LIGHTNOVELONLINE 45. Lackadaisy Meetings
Life crept into my veins and a happy laugh bubbled up from my chest. I was behind the controls again. As promised, it was just one of the dockyard tugs, but damn if it didn’t feel good. Even better, my new eyes were making the job even easier than before. With Vox’s assistance, all of my vectors and targets were highlighted and I was able to ‘see’ through the rudimentary sensors of the craft I was in control of. My new flight suit had arrived a couple days previous to my first flight and fit wonderfully as well. I was comfortable and thoroughly enjoying being back in the seat, regardless of the mundanity of the task at hand.
After another couple days of downtime and then another two getting cleared by the local charter of the pilot’s association to fly again, I’d met with the Erickson’s dockmaster that morning to report for duty. He had quickly put me to work transferring cargo from place to place, mostly from other, smaller ships belonging to the company. While Ratatosk was the flagship of the fleet, Erickson Enterprises owned and operated a number of smaller vessels for shorter range and smaller loads along with priority shipments.
It was almost the end of my shift and I’d already finished the last of the things on my task list, so I was taking a few minutes to simply revel in the beauty of flight. The little tug I was in wasn’t any sort of hot rod but even flying around in local space felt wonderfully freeing. I didn’t stay out for very long, but I loved every second of it.
Pulling back into the warehouse was probably the hardest thing I had done in the day of work. It had been nearly empty at the start of the day, but between myself and the other workers, it was stacked pretty thickly now. The small tugs had a set of bays off to one side of the warehouse and I had to carefully scoot between stacks of crates to get to the bay. Unfamiliar as I was with the craft, I had to take it slowly so that I didn’t make a mess.
The manager, a man by the name of Carter, was waiting for me when I landed and thanked me for the work I had put in. He’d not been expecting much from the new greenhorn, but I’d proven myself to be a proper asset. I’d not have accepted being anything less. New body or no, my work was still my signature.
I was still in the middle of securing the tug from the day of operations when my arm vibrated gently in a way I was still getting used to being the non-visual alert for comms. With a simple flick of the wrist, a habit I still carried from my old gear, the holopad sprang into being to show the man who had made much of this possible.
“Good evening, Miss Matson,” said Marcus. “I trust the day has been kind to you?”
I allowed a grin to sprout. “It was great, boss. Feels good to fly again. I was just finishing up here, did you need something?”
“Not exactly, Adresta. But come up to the Lackadaisy Lounge once you can. I’ve got a surprise for you.”
An eyebrow raised. “Alright? I guess I’ll be there in a few minutes. Just need to change out of my flight suit.”
The man nodded. “Excellent. Take a loop car to spindle stop sixteen. The lounge is just to the right when you come out.”
Thanking him for the directions, I ended the call and stepped into the locker room used by employees. I’d claimed one of the spare lockers for myself earlier in the day and was able to change out into an outfit that was quickly becoming standard for me. The tank top, something I never would have considered wearing before, was now a source of endless euphoria for me whenever I caught a glance of myself in a mirror. With the top I wore a pair of loose pants that rode low on my hips. Once dressed and feeling like I could be seen in public again, I started making my way through the station.
Being such a big station, Illume didn’t have the standard omni-directional lifts such as the ones I’d ridden on D’reth. Instead, this station kept a network of corridors (the map of which looked like the work of a particularly drunken arachnid). Those corridors were kept sealed from the rest of the station and were entirely unpressurized. The lack of atmosphere in the loop tunnels made the electromagnetic tram cars incredibly efficient at very high speeds. What might have taken an hour to walk, what a regular omnilift would have still taken minutes to complete, the hyperloop managed in seconds.
The stop that the captain had specified dropped me on one end of the main spindle promenade and it wasn’t hard to figure out where to go next. Entrance lit up like an old fashion broadway show, the Lackadaisy Lounge was a classy joint with live music and an expansive bar that was conveniently located almost directly across from the loop exit.
As it turned out, it wasn’t difficult to find the Ericksons. The open layout of the lounge made it rather easy, in fact, to spot not only my girlfriend and her parents, but two other men who were with the family as well. Upon approach I gained a lot of clarity as to who they actually were.
I was waved over and greeted them all, giving Echo a hug and a chaste kiss before turning to the familiar and friendly face. Attempting to maintain at least a modicum of decorum, I kept polite. “Captain Blackburn? What are you doing here?”
The old engineer looked up at me with narrowed eyes when I addressed him. Those same eyes, with an intelligence I well knew, didn’t take long to find the answers to their unspoken queries and then widened in surprise.
Jay Blackburn’s voice was soft but full of emotion when he finally spoke an awed moment later. “I’m not your captain any more, Adresta. As for why I’m here, am I not allowed to visit my protege? Besides, I was invited by my old friend here.” With a bit of effort, Jay stood and held out a hand to me. Then he hesitated slightly. “Um, can’t say I am quite sure of the appropriate greeting here. Am I supposed to hug you now?”
I chuckled. “Get over here old man.” We hugged, though my former captain was a bit awkward about it. After we broke apart he backed away and motioned at the table.
My new captain smiled and greeted me as well. “Thanks for coming, Miss Matson. It is my pleasure to introduce my father and the founder of Erickson Enterprises, Conrad Erickson.”
“Nice to meet you, sir,” I told him. He offered a hand and I shook it. I then took a seat next to my girlfriend, directly across from Jay.
The old man across from me hadn’t taken his eyes off of me since I’d walked up. It was a touch worrying, but I doubted that Captain Blackburn had any ill intentions. This was proven when he spoke again.
“It’s good to see you, Adresta. You look good, happy.”
A soft smile pushed at my lips. “Yeah, I am. Thanks. It’s been a long road and I hate what it took to get here, but I’m still alive and I have a fresh chance at really living.”
By this point, a waitress in a fringed dress, matching the lounge’s theme, had made her way over and took our orders. A couple plates of appetizers were ordered for the table and all of us asked for varying drinks, though all of them were of the adult variety. I myself ordered a cocktail called a ‘sidecar’. It was a fruity little thing with a bright hit of orange flavoring that mostly covered the more mellow notes of dark brandy.
“Seven years I spent with this one, I tell you,” commented Jay while nodding in my direction after a pause in our small talk regarding recent business ventures. “Seven years. Never once did I see her this relaxed.”
I chuckled mirthlessly. “Turns out that letting the chip fall off of your shoulder is a great way to stop the broodiness, and having some decent friends around makes it a lot easier to help keep your mood up.”
Jay clutched his chest mockingly. “Was I not good enough to you? I would hate to have you thinking me a bad captain!”
Were I in range, I might have swatted at him. “Oi, you were plenty good to me, Old Man. I hadn’t quite figured out that I was safe though. Yay childhood trauma?” My old captain laughed again, but my sardonic quip didn’t elicit such bemused responses from the rest of the party. In fact, my girlfriend had a dangerously raised eyebrow that rather clearly showed what she thought of my bit of self deprecation.
The director of resources for Erickson Enterprises was similarly impressed and Rachael leveled a half lidded stare at me. “I feel I should inform you that the health benefits provided by your contract include mental health services. Perhaps you should make use of them, Miss Matson?” While there was undoubtedly a level of professionalism holding her tone even, I couldn’t help but notice a certain sense of motherly concern that washed over me from her. This woman had authority over me, as was appropriate to her position in the company, but she had also accepted me wholeheartedly as her daughter’s partner and as part of her family.
Despite my previous experiences with decent relationships with Captain Blackburn, it still left me feeling touched. After all, I was actually aware of, and accepting of the kindness and care now, where I never was before. Jay had, for many years, been an anomaly to me when it came to people. People didn’t care about me, only themselves, that was what I had learned as a kid. It wasn’t true though, and I knew that now.
Those thoughts weighing heavily in my heart, I looked to my old captain. “I’m sorry I never understood how good you were to me, Captain Blackburn. I guess it isn’t easy to relearn everything you think you know about people. Miss Erickson may very well be correct in suggesting therapy. I probably need it.” There was a definite touch of mist in my eyes as the admission left my lips. Echo hugged me. “I just hate that it took me nearly dying to realize it.”
“You’ve got an entire lifetime ahead of you to work through that now, Addy. Just enjoy the evening for the time being. Tomorrow will come.”
Conversation quickly turned after that. I was able to learn about Jay’s recent adventures in trying to be a retired old man and got to laugh at his near inability to relax for any real length of time. Even after hanging up his captain’s pips, Jay was getting himself involved in local affairs at the spaceport near his planetary home. Apparently a fledgling repair shop had been opened recently and Jay had overheard the owner complaining about how complicated some of the jobs were. He had shown up at the shop the next day ready to work and show the young guns how it was done.
Funnily enough though, it wasn’t hard to recognize the similarities between him and myself there. After just two months being out of work, I had been chomping at the bit to get back to the grind. Perhaps my captain and I really weren’t that different. Maybe I had learned a lot more from him than I had realized before. With that in mind, it didn't take much to see the dots connect that, maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t as much of an orphan as I thought. Family really could be those you chose, not just the ones you shared blood with.
Even with the table conversation not being as serious after all of that, I was a lot quieter than before. I was too busy mulling over my recent realizations to participate a great lot. Just how much had I missed when I was younger? Jay had always been a mentor figure in my life after I left MacNair, but what more had been going on that I was too blind to see at the time?
As far as anyone else was concerned (heck, I hadn’t even completely figured things out at the time), I was just a hotheaded teenage boy when I joined the crew. I had evened out significantly by the time I left, but I couldn’t imagine that I had changed all that much in those years, considering how I left. I’d always assumed that Jay saw me the same way. Maybe he was a little bit softer on me, but, at the time, I thought that was only because he wanted to keep me from causing problems.
I was shaken out of my near stupor when Echo bumped my shoulder.
“Adresta, we are getting ready to leave.”
Looking around, it was apparent that she was right. The lounge itself showed no signs of slowing down, of course. They stayed open at all times of day to serve the equally unsleeping population of the station, but my tablemates were all shoving food into boxes. It seemed I had dissociated through most of dinner. My own plate (a classic hamburger with spiral cut fries) was partially eaten, but nowhere to the extent it would have been had I actually been entirely present. After shaking my head to free it of the cobwebs, I pushed my food into a provided box as well.
I tuned back into the rest of reality a moment later just in time to catch the tail end of an exchange between the older men and my new captain.
“...no son, I think I can find it well enough on my own. It hasn’t been that long since I lived here.” Conrad Erickson gave Marcus a dubious look. “Unless you need me to come to your home and tuck you in, Little Asteroid? If that’s the case, still no. That’s your wives’ job now, not mine.” His entire tone was teasing and, even without all of the context, I had to stifle a giggle. The apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree within the Erickson family.
At least trying to be polite, I looked over at my former captain and asked him, “So how long are you staying for? I’d like to spend some time with you before you leave. The calls are great, but its nice to see you in person too.”
I got a raised eyebrow in return. “You really were zoned out. Conrad and I will be joining you on the Ratatosk for your next job. We are on vacation and thought it would be fun to watch someone else do the work after all our years of being the ones in charge.”
“Oh.” was my highly intelligent response. “Ok then.”
“Go home with your girlfriend, Adresta,” he responded with a humored sigh. “You obviously need the rest.