Destiny Among the Stars - Scifi - LitRPG - Adventure

The stairs to the observation lounge stretched above them, disappearing into the soft blue glow that filtered down from the upper deck. Emily paused at the bottom rung, glancing back at Luca with something that might have been anticipation in her eyes.

"Coming?" she asked.

"After you," he said, gesturing upward with a grin that hadn't left his face since the jump completed. He was still riding the high of not being scattered across three star systems, and the way Emily kept looking at him wasn't helping his pulse settle down any.

She climbed ahead of him, her movements quick and sure. Luca followed, trying not to think about how close they were in the narrow space, how her laugh still echoed in his ears from the bridge. Twenty days of repairs and recalibrations, and he'd barely had a moment alone with her. Now they were finally heading to Alpha Centauri, and Emily had suggested the observation lounge. Just the two of them.

The voices hit them before they reached the top.

"—but that's just it, the micro-jumps aren't actually jumps at all," Ryan was saying, his voice animated with the particular excitement he got when explaining something complex. "It's more like we're surfing the quantum foam, riding these little ripples in spacetime—"

"That makes absolutely no sense," Danny's voice replied, though he sounded more amused than frustrated. "You can't surf quantum foam. It's not even..."

Emily paused at the top of the stairs, her shoulders dropping slightly. Luca caught the brief hesitation, the way she took a breath before brightening her expression. He could see it in the way her stance, the flicker in her expression before she smiled.

"Room for two more?" Emily called out, stepping into the lounge with a smile that only someone who knew her well would recognize as slightly forced.

The observation lounge was everything Zoe had promised. Floor-to-ceiling transparent aluminum windows curved around the entire space, offering a panoramic view of... something that definitely wasn't normal space. Streaks of light pulsed past them in waves, brilliant blues and whites that seemed to bend and twist in ways that made Luca's eyes water if he stared too long. It was like being inside a lightning storm made of starlight.

Ryan looked up from where he was sprawled across one of the curved benches, gesturing enthusiastically at the view. "Em! Luca! You've got to see this. We're not just in subspace, we're in some kind of quantum tunnel. Danny thinks I'm making it up, but look at those wave patterns."

Danny sat cross-legged on the floor near the windows, a data pad balanced on his knees. "I don't think you're making it up, I think you're anthropomorphizing complex physics into surf metaphors."

"Everything's a surf metaphor if you're brave enough," Ryan shot back with a grin.

Luca hauled himself up into the lounge, immediately feeling the subtle vibration that ran through the ship's hull. The FTL drive maintaining their impossible speed. The relief hit him again, that bone-deep gratitude that they were all here, alive, hurtling toward humanity's first interstellar destination.

Emily settled onto the bench beside Ryan, leaving space for Luca. He dropped down next to her, close enough that their shoulders brushed. She didn't move away.

"So what are we actually looking at?" Luca asked, nodding toward the light show beyond the windows. "Besides Danny's physics homework."

"According to the nav computer, we're making about three thousand microjumps over the next three weeks," Danny said, not looking up from his pad. "The drive doesn't move us through space so much as it... folds space around us? Each jump is tiny, but they're happening so fast it creates this continuous effect."

"Like skipping stones," Emily said softly, her voice carrying that particular tone she got when she was working through a problem. "Each skip takes you a little further until you've crossed the whole pond."

"Exactly!" Ryan pointed at her. "See? She gets it. Quantum stone skipping."

Luca found himself watching Emily's profile as she studied the streaming lights, the way her eyes tracked the patterns with that intense focus she brought to everything important. The soft glow from outside caught the copper highlights in her hair, and he had to resist the urge to reach out and touch it.

Three weeks to Alpha Centauri. Three weeks in this ship with Emily, with all of them, racing toward something no human had ever seen. The magnitude of it should have been terrifying, but sitting here next to her, watching Ryan gesture wildly while Danny muttered calculations under his breath, it just felt... right.

"You know what's crazy?" Emily said, leaning back against the bench. "We're the first humans to see this. Whatever this is, subspace, quantum foam, Ryan's cosmic surf breaks; we're the first."

"The first of hopefully many," Danny added, finally looking up from his calculations. "If we don't, you know, explode or get lost in an interdimensional rift or something."

"Always the optimist," Luca said dryly, but he was grinning. The kid's nervous energy was endearing, especially when it was focused on keeping them all alive.

Ryan stretched out on the bench, hands behind his head. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm planning to enjoy every minute of this. How many people get to take the scenic route to another star system?"

Emily laughed, the sound bright in the enclosed space. "The scenic route through dimensions we can't pronounce, at speeds that shouldn't be possible, in a ship we rebuilt from alien blueprints." She shook her head. "When you put it like that, it sounds completely insane."

"The best kind of insane," Luca said, and found Emily's eyes on his. There was something in her gaze, warm and steady and just for him. His pulse kicked up again.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, watching the light show stream past. The patterns seemed to shift and change, sometimes flowing in parallel lines, sometimes spiraling in complex helixes that made Luca dizzy. It was hypnotic, beautiful in a way that felt almost alive.

"Hell of a view," he said finally, his voice quiet.

Emily leaned into his shoulder, the weight of her was familiar and perfect. "Yeah," she said softly, and when he looked down at her, she was already looking up at him. "It really is."

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The moment stretched between them, warm and electric, full of things neither of them had quite figured out how to say yet. Luca felt his heart do that stupid flutter again, but this time he didn't try to ignore it. Whatever was happening between him and Emily, whatever had been building for months now, it felt as inevitable as the light streaming past their windows.

Three weeks to Alpha Centauri. Maybe that would be enough time to figure out what to do about the way she made him feel like he was flying even when his feet were firmly planted on the deck.

"Look at what we're doing right now," Ryan said, gesturing at the subspace storm around them. "We're folding space to get from point A to point B, right? What if the portals work the same way? Just a more advanced version, instead of folding space to move us through it, they fold space to bring other places to us. Same basic principle, bigger fold."

"That's a massive leap," Danny said, frowning. "The energy requirements alone would be..."

"Would be what? Impossible?" Ryan grinned. "We're currently traveling faster than light using technology we barely understand. I'm pretty sure 'impossible' went out the window somewhere around the Genesis Platform."

Danny shook his head. "But the scenarios recycle, Ryan. It's been documented. Same basic environments, same challenge structures. They might have minor variations, but the core templates repeat. That's not how real locations would work."

"Maybe they're real places that the system has... catalogued? Like it found these worlds and now it can recreate access to them?" Ryan's voice picked up excitement. "Think about it; we're using alien tech to travel between stars. What if the portals are using the same kind of technology, just on a smaller scale?"

Luca found himself only half-listening to the debate, more focused on the way Emily had settled more comfortably against his side. His arm had somehow found its way around her waist, and she hadn't moved away. If anything, she'd leaned into him more, her head finding the perfect spot on his shoulder. The light show cast shifting patterns across her face, and he had to resist the urge to trace them with his fingers.

Luca felt Emily's quiet laughter vibrate against his shoulder, and decided that whatever they found at Alpha Centauri, this moment was already worth every risk they'd taken to get here.

"But even if you're right," Danny was saying, "the recycling issue remains. I've run statistical analyses on portal scenarios..."

"Statistics don't account for the variables we can't measure," Ryan interrupted. "What if each 'recycled' scenario is actually the same real location, just accessed at different times? Or from different dimensional angles?"

Emily stirred against Luca's shoulder, and he felt her take a slow breath. "You guys could debate this for hours," she said, her voice slightly muffled. "And knowing you two, you probably will."

"We've got three weeks," Ryan said with a grin. "Plenty of time to solve the mysteries of interdimensional travel."

Emily chuckled, the sound vibrating through Luca's chest again. But then she was pulling away, sitting up, and stretching. Luca immediately missed her warmth.

"I should probably check on Zoe," she said, running a hand through her hair. "Make sure she doesn't need anything. The jump sequence puts a lot of strain on her."

"Zoe's fine," Ryan said dismissively. "She could probably pilot this thing in her sleep."

"Still." Emily stood, smoothing down her suit. "Someone has to check on the crew, right?" She glanced at Luca with a small smile. "I'll be back in a bit."

Luca watched her head for the stairs, trying not to be too obvious about it. The way she moved, the way her hair caught the surreal glow. He was definitely staring.

The moment Emily disappeared down the stairs, Danny stretched and yawned dramatically. "I should probably run those subspace calculations while the readings are fresh," he said, gathering up his data pad. "The quantum resonance patterns might tell us something about jump efficiency."

"Always working," Ryan said with a grin, but Luca could hear the affection in it.

Danny paused at the stairs. "You know, Luca, the statistical models for interpersonal dynamics during long-duration space travel are actually fascinating. Proximity effects, shared experiences, the way extraordinary circumstances can amplify existing..."

"Danny," Ryan interrupted gently. "The calculations?"

"Right. Yes. Numbers. Less... complicated than people." Danny disappeared down the stairs, leaving Ryan and Luca alone with the light show.

Luca felt the sudden quiet settle around them, leaving just him and Ryan alone in the observation deck. The streaming patterns seemed louder somehow without the others' voices, the subtle vibration of the FTL drive more pronounced through the deck.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, watching the streams of twisted light flow past. Luca tried to focus on the impossible beauty of it, the reminder of the extraordinary thing they were doing, but his mind kept drifting back to the weight of Emily's head on his shoulder, the way she'd fit perfectly against his side.

"Hell of a view," Ryan said finally, echoing Luca's earlier words.

"Yeah." Luca's voice came out rather quiet, distant.

He could feel Ryan's attention shift to him, that familiar weight of being studied by someone who'd known him since they were kids. Luca kept his eyes on the flowing lights, but his shoulders tensed.

"You okay, man?" Ryan asked.

"Just thinking."

"About Emily?"

Luca's jaw tightened. Of course, Ryan would cut straight to it. "Ryan..."

"I'm not going to give you relationship advice," Ryan said, and Luca could hear him holding up his hands without looking. "God knows I'm the last person qualified for that. But I've been watching you two dance around each other for years, and now we're stuck on this mission together for the next six months."

The words hit exactly where Luca had been trying not to think. "It's complicated."

Ryan's voice was carefully neutral. "Seems pretty simple from where I'm sitting. You like her. She likes you. The French guy is ancient history. What's complicated?"

Luca finally looked at him, frustrated. "She just got out of a relationship, Ryan. She's hurting. The last thing she needs is me swooping in and taking advantage of that while we're trapped on a ship a billion miles from nowhere. She needs a friend, not... this." He gestured vaguely at the space between them.

"I'm just saying," Ryan leaned forward. "You're so busy trying to be the 'good guy,' trying to protect her from getting hurt, that you're not actually seeing her. You're treating her like she's fragile, like she can't make her own choices."

"I'm not—"

"Aren't you?" Ryan countered. "You've built this whole narrative in your head where she's the heartbroken girl and you're the noble friend who has to keep his distance. Did you ever stop to think that maybe she's not broken? That maybe she knows exactly what she wants, and she's just waiting for you to stop being a coward and figure it out?"

"I just..." He stopped, the words catching. Started again. "I don't want to mess up what we have. The team, I mean. The friendship. Everything."

"You think Emily would let that happen?"

The question was simple, but it cut right through to something Luca hadn't wanted to examine. Emily, who'd fought tooth and nail to keep their team together. Would she really let his feelings destroy what they'd built?

"I think Emily's a good person who doesn't deserve to be put in an impossible situation," he said finally.

Ryan nodded slowly. "Fair enough. But Luca? If you never tell her how you feel, you're putting her in an impossible situation anyway. You're making the choice for her."

"When did you get so wise?" he asked finally.

"Must be all that quantum foam exposure," Ryan said, and Luca could hear the grin in his voice. "I told you it was like surfing."

Despite everything, Luca found himself smiling.

"You're overthinking this. As usual." Ryan stood, stretching. "I'm going to grab some sleep before my next shift. Try not to stare at the pretty lights too long, I heard they can be hypnotic."

Ryan's footsteps moved toward the stairs, then stopped. "For what it's worth, man? I think you're both braver than you give yourselves credit for. We're moving faster than light towards another star system! Maybe trust that courage with the important stuff too."

With that, he disappeared down the stairs, leaving Luca alone with the streaming light and the weight of everything unsaid.

Three weeks to reach Alpha Centauri. Six months before they'd be back at the Genesis Platform… if they made it back. He'd need to figure out what the hell he was going to do about Emily Barrow.

Or three weeks to learn how to live with not doing anything at all.