One Between the Stars

Chapter 17

They had enough fuel to make it a few days, so for a while, the crew sailed about space.  To Ionia, who didn't know anything about traveling or spaceships, it didn't look like they were heading in any particular direction. It wasn't like traveling on a planet; you couldn't see the road ahead of you, nor could you see the distance you'd crossed. Space was just this vast, infinite, blackness, dotted with stars, and they were just a tiny speck floating at the mercy of nothingness.

Ionia brushed out her hair, sitting on her bunk and gazing out the window. The real outer space was foreign to her, but her entire life she'd dreamed of seeing it, being in the midst of it. Her hair was a symbol of greatness for her people, but she'd always wondered why. Why her hair, and why specifically the color of the view she was now gazing at?

She spent her days reading her book and feeling, with joy, a newfound connection to the hero in the story. Now they both on great quests to known lands.

When she wasn't reading, she wandered the halls and rooms of the ship, her new home for the foreseeable future. It was relatively small, save for perhaps the cargo bay, but that even seemed small what with all the crates and boxes of provisions and other things Ionia was sure Carson wouldn't appreciate her snooping in.

Most curious of all was the squire, Arthre, whom Ionia wanted to get to know, but remained distant. He stuck mostly to his duties; cleaning, doing laundry, polishing armor, making small repairs around the ship. And what time he had free he spent in his own room, locked away. Ionia found the room, but hadn't entered because it really wasn't any of her business. The boy always seemed glum, but she could see a sort of intelligence behind his eyes. He was quiet, but she could tell his head was always so full. She wondered what it was full of.

After those few days on the ship, Carson made the announcement that they would be landing shortly on a small port planet to refill on fuel.

"We'll be touching down within the hour," he said.

So Ionia went to pack a few of her things - a bit of food, some water - and she hesitated before leaving her book of tales in its place underneath her bunk. She knew the story by heart; there was no reason to weigh her pack down.

When they left the ship, Carson told the other two to go on ahead to the inn just a block away.

"I need to make sure they know how to take care of my ship." He patted its hull.

Arthre and Ionia walked through the dusty streets, which were mostly deserted. The planet was even smaller than Ionia's, and as far as she could tell didn't have any formal government in place, except maybe a mayor from the look of the rickety capitol building at the center of the town. The whole place was practically a desert, the two day stars beating down on her menacingly, and the landscape was mostly hard packed red dirt.

They entered the inn, which was just as shabby on the inside as it looked on the outside. Ionia tied her hair up in a bun as Arthre spoke with the person at the registration desk.

"We won't be here long," he explained.

"But you're taking a room, right?" the woman asked, squinting down at the squire.

"No. We won't be here by the time the day star goes down."

Ionia looked to her left at the room beyond, where a few shady characters sat in booths and at the bar. Arthre came with Ionia to a booth and they sat down with no little amount of exhaustion.

"Geez," Arthre said, wiping his brow. "It's like this planet lives inside an oven."

"Well, Carson did say it was rather close to its day stars." Ionia rolled up her sleeves, glad she had left her jacket back on the ship.