The sound of children’s laughter echoed through the bridge, emanating from somewhere deeper within the ship. For Cooper, it was a pleasant serenade while he sat and watched the passing stars. There was something warming about the sound of life, laughter especially; that made these long hauls in the deep recesses of space so much more bearable.

In floated Juliette, giggling hysterically. She had taken her mag-boots off, allowing her to glide through the air silently in the zero gravity. It was her mirth that gave her away. When Cooper spun his captain’s chair he was met with a grin that stretched from ear to ear.

“Shhh, don’t tell mum,” the little girl whispered between giggles. She had taken up residence beneath the navigation console, popping her head out every so often to see if the coast remained clear. Cooper made a motion to button his lips.

From the common room, a woman’s voice rang out. “I’m going to find you child. Where are you hiding?”

Juliette tried to hold her breath, but a giggle slipped out and she quickly clasped her hands over her mouth.

“Something tells me you’re this way,” chided the woman. Exaggerated clinking of steel against steel rang out from the corridor as mag-boots bounded toward the bridge. Within moments a tall woman appeared with a young boy harnessed to her back. Looking away from the navigation console she stared at Cooper. “Are you hiding the escapee?”

“I’ll never talk,” he replied defiantly. “Just don’t look under navigation.”

“Dad!” Juliette squealed.

Cooper shrugged and feigned an apology as the young girl rushed to hit him in the arm. She stopped short, her attention drawn out the forward window.

“Is that the ‘numba’ place?” she asked, pointing to a brightly colored nebula off in the distance that shimmered as though it was being seen from underwater.

“The Penumbra Expanse,” Cooper corrected. “Yes, that’s it.”

“It’s so pretty, what is it?”

“Well, scientists aren’t exactly sure what it is. The best guess is that it’s made up of a mixture of gases.”

Juliette’s eyes widened. “Why don’t they know?”

“They don’t know because every probe that’s ever gone in there has disappeared. So it’s a mystery because they don’t really know how to study it.”

“Can we see it up close?” Juliette turned to her father and gave him a look of pure desperation and pleading. “I want to see the colors up close. Please?” Her bottom lip dropped and Cooper's heart shook.

With regret and calling forth the steadfast resolve of a Himalayan monk, he gently shook his head. “It’s actually very far away sweetie. Though It doesn’t look very big from here, it's actually as large as a small galaxy. We would have to leave the shipping lanes to go see it, which isn’t safe without an escort. Even if we did have enough time and fuel to spare.”

She squeezed his arm as tightly as her little hands could. As he looked into those beautiful green eyes, the same as her mother’s, whatever resolution Cooper had disintegrated. In a last ditch effort, he looked to his wife for backup.

Addison glanced at the navigation console. “I’m sure if we’re quick and don’t stay too long we could get a wee look up close.”

“I’m just worried, Addie, that it’s quite far off the shipping lanes. If we get caught out there, no Grehn ships will be able to get to us in time.”

“We’ve got enough reserve energy to keep the long range scanners operating. As long as we keep an eye out, surely we can get a little closer to it. I’ve never seen it up close either,” Addison said.

“And what about the cargo? It’ll add at least two days onto the trip.”

“It’s not like we’re hauling medical supplies, it’s just commercial crap. They won’t care if it’s held up by a few days. Come on, it’ll be a good experience for the kids.”

Defeated on both fronts, Cooper took in a long breath before throwing his hands in the air. “Fine. But the first sign of anyone else and we leg it back to the lanes. I don’t like being so far away from help.”

“Deal. Though I’m sure we’ll be fine. Someone would have to be crazy to start trouble in Grehn space.”

Cooper had waited until the last possible minute to divert from the shipping lanes towards The Penumbra Expanse, determined to spend the least amount of time outside of safety as possible.

He twisted in his chair, unable to get comfortable. This deviation had him on edge, and for the entire eighteen hour trip he had stayed diligently at the console, watching for signs of any other ships in the region. Luckily, other than a few stray radio bursts, it had been quiet.

The journey had taken two jumps, which brought with its own danger. When jumping long distances outside of the designated jump gates, there was always the risk of colliding with something at the other end. Space is vast, but it's not always empty. Every time Cooper pressed the button to jump he felt a tiny shred of anxiety. Would this be the one?

The expanse could be seen clearly now in all its radiant, multi-colored splendor as he was so close that the edges seemed to stretch off forever. He thought of waking the others to come look, he was sure Juliette would be absolutely amazed by this sight alone. But as he watched the shimmering display, Cooper noticed tiny, almost imperceptible flashes run along its surface. Blue lightning, running in forks that stretched out for miles, glinted playfully beckoning him to catch a closer look.

I’ve come this far, he thought to himself. What’s a little closer? Might as well give them the best view possible while we can. He set a forward heading, directly towards the ever-shifting wall of color.

Cooper could feel the weight of tiredness bearing down on him. His eyes heavy, his focus waning. It took real effort for him to remember to keep shifting his attention; to not drift off into hapless thought. So as he watched the colors outside, he almost didn’t hear the console chime. The sound was so slight, and his mind had drifted so far away. But he was sure he had heard something.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

With an effort that felt like he was running his mind through syrup, Cooper pulled himself back to the present, wiping his grainy eyes and focusing on the long range scanners. At the very edge of what they could see a tiny red dot had appeared.

As though someone had jolted Cooper with a thousand volts of electricity, he snapped to attention. A cold shiver passed through him, then another red dot appeared and his blood froze. This was his worst case scenario.

He hit the intercom, waking Addison. “Addie, we’ve got contacts. Get Juliette up here now to see the colors then we need to leave immediately.”

Punching in the new flight path, he set the thrusters to begin the turning maneuver, then hovered his hand above the throttle. As soon as they were on the bridge he would slam it. Not that it would matter anyway. His ship wasn’t made for acceleration, especially while attempting to turn in any sort of tight arc.

With the jump drive sitting at just under 75% it was still at least forty five minutes from being ready. Whoever those ships were, they would catch up to them easily, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Wow!” exclaimed Juliette as she stumbled sleepily onto the bridge, followed closely by her mother. Both were still dressed in their sleepwear. “It's even better than I imagined.”

Addison strapped herself into the navigation console and checked over the data on screen. “Maybe they’re not hostile?” she suggested. “Could be like us, just out here for a closer look, or they could be science vessels, studying it.”

“Look at their trajectory, Honey. It's a bee line right towards us.”

She turned to Juliette, who had her face pressed hard up against the portside window. “Sweetie, you’ve had a good look. Can you please go and strap yourself into your seat?”

“But Mum,” the young girl whined, not removing her eyes for an instant.

“Now, Juliette. I mean it.”

Grumbling, the young girl pulled herself away and trudged over to the seat that had been set up for her against the far wall of the bridge.

The moment Cooper heard the click of his daughter's restraints, he slammed the throttle to maximum and forced the vessel into a tight turn. The ship groaned in agony as it contorted under the force of its own propulsion.

“They’re changing course,” Addison announced, stress seething into her voice. “They’re moving to cut us off.”

Cooper could see the scan data. The two ships had already moved a great distance in the time it had taken him to complete a half turn. “Can we identify them yet? Do we have any visuals?”

A window popped up on his command console. It was a picture of two blurry ships. They were still too far away to properly identify, but just from their silhouettes he could see they were of human design. That didn’t make him feel any better.

“Let me know as soon as we’re within hailing distance,” he instructed Addison.

He prepared the emergency beacon and every fiber of his being wanted to set it off right then and there, but he needed to wait. Not that he needed to wait long. Another picture popped up on his command console. The two ships were in better focus. Both were light frigates, set up for dog fighting, though neither was uniform to the other. The chances of these being pirates skyrocketed and his heart sank.

“In range,” Addison called.

Cooper sent a hail towards the ships and waited, keeping his own trajectory towards the closest shipping lane. But light moves slowly and communication moves even slower. Long moments passed and the ships continued to edge closer. He gritted his teeth until finally a reply came through.

“Transport freighter, cut your engines and prepare to be boarded.”

“Please. We have nothing of value. Just let us be on our way.” Cooper doubted that would work, but he needed to try. He hit the emergency beacon. It would take time for the subspace signal to reach anyone who could help, and even longer for them to arrive. Pirate attacks generally meant you were on your own. He knew it and so did they.

“You can’t out run us. If you want to survive, cut your engines. I will not ask again.”

As Cooper powered down the thrusters, he looked to his wife who was staring back wide-eyed, her face pale and hands shaking. Would they survive this? How many stories had he heard of anyone surviving a pirate attack? What would happen to Addison? What would happen to their children?

“Daddy, what’s happening?” Juliette’s voice cut through his thoughts like a siren and he turned to face her. He wanted to tell her it was going to be alright, that everything will be over soon and to just watch out the window at the pretty colors. Instead he just stared at her beautiful, innocent face. She was hugging the belts close to her chest, switching her gaze between him to her mother, and in that moment something deep inside Cooper flared into existence.

“Where’s Harlen?” he asked, turning back to the command console.

“He’s secure in the cot, sleeping.” Addison replied.

Okay, good. A dull clang echoed through the ship as he disconnected the cargo section. With the ship in free flight, it was easy to use the maneuvering thrusters to spin.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m giving them the cargo. Maybe that’ll be enough to leave us alone.”

“And if it’s not?”

“We’ve got forty five minutes for the jump drives. If I can delay them long enough we can hoof it back to the lanes.”

Addison's voice was low, almost a whisper. “If we run they’ll kill us.”

“What do you think they’ll do if we don’t?” He didn’t wait for an answer, punching the throttle back to full. This time aimed directly at the shifting colors of the expanse.

It was a well known fact, that the closer you flew to the expanse, the more system anomalies would appear across any electronics onboard. He hoped this would make him less of an appealing target compared to the cargo he had left behind. Only forty five minutes. We can do this.

A voice, spitting with anger roared over the comms. “Stop right now!”

Cooper didn’t respond. With the ship now free of cargo, it was able to properly accelerate and he hurtled it toward the Penumbra Expanse, keeping his eye on the sensor readout. Within moments the ships arrived at the containers, but didn’t stop as he had hoped. They held their pursuit, gaining quickly.

“Three more contacts, right at the edge, one seems large.” Addison sent the long range data to the command console. Three new red dots had appeared from the same direction as the others. One was displaying a much denser signature. This was more than likely the command ship the smaller fighters operated from.

A barrage of fire shot across the bow close enough that several rounds pelted the starboard armor. The pirate's voice began to growl over the comms again before Cooper cut the signal. He didn’t need to hear their threats. He knew what was in store if they caught them. The question was how far would they follow? Under his breath he cursed them for ignoring the container.

Checking the jump drive again he clenched his teeth. Forty two minutes remaining. Time seemed to be dragging along, and at the same moment, was also quickly running out.

Turning to Addison, he commanded her to divert as much power as they could to the engines. “Cut off everything that doesn’t need to drain fuel. We need to push every last drop into acceleration.”

“I already have,” she yelled back in a panicked mess.

The engines were well past redline, running hot and threatening critical failure at any moment. But he just wanted a little more.

Another barrage hammered the ship, this time each round finding its mark. Deep thuds and groaning steel rang through the cabin. Warning alerts popped up all over his console. Juliette screamed for someone. With a will solidified in adrenaline, Cooper focused on the expanse. They were almost there.

“No. Cooper, you’re not…” the entire cabin was awash with the shimmering color and flickering lightning of the Penumbra Expanse. From this distance it no longer looked solid, but more like a cloud, twisting and undulating to an invisible breeze. “You can’t go in there,” Addison cried. “No-one's ever returned. Are you listening?”

He could barely hear her now, his focus was on one thing. He needed to enter the expanse. The only way they would survive is if he entered the expanse. As the colors danced in his eyes, a feeling washed over him. Safety. This was the only way now. The only way to save his family. “I’m just going to skim the very outer layer. They won’t follow us in there.”

“They won’t follow because it’s suicide!”

Better in there than to the pirates.