A square, well dressed middle aged woman, sitting in the
shadows at the side of the hall, nearly spilled her cup of tea on her lap when
Officer Angelo and his manacled entourage bundled into the room. Her eyes wide
with alarm, she tried to think of the best way to make her presence known
without startling them; perhaps she should cough politely to let them know she
was there. But she needn’t have worried; Officer Angelo spotted her a second
later. But something happened to him that had never happened before; he fell in
love. In fact for both of them it was love at first sight. Of course, they were
the last to know what had happened and wouldn't realize it for some time to come, as older people are oft not inclined to
believe their eyes. Anyway, that kind of thing didn’t happen to them anymore,
so they ignored their beating hearts and put it down to palpitations or an
errant bowel movement.
“I’m sorry, ma’m,” he apologised, touching his cap in
deference. “I thought this room was empty.” He almost immediately turned his
little crew about-face and herded them towards the door.
“No please,” said the woman, stretching out her fingers as
if to detain them physically. “I’m the one that shouldn’t be here. I just
needed to rest.” Her hand fluttered, indicating the bench she was sitting on.
“Please don’t let me chase you away. I wouldn’t forgive myself.”
Now that she’d had time to look them over, she saw they
weren’t as frightening as the chains had suggested. Two of the prisoners in
cuffs were women and her natural sympathies went out to them. It also made her
curious as to what kind of crimes they had committed. Granted the black man was
rather big, but he was obviously blind and that also roused a sympathetic
response in her. More than that, she felt down and depressed and would welcome
a little company.
“Please do come in. I take it this is your exercise room.
I won’t get in your way.”
“That’s very kind of you ma’m,” said Officer Angelo. He
knew what he should do. He should turn them around and march them straight out
of there. That was the correct protocol to follow. Prisoners and civilians did
not mix. The situation was too fraught with dangerous possibilities. Officer
Angelo knew all this and yet he didn’t do anything about it. Maybe he sensed a
need in her that he couldn’t turn down, or maybe a need in him. Whatever the
reason there was something about the woman that turned his brain around. Whatever
it was, they could hardly stop looking at each other, and of course this was as
plain as day to everyone else…especially Dutch, who never missed a trick.
Officer Angelo tried to ignore these strange feelings inside him.
“We won’t be long ma’m. Just need to stretch our legs,” he
knew that he was endangering the woman by staying and that by doing so he was
also breaking a heap of Federation rules and regulations; but he just couldn’t
seem to help himself.
“That’s alright. I wasn’t really doing anything. In fact,
I’m glad of a little company,” she said wistfully and gave him another brave
little smile as the teacup rattled in her lap, and his brains rattled along
with it. Most men are a sucker for a sad lady. It’s as if rescuing a damsel in
distress is programmed into their D.N.A. Officer Angelo was no exception. He
found himself in the grip of something far greater than he.
“Well you just let me know if there’s anything I can do
for you?” he said, trying to tear himself away from her.
“Thank you. I’ll be fine.” She smiled at him. “My name is
Rose, by the way. Rose Darck.”
“How do you do ma’m.” he said, nodding at her. “I’m
Officer Angelo, and this is Dutch…Sweet Mary…and Righteous Alchemy.”
“How do you do; all of you. But oh dear,” she said looking at the two
women. “It looks like you’ve got into a bit of trouble?”
“You can say that,” said Officer Angelo, “though it never
feels quite right to me to put a lady in jail, even though that might be the
best place for her sometimes.”
Rose was looking sympathetically at Sweet Mary.
“I can’t imagine what you could have done that was so
bad.”
“I didn’t do anything,” burst out Sweet Mary to her own
surprise.
“I can believe that,” said Rose. “But the world isn’t
always fair….or kind. I’m very sorry for your trouble, and I hope it all works
out alright for you.”
“Thank you,” said Sweet Mary, whose heart went out
immediately to the lovely lady. Officer Angelo’s heart was doing a similar thing.
“But why are you sitting here all by yourself, if you’ll
pardon my asking?” he asked and at the back of his mind he was wondering where Mr Darck was, and behind him Dutch was staring
with an unwavering laser-like interest at the back of his head.
“Well I…I should actually be at the sending-off party,”
she smiled. “You know, the one for the crew of the wormhole expedition, but…I
just needed to think. Everyone’s having so much fun there,” she indicated off
to the right somewhere with her eyes, “and I…just don’t feel like being
cheerful,” she said.
“Ah. I see,” he said, although he didn’t really. Everyone
had heard of the expedition, but not much else about it. They all stood
silently and waited as the woman stared into empty space.
“My son is the Commander of the Sleeping Beauty….….” she
continued, then indicated the window behind her with a slight twist of her
head…“and he’s going to be flying into that.”
Officer Angelo and the prisoners followed her gesture and
stared out at the massive vortex hovering in the distance. It was as if they
had noticed it for the first time, although it was unmissable from any part of
the room. Dark and brooding, it moiled with malevolence, anticipating its next
meal. It looked like nothing would survive that.
“Jesus,” said Dutch finally. “You must be worried out of
your mind,” she said in an unaccustomed burst of kindness.
“I’m sure he’ll be alright,” said the woman, dabbing
manfully at her tears with a wet hanky. “He’s a very capable commander and the
space-ship is the best they have.” She sniffed and smiled, trying desperately
to believe what she said. “He even got a special dispensation to show me around
the ship,” she said proudly. “So I could imagine him when he’s gone. Where he’d
be working… and sleeping.” A sob escaped her and they watched as she bowed her
head and tried to hide her emotions. Officer Angelo was dying to comfort her,
but he daren’t move.
“Your son will not die out there,” declared Righteous with
calm authority. “It is not his fate.”
There was a kind of stunned silence in the room. This kindness,
someone saying the sentence she dared not say to herself, a hope she dared not
harbour, was the final straw that opened the floodgates. Tears plopped down
into her teacup as she sobbed unrestrainedly.
This was too much for Officer Angelo who was now beside
himself in all sorts of ways. The weeping woman tugged at his heart strings and
turned him into a puppet, dancing to the tune of her emotions. Unconsciously
his hand made a comforting gesture in her direction, and then he thought better
of it and retracted it, not sure how he should respond. They say that love is
blind; but it is also deaf to all but the beloved’s cry. Officer Angelo,
comprehensively afflicted with these two ailments, never heard or saw Dutch
slowly taking up the slack in the chains that bound the prisoners together. He
never saw her gently edge the three prisoners closer and closer to him behind
his back. All Officer Angelo noticed of the impending disaster was the slight
widening of Rose’s eyes as she saw Dutch surreptitiously remove Officer
Angelo’s gun from his holster. He felt the lightening of the load on his hip
and automatically slapped his hand down on his holster. Too late! He turned
around to find himself staring down the barrel of his own gun.
