“Around 200 years ago, the Xeirqan Empire funded a rge-scale genetic modification experiment in order to create superior soldiers to fight against a rebellion going on at the time. The experiment was successful and helped subjugate the rebels temporarily, but failed to prevent the Empire's colpse three decades ter.

  “Many of the survivors of the experiment were able to escape and live out their lives. It was then discovered that their modified genetics were passed on to their offspring. The experiment produced two types of humans. Half of them possess superhuman strength, with bodies built to exceed normal human physical and mental limits, but require energy obtained from an outside source in order to use these abilities. That outside source is found in the other half of the subjects, who possess bodies that generate and store up massive amounts of energy that they’re unable to use themselves.

  “These two variants are known as containers and converters. The humans who contain massive amounts of excess energy within their bodies are known as containers, while the ones who are able to use that energy to exceed normal physical capabilities are known as converters.

  “Containers are able to transfer their energy to converters through physical contact, and converters are able to ‘convert’ that energy into a usable form for a brief period of time. The naming convention is a bit basic, but humans are just like that sometimes.

  “Anyway, both the Empire and Alliance have outwed genetic experiments like that for military purposes as part of the peace treaty, but that doesn’t include the descendants of past experiments.

  “I’ve heard that the Seynian Empire uses a lot of them in its military force, and even has breeding programs specifically to produce a rger force of strong converters. I don’t know how much of that is true though.

  “There’s also different levels of power among containers and converters. This is because over two centuries many of them bred with normal people, diluting the genetic traits of their children. Any questions?” Aneeta asked.

  “I have a lot, but I’ll start with an obvious one,” Rey said. They were sitting across from each other in Rey’s bedroom.

  “Why did they create people specifically to hold energy, instead of combining the two types so that converters could use their own energy?”

  “The answer is a bit complex, but I’ll try and sum it up in a way that you can understand. Basically, the amount of energy a converter uses pces a huge stress on their brain, even if they aren’t being physically active. So if they had constant access to that kind of energy their brains would get overloaded, potentially leading to brain damage or even death.

  “Unfortunately, the more powerful converters often die young because of this, even if they’re not using lots of energy all the time.”

  “Doesn’t that mean that converters and containers always have to work together?”

  “Yes, although that can be both a blessing and a curse. After transferring energy to a converter, a container has to have a period of time to regenerate the energy that was lost. The length of time depends on how powerful a container is, with less powerful containers able to regenerate their energy supply much faster than containers with rge energy pools.

  “Converters are only able to extract a predetermined maximum amount from containers, and they have to use it as soon as it enters their body. The amount they can take in and the maximum amount of time before it runs out are determined at birth as well. Using rge amounts of the energy will also make it run out faster, of course. A single converter can draw energy from multiple containers, and a single container can give multiple converters energy as well.”

  “You know a lot about them, don’t you,” Rey said, impressed.

  “Well, I spent many years studying genetic modification when I was younger, and this line of work requires me to know a fair deal about them as well. There’s also the fact that I’m a container myself, though not nearly as powerful as you.”

  “Wait! You’re a container- and I’m one too?! And you said I’m powerful?” Rey said, not sure if she had heard correctly.

  “Yes, remember what happened during the fight with Marcus? When you touched Zan you felt something right? That was your energy transferring from you to him. It’s a rather simple process, but sometimes it can be inconvenient during a fight. Zan used my energy at first, but apparently you have a much rger amount of energy, so he ended up using yours to win.”

  “Wait, that means he’s a converter, right?”

  “Yeah, Zan is an incredibly powerful converter, which is why you’re even more compatible with him than I am.”

  “How can he tell how much energy I have?”

  “When a converter touches a container they immediately get a feel for how much energy they have. Containers can’t tell themselves, so I’m taking his word for it. In order for a container to successfully transfer energy, they have to consciously allow a converter to take it, which is why it won’t work if they're asleep or unconscious. The reason for this is unknown, but it stops people from forcibly taking their energy in most cases.”

  “This all seems like vital information that should’ve been expined a lot earlier!”

  “Well, hold on for now; it’ll all be expined eventually. Probably. Anyway, my door is broken, so do you mind if I sleep with you for the rest of the trip?”

  “Huh? Um, well…I guess that’d be fine…”

  Another situation that she didn’t know how to deal with. She’d never slept with anyone, so she was completely unprepared.

  “Thanks a bunch!” Aneeta said, happily throwing her arms around Rey.

  “You’re welcome?” “Also, help yourself to the beer in my fridge whenever you want!”

  “Beer?”

  “Don’t tell me you’ve never had a drink before?!”

  “I’ve had water…”

  “I’ll let you try my favorites ter,” Aneeta said excitedly.

  Rey yawned, feeling slightly drowsy, and Aneeta noticed. “We should probably wait till after we’ve slept to get drunk- I mean drinks. If you’re tired, we can sleep right now.”

  “I am a little tired, but you don’t have to sleep with me if you’re not,” Rey said.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, I’m perfectly ready to climb into bed. Besides, it’d be weirder if I waited till after you’re asleep to join you, wouldn’t it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Imagine you go to bed right now with the knowledge that at some point after you fall asleep someone else will climb into your bed and start sleeping with you. That’d creep me out and I’d probably have a harder time falling asleep than if I was already in bed with someone.”

  “I guess…” Rey had never thought about it, but then again, Aneeta was older and probably had more experience with stuff like this, so she decided to trust her.

  The moment they were under the covers Aneeta wrapped her arms around Rey and snuggled close, their bodies pressing against each other.

  “Um, do you sleep with other people often?” Rey asked, trying to reassure herself that the situation wasn’t strange at all.

  “Yeah,” said Aneeta sleepily. “I’ve slept with plenty of men and women before… ah, but don’t worry, I won’t try anything with you. I just… find it harder to fall asleep on my own.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  “Sleeping together must be normal.”

  Still, Rey found herself unable to fall asleep as she stared up at the ceiling, Aneeta’s arms around her.

  “I want to keep learning all the stuff I wasn’t taught in the Empire. I’ve already seen how much I’ve been missing in just this short amount of time, and it makes me want even more.”

  Rey let out a breath and looked over to see that Aneeta had already fallen asleep. Now that her face was so close, Rey could see how attractive she actually was.

  Rey turned her gaze back to the ceiling and wondered what it’d be like to sleep with Zan. Something about that felt odd, and she quickly dismissed it.

  With Aneeta sleeping soundly beside her, it took several hours for her to finally drift off.

  ***

  Rey woke up alone, not a sound to be heard aside from the low hum of the ship. Deciding to take a walk after getting dressed, she found herself wandering along the outer edge of the ship, looking out a row of windows into the endless void of deep space. An incredible amount of stars were visible from where she stood, and for a moment she was captivated.

  She heard approaching footsteps and turned to see Aneeta come around the corner.

  “The stars are pretty, aren’t they?” Aneeta said, coming to stand by Rey.

  “I guess so.”

  “Although you can only admire them like this from a vast distance. Try and approach one and it’ll become too bright to look at with the naked eye.”

  “I guess so.”

  “You don’t act much like I imagined someone who’s supposed to be royalty to act.”

  “That’s not the kind of royalty I was raised to be.”

  “Want to tell me about what it was like?”

  “There’s not much to say. I grew up alone, raised by attendants. Once I reached eighteen, I was supposed to be married off to the dictator of Zambac and spend the rest of my life there.”

  “Hmm, well I can see why you’d jump at the chance to escape. I’d hate that too.”

  “No, I wasn’t particurly bothered by it. It would’ve just been another one of my responsibilities,” Rey said.

  “Then why don’t you want to go back?”

  “I want the chance to find something important to me, and I don’t feel like I’ll ever get that if I just let everyone tell me what to do my entire life.”

  “I think I see. You’re right, you shouldn’t let others decide everything for you or you’ll end up regretting it.”

  Rey looked out the window.

  “If you aren’t pnning to use me as a hostage, then could you help me escape? I don’t mind if you just drop me off somewhere; I’ll try to figure things out on my own from there. I know I’m in no pce to be asking for something like this, but…”

  “Alright”, Aneeta said.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. It’s only fair after we kidnapped you, and then what happened with Marcus. I’m not in charge, but I can try to convince Zan to help you. Now! Let’s go get some beer!” Aneeta said excitedly. “The best thing for conversation are a few good drinks! Or maybe more!”

  She took Rey’s hand and pulled her along.

  “Wha-well…um,” Rey couldn’t resist Aneeta’s enthusiasm, and ended up in her bedroom with a bottle in her hand before she knew it.

  “I got these when we left Ezerse,” she said, humming happily. “Come on, come on, just a sip.” She began chugging the bottle in her own hand.

  Rey put the rim to her lips and made a face as the liquid entered her mouth.

  Aneeta watched in amusement.

  “It’s always fun to see people drink for the first time, though they’re usually not as old as you.”

  Andre walked into the room and headed over to Aneeta, who was still squatting in front of the open refrigerator.

  “I’ll have one too,” he said, reaching in and grabbing one.

  “Abandoning the controls?”

  “I left May in charge. Even I need a break now and then.”

  “I know, I know. Help yourself.”

  Andre turned to Rey.”

  “Don’t let her carry you away too much.”

  “Aww, you’re so serious compared to your brother.”

  “You have a brother?” Rey asked.

  “Adrius. He’s a few years younger than me. Aneeta actually dated him, but that was years ago.”

  “Hey, don’t bring that up!”

  “You’re the one who mentioned him first. He’s not still on your mind is he?”

  “Of course not! Rey, are you interested in anyone?”

  “You changed the subject rather quickly there.”

  “Shut up, I’m talking to Rey.”

  “Interested?”

  “Yeah- oh wait, you wouldn’t have been able to meet anyone would you? Sorry. Well, once we get back home I can introduce you to some guys.”

  “My advice is to stay away from anyone she introduces.”

  “Hey, what about your brother?”

  “He’s a hotheaded mess. That’s why he can’t get a promotion.”

  Aneeta made a sour face.

  “Still more interesting than you.”

  “Well I’m not trying to impress anyone.”

  Rey continued to watch the two of them bicker from where she sat, feeling oddly at ease for some reason.

  ***

  Rey looked at the ship's controls, but none of the buttons, switches, or numbers meant anything to her. She gazed out the window above the control panels at the stars. She was standing in the control room with the captain, Andre, sitting beside her. Aneeta was eating a package of chips in the back corner.

  “How much longer until we reach Temure?” Rey asked.

  “We’ve been making good progress, so I’d estimate six days or so.”

  She’d learned that even though the number of hours in each day differed between pnets, once a ship left a pnet's atmosphere the length of time called ‘days’ was measured in 24 hours universally.

  “Our ship isn’t able to generate energy like some of the more advanced ones, so we have to be extra careful about conserving it. If we get stranded it’ll probably be the Empire’s ships that pick us up, and that’d be the end. Thankfully we have plenty of fuel left to worm our way to Temure. I just hope they have x security.”

  “When you say ‘worm our way’ you’re talking about wormholes right?” Rey asked, curious.

  “Ah, yeah. You don’t know much about them. Technically they're not wormholes in the traditional sense of the word, but that’s what people call them ‘cause it’s easy to think of them that way. I’ll try and expin it so you can understand. It’s not really teleportation, although that’s what it appears to be. Actual teleportation is impossible ‘cause that’d require you to make the matter disappear and reappear in a different location, which breaks the ws of physics. What’s really happening is that all the matter within a certain space gets transported almost instantly across a vast distance.

  “I have to do a lot of calcutions for each jump in order to figure out how far the ship can safely go with each wormhole. Then I’ll use the ship's wormhole generator to open one in front of the ship. Once we enter it our ship and everything in it is transported to the other end of the wormhole in less than a nanosecond. We don’t feel anything, so from our perspectives it doesn’t look like we moved at all, unless there’s an object in space nearby.

  “What’s interesting is that the length of a wormhole isn’t correspondent to the amount of energy used to create it; instead each one takes almost the same amount. This means that I can calcute the number that I can still open based on the fuel I have left.

  “Unfortunately, the longer one is, the more dangerous it becomes. I have to make sure that there’s absolutely no matter between both ends of every wormhole, because if I mess up once, it could easily cost our lives. The most common way for people to die in outer space is wormhole accidents.

  “This is because, as I mentioned before, the ship is literally transported through the space between both ends of a wormhole. If there’s anything in the path it travels through, like a rock or something, the ship passes through it, destroying both objects instantaneously. This is also the reason that wormholes can’t be used from a pnet’s surface; if they try to get through the atmosphere the ship will burn up.

  “Of course, as soon as the tech was invented, people realized it could be weaponized. It became such a deadly weapon that conflict has basically ceased in outer space nowadays. If anyone tried to use it it would result in mutual instantaneous destruction. Now, wars are mostly just fought on a pnet's surface or in its atmosphere. Oh, sorry, I rambled on a bit didn’t I?”

  “No, I find it interesting.” Rey responded, trying to process all the information that had just been dumped on her.

  “Really? I find it all kind of boring,” Aneeta said, doodling in a sketchbook. “Look, I drew Andre!” she said, holding up a scribble that looked vaguely like a cross between a horse and a volcano.

  Andre sighed. “This is why we can’t take you seriously.”

  “This is why you don’t have any friends,” Aneeta said. “I try to make friends with everyone I meet. I’m even friends with Rey now!”

  “I feel like you just decided that yourself,” Andre said.

  “I’m not- I mean, I’m fine with it…” Rey said.

  “You don’t have to just go along with everything this idiot says,” Andre said.

  “Hey, who are you calling an idiot, you dunderhead!” Aneeta said, looking offended.

  “You guys argue more than anyone I’ve met before, but it feels like you get along pretty well,” Rey said, remembering the cold politeness everyone wore back in the empire.

  “Ha, well it’s mostly ‘cause I’ve got great people skills!” said Aneeta, looking proud. “But I also think that it’s just better to get along with people than not to. Life’s more enjoyable that way.”

  “Look at you, trying to sound smart.” Andre said with a smile.

  “Who are you calling smart!” Aneeta said indignantly.

  May Cheng entered the room, holding an electronic notepad. “What’s going on?” she asked in her soft voice. Out of all the crew members, Rey had heard her speak the least, but thought her voice sounded the most pleasant.

  “We were showing her the control room,” said Andre.

  “Oh…I see. Is it interesting?” she asked doubtfully.

  “What, are you implying that it’s boring?” Andre said.

  “No, not really,” she said, looking to the side.

  “I find it interesting,” Rey said.

  “That’s nice. I don’t find my own job very interesting.”

  “Then why are you doing it?” Aneeta asked, pulling a lollipop out of her pocket and unwrapping it.

  “Well, I don’t find any line of work to be enjoyable, so I figured I would pick one that makes a decent amount of money. That way I can retire early and spend time on my hobbies.”

  “What hobbies?”

  “Dioramas and sculptures.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Getting to craft your own little world, or design a statue of someone can be fun. It requires precision, concentration, and an image of what you want it to look like in the end. Bringing that image into reality is rewarding.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” Rey said, although she didn’t know much about it.

  “Then why didn’t you just become a sculptor? Aneeta asked.

  “Do you have any idea how much a sculptor makes?”

  “From your tone… not a lot. Oh well. I prefer going to parties. I still remember this great one I went to in Merrifield-”

  “That’s not exactly a hobby, you know,’ Andre said.

  “Well, do you have any of your own?” Aneeta asked.

  “I enjoy piloting, but that’s more my job. I find history interesting, especially the period of expansion and colonization of new pnets.”

  Aneeta sighed. “Alright. What about you, Rey?”

  “What?”

  “Hobbies.”

  “Hobbies?”

  “Do you have any?”

  “...”

  Rey thought for a bit before responding. “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Really? You should find one.”

  “I suppose I like looking at the stars,” Rey said, trying to think of something.

  “That’s not really a hobby,” Aneeta said.

  “Neither is partying,” Andre pointed out. “And I’m pretty sure you just offended all stargazers.”

  Zan walked into the room and saw them all.

  “Ah, perfect timing. Zan, what are you interested in?” Aneeta asked.

  “What?”

  “Hobbywise.”

  “Is that a word?”

  “Do you?”

  “No, I don’t have time for that.”

  “You could spend a little more time enjoying stuff,” Aneeta said.

  “Those are just excuses to procrastinate. And why is she out here?” he said, looking at Rey.

  May sat at her desk and began doing work on a monitor, Andre turned back to the controls, and Aneeta crunched down on her lollipop.

  “Get her back to her room, I don’t want her here right now,” Zan said.

  Aneeta got up and beckoned for Rey to follow her as she left the room. Rey went after her as Zan walked past her without a gnce. When they made it back, Aneeta stopped at the door.

  “Don’t mind how Zan acts sometimes, he’s always like that. He’s a good person, but he’s only fifteen, and he’s feeling frustrated.”

  “He’s searching for someone, right?”

  “I don’t know the full story because he doesn’t like talking about it much, but he’s been trying to find and rescue his aunt, who was captured by the Seynians. That’s why he hired all of us, and even got in contact with someone in the Empire.”

  “But it went wrong because of me,” Rey said.

  “It’s not your fault. He can try again.”

  ***

  Six and a half days ter, Temure came into sight.

  Rey had never seen anything like it in person.

  It truly was a green pnet. White clouds drifted over the lush forest and farmnd that covered most of its surface. Lakes and rivers gleamed in the light of its sun, and two small ice caps y at the northern and southern extremes.

  Rey gazed at it, mesmerized as they approached.

  She’d learned that the food produced here was distributed across the Empire, feeding billions. Most of the crops were genetically modified to yield more, grow faster, and st longer.

  The final wormhole had brought them close to the outer yer of its atmosphere, and now they began the descent towards Mizga, a small city near the equator.

  They’d decided on Mizga because its spaceports appeared to have less security measures that would get them caught. May had created fake identification for all of them, but Rey was to remain inside and out of sight as much as possible, just in case.

  “We’ve entered the atmosphere,” Andre said. Zan and Aneeta stood behind him, May sat at her desk, and Rey looked out the window.

  A small light turned red and Andre gnced at it, then checked another panel that showed their ship in the center, and an object that had just appeared near the edge.

  “It’s showing another ship approaching us,” he said with a frown. “It looks like it’s coming straight at us.”

  “Think it’s Seynian?” Zan asked, instantly concerned.

  “It can’t be. There’s no way they could know we’re here, and they wouldn’t approach us mid-atmosphere like this.”

  “Then who-”

  Zan’s eyes went wide as something smmed into the left side of the ship, the impact throwing them all off their feet.

  In a moment, all was chaos. The ship was knocked out of the sky and began plummeting towards the surface, leaving a trail of smoke as it fell.