Polybius: Vessel of Consternation

Polybius Snippet

That night the bar is closed. I meet up with Xenia and Fotis and guide them to the ship. There they carry their cases of clothing. I open the ramp and all of us climb into the vessel. I close the ramp behind me. After that, they get their possessions stored. I start up the ship and prepare to leave.

I fly the ship over the big hill and now I'm over the city in the North. I switch to the vertical mode and raise my ship through the gigantic hole above. The hole was ten miles wide and contained all kinds of rocks and stones that hover above the world. The Ship glides through a blue energy that's holding the rocks abov. Soon enough the ship was in the blackness of space. Rocks float in one direction as they circle the planet. I change my mode to horizontal and venture forward. I set the system to dodge rocks if necessary to avoid collision and head down the ladder.

I head to my bedroom and change out of my dusty clothes. I sleep for the night and wake up the next morning. At least I'm assuming so. That's what the time says. Yet I can't see anything out of my window that would indicate as such.

I head to the kitchen and find Fotis and Xenia sitting there. Xenia is buttering Fotis's toast and gets up to give herself some more.

"I love it when you butter my toast." Fotis comments before laughing at his stupid joke.

"Oh, what a bad boy. For that I shall punish you with a kiss." Xenia then smooches all over him. Are they tongue kissing already? I didn't even know that's the type of relationship they had.

"So Fotis, what's your plan? Where are you going to go?" I wonder.

"I don't know. Do you know Xenia." She shakes her head. "I have no clue. Pick one of the other eight planets and I'm sure I'll be on one of them. Where are you going to go?"

"I don't know yet. I'm going to go to Rome to get my daughter back. I'll travel around looking for Polaris. After that, I don't know. We'll see how it all lands."

"Makes sense. I'm hoping to one day go to Metro. I would have a better chance at standup comedy I'm thinking. I wouldn't need everyone to like me. Not even one percent. Just enough to make me a living. What do you think?"

"Yeah, I can see that. Metro does have a population of one and a half trillion people after all." We both look down at our drinks before I startup a conversation again. "Well if you and Xenia are going to be a thing, have you talked about having kids? If you have, they are a wonderful gift. It's worth all the struggles that come with being a parent."

"Yeah, I would love to have kids just so one day they can grow up.

"Fotis." Xenia states.

Fotis then turns to me. "I'm going to miss having you around. I am glad we got out of that dump. But having kids, I don't know about now. But I do want to have kids someday. However, if Xenia doesn't want any, I love her too much to leave her either. I hope that makes sense."

"It does. I know how that feels. Just to let you know, I will miss you as well. I hope that your career takes off. Does Xenia know what she wants?" I wonder.

"I want to own a night club." Xenia yells.

"Really?" I ask.

"Yeah, do you have cotton in your ears. I said I want to own a night club. That way I can mutter anything I want under my breath and the customer would never notice. Plus, the deep bass of the music would be a nice bonus." She seems disappointed with her breakfast before coming back to me. "Why don't you have eggs?"

"We need the power to make it to the inner planets. I didn't want to waste it on eggs that needed to be cooled." I inform her.

"Well, it wouldn't waste power to use one button for cool you idiot. Now all we have is room temperature food, have some variety Polybius." Xenia demands.

"Xenia, will you stop being such a bitch and enjoy the morning? I yell back.

"Sorry, I'm not a morning person. I'll eat my breakfast and then I'll calm down."

"Polybius, is there something out there that you would want to do?" Fotis asks me.

"I don't know. I don't even know what there is to be honest. But I'm sure I'll find something. I'm good at math, I hope that's useful."

"The universe runs on math, so of course you'll be able to find something."

"Hey, you know what, we should celebrate." Fotis suggests.

"No, I'm too hungry to celebrate." Xenia growls. "I'm not feeling up to celebrating." I tell Fotis.

"After you eat, we will celebrate. Come on, celebrations put a smile on your face. So, I'll put on the music and let's get ready to party." Fotis stands up and dances. Xenia is still eating her toast before getting up with him. I dance alongside them as well. Might as well even though it's stupid.

I have to admit that I am enjoying myself. Xenia is waving her arms all over the place and Fotis is break dancing. I'm not doing any fancy moves like that. I'm just bouncing to the beat of this weird electronic music.

The rest of the day goes by in a flash. I mostly hung out with them and they hung out with me. We made small talk about everything from our lives to what we think about tips to customers and stand-up shows. Everything that we talked about; we talk about.

Night time arrives and I hear an alert from the ship. I rush to the cockpit and I was expecting to have to maneuver the ship out of a rock's path. Unfortunately, it was a Roman ship and it captures my ship in a beam of light.

They tap into my system and shut down everything but life support and power. There is an announcement made. "Polybius Polanski, we know that you are wanted for breaking your parole. Due to the terms, you are to be arrested and executed before a Roman court. Any hostages on your ship that are found dead and you will pay a hefty price. Be prepared for boarding the ship."