Here's a short story which is another disjointed one off, set in the world I'm creating. I find that they have really helped me to feel out the world of the series and explore it through the eyes of random characters.
Mithy Cotte woke to the bright morning sun; it touched every object in the room and gave that pink glow one could only hope to find on Jex. It's going to be a good day. He thought to himself before carrying out his morning routine, shower, products, and clean clothes. He knew there was a chance of a promotion at work, which was something Mithy had dreamed of for months. A chance to get into his own private office; it would be more work, more stress, but he would be plucked from the rows of nameless and faceless employees of Agon Industries.
Walking downstairs to the kitchen area, his son and daughter sat in front of some holo-vid, he would have wished them a good morning if he thought they would be dragged away from their show for more than a few seconds. His wife sat at the table eating as he entered the room. "There's some food in the processor for you." She said, barely looking up from her plate. "Thanks." It wouldn't have killed her to prepare him a plate, not that he would voice that concern. She hadn't paid him much attention as of late, constant working seemed to put a wedge between them and it had become a chore to talk to her. His mind was focused on work, no matter how much he wanted to, arguing right now before the day had even begun wasn't an option. Mithy needed to stay focused on the future, work, rest, then play. "Are you going to be working late again tonight?" He heard her ask. Walking back to the table with his plate he looked at Kathra, but, she didn't pay him as much respect, still playing with the remains of her breakfast.
"I am. I think today could be the day I get that promotion." Kathra nodded to that. "Hey, how about I book some time off and we get away? Just for a couple of days?" She shrugged at that. "I don't know." Those three words had become such a staple of her vocabulary and just about the largest sentence she could muster, when confronted with one of Mithy's ideas.
"We might be celebrating tonight when I get back, and since the kids are going to my parent's, maybe the two of us can spend some time together? Just us, here, we don't have to go out." He said in between mouthfuls of food. "I don't know. I don't know if I'll really be in the mood for something like that." He nodded slowly. "What a surprise." She shot a glare at him. "What's that supposed to mean?" Kathra spat at him. "How long has it been? Weeks, months? Every time." She waved a hand to cut him off. "What? I'm supposed to be in the mood when you crawl into bed at all hours." Mithy shook his head. Why today?
Say nothing more. A voice whispered in the back of his mind. "Oh, sorry, who picked this place to live? I told you at the time, we can make it work, but, there would be downsides." She squinted her eyes and shook her head. "What? No words? No retort? No sly dig?" "I'm not happy." The three words cut like a knife, they were a lot more painful than "I don't know." He was deflated and sank into his chair. He looked at the food, but, just felt his stomach churn. "I don't want to argue, I don't want to fight. We need to work on ourselves, this promotion will mean I have more time." Kathra sat for a moment, just staring into space, then she stood up, Mithy instinctively stood up too, reaching for her hand. But, Kathra pulled away gently. He wrapped his arms around her, attempting to plant a kiss, but, Kathra winced before contact was made.
"I'm sorry." He said. Then he just held her in his arms for a moment. The second he loosened his grip she walked to the sitting room. "Come on kids, time for school." They let out a few disappointed sighs but quickly stood up. They were good kids, even if they could be a handful from time to time. "Have a good day," Mithy said to them. The two of them ran over and gave him a hug. "Have a good day at work." Their voices were like a chorus and he couldn't help but smile at the music they made. The smile washed away as he looked at Kathra standing alone in the alcove between the sitting room and kitchen.
Work was dull, made even duller by the slight argument during breakfast. He tried to concentrate, but, all he could think about was his home life. Had he neglected his partner? Had he put too much time into work? Mithy knew the answers to those questions, but, was afraid to admit it; there was no balance in his life. The thoughts were pushed aside when he heard the footsteps coming his way, he looked up to see Chane Derson approach.
Here it is. His boss only ever came down to this floor when he was coming to personally take one of them with him. The footsteps grew and grew, Chane made it to the desk, but, he walked past. No. The footsteps stopped not far behind him. "Rone Sonand, would you mind coming with me?" Rone? Once more the footsteps came and went. Mithy couldn't help but stare at Rone, wearing a grin that was meant for him. They knew exactly what was happening, as did everyone on the floor. There's always next time.
It was lunchtime before he knew it and the smiling face of Rone was all he could think about. The sick feeling in his stomach only grew. If I can't have the promotion, I'm taking the day off. I can at least try to fix my home life. A quick visit to med-bay had him dismissed, he must have been pale, because the doc didn't ask him too many questions. The whole way back, all he could think about was Kathra, the day they moved into their home, how happy they were, her smiling face, and those eyes that told him that he was all she needed. The day each of their kids was born, the day he got the job in Agon Industries, then the years that followed; the sparkle faded, and that look was seen less and less before it was almost gone for good. It can be fixed.
Walking through the door, Mithy decided to sneak inside the house, feeling that it would be better to surprise her. He peered through the home, she wasn't in the sitting room or kitchen. She must be in our room. He headed for the stairs and as he got within inches of his bedroom, he could hear a noise. The door was open ajar, but, not enough to see in. Slowly he pushed the door open, and he could see his wife's back, her hips gyrating, and a pair of legs beneath her. Mithy was stunned, he wanted to shout, to run away, but he couldn't; all he could do was watch the woman he loved, mounted on top of a stranger.
He saw a face appear, the man below her. He turned white and Kathra turned around quickly and jumped off him, covering herself with a blanket as she did. "What are you doing home?!" She screamed, and the words came out almost inaudible, her cheeks turning bright red. "I wanted to surprise you," Mithy whispered. The man she was with just stared, he didn't attempt to apologize, didn't try to lie; from the look of shame and embarrassment, he knew the woman he was sleeping with had a partner, a home, a family. "I didn't mean to! It's not my fault! You were never here!" She shouted as tears rolled down her face, then Kathra started to cry heavily. It was fake, a put-on show, passing blame as best she could and trying to play it off.
Mithy turned and walked out of the room, down the stairs, and straight out the door. He sat in his transporter and cried as he had never cried before. Everything in his life was gone, everything he tried to build was broken, in one moment, it was all for nothing.
Work got tougher and tougher over the following weeks, the communicator would chime occasionally, but, he couldn't bring himself to talk with her. The worst thing was not seeing his kids. It got to the point where he just didn't see the point of coming to work anymore; one performance check too many resulted in him missing the first day in a long time, which then led to more. His new office was great though, The Iridium Sleeper. As far as bars went on Jex, this one was the nicest. Each day he would drown his sorrows and for the weeks that followed only a blur remained. Mithy thought of going home, talking with Kathra, seeing the kids, maybe they could fix this, but, he knew they couldn't. Seeing her the way he had, did something to him and even the images of their happy life in the past were besmirched, distorted and in every way possible, tainted. How long had it gone on? While she was doing that, she grew to resent Mithy and all of those digs and jabs finally made sense; every time she asked if he was working late; it wasn't disappointment in her tone, it was excitement for having another evening free.
The night came, and closing hour was around the corner. Mithy stood up and walked to the toilets, careful to look around, to make sure no one was following him. Beside the bathroom was a utility closet, nobody had noticed him yet. He stepped through, closing the door behind, and found his belongings in the dark, tucked away in the corner, a cheap blanket and one pillow. He laid them out in the space and sat back against one of the walls. Yeah, The Iridium Sleeper is the best bar on Jex.
He felt a kick, his eyes must have just shut and he awoke to an angry barman standing over him. "What do you think you're doing!?" They shouted and Mithy waved a hand to try and calm him down. "I'm, I, I've been." It was too late, one of the security guards came along and grabbed him by the scruff of his old jacket, lifting him off the ground with one hand. Next, he was out on the street, tossed aside and barred for good measure. Luckily, they were kind enough to toss his belongings out with him. He still had the transporter, but, it was too cramped to sleep in. Mithy thought of booking a room somewhere, the one place he wanted to be though, was home. He took to the sky and didn't care that he had more alcohol in his body than blood; not caring about getting caught, he flew. One goal rested in his mind's eye.
The old place looked different, alien, it was as if he was looking at somewhere so familiar, yet, so far from what he remembered. He knocked on the door, slowly, steadily, with three solid thumps. The waiting was the hardest thing. It swung open, but, it wasn't her. It was him. The man, the nameless scumbag, life ruiner. "Wha... What? Kathra!" He fumbled and shouted and when Mithy saw her, he saw red, the smile she was wearing washed away as her eyes dropped on him. "What are you doing here? I tried to contact you." She tried to let out a flurry, but Mithy stopped them all as he pointed at the man. "Him. What's he doing here!?" "Mithy, stay calm." "Stay calm! That's all you can say to me!" Mithy shouted, he couldn't keep it in and the alcohol didn't help to get the words out clearly, but, it helped to get them out.
"Hold on, you think you can just show up in the middle of the night?" The man said as he reached to grab Mithy. "I think you better leave." He said. To be thrown out of two homes in one night. Mithy wrenched his head back and landed a solid head butt on him. The connection dazed Mithy slightly, but, he was still able to stand. The man however, fell to the ground reeling in pain, the sight of blood made Kathra scream and Mithy walked past the mess into his home and looked around. "I want to fix things." He said, but, when he looked to see Kathra's eyes, he knew it was too late for that.
Feeling like he was going to collapse, Mithy staggered to the couch and sat down. "Why? Why did it have to be like this? I don't want this, I want my life back." He managed to get the words out, coming to terms now with everything he lost. "My life isn't worth living anymore, I have nowhere else to go, I don't even have a job." He closed his eyes as he spoke and heard no reply, not that he needed to hear one now. The tiredness he felt in that moment was too great to ignore and soon, he was out cold.
In his dreamless sleep, Mithy could hear voices, unfamiliar voices as they were, mixed with ones he could remember. "This vagrant broke into your home, attacked your husband, then pissed on your couch?" "I'm not her husband." "He's my husband, we, had a falling out recently. I haven't seen or heard of him in weeks and he just arrived back and did this." Mithy opened his eyes and could see the face of a young peacekeeper aiming a weapon at him. "He's awake!" The man shouted, attracting the attention of the others. "Kellen. Don't aim that at him, you'll only end up antagonizing the man." A Trisken said as he approached. "Come on, back up, give him some space." The Trisken Peacekeeper continued as he walked around to the other one.
"Now then, you had a wild night by all accounts. Mind telling me what's going on here?" He asked, a lot more sympathetic than Mithy would have expected. "I came back a few weeks ago, and found those two going at it, in my bed, I left. The weeks have been rough, I lost my job, and, well, I don't know." Mithy said while holding the side of his head, attempting to cool down the hangover that was just setting in.
"I know how you feel, something like that happened to me." Mithy's eyes widened slightly. "Were you able to fix it?" The Trisken shook his head slowly. "No, I lost it, by the time I came to, there was, well, let's say, I'm surprised you were able to control yourself. Now, I'm not taking you in our transporter smelling of piss, so, what I would advise you to do is, get changed, grab some belongings and leave. There are plenty of places you can go, but, you can't stay here. He wants us to bring you in, on account of his face. I'm sure he's willing to forget about that though." The man stepped forward. "No, I'm not. I want him taken away, look at me!" He shouted.
The Trisken stood up and looked at the two of them. "Look at him, look what you did here. Compared to what could have happened to you, I'd say a busted face is light." Mithy sat forward, staring at the two Peacekeepers in front of him, then he shook his head.
It was over in a flash, he had a shower, changed his clothes, and grabbed a few things. When he returned, the Peacekeepers were standing by to escort him out of the property. "By the way, he is wasted and showed up in that transporter. That's a crime, right?" The man shouted. The two Peacekeepers looked at each other and then back to Mithy. "We didn't see him fly it, but, we will have to impound it. You can collect it from our HQ after paying a fine." The Trisken said with a shrug. Mithy nodded. Beats getting taken in. "That's fine, if it's okay, can I get my things out of it?" They nodded and Mithy walked for the door. Kathra gave him a death glare as if she was looking at a stranger and the man tried the same, but, he looked comical. His eyes were black; the bruising had really set in by this point. The dried and crusted blood from his nose was still covering his lower lips. It wasn't permanent damage, well, the bruises would go away, but, his nose might stay a little out of place looking; if Mithy was lucky. He wanted to smile at him, smirk, or even wink, but decided against it, not wanting to test his luck. The image of the man's face was all the satisfaction he needed. Who knows? Maybe Kathra would be turned off him.
Now outside, he looked at the home that he once owned, now, it was little more than just another house. He headed for the main street, beginning the long desperate night walk.
After finding a suitable place to sit, he took out a blanket, rested against the cold concrete wall of a building, and shut his eyes; hoping to create some distance between this night and tomorrow.