Firmament: Machiavellian

by J. Grace Pennington

  He stepped back, his fingers clenched, and he drew himself up to his full height. “Lee?” he said softly in disbelief.

  Only then did I understand where I’d seen the eyes before. The chaplain stared back into the Captain’s face, and he could almost have been looking into a mirror.

  Chapter II

  A dead silence fell upon both groups, and the chaplain took a step forward, his mouth hanging open just enough to display two rows of perfectly straight teeth. “Harrison? You don’t mean to tell me…”

  “Heaven, it is you!” The Captain blinked rapidly, pressed his lips together, and unclenched his fists. His eyes sparked before glazing over, then his eyelids drooped to obscure them. “What in the name of all the Earth do you think you’re doing out in space?”

  “It’s a long story.” The chaplain smiled almost imperceptibly, and absently rubbed his wrist, still staring at the Captain but not moving towards him. “You’ll shake my hand, won’t you, Harrison? Don’t you think it’s been long enough?”

  “Of course I’ll shake your hand.” The Captain plastered on a smile and advanced, but there was no warmth in the single pump he gave the chaplain’s hand.

  “Who is he?” I whispered to the Doctor, who watched the scene with head tilted to one side.

  Napoleon began babbling again, more to himself than anyone else. “Why, to be sure, the chaplain’s name is Trent, I forgot all about that! It all comes of calling someone by their profession instead of their name. Dear chaplain, well, I’m pleased, very pleased!”

  The Captain shook his head, as if forcing himself to wake up. Then he turned to us with the same fake smile. “This is my brother, Lee Trent.”

  Muted gasps and murmurs rippled through the crew members. I jerked my head up to look at the Doctor, who kept his eyes fixed on the two brothers, his forehead lined in concern.

  Why had I never heard that the Captain had a brother, after knowing him for more than ten years?

  Napoleon stood about a meter from me, his round face beaming. His voice silenced the curious whispers without effort. “As I said, I am pleased, I am very pleased that such a wonderful meeting has occurred! However, begging your pardon, my dear Captain, my men and I are quite tired, do you think perhaps we might be shown to our rooms?” He asked it with a kind smile, somehow sounding as though he were asking to do the Captain a favor rather than the other way around.

  The other blue-uniformed men moved silently away from the airlock towards their commander, and Captain Trent pried his eyes away from his brother long enough to say, “Certainly. Lieutenants Wilson and Martine will escort you. I hope you enjoy your stay, Captain Holloway.”

  “Oh, just Holloway, please, Captain. And thank you.” With another smile, he turned on his heel in a military fashion and followed the named officers down the hall, with Doctor Pearson lumbering close behind, and the other blue-suits following.

  “Dismissed,” the Captain said clearly, and he didn’t have to repeat himself. Most of the assorted officers scattered, starting up the whispers again as they disbanded down the hall.

  I wanted nothing more than to stay and assuage my curiosity, but I reluctantly tugged on the Doctor’s arm. The Doctor gently pushed my hand away and advanced to where the Captain and his brother stood.

  “Hello, Lee,” he said quietly.

  Lee hadn’t looked away from his brother since he first laid eyes on him, but hearing his name pronounced in those distinctively understated tones, he turned his head. To my surprise, a relaxed smile formed on his lips, and he put his hand out. “Gerard Lloyd! You’re the last person I expected to find in space.”

  “That goes for both of us.”

  The Captain blinked and shook his head again, no longer smiling. “Yes.”

  Turning back to his brother, Lee held out both hands. “Harrison, the past is the past…”

  “Yes.” He seemed capable of saying nothing else, but after a heavy silence, he blurted out, “You must have known I was here. Captain Holloway knew my name.”

  Lee’s hands dropped to his sides, and he breathed a soft sigh. “I give you my word. I didn’t. You've met our eccentric captain—he never uses anyone’s names if he can help it, except Pearson’s. He just kept talking about ‘the captain of the passing ship.’ He was quite pleased to see you passing by.” He almost smiled, but the Captain’s expression didn’t relax.

  Clearing his throat, Lee turned to me and tried to smile again. “Who is this?”

  The Doctor beckoned to me, and I stepped forward. “I’m Andi Lloyd.”

  “Lloyd?” He looked from me to the Doctor and back again. “Your daughter, Gerard? So did you ever…”

  “No,” the Doctor interrupted dismissively. “She’s adopted.”

  “I should get back to the bridge.” The Captain pronounced the sentence crisply, cutting off each word an instant too soon. “Doctor Lloyd can show you to your room, Lee. Dinner will be served at eighteen sharp.” Without any expressions to give character to his words, he turned and walked towards the nearest elevator with carefully measured steps.

  *****

  The Doctor and I weren’t alone until after dinner that night. First we had to escort Lee to his room, which was a silent task. As we passed one of the open doors, I saw Napoleon’s face beaming out at us in an extremely pleased manner.

  Next the Doctor had to finish up with his patient, whom he’d left to rest during the boarding. During that time I filled my second-favorite position on the ship; helping Almira with dinner.

  If the Captain was the father of the Surveyor, Almira was the mother. More than the cook, she was friend, confidant, and mother confessor to more than half the ship. For me, she had filled the role that my own mother had been unable to play in my life. Countless were the times I’d chattered away in the galley while she listened cheerfully, her black face attentive and her plump, skilled hands kneading bread or stirring soup for the crew.

  It was a rare problem indeed that she couldn’t fix or help me with, but today my question warranted only a shake of the head from her. “Don’t know, honey. I didn’t even know he had a brother.”

  Nor, it seemed, had anyone else. Except the Doctor.

  When at last he and I were in sickbay after Olive had gone for the night, I opened my mouth to let my questions spill out, but he stopped me.

  “No, I don’t know what happened between them. There, I’ve saved you from having to ask about it.”

  “But that’s not my only question.” I opened the main cabinet and carefully placed his regen kit where it belonged this time.

  “Fine.” He reached his arm into his office, turned off its light, and strolled in my direction. “What are your questions? Don’t expect me to have all the answers, though. I knew him when we were kids, but that’s it.”

  “Kids?”

  “Yes. Trent and I met in college.”

  “College-aged people aren’t kids, Dad.”

  “They are to me.” He pulled the switch next to the recyclator hatch to drop the day’s garbage into the hold, and then pushed a button near the laundry chute to send the dirty sheets off.

  “Just tell me everything,” I begged, sitting on the edge of the nearest cot and smoothing out my black skirt.

  He sat on the cot across from me and stroked his chin, fingers catching on traces of gray stubble. “I’ve told you how Trent and I met, right?”

  “Tell me again,” I smiled.

  He shook his head at me, but complied. “Silly girl. Well, we were in college—he was a freshman while I was a junior. He was always one to get into trouble, and I was always one to stay out of trouble. Not that I got along well with most people—well, you know how I am.”

  I reached across and touched his hand. He smiled.

  “People don’t like me because I’m so grumpy.”

  “Dad, that’s not true.”

  “Yes it is. It’s okay, you like me, and so do Trent and Crash and Guilders and Almira, and that’s enough for me. Where wa
s I?”

  “He got into trouble at college.”

  “Oh yes. I’m sure you can imagine that—he fought a lot, and I would help him out of trouble with the faculty sometimes, since I was a model student and the teachers tended to favor me. Being the warm-hearted person he is, he decided we were friends. It was a little strange—I was a twenty-four-year-old beanstalk, set on being a doctor and not interested in socializing; no parents, working every spare second to take care of my little sister. He was eighteen, good-looking and popular, fun-loving, with a mother living and a little brother in high school.”

  The smooth vibrations and quiet hum of the ship’s inner workings filled the silence as he paused to gather his thoughts, his eyes narrowing as if looking beyond me into the past.

  “He and Lee were buddies back then. They did everything together. They weren’t alike, though—Lee was quieter, more thoughtful… Introspective. He was a hard worker and a steady student, and it made their mother proud. And Lee thought Trent hung the moon, let me tell you. I got to know him during the times Trent would invite me home for dinner or something. We got along well. I remember one hunting trip the two of them dragged me on. Trent shot himself in the leg, and I, the brilliant young medic that I was, tried to suture it with tree sap. He wasn’t exactly happy with me when he woke up that night to find insects feeding on his wound.”

  I clapped my hand over my mouth, and the Doctor laughed, his gray eyes twinkling in a way I hadn’t seen in a long time.

  “Like I said,” he went on, “I don’t know what happened between him and Lee. After I graduated, I went on to medical school, and we went our separate ways. We still kept in touch, but didn’t really see each other anymore. Later I heard that Trent had gone to space and was working as a navigator. I visited Lee once, and we had a nice time reminiscing—but there was something different. I asked how his brother was, and he didn’t give me a straight answer. That was twenty-two years ago. And that was the last time I saw him—until today.”

  For a moment after he finished his story, I kept silent, watching the Doctor’s face as he went on reliving the memories that Lee’s appearance had triggered. His expression faded from a quiet smile to a pained frown, then softened again as he looked at me. I smiled at him. He rarely talked about his life before I’d come along, but I knew that there were painful losses connected with every person in his family except me. His parents had died, and his sister had run off with an unfaithful husband. Her son, Crash, though he had good qualities, was not the kind of man to be depended on.

  He closed his eyes for a few seconds, opened them, and forced his expression back into its typical half-cynical look. “Come on,” he said, standing up, “it’s late.”

  “But Doctor,” I protested, “you never asked the Captain about Lee? And you never mentioned it to me?”

  “Like I said, that was more than twenty years ago. Besides, pretty soon after all that happened, you came along, and then I had to help Crash, and you two kept me busy. By the time Trent called me to see if I wanted the position of ship’s doctor here, I hadn’t had time to think about either of them for twelve years at least. Old men don’t remember things like you young people do.”

  “What does that have to do with you?” I said, feigning wide-eyed innocence.

  He scoffed smilingly. “Strange as it may seem to you, I’d just about forgotten about Lee. And if it had been that long since they spoke, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d just about forgotten each other. Now come on, Andi.”

  I stood up and followed him to the door, my mind still whirring. “But why do you think the Captain seemed shocked to see Lee in space? Could that have anything to do with it?”

  “I don’t know. And I’m not going to wear myself out worrying over something I don’t know anything about.”

  I sighed a bit as he dimmed the lights until the rows of cots were just white shadows stretching down the room.

  Instead of walking through the doorway, he turned to me with a smile of unusual warmth and held out his hand for mine. “I have a thought.”

  “I’d like to hear it.” I squeezed his hand, pleased at his affectionate mood.

  “What do you say we pray about this whole thing? Trent and Lee. I suppose they could use a little help from God.”

  “Everybody could,” I agreed, and bowed my head along with him.

  “Father,” he began, dropping his voice to a respectful but matter-of-fact tone, as if the person to whom he spoke was only a whisper away, “Andi and I don’t like to see Trent and Lee estranged like this. It’s not right—you made them brothers, and you want them to love each other. We don’t know what made them so distanced, but you do, and we ask in the name of your Son that you would help them get past it. Amen.”

  “Amen,” I echoed, realizing as I opened my eyes that the lights had been dimmed in the outer halls, meaning it must be twenty o’ clock.

  In the nighttime silence we slipped down the halls until we reached my quarters.

  “One more thing,” I asked as my door slid open. “Was Lee a Christian back then?”

  The Doctor cocked his head. “Not when we were really young, no. It was when we were a little older—still kids, you know. I think he was about twenty-seven. I just talked to him a little bit, and he decided.”

  He ended the sentence abruptly, and I waited for a moment, but he said nothing else.

  “You mean… you led him to Christ?”

  He shook his head at me. “Now Andi, you know I didn’t really have anything to do with it. It was all God.”

  Feeling comfortable warmth seep outward from my heart, I stood on my tip-toes and kissed him lightly on the cheek. As he stared at me, I smiled, said “Goodnight, Doctor,” and disappeared into my room.

  Chapter III

  Six thirty the next morning found me curled up in one of the Doctor’s firm upholstered chairs, lazily flipping through my Bible and enjoying the warmth of the heater. We had been reading Romans together, though we rarely made it through more than a few verses a day, since every other word seemed to spark endless discussion. This morning we just had time to open our books to to the current passage before he had to rush away to attend to a call from sickbay.

  I had meant to follow him and help, but I was so warm and comfortable that I lingered for awhile, savoring the feel of the smooth, thin leaves and soft leather cover of my conventional book. The cold metal of an electronic book could never compare.

  The door chime interrupted my reverie, and I looked up from my idle page-turning. “Yes?” I called.

  The door slid open and Napoleon stood there, his military bearing just as pronounced as the day before, and his clothes just as sparkling. He peeked in, but did not enter, and I noted that he held a cloth to his chin as he glanced around the room before resting his gaze on me.

  “Ah, I beg your pardon,” he said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt, I assure you.”

  “Actually I was just on my way out, did you need something?” Standing, I closed the book and set it on the little table between the chairs.

  “I just wanted to see if perhaps your father could direct me to an extra electric razor. You see, mine is quite broken, and Doctor Pearson can’t seem to fix it. I’ve been trying with a bare blade, but… well, you see how it is.” He pulled the cloth away, revealing a steady trickle of blood from a cut just under his mouth.

  I certainly did. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think the Doctor can help… he doesn’t like electric razors. Doesn’t care for technology in general.” I paused, then added, “You should probably ask Ensign Vaughn from hospitality for help with things like that.”

  “Oh dear, dear me. Well, I’m quite sorry to interrupt then, it’s done neither of us any good.”

  His mournful face was so funny that I couldn’t help a laugh. “Well, we can’t have that. If you’ll come along to sickbay, the Doctor or I can at least fix that chin for you.”

  He stood out of the way and gestured for me to exit with a gallant flouris
h of his arm. “I’d be pleased, Miss Lloyd. I’m sure I could take care of it myself, but I can’t refuse a lovely lady like yourself.”

  His pleasant tone made the words sound like a half-joke, but also with a hint of naïvete and chivalrous truth. So I scuttled out of the room to lead him down the hall and up the elevator to sickbay.

  It was early morning still, and the corridors were nearly empty. As we strolled, the occasional ensign passed us on the way to breakfast, and a mate trotted by in exercise clothes, but for the most part we were alone. Napoleon was so short and self-possessed that walking next to him made me feel like a clumsy giant, no matter how I tried to shake the feeling. And I didn’t notice it as we walked, but when the conversation was over I realized he hadn’t said a single thing about himself or his station.

  “I don’t suppose you have any idea what the problem is between my chaplain and his brother? I am pleased to have brought them together, quite pleased, but it does pain me to see them at such odds.” He sighed.

  “I’m afraid not. I didn’t even know the Captain had a brother until yesterday.”

  He shook his head sadly, but changed the subject as we reached the elevator. “This is a beautiful ship.” He ran his hand over the smooth metal wall with respect, and it gave a muted white reflection of his fingers. “She must have been through many dangers in her time.”

  I pressed the elevator button with my thumb. “Yes.” Pain pinched my chest at the word “danger,” prompting my mind to wander over the past few months.

  “Any lately?” He turned his small dark eyes on me with natural curiosity. “I don’t mean to pry, of course, but starships rarely pass so near the Copernicus, and I couldn’t help wondering why…”

  The elevator doors opened, and he held out his arm to keep them open for me. I stepped in and joined the single ensign who stood quietly inside. Napoleon followed, and I said “B-Deck” as the doors slid closed. Then, “The ship wasn’t in much danger, no, but… some of her members were.” I swallowed.