The Stars Have Eyes - Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Resolve

The Queen Mary achieved orbit above Marlton-3 seven minutes behind schedule. This did not seem like a huge delay until one considered just how many poundingtons per minute were required to operate the yacht. Suffice to say it was enough to make the average citizen dizzy. Thankfully this time deficit would not have any meaningful impact since the Marlton system was little more than a layover. There was nothing of particular importance or interest here in terms of tourism – no celestial formations, no famous landmarks, no local festivals, not even a weird bit of history. The only reason the yacht swung by at all was because it was waiting for a freighter transfer to a far more interesting location in three days’ time, so wasting a few minutes didn’t matter.

The ship was here anyway, so there was no reason to refuse ferrying a few passengers to and from Marlton-3. The aforementioned lack of sights to see meant there would be no official guided tour, which in turn meant that anyone going planetside had to sign a certain waiver. The document did little else but excuse the cruise’s organizers from any legal responsibility should something happen to the passengers while they were off on their own. It also informed people that the ship would not be waiting for them to return before it continued along its scheduled course. If someone lost track of time and missed the departure time they would be left behind and that would be entirely on their head.

This suited Joe and Maggie just fine since this was more or less their stop – the solar system where Barry Mulligan was sentenced to hard labor. That said, the girl very much wanted to continue the interstellar cruise since she hadn’t seen nearly enough of the Milky Way. That and she had paid for the whole thing and missing part of it did not comply with her orderly sensibilities. Helping Joe resolve his familial issues was her top priority, of course, but ideally they’d be able to get that done before the Queen Mary left. It wasn’t going to be easy since Barry’s mining station was way out there in the asteroid belt, but far from impossible so long as the couple stuck to Maggie’s meticulously prepared timetable.

First order of business was to go planetside and acquire two things – a shuttle capable of interplanetary travel and the license to fly one. The latter was more or less a done deal. Maggie had been sneaking in virtual flight hours throughout the duration of the cruise and had more than enough of them logged to qualify as a training course. She presented these to the local administration and demanded to take an exam immediately. Normally she wouldn’t be allowed to do that, but she was still technically a foreign diplomat with all of the associated privileges and benefits. One of those was to expedite the issuing of any official governmental documentation, which this most assuredly was. Thanks to that she managed to claim her shuttle pilot license in just three and a half hours after acing the written, practical, and psychological examinations in record time and with perfect scores.

Okay, the psych evaluator might’ve left a questionable ‘weird but polite’ remark on her file, but that didn’t really impact the process in any significant way.

Now that she was legally allowed to fly a real shuttle, Maggie just had to get one. Or, to be more precise, she had to go pick it up. A model OS-64-M “Silver Tempest” orbital shuttle was already waiting for her. Not just any Silver Tempest – her Silver Tempest. The girl had been able to ‘convince’ Director Millington to ‘donate’ the spacecraft in exchange for her scientific breakthrough. He had also been ‘persuaded’ into having it transported to Marlton-3, where it was to remain until its new owner came to claim it. All for the sake of Maggie’s ongoing cooperation, of course.

Joe wasn’t sure if he was comfortable with the way his girlfriend effectively extorted a government official, but that greased weasel Millington deserved it for that ‘fan club’ stunt. Dubious morality aside, the man wasn’t going to complain at being able to fly in style and comfort. The Silver Tempest was a high-end model, the shuttle equivalent of a luxury sports car, and Maggie’s had been outfitted like a flying hotel suite. There was a bathroom, a bedroom, a living room, a kitchenette, and even a VR pod. That last one surprised Joe the most, though that was mostly because it was that bloody shoggoth-infested one. Then again, he probably should’ve seen that coming since Jeeves the butler-bot had been shipped out here as well.

Another thing that gave the man pause was just how much effort Maggie had put into outfitting her new shuttle without Joe realizing it. It was painfully clear she didn’t go this far just for a one-time trip, and likely intended for the two of them to travel far and wide in it. The simple bloke wasn’t sure how to feel about that. He was never really big on travelling. He liked the idea of occasionally visiting new places and seeing exotic sights, but disliked the actual process of physically getting there. Then again, he’d probably enjoy long trips a lot more in this mobile home, especially since Maggie would be there. This positive outlook lasted for all of three minutes.

Looking at that biomechanical abomination and the servantile automaton made Joe realize just how homesick he really was. He missed hanging out with Benny and Cullen. He missed watching AJ march around the house with that ‘always on duty’ air about her. He missed the random visits from Officer Maloney. He missed dipping down to Mister Charles’ shop to see what new pointless gadget he had in store. Hell, as odd as it was, he was even starting to miss his old nosy neighbor, Ms. Edith Mandrake. He couldn’t help but smile as he imagined how annoyed she must’ve gotten whenever the neighborhood message boards were flooded with topics of him and Maggie. She’d probably explode with envy if she saw what almost happened with Kelly.

“What are you grinning about?”

The girl’s sudden and impeccably timed question made Joe jump in his seat a little.

“Oh, uh, nothing,” he stammered out. “Just, y’know. Can’t wait to get this over with and go back home.”

“I… see.”

“What?”

“It is of no consequence. I am merely disappointed we will miss out the rest of the cruise.”

Realization dawned on Joe like an exploding volcano. She hadn’t said anything about it, but he really should’ve known. Why else would she blitz through today’s agenda with such determined efficiency? The man felt a bit awkward for dashing her hopes like that, especially after all she had done and continued to do for him. Even if she said stuff like ‘your affection is recompense enough,’ he felt the least he could do was indulge her a bit.

“You know, if it means that much to you, we can hang around on the yacht for another week or two. It’s not like I’m in a rush to get back or anything.”

“Thank you.”

Seeing her face light up made Joe feel he’d made the right decision. What’s a bit of self-sacrifice if the girl he liked was happy, right?

“What about you? Have you decided how to confront your father?” she abruptly changed the subject.

“Sort of. I imagine there’ll be a lot of yelling. Maybe some punching. Maybe a lot of punching.”

“I see.”

“Just don’t brain-blast my dad, though, yeah? That’s going a bit too far.”

“Of course.”

“Also why are you so bloody thrilled all of a sudden?”

Her voice was relaxed, but her hair was positively wigging out with anticipation.

“I am merely eager to confirm whether human males can indeed communicate via physical violence.”

“Uh, Maggie? I’m pretty sure the whole ‘men talk with their fists’ thing is metaphorical.”

“Are you one hundred percent certain?”

“Well, no…”

“Then I look forward to observing your conversation, whatever form that may take.”

“If you say so. How long until we make it there, by the way?”

“Another twenty-six hours and thirty-eight minutes, approximately.”

“Hm. Alright.”

Joe couldn’t help but feel conflicted about this time frame. It was longer than he anticipated, but shorter than he hoped. It made sense that getting out to Barry’s workplace would take a while. Even with a brand-new top-of-the-line shuttle, that was an unimaginable distance to cover before it reached the mining rig he was stationed at. At least he would be available to meet Maggie and Joe the instant they got there. The couple were going to see a prisoner, after all, which involved making some requests and getting the necessary permissions. Nothing could expedite the day-long flight, of course, which gave Joe some food for thought.

“You know, I always wondered why dad chose to keep working for as long as he did,” he spoke his mind. “I can’t imagine anyone would willingly live in a space bungalow almost year-round unless they were an absolute nutter. So, y’know, I was kinda glad to find out dad’s not doing it by choice. Less thrilled about the whole… convicted liar thing.”

Maggie started formulating a response, but Joe didn’t give her the chance to make one.

“I need to be alone for a bit.”

He stood from the co-pilot’s seat and walked into the back, then went into the VR pod. It wasn’t connected to anything outside the ship, of course, but it still had a hard copy of his personal collection. The girl wanted to follow him in, to be there for him. However, she couldn’t. A shuttle pilot had to remain alert and in the cockpit at all times during transit in order to react instantly should any complications occur. Since Joe’s physical safety was higher on Maggie’s list of priorities than his emotional troubles, the girl had no choice but to let him be by himself. Well, that and he asked for a bit of space, which she deemed a reasonable request at this juncture. Still, the girl couldn’t help but start feeling lonely when she realized Joe intended to spend the entire flight in that pod. He only ever came out to eat or sleep, and didn’t say much to her aside from some casual greetings or a simple request. The girl didn’t know what to make of this since it was the first time the man had ever been so distant. She then reminded herself that he likely had a good reason for giving her the cold shoulder and left it at that.

For once, Joe didn’t actually have one of those. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt strangely refreshed to be apart from Maggie for the first time in a long, long while. Now that he thought about it, his girlfriend had been rather overbearing as of late, especially since the Kelly thing. The simple bloke didn’t mind her being a bit clingy, though. If anything, it was a good problem to have, he figured. That aside, he did have a lot of thinking to do, a lot of which he had been putting off ever since he left home. His last-minute introspective hadn’t yielded a lot of results by the time Maggie started docking with the mining station. Joe was still uncertain as to what he would say to his dad, and even started doubting whether there was even a point to him showing up here.

“Will you be alright?” the girl noticed his indecisiveness.

“Uh, yeah. Probably. Let’s just get this over with.”

The couple disembarked and were met by a superbly bored security guard standing in the middle of a mostly deserted docking bay. They didn’t get many visitors out here, to say the least. The man performed a rudimentary security scan and then lazily waved them through. He didn’t even notice that his psionic sensor fried itself trying to read Maggie’s brain waves. She did, but saw no reason to complicate matters by informing the man of the fault. He then pointed the couple in the general direction of the dorms and told them where they could find Barry. As they walked through the station they noticed it wasn’t actually a penal facility. From what they could tell it was just a privately-run mining operation that also, apparently, had some convicted laborers. These people were deemed non-violent and not a threat to society, so they were allowed to live out their sentence in relative comfort instead of being shipped off to a proper prison.

Joe felt quite relieved by all this. Even if he was mad at Barry, he didn’t want to see his dad miserable and tortured. He just didn’t have it in him to be that spiteful towards anyone, let alone family. By the time he and Maggie made it to the elder Mulligan’s quarters, he actually had a pretty good idea of what to do. He rang the doorbell and the sliding door hissed open to reveal a rather small living space. It was nowhere as tiny as Joe’s old apartment, but also significantly more cramped than any room in Maggie’s new home. It also looked to have been incredibly messy until its owner made a recent attempt at cleaning it up. The obscene stack of used paper plates and cups tucked underneath the bed practically screamed ‘bachelor pad’ even though the sole resident was definitely married.

Speaking of, Barry himself was no better. He was still as tall, bald, clean-shaven, and broad-shouldered as Joe remembered him. His attire consisted of a T-shirt, baggy trousers, and heavy boots, all of which looked almost as old as Joe judging by the ancient stains adorning them. The father himself had been nursing a paper cup of now-cold tea at the small table in the corner, but stood to meet his visitors as best he could. The look on his face as he locked eyes with Joe was best described as an incredibly goofy grin unburdened by complicated thoughts, an expression Maggie now classified as ‘The Mulligan Special.’

“Joe!” Barry roared. “So good to see you, my boy! Come here!”

He bear-hugged his son without any ceremony or reservation, practically lifting the smaller man off his feet.

“Good to see you too, dad,” he squeezed out.

“I missed you so much you wouldn’t believe!”

“No, I’m pretty sure I would. Can you let me down, please?”

Barry did so, then clapped Joe on the shoulder as he turned his unrelenting smile towards the girl.

“And this lovely bird must be Maggie.”

“Indeed. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“So polite and formal! Just just like your mom said,” he turned back to Joe. “I’m proud of you, son. And happy for both of you.”

“Thanks, dad. What about you, how are you holding up?”

“Oh, you know. Same old, same old. I’m hanging in there, staying positive. Just twenty more months and I’m free.”

Barry wasn’t even attempting to keep up his little secret. He already knew his wife had spilled the beans. And even if he didn’t, he had to give permission for Joe and Maggie to visit him, and they wouldn’t have to ask for it if he wasn’t in this situation.

“What about your health? They taking care of you out here?” the son inquired.

“Of course. Manning them drilling suits takes a lot of effort, and management here likes to keep their workhorses sturdy. The hours are murder and I don’t get paid, but at least I’m staying healthy. And so have you by the feel of it. You got a lot more meat on your bones the last time I saw you. Must be at least ten kilograms heavier.”

“Oh, uh, you could tell?” Joe got a bit embarrassed.

“Mhm. That’s always something your mother and I never agreed on, you know. I wanted my son to be big and strong, but she insisted it was enough for you to be cozy and relaxed like a human slug. It’s pretty much the only thing we argued over. Call me old fashioned, but men should be manly.”

Maggie nodded vigorously in the background while Joe nervously scratched his cheek.

“So, yeah. I’m just… really, genuinely happy to see you taking care of yourself,” Barry beamed.

“You know what? I am too. I wasn’t exactly… enthusiastic about the whole working out thing, but I do feel a lot better. It’s nice to not get winded after just three flights of stairs.”

“Ha! I bet Maggie really appreciates the extra stamina as well, eh?” he winked.

“Uh, we’re- We haven’t exactly, y’know…”

Instant regret flashed across Barry’s face as he grasped what Joe was trying to say.

“Indeed,” the girl cut in. “Joe’s commitment to improving his constitution for my sake is most endearing.”

Whether she understood the subtext or not, the girl’s honest answer went a long way towards avoiding an awkward atmosphere.

“Right, well,” the father regained his composure. “Your new muscles probably need more than the bare minimum of nutrients, yeah?”

He glanced over his shoulder towards the clock at the rear wall of his cramped quarters, immediately above his portrait of Queen Mechalizabeth II.

“How about you join me in the cafeteria for a very late lunch?” he offered. “I’d invite you in, but even I barely fit in that tin can.”

“Yeah, I could eat. Maggie?”

“Sure.”

“Fantastic! I’m sure you’ll like the food here. It’s not some fancy robo-butler’s cooking, but it’ll fill you right up.”

Indeed, the station’s canteen served extremely basic meals consisting primarily of bread, potatoes, beans, dried fruit, and maybe a sausage or two. The Noot-Goop that Joe subsisted on for the majority of his life was nowhere to be found. While certainly cheaper to produce, easier to store, and more balanced in terms of nutrition, the protein paste’s absolute lack of texture and flavor was devastating to worker morale. These people worked in a high-stress environment and required sufficient comfort and distraction when off the clock if they were to adequately perform their demanding duties. As such, this mining station was equipped with quite a few leisurely facilities, including several pubs and a casino.

The cafeteria was the place to be on that particular day, however. As one of the most senior miners around, Barry was friends with pretty much everyone. Word that his son and his drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend had come to visit spread like wildfire, and everyone wanted to meet them. People were even ending their shifts early just to drop by and get a peek. What should’ve been a quiet family lunch rapidly turned into something more akin to an office party. The entirely male workforce knew better than to bother Maggie, of course, but they had no reservations about getting up close and personal with Joe. Much as the girl suspected, father and son had more or less the same humble and easygoing personality, so Barry’s friends quickly became Joe’s friends. At some point Maggie decided to return to the ship so the lads didn’t have to hold back on her account. She was curious how things would transpire, of course, but she didn’t need to be there physically to observe the goings-on.

It wasn’t until six hours later that Joe finally returned to the shuttle. Actually, it was more accurate to say that Joe was delivered. The bloke had unwisely participated in a drinking contest that left him passed out on the floor. A slightly tipsy security guard had to bring him over in a self-propelled cargo crate that was the space age equivalent of a wheelbarrow. It was also technically three hours past the predetermined visitation time, but nobody seemed to mind. Just the opposite, actually. The guard professed he felt bad for having to boot Barry’s son off-station already, but there was only so much stretching of the rules he and his colleagues could do before they got into trouble. He left the passed-out visitor in Maggie’s care along with a small wrapped gift from Barry that the father apparently forgot about in all the excitement.

When Joe woke up eight hours later, he was already on his way back to Marlton-3 with a killer headache. Thankfully, his dad’s parting gift contained a small bottle of homemade hangover medication. It tasted uncannily like sour cabbage juice. Not exactly pleasant, but it did the trick of curing the ailment in just fifteen minutes. That wasn’t the only thing Barry left him, of course. His shoebox-sized parcel also contained a few interesting mineral samples he’d collected over the years while on the job. The accompanying note stated that a big-brained scientist like Maggie would probably appreciate these curious formations, and he was right on the money. The last and most important gift was for Joe, of course. It was a small holographic locket just like the one his mom had. It contained dozens of images of him and Barry partying it up the night before that were much appreciated. He had a big smile on his face as he flicked through them next to Maggie. The girl was naturally glad the visit had gone by without any major upsets, though that was a bit of a problem in and of itself.

“Joe?”

“Hm?”

“A question, if I may?”

“Sure,” he put away the locket for the moment. “What’s up?”

“You were far more cordial with your father than you said you would be. Why was that?”

Indeed, every time the topic of confronting his father came up, Joe spoke only of how he wanted to yell at and berate the senior Mulligan to the point where he expected violence. And yet, absolutely none of that had happened.

“Oh, right. About that. I ended up looking at a bunch of old photos and videos of him on the flight over there, and you know what? I realized that I wasn’t mad at him because he lied. I was mad at him because, well, I just missed him. Ever since I was a kid I wished he was around a lot more and I resented him because he wasn’t. I just didn’t know it wasn’t his decision to make, and I still hate that he and mum lied about it. Then I saw his big dumb face and I just… I decided I’d rather spend the time we had hanging out than arguing.”

“I see…”

“Also, two of his mates? Uh, Tim and Other Tim? I mentioned the ‘talking with fists’ thing and they said they’d participated in some kinda scientific study about that. Bloke who conducted it was called Doctor Bobenstien or something. Maybe you can look into that.”

“I will, and thank you.”

The girl had already remotely observed the conversation in question, but she decided to acknowledge Joe’s thoughtfulness instead of pointing out the obvious. The man then returned to browsing the pictures of the impromptu party. These were a big help as they helped jog his fuzzy memory of the festivities. He had to admit, he had a blast even though he was surrounded by strangers. They even taught him to play darts, which he enjoyed a lot more than he would’ve previously thought. That said, the visit hadn’t been all laughs and drinks. There was also a certain exchange between him and his dad that the son would never forget.

At around the midpoint of the festivities, Barry had pulled his son aside for a private chat, away from the rowdy miners. Rather than pretend it didn’t happen, the father owned up to and apologized for lying to Joe for most of his life. The junior Mulligan accepted it immediately, no questions asked. It was a big part of why Joe felt so good about the whole thing afterwards, but that wasn’t the only thing his dad wanted to talk about. Barry Mulligan never failed to do as much parenting as he could whenever he met up with his son, and this occasion was no different.

“Now Joe, listen here,” he told him sternly. “I don’t know how in the blazes you wound up with that girl. I’m sure it’s a bloody good story, and I’d love to hear it, but not now. Right now, I need to tell you something I’ve been meaning to tell you for years. You need to start being your own man instead of letting others guide you around.”

“What do you mean?” the son asked, confused. “I came all the way out here just to see you!”

“I know, and that took balls. But you didn’t just ‘get’ here. You were brought here. I get that Maggie means the world to you, and that’s fantastic, it truly is. However, you can’t let that girl become your world. Feel me?”

“Oh, come off it. It’s not like that.”

“You live in her apartment. You sponge off of her salary. She flew you here on her bloody shuttle for Queenie’s sake. You even admit you started eating right and working for her. Not for yourself. For her.”

“I… It’s not… You… may have a point, actually,” Joe admitted with difficulty. “I think I was kinda feeling that too lately, but I just brushed it off. I guess I shouldn’t have, huh?”

“No, you shouldn’t. It’s not healthy. Mentally, I mean. You should start doing things for yourself. Take some initiative. Learn some proper self-reliance. Start saying ‘no’ to people. I’m sure life seems rosy right now, but it won’t keep serving you things on a silver platter forever, yeah? When things go tits-up, you need to be ready for it.”

None of that was especially profound, but all of it was true. It was honestly rather impressive that Barry was able to discern all that considering how little he saw of his son. After learning some things from his wife’s bi-monthly letters and hearing the way the boy talked about his girlfriend, the older man recognized the same flaw that had gotten him into his predicament. Indeed, it was his co-dependent nature and eagerness to please others that landed him a decades-long stint in forced labor.

It all started long before Joe was born. One of Barry’s colleagues asked the man whether he could cover the last half hour of his shift because he was exhausted, offering a pint on him as recompense. Barry was just as tired but agreed to work twice as hard for the rest of the shift anyway. As a favor to a friend, he told himself. A few weeks later, that same person asked the same thing. And then he did it a third time. This became a trend, but it didn’t stop there. When word got around that Barry was especially helpful and hard-working, more and more people started dumping their responsibilities on him. It wasn’t out of malice. They were just lazy, incompetent, inconsiderate, or a mix of those. Barry didn’t want to disappoint any of them and did his best to do what was asked of him in addition to his own workload. At one point he had to devise his own little shortcuts to keep up. Things like stacking crates that weren’t supposed to be stacked, or dumping raw ore into cargo containers without checking if they were empty. They were just a bunch of time-wasting regulations that the company only bothered with because some stupid law said so.

As it turned out, those laws existed for a reason. Because of Barry’s wilful negligence, he allowed a significant amount of unrefined magnesium to be mixed in with a crate of tungsten ore. This was then funneled into a smelting furnace, causing an explosion that dumped molten metal on a fuel line. What happened next was officially described as a ‘cascading structural failure.’ When the dust settled, several people were hospitalized and there were millions of poundingtons’ worth of property damage. And so an investigation was launched and all the logs and security feeds were thoroughly checked.

Unsurprisingly, Barry’s numerous indiscretions were brought to light and the finger was pointed at him. Realistically, was he solely to blame for that incident? Absolutely not. The only way the magnesium would have gotten that far down the production line unnoticed was if a whole bunch of people weren’t doing their jobs properly. However, Barry foolishly assumed it was indeed his fault and admitted as such during his hearing. It wasn’t until years later that he realized how naive and foolish he’d been, both before and after the incident, and he hated himself for it.

And, as any good father, he wanted to spare his son from repeating the same mistakes.

“What I’m saying is, you owe it to yourself to be at least a little selfish,” he told Joe. “Not for my sake, but for yours. You get what I mean?”

“Yeah, dad. I think I do. And I’ll try.”

“There’s a good lad. Now come here, let’s make sure you don’t forget this little talk.”

The picture Barry took next was the same one Joe had been staring at for the past few minutes. It stood out from the rest even without all that context. All of the other ones had both of them sporting silly faces while random rough-faced blokes hovered around them. By contrast, this image looked like a proper father-and-son selfie, the sort of thing one framed and displayed proudly on a shelf. In fact, Joe liked that idea quite a bit, and made a mental note to do that when he got home. That was a matter for later, however. At that moment in time he was planning a far more immediate implementation of his dad’s words of wisdom.

“Maggie, can you come with me for a bit?”

“I’m afraid not,” she declined. “I cannot leave the pilot’s seat while the shuttle is in transit.”

It was technically a traffic law, but one that nobody else actually followed in practice. Navigational computers were advanced enough to the point where unmanned space flight was stasticially safer than manual. It was still a law, however, and Maggie was compelled to comply with it it.

“Well, can’t you pull over or something?” the man insisted.

“I could, but then we’d miss the yacht’s departure.”

Pulling the shuttle to a complete stop would mean killing the momentum it had been gradually accumulating since it left the space station. It was theoretically possible to get it back up to speed quickly enough to make the deadline, but that required burning a lot of fuel that the shuttle simply didn’t have.

“Please? It’s important,” Joe insisted.

“Understood.”

Maggie pulled the brakes without further hesitation. The entire vessel groaned and shook as its retro-thrusters killed its momentum as rapidly as they could without tearing the hull in half. Even then it took about a minute before the Silver Tempest came to a complete stop. Joe had already stepped out of the cockpit by then. Maggie flipped on the shuttle’s ‘blinker beacon’ to warn other ships that they might be on a collision course. The odds of that were astronomically low, yes, but that was the law. With all of the technicalities taken care of, she finally stood from her seat and went to join Joe. The man was sitting on the double bed in their shared cabin with a somewhat determined look on his face. He patted the sheet next to him. The girl took the hint and the seat without any delay.

“What is- Mmph?!”

Maggie barely got two words out before the man, for lack of a better word, pounced on her. He put his lips on hers and pressed her down onto the bed rather aggressively. He held her tight, grabbing various mounds of soft skin while he relentlessly kissed her. Like a caged and starved beast finally let loose, he showed not a hint of hesitation as he embraced her like never before. The girl not only allowed this to happen, but welcomed it. In truth, she’d been quietly anticipating this moment for quite a while now, and the fact that it was happening so suddenly made it all the more thrilling. She didn’t just passively accept the man’s overflowing passion. She returned it eagerly and fervently.

And it was thus that Joe and Maggie made love for the first of hopefully many times.