“You should not be in here,” he said.
“She’s fine,” the pilot said.
“It isn’t safe to stand in the doorway. Think of the child,” he said, pulling her away from the cockpit.
Sophia frowned, letting herself be walked down the hall. They took a turn around the corner and ended up at the door to her bedroom.
“I’m fine,” she said as her door swished open.
She wished that Hanno would leave her alone.
“I need to scan the fetus’s vitals.”
“You do that five times a day, aren’t you a little overzealous?”
Sophia could tell something was going on. Hanno was more overprotective than usual lately. And the pilot had started to seem nervous.
“You are our priority,” he said, “and this is the only thing I can do for you.”
“Okay. Just doing your job. I get it…”
She squinted at him, feeling like there was something he wasn’t telling her.
“What’s going on?”
He sighed. “I didn’t want to tell you this, but there has been talk of Mulgor in the sector we must pass through to get to Galaton.”
“Then you have to let me learn to pilot the ship. We have to be prepared!” she said, rubbing her rounding tummy.
“There’s no point in you getting worked up about it. There are still many months of travel ahead of us before we get to that sector.”
“Does Elait know this?”
“The princes know. The fire dragon’s bride already arrived, but the other brides weren’t found until later so are taking longer.”
“Can’t we go around?”
“We can’t go around and we can’t stop. The only way is forward.”
“Sounds like a good reason to let me learn to pilot the bride ship. You never know when it could come in handy.”
“Please stop asking to pilot the ship, Sophia. I cannot allow you to do that, for numerous reasons we’ve discussed already.”
She grunted angrily and turned on her heel. Hanno really needed to take the stick out of his butt. She stood near the window and looked at the dwarf star passing outside in the milky distance. She’d had so many miraculous experiences over the last few months. Not the least of which was her quickening child.
She loved the feel of its little butterfly wings fluttering inside her belly. It always reminded her that a piece of Elait was near her all the time. She still hadn’t been able to talk to him, but her heart yearned for him nonetheless.
The medic reminded her, every time she asked, that Elait needed to stay away from her, lest his mating impulse consumed his body and mind. The dragon within him would go mad and he would eventually self-destruct with need. The growing child in her womb was the bond that allowed him to survive as long as he already had without her.
If he were to talk to her, he might lose what little control he had over his dragon. She knew the consequences of speaking with her mate, but she couldn’t help needing him; wanting him. She dreamed about his face at night and spent countless hours watching his images float across the holographic screens in her rooms. She loved him with all her heart, and she’d never even spoken to him.
That was part of the reason she was still so determined to pilot the ship. She needed something to look forward to, something to keep her mind off her constant yearning for her prince.
If the pilot just let her fly the ship, she would have something to focus on. The baby wouldn't be here for another six months. As much as she enjoyed experiencing her body changing, it wasn't enough to distract her from the relentless, monotonous boredom of traveling a year through space.
The medic had not given her any indication of when she might actually be able to speak with her mate. He just kept telling her to be patient. Sophia was tired of being patient. She felt like it was all she’d done her entire life. Patience still wasn't a skill that she was very adept at. Sophia was much better at charging forward and not thinking about the consequences. Now, she had all the time in the world to think, and it was starting to get to her.
The days and months continued to move past, each running into the next. Sophia began to wonder sometimes if she had made a mistake leaving Earth in the first place. But every time that thought entered her mind, the image of her prince’s face flashed over it.
She could never regret coming out to meet him or carrying his child. He was sending her intermittent messages over the long months, telling her how proud he was that she was his mate. She lived for those messages. Every time a new one arrived, she felt a little bit closer to him.
One day, near the end of her pregnancy, she found herself sitting in the copilot seat inside the cockpit, finally. The pilot needed to go to his chambers for a moment, and asked Sophia if she would take over while he went.
Her eyes widened and she smiled as she took over control. When he left her alone her heart filled with glee. She happily took the wheel of the Breaking Dawn and sat at the helm as it silently floated through space. It was the most exhilarating feeling she had ever experienced, and it lasted approximately five minutes.
The pilot came back and took control of the ship again, making her promise never to tell the medic it had happened.
“I don't see what the big deal is,” she said. “You know I'm a good pilot.”
“You are a good pilot,” he admitted. “But my mission here is to protect you, not to teach you how to fly the ship.”
“Can't it be both?”
“You're eight months pregnant, he said. “Don't you ever get tired of bugging me about this?”
“Not really,” she said, giggling. “It's not like I have anything else to do with my time.”
“You're doing the most important job that anyone can do. You're carrying the next generation of Draconians.”
“I know and it gives me a lot of satisfaction to do it. But I'll tell you a little secret: I don't actually have to think very hard to carry this baby,” she said in a whisper.
He laughed. “Point taken, Sophia. But I still can't openly allow you to pilot the ship.”
“Then it could just be our little secret,” she pressed.
“Maybe after the baby is born.”
“I'll take what I can get,” she said with a sigh.
She'd been traveling on the bride ship Breaking Dawn for the last eight months with only Medic Hanno and the pilot to talk to. She was starting to get pretty bored. In fact, she had been bored for far too long.
But now that the baby was almost ready to be delivered, she knew that the boredom would not last. Soon she would have a tiny reminder of everything that Elait was to her. She would have his son to love and cherish. When she arrived on Galaton, she would bring the heir to the throne with her. That was a huge accomplishment, and she knew she should be proud of herself for it. Elait would certainly be proud of her when she arrived with his son.
When the day for her delivery finally arrived, Hanno brought her to the medical bay and prepared her for a cesarean. She had been rubbing the synthetic genetic material from Elait on her body to mimic the mating process, but it was not enough to allow her body to naturally deliver a Draconian child.
The only safe way to deliver such a large baby was through medical intervention. She lay on the bed and watched Hanno as he prepared for the surgery.
She was numbed from the waist down and he used his medical wand to slice into her lower abdomen, quickly pulling the baby out from inside her. The whole thing was done in a matter of seconds. She was healed up with the wand while she cradled her little baby in her arms.
She looked down at her son, who cried vigorously to announce his entrance into the world. She had never felt more proud in her entire life. He was huge for a human infant, but still looked as helpless and tiny as any newborn she'd ever seen. She rocked him in her arms, willing all of the love in her heart that she felt for her baby and his father to flow through her and into her child. It was the happiest day of her life, and a moment she would never forge
t.
“Prince Elait would like to speak with you,” Hanno said.
“Now?” she said, feeling ridiculous.
She hadn't expected for her prince to want to speak with her the day of the birth. She found herself feeling embarrassed about the way she looked.
“This isn't really the best time for me,” she croaked. “I look kind of crappy right now,”
“I am sure he will not object to the way you look,” Medic Hanno assured her.
He flicked his hand across a holographic screen and the image of Elait filled the empty space. Sophia gasped, cradling her baby. Elait was even more handsome when he was looking right at her.
“My bride,” he said, finally speaking.
“My prince,” Sophia whispered.
The baby stirred in her arms and Medic Hanno took him from her to allow Sophia to focus on her mate.
“I am contacting you under great risk to myself. But I wanted to speak with you on this day of our child’s birth.”
“I’ve missed you so much,” she blurted out.
“My own mating impulse has been torturous, but I have prevailed. Today I want to discuss the name we will give our son.”
“I’ve always liked the name Hector,” she said meekly. Elait probably had some special Galatonian name planned already.
“We have a similar name in Draconian. It is Hectosh. How does the name Hectosh Purr sound to you, my beloved?”
Hearing him call her beloved sent a thrill through her that rose goosebumps on her arms and made her body awaken with desire, even in her post-operative state.
“It sounds beautiful. My love,” she said, knowing full well that she was speaking to a man she’d never met and had never even spoken to before. But he was her true love. Her fated mate. He was everything. It didn’t matter that they’d never met before.
“Then it is settled. I must go. You have done well, my mate. I await your arrival.”
“Wait!” she yelled, her chest tightening.
But it was too late, the screen had already gone dark.
She shuddered with a stifled sob and buried her face in her hands. The rational part of her, the part that never would have signed up for this thing if she hadn’t been three sheets to the wind, rolled her eyes inside her head. The part of her that had taken a chance, given birth to an absolute angel, and fallen in love with a prince, only soothed her with understanding.
Being without her mate was hard. It was not a punishment she would wish on anyone. There were three more months aboard this ship waiting for her before she would be united with her mate. Then all would finally be right in the world. But she didn’t know if she could last that long.
6
Sophia focused on her sweet new baby Hectosh. For a month, she spent all of her time with her baby in her chambers. She'd never been so happy in all her life. Having a baby awakened a part of her that she'd never known existed before he'd arrived. She watched Hectosh’s beautiful little face. When his eyes lit up at the sight and smell of his mother, it was the most satisfying experience Sophia has ever had.
In those first few weeks with her baby, she forgot all about why she had come into space in the first place. She forgot about her desire to pilot the ship and she forgot about her disappointment at not being accepted into the Academy. But as the weeks rolled by aboard the ship, her old self slowly began to return. She loved her son more than anything in the world, but Sophia could never really forget her truest passion in life.
So one day, when Hectosh was a month old, she left him with the medic for just a little while. She wandered down the wide, brightly lit hallways of the bride ship Breaking Dawn and arrived at the cockpit to chat with the pilot.
“I haven't seen you in a while,” he said, greeting her with a cheerful, Draconian grin.
“I've been busy,” she chuckled. I do have a newborn.”
“Oh,” he said with a chuckle. “Excuses, excuses.”
Sophia sat down next to the pilot and began inspecting his instruments and settings as she gazed at the dashboard. She then looked out the front window of the ship.
She examined the three-dimensional holographic map that showed their current star system and position in relation to the celestial bodies around them.
“So we are still two months out from Galaton,” Sophia observed.
“That's right,” he said.
“Then it seems like now would be an excellent time to allow me to pilot the ship,” she said.
“I know I told you maybe after the baby was born, but I still don't know if it's a good idea.”
“Of course it's a good idea. We've known each other for almost a year now, and in all this time you have taught me absolutely everything I need to know about how to fly. If you don't trust me now, then you must not trust yourself,” she said, raising an eyebrow at him with a smirk on her face.
He shot her a glance and then smiled, letting his shoulders relax.
“Perhaps you're right,” he said. “I can let you fly the ship, but I don't want you to ever tell anyone about it.”
“Why would I do that?” she said.
“All right then,” he said, “I'm transferring controls over to you.”
The pilot flipped a few switches and Sophia saw that the pilot controls had been moved to the copilot. She ran her hand over the holographic screen and then gripped the steering wheel of the ship. It allowed for three-dimensional control of the vessel.
For the most part, the ship was on autopilot, and only needed to be manually steered to avoid asteroids and the like. The pilot allowed Sophia to maneuver the ship around a small cluster of flying debris, and then move the ship back on course. She spent the next two hours working with the pilot in the cockpit until the medic contacted her over the ship board holocom.
“Sophia, the baby needs you,” the medic said through her wrist holocom.
“Duty calls,” she said, transferring control of the ship back to the pilot. “Thanks for letting me do that. It felt really good.”
“Just don't tell anyone, Sophia. I could lose my job.”
Sophia rose from the copilot’s chair and hurried out of the cockpit, down the hallway, and back to her suite. When she stepped inside, she found the medic and little Hectosh in her chambers. Hectosh was red-faced and crying, but as soon as the medic placed him back in her arms, he quieted.
“He missed you,” medic Hanno said.
“I missed him too.”
“What were you doing?” he said.
“I was wandering around. I spent some time on the observation deck. I needed to think. Missing my mate is very difficult for me,” she said. The first part was a lie, but the rest was true. She didn’t want him to be suspicious that she was up to her old tricks. She intended to get more time in the pilot’s seat before arriving on Galaton.
“I do understand,” he said with a nod, and then he turned toward the door. It slid open for him and closed again as he exited.
Sophia held little Hectosh in her arms and rocked him back and forth as she gazed down at his beautiful face. He reminded her so much of her mate that it made her heart ache with longing for him.
She didn't know how she could miss a man she'd never met. It hurt so terribly that her heart ached every single second now. She walked over to the little kitchen in her suite and programmed to the food replicator to produce a bottle of Draconian formula for Hectosh, and then plucked it out of the dispenser. She carried Hectosh and the bottle to the couch and sat down. The couch faced the broad bank of windows, looking out into space.
She offered the bottle to Hectosh and he happily accepted, sucking away at the milk that was specially formulated for a Draconian baby. Without her mate’s touch and the chemical catalyst of his mating bite, her body would not produce milk for the baby. Just as it had not been prepared to deliver such a large child naturally. Sophia accepted this situation, as was required of a bride of Galaton. But it was still difficult for her not to be able to perform such motherly functions.
She hoped that this would all change once she arrived on the planet that would be her new home. When Elait completed the mating ritual and claimed her as his own, her body would transform genetically and she would be able to carry, birth, and feed their next child.
Looking out at the view of a gaseous giant planet outside her window, she sighed heavily and thought of Elait. She imagined his lips on her skin so vividly so many times it was as if they had truly been together. Yet, they were still star systems apart, the distance between them unbearable.
Over the next several weeks, Sophia left little Hectosh with the medic so that she could sneak away to pilot the ship. No one knew but her and the pilot.
Each day, he allowed her to spend more and more time flying. Sophia thought that he liked the excuse to take a break from his work. Since he was the only ship pilot on board, he was basically on duty twenty-four-seven. He barely ever got to take a break.
While she guided the ship around asteroids and other space debris, he spent time on his holocom, researching his favorite topics or looking at nude pictures of human females.
Sophia was slightly offended by this pastime but didn't hold it against him. After a while, he usually got up and left the cockpit, allowing her to pilot the ship on her own.
It was on one of those days when Sophia was confronted with the shock of her lifetime. Worse than the second time she was denied entrance to the Space Academy. It was more shocking than realizing she was mated with a Galatonian prince. And it was even more mind-boggling than the moment she had been presented with her baby son Hectosh.
Out in front of the bride ship, a massive mothership materialized out of thin air at the edge of the solar system. It loomed behind an asteroid belt.
As soon as she saw it, she slowed the ship’s acceleration to zero and sat there staring open-mouthed at the vessel in the distance.
She didn’t know what to do, but she didn't have the chance to think about it for long. Dozens of little vessels emerged from the mothership, heading straight toward the bride ship Breaking Dawn. She had no time to think and no time to call the pilot. This was the moment she had been waiting for her whole life. She had to react; she had to keep her son out of danger.