A Spaceman

Chapter 12--Each game

As soon as I feel the buzz in my ear, I know who is calling. I sit up in my bed, tapping the answer button immediately.

"Are you angry with me?"

"No, Titus, I'm really, really pleased. And proud of you for killing all those people mercilessly. Since you're master of the universe now, why don't you send a ship down and I'll come and join you and we can take over the universe together, shall we?" I ask, my voice dripping with anger and poison, as I swing my legs over the side of the bed.

"Okay, really? Good because I----no wait you're lying, I can tell, sorry, I can't do that, unless you'd consent to be my prisoner, but that wouldn't be any fun," Titus says, calmly, a little disappointed. 

"Of course I'm lying, what the hell is wrong with you!!??" I hiss, pressing the piece more into my ear as though that would make the words reach his brain. "You murdered hundreds of people. Your friends. People who trusted you, people who relied on you. people who looked up to you. How could you even do something like that to them? What did the cadets, or Kip, or---or any of them ever do to you?"

"Nothing. They were in my way," Titus says, his voice now growing cold, "And if you're only going to talk about morals, which I have none of in case you hadn't realized, I'm going to hang up."

"No---no, don't hang up," I say. They will have a trace on all in coming and all outgoing calls, for what its worth they might be able to pin down his exact location.

"If you're keeping me on the line just to track me then don't bother. We could talk for two days and they wouldn't be able to trace my signal I've got it bounced off so many planets right now. Besides which fact the Pandemonium can easily outmaneuver any of your ships, considering it's one of them, only altered to my specifications. You wouldn't believe how helpful the Isylgyns are with that sort of thing," Titus says.

"What, because you're so damn clever they elected you their leader?" I ask, standing up and going to the closet. Since I'm going to have to explain the entire call to the IT guys listening to it, I might as well be dressed.

"Something like that. though I think I'm more at God status, really," he says, lazily, "What are you doing right now?"

"Getting dressed to talk to the investigators who are going to want to know why you're calling me," I sigh, putting on my long sleeved collared shirt.

"The line is encrypted, they won't hear anything, we're quite safe, Major Tom," he says.

"Why are you calling me?" I ask, finishing with the shirt and putting on my dress pants.

"I wanted to see how angry you are with me," he says.

"Guess. Take a wild guess," I growl.

"That was about what I anticipated," he says, "But I wanted to hear your voice as well. I miss you."

"Titus, why are you doing this, really?" I ask, leaning against the wall. Now I'm talking to him honestly. Talking to the boy with blue eyes and a wicked grin, who used to go to the gym in the middle of the night and run for as many miles as he could before he threw up. Only to get in bed to wake up two hours later for mandatory physical training. I used to wake up at night just to watch him. I wondered if he ever knew I did that. "You could have had---everything. You had everything. Fame. Money. Power." Me. You could have had me.

"I know. I was bored," he says, "It wasn't entertaining. It was all boring. Everything but you. I couldn't have you."

"Yes you could," I say, "If you'd been good. if you hadn't---"

"Slapped you? Left you? Done a thousand things I shouldn't? Yes, probably," he says, with a sigh, "But you see I did. because it wasn't enough. nothing was ever enough. being the best pilot in the force wasn't enough. I had to set up battles I could be in. I had to arm the enemy so they could compete with me. Have you ever played chess with yourself, Major Tom? It's the only way to do it. You always win, and you always have a worthy opponent. Except you always know what the opponent is going to do. So where do you go from there? You stand up, and you crush all the opponent's pieces."