The Meillan-Mars was a tiny, poorly-kept apartment complex built into the outer wall of the small space station. Four stories tall and slanted quite a noticeable angle, the metal slats that made for walls were streaked with rust and the fake-gold paint across the apartment’s main gate had long-since given way to a copper-blue sheen.

  A loud bang from the shipyard across the street greeted Davi as she slipped through the open gate — the latch meant to keep non-residents out had long-since rusted off. Her boots rang loudly across the spiraling metal steps tucked in between the three buildings.

  By the time she reached the third floor, she was barely out of breath. She spared a quick glance for the other door on this level — where the jovial C’ader and his family had taken up residence — and let herself in.

  “Dad?” Her voice echoed softly through the space of their humble, 2-bedroom flat.

  Along one wall propped the couch, which Louis Edmara had always used as his bed. A patchwork quilt draped haphazardly over the end. The rest of the room was sparsely decorated — a cabinet here, a little screen on the wall there, a small round table with a single chair, and a kitchen set-up tucked into the far corner.

  In fact — Davi frowned — it felt even more sparse than before. “Dad?” she called again, this time louder. She let the door fall with a heavy thud behind her.

  A head popped out from around the corner of the doorway. “Who-Davi!” His question ended in a delighted cry.

  Before she could blink, Davi was engulfed in a fierce embrace. Shoving down the tears that threatened at the corner of her eyes, she wiggled her arms around him and hugged right back. She closed her eyes and let herself relish in the soft thud, thud, thud of his heartbeat — steady and reliable. Her father.

  Her rock.

  After a few minutes, he pulled back, and she got her first good look at the man who’d raised her.

  Louis Edmara, like his daughter, was tall, wiry, and sported thick dark curls atop his head. Heavy glasses, rimmed with steel and salvaged glass, perched on his long, straight nose. Behind the glasses, wide brown eyes gazed down at her own identical pair — the only difference was the jaded look that seeped down into the rest of his being, a weariness so foreign to Davi’s seventeen-hopeful-years of age.

  Davi’s frown was back as she traced a look over her father’s tired face, his sunken cheeks and the slight tremble in his hands. “You look tired. Have you been sleeping?”

  Louis Edmara just smiled. “Yes.”

  “Okay.” She cocked her head, a kinky strand of hair falling into her eyes before she scraped it aside. Then she took his hands in her own, to still their shaking. “Have you been doing your physical therapy?”

  The old man scoffed. “Yes.” He scowled down at their intertwined fingers. “For all the good it’s been doing me.”

  Davi knew her father was a restless man — he’d always loved being out in the shipyard, designing something, building something. And then, just like that, the shaking had started. And then his vision had gotten worse — despite the glasses Davi had fashioned him from her welding kit and several spare parts from yard.

  When the shaking got so bad he’d nearly lost a limb, he’d had to put down his tools and retire for good. The Pharaon was the last ship he’d ever designed.

  “Your glasses-”

  “My glasses are fine.” Louis Edmara tugged his fingers from her grip and patted her cheek in the fatherly way he always had. “Stop worrying about me.”

  Davi just rolled her eyes. “I’ll always worry. You know that.”

  “Then worry in your head. Not mine.”

  It was what he had always said. When he’d needed quiet to work out the calculations for a new design, and little Davi was running her mouth, he’d turn to her, pat her cheek once, and say, “Think in your head, little star, not mine.” And when she’d started to dream of seeing distant star systems, and cried because she didn’t want to leave him behind, he just shook his head and said, “dream in your head, not mine. Then come back and tell me all about it.”

  Those familiar words brought a tangle of emotion to Davi’s throat. She drew him closer for another tender hug — “I missed you, Dad.” — before breaking apart. “And I have news.”

  Louis Edmara raised one brow. “Oh? From the ship?”

  “Captain Clare is dead.”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Breath whooshed out of his chest. The older Edmara slumped down into the chair at the little round table. Davi parked herself against the counter and waited for the barrage of questions — How? When?

  She should have known her father, the uncurious pragmatist, would go straight for the real question. “What does this mean? For you? For my-the ship?” Who would captain it next?

  Surely not that surely broodish Brooks, the old man hoped.

  “Well,” Davi chewed on her lip. “I spoke with Mr. Moore… and he all but offered me the job.”

  Wide eyes shot to her own, enlarged behind the foggy spectacles. “You?” Louis Edmara shot to his feet. “At seventeen? Davi, that’s…that’s…”

  Davi grinned. “Good, I hope.”

  “Wonderful!” He looked around. “We need to celebrate. Dinner. We need a feast. And wine!”

  Neither of which they had in the house, but Davi had a pocketful of commonwealth jade from her wages on this last job, and her father’s infectious energy bubbled mirth in her chest. She pulled out the little red pouch, which clanked with jade. “How about a nice dinner and some sweet tea?” she offered. “I can run down to the market.”

  “Yes, yes. Do that. And I’ll run over to Harry’s. See if he can lend us some extra chairs. You did invite that Payton girl, didn’t you?”

  That Payton girl, who had been her best friend since they could toddle around in their matching coveralls. Still, ever since they’d become closer, Davi’s father had taken to calling her “that Payton girl” with a layer of teasing affection.

  Pink tinged Davi’s cheeks. “Yeah. Is that okay?”

  “More than okay.” Another pat to her cheeks. “Go.”

  Davi shot back over, pecked her father on the cheek, and then she was out the door. Louis Edmara watched her go — all bounding energy and bright eyes — shook his head, and sighed.

  Teenagers.

  ***

  By the time Davi made it back home, arms laden with the cheapest ‘feast’ foods she could find, a bottle of weak Tzannic wine that the storekeeper had been about to throw out for its misprinted label, and a few small cornflowers she’d snagged from the imported dirt outside the market’s greenhouse, the artificial sun high above was already ‘setting.’

  She wound her way up to the third floor, maneuvering the door closed behind her with her foot. As she and her father unloaded the groceries, marveling at the smell of the fresh-baked bread (a luxury off-planet, where yeast rarely survived the trip into space), she told him everything she’d told Payton. The planets, the royals, the beautiful music and the sparkling cosmos.

  Louis Edmara listened dutifully, oohing and ahhing at all the right spots. He had never dreamed of traveling space himself, but when his daughter spoke of her travels she lit up like the stars she loved so dearly.

  At long last, her tales came to an end. Together, they moved the various foods and platters to the small rickety table. Stepped back. Admired their work.

  Louis’ large calloused hand reached out and engulfed Davi’s smaller, roughened one. “I’m sorry.”

  Two eyes turned up to him, confusion warring with surprise. “Why are you sorry?”

  The older man drew in a deep breath. “If I hadn’t had to take a loan out from-” he nodded in the direction of C’ader’s family apartment, “if I’d been more cautious with our accounts andI’d been more cautious with our accounts and…” Another deep breath. “Well, perhaps we might have afforded a real feast to celebrate the occasion.”

  “You…” Davi trailed off. “I don’t understand.”

  “I borrowed money from C’ader, Davi. He-”

  Davi broke him off with a wave of her hand. “No, no, no. That I got.” She propped her hands on her hips and shot him a look of pure teenage censure. “What I don’t understand is how you think this isn’t enough? We have delicious food,” she waved at the assortment of crumbly bread, roasted chicken scraps, and various cheeses, “we have wine, and my two favorite people in the entire world will be with me.” She shook her head and flashed a bright grin. “How in the stars is this not a proper celebration?”

  Louis Edmara just looked down at his daughter with shining eyes. “I don’t deserve you.”

  “Yes,” she said firmly. “You do.” A knock sounded on the door. “And that’s Payton.”

  She rushed away and ushered Payton inside. The other girl had just greeted Louis Edmara with a warm hug, passed him a vase of fresh flowers, and turned to embrace Davi, when another knock sounded at the door, this one heavier. Insistent.

  “Are we expecting anyone else?” Louis asked.

  Davi shook her head.

  The pounding sounded again. “Open up!” bellowed a deep voice from the other side of the door.

  “Uhm,” Davi said.

  Before anyone could move, the flimsy door exploded inwards, colliding against the wall with a loud crash. Payton squeaked in surprise.

  Six figures flooded in, their boots clanging loudly on the floor. They wore heavy mouth-coverings and the black-and-silver uniforms of the local Tzannic enforcers. All six beasts converged on Davi, crowding Payton away from her side, ignoring her protests.

  “Davi Edmara?” One of them rumbled, his voice as icy as the steel beneath their feet.

  Another yanked her arms behind her back. Something in her shoulder tugged and she yelped in pain. Cold cuffs closed around her fists.

  Louis Edmara surged upwards, but an enforcer’s hand shoved into his chest easily stopped him. “What is this about?” Payton shouted something and reached for Davi, but the enforcers were already tugging a struggling Davi towards the door.

  “You are under arrest for treason against the Tzannic Council.” He nodded to the two subduing Davi’s thrashing. “Bring her.”

  Hey there! Thank you for joining our journey through space aboard The Pharaon. Don’t forget to follow my author profile both on and over on for the latest updates.

  Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to find out what happens next in Davi’s intergalactic adventure! Don’t feel like waiting? Read chapters up to a week in advance on Patreon