One for the road
18 Oct 2022Sagacious Panda
While sipping from his drink Pan leaned to the kitchen unit and eyed Randt“So, tell me more about that girl who defected Feds”
“She has a name you know”
“Can’t remember, it seems your cheap whiskey is blocking my mind”
ICE broke in without being asked “Norah Martten, 29, Born in Federation space, daughter of….”
“Even ICE knows her name Pan, come on boss”
Slurping the now empty glass Pan “ICE knows everyone Ran” and added “I know Miss Martten too, just making sure you do”
“No man, this is different. Well, what do you want to know?”
“Bella, for starters. How did she take it?”
This made Randt think more than a couple of seconds, which is a rare thing.
“Bell, likes her. I mean… We are good Pan”
“I don’t want to be invasive Ran, it’s your lives after all. And I was out for a long time, not there when you guys needed me….”
“Boss, Pan, you are always there for us. And to tell the truth….” Ran started when Pan poured another two.
“What?” Pan asked sharply holding the bottle
“It was nice to have break from your brooding…”
“Ah, fuck you Ran” Pan slammed the bottle down and offered Ran his drink
They both chuckled until the unit’s door rang, it was Bella
“What was so funny guys, I could hear both of you down the hall”
“We were discussing how many Ex’s you have Bell” Ran said with a wide grin.
Bell took it and “Well I don’t have any…. because I know how to keep a distant friendly relationship alive even from 300 light years away” while talking she grabbed the drink from Randt’s hand and drunk some.
“Eww, cheap Ran, too cheap” added with a smile.
A couple hours and bottles later
Bella spoke with her playful but serious tone
“So Pan, what are we celebrating here really?”
Pan had this conversation in his mind so many times, with so many versions. He had hoped to be a little more drunk when he was having it.
“Guys, I…. eh…” when Pan gathered his thoughts and formulated in the best possible sentence the silence broke with the sound of ICE
“Pan, forwarding Huey’s message from station control: Pan, LLV Manhattan, your ASP Explorer is docked at Landing Pad 11. If you will not visit me before you head to Hawking’s Gap, I’ll put a bounty on you. End of message”
“Hawkings’s fucking Gap????” Randt was a little loud than usual.
“I knew it Boss, I knew it” Bella said with crossed arms. “And Manhattan? You are going alone Pan?”
Randt was just noticing this fact, turned his eyes angrily to Pan “Boss, you are NOT going alone!”
“Guys, I am and not exactl. That’s why I wanted us to have a great time, before I….” he couldn’t finish his sentence.
Bella said “Before you go out and try to find about your parents…”
Pan just nodded
He had this thought for some time.
To go out in the deep space once more. Leave a footprint on a distant moon surface for the first time and possibly last time ever. And he had this festering idea of going and visiting the tombstones…
The generation ships which are long gone, dead in space, floating like tombstones.
Pan just said “Guys, I need to be far from everything. From the bubble, politics, looming and approaching doom…” he saw Bella was about to interrupt, he stopped her “Wait, let me finish. I know we could do this all together, we could take any other ship. But, well, there is no easy way to say this. Ran, I need you to stay here. And Bell, if you wish, Manhattan has one more seat you know, but I can’t ask this from you.”
Ran sat on the floor with the bottle in his hands and shook his head “Not fair Pan! Not fair Boss!”
Bell sat down next to him too, angry but recovering, her voice trembled “Ran, it is! Take this and spend some time with Norah. You need it!”
“Norah?” Ran eyed Pan again “Is this about….”
“No Ran, its not about that. Even if there wouldn’t be a 29 years old, stunning and clever girl who is admiring you for who you are for the first time, I’d ask you to stay. You are great man, but…a real pain in the ass during long hauls and you thrive in civilization. Please dude, stay”
Bella gave a pat on Randt’s shoulders and stood up, took several steps towards Pan and looked at him directly in the eye
“One condition and I’m with you Pan”
“Name it”
“We are not going to take this cheap piss Ran calls Whiskey”
And that was that, they drunk a little more, tried to pry intimate details about Norah and Randt, joked about the Archeology Professor who writes poems to Bella and started planning on the loadouts, equipment and technical details.
This was two weeks ago
Pan and Bell were looking out from the canopy to the first Earth-like world they discovered.
A couple thousand lightyears away from SOL and here it was. Another planet brewing life in front of their eyes. They spend time more than any efficient explorer would and found reasons to look at the planet but not jump further.
“Thank you Pan” Bell said
“For what exactly?”
“For this….and”
“And?”
“For loading up premium stuff Boss, lets have one for the road”
“One for the road coming up”