Where Nothing Ill Can Dwell

Chapter 2 - Ferdinand

I flicked the controls over to autopilot and leaned back against the seat of my two-man cruiser. Twenty hours at the helm had taken their toll on me, and I wanted nothing more than to doze for a bit.

Unfortunately, my father had other ideas. Just as I closed my eyes, my com screen flashed, and his image stared back at me. "Your vitals suggest you're tired, Ferdinand. Why don't you dock inside the main ship and sleep in your cabin?"

Because then you'll find some excuse to find fault in me, rail at me for falling short of your expectations, and make me wish I wasn't your son.

But saying the truth aloud would only earn me a never-ending lecture about how ungrateful I was, along with appropriate disciplinary actions. I might be the Admiral's son, but he was still the Admiral. "I just need some alone time, Dad, especially after all the political bullshit I had to endure during Claribel's wedding."

"It's not bullshit. It's an alliance that we've been trying to form with TUNIS for the last decade."

And my older sister happened to be the "gift" that sealed the deal. I wished I could scrub from my memory the look of panic on her face when she met her future husband last week.

The Transsteller United Nebula Intergalactic Spacestation, or TUNIS, was a rival command post to NAPLES, my father's base. Both were home to mostly creatures with Earth origins, but the prior admiral of TUNIS had opened the station to other lifeforms, resulting in an odd community of alien creatures. The exoticness of the place had both intrigued and terrified me when I arrived for the wedding. But unlike Claribel, I was free to leave.

"I still don't think you should've left her there," I said. "Admiral Hannibal is almost three times her age."

"It was a good match. Besides, your sister knows how to follow orders, unlike some people." My father leveled his steely glare at me.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "It was just a night out with the boys."

"That resulted in you insulting several dignitaries and forcing me to step in to smooth things over before you ended up in a TUNIS prison cell."

Once again, he reminded me of what a disappointment I was to him.

I toyed with the idea of turning off my communications line. "Did you just call to berate me? Or is there a purpose to this conversation?"

He flinched. "I'm just worried about you, son. I don't want you crashing because you fell asleep at the helm."

I wished I could believe his concern was genuine, but I knew the true meaning behind his words. I was his only son—his heir. For as far back as I could remember, he'd been grooming me to take over NAPLES once he stepped down. I'd never been free to make any decisions about my life. Like my sister, I was nothing more than a tool for him to use in his plans to rule his little quadrant of the Bard Nebula. If I crashed and died in a fiery explosion, he would have to spend another eighteen years grooming another replacement.

"I have the autopilot on."

"Maybe we should activate a tractor beam just to be safe."

More like tie a leash to me. Even if I wanted to flee, I couldn't. My father knew too many people in too many places. They'd find me and turn me over to him. Then who knew what he'd do to me? I'd already pushed the limits of his patience as it was.

"Dad, I'm eighteen and graduated at the top of my class in pilot training. I think I can handle this little cruiser on my own."

He shook his head and appeared far wearier than I'd ever seen him before.

And for a brief second, I was tempted to apologize for being such an ass to him.

"When you change your mind and realize you're safer with me," he said, "tell the boatswain to open the rear hatch."

I'll take my chances out here. Far safer than being on board with him.

The screen flickered off, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I still hated the idea of Claribel being forced to marry Admiral Hannibal. The thought of her sleeping with him, of him violating her every night, was enough to make my stomach roil. I'd asked why she agreed to the marriage, and she'd replied it was all part of our father's orders. She would play prostitute to lure secrets out of the ruler of TUNIS, and then feed what she learned to our father. And if our father gave the order to terminate his rival, Claribel would no doubt carry out that command too, even if it cost her life.

Such were the intrigues of the Bard Nebula.

I loosened the chinstrap on my helmet and closed my eyes, but no matter how hard I tried to relax, I couldn't shake the cold thread of unease that wormed through my veins.

I dozed, but I had no idea for how long.

The rapid blare of alarms woke me. The first thing I saw was a nav screen full of blinking lights. Then I looked out my window at the wave of molten gas arching from the surface of the closest sun toward my father's ship.

My heart wedged in my throat and squeezed so tightly it forgot how to beat. It was a solar storm like I'd never seen before. Even though we were too far out of range for it to disintegrate us, we'd still been caught in its turmoil. The electromagnetic fields were interfering with my controls, and my little cruiser was tiny compared to the behemoth of my father's ship a few miles away. The lights there flickered, then doused, and his ship tilted precariously in space.

I squeezed the throttle to try and catch up, but my cruiser refused to respond. Like every other ship in the fleet, all power was lost. New alarms shrieked, warning me of my depleting oxygen supply. My skin burned from the heat of the solar flare and loss of my shields. The gravitational pull of a nearby planet grasped my cruiser, and I tumbled into its upper atmosphere.

I flicked the manual switches in a desperate attempt to override the system and restore power. A backup generator kicked in, but it was barely enough to power my rear thrusters. I tried to right my cruiser, to pull out of the flat spin I'd fallen into.

I'd barely regained partial control when my com screen flashed again.

"Ferdinand, where are you?" my father asked, his eyes wide with panic.

"I'm trying to get out of the pull of this planet," I answered through clenched teeth. Steadying my cruiser was harder than usual without the navigation system's help.

One of the officers—Gonzalo—laid a hand on my father's shoulder and tried to pull him away from the screen. Chaos erupted behind him. Sparks flew through the background, and screams created a din that made my ears ring, but my father remained focused only on me.

"Stay safe, son. I love you."

And for the first time in my life, I realized that he really did care about me. "You stay safe too, Dad," I replied, my voice cracking.

The com screen blurred, and outside my starboard window, his ship nose-dived toward the surface of the planet. My breath stilled, and I was forced to accept that there was a good chance this was the last I'd ever speak to my father.

My generator failed, and my cruiser spiraled downward, out of control. The surface of the planet blurred into a swirling mass of greens and blues.

My head filled with thoughts and regrets, of things I wished I'd done and things I wished I'd said.

My oxygen levels dropped, and I blacked out.