Beyond the Stars part 1

Basil Longshorts had always loved the stars. He always loved the idea of a life of freedom. It all started the day his father took him to work with him – his father was a mechanic at a space port, where ships would stop for supplies and repairs. Basil had started talking to some of the captains, and they told him stories of their adventures. As a small child who had only known a life on Earth, a life in the stars sounded like something out of a story.

He had been thinking of the stars when the accident happened.

In that split second, his life changed forever. His parents were killed, and when he woke up three weeks later in the hospital, he discovered he had been paralyzed from the waist down. Two months later, he was released from the hospital, depressed and alone at the age of 6.

With nowhere to go and no living relatives, he was sent to an orphanage in the city. Almost everyone there was older than him, and they were vicious. They harassed him every day, dragging him out of his wheelchair, beating him to a pulp, and leaving him bleeding on the floor. One time they locked him in a closet and left him for three days, and by the time somebody found him, he was dehydrated and delirious from a fever.

He did get his vengeance a week later by poisoning the group of boys who constantly bullied him. It was enough to give him a month of peace.

In that month, he managed to find the one good thing about the orphanage. It was only a mile away from the space port. From the roof at night, he could see the ships, large and small, coming and going. Of course, it was a struggle to get to the roof, seeing as he had to climb through the window, up a fire escape ladder, and over the ledge of the roof, all without use of his legs and with his wheelchair strapped to his back.

The building was also tall enough for him to see the stars. Between being able to see the stars and the lights of the space ships coming and going, he slowly began to feel happiness again. From then on, the thought of seeing the stars and the possibility of a better life kept him going and got him through each day.

He spent five years at that orphanage before things changed.

It started the day he turned 11. He had fallen asleep on the roof the night before, and because he had stayed up so late watching the countless number of ships – there were more than usual that night – he didn't realize there were people standing over him until it was too late.

They flipped him out of his wheelchair and onto the ground. Just before they started kicking him, he saw one of them toss his wheelchair over the side of the building.

They were pissed at him for all the small pranks he had pulled, like putting fire ants in their beds or slipping them laxatives or shaving off their left eyebrows in their sleep. And after five years of passive aggressive revenge, they had finally found where he hid at night.

They had only managed to kick him a few times in the head and stomach when something unexpected happened.

A loud voice shouted “HEY!”

Due to the head injuries he had sustained and the blood and dirt in his eyes, Basil couldn't quite see who the voice belonged to. All he saw was an incredibly tall, incredibly thin silhouette, lit from behind by the rising sun.

The silhouette moved so fast, he couldn't follow it, but within 30 seconds, every bully was on the ground unconscious.

Everything was quiet for a moment before Basil saw a pair of boots step in front of him. Then the silhouette knelt down and carefully rolled him over on his back, and he finally got a good look at his rescuer.

It was a woman. She was incredibly thin, she had short, curly black hair, dark brown skin, and a patch over her right eye. Her other eye was a bright vivid green.

She started talking, but he couldn't hear her. His vision was blurry, and everything hurt. A moment later, he felt himself being picked up. He panicked for a moment when she carried him towards the edge of the roof, but then she adjusted how she was holding him and grabbed onto something – he realized later it was a rope attached to a grappling hook. That must have been how she scaled the building so fast.

Holding him with one arm, she took hold of the rope and scaled down the building, down at least 200 feet to the ground. Basil cast a dreary glance around and spotted his wheelchair, shattered on the ground. That must have been what alerted her.

A few seconds later, he blacked out. However, right before he lost consciousness, he heard her speak.

“It's going to be okay,” she said quietly. Then he was out like a light.

XXX

When Basil woke up again, he was in what looked like a hospital. Of course, he couldn't quite tell, because his bed was surrounded on all sides by white curtains.

He sat up with a grimace, feeling a sharp pain shoot through his stomach and back. He glanced down and lifted his shirt, seeing bandages. He also reached up and felt bandages wrapped around his head.

Suddenly, one of the curtains opened, and a small robot stepped into the room. He had met robots like this before when his father had shown him around one of the ships. This was one of the med bots that worked on the larger, more populated ships.

The bot came over to him without a word and scanned him, then read off the screen.

“All vitals normal, no sign of concussion, internal bleeding has stopped, cybernetic transplant has been accepted and appears to be functioning properly...” The robot looked up at him. “I'll let the captain know you're awake. She wants to speak to you.”

Basil was speechless, and it was only after the med bot had left that he regained the ability to speak. He wanted to ask what it meant by a cybernetic transplant. He knew what it meant, mainly because his mother had been a doctor who specialized in biotechnology, which included cybernetics. He just wanted to know exactly what they had done while he had been unconscious.

He barely had time to start worrying before the curtain opened again, and the tall dark woman who had saved him on the rooftop walked in, followed by the robot.

“I'm glad to see you're awake!” she said happily. “You really took a pounding back there. How do you feel?”

“Fine...” he muttered nervously. “Uh... can you tell me what's going on...?”

“Well first of all, you're on my ship,” she said. “You were in pretty bad shape, so I brought you here, and the bots fixed you up. Which reminds me, how are the new legs working for ya?”

Basil froze. “New legs...?”

Then he slowly reached down and poked his leg, his heart leaping with excitement when he realized he could feel it. He moved his feet, and they responded.

“We replaced three of the vertebrae in your lower spine and repaired the nerve damage,” explained the bot. “You should now have full mobility in your legs again.”

Basil's first instinct was to try and leap to his feet, but the second he touched the floor he collapsed. The captain lunged forward and caught him before sitting him back on his bed.

“Watch out for that,” said the captain. “You're gonna be pretty shaky for a while.”

“Yeah, right, I forgot that I haven't walked in five years,” muttered Basil, staring at his toes and watching in fascination as they moved.

“It'll take a bit of rehabilitation, but I think you should be up and walking on your own by the end of the month,” said the captain, crossing her arms.

Basil glanced up at her, his smile slowly fading. “Uh... quick question... Where are we...?”

“We're still docked with the London port,” said the captain, “but we'll be ready to leave by tomorrow... Which brings me to a very important question. Do you want to stay on Earth, or do you want to come with us?”

Basil froze, his heart in his throat. It took a minute before he could speak again.

“I want to come with you,” he stammered out.

“Are you sure?” asked the captain. “This is the only time we'll even be in this quadrant for the next ten years...”

“The only people I ever loved died when I was 6. I've spent almost half of my life in an orphanage where I was nearly murdered at least once a week. There is nothing here for me anymore. I want to be part of your crew.”

The captain smiled. “Welcome to the crew. I'm Captain Amelia Silver.” She held out her hand, which, when Basil looked at it, he saw was mechanical.

Smiling, he shook her hand. “I'm Basil Longshorts.”

XXX

They left the next day.

Captain Amelia let Basil stay in the cockpit to watch the launch. He was still in a wheelchair because he wasn't strong enough to walk, and because the stitches on his back hadn't healed yet. However, none of that could hold back the excitement he felt as he watched the ship slowly rise into the air and gracefully fly out of the open hangar doors.

It was a clear sunny morning, so he could see for miles as the ship flew over the city. Then he watched in fascination as the city grew smaller. Soon, the buildings disappeared all together, and all he could see were land masses surrounded by enormous expanses of ocean.

Soon, the sky changed colors, and Basil could see the full curvature of the planet. Then in the blink of an eye, he could see the stars.

He glanced back at the planet, watching as it slowly grew smaller and smaller.

A smile slowly crept onto his face, and then he turned forward, and he never looked back.

XXX

Basil remained a part of Captain Amelia Silver's crew for fifteen years. During that time, he learned whatever anyone could teach him. He learned how to shoot, to fight, to pilot a ship, to play cards and gamble, and even how to build guns and mechanics. Even after he had fully regained his ability to walk, he still went and visited the med bots he had befriended. They were the ones that taught him how to do first aid, repair and upgrade other robots, and how to build mechanical limbs.

Life aboard the ship was never boring either. When the ship docked at a port every month or so, Basil would explore, always amazed at the new creatures and cultures.

It also came with many dangers. Twice when he was 15, he was almost mugged when they docked on a planet called Kelvin. He was lucky he had the ship's navigator – a relatively beefy man named Doppler, who had two mechanical hands with guns built in – with him.

About a dozen more times, their ship – the Montressor – had been in danger. They had been through countless meteor showers, solar storms, attempted raids by pirates, and one sudden supernova that spontaneously devolved into a persistent black hole. The only reason they survived that was because of Doppler.

When Basil was 17, a group of pirates had attacked their ship. That attack had been different for him, mainly because he took three bullets to the chest near the end of the battle. When he woke up a few days later, he found large wounds on his chest, clearly a sign of a hasty battlefield operation. He found out later that the med bot he had befriended found him when he was halfway to bleeding to death, and she had saved his life. His entire left lung had been replaced with a prosthetic, as well as part of his right lung and diaphragm.

When his med bot friend informed him how risky the prosthetic transplant had been and how he had almost died of both blood loss and asphyxiation, he realized just how lucky he was. And a week after he was able to move without crippling pain in his chest, he started gambling.

As it turned out, he was an excellent gambler. He had the ability to read people; he could always tell when they were bluffing. Not to mention he had the ability to keep a straight, hardened face, even when he had a handful of shit. And he had luck on his side. Whenever he doubted it, he would discreetly run his thumb over the ragged scars on his chest.

Any time they docked, Basil would find the nearest establishment where gambling was allowed, and almost every time, he would walk out with ten times the amount of cash in his pocket than he had started with.

He was certain that his best game happened the week he turned 18. They had stopped on a planet called Tross, planning on refueling and doing a bit of maintenance. Tross was a relatively small planet, but it was dangerously close to the star it orbited, so it had an incredibly thick atmosphere. Because of this and the constant solar radiation it was being bombarded with, the skies always glowed bright green and red and purple. The sky glowed so brightly that there was no need for lights, even at night.

As usual, Basil quickly located the nearest casino. This time was different though, because Captain Amelia herself came with him to see him play.

Within twelve minutes, Basil was caught up in an intense game with a big guy whose species he didn't recognize. It was also a bit hard to see him due to the cigarette smoke that filled the room. The smoke didn't really bother him because of his prosthetic lungs. He mentioned this to Amelia, but a minute later, he lowered his goggles, claiming the smoke was burning his eyes.

The big guy was unaware that, inside Basil's goggles, he had installed sensors that read the pulse and brainwave activity of whoever he was looking at. He had challenged this guy for a reason, and he didn't want his luck to run out, so he made his own luck. The guy was pretty good at keeping a straight face, but he couldn't control his pulse at all. Basil knew in seconds when the alien got a bad hand.

As it turned out, he didn't need to cheat. His luck held out, and he won the game. Eventually, the big guy ran out of money, so he finally placed the object that Basil had been after on the table.

It was a long, thin sword, razor sharp and dangerous. It seemed to glow blue in the dim haze of smoke.

Basil won easily, thanks to his goggles and the ace he had hidden in his sleeve. However, when he was celebrating, he accidentally knocked his goggles down around his neck, and the big guy clearly saw the sensors and realized that he had been cheating.

Within two seconds, a fight broke out. Basil didn't remember much of it, except a flurry of adrenaline, the sounds of screaming, and Captain Amelia dragging him back to the Montressor as he clutched the sword in one hand and tried to staunch the blood flowing from his eye with his other hand.

That was the first time he had been lucid for the surgery. He sat on the bed in the med bay holding a bloody patch of gauze to his eye while Amelia stuck an IV in his arm and a few of the med bots quickly built a prosthetic eye. They were so skilled that it only took them twelve minutes to build it and calibrate it for his nervous system.

Basil glanced out the window, seeing the planet disappearing in the distance. He remembered Amelia shooting a few people, and he saw all the different colors of blood on his sword, so he figured they probably wouldn't be going back to Tross any time soon.

It only took a few minutes for the medicine to kick in, and when it did, he felt everything to limp. He felt so calm that for a second he thought he was dead. He couldn't move, and the pain in his eye disappeared. Amelia laid him down and strapped down his arms and legs and head to keep him from moving.

“Ready?” she asked, carefully taking the blood soaked gauze away from his eye.

He mustered the energy to twitch his mouth into a smile and give a shaky thumbs up. Then he watched in a haze as the med bots leaned over him, and he heard the muted sounds of things being cut and pulled. A moment later, he watched as the bots removed the remainder of his left eye from the socket.

A moment later, one of them brought over the prosthetic, while the other cauterized his eye socket to stop the bleeding. Then they quickly and efficiently installed the prosthetic, and a moment later, he could see again.

The med bots finished cleaning the blood off his face, and then Amelia stood over him.

“It doesn't look that bad,” she said. Then she lifted the patch over her right eye, and Basil saw that she too had a prosthetic. Her other eye was silver with a glowing gold pupil.

“See-through eyepatch,” she said, lowering the patch again. “Some people don't usually take too well to cyborgs. But I guess for this crew, the more machine you are, the more you fit in...”

Basil couldn't respond, mainly because of the anesthesia. All he could do was stare and try to get used to the feeling of his left eye not blinking, but instead going black when his other eye blinked.

Amelia smiled a bit, then she turned and picked up a syringe off the tray next to the bed.

“This should help you sleep,” she said, injecting the medicine into his IV. “Trust me, you'll feel better in the morning.”

He didn't get a chance to force out a “Thank you” before the medicine knocked him unconscious.

He may have lost an eye that day, but for some odd reason, he didn't mind. Everybody on the ship had at least one external prosthetic, and like the captain said, it only made them closer.

And besides, the sword he won was much more valuable than his eye.

XXX

Basil stayed on the crew of the Montressor until he was 26. It wasn't like he wanted to leave, but the opportunity presented itself.

They stopped on a tiny planetoid that most of the crew called Void. The tiny dead planet had been launched out of orbit when it's star burnt out, and it was now suspended in an asteroid belt. There were space ports on the planetoid because a mining colony had claimed it and were using it as a base.

The Montressor docked there to resupply, and Basil was surprised to find that what seemed like the entire planet gambled.

Because the planet had no atmosphere, everybody had to wear oxygen masks, which made poker much harder, especially because Basil couldn't see anybody's face.

As soon as Basil walked into the nearest casino, which was built into the port, someone walked up to him and led him to a large table near the center of the room, telling him somebody wanted to challenge him.

The man at the table wasn't actually a man, but a large alien, at least twice as big as him. He couldn't tell what species he was because of the mask, but he did know that the last time he played someone this large, he lost an eye.

After two seconds of looking around, Basil realized that this guy was monopolizing the casino, which was shown by the massive pile of units stacked up on the table in front of him and the glares of the other patrons.

“Let me guess...” said Basil as he sat down. “There isn't anybody else here for you to take money from?”

“Something like that,” said the alien with a shrug and what Basil assumed was a smug smile.

Without another word, they started playing. It seemed like everybody in the bar turned to watch, interested to see if the new kid would finally beat the master.

At first, Basil's luck held out, and the big guy's pile of cash began to slowly grow smaller as it moved across the table.

It only took Basil two losses to figure out the big guy's patterns. Unable to read the face, he focused on the shoulders. He quickly realized that whenever the big guy was bluffing, he would sit forward ever so slightly and hunch his shoulders a bit. When he had a good deck, he would relax a tiny bit. This was the only way Basil could determine how to play, seeing as the big guy had such good control that the sensors in his mechanical eye couldn't detect any change in pulse, brainwave activity, or respiration.

As the game went on, more and more people began to gather around the table. Basil wasn't aware of it until afterwards, but Captain Amelia even came inside to watch.

The game took a grand total of three hours. By the end of those hours, the big guy had lost all of the money he had won, and he had nothing left to bet. Or so Basil thought.

“How about this, kid,” said the big guy, surprising everybody by speaking for the first time since the game started. “I've got a ship parked outside. I'll bet my ship against your cash. Deal?”

Basil raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything until the guy pulled out the keys and put them on the table.

“If I win, I get the money back,” said the big guy. “If you win, you get the money and the ship.”

Slowly, Basil nodded. It was a big risk, but the thought of having his own ship was beyond enticing.

The cards were dealt. Basil glanced at them before sliding the pile of units into the center of the table while absently running his thumb over the scars on his chest. He just hoped his luck would hold out.

The big guy put the keys to the ship in the center of the table. Then they both laid down their cards.

Basil won by a single card.

The entire casino erupted into cheers, and Basil stood up and shook what he assumed was the man's hand, even though it felt like a hoof.

He quickly scooped his winnings into his bag and picked up the keys. The big guy didn't stand up, but a small thin man with orange eyes and purple skin came forward and told him he would show him to the ship.

They walked out of the casino and down the length of the port until they reached a relatively small ship near the end. It was much smaller than the Montressor, but it looked to be equally as run down. However, he saw that it was large enough for a small crew, and it had weapons.

The small purple man turned to leave, but Basil stopped him.

“Hey, what about that guy?” he asked. “Doesn't that mean he's stuck here?”

“He actually brought several ships with him,” said the purple man. “Usually he'll bet one of his spare ships, and most people will try to beat him and lose. Then he gets the money and keeps the spare ship.”

“He just takes extra ships around with him?”

The purple guy nodded. “This ship hasn't actually been flown before, except by the autopilot. You'll be the first.”

Suddenly, the guy's watch began beeping. “I must return to my master,” he said. Then he turned and left without so much as a “good day.”

Basil turned back to the ship, his heart in his throat. He slowly stepped up to the door and unlocked it, finding it a bit strange that the keys actually looked like keys instead of the scanners that most ships had.

The door creaked open, and a puff of stale air rushed out. He slowly stepped inside, and the lights flickered on. He expected the inside to be dusty and full of spiderwebs, but it was sparkling clean.

“Hello?” he called out, glancing down the halls.

Suddenly, he heard movement. The sounds of metal footsteps slowly came closer to him, and a moment later, a small robot poked his head around the corner. Basil instantly recognized it as a cleaning robot, just one version older than the ones on the Montressor.

“Who are you?” asked the small cleaning bot, stepping around the corner.

“I'm Basil,” he said, holding out his hand. “I just won this ship from the previous owner.”

The little robot looked at his outstretched hand before spraying it with disinfectant and wiping off his palm. Then he shook his hand.

“I'm the cleaning bot for the ship,” said the little robot. “I'm called S.I.M.O.N-4000X, but I prefer to just be called Simon. It's a little more personal than a handful of numbers and letters.”

Basil nodded, glancing around. Then he heard footsteps, and he turned around to see Amelia standing in the doorway.

“Captain,” he said with a nod, suddenly worrying about how she would react.

She didn't respond for a moment. Instead, she simply glanced around.

“This reminds me of my first ship,” she said quietly. Then she looked back at Basil. “So I guess you're gonna be heading out on your own?”

Basil shrugged. “I guess I am... I mean, I didn't exactly plan on leaving like this, but...”

“But it would have happened eventually,” she finished for him. “Ever since the day you joined the crew I knew you'd eventually want to leave. The rest of the crew, they found me. They joined me because I offered to pay them. But you didn't really have a choice. You wanted freedom, and to be a part of my crew was the only way for you to get away from your planet. I figured it was only a matter of time.”

Basil shook his head a bit. “I didn't just join your crew to get away from Earth. You rescued me. You gave me the ability to walk, and you saved my life more times than I want to admit. And I stayed with you because you're my friend...”

Amelia smiled, then she stepped forward and hugged him.

A minute later, she stepped back and took a bag off her shoulder, handing it to him.

“I stopped by our – my ship and grabbed your stuff,” she said. “We'll be leaving soon. Do you want to come say goodbye? Or should I wait until we've left to tell everybody?”

Basil sighed and adjusted his goggles. “I think it would be better if I didn't go back to the ship...”

Amelia nodded. “I thought so.”

“Hey, it's not like you'll never see me again,” said Basil hopefully. “I'll keep in touch.”

“You'd better,” said Amelia with a small smile. “Otherwise I'll hunt you down.”

“I don't doubt that...”

Amelia nodded, and then, feeling there was nothing left to be said, turned towards the door.

“Captain...” said Basil suddenly. Amelia turned to look at him. “Thank you.”

She smiled. “You're the captain here,” she said. “Good luck, you crazy little cyborg.”

And then she left.

Basil was still for a minute before glancing at Simon.

“That was really sad,” said the little robot.

Basil nodded, his throat feeling tight. He quickly turned and reached to pick up his stuff, but Simon shot forward and grabbed it.

“I can carry this,” he said eagerly. “Where do you want it?”

“Uh, I don't know. I haven't exactly seen the rest of the ship,” said Basil.

“I'll show you around, Captain,” said Simon before turning and walking down the hall. Basil quickly followed him, realizing he would have to get used to being called Captain.

Simon gave him a full tour of the ship, and much to Basil's amazement, it was much larger than it seemed from the outside. It was big enough for a crew of twelve, himself and Simon included. He would have to get started on finding a good crew.

“So what's the deal with this ship?” asked Basil as he and Simon made their way back to the cockpit.

“You're the first human to set foot inside,” said Simon, looking up at his captain with wide eyes. “Normally this ship would be on autopilot and just follow the bigger ships around. It makes it look like the bigger ship has guards, so pirates will be less likely to attack. I was a bit confused earlier when this ship was disconnected from the main autopilot program, but now I understand.”

“What's the name of this ship?” he asked.

“It's called the SS Rim Hopper,” said Simon happily.

Basil grimaced, but he knew it was bad luck to rename a ship. “We'll just call it the Hopper for now...”

He glanced down at the robot to see his reaction, but he was surprised to see Simon staring at him.

“What is it?”

Simon shook his head a bit. “It's just... I've never had a captain before... Actually, this is the most interaction I've ever had. They put me on this ship right after I was built and told me to keep it clean. I've been here for five years, and that's the first time the door has been open since then.”

“Didn't you get lonely?” asked Basil, glancing up and seeing they had reached the cockpit.

Simon shrugged. “I could talk to the other cleaning bots on the spare ships through the wireless interface, but they didn't exactly like me. I think it was because I wanted a real person name, not a robot name.”

“I'm sorry,” said Basil, understanding how the little robot felt.

“But now I have you!” exclaimed Simon. “Now I have a captain!”

Basil smiled widely. “That's right. And I promise I'll never ignore you or make fun of you. Sound good?”

Simon nodded enthusiastically.

“Good,” said Basil, turning back to the control console. He quickly began the air purification process, adjusting it to meet his ideal air composition. Then he checked the fuel, the state of the ship, and the supplies. Unfortunately, there were no supplies on the ship, so they would have to stop at the next closest port to resupply. He was sure there was a space station close by, and he had plenty of money from his many games.

Luckily, he recognized the piloting interface, especially after the lessons Doppler gave him about piloting ships.

Basil turned and looked at Simon. “Are you ready to go?”

Simon nodded eagerly.

Basil looked forward and fired up the ship's engine. Then he tuned into the radio tower.

“This is Captain Basil Longshorts of the SS Rim Hopper, requesting permission for takeoff.”

Three minutes later, Basil lifted his ship into the air, and thirty seconds later, the planet Void was disappearing into the darkness of endless space.