Beginning of Book 4

This excerpt is from the fourth book I have written in this series. That book may need a better title, but for now at least, the working title is The Orion Spur. No, it's not a story about gunslingers in the Old West. The Orion Spur is the name for this part of the galaxy. This Solar System is not on a main arm, but a small spur of stars (also called the 'Local Arm') that lays between major arms, happily ignored and forgotten by the other races.

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Chapter One - Best Friends

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"Together, didn't we face that murderous old wizard who was too dumb to stay dead?"  Billy MacDuff brushed some of his brown haystack hair out of his eyes.

Kevin Wells raised his eyes from his control console and stared at his friend.  "Yes, we did, but I repeat, so what?"  They spoke English so the ship's intelligent computer could not listen.  It only spoke Abrasax.

"Weren't we together when we were under death sentence on the planet Mak'kla, after we got caught while trying to save the Queen?"

"Yes, but we were in different cells, so we were not exactly tog…"

Billy spun his acceleration couch around so he could prop his feet up on the navigator's console behind him.  "Details.  Don't change the subject."

"Amy will turn you into a goat if she sees you doing that on her console."  Kevin scratched the back of his head, fluffing up the circle of golden hair that offset the rest of his medium-brown, normally neat, hair.  "How can I avoid changing the subject when I don't even know the point of all this?"

"She is, but hold on…"  Billy looked very nervous but seemed to be trying not to show it.  "I'm getting there. Weren't we together facing death in that bubble in space, before we ended up on the planet Abras?"

Kevin leaned back in his command chair, and his face took on a puzzled expression. "Amy is the point of this? What does she…?"

Billy cut him off, "Last year, wasn't I right there with you when we investigated that asteroid that was going to slam into the Earth and kill everyone?"

"Uh, yeah,"  Kevin's voice revealed a wariness as to where this conversation was heading and why Billy, who was normally very blunt in everything he said, would be taking such a roundabout route to his point. "I get the idea. We are friends. We have been inseparable for several years now. So…"

Billy took his feet off the console, planting them back on the deck and leaned forward. "Yes!  We are and always will be close friends,"  He paused, "even if one of us—like maybe me—were to do something that seemed as though it could hurt that friendship."

The look of anticipation on Kevin's face was obvious. "Yeeaaaahhh?" One eyebrow rose as he drew out the word. "So, what did you do—or are about to do," He pasted on an artificial smile.  "that's going to make me want to break your jaw? What does Amy have to do with this?" 

Billy finally blurted out, "I want to date Amy."

Shock.

The words sunk in like an ice shard pressed slowly into Kevin's heart.  He would rather have had Billy double up his fist and punch him hard in the stomach.  That would have been far less painful.  The words "How could you do this to me!" begged to be screamed aloud, but he found others and at a much lower volume.  "Uh, okay.  So why should I care?"