Quest for Onepus - Part 6

Previously on Quest for Onepus… After having rescued Tawni and the Ryson family, Larson has volunteered to escort them all to Galindor, one stop short of the infamous Onepus.

The days passed by – almost pleasantly I might add – as we drifted through space, the Rysons’ ship keeping time with mine. Tawni and I had quickly discovered that there was no hope for her little cruiser. Something was certainly wrong with it, but neither she nor I could tell what. All I knew was that if she hadn’t contacted me when she did, she wouldn’t be here with me now. The thought hit me with a pang of sadness, but I dismissed the feeling.

Every day I learned something new about Tawni. I knew she was a great cook, a wonderful people person, annoyingly witty and a little too pretty to be on my ship. There was nothing wrong with my ship of course. In fact, she maybe even made it a little brighter with her personality. Maybe I was just going crazy after being alone for so many years.

The Rysons unwittingly kept me from doing something stupid around her. And to be perfectly honest, I rather enjoyed having them around. They always came for dinner of course, and sometimes they came at other unplanned times. Blessing and Annia would come and spend time with Tawni. I never knew what they did – usually they went into the kitchen or the common room. Sometimes I heard a lot of girly laughter drifting down the hallway. At least someone was having a good time.

I had to admit though; the Rysons really were a pleasant family. I liked them all, in particular Rahli. He was quiet, conserved, and mature and intelligent for his thirteen years. He actually reminded me a lot of myself, which I wasn’t really sure was a good thing or not. In any case, he sometimes came to the bridge to look around and I would show him what each crew member would be doing if I had crew members. He really seemed taken with the ship, a fact that both surprised and pleased me.

I showed Rahli all the work I had done on the ship over the past ten years. Without missing a beat, he exclaimed, “You’re old!” To that, I chuckled. When he asked me where I got it from, I simply replied, “From an old captain.”

“Were you close to him?” he asked after several minutes, surprising me.

I hesitated before answering as honestly as I could, “Yeah, I guess I was.”

Maybe Rahli sensed my discomfort because he changed the subject. “I’d like to have a ship like this some day.”

“You think so?” I relaxed.

“Yeah. It seems pretty peaceful here. Quiet. I like it. But I’d do something about the crew quarters.”

I laughed. “And what would you do about them?”

“Make them nicer.” At this, I laughed harder. Rahli’s face turned red. “Oh no – I just meant… Well, I suppose they’d be nicer if there were people in them. I’d have people living on my ship, that’s all.” He thought about his statement for a few seconds, then revised it. “Not that there’s anything wrong with your ship, I just mean – well, wouldn’t you want…”

He let his words trail off so I filled in for him. “I know, I’m an old space hermit.” I smiled in self-deprecation.

“Aw, I didn’t mean it that way,” Rahli answered.

Rahli was a cool kid in my opinion. I really had a lot of respect for him – he paid attention to detail and saw the world through mature eyes. He was also very kind with his younger brother and sister and listened to his parents. These, I thought, were rare qualities for a person so young. Or maybe I just thought that because the only boys I had ever known of his age were never like that.

In any case, I quite liked having Rahli around at times. We didn’t always need to talk to each other. Sometimes he stayed so long and so quiet that I forgot he was there, until he asked me a question or made a comment and I was brought back to reality.

This day he walked in with a smile on his face, as if he had just been laughing at something. “Annia and Cammer are with Tawni. She offered to watch them for Mom and Dad for a while.” He smiled again at me, the mirth of a previous moment still hanging on his face.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing. Tawni, she’s nice,” was all he said. I nodded, not knowing how to respond to that. After a moment, he continued, “It really is nice of you to let her stay with you – here,” he corrected himself.

“I didn’t really have much choice,” I said.

“Don’t you like her?” he asked me. I wasn’t quite sure how to answer that. I wasn’t even sure how Rahli meant it. But he continued on before I could say anything. “Cause she sure likes you.”

Now that baffled me. “What makes you say that?” I asked, curious.

“She told me,” he said, with a look that meant that I should have found this answer obvious.

Again, I was left speechless. I honestly had no idea how to respond to that, nor what was really meant by it. Fortunately for me, I didn’t have to answer, because the object of our discussion walked in then, the children with her. Rahli smiled broadly at her, not quite concealing his thoughts.

She smiled back at him then turned her attention to me. “Permission to come aboard, Captain?” she asked.

The kids were each saluting me. I tried not to let it show how cute I thought the whole scene was as I waved them into the room.

“Yeah, sure,” I answered.

“Can I sit in the chair, Captain Larson?” Cammer asked excitedly. Before I could reply, Annia was right next to him, asking the same thing.

I turned up my hands in a gesture of surrender and agreed to let them. They ran over to my chair and both tried to squeeze onto it, unsuccessfully at first, but managed to get it right with Rahli’s help. I hung back with Tawni.

“That was nice of you,” she said quietly.

“Could you say no to that?”

She smiled. And somehow, I got lost in her eyes. When she looked away, I didn’t. Something about her captivated me, and it wasn’t just her physical beauty. She looked back at me and raised an eyebrow. Still, I couldn’t look away.

“You know, that chair might not last all the way to Onepus,” she teased.

“Oh well,” I replied quietly. She liked me. She liked me? Why did she like me? What qualities did I even possess that resembled likeability? What did that even mean, “like me”?

She cleared her throat. “Captain, you’re staring.”

“Oh! Sorry,” I mumbled. I looked away as Annia came back over to us, giving me something else to focus on.

“Rahli says he’s gonna have this ship some day!” Annia exclaimed excitedly.

“Yeah, are you giving him your ship? Can I have one?” Cammer joined in. I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

“I didn’t say I’d have this ship. I said I wanted one like it,” Rahli rushed in, colour tinting his cheeks. Then he looked at me and said, “I’m not committing mutiny or anything.”

At that, I laughed out loud. “No, I didn’t think you would do that, young man. However, I do think you could run your own ship someday. And I’m sure you two would make fine crew members for Rahli,” I told the two younger ones. Their bright smiles beamed to my core.

“Come on kids. Let’s leave the captain to his – ” Tawni paused and raised an eyebrow at me – “duties.”

Read Part 5 here
Read Part 7 here