Destiny Abounds (Starlight Saga Book 1) by Annathesa Nikola Darksbane, Shei Darksbane Read Free Book Online

the Captain had complained at one point that she wished that there was a bit more variety in their diets thus far, but Merlo couldn't complain. It was better than nutrient paste every day.
    Merlo, of course, ate nearly twice what her captain did, something her companion no longer batted an eye at. The Captain had teased her once about docking her pay to account for all the extra food, but Merlo was pretty sure the older woman was kidding. Though, really, she didn’t much care either way, as long as she had a place to stay where she was sure to keep flying and eating.
    “So, whatcha reading?” Merlo queried her captain around a juicy, semi-stuffed mouthful of whatever-this-deliciousness-was. Spending a meal or sharing a room in comfortable silence wasn’t odd for them at this point, but Merlo hadn’t really seen the Captain since yesterday’s dinner, and more felt the need to up the level of connection. Or maybe it had something to do with her level of introspection, instead. She’d noticed that she’d rather have people around to talk to than not, most days.
    “At the moment? About Nygotha.” The Captain’s various datapads lay scattered randomly over her end of the table, glowing softly in near-harmony with one another and taking their respective places around her plate and the overly large “tankard” she drank from. She currently gripped one of the pads with an air of seeming interest etched into her face, an expression of curiosity that Merlo saw often enough to be pretty familiar with. She looked up at Merlo, simultaneously lifting another, smaller pad and sliding it past her food and across the uneven, black cloth covering the table and into Merlo’s waiting grasp. “That one contains the locations for our current endeavor, both port cities. Which cargo is meant for the moon they marked, and what is meant for the planet’s surface should be in a separate page.”
    Merlo, by now, was fairly good at translating the Captain’s technologically deficient descriptions, possibly because she’d had to leave behind most of the terms and tech she was personally familiar with upon the death of the Defiance , anyway. She grunted in affirmation to the Captain; she’d deal with the cargo manifest after lunch. It’d be something to keep her busy.
    She absently slapped the little metal-framed pad to the small of her back for later (carefully, though; some of the tech in this cluster was as fragile as its residents), and her Arlesian bodysuit quickly formed a pocket for it, the layers upon layers of military-grade nanotech sealing comfortably over most of its surface to hold it securely in place. “Negotha, huh? What, or where, is that?” Branwen never really gave the blue and black of Merlo’s ultra high-tech suit a second glance past their first few days together, a sure signal of how unfamiliar she was with such things. Nothing like it existed in this cluster that Merlo had seen, and she’d already learned not to show off its capabilities around much of anyone without being prepared to draw eyes.
    “No, no. Ny-gotha, not Nee-gotha . At least from what this says.” The Captain raised a blond brow while she eyeballed Merlo over her next ample bite telling Merlo that this, once again, was one of those things that she probably should pretend to have already heard about. The Captain never seemed to mind though, and never pried; perhaps she thought it would be hypocritical.
    “That’s correct, Captain!” Mr. Leonard’s pleasant voice came unbidden from the recesses of the com system, a not-so-uncommon occurrence. “If I’m not mistaken, its name is drawn from… Yes. It has an ancient Altairan mythological basis, the name very loosely translating to ‘nothing’ or perhaps ‘void.’ There was historically a bit of an academic disagreement over the intricacies of the full meaning, but, as you can see, the spirit of it does seem to be appropriate.”
    Branwen nodded, her mouth still full and chewing, so