The Loneliness of Stars

by Z. M. Wilmot

  ~Lieutenant Daniel Ironton in an interview about his acceptance of the post of officer on the Ambassador expedition

  Baltia was dazzling. It was easily twice the size of the other two stars we had visited, and much brighter. I couldn’t look at it for more than a few seconds at a time without special equipment (which I didn’t have). The “scientists,” or whoever was playing their part, claimed that there was something coming from the fifth planet in the system. It was not the larger signal we had been following, but still something peculiar. Korzos announced that he was going to dispatch a boarding party, led by Mather, to the surface of the planet. During the speech that Korzos gave announcing the signal’s discovery, I learned that there were four landing craft stowed around the ship (two on each side) that Ezekiel had failed to show me. When I later approached him about it, he shrugged and said that it had merely slipped his mind.

  The team would consist of five people. Mather was going, of course, along with Angela, Peter Robos, the long-haired man Ezekiel and I had seen Peter with, and another I didn’t know. When questioned by Michaela about why neither of the scientists were going along, he said that they had more important work to do on the Ambassador, but that Mather had been given instructions to collect planetary samples. It seemed like a hollow explanation to me, and I heard some murmurs among the rest of the crew. Korzos glared at the whole group until they quieted down. Ivor smirked at him from across the room. I was standing in between the two of them, not wanting to get too close to either – there was something seriously wrong with them both.

  After we were dismissed, Ezekiel returned to help Joseph prepare meals for the landing crew, who would be on the planet for a day-cycle or two, after making the day-long journey to the planet (Korzos didn’t want the Ambassador getting too close to the star). I followed him down, but Joseph told me that he only needed Ezekiel for this. I had begun to notice that I was not needed very often, despite Korzos’ claim that I was to earn my keep. I decided that that was why I kept getting into trouble – I just didn’t have enough to do.

  I ended up finding Michaela, who I had been getting along with rather well, and playing spissyx with her for an hour. As we played, I asked her what she knew about Korzos, Ivor, Adam, and Crydgar. Against my better judgment, I was now determined to figure out what was going on – my damn family curiosity always gets the better of me. That curiosity was responsible for my birth, you know. It probably would be the cause of my death, too, if I didn’t get a hold on it soon.

  Michaela didn’t have much to say on Korzos that I didn’t already know: brave, handsome, dashing, commanding, stern, kind, smart. I sensed an undercurrent of doubt in her speech, as if she didn’t quite believe what she was saying. She knew next to nothing about Ivor, and had never even heard of Adam before this mission. Crydgar, too, was an enigma to her. She had duties to attend to after our second game, and left me (alone, I might add) to entertain myself. I wandered down to my room, ever watchful for Ivor and Sansson, and ran across a man I hadn’t met before. I walked by him without a word, only a nod. As soon as he was behind me, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I jumped and whirled around, only to find the man laughing. He had short black hair and an unkempt but short beard. “Jak? The stowaway?” I nodded slowly.

  He stepped back and held out his hand. I shook it. He had a very firm handshake. “The name’s Vincent. Vincent Magritto. I’m the head of security on the ship. I’m very impressed that you managed to get on board and stay here through take-off. Do you mind telling me about it? I can’t do my job properly without knowing, you know.” He winked at me.

  I suppressed a sigh and told him the story I had told to so many people already. He paid me more attention that I was used to, nodding and smiling throughout. When I was done, he congratulated me, giving me a huge slap on the back. “Brilliant, boy, just brilliant! Congratulations! You really do deserve to be on this crew.” I didn’t think it was so brilliant, especially what with me stacking things on top of my food crate, but I thanked him for his kind words, and we soon parted ways. I continued heading back towards my room.

  I was very close, only a mere thirty seconds or so away, when I felt something slam into the back of my head. I fell over, and my vision went black.