Four Life Changing Possibilities

Four Life Changing Possibilities

     A thin barrel of a weapon could barely be seen as it scanned a large very messy room. As it started to back out of that room a male voice could be heard. “She’s not in there either.”

     Jaim, the male voice, had returned to the Metal Corridor. He’s about halfway down that corridor. Using his weapon, he proceeds down that corridor. When he got to the next door he used his hand to gain access. The door slid open. Jaim went down to one knee to scan an office. He was about to exit it when he saw movement behind him. A swift turn and a single shot to his head killed a male with a weapon with partially hidden behind a desk. “Another one of Them is gone.”

     The next room he checked appeared to be Sleeping Quarters, but it’s on the opposite side of the Corridor. “No one is in there either.”

     “I know she’s on this floor somewhere,” said Jaim as he headed for the next door. “It’s the last floor she could be on.” The next three rooms he enter she wasn’t in either, but there was two more he killed with a single shot to the head.

     As he was about to reach another door an armed male exited it. Jaim didn’t give him a chance to fire his weapon either. One head shot and he died before he hit the ground too. He finally found her: in the room the last male came out of, but there was three more of them for Jaim to kill. Which he did with single shots to the heads.

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     “How do you think you did on the Search Challenge?” Toin, a friend of Jaim’s, asked

     “I think I did pretty good on this one,” replied Jaim. Jaim and Toin sat, eating, at a table in a large public Eating Room. “Three more like that one, and I will become a Fighter too.”

     “Are you still going to wait to ask her The Big Question until you became a Fighter?” Toin asked.

     “No, I’m not.” Jaim showed Toin what was in a small sealable box. “I’m going to ask her tonight when she gets off work.”

     “It’s about time,” said Toin. “How long have you been Involved with her this time?”

     “Two years,” responded Jaim. “We have been Involved for almost two years. In fact, tomorrow is a new year for us.”

     “Do you think she will say yes?” Toin asked. Toin was an Asker. Most of his dialogue with someone involved a question.

     “I’m sure she will,” said Jaim. “At least I hope she does this time.”

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     Cice looked up from the papers she was looking at when there’s a knock at her Office door. “Come in.”

     A second later Jaim entered. He walked up to the desk and stood there with his hands clasped behind his back. “You sent for me?”

     “Relax,” Cice said after looking up at Jaim. “You aren’t in any trouble.”

     “If it’s not me then who is it?” Jaim inquired.

     Cice smiled. “It’s not anyone. I’ve asked you in here to ask you if you are still interested in that promotion we talked about a couple of months ago.”

     “Yes, I am. I thought you gave that promotion to someone else though,” said Jaim.

     “What makes you think that?” Cice asked.

     “That announcement happened about three months ago,” said Jaim. “Since I didn’t hear back from you, until now, I just figured someone else got it.”

     “Sorry about that,” said Cice. “It took me longer than I thought to make up my mind, but I have, and my decision is you. If you still want the promotion.”

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     Jaim had been seeing as much of Frae as he could since he first met her a few months ago. A day didn’t go by that he didn’t spend two or three hours getting to know her better. “What else do you want to know about me? I think I have told you everything about me.”

     Frae thought about that for a minute. “I guess the big question is - why did you leave my mother eleven years ago?”

     “I didn’t leave her. Puna got a transfer off this ship, and I hadn’t seen, or heard, from her until a few months ago when she came back onboard.”

     “Did you even try to keep in contact with her?” Frae asked.

     “No, I didn’t. We had been fighting a lot lately. That’s one of the reasons why she took the transfer. I let her decide when she was going to talk to me again, but she never tried”

     “You didn’t know she was about to have a child, me, did you?” Frae asked.

     “If I would have known that I wouldn’t have let her go,” said Jaim. “I know I couldn’t have stopped her from taking that transfer, but I would have tried, and I would have kept in contact with her - you.”

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     “I think you handled youself very well during that last Search Challenge,” said Ghan. “You have always done good with all your Challenges we have given you over the past year, but this one has been the best so far.”

     “Does that mean you called me in here to make me a Fighter?” Jaim asked.

     “Yes – and no,” answered Ghan. “It’s yes because I do want to over you a job as a Fighter, but it’s no because I don’t need anyone onboard this ship. If you took this job it would be as an off-ship Fighter. You would be spending most of your time off this ship. Is it something you are interested in?”

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     I don’t know what to do. It’s the last day of the year, and I have four Life Changing possibilities. What am I going to do? I want to do them all, but I’m how the others are going to feel if I do it too.