Crossroads
27 Mar 2021Prochaska
The note in the cabin was hastily written and brief: trace of Josh found. No time for goodbyes. I am infinitely sorry! I'll be in touch as soon as I can". And Julie was gone.No answers to phone calls. She transferred the rest of her salary and left a text message, "All the best in your search! Miss you, please get in touch as soon as you can.
Zoe leaned against the ship's wall, her gaze focused on infinity. She remembered how they had met. Julie had left the last ship she had worked on, in the Omega Sector on the Omega Mining Operation base in June 3304. There were a lot of pirates hanging around the system at the moment, and she thought it would be a good opportunity to do some research on her kidnapped son. By the end of August, she was starting to run out of money, so she was looking for employment again. Zoraya was just passing through on her tour to Sagittarius A* and was looking for someone to be a copilot for the tour. So on 8/28/3304, she hired Julie.
The two quickly discovered that there were many similarities in their biographies that bonded them together. Both had lost important people; both had chaotic relationships behind them. They both knew from the past the feeling of being dead when there wasn't constant action around them, their world not threatening to collapse at any moment. Julie always said Joshua was the only positive thing that had come out of their old mess. What made them different was that Julie had become very strict through her experiences and tried to escape the chaos through self-discipline, Zoe on the other hand needed a great deal of independence and always felt trapped if she didn't see an escape route at any time.
A few years later, on the Distant Worlds 2, they flew together again, they were just back in Colonia, and Zoe, looking for traces of her missing parents, found the wreckage of Commander Hyford. They sat together in the cabin, Julie wearing her medium-length blonde hair tied tightly into a ponytail as usual. Julie's eyes were clear, and seemed to look slightly annoyed at Zoe: "You have to put the past behind you. You're getting in your own way with your search." Zoe replied, "You're one to talk. As if you could just give up on Joshua!" - "Joshua is probably still alive, that's an important distinction. How long have your parents been gone now? 15 years, 16? You're not going to find anyone out there saying 'hey honey, sorry, we forgot to call you'. The most you're going to find is cold skeletons in a wreck who aren't going to help you either." Julie's tone resonated anger at Zoe's lack of compliance. Zoe knew Julie was right, of course. And both women knew that Zoe would not give up her quest.
And now the sudden goodbye. "I'm going to miss you," Zoe thought, then cleaned up the bunk.