Adria had never noticed how fast the sunship’s left port. They were all lined up, their golden bows reflecting brightly in the glowing sun, their white sails whipping in the breeze. They all stood in a line, each waiting their turn to be tugged out of the port. Adria watched each of the tiny figures moving on the vast ship’s decks. Climbing in the Stella-Belunas skin sails, walking on the golden Merceaidon wood that glowed with the yellow light that in part gave the ships their names. She was looking for James even though she knew it was futile. From all the way atop the highest hill in New Alexandra, there was no way she was going to see him. She still looked, though, nervously twisting her Wedlock ring around her finger.
So many young men - so many brothers, sons, and husbands, all gave up 4 years, possibly their very lives, for what?
For them.
For the Stella-Belunas. The Sun Whales. The great leviathans that rode the solar winds, fought dragons, and ate the Golden Star Krill. Every part of the Stella-Belunas body was valuable, but the Sun Oil they concentrated from the Star Krill was the treasure that drew the thousands of sailors. The sun oil allowed everyone from the lowliest Ether Salmon fishers to the great ships of the Royal Solus Navy to travel between the planets. Even the magic which allowed New Alexandra to float above the seas of Saturn required the glowing honey-like liquid contained in the giant beasts.
But it came at a cost. Its price must be paid in blood, human blood. Like all great treasures, it was guarded.
Adria looked down at the churning depths of the Saturn sea, a churning mass of currents of gasses, liquids, and Ether. It went down and down, getting denser and denser until it hit the spinning magnetic core. The sea was broad and expensive, filling the above and below, extending all the way around the huge planet, with enough ocean to cover the entire Earth in Noah’s flood seven hundred times over.
Today it looked gentle, sweet, almost kind, the morning sun striking the edges of the flowing clouds of gasses and making them glow gold as they lazily rolled across the sky below, the sun reflecting down through the gaps to the lower clouds of brown and blue hughes.
But she knew beneath that gentle illusion was a deep dark depth of danger. There were the storms of Ether and arcane energy that could destroy even the biggest ships. There were the deadly falling asteroids that could rip the strongest hulls. There were the beautiful Harpies that could tempt even the most loyal husbands.
And worst of all, there were the Whales themselves. The Leviathans which the men threw themselves at like young lovers. But not to seduce, but to spear and kill. And unlike the petite lover, these beasts could grow as large as some of the cities of Earth. Living in the depths of space with no gravity to restrict them, they could become titans over the passing millennia.
In between the planets, they had to fend off dragons and spearworms, so they evolved wickedly sharp teeth, thick hide, and the ability to shoot Sun Oil in destructive beams. They were the gods of space, and only once did these titanic beings of eternal power and life have to descend to the immortal planets. After hundreds of years of eating and growing, these lone leviathans would make their way to the planet Saturn. Only there could they find a mate.
Then, the hunters would descend in the thousands every year. They went down into the dangerous seas to hunt the great beasts.
This year, James would be one of them.
Many of these brave souls did not return. Entire ships could be destroyed and sink forever, gone to the core of the planet.
Would James be one of those lost this year?
Adria leaned against the tree for support. She was in a Terrain city park in New Alexandra - so it was an earth tree, taken from her home planet. So many of those humans on Earth did not know that the solar system was anything besides cold and dead. The royal federation kept that secret well…
Her thoughts were interrupted by the distant sound of a horn. It announced that another boat was being taken out of the harbor, one of the metal tug boats taking it by rope, black steam pouring out of its chimney.
She felt a panic rising in her chest at the sound. She tingled with terror from the tips of her toes and fingers. The fluttering terror crashed back into her stomach like a kick and smothered her oppressive pressure. James could be on that boat. James could be leaving this harbor never to return it… or, at the very least, not to return for four years. In that time, what changes would occur that she could never get to see? What laughs, smiles, tears, and thoughts of his would she not witness?
She looked down at her stomach, her slightly protruding stomach. Four earth years and his son would be talking, walking, and he would have missed it all.
She took a shuddering breath and tried to picture his face. She was already forgetting him. She was most afraid of that. She held onto the sound of his voice, the contours of his face, the feeling of his rough hand…. If she forgot him and he never came back... and even if he did, if she forgot, how could she tell little James about his father?
Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She whirled around to see that face. James was standing behind her, his usual blond scruff on his square head. It was him, with his thin but muscular frame.
She collapsed into his arms and held back a sob.
“I just wanted to say goodbye.” He said.
She resisted the rising waves of tears. She knew this was as hard for him as for her. “Why must you go? Why must you leave me for a bunch of dumb beasts?” She asked the anger she felt earlier rising from the sadness.
He pulled her away and grabbed her face, and looked into it severely. “I’m not doing this for them. I do nothing for those whales, or that sun oil, or for the wealth. I do it for you, I do it for him,” He nodded down at her stomach, “In the end, I could not care a drop for what we find out there, except in what treasure I can bring back for you and our son. Do you understand that?”
She nodded, and he let go of her face.
“What…” She stopped. She couldn’t bring herself to breathe that fear, to say that almost insult.
“What if I die?” James finished, “Or worse yet, what if I tire of my wife and never return, like many an unloving sailor?”
She nodded, and he looked out at the ships, “I’ve left before. This time it’ll just be a little longer. We’re no strangers to love.”
She nodded and took a deep breath, “I know, I know. But four years is so long, four years… could you just come to visit?”
He shook his head, “You know the rules, and so do I,”
She nodded, successfully clearing most of the emotion, thinking of the blessed time after, when they could live in the house of their dreams, and she wouldn’t have to work anymore, and she could just be the mother she’d always wanted to be.
“Are you planning on just being a sailor or committing to the trust?” By joining the trust, he would put his very soul’s worth on the line for the ship, but it meant he would not just get a salary but a percentage.
“A full commitment’s what I’m thinking of,” James said.
Suddenly, he grabbed her and dragged her back into his arms. “You wouldn’t get this from any other guy,” He chuckled sadly. Adria understood. He was risking even his sailor by sneaking back to say goodbye.
She could hear his heartbeat against her face as he held her close
“I just wanna tell you how I’m feeling. Gotta make you understand…” He whispered. “Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down, Never gonna run around and desert you…..
Never gonna make you cry.
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
We’ve known each other for so long…"
YOU HAVE BEEN APRIL FOOLED. You might not have considered it was possible to get rickrolled through a short story… but I DID IT.
Anyway, I put to way much work into that. Happy April!
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