HUMBLE SPACER 19 JAN 3307 (outcast)
21 Jan 2021Igli
I'm on the run. Every now and again I look over my shoulder fearing a shot in the back. I never stay long in one place or allow myself more than a day's rest. I don't sleep well any more. I'm on the edge, exhausted and almost desperate. Sometimes I think of giving up. Maybe it's better to let my guard down and accept the fate whatever it might be. All because of a careless word that has slipped my tongue a while ago and an unfortunate misunderstanding.Once I was trying to get sober and thus was sampling only light alcohol in a common-place bar in an average emperial system. I noticed another tired spacer diligently pouring drinks into himself and decided that together we could enhance our therapy session and offered him to join forces. We talked. Two seasoned spacers could discuss many things but usually it was either girls or spaceships. We had better talked about the latter ...
- You see that lady over there? - my drinking buddy asked.
- Mmm ... I can't see any ladies, only males here.
- Is something wrong with your sight? Oh, aint' she sweet, man? (cheers)
- I'm not at liberty to discuss sensitive matters. I'm bound by a code of eros ... (hic) ... I mean ethos - indeed I'm prohibited to ejaculate ... articulate ... my private opinion.
- Man, you talk sophisticately. I'm having a hard time to decode your messages sometimes. So, why the tight-lipped precaution?
- I work for someone powerful. (cheers)
- I'm intrigued. Whosezzat?
- Can't tell ye. Big secret. An emperial royal, prrincesss Aisling Duval, if you insist. (hic)
- Ah, now I understand where you've learned to weave words around a topic. (cheers)
- I've always been mouthful ... err ... masterful of speech patterns.
- No wonder that her minions must keep their mouths shut.
- I don't get. (cheers)
- She's all lies and propaganda. Don't mean disrespect, though.
- I overtly embrace an objection in favour of your judgement, but if you put it like that, I cannot but disagree, because you are positively wrong. (hic)
- Aisling Duval is mighty handsome. Magnificent. Beautiful women like that always bring misery to man.
- Yes, aint' this not a bit untrue to a highest degree. (cheers)
- Pretty girls always let down a fella. (my buddy started to weep)
- Duval?
- My darling princess ... (weeping)
- Tell me, man, you can tell me everything... (hic)
- I trusted her ... light of my life ... (weeping)
- Aisling?
- ... charming and cheating and lying ... (weeping)
- A lying beauty? Who? Aisling Duval? I hereby announce your statement and publicly denounce it ... or vice-versa ... (cheers)
- ... her every word ... and a distracted smile ... (weeping)
- Honorable, fair and just - her majesty is indeed ...
- ... misleading ... cruel ... (weeping)
- ... an unsurpassed master of mass media operations and of intricate social illusions - that's what the brilliant ...
- A heartless SNAKE!!
- ... Aisling Duval is! - I exclaimed somberly and loudly.
"I'VE HEARD ENOUGH!" - intervened an athletically built man dressed in a new and fashionable imperial jacket. He was sitting at the next table and obviously listening attentively all the time. "Your ID! Give it to me at once!" - he ordered standing menacingly above me. In astonishment I looked at my drinking buddy for help, but he put his head on the table and was shuddering with tears. The emperial jacket grabbed me by the collar and pulled my documents from the inner pocket of my robe. "Hereby I revoke your royal patent and announce you an enemy of state," - he barked into my ear - "You are to turn yourself in at the royal court of honor at Cubeo after wich you will be executed and your body will be thrown into space because trash like you don't deserve to be properly interred".
The last thing I remembered was a raised fist. And then crimson darkness came.