They half walked, half ran, through the bustling orbital. The interstellar terminal was a swarm of people jostling in every direction. Despite the copious amounts of space and many decks, this end of the cylinder was so crowded. Emma and Lucian could hardly push through the teeming mass.

  The first thing that struck Lucian was that this was an older orbital that hadn’t been kept up with. The decks were dirty, and many of the fluorescents flickered while a good half of them were out. Groups of rough-looking men gathered in dark corners, leering at passers-by who walked speedily between destinations. All of the stores and entrances were barred or covered with grills, while what appeared to be gang symbols were scorched into the metallic walls. Security guards bearing shock batons stood vigil over many of the entrances, while police drones glided over the main concourses.

  Lucian’s senses were on high alert. This area looked as rough as the OLH back home, if not worse. The sooner they got to the gate, the better.

  The end of the wide cylinder faced out to the planet’s surface, where, against a blue and white backdrop, hundreds of vessels orbited between habitat and planet. Lucian saw everything from smaller personal craft to large interstellar freighters. Several of those freighters even had antiquated rotation rings, meaning the ships were built before the development of artificial gravity in the early 24th century.

  They ran past boarding tunnels as they rushed toward the planetside shuttle bays. Tickers above revealed the destinations of worlds Lucian would likely never see in his life: Mulciber, Kasturi, Pontus, Nessus, Freyr, Arion, Hephaestus, and Mimir.

  The crowds thinned as they made their way farther from the interstellar hangars. Lucian was beginning to doubt Emma’s slate was steering them right. Emma seemed blind to everything but the holographic arrow pointing the way. The slate’s guidance seemed to be leading them to a darker, less crowded area, an area where the police drone presence was nonexistent. More than ever, Lucian was aware of how Emma’s expensive designer clothing and backpack stuck out.

  “Keep moving, Emma,” he said.

  “Another five minutes,” she said. “Almost there.”

  That was when Lucian noticed a pack of four men who seemed to be edging closer. As soon as Lucian locked eyes with the forerunner, a rough and pale man with facial scars and close-cropped hair, that was when they pounced. The leader and his three lackeys moved toward Emma, with their eyes on her bag.

  Lucian sprang into action, dropping his wheeled luggage to fight better, placing himself between Emma and the approaching men. Two of the assailants peeled off from the leader and dashed for Lucian’s isolated luggage. To protect Emma, he was forced to watch helplessly as they made off with almost everything in the Worlds he owned.

  Emma dropped her backpack too, but she covered it protectively while opening it up to dig for something.

  “Emma! We need to move.”

  She ignored him, continuing to dig. There was nothing Lucian could do but block the two remaining thieves from reaching her.

  When the lead attacker rammed into him, Lucian spilled onto the deck, the low gravity making it hard to keep his feet. He scrambled up quickly, just in time for the other attacker to throw a punch, which Lucian dodged. It was two against one, and all the while, Emma continued to search her bag.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Emma, go! Whatever you’re trying to save, it’s not worth it!”

  A punch connected with Lucian’s jaw. He grunted in pain, even as he was tackled again by the second assailant. The original thief ignored Lucian, going after Emma.

  “No!”

  Lucian felt the familiar fire building up again, just as it had with Dirk. But this time, it wasn’t himself he was trying to protect, but Emma. Unable to control the flow, his hands glowed violet, and he pushed with his mind. A wave of kinetic energy hurtled outward, blasting the assailant high into the air with a scream. Lucian blinked in surprise.

  Lucian’s attacker fled after seeing that display of power, his path taking him right by Emma. But as soon as the gangly youth got close, she slammed a shock baton into the thief’s gut with a determined expression. She squeezed the trigger, and streams of electricity sizzled against the assailant’s torso, making him go inert and collapse onto the deck.

  The other attacker was still down, groaning and immobile about ten meters away. There was no sign of the first two, who had made off with Lucian’s bag. Looking around, it didn’t seem as if there were many people, a fact for which Lucian was thankful. But that didn’t mean his outburst of magic hadn’t been caught by security cameras.

  Taking inventory, he had nothing more than the clothes on his back and the slate in his pocket, along with the small backpack he still carried, which only had a change of clothes and a bottle of water. With the shuttle leaving so soon, there was no time to go chasing after the thieves who had taken his stuff.

  "Are you okay?” Lucian asked.

  “You used magic,” Emma said, her face reflecting her awe. “How did you do that?”

  “I’m . . . not sure. I saw you were in danger, and it just happened.” He shook his head. “We don’t have time to talk about it. I don’t want to miss the shuttle.”

  She managed a nod. “Right.” She looked down at the baton. “I wish I hadn’t buried this thing under all my clothes.”

  After she returned the baton to her backpack, they headed in the direction of the gate, leaving the ill-lit area behind.

  “There it is,” Emma said. “Finally!”

  A long queue was lining up outside a door. The transport shuttle, a sleek, silvery craft, was already connected to the airlock, which was open. There were people here, so they should be safe as they boarded, though it probably wouldn’t take long for station security to catch up. Lucian could only hope they boarded before anything could happen.

  “Your pass should be on your slate,” Emma said.

  Lucian saw the incoming notification. “Got it.”

  They couldn’t get off this station fast enough.

  Gravity intensified as the shuttle burned through Volsung’s atmosphere. Even the inertial dampeners couldn’t completely take the edge off.

  The portholes revealed a few placid and puffy clouds stretching across an endless, cerulean expanse. The Ocean of Storms was not true to its namesake, at least in this portion of the planet.

  When the shuttle slowed and leveled out, two distant, emerald-green islands came into view. Lucian noticed the leftmost island held hundreds of silvery skyscrapers, the city gleaming in the bright afternoon sun. A long, white line connected the two islands, and it took Lucian a moment to realize that it was a bridge. There were a few buildings on the island to the right, but it was mostly undeveloped. A few cargo ships plied the blue waters, looking like toys from up here.

  The shuttle glided over the city to begin touching down. Tall, tropical trees intermixed with the bustling cityscape. The city looked bright, modern, and sleek. As Emma had mentioned, it might have been a smaller Miami, aside from the mountain on which it was built.

  “I thought Volsung was a cold world,” he said. "It looks more like Honolulu than Oslo down here.”

  “I told you it was warmer on the equator,” she said.

  The shuttle lowered itself vertically in the middle of the city. Towers rose on all sides, looming over the shuttle. The underside thrusters ran at an even burn to allow a slow, steady descent. About ten meters from the ground, a crane arm grappled the shuttle. The arm lowered the shuttle the rest of the way, allowing the thrusters to power down. The shuttle touched lightly on the gray tarmac.

  For the first time in Lucian’s life, he would breathe the air of a new world.