Exergesis

Errr…….not sure how to summarise this – it’s a sci – fi story, very sci – fi with it’s own internal reality, using a few people I know as characters. I quiet like Jaise here because he seems very real, but not pleased with Aishya’s character yet, mainly because she sounds SO Mary Sue. She isn’t, I promise, when you see her in the next few chapter’s, you’ll see what I mean.

The name of the story sounds fancy – but really is a fancy word for “reading theologically important texts” I suppose this is what this story’s about, really, about theology and how it can be interpreted (not to mention the massive gun fights/star battles I plan to add….notably un-theological excluding scientology) Not much theology, but loads of (hopefully recognisable) it in the next chapter, hopefully not too much “Cod” theology. Hoping to maybe synthesise a few biblical stories in as well.

Oh well…never matters – please read and review critically. VERY critically. I need constructive crit.

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Chapter 1 – go tell the king that’s the skys falling in.

Drifting, drifting, going upwards, body weightless, barely more significant than a speck of dust, up, up it went, towards the lights. Jaise twisted in mid air, looking at the vast desert of stars as he was beamed up slowly from his ship; he marvelled as he floated, trying to ignore the waves of nausea overcoming him. Oh yes, even now, even after six months of being beamed from one ship to another he still appreciated the stars, how they sparkled for him. Each star supported ten of planets, and each planet supported millions of life forms, and each life form…he stared at the galaxy – how could something so cold and impassive create so much life?

Jaise then heard a beeping which made him lose his train of thought…he sighed and realised he’d left his transmitter on…damn; they interfered with the beam signals. He lazily slid it out, and flipping it open quickly pressed the off button. Better. He looked up and saw that the gate was getting close. He quickly slid the transmitter back, and holding his arms out got ready for the transfer.

“Please hold out your arms whilst the Transfer takes place” boomed an annoyingly soothing woman’s voice, “This is for your own safety and comfort.” He floated for a few seconds more before…a flash of white light and a sound like the world imploding…and he hit a metal grating hard, flat on his face. He looked up, saw the two way mirror in front of him, and knew exactly where he was.

“This is a crap reception” he groaned loudly as he sat up, “I’ve had easier transfers to pirate ships.”

“Sorry, “boomed a tinny, but apologetic male voice, “we’ve been having problems…”

“Problems…yeah, sure, Problems…” Jaise rolled his eyes, standing up, “ah, fuck…Hit my knee.”

“Okay, just a quick decontamination…”said the voice.

“Decontamination?” asked Jaise, then suddenly realising…”oh no, oh no…” A nozzle descended from above him, and he was hit with half a tonne of viscous pink goo, showering him and half the room. He screamed with shock, before simply using the worse curses he’d picked up on his travels, flailing madly, before the gush suddenly came to a stop.

There was a moment of silence as he wiped some of the goo from his eyes. “Thanks for warning me, arsehole.”

“Sorry Jaise,” replied the voice, “It’s ship regulations…remember, we have both religious and governmental figureheads on board, we have to make sure you’re not sneaking in any viruses.”

“Ruice, why would I be smuggling in Viruses? Why would I be doing anything to harm the Priests? I’m not a terrorist!”

“We have to be careful these days…”

“And my best suit, ruined…” sighed Jaise, flicking off some of the pink stuff off his lapel in vain “aww, and I looked so good in it…”

“Don’t worry Jaise, we’ll fix it all up…”

“oh, no, no, no…I’m not having another machine near me today! Just…just get someone to show me to my quarters, beam me up a new set of clothes and let me have a rest before I see the Elders. That’s all I ask.”

A Door slid open in the wall, and the dim room was bathed in a painful white light, Jaise squinting before his eyes accustomed to it and he walked through into the control room.

He looked at the nervous man sitting the other side of the control desk he obviously didn’t understand. Ruice was a skinny tall being, in that way that made him look like a twig about to break under his own meagre weight. He shyly raised his head, trying to make eye contact, but his eyes were obscured by a shock of brown hair that flopped over his face. Ruice smiled like a nervous shark and said, “Welcome back Jaise.”

Jaise gave him a deathly glare. Ruice passed him a towel. Jaise stared at the towel like he’d been offered a dead stoat. “I have one of my own, thanks!” he stated, “I am a traveller, you know.”

“How long? Six Months?” Asked Ruice, “I have missed you, you know.” And with that, Ruice flung himself at Jaise, and hugged the soaking wet man.

Jaice hugged back, holding Ruice close. “I’ve missed you to.”

“So, how long are you back for?” asked Ruice, separating from Jaise, pink goo hanging for a second before snapping under the tension.

“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.” Jaise sighed.

Ruice brushed a little goo off him before he opened the second door. “When do you meet the elder’s?”

“Tomorrow night, I think.” Jaise said, following the much taller man out into the corridor, a grey carpeted monstrosity with a few sad pot-plants by the water coolers, “Oh God, how much I missed this uniformly hideous place!”

“So, where did you go?” asked Ruice, “What planets? What did you see?”

“Sorry, that’s all classified information, but once I’ve told the elders, I’ll tell you everything…has anyone changed my room?”

“No, no one’s touched it since you’ve been there…”

“And the cook? The one on level 54? Is he still working here?”

“No…he moved to another ship a month ago.”

“Damn…he always used to make the best Alterian grape soup! It’s very difficult to get right, and I could do with some after living on dehydrated carbohydrates and pre-digested protein! Real food…not much of that in deep space.”

“I can guess…” Ruice smiled, “I wish I could become a traveller like you.”

“Really?” Jaise seemed quiet taken aback, “I’m just the elder’s lackies, I don’t do anything that important. I mean, you’ve only just turned 20, you could be the head of engineering here if you work hard in five, eight years. It’s a better life than constantly on the move and running from the other races.”

“Maybe...but it sounds far more exciting.”

Jaise signed, “Ruice, unless you actually spruce yourself up a bit, not even being the inventor of a new computer system could help you get girls. And to be frank…I’m having a bit of a dry spell.”

“So, no sleeping with… dignitaries… this time around?” Ruice giggled.

“Look…how was I supposed to know that her body chemistry was toxic?” Jaise argued back, “Anyway…I’ll bid you good night! I need some sleep…and a shower …” He stopped, and placed his hand on a panel on the wall. The doors slid open with a satisfying ping. “I’ll see you tommrow, right?”

“Sure, Jaise, ” Ruice smiled, “give you a call?”

“Sounds good…” said Jaise as the doors slid shut. As soon as he was alone he sighed, and smelt the room. Ah, yes…it smelt of stale nicotine and air freshener…just like he’d left it. It may have been a bare, uniform room, but as he looked around he saw the little things he’d left – the rock from Alfa chessni which he’s picked up because it glowed a light blue, instead of the regular pink, a hunting knife from Vesni, which looked like a giant corkscrew, wall hangings from Merschui made from a fabric made from purple star spider’s webs. Just little things he’d picked up, curiosities, but still, they all connected him with his past, what had happened. He liked them. Even though he hated travelling, each thing reminded him of the good time’s he’d had. It made him go back each time.

Jaise took off his jacket, threw it on the floor, and whipped off his belt, letting his trousers fall to his ankles. He stepped out of his clothes and grabbing them, took them to the bathroom, threw them in the bath and proceeded to use the shower unit. He rejoiced in the rain of hot water, ridding himself of the amniotic-like fluid that had begun to encrust in his hair, washing away his aches and pains, burning slightly as they hit the old cuts and new burns that covered him like a plague. Fresh water. Fresh water he didn’t have a sneaking feeling hadn’t been properly filtered since he’d passed it. Fresh water that ran in great rivulets down his body, shining as they removed dirt. He grouped blindly, found his shampoo bottle and lathered himself in the cheap soap.

He’d never had a moment of joy so pure, so simple and so…redeeming, for a very long time. He wished it would never end, that moment where his ears were filled with the roar of water and all he needed to care about was where he needed scrubbing…but he heard the buzzer on the door go. He snapped out of his day dream and shouted, “come in!”

He shouted again, and then seeing that the person was not going to come in decided to turn off the shower and grabbed a towel. “Come in” he shouted again, “the door’s unlocked.”

He heard the door slide open, and he wrapped the towel around his lower half and walked out, saying “Ruice, I hope this is important…” he was stopped in his steps by the appearance of a nervous young woman holding his suitcase standing by his door. He stared at her, his jaw actually dropping in shock. She looked down at his towel. He stared at her. He turned notably red, and said, “yeah…I am a bit underdressed.”

The girl smiled, then gave up and burst out laughing. “Maybe a little” she conceded. “I brought you your luggage…” She held his bag out to him gingerly.

Jaise, one hand on his towel, held out his other hand, took the bag from her, and used it to cover himself with. “Thank you…”

“…Aishya.” She finished.

“Aishya, right…” he trailed off.

“I’m sorry, usually we’d have some Andro’s doing this, but the engineers have gone on strike, and the Andro’s are all offline, so I got told to do this…” she apologised, half garbling her words.

“Don’t worry…”he said, half in a daze, “Don’t worry, I understand…” she was a small girl, he decided, small and fragile looking, even dressed in the sort of smock dress she wore. Her hair was a bright yellow colour, tied back with a ribbon, making her look much younger than she probably was.

She shuffled her feet, and staring at him with her dull grey eyes coughed nervously and asked, “ Are you really the traveller the Elder’s talk about?”

“Which one is he?” he asked, semi amused.

“Jaise Simpson.” She said, “You’re famous, in a way…here at least, on the station…I hear the gentlemen talking about you sometimes.”

“Really?” asked Jaise, “Well, I suppose they must do, sometimes.”

“Is it true that you fought of a fleet of battle cruisers in a little cargo ship?”

“No, No, I didn’t exactly fight, I more sort of ran them into a trap.” He explained.

“And did you really save a Princess from an assassination?” Aishya asked, her eyes as big as saucers.

“Well, I did, but it wasn’t too hard…and she was more of a dignitary than a princess” he said, carefully.

“Wow…I can’t believe…” she smiled and bowed before saying, “I’d better be off. Thank you!” She turned on her heals and ran out of the door, letting it slam behind her. He smiled, threw the suitcase on the sofa. Clean clothes for tomorrow –she’d onbviously been told to clean them before returning them to him. The girl seemed nice, in a dippy sort of way, a little bit fluffy, but only to be expected from a girl of her age.

Tiredness washed over him, and he found himself involuntarily walking over to his bed and lying down on it. Only a little nap, he told himself, just a short nap…

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Thanks for reading – please Review if you can!