Why did he run?
The explosions afterglow fades from my eyes, and space becomes black again.
Did he want to die?
I sit in my ship, staring into space. My reflection stares back at me, pale and empty.
Did he ever understand the truth?
The cockpit becomes cold again, the canopy frost distorting my reflection.
My Eagle is scarred and old; long ago it shone like the sun- a new beginning from a monotonous life of sweaty labour…. the stench of biowaste and soil replaced with smells of recycled air and oily metal.
So long ago….
Such a small mistake…
Everyone flies too fast in stations, right?
I still hear the pilot scream as he burns inside his ship, my Eagle groaning as its hull gets torn and dented from the collision. My radar becomes a sea of red, and in blind panic I run.
The light of civilisation dims as I flee to the twilight worlds on the edges of known space. With each jump my old life fades, my future becoming increasingly uncertain.
I drop out into another backwater system, balls of dust and rock circling a meaningless star.
I have nothing left. Little fuel, no money, no hope.
A radar contact flares on my screen. I fly towards it, and plead like a street beggar for charity. The ship flies away, radio ablaze.
“Hauler Millionaire’s Hope to any system patrol vessel! Need immediate assistance, being pursued by suspicious vessel, please assist!”
I rage in my cockpit. “Shut up! Shut up!”
The distress call radiates outward, rushing towards a thousand electronic ears.
“SHUT UP!”
Before I can think, my fingers stab at my weapon triggers. White hot energy slices the Hauler in two, its cargo spinning wildly into space.
It was him or me, right? I had no choice…..
I want to vomit as my future falls deeper into the abyss.
Amid the debris, cargo pods float past my cockpit.
Clothes. Metals. Money. Life.
Like a starving man taking his first bite of human flesh to survive the wilderness, something changes as my Eagle ingests the floating cargo. Concepts of morality twist unrecognisably as the shadows become my friend.
I begin to weep as I am reborn in this desolate place.
I finally understand the truth of this life.
The weak are consumed by the strong.
My attention snaps back to the present. As debris from the trader disappears into the inky darkness of the planets shadow, I feel no pity or remorse. This pilot went against the order of things, and paid with his life.
I prise the cargo from the wreck, and discard the rest. Caught in the gas giants gravity, the smashed hulk spirals downwards into oblivion.
I have become the truth.
I am the Truth.
The explosions afterglow fades from my eyes, and space becomes black again.
Did he want to die?
I sit in my ship, staring into space. My reflection stares back at me, pale and empty.
Did he ever understand the truth?
The cockpit becomes cold again, the canopy frost distorting my reflection.
My Eagle is scarred and old; long ago it shone like the sun- a new beginning from a monotonous life of sweaty labour…. the stench of biowaste and soil replaced with smells of recycled air and oily metal.
So long ago….
Such a small mistake…
Everyone flies too fast in stations, right?
I still hear the pilot scream as he burns inside his ship, my Eagle groaning as its hull gets torn and dented from the collision. My radar becomes a sea of red, and in blind panic I run.
The light of civilisation dims as I flee to the twilight worlds on the edges of known space. With each jump my old life fades, my future becoming increasingly uncertain.
I drop out into another backwater system, balls of dust and rock circling a meaningless star.
I have nothing left. Little fuel, no money, no hope.
A radar contact flares on my screen. I fly towards it, and plead like a street beggar for charity. The ship flies away, radio ablaze.
“Hauler Millionaire’s Hope to any system patrol vessel! Need immediate assistance, being pursued by suspicious vessel, please assist!”
I rage in my cockpit. “Shut up! Shut up!”
The distress call radiates outward, rushing towards a thousand electronic ears.
“SHUT UP!”
Before I can think, my fingers stab at my weapon triggers. White hot energy slices the Hauler in two, its cargo spinning wildly into space.
It was him or me, right? I had no choice…..
I want to vomit as my future falls deeper into the abyss.
Amid the debris, cargo pods float past my cockpit.
Clothes. Metals. Money. Life.
Like a starving man taking his first bite of human flesh to survive the wilderness, something changes as my Eagle ingests the floating cargo. Concepts of morality twist unrecognisably as the shadows become my friend.
I begin to weep as I am reborn in this desolate place.
I finally understand the truth of this life.
The weak are consumed by the strong.
My attention snaps back to the present. As debris from the trader disappears into the inky darkness of the planets shadow, I feel no pity or remorse. This pilot went against the order of things, and paid with his life.
I prise the cargo from the wreck, and discard the rest. Caught in the gas giants gravity, the smashed hulk spirals downwards into oblivion.
I have become the truth.
I am the Truth.