🏆 ❝𝘛𝘙𝘈𝘝𝘌𝘓𝘌𝘙❞ - AIM TO ENGAGE 2023 WINNER
🏆 ❝𝘔𝘈𝘙𝘒𝘚 𝘖𝘍 𝘋𝘌𝘚𝘛𝘐𝘕𝘠, 𝘔𝘈𝘛𝘊𝘏𝘌𝘚 𝘖𝘍 𝘍𝘈𝘛𝘌❞ - AIM TO ENGAGE 2023 FAVORITE PICK
Explore the Multiverse in this short story anthology following two souls, Dara and Page, as they...
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The sound of thrusters dying filled the emptiness in Page's gut with relief. She released the tension in her shoulders, removing her grip from the steering wheel. Oh, dear Flessus, she was knackered. She glanced at the time-keeper in the ship's control board. Not even a full hour after a space-dive? Cool.
She flipped certain controls off, her gut exploding with all sorts of feelings. After years of wanting to be an explorer, here she was, finally making her first landing. It took every ounce of her self-control to avoid pumping her first in the air. She didn't want to rip the space suit she wore—one that was too small for her when she tried it on.
What more could she ask for, though? She was here because her people needed her. It sucked; her first mission might be her last considering how bad it was back home. If not for her insane convincing skills and the fact that most of the older generation sailors were too sick to even brush their teeth, she wouldn't be here. On Exa-40-p—her first discovery.
She even took the liberty of assigning a name. It took her the entire space-dive—all five hours of it—to come up with a perfect one. Perhaps, she should revert back to Exa-40 and eliminate the p, but hey, the weirder it was, the better. People remembered weird facts and forgot about mundane ones. Page would go down in history, and when her name was mentioned, they should be able to attribute the Exa-40 to her. And more. This was just her first voyage. Who knew what would happen on her next ones, right?
She hummed a folk tune to herself as she did the basic maintenance check for the condition of her ship. The Callagheen 203 was her uncle's property, and he treasured this beauty more than his wife and children. Of course, it brought problems later on, but the point stood. Page couldn't let anything happen to it—not even a scratch—or she would find herself out in the backyard as a new offering to the vengeful goddess, Shakha.
If not for her mother's insistence, Page would have gotten the Callagheen 201, which was her father's, and the issues that hunk of scrap was tantamount to a million headaches. Despite her entire clan being involved in the ship-crafting business for more than enough years, her father had no idea how to take care of a ship, much less his own hide. Before all of them got sick and the air turned hostile, Grandma used to chase Page's grown father around the lab, lecturing him about not turning the thrusters all the way up or coaxing the engines to reach past optimal speeds.
A smile brought the corners of Page's lips up. Such memories always cheered her up even during hard times. They were the only things keeping her going, so when the Plague came and she was forced out of her own home and planet, they were the only ones she kept close to her heart. The journey couldn't have taken an entire day, but years would have gone like mad back home. The entire family knew that, but they still chose Page.
A sneaking suspicion itched at the back of her head. Maybe the reason she was out here was to save her before the Plague got her. It wouldn't work, though. She would find the cure for the Plague, and it would be her turn to save them.
