By: Ramprasath

In several ways, John Dragon established himself as the gangster of the inter-galactic.

Every restaurant along the inter-galactic route has to pay him his share. He was the pirate in that part of the universe. Attacking and robbing space ships has always been one of his favorite pass-time activities. It was not like no one benefitted out of him. He helped a lot of people to make easy money and those who made money helped him survive and not get into any legal troubles.

Including me, there were several worked as bartenders and drivers in the restaurants and in transport business along the intergalactic route. He expected us to consider him our savior. His rationale was simple. He was feeding us and therefore we must be thankful to him. But the truth was, he was the one who strangled our families. If we were orphans, it was because of him. I didn’t know about others but to me, he was my first and only enemy that I always wanted to take revenge for what he did to my family.

“Can you drive my little flyer?” he asked me the other day. ‘Little flyer’ was a compact mini space ship capable of taking only a few between two galaxies of relatively shorter distance.

I knew the rest of the story through some other contacts of mine. His regular driver fell ill the last time John went on an expedition and this time he was to carry a precious, unclassified package to Vega. So right now he needed a driver and there cannot be a better opportunity for me to take revenge. He was a huge man with strong arms and wide chest. I was just another ordinary kid still counting his early twenties. There was no logical way I can be a threat to him.

That night we set out on a long trip to Vega galaxy in his little flyer. I didn’t care whatever he carried. His little flyer needed full tank for every light year distance. Idea was to fill the tanks in the several pump stations along the inter-galactic route.

Soon after the commencement of our journey, he disappeared in his bedroom and I was sure I was going to be alone in cockpit until we reach Vega. How long would it take to strangle him? After all, he was alone with no arms or weapons.

At one point, the UPS (Universal positioning system) showed two routes one turned to our left and the other turned to the right.

I checked on the UPS. Towards our left Vega was 5 light years away and towards our right, Sessile was 7 light years away. There were pump stations between our current position and either Vega or Sessile. John’s little flyer can travel 1 light year distance with full tank and it has to be filled again to return.

Neither did I turn left nor right instead I drove his little flyer straight into the darkness, which was space owned by no one. It could only mean that there was no on-call space assistance, no network to seek help and no fuel to return to a safe spot where the flyer can be refueled. At the end of a long hour travel, the little flyer lost thrust from engines in mid-space due to empty tank. It flew in constant motion due to empty space. Now there was no return because there was nothing far and John would have to fuel the tank to even move the flyer jus an inch towards Vega.

I was happy. I was happy to have put him in trouble. I may not be able to strangle him or kill him but beyond that point, there was no life.

When he woke up he came in pursuit of me to the cockpit asking what was wrong. He wanted to know why he could not hear noise from the engines. I told him everything. Right from how he tortured my parents, left me an orphan and how much I hated him and wanted to bring troubles to him, I told him every damn thing.

He looked at me for a moment and I honestly thought he would pull the trigger of his gun on me.

Surprisingly, he went back into his bedroom without a word. I wondered if he was okay.
An hour later, I saw ships of inter-galactic cops by the window. They took control of our flyer and took it into their huge ship like a toy. I and John were both taken in custody. We didn’t have a choice except to surrender. We were presented at the mobile court for criminal offenses in the ship.

I later learnt that I was charged for kidnapping and smuggling precious, questionable assets without permission or documents. Things fell in favor for John. His reservations at the pumping stations en route to Vega didn’t prove his intentions for smuggling. According to the reservations, John was only a tourist visitor to Vega.

The fact that only I held a valid ship driver’s license left only me to take the blame of kidnapping John with smuggled goods in a ship not owned by me. Prior to this incident had you spoke about destiny, I might have laughed.