Rekindled Alliance by James David Victor

Author:James David Victor [Victor, James David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fairfield Publishing
Published: 2023-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

11

It was almost peaceful. Floating. The quiet. It should have been, at least. Or that's what people kept telling Liezl Danbury.

There's nothing like staring out at the endless void. It's so calm. So peaceful.

Liezl called bullshit on all of that. It terrified her, the emptiness. The forever-stretching nothing. The company she kept did nothing to assuage her unease. Beck hadn't spoken a word since they left the fleet. That wasn't unexpected—Beck was typically quiet—but the circumstances had changed. The context was different.

"Are you...okay?" Liezl couldn't take the silence any longer. She needed to say something, even if it was nothing of value.

"No."

Of course she wasn't. Her only child was rocketing toward Earth. The father of said child was on the other side of the system, likely embarking on a suicide mission. She, herself, was about to embark on her own suicide mission. And she was stuck in this can with Liezl, a woman Beck had long regarded as bureaucrat and windbag. Liezl assumed that, at least. Beck had never said that. Not that she ever said anything at all.

"Do you hate me?" The words punched their way out of Liezl's mouth before she could think them.

"No."

"Do you like me?" They wouldn't stop coming out.

"Yes."

"Really?" That couldn't be true.

"Why are you asking me these questions?"

Liezl had to think about that, so the words didn't come spilling out of her like cold pizza after a frat party. "I don't know. Curious?"

"Nervous. You talk a lot when you're nervous."

"Well, I can't deny that. According to my mom, it's something I've always done. I was one of those kids whose report cards always said ‘disruptive in class’ because I couldn't keep the words from coming out. Whoa, does that mean I was always nervous in school? I used to think I was just social, chatty, you know? But maybe I was really anxious? I'm a girl, so I was supposed to be chatty, right? That's what everyone told me, anyway. I'm sure you got the same thing." Silence. "No, I guess you didn't."

"I had my own difficulties when I was young."

Liezl's compulsive need to speak eased. She felt like the lights were turning down and the music was rising at the start of a movie.

"I was not chatty. Or social. I was told to be. I tried—for a little while—but I quickly realized that not only did I not know how to be, but I also didn’t care to be."

"Was it lonely?"

Beck pondered the question a moment. "I was told that it should have been, but I never felt lonely. It may be a cliche nerd kid thing to say, but I had books. I had my imagination."

Liezl smiled. "I didn't picture you having much of an imagination. No offense."

"None taken. It's a common assumption." Beck, who had been stooped in front of the command harness to calibrate the navigational tools, turned to face Liezl, comfortable in the co-pilot's chair. "People don't see anything happening here." She pointed to her face. "So they assume nothing happens in here.

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