Dome of Souls (Book 2 of 2, after Story Less Told)

Ch12: Zephyr

A young man with dark skin and a nose ring bit his lip as he blinked rapidly, his glowing red eyes scanned the tablet for the specs he was given. He looked up at a rather heavily tattooed young women, or an older women, it was hard to tell with Fae and Osirians. They live forever so age is more of a mental thing. She had grey hair and a maturity to her eyes that suggested wisdom, but a youthful face and body. She waited for his response.

"This is a joke...right?" said the young man.

"Not remotely, is this a problem?" she asked.

"The Sopdu? You assigned me to the fucking Starship Sopdu?" he said smiling as if he was ready to laugh at the joke. She wasn't smiling back.

"You wanted a starship...it's a starship. You didn't think you would be given a full sized Shiva battle planet or something did you?" she asked.

"You mean the one that went missing?"

"Don't even say that aloud. That could get you killed."

"Well, I get that you start small and work your way up but...the Sopdu? I can't even say that name without cringing. What is that? It sounds like a forbidden sex act that would get you arrested on 3 planets. Does it even have good mythology?"

"Egyptian god of the sky and lord the East." she mentioned.

"They couldn't give him a better name? I can re-name the ship, right? As long as it's not already taken, the Captain can just re-name this ship, I mean we aren't even out of the docking bay yet." he chuckled.

"Already registered as the Sopdu in the database, plus we pretty much used all of them at this point. We have a large fleet and Earth Egyptian Mythology only had so many gods." she shrugged.

"And we couldn't just start over with another mythology? What about the Norse? Starship Odin, now that sounds intimidating." he pushed.

"I'm sorry, did our ancestors build pyramids in Viking territory and influence the culture beyond repair?" she asked with sarcastic annoyance.

"Not that I am informed." admitted Zephyr.

"Which is why we name the ships after Egyptian gods. It's a tradition based in respect for your brother's contribution to our species. He turned the tides of war with a single ship, the Osiris, the very ship that we are named after...not some human gods that were made up before we even discovered them."

"That's bullshit...the Elders named a planet Loki, it's the one orbiting the star we named Valhalla." he objected, getting louder. They named it that because it's where they stuffed dad...the Osirian god of mischief? Get it?" he almost yelled.

"Okay fine, so we deviate from the tradition when we have to. Your Father named the ship." she said giving up and putting her feet on the desk.

"See, I knew it. That big blue bastard did that just to screw with me."

"Of course he did! He's a Jackass. But, Jackass or not, he was a member of the Elder Council and since we don't want him making any real political decisions they let him do stupid things like name ships and go on cargo runs...until the exile. He can't do cargo runs in prison so they let him keep naming ships. It's about all they trust him with, Zephyr. It keeps him occupied and in return he doesn't do something rash and wipe out a star system or whatever. Do you know what he was going to assign you before I stepped in?" she asked handing him a blueprint. He looked relieved.