Undiscovered Passions

    Alex Bentley didn’t mind his master’s obsession, in fact he quite enjoyed running the ship by himself, things ran smoother under him.  It would’ve just become messy if Benjamin Hall-Thomas woke up one day and chose to get involved.
    Alex was thinking this as he once again travelled down to his master’s quarters to attain permission to begin the docking procedure at Jotnar.  The Master of the Caduceus had not responded to any of the bridge’s attempt at communications.  Alex assumed that he just wanted some ‘peace’ as he put it.
    It was true that Alex could’ve just as easily sent an underling rather than come himself, he was in charge of the largest ship in the Company’s fleet after all.  But Alex felt it was only proper for him to come personally.  His philosophy was that if there was something to do with the Caduceus that needed to be done and he could do it, he couldn’t see why he shouldn’t just take care of it himself.
    Alex wasn’t completely unchanged by his last meeting with the Master, he was beginning to learn.  For instance, the light sails had been deactivated for hours by now.  Alex just still felt he should keep the Master of the ship up to date with the events.  He wanted to tell him that they were beginning to descend to the planet’s surface to deliver another batch of prisoners to the Jotnar Centre.
    First Officer Alex Bentley felt that it was good for Benjamin Hall-Thomas to be still included with the ship’s operations, it wasn’t healthy to be so isolated all the time.
    Alex didn’t bother waiting for his master to let him in, he was in a hurry, well not really, but it seemed that way.  He walked through the well lit living room and into what used to be Benjamin’s study, the lights were off, which was unusual and music was playing, which was not.  Normally, he was up at all hours painting away in this makeshift studio.
    When the First Officer of the Caduceus turned on the lights, he saw his superior officer.  Benjamin Hall-Thomas, the Master of the Caduceus, was sitting on his office chair and was slumped over his desk.
    Alex made his way across the room filled with huge piles of random collections of books.  He noticed there was something different about the room.  The wall on the left was still covered in paintings, but underneath these works were another row of paintings lined up against the wall.  Alex recognised these pictures as the ones that used to hang on the other wall.
    The wall to his right, where these paintings used to hang, had been used as the canvas for one colossal painting.  Benjamin Hall-Thomas had covered over the entire wall of his study with an immense mural.
    The mural was of a seraph, Alex recognised it from the last painting his master had showed him.  This was different.  The seraph was enormous and took up most of the picture.  Its skin was glowing with an incandescent golden light that seemed to come from somewhere deep within and all six wings were outstretched as he flew up through the soft red and purple clouds and up to the heavens above.
    His facial expression made Alex stop in his tracks and stare in awe, as if entranced.  There was just something about this creature in front of him that he couldn’t turn his eyes away from.  It wasn’t fear inducing, or even beautiful, it was just here.
    The seraph was smiling an open mouthed insane smile of ecstasy, and yet it was weeping tears of fire.  Alex followed their path down the being’s face and watched them as they fell away from the seraph’s body, below his waist where there was nothing but a blur of light and speed.  The tears were discarded during the transcendence.
    Alex remembered what he was doing and casually walked over to the Master and felt his pulse, or lack of one.  Benjamin Hall-Thomas was dead.  The mass of sketchbooks and papers that had once adorned his desk with chaotic clutter were now scattered on the floor all around him.  What replaced them was just an empty bottle of some type of pills, an antique ink pen and a handwritten note on one side of A4.
    Alex picked up the suicide note and read it.  It did answer some questions, Alex sensed the feeling that Benjamin had not responded sometimes to his communications wasn’t because he wanted privacy, in fact it was the opposite, he wished for Alex to come down here himself.  It seemed the Master of the Caduceus was a lonely man, and he missed the human contact as much as anybody would.
    Alex Bentley was impressed by the simple fact that the note was handwritten.  Handwriting had become a lost art, not many people could do it properly anymore because everything was written on a mixture of computers, e-books, data pads and PDAs.  Pens were only commonly used for signing your name, and people could barely do that, it was mostly just a unique mark of that individual, which signified they had given their authorisation on this document.
    Benjamin knew how to write because he was of an older generation, even his signature actually looked like his name, which was a rare thing these days.
    Alex’s signature looked nothing like his actual name, he couldn’t even write any words by hand if asked to, he was never taught how.  But he had seen enough font types to decipher what his master had written in his own hand upon this piece of paper.
    Alex could remember that the only time he had ever needed to sign anything was the Contract of Allegiance that Olympus makes anyone sign if they wanted to join the Company.  This Contract promised lifetime service to the Company.
    Alex screwed up the death note and was about to throw it away when he stopped, thought it through for a moment or two, and then placed it within the pocket of his officer’s uniform.
    He left the room and began to make his way up to the bridge.  Alex needed to get someone to clean up Benjamin’s corpse, he needed to notify the Polylith of the change of command and then land the Caduceus in the Jotnar Basin and begin the transfer procedure.  When he actually thought about it, he had an awful lot to do.

























Dear Bentley,
    I’ll assume that it’s you who is reading this; no one else bothers to visit me.  Didn’t I tell you that I wouldn’t always be around to hold your hand?   Good luck being the new Master, but I want you to know something first, though.  I’ve seen many villains during my life, I’ve even fought some of them, but I’ve also seen a lot of something else.  Thank you Nyx, for helping me open my eyes to that.  I finally finished my final painting, and I like it.  What do you think of it, Bentley?

This creation is dedicated to undiscovered passion,
May you find yours and be happy.

I did and I was,
Now you must, so you can.

Captain of the Carrion,
Benjamin Hall-Thomas