SEVEN of THIRTY-TWO
*NOTE – Hi everyone, it's TheManFromMudos here. Today, I'm bringing you another chapter of 'Xavier', of course. But before that, I'd like to make something clear to you all. Recently, I've been having trouble writing. It's not that I've been unable to write, I've got stories coming out of my ears! It's more that I just haven't wanted to write. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy writing for FanFiction, and I always have. I suppose I've simply felt at times as though I was doing all this writing for nothing. After two whole weeks, or thereabouts, without a new chapter, I considered postponing the story indefinitely, giving up on the whole thing. Then, I looked back at some reviews for 'Xena' and 'Xanthus', and I thought: 'You know what? All this writing, all this effort, it's not for nothing. It's for you, the reader. I've come much too far to disappoint you all now by cutting this story short.' And that cheered me up a lot. So much so, in fact, that I decided not to give up on the story. I am going to keep writing, as long as you're going to keep reading. In other words, TheManFromMudos is here to stay! So, it's with great pleasure, although it's been a while, that I bring you the next chapter of the story. I don't know when the next one will be, but I promise you that it will be here eventually. So, read on and enjoy. It's 'Xavier'. THANK YOU!*
The final stretch of our drive through the city of Manchester was much less stressful than what had come before it. The motorway was busy, but not so much as the tightly packed city streets within the labyrinth of skyscrapers behind us. The scenery around has had also changed by this point. Of course, the immense concrete jungle still loomed over us on both sides of the road, but whilst the right hand side remained choc-a-bloc with building after building after building, those on the left hand side had slowly dispersed, until the landscape had been largely taken up by landing docks and ship ports. We passed numerous large ships as we drove along, luxurious passenger liners several times the size of the Andromeda, and even more eponymous freighters, but none came close to the sheer might of the Angelica in the distance. As we continued to approach the impossibly large vessel ahead of us, it quickly began to dominate the view through the front windscreen. Eventually, apart from the odd tower block here and there on the right hand side of the road, and a couple of large cargo ships on the left, nothing else could be seen other than the towering ship. Even as I craned my neck upwards, trying to catch a glimpse of the night sky above, I found that it simply could not be seen. Everything around us was utterly dwarfed by the colossal spacecraft.
Finally, another ten minutes or so later, we reached the exit for the Greater Manchester Ship Port. Traffic had built up tremendously by this point, with a substantial queue forming at the exit ramp. Presumably, they were all going to the same place as we were. I had no doubt that a ship the size of the Angelica had probably opened boarding months ago, but it was in these final days before it's departure that the real rush would take place. This was actually quite helpful for us, as we could blend in with the crowd, so to speak.
"Busy, isn't it?" Katie retorted, craning her neck in an attempt to find the front of the queue. I continued to budge forwards until we finally reached the turn off at the top of the ramp.
"Well, it's always the way." I sighed, slowly turning onto a long road which ran parallel to the side of the Angelica. "I reckon boarding will be open right up to the last minute."
"As long as we're not waiting up to the last minute." She remarked. "I was hoping we could board by the end of the day."
"Don't panic…" I replied patronisingly, pulling forwards again. "They won't all be boarding in the same place, anyway."
"Won't they?" Katie asked foolishly. For a moment, I thought she was being sarcastic, but then I saw genuine confusion on her face, and so decided to offer some explanation.
"A ship this big will have more than one boarding area." I told her. "It could have dozens of them, in fact, on both sides."
"So we can just go to the nearest one, then?" She asked, already looking around for some kind of signage. I simply shook my head in response.
"Do you not think everyone else is going to have that same idea?" I asked, gesturing to the lengthy queue of cars in front of us. "We'll go to the next one along." We couldn't go to the nearest boarding area, that was for sure. Otherwise, we really would be waiting around all day.
"Are you sure about that, Matthew?" Katie announced, gesturing to a large sign over the road ahead. It read, in huge white letters: 'Gate Tau', with an arrow pointing to the right, and beneath that were pretty much the last words that I wanted to see right now: 'NEXT GATE TWELVE MILES'.
"Fuck that." I remarked, quickly changing lanes to turn off for Gate Tau. "I'd rather wait in line."
A few minutes or so later, we had made our way down the access road towards Gate Tau. The traffic was still heavy, but noticeably less so than before. It seemed a few people had been bold, or indeed stupid, enough to drive ahead to the next gate. Those that had chosen to turn off here, though, were quickly becoming impatient. I lost track of the number of times that someone behind us honked their horn with irritation. Little by little, we edged down the access road, closer and closer to the gate, until the end was finally in sight. Hanging over the road ahead was a toll booth, the apparent cause of the queue. Beyond that, a large parking area slowly began to fill with vehicles. The car park appeared to be an enormous carousel system, with drivers leaving their vehicles to board the ship on foot, and the entire platform being lifted into the air when full, revealing a fresh set of parking spaces beneath. Presumably, the vehicles would be loaded onto the ship en masse once the carousel was full. I was concerned for a moment about whether or not the cars would be checked before being loaded. If we were going to leave Xena in the van whilst Katie and I boarded with the children, would dock staff eventually find her? Then again, surely they didn't have enough manpower or time to check every single vehicle. There had to be more than a hundred cars on each platform, of which there were eight or nine on the carousel. And I had no doubt that the same system was in place at every other gate. There were potentially tens of thousands of cars waiting to be loaded. Yes, Xena would be fine. Wouldn't she?
"Matthew?" Katie whispered, elbowing me sharply. Suddenly, I snapped out of my daze. For a moment there, I'd completely lost myself in my thoughts.
I looked around, and realised that we were now right beside the toll booth. Inside, a stout gentleman with greying hair glared at me impatiently.
"Uh-four, please." I stammered, my brain quickly catching up to the moment we were now in. "Two adults, two children."
"Certainly, sir." The man in the toll booth said, punching the order into a small keyboard behind the desk. "That'll be… one-two-eighty, please."
"One thousand two hundred and eighty pounds?!" I exclaimed. I couldn't believe it! As if I had that kind of money on me.
"No, sir, that's one thousand two hundred and eighty Sednan dollars." The man replied, correcting me with a smug grin.
"And what's the exchange rate?" I sighed, although in truth, I didn't even want to know, lest it give me a sudden and unexpected heart attack.
"It's twenty-five pounds to the dollar, sir." He explained, pointing to a currency list printed onto the front booth.
"What?!" I bellowed, now even more astonished. One thousand two hundred and eighty times twenty-five? I could buy a ship for that kind of money!
"That's over twenty-five grand!" I snapped, blatantly refusing to accept that four tickets would cost that much money. "You must be mad if you think I'm going to shell out that kind of money for four measly tickets aboard that… that…. oversized tin can!"
"It's alright, Matthew." Katie announced calmly, steadying Amanda on her lap as she reached into her left pocket. "I'll pay."
"There you go, she'll pa- What do you mean you'll pay?" I gasped, suddenly realising the implications of what she'd just said.
"I'll pay for the tickets." She repeated, producing a burgundy-coloured credit card from her pocket. "Do you accept TFU cards?"
"Of course, ma'am." The man in the ticket booth said with a smile. "We accept cards from all major banks and building societies."
"Well, here you go, then." She replied, reaching over me to pass him the card. All the while, I simply sat silently, completely taken aback by this new revelation. A Triton Financial Union card? That caliber of financial recognition could only mean one thing… that Katie was rich.
"Thank you, miss." The man nodded, touching the card against a small scanner beside him. "Here are your tickets. And… here is your card."
"Thank you very much." Katie smiled, taking both the tickets and card and stuffing them into her pocket. "Come on then, Matthew, we're holding people up."
"Hmm?" I said distantly, my mind still focused on the illustrious TFU card that Katie had been hiding all this time.
"Drive over to the car park, Matthew." She mumbled, gesturing towards the parking carousel.
"Oh, yes. Of course." I replied, still distant, as I pulled away from the toll booth with a perplexed expression across my face. I continued to dwell on this… unexpected revelation as I slowly drove the van up onto the platform, and pulled back into the nearest empty space. And then, when I was finally in the perfect position within the space, I turned the key in the ignition, the engine slowly ground to a halt, and I immediately let it all out.
"And just when were you planning to tell me that you're absolutely loaded?" I snapped, glaring at Katie with great disapproval.
"I'm not 'loaded'!" She replied, astonished by my outlandish assertion. "I admit, I may be… financially well-off, but I'm not loaded."
"Oh, please." I scoffed, shaking my head in disbelief. "You're raking it in! Triton Financial Union? That's literally the most high-class bank there is!"
"It's not that high-class." She mumbled, avoiding eye contact as she spoke. She knew as well as I did that that was a blatant lie.
"For God's sake, Katie, there's a Latin inscription on the card!" I exclaimed, trying my best to remain calm and rational about the situation.
"I don't see why it's such a big deal." She insisted, shrugging her shoulders. "Okay, maybe I am… 'loaded', but we're all in the same boat, aren't we?"
"I suppose so." I muttered, sighing deeply as I turned into the parking area. "I just don't understand why you didn't think to mention this before."
"It never seemed relevant." She told me truthfully. I saw her point, of course. It wasn't the sort of thing you just mentioned casually in conversation. But seriously? All this time, she'd been holding potential millions in her pocket? No wonder she was so keen to take the Cridlington Mach S back at the West Manchester Shuttleport, she probably owned three of them already and wanted it for her collection. Nevertheless, I tried my best to remain calm. So what if Katie had been holding onto an immense fortune all this time? So what if she never thought the moment was 'relevant' enough for her to mention it to me. I wasn't mad at her. No… I was absolutely fine. Yes, everything was just fine and dandy. Sunshine and rainbows. Unicorns and-
"Are you alright, Matthew?" Katie asked, interrupting my train of thought.
"No I'm not fucking alright!" I shouted angrily. "Look, I just… I don't know if I can trust you."
"What?" She replied, bewildered, frowning at me as the babies started to cry in response to my outburst. "What do you mean you can't trust me?"
"Well how do I know that you aren't keeping other things quiet, eh?" I told her sincerely.
"I promise you, Matthew, I'm not." She insisted. I could tell by the look in her eye that she was telling the truth this time. But I still felt somewhat betrayed. This wasn't the sort of thing I'd expect someone to keep quiet about. If I was rich, let me tell you, people would know.
"So how did you end up with so much money, then?" I said calmly, trying to rationalise the situation as well as I could.
"It's a long story." She replied. "But now's not the time to tell it." Of course. She wouldn't tell me. Not that I had a problem with that, of course.
"Fine." I assured her, shrugging my shoulders as I pushed open the driver's side door and stepped out of the van. "I'll find out one day, you know."
"And until that day, you can forever dwell on all those countless explanations." Katie remarked, pushing open her own door and climbing out.
As I slammed the driver's door shut, I took in a deep breath of fresh air ('fresh' being a relative term, in this instance.) Then, I gazed up at the goliath of a spaceship behind me. Seeing the Angelica this close up was a truly grounding experience. It towered over everything that surrounded it. I could only imagine at this point how it would feel to stand inside the ship, gazing up at the impossibly high ceiling, staring off into the distance at the four walls that contained us, and everything else, aboard. Soon enough, though, I'd know. Soon enough, I'd experience it for the first time.
"Got everything?" I asked Katie, turning to see the woman laden with a various selection of items, and of course, two babies.
"I think so." She replied with a quick nod. "Besides, if anything's still in the van, Xena'll look after it 'till we come for her."
"Fair enough." I remarked, shrugging my shoulders. At this point, I wandered back over to the van, and peered in through the dusty window to see Xena leaning over the seats with a sorrowful expression on her face. I should have known that she wouldn't take lightly to being left like this.
"Don't worry, Zee." I whispered, sticking my head through the window with a smile. "We'll be back for you as soon as we're on board, alright?" She seemed reluctant at first, but eventually nodded, albeit with a solemn expression. I know the situation wasn't exactly ideal, was it? But it was the only thing we could do right now. Once we were on the ship, we could head to the countryside, and nobody would ever know that she was even aboard.
"Just remember, Zee." I continued, stroking the top of her head gently to comfort her as I spoke. "Keep your head down. Alright?" The forlorn Xenomorph simply nodded in response, and shot me a quick smile, laced with despair. I returned the gesture by leaning in closer, quickly kissing her before we parted ways. Then, I heard Katie coughing behind me to get my attention, which ended the moment rather abruptly.
"We've got to go now, Xena." I told her, breaking away from her abruptly. "We'll be back soon, I promise. I love you." Xena beamed happily at this. It always seemed to cheer her up a little when I said that. As if she… wasn't really sure about it unless I provided occasional conformation.
"Ready to go now?" Katie asked, thrusting Xavier into my arms as I walked over to her. Before I could even answer, she'd begun to walk towards the exit to the car park. I rushed to catch up, slightly taken aback by the sudden change in her demeanor. It was only then that it really clicked for me, you know. I detected something in Katie then. Something which I hadn't really considered before. But it was there. And I knew in that moment that it could perhaps be the biggest challenge Xena and I would ever face as a couple. It was the slightest spark, but Katie had it in her. The spark of jealousy.