Messages
29 Dec 2017Kodeyne
From: Alison Keenan (akfortyseven@galmail.fed)To: Ophelia Myshkin (phillymish666@galmail.ind)
Hey Ophelia,
I hope you get this message. I hope you’re still alive. I hope you are bouncing around the stars with a smile on your face.
Girl, it’s been months since we parted company and I think about you a lot. Got a pic of you on my desk at home. Please please reply asap because I need something to make me smile.
Oh, I can’t complain – far from it. I’ve got a job, admin in a corporation (but can’t even say who! They watch your email like a hawk) and would you believe it – within a few months, a transfer to Olympus Village on Mars! Woohoo! It’s amazing here, bright and clean and safe.
The pay is good. But the living costs are insane. I wouldn’t say I’m living in poverty but maybe only a few steps ahead of that. Got a little apartment on the edge of town, fifty floors up (eek! Never did like heights!). So my social life is limited, to say the least. Not that I feel like socialising – here in the heart of the Federation, ninety percent of the people are so far up their own arses! Not what a girl from a relative backwater system needs…
So by extension, no relationship either. Ha! I’ve had plenty of offers, even a few dates but feel so out of my depth. So I mainly stay in. Watch crap on the telly. Sometimes, I go out and just walk and walk until I am exhausted. Come home and curl up in bed with just another day to look forward to.
I really hope you are still alive. I know the pilot life is dangerous as hell. Know I couldn’t do it.
Hear from you soon.
Loads of love and hugs
Ali
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From: Ophelia Myshkin (phillymish666@galmail.ind)
To: Alison Keenan (akfortyseven@galmail.fed)
Ali!
Sooooo good to hear from you! Yes, still alive. And thank you again for the little cat-stone; it never leaves my side and gives me a lift when I’m down.
And I’m down a lot. You know I was diagnosed with depression a long time ago, and guess I knew it before that. You never met my foster mother, Mrs Myshkin. She was strange, loving but strict. Sometimes I hated her. But when I was fourteen, we sat down on the sofa with hot chocolate laced with whisky (mmmm) and told me that she suffered with it too, had seen the signs in me and wanted to know she understood. She’d never had children – after three miscarriages, she gave up. But after that we were close as anything, and when she fell ill and I was taken away, I cried so much. After that, always sent her a message on her birthday. Eventually, we lost touch; I think she probably passed away or got dementia. But she named me….Ophelia Persephone Myshkin. O.P.M. Hence my pilot’s handle, Kodeyne. My secret identity.
Like you, I can’t complain….I’ve survived! And rolling in it, relatively speaking. I’m a millionaire. Hahaha. But when your home is a starship, it doesn’t feel like it. I’m so lonely out here! You give your ship an name and yes, I talk to it (her!) . Currently flying a Lakon Asp Explorer, call her Devil’s Daydream.
Girl, I’ve seen and done so much, I wish you could see it too. Been down to Pleiades and flown past a black hole (stop giggling!). Not seen any Thargoids….phew! Cruised past white dwarfs and brown dwarfs and gas giants and it’s all so beautiful.
Had some….interesting times. You know what an introvert I always was. Would rather hide indoors with a book rather than go out. Well, I ended up docked at Obsidian Orbital (Maia) over Christmas. It’s run by a gang called the Ant Hill Mob. And don’t ask how, ended up at one of their parties.
Oh Ali. What have I become? I can’t remember what I drank, what dope I took or anything else. Woke up in bed with another woman. Got the hell out of there and don’t plan to go back.
So feeling fragile at the moment. Just meandering about the bubble, without any real purpose. Trying not to hate myself, and not really succeeding.
Wish I could come and see you – but it will take me a while to get access to Sol. When I do, will let you know!
Miss you lots. Love and hugs to you too.
Ophelia