The Outer Moon (A Sapphic Sci Fi Adventure)

Chapter 8

It was the middle of the night, and Emma lay in bed, watching the video on her screen for what seemed like the millionth time in the last few days. She knew exactly what it was now, and what her sister was telling her. The message came from an intermediary, a corporate executive named Jason, who had been in contact with her a few times over the last month or two about potentially being a pilot in space with Lena, but this was a giant step in accomplishing that. It also carried the implication that she would no longer be a part of the Space Force but would be living in space with her sister instead.

"Is this for real?" Viv asked from over her shoulder.

"Yeah," she whispered back, letting the flight instructions sink into her brain. Honestly, she loved to fly, and the ship that Lena was on looked like the kind of thing that she could live in forever. It was gorgeous, and like something right out of a movie set. "Do you feel like going into space with me?"

"Seriously? Like the people that went out to Uranus?"

That was a big topic on the base lately. Their commander had them going over any information they could find on the ships, be it on long range cameras when they were docked at the PASSpace station, to from radar when they were in range. There were other teams looking over the damaged ships in orbit too, but she wasn't privy to that information, it was all about the working ones for her. She also didn't like the way they were talking about the crews up there.

Lena and Emma had never mentioned being related before. They had nothing to do with each other professionally, having been in different branches of the military, and with different last names because of their different fathers, so nobody ever suspected it. The love of flight and their innate skills were things that many pilots had or aspired to, but it was nothing that would be thought of in comparing them to one another. They didn't even look too much alike, with Emma having taken more after her father, while Lena looked more like her late father.

At times like these, she was thankful not to be known as a relative, because there was a lot of crazy talk about going up and attacking the ships, and that seemed foolish from the start. What had they even done? They had given the Earth a lot of what they found, and now that wasn't enough? It sounded like the leaders on the planet were just being greedy considering her sister's mission had taken all the risks and done all the work. She just laughed at the people claiming to be prophets too, that seemed like such a bullshit thing that she didn't even pay them any mind, and she was thankful that Viv felt the same way.

But how would she like to leave the Earth behind and live up in the stars with her sister?

"Yeah, just like that. If I wanted to go up there on one of those ships, would you go with me?" She turned to look Viv in the eye at that. Normally, Emma took charge in bed, and Viv loved it. But it was one thing for her to tell her baby girl what she was going to do to her that night, and an entirely different thing to ask her to leave the planet. This wasn't something she could do any more than hope for, and she hoped quite a bit. And what would she do about her sweet little Bree? She'd have to call Child Protective Services at a minimum. It wasn't like she could take her with her! Could she? She was terrified while waiting for Viv's answer, until her lovely girlfriend nodded.

"We're in the damned Space Force, and you're asking if I want to go to space? Seriously? You know I would! But you're talking about going up on one of their ships, right? Wouldn't we be deserting to do that?"

"I know, I know. We both took an oath. But look at what's happening! How many times have you heard people talking about going up there and taking over their ships, or attacking them for no reason? I'm not talking about idle crap in the mess hall either, I'm talking about the people we report to." Emma shook her head sadly. "I didn't sign up for that shit. The government is just jealous and wants to have the fancy car, you know? That company hasn't done anything wrong."