When they arrived on the landing pad, Perthonogis went to the Victorious and emerged from the airlock carrying his device, which he lugged over to the Don Quixote. Limpet hopped inside the ship, and Long John helped the doctor haul his device on board.

  “I’ve decided to call it the Protector,” said Perthonogis. “Where should we put it?”

  “We don’t have a lot of extra space.” Long John looked around. “Especially since we’ve got all Grimshaw’s loot piled up. Crew, can you haul these chests out of here? Put them in the Victorious.”

  The spiders jumped up and got to work moving five large chests to the airlock and out.

  Crystal watched them with curiosity. “What are you going to do with all that?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t need it. Give it away?” He glanced around. “We’ve got more space now. How about we put your device beside the table, doctor? We don’t use that area much.”

  “That will work.” They carried it to the galley and set it down. As he did so, Long John experienced a moment of disorientation. For a second, he saw the device aglow, immense and unanchored in time, expanded in several dimensions, a virtual reality interface brimming with lights that slid along its edges. He blinked and the vision vanished.

  “Did you see that?” he said to the doctor.

  “See what?”

  “It was . . . I can’t describe it. In three dimensions, it was huge, all lit up, bigger than this ship . . .”

  The glyptodont nodded. “Ah. I’ve seen a little of it. It is larger than just this dimension, as I think I mentioned.”

  Long John stepped back from it.

  “Long John,” Crystal said. “You’re not taking your crew with us, are you? You mentioned not risking lives unnecessarily.”

  “Right.” He turned to look at his spider crew, all looking up at him with expectant eyes. He felt reluctant to speak, but knew he had to do it.

  “Listen up, guys. We’re going on a trip that may turn out to be dangerous. I want you to stay here, and we’ll come back for you when we’re done.” He moved to open the airlock.

  Limpet spoke. “No.”

  Long John turned around. “What?”

  “No.” None of the spiders moved.

  “You can’t say no.” Long John folded his arms. “It’s an order.”

  Limpet looked from one to another of his compatriots. “You go, we go. Maybe we help.”

  “I don’t think there will be fighting. You’ve been a big help already, but this trip, I think it’ll be mostly up Dr. Perthonogis’ alley. No reason we should all run into danger.”

  “We crew. We go.”

  Long John threw out his hands in frustration. “What do I do?” he asked Crystal, who was watching the conversation with a slight smile.

  “I don’t think you have a choice. If they are determined, what are you going to do?”

  “I can’t have a crew who won’t follow orders!”

  “I think you have a crew who are loyal and dedicated. I don’t know what you can do about that.”

  He was tempted to yell at them, but then realized she was right. Shouting orders wouldn’t do him any good. “Fine. Limpet, set a course for the Soaring Dragon.”

  “Yes, sir!” Limpet scurried over to the control panel, and the rest of the spiders relaxed.

  “An interesting species.” Dr. Perthonogis settled into the navigator’s seat. “You don’t often find creatures of the order Araneae who are social beings. But these seem to have adapted remarkably well to communal life in space.”

  “Yeah.” Long John moved to the copilot’s seat. “They make a great crew, except when they get minds of their own.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  They were underway within minutes. Long John felt apprehensive, knowing this might be his last trip in space. To take his mind off it, he asked the doctor, “Do you have family on the space station?”

  “Yes, I do.” The glyptodont settled back in his seat with a reminiscent smile. “My wife Hermelinora, and our three sons, Plucky, Pincher and Kinchu.”

  “Kinchu?”

  “That’s short, of course, for Quinchinagus. He’s quite accomplished on the zither.” His smile faded. “I miss them.”

  “Of course you do.” Crystal gave him a sympathetic smile as she slid into the seat beside him. “But why did you come on this trip? You knew it might be dangerous.”

  “Of course. Life is one dangerous situation after another. It’s not possible to get through a lifetime without danger, so it’s best just to face it head-on.”

  “A good philosophy,” she said. “Don’t you agree, Captain Queeg?”

  “Me?” Long John glanced over his shoulder. “I avoid danger whenever possible. It finds me often enough without encouraging it.”

  She shook her head. “Speaking of wives, have you had any on your ship? Or girlfriends?”

  “Why would you ask that?” He checked on Limpet, who was deep in course computations.

  “Just out of curiosity.”

  “Well,” he said absently, “I’ve had six or seven on board. When I get tired of them, we just chuck them out the airlock.”

  Limpet gave him a disapproving look. “Tell lies not good.”

  “You got me,” said Long John. “No, not really. There was a girl I was attracted to, she was on board for a few weeks. But she turned out to be an AI instead of human.”

  Crystal frowned. “AIs don’t have physical presence.”

  “This one did.” He shook his head at a pleasant memory of Selka. “I think she built it out of silicone. Incredibly beautiful. They’re good at mimicking emotions, but don’t really feel them as far as I know. So that story had a tragic ending.”

  “Did you chuck her out the airlock?” Crystal asked.

  “No. I gave her back the ship I’d stolen—er, borrowed—from her, and she left. Sad but true.”

  “I’m not an AI,” Crystal said.

  “I can tell.”

  “Really? How can you tell?”

  He grinned at her. “You’ve got flaws. You’re human.”

  Dr. Perthonogis chuckled. “You may talk yourself into trouble, Captain.”

  “What flaws?” said Crystal.

  “Hm, I suspect the doctor is right. But . . . well, you’re irritable before you’ve had your coffee. You’ve been known to snore. You’re impetuous, rush into danger—"

  “I’m a soldier!”

  “Yes, there is that. The armor is a bit off-putting.”

  “You, sir, are insufferable.”

  “Told you,” said Dr. Perthonogis.

  “Captain,” Limpet chirped. “We really head to Dragon Nebula? There nothing out there.”

  “The nebula is still there, isn’t it?” Long John leaned forward to peer into the long distance viewscreen.

  “It still there. You look at starfield, look normal. But in real time . . . “

  “What’s he saying?” asked Crystal.

  “That we can see stars when we look into space ahead of us, but their light is coming from light-years, actually light-centuries, away. We have a Kitchner-Malvern scope, though, which shows us space in real time, briefly. Remember, that’s what we saw in the Strategy Room on Hejmo. It’s showing space as empty until you get to the nebula.”

  “What do we know about the location of the entity now?” asked Crystal.

  “It’s between here and the Soaring Dragon Nebula,” said Long John. “I hope we see it before we run into it.”

  They flew on into the nothingness that was space without suns, asteroids, comets, or nebulae, although they could still see the light that those objects had emitted eons ago. It gave Long John an eerie sensation, which he had rarely felt in space before. He was glad he was not alone on what might be his last flight. But glancing from the corner of his eye at Crystal, he wished she were elsewhere, somewhere safe. If there were such a thing as a safe place in the galaxy anymore.

  Three maindays passed without incident. The spiders played cards, bet gold coins and passed them back and forth. Crystal started cleaning and organizing until the ship was as shipshape as she could get it. The doctor mulled over his device, making calculations and rechecking them, and polished his scales. Long John read the Galactic Encyclopedia, and watched Crystal.

  On the third day she sank into the copilot’s seat beside him and heaved a sigh. “No signs of an anomaly?”

  “No signs of anything.”

  “The waiting is hard.”

  “Yes.” They flew in silence for several minutes. He said, “Crystal—”

  “Yes?”

  He looked at her, at the lustrous hair falling to the middle of her back, the curve of her throat. But he saw more than that: her courage, her honesty, her kindness. He leaned over and kissed her cheek.

  She looked startled.

  “Sorry . . .” he said.

  She stared at him for an instant, then leaned over, grabbed his shirt front, pulled him close and gave him a lingering kiss.

  He felt his heart do a slow flip, and a place in him that he had not known was wounded, began to heal. “Mm,” he said when she released him.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, her cheeks flushing.

  “Don’t be sorry.”

  “Excuse interrupt,” Limpet said, who was navigating. “Ship coming.”

  “A ship? From where?” Long John turned to the controls.