Space is beautiful.

I can't stop thinking that every time I sit down in the pilot's seat, the chair molding itself around me for maximum comfort. The shimmering light of the stars, the brilliant colors of a nebula, and the deep and infinite black of the void… It never got old.

I reached out my hands and the cockpit fabricated my preferred controls. I gave them a squeeze and smiled over at my copilot, Bru, as he casually groomed himself. I should probably explain that Bru is a cat. He's got bright yellow eyes and a tuxedo pattern coat. We've been flying together for a long time. I reached over to pet him and he swatted at my hand, annoyed I interrupted his bath.

"Oh don't be like that, you look fine." I said with a laugh.

Bru turned his back on me and curled up on the chair. Cheeky little shit.

"Don't get too comfortable, we'll be heading out as soon as the others arrive." I said.

Bru meowed back at me in a way that I interpreted as meaning "whatever." He always had a bit of an attitude, but that wasn't uncommon for cognitively enhanced felines. I knew I could count on him when the time came.

I enjoyed the view beyond the cockpit for a few more minutes before my ship's sensors picked up two signatures on approach. A pair of starblazers similar to my own ship, but each a different design. I recognized them both and activated my comm.

"Artax! Calypso! I was starting to think you weren't coming." I said, grinning broadly.

The first to reply was Artax, his piercing eyes peering at me from a blue feathered face. His species, the Qotz, are a lot like birds. They've got a beak and feathers, but no wings. I always got the feeling it was inappropriate to ask about that, so I never did.

"And have you thinking we yielded this contest to you? I think not." Artax chuckled, the feathers on the top of his head flaring slightly.

The next reply came from Calypso, the lights from her console reflecting off her smooth metallic features. She's a Pandoran, a fully sapient AI with a machine body and a crystalline brain. She's way smarter than me for sure.

"Hey Bru!" She said to the cat, ignoring my comment entirely. "You gonna help this knucklehead stay in the race?"

Bru meowed confidently to her, getting a laugh from all of us.

"Alright. Remember our wager?" I said, powering up my ship's systems and angling towards the shattered remains of a Terran battlecruiser.

I didn't know what battle brought the mighty starship down, but she had been drifting there for at least a hundred years. Scavengers had picked her bones clean of any valuable tech already and left the ruined hulk behind. I watched as the other two starblazers got into position alongside me.

"First one through the debris field gets to choose our next destination." Artax replied promptly. "I'll transmit the coordinates as soon as I'm through."

"Keep telling yourself that." Calypso smirked and put her ship into a playful spin. "I just upgraded my ship with gravitic thrusters."

"Well that hardly seems fair, Callie…" I said with no small amount of envy.

"Enough chatter." Artax said, narrowing his gaze. "Let's do this."

"Fine by me." I gripped the controls firmly. "Three… two… one… GO!"

The three starblazers accelerated towards the remains of the battlecruiser and entered the debris field. Smaller bits of detritus glanced off our barriers as we evaded the larger chunks. Our path took us right down the middle of the hollowed out hulk. Was it dangerous? Hell yeah. That was part of the thrill!

"We're gonna have a great time at Pacifica!" Calypso said as she turned towards a large chunk of debris.

"What are you doing?" I shouted.

She didn't reply, but opened fire with her ship's meson blasters. The debris turned white with heat before blowing apart, revealing a shortcut through the wreckage.

"Oh no you don't!" Artax said, activating his ship's tractor beam. He latched onto Calypso's starblazer with the violet energy tether and was dragged through the hole after her. I was moving too fast to follow them through, leaving me no choice but to push ahead.

"Damn!" I said and looked around for a way to catch up to them. That was when I realized what I was flying through. It was the barrel of a starship scale railgun.

"Bru! Switch power from the barrier system to the particle emitter!" I said to the cat as I centered my ship to fly down the exact center of the railgun barrel.

Bru stretched before leaping up onto the console and pawing at the controls there.

"Just like that. Set it for electrons. No no, not protons, electrons! Yes right there! Perfect, now hold on to something!"

Bru jumped back down and dug his claws into the seat. Once he was secure, I activated the particle emitter and sent a surge of electricity directly into the ancient railgun capacitors. They came alive and started to spin.

"Here we go!" I said, strapping myself in. I deactivated the engines just as the ship was caught in the electromagnetic field and fired out of the railgun like a bullet.

"WOOHOO!!" I shouted as I was slammed into the back of my seat by the g-force. The ship's inertial dampers did their best to compensate for the sudden acceleration. Bru yowled in protest as he clung to the seat by his claws.

Small bits of debris pinged off the ship's armor plating as we blasted out the other side of the debris field. I powered the engines back on and the dampers shunted the kinetic energy into subspace, bringing the ship to a full stop. I checked the sensors and saw both Artax and Calypso catching up behind me.

"So… looks like I'll be the one sending coordinates this time." I grinned as I activated the comm.

I was expecting them to look annoyed at my little trick, but their faces showed a different expression. Fear…

"What's wrong?" I asked, double checking the sensors for some kind of trouble. There was nothing but the three of them and the debris field.

"Is that what I think it is?" Calypso said.

"It can't be…" Artax said.

I frowned and angled the ship to peer out the cockpit in the direction they were facing. They were seeing something that wasn't on sensors… When I saw what it was, my heart nearly stopped in my chest. A starship, black as the void and shaped like a six pointed asterisk. It was a Dark Aster… only one of the most deadly things in the known universe. An angry red light was building at its center… and it was heading our way.

"You two need to get out of here! Dive now!" I ordered.

"You want us to leave you!?" Calypso exclaimed.

"We need to escape together!" Artax protested.

"No." I replied firmly. "They're here for me and they'll keep coming. Leave now, or they'll kill you without a second thought. Please…"

As if to emphasize the point, the Dark Aster fired a red ray of destruction from its core that completely disintegrated a huge section of the wrecked battlecruiser. It was like watching cotton candy dissolve in water.

"Shit!" Calypso closed her comm and her ship's tangent drive powered up.

Artax stared at me a moment as his own drive powered up. "If you make it out of this… you'll explain?"

"Yeah, man. I will… Just please, go!" I begged.

Artax nodded once and closed his comm. A sigh of relief escaped me as the two starblazers distorted into a single point of light, disappearing into subspace. They were safe.

My attention turned to the Dark Aster as it approached, filling my view with a black nothingness tinged with violent red. Bru looked over at me, as if to ask why we weren't running, too.

"They would just keep coming… Let's hear what they have to say." I said to the cat, who glared out the cockpit at the umbral ship and growled.

The Dark Aster opened comms, and I accepted. The image of two Terrans wearing black ceremonial robes stood before me, a male and a female. Each outfit prominently displayed the gold and violet symbol of a black hole. The man was tall and slender with pale skin and long blond hair. The woman had the build of a warrior, skin dark and eyes blazing with psionic power. Our eyes met and I squared my jaw.

"Kieran." The man said, his voice soft yet authoritative.

I swallowed hard before answering.

"Mom. Dad."