Gary Underwood

I laid back, enjoying the view of the moon, Pari pouted at me as I enjoyed the stars.

"You can't see all of these stars from the continent you know. That glowing forest, it's beautiful but the light polution insures that you miss this fantastic view, they're both beautiful but it's a shame that we have to make compromises."

She took in a breath.

"Why are we cutting a deal with Nazis?"

I continued enjoying the stars.

"Well in my defense I plan on cutting a deal with the Mafia, the IRA, well the terrorist IRA not the soft 'we are politicians' ones, at least one of the mexican cartels, and maybe the Triads."

"Why not the Yakuza while we're at it?"

"Don't know where they are and it seems like a waste of time, people call the Yakuza the japanese Mafia, they don't call the Mafia the italian Yakuza. Plus they're bound to have absolutly magnificent pasta once they have the right materials."

"You're going to make an deals with the italian Mafia for pasta?"

"And pizza, honestly I prefer Chicago style but that's just hometown pride talking. The original has a lot going for it."

She crossed her arms with a frown on her face.

"You do realize they're bad people?"

I shrugged.

"So am I."

"No... you went in and-"

I sighed.

"No, I'm a bad person, I own up to that, I take responsibility for that and I'm ok with that."

"But that's different, they um..."

I took a sip of coffee, I savored it enjoying it.

"It isn't. someone hurt me, I responded by destroying their lives, I didn't care who I hurt to hurt her. Oh sure the bank got its' money back, and yes she stole my house, but I still scared people, I still hurt people. Moving those numbers around had real effects on real people, and I don't care because I got my revenge."

I enjoyed the coffee and the moonlight.

"I'm past the point of making excuses, I knew the concequences for my actions and I did it all anyway, and here I am. Why did you mess around with Io?"

She looked flustered.

"I didn't want to hurt anyone, I just thought it would look cool I just... I just wanted people to remember me."

I took another sip.

"And now people will remember you, what you did can be seen from space, your name and actions are immortalized, and this is the concequence."

"I didn't want to hurt anyone."

"And yet people were hurt, neither of us are innocent Pari. We are the bad guys so lets not add hypocrisy to our sins. It's an ugly thing and you are much too pretty for that."

She looked away from me.

"Why... why did you save me?"

"Why not? What good is a boat, music, food without someone to talk to? I thought it would be interesting to talk to you, and I was right."

She got out of her plastic deckchair.

"You know I'm a parahuman right? I could end you, you know? I'm basically a princess you know?"

I smiled.

"Then it would have still been time well spent, my princess."

I listened to the ocean, taking it in.

"You can die you know, this could go really bad."

"It could go really well."

She sighed.

"Is this about getting your name in the history books or something?"

"Um no, if this works someone else will claim credit for it and I will be forgotten, if it fails then I get the blame."

"Then what's the point?"

"It doesn't matter who gets credit as long as it gets done, we're all stuck here no matter what, we might as well make the best of it."

"But-"

"We can't go home? Earth is overrated, the mind can make a hell out of heaven and a heaven out of hell. It's all just perspective."

I yawned, the moon was setting.

"I'm going to bed, the ship will float on."

I dropped the anchor in some shallows and showered and went to the captain's quarters and closed my eyes. I felt something warm snuggle up next to me and I put my arms around her.

"This isn't um..."

"It's ok."

The arms gripped me tightly as if afraid I would vanish and we went to sleep.