The plight of old friends...
24 Jan 2018Count Iblis
Inevitable as it is- you fly long hours. Especially when you have a given destination and set time to be there. Sure, its nice to take in the breath taking views of the galaxy but more often than not- your mind switches into autopilot.The higher brain functions tend to wonder - perhaps work on galactic problems, to find out reasons for political moves.
The trip back to 'the bubble space' was, so far, uneventful so tonight was such a night for Reece.
'What really happened to Jasmina Halsey-former president of the Federation? It was over a year ago now, in the news, but the recent encounter with the Thargoids got my thoughts in motion. She went missing for several months and when she resurfaced she was quite a different person. Did she really encounter the lost race of the Guardians?
Were they controlling her?
Then, inevitably, Reece thought about the people he knew and the friends he grew up with on Myrbat.
How they had changed. There was no slavery on Myrbat like in the Empire, and yet Reece had seen his closest friends lost to what he could only describe - as a form of 'indentured servitude'.
Even the strongest most vibrant of characters, the most bullish carefree, freedom loving guys, Reece, saw reduced to drone-like automatons seemingly going through the motions of life, existing rather than LIVING.
Reece and his old friend, Anders, would often talk about this and how they swore never to succumb to this apparent plight. It was often said in jest, but as with all good humour- there was truth couched within.
To this aim of never succumbing , Reece left the oppressive dictatorship of Myrbat and pursued his dreams of becoming a visionary engineer and then a professional travelling pilot, explorer and bounty hunter. His life had unfolded in ways he could never have imagined when growing up. It was incredible. All the while Anders would have liked to have been set free on a new path away from Myrbat. It never happened though, he got caught up into the clutches of a shrew and caught in a cycle of feeding her. It took him years to break free from that and all the while him and Reece kept in contact. Reece would relate about the challenges he was facing on his journey and he would try to support and help Anders get through.
About 7 years ago Anders lost contact and was seemingly avoiding contact with Reece. No matter what he did. Reece even went back to Myrbat and tried to find Anders but still to no avail.
About 2 years ago Anders surfaced again. He was settled now. Content. And different now. Reece wanted to catch up and connect but Anders would ignore references to an impending meet and talk about seemingly disconnected daily life trivia. What Reece had feared- had come true: Anders had been afflicted by the same plight. He was reduced to having no vision, talking about whimsical trivia and he had been pacified. It broke Reeces heart. Anders was once one of Reeces strongest allies, closest and most loyal friends. Reece was sure that Anders would manage to leave and achieve GREAT things in his life- perhaps manage to take to the stars, once he'd gotten hold of a ship. Any ship, even a sidewinder. Once you got your first ship, everything in life would change and hit high gear. It wasn't to happen though. Anders had now met Lola.
This wasn't the first time this had happened- it had happened to each of Reeces old friends, one by one, reduced to pacified utilities that existed and had had their vision taken away from them. Feeding into an insidious system. Reece had silly images in his head of a great tentacled central creature at the core of the planet sucking the life force and cerebral energy out of these guys, and using them as utilities. Or he envisioned a secret black ops organization making minor but significant frontal brain lobe operations behind closed doors and breaking the spirit of these stalions and visionaries. Reece smiled to himself and then laughed as he flew the Imperial Clipper around the sun to scoop up fuel. He knew his mind was being silly and being comedic almost- making a tragic situation into something farcical. Perhaps it was an inadvertent release for him with all the stress of recent days.
But in all seriousness the list of his friends who had been hit by 'the plight' was staggering- Anders, Roj , Lucien, Ness, Elias.....the list went on but they all went the same way.
Reeces journey was going smoothly. He'd stumbled across a few T- tauri stars where the suns corona couldn't be harvested for useable hydrogen fuel, but Reece managed to find alternative routes and stars. The cockpit of the Imperious Rex was sumptuous and luxuriant. Reece decided he would take a break and watch some old televid flicks on the great illustrious history of Myrbat to put things into perspective. He dropped out of Super cruise, switched off the thrusters, engines , shields, weapons to reduce his energy echo in the void and then turned the cockpit lighting down.
One day, Reece would return to Myrbat and find out what was going on. When he had saved enough and garnered enough power and influence. That's all it would take and Reece was determined. He owed it to the lives of his old friends