1
Juno
Juno Adair gazed around the crowded starship lobby, trying not to stare at her fellow passengers.
Most were human like Juno, or humanoid, at least. But some were types she’d never encountered before.
Just in front of her stood a woman with a head covered in delicate pink tentacles that danced and swayed under her veil. The woman counted out credits to hand to a nearby valet. Juno couldn’t be sure if the tentacles were expressing the woman’s emotions, or just being blown in the brisk flow from the air vents above.
Two round, furry passengers slid aboard on a small, wheeled vehicle. And there was even a Cerulean soldier, tall and muscular, in a gleaming white uniform.
Juno nearly cowered at the sight of him, but instead she stood tall and reminded herself that she wasn’t home anymore.
Back at home, the imposing Cerulean soldiers made life harder than it already was for Terrans like Juno.
She watched as a resplendent Cameliunak man in a swirling magnetic cloak strode importantly past her, his head held high, as if he didn’t want to risk sullying his view by making Juno a part of it.
Juno pulled her own ragged sweater tighter around herself. She might be playing it cool, but her clothing still told her tale.
She was nothing but a bumpkin from Terra-4.
And she was only on this luxury cruiser because she had won an unlikely contest. The Stargazer II had run a great publicity campaign, holding a sweepstakes that had reached all the way to her little backwater planet in the outer ring. Her family, and her best friend, Rose, had all chipped in to buy her an entry for her birthday. They’d had a pretty good laugh over it, imagining a plain Terran girl aboard a luxury cruiser. None of them had really thought she had a shot. Especially Juno.
When they told her that she’d won, she thought they had been playing a practical joke on her. But somehow, some way, here she was.
It doesn’t matter why I’m here. It matters what I do with this opportunity.
And Juno did have a plan.
It was a crazy plan, but hopefully one she could bring to fruition.
“Juno Adair,” said a smooth voice with a Terran accent.
“Here,” she called out, raising her hand as if she were back in school.
Several of the other passengers turned. The tentacled lady hid a smile behind a gloved hand. At least Juno thought it was a smile.
Juno pulled her hand down swiftly and wished she could disappear.
A pretty Terran lady approached her with a welcoming smile.
“Congratulations. You’re the winner of our Princess Package,” the woman said. “I’m Captain Nilsson, but you can call me Anna. Welcome aboard the Stargazer II.”
“Thank you,” Juno said politely, unsure whether she was supposed to shake hands or salute, or maybe even bow.
“Let’s get you to wardrobe before we show you to your room,” Anna suggested. “Where are your bags?”
Juno felt the blood rush to her face. She had no bags. Everything she had taken with her was in her pockets: a few credits pooled together by all the neighbors, a photo of her best friend, a tattered paperback copy of her favorite science fiction novel, all about a daring girl and her adventures among the stars.
“You travel light,” Anna said quickly, saving her the embarrassment. “I like that. I used to be the same way. And now my husband, Leo, wishes I would stop collecting souvenirs from every port we visit. I guess it’s a career hazard. I used to be in the salvage business.”
“Does he work here too?” Juno asked, following Anna’s quick steps as they travelled deeper into the ship.
“Yes,” Anna said. “We’re only part owners of this ship, but we’re probably the most hands-on of the six of us.”
“That’s amazing,” Juno said. “You must have been really good at salvage.”
“We salvaged this ship, actually,” Anna said, laughing. “Back when my friends and I crewed the original Stargazer. It was my very first mission, and all of us almost died. In the end, it worked out so well that our old captain gave us this ship as a sort of parting gift. If you’re curious, you can stop by the historio-gram on the lower level. It’s kind of a wild story. But for now, let’s get you settled.”
Anna flung open a set of thick walnut doors to reveal the interior of the ship proper.
Juno gasped before she could stop herself.
She’d seen the vast scale of the ship from the outside. It was mind-bogglingly huge, the size of a mountain, with rings of floors going up, around and around its perimeter.
But nothing on the surface of the ship could have prepared her for what she now saw behind the glass walls at its center.
A forest.
This wasn’t some garden with a few scraggly trees, like the one at the center of Juno’s home prefecture on Terra-4.
This was an honest-to-goodness forest, twenty stories tall and bristling with verdant green leaves. The trees were so large that their gnarled branches almost blocked out the light source above.
Flower studded bushes grew right up against the glass, their tendrils climbing the panes.
A mist hung among the foliage, as if it rained heavily and often inside the glass. The fog gave the woods the effect of the illustrations in the children’s books about old Earth back at the museum on Terra-4.
“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” Anna said softly.
“I-I’ve never seen anything like it,” Juno agreed.
“This was the first thing I saw when I broke into the ship,” Anna said, her voice dreamy. “The ivy was bursting through the glass.”
“Life will find a way,” Juno said thoughtfully.
Anna nodded.
They walked slowly past the entry to the forest and into one of the glassy storefronts on the first level.
Anna tapped her wrist and Juno watched in fascination as her bracelet unfurled from her arm and fluttered into the air.
It was a real origami droid. Juno had read about them, but no one back home had any tech as advanced as that.
She tried not to stare.
“BFF-19, would you please measure our honored guest?” Anna asked.
“On it,” the little drone chirped in a friendly, female voice. “Arms out at your sides, feet shoulder width apart, please.”
Juno only marveled at the little robot as she flitted through the air.
“Like this,” Anna said, demonstrating by lifting her own arms.
Juno copied Anna’s posture and the droid let out a chirp of approval, then whirred around her, twin webs of laser light emanating from her wings and encompassing every inch of Juno.
She hoped her measurements weren’t about to be sung out.
“Excellent,” BFF-19 said simply.
She flitted over to a framed white panel on the wall and projected a series of images.
Each one showed a lavish outfit, complete with accessories, and perfectly tailored to suit Juno’s body type.
There was a gown with colors like oil on water, and a sleeping array in soft fur. A hunting costume in fawn colored suede was followed by a crystalline ball gown with a low bodice encrusted in what looked like real Cerulean dust.
Juno was unsure how she could ever choose.
“Yes,” Anna said. “All of those. But I’d also like a few choices that are similar to the clothing of her home planet. Terra-4, is that right?”