Day 06. The Flight
So what lies ahead for me at this point? I'm not too certain. And although I really can't seem to remember many points in my life where I was certain of anything much really, for all this uncertainty, there are a few things that I am sure of. I am certain that things are almost never what they seem to be, I know that I will do everything that I am able to, to ensure that Princes Lillie’s storage chip is delivered to the leaders of the Free Radicals where it belongs and try to make sure that all things are as close to where they belong as possible, though until I’m sure I know exactly where I belong, I guess I’ll just have to keep looking.
This will be my final post for what has been a very extraordinary couple of days and after everything that’s happened, I'm now looking to the future. Who knows my destiny in this vast cosmic game of existence, really? I guess some day I’ll look back on this brief, but eventful portion of my life, captured in this convenient string of words and just have to have a laugh.
Alone in the comfort of the shuttle’s pilot seat I seem to have had the time to think things over quite a bit. And so as I sit here sailing thorough black space on my way to a new tomorrow, I can’t be certain, but I imagine this is pretty close to what peace of mind might be like.
There was something in that last item that Johnny Lightsmith said that just sent a chill right down my spine – kind of a strange feeling, almost like it was some kind of threat that Princess Lillie’s life might be put in danger if I didn’t hand over the storage chip – and at that moment I knew something wasn’t right. I refused once more and that’s when it happened. At almost blinding speed he reached into his front pocket and pulled out a small plasma pistol and while there pointing it directly at my head said, “Alright Stargazer, I’ve had just about enough of this. Now hand it over right now.”
The events after that seem to be slightly jumbled up in my head, a bit of a blur, partly to due to the quantity of Tyrellian beer I’d consumed and also due to the sheer gravity of the situation, but I remember thinking that I would rather do anything than give up that data chip to the undercover corporate, anything but to betray the faith and trust of the Princess, anything but to deliver the Free Radicals directly into the hands of the Greater Conglomerate.
I remember there was a struggle, a few shots fired and ricocheting off the shuttle’s walls, then a bit more of a struggle, very hazy until it seemed I’d somehow managed to overpower Lightsmith just as he was about to fire again point blank at my head, which this time would have most definitely resulted in a most gruesome end for me. Instead, when I knew this was it, the moment of truth, I saw that the emergency airlock release handle was just in reach and the protective glass must have been broken during the violent encounter. I made a quick grasp for it, grabbed the nearest guard rail and hung on tight. He fired his shot, which I swear I could feel the heat from the plasma whizzing past my ear. The airlock opened right behind Johnny and before he could grab a hold of anything, his body was pulled out into the blackness of space. I let the handle go and the pressure soon returned to normal, but I was a wreck.
Sorry about that. Turns out it was just the small realityvision that I had left on in the cockpit, playing some old horror film. You know those ones where the crew of some ship find a whole lot of weird alien eggs on a strange planet and then for some reason they decide to take one back to the ship in order to study it or something and then it goes around and kills everyone on board. I watched it for a little bit, but must have fallen asleep right in the pilot’s seat, only just waking up a little while ago. I guess it’s understandable though after the events of the night and admittedly, Johnny’s pilot’s chairs were pretty comfortable. I turned the reality screen off, which was playing some strange kind of game show and came to finish my story.
So anyway, Johnny Lightsmith had just put the ship on autopilot and after replicating us up something to drink, had sat down ready to talk. First he got me to tell him everything that I knew about the Free Radicals, which wasn’t really all that much, and then all about the storage chip and my mission to deliver it to the leaders of the Free Radicals, telling me that quite a few years ago, just after the great collapse, he had become involved with the group, telling me all kinds of stories about his agent training and about all the secret, undercover missions he’d been on, all in the name of freedom, freedom from the corporations and freedom from the – then only newly forming – Greater Conglomerate.
After a few more drinks and few more stories, he had already subtly offered a few times to take the storage chip back to the Free Radical base himself, which was where he was headed to next, take it off my hands so as it won’t be a burden any longer. I was about to just let him have it as well, to free myself of the responsibility, when I remembered Princess Lillie, wide eyed, full of hope, the trust she put in me and her earnest words, warning me against letting the chip slip into the wrong hands. Johnny was persistent though, and unbelievably persuasive. I could feel myself wanting to hand it over all the time, even though I knew that I couldn’t. Eventually, most likely after observing my reactions to certain things, the mention of Princess Lilly for example – an old salesman trick – he said that he had heard from a reliable source that the princess had indeed been captured by the Greater Conglomerate and made the assertion that if I didn’t give the storage chip to him, that I could be putting her life in unnecessary danger.
Well I’m still extremely shaken by what has just happened, and don’t really understand a lot of it or know what’s going on at all. I guess I never really do in the best of times though, but this is just a little bit different. I’m still on Johnny Lightsmith’s shuttle craft. However Johnny Lightsmith is no longer on board. I’m all alone in here and I’ve been pacing up and down the ship for hours, just thinking about what has happened and trying to decide my next course of action. Why is everything so hard? Why does it sometimes seem that the whole universe is against me? Fitzroy versus the universe is our next match, who wants tickets?
Things just don’t seem to be going my way these days and I have no idea why. I sometimes get rather frustrated when I can’t control my surroundings, my future and everything and these past few days, it’s been like I’ve been a leaf floating in the wind. I think I still remember what a leaf looks like. I’ve been up in space for so long. It really can’t be healthy for a human I don’t think. Sometimes I actually think that it would just be a good idea to find a good planet to settle on, find a nice girl and live the simple life, but then again, it’s quite possible that before too long I might become bored of it all, starved for adventure all over again. I’m going crazy thinking about this, so I guess I’ll just get on with the stupid story.
Ok, so here’s what happened then. Everything was fine at first. We boarded Johnny’s ship and he even began to lighten up as we left the hanger bay, become a bit more like his old self again and started talking about old times a bit. I just mainly sat and listened. Johnny’s really the type of person that you can just let him fill most of the conversation for you and only occasionally put in the odd yeahs and uh huhs. Pretty soon we were a long way away from where we had left from. The Sirrus 12 Docking and Departure Platform and Daisy the starwhale had disappeared into the distance, almost as though they had never even existed. I started to think that perhaps they didn’t exist except in my mind and that I’ve just been dreaming this whole time. It’s insane I know, but sometimes I just start thinking like that. Anyway, so I guess once it seemed like we were sufficiently far away for Johnny, he looked down at the radar, put the ship on autopilot and turned to me. Hmm, what’s that noise coming from the other room? I’ll be back a bit later.
