)3)
Lakan leaned back in his chair with his boots up on his desk and stared thoughtfully out the window. There was a faint, sad smile on his face and a distant, melancholy shine in his eyes. He shook his head in thought. I sat across him dumbly, waiting for him to speak.
"Aaren," he said, addressing me by my name for the first time since we'd cast off, "I've seen you and Marko together over the years, so I know enough to believe you and not him."
Relief flooded me inside, but I remained neutral outside and merely nodded. He laughed in amusement. It wasn't a scornful, derisive laugh like Marko's, but a genuine, warm one. "Always the good cadet, aren't we, Aaren?" He took his boots off the table, straightened up for a moment, and then leaned forward across the desk. "That's another reason I know you didn't steal the longboat."
He rapped his knuckles on the table and frowned. "Which brings me to wonder why he'd lie to me like that..."
I raised my eyebrows, and he shook his head. "Marko has never lied to me before."
As my "punishment", Lakan sent me to work first at repairing the stolen longboat and then doing grunt work all over the ship. During my free time, he'd suddenly appear with a stack of books and say that they were full of information a cadet like me should know. I soon found that time to myself would be time to work on book reports.
Somehow, though, he was able to get the crew to believe that Marko had been partially responsible for the joyride after all and put him on duty in the galley. This was to Maggie's delight as she tittered and squealed every time she could about how sweet and helpful Marko was - she'd been working in the galley, too. And, it was also to my delight; Lakan had found ways to separate me and Marko for the rest of the voyage.
More things began to change, however. At first I thought that I was only imagining things. But it soon became clear to me and the others that Marko was losing his composure.
Maybe it was the lie. That was what I thought at first. One night, he'd walked into Lakan's cabin, whistling that moronic space chanty with a pleased look on his face. Much later, he walked out, seemingly distracted and puzzled. Some warm feeling welled up in me at the thought of Lakan giving Marko a talking-to, and it was I who wore the satisfied smirk that night. He caught me watching him, but instead of wiping that smirk off my face with some biting remark, he simply gave me and angry stare and disappeared into the quarters below.
Then I realized that it was not just the lie. It began to seem like such an insignificant thing compared to what was bugging him now. Horsing around with the crew became half-hearted. Maggie's gushing over his flirting decreased. And he actually began to leave me alone.
For the first time since the summer he turned his back on me, Marko was clumsy and absent-minded, losing utensils and breaking plates. I stopped reveling in how much he'd turned around and started wondering with the rest of the crew: what was going on?
In three more days, we would reach our destination. Lakan kept the whole crew up and about, checking and rechecking goods, assisting the officers on the ship we were escorting, and making sure we knew what we were going to do in those outlying planets. Marko only listened half the time.
That night, I came down from the crow's nest, just as my shift ended. All I had left to do was to turn in and rest till the next day. The deck was empty, and the only other man up top had taken my place. I checked around, to make sure that there was nothing amiss before going to sleep.
The light was still on in Lakan's cabin. And as I got closer, I could hear arguing inside.
"Where is it?" asked Marko. He sounded strangled, frantic, almost panicky. I puzzled.
Lakan replied, exasperated, as if he was talking to a child. "For the last time, I don't have it. It's yours, you were supposed to take care of it. Don't ask me. Go to bed."
I heard a frustrated moan, and the door burst open. Golden light spilled out of the cabin and onto the deck. Marko stood in the doorway, a dark silhouette. For a moment, I thought he was staring at me, but I couldn't see his eyes. He slammed Lakan's door and stomped off into the quarters.
I waited a few minutes, and then I followed below. I quietly got into my bunk and lay awake. It was then that I heard a soft, mournful whisper from across the floor.
"Where is it...?"
-Author's Note-
It's been exactly a year and a day since I started writing. I feel it's a pity I wasn't able to get this up in time. I know I promised more chapters, but I guess Christmas and time with all the people I've missed got most of my time. Happy Holidays, and thanks for reading! :)