The Windsong

Jacque

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Jacque pondered the saying as he clung to the starboard hull of the spaceship, performing repairs. He used the hoist controller on his left arm to align a large aluminum plate against the double hull in front of him. He paused with the placement of the panel just long enough to scroll through his playlist displayed on his arm and chose a favorite. Then commenced with repairs by holding the panel in place while he used the welding laser on his right arm.

Ladette watched Jacque from a side window of the Captain’s Deck and smiled. She thought to herself, he’s probably jamming, then put an earbud to her ear. “Don’t Fear the Reaper” was playing on Jacque’s commo line. Ladette couldn’t hear Jacque’s voice as his mic was off but looked out the window and could see him belting out silent lyrics into space. Jacque wasn’t wearing a space suit or helmet. He didn’t need one.

Ladette looked over her shoulder towards Captain Silk and reported, “Sir, Jacque’s on the last panel now and shouldn’t be much longer.” as she listened to the music playing.

Captain Silk retorted, “Good timing. I’m almost done with setting our course. Where we’re going, those bastards chasing us wouldn’t dare go.”

Ladette monitored Jacque’s progress on the repair, and reminisced of their first meeting.

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Ladette ran through the salvage yard and dodged into the small building. Instead of running out the other door, she slid into what seemed like a vacant tool room. She leaned quietly against the wall and listened intently to hear if the brigand was still following her.

The brigand said, “I saw her dodge into there.” There were other voices now, and she could hear more than a single set of footsteps heading in her direction.

Ladette was about to step up to the doorway to take the fight to them, when metallic arms reached out and grasped her from behind. From out of the wall, a single arm wrapped tightly over her mouth, and another arm wrapped firmly around her waist pinning her gun hand tight enough to not allow her to aim or even pull the trigger. She tried to turn to see her new assailant but couldn’t. He was too strong.

Seemingly without effort, the assailant held her tightly as he lifted her off her feet, swung Ladette toward the wall and pressed her against the corner. She noticed that whatever this thing was, it seemed to expand and cut off any light from the room. All light was blocked out to the point where Ladette couldn't see. She could only hear her own racing heart and rapid breathing, but not that of her assailant.

A moment later, Ladette heard the voices of two brigands as they seemed to stand mere feet from her. One brigand said, “She must have snuck out the back.” Another voice responded in agreement, and she heard footsteps fade away. Meanwhile the arms that held her were still firm, until the sound of the brigands had moved well beyond her hearing.

As quickly as the darkness had enveloped Ladette, the light reappeared. She felt her assailant’s arms release her and immediately turned around, pressed her back against the wall and lifted her left leg to shove the assailant away from her. To her surprise, she couldn’t budge him. But she was able to tactically pull her gun up to her chest to fire; but didn’t. Before her stood some type of droid. A type that she had never seen before. It was about six feet tall with a humanoid face but metallic colored; very much like the walls of this metal building.

She whispered, “That’s why I didn’t see you…” more to herself than to the droid standing before her and continued “…you blended in with the wall.” She asked the droid, “Who owns you? And where were you made? What’s your protocol? Repairs? Protection? What? I have never seen a droid like you before.”

To Ladette’s surprise, the face of the droid showed an annoyed smirk, and said, “Your welcome.” Clear sarcasm in its voice. Then it stepped back and moved its arms in a robotic fashion and in a robotic voice said, “From the ar-ro-gance of your state-ment, you are like-ly hu-man and have a limit-ed exper-ience and or intel-li-gence.” Then changed it’s voice back and added, “You should leave here while you can, there is no telling if those brigands are gonna come back looking for you.”

After a moment to digest what the droid…no he said, Ladette stuttered, “I’m so…I’m so sorry for coming across as rude. My name is Ladette…it’s just your skin…” as she reached out to touch his arm, “…is metal.”

He said, “Sometimes you humans have no limit to your rudeness.” as he retracted his arm from her grasping fingers. He then asked, “What are you doing here? Looking for a wrench? A screwdriver? No, wait, the ever-elusive flux capacitor?” as he waved his arm around the room at the various tools and spare parts scattered throughout.

Ladette holstered her gun and blurted out, “I am so sorry! Please forgive me.” as she also pulled her arm back. “I…I was told back at the colony that I could find someone named Jacque. They said he could help me find the part needed to repair our ship.”

“What? Another fleet cruiser? You can find those parts anywhere. Why waste my time?” He asked and turned his back on her to leave the small tool room toward the building's exit.

“No wait” Ladette blurted out, and ran to catch up. She squeezed her way past him as they exited the building. As she hastily walked backwards, she rummaged through her hip pack and pulled out an electronic tablet and said, “I need to fix this!” She held out an image of a ship blueprint.

As he stood staring at the image, Ladette could tell she had piqued his attention. And as she stood in front of him in the early evening light, he seemed to have also caught her attention.

He stood before her, and she could tell he definitely was not a machine, droid, robot, or whatever… his ‘junk’ swung freely. He was unclothed; naked.

Ladette averted her eyes and tried to regain her composure. “It’s…it’s called the Windsong!” she blurted.

After a delay as he continued eyeing the blueprints, he said, “The locals call me Jacque.”

Noticing that Ladette was blushing, Jacque added, “Forgive my nudeness.” Almost immediately his metallic skin below his waist altered to resemble a blue tunic. He added, “Living near the French colony has allowed me to let my guard down. They don’t seem to be bothered by nudity or sex for that matter.”

The mention of sex did nothing to diminish Ladette’s blushing. With a nervous jitter in her voice, she added, “It’s nice to meet you, Jacque.” and politely held out her hand.

Jacque clasped her arm and said, “Not well met, but memorable for sure.”

“Well…well, can you help us?” Ladette stammered as she now pointed her finger at a point on the blueprint and said, “We…we need one of these.”

Jacque replied, “No one's gonna have one of those. But I can make one.”

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After Jacque fashioned the part, Captain Silk offered him a job as the chief engineer aboard the Windsong. Jacque had only one condition and the captain must have agreed as Jacque has been the Windsong’s chief engineer ever since.

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Ladette informed Jacque directly via the comms, “The captain wants to depart as soon as you’re done.”

Ladette could visually see Jacque click on his mic, and he replied with a robotic voice, “Aye aye mate-y.”

Ladette smiled.

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Using the safety line that the captain insisted all crew members use while on a spacewalk, Jacque pulled himself along toward the starboard side of the main deck. The magnetic field of the main deck made it easy to stand, so he stood up and walked to the center.

Ladette reported to the captain, “Hull integrity tests are all green.”

At a nod from the captain, Ladette lowered the volume of the music and flipped the comms over to him.

Captain Silk finished setting the course and looked up from his charts. He watched as Jacque got into position. Captain Silk then commanded, “Stand by at the ready.”

Via the comms, First Mate Ladette repeated, “Stand by at the ready.”

Jacque stood alone on the main deck, untethered and firmly gripped the main halyard upon the Main Mast that he had fashioned five years earlier. He then nodded in the direction of the Captain’s Deck. Meanwhile, below deck, the crew teams lined up at the ready and called out almost in unison via the comms, “Ready.” “Ready.”

Captain Silk ordered, “Set the main.”

The First Mate sounded off, “Set the main.”

On command, and in a single motion Jacque hoisted the huge main sail. The metallic silk sheet bloomed upward as it caught the solar winds. Instantly as if lightning had struck, color filled the mainsail and lit up the deck. The Windsong surged forward.

The energy produced by the main sail alone was sufficient to power the breathable atmosphere upon the main deck and power the ship completely. As if on cue from the surge of the ship, the crew members opened the hatches on the main deck and scurried up from below deck and rushed to their positions.

Captain Silk ordered, “All engines off.”

First Mate echoed, “All engines off.” and flipped the engine switches. The hum of the engines went silent.

A moment later the captain ordered, “Raise the fore and mizzen.” The First Mate echoed the command and the crew teams pulled in unison to raise the metallic silk sails.

As all three sails billowed full, Ladette exited the Captains Deck and strode onto the Main. She smiled; the background song from Jacque’s still running playlist was quite fitting. She flicked off her mic from her controller but raised the volume across the main deck letting “Come Sail Away” play for all to hear.

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The Reaper looked over his shoulder and hissed, “Who dareth to call my name?”

© 2022 AR Cuevas. All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Any names or characters, businesses or places, events or incidents, are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.