Omar and his workers at the docks spent most of the night getting High Line ready for our trip. They loaded it up with provisions, got things set just right and Omar plugged into High Line and ran simulations and checked settings over and over. While I was down eating breakfast, I reached out to him and found out he's been on High Line for hours already.

"Omar, did you sleep last night?" I mentally send him.

"I took a nap here and there. There was too much to do before we left."

"You realize we're just going over to the Wilds of Besmara, right? I don't even think we'll be gone more than two or three days."

"I also remember what the Wilds looked like when we were there last. I'm not taking any chances. Additionally someone invited the scary Archduke to come along."

"Hey, would you rather they stay here, scheming and causing trouble, or coming with us - yes, while also scheming, but now they have the threat of being tossed into a hibernation cabinet by me?"

"I don't trust her."

"Me neither, that's why we're bringing the hibernation cabinet. Where did you put it?"

"I put it in one of the common rooms. It's only going to be a small crew, we just won't use the room."

"Who is coming, by the way?"

"You, me, Starlight, Ava, Ginny, Raaden and a couple of Sep's security forces. That's all we need. Ginny is already here, she wanted to see if I needed any help with the reactors."

"Okay then, I'll go get Ava and Raaden, you call Starlight and I'll have City tell Sep we need their people now."

"See you soon, Melody."

I went back upstairs and got Ava up out of our bed. In the time since I left to eat she had rolled over and spread herself out over the entire bed and looked blissfully comfortable. I reached down to stroke her hair. "Ava, it's time to wake up. We have to go pick up Raaden and go to the Wilds today."

"Hmmph. No. Sleep more."

"Ava, come on. I didn't wake you for breakfast, it's time to get up and get going."

She yawned and it turns into a full body stretch. I was always jealous of her ability to stretch, it looked so comfortable. "Fine fine, I'm up. Did you bring me something to eat, hon?"

I handed her a meal bar. "Yes actually. I thought this might happen. Eat up and get dressed. You can shower on High Line tonight."

"Ooh, is there room for two in the shower on High Line?" She said, lasciviously.

I rolled my eyes. "Someone always gets cold when we try to shower together. Baths are much better for ideas like that." I tossed her Builder uniform to her.

I cherished these little moments when we were together like this. Here, we're just Ava and Melody, not Empress and Builder. It's part of the reason I invited her to move up here. I'm happy she accepted. Even if it's only for a little while, I could pretend that we're just... us. After she's dressed, we walked over to Raaden's apartment together. I nodded to the security guards by the door. They nodded back and stepped aside. I knocked, but didn't open the door. "Raaden, are you ready? We're headed over to High Line now."

The door opened and she's stood in loose, comfortable clothes. I tried to hide my surprise. Of course she had regular clothes. She wouldn't be in her uniform all the time. I just didn't expect it, I supposed. Raaden's look was so tied with her uniform that to see her out of it seemed... vulnerable? Her sweatshirt was grey with REGANTOWN GIPPERS in purple along the front in a circle with two Lacrosse sticks forming an X in the middle. She was carrying a duffel over her shoulder. I reached back into the Reach systems and scan it. It's just a few changes of clothes and toiletries. Fine.

"Good morning... Empress, Ava. Lead on." She said, cautiously.

Oh right, she couldn't call me anything but Empress. On the short walk over, Raaden looked around the Reach. "I still can't get over how large this place is." She looked at me. "You weren't lying? Is it really 11 million people?"

"11.5 at the last census before we came here. Starlight said that it's probably closer to 12 these days. Now that we've repaired the food deliveries too, the population will probably grow more."

"It's... lively, but it's not what I would call crowded either. I imagine one could support closer to 20 million if everyone didn't mind close quarters." Raaden is almost talking to herself. She looks at Ava. "How does everyone get around? 11 something million is a lot for just walking."

"Oh, there's a transit system. It's like a Metro on a planetary system but... in space. There's only one line, but it runs in a spiral up and down the main part of the Starbase with a lot of stops along the way. We're actually on the end of the line here in the Docking and Administration area."

"A whole metro? I'd like to see it." Raaden perked up at the mention of the transit system. I wonder if she liked trains.

"Sure, I guess? I can show it to you when we come back." Ava said. She sounded hesitant, but it's not like the train was a secret. It's a train. Huh, now I'm wondering. Are trains rare in space? Saying it out loud made me think that they were, but then again there are a lot of really large habitats and starbases that people lived on. Raaden might know about Venus at least.

"Raaden, do the Floating Cities have mass transit?"

She visibly brightened. "Actually, yes! All of the floating cities have bus rapid transit for travel Outside. They're sealed buses of course, but they're wheeled, with a 3rd rail for power and usually run in single or double car setups. Inside the Floating Cities it's more of a traditional metro setup with lines and stations. Regantown is the largest, and we have the largest metro on Venus. More than 5 million trips are taken on the Regantown Metro every single day!" For possibly the first time since coming aboard, she seemed animated and interested. I had no idea Raaden was a railfan.

Raaden looked back around at the Starbase as we walked. "Smart of them to build the Starbase with mass transit in mind. Starting with an asteroid also gives you more options. Hollow it out and you have living space right away. Take the overburden and with some light processing you have material to build the buildings inside and more on the outside if you're growing. We explored options like this for Starbases a long time ago. I think some of the High Mars Cities were made this way."

"Orchid and Hyacinth were built from scratch, Juniper, Ponderosa and Balsam were made in a similar way to the Reach out of the remains of Demos. It wasn't the same because three Orbitals were made out of what was left of Demos, but we used the same theory." Ava said, without looking over at us.

Raaden and I looked over at Ava. When she noticed us staring she blushed. "What? I lived on Hyacinth for most of my life, we had to know our history. I might have been born in Regantown, but I spent half of my life on Hyacinth."

"Wait, you were born in Regantown?" Raaden looked genuinely surprised. "So, you're Venusian?"

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Ava shook her head firmly. "No, we gave up our citizenship after we moved. I am officially a citizen of High Mars Hyacinth."

Raaden looked thoughtful for a moment. "Empress, where were you from?"

"I'm from Meíhuā, born and raised. I actually was in the colonial navy before signing on with Far Reach for the exploratory mission."

"Meíhuā? I figured they always stuck with their own." Raaden looked at me curious.

"Come now Raaden, you don't want us spouting stereotypes about Venus, so don't repeat Meíhuā stereotypes. We trade with Venus and the Outer Planet Alliance just as much as with the Independent Starbases and K'lax."

She raised her hands in surrender. "Okay okay, I admit, I know next to nothing about Meíhuā. It wasn't even on the first list when... the Emperor planned his expansion plans."

"Oh?" That's all I said. It was enough.

Raaden had the decency to look embarrassed. "Yeah, well you know how well that campaign went. After Parvati, Wellfleet was determined to get a win and so got permission to go after the joint Starbase." She shrugged. "He failed, he died, I took over, and we went home."

"He was killed."

"By me, on the order of the Emperor, yes. He may tolerate one failure. He won't tolerate two."

"So does that mean that you'll never be able to go home to Venus?" I didn't think I was trying to keep Raaden talking, but as she talked more, she became more relaxed. Maybe it was just something to do other than fret about the hibernation cabinet, but she seemed like she was trying to explain herself, or something to that effect.

"I don't know. This is all uncharted territory. I've always been a loyal and successful officer. It's entirely possible I'll get a reprimand, maybe a demotion and then put back out there." A shadow crossed her face, just for a moment. "It's also equally possible that there's a bullet waiting for me in the Emperor's antechamber. I'll guess I'll find out when or if Venus gets in touch."

"If? My goodness Raaden, that's dark." She just accepted that there was a 50/50 chance she would get killed as soon as she got home?

"It's the truth. I won't try and deny it. You both know what Venus is like. It's entirely possible that they will write off me and Emery and work to forget we ever existed."

Ava was firm. "Yes, I do know what Venus is like. It's why we left and moved to Hyacinth."

Raaden nodded and didn't say anything more about it. Well, that answers if Raaden knew what kind of place she worked for. She knew all too well.

We walked a little more, past the docks and printers where Omar's team was hard at work refurbishing Immar IV, the former Mariens ship. It was in at least three large pieces now and heavy cranes were moving components into it. This refurbishment seemed much more involved than the other Aviens ships. As we pass, Raaden stared for a moment before catching up to us. She turned and looked at me "You have a starship class printer here? You weren't joking about taking the parts of the Lavinia and making a new ship?"

"We have a couple of them, yes. We refurbished High Line and a few other ships that were here ourselves. Our current plan is when we come back to start work on our own dreadnought, with the weapons from Lavinia."

She stared at me for a moment, then, "...The missile batteries were always 5 degrees off. I had asked the shipyards to look into it, but they never did. The missiles could always correct for it, but that burned fuel. It made our effective range 5% lower than it could have been. Be careful with that when you mount them."

I blinked. That was out of nowhere. "Uh, thank you Raaden. We'll keep that in mind." What was going on? She seemed completely different than yesterday. It's almost like she had given up on trying to escape. Just because I ordered her not to do it doesn't mean she couldn't think it. She just couldn't act on it. I wonder what changed? Would Venus really abandon them here?

As we walked to the docks, High Line was out of the internal dock and was connected to an umbilical. We walked up and Starlight on a Moonless Evening was waiting by the entrance. "Ah, Empress Melody, Builder Ava, Archduke Raaden, good morning. Ginny is already aboard. She came earlier.”

"Good Morning Starlight, are you ready to go?" It had only been a few days since their partner River was killed, I hope they're going all right. I'll try and keep the mood light.

"Yes Empress, I'm ready. It will be... satisfying to take our ship out to visit somewhere else and not worry about being stranded." Starlight looked up at High Line before stepping in. "River would have loved it."

We all got in and got settled. There were only the 8 of us and there was plenty of room on the ship. We're probably not even in a third of the whole thing. I dropped my rifle and Ava's bags in our room - Omar really went all out, it actually was quite nice - and headed up to the Command Deck. I peeked in the bathroom and sure enough, the shower was only large enough for one. As I walked up to the Command Deck, I passed by the room for Raaden. Her door was open, and she was inside lounging on the bed, reading a pad. "Hey Raaden, do you want to come up to the Command Deck and watch as we head over?"

She looked up from her pad. "Do you order it?"

"No, just asking."

"I'll pass then. I've seen hundreds of ships leave dock, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

"Suit yourself. You have permission to come on up if you're bored. s̷͉͔̓ẗ̵͙a̴̜̹̍̅y̵̙̙͆̓ ̴̞̙̽̓o̶̙͓͆ū̶̲̼̌t̷̛͕ of the engine room, reactor room, weapons bays, assigned rooms and the starboard common room. The rest of the ship is open to you."

She winced at the order, but doesn't otherwise react. "Why is the starboard common room off limits?

"That's where the hibernation cabinet is stored."

She swallowed and shudders just a bit, and nods silently.

"Oh also, d̶͈̼̒͝ơ̸̧̺͜ ̵̢̺̊̊͘n̸͓̙̾͗́ö̴̮́͌t̴͈̠̞͠ attempt to undermine the mission in anyway. Your position here is officially hostage, not crew."

Another wince, another nod. "I know my place here, Empress. I won't cause trouble."

I continued on. Ginny, Starlight and Ava were already on the Command Deck when I walked in. I looked around at the setup. It was different from a human ship, much more close together. The Command chair was in the front of the room, facing a main screen while everyone else was behind the commander at their stations. I don’t know, I prefer our way with the Commander in the back or the center and everyone around them. I felt like the commander here had to keep turning around to issue orders. “Starlight, why is the commander in the front on Aviens ships?”

“Hmm, I’m not entirely sure, Empress. Perhaps my ancestors preferred to be seen in the front when issuing orders. Some kind of holdover from surface battles maybe?”

“Whatever the reason, it sure makes it awkward to sit there and turn around and issue commands.” I went and sat in the Command Chair. It was small compared to human chairs, and pressed uncomfortably against my hips. It was an Aviens chair and designed to be comfortable for their bodied. I got up and stood instead. “Omar, how are we looking?”

Omar’s disembodied voice came over the ships PA. “We’re ready when you are Melody. Systems green all around.”

“Well then. No point in hanging around here. Omar, please take us out.”

And with no fanfare at all, Omar disconnected the umbilical and we gently floated away from Reach of the Might of Vzzx.

The trip out to the Gate was uneventful. Ginny and Omar spent their time going over the Aviens and Human reactors and Ginny pointed out quite a few options for improvements on the Aviens design that Omar hadn’t even thought of. Omar was ready to just print Human reactors and replace them, but Ginny was able to see how we could make them work more efficiently and save time. I’m glad she decided to stay. If she proves herself as truly on our side, I won’t mind making her a Builder, if I can convince the other's she was not a threat. Ava and I wound up spending a good amount of time exploring High Line. Starlight said as far as they know, it was an unremarkable Aviens vessel, but this will be their first trip through a Gate ever, so we had no real way of knowing just how unremarkable it was.

Now that it was half Human, it’s quite a bit more remarkable I supposed. We were walking along the main center corridor in the ship when Ava stopped. "Is this ship... odd to you Melody?"

"I mean, the layout isn't what I expect, but I don't know if I'd call it odd. Why?

"Well, for one, it's the first non-human ship I've ever been on. I keep expecting to find things in a certain place and I get confused when they aren't there. What about you?"

"Not really, I did a goodwill tour with the K'laxi. I spent 3 months right after graduation onboard the frigate Isar The Greater."

"Oh, I never knew that! How was it being on a K'laxi ship?"

"Cramped. You know how they tend to be shorter than humans? The older ships don't have much accommodation for our height. It was lucky I'm not too tall. As it was, I hit my head more times than I cared to admit. I'm just happy the Aviens are around our height." I reached up and touched the ceiling "I have room enough to stretch here."

Raaden spent her time in her room. I didn’t lock it - I didn’t see the need really, I ordered her to be good - and didn’t interact with us. We had one meal before we traversed the Gate and Raaden took a plate of food back to her room and ate there. I understood, we’re her captors, we’re not her friends. She’s here purely as insurance against a Venusian retaliatory attack, but… I don’t know. I guess I just wanted everyone to be friendly. I have always had a hard time with people who just have no desire to be friendly at all.

Right before the evening meal, we approached the Gate. On the Command Deck, I watched it loom large on the forward screen. “Omar, is the address for the Wilds entered into the Addressing Module?”

“Yes Melody, we can activate the Gate at your order.”

I took a deep breath. Come on Melody, it’s nothing. You’ve gone through plenty of Gates. This is just like any other. Why am I so nervous though?

You fear what you will find on the Wilds.

Well yes. Thank you for putting a name to it, I guess.

Empress.

“Omar, we may traverse. Please proceed ahead.”

“Aye Empress.” Huh, he didn’t call me Melody when executing an official order.

The Gate glows that painful, hazy blue and…

We traverse.