Being a captain married to an admiral would be rough sometimes if we were both in the professional fleet – but both military, and at least a captain can move over and up at any time.
But, I'm the commercial Captain Kirk, the “kid cousin” to Cousin J.T. who was a captain at the time of my marriage and has now moved on over to admiral in a fleet that still hardly takes us commercial captains seriously.
Still, I Kirked hard enough one good week to convince Admiral Vlarian Triefield to become Mrs. V.T. Kirk at home … but that's when the trouble started in my head.
Being a young man is hard and being a Kirk is even harder … my big famous cousin had no problem with the women what with that big starship and his commanding ways, but me, by comparison, in my twenties? I could never get ahead. My business grew as fast as the money it was bringing in. Kirk and Dixon Shipping had a reputation for respect to its workers and its clients and the galaxy at large; all of that kept our expenses higher than our competitors. V.T. kept telling me to do just what I was doing and it would pay off after while, but I lived in terror sometimes when not at home, thinking of all the fleet men who wanted her and had the money to keep her in the jewels and fine things she enjoyed.
Now she had plenty of fine things and jewels, and was not looking for any more. She had left all that in her fine home in San Francisco and moved out to Ohio with me to raise our family there, without any fuss. There wasn't really a problem, except that being a young man in love with a glamorous older woman is hard, and being a Kirk is even harder.
It's that Kirk part that nearly got me killed when I saw the above picture.
Tymikir Jewelers had a special process with plants and such – they were able to take them and turn them into gorgeous crystal sculptures. Bring them a bouquet and bring the fee, and they started transmuting while you waited.
I looked at the models they had available, and I knew V.T. loved purple roses – I lost my mind when I saw what I could get her. How much had I lost my mind? There was a hazard pay situation going on that very next day to one of the inner worlds of the system – it was solar flare season, and it was incredibly dangerous to run supplies in, but somebody had to do it.
A ship bigger and better equipped than Rustbucket 2 had been fried to a crisp, so there was an opening, and, being a Kirk and all, my first thought was, “I can work this out!”
But, something told V.T. to call me, just before I signed on the dotted line. I told her about the run in general, easy terms, forgetting all about the fact that there was a full fleet admiral on the other end of the line who kept meticulous notes about where I was in the galaxy, and about conditions in my locale.
Vlarian Triefield Kirk more than deserves her rank, her accolades, her fame – her wisdom is what sets her so far apart, and I was always the beneficiary of it. She knew what I was trying to do, and why – only if I was trying to buy something for her did I suddenly add stupid jobs for money to my schedule. She didn't tell me I was being a fool, but just snapped me out of it.
“You must do whatever jobs you feel are necessary to advance your goals, Marcus. I will send you some flare cycle charts to program into your computer's navigation system. Please be careful, and know that the only necessary thing in this galaxy that I need is for you to get home safely to me.”
She still just wanted me. I came to my senses, and the only direction I went was straight home. When I confessed what I had been trying to do, she said, “Mark, it's time I confess my big secret to you.”
“What?”
“Layaway, Mark. Layaway. I wasn't always making an admiral's salary, you know.”
“Now, wait a minute! Layaway takes too long – I mean, with my money, it will take years!”
I kept fussing, and she just handed me a tablet with the news about how the ship that had gone on that run because mine didn't had been vaporized by a solar flare big enough to have knocked the Earth out of orbit.
“Remember, Marcus: I waited 35 years to be married to you. If you don't like layaway, you don't have to do it, and I always appreciate your thoughtfulness about giving me beautiful gifts. But remember: all I need is you. All I need is you.”
I should have done the layaway. V.T. would have had her summer garden centerpiece sooner … but she was patient with my impatience, and almost passed out when at last I brought what I had in mind home this year.
“The best part is that I have it and you too,” she said. “25 years to wait is no time at all, to have it with you.”
“Just couldn't share me with a solar flare, eh?” I said.
“No,” she said. “You worry about fleet guys and I worry about galactic phenomena that make little admirals look puny and common. Everybody is jealous over something!”
I cracked up laughing and so did she.
Again, our fruitful fractal in Apophysis 2.09 yielded this two very close variants as I work my way between the gem and crystal world and the plant world again... the second picture actually came first, between a bouquet and an hourglass ... the first fractal came from my attempt to capture the magic of the transitional phase!