Part 1 - "be grateful for whoever comes..."
Back on October 4th 824 A.S.
Sanders enters his ship's bridge with a quite bored facial expression and sits down on the Captains seat. "De Vignon...what's the situation...” *sighs* "Nothing special Sir. We're just going home today." "Oh...3 weeks over already?" "Yep." "Well I think everything's done here, so lets set course to New York then. Norfolk Shipyard." "Alright." *typing in coordinates* "E.T.A. 4 hours." "Okey. I'm going to take a nap until we arrive. Contact me if anything important comes up. Hudson, you're on the lead." "Will do Sir."
Around 3 hours later on Norfolk.
"Hey Greg, I'm going to the bar. You come with me?" Cryer asked him. "Ye..why not..." “That's the right attitude.”
They walk into the bar and sit down in front of the barkeeper.
"What's wrong pal?" "Nothing?" "No there is something going on in your head. You have that movie-like depressive, but some kinda emotionless look. You had the last 3 days, so tell me."
*sighs* "I-I-I feel like...I don't know. I mean, what did I reach in my life? What did I experience? My whole life I worked for the Navy. Risked my a** so many times. But what would have lasted if I died? I'm walking around, having new dates on like every weekend. But they are meaningless. I’m at this point now that I want a family. I want something to leave behind to someone. I want to love and I want to be a father...but I feel like so far away from everything. From everything that makes real sense.
Sometimes...I just take my fighter and fly into a system to just stare into space for hours. And every time I do, I realize how beautiful the world is we live in. And I'm wondering if that what we are fighting for is worth it... This whole thing with Gallia is leading absolutely nowhere, honestly and…I mean the world really had bigger problems than arguing about which is whose territory in the past and we should finally overcome this sh**… all we get is more dead friends and split families and this sh**.“ “I don’t quite understand your problem actually…I mean, I do get the family part. I think you’re just sad for not having something real currently and that’s why you say all the stuff about the war here as well.” “You serious? Dude, of course I’m missing something real but honestly. You must see the same with this f***ing waste of time with Gallia? It’s two angles of the same view. We’re just ruining…” *sighs* “Whatever…” “Mate, you should really finally start to search for the one thing you’d really die for. I don’t mean the way you were just kind of describing, like for being seen as a hero or such. I mean the one thing or the one person that means so much to you, that you’d go through hell for it.” “Well it ain’t as easy as you say. There’re actually so many women out there -“ “- Of which you probably checked out the half -” “…I’m…f*** you…anyway, there’re so many out there, it ain’t like the perfect person is just walking through the door. This missing piece of a puzzle, your soulmate. You hardly gotta search for it I think.” “If the perfect person steps through there in the next 10 seconds, you owe me forever free drinks in this bar, deal?” *pointing at the bar’s entry*
Sanders stares at him for a second. “Deal. Same for you.” “Deal.”
In the 8th of the those 10 seconds a woman entered the bar through just this entry, which lead Sanders to the only logical reaction anyone could think of in his situation. “Are you a f***ing magician?” “Wow, I didn’t expect that. Anyway you’re going over to this woman right now and you’ll do.. the complete opposite of what you’re doing usually. So you don’t act like the biggest a**hole in the universe. Got it?” “I don’t know if I can manage that to be honest.” “I don’t know either, now move your a**.”
Sanders gets up and walks over to the brunette girl. As he went closer, he got to feel an unusual emotion that intensified the closer he came. He never got nervous before when he talked to a girl. But for the first time ever he did. Probably because of that, he stumbled, fell to the ground and hit his head right on the edge of the bar. Around one and a half hours later he woke up on the floor again. “He’s awake finally, we were quite worried, you know?”
Sanders remained silent for a second until he realized, that the most embarrassing moment in his life wasn’t anymore, when he locked himself out of his own flat naked years ago. “What the edge happened?” “I think we should get him to a hospital, it doesn’t sound well.” “No, he always talks such sh**.” “F*** you, honestly… but he’s right. Oh man.” “You’re feeling alright?” “Apart from the blood on my forehead, ye I think so.” “Alright.” The woman stands up and takes her jacket. “I’m gonna go then. Just wanted to make sure it isn’t anything serious.”, she said while giving him a warm smile. On her move, Sanders stops her with grabbing her hand while he’s still sitting on the ground. “Wait a second. Actually, I wanted to talk with you.”, Sanders said while rubbing his head, slowly standing up from the ground. Cryer slowly walks away to leave the two alone. “Did you?” “Ye, I’m Gregor by the way and I wanted to buy you a drink before I knocked my head on the bar.” “Oh, that explains everything. Ye...Yes, sure! I’m Melissa.” “Gotta admit, I’m a bit surprised that you’re still like ‘Ok, I’m gonna have a drink with this random guy that just knocked himself out on a table’.” “Oh I thought you’re just buying me a drink.” “Erm…”
Melissa starts laughing loudly. “I’m just kidding, calm down.” “Oh I am calm.”“Yeah I pretty clearly saw that.” *giggles* “So Melissa, tell me something about you, what you’re doing.” “Right now I’m having a drink with a guy, other than that I’m a Navy Captain.”
Sanders remained quiet for another moment.
