(Inklings Challenge 2024, Team Lewis, Space Travel, c.2580 words, Complete)
posting this here now that I've finished it! :D Enjoy. Hope it doesn't read as too preachy.
Alexei sat at the cafe table nursing his black tea and staring out at the rain. The view outside looked as grey and drear as he felt. If there were rainier places in habitable space than Innisfallen, he had yet to see them.
He glanced over as the door opened and a woman entered, placing her dripping umbrella with the stack of others by the entrance. She wore her brown hair ponytailed and had on an old military jacket over drab work pants and a bright blue t-shirt. The sight of her jacket made him think that perhaps rejoining the Fleet might not be the worst way out of his current predicament. Then recognition dawned upon him.
“Arcus?” he said. She turned his way.
“Hey, Alexei!” she said, breaking into a smile. “How are you doing?” she asked as she sat down across from him.
“Still alive and kicking, you?”
“Not drowned yet,” she replied. She caught the eye of the waitress and ordered coffee and something to eat. “So I heard about your ship. A bad business that. I’m sorry it happened to you.”
“Thanks, amiga. Yeah, I’ll get by but it’s set me right back. If that cussed sneak Gershow hadn’t stolen my salvage, I would have been fine and dandy.” He exhaled hard, “No good dwelling on it though.”
“Hurts,” Arcus said. Alexei nodded. They sat without speaking while her food arrived and she began eating. He’d known Arcus Briar for years, since they’d both been demobilised after the war and decided to go flying for themselves, seeing as the Commonwealth Navy had no further need of their services. She was a hard worker, a good pilot, and a good friend.
“Hey, do you need a job?” she asked, breaking the silence as she pushed back her empty plate.
“Yeah, I do. You know of any going?”
“I’d give you one for sure. I’m a couple crew down on the Hawkins: Jochi’s getting married and Bob’s off to Arcadia to help out his daughter and her family for a while.
“Count me in. It’ll be good to be about something and it’ll take my mind off things.”
“Glad to hear it. You can join us whenever you like. The Hawkins is docked down in Bay 15.”
“I’ll be there tonight,” Alexei promised. He had little enough to pack and put in order.
Alexei hoisted himself off the top of the ladder and secured the hatch to the cargo hold.
Four days since he joined her, the Jim Hawkins was well underway, bound for a port far across the void of space. Arcus had secured them a contract to ship produce off world, and the hold was packed with the tea, coffee, cocoa, and sugar that grew so well on Innisfallen. It wasn’t glamorous work, but there was real money in it, as she’d told her crew.
“And we’d starve if we held out for only the glamorous jobs,” Alexei had thought. Now he made his way along the Hawkins’ main corridor to the galley. His boots thumping dully on the metal of the deck. Strains of Arcus’ music drifted down from the cockpit. Their captain almost always had something playing off a cassette, and the sound of the moment was Cap Kennedy’s Red Planet Potato Farm, not his favourite, but okay to have on in the background.
The galley was a snug space, decorated mostly in warm orange and yellow besides the clean, polished metal. As he stepped inside, Alexei thought he might have to do décor somewhat like it when he had his own vessel again, in his own favoured colours.
“Hey Phil,” he greeted the aproned man working at the counter.
“Hey Alexei,” the other replied cheerfully. Philip Asiimwe had been flying with Arcus for very near as long as Alexei had known her, and could turn his hand to most every task aboard, from the care and feeding of the Hawkins’ powerplant to the preparation of remarkably good meals from the ship’s provisions. “Coffee’s hot if you want some.”
“So, how are you going man?” he asked as Alexei helped himself to coffee and powdered milk.
“Better for being out here with you folk, and working,” Alexei told him, leaning back against the counter out of Philip’s way. “Keeps me from stewing over things so much, y’know.”
“I hear you. A thing like that eats at a man if he lets it.”
“Yeah, doesn’t it just,” Alexei agreed. He stayed there, drinking his coffee, keeping Philip company, and lending a hand here and there until Arcus came down from the cockpit.
“All done?” she enquired of Alexei.
“Yep. Everything’s shipshape below, Captain.”
“Excellent. Hey, I’m going for a nap. I’ve given Meg the helm, but she asked if you could back her up, supervise like.”
“Yeah, no problem,” Alexei pushed off from the bench he’d been leaning on.
“Thank you,” Arcus smiled and departed for her cabin. Alexei thanked Philip for the coffee and conversation and headed for the cockpit. Meg Langdon, Arcus’ protege, was a good kid with the makings of a fine pilot, and he was quite happy to help her along that journey.
Floorboards creaked as Alexei strode along the upstairs passage of the boarding house near Wintergreen’s main spaceport. Their business on world was going to take a while longer than originally anticipated – there was apparently some holdup with part of their contracted cargo. Arcus had decided to sleep out of ship and so had shouted everyone rooms for the few nights they would be there.
“We could all use the space and the change of scene, I’m sure,” she’d said, and Alexei was not about to argue. The berths aboard the Hawkins were more comfortable than some he’d occupied over his years in space, but were still not the roomiest of accommodations.
The room he was sharing with Philip was near the end of the hall; Alexei opened the door and was about to step inside but halted at what he saw and heard.
Philip was sitting across his bunk with his back against the wall, praying the Our Father. Alexei stood silent in the doorway, not wanting to disturb his friend.
“...and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us…” Philip said, words that Alexei had heard a thousand times, and said more than once himself, but which just this time gave him an odd feeling.
Philip finished praying with a quiet but definite ‘amen’. Alexei cleared his throat and stepped inside. They traded greetings and small talk about the day while Alexei collected his towel and a fresh set of clothing, and arranged to go for dinner once he got back from taking a shower, which promised to be a rather luxuriant one compared with what was available aboard ship.
“The perks of being planetside,” Alexei thought, smiling, as he left their room once more.
From Wintergreen they took ship for Mortain with a mixed cargo and a passenger, a young scholar on their way to visit a religious house on the latter planet. Another hold full of produce took them from Mortain to bustling Wilder City on Independence. They flew agricultural equipment to New Cyrenaica, a shipment of textiles to Obokan, building materials to a new settlement on Zapata, and resupplied a scientific research base on lonely Vostok 5. The Hawkins’ crew throve on the steady work and enjoyed their visits to the various ports, settlements, and worlds. Alexei found his own optimism and good cheer returning. He could not, however, get the words Philip had prayed out of his head. He’d always been taught to forgive others, and thought of himself as someone who did so pretty easily and didn’t hold grudges, and yet…
“Does that mean I have to forgive Gershow?” he wondered once in the quiet of a lone night watch at the helm. “I don’t think there’s much doubt that he ‘trespassed’ against me. It’s a milder word than I might use for what he did, to be sure, but it covers it.”
“He doesn’t deserve it, that’s another thing for darned sure,” he thought a little later, settling back again after confirming their course on the nav-computer, “If I know Gershow, and I do, well enough, then he’s not losing sleep over it or feeling any pangs of conscience. No. Far as he’s concerned, this universe is split between winners and losers; and he’s the former and Alexei Mondragon Sokolov is the latter,” he scowled.
He sat there silent for quite some time, gazing out at the silver spangling of the starfield against the black in a reverie broken only by occasional glances at the Hawkins’ sensor readouts, which showed green across the board.
“And yet. Gershow mightn’t care about right and wrong but I do. And what’s right about holding it against him as long as I live? It won’t change anything, make him say sorry. Heck, it won’t even make me feel any better, ‘cause it hasn’t up to now. Maybe… Maybe the best thing is to forgive him. I’m moving on already, and it’s not like it’d cost me anything. Wouldn’t that make me the better man?”
“I need to talk to Phil about this,” he said aloud.
When Arcus came and relieved him at the end of his watch, Alexei went straight way down to the galley and found Philip. Thankfully Meg was not up and about yet; he wanted to have this conversation as soon as he could, and without anyone else present.
“You look like you’ve something big on your mind,” Philip told him after a brief good morning.
“I have,” Alexei admitted, “And I wanna talk to you about it, if I may.”
“Fire away,” Philip said as he settled back in his seat, sipping his coffee.
“I got to thinking earlier,” Alexei began, deciding to launch straight into it, “about how me holding a grudge is never going to do me any good, or anyone else for that matter. And I know it’s not right to. Which is to say, I think I want to forgive Gershow and I thought you could advise me about it.”
“Well, if you want to, it’s simple enough. Just say it, and mean it, and then act like you meant it. If you want a witness, I’ll volunteer. Maybe it’d seem more real. Up to you.”
“I’d like that,” Alexei nodded. He clenched a fist, held it just above the tabletop, and then brought it down on the surface, gently but with all the solemnity of a magistrate’s gavel.
“I forgive Mark Gershow,” he said, “I forgive him for stealing from me and benefiting while I suffered from the loss he caused. I forgive him everything,” and then he added, feeling it the right thing to do, “may God have mercy on his soul.” He flicked open his hand, as though the grudge were a tangible thing he could let go thus.
“You did well, my friend,” Philip said, reaching over to clap a firm hand on his shoulder.
“Thanks. You know, it was you helped me get to this point.” Alexei went on and told him about the incident with the prayer and how it had affected him. Philip grinned from ear to ear.
“Oh Alex, the encouragement it is to hear you say that, you’ve no idea brother!”
“You’re welcome. Hey, would you say a prayer for me, man? So that I can stick at it and not fall back?”
“Every day,” Philip promised.
Alexei sighed and smiled. It felt good to have done it, like he’d dropped some hefty weight he’d been carrying around, and better still it felt right.
Weeks passed, and months, and at length the crew of the Hawkins paid a visit to Galata Station, the great man-made hub that anchored the routes to planets all across the Doria Sector. There Arcus called a halt.
“I think we’ve all earned a couple of days R and R,” she declared to her assembled crew, “And I want to see over Galata; I’ve heard about it, but never got the chance to visit. Until now. So, go and have fun but be wise.”
“Yeah!” an excited Meg exclaimed, “I wanna try Revelli’s gelato. It’s the best in the sector, they say.”
Alexei smiled, his young friend’s enthusiasm was both delightful and infectious. He had been to Galata once or twice, but never for longer than it took to refuel or offload cargo, and like Arcus he was interested to see more of it.
With the Hawkins safely docked in one of Galata’s hangers, they gathered up what they needed and prepared to leave the ship.
As they started down thegangway, Alexei’s eye was caught by the vessel berthed just beside their own. A somehow familiar hauler of about the Hawkins’ tonnage, with a series of winged figures painted in black and white across the grey hull.
“What ship’s that?” he wondered aloud.
“That’s the Six for Gold,” Arcus told him, following his gaze, then she gasped in sudden realisation, “Wait, isn’t that Gershow’s ship?!” Of course it was.
“Gershow’s here?” Alexei sprang off the ramp and set off across the hanger bay at a brisk clip.
“Wait, Alexei! Don’t do anything you’ll regret!” Arcus called, pleading, from behind him.
“Don’t worry A.,” he heard Philip say, “I think everything’s going to be alright.
Alexei found Mark Gershow sitting alone in an eatery booth three levels up from the hanger.
“I want a word,” Alexei said, sliding into the seat across from him. Gershow froze, wide-eyed, a forkful of noodles hovering above his plate. “And it’s just a word so don’t sweat it. Keep eating. I’m sure it’s good or you wouldn’t’ve come in here.”
Warily, Gershow resumed his meal, never taking his eyes off the man opposite him.
“Right. This’ll just take a minute and then I’ll be out your hair. Here’re the facts: you stole what was mine by rights, you flogged the salvage from the Campbelltown Loch.” He tapped the table with a finger at each statement. “You did me a bad turn and you knew it. And times have been since when such an anger was on me I’d’ve laced you full of lead soon as look at you.”
Gershow swallowed, taking more effort than he should’ve. His face had lost a lot of its colour and he sat stiff and tense as a steel spring.
“But I’m not going to. Not now. Not ever. You wronged me, Mark,” Alexei repeated, “but I don’t have to do the same back. Me keeping a grudge isn’t going fix anything. So I’m forgiving you and moving on, got it?” He held out his hand.
“Yeah,” Gershow spoke softly as he reached out and shook it.
Alexei slapped his palms on the tabletop and stood up. “Good. So don’t go looking over your shoulder because I won’t be there. Enjoy your dinner,” he finished with a smile, then turned and strode out onto the station concourse. There he stopped and took a deep breath of the station’s recycled air, redolent of metal, and chemicals, and food aromas and humanity. There, that was it done and completely so, and he felt the lighter for it. Now, time to find his friends and enjoy some downtime. Gelato sampling with Meg seemed like a fine idea to start with.
