{"id":2469,"date":"2023-01-28T14:36:50","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T21:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/?p=2469"},"modified":"2023-01-28T14:36:50","modified_gmt":"2023-01-28T21:36:50","slug":"fighting-monsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/28\/fighting-monsters\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Monsters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

prompt: Write a story about two characters whose paths briefly cross, but are actually going in opposite directions \u2014 whether literally or figuratively.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

available at Reedsy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During my second year in the academy, I was still trying to decide what I wanted to specialize in. At that point, it didn\u2019t matter; I was going to do anything<\/em> that got me into space and away from the outer colonies for good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One afternoon, there was a test of a new vectoring thruster built by the engineering students. It was supposed to be super-efficient or some other thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were several of us watching on the periphery; just something to occupy our free time. They were testing on the perpetually \u201cComing Soon\u201d soccer pitch. It hadn\u2019t ever been sodded in the fourteen years since the academy opened and was just a gravel field with stadium furniture. The thrust mount was in the middle of the field, and to one side, the empty trailer they\u2019d brought the thruster in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stood near the trailer, and I was just a little past her from it. We had a decent vantage on the test, but not as good as the people in the stands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It started out underwhelming and somewhat expected. The thruster sat in its stand and fired up, the big display over it showed the angle of vector, thrust in kilo-Newtons, and fuel consumption per second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then all hell broke loose. The bottom of the mount failed, and the thruster twisted parallel to the ground. The people in the stands were safe, as well as the testers, as the thrust was pointed away from them, straight at us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pushed her into the trailer and held the door closed as well as I could against the blast of the thruster. The pain was intense for just a moment, then I\u2019m not sure whether it was nerve damage or shock that numbed me. It was then that the thruster exploded. The shockwave knocked us both out and ripped the door out my hand and off its hinges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I woke up to someone holding and stroking my left hand. It was the girl I\u2019d pushed into the trailer, but she was bald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHey,\u201d I said, \u201cyou were in the trailer. Your hair\u2026are you okay?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her eyes brimmed with tears. \u201cI\u2019m fine. My name\u2019s Cora Martin. We didn\u2019t get a chance to get properly introduced. Thank you for saving my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHi, Cora. I\u2019m\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cZephyr Langstrom. If it\u2019s all right, I\u2019ll just call you Zeph.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy are you bald?\u201d My voice was weak and croaky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want you to be the only one.\u201d I started to reach for my head with my right hand but was stopped by the intense pain. I looked down to see a ruined arm and hand under translucent burn bandages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I reached up with left hand and felt a bandage on my head. She held up a mirror so I could see. It looked like the right rear quarter of my scalp was bandaged like my arm but didn\u2019t look nearly as bad. The rest of my head had been shaved and a standard bandage covered what I later learned was where a piece of shrapnel had almost pierced my skull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow long was I out?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cora helped me drink some water while she answered. \u201cYou\u2019ve been out for two and half days. I\u2019ve been here the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t have to do that,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think I did,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the least I could do. You\u2019d better get used to it, as I\u2019m moving you into my dorm room so I can help out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHelp with what?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The doctor came into the room, then, and Cora gave my hand a squeeze. Before she could leave, though, I stopped her. I don\u2019t know why, but I wanted her there. \u201cYou can stay. If you\u2019re helping out, it might be nice to know what\u2019s going on, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The doctor explained my injuries and what it would take to recover. I\u2019d need several muscle and skin grafts to repair my arm, repeated surgeries to free up the scar tissue to maintain mobility, and constant physio. He guessed about nine to twelve months for recovery up to sixty-percent mobility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tears burned my eyes. Without hope of a full or nearly full recovery, I could forget a career in space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A gentle hand wiped my tears. \u201cI\u2019m here for you, Zeph. You held that door against the blast of the thruster and saved both our lives. You\u2019re tough enough to push through this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The doctor nodded. \u201cNot every position requires full mobility,\u201d he said. \u201cIn fact, my son is a pilot even though he lost his left hand in an accident in childhood. He was recently promoted, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat you\u2019re saying is, if I get at least as much mobility as a prosthetic, I\u2019ll be okay?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExactly.\u201d He made some notes in his tablet. \u201cYou should get some rest. Ms. Martin assures us that you have care available at home, so we\u2019ll be releasing you in the morning. You\u2019ll have to come in each morning to change your dressings and physiotherapy, and we\u2019ll start laying out a schedule for your surgeries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year following was an exercise in overcoming pain. Cora provided constant support and encouragement. If it hadn\u2019t been for her, I never would\u2019ve been able to keep up with my coursework, and probably would\u2019ve dropped out of physio due to sheer hopeless frustration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She even kept me going in electives, even getting me through philosophy, which she wasn\u2019t taking. Studying Nietzsche while undergoing daily physio and six surgeries seemed impossible, but Cora made it happen by reading the material to me and making sure I could paraphrase. By the end of the term, she hated the course, and especially old Friedrich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrary to the doctor\u2019s estimate, I recovered more than eighty-percent use of my right hand, and by the time I\u2019d recovered from the last of twenty-nine surgeries, I didn\u2019t notice any impairment. I did<\/em> however, end up being decently ambidextrous after spending most of a year doing everything with my left hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some fields were unavailable to me due to my injuries. Some things require fine motor skills and two hands, other things involve working around extreme heat or cold, both of which cause me a great deal of pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My choices for specialization were limited to combat, pilot, loadmaster, and any of the paperwork jobs. I chose to be a pilot. Of course, what you end up piloting depends on what\u2019s needed when you\u2019re nearing graduation. In my case, it ended up being interdiction patrol ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last year of academy, I received my license to pilot most every ship flown by law enforcement, as well as law enforcement training. Cora had chosen to specialize in interdiction combat, combining law enforcement, close-quarters combat, and ship-to-ship action. She\u2019d told me, \u201cI want to board pirate ships and take \u2019em all down. Maybe I\u2019ll be on the ship you\u2019re flying!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once we had graduated, we received our badges and first assignments. The last few days at the academy we bid farewell to our fellow cadets that were heading off to careers in the military, commerce, law enforcement or government. Since then, I\u2019ve been piloting the Vicious Rabbit<\/em>, a.k.a. LIV 39-Z-434<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never saw or heard from Cora again, at least until I stood behind the captain this morning, looking at the report on the screen. It didn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong, Zephyr?\u201d the captain asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI spent most of my time in the academy with her. I thought I knew her.\u201d I rubbed the scars on my arm and hand, feeling the difference between the lumpy burn and graft scars, and the smaller, straight scars from surgeries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs this going to be a problem?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, sir. You get me close, and I\u2019ll put us in boarding range.\u201d A dark thought floated through my mind. \u201cBe careful, she\u2019s trained in ship-to-ship combat. She\u2019s had all the same training our guys have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know, we have her records.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs there a reason we can\u2019t just\u2026let her do her thing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The captain stood and sighed. \u201cI\u2019ll be honest. I would\u2019ve recommended leaving her alone when she first went rogue and was only targeting pirates. Yesterday, she attacked a commercial freighter. She\u2019s made the transition from vigilante to criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCora hated Nietzsche, but she should have listened. \u2018Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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