Author: Majoki
“Farther? We’re at the ass end of the system!”
“Farther.”
Galihl slapped the navigation console. “Why? What’s the point? There’s no gateway beyond. We risk getting stranded between galaxies.”
“Farther.”
Being a seasoned pilot, Galihl could see that shipcrafter Verstaay was fixated on the destination and not the route and so pivoted to a safer path. “If that is your intention, then perhaps we should return to the gateway to resupply before entering uncharted space.”
“The only supply I see we are lacking is courage.”
“How about common sense? Seems you’re running dangerously low on that at the moment.”
Verstaay smiled. “That’s why you’re the only pilot for this journey, Galihl. You have no fear of me.”
“Please. You are a tyrant. An altruistic one. The very worst kind.”
“So none of this surprises you.”
“It always does.”
“And, yet…” Verstaay let the following silence say everything.
Galihl turned and worked at the navigation console for a time before turning back. “You are the greatest shipcrafter of the era. You have opened the entire galaxy. You have nothing to prove. Nothing to regret.
And yet it is always the same command: Farther.”
Verstaay nodded.
“Will I ever understand this need to go farther and farther and farther?”
“I think you must have when you first signed on to pilot my flagship. Its mission has never changed and the goal has always been spelled out as clear as day right in front of you.”
“Spelled out where?”
“Right on the hull.”
Galihl frowned.
“Where else would a ship christened The Wild Blue be going?” Verstaay asked before humming a very ancient tune.