by Michael Karr
“Well, we’re turning back anyway,” said Endrick. “This isn’t a public voyage. And trust me—you don’t want to come. If I didn’t have to, I’d be someplace else.”
“I agree with Endrick,” said Skylar. “You can’t stay. I’ll go tell Grüny—”
"You can turn around," said Kendyl, folding her arms and eying him coldly, "but I'm not getting off this ship unless you agree to take me with you."
“I’m sure Grüny will help change your mind,” said Endrick.
“You don’t even know where we’re going?” said Skylar. “The place we’re going…it’s not safe. Anything could happen to you.”
“Where are you going?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Why not?”
“Because—”
Skylar broke off. He had heard the clank of footsteps behind him. He turned to find Grüny coming into the main cabin for a break. The old captain was massaging his lower back and mumbling something to himself as he entered. A strong desire to hide Kendyl back in the cargo hold before Grüny saw her sudden seized Skylar. But it was too late. Before he even had a chance to complain about Skylar and Endrick not doing anything useful, Grüny saw Kendyl sitting at the table.
At first, there was only a tense silence, as if everyone were waiting for a bomb to explode. Then Grüny's bald pate grew redder, until his entire face and head were a bright scarlet. Skylar stepped away from the ship captain, thinking it best to be out of arm's reach.
“What is this!” he shouted. “A stowaway on my ship!”
Some of Kendyl’s hitherto coolness dissipated rapidly under the heat of Grüny furry. A momentary flash of worry filled her face.
“She’s not a stowaway,” said Skylar, attempting to sound calm and in control. “She’s my friend.”
At this, Kendyl regained her courage. “Your friend, is it?” she replied sharply. “That’s news to me.”
“I don’t care if she’s the queen of Ahlderon. Nobody takes passage on my ship without my knowledge and authorization.”
Grüny strode towards Kendyl with obvious intention in his steps. Fearing what Grüny might do, Skylar grabbed Grüny by the shoulder.
“What are you planning to do?”
Grüny turned and glared back at Skylar, his brow furrowed in anger.
“Begging your pardon, Your Majesty,” he growled, “but I command on this ship. She doesn’t belong on it. And whatever doesn’t belong gets disposed of.”
Hearing these words, Kendyl jumped up, looking ready to flee for her life.
“Grüny!” cried Skylar. “Be reasonable, man. She’s a person—a friend. Not a piece of waste.”
Grüny jerked his shoulder free of Skylar’s grasp.
“Fine,” he replied, curtly. “But I ain’t taken her to Oon Vunda. We’re going back to Haladras. Let the authorities deal with her. But until we get there, I want her out of my sight. Lock her in the cargo hold.”
This time Kendyl did not protest, obviously seeing the futility of it. Instead, she sat back down and glowered.
Grüny turned around and marched back to the cockpit. Once he was gone, Skylar felt his muscles relax. Skylar looked at Kendyl and offered a meek smile.
“Aren’t you going to lock me back up in the cargo hold?” she said, a tone of mockery in her voice.
“Grüny will calm down after a while. I’m not going to make you go back in the hold. But we are taking you back to Haladras.”
In the end, Kendyl coffined herself to the cargo hold of her own accord. Skylar suspected she either didn’t want to deal with Grüny, or she didn’t want to look at him. He slumped down into a chair at the table with Endrick. What was going on? The more he thought about it, the more it confused him. On Haladras, Kendyl had made her feelings clear. She never wanted to see him again. If that were true, why did she follow them? Surely she didn’t just want to know where they were going. To stow away on a ship, just to find out what they were up to…It didn't make sense. Something else was going on.
After Kendyl had left, Skylar attempted to study the map of Gorgoroth. But his mind refused to focus on the task, and he found himself staring blankly at the same dot on the map for a quarter of an hour. Eventually, he gave it up and decided to check on Grüny.
He found Grüny sitting at the controls of the ship, staring out into the vast expanse of space. The inky blackness, teeming with stars looked calm and serene. Yet Skylar couldn’t help but feel a twinge of vulnerability as he contemplated how utterly alone they were, pushing toward the outer perimeter of the empire. No ship would find them if the Luna lost power, or became disabled in some other way. They would be on their own—stranded in interplanetary wilderness.
“I’m sorry about Kendyl—the stowaway,” said Skylar, taking a seat in the co-pilot’s chair next to Grüny. “I can’t understand it. I honestly don’t know why she did it.”
“I don’t give two dooks why she did it," said Grüny. “I want her off my ship. The little…”
Grüny dropped into a low muttered, so that Skylar couldn’t make out what he said. But he felt sure he didn’t want to.
“So, you do know the little missy, then?” asked Grüny after an uncomfortable silence. “Curse the luck. Well, it’s just the same. Wouldn’t matter if you did or didn’t.”
Skylar sat up straight and looked straight at Grüny.
“What do mean? What wouldn’t matter?”
“I’ve decided not to turn around.”
Nine
“What do you mean?” said Skylar. “We have to take her back. She can’t come with us to Gorgoroth.”
Grüny checked a few readouts on his control panel, then returned his focus straight ahead, out into the endless night of space. Skylar wondered if Grüny needed to be at the control so much during such times. He knew the ship boasted auto-pilot systems. Grüny used these while they slept. Only if they the ship’s radars detected potential collision courses with foreign bodies would Grüny actually need to intervene. But the hyperdrive system pre-calculated their route to avoid such collision. At such speeds, steering around an obstacle was not an option. Perhaps the old captain simply enjoyed the solitude or feeling in control of the ship.
So many things in life feel out of our control.
A thought struck Skylar in that moment. After all he had been through with Grüny, he realized that he didn’t know much about this man’s personal life—his past. Did the old captain have a family, or once have a family? It was hard for Skylar to imagine Grüny having children, or even being married. At the same time, how sad to think of someone having no family. Grüny was always flying from one planet to the next. If he has a family, thought Skylar, he probably never sees them.
“You’re right,” said Grüny, bringing Skylar’s thoughts back to the issue of Kendyl. “But I ain’t taking her to Gorgoroth.”
“Where then?”
“Oon Vunda. She can take a passenger vessel from there back to some planet in the empire—likely not Haladras. This trip is already long. I’m not interested in lengthening by an extra two weeks so we can take back that stowaway. She got herself into this, she can get herself out.”
“A passenger vessel from a rogue planet? That doesn’t sound safe, Grüny. You yourself said it's a death wish to hire a ship from Oon Vunda. The captains can't be trusted. I can't let Kendyl be exposed to such risks. Even if she did bring this on her own head, I feel responsible for getting her back home safely. And I'm going to do all in my power to see to that."
Skylar's voice had risen as he spoke so that he found himself nearly shouting at Grüny.
“Now don’t get yourself worked up. Them passenger vessel are as safe as any. Ship operators would lose money faster than a drunken gambler if all his passengers started disappearing. Most passengers have someone—a family member, friend, business partner, fellow thief—waiting for them on the other side. She’ll be fine.”
“I don’t know,” repl
ied Skylar, shaking his head. “It doesn’t sound too safe to me. What kind of people take passage on such vessels? You yourself said that the planet is just a mob of thieves, murders, and scoundrels.”
“Not everyone’s a thief. Some poor wives and children, following a no-good husband. Others are mothers who come to visit a son or daughter who’s run afoul of the law and fled the empire. Some are just—more or less—honest merchants hoping to strike it rich selling Ahlderion goods for a steep profit. The ships have hired guards, too. Just in case a there’s any trouble during the journey.”
“I don’t know…” said Skylar, looking away and growing pensive. The thought of abandoning Kendyl on Oon Vunda—a rogue planet—terrified him. He felt almost the same way when Krom had ordered them to abandon Grim at Dura Cragis. But this felt even worse. Anything could happen to her. A young, attractive girl traveling alone among a horde of ruffians…he clenched his fists.
If anyone tries to touch her…
“She’ll need a disguise,” said Skylar, at last. “Something to make her look less…feminine. Maybe an old, tattered frock, dirt on her cheeks, and a hood. I want her to have a blaster, too. In case something happens.”
“Fine,” replied Grüny. “Dress her up like an old man, for all I care.”
Skylar stood up and stepped toward the rear of the cockpit.
“I’ll let Kendyl know about the change of plans. She does have the right to know.”
“Just keep her out of my sight—and I mean it.”
Despite Grüny’s reassurances and his own plans for disguising and arming Kendyl, Skylar still did not want to go through with it. Part of him wanted to simply call off their quest right then and there and take Kendyl back. Could finding his sister be so important that he would risk losing Kendyl? He vowed to himself that he wouldn’t go through with the plan if it didn’t feel right once they arrived at Oon Vunda; once he saw the passenger vessels, and their passengers. Of course, he would keep that bit of knowledge to himself. He couldn’t risk setting off Grüny again. Who knows what he might do?
The next ten days passed with the most agonizing tedium. Skylar felt as if he would burst before they arrived. He spent most of his time attempting to find some other way of getting Kendyl back to Haladras. He made no progress. Nothing he thought of, no plan he devised brought him any greater comfort than their current one.
How had this happened? He was supposed to be protecting her. He couldn't risk letting her get mixed up in his life. Not with Morvath still on the loose. And he definitely could not let her join their journey.To make it easier for him to keep this resolve, he spoke to Kendyl as little as possible. This was not difficult to do. Kendyl showed no interested in talking to him. In a way, that only made it harder. It was agony to see her and not talk to her. He imagined her smile, her laugh, the conversations they used to have. It could never be like that again. The sooner she was gone, the better.
On the morning on the fourteenth days since their departure from Haladras, Grüny woke them and ordered everyone to prepare for descent into Oon Vunda. This news brought both relief and foreboding to Skylar. Invigorated by the prospect of getting off the ship, breathing non-recycled air, and—for Endrick—eating something with flavor, Skylar and Endrick quickly set about to follow the orders. They stowed their bunks, sliding them into their rectangular slits in the bulkhead of their sleeping quarters. They put away dishes and utensils, secured cabinets in the mess unit; locked down anything that might get jostled loose or become a projectile as the Luna entered Oon Vunda’s atmosphere.
After everything was properly secured, Skylar went to the cargo hold. He found Kendyl there, lying on the cold metal floor, curled up with his blanket and a spare pillow, asleep. Skylar was surprised to find her so. With all the racket they had made preparing for the descent, he thought it would be quite difficult for anyone to stay asleep. Even in sleep, the poor girl looked tired. He wondered how she hadn’t gone mad in the last two weeks, being confined to the chilly cargo hold, only interacting with someone at meal times. Why did she endure it all? Why was she here?
Sighing, he crouched down beside the slumbering girl and placed a hand on her shoulder. He said her name softly. She stirred slightly, but did not wake. He shook her shoulder a little and spoke louder, telling her that she needed to wake up. She stirred some more. Then her face grimaced, and a drowsy eye reluctantly looked up at him.
“We’ll be entering Oon Vinda’s atmosphere soon,” said Skylar. “You need to come strap yourself in. It won’t be safe for you to stay in here.”
He left before she had time to reply—or to not reply.
He returned to the main cabin, where he strapped himself into the harness of a retractable seat, built into the bulwark. The seats were anchored to the ship’s hull, and fitted with dense foam, that hugged one’s body. They served to keep passengers from getting knocked about during entry and exit for a planet’s atmosphere. A safety measure, which Skylar now realized Kendyl had not had when they left Haladras. He hoped she would not risk that again.
Within a few minutes, and to Skylar’s surprise, Kendyl appeared and wordlessly strapped herself into the seat next to his.
He contemplated asking her how she felt but decided against it. Better to remain impassive. Or, at least, to feign impassiveness.
Skylar wished he had chosen to sit in the co-pilot’s chair next to Grüny. The silence was eating away at him. He also felt eager to see this mysterious planet. All he knew of it was of its people, economy and lack of government. Nothing of its landscape, the vegetation, and animal life; its natural resources and its distinct physical characteristics. Having spent the majority of his life on a desert planet, he found other planets, with trees, rivers, mountains, oceans, fascinating. They were not coming to Oon Vunda to explore the terrain, or sample the culture, though. As far as he was concerned, the less time they remained on the planet, the better.
The Luna jostled as she began to enter Oon Vunda’s atmosphere. Tremors ran through the entire ship, through the floor and seats where they held on with white-knuckled hands.
“My teeth are going to rattle out of my skull,” cried Endrick. “Remind me why we took this ship, again.”
Skylar looked over at Kendyl. Her face was white, her eyes wide, and her body as stiff as a corpse.
“It’s alright,” yelled Skylar over the din of the ship’s rattling. “The Luna always pulls through.”
The girl did not look at him, but merely nodded her head in a quick mechanical motion.
After what felt like an hour, the Luna finally calmed, and everyone released their death grips from the seats.
“It wasn’t like that when we left Haladras,” said Kendyl, her face still flushed of all color.
“That’s because there is practically no friction or air pressure in space,” said Skylar. “The ship makes the transition easily. It’s the terrible friction caused by re-entering the atmosphere that puts the most strain on a ship.”
“And one of these days,” added Endrick, “she’s going to disintegrate into a million bits. And us with her.”
A hint of something close to a smile played at the corners of Kendyl's lips. Skylar caught himself looking at her unconsciously. As soon as he realized it, he turned away, chiding himself inside.
You can’t afford to be nice to her.
Within an hour, the Luna was docked at the port in Kotri, Oon Vunda's main hub. And soon after, they were navigating their way through mud-mired street towards the city's core. Nothing of interest caught Skylar's eye as they walked discreetly along. Decaying buildings, huts, shanties, and tents were the only dwellings around them. Above, a pale blotch of a sun beamed cheerlessly down on them, providing, as it felt to Skylar, no heat whatever. Despite a cloudless sky and the sun's high vantage, the streets were as dark as a storm-filled sky on Ahlderon. Off in the distance, jutting raggedly above the tops of the buildings, rose a sallow mountain peak. The whole scene looked so unnatur
al that Skylar wondered why anyone could bear to live there. Already he wished to return to the Luna.
As they drew nearer to the heart of the city, the streets grew more crowded. Skylar observed the people. They were as diversified and unique as any people he'd seen before. This surprised him. Perhaps because he expected everyone to look like Madrick's goons. The people looked common enough. Men, women, even children were among the crowd. If anything unified this people, it was their dress. Though their clothing varied subtly in style and appearance, the common theme of simplicity was unmistakable. And once Skylar thought about it, the reason was perfectly obvious. Only a fool would stroll through the streets of such a place dressed in rich apparel and adorned with fine jewelry. Safety lied in appearing inconspicuous.
Grüny led them to a small shop where they purchased clothes, which would help them blend in on Gorgoroth. They also purchased an oversized robe of a rough brown fabric and a gray skullcap. These were for Kendyl. The robe to hide her figure, and the cap to hide her hair. The effect was convincing, but Skylar was not satisfied with it, insisting that her face would give her away.
“Wrap her face with strips of leather,” suggested Endrick. “Not even the most desperate of scoundrels will think she looks appealing.”
“Why don’t you just stuff me in a sack?” said Kendyl. “Wouldn’t that be the fasted way to be rid of me?”
“If it were up to me,” replied Grüny, "that's exactly what I'd do. Except, I'd gag you first."
“This is for your safety,” said Skylar, trying to keeping his voice as matter-of-fact as possible
You’re far too pretty to be traveling alone from such a place.
Of course, he couldn’t tell her that. Such a confession would break the pact he'd made with himself. It was the truth, though. More and more, he caught himself stealing glances at her. Each time, his eyes lingered longer than before on her face. Each time, he found it more difficult to pull his gaze away. Even now, he did it.
Stop it!
“If it’s so dangerous, why are you here?” she said.