Ruby’s mothers tried to act stronger than they felt as Ruby packed the last of her things into the ship. Her father Baston had worked on the ship since before she'd been born. It was an older model than those she'd seen in movies and her favorite shows, but it did the job. Now, he had turned ownership over to her so she could go to school on Sarta. Her fathers, Baston and Sca, had been born on Sarta, and now she would go there to grow up in their trade. 

“Sort of,” Sca said as her mother Abigail had stated she would be following in their footsteps. “We only counted and marked the cargo, she'll be driving the ships. That's a much bigger deal.”

“As long as they aren't slave ships,” her mother Cherie said. Cherie was her biological mother but they never talked about it. She'd met her fathers on a slave ship just like she was speaking of. She had more than a few reservations about her daughter driving a ship like that one.

“They aren't mother, I promise.” She touched Cherie's arm, who smiled brightly at her. She'd never doubted all her parents cared about her deeply.

Sca moved forward and embraced her. His skin had a light glow just like hers. He was Lingonian and there was no doubt he was her biological father, although they also never talked about that. Her brothers didn't glow.

Baston Jr., Halo, and Tanner came to hug her. Sca held on to little David. She was going to miss them all so much. Abigail came forward to hug her, the swell of her belly pressing against Ruby.

“I'm sorry you're going to miss your new little brother or sister's birth.”

“Mom, I'll be able to visit, you act like I'm not coming back.”

Getting into the pilot's seat, she turned and looked back at her family. They were all in a line waving, the smaller children weaving in and out of their legs. She would miss her family, but she was excited to get off Adna. It had been a year since their last trip anywhere, and she was itching to get away.

She set the controls so the ship basically flew on its own, navigating it towards Manta Ray. She leaned back on the seat and watched the stars fly by. Manta Ray would be where she was boarding the larger ship. When she wanted to come home and see her family she'd just pick up her ship for the first year, then once her freshman term was over, she'd be able to park her ship on campus to come and go as she pleased.

After about an hour of staring at the stars, her eyes started to get heavy. She unbuckled her belt and moved to the back to look for a snack. Her mother had packed cookies and several salty treats. Her father told her never to let herself fall asleep, even if the ship was on autopilot. A snack would wake her up if she could find one. Finally locating some peanuts, she pulled them out and moved back into her seat. When she looked out the window she was surprised to see what looked like several ships approaching. They were spread apart and appeared to be headed right for her. She took back over the controls in case they were a group of pirates and she had to run. As they got closer she realized to her horror they weren't ships at all but asteroids. One was bigger than her ship and she wouldn't be able to avoid the smaller ones if she dodged it. Thankful she hadn't dozed off, she braced for impact as she guided the ship up in the air. If she was fast enough she'd miss most of the larger ones and her ship would only suffer minor damage. If she had dozed off, she would have been killed.

She tried not to think about that as the first asteroid hit her. It didn't cause a huge lurch with the ship, but the one that hit right after caused her to fall to the floor. She scrambled back up and strapped herself in. The ship continued to climb. It was so close to being above the large one. Her dials were going crazy and a warning light flashed showing her it didn't want to climb much longer.

“Just a little further old gal, you can do it,” she encouraged. Just as she got to the top of the large asteroid, which was now only feet away, a loud noise sounded letting her know the ship was about to fail. She pushed it until it was just over the large rock and straightened up going sideways, trying to get away from the danger. As she started to fly a little straighter, a large piece of rock hit the back of the ship and spun her facing away from the stream of rocks flying at her. She struggled to keep the ship up high enough to miss the one that would do her in. She finally got turned back around and was pelted with several more.

After what seemed like an eternity, rocks stopped coming and she could finally relax. Eating her peanuts, she paid close attention to her surroundings the rest of the way to Manta Ray.

The Manta Ray planet had been her favorite when she was little. Baston started taking them on two or three-day trips when they turned eight. It was considered the best age for them to get into space and live a little. As she angled the ship towards the parking dock on the far side of the planet she took in the massive blue expanse of the oceans.

The planet was almost all ocean. There were a few islands, which were regulated to important land crops or space travel. There had been more than one war over the land that was farmable, and it was all off limits to anyone, not a farmer. The spaceports were on the smaller, more useless land, and they were crowded.

Blue oceans, in all shades of blue, sparkled all the way around the planet. Shallow seas and deep sapphire depths. Some of the shallower seas were also farms, with water crops, fish crops, and shellfish crops. The dark waters were hunting grounds for the big game; whale-like animals, and the biggest damn shrimp that Ruby had ever seen. She remembered there were some seahorses big enough to ride

She’d nearly been sucked away in a massive current as a kid.

There were resorts on the ocean shelves that dropped from the kelp beds to deep, deep open plains of the oceans. There were some that hovered over the coral reefs, and some that hovered over the water itself.

The inhabitants lived in all zones of the oceans. Only the tourists stayed above it if they did. The air-breathing inhabitants had colonies of underwater houses where air was pumped in. Mostly, the air-breathers lived close to the surface in the shallows, so if something went wrong with the housing, they had a chance of survival by swimming to the surface.

The water-dwelling humanoids and other alien races lived in the water. They had enjoyed the air-breathers habitats that they had adapted it to their own quarters to mimic the styles the bubblers used. The water-dwellers lived at all depths of the ocean, from neighbors to the bubblers to hermits that lived at depths and distances that would crush any who tried to come near.

The great thing about Manta Ray was the many sea creatures from every planet imported to the displays. Ruby knew there were whales and dolphins, sea lions, and starfish. She also loved to see the wild creatures from other worlds swimming along as well. Though she did remember a particularly traumatic experience with nature being nature and the gragni-kik from Thuliaon going full wild on a gorgeous minke whale while out on that same seahorse adventure.

Maybe she didn’t love that memory as much as she thought.

As she landed, an enormous creature with a long horn jutting from its head was poking up out of the water. The very same gragni-kik she had just been thinking about. Still impressive, and still just as beautiful.

The dock for landing guest ships was right in the middle of the Long Ocean. You never knew what you might see when you landed. The creature made a loud noise, stretched up out of the water jumping high and throwing itself back into the ocean, splashing the ship as she settled it into a spot. A family was passing and a little boy squealed with delight at the sudden shower, while his mother punched his father in the arm and pointed at her hair.

Ruby got out of her ship and surveyed the damage. She cringed when she saw the condition of the ship. It looked like it'd been through hell and technically it had. It would need some serious work and that meant coming back to Manta Ray on weekends until she'd fixed it.

Her room was on the top floor and overlooked a dolphin display. These Earth creatures were fascinating to her. As she looked out over them they leaped and played making her feel like a kid again. She said a little thank you to her parents for not only bringing her there as a kid but paying for her to see it again before college.

She took out the gun her father had given her and placed it on the nightstand. There was no reason to think she'd be unsafe away from home, but it helped her feel safe and he'd wanted her to have it for a reason. Her parents had all experienced the darker side of the universe and knew that it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. They had never tried to convince their children the world was a safe place. From the time they were young, they’d taught them to fight and be aware of everything. It was just how they'd been shaped by their experiences. She fell asleep with the windows open so she could hear the ocean.

The next morning she woke full of excitement and hope for the adventure before her. The first thing she planned to do when she arrived at Sarta was find a store and buy clothing to fit in with her peers. They wore different clothing on Adna because they were the only ones there besides a band of men from one of the Earths they avoided.

She looked down at the clothing she'd put on. A white dress that was essentially just bands of material knotted together. She knew from experience when they left the planet it wasn't the way others outside dressed. It was good she'd saved up some money from selling things she found on their planet to outsiders when they ventured out. She packed everything so she'd be ready to board straight from breakfast taking her key to the front desk.

She went downstairs and enjoyed the complimentary breakfast while watching multi-colored fish swim through channels in front of the restaurant. Food was automatically dropped on one side of their tube to get them to go one way and then on the other to get them to go back so they swam back and forth creating a beautiful effect. Ruby wondered how they felt about being trapped in small tubes and swimming in the same pattern over and over. It didn't seem like a great way to live. After she ate she realized there was a small bazaar set up in the hotel. There was jewelry and blown glass sea creatures. She thought of buying something for her mother as sort of a push present. Walking over she started examining the offerings staying mindful of the time. Her ship was supposed to leave at ten AM and it was nine thirty. She could easily make her way to the docks to fly out within five minutes. Finally, she settled on a glass blown dolphin for Abigail. She thought her new brother or sister would love the dolphins as much as she did. After she paid far too much for the item she browsed the jewelry to pass the time.

“Ew, mommy, why is her skin like that? What’s she wearing?”

Ruby turned around to see a little girl pointing at her. She smiled, the girl couldn’t have been more than five. Expecting the mother to hush her up politely she went about her business.

“She’s an alien. They’re not natural, their skin glows with their evil deeds.” The woman said to the little girl. Ruby was completely taken aback. She knew that Lingonians weren’t common everywhere, but she’d never heard someone speak so poorly of them.

Before she could think about it she marched over to the woman.

“Our skin glowing is a trait just like the brown and gray hair you’re hiding underneath that hideous dye job. Our skin is simply part of us and doesn’t represent evil or anything bad at all. You should be ashamed you are teaching your daughter such hatred.

The woman hadn’t expected her to approach them and the shock on her face satisfied Ruby. She wouldn’t be shamed for who she was on Manta Ray or any other planet.