Where Stars Go to Die

Chapter 9

Sitting in his cell, Joe had slowly begun coming to terms with what was going on in his life and how badly it all began to spiral out of control.
He had a girl loving him who couldn't love,
he himself was falling in love without knowing how to,
he was stuck in a rebel base's brig,
the love of his life had run off with her BFF,
said BFF had stolen his crew too,
his adoptive dad had died whilst using the best last words ever,
the government of the most powerful planet in the solar system was looking to kill him with all their power and a galaxy-wide mob wanted him dead.
But worst of all? What was the most horrible thing of all of this?
There was no booze anywhere in this equation.
He had gotten himself in this situation.
He hadn't gotten drunk, he hadn't gotten fucked  up.
This whole situation was his own creation.
He was living a nightmare he dragged himself into.

Through thinking about all of this, a young lady walked the hallways of the enormous ship, the old giant was rusted and busted. Ghosted Heaven 9 was her name, she was from the same fleet as the Lost Valhalla, a series of ships named after the heavens that had been lost in the time of the great war, when only hell existed for the men and women who had to fight it, death at every corner, metal giants in the sky fighting in clouds and swarms of fire, missiles and fighter squadrons.
Ghosted Heaven 9  was a queen class, the ultimate battle cruiser, the size of most gas giant stations of the modern times.
It was lined with turrets and thick armor plating.
Even with the shields down it would take a monarch laser to pierce it.

As the young woman walked down the stairs of the large ship to the brig, she seemed more than just a little upset. You see, she had intended for the 'prisoner' to be escorted to her chambers rather than getting stuck in the actual brig of the ship.
"So I told him to fuck off and that I'd rather have his head on my antenna before turning my sweetheart over to him." said Joe, finishing a story to the guard, who was highly amused by Joe and his tale of what had happened before he got here.
"So how does a hero like yourself-"
"Let me stop you right there, buddy..." interrupted Joe.
"I ain't a hero. I'm an asshole with balls. There's a difference. Heroes safe people, they make a difference in this world."
"Well, that's why we came to recruit you, darlin'." said Morgan, walking in with the brig warden by her side, looking quite shaken up.
The poor guy had a red hand print on the side of his face,
with nails dug in and everything.

"Eyyyy, it's the lovely princess, how's you doin', luv." said Joe in his usual tone of deep cynicism and deafening sarcasm.
The guard stepped away a little, expecting quite some violence.
"Did you just call me... Princess?" asked Morgan, raising her eyebrow.
"Don't you know what happened to the last guy that called me that?"
"I do, that's why I'm sayin' it, sweetiecheeks."
The cell door opened and Morgan entered.
"How is it that I want to bone you silly, yet you annoy me on such a deep level, mister Vinker?" she said with a deep sigh. "Just follow me..." she grumbled, taking the lead as the guards stared in awe at what just happened. The first man to ever flirt big time with Morgan who got to live to tell the tale. And it was his first day aboard too.

He looked around the ship, noting the age, the emblems from the former great war era government sprayed over with their rebel tags.
It stroked him just the wrong way, seeing such a beauty so mistreated.
He himself had left the tags in his ship intact.
Pete had even repainted them and everything.
"What's with the graffiti on the tags?" he asked.
"Patriotism for our new movement. The original government means nothing to us, mister Vinker, their ideals were wrong, we're fighting to bring a new age."
"Do you know anything of the great war other than the battles, luv?..."
She blinked and stopped. "I uh... I read of the battles and tactics..."
"You're spraying over the tags of the opposing people, those who lost the great war. These tags belong to the New Wisdom movement..." he said, rubbing one of the emblems.
It was a globe with two angelic wings surrounding it.
"What was the New Wisdom movement about?..." she asked curiously, looking at the ruined tag.
"NWM was about equal rights for every man and fair trail... A central government for all planets to unite and stand strong together,
like a union, an alliance."
"What happened?..." she asked, looking at his eyes as she saw the light within them dim.
"We lost, miss Tenner... Rats and moles, games of romance and backstabbing destroyed the movement and money made the sun revolve around the earth once more as most of the movement followed the government we now know as the Three Gods Democracy."

"You've seen hell, haven't you, mister Vinker?..."
"The ships we flew were named after the heavens of every religion, but all called 'lost' in one way or another. There was no heaven. We pierced the skies in search of god but all we found was inky blackness... There is no god, Morgan... He left us to rot alone..."
"Isn't that blasphemy you just committed, mister Vinker?" she asked, gently pulling him along by his arm, worried for his mental well being.
"Call it a bitter gray but clear view on the world, miss Tenner." he said, his silver eyes mat like the finish on the colorless hallways.

She led him to her quarters, a colorfully painted room with furniture and drapes, like it was a home instead of just a temporary place.
"Rest here, mister Vinker... Tomorrow you must see the goddess."
Joe nodded, taking his shirt off, presenting all the scars he had gotten over the years from fighting for his life.
"You're not ashamed of your scars?..." she asked, tracing her finger over them, taking a step closer to the disappointing legend.
Joe shook his head. "Like the vikings, I'm proud of them... They believed a scar showed proof that you had been in battle and fought valiantly. Scars do not mean weakness... You might've been cut or shot, but you survived it and came out victorious..."
She nodded, taking her tank top off, having quite a few of her own.
"So you don't think this is ugly?..." she asked him, looking him right in the face, her cheeks slowly flushing red. Joe just popped her pants button and dropped it to the ground.
She kicked off her boots and pants, to which she got picked up by Joe.
"Ugliness sits on the inside, Morgan..." he said with a sigh, laying down in bed with her, wrapping his strong arms around her.

For the first time in forever, she felt like a woman rather than a girl.
She felt secure and warm, not just on the outside, but also on the inside and it scared her slightly, yet it was too comfortable to note this fright.
She closed her eyes and fell asleep, happy for once.
He might not have lived up to being exactly like she had wished he had been, a superhuman man of steel, but he was much better in a much different way.
He was human... Not a soldier, not a legend, not a myth...
He was a real human... Shattered...
A mosaic man... But she wanted to fix it...

And so another day passed on the Ghosted Heaven 9.