Ket heard Tyran stomping up to the door to the observation lounge, each boot fall landing in time to a litany of decidedly unprincelike curses. Being away from court had been good for Tyr, even if the boredom was slowly driving them both insane.

“Ket! How many times do I need to tell you to quit switching the gravity orientation in the corridors? I just slammed my head on the ceiling, again.”

Ket was floating several feet above his favorite chair as he reviewed the latest data from the long-range scans on a wall monitor. The observation lounge was one of the few rooms on the ship big enough to allow him to stretch his wings.

“Sorry. I forgot to switch that back after I was done.”

“Done what? Why did you need to be walking on the ceiling? And why are you floating? Something wrong with the furniture?” Tyr was annoyed enough that his skin was a brilliant shade of silver. For anyone else, that would have been a warning to step carefully, but Ket had been the prince’s anrik, his blood-bound brother and protector, since Tyr was ten years old.

“There’s nothing wrong with the furniture. I was just looking for a change in perspective.” The only thing wrong with the furniture was that he’d seen it every day for more than three months. In that time, Ket had explored every inch of the ship. There wasn’t a chair, bed, or room he hadn’t spent time in. When he had agreed to Tyr’s suggestion that they escape from the Imperial Court and go on this scouting mission, it had sounded exciting. Finding a new world to colonize would be an adventure. Only they had yet to find a single inhabitable world, and instead of adventure they faced a daily grind of dull routine.

“As for what I was doing that required me to flip the gravity, I was repairing a power conduit. It was easier to swap gravity than find a ladder.”

“Next time, change it back. There’s nothing fun about stepping into a corridor only to discover up and down have been reversed.” Tyr rubbed the top of his head, making his short, black hair stand up in unruly spikes.

“That depends on your point of view. To me? That’s funny. I’m sorry I missed it.”

“In that case....”

Without warning, Ket dropped out of the air like a stone and landed in a sprawled heap of wings and limbs across the unsuspecting chair he’d been floating over. “Baka. That was uncalled for.”

Tyran snorted with laughter. “I thought it was funny. Must have been my point of view.”

Ket flicked two of his fingers up in an obscene gesture before retracting his wings and arranging himself more comfortably in his chair. “Point taken. Next time I’ll put it back.”

“Thank you.” Tyr entered the lounge and Ket took note of the fact his friend was wearing one of his more formal garments. The sleeveless vest had a ring of gemstones affixed to the collar, and the flowing fabric was dyed in green and black, the traditional colors of the Varosa royal family.

“Did you find anything of interest on the scans?” Tyr claimed a seat near one of the floor-to-ceiling windows that gave a breathtaking view of the galaxy outside.

They were currently light-years from any star system, surrounded by the velvet blackness of deep space. The stars gleamed like distant gems, and in orbit around one of them had to be the planet they were searching for. If they found it, they could escape the demands of the imperial court and the Vardarian empress, Tyran’s twin sister, Neha.

“Maybe.” Ket visualized the data he wanted and the nanites that filled his body linked to the ship’s computer. A hologram of the area where scans had showed something out of the ordinary appeared in the air in front of him a second later.

“What am I looking at?”

“A map,” Ket retorted.

“I’m not in the mood for your jokes, Ket. What’s so special about the area in this map?”

Ket reached up and manipulated the image, expanding it and then zeroing in on a sector. “The scans are picking up some kind of signal from this area. It could be more cosmic noise or a natural phenomenon, but the computer projects a sixty percent likelihood it’s not naturally occurring.”

Tyr leaned forward, his hands on his knees as he stared at the display. “Sixty percent?”

“It could be another pulsar, or a star nursery, but it's the strongest lead we’ve had in weeks. If there’s intelligent life over there, I vote we go find them. I’m dying for a conversation with someone I haven’t known for most of my life. You already know all my best stories.”

“Agreed. I caught myself having a long, in-depth conversation with one of the servo-droids this morning. Let’s go see what’s making all that noise. Where there’s life, there have to be life-supporting planets.”

“That’s the theory.” Ket took another look at his friend and frowned. There was something more bothering Tyr than just a bump on the head. “I know that look. And that outfit. You’ve been speaking with your sister, haven’t you?”

He nodded. “She wants me to stop this ‘frivolous pursuit’ and return home."

“You’ve been at her side her entire life. She doesn’t understand why you’re not there, now, giving her your counsel and support.”

Tyran shook his head, and the light in his green eyes dimmed for a moment. “Neha doesn’t value my counsel. She wants me close, so she can ensure I don’t act against her.”

“You’ve never been disloyal to her. Why does she persist in her belief to the contrary? It’s ludicrous. Everyone who knows you is fully aware that you have no desire to be emperor.” Ket pointed to the stars outside. “Otherwise you’d be on the damned throne instead of roaming uncharted space.”

“She is the eldest. It would be dishonorable for me to even consider trying to claim what is her birthright.”

“She’s only older than you by a handful of minutes. There were many who felt you had the right to challenge her.” His green eyes narrowed. “And before you get defensive, remember that I’m not one of them. I’m simply pointing out the facts.”

“I know. Your loyalty is not in question, my brother.”

“Did she order you to return?”

“Not yet. But she will, soon. Those vipa she calls her counselors have fed her so many lies that she no longer trusts anyone but them. Even our mother has lost most of her influence. We are running out of time.”

And if they returned without finding what they were looking for, they would never get another chance. Declaring a diaspora and leading a group of colonists to a new home would allow them both to live free. For Tyran, that meant escaping a life full of court intrigue and his sister’s influence. For Ket, it meant being away from those who would judge him for his ancestry. He wasn’t a pure-blooded Vardarian.

Anywhere else in the empire, that would be the norm. Their species had scattered across the stars centuries ago, finding new worlds to inhabit, new alliances to forge, and occasionally finding races that were genetically compatible with them. But Ket lived on the Vardarian homeworld, where everyone was judged by their lineage instead of their actions.

Tyr got to his feet and walked over to the hologram. He touched the location with one finger and a set of coordinates appeared about it. A moment later, the ship’s main engines powered up.

“We’re going right now?”

“Why not? This might be our last chance. We’ll make the journey in three or four jumps. That should give us time to stop and assess as we get closer.”

“And if the computer’s right and there’s someone out there?”

“If they’re friendly, we start first contact protocols. If they’re not…”

Ket grinned. “If they’re not then you steer and I’ll shoot.”

The Vardarian empire was relatively peaceful, but that didn’t mean they were pacifists. Their ship, the Santar, was a royal cruiser equipped with enough firepower to protect itself and its occupants. By approaching in a series of jumps they’d have time to gather information and begin the process of translating any new languages into Vardarian. If this wasn’t another false reading, they’d be ready by the time they arrived at their destination.

Please, don’t be another false lead.