Sophia focused on her sweet new baby Hectosh. For a month, she spent all of her time with her baby in her chambers. She'd never been so happy in all her life. Having a baby awakened a part of her that she'd never known existed before he'd arrived. She watched Hectosh’s beautiful little face. When his eyes lit up at the sight and smell of his mother, it was the most satisfying experience Sophia has ever had.

In those first few weeks with her baby, she forgot all about why she had come into space in the first place. She forgot about her desire to pilot the ship and she forgot about her disappointment at not being accepted into the Academy. But as the weeks rolled by aboard the ship, her old self slowly began to return. She loved her son more than anything in the world, but Sophia could never really forget her truest passion in life.

So one day, when Hectosh was a month old, she left him with the medic for just a little while. She wandered down the wide, brightly lit hallways of the bride ship Breaking Dawn and arrived at the cockpit to chat with the pilot.

“I haven't seen you in a while,” he said, greeting her with a cheerful, Draconian grin.

“I've been busy,” she chuckled. I do have a newborn.”

“Oh,” he said with a chuckle. “Excuses, excuses.”

Sophia sat down next to the pilot and began inspecting his instruments and settings as she gazed at the dashboard. She then looked out the front window of the ship.

She examined the three-dimensional holographic map that showed their current star system and position in relation to the celestial bodies around them.

“So we are still two months out from Galaton,” Sophia observed.

“That's right,” he said.

“Then it seems like now would be an excellent time to allow me to pilot the ship,” she said.

“I know I told you maybe after the baby was born, but I still don't know if it's a good idea.”

“Of course it's a good idea. We've known each other for almost a year now, and in all this time you have taught me absolutely everything I need to know about how to fly. If you don't trust me now, then you must not trust yourself,” she said, raising an eyebrow at him with a smirk on her face.

He shot her a glance and then smiled, letting his shoulders relax.

“Perhaps you're right,” he said. “I can let you fly the ship, but I don't want you to ever tell anyone about it.”

“Why would I do that?” she said.

“All right then,” he said, “I'm transferring controls over to you.”

The pilot flipped a few switches and Sophia saw that the pilot controls had been moved to the copilot. She ran her hand over the holographic screen and then gripped the steering wheel of the ship. It allowed for three-dimensional control of the vessel.

For the most part, the ship was on autopilot, and only needed to be manually steered to avoid asteroids and the like. The pilot allowed Sophia to maneuver the ship around a small cluster of flying debris, and then move the ship back on course. She spent the next two hours working with the pilot in the cockpit until the medic contacted her over the ship board holocom.

“Sophia, the baby needs you,” the medic said through her wrist holocom.

“Duty calls,” she said, transferring control of the ship back to the pilot. “Thanks for letting me do that. It felt really good.”

“Just don't tell anyone, Sophia. I could lose my job.”

Sophia rose from the copilot’s chair and hurried out of the cockpit, down the hallway, and back to her suite. When she stepped inside, she found the medic and little Hectosh in her chambers. Hectosh was red-faced and crying, but as soon as the medic placed him back in her arms, he quieted.

“He missed you,” medic Hanno said.

“I missed him too.”

“What were you doing?” he said.

“I was wandering around. I spent some time on the observation deck. I needed to think. Missing my mate is very difficult for me,” she said. The first part was a lie, but the rest was true. She didn’t want him to be suspicious that she was up to her old tricks. She intended to get more time in the pilot’s seat before arriving on Galaton.

“I do understand,” he said with a nod, and then he turned toward the door. It slid open for him and closed again as he exited.

Sophia held little Hectosh in her arms and rocked him back and forth as she gazed down at his beautiful face. He reminded her so much of her mate that it made her heart ache with longing for him.

She didn't know how she could miss a man she'd never met. It hurt so terribly that her heart ached every single second now. She walked over to the little kitchen in her suite and programmed to the food replicator to produce a bottle of Draconian formula for Hectosh, and then plucked it out of the dispenser. She carried Hectosh and the bottle to the couch and sat down. The couch faced the broad bank of windows, looking out into space.

She offered the bottle to Hectosh and he happily accepted, sucking away at the milk that was specially formulated for a Draconian baby. Without her mate’s touch and the chemical catalyst of his mating bite, her body would not produce milk for the baby. Just as it had not been prepared to deliver such a large child naturally. Sophia accepted this situation, as was required of a bride of Galaton. But it was still difficult for her not to be able to perform such motherly functions.

She hoped that this would all change once she arrived on the planet that would be her new home. When Elait completed the mating ritual and claimed her as his own, her body would transform genetically and she would be able to carry, birth, and feed their next child.

Looking out at the view of a gaseous giant planet outside her window, she sighed heavily and thought of Elait. She imagined his lips on her skin so vividly so many times it was as if they had truly been together. Yet, they were still star systems apart, the distance between them unbearable.

Over the next several weeks, Sophia left little Hectosh with the medic so that she could sneak away to pilot the ship. No one knew but her and the pilot.

Each day, he allowed her to spend more and more time flying. Sophia thought that he liked the excuse to take a break from his work. Since he was the only ship pilot on board, he was basically on duty twenty-four-seven. He barely ever got to take a break.

While she guided the ship around asteroids and other space debris, he spent time on his holocom, researching his favorite topics or looking at nude pictures of human females.

Sophia was slightly offended by this pastime but didn't hold it against him. After a while, he usually got up and left the cockpit, allowing her to pilot the ship on her own.

It was on one of those days when Sophia was confronted with the shock of her lifetime. Worse than the second time she was denied entrance to the Space Academy. It was more shocking than realizing she was mated with a Galatonian prince. And it was even more mind-boggling than the moment she had been presented with her baby son Hectosh.

Out in front of the bride ship, a massive mothership materialized out of thin air at the edge of the solar system. It loomed behind an asteroid belt.

As soon as she saw it, she slowed the ship’s acceleration to zero and sat there staring open-mouthed at the vessel in the distance.

She didn’t know what to do, but she didn't have the chance to think about it for long. Dozens of little vessels emerged from the mothership, heading straight toward the bride ship Breaking Dawn. She had no time to think and no time to call the pilot. This was the moment she had been waiting for her whole life. She had to react; she had to keep her son out of danger.

She turned the ship around in a sharp one-eighty and accelerated in the opposite direction. The pilot came back through the door of the cockpit with an angry scowl on his face.

“What the hell are you doing?” he growled.

“Look for yourself!” Sophia yelled.

“It's the Mulgor!” he cried, slipping into his seat beside her in the cockpit. He tried to take control but Sophia piloted the ship at a breakneck speed toward the asteroid belt.

The Mulgor fighter jets pursued them and the Breaking Dawn took several hits to her hull.

“What are you doing?” the pilot demanded, trying to take control of the ship.

“We have to hide,” Sophia barked.

She sped toward the asteroid belt, bobbing and weaving through the flailing rocks and debris all around them. The Mulgor ships were smashed in the chaotic debris that flew all around inside the asteroid belt. Sophia barely dodged another massive rock; her son’s safety her only thought. It grazed the side of the ship, causing more damage.

Finally, she found what she was looking for, a hollow core in a large asteroid. She flew the ship inside it and found a place to land. The pilot flipped off the external lights and put the ship into repair mode.

“That was good flying,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Please don’t tell anyone or I’m toast.”

“I had to do it,” she said, crossing her arms.

“I’m not sure I could have maneuvered this ship the way you did, Sophia. Your aim was dead on. You saved us.”

“What will we do now?” she asked.

“We can’t fight them or run away. The bride ships don’t have weapons or warp drive. We’ll put up our cloaking mechanism and signal for help. That is the protocol for the situation. We were assured by Draconia that there were no Mulgor in this sector. We’d heard rumors, but they assured us they weren’t true.”

“I’m going back to my baby. Please let me know as soon as you contact my mate.”