Chapter 23: Persephone's Repose - Part II
Dying Star Arc
10th May
Having told me his story, I took Sayyad out to the wreck of the Persephone. So that he could see the truth of twelve years ago. I hope that he trusts me now. That would solve all my problems, but I doubt that I've convinced him just yet.
I spent much of the rest of the day attending to work in my office. I'm going to move ahead with my plan to save this colony in two days' time, unless something changes. It would be best for me to have already gotten things organised before it's started. That'll help the plan move along faster, though there's only so much I can do on my own.
I keep a close eye on the time, however. I agreed to meet up with Zayd at six. Everything should've felt better now that the two of us have sorted out our differences, and it did for a little while, but the incident last night ruined that for me. Not that it has anything to do with Zayd. He doesn't know anything about it. Even though it all unfolded in the main room of his apartment.
Despite being distracted, both with thoughts of Zayd and whomever orchestrated last night's events, I manage to get quite a lot of work done. I'm going to need help with some of the finer details, after all there's only so much I can do out here, but luckily there's a group that I can rely on for that help. The Ceres Liaison Office on Luna will be able to complete what I've started over the last couple of weeks, finalising details and negotiations that I can't do myself from here. Being so far away from everything else is such a pain at times.
I leave my office fifteen minutes before six. Even though I take the stairs, it doesn't take that long to make it down to Zayd's apartment. It probably only takes five, but I didn't want to be late. I'm acting giddily, like a child. Perhaps I am still a child. My father still acts like a child, so maybe I'm fated to end up the same. Even if we're not related by blood.
It's strange, walking through the halls and down the stairs of the settlement. I find it bothersome how everyone stares at me the whole time. It isn't like this didn't happen on Luna. New arrivals from Earth always gawked at the Lunar-born like me, and at times people recognised me as the son of Consul Scuderi, but it never bothered me quite so much as it does now. It feels to me like anyone could be a danger. Paranoia. That's what this feeling is. The feeling that any one of these people could be out to kill me, and yet I'm aware that in all likelihood, there's perhaps only a few people who are.
I make my way to Zayd's apartment, and come to stand at the front door. Before I approach the door, I take a look to both my sides, and breathe a sigh of relief when I see that there's no one there. This really is getting bad. For Zayd's sake I need to just forget about all that for now. To not think about it at all. I walk up to the door to his apartment, and knock. I'm early, but I don't think Zayd will mind too much. He finishes his work down at the hydro farms by five, so he's had time to do whatever he wanted before then.
After a short delay, Zayd opens the door. He's already changed out of his work overalls. In fact, he seems a little dressed up, at least compared to what he usually wears. Thinking back, I don't think I've ever seen Zayd dress like that in the year or so that I've known him.
"Let's go then."
"Wait… huh?"
"What?"
"We're… not staying here?"
"No. We're going out for dinner."
Zayd hadn't liked the idea of us going out together before. Even going to see Maya with him had taken a lot of convincing. To hear him say that we were going to go out for dinner, was surprising to say the least.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I still don't think it's a great idea, but as long as we stay within the settlement, it should be fine."
"Huh…"
The reason Zayd had been opposed to us being publicly in a relationship with each other was because he didn't think it would be a good look to the conservative Muslim population here on Ceres. At least that's what he'd told me. I had thought he was probably just embarrassed to be seen with me, but maybe that wasn't the case. Perhaps he was just genuinely worried about the fact that me, the Governor, being in a homosexual relationship would negatively affect my relationship with the Palestinians. Though that feels like the least of my worries now, I'm glad to hear that that's really what he was being mindful of. It puts me at ease. I'm really happy to have someone like Zayd with me here. I think if I was all alone out here, it would make everything much harder.
"Are you coming?"
"Of course," I say with a smile. I think I might just be able to forget about everything. Just for a few hours. I want this warm fuzzy feeling to remain, and be all that I need and want in this world. So that I don't have to think about everything else going on at the moment. Just for now.
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