This is one of my first forays into the world of science fiction--normally I prefer fantasy. Feedback would be enormously helpful; I'd like to know how I'm doing in this new genre. Many thanks.

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Edric el-Hashir sighed, laced his fingers together behind his head, and leaned back in his seat. “My lady,” he pronounced dramatically. “I fear you have lost.”

His captain, Lady Qane Frey, glared daggers at him across the gameboard. “I command this ship; I say when I’ve lost.” Her hand hovered irresolutely over the game pieces before she finally blew out her breath in disgust. “I’ve lost.”

Edric smiled smugly and drained his mug in one gulp. When she was in her command seat, Lady Qane was a stern taskmaster, holding the entire crew to the regulations and practices of the Time Travelers, despite the fact that they were, in fact, the last Time Traveler ship left in the galaxy. However, when she was off duty, Lady Qane was quite willing to join in the camaraderie of the crew. She was the one thing that held them all together in a galaxy that was falling apart.

Once upon a time, the Time Travelers had ruled the galaxy as benevolent autocrats. With the ability to travel through both time and space, they sent out their Space Navy through the solar system, one ship for each planet, learning about each one’s individual cultures and practices. When they came upon a culture that was falling apart, or had fallen apart, or had aspects in it that were merely antithetical to the Time Travelers’ views, they sent the ships’ crews back through time to change the way the race developed, bringing them in line with the rest of the galaxy. The Ruling Council of the Time Travelers was made up of a group of telepathic beings, very powerful. When a ship sent them the history of a planet, they had the ability to pinpoint the exact time and place where the change needed to be made. In this way they brought peace and stability throughout space. Their ability to change any past actions made them appear almost god-like to many, nearly perfect beings, unable to make mistakes. Some even thought they could foresee the future, but that was outside their control. The past was stable, set, but the future was fluid, always in motion. A ship’s captain had to know the exact coordinates and time down to the millisecond of when they left the existing timeline. If they miscalculated at all, disaster happened. Because altering the past also shifted the present timeline, if a ship came back any later or earlier, or at a different place than where it had left, the time/space continuum would be ripped apart. Timing was critical in the Space Navy, which was why the Ruling Council had such stringent requirements and standards for their officers. They knew what could happen if people just arbitrarily altered a world’s timeline. Properly bringing every system into line with their ways took time, but that was one thing of which the Travelers had no lack.

And then, in one instant, it all fell apart. One of the worlds the Time Travelers chose to visit, to include in their government, objected to the idea of having their history altered. The B’Phids were a violent race, unpredictable, and not inclined to change. They rebelled against the Travelers, saying that they had the right to be the way they were, and that no outsiders were going to alter the very fabric of their society. The Travelers brought in more ships and troops to quell the rebellion, but the B’Phids slaughtered them all. Before the Travelers could go back in time to alter those events, several other worlds suddenly inexplicably broke forth in revolt, too. Within days, the whole autocracy fell apart. The B’Phids commandeered some of the Traveler ships and flew in attack on the very center of the government, the home planet to the Travelers. With a few well-placed blasts from their lasers, they destroyed the Ruling Council almost completely.

With the Council gone, the rest of the Travelers fell to pieces. Civil war broke among the loyal planets. More and more systems pulled away to rule themselves. Traveler ships suddenly found themselves unwelcome and outlawed in many places. The galaxy was in chaos. Many petty warlords and dictators tried to rise up to fill the vacuum left by the destruction of the Travelers, but now that the systems had a taste of independence, they were unwilling to surrender it to anyone. Eventually, the galaxy went from being under one well-ordered rule to hundreds of individual rules. Hashir, home planet to the Travelers, remained loyal to their departed rulers, as did a handful of other solar systems nearby. Other planets formed a loose coalition called the Independent Traders, which controlled all shipping and trade throughout space. The B’Phids, and many others, refused to ally themselves with anyone, and remained independent. Some of those planets let aliens on their worlds, while others turned into a closed society, with no travel on or off the planet allowed. Life became every species for itself, and things became very dangerous for spacers.

The few Traveler ships that weren’t destroyed in the Galactic Rebellion found themselves in a dangerous position. Most of them returned to Hashir to take up a role in defending the planet from attacks. Some went rogue, flitting off into the vastness of space, never to be seen again. Some went back in time to try to fix the mess. Without one of the telepathic Ruling Council to guide them, their efforts were doomed. They never returned, and history did not change.

Lady Qane, captain of the Time Traveler ship Future Dreamer, went on none of those routes. Throughout the rebellion she remained fiercely loyal, doing everything in her power to protect the Travelers’ way of life. When it became evident that their regime would fall, she and her crew dedicated themselves to traveling the stars in search of a way to restore the Time Travelers to power. It was a hopeless cause, but she soon received news that encouraged her. One lone member of the Ruling Council remained, hiding somewhere on Hashir. Through secret communications, he told Lady Qane which planets to visit, and she sent him copies of their histories, so he could tell her when and where to go to change them. The process was slow and laborious; and ultimately, one ship and one Councilor could not make much of a difference. The era of the Time Travelers was gone forever, but Lady Qane refused to give up. As long as she still had a ship, she would be a Time Traveler.

Had she not had such a strong personality, the crew would have rebelled long ago, but she had their trust and loyalty. Where she led, they would follow, no matter how they felt about it personally.

Personally—and he never mentioned this to anyone—Edric wasn’t sure it was such a bad thing that the Travelers had been overthrown. A native of Hashir, it was only natural that he join up with their Space Navy as a young man, but he had never fully believed that what they were doing was right. He’d had a sneaking sympathy for the B’Phids, though he’d fought against them valiantly. Whatever his personal feelings, he knew his duty was to the Travelers and Lady Qane, and he would die rather then let them down.

As the surrounding crew members collected or handed over trinkets, depending on where they’d placed their bets, a warning whoop suddenly echoed through the ship’s lounge. The light panels lining the bulkheads started to flash amber. A mechanical voice came over the ship-wide communicator.

“All crew, report to battle stations. This is not a drill. Repeat, all crew to battle stations. This is not a drill.”

Even before the first word, Lady Qane was on her feet, dashing out the doorway toward the bridge, Edric right behind her. The color-coded threat level system went from green to blue to yellow to orange to red, with green meaning there were no threats and red only activated in the middle of battle. Whatever was going on, the bridge needed its captain and its navigator.

The lounge was one level down from the bridge, but smooth-operating, open-sided, turbo-propelled lifts carried the captain and Edric up without difficulty. They exited immediately onto the bridge. “Report,” snapped Lady Qane.

As the bridge crew jumped swiftly to attention, First Mate Ania Lyriss—a blue-skinned humanoid from the planet Cobal—gave a quick rundown of the situation. “We just picked up an unknown planet in our sensors, straight ahead. It reads as having a breathable atmosphere and gravity only slightly higher than Hashir.”

“This is good news—another planet to join the Travelers’ Alliance—but not cause for an Orange Alert. You had better have a good reason for calling one, First Mate Lyriss.” Lady Qane’s brown eyes narrowed to slits.

Edric, already in his navigator’s chair, saw the problem on his sensor screen, but let Lyriss report it.

“The planet also has several large battle ships in orbit around it. We’ve already been challenged and warned away by someone picking us up on their long-range sensors. If we approach the planet, it could result in our destruction.” Lyriss saluted sharply, her back quivering with tension.

Lady Qane sat down in the captain’s chair. “Warned us away, eh? Well, let’s see if a diplomatic solution will work here. If not, we do it the old-fashioned way.”

Edric sighed to himself. The old-fashioned way meant sending a crew down in a shuttle pod to the planet’s surface to examine the situation and see where the history needed to be altered to accept the Travelers. Once they had a time plotted, they returned to the ship, which went back to the proper time, changed history accordingly, and then moved back to the present time, where the species was then perfectly ready to join them.

“Unknown battle ships,” said Lady Qane over the ship-to-ship communicator, her gravely voice perfectly calm and controlled. “This is Lady Qane Frey, captain of the Time Traveler Space Navy ship Future Dreamer. May we approach to discuss an alliance with your planet’s leaders?”

A harsh voice speaking a foreign language came back over the comm. unit. Communications Specialist Arky Lark, one of the six-armed, large-eared natives of Nyrosis, flew his many fingers over the board, translating the alien’s speech into the Common Tongue.

“Future Dreamer, this is Colonel Rachjen of the Hirken flagship Destroyer. While our leaders would be delighted to welcome you to our homeland, we warn you to not approach the planet. We are in the middle of a war against our enemies, the barbaric Mirra, who would destroy you in an instant. For your own sake, stay away. Perhaps once we have wiped the Mirra off the face of the planet, we will be able to discuss an alliance. For now, we of the Hirken wish you clear skies and safe travel.”

Edric grimaced. “Civil war on the planet itself? Sounds pretty uncivilized, Captain. Perhaps we should just leave.”

Lady Qane had a steely look on her face. “Not yet. I’d like to talk to the Mirra first. Edric, plot us a course to the other side of the planet, but avoid the Hirken ships.”

Edric worked at his screen for a few moments, but a pit of dread settled in his stomach. He had a bad feeling about this place. “Got it, Captain.”

“Pilot, take us there.”

Edric’s buddy Loric, another Hashir native, took the ship on Edric’s carefully plotted route. “Yes ma’am.”

The conversation with the Mirra went just about the same as the one with the Hirken had. They too professed themselves delighted to see the Future Dreamer, and promised that once they had destroyed their enemies they would welcome a chance to join an alliance—but alas, nothing could be done while those dogs of Hirken still dominated half their world. Lady Qane accepted their excuses and took the ship out of sensor range while she decided what to do. Edric hoped against hope that she would just leave the planet behind, but he knew it was unlikely. The new Travelers’ Alliance was still too short on members to be able to pass any planet up.

Dreamer hovered out of sight and sensors behind the Hirken/Mirra moon—which, unlike Hashir’s moon, appeared uninhabited. Lady Qane ordered them down from an Orange Alert to a Yellow Alert, leaving them still at their battle stations, but not quite so tense, while she gathered her senior officers in her conference chamber for a meeting.

“Well people?” she asked. “What do you think?”

Edric, as usual, spoke up first. “I think we should just keep going, Captain. This planet isn’t even unified. I don’t see how they could be an advantage to our Alliance, and they could actually harm it.”

Lady Qane steepled her fingers together, nodding slowly as she processed his words. “Other opinions?”

Lyriss cleared her throat, twirling a strand of silky black hair around a slender azure finger. “I respectfully disagree with Navigator Edric. I think we should at least send a team down to find out more about the planet before making a final decision. If their entire history is filled with fighting and warfare, then yes, perhaps we should leave the planet behind. However, if this civil war is a recent thing, then we can change it and add a valuable planet to our Alliance.”

Edric saw the other four heads around the round table nod in agreement with Lyriss’s idea. Lady Qane pressed the comm. panel on the arm of her chair. “Head Engineer Syric, what are your thoughts?”

The voice of Marna Syric came back through the speakers from the bowels of the ship, sounding, as usual, impatient. “As long as it doesn’t involve damaging the ship or getting her shot at, I really don’t care what you do, Captain!”

Lady Qane hid a smile and pressed another part of the panel, this time linking her to sickbay. “And you, Doctor?”

Jillius, a human from the technology-rich planet of Seefra, answered back much the same way as Marna. “It really doesn’t matter to me, Captain, as long as nobody gets hurt.”

“Well then,” said Lady Qane, “I believe we will go with First Mate Lyriss’s plan. She, of course, will lead the team, and Pilot Loric will fly the shuttle pod. First Mate, I believe you should have two other people with you. Who shall it be?”

Not me, not me, prayed Edric silently. He didn’t think they’d need a navigator with them, but he couldn’t be sure. However, Lyriss decided quickly on who she wanted. “If I may, Captain, I would like to take Ehlomm with us, in case we run into any trouble.”

Edric nodded to himself. The security chief was a Colossus, over two and a half meters tall, well muscled, with a skin like tree bark, tough and hard to penetrate with ordinary weapons, and hands that could crush a man’s skull without even trying. Yet for all his size, the alien could move quickly and silently, and his unique skin coloring—dark brown with streaks of green—made him almost invisible in a naturally wooded setting. The Colossi were invaluable members of the Travelers Alliance, both for their strength and their fierce loyalty.

“Very well,” said Lady Qane. “I doubt we’ll need him here while you’re gone. And the fourth?”

“A medic,” Lyriss answered. “Not necessarily Doctor Jillius, but we should have at least one combat medic, just in case.”

Jillius’s voice echoed up again from the comm. panel. “I’d much prefer to not go, but I’ll be happy to send Wrieken with you. He could use the exercise.”

“Very well, then,” said Lady Qane, getting to her feet. The other officers shot up as well, saluting formally. “First Mate Lyriss, assemble your team, do whatever prep work is necessary, and prepare to leave at 0800 hours. Clear?”

“Yes Captain!”

“Good. Dismissed. Back to your stations, everybody.”