Midnight Revels
The light had long since faded, well before her time. June stared at the transfinite darkness from the window in her modest quarters. A mechanical beep broke her silent reverie. She dutifully left to begin her rounds on the Ithuriel. Deck by deck, structural integrity, transpatial field stability, life support maintenance, course adjustments, stasis pod maintenance—each day was like any other she’d had on this ship. She couldn’t remember when they had left Earth, but the training she was drilled for remained deeply embedded. She was, after all, one of the twenty four genetically engineered children known as the caretakers, created and trained for this exact purpose. Two vessels, the Ithuriel and the Zephon, left long ago on a historic mission of discovery and urgency. Each took their share of the caretakers to manage the necessities of intergalactic space travel. The primary crew, responsible for contact with the advanced civilizations they were seeking, would remain safely in stasis f
