Jayden stared into the darkness of the Delta Quadrant.

A few stars glittered there, none of which he was familiar with.

Taking a deep breath, he tightened his mainsail, aimed the prow of his skiff and let the momentum build.

The skiff accelerated towards the event horizon, going faster and faster as the pull of the edgefall accelerated his boat over the rim and into the stars.

He turned to look back. It was a good launch. He was rapidly gaining altitude and speed. He could feel the resistance of the vortex building as he pushed in deeper and deeper, and then the sudden snap as his ship sailed out of the Solari star star system and into the hyperverse.

Jayden only had a few hours to reflect on what might be waiting for him at the other end of his journey.

He had expected, like the other routes, that the hyperverse trip would take several days. So he'd just been settling back to finish his dinner when suddenly his boat snapped back out of the hyperverse and into the crowded waters of a busy trader port.

Jayden was confused. This was a big port, filled with lots of ships and docks spread across a large bay. How could such a big community exist, with so much trade, and yet be completely isolated from the rest of the Solari trading system?

He quickly turn his skiff out of the way of a bigger boat that had been bearing down on him, and was beginning to wend and weft his way to the closest dock when a large horn sounded.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Wayfinders!", a voice shouted with a heavy accent unfamiliar to Jayden.

Suddenly a bright light shone in Jayden's eyes as the boat turned its foglight in his direction. A clanging sound rose up first from one ship and then another until it sounded like the whole bay was alive with the sound of ship's bells ringing.

More lights started to point Jayden's way. What was going on? He'd never experienced anything like this. They were treating him like he was some kind of pirate or invader! He was in a skiff for goodness sake, how could he be any danger to this community?

He heard a series of loud cracks. A shot was fired across the bow of his skiff and then another shot through the sail. The third shot nearly skinned his scalp. If he hadn't ducked it might have gone right through him.

Jayden felt a spike of fear. Still, he quickly tacked the skiff in another direction, trying to escape the lights. If he could just make it another fifty meters he'd be able to hide in the shadow of a much larger boat that looked like it might be unattended.

He tightened the sails as much as he dared, wishing he could use his oars to add manual speed to the push of the wind.

The large hulk loomed ahead and he aimed right at its bow, hoping to cut a fine line and hide behind it.

The hulk was silent. No lights were shining, no voices shouting, no bell ringing.

Deftly he pulled in behind the bow of the ship, dropped his sail, dropped his mast and slid under the dock that the ship was tied up to, trying as hard as he could to hide himself from the sound and light that was still pursuing him.

Suddenly he felt a thump on his boat, a hand around his mouth and another hand at his throat. Oh. It wasn't a hand, it was a dagger. He sat very still. "Silence", a voice whispered in his ear. "Come with me". He thought about jumping overboard. Surely he could swim away from this person in the dark?

But the voice spoke again. "Come with me if you want to live". Well, he wanted to live. And if this person had wanted to kill him, they could have already used the dagger to slit his throat. He wasn't in any short-term danger. And this certainly sounded like a better deal than the one that the ships were looking to give him.

He decided to take a risk and follow the voice. Maybe they could answer whatever the heck was going on - and why he was the target of such fury.