Raynor was pulled from his blissful sleep slowly by the clinking of boots pacing on the metal floor of the Wraith. The sounds tried to find a place in his dreams, but to no avail.
And then, trying to fall asleep again, he realized something was wrong. His eyes popped wide open and he sat up with a start. He sat up. He heard people walking. His mind searched for an answer to these not-so odd oddities, and it finally came to him as he stared blankly into Netone’s smiling face leaning over him.
“You’ll be happy to know, Jim, that we have restored the gravity. Of course, being the perceptive observer that you are, you already realized that.” Netone chuckled. “Or, rather, the gravity restored itself. This ship is in worse shape than you thought, and it seems your systems are rather defective, so-“
Raynor interrupted him. “Hold up a second there, man.” he said, alarmed. “Say that again, will you?” Netone smiled and willingly repeated it.
“So you mean to tell me that it fixed itself? How the hell did that happen?”
“Ah, well, Jim, as far as we can figure, when you stopped the self-destruct sequence and it cut the power and the engines, the auxiliary power came on. While it didn’t restore engine power, it kept some of the most basic ship functions running. Most importantly, the lights. I can’t believe that it escaped both of our ingenious minds that there had to be some power if the lights were still on.” Netone shrugged apologetically, with what almost seemed like a sinister grin to Jim. “Anyways, when the aux power ran low a few hours ago, it started running an emergency program to restore the main power. Apparently it succeeded, and we’re back where we started. Now that we have gravity and power and all that other crap, the only thing we lack is air, and I regret to say that I really don’t think that what we brought with us is going to last much longer.”
Jim scratched his head. “Just how much more air do you think we’ve got, anyhow?”
“Enough to last us to where ever we want to go, I guess. At least, it’ll have to be.”
“Don’t you think that might influence where we want to go, just a tad, maybe?” Jim said sarcastically.
“Naaah. I don’t know where you get a crazy idea like that from.” said Netone with an exaggerated sigh. “In any case, now that we are in command of a fully functional ship, or at least as functional as were going to get for awhile, I have no choice but to fulfill my duty and bring you back home.”
Raynor scowled. “Don’t you think I have some say in that?”
“I’m afraid not where the Confederacy is concerned, along with a few over-weight officials, if you get what I’m driving at.”
“Perfectly.” said Jim in a sour voice. “Your zeal and enthusiasm in performing your duties is dully noted, O Honorable Confederate Judge Netone.”
Netone grinned. “I didn’t know you knew so many big words, Jim.”
Jim flushed angrily.
“Anyhow, I’m very pleased that you are going along so peacefully with our plans.”
“Whutever I cain do tu halp thu guverment, sur.” muttered Jim sarcastically. Netone roared with laughter.
“That’s the spirit! I like to see you take all this with a sense of humor.”
“You have no idea.”
“I would read you your rights, but as a prisoner of the Confederacy, well,” said Netone with a grin, “you really don’t have any to speak of.”
“I just love how fair and just your law system is.”
“Don’t you just?” asked Netone cheerfully. “Well, prisoner, I would leave you here in your cell, but this dammed ship is so small looks like I’m going to have to share it with you and my boys. Of course, that makes security so much tighter, don’t you think?”
“Oh, yes, definitely. Makes me envious. I wish I had security this good.” said Jim sarcastically.
“Well, after all, boy, you don’t have anything to keep secure, so you don’t really need it, eh?” Netone chuckled. Jim didn’t.
Jim got up and moved over to the window and looked out it. Netone had the presence of mind not to follow him.
He thought back over what had happened to him over the last few months, nearly a year, actually, since he left home with his aspiring brothers, and he wondered what freakish series of coincidences had led him to where he was now. He of course, knew them intimately, since he had lived through them, but he was still in the dark about many things, including the original reason for his arrest. There had been the letter, of course, but Jim was unsure about the origin of the letter itself. There were many possibilities, and Jim had thought of them all over the long months. The letter could have been planted on them after they died, to frame Jim and what was left of his family, but that made little sense. The letter could have been written by them, even, but Jim thought this the least likely, even though he was suspicious about why his brothers had begun to run away from the soldiers on that day at the spaceport in the first place. Certainly they wouldn’t have run if they had nothing to hide. So Jim had finally reached what seemed to him the most logical conclusion, that the letter was a fraud, and the Confederates just wanted an excuse to make him a prisoner and kill his mother and brothers. But why would they want him as a prisoner? As far as Jim could tell, he was nothing special, and there was no particular reason why he should be wanted so badly. So he was still unsure about the letter.
Jim considered asking Netone about it, but he was almost positive that he wouldn’t get a straight answer from him. And it would merely make Netone suspicious about his motives and that he might know more than he should.
So Jim calmly and purposely engaged a nearby soldier in conversation rather than deal with Netone.
Netone, meanwhile, eyed Jim carefully. He was almost positive that the boy was hiding something, or he would not be so resigned. But what? Netone puzzled over this for a while, until he came to the conclusion that Jim knew something that the rest of them did not about the ship, and he intended to use this to his advantage in an escape. “Damn that boy and his cunning!” thought Netone in a fit of anger. He scowled over at the soldier talking pleasantly to Jim, and then went back to his thoughts.
Jim pulled at his lip nervously as he looked at Netone out of the corner of his eye. The man looked too smug about something for Jims liking, almost if he knew something Jim didn’t. But that was a stupid thought, Jim told himself. Of course Netone knew more than he did, but probably none of it was important.
Jim shook his head almost imperceptibly, and pulled himself out of his thoughts. “What’s that you were saying again?” Jim asked the soldier, as he turned away from Netone.
“Oh, just that this year’s military budget looks pretty bad, you know how it is, not enough funding, that’s all it is, more money next year, of course…” Jim stopped listening to the babbling idiot, and turned to stare out the window.
It didn’t occur to Jim or Netone that they misunderstood one another, for they were both confident of their ability to read each other with precision. They were wrong.
