Not only is it very cold in space, it's as silent as a tomb...for some, it is their tomb.
Marston Maxers slumped in his captain’s chair, an elbow on the armrest propping up a fist that dug into his cheek, the soothing beep, beep, beep of the bridge’s instruments lulling him to sleep.
The beeping stopped, rousing him. Looking around, he raised a brow toward the slender woman monitoring the now mostly-dark instrument panel. She turned to face him, running her hands over the top of her head and through her long black hair, palms continuing back until her fingers clasped together behind her neck. As she moved, her tight charcoal jump suit clothing a slender frame rustled, the noise loud in the quiet of the bridge that would soon be as quiet as the space outside the ship’s hull.
“Well, Raven,” said Maxers, his voice devoid of hope, “tell me something.”
She squeezed her elbows together, eying Maxers over the top of them, muttering through them.
“Loss of signal, sir.”
“And?” He didn’t have to ask. He knew the answer. Like every other boy of his generation, Maxers had dreamed of escaping Earth’s atmosphere to explore the galaxy and expand the known universe. He’d achieved it, acquiring captaincy of a small dilapidated inter-planetary space cruiser. A wanted man on every Earth continent, including Antarctica, Maxers had fled Terra Firma for the freedom of space, an expanse out of Earth’s jurisdiction.
Except now, he couldn’t escape space, soon to be entombed by it. He preferred this fate to spending the remainder of his life behind bars in a prison on the cold lunar surface. Although, with the enemies he had throughout the galaxy, he wouldn’t live long there either.
A different law ruled the godless heavens: lawlessness. Lawlessness ruled. Ironic. As with any other power vacuum, man filled the emptiness of space with his own law. No constitution existed to delineate this code of conduct. All the scoundrels, pirates and criminals fleeing prison Earthside for the unpoliced solace of space knew the simple code. The strong preyed on the weak. Maxers had taken full advantage of this during his tenure as captain, granting him legendary status to some, arch-enemy status to others. But no allies, only those waiting for him to show weakness or become wounded. Then, like sharks smelling blood in the water, they would surround and devour him. Right now, he’d welcome the sharks. Perhaps strike a deal with them. Not only was Maxers’s ship dead in the water, they drifted alone.
Grabbing a large bundle of her untethered hair, Raven piled it atop her head and leaned back in her chair to stare at the ceiling. In all the years he’d wheeled through space with her, Maxers had never seen a clasp in Raven’s hair nor a single strand out of place. He didn’t need to consult any instrument panels. The fact that she’d let her hair down told him how dire and hopeless a situation they faced.
He ran a hand over his own scalp, his hair longer than normal. Most of the time he kept it cropped short to hide the gray in it, trying to look youthful and strong to a crew full of scoundrels like himself who wouldn’t need much of a push to become mutinous.
Again knowing the answer, he asked a question, if for no other reason than to fill the void. “Any solutions?”
She puffed out her cheeks and blew out a long dose of the ever-increasing poison that would eventually kill the entire crew.
“Even if we were somehow able to fix the boosters – which we can’t – without power for the computers and navigation, and now the loss of signal from home, we’d have a better chance of finding God and heaven then of finding Earth.”
Maxers slunk lower in the chair he no longer relished sitting in. “Then God and heaven it is.”
“My money’s on that we’ll find hell first.”
Maxers chuckled. “Raven, I didn’t know you were a gambler.”
Raven glared at him, her expression dark, fierce. “I didn’t think you were either.
“I’m not. Whenever I play, I stack the deck.”
“What happened this time then?”
“Trestor was a better cheat than I was.”
Livid about losing his space companion Anna to Maxers in a clean-fixed game of poker, Trestor had blasted a hole through Maxers’s hull, somehow bribing a member of Maxers’s crew to accomplish the deed. Trestor then double-crossed the traitor, abandoning him, leaving him at the mercy of his captain. Captain Maxers had no mercy, spacing the treacherous wretch within minutes.
Trestor had rocketed away without dealing a knock-out blow, knowing the standing-eight count would suffice. The blast sent Maxers’s ship careening out of control away from Earth, away from any colony on the nearby planets, away from salvation. By the time Maxers’s crew had sealed the hull’s wound, a year’s worth of supplies and air had escaped into the void outside, leaving only a month’s worth of oxygen. That was three weeks and six days ago.
“You got cocky. That’s all,” said Raven.
Maxers avoided her judgmental green eyes, nodding slowly. She was right. There was no point in arguing. Or apologizing.
Even though their ship kept a constant point-five G, Maxers struggled to find the strength to stand. “I’ll inform the rest of the crew after me and Anna…”
“Was she worth it, Marston?”
Maxers smiled thinly. “No woman is ever free, and none is ever worth the price you pay.”
Raven let her hair fall, using her fingers to comb through it before gathering it in a bunch, pulling it over her shoulder.
“That’s dumb. But greater still is the price you pay for remaining free.”
Maxers chuckled. “What the hell does that mean?”
He knew exactly what it meant. Instead of sidling up to some foolish dolt with loads of cash, like so many girls did who were only half as gorgeous as Raven, she chose to distance herself from men entirely. No matter what career she chose, men pursued her aggressively, and their wives and girlfriends hated her for it. She fled to space, adopting an overly abrasive attitude that only Maxers saw through.
Perhaps fleeing wasn’t the best word to describe how Raven made it into space. A man promising to show her the galaxy conned her into an extraterrestrial career. She found out the hard way how lawless men treat women not under the protection of one. The strong preyed on the weak. However, she also showed those men how not-weak she was. When Maxers acquired her, the other captain seemed quite ready to be rid of her, happy to get something for her in the trade.
Maxers was no knight in shining armor, his intentions in purchasing her less than honorable. But the very minute she stepped on board his ship, she popped Maxers in the nose, promising to bite the face off any man who came near her. A former military man, Maxers was unlike his crew who’d never held an honest job anywhere. He exiled himself in space for crimes against an oppressive Earth government. Though a criminal like his crew, his crimes had been much different, making him one of those good criminals. At least, that’s what Maxers believed.
Instead of allowing her to be locked away or protected from his crew, he gave her a job. Within weeks he wished he’d a crew full of Ravens. Smarter than the rest of the cretins and brainless oafs running his ship, it didn’t take her long to learn how everything onboard worked, knowing more about its operations than Maxers himself. She soon oversaw the day to day operations, second in command to him. He expected greater resistance from his crew, thinking their mindset that of the early nineteen century. Though fierce and firm, she led them fairly, never showing any fear. They didn’t know how to deal with a woman unafraid of them. So they obeyed. The crew loved her. Dearly. Caring for her more than Maxers. Fearing her more than him. He loved that but kept it to himself.
Though it took the men time, Maxers loved Raven from the start. She yearned for someone to hold her but never possess her. He longed to tell her that he could be the one to love her and not own her. That would be a lie. He didn’t know a man alive who could ever be strong enough to hold but not have a woman.
“It means nothing, captain,” said Raven. “It’s just…a loss of signal.”
He wanted to tell her that he read her loud and clear. He couldn’t. He wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was out of love or maybe he was just afraid of being rejected, even if they were hours from suffocating, sharing the same fate as the traitor. The price Raven paid for independence was loneliness. Most times she handled it well. No one wants to be alone when they die, though.
The price he paid for staying clear of her was another round of loveless love-making with Anna while Trestor and his triumph danced in his head.
“I’m sorry, Raven,” said Maxers.
“What?” she said. “What the heck is an apology worth now? Just go enjoy your spoils.”
“Ok. Fine. Was Anna worth it? No. Hell no. If I had to do it again, would I? Hell yes. Would I do things differently? For damn sure. I’d win this time.”
“Why? What’s so special about Anna?”
“Nothing. It’s what’s special about you, Raven. I’d risk everything again a thousand times over in the off chance I’d acquire one more of you.”
She studied him a moment, as if one of the ship’s instruments, scanning his words for truth.
She smirked. “You are full of…you know…”
“Shit? You can’t say it, even though we’re perhaps minutes from death?”
“I’m not going to risk eternal damnation for a moment’s indiscretion.”
“That’s only because you’ve never experienced the exhilaration of a moment’s indiscretion. It could be worth it.”
She shook her head. “I’ll take my chances.”
Without any more words between them, he gave Raven one last look, taking in her long black tresses and lithe form before walking away, hoping to keep her image in his mind for just a few more minutes.
"My money's on that we'll find hell first" eh. Scripture does refer to it as the 'outer darkness's', (always found that description haunting) and I'm sure that it's far removed from the 'Third Heaven.' The imagery in this piece plays well. Enjoyed. Also... congrats on your Halloween entry win. Your story was great. rlc
A nice little drama between hardened souls that just happens to be on a spacecraft going nowhere.
As a "hard" science fiction writer, I found your playing fast and loose with things like gravity, lawlessness and comparing the galaxy with the solar system as the same thing a bit annoying. But the drama was good like so many fantasy based sci-fi stuff.
Pieces of Eight, Part III is a collection of eight novellas to complement the eight in Pieces of Eight, Pieces of Eight, Part II and Pieces of Eight, Part IV.
Marston Maxers slumped in his captain’s chair, an elbow on the armrest propping up a fist that dug into his cheek, the soothing beep, beep, beep of the bridge’s instruments lulling him to sleep.
