Jules Marquez was headed for a dead-end posting at the edge of nowhere — the kind of assignment careers go to die on. Then new orders arrived with ten minutes to spare: Chief Engineer, aboard an unaffiliated freighter called The Reverie.
All Jules has to do is get there, and getting there becomes its own odyssey — one hitched ride at a time, through a frontier held together by favors, patched hulls, and the kind of kindness that doesn't ask for anything back. The Academy may have taught them to follow orders, but the frontier taught them to take the opportunity when it comes.

"The Long Way There"

by Rye Sobo