The moon Osiris is no ordinary moon. Orbiting around Keto, the moon stays tidally locked above the planet. This means that the same side of the moon always faces the planet as it revolves around Keto. On the far side, hidden neatly away, just out of sight of the planet, are two massive holes lined with metal structures that lead straight towards the center of the moon. These holes are large enough to fit a mountain inside or to spit one out, and gapes open into the emptiness of space.

The humans that had colonized the planet Keto had also hollowed out the existing moon to serve the purpose of an interdimensional shipping lane. One tunnel was used as an entrance, and the other is an exit of course. The tunnels dive deep under the crust into a cavern-like structure that is unlike any other. This moon is far from hollow, for inside lay the key to interdieensional travel and the answer to the question of how do we achieve extended space flight to distant stars.

The hollowing of the moon by mechanical means, funded by the Takeda Corporation took decades but the payoff was absolutely worthwhile. The construction crew, made up of millions of workers, fit a wormhole generator into the core of the moon. The generator takes up most of the interior, and is capable of transporting even the largest of ships throughout anywhere in the known universe to where there is another wormhole generator. Linking the star systems of the galaxies of Andromeda and the Milky Way, these massive moon-sized portals open the way for shipping materials and travel. Travel is nearly instantaneous with only a few hours lost during the travel due to space-time distortion near the event horizon of the wormhole.

Resembling eight thick metal rings that are progressively larger, each is hundreds of kilometers in diameter with the largest of the rings taking up the entire space of the moon’s inner core. The massive ring is able to almost touch the walls which are covered in electromagnetic support beams arranged in the pattern of a honeycomb. The rings seem to be rotating all on their own, with each going in a different direction and spinning like a top as they rotate. Lining the inner core of the moon are various metal structures whose sole purpose is to hold the rings in place while spinning and rotating magnetically. As the eight rings rotate together, they form a tight ball with gaps that show up periodically.

Currently, the rings are rotating and spinning smoothly, but then start to pick up the pace. Faster and faster they rotate until a thick mirrored ball snaps into existence in the center of the innermost ring. The ball grows larger and larger until it consumes the innermost ring. The mirrored ball continues to grow steadily until all of the rings have been consumed, shrouding them from view. This mirrored ball doesn’t show the rings contained within or the inner core of this moon but shows the inner workings of another wormhole generator from somewhere else in the galaxy. On one side of the spherical wormhole is the image of a ship that is growing larger as if it is about to burst out of a bubble.

Once the image of the ship got close enough to look like it was going to pass through and come out of the wormhole, it seemed as if the entire ship was plastered across the surface of the mirrored ball. It emerged neatly out of one side and down one of the long tunnels to the surface of the moon. The silvery surface of the wormhole stuck to the ship as it made its way out of the moon-based portal. As the back of the ship exited the wormhole, it snapped back together into a sphere with water-like ripples across the surface. The wormhole generator powered down, and the mirrored ball disappeared from existence growing smaller in size as the eight rings slowed their rotational speed.

The ship heading out of the center of the moon Osiris was a shipping class cruiser called The Zealot. Its large white English letters plastered on each side of the ship’s body. From the front side, the ship looks like a giant plus sign with a window at the top of the plus. From the side and the top, the ship looks like an elongated rectangle. Nothing too spectacular about this ship besides the massive coating of paint it has confidently stating its name. Along the sides, back, and bottom are various thrusters for lift-off, landings, and flight.

Sitting in the pilot’s seat is a massive lump of meat. This dark-haired, grizzly looking man sits quietly in his chair with the tiny controls in-between his hands while his brown uniform and slacks are pinching against his body. Patiently, he waits until the ship reaches the end of the tunnel, once in a while looking out the window in various directions to check his distance from the walls. After reaching the end of the tunnel, the large man presses forward on his flight controls, and the ship lurches forward as it boosts out of the thin atmosphere of the moon. Once the ship had come within sight of the planet Keto, the man reaches over and flicks a switch to the local star system radio channel.

“Keto. Come in, Keto. This is shipping cruiser Zealot, ID number K29G95. Pilot ID, Felix Sutherland, ID number 67KF34NW. Requesting landing at Launch Central.” Felix flicks off the radio comms, sets the transmission to repeat and again patiently waits. A voice comes over the radio, but it isn’t the one that Felix is expecting.

“Felix, it’s Sophia. We’ve got a problem down here in engine maintenance. We’ll have to replace a fuel cell before we go anywhere. This one is scorching hot down here and won’t make it for the return trip back. I don’t think we’ll have time for it to cool down either. It’s burning at 1500 degrees Celsius. It’s going to detonate if we try lifting off while we're still pushing out power like this. We’re simply running the engine too much lately. Have you contacted the planet yet?”

Felix clicks the ship’s comms on, “No, I haven’t. I just sent out a request for landing permissions. We should be arriving in about a day. It’ll take a few moments for my message to reach them and for them to get back to me. I’ll send in another request as soon as I get permission to land.”

Sophia continues, “Well it looks as if our radiation shielding may have failed during the transition through the wormhole. Everything on the floor has heated up big time. It seems that our underbelly shielding finally gave in. It must be why our fuel cell is about to blow. Must’ve absorbed the excess radiation from the wormhole dissolving. I’m drenched in sweat down here.”

Felix takes a deep breath before responding, “Alright, seal up the hatches, set the heatsinks to maximum absorption, and get up to the bridge. There’s not much more you can do down there. We’ll have to land for repairs. The best thing we can hope for is that the heatsinks do their job and keep us from a reactor meltdown.”

“Yes, sir.” Sophia can be heard swiftly latching down metal hatches before Felix finally cuts off the ship comms.

Reaching up to the panel above his head, Felix flips a couple of switches for various monitors with ship readouts that light up his face with blue light. His features are truly distinct. Black grizzly hair, thick beard, and bushy brows. Golden amber eyes and something else. Something… foreign.

His pupils were not that of a human’s but resembling that of a reptilian's eyes. A thin vertical slice of blackness filled in the center of his amber iris. Felix’s reptilian eyes scanned the monitors, checking on the status of the engine room. The temperature of the fuel cell had rapidly declined from 1500 degrees down to 1200.

“Glad to see those heat sinks are working good as ever,” Felix thought to himself.

A deep chalky gravely voice breaks Felix’s thoughts, “They ought to be. We did design them together, after all. Or do you find my theories on heat dispersion fallible? I fail to see why you keep doubting the capabilities of technology.”

“Okay, Dusty. I’ve got one for you. There was that one time on shipping lane twenty-three. We damn near turned into a makeshift nuke while waiting in line for the wormhole transport.” Felix called out and wagged his finger in the air at the voice he heard. However, there was nobody else currently on the bridge, and Sophia had not made her way back from the engine room.

An amber glow emanated from underneath Felix’s brown delivery uniform, and a streak of golden misty light shot out through the center. The elongated golden smoky light did a single lap around Felix before landing on the floor next to him and forming into the shape of a dragon. Even though the dragon spirit did not hold a true physical form, its talons still clicked across the metal floor panels as it landed. Diminutive in size, the smoky spirit form of the dragon could easily perch on your shoulders and was about the size of a full-grown hawk. Every tiny detail showed through the misty transparent smoke.

This specific dragon spirit wasn’t your typical dragon though. Without wings, this dragon was of the particular species called a drake, and this one looked like a panther with armored scales. Even without wings, drakes can still be extremely deadly and could even take flight through magical means. Drakes are just one of the many species of dragons that have existed, but that is a story for another time.

Dusty the dragon’s fanged scaly mouth began to move as it spoke directly to Felix, “As I recall, the engine meltdown was entirely your fault. You managed to…”

Felix cut off the dragon mid-sentence, “I managed to throw one of the best damn tailgate parties in space, and you just so happened to ruin it.” He pointed down at the dragon next to him as he finished.

Dusty continued, “You managed to push out more power than I ever thought possible, without even moving the ship! All the toilets running at full capacity, the air conditioning at max cooling, and the lights were turned into strobes and burned about as hot as the engine itself! Not to mention the musical coordinator had burnt out several power converters throughout the ship. You would most certainly be dead if it weren’t for me turning off all non-essential systems.”

Felix hung his head in response as Dusty nonstop grilled him on his mistakes, ”Yes, Felix. The reactor almost hit critical mass, and it was utterly your responsibility to make sure that didn’t happen. Poor Sophia almost got a lethal dose of radiation because of that ‘tailgate party’ of yours or whatever you humans call it.”

Felix sighed, “Yeah, I know. I had no idea that was even possible to run the engine that hot with just the non-essential systems. It would have been fine if your heatsinks had not of failed.”

Dusty snapped his jaw and jumped up onto Felix’s lap. The dragon spirit gutturally growled before addressing the human directly, “Had not of failed!? You botched the finest heatsinks we could get our hands on and the countless hours lost that were spent on modifications for them! You set the absorption rate to the max and thought that would be all there was to do. You left it to run and partied on, and when it failed, there was nobody around to notice when the reactor went critical.”

The dragon poked Felix in the chest with one of his talons as he continued, ”I left my crystal just in time to notice the change of the electrical signals from around the ship. We had lost all of our heatsink equipment and the fuel cell because of your debauchery. Luckily enough you got the engineers that were partying aboard drunk enough to agree to fix the ship for free. I swear if it weren’t for them, we’d be bankrupt because of you.”

Felix said nothing, but his jaw was left wide open. Slowly, he closed his mouth and nodded his head. Clenching his teeth, Felix said, “I’m sorry. You’re right. Now if you don’t mind, would you kindly remove your claws from my thigh.”

Felix continued to grit his teeth in agony as the dragon looked down to where it was perched. Looking up quickly and hopping down from Felix’s lap, the smoky dragon sighed, “It was only a matter of time before we reached the limit of the technology. As you may recall, everything has its limits. Too much of anything is always deadly.”

Felix looked over his shoulder without turning his head, “It’s bad enough that we almost lost everything, now you’re giving me philosophy lectures? I’m no longer a child, Dusty. I know better.”

The screech of metal hatches opening resounds from behind the duo, but the hatch to the bridge had not opened yet. Felix panics and whispers loudly, “Dusty! Get back into the crystal. Sophia is coming.” A streak of amber strikes towards Felix’s chest as the dragon disappears into an amber Draegona Crystal neatly tucked away under Felix’s uniform.

The hatch to the bridge opens and in steps a woman in protective yellow radioactive gear covering her entire body from head to toe. On her back, she is wearing oxygen tanks with tubes sprouting out of them and also has on black rubber gloves and boots. There is duct tape wrapped around where the suit meets the gloves and boots. The only view of her is through a thick plastic viewport on her hooded portion of the suit.

Felix blinks his eyes rapidly before turning in his command chair. His pupils shifted from reptilian slits to human circles between blinks but retained their amber color. Finally turning around in the chair to face Sophia, he asks her, “Did you remember to go through decontamination first?”

Sophia’s muted laughs can be heard from inside the radiation suit, “Yes, now come unzip me. This thing is difficult to get off, and I’m sweating my ass off in here. So, if you wouldn’t mind helping me, that’d be great.”

Felix gets up out of the chair and walks over to a spot behind Sophia. He reaches out for a zipper on her back up near her neck and pulls down on it. With the other hand, he reaches up to the oxygen tanks and turns them off. “You’re good to go. Should be easy enough to get it off.”

Sophia reaches up to her thick yellow hood and pulls upwards, releasing her head from the suit first. Pulling herself out through the zipper hole in the back, she sheds the rest easily enough starting with her hands and then feet. She’s wearing a white tank top and brown cargo pants on underneath. Her hair is tied up into a ponytail on the back of her head.

After reaching down to get the boots off of her feet, Sophia gently floats up off the floor, released from her magnetic locking boots and looks up at Felix who was still towering over her. She asks him flatly, “So is there any word from Keto yet?”

Felix responds, “No, but I assume we’ll be getting our answer shortly.”

Sophia scoffs, “You’d think with all this advanced travel technology we have, that we would have thought of a better way to transmit messages by now. You know the worst part about having an engineering career these days?”

Felix smiles, “No I don’t. Please, entertain me.”

Sophia cracks a smile, “I have to take two showers. One for the radiation, and one for the smell. It always has to do with heat, cold, radiation, or toxic gases. No matter where I go, I’m always drenched with some kind of fluid. If it weren’t for the amazing hazard pay, I’d be taking my paycheck to a nice beach somewhere out on…”

Sophia is cut off when the radio crackles to life, “Shipping cruiser Zealot, this is Launch Central of Keto. You are cleared for landing on runway three. After landing, please wait while we get your ship moved into one of the hangers to be retrofitted with launch boosters. We have a massive superstorm inbound and may have to scrub the scheduled shipment launch due to high winds. We’ll be monitoring the storm and keep you informed of any changes.”

Felix leaves Sophia floating slightly above the floor of the bridge while he walks over to his chair, his own mag boots clicking as they lock onto the metal hull. Sitting down and swiveling the chair back towards the controls, Felix clicks on the microphone for the radio, “Keto, this is Zealot. We understand the problem with the storm. In fact, we’re in desperate need of repairs anyways. Our fuel cell is starting to overheat. We’ll need a replacement fuel cell. It seems we also had some radiation shielding in the engine room fail. We’ll need to have the shielding inspected and repaired before lift-off. Can you also do me one more favor? Tell Vikta Sullivan that I’d love to see him and the boy tomorrow at Launch Central.”

Felix clicks off the radio and turns in his chair to see Sophia already grabbing for the floor and pushing herself effortlessly towards the bulkhead door. “Headed off to the shower, eh?” he asks with a hearty smirk.

Sophia cheerily laughs, “That and a nap. Wake me when we get there.” The bridge hatch clangs shut, and metal crunches as she turns the metal locking mechanism for the bulkhead.

Felix turns back towards the controls and relaxes in his chair as the Zealot drifts towards Keto. A gorgeous view of a blue, brown, and green planet, not unlike Earth. The only difference was the mass of clouds forming a colossal hurricane. Watching both the planet and hurricane carefully, Felix notices something odd with the formation of clouds.

Blinking once as his eyes change back to that of a reptilian’s, Felix thinks to himself, “Do you see this Dusty? Those discharges from the top of those clouds are unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”

Dusty’s voice resounds from within Felix’s mind as he stares intently at the planet, “Yes and it isn’t good news at all. Anything flying over those clouds is going to drop out of the sky like a stone. I would not recommend flying the shipping cruiser over that hurricane. It’s amazing that we can even see the lightning sprites from this far off. From what I can ascertain, those tendrils of lightning are reaching hundreds of kilometers into the outer magnetosphere. The clouds are producing probably the most electrically charged superstorm I’ve ever seen. Not even gas planets produce lightning that powerful. We must get to the planet before the storm reaches Launch Central. Otherwise… we’ll be a vulnerable lightning rod in orbit.”