Blue Galaxy Read online

  Sola rose and went to the viewscan, then touched his face. “Don’t you remember when we were children? I was the closest thing you had to a mother. Remember?”

  Ramon stopped smiling. “No, I don’t remember that at all.”

  Javan tapped at his terminal, hoping he was doing the right thing and grateful he’d spent the credits for military-grade hardware. The ship rocked as the missile launched, and he immediately returned to entering the coordinates, the only ones he knew from memory.

  “We’re jumping now!” He hit the jump key and hurled himself across the cockpit to push Sola into the chair. She shrugged him off, shoved him backward and threw herself on top of him.

  They jumped.

  He came through it better than she did. Sola had a death grip on the command chair, her fingernails clawed into the leather, and she was unconscious. He was trapped beneath her, but he was alive. They both were.

  Javan wriggled from underneath her. It took several long minutes to prize her nails from the chair. He picked her up, carried her to his cabin and gently laid her on the bunk. Her eyelids fluttered; her head rocked from side to side.

  “Sola?” He kissed her.

  She opened her eyes and said distantly, “He was a very sweet boy before they sent him away for his training. He cried and cried when they came to take him.”

  “I…I’m sorry. I had to do something…”

  “You did the right thing, Javan. That little boy died long ago. Only a monster was left.”

  Javan lowered his eyes in relief and kissed her forehead. “How do you feel?”

  “Tired. So tired. I don’t understand why. My recovery systems are usually much better than this.” Her eyelids drooped.

  Javan laughed. “You’re pregnant, my love. Get some rest. We’re safe. For now at least.”

  She blinked her eyes open. “You did it again!”

  “What?”

  “You risked your life to save mine. You did it back on Valhalla too. What’s wrong with you?”

  Javan threw his hands up. “I love you, Sola. I don’t have a choice.”

  She stared at him.

  “And you love me too. All this nonsense about dumping me on Pastorale? You just saved my life. Because you love me.”

  She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I need to sleep. I’m so tired.” She turned her back to him. He rubbed her shoulders, bent and kissed her hair, then turned on the vitalight. He watched her for hours before slowly turning and walking away.

  For hours he sat in the command chair, staring out the viewscan at the place he’d returned to time and time again. He had never known why—until now.

  Sola joined him. “What’s that?”

  “It’s one of the most amazing things in the universe. It’s a blue galaxy. It’s just been born. It’s young and starting to grow.”

  Sola slid into his lap. “It’s beautiful,” she said, leaning her head against his.

  “It has so much life ahead of it. Billions of years if all goes well. Our lives seem very puny in comparison, don’t they?”

  She nodded. Deep in their separate thoughts, they stayed that way for a few moments, gazing at the young galaxy.

  “You win, Javan. Wherever we go, we’ll go together.”

  “All three of us?

  “Yes, all three of us.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why the change of heart?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I’m just tired of trying to control everything. Maybe I’m just tired.” She rested her head on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off and forced her to look him in the eyes.

  “The truth. For once tell me the damn truth.”

  She tried to avoid his gaze. “I just like being around you. That’s all.”

  “Dammit, Sola!”

  “Okay! I love you! Okay? I love you and I want to be with you and I want my child to have a father. A good one! That’s what I want. I never want my child to turn into a Ramon. He could have been good. He wanted to be good!”

  Javan put his arm around her and pulled her close. “That’s more like it, my lady. You love me. You love our child.”

  “I do love you, Javan.”

  “I know you do. I love you too. Since the moment you pulled that hood back and smiled at me.”

  “Where shall we go, Javan?”

  “I don’t know. Any ideas?”

  “To Destin Grady?”

  He laughed. “Are you crazy? Oh…right. You are, aren’t you?”

  “He’s my ally.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “You’re my husband.”

  “I don’t think I can stand having him look at you.”

  “Idiot.” She kissed him. “He admires you.”

  “Me? Why?”

  “For having the guts to say no. For standing up to them. He said you’re a braver man than he will ever be. He’s no threat to you.”

  Together, they took a last look at the infant galaxy. Javan keyed in the coordinates; they strapped in.

  And jumped.

  About the Author

  Diane Dooley was born in the Channel Islands, grew up in Scotland, has lived in several of the United States, loves to travel and to this day still suffers from wanderlust.

  Since Diane was a voracious reader from a young age, it seemed to make perfect sense when she decided writing might make an enjoyable hobby. She has since realized that ‘enjoyable’ is entirely the wrong word. Her short stories have been published in several online venues, and she is a regular contributor to the science fiction blog The Galaxy Express.

  Diane currently lives in a money pit of an old farmhouse in upstate New York, where she tends her husband, sons and a collection of reptiles. When she is not at her day job, she is either reading, writing, gardening, avoiding housework or driving her children to various sporting events. She is also a geek of intergalactic proportions with a severe YouTube habit.

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  ISBN: 978-14268-9158-8

  Copyright © 2011 by Paula Diane Dooley

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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