Tomato sandwiches always reminded him of Ohio. He wasn’t sure what his mother was thinking when she concocted her creation, which included two pieces of wheat (never white) bread, three half inch tomato slices, Swiss cheese, and a sauce that was a mixture of mayo and mustard. Whatever she was thinking, it was genius, because every bite was like an explosion of flavors from the moment it touched your lips. However, as wacko and superstitious as his mother was, she never allowed the sandwiches to be made outside the state of Ohio, saying that the altitude and climate is what made them so delicious.
Nate Fields loved these wonderful tomato sandwiches, and no matter where he was he used his mother’s recipe, imagining the acres of not only farmland but industrial jungles, with every chunk torn out of the masterpiece. They never tasted the same, as the original triangularly cut sandwiches his mother served him for lunch. Maybe it was her homegrown tomatoes or just the fact that it was her serving it to him. He didn’t know. Frankly he didn’t care. They were still delicious.
Recently these personal tomato sandwich sessions had become rarer and rarer, tomato plants and Swiss cheese being relatively scarce in space.
Paul Fields, his more than dignified father, had been his inspiration for joining the great space race and building his own ship from scrap. It had taken nearly ten years starting from the time he was six, and on forward. The ship was mostly made out of stolen recycled parts from the junk yard by his house. The important sections of the machine – the engine, the gravity panels, and the Jump Drive – were pilfered from military ships sitting in hangars not doing anything. In his opinion, no one would miss them.
The ship’s chassis was actually an old submarine’s, oval in shape and twenty feet tall. The ‘art project’ as his mother liked to call it, took up their entire backyard, plus some. It lifted off the ground three years into construction and flew skyward after four. It took all six to make it space ready and even then his father tested it out before he was even allowed to fly above the stratosphere. The only problem was, all spaceships, recreational or not, had to be registered with the Government, and as he was a minor, he couldn’t register it as his own. So he made the decision that space, the one thing that humans hadn’t truly discovered, was more important than living on a planet that had been bled dry of discoveries.
Last thing his mother gave him was a tomato sandwich and a big tub of mayo. The ship flew with a few problems at first, but after exiting orbit, it flew seamlessly. It wasn’t anything special, its maiden voyage, but it was exhilarating. He was alone, with nothing but space ahead of him. And that idea was enough to make him squeal with excitement.
The little piece of tomato covered in the tan colored sauce mixture almost flew out of his mouth and onto the dashboard of brightly colored buttons before him when someone smacked the back of his head. He choked for a moment and shook his head. Violet stood next to him with an angry look on her face. She was never happy with him, for multiple reasons that he didn’t understand. “Stop daydreaming and captain the damn ship.” She reprimanded. He watched her out of the corner of his eye plop down next to him and begin pressing buttons.
It had been less than six weeks and somehow, with his charm and suave, he managed to obtain four crew members. He had never thought about letting people board his ship, but with as compact as it was (at least compared to the other ships he had seen), it had a total of six bedrooms (no thanks to him), and a decently sized kitchen that could sit ten people. Tiny, but mighty, as the crew described it.
Violet was one of the less absolutely necessary crew members, just counting her defined role on the ship, but as soon as you added in her logical reasoning and on-your-ass-about-it attitude, she becomes one of the more important ones. Her role on the ship was to fly it, to maneuver their way through asteroid belts and to get them from point A to point B. Nate himself could fly the ship on his own, but having her skills and instincts were always a plus.
He plucked her, and her little brother, up off a multiple species planet called Hudson. Originally human dominated, it became a leeway point for all the space bound species in the known universe. A lot of people lived there due to over population, plus it was a cool idea to not live on your species’ home planet. It was relatively close to Earth and resembled said planet closely. He had met the two siblings in a restaurant, both working their tails off to get a one way ticket to some other place besides there. Nate had chatted it up with Violet and it was clear from the beginning she wasn’t a big fan of his can-do attitude, but then he placed down a bet.
And as he would always quote her; I’m not the type of girl to turn down a good gamble. Nate bet her that if he could beat her in a game of her choosing that he would pay for both hers and her brother’s ticket. But if she lost, she had to come aboard and his ship and accompany him on a journey throughout the stars. Seeing as both outcomes for her were more than generous, she shook his hand and named their game. However, he ended not playing her, but her fourteen year old brother.
He remembers when she set the chessboard down in front of him and the look on her face as she did it. Chess was a dumb game in his opinion. He was hella good at it, but that wasn’t a difficult task to accomplish. It was a tedious game and every time you played it you went through one of the many possibilities of how a game could be played out. The more he played it, the more he realized that the game felt repeated and to some extent annoying. Nate knew that he could play and beat this kid though, chess, while despised by him, was one of the things he considered himself and expert at.
The kid had taken his seat at Nate’s table, placing his hands palm down on the surface and shyly staring at him. Nate had smiled, he may have hated the idea of actually having to play chess, but he was going to be respectful about it, especially when his opponent at the time looked like he was about to have a panic attack. “Beau.” The kid whispered, carefully stripping one of his hands off the table and holding it out before him. They then shook hands, and the game began.
He was caught off guard at first, the kid played an aggressive game, especially for such a shy demeanor. Nate ended up having to catch himself making stupid moves here and there, and as the game went on, he found that he had completely underestimated ‘Beau’. But with every little snicker his older sister made, Nate just felt more fueled to win.
He ended up coming up from behind suddenly and surprised the kid enough to knock him off his guard. The game ended with a furious growl from their only bystander and then a hand thrust into his face. “A deal’s a deal.” So they joined him, reluctant at first. Nate was sure that he had grown on them though.
Next to him, Violet slipped a headset over her hair and adjusted a microphone to rest in front of her mouth, then leaned forward to adjust some nobs. “What are you doing?” He asked, lounging backwards.
“Trying to connect with the Aegiran Government. We need permission to enter the space surrounding Aegarz.” Her brows furrowed.
Nate groaned. “This is so dumb, I don’t understand why we need permission to enter ‘surrounding space’.”
Violet turned to him and crossed her arms. “Because, genius, this is how it’s always been done. If you didn’t like it you could’ve stayed on planet Earth.” The door to the bridge opened with a loud hiss from its hydronic system and they both whipped their heads around to see a small woman enter the small area. “Alice.” Violet acknowledged.
“Good afternoon you two, good discussions I hope!” Alice Moore was one of Nate’s favorite people. He didn’t really know a lot of people, but he sure did like her a lot. Her aura always had a positive feel about it and she brightened up a room easily. Her face contorted into a look of both disgust and concern. “Nate you have mustard on your chin.”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. “It’s actually Mustyo, as my mom called it.” He said, taking the cloth from her and wiping down his face before folding it up and handing it back to her.
“Whatever it is, it makes a ridiculous mess.” She fluttered some napkins at him. Nate laughed and grabbed them. He wiped down the rest of his face and cleaned up his shirt and pants. “Thank you dear.”
From the moment she had boarded the ship Alice had acted like the mother of them all, including her own (older) husband, Leon Moore. No one, not even Nate, who loved to do everything unsupervised, complained about that though. Both Alice and Leon acted like the parents of the crew. They were the only ones of a legal drinking age and the only ones who knew what it was like to take care of someone other than themselves.
The Moore’s had been volunteering on Quicksliver, a planet a couple of solar systems away from Earth. It had one of the least civilized species in the known universe, the Frex. They were short, pale, and kinder than any human. They lived underground, having adapted to their own environment to survive, and never had much interaction with other beings. Humans, one of the more intelligent groups of peoples, had taken them under their wing and hundreds of scientists from all over the world and even some from Hudson, came to study and help them.
Alice was one of those scientists, or more specifically a doctor there mostly for treating the Frex and the few diseases they were susceptible to underground. Her skills were impeccable, which was why Nate had originally asked her to join the crew. When she refused because her husband was with her as well, Nate said that there was room aboard and he could come too if he wanted.
After three days of incessant begging and pleading from the Notorious Nate, the two of them begrudgingly agreed to board his ship. Which had unintentionally been a win-win for Team Hunk-of-metal-ship-with-an-original-three-person-crew, as Leon had grown up being taught mechanics of ships by his older sisters. He was just as skilled as his wife, just in a different field.
“Violet, Beau was asking if you were going to make him a snack or if he needed to so himself, so if you don’t want the kitchen on fire while we hurtle through the life sucking vacuum of space, I suggest you get a move on.”
The size of Violet’s pupils shrunk to the tip of a pin and she bolted from her seat and out of the bridge. Alice took her spot and stifled some laughter. “He’s not trying to cook, is he?”
“No, I just had to get some alone time with my captain.” He smiled at her. Alice sighed and settled into the chair, resting her arms on the side of the chair. “How are you today Nate? Any problems? Have you eaten more than just that god awful sandwich?”
He shook his head and leaned down in his chair. “That’s a lot of questions to answer at once.”
“Nathaniel.”
“Okay, okay. I ate the sandwich, am feeling okay, and when the time comes I’ll eat whatever contraption Violet cooks up for dinner.”
She softly grinned. “Thank you for your cooperation.” Alice stood and dug around in her pocket before tossing him a small wrapped piece of candy. “Your reward.” And she headed for the door. Nate reminded her, as the door slowly shut behind her, that he wasn’t a dog and he didn’t need a reward for doing something – but thanks for the candy anyways.
He popped the chocolate in his mouth and chewed on it as he thought. There was no way in a million years he would’ve ended up with a crew that was capable enough to keep a ship as rugged as his. Light years of space was stretched out in front of him, the giant windshield displaying it all. He closed his eyes. Space, while, as Alice so greatly explained it, ‘life sucking vacuum’, was a peaceful place. Quiet, open.
Their next stop was Aegarz, a secondary planet, much like Hudson, that was the wayward point to the part of the universe dominated by the Government. It was a sickly place, especially for a small ship like themselves. There were hundreds, thousands even, military ships that roamed the outskirts of the planetary orbits, searching for ships that weren’t licensed or for people who were wanted.
But it was also the greatest hunting ground for his particular occupation.
Not a lot of people would do something as ignorant as risking their lives to chase down bounties and give the Government the slip. Somehow Nate had managed to get both sides, black and white, against him. But the money was good, even for a great deal of hate.
Classified as an ‘unlicensed bounty hunter’, Nate was breaking the law himself every time he went after a bounty. No matter, each time he brought another one in, the people at the stations and several departments throughout the galaxy and universe, were happy to see him and pay him. Which came the issue of his crewmates. With each new soul aboard, he had to split up the reward even more. He wasn’t stingy at all, but…it was his money.
Now, he had to focus on the higher bounties, the ones that were worth more than just a dinner one night and being extremely frugal until they could get paid again.
They had already done their fair amount of stealing, Violet refusing to let Beau join in and in one instance, handcuffing him to the ship so he wouldn’t follow them. Nate was more than 100% positive that they all had their very own bounties and that there were probably people just like himself chasing after them.
Operating in their style was dangerous, but it was also exhilarating, an adrenaline rush, and Nate’s personal natural high. He had no idea how the rest of them felt about it, but he liked to imagine that Alice, Leon, Beau, and even Violet, enjoyed their job – as unexpected as it may have been.
Nate opened his eyes and reached forward to open the star map. It was a three dimensional version of one Beau had drawn up based on textbooks and other research he had done. Every day it was updated as Beau himself, updated it paper and uploaded it to the computer’s system. The map turned on its own, giving the viewer an insight of every bit of it. He used the dials on the dashboard to zoom and turn manually, focusing in on their positioned labeled with a bright green dot. The smaller red dots farther away indicated unknown objects. Based on their size he guessed they were just space junk or asteroids.
Like sea ships and submarines on Earth using echolocation or sonar to navigate around, most space ships, including their own, had been equipped with a series of high powered lasers that continuously sent out a steady beam of light to measure the distance between the ship and everything around it. It made it safer and easier to navigate what was basically the darkness 24/7.
He zoomed all the way out again and scrolled over to see the approximated distance between them and Aegarz. The distance was measured in hundreds millions of kilometers. It then displayed the approximated time that it would take to get there in Earth time. They were over a three hundred million kilometers away from Aegarz and if they kept at their current speed, it would take them a little under two days to get there.
They would’ve gotten there ten times sooner, but Nate had done something even he considered stupid and irresponsible. He had been messing with the power controls one day and ended up overexerting the Jump Drive, causing it to burst in flames inside the ship, and outside crumble and break apart. Without the Jump Drive, they could only go so fast. It was like they had reversed fifty years in time.
Nate jumped up out of his chair when the com system rang loudly through the speakers and he fell to the floor. “Ouch…” He grumbled, climbing back up and reaching a foot away from him to tap a button. The windshield displayed a small see though screen before him. It showed a long fifteen digit number, and a name to go along with it. Their ship was being hailed. And by the looks of it, it was coming from Earth.
The name was labeled as ‘Unknown’. He was the only one who would be able to see it, as when the electrical system was hooked up, he made sure that all calls went straight to his quarters or the bridge. “Answer.” He voiced aloud, and heard the system struggle for a moment to undertake his command.
Calling from Earth, to a constantly active ship, was one of the hardest things humans had to figure out - space travel wise. An arrangement of over ten thousand satellites had been set up between every planet that the human species was aware of. They allowed long distance calls to bounce from one to the other in a set up pathway to reach a ship. The issue was, no matter how hard or how advanced the technology got, the calls could only last for five minutes top, unless the ship stopped completely until the call was over.
But that was far too dangerous, especially for them.
The calls were not only hard to make, but extremely expensive for the caller. Upwards of thousands of dollars.
“Hello?” Nate was more than curious to find out who would make such a call.
“Nathaniel, it’s been too long.”
His blood ran cold, but a part of him was ecstatic and he let out a shaky breath. “Dad?” There was a long silence on the other end of the line, then a quiet sniffle, and breathy ‘yeah’. “Uh, dad. Um. Wow. Not that I’m not happy, but why are you calling me? Dad this is gonna cost –,”
“Nathan, please, be quiet for a moment.” He snapped his jaw shut and sat up straight in his chair. Force of habit. “I can’t imagine you slowed the speed of your ship at all so this has to be quick. Where are you?”
“Between Hudson and Aegarz.”
His father laughed. The receiver must’ve been a bit close, because he could hear the man swallow nervously. “You’ve gotten so far. I want you to promise me that whatever I’m about to say that you will continue on and you will discover the undiscovered. Do you promise?” He did. He promised, but only just barely. A small part of him knew what his father was going to say. He just didn’t want to believe it. “I can’t imagine what it’s like. Out there. Trusting nothing but the stars to guide you. But I guess you do have that fancy schmancy navigation system eh? Your mom was so happy when you decided to build that huge hunk o’ metal, you know that?”
“Dad.”
“I’m so sorry Nathan.”
“Dad.”
“We had no idea. She just, collapsed. The doctors say it was an aneurism. Can you believe that? All this technology and they can’t even find something like that.” Nate swallowed his pride, because dammit, it had only been six weeks. He would’ve been impassive if he didn’t start crying. It was a quiet type of sob, and he could tell that his father was being silent for him. “Do-do, you have any crewmates?”
“Uh, yeah, dad, can we please-,”
He got cut off. “Are they good people? Are any of them not human? Do you like them?”
Nate shook his head. “Yeah dad, they are. No, sadly they’re all human, just like me. And yes, I like them very much. Two of them are old though, and married.”
“Old?”
“In their late twenties.”
Laughter came through the speakers and he found himself laughing too. “Well if they’re old, I might as well be a gosh darn ghost then!”
It got quiet again. He rubbed his nose and leaned forward to lean against the dash. He made sure not to press any buttons. “I love you Nathaniel. Please don’t come back here.”
“I love you too dad. I promise I won’t.” He ran his hands through his hair and shook his head. “Thank you for not keeping this from me.” His dad just made a gruff noise that usually came with a nod. His life on Earth, his life with his parents, had been behind him since the moment he inched out of his home planet’s atmosphere. The thought of his mother being dead was a bit unbearable, but he knew that she had been dead to him, just as much as he had been dead to her, from the very beginning on his journey.
His father cleared his throat. “I hate to drop this bad news on you and go, but…”
“I understand. Bye dad.”
“Goodbye Nathan.”
And the call went dead.
He sat in silence and closed his eyes. The position he was in, with his back arched over the control panel, shoulders hunched, was rather uncomfortable. Nonetheless he began to fall asleep. Until his arms slipped and he fell to the floor. His arms sat motionless at the side of him, legs bent awkwardly underneath him, and his head rested on the side of the co-pilot’s chair.
The com crackled and Violet’s voice came over the speakers. “Nate your food is getting cold so get a move on and hurry to the kitchen.”
“On my way.” He jumped to his feet, and jogged to the kitchen.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
