“Taking off the helmet on a foreign ship is never safe, what if we were aliens?”

I woke up to one of the guys in uniform talking to me. His name was Greg. I heard conversations between the crew. I heard one person teasingly calling him Agent Theory. I’m guessing it was a nickname. I couldn’t match the voice with the face. I guess I wasn’t really out cold, but all I could do was think and hear. I heard everything, but I’d let them go through the formality of introductions. If only to see if they would lie to me.

I tried to talk, but it came out a mumble.

“I was supposed to tell you not to take off the helmet,” he said, “the gasses from the place you just came from and the gases that maintain the ship really conflict.”

“…”

“Don’t worry, I’ve had my fair share of gas trouble.”

“Wha…wher…”

“You just go back to sleep I have to change into some casual clothes.”

“B…but…”

“Shh…my name is Greg. We’ll talk later, but trust me you need to rest.”

He left me there, they all did, and I was on the floor…still. I looked around, the floor looked the same, but the surroundings were…no they didn’t! They dragged me into another room and left me on the floor. There was no point in worrying about that now. All I could do was observe, so I watched him. He was black, but not like the slum black kids, this one was different. He had black hair, and a nice build, but he didn’t seem anything special. He was a mess, but there was something that compelled me to watch him. I saw his uniform drop to the ground and I watched him as he changed into normal looking clothes. It was like I was looking for something on him, I didn’t know what it was just something and couldn’t find it. Judging from his height and the shape of his face, he couldn’t have been more than sixteen. It might have just been because I was on the floor, but he was tall. I changed my mind; there was definitely something about this one. I blacked out. This time for real.

I woke up this time to see Greg in a chair with a wounded man on the floor. He looked different. I checked him up and down until I realized what it was.

“Those eyes,” I said.

He looked my way, but he didn’t react. He took a sip of his drink.

“The job?”

The man on the floor looked normal, just an average guy, but his hatred for Greg was all too apparent.

“I aint sayin’ no more.”

“Suit yourself.”

“Damn straight I will.”

Greg just shrugged it off.

“You know what, you’re swelling, let me get some ice for that leg of yours.”

He finished his drink; it was either cranberry juice or blood. I still didn’t know much about these people it could have been anything. He took the glass and put it on the man’s bleeding leg. There was something I was missing.

The man screamed in agony. Greg laughed but it was forced, it had the same effect though. It was cold, frightening, and it sent shivers up and down my spine. I imagine that the man on the floor felt the same shivers.

The man on the ground said, “Fuck, this ain’t ice.”

“It was…niter.”

“What are you talking about?”

“No that wasn’t it…was it nitrate?”

“Oh my god you didn’t.”

“Nitrite…hmm…did I already say that?”

The man on the floor had the face of a man that had seen the devil, I knew what it meant now, but it was so different seeing this boy right there torturing him with a boyish look on his face. “Nitrogen?”

The man screamed in pain again.

“ Quit bein’ such a girl…nitro something I think.”

Greg was just playing around, this was nothing more than a game to him, and he was buying time and waiting for the man to crack.

“Was it nitroglycerin…wait, no…nitroglycerine…I can’t seem to put my finger on what it is.”

I stood up dazed.

Theory said, “Just a second Jake, I’ll be right with you, have a seat.”

The man tried to move; Theory just took the ice out of the glass with the tongs and stuck it to the man’s wound.

He looked back at me and said, “Just a second.”

He went back to guessing,

“Dry ice, dry ice, what’s the name for it...”

He made an annoyed growl.

I answered him, “Carbon dioxide?”

“That’s it, I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“I’m guessing you were thinking nitrogen.”

“I guess I was.”

He held it up. I looked around; the man on the floor had passed out a while ago. I realized then that there was more to this boy than meets the eye. A truth that would repeat itself in my mind every time that I traveled with him.

“I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.”

“You told me your name when I was on your floor.”

“Sadly my friend, that doesn’t make a proper introduction.”

“You can call me Greg, and if that won’t do you can call anything so long as you’re consistent. Anything but Captain Kirk.”

“Greg’ll be fine, thank you.”

“This is the part when you give me your name.”

“But you already know it.”

He gave me a weird look. After what he did to that guy I didn’t want to cross him.

“It’s Jake,” I said.

“Nice to meet you.”

“I’m sure it is.”

He started leaving the room, and before he did he asked that I bandage up Richard.

I asked, “Who’s Richard.”

“Look down.”

“One more thing,” he said, “Hand me my drink.”