Elio awoke with a gasp, sweat beading on his brow. He sat up and wiped his face off, taking a sip of water from his nightstand. Everything was fine, he thought. He looked around his dark room, he was safe. Elio got out of bed and got dressed, his heart still pounding. He ran his fingers over his wolf tattoo, covered in scratches. It wasn’t real, he was on the Antigone, he was fine, it was just a dream. He exited his cabin and ascended to the galley.
“‘Morning,” Elio said to Rayan, sprawled on the couch with the remains of a large meal on the table in front of him.
“Morning to you. Man… you look like shit”
“Thanks for the observation wiseass” Elio got a carton from one of the refrigerators.
“You sure you're doin’ alright, man?”
“I’m fine, Ray” Elio snapped, pouring himself a glass of bright red juice.
“Alright man, just checking” Rayan sounded offended
Elio sat at the table and rubbed his head
“Good morning,” Leora ascended the ladder “Man, you look like shit”
Rayan laughed
“I’m good, Ley” Elio was getting frustrated
“You sure, your eyes are all… bloodshot. You didn't find my float-stem did you?”
“I’m fine, just d-didn't sleep good, promise”
“Alright El”
“Wait, you had float-stem this whole time?” Rayan sat up
“None of your business, orbit-brain” Leora remarked, as she went into the galley
Ana came up the ladder “Hey guys”
The group responded
“Man, El…”
“I know, I know. I look like shit”
Ray and Leora chuckled.
After a while, Dorian came down from the bridge
“We’ll be landing in about four hours,” He said “You should try getting some more sleep, Elio”
“Thanks, Dad” Elio yelled as Dorian ascended to the bridge
Ana came in from the galley with a tray of steaming hot cups, “Want some coffee?”
Elio took one of the small engraved silver cups and took a sip of the thick, bitter brew, setting his mind at ease.
“Hey El, before we get there, I was having a little trouble with the third cycle in The Alastor, could you take a look at it?” Leora asked
“Yeah, sure thing”
“Thanks, man”
Elio didn’t have an appetite so after he finished his coffee, he went down into the hangar on board and switched all of the systems on. Bright fluorescent lights shone on a neat and organized garage with five smaller spacecraft in it. As he walked in, he passed by one emblazoned with a colorful mural of exotic animals in a blocky art style, “The Koyotl” owned by Rayan. Another sported intricate and colorful geometric designs and a coat of arms, “The Chabuk” flown by Anahita. The next was decorated with intricate rope and scrollwork, “The Vitharr” which was Elio’s pride and joy. Another was painted a very basic shade of slate gray, Dorian’s “Azcagit”. Finally, he came up to the final one that swirled with colorful designs and abstract symbols, “The Alastor”, Leora’s ship.
He opened the main engine panel and wheeled over a toolbox. After about an hour of working, he heard someone enter the hangar.
“How’s it, El?” it was Leora
“Alright” Elio was on his back underneath the small ship “The grasp-wheel was delayed from the input so that explains the power loss. You also have a small fuel leak.”
“You doing alright?”
“Yeah, I’ll have this put back together in an hour or two”
“I meant, are you, like, doing alright? You didn’t look good earlier”
Elio sighed “Yeah, just some trouble sleeping, had some weird dreams is all”
“Wanna talk about it?” Leora seemed to find pleasure in being the shoulder to cry on.
“No”
“Come on El, what happened?”
“I’m not sure, I woke up here in the ship, but it was off, it was like she was coming apart, and I saw someone”
“Who was it?”
“I’m not sure, anyways, I got to the bridge ladder and went up, it t-took me home”
“To Allais?”
“No, to Tandriholm, on Skjolder. I saw my f-father, but it wasn’t him, it was some sort of… beast.” Elio glanced at his tattoo, currently covered in engine oil
“How do you know it was your father then?”
“That… thing had his face and his voice. It spoke to me. F-failure. Traitor… Shit like that”
“Do you feel like that?” Leora asked curiously
“Honestly? Kind of. My mother didn’t take it so well when I left and I just felt like I needed to prove something to my d-d-dad, you know?”
“You left really young, didn’t you?”
“Aye, I was just a kid I left, my parents didn’t think I was ready at all, guess they were k-kind of right” Elio dropped one of his wrenches
“I mean, look at you now though, you got fame, fortune, glory… what else could you want?”
“Yeah, I guess”71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBLn0Cfjdny
“I mean, you're one of the best fighters in the guild, maybe even on Brinnan. You’re probably venerated as a saint on a few planets, and you have your own reputation in Allais”
“Hooray for me” Elio slid some engine components together
“Elio…”
“Sorry, it's just…” he took a second to choose his words “...nothing”
“El, you can talk to me”
“It's fine Ley, I’m fine”
“You don’t seem fine”
“It's just… I don’t know, what’s the point of all this?”
“What do you mean? This life is what you make of it”
“I know but, why am I doing this? I mean, I love it, it’s all I’m good for, but you’re practically a divine on Talio, Rayan has his family, Ana’s honest-to-god royalty, and Dorian’s one of the most famous navigators in this sector. Who am I? Just some spoiled rich kid who got bored at home and left his family behind. Why am I even complaining in the f-first place?”
“You know that’s not true El”
“What’s not? You all had to learn this s-shit to survive, I grew up comfortable, watching the movies and reading the books, getting all starry-eyed.”
“Stop talking shit Elio, you know that’s bullshit. It doesn’t matter where you came from, it matters where you’re going”
“And where’s that? I don’t have anything to fight for, all I’m good at is this job, I can‘t d-do anything else”
Leora sighed
“What about you? Are you gonna give it up someday? Could you?”
“It’s… complicated, Elio, you know that”
”Yeah, it is, at least you could do well for yourself if you ever got out of the business, maybe run a slightly more legitimate Leora Veliarix Enterprises”
“I guess that’s one way to put it, but you have so much more to live El. In five years, you could retire comfortably with someone nice and get a nice little manor on a cushy little garden world”
“Yeah, I think I’d rather sit and be m-miserable in space,” Elio said in a sarcastic tone
“Are you miserable right now?”
“I guess not, I just need to f-figure out what all of this is for, why I’m doing it”
“You’ll get there someday, I promise”
Elio sighed and placed some more parts together.
“Thanks, Ley, h-honestly”
“It’s nothing El, just keep your head up”
Leora stood up and exited the hangar, glancing at Elio still lying underneath her ship.
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