Page 1 of Adrift!
Prologue
The proprietor of the Big Sky Intergalactic Dating Agency sat on the floor of the stateroom, his back against the locked door as he contemplated the utter blackness of the Zarnax Zone captured in the viewport.
In the last few days, the excessively cushiony couch had left him stiff, and working from the big, luxurious, empty bed with its slightly silky linens felt…sad. So, Evens was on the floor.
Around him, crumpled foil wrappers glinted like the missing stars. He shouldn’t have taken all the treats—the ship was too far out to get more, and good chocolate was exceptionally difficult to synthesize—especially when he knew he was just eating his feelings.
Fear, loss—and hope.
Oh, that last was the truly hard one.
The Big Sky Intergalactic Dating Agency had brought him far. So many matches across worlds and lightyears. So many lonely hearts united. And each one he’d analyzed, charted, and mapped. He’d taken blood samples and brain scans. He’d even tried predicting love by correlating pheromone responses to favorite snack foods.
Although that last might’ve been another long, wasted night in his Montana outpost by himself.
Only to find that data wasn’t truth. Numbers weren’t meaning.
But he was seeing the signs, watching from this hiding place as the others struggled with the mystery aboard, and for the first time, despite being adrift, he was close to unearthing the secret, interweaving bonds that had evaded him for so long.
He believed in the power of love, with all his heart, but he’d never been able toproveits existence.
Now, he could all but taste his triumph.
It tasted like…chocolate.
Unwrapping the last foil, he popped the square into his mouth, savoring the melting bittersweetness.
The possible matches had been handpicked for synchronicity, and the energy of the anomaly had already shown promise in uniting a first couple. He was gambling everything—the Big Sky IDA, his reputation, the Love Boat I—onthisbeing the validation he’d sought.
Anchoring his cane, Evens levered himself to his feet. He’d waited and calculated long enough. It was time.
Chapter 1
Adrift? Really?
Stepping out into the dimmed emergency lighting of the Love Boat I’s main corridor, Remy McCoy considered the dramatic irony that she had come this far—all the way to outer space—to figure out her new direction in life only to find herself once again drifting aimlessly.
At least this time it wasn’therfailure. The speed-date spaceship cruiser had gotten hijacked apparently? By some sort of energy monster trapped in the engines or whatever? And now they were floating around with almost no power while the captain and crew tried to…save them or something? The whole situation got even fuzzier from there.
It was no consolation that this time she wasn’t alone. Being lost was tragic enough by herself. Being trapped with a bunch of alien wanna-be dates and could-be mates was worse.
Even before the hijacking, Remy had realized the Love Boat I wasn’t the right place for her. She should never have accepted the free ticket for the sunset tour of three eclipsing moons. It seemed all very fun and romantic, a vast night sky glittering with possibility—and she just couldn’t do it. It all just felt too…distant and unreal, as if she were watching a movie she didn’t believe. Truth was…she didn’t believe in love. Not for her.
After this was over, maybe she would request one of the memory wipes used on Earthers who accidentally discovered the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations. Maybe she’d ask to forget all the way back to the day right before her first piano lesson, when the lightest touch on the black and white keys had made a sound that seemed to reveal all the secrets of the universe.
At the very least, she was deleting her Intergalactic Dating Agency profile eee-mediately.
But in the meantime… Adrift.
With the rest of the passengers, Remy shuffled dazedly out of the lifepod room where they’d been sheltering in place for what seemed like forever while the energy monster (how was that even a thing?) marauded through the ship. Since the situation was supposedly “stabilized”, their cruise director had assigned them all staterooms for the rest of the trip—duration unknown.
“Again, I realize this situation is unexpected and unsettling,” Felicity told them as she ushered them down the hall where the energy monster had chased them with shadowy, grasping fingers—which, um,yeah, had beenveryunexpected and unsettling. “I promise to do everything I can to make our extra time together as pleasant as possible.” When she walked a few steps backward to smile at them, the button on her uniform sparkled bright gold. “Maybe, hopefully, even enjoyable.”
The buttons were supposed to change according to its wearer’s feelings, a sort of getting-to-know-each-other icebreaker. Remy would have suspected the buttons were about as real and reliable as a mood ring, except hers had been an embarrassingly dull blue-gray, like oppressive storm clouds—until she’d been fleeing the energy monster with the rest of the passengers, and then it had switched to panicked orange-yellow.
Maybe Felicity’s shining button was meant to subconsciously reassure them, but Remy wondered if it was the way the towering, tawny-furred captain looked at the cruise director with his one golden eye that made the woman glow.
Averting her gaze, Remy plucked the button off her bodice, grimacing when it snagged on the thin fabric. Having absolutely nothing to lose, she’d truly intended to give alien speed dating a chance, so she’d chosen a casually sexy sleeveless cocktail dress, not too tight, with a low cowl neck and a midi skirt tocompensate. She’d thought the fantasy flowers asymmetrically climbing from the hem to her shoulder might be a potential topic of conversation. Like, maybe she’d joke about how she couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten flowers from someone.
