the least. It was not hard to believe the city had room to house the entirety of the
governing powers of the Tomerian Galactic Federation.
Both men stared at her with blank expressions on their faces--neither seemed to agree. They considered her magical,
but they could not see the magic behind such a fantastic creation.
When they d come out of hyperspace, Dena had been equally amazed at the silken rings that orbited New Saturn.
Vertor appeared large enough to block those rings from view. She craned her neck and tried to stare straight up. Can
the rings be seen from the top of this city?
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