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  Nearly a week after we’d left Earth, the commercial starliner docked at Wickern 7 at the edge of Milky Way Galaxy, and Cora and I stepped off the landing platform onto solid ground.

  “Oh yeah, that’s nice,” she said, jumping up and down.

  I laughed at her, heading for the hovertrain to our resort.

  Long trips in space were known for giving people cabin fever, and after a week of flying, it was nice to be back on solid ground. So far, I’d been marvelously productive on our journey to Andromeda, writing the new “Mafia Moms” short and editing Discordant, incorporating all of HC and Bitsy’s suggestions.

  I was relieved to be done with my book, but daunted, knowing that the story was unfinished because we were still living it.

  That meant I had to write a second volume, and I could barely stand the thought of that so soon after finishing the first one. And now that I knew about the cyber mafia, the story was only getting more and more complex.

  Cora and I'd had a lot of great times and spicy nights in our little starliner cabin, but spent most of the time in the lounges and atriums just like the rest of the travelers. We'd watched each other’s favorite stream shows, read books, eaten amazing cruise food, and just enjoyed spending time together on vacation.

  It was a sweet and lovely trip, a welcome break from the stressful weeks prior, and mostly, I forgot about the real reasons for the cross-galactic foray.

  Except for every now and then when my thoughts wandered, trying to piece together what I knew about the gaming monopoly and how that related to Discord parroting people and driving us to madness. I wanted to connect the dots, but the solution kept eluding me.

  HC said the Trade Guilds had clammed up, and there was no new information about what was going on. We’d all gotten so sick of it that we didn’t bother researching the Discord problem anymore.

  Personally, I was so content with Cora and hanging out with our friends that I didn’t miss Discord chats. Occasionally, I thought about how randomly funny it was, but now that I had the real HC and his wife to laugh with, I didn’t need a screen and keys to feel like I had family.

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  For that, I was grateful to Discord. Without that app, I’d never have met HC and found out what a cool guy my fave author was in real life, and his wife was so lovely, I’d always be thankful I’d found the two of them.

  And Cora. Without Discord, I’d never have found Cora.

  “Earth to Sam,” Cora said, jolting me out of my spacey thoughts with an elbow.

  I shook myself, returning to the neon restaurant and taking a sip of wine. “I was just thinking about how glad I am that I met you,” I grinned at her. “But now I’m ready to eat some… uh, that,” I pointed to the mass of food on the table.

  “Good, ‘cos I don’t wanna eat this ginormous platter myself,” she laughed, handing me a slice of fruit with a dip on it.

  Yum. It was sweet, tangy, crisp, and creamy all at the same time. Sort of like an apple with yogurt, but not exactly. There was an array of fruit, veggies, and other finger foods on the tray, and in the center was a smoking bowl of coals with meat skewers on it.

  I picked up one of those and tore into a bite of tangy, chewy something. “Mmm. This is amazing! I really hope it isn’t rat."

  “Hah!” Cora chuckled. “I was just loving this salty meat-wrapped dried fruit. Here, taste this, it’s perfect."

  We spent the rest of the evening trying delicacies from a world farther from Earth than I’d ever imagined going, then crashed in our room, glad to be somewhere other than a starliner for a change.

  “Sam?” Cora whispered.

  “I’m awake, love."

  “Me too,” she snuggled against me, and I pulled her tighter. “Does it feel weird being on the ground instead of in the sky?"

  I chuckled. “Are you missing starliner life, Cor?"

  She kissed the bare skin of my chest, tracing my collarbone with her nose, and sighed. “It’s weird, but it feels permanent here. When we were flying, it didn’t seem like we were moving, but now that we’re still, I can feel it. Am I crazy?"

  “Probably."

  “Hey,” she laughed, and we were hopeless. The two of us were lifelong insomniacs, and our unpredictable sleep schedule had been completely upturned by a week in space with no sun to anchor our circadian rhythms.

  “Wanna watch a show?” she asked, and I nodded.

  “How about Dream With Me Now? I never finished it.” I’d mostly forgotten about the cartoon from Known Cosmos Earth Press since we’d been trading favorite episodes we’d loved from other series.

  “Sounds perfect. Want some popcorn?” she asked, heading to the mini-kitchen of our suite.

  “Hella yes. If we’re gonna be awake, we might as well go all in,” I grinned.

  Cora and I forgot about traveling the stars for the rest of the night, getting lost in a cartoon about Crystal and Nathan meeting in their dreams and finding ourselves in an animation that’d been produced decades before we were born.

  Something in that felt timely.

  Or just right.

  Like Cora and me, together, cuddled on a bed in a foreign land, taking comfort in each other and an old show, licking popcorn salt from our fingers and each other’s lips.

  “Thanks for being with me, Sam."

  “I never wanna be anywhere else, Cor."

  One night off the ship didn’t feel like enough, but the next morning we met our travel companions at the landing platform, ready for the next leg of our journey.

  We planned to push ahead to make it to Prix 14 in Andromeda because Bitsy Joon and the information she held were waiting for us, and none of us wanted to dawdle.

  Next stop? Andromeda Galaxy.

  The Last Rae of Hope: A satirical, fix-the-story isekai with a reluctant heroine and her best friend.

  "All I know is I'm not supposed to be here."

  ?? Unfair systems

  ?? Sword & Sorcery

  ?? Sci-Fi meets Magic

  ?? Demons and questionable gods

  New chapters weekly on Royal Road!

  Some stories break the rules. Rae’s going to have to figure out how to fix this one.