Chapter 1 Introductions,
“Do you hear that?” Silence spreads around the table all straining to hear. Monitors beeped, motors whirred, and the damn drip machine kept on dripping. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Shut it, I can almost hear what it says.” I silenced Cath trying to listen for the strange voice again. After another few seconds of silence, I gave up. “Must have been my imagination." I took my straw and sipped the whiskey from where it was floating.
“Who is going to help the therapist if he goes crazy?” Cath asked with a crooked eyebrow while looking at Micheal. It doesn't seem he cared, but that was Micheal for you, He could not care if his wife dies. "Once I get Micheal to talk more, I might not slay you with your daily jabbering." I shot back with flick of my spoon. The Peanut Butter projectile detached and gently floated into Cath's open mouth.
"Slay me like a knight? last time I checked the sword you have is a plastic butterknife. And your catapult did less than nothing for the beast." Chewing PeanutButter was more arduous in space than on planet. She would suffer the sore jaw of justice soon.
"And that would be all I need to slay you wench!" I took spoonful of PeanutButter for myself and enjoyed the slow process of enjoyment.
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With a click behind me the cave lights up with a clean white glow. “Ah, nice. That is a good solid light, no flickering at all.” Martin was a connoisseur in light sculpting. He made his fair share of art instillations and home lighting for the king himself. Of course, he preferred the slight tinge of yellow to warm the place up. The sterile white did well make it feel clean at least.
Once his eyes adjusted, he saw the cave in perfect clarity, and a cave it was not. Instead, to his surprise, it was a clean white corridor with square shapes drawn like they were on a grid. On the end of the corridors were circular blacked out windows, and not a door in sight.
"Someone likes basic shapes." He said absently, about a moment after he then realised, he was floating. "And they don't like walking either it seems." He quickly fixed the little issue by pulling his feet to a surface with telekinesis.
"There we go. Now for the ancient tradition of getting someone's attention." He walked up to the window and started slamming it with his hand. "EXCUSE ME. CAN SOMEONE SHOW ME WHERE THE DOOR OR DOOR KNOCKER IS!"
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My heart stopped as soon as I heard the banging, my arm frozen with my plastic knife pointed at Cath. "Am I actually going crazy?" I was starting to get scared that I might be losing my mind. But it seems that they were frozen in fear as well. Then I heard the voice again, but there was no mistaking it this time. "Cath did you smuggle your boyfriend on board? Because you know that is illegal and we don't have food for him." I sheathed my plastic sword and Velcro strapped it to the table.
"Fuck you, I gave that life away when I signed up for this." She bit back angrily and threw her napkin at me. Granted I could have caught the slow-moving thing with ease, but it was so much more fun to just overdramatically dodge it.
Micheal the only person on board that might have been normal spoke up. "Not to interrupt the banter, but shouldn't you guys investigate?" He kept enjoying his yogurt bag with spite I imagine. Micheal was a difficult man to read.
"Micheal is right, Cath go investigate." She could roll her eyes at me, but I knew she knew I knew she was a muscle freak. "You can have my sword if you need help." I added offering the plastic butterknife to her. She barely looked at me she kicked off into the direction of the banging.
"God, It's like I'm the only man here."
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"Maybe it's the window to outside?" Martin liked to think aloud, it helped his process and always gave others opportunities to voice their thoughts.
He has contemplated breaking it, but that would just be needless destruction. And that never helps anyone.
A voice spoke from behind Martin with a slight domineering assertive tone. “Excuse me.” It was not a question that was for sure.
Turning to the sound ever so casually. He smiled at me and Cath. He was somehow walking on the side of the module without a care in the world. The casual wave was an assurance that he at least seemed at ease.
When none of us responded he bowed and dipped of his head trying to look as sincere as possible. "I'm utterly lost, could you point me to the exit my lady." And it seems I am not the only one lost.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Cath slammed the hatch closed and the man disappeared behind the thick tinted windows.
“Now that wasn’t very nice.”
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The issue with having fourth person on board a three-person vessel was that we couldn’t support the extra. So, we had a slight issue with mystery man. The other issue was that we had the mystery man, and no clue how we had him. I feel like as a psychologist I just must add the question of why we had him. Of course, after some consensus we didn’t think my question needed to be answered this second.
“The real question is if we need to feed this person or not, because I'm not giving up my bacon.” Micheal was not always the sharing type. Seeing back on my notes from before I see he is just a man that loves food.
“We are going to have to think of something. two months at most is what we have.” The timeframe was small, but we do have the option to abandon the mission. No one will be starving.
“Maybe we just send him on a spacewalk, or a space-push.” Cath said making a pushing gesture with her hands. “Definitely not.” I cut off before there was any other notions of murder. “If we killed him, we haven’t solved the issue of how he is here. We need to talk to him. Eventually.” I looked at Cath again she looked over to Micheal. Then he had the audacity to look at me. “You are the local psychologist.”
“But Cath is the local bro. Maybe she can talk to him.” That definitely deserved the napkin smack to the face. It was worth it. “Right, I’ll go talk to him.”
I kicked off into the. Direction of the storage module. We haven’t moved far but the weight of expectations and dread made the trip a little less prompt than it could have been. I’m sure the man could wait a bit longer.
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Martin
After a nice long nap and some refreshing stretches, I attached myself again to a surface, and checked my pocket watch. "A perfect two-minute power nap, feels like I could lift a boulder." And maybe I could in this floaty place, you never know.
Then making sure I had everything I walked over to the window again and gently knocked. I did not have to wait long as the thing hissed and opened to the outside, inside I mean. "Hello there, I hope that is your happy wand and not your angry one." I said looking at the metal tube like object in the woman’s hand. A wand that seems to have a telescope lens on the front, very unusual.
"Who are you?" the bald man asked. He was in floating Infront of his companion. “Martin, at your service.” I say with another bow. “And who might you be good sir, and mam.” I questioned them both. It seemed that if the woman failed it was the man's turn to engage in discussion. The bald one introduced himself as Josh, the lady as Catherine.
"And how did you arrive here Martin?" He asked with a raised eyebrow and helped the woman lower her stiff arm with the lens wand.
"Good question, I signed a summons contract and got whisked away. first time in the business, I hope I'm doing well so far." I said and took a step back. "Come into my office and we can discuss your problem." I said inviting them into the place of my most recent home.
I thought I made a good impression, but the lady just grabbed the window and closed it again. "Dangit, I thought I had it that time."
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Josh's POV
"Cath, why did you do that? He invited us into his office." I said and reached for the hatch handle. I was immediately smacked away by Cath. Micheal finally joined us as I'm sure was sick of waiting in the lounge area "We have an unknown man in our shuttle Josh, this isn't the time for jokes."
"On the contrary I think it's the perfect time, he is clearly not hostile. And I'm sure I don't want to make him hostile." I turned to Micheal for backup and received a shrug.
"I don't agree with you this time man. There is only one way to get into our shuttle the friendly way, the others option aren't really that friendly."
"Right, and the only way to know if he is unfriendly is if we talk or if he shoots us. And you guys know I love to talk." I say with a wink and open the hatch again. "Hey Martin. Me and the lads are going for a drink. Do you want to join?" I ask trying to mimic the man's sense of humour. "Maybe we can have a chat and catch up?" And like always my charm never seems to fail.
"Of course, josh, I would be delighted." He said with a smile. Now I was sure I must have been seeing an hallucination previously, but he was walking in zero gravity. I do not know how, but he did.
"Right this way." I said and led him and my friends to the dinner table we shared. "I can't help but notice you are walking there." My small talk blunt as it should be in unknown situations, it was a strange situation. I feel like acting strange was the least of my worries at the moment.
"A simple application of telekinesis, and a lifelong lesson of falling on my bum as a child." He said and combed his floating hair back. "I must say, it's a little better than floating all the time."
"Of course, floating isn't that hard in a zero-gravity environment, but it can be annoying sometimes. But it is certainly infinitely easier than telekinesis." Cath had decided to film our interaction just in case our mystery man was an alien. She was trying to enjoy it, I hope. the frown made it hard to hope for that. Hopefully, our step into the unknown can save the future generation.
"Anything is infinitely harder if you don't try it." He shot back with a sagely grin. He might have earned it if walking in space was his past time. But it was not since this ship had no artificial gravity. "Well, you'll have to teach me how some day.” And here we are." I said and took out two bags of apple juice and handed him one. "For special occasions, and for meeting new friends that show up out of nowhere." I raised my bag of juice and took a sip. "So, tell us a bit about yourself Martin." I motioned to him with the juice and showed him that the straw sticks into the hole at the top.
Martin mimicked me making short work of the juice box. "There isn't much to say, lived as a peasant. got an apprenticeship with our local wizard luckily. War throws everything out of whack like usual, and after a few hundred years; you just want to try new things. A god gave me this sweet undeniable deal and I just took it. Now I'm here." He explained and took a sip of, apple juice? yea, that's apple juice. Pulled himself to the wall and leaned against it.
"What about you guys? You don't seem like the adventurous type." He asked with a quirked eyebrow. When none of us answered his head slumped and he drank the last of his juice "Am I doing this wrong?" He asks looking to each of us for an answer.
"Sorry, just another quick question. Did you mean wizard literally or jokingly?" I asked pleadingly and a little excitedly.
"Literally. is that a problem?"
"Fuck, I hope boss didn't kidnap a utopian." Cath said taking a bag from a compartment with her name on it and taking a big gulp from the contents. "We don't even have the food to feed the fucking bastard."
"Oi! My father loved me, even if I was a bastard child!"