No Safe Harbor: The Silver Liner by Daniel Sullivan

Author:Daniel Sullivan [Sullivan, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Wolf Paw Publications
Published: 2016-10-27T06:00:00+00:00

The crew met in the Pod Alpha cafeteria for a hastily prepared pizza and beer after the brief ceremony and all welcomed the moment of relative cheer in the midst of the Selene’s turbulence. Somehow, Father O’Carmody had managed to prepare the pizza and have it ready and waiting at the end of the ceremony. The crew spent a solid hour offering toasts to the newlyweds, each more outlandish than the last, and all had a good time. Keyes and Terri were more amorous than usual, caught up in the romance of the wedding in space and Mun was looking longingly at Heather. The engineer, for her part, was friendly with him, but their interactions never became romantic.

“So, Captain,” Cyrus asked, “where do you two plan to honeymoon?”

“Space,” he answered quickly.

“We’ll have a stay-cation,” Fiona added.

Lena raised her glass and said, “Here’s to a happy and passionate wedding night.”

All toasted with Lena, then went back to side conversations and the eating of pizza. The festivities were innocuous, but Amanda Keyes took things in a more serious direction.

“Captain, you know there is a tradition of ship captains marrying passengers. You wouldn’t mind doing that for Terri and me, would you?”

The room got quiet, all waiting on the captain’s answer. Terri, for her part, was shocked, her mouth open and her eyes wide.

Before Kendrick answered, Terri asked, “Amanda, I … do you … mean that?”

Keyes nodded, then got down on one knee. “Marry me, Terri.”

Terri blushed brightly and her eyes teared up. “Yes, Amanda! A thousand times, yes!”

Amanda stood, awaiting Kendrick’s response. The captain, however, gave her a pleasant smile, but shook his head.

“Ship captains can’t really marry people, Amanda,” he explained. “That’s mostly just Hollywood movie mythology. I mean, yeah, I’ll perform a unity ceremony; it won’t be legally binding … but sure, I’d marry you.”

The two women squealed in delight and Amanda hugged Kendrick tightly, kissing his cheek, apparently undeterred by the fact that it would not be a legal wedding.

“You have no idea what this means to us, Kendrick Royce,” she whispered in his ear. “Thank you.”

Kendrick shrugged, smiled and said, “You’re welcome, Amanda.” If a non-legally binding wedding ceremony would make Amanda and Terri happy, why not? He put the question from his mind, however, as he had a more important matter to attend. He and his bride had stayed long enough to satisfy social custom, so he stood and took the brake off of Fiona’s wheelchair, preparing to wheel her from the lounge.

“Everyone, thank you,” the captain exclaimed. “Seriously; this has been … it’s been just what we needed.”

“No problem, Captain,” Kang offered. “Now get that bride of yours back to your cabin for the wedding night! Booyah!” He extended a fist toward Kendrick.

The captain dutifully bumped Mun’s fist with his own, then shared a hearty handshake with a congratulatory Cyrus. After saying their good-nights to the crew, Kendrick then turned to Ronan.

“Thank you, Father. When we get through all of this, I’d like to have a formal ceremony, with all the bells and whistles.

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