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Chapter 1 "Picking the right star to wish on?"
Tristan Mallory jolted in his chair at Kellen's voice. He blinked, seeing again the moving starfield on the forward viewing screen. Kellen Votrain sauntered through the hatch onto the tiny bridge and plopped down in the chair beside him at the ship's command console.
"Or is it star intoxication?" Kellen handed him his beer.
"A bit of both." Tristan pulled the tab and waited a moment for the can to cool its contents then sipped.
Kellen grinned and leaned back, propping his heels on the top of the console. He raised his beer can. "To both."
"To both." Tristan sipped again. "Picked out your star? Must have the perfect one if you want your wish to come true."
"Not the binaries. Fickle wishing stars binaries. How about that one?" He pointed at the luminous yellow star at the left bottom corner of the screen.
"Good choice. Trigellan. Like Poppa Sol himself. Earth colony on the third planet."
"Arden."
"Beautiful diseased Arden." Kellen's green eyes glimmered with seriousness as he examined Tristan's face, then he turned back to the starfield. "And your wish?"
Tristan shrugged.
Kellen rephrased his question. "What's wrong, Tris?"
"I'm not sure. Boredom. Emptiness when I should feel complete."
"Life as a megamind scientist isn't to your liking then?"
"Yes, and..."
"No. Remember how it was with us after graduate school. Let's do that again. I'll plot a course away from that bloody dull conference, and you and I will sneak out of the known galaxy. We'll find the planets, you can figure out what makes them tick, and I'll figure out how to communicate with the localversion of people. It's not as much fun playing Columbus without you along. And we haven't named a system after you yet."
"And probably never will."
"Is it my fault women have a weakness for me?"
Tristan mimicked, "Oh my dear, you're so beautiful. I'll name a star system after you." He snorted. "God, what a line."
"It works." Kellen jerked upright. "What the..."
Warning strobes flashed on the control console. Kellen fingered the controls with the skill of a concert pianist.
Tristan leaned forward in disbelief. "Another ship on collision course out in the middle of nowhere?"
Their ship bucked. Kellen's can sailed off the console, a tail of beer following it. Kellen swore and also stated the obvious. "They're shooting at us." He punched the communication switch. "This is The Helen of Troy, The Helen of Troy. We're not hostile. Repeat, not hostile. Hold your fire."
The ship shuddered as another force bolt hit.
Their eyes met, all questions and answers settled in a moment. Tristan grabbed the controls as Kellen charged toward the weapons bubble beneath the bridge. Tristan began evasive action, intending to get the hell away from the larger ship, a heavily armed fighter by the size of it.
A force bolt shimmered across their hull; the ship's structure groaned.
Swearing through his teeth, he dodged the next bolt. The ship's laser buzzed as Kellen shot back.
The Helen reared and bucked with a direct hit. Fire exploded behind him. His fingers touched suddenly stiff controls. All power gone, the ship wallowed then floated sideways like a dead whale caught in a current. Even the ship's weapons were gone.
He glanced back at the holocaust and the automatic fire sprinkler fighting the flames then hit the communications button. "We surrender. This is The Helen of Troy. We surrender. Acknowledge."
Not even static answered. Either they weren't replying or couldn't hear him. He shrugged and considered the identity of their enemy. The Helen was in a peaceful trading zone in human space. Pirates rather than aliens.
The weapons system screamed with disintegrating metal and buckled.
"Kellen!" He ran toward the weapons bubble and peered down. Acrid smoke flared upward. Flames around him, Kellen sprawled at the base of the ladder.
Some tiny, reasonable part of Tristan's brain told him it was suicide, but he shimmied down the ladder and knelt by his friend. He sought a pulse.
At his touch, Kellen swore violently. "Get the hell back up, you idiot."
Returning the compliment, Tristan threw the other man across his shoulder and began to drag them both up the ladder. That tiny voice told him his hand was scorching on the ladder, but he paid no attention.
The journey up was ten times longer than the journey down. He dumped Kellen onto the floor of the bridge and crawled up beside him.
The ship shuddered again, the wall behind them beginning to bulge. The tiny voice told him to run, but he threw himself over Kellen's body as the propulsion system exploded.
Darkness.
Pain and darkness. He swam up through miles of darkness and pain then opened his eyes. Tears streaming down his smoke-blackened face, Kellen leaned over him. Eerie red emergency lights shimmered in the smoke. He forced his voice up through the darkness between them. "You okay?"
"Nothing major." Kellen blinked tears. "Oh, Tris. You damn fool."
He didn't ask how he was. The terrible pain and his friend's eyes, sea green with grief, told him. He smiled. "Guess I made the wish on the wrong star." His body shuddered.
Kellen's hand found his and held. "You damn fool."
"Love you too, Kell. Only brother my parents didn't have."
"Me too."
"God watch over you." Tristan closed his eyes and stopped fighting the darkness' pull. Images drifted past. His parents, brothers, his sister, and little Peter. He'd never hear his nephew pronounce his name correctly. He smiled at them. They'd be all right. They had each other. Then he saw beautiful, loving Dorian. He pleaded to her image, "Please forgive me for leaving you, too."
Kellen was calling his name, but he drifted deeper in darkness until his friend's voice faded away. Finally, he settled so deep even his tiny voice couldn't be heard.
Copyright © 2000 by Marilynn Byerly
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