Free Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) by P. S. Power Page A

out was that she very clearly wearing a Space Fleet uniform. One
that had bright orange trim on it. It wasn't an inspired color choice, but
common or not, that marked her as being high ranking.
    When
the rest of the people came in, it was a thing that Tiera picked up on right
away. Judy had two stripes of orange on her sleeve, but only one man had orange
at all. He was a giant, but looked like someone had squished half his face at
some point. Starting from the center. It wasn't horrible, but he wasn't good
looking by any means. She understood the idea, after a bit. Orange was letting
her personal bias influence who made it in her organization. She was biased
against attractive men, and while she didn't hold them in contempt, she also
didn't take them seriously at all. It led to things like what she was looking
at right then.
    Tiera
did have a man next to her, though he was a bit hard looking and had Vagus type
features. Like Lyn Red. Sort of at least. This man was small and golden
colored, but smiled at her pleasantly enough when he saw her. At least until he
saw how big she was.
    "You...
Giant, big head?" He was clearly trying to ask her something, but she had
no clue what that was at all. It might have been about her head, true,
but she doubted that.
    "Um,
I'm Countess Baker, and pretty tall now... Wait, do you mean to ask if I'm a
noble?" She wasn't trying to mock the man, but he nodded.
    "Yes,
yes. You noble?"
    "That's
right."
    The
man smiled, looked away and didn't talk to her for the rest of the flight.
Clearly he didn't like her kind of person. That or someone, like her Aunt Red,
had personally told him that if he met a noble in Noram to keep silent, on pain
of death. Vagus was a hard land that way. If a threat of death was made, it
would be delivered, as often as not.
    The
trip was about what she would have expected. It took a long time for them to
get loaded and take off, then they had a forty minute trip into a matching
orbit with the Ranford, which was vast , compared to the Cloudcraft.
Probably a few hundred sizes bigger or so. It wasn't the Ranford's fault,
because it was the little one that was kept that tiny size. It could have been
just as big, since they were the same ship, when you got right down to it.
Sisters, after all.
    Then
they took half an hour to move a mile or so and dock. It was barely perceptible
as far as motion went, but also very smooth. Once inside and down, a wall
formed in the space they'd come in to, and the man that had welcomed them
before stood up, and clicked a button.
    "The
record for unloading this craft with a full deck is three minutes and ten
seconds. Can you beat that?"
    The
answer, as it turned out, was no. But they got darned close. Even the man with
the watch grinned about it.
    "Three-fifteen!
Not bad! I figured that you kids would be slow and fumble a lot, but it seems that
I'm just an old slowpoke myself. The group with the record is an elite military
team. Royal Guards? No one that hasn't worked together before has ever gotten
this close." He seemed oddly proud, but then, a lot of the kids were from
his own homeland. Maybe that was it? Or maybe he just liked to see anyone do
well. They were all on the same side after all.
    The
boxes of food had to be unloaded too, but that didn't count against them and
Guide had it all in hand about ten seconds after the door was opened for him,
at the back of the craft, in the cargo section. It was the last thing in, so
the first out. Just like the people.
    Judy
looked around a bit, but didn't say what for. That presented itself about a
minute later, as a woman walked into the area they were in, from the ship
itself, using one of the sliding doors that were meant to save space or look
interesting or something. The ones here were red, which was an interesting
change.
    Judy
saluted the woman that walked in.
    "Captain
Michaels." She held it until the other woman, who was dressed identically,
saluted back.
    "Captain
Kerry. You have the