Chapter 1
ONE
JETT
TWELVE WEEKS TO CHARON
Quasar Metropolis-Class ship Neo-Tokyo sat in its home berth of Ganymede, waiting to be disgorged into the Void once more.
Jupiter’s distant, swirling storms were a colorful background for Ganymede’s green, domed villages and massive shipyards.
Lights marked shipping lanes and shuttle lines, providing temporary relief to space or planet-weary travelers.
Ji-tae Valla, or Jett as he was commonly known, looked down on the streets and people of the Neo-Tokyo, with a heavy weight in his chest. He’d spent the last seven years onboard, walking the streets of the city, dazzled by the lights and sounds and smells, surrounded by happy, thriving people.
And he’d been happy here. Happier than he’d ever been before. Happier than he probably deserved.
But he was no longer happy, and the sparkling city of the stars only served as a bitter reminder of all he’d lost. A reminder of the life he’d built, the friends he’d made, and the intoxicating, soul-rending love that he’d experienced for the first—and only—time in his life.
Thoughts of if and how and when things could end had been his constant companions over the preceding months.
Neon lights glittered off star-scrapers in the streets of the city of Neo-Tokyo.
Each District glowed with life, with love, with commerce and art, where people were born, lived, and died in perfect harmony with the stars beyond the hull.
Neo-Tokyo was a living, breathing thing wearing the metal skin of a space leviathan.
Though no longer the newest or largest of the Metropolis-class ships, silver-hulled Neo-Tokyo held a quiet, enduring grace.
At ten kilometers long and three in diameter, the ship was impressive for its age.
Steel-glass windows rose from just above the city streets to just below the Bridge level, letting in light and giving the residents a feeling of space.
Around Jett the hustle and bustle of the vast Bridge crew drowned out the dark thoughts that’d been his constant companion over the preceding months.
Thoughts of if and how and when things would end.
But he’d fought the temptation to end it all tooth and nail, and won the battle.
Only echoes of that ideation snuck around barriers built by medication and a rigid schedule.
But today was different. Today was a beginning and an ending, and he didn’t know how it would go.
A shadow crossed him, drawing Jett from his thoughts.
Maria Trench, Head of HR, loomed over him even when seated. They were 30cm taller than Jett, with broad shoulders and a barrel chest, and looked down at him with pale, almost-colorless eyes. They blinked away tears. The last eight weeks had been a trial for them as much as Jett.
“I’m gonna miss you, kid,” they said in lieu of a greeting.
“You’ve got plenty of other kids to look after, mom.
” When they’d met, Jett had been a lonely teenager, looking for someone to love him.
Maria had filled the role of surrogate family after his had abandoned him right after birth with a name and no forwarding address.
The need for calling them “mom” had long run its course, and Maria hadn’t insisted Jett use it as he grew and matured.
“Are you sure this is the right thing to do? You’re gonna leave everything behind?” They waved a hand at the city below them, the Bridge around them.
But Jett wasn’t looking at the neon-glow, the bustling crew, or Maria themself. His mind was elsewhere: the crew bar, the clubs, Athletics—hell, everywhere held shades of the man who broke his heart. And Jett couldn’t stay when every inch of the ship clung to Eddie with broken, bloody nails.
Jett would give anything to have Eddie Stone back in his life. The same man who’d left him without an explanation two months prior, and set Jett adrift. Jett felt like he’d gone EVA without a tether and would eventually die when his oxygen ran out.
“I’m not changing my mind. I can’t go anywhere on this damned ship without seeing him.
” Grief seeped into his words, and he let it.
He didn’t feel the need to hide his emotions.
But he needed to be on soon. He needed people to see Lieutenant Jett Valla, the former Head of Security; not the heartbroken man who couldn’t go a day without falling apart.
Maria pursed their lips and crossed their arms across their chest. “I know better than to argue with you. But I wish you would try talking to Eddie one last time. I know you. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
Jett shook his head. “The time for talking is long gone. I tried—begged—Eddie to talk to me. But he wouldn’t. He told me that everything had already been said.”
Maria stared at their feet as Jett turned toward the fore, where the heart of the Bridge lay.
“I did everything I could think of. And all that did was ruin the last dregs of hope left in me.” He couldn’t even say the man’s name within the solitude of his own mind and closed his eyes against a fresh round of tears.
“Just, once more? For me, if not for you?” Maria pleaded.
Jett sighed. He was so tired. Tired of hurting, tired of crying. He was tired of living life on the edge of overstimulation. Nothing soothed him like Eddie, and Eddie wasn’t part of his life anymore.
Beneath his feet, the ship’s ever-present, nigh-imperceptible vibrations stopped and started a second later. The Neo-Tokyo had left its berth.
“Fine,” he relented. “I’ll try once more.”
Maria smiled down at him and nodded. “Thank you, Jett.”
“Let’s go,” he muttered as he turned toward the Command Room.
Everything was hell for him. He just hoped that, after today, it wouldn’t get worse.
Jett stood near the back of the Control Room, letting the ship’s senior officers gather between him and the Captain’s platform. He should be amongst them—to mingle, to stay out of sight—but a quick exit was more important today. Anyone who wanted to catch up with him later would.
The Neo-Tokyo’s Control Room dominated the fore quarter of the Bridge level.
Separated from the noise and bustle outside by a sound-proof wall covered in lit tab panels and guarded by armed Security officers, it was the most important room on the ship.
Every system ran back here, monitored by the most experienced officers onboard.
Three large semi-circles of workstations swung out from the central Captain’s platform, facing front panels that showed the Void outside the ship, that vast expanse of darkness sprinkled with the light of dead stars.
Around him, displays of technical data, navigational charts, and comms scrolled faster than Jett could read. He wouldn’t understand half of it, but that didn’t prevent him from attempting to pick something out of the endless stream while he waited with anxiety churning like a storm in his guts.
A tall, dark-skinned man with box braids separated from the crowds and approached Jett. “I didn’t expect to find you sulking at the back, boss.”
Ollie Wort smiled at Jett as he spoke, his braids moving with the sway of his body as it settled.
Ollie was Jett’s former second-in-command in Security and was one of the rare Officers who hadn’t come from the Charon Defense Force or on a mercenary squad.
He’d done time as private security on Mars’s Enyo station before being picked up by Quasar.
After this meeting, Ollie would become Head of Security. Then Jett would be free. Or as free as he could be after re-joining Quasar’s Corporate Security division.
“Not your boss anymore, Ollie.”
“I’ve got five more minutes before you can stop me from calling you boss, boss.” Ollie’s smile lit up his face. “C’mon, Cosma is waiting for you too.”
Jett shook his head. “I don’t wanna be close enough to see the expression on his face.”
“If you’re sure, but you stick out like a sore thumb back here in all black,” Ollie relented.
“Cosma and Ell are getting drinks down in City after this. You coming?” Ollie’s bright brown eyes had settled on Jett with a determination.
If he didn’t go down to City with them, they would all come up to his temporary quarters.
To make sure you’re all right, they’d say.
Then the night would be half gone before he knew it and they’d still drag him down to one of their unofficial haunts.
“Yeah, I’ll be there. Tech Noir or Fanatica?”
Ollie rolled his eyes. “You know it’s Noir. We haven’t been back to Fanatica since…you know.”
Jett nodded and waved Ollie off into the crowd. As soon as he wove out of sight, a soft ding alerted them that the captain had entered the room. Jett stood straighter on instinct as the other officers quieted.
Captain Augustus Ro-nold emerged from his office.
Tall and broad in the classic Centaurian way, few could match the captain’s size.
Thinning white hair framed a ruddy face with pale blue eyes that seemed to see everything that happened on his leviathan of a ship.
He’d been Captain of the Neo-Tokyo since the ship launched 50 years ago.
And, if rumors were to be believed, he might be the only Captain the ship ever had.
As the captain stepped up onto his platform, another figure followed from the confines of a small office. A tall, muscular Terran with tanned and freckled skin, curly brown hair, and the greenest eyes Jett had ever seen. Edward Markus Stone, the man Jett had intended to marry one day.
Jett’s heart skipped several beats and then slammed back into action as their eyes met. It hurt to see Eddie, to see and not be able to touch or talk to or love him as he was used to doing.