Mike v2.0 (A Firesetter Short Story) Read Online Free PDF Page A

being squished in a vise, while my stomach
was crawling laboriously up my throat. I decided that if I were to
survive this, I would never ever go to space again. I would be
perfectly content to spend everyday from hence forth on the
ground.
    “Yee haw!” Steve yelled from the cockpit. “I
love flying!”
    “So do I,” Mike remarked. “But not in a
spaceplane.”
     
    A short time later, I started to relax. We
were no longer traveling vertically, but instead, sailing as
swiftly and smoothly as if floating on a cloud. Space travel wasn’t
so bad, I decided. Steve was an Imperial SpaceNavy pilot, after
all. Even though that was something like seventy years ago, clearly
he hadn’t forgotten everything.
    That was until a horrific clanging noise
echoed throughout the ship, which was followed by the engines going
silent.
    “Kari-fa!” Steve yelled from the cockpit.
“What the fuck is happening now?”
    “Kari-fa, indeed.” Mike sighed heavily, and
unbuckling his belt, he rose to his feet.
    “Where are you going?” I asked, not wanting to
be left alone.
    “I’m going to help him. Steve needs all the
help he can get.” Then, he chuckled as if this whole situation was
not terrifying but funny.
    “What about me?”
    “What about you?” Mike repeated.
    “I’m scared.”
    “Then, you must think of a way to
help.”
    “Help?” I gasped. “I know nothing about
spaceplanes, and furthermore, I am blind. Not to mention, I am
the—”
    “Yes, I know. You’re the Crown Prince. I heard
all that before. However, that doesn’t mean that you should sit
here on your ass.”
    “But!”
    “Ach crap!” Steve yelled again, as the
clanging sound grew louder.
    “If you are useful, you will forget your
fear,” Mike said. “Once we are on our way again, I shall teach you
how to play chess. It is a good skill for a man who wishes to be a
king.”
    “Chess?” I cried, thinking Mike was as crazy
as Steve. “I told you, I can’t see anything.”
    “You shan’t need to. You shall learn to
memorize the board, to know each figure in your mind. This way, you
shall stay ten steps ahead of your opponent. ‘Twas a pity Steve was
never very good at that. I suppose he has other redeeming
qualities, although I haven’t yet discovered what they might
be.”
    This was followed by Mike’s light footsteps as
he hurried toward the cockpit. I was left alone in the dark and
once again terrified out of my wits. I tried not to cry. I tried to
think of myself as the future king dealing with all the stress and
problems of my realm.
    Surely, every day would require more fortitude
than this. Surely, this was only a tiny bump in a road that would
forever be filled with rocks. Straightening my spine, I raised my
nose, visualizing myself issuing orders and royal proclamations. My
mother always said that if my posture was that of a king, so would
be my mind.
    It didn’t work. I felt like a stupid, useless,
blind little kid, who was already a complete failure at this life.
Someday I might be King Mikal, but I’d probably end up a failure at
that too, and neither baseball nor chess was going to change
that.
     
    The cockpit door swished open again, followed
by Steve shuffling across the floor. “Are you coming?” he barked.
“Or, do you expect me to do this all myself.”
    “Me?” I began to say, but was interrupted by
Mike.
    “I thought I wasn’t welcome,” he replied. “You
did ask me to leave, did you not?”
    “Did I?”
    “Several times,” I told him. “I heard you. You
were quite adamant, in fact.”
    “Well, I take that back,” Steve snapped. “Get
down below and figure out what’s gone wrong.”
    “It’s the transmission. You have a leak in a
hydraulic cable.”
    “No, I fixed it.”
    “No, you did not. Not recently, in any case.
It is old and quite worn, and dripping in several
spots.”
    “Yeah, well so am I.”
    “You should have checked before you left,
Steve.”
    “Kari-fa!” my grandfather swore. “Can