Chapter Text

Chapter 1: Something Ventured, Something Gained

New Babbage Interstellar Spaceport was a busy place on the easiest of days, and as the bright glow of Stanton’s star crested over snow-capped mountain peaks surrounding the capital city of the frozen planet of MicroTech, the spaceport found its sleek terminals choked by throngs of travelers. Amity Blight was no stranger to space travel, but as she shuffled along the densely packed line of patrons towards the blue glow of security scan gates, she felt a seed of panic plant itself in the back of her mind. Penned in on all sides by travelers of every description, the rumble of the crowd became deafening in her ears. Pulling her coat tighter around herself, she brought her wrist up to eye level, projecting the blue screen of her MobiGlass into her vision. 

Intergalactic Airways Flight #914 - Crusader Starliner Hull Serial No. C8-20859-AU

New Babbage (NBIS) [Gate H8] -> Area18 (Riker Memorial Spaceport) [Gate B17]

Seat E1, Boarding Group A, Business Class - Departure: 0630 New Babbage Local Time

— ON TIME —

She’d checked the virtual boarding pass so many times on the MetroLoop ride to the spaceport that she could practically recite the serial number on the hull of the Starliner she’d be traveling on by memory. The early morning had flown by like a whirlwind. After dragging herself out of the all-too welcoming bed in her spartan downtown apartment, she’d checked and re-checked her bags, and dragged her luggage down through the city concourse to the MetroLoop station. Despite the early hour, the spaceport line was already packed with commuters, and she’d had to jostle her way aboard a packed maglev train across the perpetually frozen lake that separated the city from its spaceport. The steady stream of space traffic wheeling out of the upper atmosphere to land among the glowing red caution lights of the spaceport’s towers made for a striking sight in the pre-dawn blackness, and was the only benefit to being shoved up against the door of the train by the press of people aboard for the duration of the ride to the spaceport. After navigating to the front counter and checking her suitcase, she’d wound up stuck in a shambling line through the security sector of the port. Normally, at this time of morning she’d still be sound asleep, and the press of bodies, din of conversation, and the stress of travel was starting to grow the seed of panic into hideous roots that tightened around her head and chest.

Just a little further.

Hold on a few more minutes.

The blue security gates crept ever-closer, minded by a pair of security officers clad in white and blue armor which gleamed dully by the light of the scanning gates as they directed passengers through. Four more people, three more, two, one. 

“Hey! Step on through, keep moving.” The gruff voice of the officer to her left barked through his helmet. Amity nodded mutely, and quickly stepped through the gate, momentarily bathed in blue light. Passing through the scanner without incident, she released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. The biggest hurdle was done. Following the crowd forward, she pulled herself up a flight of stairs into the bright glow of the main terminal. The room was like a cathedral to space travel, composed of sleek, clean, white surfaces and holo-projected information boards which perpetually scrolled through an ever-shifting list of flight details. The entire southern wall of the terminal was a single, massive observation window which looked over the frozen lake and the gleaming lights of the city of New Babbage in the distance. Every few moments, the fiery glow of hydrogen thrusters raced across the panoramic view, adding the muted rumble of spaceflight to the constant din of the crowd echoing off the vaulted ceilings. Taking a shuddering breath, Amity tried to banish the roar of the spaceport from her mind, with little success. Shoving her way through the crowd, she scanned the expansive space, seeking any oasis in the overcrowded terminal. 

After a moment of swimming upstream through the crowd, she found a set of benches positioned next to the private pilot’s hangar elevators. The alcove was nearly deserted, a stark contrast to the bustle of the surrounding terminal. Anyone back here generally owned their own spacecraft, and only stopped to arrange the retrieval of their ship to a launch hangar before heading back out into the stars. Slinging her carry-on backpack off of her shoulder, she gingerly unzipped the main pouch, and felt the tension rush out of her as a soft white face stared back at her from the backpack. Ghost had been her best friend since she was three years old, a birthday gift from her older siblings. The plush, stuffed white cat had followed her throughout the universe, a constant companion and source of comfort throughout her travels. Ghost sported a cute set of black eyes, the right one ever-so-slightly uneven after being lovingly re-stitched back into place by her father after an unfortunate mishap when she was 6, and pointed white ears that perched atop his plush head. His short, white fluff was well-loved and meticulously cared for. Pulling Ghost out of her bag, Amity gently cradled her companion, scratching the stuffed cat just behind the ears affectionately. After 20 years of being her closest companion, Ghost was more of a person to Amity than many of her friends and coworkers. 

“Off on another trip. Can’t wait to actually get moving. You ready?” Amity whispered to the stuffed animal, giving him a loving smile. Ghost didn’t move or make noise, but Amity always felt like the cat’s black eyes would glint knowingly in response to her questions, and she couldn’t help but talk to the small white cat. 

“I know we should be curled up back at home right now. Trust me, I’d love to be there. But this presentation could be huge for me. I’ve gotta get it right. That’s why we booked the flight out so early. Nothing can go wrong.”

Ghost seemed to look back at Amity with a doubtful glance.

“I… you’re not wrong. I didn’t think I’d end up developing tech for Shubin Interstellar of all places, but this job has been good to us so far. I don’t want to work in weapons, and this Rieger module we’re presenting should increase the safety zone for rock fracturing. That could be huge for the safety of miners out in space!”

Ghost’s expression was unchanging, mostly because it was sewn in place, but Amity could still feel her stuffed companion’s doubts echoing the ones she’d been wrestling with for months since taking on a research and development position at the Stanton system’s biggest mining megacorporation. The work was satisfying enough, she’d been able to develop useful technology and under the mentorship of legendary engineers, not to mention stick it to her mother that she’d refused to join the family business. Blight Industries weapons were popular across the ‘verse for their effectiveness, but Amity couldn’t bring herself to put her mind into weapons development, and hated the idea of spending another moment under her mother’s thumb even more. So, mining tech it was. But she couldn’t discount the feeling of staring out of her apartment window across that frozen lake, watching the starships drop out of orbit that made her crave something different. Somewhere she had the freedom to truly spread her wings and fly.  

Setting Ghost on the padded bench seat beside her, Amity quickly re-zipped the backpack, and checked her MobiGlass’s watch. 0545. How to kill 45 minutes before boarding, without having to wander out into the crush of the growing crowd outside of her little island of calm? Her growling stomach made the decision for her. She scanned the private pilot’s wing of the terminal, and saw a small food kiosk, selling fresh coffee and pre-packaged club sandwiches brought over from Twyn’s Sandwiches downtown. Scanning the mostly deserted area one last time, she tucked Ghost next to her bag, and whispered, “Wait right here.” to her plush companion before standing up to scamper across the terminal wing to the sandwich shop. 

Picking out a pork katsu sandwich and a Synergy drink from the stall, Amity barely managed to tap her MobiGlass to the terminal to transfer a few credits for the meal when the terminal loudspeaker echoed across the spaceport.

“Could passenger Blight, Amity report immediately to the Intergalactic Airways booking desk. Again. Blight, Amity, to the Intergalactic Airways booking desk immediately, to meet with security. Thank you.”

Security? Oh no. The rough tendrils of panic reemerged in her brain as she felt her chest tighten. Scanning the crowd, she could see the Intergalactic Airways desk just across the terminal, marked by a deep red logo of a bird in flight. Quickly maneuvering through the throng of people, she stumbled up to the desk, clutching her food as if it was the harness of a spacecraft pulling a high-g turn. Next to the desk stood a pair of security officers, faceless in their white armor and mirrored visors. 

“Amity Blight?” An officer asked. Their voice was not unkind, but still carried the same intimidating aura that the officer who snapped at her at the checkpoint did. An intimidated nod was the best she could offer, given the circumstances.

“We apologize for the interruption ma’am, we just needed to check in with you about one of the items traveling in your checked luggage.” The second officer held up a tablet, showing a scan of the contents of her bag, the carefully packaged mining computer module she was making this whole trip for highlighted in red. 

“The issue is a bit of a strange one. We’re already aware of your affiliation with Shubin Interstellar and have a general sense of what this technology is. However, due to the restrictions on traveling with experimental technology of any kind, we need to have your baggage shipped separately with a courier service, as we cannot allow it on a passenger spacecraft. It’s not your fault, and you’re not in any trouble. Our supervisor reached out to Shubin’s management and they arranged for the swap to happen and took responsibility for the issue. You’ll be able to make your flight on time, and we’ll just remove the device from the bag and transfer it to the courier. Your bag will be loaded onto the spacecraft as normal, just without the device. We mostly just needed to inform you of the steps that were being taken.”

Amity felt herself relax a bit as the officer explained. She hadn’t done anything wrong. It was someone else’s fault, and everything was ok. Good. She just had to get on her flight like normal, and the company would handle the rest. Things were still ok. 

“I understand, thank you for keeping me informed, officers. Is that all you needed?”

The first officer nodded. “Yes, thank you for your understanding. We’ll let you go about your day. Have a safe flight.”

Amity gave a thankful nod to the officers and ducked back across the crowd, still, thankfully, holding her sandwich and drink, the former of which was suffering slightly from her white-knuckled grip on the sandwich’s packaging. She’d just get back to Ghost and try to relax until her flight. As the thought crossed her mind, she felt her steps quicken. She’d left Ghost alone in the terminal, out of sight. She couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to him. Weaving through the turbulent stream of travelers, Amity broke back into her little oasis of the private pilot’s wing to see the bench where she’d left Ghost tucked next to her bag, looking out over the metropolis in the distance. To her surprise, Ghost wasn’t alone.

A woman, about her age, sat next to her stuffed companion and her backpack, her tanned face and short, curly brown hair indicating a life spent out in the stars, where long hair interfered with space helmets and unfiltered solar radiation made tans quicker, even through cockpit glass. The woman wore a flight suit made of white and brown thermal material, with a layered armored suit that looked like pads of leather covering the joints and vital areas. She had a wide variety of tools and equipment attached to various belts and bandoliers crossing her suit, ranging from a multi-tool to safety flares, and a full-face helmet sat on the armrest next to her, its metallic shell pockmarked by scratches and dents, with a thin visor and a heavily modified communications setup. The helmet sported a variety of stickers, saying things like “ Fly Good, Land Gooder ”, “ World’s Okayest Pilot ”, and “ Stop Screaming, I’m Scared Too! ”. The mystery woman was reclined back on the bench without a care in the world, a roguish grin on her face as she watched the traffic fly by outside through the observation window.

“Ya see that lil’ buddy? That Skag in the Aurora has probably never been behind the stick in his life. Jerkiest landing I ever seen. That mint had better be careful before he acquaints his cockpit with the hangar wall, running his thrusters like that.” The woman laughed as she watched the ship she’d indicated wobble and dip towards a hangar bay below the window, maneuvering thrusters rotating wildly to correct for its pilot’s inexperienced movements. Amity leaned against the wall for a moment, watching this woman casually talk with Ghost like he wasn’t just a stuffed animal. She was captivating, her casual demeanor accompanied with an air of confidence that seemed that it had been earned from a few too many scrapes with danger out in the stars. 

“This one time, lil’ buddy, I was leaving the Pyro system on some cargo run that came down from some lugnut who… yeah I know, shouldn’t have been in Pyro in the first place. You’re a smarter cookie than me lil’ guy. Anyway, I was leaving Pyro, thank goodness for that, on the way back to Stanton. Lo and behold, the skag gave me shit regs, and the whole manifest was completely screwed. Advocacy cops stopped me the moment I got out of the warp, and my poor slowboat was surrounded by feds faster than you could say “Not my fault.” I’m an honest lady and was more than pleased to help point the Advos in the right direction, being towards the guy who screwed me, but I swear to you lil’ buddy, I had something smiling on me there to get those federals off my rig. They smelled blood for sure.” The woman chuckled again, flashing a bright smile towards her plush conversation partner, her chocolate brown eyes glittering with humor. Amity noticed a couple of scars, one across her eyebrow and another up the side of her jaw, which only served to add to the woman’s rugged, devilish looks. Amity felt her ears start to heat up, as the mysterious pilot leaned back in her seat, throwing an arm over the backrest of the bench. 

“I wonder where your person went lil’ buddy. Whoever it is seems like they care an awful lot about ya. Shame to leave their backpack here too. Not that I don’t enjoy your company o’course lil’ guy, just wondering where whoever you belong with got off to.” The woman started to look around the terminal, eyes coming to rest on Amity, who in turn tried her best to look like she hadn’t just been staring at the pilot, her ears and cheeks glowing a bright red. 

“Miss? Ma’am? Is uh… this your bag?” The woman’s voice called out to her, and Amity did her best to unglue her gaze from the floor to meet the incoming question. As she did, she locked eyes with the pilot and felt her blush intensify, her whole face boiling hot. The pilot already seemed attractive, but the look she was giving her had a gentleness and warmth in her eyes that sent Amity’s mind into a tailspin. 

“Y-yes! Sorry. That’s mine.” She stuttered out, willing her mind to make normal words.

“Ah, perfect! Makes sense that a cute lil’ friend like this would have to belong to someone even cuter.” The pilot shot Amity a teasing smirk, nodding towards Ghost as she spoke. “Didn’t mean to intrude of course, just found this little guy waiting here and figured I’d check in on em. Kept him company while you were busy.”  Her smirk melted into a genuine smile, and Amity felt herself melt at the same time. This pilot wasn’t judging her for having Ghost, and… was she flirting with her? She fought with her brain to try to make functional words come out. 

“I appreciate you looking after him, and my bag, miss…?”

“Noceda! But Luz is fine. I ain’t nobody special. Just killing time while they unload my girl up on the station, and figured I’d catch a shuttle surface-side while she’s tied up, take in the sights. Hundred or so crates don’t move anywhere fast, no matter how hard you try.” There was that smirk again, charming and confident, without the cockiness that Amity had come to expect from dealing with private pilots through her work. 

“It’s a pleasure, Miss Noc-I mean Luz! I’m Amity… Blight! But Amity’s really fine too. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you telling some stories about your travels… Could you spare another one? I’ve got some time before my flight and I’ve always been curious about what it’s like to get to be out there-… I’m rambling, sorry.” Amity felt like her complexion could be compared to a red giant star by now, face hot under the tandem embarrassment and attraction she was wrestling with. Asking this stranger to tell her stories like a child wanting a bedtime story? She felt like she’d reached a new peak of embarrassment. Luz, on the other hand, had no such worries, and gave Amity a warm, disarming smile. 

“Well sure, Miss Amity, I’d be happy to take up some of your time.” Luz patted the bench next to her, and Amity sat down next to the pilot, nestling Ghost on her lap. Luz smiled at the sight, before launching into a tale of how she’d managed to convince a pirate captain to not only let her ship go free, but had also practically robbed him out of a few thousand credits at a drunken game of cards on a backwater space station after their encounter. Luz’s manner of storytelling was captivating, her energetic personality conveying every detail of the ordeal as if Amity had been sitting in Luz’s copilot seat. Amity couldn’t help but relax next to her, transported away to another time of adventure and mystery alongside the suave pilot with every hilarious voice and excited gesture of her new companion. 

As Luz’s story concluded, Amity realized she’d unconsciously nestled closer to the other woman, comfortably petting Ghost as she listened to Luz’s tale of daring-do. Realizing the gap between them had closed slightly, Amity felt her face redden again, and she jumped back up, mumbling an apology to Luz’s amusement. 

“Oh, it’s fine! Don’t worry Amity, you seemed comfortable, so I didn’t want to disturb you.” The pilot’s somewhat flirty smirk returned, playing havoc with Amity’s flustered mind.

“O-oh. Well thank you… what time is it anyway?” Amity brought her wrist up, bathing her retinas in the blue glow of the MobiGlass’s home screen.

06:37

Wait.

What was her departure time again? 

Oh no.

Amity jumped up from her seat, startling Luz, who had been watching her with that captivating smirk. That damn smirk, it drew her in so effortlessly. She pulled up the status of her flight, staring crestfallen at the bright red status: 

– Departed: On Time –

“My flight! I… I missed it. I lost track of time! How? I…” 

Luz watched for a moment, and turned to gently pick up Ghost from where he’d fallen on the floor after Amity’s outburst. She considered the soft face of the white plush cat in her hands, before turning her gaze to Amity’s features, which were scrunched in concentration as she tried to find a solution to the sudden catastrophe she’d wandered into. Luz leaned back in her chair again, Ghost perched atop her leg, and smiled reassuringly at Amity.

“Hey, it’s gonna be alright. Since I’m at least partially to blame for this, let me help. Where were you trying to get?”

“I’m supposed to get to Area 18, on ArcCorp, just across the system.” Amity looked momentarily confused at the question, watching Luz’s confident demeanor with skepticism. “But that flight was my only way there.”

Luz’s smile settled into that roguish grin that had enraptured Amity only an hour ago, her chocolate eyes gleaming with determination like a supernova against a starfield. 

“I’ve got a ship. I’ll get you there.”