Moments In Time: A Collection of Short Fiction Read Online Free Page A

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    “Are you sassing me, boy?” he said through gritted teeth. There was something hidden in his eyes, a shakiness, or a pain of some sort. It was well hidden, but there, and my keen sense of observation caught it immediately. It was a look of sadness, the same pain that looked back at me every time my reflection stared back. The danger of the stare was a mask of something much more. A deep and true emotion was locked away behind hard eyes, and I wanted to glimpse it; I needed to glimpse it, to see someone else shared my pain.
    “No, sir, there is nothing you can say or do to get me off this ship. If it is about saving my life, forget it. The lives of those below us are worth more than ours. It is our duty to protect them, and nothing will stop me from doing that.”
    This made Brennan even angrier and he turned and threw out a fist, hitting the metal wall of the engine. The sound of snapping bone echoed off the walls, and he turned without another word and stormed out.
    Exhaustion tore at my body, and Brennan was correct to doubt my ability to survive. We hadn’t seen any battles yet, but if he kept wearing me out, there would be no way my body would be able to handle the speed and clear-headedness needed for war. Having set my watch to survey, I watched him scurry off to work, then leaned against an engine for some much-needed rest.
    Warships came and went, yet we stayed docked. Sitting on the edge of the main deck allowed me to watch them go out on missions, and I noted when many didn’t return.
    Thomas’s two-dimensional face looked up at me most days where it rested inside the watch, but his expression in the photograph never changed. My heart darkened as his loss finally began to set in. Most of my days, I could push aside my pain by losing myself in work, but the rest of the time, my thoughts were all that kept me company.
    Brennan kept me doing back-breaking or boring grunt work, and in the month I’d been on the ship so far, not one person wanted anything to do with me. He had likely told everyone to stay away, or more likely, no one wanted to know the kid who was going to die first.
    This was good, of course. It didn’t matter much to me anyway, since the more people who knew me meant the more people who might discover my true identity. It was already bad enough the admiral was on the Queen , and could accidentally learn the captain’s wife had been working under his command, but there was no need for anyone else figuring it out, too.
    Still, isolation began to wear on my sanity. On several occasions, a vision of Thomas came to me through clouds of steam, but it was always someone else who appeared when the steam cleared. The lack of friends and energy was going to kill me far faster than a bullet would.
    • • •
    Three months passed and my isolation began to wear on me. I quickly became angry and annoyed when Brennan issued orders. During a particular argument, he told me to check the screws again, and I informed him of what he could do with those screws. He grabbed my arms, threw me against the wall, and informed me that next time I argued with his orders, he would throw me off the edge of the ship without a parachute. Wisely, I decided it was best to say nothing to him instead of smarting off. I see now, my darkness worsened with every passing day.
    On the night of November 7, 1875, four months after my arrival, we finally left the dock and headed toward a fight. Information of a squadron of Italian warships that headed quickly toward London gave the Queen Victoria no more time to stay out of the fight. All remaining air support was sent to intercept them. This would be the final stand for England. If we fell now, it was all over. England would be lost forever.
    Brennan stood waiting, one hand wrapped from the break it had sustained. He looked at me and laughed at my wearing my full uniform, as he always wandered around shirtless to avoid overheating. This, of course, wasn’t an option for