“Velerion is beautiful.”
“Yes. Our people are peaceful. Queen Raya must be stopped.”
Total mood kill.
Several minutes passed as we hovered in place and I took it all in. The planet. Their star, Vega. Billions and billions of stars in an endless ocean of black. I really, really, really was in outer space now. Inside a small ship not much bigger than my mother’s old beat-up minivan.
Good God. What the hell was I doing out here?
“You ready to see what Valor can really do?” he asked.
My smile was instant, and I jumped on the distraction before I could get more homesick for a place that had never really felt like home. “Do bankers love money?”
“What?”
“Never mind, everyone loves money.” I pulled the controls to move us away from the planet. “Give me some coordinates, Alex. ‘I feel the need, the need for speed.’”
He didn’t even blink at the Top Gun movie reference. He’d probably roll his eyes and laugh if he ever saw it.
“The Valor is an Elite Starfighter class zero-one-zero-one. The newest ship we have. Her top combat speed is one half the speed of light.” He sounded proud of the specifications. “Short-range travel approaching light speed, but we can’t go far. That’s why Starfighters need a base nearby.”
“And why Queen Raya’s Scythe fighters don’t attack every day. They are short-range fighters as well?”
“Correct.”
“Are we faster than Mach 1?”
“I do not understand the term.”
“Faster than sound? Are we faster than the speed of sound?”
He blinked at me as if confused. “Much, much faster.”
I wanted to pump my fist in excitement, but I was a grown woman, not an eight-year-old. “Coordinates, my handsome copilot?”
He stared. Longer this time. “Are you feeling well?”
The burst of laughter caught me by surprise. I’d had my world rocked in a control room by the hottest alien I’d ever met. I’d had an orgasm, thank you very much. So had he. And on top of all that, I was flying my dream ship right now. For real. “I’m good. Let’s go.”
With a frown on his face, Alex sent the coordinates to my view screen, and I took off, literally, like a rocket.
Full. Speed.
“Whooooo!” My shout of joy was pure, from the heart, as going “much, much faster” than the speed of sound pressed me into my seat. This was freedom. This was a dream. This was so damn perfect I felt tears gathering in my eyes as I directed my ship like I’d flown her a thousand times.
Because I had. Even the sounds coming from the engines and the soft whisper of my own breathing inside my helmet. Everything felt comfortable and familiar. It was so easy. I ran the ship, checked systems, monitored fuel, and kept one eye on my scanners, watching for enemy ships without even thinking about it.
We made it to the small cluster of space debris Alex had indicated in just a few minutes, and I pulled back on the throttle and moved into synchronous orbit with the giant rock in front of me. It was more like a small planet, really. Maybe a dwarf planet?
“That was amazing.” Every cell in my body was buzzing with life and excitement and possibilities. I hadn’t been this happy about anything since I was a kid. Hell, not even then, not with my drunk mom and missing dad. I’d known I wouldn’t have the same options other kids had. But look where I was now. Holy shit, just look. Outer freaking space. In a starfighter that I had named, that was built for me. Me!
And Alex was next to me. And he was mine. MINE!
“What next?” I asked. “I don’t want to go back yet.”
Alex smiled. Finally. It changed him. He looked hotter than ever and… happy. “I am not surprised. Your skill cannot be denied. You are, indeed, an Elite Starfighter.”
Watching the debris field float in front of us, my finger twitched on the trigger. “Can we blow some stuff up? You know, one of the little ones?”