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‘Bend down.’
Bemused and irked by the sniggers he could hear floating up from Rina and Selene, he did as she asked.
She planted a small, soft kiss on his cheek.
‘Sante, Kage,’ she breathed.
With that, she turned and danced down the stairs, feeling like a young, carefree girl instead of a thirty-something woman with occasional achy knees.
She heard a low sigh from the man behind her as she did.
‘Fokk me.’
Kage
She was magnificent.From the top of her lavender hair, his favourite colour, to the sheen of her lilac eyes and the warmth of her smile.
For the first time in years, Kage felt a shift, a quelling of the lingering storm in his soul. During the few hours in her company, he’d felt at home, felt the care, felt her joy. A feeling he’d thought long gone, washed away by the deluge of his wasted childhood.
But now that he’d glimpsed the beauty of a lavender dusk once more, he fell, not into a storm or downpour of despair, but instead into a magical and rare redemption.
3
Damn him to Ccyth and back!
Harlow, ten months later
Harlow paused on the shuttle’s port ramp and took a deep breath. A rush of spices, synth tobacco and moon dust hit her nostrils.
‘Nowhere else but Eden II,’ she murmured, looking around.
The last time she’d been here was five years ago, en route to a holiday on the pleasure planet of Zanyria. It hadn’t looked so swanky then.
Yet now, here it was, rivalling the Rhesians’ Royal Enia Spaceport.
The Sable Group were undoubtedly putting their hard-earned schills to work,Harlow thought. The terminal gleamed clean and bright. The expansive steel and high-performance plex windows let light in, while keeping the complex at a comfortable temperature.
It was high-tech and futuristic, packed with advanced technology and stunning architectural designs that helped to create a seamless and efficient travel experience. The airport sparkled, all sleek and modern, with expansive and airy spaces and a focus on sustainability and energy efficiency.
The arrival halls used biometric facial recognition for travellers, allowing faster and more secure processing. They also featured advanced security measures and body scanners that auto-adjusted to each race and species to ensure the safety and security of passengers and staff. These measures were discreet and unobtrusive, integrated seamlessly into the arrival and departure process. Aspects that ticked major boxes for Harlow.
In terms of amenities and services, Eden II’s gateway offered a wide range of options, from fine dining and luxury shopping to relaxation and entertainment. Harlow walked past a range of charging stations, air lounges, cafes and small goods shops designed to provide passengers with a comfortable and seamless experience while they waited for their flights.
Outside, she spotted a formidably sized terminus with plenty of full berths where Allorian and Dunian merchant ships were parked alongside sleek Rhesian pinnaces. A myriad of smaller flyers milled about. Porters in space suits scurried into the concourse from the berths and air bridges outside the dome, transferring bulky goods onto smaller flyers swiftly pushing out toward the moon’s massive dome.
Dozens of tradespeople bustled in and out of an open-air market on the floor below, exchanging goods extracted from the precious loads of cargo deposited directly on Eden II’s front door.
In the far distance, she spotted a set of private shipyards where a fleet of dark ships sat parked, and she wondered for a moment whether this was where The Sable Group had its engineering shop.
Where she’d be possibly working due to the deal inked in the last three months between her small lab, FusionworX, the Dunian government and The Sable Group (TSG). That said, Harlow hadn’t been across the negotiations. Instead, she’d let Selene manage them, given that FusionworX was a subcontractor to the Dunian government.
When the negotiations were complete, she’d met with Kainan, TSG’s head and Selene’s life partner. He’d walked her through the offer and passed her to his Group’s various business lawyers to finalise the small print.
She was excited. Finally, they’d be moving ahead with her work to fully develop her concept for an incredible hybrid fusion fuel made of refined xentium and elentium. The vision needed deep pockets, and The Sable Group had put up the cash.Well, sort of.After a vicious planetary coup, they’d underwritten many of the costs associated with gaining back control of Dunia. The pact between the Dunians and Edenites was compensatory to some extent. But from what Harlow could tell, their gear, shipyards and tech were state-of-the-art, and they were willing to go the extra mile to get their hands on the new drive technology, which would give them even more dominance in the ship-building space. In Kainan’s words, no expense would be spared on their end to secure first dibs on her breakthrough drive.
Frankly, she was relieved to be out of Dunia, if only for a little while. Her home planet was struggling with the effects of post-war trauma. Its residents seemed to be barely operating on a thin veneer of civility. One that could be quickly pierced at the drop of a hat by unexpected emotions, sharp outbursts, and a broad tendency for many to lose their shit on minor everyday problems. All while the planet dealt with the psychological horrors of war and the utter dread of being almost torn apart by an invading alien droid army.
Dunia required time to heal, and Harlow needed a break from its high pressure cooker environment.
