They could always feel the difference at the heliopause where they stopped riding the system’s solar winds and Nor could stretch herself out and approach lightspeed. It was a limitless expanse of possibility. Neighboring stars elongated into streaks of plasma and Doppler shifted blue as they drew closer and red as they passed. But the vacuum wasn’t empty. Nor moved so fast through the space between solar systems, Peris had to stay vigilant for danger coming light-years ahead of their current location. She kept watching with her eyes, but the distortion grew past the point of giving her useful visual information, and she relied increasingly on the extrasensory nodes that ran along both sides of Nor’s spine.  

“Alright, Alfie,” she said. “She’s ready to go. We’re getting close to twice lightspeed. Back me up with the extrasensory’s.” 

“You know I’m on it.” Alfie jumped to attention and dove into the task.  

Within moments, Peris could feel the other woman’s presence in her mind. Her view of their surroundings sharpened, and her awareness of the universe deepened. The three of them worked to create one cognitive model of the cosmos. Alfie’s perceptions contributed additional, harmonious layers to the understanding Peris and Nor had built. Their combined efforts defined the mental map they created more finely than a mere image with only visual information could be. With the increase in processing power, Nor could travel even faster than before.  

Nor honed in on her projected path and showed them the way to Vega. Peris and Alfie checked it for obvious dangers, but Nor was smart enough not to fly through the center of a nebula and get herself hurt. Their attention couldn’t falter in the interstellar distances because they never knew when ancient quasar emissions or dark matter clusters could lurk within the cosmic background radiation. 

Okay, girl, let’s go, Peris told her, once she and Alfie had checked over her intended route.  

When Nor felt the tone of acceptance, she bounded off at a playful run. Behind the cargo, the rear wall of her last segment’s pulses accelerated to match the changes in her velocity. She doubled her previous speed in no time and kept going. Soon she tripled it. The stars in their periphery streaked by and blurred together so that even the slightest adjustments in their pitch caused sea-sickness if anyone paid attention to the visual input.  

Slow down, Peris thought. We have a long way to go and you’ll wear yourself out. 

Nor’s pace slowed a little. The visible field became less nauseating. Alfie sent a mental eye-roll. The astropod would tire before the journey’s end at that speed, but trying to talk sense into her when she wanted to run was useless.   

Alfie caught sight of a stray filament of dark matter. She alerted Peris and together they scanned the surrounding space. The thin string led to a cloud with projections close to their path. Nor gave no signs of awareness, she realized. Peris steered her around the danger, causing an ungraceful hiccup in their flight as they swerved. 

Brenton noticed the course correction and felt their concentration. He gave up on the idea of one of them coming down and settled in with the book he brought in his pack. He tried to immerse himself in adventures more heroic than his own but passed out three light-years later.  

When Nor slowed after hours of break-neck speed and it was safe for her to disengage, Alfie was ready for the break. She stood and shook her limbs to release the tension. They’d allotted two days to reach the space station, but at the rate Nor was going, she doubted it would take that long.  

Breton stirred when she started walking around. “Where are we?” he asked.  

“We just passed Sirius. We’re ahead of schedule.” 

“There’s nothing for me to do on this trip,” he complained. 

She rolled her neck. “Yeah, not like the time we transported the violet-quilled hexopeds, and they escaped their cages.” 

He laughed. “I chased those rodents for hours! I thought they’d have to bite Nor to get you guys to notice!” 

“They ran so fast with their six pudgy legs!” she giggled. 

 “At least I was useful on that trip.” He hopped down from his rib and stretched with her. 

“Keep complaining and we’ll let you unload all the cargo by yourself to make up for it,” Alfie promised. “Come have lunch with me before it’s Peris’ turn for a break.” 

They went into the next chamber and unpacked meals of bread, dried meat, and small, green, star-shaped fruits. They shared a bottle of carbonated juice because of the flawless ride Peris delivered.  

When they finished, Alfie and Peris traded places. Alfie resumed control of Nor, and Peris hopped off of her rib and rotated her limbs to release the accumulated tension from the many hours of flight.  

Breton waited for her, but she waved him off with a yawn. “Nor has had a fire up her butt today and it’s been exhausting. I’m going to take a nap. Could you wake me in an hour?” 

“Sure, Peris,” he chuckled, “Anything you need.” 

When she finished stretching, she climbed back onto her perch and lay down. Soon, she was snoring.  

He rolled his eyes but stayed quiet and did what she asked. The rest of the afternoon passed smoothly.  

That night, Nor stopped by a pulsar, giving off energy with a taste she liked. For the first time, they could disengage together and everyone shared a meal.  

“Nor’s been running fast,” Breton observed. 

“But she hasn’t missed anything since she got too close to the dark matter cluster.” Peris jumped to her defense. 

“She doesn’t give us too many scares now,” Alfie agreed. “Not like five years ago, when she would plot a course too close to a star and clip the edge of the solar system.” 

“Or like that time when I was still training her and she wanted to check out a black hole because she didn’t know what it was,” Peris recalled. Her nostalgia for the days of Nor’s youth often surfaced without warning.

“It’s almost like we’re worrying over nothing sometimes,” Alfie admitted.

“Maybe she’s grown out of needing us,” Peris joked, patting the floor by her knee. One could not reach out without touching Nor. 

Alfie laughed. “It gives that illusion.” 

“Just don’t get sloppy up there,” Breton put in. 

“We’ll let you know when we need your help,” Peris assured him. 

They had run hard for hours that day. When they finished dinner, both women collapsed into their beds. 

The second day began calm until the afternoon when Vega Station came into view, its floating metal bubbles tethered in concentric rings. Thirty years too old for Peris’ taste, it orbited Vega beyond the orbit of the first planet, making it hotter than anyone’s liking. With Nor’s extrasensory nodes, she detected weak connections along some of the joining arms. The other ships clamped into the rigging were all machines; the space station was designed for them. 

She retrieved the hand-held radio transmitter they kept for communication with non-telepaths and contacted officials who instructed her where to dock. She guided Nor to the designated spot. Nor wrapped the outer layer of her orifice around the hatch, creating an air-tight seal. Then the station airlock door slid away, and she opened the inner fold of her mouth so they could leave. 

Even without the benefit of extrasensory information, Vega Station appeared corroded and dingy, like the moisture from the breath of everyone living there had overpowered the environmental controls and was slowly rusting the metal plates where they walked. Dirty banners hung along the hallways, offering wares and services for sale across the spectrum of decency. They found the shop from their instructions off the primary hub under a purple banner with “Love Charms from the Far Reaches of the Galaxy” in golden letters.  

“What’s in those crates?” Breton wondered.  

“Whatever it is, I bet it’ll cost a fortune,” Peris told him as they entered.  

Shelves crowded with trinkets of a cosmic mélange filled the space inside the shop like a rubble pile moon. Navigating to the other side of the warren separated them. They rejoined in front of a counter, backed by a wizened little man with a shock of bright orange hair.  

He blinked at them several times but said nothing. 

“Hi, I’m Peris. I believe we have a shipment for you,” she ventured. 

“Ah, yes, Peris.” His voice sounded syrupy and thick. It seemed appropriate for him to sell fake love charms. “I am Jarel. The station master told me you were here already. You’re early. It’s unprofessional. But forgivable.” 

“Oh, aren’t you prepared for the delivery?” she asked, confused. 

“Yes, I am prepared to receive the merchandise. You may unload it at your convenience. And I will hasten my arrangements so I can be ready tomorrow as well.”  

“You can be ready tomorrow?” She looked at him with surprise.   

“Of course, that was the deal. You’d transport the cargo here and ferry me to Kentar.” Jarel frowned.  

Peris glanced at her crewmates. “No. We have a contract to pick up more freight here and take it home with us. There’s an enormous difference between carrying boxes and cramming an extra person into an astropod!” 

Jarel put his hand to his throat. “What do you mean, an astropod? You didn’t come all the way here in one of those flying deathtraps!” 

“Hey!” Alfie jumped forward waving her finger, “watch what you say about Nor.” 

Peris pulled her arm down. “I assure you, sir, Nor is safe. But I don’t take on passengers.” 

“The suicidal beast might seem harmless to you, but apparently you haven’t seen them go rogue! I’ve been in one of your living starships before and barely escaped with my life! The beast pointed itself at a magnetar and it was all we could do to get it to stop by a planet to drop us off first!” 

“Nor can handle some magnetars. It may not have been dangerous,” Peris retorted. 

“It was ignoring its master. You Kentarans don’t have the firm hold over your bioships you think you do. No intelligent being would trust those things!” They all took offense at the hatred they felt radiating from him. 

“Alright, man, you’re pushing it,” Breton warned him. “You haven’t seen Nor in action. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Besides, how else are you going to travel to Kentar?” 

“I’d rather drift into an escape pod than trust myself to a monster like that!” he declared. 

“You’d rather spend twice as long trapped in a box the size of a coffin than ride in Nor?” Alfie spat at him.  

“You’re welcome to try,” Peris responded, her voice deadpan but her eyes alight. “We’ll unload the cargo and cancel the rest of the contract. Best of luck with an escape pod’s lousy guidance system.” 

“At least I know what the machine will do when I turn the wheel to the right,” Jarel said. 

“Until the wheel breaks and it stops turning at all,” Peris replied. 

“Let us use an anti-grav unit and we’ll be out of each other’s hair in one trip,” Breton suggested. 

Jarel rolled his eyes. “Oh, so you’ll use that much technology, I see.” 

“Only if it doesn’t go haywire in the middle of the job,” Breton retorted. 

“There’s an anti-grav unit in the back,” Jarel waved them away as if he’d just then decided they were beneath notice. “Bring the merchandise that way, too.” 

“Yeah, you’ll have your love charms soon enough,” Peris told him and they turned to leave the shop.  

When they made it to the primary hub, Peris studied the dirty displays hawking the basest of consumer goods and felt the sleazy minds around her again, but found no redeeming qualities. She looked at her companions. “Let’s hurry and get the hell off this contraption.”