I appreciate any and all feedback on this short spacey xmas tale. Thanks!
———————
Regulus
“You lied to me,” crackled over the spacesuit headset.
Well, technically it wasn’t a lie. Withholding the truth was not lying. But still, she sounded angry, and rightly so. He had to be cautious then, or risk losing her support.
“I did it for your own good.” Dang, probably not the right thing to have said.
Her face reddened behind the glare of her visor. If he could’ve heard through the dead silence of space, it’d have probably been the sound of her breathing air system operating at max capacity.
They worked the rest of their shift in silence, which was a good thing: it precluded him from saying anything more stupid. And he would have, given the chance. After all, he always did. Routine maintenance of the orbiting space station’s solar arrays was a task they had completed hundreds of times over the last three years, and it turned out they didn’t need to speak anymore to do it.
They finished, entered the airlock and began removing their suits.
“Look, Simone—“
“Don’t ‘look Simone’ me,” she said, her auburn hair tousling over her shoulders after spilling from her helmet. “As your mission commander I should have been informed the moment you even suspected. You’ve got some explaining to do, and it better start in 3, 2, 1…”
“Ok, yes, you’re right,” John said, avoiding the sharp gaze of her piercing green eyes. “But first, I didn’t lie. I just—“ He rubbed his hand through his sweat matted helmet hair. “—I just didn’t tell you the whole truth.”
The airlock opened with a hiss and they re-entered the relative calm of the station’s inner hull. While they may have been temporarily protected from the intensive solar radiation of the four suns there, John feared an even more dangerous flare brewing in Simone. The airlock closed behind and Simone spun on him, her finger jabbed menacingly in his face.
“Three years we have spent together on this station,” she blazed. “Three years! I thought I could trust you. What the hell am I saying. I have trusted you. With my life. And now this. How am I supposed to continue trusting you?” She looked at him, apparently waiting for an answer.
John hoped what he said next didn’t sound too stupid. “I didn’t know.”
Her finger fell to his chest. “What?”
His gaze moved to the floor, and his feet shuffled about. “I didn’t think it was possible,” he said after a long pause, more to the decking than Simone.
“Not possible? Don’t you match the genetic profile? Didn’t you volunteer for this mission? Don’t you spend over four hours a day bathing in the solar radiation concentrating chamber as prescribed? Are you not still a virgin? Not possible? YOU CAME HERE SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS REASON!”
“Ok, calm down.” The nearly imperceptible motion of the station’s continuous plummet around the fourth unnamed planet of the double-binary Regulus star system was making him queasy. In the past three years it had never done that. Not until recently.
Simone must have noticed because she quickly came to his side and supported his arm. “Are you ok? You look like you might be sick?”
“No it’s fine. It’s just—“ Bile rose quickly in his throat. He clenched his lips tight as to not make a mess there. Simone rushed him to the lavatory where he emptied his stomach.
Later, as they rested together with his head in her lap and Simone tenderly caressing his forehead, a communication from the Imperial Church arrived. It read:
Hark! We have received and analyzed your latest quarterly physical report. A miracle has occurred! For over 10 millennia the Imperial Church has awaited fulfillment of the Prophecy of the Bearer, the Second Coming of our Blessed Ruler, and the ushering in of a new era of Peace and Blessing. Thousands of devout male virgins have perished in the holy fires of the sacred suns of Regulus in this bravest of crusades; it is in the enriched aura of these past sacrifices that you have now blossomed. Your service to the Church shall not be without reward. The remaining days of your natural lives, as well as your eternal afterlives, will be spent among the hallowed halls and gardens of the Imperial Palace. Also per custom, you will be granted the privilege of naming the coming Savior, our new Empress. A ship has been dispatched to return you to the Central System and should arrive within the week. Congratulations!
With gratitude, Popess Grace the XXIV
John and Simone set the tablet displaying the communique down on the bed and clasped hands. John placed his free hand on his slightly swollen abdomen, and suddenly craved pickles and ice cream. He smiled nervously up at Simone. “Well, what should we name her?”
———————
Regulus
“You lied to me,” crackled over the spacesuit headset.
Well, technically it wasn’t a lie. Withholding the truth was not lying. But still, she sounded angry, and rightly so. He had to be cautious then, or risk losing her support.
“I did it for your own good.” Dang, probably not the right thing to have said.
Her face reddened behind the glare of her visor. If he could’ve heard through the dead silence of space, it’d have probably been the sound of her breathing air system operating at max capacity.
They worked the rest of their shift in silence, which was a good thing: it precluded him from saying anything more stupid. And he would have, given the chance. After all, he always did. Routine maintenance of the orbiting space station’s solar arrays was a task they had completed hundreds of times over the last three years, and it turned out they didn’t need to speak anymore to do it.
They finished, entered the airlock and began removing their suits.
“Look, Simone—“
“Don’t ‘look Simone’ me,” she said, her auburn hair tousling over her shoulders after spilling from her helmet. “As your mission commander I should have been informed the moment you even suspected. You’ve got some explaining to do, and it better start in 3, 2, 1…”
“Ok, yes, you’re right,” John said, avoiding the sharp gaze of her piercing green eyes. “But first, I didn’t lie. I just—“ He rubbed his hand through his sweat matted helmet hair. “—I just didn’t tell you the whole truth.”
The airlock opened with a hiss and they re-entered the relative calm of the station’s inner hull. While they may have been temporarily protected from the intensive solar radiation of the four suns there, John feared an even more dangerous flare brewing in Simone. The airlock closed behind and Simone spun on him, her finger jabbed menacingly in his face.
“Three years we have spent together on this station,” she blazed. “Three years! I thought I could trust you. What the hell am I saying. I have trusted you. With my life. And now this. How am I supposed to continue trusting you?” She looked at him, apparently waiting for an answer.
John hoped what he said next didn’t sound too stupid. “I didn’t know.”
Her finger fell to his chest. “What?”
His gaze moved to the floor, and his feet shuffled about. “I didn’t think it was possible,” he said after a long pause, more to the decking than Simone.
“Not possible? Don’t you match the genetic profile? Didn’t you volunteer for this mission? Don’t you spend over four hours a day bathing in the solar radiation concentrating chamber as prescribed? Are you not still a virgin? Not possible? YOU CAME HERE SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS REASON!”
“Ok, calm down.” The nearly imperceptible motion of the station’s continuous plummet around the fourth unnamed planet of the double-binary Regulus star system was making him queasy. In the past three years it had never done that. Not until recently.
Simone must have noticed because she quickly came to his side and supported his arm. “Are you ok? You look like you might be sick?”
“No it’s fine. It’s just—“ Bile rose quickly in his throat. He clenched his lips tight as to not make a mess there. Simone rushed him to the lavatory where he emptied his stomach.
Later, as they rested together with his head in her lap and Simone tenderly caressing his forehead, a communication from the Imperial Church arrived. It read:
Hark! We have received and analyzed your latest quarterly physical report. A miracle has occurred! For over 10 millennia the Imperial Church has awaited fulfillment of the Prophecy of the Bearer, the Second Coming of our Blessed Ruler, and the ushering in of a new era of Peace and Blessing. Thousands of devout male virgins have perished in the holy fires of the sacred suns of Regulus in this bravest of crusades; it is in the enriched aura of these past sacrifices that you have now blossomed. Your service to the Church shall not be without reward. The remaining days of your natural lives, as well as your eternal afterlives, will be spent among the hallowed halls and gardens of the Imperial Palace. Also per custom, you will be granted the privilege of naming the coming Savior, our new Empress. A ship has been dispatched to return you to the Central System and should arrive within the week. Congratulations!
With gratitude, Popess Grace the XXIV
John and Simone set the tablet displaying the communique down on the bed and clasped hands. John placed his free hand on his slightly swollen abdomen, and suddenly craved pickles and ice cream. He smiled nervously up at Simone. “Well, what should we name her?”
