Page 6 of Fionn
Exotic places. Escape from routine. If I was lucky, they had a trip leaving soon, before I gave in to the glum thoughts teetering at the edge of my mind already. Distraction was a great therapy.
I searched the leaflet for more information about pricing, but there was nothing, just a phone number and a QR code. That seemed a little suspicious, but I wasn't going to make up my mind just yet. I scanned the code with my phone and a flashy website popped up, full of pictures of gorgeous people in gorgeous places. One caught my eye, a couple walking in what looked like the Scottish Highlands, him wearing a kilt, her a beautiful white dress that could almost pass as a wedding gown. The way they held hands, their shoulders almost touching, made me jealous.
I'd never had time for a boyfriend. Swimming had always come first. I'd experimented with guys, most of them athletes like me, but it had never been anything serious. A heaviness settled deep in my stomach. I'd given up so much for my sport, my passion. But had it been worth it? I wasn't going to the Olympics. They might let me compete on a national level for a few more years, but then I'd be nudged to retire. What would I have then? Nothing but memories. And I'd be alone.
I forced myself to focus on the website and scrolled down, past the pretty pictures, until I found some more text. Most of it matched what I'd already read in the flyer, but a series of questions in bold, bright colours caught my eye.
Do you need a break from everyday life?
Are you looking for new challenges and adventures?
Could you imagine living in exotic places?
Are you single?
Do you want to go on a free, all-expenses-paid trip to a mystery location?
Then fill in this form and we will be in touch!
A free holiday? Surely that was too good to be true. It had to be a scam. They wanted my contact details to sell me something. That had to be it. I was a millennial; I'd grown up with the internet and social media. I knew what to look out for.
But still...
I scrolled down to the very end of the page to see if there was more information about the owners of the site.
Hot Tatties Dating Agency. Headquarters: Glasgow.
I blinked. I'd not expected this to be a dating agency's advert. Why would they organise free holidays? Were they that desperate for fresh meat?
My finger hovered over the button that would close the page. It had been just a dream, just a moment of hope that I might find new purpose in life. But all this leaflet had done was show me how I had sacrificed everything for my passion and was about to lose everything. I was at a crossroads. I could continue swimming until it no longer paid the bills, or I could make the decision to stop myself. Make plans for a life after. Take charge of my destiny.
I chuckled morosely. I wasn't a hobbit about to go on an adventure, leaving everything behind without a care in the world.
But why shouldn't I?
I took a deep breath and filled in the form. What did I have to lose?
3
Fionn
The Tidebound was sleek, fast and far too posh for the likes of us. I’d never been on a proper space cruiser before. The ship that had carried my clutch-brothers and me to the training grounds on the other side of the world all those mooncrossings ago had skimmed orbit for a moment, but it hadn’t been built for long-distance travel. This one was an entirely different beast.
It was new and this would be its maiden voyage. The ship still smelled of paint and polish. The faint tang of metal and recycled air clung to every corridor. I didn’t want to imagine how many credits Kelon had burned through to charter it. I’d known he was rich, but not this rich. It made me regret agreeing to work my passage. He could have afforded to hire a dozen more crew and let us travel as passengers. We'd gone to the same clutch school. Yet here he was, dressed to impressed and giving orders to the crew, while my brothers and me were busy carrying luggage into the cargo hold.
"How big is this thing?" Cerban whispered, as if he didn't want to draw attention from the other crew members mulling about the place.
I stacked my crate on another, flexed my shoulders. "I'm not sure. It's a long journey and Kelon is used to certain luxuries. He will have made sure he's got access to everything he wants. Plus, it's a hybrid ship, designed both for water-people and air-walkers. If what we found in the Archives is true, the females will not be used to living in water. They will need dry areas to be comfortable."
"I still don't know how we're supposed to be compatible with a species of air-walkers," Rainse muttered for the hundredth time. He'd been the most sceptical of my clutch-brothers, only agreeing to go on this trip because - in his words - he needed to keep an eye on us. He was the oldest of our clutch by less than a day, but he never let us forget that.
"You read the story. Finfolk lived on their planet for hundreds of mooncrossings until they were finally rescued. The mated couple in the Archives' record is only one example of many unions that happened during that time. Some even resulted in offspring."
We'd had that conversation before, the first time when I'd barged into our small home, shouting for my brothers in excitement, my heart still pumping with adrenaline. When the alarm had gone off in the Archives, I'd panicked. For a moment, I'd forgotten that I was a guard, not an intruder. But then training had kicked in and I'd calmly contacted Commander Myke, asking him to turn off the alarms, reassuring him that everything was under control. He'd believed me. Kelon had disappeared through a hidden side entrance with the promise that he'd be in touch soon.
And he'd kept his promise. It had been two spans since our first encounter and within that short timeframe, he'd chartered a ship, bought supplies and hired a crew. I didn't know what he'd told his family about his upcoming absence. Rainse, Cerban and I had applied for a week's holiday, our entire allowance this mooncrossing. Cerban's had been refused. He didn't care. If we found mates among the stars, we might never come back. A new life was waiting for us, far away, on a planet so very different from our own.
We'd done some research by digging through the Intergalactic University's database. After some dead ends, we'd identified the planet from the story as Peritus, home to a species called Peritans. It would be a long journey, much longer than a week. If we returned, we'd be without jobs. There were no laws against quitting your assigned vocation, but it was not something finfolk did. There weren't enough jobs. We might end up unemployed and homeless upon our return.
