I was about to answer the emergency communication when I heard a loud bang like a 9 mm. Pistol firing close to my head. I ripped the helmet off to see some woman I didn't recognise standing next to me, wearing a guard's uniform and holding a 9mm pistol pointed at the guy that had sneered at me. I turned in my seat to see a hole in the man's leg.

  “First warning, disrespect of the command chain leads to painful consequences!” she shouted at him.

  I quickly spun back, pulling the helmet over my head as I closed my eyes thinking ‘punishments here are fricken terrifying!’ After I had managed to calm back down, I mentally answered the emergency call from the other ship.

  ”Incoming! Unknown ships amounting to an armada are hard burning from the edge of the star system, weapons are charged. I believe they intend to engage us. There is an armada! We need to jump now! I repeat, incoming!” I ended the call and started searching my ship for a way to jump. I hadn't managed to find it before I heard someone shout.

  ”Sensors to Captain, we have incoming, large amounts of unknown ships, I count enough to form an armada they are bearing down hard on us, oh my Grandfather! They are opening fire! Incoming missiles and lasers, I have a count of 70 thousand type 2 clean nuclear warhead missiles!. Recommend an immediate jump to the Ceremony dimension!”

  I returned to searching for some sort of jump drive. However, I wasn’t able to find any sort of drive that suggested it was a jump drive. My mind screaming at me ‘ I'm not panicking, I'm not packing, I’m calm, collected, rational… Oh god, we are all going to die!’ however, my mind also kept coming back to the warp drive as the only one on board that would do anything about moving us from this place of death.

  ”Pilot Kenna! Engage the jump drive by powering the thrusters forwards on the flight path and when you reach the end of the navigation path. Seize hold of the warp drive ring and pull it over on itself so it spins, then, jump through it!” Itshu Biyu firmly but calmly said to the bridge.

  My attention instantly jumped back to the warp drive as I looked at it curiously before glancing up at the end of the flight path and quickly engaged the thrusters to follow it to the end. My mental hands rested on the edge of the ring, but this time I wasn’t ready to drop into it. I was going to try this insane idea of Itshu’s to flip it.

  As I reached the end and was starting to get nervous about the timing I noticed the Lazarus had gotten a lot closer to me, I was about to ring and ask their pilot what the hell he was doing, but I had reached the end of the path and dismissed the Lazarus and focused on gripping the ring tighter as I tried to push down on the left and lift the right. The problem was, the damn thing didn’t even budge. I panicked and mentally jumped onto the left side of it trying to use all my weight to shift it only for it to drop me on what I was perceiving to be the floor when it easily turned and started spinning.

  I watched in amazement as it spun faster and faster, blurring into a single ring, and the next second a portal appeared in it. I felt a tug, it was gentle almost inviting the next moment a little stronger, slightly persistent and the moment after that I felt like something was trying to drag me through the portal. I let out a scream of panic as I felt a strong urge to throw my arms out wide and jump head first into the portal, only to blink and find out that's exactly what I had done.

  The moment before I hit the event horizon, I felt like a normal scared out of my mind little Scottish girl from earth, that had no idea what was happening. The next, I passed through the portal and suddenly felt like I was the size of the Milky Way and if I flapped my wings even once it would have rippling effects that could birth or destroy entire worlds. My wings were gliding along some currents that I was trying really hard not to think about or let the entire situation freak me out because I could feel two ships hiding under my wings as they tried to make it through what I instinctively knew was the void between one dimension and the next.

  I was not surprised that I somehow knew when to lean slightly to follow the air currents, or that I somehow knew I was going in the right direction to reach the exit portal into the dimension I wanted to arrive in. what did surprise me was my ship seemed to be superglued to my wing and didn't budge and inch. However, the Lazarus kept slipping and sliding like the pilot was struggling to keep up. I turned my mind away from it as in my current bird like state the ship just didn't seem important at all.

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  What did seem important was I could feel a moment coming up where I would have to flap my wings to change to another current that led to the exit, and I could feel, in that moment, I would have to make a decision. I understood that I would have to pull the ships with me or leave them behind. The problem was the way I flapped my wings, if I left the ships behind then it would be easier to leave no rippling effects on either dimensions I was coming from or heading to and any other dimension that the force of my flap would be able to reach and have an influence on. However, if I tried to take them with me then it limited my flap causing me to have to be more precise and if I made a mistake it could destroy any of those dimension including the one my home was in.

  I already knew the answer as I hit that moment, I threw my feet forwards and slid my wings down into a half flap, trying to limit the forces I created on the void. My talons closed around the ships and pulled them with me, allowing me to clumsily pull them onto the new path. I let out a sigh of relief that I had managed to take them with me as I spread my wings back out to glide along the new currents. However, my eyes tracked the breath, watching what I somehow instantly knew was a dimensional seed that would one day grow into a brand-new dimension with all new life in it. The next moment I slapped into a portal and was suddenly the ship again sitting in space with the Lazarus slowly pulling away from me.

  “Sensors to captain, we have reached the ceremonial dimension, the Star Hawk has successfully guided us through the void.”

  “Roger that sensors. Pilot, please follow the preprogrammed course for the ceremonial planet.” Itshu Biyu said.

  My eyes shifted slightly to the left of the Lazarus where a blue line was following its path towards the third planet from the sun, and I quickly pushed power to the rear thrusters and turned the bow of the ship to follow. The path was a simple, straight forward one down to the planet's atmosphere, and I considered tossing on the autopilot and studying something. However, I was having trouble thinking about what I could get certified for. I needed flight hours for the cert 3 in pilots, which ment I had to actually fly the damn ship but flying in a straight line was so boring.

  I turned my attention to the ship and began to think about getting certified to be an engineer, it would teach me lots about the ship and if I specialised into warp drives and jumping then I could learn loads more about what I had just done.

  I let out a groan as I considered all of it, with the hours I could get a cert 3 and fly bigger ships. However, with a cert 1 in engineering I could learn how to build the ship I was on, the cert 2 would help me to learn how to design and build bigger ships. If I continued to follow that and earned the cert 3 teaching me how to design and maintain the planetoid class ships, then I could build just about anything.

  It took me five seconds to come to a decision. I barely even thought about it, the answer was so glaringly obvious that only a fool would have picked the other one. Flying a bigger ship was pointless, when I returned home I would have nothing to offer my clan for the time I had spent away from them. However, if I came back with all the knowledge of how to build planetoid class ships, then I could literally build anything for them. Making us stronger and better equipped to face what ever out here made these people want to build this level of technology.

  I quickly handed control over to the AI and found myself sitting in the library again, eagerly looking down at the desk, ready to learn all about engineering and fixing the ship. However, the table only held a single piece of paper on it.

  My mouth fell open for a moment before I coughed and called out, hoping the invisible woman could hear me and bring me the book on the course work I really wanted to learn now that I was qualified enough as a pilot.

  “I wish to study engineering” I yelled to the empty library.

  The time seemed to tick by slowly with no differences occurring, I glanced back down to see the paper was still there before I started looking around me, wondering if I had been mistaken in my attempt to change course. However, after what felt like forever, but in reality was most likely only a few minutes, the woman finally appeared and stood on the other side of the desk from me as she glared down at me.

  “Are you trying to tell me that you wish to give up on becoming a planetoid class pilot?” she asked with a slight sneer to her voice.

  “No, of course not” I quickly told her, getting the feeling that she thought something was wrong with people that didn't want to be planetoid class pilots, or maybe she just despised anyone that didn't complete the course work assigned to them. “I, of course, want to be a planetoid class pilot.” I lied quickly. “But I would also like to be able to build that ship so that I know it inside and out, to the very last bolt, only then can I truly claim to be its pilot!” I said passionately.

  I watched her stare at me as I tried to maintain eye contact with the woman, willing her to believe me. On one hand I actually believed knowing how to build the ship would make me a better pilot, on the other I had no intention of ever acquiring my certification to pilot such a huge ship.

  “Very well, I shall allow you to begin a separate course. Here is your study book for certification 1 engineering.” she finally replied before vanishing into thin air, and I found a new desk to my right that held an insanely thick book with the title ‘Engineering Certification stage 1’. I grinned down at the tittle and quickly opened the book, pouring over the first few pages as I started to feel like I was finally learning about something I had developed an enjoyment for after spending so much time with Clara, learning about designing and building.

  “Poor Clara, by the time I finish this stage alone, I will know more about building and maintaining ships than she does!” I crowed gleefully.

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