Recession (Trunked Novel)

Chapter 27

Recession | Chapter 27

The next morning Quickstar couldn't be found out of his room other than to eat. Even then he would grab a few things and then take them back to his room to eat alone. Later that night, Trent found him in the cockpit. We walked in and sat next to him. They didn't speak for a while, just sat there, watching the stars glimmer beyond the thick window pane between them and the vast expanse of space. Trent was trying to think of what to say when Quickstar surprised him by being the one to break the silence.

"I am so sorry Captain. I don't know what to say to you, or the others. You should have just left me to my fate. At least then you could have had the means to fly back to Timothy and transport your father in-law. I'm sure your wife's not happy. You shouldn't have done that Captain. I'm not your family, George is, and now . . ."

"You're right Quickstar, my wife's not happy, but you're wrong about the other thing. You are family. It took me getting fired and being forced to be around my family at all times in this ship for me to realize just how far I had lost sight of family. Not too long ago I would have done just about anything, including sacrificing time with my family, to earn extra income. Now it has finally sunken into my thick skull that my family is worth more than anything else. I almost lost them man. I was in love with my career. Anyways, I couldn't leave you to those men, not after all you've done for us."

Quickstar turned his head away from Trent and pressed his eyes into his shoulder. His chest heaved and his head began to bounce up and down. Trent just waited for Quickstar to get it out, and then compose himself.

"No one has ever done anything like this for me. I'm so sorry I brought this to your family. I didn't even know they thought that I owed them money. That rotten old captain of mine can even ruin lives from the grave."

"You are family, and unfortunately for you that means your stuck with us."

"I wouldn't choose anyone else Captain, but I am stuck because it will take me forever to pay you back, and what about George? Even if you stopped paying me you don't have the credits to make it back to pick him up. We'll be living from one shipment to the next again for a good long while here Captain. Once you get closer to the Ward sector, you'll run out of places that import."

He hung his head and took in a shaky breath.

"We'll get through this Quickstar. In fact, Jimmy has an idea that will help. It might not get us to George in time, but it's something. I guess he's been getting on Mark for a while now about taking these piloting coarses over the net. He figures it would make him an even better fighter pilot in the game as they've seen what a crack shot you are and you had never even played the game before. You can do it through your ship's computer like you did when Mr. Brightly set up that piloting test for you. If the ship is on auto pilot, its controls can be freed up for you to run courses on it for students wanting to become pilots. It doesn't give them actual logged hours, but I guess it's become really popular. A lot of people want to see if they would be a good pilot, or if they'd like it before commiting to pilot school."

Trent wondered if Quickstar was listening, he was still looking down at the ground.

"Well anyway, Mark was finally looking on the website with Jimmy, and it says that the company needs flight sim instructors. You could do it all from the ship here, going on flights simulated in the computer with kids just like Mark. Quickstar looked up.

"They pay really well, and you don't have much else to do between planets right? Seems like they have a big need for good pilots to become instructors. Thirty credits an hour, and they've got a waiting list of students needing to go on flights so you could put in a lot of hours."