She’d clearly already been exploring and knew where she was going. A few feet on, she came to another door. This one opened onto what he presumed was the bridge. At this end, it was approximately ten feet wide, but broadened to around thirty feet at the front, where there was a clear window that looked out into the darkness of the cavern. Beneath that was a bank of consoles, smooth and featureless, and in front of them, two huge chairs. It looked like the aliens were humanoid but definitely larger than the average human. Two more chairs sat on either side of the room, with their own smaller consoles with screens above, blank at the moment.
Destiny sat down in one of the chairs at the front—it dwarfed her—and pressed her palm to the smooth console in front of her. It flickered to life and turned into some sort of control panel.
“I didn’t dare press anything else in case I—”
“Took off?” He could imagine that would be quite worrying. His stomach lurched—he really didn’t like flying. All the same, his fingers were itching again. He sat in the seat beside her and stared at the console. There was a big red button in the center, and then lots of other controls. But he had no clue what any of it did.
“I searched the whole ship,” Destiny said. “There’s nobody alive and no dead bodies.” She sounded almost disappointed. “What do you think happened to them? The people who flew her. Where did they go? Why would they leave this behind?”
He shrugged. They would probably never know. “You spent the night in here?” he asked. “All alone?”
“I’m used to being alone.” She shrugged. “There are cabins with beds. They must have been a lot like us. But bigger.” Her stomach rumbled. “Sorry. I don’t suppose you have anything to eat.”
He got the satchel from his shoulder and dug inside, pulled out the box of food he’d brought with him. “I didn’t know what you’d like, so I brought some of everything.” He handed it to her, and she tugged off the lid and peered inside.
She selected a chocolate muffin and nibbled on the corner. “This is so good,” she mumbled. “Dr. Yang says that sweet things are not healthy. But it’s delicious.”
Dr. Yang was definitely a killjoy.
She finished the muffin and took out a piece of cheese. Ate it. Then a bread roll. And another. Where was she packing all of that? Finally, she sat back. He handed her a bottle of water and she unscrewed the top and drank deeply.
“Thank you.”
“So what now?” he asked. “Are you going to stick around here and work out how to fly this thing? Then head off into space?”
She shook her head.
He’d been teasing, but she looked so serious, now he really wondered. “What do you want to do, Destiny?”
She shifted in her seat so she was facing him. “I don’t know.” She bit her lip. “I should go back, but I don’t want to, at least not just yet. I mean I will eventually, but first, I want to…” She shrugged. “I don’t even know what I want to do. Just that there has to be more than what I’ve already done. That’s pathetic, isn’t it?”
“Not at all. I think it’s understandable considering your crappy upbringing.” At the same time, she was unlike anyone he had ever met. Unspoiled. He had an urge to find out why. To discover what had made her this way. Where she had come from. What she tasted like when he kissed her—
—And stop that train of thought right there.
He was attracted to her, he could admit that much, but kissing her was a bad idea. He needed to keep talking, get his mind off things he had no business thinking.
“So tell me about yourself.”
“Okay.” She settled into her seat. “I was born on the Trakis Four in the year 2224. I don’t know who my parents were. Dr. Yang said it wasn’t important, but I would still like to know. I never met them. I never met anyone except Dr. Yang.”
That was seriously odd. “What about the crew of the Trakis Four?”
“Dr. Yang said everyone else was asleep.”
“Then she was lying. All the ships had crews awake. Up to thirty-four crew members at any one time.” Except the Trakis Two. Rico had kept the crew to a minimum. He had apparently spent the first rotation learning everything he could. After that, he’d only woken up whoever was