Banshee

3. Becoming the Captain (part 2)

As beautiful as the hills had looked this morning, they looked dark and ominous now. I couldn't help but feel a sense of dread as I stood in front of the fresh graves where I had just buried Jean and Lucy. Kayden and Lana looked on from a slight distance, they both were rubbing their eyes every 20 seconds. But I couldn't find any tears coming up. I loved my wife and daughter more than anything, but now that they were gone, I couldn't get myself to shed even one tear over them. I became angry at myself for a moment; why couldn't I feel sad for them like a normal person...?

I suddenly felt the urge to go, to get away from this place. There was too much grief here. I walked back to the ship, where the others were waiting. Once on board I took my place on the pilot's throne and got us out of here.

Lana came on the bridge and stood next to me.

"Hey", she said.

"Hey", I said back.

"How are you holding up?"

"I don't know... I feel sad for losing Jean and Lucy... but for some reason I can't let it out... I don't know anymore..."

"It will come in time..." she said, "in the meantime I guess there is little you can do about it. But if you ever need a friend to talk to, I'll be in the medibay."

"Thank you Lana, you're a good friend..."

"I'm sorry I couldn't come anytime sooner..."

"No!" I said, "Don't be. You could have been killed too. I don't even know how I survived it."

I steered the ship towards the coast which was only a few kilometers away from the house.

"But I'm still interested in how you managed to deus ex machina yourself in my way with a group of people with quality weapons."

"That's a story I will explain in full detail some other time, but for now we need to figure out what to do now."

Lana was right; we needed a plan... and rather quickly too.

"Call everyone in here," I said.

Five minutes later everybody was present on the bridge. All of them were looking at Lana, except for Kayden, who also looked at me.

"We need a plan..."Lana said. "We can only go so far for so long without any clue as to what we're doing."

"What do you suggest?" I asked.

"First of all we need clear leadership..."

The other looked rather strange at Lana's answer. Wasn't she the leader here?

"I know what you're thinking," she continued, "after all I'm a politician... but I could never lead in this situation."

She looked around the group for a few seconds before suddenly resting her eyes on me.

What is she doing? Why is she looking at me?

"You can vote for who you want as the new leader, but I nominate Danny here to replace me. He knows how to kill the aliens, he knows how to fly the ship, and for now those are the best qualities I can think of."

I looked around with a look of concern. Would someone else come forward to challenge me? Secretly I was hoping that someone would; I had no idea how to lead this group of people. Yet nobody came forward. It appeared that the vote was unanimous; they seemed to be content with me leading them. Then suddenly one of them stepped up...

Please challenge please challenge...

"I have no doubt that Mr.Morder (that's me: Danny Morder) knows how to kill one of those monstrosities, and so far he has proven to be a decent pilot... if he also proves to be a good leader we have no objections."

Lana spoke up again.

"Then it is decided: Danny Morder is the captain of the ship."

So that was it... I was now in charge of an alien spaceship and all aboard... What was I supposed to do now? Everybody was looking at me, waiting for me to plot some course of action.

Think of something think of something!!!

"Firstly..." I said... "we need to find out just what we can do with this ship."

Lana and Kayden nodded in consent, which was something I could really use right now...

"Secondly, we need to figure out how we plan to treat the aliens."

The rest of the group started nodding too...

"Thirdly, I'm gonna need a proper introduction from all of you, because I would be a lousy leader if I didn't even know all of your names."

Some of them started clapping, something which was soon taken over by the others. It felt weird to be put in charge of a group of people I didn't even know but to have them applaud me felt rather unsettling.

"That will be all," I said. "You may go back to what you were doing."

As soon as the last person had left the bridge, I slumped down into the throne. How was I supposed to handle this? Somebody entered the bridge again... it was Kayden.

"Hey," she said, "Are you okay?"

"I don't think so... I have no idea how to control the current situation..."

"Yeah I know right, must've been weird to have all those strangers clapping for you."

"Absolutely..."

"Well if you ever need to vent or just someone to talk to, I'll be right down in the engine room."

"Thank you Kay..." I managed a sincere smile.

"Anytime!" she smiled back, then she left again.

They had given me permission to keep sitting on the throne... now I just had to prove myself worthy in order to stay there...