Miles dropped his belongings off at his own personal cabin. It was a small space, cramped even compared to the lodgings he had found at the Concordia. Besides a small bed, a closet, and a restroom, there wasn’t much else besides. Just above his bunk opened a long window, which allowed him a good view of the spaceport.

Some of the crew were still moving the final gear onto the ship. He could see them moving back and forth in the long glass tubes which connected the Hyperion to the docking bay. Miles took a second, watching the dots move back and forth before he threw himself onto the bed and rested his head on his arms. He placed his cowboy hat on his face and allowed his eyes to close for a moment.

He had a long day ahead of him. According to Free Exchange restrictions, AI could only pilot in the event that all crew were placed into stasis or otherwise incapacitated. As a result, ships needed piloting crews to rotate around the clock. It wasn’t as simple as laying in a course and letting the ship to the rest. The gravity drives needed constant supervision.

Miles best compared it to balancing on a bicycle. Children always had fun with those in the low gravity of Braith. He used to watch them ride the bikes onto the walls and even the ceiling. It wasn’t too difficult, but you always needed someone at the handlebars.

A moment passed before his own boredom got to him. He had another half hour before he was due to report to the bridge. The last thing he wanted to do was spend the time napping. Miles jumped off the bed and left his room to the pristine hallway of the Hyperion.

The well-lit corridor was filled with doorways leading to other cabins belonging to the rest of the crew. A blue carpet softened his footsteps as he walked towards the nearest elevator. Stepping over a bulkhead, he felt the almost imperceptible difference of entering another gravity field. The Hyperion was divided into many sections, each with its own personalized artificial gravity. The effect allowed most inertial force to be mitigated as impacts transferred from one field to another. And in the worst emergencies, gave the crew precious seconds to seal off depressurized portions of the ship.

He stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the engineering deck. A few moments in the lift and a short walk later, he found himself in the core room.

One massive pillar descended through three separate decks. In the very center of the column was a reinforced cylindrical chamber of steel and glass. Looking inside, one could see a distinct black sphere held in place by six metal spindles all tapering off just before touching the void. The miniature black hole sat at the center of all starships in the Free Exchange. It alone powered the four gravity drives and supplied most of the ship’s energy.

Surrounding the chamber were dozens of computer terminals and even more crew members attending to the machinery. Miniature elevators moved back and forth between the three floors as personnel were moving about managing the core. Miles curiously poked around, checking out different monitors and occasionally dabbling with some controls.

“What are you doing here?” Amos separated himself from the rest of the grey uniforms and approached Miles.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Thought I take the scenic route to the bridge.”

Amos frowned. “That’s in the opposite direction of engineering.”

“The really scenic route then.” Miles dismissed the thought and moved over to look at the core. “This powers the whole ship? Looks rather small.” He looked inside the glass casing.

“Ironically, the smaller a black hole, the more energy its puts out.” Amos crossed his arms and looked through the casing as well. “Right now, that core alone would put out enough energy to power a small city.”

“And it’s all contained within that chamber?”

“Well, it’s not just the chamber. There are multiple gravity fields holding that black hole stable and keeping us safe from the radiation.”

Miles peered through the glass. The black sphere sat silently in the center. He could see slight distortions of the light where the gravity fields contained and directed the radiation pouring out from the energy source. It was hard to imagine that even the smallest particle penetrating the field would cause the whole core to shut down. For machines commanding such power, gravity drives were astonishingly delicate.

The image of the reinforced glass cracking and shattering came to mind. All it took would be a slight motion of air and the black hole would be destabilized. The ship had to shut it down, otherwise it might expand and consume everything. Then the vessel would be left stranded in the vastness of space.

Miles stepped away from the core. “So, you think you’ll have this ship ready to fly soon?”

Amos scowled. “You know, we’re still doing tests for the equipment. I don’t even know the force tolerances for the drive.”

“Great then.” Miles clapped his hands together. “I look forward to crashing the ship into the city.”

“It’ll fly.” Amos rolled his eyes. “Like I said yesterday. Don’t do anything too crazy, and we’ll make it just fine.”

“Glad to hear.” Miles smiled, although the grin slowly faded.

“What is it?” Amos asked, noticing the change. “I’ve never seen you without that smirk on your face.”

Miles hesitated. He’d been pushing it to the back of his mind for a while now, but Singh’s speech had reminded him of the reality that he had been desperately ignoring. The real reason he had accepted Glen Tannis’ offer to serve aboard this expedition. The bitter truth was that he could not care less about what he demanded from Tannis. A ship wouldn’t give him anymore freedom than he already had. The galaxy was a prison, and the Free Exchange always held the keys.

He never intended to return from this expedition. This was going to be a one-way trip for him regardless of what they find at the signal. He was going to break free of the Free Exchange—no matter what.

Miles threw up another smile. “It’s nothing. Just… good luck.”

“Yeah, you too.” Amos gave a grim nod.

Miles shoved his hands in his pockets and left the engineering deck. He walked a short distance back to the elevator. Stepping inside, one more grey uniform ducked through the closing doors.

A short woman with black hair and narrow eyes stood next to him. Miles recognized the ethnicity as Earth Asian. He always found it funny that such terms had stuck around long after they were more or less useless. Even the term Earth was somewhat useless as there were now a half-dozen recreations of the planet across the galaxy.

“A pleasure to meet you, sir.” The woman stuck out her hand.

Miles’ eyes drifted toward her side, but he remembered they were now disconnected from the city’s UTN server. Nothing but empty air greeted his eyes. Instead, he smiled and shook her hand.

“You are?” he asked.

“Ensign Mia Williams,” the woman cheerfully replied. “I’m one of the helmsmen.”

Miles almost slapped himself. He meant to memorize the faces of the crew serving under his command, but that had somehow slipped his mind. He had a team of four pilots working for him. Personally, he didn’t enjoy working with other people, but Tannis had stipulated that it was part of the deal.

“Miles Kieth,” he formally introduced himself. “The pleasure is all mine.”

He pushed the button for the top deck and leaned on the railing in the elevator. Mia remained uncomfortable in the center, and there was a moment of awkward silence between them.

“If I may ask, sir, I expected you to schedule a meeting with the lower officers,” she slowly began. “Set up basic protocol and such.”

“I thought it would be counterproductive.” Miles felt another jolt as the elevator began to climb up.

He had taken a look through the basic structure of the Hyperion. A vessel this large needed a primary pilot to control direction and speed while a secondary stabilized the gravity drives and controlled gravity currents. The bios of all the crew under him indicated they had decent experience with such systems. He felt comfortable with their basic competence.

Mia’s eyes furrowed in confusion. “I don’t take your meaning. Shouldn’t you establish a proper chain of command?”

He turned to her. “How long have you spent flying ensign?”

“Seven years,” she stated.

“And how many of those years have you spent on non-military vessels?”

She looked even more confused. “Sir?”

Miles beckoned with his hand for her to answer. “How many?”

“None, sir.”

“I have sixteen on military and another forty-eight on practically every ship up the spiral arm. You know what I’ve learned? Good piloting is all the same, no matter what kind of ship you are on. There is no such thing as a chain of command when you’re in that chair. Pilots operate as a team, working together in unison. You keep the gravity stable and I keep flying. There’s no protocol, no orders, no nothing. You can’t waste seconds if we’re ever in a fight. Especially not from me.”

“But the Captain—“

“You let me worry about the Captain. All that matters is what you can do and what you can’t. There’s nothing else that can come in the way of that.”

Mia barely withheld a surprised look on her face. Miles simply shrugged his shoulders back at her.

“I’m not going to be commanding anyone. When you are in the chair, it’s up to you. Pass that along to the others. There’s no other way around it. Either this crew is up to snuff or it isn’t. No amount of command in the world is going to change that fact.”

“I will.” She nodded her head.

The doors opened to the deck, and Miles gestured his arm for her to go first. She gratefully stepped out, and he walked beside her as they continued onto the bridge.

“Have you ever flown a vessel as large as the Hyperion?” she asked.

Miles rubbed his chin. “Largest was an ore hauler about twice the size of this ship. We were attacked by pirates just outside of the Yianna Cluster. I had to skim the star—just shy of fifteen thousand kilometers to get them off of us.”

“Can ore haulers even survive that?” Mia asked, deeply concerned.

Miles paused for a moment. “Eh.”

The two walked through one final door and found themselves standing in the bridge. Compared to the rest of the ship, the grey circular room was bulky in design. The white corridors had given way to reinforced metal to better protect the bridge. Aligned against the walls were multiple terminals and computers, all with people working on them. Near the other side of the room was a holographic wall styled in the fashion of windows, giving an outside view of the front of the ship. In reality, the bridge was behind several decks, buried in the vessel's interior.

There was an ecstatic energy in the air as people busied themselves at their workstations. Lower officers moved around between stations, and right in the center was Captain Singh. He sat in the middle of it all, giving orders to the crew and handing out assignments. Off to the side, Miles saw Commander Terese overseeing the last of the gear being loaded and Lt. Commander Klyker looking over inspection reports from the turrets.

An unusual addition to the bridge, Miles saw a chaplain in a black cassock sitting in a corner. He was an older man that looked in his fifties—unusual as most people didn’t opt for that age. He had a balding head with a harsh, pointy face. His skin was rough and leathery after years of hardship. Calm eyes were reading a bible in his hand.

The Captain turned in his chair as he noticed the two pilots enter. Both Miles and Mia saluted to the man.

“At ease.” Singh waved his hand and a three-dimensional map of Ghenus’ solar system appeared before them. A blue line lifted off from the planet and towards the star where the Space Gate was located. “The Free Exchange has plotted our course for us until we reach Vetrius Minor. It should be a fairly simple route.”

Miles nodded his head. The Space Gate was essentially a gravity drive the size of several skyscrapers. It drew energy from the star to create a bridge between solar systems. The gate distorted space-time, allowing a ship to hop from gate to gate faster than light. Unlike the personal gravity bubbles for ships, Space Gates were powered by an almost limitless supply of energy to facilitate almost instantaneous travel. They wouldn’t need much effort in this portion of the journey.

“You may assume your posts.” Singh dismissed the image. “We’ll be taking off in a few short minutes.”

The two went over to seats near the front of the bridge. Sitting down in front of a console, several holographic displays opened up in front of him, giving him views from different angles of the ship. In front of Mia were algorithms and diagnostic screens of the gravity bubble surrounding the Hyperion.

From here, Miles could control virtually every movement the ship would make without affecting the inertia inside. Meanwhile, Mia made sure that the bubble remained stable. Otherwise, movements could become unpredictable and in extreme cases shear the hull. Outside this bubble was the layer reserved for shielding.

Instead of gentle gravity currents tugging at space to allow for travel, these areas were reserved for extreme distortions. Flat screens of space-time could be altered so that a projectile would be subject to the forces equivalent to a black hole. A missile could be sent flying from its course in another direction entirely. Meanwhile, lasers could be refracted away at different angles, sometimes right back towards the enemy. All of this was done through a predicative AI which highlighted areas of impact using sensors enhanced to act faster than light.

That was the captain’s job, to work with the AI to manage these small intense areas while coordinating both the pilots and weapon’s fire. Miles didn’t envy the man. Managing that amount of moving parts must be nightmare inducing. He just had to fly the ship.

“All personnel have boarded the ship, and all the equipment is secured. We’re ready to fly,” Commander Terese looked towards Singh from her workstation.

“Open comms to the rest of the ship.” Singh ordered, and then he nodded his head to the chaplain, who had been quietly sitting in the corner. “Attention crew, we are about to lift off. Please bow your heads for a moment of prayer.”

The priest stood up from the chair and closed his bible. Miles turned his head to look at the older man as he began. It was an odd addition to the proceedings. Strangely enough, it was not one that Miles was familiar with in all his years of piloting. Most captains kept their views private. Miles himself wasn’t a religious man, but he didn’t mind the distraction.

A silence fell upon the bridge as all eyes fell upon the chaplain.

“In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” The priest made the sign of the Catholic-Orthodox Faith. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not with your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

The priest looked towards the crew of the bridge. “We ask you, Lord, for safe passage on this journey. May the stars light our way, and may we all find safety in your refuge. We know not what we will find at the end of this voyage, but we go forth in trust that you will stand with us. Lord, please let us find peace at this distant star. But if we should find war, place a sword in our hands and send us strong against the enemy.”

The priest landed his eyes on Captain Singh and the two exchanged a strange glance.

“For this we pray, amen.” The chaplain made the sign of the cross again and sat back down.

Captain Singh turned his attention back to the rest of the crew, who all looked towards him. “I have faith in this crew that we shall be ready to meet any challenge we may face. Let us step bravely into this new frontier and see just what future awaits us.” he shut off the comm and gestured towards Miles.

Miles leaned back in his chair as he initiated the undocking protocols. The glass tubes connecting the Hyperion to the dock retracted away from the ship. Initializing the gravity bubble, the Hyperion shifted under its own weight as the zero-g bay released its hold. Giving the signal to operators working the dock, the bay doors opened above and the Hyperion was met by a gentle blue sky and a startling sun rise.

“Take us out, Helmsman.” Singh nodded his head.

Miles grinned and adjusted the parameters of the gravity bubble. Beside him, Mia worked the fields, making sure they remained stable as Miles lifted the ship upwards. The Hyperion gently hummed as it cleared the space port and now flew through the sky. He tilted the ship at an angle and glanced towards Mia as they entered the upper atmosphere.

The woman glanced back at him as well, and a smile danced on her lips. The mood was contagious, and everyone could feel it. They were finally ready. They were going. And absolutely nothing could stop them now. Miles looked back at his screen and pushed the ship onward. All right. He excitedly thought to himself. Let’s see just how fast you can go.