Unscheduled Cargo
Chapter 1 · 1 min read · Nora Kade
There were exactly three things Captain Juno Aris refused to carry: weapons, royal officials and anything that beeped after the cargo doors were sealed. The crate in hold seven managed to qualify as all three.
It began beeping as the freighter cleared the last ring of Callisto. Juno stared at the warning light, considered turning the ship around and decided that a month without fuel credits was a worse fate.
Her engineer, Pax, stood beside the crate with a spanner and an expression of grim admiration. “Whoever packed this really did not want it opened,” he said.
The outer panels snapped back. Inside lay a young woman sleeping among velvet moss, a silver crown floating in a magnetic field above her head. The shipping label said AGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT.
Juno looked from the label to the crown. “I am going to need a very generous explanation,” she said. The stranger opened her eyes and whispered, “Did we leave Earth in time?”
Pax lowered the spanner. There was no longer an Earth anyone could leave.